Four corner assessment achieves several education aims, ‘knowledge age essentials’, ‘21st Century Pedagogy’ and assessments’ types. This essay will analyze how this assessment accomplished those supported by a rationale.
Aims of education
“John White, says schools should be inculcating knowledge relevant to modern society, such as the ability to live healthily”. This assessment supports that because each student will see that using just cars will cause pollution and this issue is relevant to UAE society. Four corners means will work as a group that have the same position and they will share and communicate. This is an effective way for interaction as Long and Porter made the point that working in groups is helpful to improve the quality of oral skills, establish an enthusiastic climate and reduce anxiety (as cited in Gallager & Bashir Ali, 2007). For example, students will share the previous knowledge without hesitation. Each one of them will express his view and situation to create a picture of the issue in their minds. As Stern (1991) notes, all of groups activities improve the speaking abilities among students and give importance to pronunciation practice. Teachers can indicate pronunciation errors during debating so she will correct the errors (337 as cited in Hişmanoğlu, 2005).
Four corners assessment supports “The White way to teaching wisdom” in personal fulfillmentbecause it allows the learners to express their own beliefs about “all students should get to school by car” and it engages them in close relationships, with those who have the same position in a corner, whether strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree of disagree. I think students will talk about the health and link it to using transports and this means that they are think to live a healthy life and understand how they can solve the problem. In addition, it encourages Social and civic involvement, where learners are able to communicate, share, explain why and discuss their position with other people appropriately. As a result, it benefits them to notice environment issues and what the negative and positive outcomes if the statement happens in fact, which means they work as a part from the community to reduce this phenomenon. They will move to talk about cars and the money to have one, so they will link the topic with the economy. It is clear that there use of media, when students will get the statement from the video.
Knowledge Age Essentials
Students will come up with new ideas to demonstrate their position, so they will show their mental creativities and the debate points with examples will illustrate that. All of the students will work as a team to support each other in the position and giving examples (communication). Furthermore, students will discover new facts about the issue of going just by cars to school and some of the will share statistics of experience to persuade other groups by their position. I believe that they will have the opportunity to express their understanding and share their own knowledge (self-reliance), for example if they have any situation that.This assessment supports giving suggestions to solve the problem because students will see the statement as problem and they will come up with new suggestions, for example using public transport.
21st Century Pedagogy
This assessment let learners to get Learning and Innovation Skills. They will listen to different ideas and sense the negative outcomes that the statement lead to, so they contribute to see the environments’ issues in today’s world (Critical Thinking). Moreover, they will show their creativity and innovationduring their explanation to their position, why, how, results, who and solutions. Information, Media and Technology Skills will be applied through presenting the statement from a video. Therefore, in future students will notice this issue when they drive cars daily and will get the advantage of having the skill of thinking about the career problem from many sides and solve it (functional and critical thinking skills). For instance, they will have ICT (Information, Communications and Technology) Literacy, which can promote their career needs and solve the problems.
There is big evidence that students get Blooms Taxonomy skills from low levels until higher levels. In the beginning, they start to remember/name/identify/share their previous knowledge about advantages and disadvantages of using just cars to get to schools (understand/explain/discuss).Then they will analyze their position and compare it to other groups. After that they will evaluate the differences and decide which group convinces them to move to their corner.
Debating can enrich students by several skills. Firstly, they will Public Speaking Skills, so have the capability to succeed in interviews with qualified people and have the chance to get a job. Secondly, they will get Analytical Skills because they critically analyze the problem and offer practical solutions. This is very helpful especial who will work as professionals and business people. Thirdly, Listening & Note taking Skill will be acquired because in debate learners become a careful listeners, so they will get high grades and learn easily. The ability to persuade is highly appreciated and debating is the only to master this art (Southwest High School, n.d.).
In “all students should use cars to get to school” discussion,teacher asks categorized questions, which are; ‘lower order’ to let students remember just reality and ‘higher order’ to mind more than the truths and show the reasons of an issue. The crucial advantage of questions is it symbolizes a major investment in time and energy in the classrooms. Students will have opportunities to contribute in the topic’s discussions by presenting the advantages and disadvantages of using cars. (Wragg, 2001).
