Saturday, 30 May 2020

Unit 3: Corrective Feedback and Assessment in Writing



I found this to be a very interesting unit. I know that many of us say we want corrective feedback but then when we get it we can respond less receptively than we should. For assignment 3 we needed to share our work with an experienced ESL teacher. This was a task that caused me some anxiety. I have been a teacher for many years but this was the first time in quite awhile that I have had to show someone my work for a critique. It turned out to be a great experience. The teacher I shared my lesson with offered some great ideas for improvements or changes that would work for my lesson. She validated the approach that I used and encouraged me to continue on the same path. She was specific in what she was referring to when she was giving her feedback. This is so true for our students as well. Too often teachers fall into the trap of saying 'great job' or 'needs work' or even just assigning a grade without corrective feedback. I believe that all students want to improve and do their best work. The only way they can do that is if we offer them tangible feedback paired with re-teaching if necessary and the opportunity to practice.
Something that I have been trying to do for my own professional learning, is to locate articles or theses that have genuine input from second language learners. This unit I found a thesis by Anna Deptola on language learners' preferences. Although it was a small scale study (9 students) the general consensus was that students wanted corrective feedback, specifically in the areas of grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and word choice. (Which is pretty much everything you need for language study!)

I also spent some time reflecting on the types of corrective feedback and made a chart which I have included under Unit 3 in my course tab.







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