Week 5 - Weekly Reflection

Although the time this week has run very short, teaching, readings and tasks have given me moments to reflect about what I have learned.

Rubrics are standards for providing a measure of quality of performance to judge the learner’s language performance. These are mainly used on measuring oral or written output.

Holistic rubrics measures language performance as a whole, in other words, what a student can do with the language. It is said that it is less useful for classroom purposes because this rubric provides little information to students about their performance.

Analytic rubric present different dimensions of performance, for example, it may include content, organization, grammar, and mechanics.

Primary trait rubric measures successful performance by narrowing the criteria for judging performance to one main dimension. It is useful in measuring writing or speaking performance.

Multitrait rubrics may rate performance on three or four dimensions rather just one. It resembles analytic rubric in that several aspects are scored individually. 

It can be concluded that rubrics evaluate students’ performance, but it is recommended not to be used for self-students’ evaluation and peers when they are commencing the learning. Let us remember that assessment comes from direct observation and helps evaluate students’ writing assignments and oral presentations.

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is another form of stepping up from old traditional methods of teaching the target language into project-based instruction which makes  teaching-learning activities more meaningful and dynamic. 

There are so many topics that may be used for creating a project. I did not see the immense amount of sources that do exist in my home country; for example, folklore, feasts, traditions, foods, churches, landscapes, forests, rivers, people, etc.  As Gaer refers in her work “Less Teaching and more learning,” I was always encapsulated in traditional teaching (teacher-centered) instead of student centered activity.

I was always talking and the students were learning less; the result of this was frustration. The experts, including Gaer state that the teacher must take the role of a facilitator and make the class to develop multiple projects for different needs.

To conclude this part, I must agree with the author who establishes that “using a project-based approach help motivate students to learn language for a purpose.” Such a methodology promotes a sense of community which is needed to overcome difficulties and to gain motivation for the project fulfillment.

Holguer