a. Focus on a specific assessment task in your school. Describe the assessment and discuss its effectiveness.
The secondary three students were asked to produce a "passion portfolio" last term (abbreviated to "PIP" -- not sure where the "I" is from -- the ego, the assertion of self-hood, interjected into the otherwise documentary term, "Passion-I-Portfolio"? I do not know.)
They were to pick one "passion" of theirs and present it in a "portfolio", which for the most part resulted in A4 papers held together by some simple binding or file. Notable exceptions included one student's professionally bound folio laser printed on what must have been at least 100gsm glossy paper, with appropriate and well arranged pictures, and including two plays he had written, which he attached as proof of his passion, "drama". The rest were rather more budget-styled. His portfolio was passed around in the meeting to synchronise our marking standards. We all wanted to give him 20/15.
They are to be marked for three aspects: language, content, and presentation.
I am still in the process of marking these portfolios for my class, and here are some thoughts:
Yes, some students would give slipshod work, or pick something convenient to write about (some simply chose a curriculum subject and called it their "passion", and the writing did not seem to support the claim). But a good number really identified a passion and wrote about it to the best of their abilities. I like that, even with those whose English sentences were ungrammatical and awkwardly formed, I could sense their enthusiasm and read their rationalisation of their interests. I felt I could better understand some students, especially the quieter ones, and it put more than a face to a name; it gave a character to the face. It also gave me a sense of their workload outside of the classroom, and a way to judge how valid their reasons/excuses are for submitting late work. One student wrote about his passion for travelling, and set out to prove that it was not a mere interest in sightseeing, but a way to encounter the self and broaden one's horizons. Yes yes, everybody says that, but the Facebook albums remain the same, I thought to myself cynically, in more or less those words, or equivalent. His writing, however, proved me wrong. It was very heartfelt, deeply reflective, and the material was well selected to showcase a variety of learning. I would quote a passage if I could, but I suspect there might be some ethical bind akin to, though not commensurate with, the confessional seal, so I had better not.
On the other hand, I feel uncomfortable marking a work of passion. I had to mark for grammatical errors, and already felt guilty intruding into the textual space of their outpouring. Then my CT rightly pointed out that I need to tick every now and then to indicate that I did indeed read their work -- the better written ones had much fewer mistakes, and there would be pages without any marking. So more intrusion. Tick, good that you like helping others. Tick, good that you like heavy-metal-punk-rock-groovy-angry bands. Tick, good that you like to swim. Tick, good that you like to speak. Tick, I approve of your passions -- that makes me feel uncomfortable, even though I agree with my CT's reason. On one hand this is an avenue to know students better, to encourage them to vocalise and record their passions; on the other hand it is also an English assignment, therefore marked like any other piece of writing. These are, of course, not mutually exclusive goals, but I mention it simply to register the occasional or momentary dissonance, felt when one "thinks too much" about it.
An alternative could be to have them present their passion in class, but that would work against those who are shy or who simply do not perform well in public speaking -- and would thus give me less material and occasion to understand their passions more deeply. Also, that would take away a lot of lesson time, a scarce commodity in education. I would choose the written form over the oral presentation form for students, if given the choice.
Thus concludes my final formal blog post, which I hope has sufficiently addressed the question. Now I must return to staring intently at the blank spaces in my lesson plan, of which there are many. If it is in the gaps and ellipses of a text that we discern its meaning, then there is a lot of latent meaning in my lesson plan that I must now excavate.
The secondary three students were asked to produce a "passion portfolio" last term (abbreviated to "PIP" -- not sure where the "I" is from -- the ego, the assertion of self-hood, interjected into the otherwise documentary term, "Passion-I-Portfolio"? I do not know.)
They were to pick one "passion" of theirs and present it in a "portfolio", which for the most part resulted in A4 papers held together by some simple binding or file. Notable exceptions included one student's professionally bound folio laser printed on what must have been at least 100gsm glossy paper, with appropriate and well arranged pictures, and including two plays he had written, which he attached as proof of his passion, "drama". The rest were rather more budget-styled. His portfolio was passed around in the meeting to synchronise our marking standards. We all wanted to give him 20/15.
They are to be marked for three aspects: language, content, and presentation.
I am still in the process of marking these portfolios for my class, and here are some thoughts:
Yes, some students would give slipshod work, or pick something convenient to write about (some simply chose a curriculum subject and called it their "passion", and the writing did not seem to support the claim). But a good number really identified a passion and wrote about it to the best of their abilities. I like that, even with those whose English sentences were ungrammatical and awkwardly formed, I could sense their enthusiasm and read their rationalisation of their interests. I felt I could better understand some students, especially the quieter ones, and it put more than a face to a name; it gave a character to the face. It also gave me a sense of their workload outside of the classroom, and a way to judge how valid their reasons/excuses are for submitting late work. One student wrote about his passion for travelling, and set out to prove that it was not a mere interest in sightseeing, but a way to encounter the self and broaden one's horizons. Yes yes, everybody says that, but the Facebook albums remain the same, I thought to myself cynically, in more or less those words, or equivalent. His writing, however, proved me wrong. It was very heartfelt, deeply reflective, and the material was well selected to showcase a variety of learning. I would quote a passage if I could, but I suspect there might be some ethical bind akin to, though not commensurate with, the confessional seal, so I had better not.
On the other hand, I feel uncomfortable marking a work of passion. I had to mark for grammatical errors, and already felt guilty intruding into the textual space of their outpouring. Then my CT rightly pointed out that I need to tick every now and then to indicate that I did indeed read their work -- the better written ones had much fewer mistakes, and there would be pages without any marking. So more intrusion. Tick, good that you like helping others. Tick, good that you like heavy-metal-punk-rock-groovy-angry bands. Tick, good that you like to swim. Tick, good that you like to speak. Tick, I approve of your passions -- that makes me feel uncomfortable, even though I agree with my CT's reason. On one hand this is an avenue to know students better, to encourage them to vocalise and record their passions; on the other hand it is also an English assignment, therefore marked like any other piece of writing. These are, of course, not mutually exclusive goals, but I mention it simply to register the occasional or momentary dissonance, felt when one "thinks too much" about it.
An alternative could be to have them present their passion in class, but that would work against those who are shy or who simply do not perform well in public speaking -- and would thus give me less material and occasion to understand their passions more deeply. Also, that would take away a lot of lesson time, a scarce commodity in education. I would choose the written form over the oral presentation form for students, if given the choice.
Thus concludes my final formal blog post, which I hope has sufficiently addressed the question. Now I must return to staring intently at the blank spaces in my lesson plan, of which there are many. If it is in the gaps and ellipses of a text that we discern its meaning, then there is a lot of latent meaning in my lesson plan that I must now excavate.
Hi Damien, this sounds really interesting! Could you ask your CT if you could make a copies of some of them just to show to me and explain what your "passion project" looks like? We really don't have enough examples of schools doing portfolios so I would really love to take a look at some examples.
ReplyDeleteSure Dr. Loh, I'll ask her.
ReplyDelete