TESL 140: Unit 2, Activity 2

 Activity 2 asks us to: "Reflect on the differences between traditional tests and alternatives in assessments [from Brown and Lee, 2015]. What are the benefits and challenges in using both of them?"

Traditional Tests/Assessments

• Benefits
• Easy for the teacher to use and score.
• Less time commitment for the teacher.
• Standardized.
• Summative.
• Challenges
• Often stressful on students.
• A one-shot chance.
• One right answer.
• Summative.

Alternatives in Assessments

• Benefits
• Less stressful on students.
• It is a continuous process.
• Multiple and/or creative answers.
• Interactive.
• Challenges
• More challenging for the teacher to use and score.
• Large time commitment for the teacher.
• Difficult to assess fairly.
• Continuous process of assessing is labor intensive.

There we have some benefits and challenges to Traditional Tests and Alternatives in Assessments.

TESL 140: Unit 2, Activity 1

Activity 1 askes us to:

Read pages 516-517 in your Brown & Lee text.  Consider the grammar and communication skills listed. Answer the question in the classroom connections box:

The target grammar points listed are not stated in the form of performance (what the student is expected to do). How would you incorporate some of those grammatical items into statements about what students are expected to do (to perform) in the communication skills?

 Brown and Lee (2015) talk about "Test Toward Clear, Unambiguous Objectives" when creating summative tests. Incorporating this objective into the Grammar objectives listed in the reading, I come up with the following hopefully clearer, more unambiguous objectives:

1. Students will be able to ask about who did something using who as a subject.
• Example: Who made the coffee?
2. Students will be able to use irregular past tense verbs when discussing various people and events.
• Example: He ran the race very fast.
3. Students will be able to give reasons for something using the conjunctions so and because.
• Example: I had a shower because I wanted to get clean.
4. Students will be able to ask for confirmation using simple past tense verbs in negative statements and information questions.
• You didn't make the coffee, did you?
5. Students will use anyone, someone, and no-one to discuss family and friends.
• Someone in my family likes figure skating.
6. Students will be able to state guesses about what happened using tag questions.
• You didn't know that, did you?

This is my take on creating clear, unambiguous objectives.

TESL 140 Unit 1 Needs Assessment

This assignment was to create a needs assessment or a diagnostic test for the provided teaching context.

You are teaching a CLB 7 class in a part-time five month LINC program. It’s the second month of the instruction. One of the most popular topics your students chose in the initial needs assessment was buying a house. You want to create a short needs assessment to inform your module and lesson planning for this topic.

The following questions can serve as a needs assessment test. 

• What is your dream home?
• When you read adds for accommodation, how much do you understand?
• When you talk to somebody about housing, how much do you understand?
• What terms do you find difficult?
• Are you able to communicate your needs?

This should serve as a starting point for lesson planning around housing issues.

TESL 140 Unit 1 Goal Setting

 This is my goal setting for the TESL 140 Course

My goal for this course:	My goal by April 4 is to learn how to create a summative needs assessment.
My plan for learning it:	Over the next few weeks, I will complete the assigned readings and course assignments to help me understand assessments and how to create them.
How I know I have achieved it:	I will have achieved my goal when I am comfortable in creating a summative needs assessment.
Demonstration that I have learned it:	I will create a summative needs assessment for the final assignment for the course by April 4.

TESL 130 Unit 3 Aha Moment

 My Aha moment for Unit 3 Reading and Vocabulary, came from a fellow classmate who made a comment about students paraphrasing the reading. I found this very perceptive. It is an excellent way to help the students and to evaluate the students understanding of the vocabulary and context of the reading text. If the students are able to paraphrase the text and insert synonyms for the new words encountered, we have completed our goal.

TESL 130 Unit 3 Vocabulary Activity

 

Vocabulary Activity for

“Learning English with CBC: It’s Time to Fix Aboriginal Education.”

https://universityofmanitoba.desire2learn.com/content/enforced3/393774-59971.202110/Content/Readings/Unit%203%20Skills-Based%20Lesson%20Plan.doc?_&d2lSessionVal=yX9iYt5j9ffLO431YMIEHIN77&ou=393774

Level: CLB 5+

Purpose: This is a pre-reading vocabulary activity to teach Ss the new words they will encounter in the reading activity.

Materials: All Ss need access to a computer.

Activity:

·       Teacher will print the vocabulary words on the board.

            Aboriginal, trend, disaster, contributing, social requirements, post-secondary education, K – 12, mature student, First Nations, precious resource, adequate.

·       Ss will use computers to look up words on an online corpus site such as Corpus of Contemporary American English (Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) (english-corpora.org)

·       Ss will discuss how the words are used in context.

Post-Lesson: Teacher will evaluate how well the students interpreted meaning from the context.

TESL 130 Unit 2 "Think-Aloud" Exercise

 Here is my first attempt at doing a "think-aloud" video. It is regarding a few small readings from survivors of residential schools in Canada.