Reflections on Week 8

This week I have gone through several websites that provide teachers with all kinds of teaching resources such as creating flash cards, puzzles, various activities and tests.

 I downloaded Hot Potatoes version 6 which is a very simple and useful tool. I used the following link; http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ . I used it to create a quiz in Introduction to Linguistics. The items of the quiz are of the multiple choice type. I also created another Match activity in which the students have to match the definitions under A with the correct term under B. They are very nice activities that I will use in my class. I will divide the students into 2 groups and in turn they will ask and answer the questions. The group that will score higher will be the winner. I shared the two activities on the Webskills class Wiki under the section Week 8 Resources.

I also used the following link http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx to create a free  account and then to create a Mid-Term Test in Introduction to Linguistics. It consists of 20 items and I used three types of questions, namely: True or False, Multiple Choices, and Fill in the Blank. I found it a useful tool that makes our job easy. When you finish creating the test, you can either save it for future reference or you can print it. It also creates an Answers Key.  The free version provides the following features:

Free   $0/year
Core features to create tests

·               An easy to use test interface

·               All question types available

·               Answer sheets

·               Multiple sections

·               Automatic question renumbering when questions are moved

·               25 test limit

Some features like grading and printing students’ results require an annual subscription fee. I have uploaded a copy of my Test on the Webskills Wiki.

I used the following link: http://www.123certificates.com/makeit/certificate-of-appreciation-5.php  to create a certificate of appreciation on behalf of the Webskills course participants to our Instructor, Mr. Sean McClelland for his nice efforts and cooperation. This site is useful and freely provides us with all types of certificates that we can modify to suit our purposes and then print them out. I am planning to announce “The Student of the Course” competition at the beginning of the semester and I can award him or her a certificate. I think the students will be more motivated and will work harder. I can also award the top 5 students certificates of achievement to motivate them.

I also visited Quiz Star and created a free account. I activated my account and now I can create my Quizzes and share them online. It is a useful tool for teachers. 

Project Task 6

According to my plan, (See Section 4) I first created a class blog in order to implement technology into my class. Creating a new blog is a novel tool to my students and I. I expected high participation from my students and that they would be very motivated to log into the blog and do the assignments. I invited my students via an e-mail to log into the blog and do two assignments. I allowed them a week to do the assignments. Only two students were able to log into the blog and respond to the assignments while 5 students were unable to log into the blog. In class, I discussed with them the assignments and the reasons for not be able to log into the blog. The main reason was that in order to log into the blog they had to have a g-mail account.

Flexibility on the part of the teacher determines the success of the integration process. Therefore, the plan was modified and I created a class page on Nicenet. I sent another e-mail inviting the students to log in and do the assignments. After creating a page on Nicenet, things started to work in the right direction: my students started using our class page on Nicenet and post their reflections on what they learned during the week. I started also sharing some links on Nicenet and I uploaded some handouts and documents. It is now used for promoting out-of-class integration and using English for communication in general.

Another technologically-related change involved using computer-based activities in class. The students were offered a chance to play a Jeopardy game developed on the basis of the handouts of the Theories of Language Learning course. The activity was met with enthusiasm on the part of the students. Working in groups of five, they were very interested and they eagerly participated in the game.

The students were  invited to freely express their opinions on the idea of establishing an online space for the Group.  All their opinions were positive: most of them said it was totally different from what they used to. One of them wrote: “ I feel that I understand each topic better than before because the feedback that we gain from the comments of the Dr. or our colleges on our assignments.”

My initial plan was also modified. I was planning to introduce my students to Delicious. I finally decided to implement it next semester. I will divide the whole process into stages (familiarization, implementation, individual exploration and feedback)  which seem necessary. 

Reflections on Week 7

Part One

This is our seventh week in the Webskills course. This week, the main focus of the assignments is on three related topics: namely, learner autonomy, the one computer classroom, and the use of mobile phones in language learning. In what follows I am going to reflect on these three topics and what I could do in my class to encourage greater autonomy in my students.

Learner Autonomy

I have read the assigned readings about learner autonomy. To give an exact definition or meaning of “learner autonomy” is not an easy task. Learner autonomy like poetry has become elusive. The term means different things to different people, depending on what angle one wants to view it from.

