Introduction There is no doubt that Student Centers 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
“Today's schools aim to create "successful learners", ……as being able to study independently, communicate well and enjoy learning”. This assessment supports that because each student will search to find information to share it with his group, which means the groups will be collaborative in order to create well and creative work for the class to teach them about their topic (food, clothes….etc). As Harmer (2006), states that grouping reinforces a sense of belonging among the learners and they share an emotion of amusement. Furthermore, it is appropriate, where the teacher can control, explain and give instruction easily and beneficially. Consequently, they feel secure under the straight authority of the teacher. This method aids the teacher also to gauge the mood of the class generally and know the progress of each student and explain deeply to specific pairs easily (Oxford, 1990). Students-centers support “The White way to teaching wisdom” in personal fulfillment because it gives the learners the experience to absorb various activities and engages students in close relationships. In addition, it encourages Social and civic involvement, where learners are able to communicate, share, explain and discuss the topic with other people appropriately. Actually, this will benefit them to play a helpful part in the life of the school and community, for example they will be confident to give presentations to visitors and participates in school ceremonies. It is obvious that all of the information, visual aids and displays will be created by using media, which means it critically assesses the role of the media.
Knowledge Age Essentials
Students will put a lot of effort to design creative learning aids. This means, each group will show gorgeous visual aids, pictures, realia and charts to demonstrate their in a way that attracts others to get information easily. All of the students will work as a team to produce organized and work and the teacher will assess them on that also (collaboration). Furthermore, students will be as a discoverer because they will try to find reliable source and discover more about their topics: what are the ancient Egyptian languages, types of food…etc. This assessment enhances cross-cultural awareness because students will attain diverse information about Egypt and then they will compare this culture with UAE culture, which allows them to figure out and notice the main differences between these two Arabian countries. When the students will get the chance to know more about Egypt from reliable sources, they will get skills of computing and using reliable data to share. Hence, in future they will get information to their other projects by using reliable resources from internet, as I taught them. I believe that when each student will write compare and contrast paragraph, they will have the opportunity to express their understanding and share their own knowledge (self-reliance).
21st Century Pedagogy This assessment let learners to get Learning and Innovation Skills . They will notice the complex life in Egypt before 100 years in terms of the types of clothes and foods and then think about Egypt work environments in today’s world (Critical Thinking). Moreover, they will show their creativity and innovationduring their explanation to their part. Information, Media and Technology Skills will be acquired Nowadays we live in a technological boom and involve this tool in teaching and process can facilitate learning. For example, students use media to create explanation charts with images from reliable resources. Therefore, in future students will be effective workers that can exhibit a range of functional /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 Egypt in group and then they get new information (understand/explain/discuss). When they move to write the essay, they start to plan/remember and then they analyze their knowledge to compare between Egypt and UAE cultures. After that they evaluate the differences and write their own views before creating the final draft. From my experience, through passing all of these stages, my thinking developed and now when I plan to write an essay, I go through these skills to produce excellent work.
Questions are divided into two groups; lower-level (convergent questions) and higher-level (divergent). The first category has just one correct answer and depends on memorization (who). The teacher and students can ask the group who is presenting specific WH questions, such as what is the name of this pyramid, in which areas of Egypt people speak this language…etc. However, the second category may has several suitable answers, which requires more than just memorizing, like deep understanding, analyzing, synthesizing to aid students solve the new problems. For instance, students can ask show us the way of cooking this meal or what do you like best in Egypt architectureand why? Hence, it enables the learners to think deeply and relate the knowledge to real environment; comparing, presenting views (Airasian and Russell, 2008). 21st Century pedagogy focuses on the moving students from Lower Order Thinking Skills to Higher Order Thinking Skills. Actually, students will move to higher levels when they pass knowledge deepening knowledge stage (analyzing the Egyptian culture) to knowledge creation; when they will create their section (language, clothes, food and architecture) (Educational origami, 2013).
