Personal Communication as Assessment

Personal Communication as Assessment Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. When I read this quote I was so much fascinated by the great effect personal communication in classrooms. Although, the question is: How can I best use my direct personal communication with my students during teaching to afford a feed back about their achievement? How can I use assessments based on personal communication to tap information and understanding, as well as evaluating critical thinking and application skills? In fact, personal communication as assessment can be fulfilled through many forms such as instructional questions and answers, class discussions, oral exams, student journals, diaries, conferences and interviews, and learning logs. Instructional questions and answers: Throughout my explanations of different scientific topics in my classes, I watch the expressions on my students faces. Besides, the various questions that the students ask tell me whether they are learning the material or not. But on the other hand, I always pose questions that help me figure out how well are they really learning and, perhaps more significantly, what can I do to improve their learning? Afterwards, data on student learning are analyzed and consequently the results inform me how instruction should most effectively proceed. Therefore, throughout my lesson plan the suggested questions must be designed to serve the diverse objectives of the lesson carefully such as analysis, comparisons, classification, etc. The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong question, Peter Drucker. Whereas, I as a teacher need to broaden my listening so that I dont listen only to correct answers that I want to hear but also push further to listen to reasoning behind the answer. Moreover, sometimes correct answers mask confusions therefore I have to probe students answers to pick up misconceptions. Instructional questions and answers have much strength such as providing me with an ongoing feedback about my students achievement, probe reasoning and deepen their understanding and serves to give me insights into how my students think. On the other hand, instructional questions and answers have some weakness as it is time consuming and also it needs an experienced teacher as unclear and prolonged questions can hinder students focus on a relatively narrow range of acceptable responses. Conferences and interviews: Despite of the fact that our subject area science is not a healthy media that enrich the use of this form of personal communication, sometimes I do ask my students to perform interviews. For example, I asked them to make an interview with the school doctor or any other doctors as an application on the digestive system. I together with my students plan the questions in advance where, I guide them to ask questions that help connect what we have studied to real life applications. For example, I didnt include in the list of questions what are the parts of the digestive system or what are the functions of each on the other hand, I direct them to questions such as what is the suggested menu for a diabetic, hepatic or pregnant woman? If we have an athletic person, what do you advice him to do regarding his meals and nutritional habits? Of course from the strengthens of conferences and interviews in classrooms is that it helps teachers to show friendship, trusts, and interest in students and also helps students to perform additional work and enjoy the class as it motivate both the teacher and the students. The main weakness of conferences and interviews is that it consumes great amount of time that is why I always perform these types of communication assessment during the activity classes. Another drawback in such way of assessment is that the teacher cant help being biased to the interview points that appeals more to her interest. Class discussions: As cited in chapter 8 in Stiggins (2008): class discussions have the simultaneous effect of promoting both student learning and their ability to use what they know. Throughout my experience, I discovered that for classroom discussions to be effective, the teacher must act like a maestro that guide and lead an orchestra. In other words, the teacher has first to illuminate the purpose of the discussion, lead the students speech, identify the roles and prepare them for the discussion with questions, which they have to share in their preparation, and assignments. Second, the teacher has to clarify for the students the criteria or the rubric with which she is going to evaluate the discussion as this will minimize as much as possible the weakness of classroom discussions as a form of personal communication which are the difficulty in grading, avoiding being biased to one way of the conversation and students competing with one another rather than cooperate on learning tasks, as emphasized b y Stiggins (2008) Be sure the students are aware of your focus in evaluating their contribution. Are you judging the content of students contribution or the form of their contribution? On the other hand from the main strengths of class discussions are: opening a way of testing and exploring new ideas, students acquire information and