Assessment rubric with Quick Rubric

Hi everyone!

Now is time to evaluate the work done by our children. To do that, we have to design an assessment rubric.
I am going to include some important elements to take into account when designing rubrics.

What means assess?
To assess means to evaluate students knowledge about the subject matter. It determines if the aims have been acquired or not. The following characteristics are the one that I am going to take into account:
- Provides diagnostic feedback.
- Evaluate progress.
- Helps educators set standards.
- Motivates development.
- Allows self-evaluation.

What is assessment rubric?
It is a tool that indicates the marked aims or criteria. It can be used for class participation, acquired knowledge and so on, in any primary course.
I decided to create a rubric to evaluate my students. When creating a rubric it is important to consider the final result that the student are going to produce and also the progress that they make throughout the Project.

Rubric elements
To create a rubric we have to take into account some elements:
- Aspects of the learning process to be assessed.
- Criteria.
- Scale of ratings.
- Clear descriptors.

Creating a rubric
First you have to think what you want to evaluate with your rubric and start designing a prototype rubric. To make it, I have used Quick Rubric. This is an easy and brilliant tool to create rubrics on a faster way.
I have taken into account the following aims: content knowledge, class participation, progress during the Project, group work and self-evaluation (of each child, they have to complete it) and this is the final result.

Image retrieved from Quick Rubric

After assess them with the rubric, the teacher can ask them if they are agree or not, in order to make them self-assessment.

They can also write their opinions about the activities on a paper and give it to the teacher, this is so that the teacher can improve the activities, his/her assessment by the students.

Self-reflection and conclusion
Before this challenge, I knew that evaluation was important in the teaching-learning process. In addition, I created several rubrics for this, but I always used Word because I did not know about this tool. Now that I know Quick Rubric, I am going to continue using it since as I said earlier, it is easy to use and brilliant to create rubrics faster.
In addition, I recommend you to create a scheme before you start designing it, so you have everything well organised. This will be very useful when you start creating the rubric since it will only be copied with the tool.

In my opinion, I consider that the rubrics are crucial when evaluating a child all the work he/she has done during the lessons, although we do not always take enough time to design them. Therefore, I encourage you to spend more time creating a good rubric so that when you have to evaluate any child, it will be easier for you.

If you have any doubt or you have tried it, leave a comment. I hope you like this resource.

Super learning mission 2: Create a class blog!

Hi everyone!

Today I want to show you the second super learning mission that I have created. I am going to follow the previous post steps to explain this super learning mission. This mission, consist of create a class blog in which each child has to write a post, they have to make some draws to explain it (done by themselves) like the habitat, the skeleton of the animal, its food and so on.
This is in order to continue working with No me cuentes historias, ¡dibújamelas! because children have to draw it, not only explain.

- Learning mission instrucions:

• First, children have to take into account the information they found for the comic.
• Then, they have to write all the information on a post in the class blog following the next structure:

1. Explain the animal's habitat.
2. Talk about the groups to which the animal belongs (viviparous-oviparous, vertebrate-invertebrate, mammal-bird-reptile-fish-amphibian).
3. Tell what the animal eats and if it is carnivore, herbivore or omnivore.
4. Explain some extra strange or surprising information.

- Goals to be achieved:

• Be creative.
• Review acquire knowledge.
• Learn how to make posts.
• Express himself/herself on a correct way (written form).
  

- Digital tool:

• Blogger.

- Competences involved:

• Digital skills.
• Social and civic skills.
• Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship.
• Cultural awareness and expression.

- Collaborative Project alliegned with:

• No me cuentes historias, ¡dibújamelas!

- An example post:

- What have I learnt with this super learning mission?

Firstly, I want to say that I have learnt a lot making the previous posts. At the beginning of this year, I have never made a blog, so I didn't know how I could make posts, what I could write on the post, how I could add photos or videos and so on.

Nowadays, I know a few things, because I am not an expert, so in my experience this is a fun way to communicate to others what I am learning, so they can take advantage of this, learn it and use it in the way they like the most.
The most difficult part, as in the previous post, has been to think about the super learning mission, since as I said before, I am more accustomed to carry out the activities of the book or some invented, but not to create a super learning mission where children phave an active participation.
So again, I encourage you to try it with your students, because it is made with an easy tool, encourages group participation and is funny for the children and for the teacher to see their draws. This is other useful tool that I am going to use in my future clases.

If you have any doubt or you have tried it, leave a comment. I hope you like this second super learning mission and you like it.

Super learning mission 1: Make a comic!

Hi everyone!

Today I am going to talk about how to turn an activity or exercise into a super learning mission. The teacher has to draft the learning mission instrutions, the goals to be achieved, the digital tool that the children are going to use and the competencies involved. The teacher can also alliegned it with the partner collaborative Project that she wants to contribute if she or he has it. Now I am going to show you my super learning mission, how the comic would be and what I have learnt.

