Distance Learning Foundation and US Embassy RELO Office

1. Distance Learning Foundation and US Embassy RELO Office Session #3 Unlocking Learners’ Voices 3 February 2011

2. Review of Sessions #1 and #2 • Unlocking learners’ voices • Helping learners develop their voice in written English • Helping learners develop their voice in spoken English • Assignments for Shei Sanchez (February 17, March 2, March 16)

3. Overview of Session #3 • Blogs with text and audio • A review of rubrics for writing and speaking • How to create your own rubric • Critique of rubrics

4. Let’s look at some Blogs • http://www.dioenglish.com/space.php?uid=6325&do=blog&view=me • A thread about “how to learn to write in English”.

5. Another blog • http://oupeltglobalblog.com/ A blog for English language teachers from Oxford University Press.

6. A look at the DLF Blog • http://dlfenglishtraining.blogspot.com • E-mail: training.engteacher@gmail.com • Password: t1234567 How can we use this space?

7. Create your own rubric for writing or speaking

8. 4 common areas for rubric assessment • Content / ideas • Organization • Style / voice • Conventions

9. Content / Ideas • Are the ideas original? • Does the writer or speaker make their perspective clear? • Does the writer or speaker refer to other’s ideas?

10. Organization • Is there an introduction, body and conclusion to the text? • Does the text have coherence?

11. Style / Voice • Is there a good use of vocabulary and other features to make the piece interesting? • Do we have a sense of the writer’s own perspective and their opinion? • Are they taking in to account the audience?

12. Conventions • Grammar • Word choice • Punctuation • Sentence structure

13. Create your own rubric for writing or speaking

14. Fill in the rubric • The assignment is a short persuasive essay on how Thailand should better prepare for flooding. • Think of the students you teach. • What rubric would you create for this assignment and your students?

15. Sharing and comparing • Now get in to groups of 4 and share the 2 rubrics your group has created. • How are they similar? • How do they differ?

16. Creating a rubric for a blog • Use the same template • If your students are participating in a blog (oral and written) what will be on your rubric?

17. Critique of rubrics • What do the critics say? • Rubrics were created to make sure that different teachers agreed upon assessment. • But individual teachers SHOULD have individual responses. • There is no way to “lock-step” assessment.

18. Assignments • For February 17: Send a sample of student persuasive writing to Shei by February 13. • For March 2: Let Shei know that you will bring (or send) a sample of student persuasive speaking. • For March 16: Have at least one student post some kind of writing or speech on the DLF Blog Spot. • Shei’s e-mail address: shei.sanchez@gmail.com

19. Thank you! • Until next time. . . • Thank you. • E-mail me (marti.r.anderson@gmail.com) or Shei (shei.sanchez@gmail.com) with any questions.