2012/02/23

Design your own CV - the autonomous learner

This week I have been commenting and creating tasks for our new project blog: Fabulous Futures. Task 1 (personality tests and education webquests) is on-going and I have introduced the assessment rubric to my students. I have to be careful to also implement the rubric in my own comments as an example to the students. I think the groundwork that I have done on the rubric plays a key part in establishing learner autonomy.

The first task worked well and the students seemed to enjoy it. However, I need to create polls to assess their responses to each task (what they learned, what they liked/disliked). One spontaneous comment from a student was, "Wow, Ms Leino, did you do all this yourself?"

This week, I will be posting Task 2: Design your own CV and next week I will introduce it to my students. Unfortunately, I have noticed that the template that I chose for our blog does not publicly show who wrote which blog post so I have to make sure to remind students to publish their names underneath each post. I don't want to switch templates at the point because it is otherwise visually clean and beautifully minimalistic.

Templates, appearance and layouts are an important part in next week's task. I have never had students create their own blogs, I have always shared one with my students. Sharing a blog gives me ultimate control over visual appearance and content, which I like. However, a CV is more personal and should represent the job seeker stylistically. Student autonomy is an important motivator, but I am also afraid that students will end up publishing something they will later regret online. In order to prevent this I have to be very careful about the instructions and stress copyrights and self-censorship. I want the digital online CVs to be something they can ACTUALLY use in the future.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Anna:
    Just drop in to say hi and more importantly to have a view over your blog. Creating rubrics is one of the crucial parts in making learner autonomy happen in the classroom because setting up rubrics so that our students can have a clear picture of what specific qualities they should focus their performance or tasks on. Though, creating rubrics is still something I need to forge and practice as a “habit”. Apparently, your students are awed by your blog and so am I. What’s even better, the students are very likely to be motivated because they love to create a blog like yours and thus gain a sense of achievement when the task is done. Good luck on your project. I’d better start implementing mine as soon as possible. Forgive my “ignorance”, but what is CV?
    Since you accidentally "bumped" into my blog, leaving a message there, I have one question about the A&B cards you mentioned. What are they and how are they used or where can I look up for more info about the A&B cards? I especially love the ideas of leaving the written grammar exercises as the students’ homework. In that way, more time can be spent having the students do oral practice on the target grammar in class. Speaking and listening are what my students lack because of the tight schedules. What a great change I can have!
    I know how busy we all will be during the last three weeks, but I do hope to get a chance to know you more and learn from your experiences when the course comes to an end. :P
    With best regards
    Gladys

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    Replies
    1. Hello Anna,

      I think a rubric gives significant meanings to students, too. A rubric makes our requirements clear to students. Clear objectives would encourage students to get good grades. It leads them to be autonomous learners.

      Kaori

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    2. Hey Gladys,

      CV = curriculum vitae, it's Latin for "life story" and you make one when you apply for a job. It is usually one page and includes your previous work experience, degrees, hobbies etc.

      I also need to refine rubrics for different tasks and teach my students to use them. For my project, I am testing one, but I hope to make rubrics a common practice when teaching.

      A&B cards are handed out to students. Both have sentences on them for translating or for acting out. A starts. On card A, there can be a sentence in Finnish for the student to translate (maybe a specific kind of grammatical structure or just vocabulary). A translates as best she can out loud. B has the correct answer on his card so he can "teach " A if she gets the answer wrong. Then B translates his sentence and once again A can see the correct answer on her card. This way it becomes a dialogue and the students teach each other. Here is a demonstration in Spanish since no one understands Finnish :)

      A: Hola B: Hi!
      A: Hi. How's it going? B: Hola. Que tal?
      A: Muy bien, gracias. B: Very well, thank you.

      And so on...

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