Sunday, May 16, 2010

WEEK 6: Multiple Intelligences & Learning Styles, Alternative Assessment and Rubric

Finally, the end of week 6 is coming and luckily I have done all my assignments and also have time to work on my blog. This week I have read about multiple intelligences and learning styles from Gardner’s. I think I have studied it long time ago when I was in the university. Honestly, I did not pay much attention to set or prepare the lesson for students learning style. What I did is focusing on the learning objectives and what techniques I used to help students achieve the goal of learning but I forgot focusing on learning styles. So it seems new to me and I realize that if I know my students’ style, it would help me understand and prepare the activities for them better than before. Having read the article about multiple intelligences from Gardner at http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm that classified learners’ style into Verbal-Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Musical/Rhythmic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Naturalist and Existentialist. To apply technology in different ways in which suitable for learners’ style, teachers should know how to prepare activities promote their students’ learning. And also the article by Barbara A. Soloman and Richard M. Felder (index of learning style) at http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html and
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm
(Learning Styles and Strategies). I gained a lot for my teaching. Yes, it is important to address learning strategies which students learn in many styles depend on their own interests.

This week I have learned about the assessments. There are many types of assessment which is important for language teaching and learning. Effective teaching and learning language cannot be successful without assessment and the main purposes of assessment are to make summative evaluations and to provide instruction feedback to help students progress. Obviously, the result of my students showed how failure I had from last school year. I have to think back of my assessment that I used before, is it good enough to assess my students. Is it suitable? This week assignments reminded me of what I have done before and reviewed my weak point of teaching. I should keep learning and searching for the best new things for my students. Additionally, Rubistar is great for helping me create my own rubric to assess students. It’s easy to create and apply to my lesson. It does help a lot for the ones who have no much time to think about the criteria because it provides some of items that you might want to use it. It depends on what you want to focus in your students’ task. I am glad I can share all of the sites I have found in this course and make them available for my colleagues in my school.

It's great and that's all for this week.

2 comments:

  1. Hello, Garunyawun!

    It looks like we are very similar in our knowledge about learning styles and assessment. In fact in my Ukrainian university we even didn't speak about all these.
    But you are right, that we can get as much information at this course as possible, just we need time!!!

    Well, see you next week!
    Seven is my favourite number!
    Ruslana

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  2. Hello, Garunyawun!

    Sometimes all teachers focus on what they want to do, proving that they are the best teachers in the world, maybe, but they forget about ... the most important part in our job: our students. I remember I had great teachers, who knew lots of things, who used the most modern teaching methods and tool, but who couldn;t make themselves understood. Why? Because they didn't take into account our learning styles. I try to avoid this mistake.I prefer making my students understand and remember instead of using the latest trends (which maybe I don;t understand myslef).

    I wish you all the best,
    Nadina

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