Assessment Strategies

                                             “Test what you teach and how you teach it”

§      It is important:

§       To emphasize important objectives and demonstrate ways in which they could be assessed.

§       To develop review tests.

§      To make scoring system clear and familiarize students with it through self and peer assessment.

The best way to overcome students ‘fear is: to prepare them with test-taking strategies.

⬌The keys to success are: to use time wisely and to develop practical study habits.

Test-taking strategies are synonymous of effective learning strategies.

ª      Make sure students are familiar with…

ª      Formats and Rubrics

ª      All the scoring system

ª      Self-and peer assessment

Suggestions for Students are:

ü  Make a semester study plan including assessments and their due dates:

q  Students should learn how to make schedules for themselves.

q  The schedules should :

q  Be realistic

q  Include a study place

q  Include a daily study time

q  Allow plenty of preparation time for important assessments

ü  Attend Class Regularly:

·         Poor attendance correlates highly with poor test results.

·         It´s important to motivate students to attend regularly. Then, also you as teacher could encourage them to monitor their own learning process through journals, portafolios, etc.

ü  Use good review techniques:

Ø  Research shows that the time spent reviewing SHOULD BE no more than 15 minutes for weekly quizzes , 2 to 3 hours for a midterm exam , and 5 to 8 hours for a final exam.

Ø  When reviewing for a test students should:

Ø  Plan review sessions.

Ø  Take a practice exam.

Ø  Review with friends.

ü  Organize pre-exam hours wisely:

§      Don`t cram at the last minute.

§      Physical and mental fitness are important considerations for good test-taking.

§      Teachers should encourage students to practice stress-reducing activities. 

ü  Become Familiar with Instructions and Formats.

• Transparency: teachers have the responsability to share what  they know about formats.
• Students: frequently fail to read directions or read them superficially to save time.
• Teachers!: Students need to understand exactly how they are suppposed to answer the questions.

Guautil School: An Ideal Educational System

South Korean and North American Educational Systems

South Korean and North American Educational Systems from Mari del Sol

Share Your Anxieties and Fears about Teaching and Learning

Teacher Anxiety: Word Cloud

Parts of the curriculum design

Parts of the curriculum design by Marisol Duarte 

It consists of:

ü  Three outside circles and a subdivided inner core

ü  The outer circles (principles, environment,  needs)

ü  The inner circle represents the syllabus: having clear goals for a course

Three sub-processes:

·         Environment analysis

·         Needs analysis

·         Application of principles 

Curriculum Design: Considering the Environment by Marisol Duarte

The environment does not have to do only with the physical structure but also with considering the teaching situation.  The teacher needs to be aware of the students' knowledge about the topic, if they are interested in it, and what are the best strategies to make them feel comfortable interacting with it.

This is an analysis of some important factors to take into consideration in the curriculum design:

·         Time: teachers should structure the syllabus according to the real time of the class. Also, it depends on the difficulty of the contents and the tasks students will need to perform.

·         Size:  depending of the size of classes, teachers and students will be able to develop some tasks or not. 

·         Proficiency: students learn at a different speed , so the curriculum design should integrate all kinds of learners.

·         Lack of materials: depending on the context, teachers will have issues with this, so they need to be aware of the exact materials they could ask for.

·         Learners’ use of L1: teacher should design activities that help students to reduce their use of their mother language.