PBL, Alternative Assessments, Rubrics

There is no better way to strengthen our students’ confidence in their skills in L2 than providing them with the resources that are going to make them successful. This is one of the most powerful ways of motivation.  When using a rubric we are letting our students know what we are expecting from them at the end of an assigned task.  We are also teaching them how quality matters, and how they are going to be evaluated based on that.  As the URL http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/eta/Rubric_Tutorial/default.htm with the topic Creating a Rubric: Tutorial says, “Rubrics identify the specific elements an instructor uses to differentiate between the qualities of performances. i.e. it helps the student answer the question ‘why did I get a point taken off?’”

This is very common with the students.  Even I experienced that situation with low grades on my blog during the first two weeks. Fortunately, it did not take long for me to realize that I was missing something from the rubric to achieve five out of five on my posts.

Alternative assessments also provide learners the opportunities to reflect on both linguistic development and their learning process. The main point for students to learn language is communication for meaningful purposes. The students can demonstrate things learned and they take responsibility because they are self directed.  Alternative assessments either are in the form of a checklist or a rubric, providing students the opportunity to display progress to the school, community, and family members.