Researchers have coined “learner autonomy” and its sisters such as “ learner independence” , “Self access learning” and many more. In what follows I am going to reflect on how I practice and encourage my students to do activities that achieve this purpose. As a habit I divide my students into at least 3-6 groups depending on the size of the class. Working in groups students feel more secure and help each other to learn and solve the mastery of the activities. They develop their own intellectual and emotional aspects. They have to critically think, contribute to the group and evaluate what the other members of the group are saying, they ask questions and collectively they prepare a presentation to the other groups. In the long run, group work develops students’ independence. The students may find such technique difficult at the beginning, but as the time passes, they get used to it and become more motivated and confident. They in fact learn how to learn and become responsible about their own learning. They learn how to respect each other’s opinion and how to learn from one another. While the students are working in groups helping each other, I try only to check and help only if they ask for help. My role is as that of an advisor. I believe that doing activities in groups helps them to become autonomous and they learn English better than being on their own. I also encourage my students to do Jigsaw activities which indeed promote being autonomous and work in groups to solve the mastery of the Jigsaw problem. I also use games that encourage students to compete against each other in groups. In order to help them understand the task they perform in groups I usually ask a group to present a model or explain the task in front of the class to make sure that everyone understands the task. I help when necessary. In my class the only teaching aid available is the non interactive white board, but I use games and journal pictures to promote working in groups. I also divide my students into groups and get them work together and prepare a 20-30 minutes presentation in the semester. They share and search together and they learn from each other more than they learn from me.

The One Computer Classroom

I have read the article entitled: “Strategies and Applications for the One Computer Classroom”. It presents a list of ideas with a US school focus, but in fact most of the ideas are relevant to any setting. Most of the ideas presented by the author are practical. The article is very relevant to my teaching setting where I have only my laptop. Therefore, I am going to reflect on the uses of my computer (laptop) inside and outside my classroom. I use it as an administrative tool. I keep the students’ names and their attendance. I also use it to record their grades in my courses and keep the files for future reference. When my students ask me to write them recommendation letters, I refer to such files which help me comment on the student’s performance in my courses. I also use my computer to make my exams and store them. I also use it as a teaching tool. I use it to prepare my games, handouts, puzzles, lesson plans, letters and many materials that I use in the classroom. I also use the one computer as a research tool. I write my research work and publications using my laptop. I also use SPSS to analyze the data that I collect for my research studies . I use it to keep the files that I download from the internet. In other words, it functions as my desk and my personal library. When I teach very small classes (10 students or less), we gather in class around it and I use it to show Power Point presentations. My students also use their own laptops in their presentations to remind them with the steps of the presentation. I taught in some universities that had Data Shaw Projectors in the classrooms. Whenever there exists a Data Shaw Projector, I use it to show my students Power Point presentations that I have in my laptop. In short, I use my laptop as an effective tool that helps me plan and prepare my lessons. It influences my classes directly and indirectly.

Mobile Assisted Language Learning

I also read the article entitled: “Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning”. It reports some of the studies that were conducted to study whether or not mobile phones were useful learning tools. Most of the results of such studies concluded that mobile phones are very effective tools for language learning. Right now, I am going to reflect on the uses of mobile phones for educational purposes in my own setting. All students have their mobile sets, but they are mainly used for voice and SMS communication. Many of them have digital dictionaries and they use their mobiles to look for the meaning of new words or synonyms. Some students use their mobiles to play some listening activities in class when they do their Micro Teaching. Honestly speaking I have never ever tried to use my mobile for teaching purposes. After reading the initiatives of using mobile phones in the field of education, I started thinking of how to make use of this wide spread device in my teaching. I have started a brain storming activity to think of ways of incorporating this fascinating tool into my teaching.

To be Continued

Project Task 5

In what follows, I am going to write down my reflections on the first steps of implementing my project. I meet my Theories of Language Learning class once a week for three hours (Sundays 2P.M. – 5P.M.). In the second week of the class (October 27^th, 2013),  I started the implementation process of my project by collecting background information about the participants  and their access to the internet  via a closed ended questionnaire consisting of 13 items. Table (1) below presents a brief summary of the most relevant results obtained via the questionnaire.