- Learning mission instructions:

• First, children have to choose an animal to make a comic.
• Then, they have to look information about it (if it is vertebrate or invertebrate, what it eats, how it moves, if it is a mammal, fish, reptile, bird or amphibian, where it lives and how we can take care of its hábitat).
• When the child has the information, he/she has to make a comic with the tool StoryboardThat. (I told you about this tool on a previous post).
• Finally, each of them have to show and explain their comic to their classmates.

- Goals to be achieved:

• Be creative.
• Review animals movements, feedings and groups (viviparous/oviparous, vertebrate/invertebrate, mammal/bird/fish/reptile/amphibian).
• Know how to look for information online.
• Express himself/herself.

- Digital tool:

• StoryboardThat.

- Competences involved:

• Communication skills.
• Digital skills.
• Social and civic skills.
• Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship.
• Cultural awareness and expression.

- Collaborative Project alliegned with:

• No me cuentes historias, ¡dibújamelas!

- Comic:

Made with Storyboard That

- What have I learnt with this super learning mission?
The first thing that I have learnt is that a super learning mission is funnier than an activity or exercise, because the child is involved in the learning process and he/she has to think and be creative to make it.
The most difficult part was turn an activity or exercise into a super learning mission, I think because I am accustomed to simple activities from the book or from another site. But doing this super learning mission, has made me see that, although it is difficult for the teacher to carry it out, create it or explain it, it is an easier way for the student to learn the contents and that they look for information outside the book to learn, to explore by themselves.
That is because I encourage you to try it with your students, because it is made with an easy tool, funny for the children and for the teacher to see their comics, so I am going to use it in my future clases.


If you have any doubt or you have tried it, leave a comment. I hope you like this super learning mission and you like it.

Prototyping my Open CLIL Educational Digital Project by using different tools.

Hi everyone!

Last day, I showed you a deep analysis of an Educational Project and today, I am going to show you my Project Prototype.

First, I want to explain how I have created my Project and later, I am going to tell you some descriptions about it.

1. Creating my prototype:

First of all, I have completed a template to have a first approach to the Projet (what is my Project about, the aims, the roles of the children and the teachers, the methodology and so on). I am going to upload it for you with a new tool called Issuu. This is an online tool that allows you to upload documents and create new ones by using different formats and it is easy to use. I have taken the template from my university URJC's Aula Virtual:

This could be difficult to do because you have to think, before doing it, about your Project and the final result that you want, and also, because I want to improve children's knowledge by using games, songs and other funny activities to motivate them. On my Project, as I said before, games and songs are going to have an important role, this is because it helps them to acquire the knowledge easier and to achieve the aims. I decided to focus my Project on the "Animal kingdom".

In addition, this Project is going to follow a cross-curricular line with other subjects. The Project is for Natural Science, but there are other subjects connected like Physical Education (where they can make some exercise related with the animals), Music (where they can hear some animals' songs) or Arts and Crafts (where they can create some posters related to animals).

When I finished, I started designing a short presentation to show you my Project. I have made it with StoryboardThat, in order to show you a new interesting tool. This is an online tool so useful to make stories or comics. I have chosen it because it is more atractive for children if you explain the content with this tool, or they can use it to make their own comics.

2. Creating my prototype:

To create my prototype I have followed the next structure:

- Title.

- Students level.

- Number of sessions.

- Areas.

- Teachers' and students' roles.

- Aims.

- 4Cs of CLIL.

- Key competences.

- Skills.

- Resources.

- Setting.

- Challenges.

Here you can find my final prototype. To make it, I have use again Issuu, but with the document modified.

The Project that I have made, is for a standard class of second grade without any problem, but if we have any child with special needs, we can adapt it. We have to take into account also, the necessities and personalities of our children, to modify the content and the activities for them. I have used also visual support to make it easier to understand and more atractive for the children. You can see here a short presentation made with StoryboardThat.

Made with Storyboard That

3. Self-reflection and conclusion

What I have learnt is how to use different online and free tools to make the activities and explanations more atractive and funny for the kids. We have lots of easy new tools that we do not use, maybe because we do not know them, but from now on, I am going to use them in my lessons.

I have realised that it is not easy to design a Project because we have to take into account different elements and when you do it with the children, they can make different things that you do not expect, so you have to be prepared for everything.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I like to motivate the children to learn new things, so I consider crucial to adapt the content that we have to teach by using these new tools that are so creative and interesting, in order to make the lessons more interesting and dynamic.

If you have any doubt or you have tried it, leave a comment. I hope you like it and you find these tools useful.