Available online at
Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 2604–2608
WCES-2011
reply是什么意思Asssment methods in the cour on academic writing
会计分录Blanka Frydrychova Klimova a*
a University of Hradec Kralove, Faculty of Informatics and Management, Rokitanskeho 62, Hradec Kralove,500 03, Czech Republic Abstract
The article focus on the asssment of the productive skill of writing in the class of academic writing at the Faculty of Informatics and Management of the University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. Firstly, it briefly describes an optional, one-mestr cour of academic writing and its specifics. Secondly, the article provides a definition of the asssment and its categories for the purpo of understanding different asssment practices. Thirdly, it lists the most common asssment methods ud in the cour with their benefits and drawbacks. Finally, students’ evaluation of the cour and reflections on their writing achievements are introduced.
© 2011 Published by Elvier Ltd.
Keywords: Asssment, blended learning, categories, English, formal writing, students, Wikipedia;
1.A cour on academic writing
The cour focus on the process of writing from beginning to end, and gives advice on how to write professionally. It shows the component parts of the writing process, that is: envisaging what to write, planning an outline, drafting passages, writing the whole thing, revising and rewriting it, and finishing it in an appropriate form, together with publishing all or parts of a text. In addition, it concentrates on tho features which are different in English and Czech, such as citations, compilin
g a bibliography or using appropriate English. As for the last aspect, there are independent ctions on grammar structures in written English, lexical structures, and punctuation.
Moreover, the cour expos students to blended learning. That means they meet a teacher once into two weeks to discuss and clarify the mistakes they made in their assignments (i.e. essays), which together with a deeper lf-study of the materials implemented in their on-line e-learning cour, they write every cond week. Therefore, the cour undoubtedly contributes to the development and support of more interactive strategies. Students also have an easy access to ample materials, which they can exploit on their own from the cosiness of their homes. They can get an immediate feedback on the on-line exercis. If they have a problem, they can contact a tutor and they do not have to wait until next lesson. Furthermore, the teacher has got more time to read their essays and discuss possible mistakes with the students in class and reinforce the correct u of the language. In addition, the cour tries to develop students’ thinking skills. For example, an argumentative writing task will demand of students that they consciously implement and integrate both lower- and higher-order thinking skills. Undoubtedly, all the increa students’ motivation and their stimulation to work.
* Blanka Frydrychova Klimova. Tel.:+ 420493332318.
E-mail address:blanka.
Blanka Frydrychova Klimova / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 2604–26082605 2.Asssment categories in writing
Asssments are usually ud by teachers to help their students learn and gauge students’ progress. There exist veral asssment categories (Asssment, 9.12.2010):
1.formative and summative;
2.objective and subjective;
4.informal and formal.
1. Summative asssment is generally carried out at the end of a cour or project. In an educational tting, summative asssments are typically ud to assign students a cour grade. Summative asssments are evaluative. Formative asssment is generally carried out throughout a cour or project. Formative asssment, also referred to as "educative asssment", is ud to aid l
英语在线学习网站earning. In an educational tting, formative asssment might be a teacher (or peer) or the learner, providing feedback on a student's work, and would not necessarily be ud for grading purpos. Formative asssments are diagnostic.
2. Asssment (either summative or formative) is often categorized as either objective or subjective. Objective asssment is a form of questioning which has a single correct answer. Subjective asssment is a form of questioning which may have more than one correct answer (or more than one way of expressing the correct answer). There are various types of objective and subjective questions. Objective question types include true/fal answers, multiple choice, and multiple-respon and matching questions. Subjective questions include extended-respon questions and essays. Objective asssment is well suited to the increasingly popular computerized or online asssment format.
3. Criterion-referenced asssment, typically using a criterion-referenced test, as the name implies, occurs when candidates are measured against defined (and objective) criteria. Criterion-referenced asssment is often, but not always, ud to establish a person's competence (whether s/he can do something). The best known example of criterion-referenced asssment is the driving test, when learner drivers are measured against a range of explicit criteria (such as "Not endangering other roa
d urs"). Norm-referenced asssment (colloquially known as "grading on the curve"), typically using a norm-referenced test, is not measured against defined criteria. This type of asssment is relative to the student body undertaking the asssment. It is effectively a way of comparing students. The IQ test is the best known example of norm-referenced asssment. Many entrance tests (to prestigious schools or universities) are norm-referenced, permitting a fixed proportion of students to pass ("passing" in this context means being accepted into the school or university rather than an explicit level of ability). This means that standards may vary from year to year, depending on the quality of the cohort; criterion-referenced asssment does not vary from year to year (unless the criteria change). Ipsative asssment is lf comparison either in the same domain over time, or comparative to other domains within the same student.
