Week 15: Providing Feedback with Technology

Cristian Alberto Menjívar Alemán

Week 15: How to Use Technology to Provide Feedback and Assessing Language using Computers.

The readings for this week present useful information to provide feedback using technology.  Something that made me want to read more about this article is that it mentions a very useful tool that is screen capture. This tool allows the teachers to check the student’s homework and record themselves at the same time to provide feedback and areas of improvement in the activity. It really caught my attention because it is as if you were next to the student providing personal feedback.

I remembered having this type of feedback in our technology class, and I considered that it was really good and personalized; I was able to see the teacher going through the parts of the activity and evaluating one and each of the criteria.

The second article presents information about assessing language using computers, and the development in the use of technology in the creation, delivery and scoring of language tests. 

It is also important to know some of the threats when providing feedback using technology because the students are in the other side of the screen and they will see every movement the teacher does when recording themselves and it always needs to be with educational purposes.

To sum up, it is great to know that there are some ways to provide feedback when having a virtual class and that the interaction is personalized as if it was a one on one feedback. 

Rate: 5

Week 14: Increasing Students' Interaction in the Classroom

Cristian Alberto Menjívar Alemán

Week 14: 10 Benefits of Getting Students to Participate in Classroom Discussions and Increase Student Interaction with "Think-Pair-Share" and "Circle Chats"

The articles for this week provide information about the benefits of getting students to participate in the class. In the first article what made me want to read more about it was the fact that provides 10 different benefits of having students participate in the class.

My favorite quote from the article was “If a student is dozing off, texting, quietly chatting or otherwise not attending to what’s happening that student can be called on or the student next to the offender can be asked to respond.” It is interesting to see that sometimes students are not paying attention in the class but then if you call their attention they may not want to do it again because they will feel ashamed to be called on in front of the whole class.

Something I learned from this article and that every teacher should know is that participation engages students, a good question can pique their interest, make them wonder why, get them to think and motivate them to make connections with the content.

The second article presents activities and other benefits to increase students’ interaction.  Ever since I discovered this great technique of Think-Pair-Share I said to myself that I would be applying it in my English classes. I consider that is important to give students the chance first to analyze on their own any question you may have asked, then compare with another person (peer-checking) so they can see if they are in a good path or have the same ideas, after that they will be able to express or share with the class what they have worked on.

To sum up, teachers should encourage their students to participate in the class and share their ideas to check understanding of what has been taught. 

Rate: 5

                          

Week 12: The Implementation of Project Work

Cristian Alberto Menjívar Alemán

Week 12: Maximizing the Benefits of Project Work in Foreign Language Classrooms and Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning

This week readings show important information about the benefits that project work provides to students. Project based learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem or challenge.

Something I want to remember from this article is that when having students work in groups and giving them the opportunity to develop this type of projects is that it helps them increase their critical thinking, collaborative work, communication, which is really important so they can get to an agreement and reach the goal they have set up for the project.

Also, teachers should be aware to provide students with a topic that is attractive and appealing so they can succeed on the project.

The second article provides information about what every project needs in order to be good. There are two important criteria that must be taken into account and the first one is that students perceive the work as personally meaningful; in other words something that fits their needs or that is important for them. The second aspect is that a project needs to comply with an educational purpose. 

Rate: 5