insight from diverse points of view, they recognize and investigate their assumptions and consequently these conversations provide practice with problems and concepts. A teacher who is attempting to teach, without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron, Horace Mann (1796) Oral examinations: Despite of the precious and valuable academic and social skills that are gained by the students in practicing oral examination, not all find oral exams as easy, as to write. Some find it harder to express themselves. I believe that it is the teachers role to train the students on this type of personal communication assessment because both the pressures and time factor can cloud the mind with stress, and it is only with practice that the mind will relax and be able to think clearly. I think this can be achieved by starting with easy questions that act as ice breaking and afterwards I as a teacher can smoothly go deeper into the subject. As cited in Stiggins (2008) Clearly, the major argument against this assessment format is the amount of time it takes to administer oral exams. However, within my classes I overcome this problem by informing my students since the beginning of the school year that I am going to start each lesson by choosing four to five students to be asked oral questio ns on the previous lesson and the graded mark represent one of the three quizzes that I have to do every month. As the time passes and through the relaxing learning atmosphere the students acquire the hidden strengths behind oral examinations such as, the practice in structuring answers and organizing the material and the understanding of it. Journals and logs: As cited in Stiggins (2008) written records accumulate over time, you can use them to help students reflect on their improvement as achievers- the heart of assessment FOR learning. In spite of the great importance of reflective journals and logs in education, I as a science teacher cannot make use of it as a helping tool in assessment as ca do the English teachers. Whereas, I do ask my students to reflect in a very different and unique way that are related to our subject area for example, I always ask them to write down their observations, conclusions and their suggestion in various scientific topics that we go through in the lab. Putting hands on activities and reflecting on these experiences, highlights the strengths of this type of communication assessment such as: summarizing ideas, experience and opinions besides, viewing the academic and personal growth by reading past entries. On the other hand I cant see any weak points in writing journals except that I feel jealous of the En glish teachers because they can make perfect usage of this assessment tool. Throughout my own experience one of the merits of the AUC course is that it gives me the opportunity to go into the habit of writing reflective journals. Ways in which a teacher can maintain quality control when using personal communication as assessment in the classroom Using personal communication in combination with other methods can deepen our perceptive of student learning. By exposing our students to assessments that depend on personal communication, we can set them up for dynamic and successful education. Together with other methods, assessment based on personal communication is a victim to avoidable sources of bias that can misrepresent results if we are not careful. To circumvent the challenges of personal communication and ensure validity and reliability of the assessment, the questions must be on the spot to cover the decided achievement targets, and choose appropriate measures of evaluating answers which are clear for both the teacher and the students. There are three problems that represent limiting factors against the usage of personal communication as assessment which are: first the problem of forgetting, second the problem of filters and third the challenge of sampling. As emphasized by Stiggins (2008) in chapter 8 (Personal Communication as Assessment), to defeat the first problem the first reason for caution is that we must remain mindful of the fallibility of the human mind as a recording device. I trust that the only way to overcome this problem is to keep a written record for each student that reflects his achievement in a register form. Regarding the second problem, I was really impressed by Stiggins (2008) as he said if we establis hed norms of student performance according to gender, ethnic heritage, cultural backgrounds, physical appearance, linguistic experience, our knowledge of the students prior achievement, or any of a variety of other forms of prejudice all potentially unrelated to actual achievement we allow bias to creep into assessment, resulting in unreliable scores. I think that the best way to avoid these bias problems is to set a rubric for every single detail that we are going to assess. As for the last point which is the challenge of sampling, to overcome it and ensure the reliability of personal assessments, we have to set the targets clear and create the warmth atmosphere of the classroom in which we ask clear sufficient number of questions that enhance the students the opportunity to express their thoughts and ideas in a fair way.