Assessment
This assessment is very effective because it encourages seeing real world life, so the thinking will be high completely (Egypt). It is divergent in both presenting the topic and writing the paragraph becauseitdoesn’t stick on one answer , several answers or can be correct, and it 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). This assessment is more reliable and suitable in assessing by using higher-levels questions because students will collect wide knowledge about the Egyptian culture, in terms ofclothes, food and hospitality, the ancient language and the architecture. In addition, when they will write the essay, there is no one correct answer (convergent). Students enjoy doing this type because they have the freedom to express their talents, thoughts and different views (Scanlan, n.d.). Additionally, it is formative assessment because I will provide the students by feedback on their performance (speaking rubric) to help them in the weakness areas and lets them to improve in speaking skills (Rayment, 2006). Learners know that this task for assessment purposes; they have the rules, task description and the instructions of the presentation (Scanlan, n.d.). The teacher will assess each student, depending on his speech, which means it is a formal assessment.The paragraph is a Peer assessment; when students exchange each other work to evaluate the accuracy and the quality (Wragg, 2001). I will provide pupils with writing checklist and they will identify the strengths and weaknesses. Consequently, they will be aware of assessing peers’ work and they can apply it in different subjects. Students will go through three stages of knowledge; knowledge acquisition, Knowledge deepening and knowledge creation. When the students will search to find more about Egyptian culture, they will acquire information from reading articles and websites. Then they will move to find supplies to enrich their section, such as realia, images and posters. Finally, they will create the knowledge when they design the section, create means that show Egyptian culture (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
Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching (3rd ed., completely rev. and updated.). London: Longman. Rayment, T. (2006). 101 essential lists on assessment. London ; New York: Continuum.
Scanlan, C.(n.d.). Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Grading. Retrieved on
There is no doubt that Student Centers 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
“Today's schools aim to create "successful learners", ……as being able to study independently, communicate well and enjoy learning”. This assessment supports that because each student will search to find information to share it with his group, which means the groups will be collaborative in order to create well and creative work for the class to teach them about their topic (food, clothes….etc). As Harmer (2006), states that grouping reinforces a sense of belonging among the learners and they share an emotion of amusement. Furthermore, it is appropriate, where the teacher can control, explain and give instruction easily and beneficially. Consequently, they feel secure under the straight authority of the teacher. This method aids the teacher also to gauge the mood of the class generally and know the progress of each student and explain deeply to specific pairs easily (Oxford, 1990). Students-centers support “The White way to teaching wisdom” in personal fulfillment because it gives the learners the experience to absorb various activities and engages students in close relationships. In addition, it encourages Social and civic involvement, where learners are able to communicate, share, explain and discuss the topic with other people appropriately. Actually, this will benefit them to play a helpful part in the life of the school and community, for example they will be confident to give presentations to visitors and participates in school ceremonies. It is obvious that all of the information, visual aids and displays will be created by using media, which means it critically assesses the role of the media.
Knowledge Age Essentials
Students will put a lot of effort to design creative learning aids. This means, each group will show gorgeous visual aids, pictures, realia and charts to demonstrate their in a way that attracts others to get information easily. All of the students will work as a team to produce organized and work and the teacher will assess them on that also (collaboration). Furthermore, students will be as a discoverer because they will try to find reliable source and discover more about their topics: what are the ancient Egyptian languages, types of food…etc. This assessment enhances cross-cultural awareness because students will attain diverse information about Egypt and then they will compare this culture with UAE culture, which allows them to figure out and notice the main differences between these two Arabian countries. When the students will get the chance to know more about Egypt from reliable sources, they will get skills of computing and using reliable data to share. Hence, in future they will get information to their other projects by using reliable resources from internet, as I taught them. I believe that when each student will write compare and contrast paragraph, they will have the opportunity to express their understanding and share their own knowledge (self-reliance).
