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!      

ongoing assessment

I still have another story to tell you, keep awake! 

so far I have been at Bozeman High School twice. And It happened that with every session there was some assessment work to be done. My mentor teaches American literature to a combined Junoir class.. He works with a history teacher all the time and they seem to do well together.. The students are familiar with this sort of classes and good enough  to move smoothly between the two subjects.. And sometimes they seem to deal with the two subjects with a great confidence and absorb the overlapping zones and the complex nature of the relations between the two subject contents with a mature mind and a flexible approach.. This kind of combined classes are so much important in pushing the boundaries of the curriculum to incorporate significant, world related and authentic school interests.. They make students understand the complexities of the real life issues and lessen the burden of having to create specific compartment in one's mind for one specific weird subject.. It' s a way out to the world.

Anyway, back to assessment, what was new to me was that my mentor and also the history teacher provided a kind of scaffolding for all the quizzes they gave.. I will try to list below some of the ways how they did this:

1- The teacher asked two students to the board and showed them a note of a scene or event in the story. The students had to draw what was in the note and their peers had to infer what that was. This had gone in rotation for about 8 times. The quiz questions hovered on the same events and scenes.

2-The history teacher  conducted a question and answer revision,which helped me too to answer the MCQ quiz, before putting students to assessemnt..

3- The teacher pasted four large sheets on the wall, and each was was headed  with a specific historical era. The students had to dash down major notes on every sheet.. They went around and they discussed with one another..  The teacher also went around and tried to cue them with questions and stimulate their ideas and arguments.. 

4- The teacher wrote a number of characters' names from The Great Gatsby and read out  descriptions or events they were involved in. The students had to pick out  the character they decided fitting with the description.. this was a pre-assessment quiz, which the teacher administers before getting on a new work..

there has not literally been a session without some sort of assessment so far.. Assesment seems to be an integral part of learning in the classes I obeserve.. I am meanwhile considering how to tune this into my classes..