Going to College Essay

Decisions require a lot of thorough thinking before acting. An important time in my life was to make the big decision to go to college. Any important decision requires steps to ensure that everything is completed in the correct manner. I did not follow any sort of formal process. However, I did weigh the pros and cons first and exhaust all options before making my final decision. First, I checked into several different schools in the surrounding area to see which would be a better fit for me and also see which ones offered the degree that I was in search of. After thinking of going to class several nights a week, I decided to explore the online university options. Online classes are much more flexible and seemed to suit me much better. I started my own my own business, which made me extremely busy. With online classes, I knew that I would be able to do things on my schedule instead of someone else’s schedule. Attending online classes and campus once a week, was the best option I would have as a businessman. After a lot of research, I decided that the University of Phoenix best fit my needs and what I was looking for with my personal goals. Phoenix also offered the degree that I was looking to obtain. So, going to Phoenix was my final decision. I’ve been going to Phoenix for about two years. Since I have completed about 70% of my education, I’m close to obtaining my Bachelors degree in Business. As the reading states in Management: Leading and Collaborating in a Competitive World, the six stages in the decision making process are Identifying and diagnosing the problem, generating alternative solutions, evaluating alternatives, making choices, implementing the decision, and evaluating the decision. I identified the problem in my situation when I decided that I needed to go to school. The second step is generating alternative solutions, and the third step is evaluating the alternatives which I did by exploring my options and looking at online universities and brick and mortar schools as well. I then made the choice and implemented my decision. The only step that I did not do is evaluating the decision last. I evaluated the decision before I implemented it. I strongly recommend everyone to follow the decision making process. Following the process could definitely help to make healthy and intelligent decisions. Reference: Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. A. (2011). Management: Leading & collaborating in a competitive world (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Definition and Examples of Linguistic Accommodation

Gender Expectations Within Society By Swartz Levine

Gender expectations in society were not only limited to marriage guidelines, but went as far as to outline what a woman should wear and say. The proper Victorian woman was supposed to always be suitably dressed. This means that she should wear a dress that covered everything down to her ankles. It was even scandalous if a woman were to show her feet in public. A proper woman should also always be conservative with her speech and hide her sexuality. If a woman were to speak about or show her sexuality, she would automatically be seen as ‘loose’ and be looked down upon. Swartz-Levine describes how ‘loose women’ were seen when she explains: â€Å"†¦an Imprudent woman is looked on as a kind of Monster; a thing diverted and distorted from its proper†¦show more content†¦However, she holds back as she knows that society would not approve of these thoughts. Nevertheless, Lucy still expresses outlandish ideas that are viewed as highly ignominious. Fur thermore, Lucy actually takes action on these thoughts. Due to the continuous vampire bites from Dracula, Lucy receives blood transfusions from John Seward, Van Helsing, and Arthur Holmwood. It is a common analysis that in the novel, a vampire bite and blood transfusions both symbolize sexual intercourse due to the exchange of bodily fluids. For example, after Lucy dies, Arthur tells the other men: â€Å"Then this so sweet maid is a polyandrist, and me, with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church s law, though no wits, all gone—even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife, am bigamist†(188). Accordingly, Arthur believes that he and Lucy are connected, as in marriage, due to sharing blood. Of course, he does not know that the other men have also shared blood with Lucy. This is demonstrated when John Seward explains: â€Å"None of us said a word of the other operations, and none of us ever shall† (186). If the men feel like they need to hide the oper ations, this insinuates that the blood transfusions may have been more than just an â€Å"operation†. Based off of this information, it would mean that Lucy has had sex with almost every man in the novel. Although throughout the novel, it does not seem like Lucy intentionally means to be wild, she perpetually acts like the new scandalousShow MoreRelatedEmployee Engagement and CSR: TRANSACTIONAL, RELATIONAL, AND DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACHES12982 Words   |  52 Pagesover one hundred and twenty countries matches them to service opportunities of interest. CEO Sam Palmisano explains the company’s skill-based volunteer program thusly: â€Å"No company can mandate volunteerism. The decision and selfsacrifice comes from within the individual. What we can do is encourage and support this distinctive aspect of our culture by providing education, technology, funding, and recognition to tens of thousands of IBM colleagues who enrich their communities with their expertiseRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesPrinter/Binder: Courier/Kendallville Cover Printer: Courier/Kendalville Text Font: 10.5/12 ITC New Baskerville Std Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on the appropriate page within text. Copyright  © 2013, 2011, 2009, 2007, 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained