This week I learned about Web Quest and Project Based Learning. I have been interested in PBL, but in Japan it is used for science or society classes in elementary schools. Therefore I was curious how the project works for language learning and for young learners, not kids. I will try PBL in my class by all means.
As for Web Quest, it was first time to see it and it took me some time to understand the general idea. Web Quest is one style of web learning and it enable students study independently as long as they have internet access. What I was surprised is there is an evaluation part for most Web Quest. On the part, there is a rubric which says how students are evaluated by a teacher. I’ve seen rubrics but I did not know how to use it. I just thought it was for teachers to measure students’ achievement. No, it wasn’t. It is true that rubrics are the aims for students to achieve, but the important point is students and teacher share it. Before starting doing tasks, students know how they are evaluated. This makes a big difference. Students will be motivated because they know the things they should clear. This is a good idea so I would like to use it right away.
Dear Kaori,
ReplyDeleteI share in your excitement about learning new things in this class. It most clearly does not let one to stop learning. I did actually have a little bit of difficulty figuring out what was a WebQuest as well, however, as technological gets more and more advanced I think doing research about the bet IT tools will become a part of our teacher job.
best wishes,
Lina
Hi Kaori :
ReplyDeleteI agree that Rubrics and webquests are good for assessing students'progress. I was a bit familiar with rubrics, but I did not know about webquests, either. Now, I see that both types of assessment can be applied depending on your students' needs. As you say here, it is so good that students know, in advance, what is expected of them. That seems to be more fair and helps them to be better prepared for the final outcome.
Hi Kaori
ReplyDeleteWell Just like you at the beginning I got confused about PBL and alternative assessment. However, Then I realized that the application of checklist and rubrics are similar to some ways we use to evaluate our students performance. Referring to the PBL I could notice that most of them can be leaded taking into account the learning styles of students, thus, we will be able to design appropriately tasks and activities according to their capacities and preferences. It is nice you have understood all the new online resources provided for this week, with these tools we already have enough materials to head many interactive activities and help to enhance our students learning process.
Best regards,
Vilma
Hi Kaori,
ReplyDeleteYes! I am sure we can use PBL method to teach language and not only science. In fact, when we teach the language we teach different subjects as well because sometimes we teach history, geography and even maths and science.
All the best
Hilal