For the first time I have evaluated students on their preparation for the two major pieces of work they have to do. The two major pieces of work are an Oral Presentation (OP) and "Timed Written Assignment" (TWA). I am giving them five percent of their final mark for an introduction to the theme and main points of the final OP; and I'm giving them another five percent of their final mark was for a plan of their TWA.

I was expecting resistance for two reasons: one is that students are not accustomed to formative evaluation which is what this is i.e. they got feedback (in the form of a nota and comments and suggestions); the other is that we are not supposed to have so many moments of evaluation. But not one student complained.

Many of them got very low marks (e.g. 6/20) for their TWA plans. So when I gave the plans back I invited them to improve their plan in the following week with a chance of improving their grade. Most of them did it. I think some of them thought I was giving them an opportunity to cheat! Maybe some of them realised that I was giving them an opportunity to improve (i.e. learn) and an opportunity to take an even greater learning step when they write their final TWA.

Category: Reflections
Tags: formativeevaluation