Assignment 3: Self-Evaluation

My Learning Plan

	1st GOAL	2nd GOAL
My goal for this course	Learn how I can incorporate assessment strategies into the existing curriculum in order to improve the quality of workshops and participant experience	Learn how to differentiate assessments, evaluations, and testing, and appropriately select one to apply in particular circumstances within the curriculum
How I’m going to achieve it	Reading through the course materials, connecting with other professionals and learners within the field, discussing it in forums and other social media platforms	Reading through the course and discussing it with my peers; getting guidance from other learners and the instructions through discussion points
How will I know that I have achieved it	Drafting assessment strategies that best fit the given circumstance and implementing it in the classroom setting to see how well it measures performance	Being able to thoroughly differentiate the concepts and terms.  Application questions and discussions will be relatively easy to engage in if I am able to differentiate amongst them
How I will demonstrate what I have learned	Incorporating and applying different assessment strategies to different learning situations to give a complete picture of performance and to analyze performance issues	Choosing the right term and idea when selecting one to apply in particular circumstances within the given curriculum, in order to further improve the curriculum and the learner experience
Notes	Reflecting and researching are important aspects of this particular goal	Researching and reading are going to be important with this particular goal; applying it in the classroom would increase understanding

When I revisited my learning plan and the goals that I have set for myself during the first week of the class, I started to compare the body of knowledge that I had before the class and afterwards.  It surprised me how amazing this journey has been for me and the depth of knowledge that I have developed when it comes to assessing learning within the classroom.  Although it was difficult to juggle all the tasks with my other responsibilities, it was really refreshing to see how my perspective has changed.

I registered for the program in order to enhance my understanding towards participants with low language benchmarks, and really understand how I can effectively provide the best training that I can in order to increase their success in employment and job retention.  I went into the course without any formal training in ESL, but with a strong background in instructional design and facilitation.  That being said, I was determined to tailor my employability skills workshop towards my ESL participants.  When I saw that the Assessment and Evaluation course for TESL was available, I thought it would be a great opportunity to expand my knowledge on conducting and creating materials for assessments and evaluations within the classroom.  I wanted to really see the difference between assessment, evaluation, and testing in the ESL context, and incorporate assessment strategies into our existing curriculum.  As I reflect on my learning, as this is my first class for the TESL program, I realized that I had a limited knowledge regarding the complexity of assessments.  I have taken classes on design and assessment strategies, but I lacked the understanding of the differences in purpose of formative or summative, and informal or formal assessments.  We often take for granted that we can use classroom assessment techniques (CAT), but we often lack the understanding of WHY we use certain CATs in certain points or ways.  After the course, I really took it to heart that it is important to have both summative and formative assessments -- formative to guide learning and summative to measure learning at the end of the workshop -- and to make use of the latter to prepare for the other.  In this course, I learned to really pay attention to informal assessments, as they give the opportunity to measure the learners' performance on a realistic level (without added pressure of a formal assessment).  

Understanding the purpose of each assessment really enhances my ability to facilitate classes that do have participants with low language levels.  The course has increased my ability to assess their understanding of the content, expectations, and performance feedback.  One thing that I actually started to think more about is the assessment that I use, and how I can assess the tools that I have been using and want to use in the classroom.  For example, I have started to develop an assessment tool that involves a real-life video scenario of an employment coach providing feedback to a participant.  The learner would be required to listen to the material and answer questions regarding the video.  This assessment activity was inspired by the materials that were shared within the course.  Interestingly, when I proposed this particular activity, the employment coach was thrilled that they can get the training needed to be able to pick out key details that can enhance their performance in training and at work.  This is based on Mission 2 task for Unit 3 (http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/online-safety-conversation).

I tried to make sure that I followed my learning plan as closely as possibly, with completion of readings and activities.  I tried to share my ideas as much as possible and learned from my peers through feedback and discussion.  I also tried to make sure to explore as many additional resources as possible, so that I could deepen my understanding of the topics in the TESL point-of-view.  Overall, I thought that I have accomplished my learning plan and I thought that it enhanced my understanding of how to tailor the classes to a more ESL-friendly one.  One thing that I would like to do in the future is to further my understanding of the CLB levels and competencies, and how to draft multi-level rubrics.  I thought that this part was quite interesting, and being able to create a rubric based on a lesson plan is quite interesting.  I paid particular attention to some tools provided in tulela (https://listn.tutela.ca/resources/linc-assessment/writing-tools.html).

In my workshops, I was not given the opportunity to explore the application of a rubric, since it is employment training rather than essential skills training.  I would love to create rubrics for assessments in the classroom so that I am given the chance to provide individualized feedback and enhance my learner's chance for employment and job retention.  In the future, I would like to network with other professionals in the field -- I found that due to unforseen circumstances and heavy course load (I am still taking classes in Mount Royal University, University of New Brunswick, and Red River College on top of my TESL class), I was not able to do this as much as I wanted to.  That being said, this is my first class in the TESL program and I look forward to more learning in the future.

References

British Council (2016).  Online safety conversation.  Retrieved
          from: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/online-safety-
          conversation

Citizenship and Immigration Canada, LISTN. (2015) Classroom Assessment Toolkit: Literacy to CLB           8.  Retrieved from: https://listn.tutela.ca/resources/linc-assessment/classroom-assessment-
          toolkit.html

Webb, S. (2017, April)  Creating Effective Rubrics.  Powerpoint presented at TESL Peel Halton
          Etobicoke Conference, 2017, Mississauga, ON.  Retrieved from
          https://www.teslphe.org/uploads/1/5/1/6/15162416/rubrics_pres_swebb_tesl_phe_2017.pdf