21st Century Pedagogy
This assessment let learners to get Learning and Innovation Skills . They will notice the complex life in Egypt before 100 years in terms of the types of clothes and foods and then think about Egypt work environments in today’s world (Critical Thinking). Moreover, they will show their creativity and innovationduring their explanation to their part. Information, Media and Technology Skills will be acquired Nowadays we live in a technological boom and involve this tool in teaching and process can facilitate learning. For example, students use media to create explanation charts with images from reliable resources. Therefore, in future students will be effective workers that can exhibit a range of functional /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 Egypt in group and then they get new information (understand/explain/discuss). When they move to write the essay, they start to plan/remember and then they analyze their knowledge to compare between Egypt and UAE cultures. After that they evaluate the differences and write their own views before creating the final draft. From my experience, through passing all of these stages, my thinking developed and now when I plan to write an essay, I go through these skills to produce excellent work.
Questions are divided into two groups; lower-level (convergent questions) and higher-level (divergent). The first category has just one correct answer and depends on memorization (who). The teacher and students can ask the group who is presenting specific WH questions, such as what is the name of this pyramid, in which areas of Egypt people speak this language…etc. However, the second category may has several suitable answers, which requires more than just memorizing, like deep understanding, analyzing, synthesizing to aid students solve the new problems. For instance, students can ask show us the way of cooking this meal or what do you like best in Egypt architectureand why? Hence, it enables the learners to think deeply and relate the knowledge to real environment; comparing, presenting views (Airasian and Russell, 2008).
21st Century pedagogy focuses on the moving students from Lower Order Thinking Skills to Higher Order Thinking Skills. Actually, students will move to higher levels when they pass knowledge deepening knowledge stage (analyzing the Egyptian culture) to knowledge creation; when they will create their section (language, clothes, food and architecture) (Educational origami, 2013).
Assessment
This assessment is very effective because it encourages seeing real world life, so the thinking will be high completely (Egypt). It is divergent in both presenting the topic and writing the paragraph becauseitdoesn’t stick on one answer , several answers or can be correct, and it 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). This assessment is more reliable and suitable in assessing by using higher-levels questions because students will collect wide knowledge about the Egyptian culture, in terms ofclothes, food and hospitality, the ancient language and the architecture. In addition, when they will write the essay, there is no one correct answer (convergent). Students enjoy doing this type because they have the freedom to express their talents, thoughts and different views (Scanlan, n.d.).
Additionally, it is formative assessment because I will provide the students by feedback on their performance (speaking rubric) to help them in the weakness areas and lets them to improve in speaking skills (Rayment, 2006). Learners know that this task for assessment purposes; they have the rules, task description and the instructions of the presentation (Scanlan, n.d.). The teacher will assess each student, depending on his speech, which means it is a formal assessment.The paragraph is a Peer assessment; when students exchange each other work to evaluate the accuracy and the quality (Wragg, 2001). I will provide pupils with writing checklist and they will identify the strengths and weaknesses. Consequently, they will be aware of assessing peers’ work and they can apply it in different subjects.
Students will go through three stages of knowledge; knowledge acquisition, Knowledge deepening and knowledge creation. When the students will search to find more about Egyptian culture, they will acquire information from reading articles and websites. Then they will move to find supplies to enrich their section, such as realia, images and posters. Finally, they will create the knowledge when they design the section, create means that show Egyptian culture (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 March 20, 2013, from http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/21st+Century+Pedagogy
Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching (3rd ed., completely rev. andupdated.). London: Longman.
Rayment, T. (2006). 101 essential lists on assessment. London ; New York:
Continuum.
Scanlan, C.(n.d.). Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Grading. Retrieved on
March 20, 2013, from http://resource.mccneb.edu/edutut/Online%20Pets%20Course/Assessment_evaluation_grading.htm
Oxford, R. (1990). Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know.
Oxford: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
Wragg, E. C. (2001). Assessment and learning in the primary school (New rev.
ed.). London ; New York: Routledge Falmer.