Table (1): Relevant Data about the Participants

Item	Yes N= 10	No N= 10
Do you teach in the morning?	6	4
Do you have a computer?	9	1
Do you have an internet connection at home?	4	6
Do you use the internet café?	5	-
Do you have an e-mail account?	10	-
Do you have a Facebbook account?	8	2

On (November 3^rd,  2013), I exchanged e-mail addresses with the students and I gave them a brief idea of the project. At home I created a class blog on Blogger and sent its URL http://mohammad-abdu-al-mekhlafi.blogspot.com/ to the students via an e-mail inviting them to visit the class blog  and to do two tasks. The first task asks the students to write down freely their own perceptions and views on this new technological tool (the class blog). The second task  asks them to write down their reflections on what they learned in class and during the week. I expected high participation, but unfortunately only 2 students (20%) wrote their reflections on the first task. Concerning the second task which asks them to write down what they learned during the week only 7 students (70%) did this task.

On Sunday November 10^th, 2013, I met them in class and asked them about  the blog. 3 students expressed their support of the new tool and the other three were skeptical while the other four expressed their dissatisfaction with the blog because they did not have free time to spend in the internet cafe. One of them pointed out that some commercials containing photos that are not suitable for a conservative society like Yemen were displayed on the blog . I explained to them the advantages of the project and promised them to do something about the commercials. I also stressed the importance of the continuity that electronic communication can create for them between class meetings. To solve the problem of commercials, I decided to create a course page on Nicenet. Again I sent them an invitation to join our course via e-mail. Till now 9 students (90%) have registered themselves on Nicenet.

It might be worth noting that my first plan was to implement the project with the undergraduate students, but I expected many problems. Therefore, I decided to first implement the project with the graduate students instead because they are grown up and they have facilities like computers and access to the internet. I also expected their full cooperation and that they would show a positive attitude towards the integration of such technological devices.

When I feel that the students have fully accepted the class blog and Nicenet and they are comfortable using it, I am planning to introduce Delicious and using the websites  (Next week).

Reflections on Week 6

Part One

Engaging Students in the Classroom

I am going to write my reflections on how I engage my students and promote their interaction in my class. After that, I will reflect on the readings assigned.

Being in the field of learning/teaching English for a considerable amount of time (33 years) and in different settings (Yemen, Egypt, the United States of America, Britain, France, India and Oman), I have been exposed to different methods and techniques of teaching. Nevertheless,  I belief that there is no single superior method or technique that works all the time for all students. I always tell me students that a teacher is like a bee in that it goes from one flower to another and the outcome is “honey”. Therefore, we should be eclectic and choose the most suitable technique for our current situation. Furthermore, in order to grow we should keep our eyes open to incorporate whatever is new and possible in the field of technology.

In my class, I turn any task into a game. Students have fun with that and learn more. Games come first in motivating  students to work hard and take their boredom away. Besides, my students’ interaction is very high during games and they may learn from each other about the topic of the game more than they learn from me. While many teachers use games to fill a gap or to warm up their students, I use games to reinforce a learning point and I use them to deliver the content of my course. Therefore, I have developed my own activities (games) for the teaching of content areas such as Linguistics, Transformational Generative Grammar, The History of English, Theories of Language Learning, Methods of Teaching ..etc.

I have taught in different settings and situations and whenever technology is available in my class, I do not let that chance go without integrating it into my teaching.  Some time ago, I had the chance to use the Electronic (Smart) Board for my research presentation. It helped me bring life into my presentation by highlighting, underlining, changing colors, easily bringing multimedia pieces such as sounds, pictures, maps, document, etc. I wish I had that chance to use the Interactive Board to teach my students.

