Dear colleagues,
Here are my answers to the following questions:
1. a) Look again at the activities for evaluating students' progress from exercise 1. Have you ever used these activities? Did you find the activity useful? If you haven't used these activities, would you like to? Why / why not?
I normally use memory games to revise grammar and vocabulary. I find it really useful and students like it a lot. At the end of every unit there is a progress check section where students are asked how they are learning. They have to tick several items. For example for unit 1 (3rd ESO) they can find sentences like the following: Learning the present continuous tense was: easy… average….difficult…... I can describe myself: …..yes…..no.
I sometimes record them when they are roleplaying. I give them my corrections back on an audio file.
Moreover, in the book, students can find strategies to improve several aspects of language learning (word building, informal letter writing, intonation….)
b) Can you recommend another activity for one of these areas that you have used with your students?
I sometimes feel I should give students the chance to have a bigger say in the flow of the class. Once I asked them to plan some activities in order to practise a given grammar topic. They came out with brilliant ideas. I collected their suggestions and did a few activities that they had chosen.
2. End-of-course questionnaires. Can you suggest other questions that you would include in an end-of-course questionnaire? Is there any other method that isn't mentioned here that you use to collect feedback from your students?
I would ask students about how they felt about the coursebook that they used and whether the course had fulfilled their expectation in terms of level. Students could also tell the teacher in an informal chat and the teacher would take notes, or they could write to him/her a letter about how they found the course. If this was not possible or the teacher did not want to do that, I find end-of-course anonymous questionnaires a good method.
3. Ongoing evaluation. Which of the activities discussed in exercise 4 have you used with your students? How effective did you think the activity was? Is there anything else that you do to encourage your learners to evaluate their own progress?
Learning out of class is really fun. Students tell about a song they have listened to, a novel they have just read or a film they liked watching. I also do recycling tasks after two or three weeks to review a language item they should learn.
I normally ask students to correct in pairs so that they can help each other and assess one another.
Greetings,
Marta