UNIT 6 "SELF-ASSESSMENT"

Our team has chosen these instruments and techniques for self-assessment.
Descriptions: Because students can express what they have learnt, what problems they have had, and also report their needs, and interests. We think the instrument: “learner diaries” is an excellent way to records of what they have done in class, be aware of their own progress, problems and then find ways of changing, adapting and improving.
Monitoring: We choose this technique, because it is very practical, and useful to be aware of their students own mistakes. It is possible to create a code to correct them. Peer editing is another way to correct mistakes. Also students could monitoring by “test yourself” or self-check, which students do short test to find out how much they know about a topic.
Questionnaires: We think using ranking questions since the beginning of a course as: Learner questionnaire “Initial self-assessment” is very useful to get information about the activities, academic information, preferences as likes and dislikes; weaknesses and strengths of students which could help teacher as well as student to plan their classes and identify their individual and group progress. Teacher could use the multiple choice techniques, ranking bands, agree or disagree statements and also short answer questions to acquire reliability. Another type of questionnaires that we would use are the Diagnostic questionnaires, because teacher could find out what students have covered and to ask students what they think they are able to do. Consequently with the collected information and looking at his students, teacher could get a better idea of them. Progress questionnaires are very important because students can review their learning over some periods of time, so these questionnaires give students a global picture of their own progress.
Writing, speaking, reading, and listening learner training. We think students should do training activities to make them aware of different types and stages of writing, as well as reading, listening and oral practice. Students could ranking the different types of skills, also teacher can use his criteria, in order to know the variables that can affect the performance in each of the four skills, for example: in listening understanding such as accent, background noise, visual clues and number of speakers.
UNIT 6 “SELF ASSESSMENT”

Our team designs the technique “Progress questionnaires”.
Use your learner diary to complete the tables with areas that you have covered this term (see examples). Also look at the textbook and your notebook to help you. Then grade yourself using the scales provided. 5 I did the task with no problems at all.
4 I had a few problems.
3 I answered half of the questions correctly
2 I only answered a few of the questions
1 I could not do the task
5 I have no problem with this structures and I never make mistakes.
4 I only make mistakes occasionally.
3 I sometimes have problems using it.
2 I don’t understand it very well and I make a lot of mistakes.
1 I don’t understand it at all.
Grade yourself out of ten. Think about these things:

· Presentation

· Content
· Organization
· Grammar
· Vocabulary
5 I have learnt a lot of words.
4 I have learnt quite a few words.
3 I have learnt some new words.
2 I have learnt a few new words.
1 I have no learnt any new words.

5 I can do this very well without hesitating and making mistakes.
4 I can do this quite well, but I sometimes hesitate and make mistakes.
3 I can do this, but I speak slowly and make quite a few mistakes.
2 I cannot do this very well: I get stuck and can’t think of what to say.
1 I cannot do this at all.

Grade these things (1-5) related to effort and attitude:
SELF-ASSESSMENT OF THE COURSE
Instructions: Grade yourself the performance of the whole course using the scales provided.
2 I posted all the activities required in the course 100%.
1 I posted almost all the activities required on the course > 80%.
0 I posted the middle or less of the required activities <50%.>

2 I always provided insight and quality in the topics. 1 I often stated insight and quality on the topic. 0 I did the activities in a superficially and quickly way. POINTS: 2 3. - Posted the activities on time. 1 I posted all the activities required on the course on time. 0 I posted almost all the activities on time. POINTS: 1 4. - Fulfill the established requirements of each activity during the whole course. 1 I always fulfilled the established requirements of each activity. 0 I partially fulfilled the established requirements of each activity. POINTS: 1 5. – Portfolio work was posted in the discussion board “portfolio” in the established dates. 2 I posted on time my periodic portfolio reports. 1 I posted some portfolio reports on time. 0 No, I never posted any portfolio reports. POINTS: 2 6. – Did the students’ comments enrich and have respect of their e-mates’ posting? 2 Yes, I always made intelligent and polite comments. 1 Yes, sometimes I made enrichment commentaries to my e-mates. 0 No, I never made any comment to my classmates. POINTS: 2 SELF ASSESSMENT TOTAL 10 POINTS REFLECTION OF THE UNIT 6 This unit was really important for us, because as teachers we have to assess such as formal, informal and with the learner self-assessment in order to have a complete evaluation. We realized that there are more advantages than disadvantages in the use of self-assessment. The advantages can provide us useful information about students’ expectations and needs, their problems, their strengths, weaknesses how they feel about they own progress, their reactions with the materials and methods being used and what they think about the course in general. We think the few disadvantages as the mature of the students to assess honestly and the time to performed self-assessment could be overcome if students and teachers will be aware of the importance of this assessment and prepare, organize and have training for it. It’s really worth! We learnt the different types of techniques and instruments for self-assessment; we preferred the technique “questionnaires”, because we can use them since the beginning of the class, for example the learner questionnaire “Initial self-assessment”, other types are: Diagnostic questionnaires, and Progress questionnaires. We as future teachers might apply the last ones, because it is very important that students could review their learning over some periods of time, and these questionnaires give students a global picture of their own progress. Finally, we felt happy to know how assess our students in a holistic way. We think is really important to train students as well as teachers, in order to apply correctly self-assessment in the learning process. We now could design our own instruments to evaluate our real students, because our team is teaching English classes in an elementary school. Thanks teacher Rocio for your help and support in our classes.