I would like to finish this reflection by commenting on an article that I read in “Tomorrow’s Teaching and Learning” website. The topic, “Texting in Class”, got my attention. It reports the results of a recent study that was conducted in the USA. The study has reported that 90% of students admit to using their devices for non class activities during class time. Only less than 8% said that they never do so. I find such results very strange and alarming. I think they happen only when the students are bored or not engaged.  As a teacher trainer, I advice my student teachers  to find ways of engaging their students in the class. Whenever, the students are not  busy doing any task in class, they either use their mobiles or they start talking with each other and they lose attention. The best solution for such situations is to get them busy and involved in the lesson by using the elicitation technique. I always elicit things instead of saying them myself.  I also encourage students’ questions and I encourage them to answer their classmates’ questions. The second solution is using games to kill boredom and the students get busy competing against each other. The third solution is to set rules at the beginning of the semester and to firmly apply them. If a student needs urgently to use his or her mobile, he or she must go outside the class and come back quickly.

Teaching in Large Classes

The best article that I read this week is entitled: “Beating the Numbers Game: Effective Teaching in Large Classes” which is written by Richard Felder of the North Carolina State University. He suggests some techniques to make large classes almost as effective as their smaller counterparts. He recommends  a technique called” the in Class Exercise” and “the out of Class Assignment”. I really do agree with all his ideas to improve the classroom and make the students learn by doing and not by listening to passive lectures. In my classes, I usually involve my students through games and through in class activities that promote their interaction.  My normal classes are between 40 to 50 students. Sometimes as large as 120 students and some other times as small as 10 students. I divide the class into 2 groups whatever is the number of the students and they compete against each other. I prepare cards on which I write the tasks they will do in class. One student  comes to the front,  selects a card and reads it. One member from each group comes to the board and does the task while the whole group support and help if necessary. My role as a teacher is a facilitator. I get them vote for the best task and the winner gets a point. The following are some tasks that we do in class:

Draw and label the vocal tract.

Write down 3 examples of the following structure: S + V + BO + DO

Classify the English consonants into voiced and voiceless.

Draw a chart of the Arabic consonant

Draw a chart of the voiceless sounds

Write down the inflectional morphemes

Write down A-Z and then for each letter come up with one language that starts with the letter, e.g., A = Arabic, Z= Zulu.

Write down the types of prefixes in English, ….etc.

These in class activities make the students concentrate on the task and it kills boredom. The students subconsciously compete against the other group and they learn better when they do the task collectively. It creates a lot of interaction among them. When we finish the cards that I prepared at home. I ask each group to create another two cards and write similar tasks that the other group will do. In this case I make the class student- centered and a lot of interaction takes place. What is more important is that they learn by doing and not by listening and watching. Therefore, the principal aim of such activities is to get students reflect and do, the two ways that facilitate learning.  Those types of activities also suit the three types of learner styles that we mentioned two weeks ago when we wrote our lesson plans integrating technology, namely: the Visual learner, the Auditory and the ones who like to move (Kinesthetic).

Our Webskills course is a good example of a student-centered program. Our instructor is only a facilitator. He directs and helps when necessary, but we learn by searching for information and we learn by doing. It is indeed less teaching and more learning.

The second article that got my attention in “Tomorrow’s Professor Mailing List” website is titled : “How to Create Memorable Lectures”. It reports the results of a recent study which has reported that students capture only 20-40 % of a lecture's main ideas in their notes. It adds that without reviewing the lecture material, students remember less than 10 %  after three weeks. These figures are alarming and they call on us to evaluate our own ways of teaching and think of new ways to involve our students in our classes in order to make them understand and remember what we say in class.

What  I like most is their quick and easy ideas for better lectures. I totally agree with the 13 golden points they make at the end of the article. They are good strategies for involving the students in the lecture and they guarantee that the students become active learners instead of passive ones. They are really useful strategies to make any classroom student-centered and they can be applied in any teaching setting.

