JELLY BEANS

A tough Wednesday, but I have been through a number of insightful ideas and practical techniques. Interesting! Not intersting in the way American people would say for "not bad", but in the way  I learnt the word in the Oxford dictionary! well I went through three major classes and I am positive that I learnt new things there..

Assessment Class

Today the lesson was how to develop rubrics for assessing performance products. It was a fun activity, especially to me, Rahhal and Simon. Lynn, the instructor, I guess I introduced her yesterday, explained what a rubric is and how it helps the teacher better assess students' performance products. Then on to practice. We had to develop  rubrics to assess jelly beans! I actually did not know what these are! I was sure I wouldl not do well in this type of work.. I was relieved when I found that Rahhal was at a loss, no better than me! Simon also seems to be in no better situation.. but Our American friends were really very helpful and generous to explain that jelly beans are a type of candies that people here like to eat and are even offered with Harry Potter books! Anyway, we have to come with three performance scales, and we chose after going for a vote: Ummm..., Ehhhhh....., Ekkkk........ I also voted for these.. just what we can feel for candies... Then we had to think of the three criteria for assessment. We came with: Appearance, flavour and texture.. Finally we had to develop the descriptions for the three levels of proficiency with regard to the three criteria.. Condensing the activity in these few lines may make you feel that it  was a kind of meticulous and somehow boring technical work.. But it was not.. It was a real fun.. I am sure that if I had had to develop rubrics for some couskous performance, I will have been more active, but It was also worth  learning about this JELLY BEANS culture. here are some quality descriptions:

Flavour: 1-Intense but not overwhelming/ 2-a few is enough/ 3-spit it out!

appearance: 1-natural looking/2-bright colour/3-dull

Texture: 1-juicy and chewy/ 2-soft yet dry/ rock hard and runny

I hope you have had some insights on what jelly beans can be and a few ideas on  what the process of rubrics development can get you into!