DESIGN AN ASSESSMENT RUBRIC¡

Hello everyone¡¡¡¡

Today in my blog I´m going to explain how design an assessment rubric. As you can remember in my last post Super learning mission nº1 and Super learning mission nº2 I explained how to turn flat activities into super learning mission for the students¡ For that reason, now it´s time to design a tool to evaluate a super learning mission.

First of all, I would like to explain you what a rubric is. According to University of Waterloo It´s an assessment tool that clearly indicates markign criteria. It can be used for marking assignments, class participation, or overall grades. Now, what steps should we follow to create a rubric?

How to make a rubric? by Maria Jose Hidalgo



Once we know what a rubric is, I must choose what supper learning mission to evaluate. I have decided to evaluate the Super Learning Mission Nº1 in which students have to create a poster with  Canva where put different cities in the world and the weather in each one at the same hour. For that, they have to choose 6 important cities of the world, such as Paris or New York, then they have to search on the internet the weather of each one at the same hour, and finally explain it in a poster.

There are many ways to evaluate the students, such as exams or final tasks. But from my view, a rubric is one of the most objectives ways to evaluate. To create my rubric I have to take into account the goals established in my Super Learning Mission nº1 which are:

• Know different important cities of the world
• Realize that not in all places does the same weather 
• Realize that not in all places is the same season
• Look for information through the internet and choose the useful one.
• Carry out a very simple investigation.
• Make a poster with online tools.

Below, you can see the criteria that I´m going to take into account in my rubric:


Criteria by María José

As you can see in my presentation created with Emaze the criteria I´m going to take into account in my rubric are:

• Content and Knowledge
• Organization
• Effort
• Mechanics and Grammar
• Design of Digital Artifact

As for the Content and Knowledge in my rubric I would like to check if the students have learnt the content and knowledge related to weather. As for organization, I would like to check if students have organized the collected information and put it in order in the digital artifact. As for effort I would like to check if the students have made an effort to carry out the mission. As for mechanichs and Gramar I would like to check if the students don´t have errors in spelling, puntuation or grammar. And finally, as for the design of digital artifact I would like to check if the students have created an original digital artifact and they have used an online tool effectively.

Once we have seen the elements which I will evaluate in my rubric, I would like to show you my final outcome created with Quick Rubric , which is an online tool that allow you to create and design rubrics in a simple way, and which is very useful. I liked a lot to work with this tool and I´m sure that I will use it more times. There are a lot of tools for designing rubrics but this one is the easiest to use because you only have to fill in a table and order it in the way you want. Below you can see my rubric:

Rubric by María José

As I said before, rubric is one of the most objectives ways to evaluate. For that reason I´m delighted to be able to make a rubric easily and to learn new things every day¡ I hope you enjoy my post of today¡¡

SUPER LEARNING MISSION Nº2¡¡

Hello everybody¡¡¡

Welcome to my new post¡ I hope you have enjoyed the Super learning mission nº 1 where I turned a flat activity into a super learning mission. It´s tiem now to create another one also based in the Project Based Learning (PBL). The difference now is that I have made this mission in collaboration with my classmate Paula since we have chosen the same collaborative project The ESL Times and in this way we save time and effort and the ideas are double. We think that our new learning mission fit in The ESL Times since students work in cooperative groups, they use the English through the four skilss as they:

- Read while they are looking for information on the net.
- Write to put in order all the information got.
- Listen in the classroom when their classmates explain their types of pollution.
- Speak when they have to present their mission.

