Wiki Assignment

Wiki Assignment

When viewing an educational problem, it is always easy to assert that schools should do better. Ech individual teacher bears responsibility for this task within the subjects that they teach. Here are two additional approaches:

1. Starting in the earliest grades, help students learn to assess their own work, assess (and learn from) the work of others, to provide constructive feedback to themselves and others, and to take responsible actions based on the assessment information they get from themselves and others.

1. Provide students with private, confidential, self-administered, high quality, interactive self-assessment instruments. The Web is an excellent vehicle for this. Good quality self-assessment instruments also include good quality analysis of the results and information how to make effective use of the informative. Thus, for example, it is easy to determine one's reading speed and comprehension level through use of assessment instruments available on the Web. Some of these sites provide information about how to increase one's speed and comprehension. An alternative approach is to discuss the results with a teacher and get other types of professional advice on how to deal with performances that are not as good as one would like.

My response:

Teachers have the responsibility to assist students in learning how to self assess. Students can learn how to do this as soon as they start writing; this includes pre-writing skills. In kindergarten students draw pictures in response to questions or prompts. In first grade students can begin learning the writing process. Students learn to brainstorm for ideas. Next students state intentions of writing, focus on the subject, develop the idea, organize the information, and then check for the style and mechanics. Of course this sounds very technical for first graders however they can begin learning the process by just writing. Students can also be taught proof reader marks and how to use them. Finally, teachers need to be involved by modeling and conferencing with students. Computers have a great effect on this process. Students as early as first grade can learn to use a word processing format and proof and edit their work. Of course the teacher would need to model this activity. Word processing enables the student to manipulate the text and can they can also use the spelling and grammar checker to proof an edit material. This in itself is a powerful tool. The teacher is unable to get to each student and the computer is a great tool to assist the student in the writing process. The teacher and the student eventually proof an edit so the student can then write the final product. If students are taught to write and self assess their writing at an early age then students are learning to be critical of their own skills. This can only be beneficial for the student.