Creating an Interactive Power Point:

As required, I created an interactive power point slide show that includes about 30 slides. Creating Power Points is not new to me . Some time ago, I started learning and creating PPs and Prezi to present shows in class, but the absence of technology tools in my classrooms de-motivated me to continue Prezi or even PPs. What is really new to me is making my PP interactive. I liked the idea of making the PP interactive, so I started reading the article entitled:”How to Create and Use an Interactive Power Point Quiz Game”. I also read another article entitled: “ Creating Interactive PowerPoint Presentations for Teachers and Students” by  Drs. Terry and Cathy Cavanaugh of the Florida Center of Instructional Technology. The two articles are very useful and explain step by step how to create a PP presentation. The second article provides some examples of concept testing, but unfortunately, all the examples are from science disciplines, such as Biology, Geology, Earth sciences, and others. I could not find a single example in Linguistics. Furthermore, I watched many videos on YouTube that explain step by step how to create a PP and how to add flavors and spices to it (making it interactive and adding pictures, sounds, etc.). I found that the videos are really more helpful because we listen and watch the buttons and how they function.

After that, I started creating a General Quiz in Linguistics that I can use with my students as a general review of the five subfields of linguistic studies, namely: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics. I spent some time in trying to sequence the questions in such a way that suits the number of points given to each question (10 – 50).

I am planning to create other PPs for each subfield of linguistics as well as the other subjects that I normally teach.  In my classes, I usually turn any task into a game that we do in class using cards. Here, I am trying to integrate technology into my classes.

Project Step 4

Part Three

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”.  George Bernard Shaw

Last week , I made a brainstorming activity to pinpoint the main issues that my students and I face in Yemeni EFL context. The main problem seems to be lack of resources including technological tools in the university. However, the students can have access to the internet either in their own homes or in the internet cafes.

This week, I am also doing another brainstorming activity to suggest the technological solutions that can suit my setting and that can be used for the implementation of my project. It might be worth mentioning that my actual plan can be/have three-fold:

1.     I will implement the technology integrated program and asses its impact on the instructor, the students and the whole learning process.

2.    After completing the Webskills course, I am planning to conduct a one day workshop to my colleagues in the Department of English to share with them the new experiences that I acquired due to my participation in the Webskills course.

  

In what follows, I will present the possible technological tools that I am planning to use in my project to enhance my teaching practices as well as the rationale for selecting such tools.

1.      Class Blog

 I have already set up a Class Blog on Blogger for my Theories of Language Learning class. The idea of having an online blog is a novel one to me and to my students. Sometimes ago, I created a Faceebook page to communicate with my students and my friends, but most of the time we use Arabic as the medium of communication and most of my students are those who graduated from the university. Therefore I think that the utilization of the class blog would add some spices to our class and would allow for more learner autonomy. It will serve as an online forum or space where my students can communicate with one another and with their instructor out of class. In addition, the students are supposed to post their own reflections on what we do in class and what they learn each week. I was inspired the whole idea from the Webskills course. Usually a three hour class per week is not enough to teach a whole theory of language learning  and students generally need more practice out of  class to reinforce and review class contents and materials without making them feel overwhelmed or exhausted. Our class blog will function as that of the Nicenet to the Webskills course. The URL of the Theories of Language Learning Class Blog is : http://mohammad-abdu-al-mekhlafi.blogspot.com/ . When they are comfortable using this class blog, I will encourage them to create their own blogs.

2.      Delicious

              Delicious is another novel idea to me and to my students. I am planning to use this tool to share resources that the students need now in writing their term papers and later in preparing the bibliography of their own dissertations. Thus, the new technological tool, i.e., the Delicious account is expected to allow the instructor to guide the students and accompany them on their way in finding the relevant websites and free e-books.

             I will also train my students to use the following websites for their own research purposes.

1.      http://highwire.stanford.edu/lists/freeart.dtl

2.      http://questgarden.com/search/

3.      http://www.noodletools.com

4.      http://www.scholar.goggle.com

5.      http://www.freebooksearch.net/

Furthermore, I will be sharing additional websites that I will find useful to my students on Delicious.

I expect that my students will show a positive attitude towards the integration of such technological devices. They will be using them to communicate with each other and with their teacher outside the classroom. They will also learn from one another. Furthermore, they are expected to develop their research and writing skills. Thus, these tools will extend the teaching and learning process beyond the classroom.

Have a nice weekend!

Project Based Learning and WebQuest

Part Two

In the previous part, I shared my thoughts and experience about the use of  Rubrics as a tool of alternative assessment  in my classes. Here, I am commenting  and sharing my own experience about Project Based Learning (PBL) and Web-Quest.