Furthermore, with these four skills students also develop the following competences:

Learning to learn competence

Digital competence

Social and civic competence

Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship

The first thing done was mix our topics: Landscapes and The Weather and think a possible mission that could be carried out, keeping in mind that this mission should have a conecction with the real world and should draw the attention of the students. So, the idea chosen was: Pollution because it is a general term which involves the damage of the landscapes and the changes of the weather.

pollution de Paula and María José

                           The steps the students have to complete are the following ones:
1. Choose one type of pollution and look for the causes and effects of contamination and the way they affect to the landscape and the weather. Write and collect all the information on Google Docs in this way all the students in your group could see what each other have found.
2. Once you have chosen the type of pollution and you have all the information you need to be almost an expert in the topic, you have to create a presentation using Emaze explaining the key points.
3. Then the best part, you have to create a comic which represent the causes and effect of the type of pollution you have chosen with Pixton.
4. Finally, you have to present to your classmates why you have chosen this type of pollution and present the comic to them.

All of these are the instructions to complete the mission but now we have to highlight the goals which are as important as the instructions or even more important.

Goals by Paula and María José

                               SAMPLES OF DIGITAL ARTIFACTS

We have chosen air pollution, in particular the Acid Rain. First of all, we have created the presentation with Emaze explaining the key points.

Air Pollution by Paula and María José

Secondly, we have used Pixton to create the comic which represent the cause and effect of the air pollution.




Process of Acid Rain by Paula and María José

To conclude I would like to say that I have loved the experience of working with my partner Paula, and it has been proven that collaborating with other teachers can produce great results. This was our first time, but I hope that in the not too distant future there will be more times and that the results will be much better¡

SUPER LEARNING MISSION¡ Nº1

Hello everybody¡¡¡

Today in my blog I´m going to explain you how I will turn 2 of my project activities into super learning missions for the students¡¡ That is, the students will be totaly motivated with these activities, as well as they will enjoy doing it. These learning missions are designed so that the students create their own knowledge and work by their own. The students will work on pairs or in groups, and the teacher will support them. Also, the activities that I´m going to turn into learning missions are alligned with The ESL Time way of working.

First of all, I have to remind you my Open Digital Educational Project which is aimed to students of First grade of Primary Education and the topic is "The weather".I have based on the Project Based Learning (PBL) to create my learning missions in order to relate the tasks with the real world and with my topic which is : The weather. The students will be more motivated when they will see the conection between the task they have to do and the real world.

The steps that I have followed to create my learning missions are:

1. Choose a flat activity.
2. Check how this can be meaningful and motivating for the students
3.Explain the instructions
4. Set goals
5. Explain the online tools and digital artifact


To start by talking about my first learning mission, what I´m going to explain are the steps that we have to follow to carry out the activities with the students, the goals that the students have to achieve, the online tools which the students have to use to achieve the final outcome, the final digital artifact that students have to create, the competences involved in this activity, and finally how I´m going to align my activities with The ESL Time .

My first learning mission is called "What´s the weather like?". What I want the students to do in this activity is a poster with Canva where put different cities in the world and the weather in each one at the same hour. The steps that students have to follow to carry out this activity are:



What´s the weather like? by María José Hidalgo-Barquero

As you can see on my slide created with Emaze (which I recommend to use it) the activity is very simple, the students only have to follow 3 steps. Firstly, they have to choose 6 important cities of the world, such as París or New York; Secondly they have to search on the internet the weather of each one at the same hour, and finally, when they have all the data they have to create a poster with Canva. This is a very simple activity because the children are in first grade of Primary Education.

I have chosen this activity so that the students learn that not every place in the world does the same temperature and even though it is the same day and the same time, at the other side of the world they can be in a different season. That is, this activity is related to the real world and is an activity that can teach students things from day to day.

Below, you can see an example of the digital artifact that I want students to do. For this I have used Canva to create this poster. This is an online tool quite simple to use for children of this age and with a great variety of resources to be able to create posters at your whim.

A Brief Historyof Sports by Maria Jose Hidalgo

Now, in order to follow the steps I have explained before, let's set the goals that I want the students to achieve with this activity

• Know different important cities of the world.
• Realize that not in all places does the same weather.
• Realize that not in all places is the same season.
• Look for information through the internet and choose the useful one.
• Carry out a very simple investigation
• Make a poster with online tools.