In writing class formative and summative asssments are ud.However,from the point of learning and acquiring writing skills, the formative asssment should prevail since one of the major purpos of writing asssment is to provide feedback to students. Most people know that feedback is crucial to writing development. The 2004 Harvard Study of W riting concluded, feedback emerged as the hero and the anti-hero of our studyípowerful enough to convince students that they could or couldn't do the work in a given field, to push them toward or away from lecting their majors, and co
ntributed, more than any other single factor, to students' n of academic belonging or alienation.
Trupe (2001) offers the following steps how to make a formative asssment work:
南京营养师培训1.Respond as a "real" reader of a text rather than as a teacherly authority controlling a student's text.
Comment on what interests you, what you question, what you want to e more information about.
2.Make as many positive comments as you can about what you e in the student's text.
3.Be specific in your positive comments. A marginal "Good!" can be rewarding to the student, but s/he needs
to know what is good-his/ her point, his/ her evidence, the connection s/he is making with his/ her essay, or his/ her wording.
4.Ask questions in the margin to elicit amplification, reorganization, sharper focus, or transitional wording.
5.Make suggestions that encourage global (whole-text) revision in addition to local (word or ntence-level
or punctuation) revision.
2606Blanka Frydrychova Klimova / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 2604–2608
6.Comment in general terms rather than editing a student's writing, leaving some of the editing work for the
student while giving sufficient explanation for the student to understand what is wrong. You may wish to
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reference handbook ctions, encouraging students to develop better understanding of the principle
involved.
7.Avoid ad hominem negative comments (e.g., "You must have suffered brain damage if you believe this").difficulty
8.When suggesting changes in diction, suggest at least two alternative ways of wording the same phra or
ntence to help students open up their n of options in writing. (This is of cour much more difficult
than simply marking "awkward" in the margin.)
3. Asssments in the cour on academic writing
I n the cour of the mester students usually have 5 assignments. They are as follows:a summary of a lecture/ minar; an argumentative essay without bibliographies and references; two essays including bibliographies and references and writing an entry for Wikipedia (e also Tardy, 2010). Particularly the last assignment is a challenging activity for students becau when students are creating an authentic article for Wikipedia from scratch, they are not only motivated to write but begin to recognize the ufulness and necessity of the formal writing aspects of their cour, e.g. the importance of attending to errors and checking facts when writing to be published. Their writing process when composing an article for Wikipedia might be as follows:
x to get thoroughly acquainted with the website itlf, e.g. to discover what kind of information is included, what kind of information is excluded, what is included in the footnote …..;
x to choo a genuine and interesting topic for their article, obviously, a topic which has not been covered in the wiki yet; if necessary to negotiate the topic with the person or institution that might be concerned;
x to gather appropriate and relevant information on the topic and lect only the most reliable and important facts; x to make an outline of the article;
x to draft and revi the article a few times, possibly get someone to proofread it or to consult the facts in the article;
x to format the source, make references and footnotes;
x to submit the article and expect further revisions from the wiki reviewers (e An example of one student’s product for Wikipedia, 7.6.2010).
4. Benefits and drawbacks of asssment methods in the cour
The asssment methods em to be crucial in the learning process since they gather information about student’s learning. As it has been mentioned above, the formative asssment prevails in the cour for the following beneficial reasons (Trupe, 2001):
1.Formative asssment gives students a reason to read and understand the instructor's comments on their
writing.
aet
2.Formative asssment aids students in applying the instructor's comments to the same or a very similar
writing assignment, thus aiding them to become better writers.
3.Formative asssment builds more time into the students' schedules for thinking and writing about assigned
吸血鬼日记第三季结局
topics and results in better thinking and writing.
