To sum up...

PEER EVALUATIONS

I'VE LOST THE COUNT OF HOW MANY PEER EVALUATIONS WE HAVE DONE...!

But why so many peer evaluations?

I have searched on the Internet some information about the benefits of peer evaluations in order to understand why they are so important in our class methodology. 

Firstly, I would like to highlight a sentence which says: "Group work can be more successful when students are involved in developing the assessment process." I totally agree with this statement because I strongly believe that if the students are who have taken part in the group activity, the teacher can not assess with precision all the groups involved in the task, so the assessment by the students should be fairer. Furthermore, this involves critical thinking and a deeper approach to learning. 

Moreover, I would like to point out some advantages that I consider that have had a positive effect in my learning process:

• Encourages student involvement and responsibility. 
• Encourages students to reflect on their role and contribution to the process of the group work.
• Students are involved in the process and are encouraged to take part ownership of this process.
• Provides more relevant feedback to the students as it is provided by the peers.

That's why I believe that it is really important to introduce peer evaluations in primary schools since developing student's autonomy and responsibility is a crucial factor nowadays. 

However, it also has some disadvantages, and specially I would like to mention one of them: 

• The process has a degree of risk with respect to reliability of grades as peer pressure to apply elevated grades or friendships may influence the assessment.

It is true that for me it was not easy to assess my peers, specially when I had to assess my close friends. However, little by little I realized that I needed to be fair with my marks and separate friendship from university. So that, I made a lot of effort and I put on my teacher hat feeling really proud about myself. 

To conclude, I would like to point out that from my humble point of view the advantages have more importance than the disadvantages. I consider that during this course the peer evaluations that we have done have been really useful. Specially, I would like to highlight when we had to assess our peer's projects because thanks to that, I compile a lot of new ideas from the other projects that can be really useful for my future. Moreover, the feedback from my peers helped us a lot to modify little aspects of the project that we did not take into account when designing it.  

To see the website from where I have extracted the information click here.

A funny image about peer evaluations. Enjoy!

The Meetings!

The Fishbowl

Last day in class we did the fishbowl activity and per groups between 8 and 10 people we had to sit down like this picture shows:

Firstly, I had the opportunity to be an observer, and after a while, the roles changed and I was inside the fishbowl. According to that, I would like to point out that my feelings were different depending on my role.

On the one hand, when I was an observer I couldn't talk, so I just listened to the opinions and ideas of my mates inside the fishbowl trying to answer some questions proposed.  In that moment, I felt impotent and anxious because I wanted to add some information, suggest some new ideas and ask some questions when I didn't understand what my mates were saying, but I COULDN'T. 

On the other hand, when I was inside the fishbowl I could talk and share ideas with my mates, so I felt free to express my thoughts and at the same time really observed by my mates. We tried to widen the previous answers and answer some new questions. From my humble point of view, I strongly believe that we did a great job because we respected the turns of each member and we listened carefully to all the suggestions. However, when the observers explained us what they had understood about our discussion, I felt a little bit frustrated because I realized that some ideas were not still clear for them. 

WHY THE FISHBOWL ACTIVITY DESERVES AN ENTRANCE IN MY BLOG?

I have created this entrance for two reasons. The first one is because I want to show that depending on the role that you have inside this activity, the emotions and feelings can vary. However, we need to adapt ourselves to each moment because both situations can be really useful for learning. If we are observers, we can learn through listening our mates and taking notes and if we are inside the fishbowl, we can learn through sharing our ideas and thoughts with our mates and trying to build the answers together. 

The second reason is because I believe that this methodology can be implemented in primary schools since students can develop social skills and communication skills through a cooperative learning. Furthermore, this methodology can engage students with the subject and allow them to notice what behaviors are helpful or detrimental to a discussion. 

Development of Intercultural Competences

The 26th of November, our UIUC mates were in holidays, so we had the pleasure to have a guest lecturer in class, Kaisa Hahl's. The seminar was about the development of intercultural competences. I would like to highlight that after reading her article I could clarify some ideas about what intercultural competences were. 

In general, I found this seminar really interesting since it was the first time that I could immerse myself in this topic. At the same time, I found it a little bit difficult sometimes because some ideas were new and abstract for me. Nevertheless, I would like to mention some key points that I learnt thanks to this class and I strongly believe that are really relevant for my future as a language teacher because nowadays there are normally several students from different linguistic backgrounds in schools.  

1. Teachers should not take for granted intercultural competences. They should plan when and how they will implement them in their lessons.

2. We can't think that multicultural and intercultural are the same. On the one hand, the first one only needs a group of people with different linguistic backgrounds. On the other hand, intercultural means that there is also an interaction inside the group.

3. The purpose of intercultural education is awaken the students' curiosity and interest in the importance of intercultural issues and make students consider their own prejudices, stereotypes, and behavior to deal with them in multicultural situations.

4. From my humble point of view, I assume that everyone has some prejudices or stereotypes in their minds. However, if we are teachers, we should avoid making explicits these prejudices and stereotypes to students.

Here you have two videos that I found in Youtube which criticize in a humorous way the prejudices that normally people have depending on citizen's background and culture. Enjoy it!

Moreover, to know more about intercultural competence click here (It's a fantastic article by Unesco!).

"Every effort has its rewards"

NEW KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ASSESSMENT

To see my reading assignment, please click here.

EXIT SLIPS

 

THE TRUTH

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR KIDS

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND this website to use it with kids in primary schools. I did not know about this tool before, and when I had the opportunity in class to explore it, I actually felt like a little girl excited   with a new present. This is because this webpage encourages the user to interact, investigate, and become a little scientist thanks to its awesome interface and content.