Finally, the skills the students have to work are the 4 main skills: listening, writing, reading and speaking. This is because they have to work in groups, therefore they should communicate with each other (speaking), read the information they are looking for (Reading), listen to the opinion of other colleagues (listening) and write the information they have find to then be able to make the poster with the most important information (writing). These are the 4 main skills that I found with The ESL Time in my last post In search of my partners.

To conclude I have to say that this process of turning the flat activity into a super learning mission has been very interesting and funny to create. I am learning how to turn the simple and boring tasks of the past into true learning missions for the students with whom they are going to have fun while doing the tasks and at the same time they are learning. With these challenges I am learning many useful things to be an innovative, fun and motivating teacher for the students.

IN SEARCH OF PARTNERS¡¡¡

Hello everyone¡¡¡

As you know, in my last post I created a Visual metaphor to explain how to convert my Open Educational Project in collaborative.

Today in my blog we are going to look for partners for our collaborative project! For this I have been seeing a list where many projects of this type appear, such as The 30 goals Project or The Twima Project ,  so I have taken a look and I have chosen the one that was closest to what I am looking for! This is The ESL Times, a collaborative project where the reporters want to learn and enjoy together. 

By The ESL Times

The reason for my choice is because you can collaborate in many different activities. Also, the collaborative project that I have to choose, has to be associated with the subject developed in my project "What´s the weather like?" which is English, and Natural Sciences as a cross-curricular subject. For that reason, the best collaborative project I could join in is The ESL Times.

Apart from that, within their goals is working with the four language skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking; which I think children at this age should work.  Other main goals are several:

 -          Working with the four language skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing.

-          Encouraging reading in English

-          Using ICT when teaching/learning ESL

-          Promoting Collaborative work, team work, autonomous work.

-      Valuing the socio-cultural side of the English language.

By CTET Adda

This project offers many activities in which you can collaborate such as News, Surveys, Poems, Text o Comics. This is why I like it so much this collaborative Project. As you can remember, my final task will be a comic created by different group of students.

First of all, I need the members of this project to accept me so that I can collaborate together. For this I have done an  Elevator Pitch where I explain the main reasons why they should accept me as a collaborator. An elevator pitch is an enterprise technique to find financial support for a project in 20 seconds, that is, you have to say things in a clear way and to get to the point. Thus we can catch the attention of others with few words. From my point of view, it is a good way for students to expose their thoughts about any specific topic and considering that it only last 20 seconds all students have the opportunity to tell their opinion.

What I want to achieve with my elevator pitch is that The ESL Times accepts me in its collaborative project and in this way I can also collaborate. I hope they take it into account and I can learn a lot from them. Below you can see my elevator pitch:

The steps I´ve followed to create my elevator pitch are:

•          Research about what an elevator pitch is.

•           Record a short video where I explain why they have to accept me as a collaborative partner. You only have to answer 3 questions: what, why and how. That is what I want to do, Why I want to do, and How I want to do it.

•          Edit my video with WEVIDEO. With this program I can cut the video, put music and titles. It´s easy to use.

•          Share my elevator pitch through my YouTube’s channel.

In my opinion, I think that  The ESL Times is a really completed project where I like so much to collaborate. In my view, either teacher as students can learn a lot with this project. So, I hope they accept me as a collaborator.

I have to say that WeVideo is a great tool where you can edit o remove videos and it has a lot of advantages for us as a teacher. It has a lot of themes, music or types of letters to edit you videos, as a teacher you can use it for presentations in class with your students. I´m sure I will use this tool more times¡

To conclude, I would like to highlight that with the 2 lasts challenges I have learned a lot about Collaborative projects and I think that it´s necessary for today´s education. The teachers of today are the ones in charge of giving a push to the traditional education and for that reason I see necessary all this that we are learning today.

I hope you like my post of today and, as well as me, you have learned a lot¡