I think that PBL and Web Quest are two faces of the same coin. Web Quest is somehow a novel term for me. I am familiar with its counterpart, Pro Quest. Anyhow, after reading about it and watching a number of videos, I came to know that a Web-Quest is an inquiry-oriented project using the internet as the main resource of information and knowledge. One of the main assumptions on which Web-Quest  is based is that authentic tasks are more engaging. However, many instructors are of  the view that sources on the internet are most of the time written by students and by all folks of people and that makes them unreliable sources and thus cannot be used in academic and scholarly writing. Anyhow, I will try it with my students and then judge its credibility.

Throughout my teaching career (33 years now) , I have used several activities that have different names, but they share and lead to the same goals of PBL. I use the Jigsaw technique in my reading and writing classes. The students work in groups of 4 or 5 to reconstruct a passage or a paragraph. They work collaboratively and help each other in solving the problem of the Jigsaw activity. They become very motivated and autonomous. Furthermore, the weak students feel more secure working in a group than working alone and they receive help and support from the other members of the group. When they solve the Jigsaw activity, each group present their solution to the whole class. In short, the Jigsaw activity involves less teaching and more learning. The teacher’s role is a facilitator only.

My favorite activity that I use in most of my classes is writing a Portfolio. Every two or sometimes three students write a Portfolio throughout the semester. Towards, the end of the semester, they present their Portfolios to the whole class and sometimes they invite their parents or their close friends to attend their presentations. This makes them very motivated and creative. Some of them create Portfolios that are of high quality and sometimes are really beyond my expectations.

Our Level Four students, have to write a graduation research project  which is 2 credit hours and in about 100 pages length. Students work in groups of 4 or 5 to accomplish the project. Every year, I supervise 3 or 4 groups. Last semester, I supervised 3 groups and I assigned them the following tasks:

1.       The Difficulties that Stand against the Use of the Internet and Multi-media in the Teaching /Learning Process in the Department of English, Faculty of Education, Sana’a University.
2.         A Survey Study of the Obstacles that Stand against Using the Internet in Sana’a University.
3.       A Survey Study of the Problems that Level Four Students in the Department of Students Face during their Practicing Teaching (Practicum) at Schools.

I use a checklist to evaluate such projects. Getting the students work in groups has some advantages, but sometimes has drawbacks as well. The first group work together and the 5 members took it seriously and performed well. The second group, on the other hand, was different. Only one person took the lion’s share in doing the task. He had a laptop and a connection to the internet. He was the one who communicates with me on Facebook and reports what they are up to . When I assigned them a time to come and present an oral presentation only 3 came and 2 were out of the city.  The one who did most of the work made a good presentation. He really knew what he was doing. Now, I will use the Checklist to evaluate the project and the question that arises is “Shall the 5 members of the Group get the same mark? One of the qualities of a good teacher is being just and doing so, I believe, will make me unjust to the student who made the most part of the work and to all the members of the first group who collaboratively worked. This is, I believe, the main advantage of working in groups.

To sum up, PBL and all collaborative activities have advantages and disadvantages, but their advantages overweigh their disadvantages. I am looking forward to reading your comments.

The following videos give a good background on PBL.

http://www.bie.org/videos/video/and project_based_learning_explained

The Blood Bank Project

http://www.bie.org/videos/video/the_blood_bank_project

PBL for English Learners

http://www.bie.org/videos/video/pbl_for_english_learners

Rubrics, PBL and WebQuest

Reflections on Week 5

Only 2 days and we reach the mid-point of this 10 week Webskills program. Whoever said: "Time flies" , really knew what he was talking about. This week is special in that it is productive and time consuming. We have been introduced to WebQuest which is novel to me. Thus, I took most of the time going through different articles, websites and videos to have a clear idea of its merits and demerits. I am planning to write my reflections of this week in three parts:

Part One

I would like to share the following comments about alternative assessments and rubrics with you. I have read the article entitled: “Assessing Learning: Alternative Assessment” that was assigned to us. It is a useful article that focuses on the methods of assessment in learner-centered classrooms where the learners reflect on their own learning process. Checklists and rubrics are the tools of alternative assessment. These two tools are not new to me. 