4.Formative asssment helps students become better critics of their own writing, hence better revirs of
their own writing.
In addition to that, the final asssment gives students a real n of writing since, while contributing to Wikipedia, they become real professional writers. Moreover, Tardy (2010) indicates, in producing a text for Wikipedia, students gain a real n of audience and enjoy the satisfaction of eing their work published on a high-traffic global website.
On the other hand, there are visible drawbacks of all asssments in writing class. That is they are time-consuming for the teacher. And in the ca of the blended learning cours, the feedback on students’ written performance is expected to be done faster (within 3 days) than in traditional class. Moreover, the teacher’s role is
Blanka Frydrychova Klimova / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 2604–26082607 changing and s/he becomes coach,leader,moderator,facilitator,mediator or tutor and does not confine his/ her teaching to specific times any more. Besides his/ her traditional roles, such as pedagogical, social and managerial,
s/he takes on a technical role as well.
5. Students’ evaluation of the cour
In the winter mester of 2010 ven students were enrolled in the cour and at the end of the term they were asked to fill in the following evaluation form:
1)Plea comment on the overall structure and content of the cour.
2)The most uful activities of the cour were for me
3)The feedback provided for my essays was done
4)I find the on-line cour
5)I worked in the on-line cour (e.g. every day,
6)In the cour I misd
7)I feel that writing essays has improved my
8)What or who motivated you to attend the cour (e.g. friends, credits ……)?
9)Did you welcome the possibility to have a cour once in two weeks or would you prefer to have it every
暂时的英文week? ….. becau …..
10)Would you recommend the cour to other people?
11)Any further comments?
Thank you.
G enerally, their feedback on the cour was very positive, which was expresd by everybody in question one. They considered the structure of the cour well-thought off and it helped them in the strengthening of their writing skills. The most uful activities involved the overall feedback on their essays including the follow-up classroom discussions on articles, word order, commas, or writing references and bibliographies. They highly appreciated the on-line feedback on their submitted essays, which was done thoroughly and in a short time. They worked in a virtual environment almost every week and they found it uful since they could access additional materials, both theoretical (lectures) and practical (lf-tests or other exercis). They did not miss anything in the cour except one student who would do with more examples of the discusd teaching matter. They all feel that their written English, particularly the formal one, has significantly improved as well as their formal vocabulary and grammar structures. Overall, they cho the cour becau they wanted to i
mprove their writing skills. Only one student admitted that s/he had wanted to obtain the needed credits. All except one welcomed the possibility of having the cour once a week as they had more time for writing their assignments the following week. E verybody would certainly recommend the cour to other people at the faculty.
6. Conclusion
The asssment methods undoubtedly contribute to the sustainable development of students’ writing skills, especially when the formative asssment is constantly employed and the tasks/ assignments em to be varied and challenging. Moreover, the overall form of the cour, i.e. the blended learning, contributes to students’ personalized learning. That means that students are able to control their learning as they are able to adjust the information according to their personal needs. They can access materials at anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, they can proceed at their own pace (e also Hubackova, 2008 or Semeradova, 2009). Finally, all the teaching and learning practices ud in the cour definitely promote better comprehension, active processing and positive interdependence while at the same time they give a learner a chance to become a more autonomous, motivated and responsible individual.
References
An example of one student’s product for Wikipedia, retrieved June 7, 2010, from /wiki/The_jizerska_50.
承担英文Asssment. Wikipedia, retrieved December 9.12., 2010, from /wiki/Educational_asssment.
2608Blanka Frydrychova Klimova / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 2604–2608 Hubackova, S. (2008). The u of on-line cours within the interuniversity study. Proceedings IADIS International Conference e-society 2008. Portugal: Lisbon.
Semeradova, I. (2009). On using the information-communication technologies. Philosophy of Education,2, 151-158.
Tardy, C.M. (2010). Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to academic writing, English Teaching Forum, 48, 1, 12-19.
The 2004 Harvard Study of Writing, retrieved December 9, 2010, from www.fas.harvard.edu/~i?ction=study. Trupe, A.L. (2001). Formative asssment of student writing, retrieved December 9, 2010, from
www.bridgewater.edu/WritingCenter/Resources/sumform.htm.