Assessment
This assessment is very effective because it covers some types of assessments. It is a divergent type becauseitdoesn’t stick on one answer and requires more than just memorizing, like the higher stages of ‘blooms taxonomy’; deep understanding, analyzing, synthesizing to aid students solve the new problems (Airasian and Russell, 2008). Each group will come up with different views supported by examples and experience. There is wide of open-ended questions, where each one support his idea by real examples and reasons (divergent). Students enjoy doing this type because they have the freedom to express their talents, thoughts and different views (Scanlan, n.d.). For example, each group will try to persuade other groups in his position; why are they agree and disagree.
In addition, it is a formative assessment because I will provide the students feedback; numerical scale; “it assigns a point value to each category in the scale and sums the points across the performance criteria” (Airasian and Russell, 2008). It helps them in the weakness areas and lets them to improve in speaking skills next time (Rayment, 2006).Learners know that this task is for assessment purposes and the teacher will assess each student, depending on his speech, which means it is a formal assessment.
According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, this discussion requires remembering the situation of being in cars, understanding the statement, applying it, analyzing ( the positives and negatives of just using cars to get to school) and evaluating the views to see who has the correct view (Educational origami, 2013).
References:
Airasian, P. W., & Russell, M. (2008). Classroom assessment: Concepts and applications (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Educational origami. (2013). 21st Century Pedagogy. Educational origami. Retrieved
Introduction
Four corner assessment achieves several education aims, ‘knowledge age essentials’, ‘21st Century Pedagogy’ and assessments’ types. This essay will analyze how this assessment accomplished those supported by a rationale.Aims of education
“John White, says schools should be inculcating knowledge relevant to modern society, such as the ability to live healthily”. This assessment supports that because each student will see that using just cars will cause pollution and this issue is relevant to UAE society. Four corners means will work as a group that have the same position and they will share and communicate. This is an effective way for interaction as Long and Porter made the point that working in groups is helpful to improve the quality of oral skills, establish an enthusiastic climate and reduce anxiety (as cited in Gallager & Bashir Ali, 2007). For example, students will share the previous knowledge without hesitation. Each one of them will express his view and situation to create a picture of the issue in their minds. As Stern (1991) notes, all of groups activities improve the speaking abilities among students and give importance to pronunciation practice. Teachers can indicate pronunciation errors during debating so she will correct the errors (337 as cited in Hişmanoğlu, 2005).
Four corners assessment supports “The White way to teaching wisdom” in personal fulfillmentbecause it allows the learners to express their own beliefs about “all students should get to school by car” and it engages them in close relationships, with those who have the same position in a corner, whether strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree of disagree. I think students will talk about the health and link it to using transports and this means that they are think to live a healthy life and understand how they can solve the problem. In addition, it encourages Social and civic involvement, where learners are able to communicate, share, explain why and discuss their position with other people appropriately. As a result, it benefits them to notice environment issues and what the negative and positive outcomes if the statement happens in fact, which means they work as a part from the community to reduce this phenomenon. They will move to talk about cars and the money to have one, so they will link the topic with the economy. It is clear that there use of media, when students will get the statement from the video.
Knowledge Age Essentials
Students will come up with new ideas to demonstrate their position, so they will show their mental creativities and the debate points with examples will illustrate that. All of the students will work as a team to support each other in the position and giving examples (communication). Furthermore, students will discover new facts about the issue of going just by cars to school and some of the will share statistics of experience to persuade other groups by their position. I believe that they will have the opportunity to express their understanding and share their own knowledge (self-reliance), for example if they have any situation that.This assessment supports giving suggestions to solve the problem because students will see the statement as problem and they will come up with new suggestions, for example using public transport.
