Activity 2 Skills that can be developed through alternative ways of assessment Objective: to introduce the concept of transferable skills and criteria to assess them Time: 30 min
Materials: board, markers, flipchart paper
►Procedure:
☺ (5 min) Ask participants the following questions::
1. What skills (including language skills) do you think students developed while working on the projects from activity 1? Make a list of skills on the board/flipchart.
2. Why do you think it is important for students to develop these skills? 3. How can teachers encourage and motivate their students to develop these skills? Possible answers: 1. 4 skills – speaking, writing, listening, reading; decision making, leadership skills, team work, time management, negotiation, problem solving, research skills, IT skills, people skills
2. It is important for students to develop these skills to increase their readiness for future employment in local or foreign companies, small businesses, etc
3. Teachers can suggest the tasks which will involve these skills, but what is more important they have to somehow acknowledge students’ effort to develop these skills by giving a certain percentage of the mark.
☺☺☺ (5-7 min) Say that now you want participants to think how the project work can be
assessed. In groups of 4-5, tell them to chose 1 booklet /poster and discuss which mark on the scale from 0 to 10 the group would give to the project work they analysed and why.
☺ (10 min) Invite groups to share the marks they have agreed on and ask each group representative to comment on how they came up to the decision.
NB Be sure to lead the group to the concept of assessment criteria through this discussion.
While group representatives are presenting their ideas, listen in and make a list (on the board) of assessment criteria mentioned by them. When all the representatives have spoken, draw the whole group’s attention to the list of criteria they were using to decide on a mark and ask if anything should be added. (Make sure participants understand what assessment criteria are, refer to the session on Giving Feedback on Writing in module 1) Make the point that if a task aims at developing the ability to work in groups, or decisionmaking skills, these skills also have to be recognized and credited in the assessment process.