I have been using checklists since 1988. I have been using them for only two purposes. The first one is to evaluate my students’ performance in their teaching practice at schools. I have adapted a checklist that contains 5 main dimensions, namely: Personality, Language proficiency, Lesson preparation, Instruction, and Class management. Each dimension contains between 2 and 10 items. When observing my students teaching, I have just to make a tick in the appropriate column that represents the student’s  score in an item. The total marks of the five dimensions are calculated and that is the student’s score in practicing teaching at schools. I also use such checklists for evaluating Micro- teaching. I use checklists to evaluate the undergraduate students’ research papers. It consists of 23 dimensions. For example, six marks out of 100 are assigned to the category References. Then, we make a tick or  “X” for the following items: Accurate presentation, consistent style, adequate, match literature review, relevant, and recent. Then, we count the scores of all the dimensions and that is the student’s marks in Educational Research.

In 2007, I was introduced to Rubrics for the first time at the University of Sohar in the Sultanate of Oman. I was a visiting lecturer (2007-2012) and I was teaching Advanced Writing to the students of English Education. I had to use a rubric for evaluating my students’ performance in the Advanced Writing course. A one day workshop training was provided to us at that time providing us with examples and benchmarks (standards) against which a student’s performance is judged. In 2011, I attended a 3 day conference organized by the British Council in India and presented a paper. The theme of the conference was “Assessment” and most of the presenters advocated the use of rubrics in assessing language skills.

Therefore, I created a rubric for evaluating my M.Ed. students’ Oral Presentation as part of the requirements of the Theories of Language Learning course. The URL of the rubric is: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-BuYg9zyxUESWJmbHZwTHRXdkU/edit?usp=drive_web

I posted that rubric in the Webskills Wiki and in the Blog that I have just created for my course of Theories of Language Learning so that my students can see the items against which their own oral presentations will be assessed. I created this rubric based on the several  rubrics that I have in my personal library and by viewing many rubrics for evaluating many topics. I am planning to use this rubric to evaluate the oral presentation of my M. Ed. students in the Theories of Language Learning course. As part of the requirements of this course the students are assigned topics related to the Theories of Language Learning. The following are the topics assigned to the students this semester:

1   The Role of L1 Interference.

2      The Acquisition Learning Hypothesis

3      The Monitor Hypothesis

4      The Monitor Hypothesis

5      The Natural Order Hypothesis

6      The Input Hypothesis

7      The Critical Period Hypothesis

8      Personality Factors

9      Motivation, Aptitude, and Attitude

1     Language Learning Strategies and Learning Styles

Each student is assigned one topic. S/He has to prepare a 3000 word assignment and to make a 30 minute oral presentation of the same topic. At the end 3-4 minutes are given for the other students to ask the presenter questions on the topic of the presentation and the presenter has to address such questions. The maximum marks of the presentation is 5 marks. I added the last column of the rubric to allow me to put the student’s marks in each category out of 4.  The total marks of the rubric is 5 * 4 = 20. Then I will divide the mark over 4 in order to get the student’s mark out of 5.

The article that I read categorizes rubrics into 4 types, namely: Holistic rubrics, Analytic rubrics, Primary Trait rubrics and Multi-Trait rubrics. It might be worth mentioning that the rubric that I created is of the Analytic type. It consists of 5 dimensions for evaluating my students’ oral presentations. These dimensions are Presentation and Preparedness, Content, Originality, Vocabulary and Answer Questions. Each dimension is scored separately out of 4 marks.  Then, the  overall marks are calculated by adding the marks of the 5 dimensions.

One advantage of this type of rubrics is that the instructor can modify the marks of each dimension if s/he feels that one dimension is more important than another. For example in my rubric, “Content” may be assigned 5 marks while “Vocabulary” may be assigned 3 marks instead of assigning 4 to the 2 categories. However, Analytic rubrics are criticized for not giving the teacher or the student a good picture of the whole performance. They give separate scores for different dimensions of a student’s oral presentation skills. In short, rubrics are good tools for judging a student’s performance based on established criteria .

To Be Continued