21st Century Pedagogy
This assessment let learners to get Learning and Innovation Skills. They will listen to different ideas and sense the negative outcomes that the statement lead to, so they contribute to see the environments’ issues in today’s world (Critical Thinking). Moreover, they will show their creativity and innovationduring their explanation to their position, why, how, results, who and solutions. Information, Media and Technology Skills will be applied through presenting the statement from a video. Therefore, in future students will notice this issue when they drive cars daily and will get the advantage of having the skill of thinking about the career problem from many sides and solve it (functional and critical thinking skills). For instance, they will have ICT (Information, Communications and Technology) Literacy, which can promote their career needs and solve the problems.
There is big evidence that students get Blooms Taxonomy skills from low levels until higher levels. In the beginning, they start to remember/name/identify/share their previous knowledge about advantages and disadvantages of using just cars to get to schools (understand/explain/discuss).Then they will analyze their position and compare it to other groups. After that they will evaluate the differences and decide which group convinces them to move to their corner.
Debating can enrich students by several skills. Firstly, they will Public Speaking Skills, so have the capability to succeed in interviews with qualified people and have the chance to get a job. Secondly, they will get Analytical Skills because they critically analyze the problem and offer practical solutions. This is very helpful especial who will work as professionals and business people. Thirdly, Listening & Note taking Skill will be acquired because in debate learners become a careful listeners, so they will get high grades and learn easily. The ability to persuade is highly appreciated and debating is the only to master this art (Southwest High School, n.d.).
In “all students should use cars to get to school” discussion,teacher asks categorized questions, which are; ‘lower order’ to let students remember just reality and ‘higher order’ to mind more than the truths and show the reasons of an issue. The crucial advantage of questions is it symbolizes a major investment in time and energy in the classrooms. Students will have opportunities to contribute in the topic’s discussions by presenting the advantages and disadvantages of using cars. (Wragg, 2001).
Assessment
This assessment is very effective because it covers some types of assessments. It is a divergent type becauseitdoesn’t stick on one answer and requires more than just memorizing, like the higher stages of ‘blooms taxonomy’; deep understanding, analyzing, synthesizing to aid students solve the new problems (Airasian and Russell, 2008). Each group will come up with different views supported by examples and experience. There is wide of open-ended questions, where each one support his idea by real examples and reasons (divergent). Students enjoy doing this type because they have the freedom to express their talents, thoughts and different views (Scanlan, n.d.). For example, each group will try to persuade other groups in his position; why are they agree and disagree.
In addition, it is a formative assessment because I will provide the students feedback; numerical scale; “it assigns a point value to each category in the scale and sums the points across the performance criteria” (Airasian and Russell, 2008). It helps them in the weakness areas and lets them to improve in speaking skills next time (Rayment, 2006).Learners know that this task is for assessment purposes and the teacher will assess each student, depending on his speech, which means it is a formal assessment.
According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, this discussion requires remembering the situation of being in cars, understanding the statement, applying it, analyzing ( the positives and negatives of just using cars to get to school) and evaluating the views to see who has the correct view (Educational origami, 2013).
References:
Airasian, P. W., & Russell, M. (2008). Classroom assessment: Concepts and
applications (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Educational origami. (2013). 21st Century Pedagogy. Educational origami. Retrieved
on 20 March 2013, from http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/21st+Century+Pedagogy
Gallager, K & Bashir Ali, K. (2007). Action Research and Initial Teacher Educationin the UAE. Abu Dhabi: HCT Press.
Hişmanoğlu, M. (April, 2005). Teaching English Through Literature. Journal of
Language and Linguistic Studies. Retrieved on 26 March 2012, from
http://jlls.org/Issues/Volume1/No.1/murathismanoglu.pdf
Rayment, T. (2006). 101 essential lists on assessment. London ; New York:
Continuum.
Scanlan, C.(n.d.). Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Grading. Retrieved on 20
March 2013, from http://resource.mccneb.edu/edutut/Online%20Pets%20Course/Assessment_evaluation_grading.htm
Southwest High School. (n.d.). The Benefits of Debate. Southwest High School.
Retrieved on 17 April 2013, from http://southwest.mpls.k12.mn.us/what_are_the_benefits_of_debate
Wragg, E. C. (2001). Assessment and learning in the primary school (New rev.
ed.). London ; New York: Routledge Falmer.
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