My Learning Plan Revisited - Assignment 3

Your goal for this course:	How are you going to learn it?	How will you know you have achieved it?	How will you demonstrate that you have learned it?	Notes:
- Gain resources of simple assessment/evaluation templates/tools - Understand when and what type of evaluation tool is most beneficial in specific circumstances	- pay attention to extra resources listed in the class - create a list of helpful resources - ask for feedback/help/advice/ experience from peers - pay close attention to types and benefits of evaluation tools  - participate in discussion boards	- have a list of at least 7 outside resources/templates/ideas regarding assessments these do not have to be outside the course resources - see the purpose in evaluation tools and match them to specific circumstances	- hear a scenario and have a few ideas of tools to use in evaluation - Assignment 4 deals with connecting appropriate assessments with the lesson plan	- the previous two columns overlap slightly in their answers - I think coming up with great ways of assessing students is only as good as the appropriate type and timing of the assessments.

My goal for this course was to gain basic and foundational assessment/evaluation tools that I could practically use in the classroom. I also wanted to learn what type of assessment/evaluation would be the most beneficial and useful in specific contexts.

Some of the ideas I had come up with to help me in this excursion was to pay attention to extra resources, create a list of helpful resources, take note of types and benefits of evaluation tools and gain advice from peers.

I definitely found that the collaboration of my peers helped me in my understanding of assessments and evaluations. There are a number of fellow students who have/are working in ESL classrooms in one capacity or another. I try to pay extra attention to those who I know have experience in ESL classrooms as I find these students give very helpful insight. These are people, who despite never meeting them, I respect and therefore, value their opinions. Even those who do not have experience is ESL classrooms have proven to be helpful. One student, in particular, was very regular at responding to my posts, she always had praise to offer but would also provide helpful questions that would cause me to think further into what I had said. We ended up having some constructive conversations.

Throughout the course, I slowly added different online resources to a list to be an aide for me. They consisted of assessment templates, assessment ideas, as well as the basics of how to create an assessment and what to consider when creating one. Some of the resources I came across I found within the course, while others I found on my own either for different tasks or personal growth. I have accumulated over seven of these resources. Some of them are more helpful than others and some I read more closely than others. You can find my list of helpful resources on my blog at https://thetesladventure.blogspot.com/2018/10/helpful-resources.html.

The course itself aligned with my goals very well. Specifically, learning about formative and summative assessments was really helpful for me to learn the values of each, when they are appropriate and how best to present them to my students. When it came to creating my Assignment 4 for the class, I did have a few ideas quite quickly and was able to find resources to help guide me quickly and effectively. The Canadian Language Benchmarks PDF (https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/migration/ircc/english/pdf/pub/language-benchmarks.pdf) has been very helpful in giving ideas of how to assess different skills, it also gives excellent rubric material to utilize.

Overall, I believe I accomplished my goal. I was able to gain many resources and an abundance of knowledge about assessments and evaluations. My idea of what assessments were has definitely filled in the gaps. I did not have a practical concept of assessments, evaluations, their rubrics and how they were created. By following my learning plan and engaging with the course material in an intentional way I was able to obtain new knowledge and modify my existing knowledge.

Needs Assessment: CLB 6

Created by Ebony Loewen

Have students fill out the questionnaire below:

Name ____________________ Date ____________________

Answer the questions below.

1.      Do you have any prior English learning? If so, how much and where?

2.      What English skill is easiest for you? Hardest?

3.      What specific area of English would you like to improve on?

4.      Where is the most important place you want to be able to use English?

5.      List 3 topics that you are interested in (government, Canada, families)?

1. ______________________________________

2. ______________________________________

3. ______________________________________

Following answering the questionnaire, play the skittle game.

Have a bowl of skittles ready. Students take turns picking a skittle. Depending on the colour they choose, have them answer the following questions with the entire class.

Red: What’s your name?

Green: Where did you grow up?

Purple: What do you do in your free time?

Orange: What is your favourite thing to talk about?

Yellow: Why are you in this class? Be specific.

Reasoning:

This questionnaire gives the teacher a good idea of where a student is coming from, what they enjoy, what is hard for them and what they personally want to work on. It is a basic needs assessment questionnaire. I tagged on the skittles game as a way for both students and teacher to get to know basic facts about each other. This game is an ice breaker but it also gives the teacher an idea of student’s comprehension when given verbal questions as well as their speaking skills. The thought would be to do this needs assessment in the first class in order to give immediate direction for the teacher but also set a precedent of speaking up in the class and getting students familiar with each other.

My Learning Plan

Your goal for this course:	How are you going to learn it?	How will you know you have achieved it?	How will you demonstrate that you have learned it?	Notes:
- Gain resources of simple assessment/evaluation templates/tools - Understand when and what type of evaluation tool is most beneficial in specific circumstances	- pay attention to extra resources listed in the class - create a list of helpful resources - ask for feedback/help/advice/ experience from peers - pay close attention to types and benefits of evaluation tools	- have a list of at least 7 outside resources/templates/ideas regarding assessments - see the purpose in evaluation tools and match them to specific circumstances  - ask questions!! - participate in the discussion board	- hear a scenario and have a few ideas of tools to use in evaluation - Assignment 4 deals with connecting appropriate assessments with the lesson plan, hopefully this will be a bit of a test for me	- the previous two columns overlap slightly in their answers - I think coming up with great ways of assessing students is only as good as the appropriate type and timing of the assessments.