I believe motivating
the students to learn anything whether in a brick – and mortar class or in a
web based class is always a challenge. Project-based approach always
facilitates the process of motivating the students to learn language for a
purpose. This methodology truly promotes a sense of belonging in a group or
community among classmates. The consequence of developing sense of community
and thereby instilling motivation into the students certainly boost the
end-product completion.
I try my level
best to initiate mini-projects into my language classes whether in India or the
Middle East or more so in North America. Students choose their projects after
brainstorming among the group members. For instance, in one of my classes they
preferred to publish a newspaper which highlights the language learning
process, benefits of being multilingual, experience of learning a language as a
foreign language or a second language or a third language. When they produce
that newspaper using the in-design software it was amazing. Such Project make
the language learning process efficient, meaningful, productive, interactive,
collaborative and student centred.
Learning and teaching
languages by using a project-based approach makes learning enjoyable, absorbing
and ever-lasting at school, college or even university level. As a true
academician in the 21st century, I have redefined my duty whether in
the virtual classroom or in a physical classroom as being the guard of
learners’ academic aims and protector of their educational interests. Project
Based Learning has genuinely helped me revamp my earlier teaching philosophy
from being a theoretical, dogmatic and indoctrinating expert to a modern
congenial, co-operative and cohesive facilitator emphasizing the power of
interactive and collaborative learning in classroom.
PBL is also useful in providing as much attention
as possible to each individual student to deal with the wide variety of styles
and strategies that learners unknowingly bring to the class. A variety of
techniques and a multiplicity of strategies can be applied through PBL approach
to “reach” a maximum number of students through a mixture of group work and
individual work strategies.
PBL makes it
possible to realize the concept of less teaching and lot more learning in the
classroom.
Since long time –
almost for 10+ years, I have been
hearing the reverberating echoes of the word WebQuest in the teacher
fraternity.
However, I did not use it any time before. Neither,
I made a detailed study of it. When I went through the following links, I came
to know what the real charm of WebQuest is.
When I went through the following link, I realized
that what wonders WebQuest can actually make. It gave me a picaresque
opportunity of making “A Journey through Canadian Education”.
I liked A WebQuest About WebQuests by Bernie Dodge.
It made my perception crystal clear.
Now, I am
convinced that WebQuest is a very powerful toll of using the web proficiently
in the form of adopting the WebQuest format to create inquiry-oriented lessons.
I have a passion for developing the technology enhanced lesson plans, so I
liked this tool to fulfill that purpose. To develop great WebQuest, we need to
develop a thorough understanding of the rich repertoire of different possibilities
open to us through WebQuest if we cherish the desire of creating web-based
lessons. I can conclude the one way to get there is to critically analyze a
number of WebQuest examples and analyze them from multiple perspectives.
The more transparent the learning objectives and
expectations, the greater the likelihood that learners will achieve them.
Rubrics are assessment tools that are designed to create transparency and
provide guidance that improves learning. Rubrics make any assessment authentic
whether summative or formative.
How amazing is this tool named Rubistar! Whenever I developed the rubrics before, it was time
consuming and pains talking task. I hated it. However, when I entered the world
of Rubristar, all pains disappeared. The whole task of making rubrics seemed to
be handy, easy, pleasant and productive.
I just tried to make ready-made rubric for Oral
presentation in any Communication course, and within some minutes I was able to
make it. I saved it as a temporary rubric.
After that to quench my thirst of further knowledge,
I continued my quest. I tried to create another rubric for assessing Argument
Essay in a Communication course at college level. I created and modified it
according to the criteria which I perceived.
Finally, I embroidered another rubric for Cause and
Effect Essay meant for any Communication Course at College level. This time I
assembled the significant criteria and categories from all available models at
Rubistar, modified them according to my own perception of the rubric for Cause
and Effect Essay, and reincarnated it after a number of editing operations, and
also made it permanent. I have attached the word document file of this rubric
at Wiki.
Rubrics are sleeping pills for me. If I create and
attach a rubric with any assessment, I sleep profoundly. Otherwise, college
level students are able to force you pass sleepless nights because they might
have so many issues with their result or score. It is amazing how much better
student’s work has become since I started creating and sharing the assignment
rubric with them. Now, they know what is expected, they almost exceed my
expectations.
