6.3 Reflection: Assessment

• What are some of the factors you need to consider as you think about how you will implement formative and summative assessments in the online and blended environments?

Working on the unit plan for 6.2 really forced me to take a in-depth examination at how I plan my activities and what purposes these activities serve, if any.

As I start to reflect on my experience, I realize there are many factors to consider as I implement formative and summative assessments.

Here's a list that I come up with for my blended environment:

• Purpose: Why am I using this activity? What purpose does it serve? Does it support the learning objectives? Does it help students learn? If so, how?
• Set-up Time: How much time does this activity take? Is it a good use of my instructional time as well as student's homework/study time?
• Instructions: Are the instructions easy to deliver, easy to follow, and/or easy to set up? How much of my in-class instructional time will it take up for set up or for delivering instructions? Will the students be able to remember the instructions after the first two or three times or must I explain it every time? If the activity is to be done online and at home, can the students figure out how to complete the activity by following the given instructions?
• Frequency: How frequently should I have these activities?
• Turn around time: How soon can I give feedback?
• Follow up and follow through: How do I follow up with the students who needs individual help? How do I make sure students use the feedback to learn? In the blended environment, I also need to think about how this might impact my pacing.
• Variety: How many activities should I have in my tool bag so I keep the students interested?
• Fun factor: For high school students, I think "fun" should be a factor that we consider when we are designing and/or choosing activities. Not all activities will be fun, but adding in a bit of fun will help keeping the students interested. Fun can mean a lot of things, such as music, competition, or visual.
• What is being assessed and design accordingly: I also need to think about what skills or knowledge are being assessed. For example, if I am assessing reading comprehension ability, then the questions should be in English, not Chinese.
• Connection to the Real World: Since I teach a World Language, I also like to think of summative assessments that connect to the real world. One question I like to ask myself is "what other/real world skills can the students develop with this project?"
• Rubrics: In order to help students understand the expectation and to give good and usable feedback, rubrics must be set up in the beginning. 
• Sample work: I debate about whether to provide sample work. The advantage is that the students will have a clearer idea on the quality of work expected for different scores. However, it might also limit the students' creativity. 

 I wonder how different the list will be if I am delivering only through online LMS only.

It would be interesting to see what other teachers' lists and compare.

5 Reflection on Accessibility Of Material

• How accessible are your current instructional materials?

1. My lecture videos need to be updated with captions and/or transcripts. However, the majority of the content covered is on the powerpoint. What's not on the page are usually additional explanation I provide, and pronunciation of the language. I need to think through what I need to do, and which lecture videos need the additional support of captions and transcripts. The "How-to" videos definitely need those.
2. I am not sure how accessible my handouts are if someone is using a reader. I think it'll be a mix. Some handouts will be easier to read, and some will not be. Perhaps this is something I should spend some time investigating.
3. There are digital workbooks available, but that's additional costs that we do not have. It would be great if we have digital textbooks and workbooks for students. This would be especially helpful for visually impaired students. Right now, our workaround is to prepare large-print textbook and workbook for those students in need.

• Are there elements of your instructional materials that could be revised to make them more accessible?

I'd like to add captions and transcripts to the lecture videos at some point in time. I should also think about how "readable" my handouts are if someone with disability is accessing it online.

Since I use Google drive and Edmodo, I organize my materials into folders. If I were not using Google Drive or Edmodo, I would probably continue to update my Wiki. I did use headings for easy navigation on my Wiki pages. 

• Please share any resources you know or use to make your curriculum and course accessible.

1. I host my videos on Vimeo, but YouTube is a good option as well. When I used to have just slides, I would use SlideShare.
2. I use Quia.com to create exercises that the students can do at home and receive instant feedback. Students can also do these activities as many times as they want/need/like. Students can access them whenever and wherever. This is especially important for listening and reading exercises. 
3. I use GoFormative.com for the higher level students to do their "language (grammar) practice". This saves the students time (instead of writing them out by hand), and we can go over as a class faster as well. We see all the answers simply by pulling up the page, instead of waiting for students to write them on the board. I don't do this for levels 1&2 because they need to practice writing. 
4. Google Drive/Edmodo: I host a variety of resources on Google Drive and Edmodo so they are easily accessible by the students.

4.3 Reflection: Social & Professional Networks

I am most active on two social network: Facebook and Edmodo. I am also on Twitter, but not as active.

Here's a partial list of some of the groups I belong to on Facebook. Some PD groups are in English and some are in Chinese.

Here's a partial list of some of the PD groups I belong to on Edmodo.com

• When does the Internet help your learning?

The internet helps my learning mainly in two ways: 

1. I like to read about what's new with the education field. Being in some professional groups helps to keep me updated.
2. When I learn about a new topic, the Internet is my first go-to place to find additional information. If it's a new tool that I learn about, I can utilize many resources on the Internet to learn the ins-and-outs of using that tools, such as YouTube tutorials, blog posts, and discussion boards.

• When does it distract from good learning for you?

Sometimes there are so many interesting articles to read that I forget what my starting point is. Then I just become overwhelmed and/or lost in the sea of information. Other times, I might have too much information on one particular topic, and it becomes difficult or takes too long for me to digest all the information to be able to apply the knowledge effectively or efficiently.

• How might your answers to these questions be similar to or different from the answers your students might give?

I think my students answers will be similar to mine because they can get overwhelmed with the search results just like I am. However, we deal with the over-information challenge differently. I will always spend time filter and verify the information, or use multiple sources, whereas my students tend to go with the first few they found. Most noticeably, Wikipedia. They also do not seem to verify whether the sources they use are valid or of any academic value.

• How might you support your students in using the Internet as their own personal learning space?

Teaching students the skill to perform better searches, to set up filtering criteria for validating their sources, and to cross reference and double-check their findings, in addition to providing students opportunities to sharpen their critical thinking skills and writing skills can all help our students use the Internet effectively as a personal learning space.