This week I’ve learned a lot about a topic which hadn’t really caught my attention, so far, learning styles. I have never tested my students’ learning styles, I think that is wrong and I’m just about to change this situation! Now that I’ve read more about it I understand this necessity and I am conscious that this can help my students learn English better. I guess that I’ve always tried to vary the activities used in and outside class in order to please more students and I`ve always been careful enough to ask them about their interests and needs, but learning styles are different, more specific and therefore more productive in terms of learning and improving English. After all that I’ve read it is now clearer to me what I can do to try to address as much learning styles as possible in one class. Using different types of strategies or exercises for the same topic related activity, according to the students’ characteristics, would be a nice start…!
As for alternative assessment, It has been real useful for me to analyze these technological tools as ways to assess our teaching and learning process, instead of just thinking of them as activities to improve our students’ language skills, I guess we tend to overlook this aspect of technology use, because they are in fact excellent assessment helpers!
In relation to rubrics, I truly think RubiStar is a wonderful site, not only does it allow me to build a rubric the way I prefer, but also lets me use already made rubrics with the possibility of customizing them! Truly marvelous! Besides this, thanks to this website I really learned a lot about different types of rubrics and different possibilities of topics to be assessed.
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Dear Susana,
ReplyDeleteindeed, knowing about the students' learning style is very helpful, as we know how to address them. I establish their learning style at the beginning of every school year, by the help of a printed questionnaire - it's not hard work, as every year I do this only for the new classes or for the new students. I keep the results in my personal portfolio and I know how to address my students - what activities to design in order to make them understand.
You'll see the difference once you establish their learning style. I wish you all the best,
Nadina