mandag 8. desember 2014

Discussing accents

Here are three videos I show my pupils when we disuss different accents. Enjoy! / Her er noen morsomme videoer jeg viser til elevene når vi diskuterer forskjellige aksenter. Enjoy!

1) Video 1: Pink Panther going to America




Skriftlig vurderingskriterier / Written Assessment Criteria

Here are general written criteria that can be used for almost all written articles and essays. 

torsdag 27. november 2014

An example of a well structured argumentative text with teacher comments

Here is an example of a well written argumentative text with teacher comments. 
I have also included an excercise for pupils to work with and a checklist of how to structure paragraphs for argumentative texts.
Here is a power point discussing how to write argumentative texts.
Here are criteria that can be used for assessing argumentative texts.

søndag 19. oktober 2014

Hvordan kan vi spore endringer i en tekst.

Det er lettere selvsagt for elevene å se at lærere har gjort endringer i en elevtekst når det en lærer har skrevet står i en annen farge. Mange lærere bytter farge på skriften hver gang de skriver noe i en elevtekst. Det kan være ganske tungvint, men fret not, det finnes en snarvei. Du kan nemlig spore endringer i tekster. Jeg har erfart at det er ikke så mange som vet om denne funksjonen, så her kommer oppskriften. Lykke til. 


mandag 13. oktober 2014

The Kite Runner - Discussion Questions

My students are reading The Kite Runner. They will shortly have a conversation with me about the book. Here are the discussion questions for the task and the criteria. 

mandag 21. april 2014

Argumentative task, assessment- criteria and form / Oppgave om en argumenterende tekst, vurderingskriterier og vurderingsskjema

Here is a task that can be used to write an argumentative text about The Civil Rights Movement. The assessment criteria are included in the task.

To work with this task, the students taking general studies (studiespesialiserende), worked with the theme the Civil Rights Movement. Here is an action plan that shows what the learners were expected to learn about this theme and the texts that were of interest.
Here is a power point I used to teach about argumentative texts and how to develop thesis statements.

To make sure that the learners understood how to argue, we worked with the theme: Should gun ownership be legal? The learners wrote down both pro and cons and then had to work with this draft here. It was made very clear to the learners that the paragraph structure that is written in the draft is just ONE way of writing a discussion paragraph for an argumentative text. Another way could be that after the introduction, the learners present all the pro arguments in the first part of the text, and then present the arguments against their point of view/thesis statement in the next part. Then, the learners would have to write another discussion paragraph which shows why they feel that their point of view is better followed by a conclusion of course.

Before the learners turned in their texts, they had to go through this self-evaluation checklist

Here is an assessment form that can be used to give assessment. Before I use this form, I write comments in the text using "se gjennom/view" and then "spor endringer/track changes". I also mark some grammatical errors (NOT ALL) using macros

tirsdag 18. mars 2014

Argumentative texts vs. Persuasive texts / Argumenterende tekster / Thesis Statement

Here's a power point that explains the difference between an argumentative text and a persuasive text. I have also explained the characteristics of good thesis statements for argumentative texts. 

Her er en powerpoint som viser forskjeller mellom en argumenterende og en persuasive tekst. Jeg har også forklart hvordan vi kan skriver gode "påstander" eller "thesis statements" når vi skriver argumenterende tekster. 

søndag 9. mars 2014

Videoretting / Screencasting / Video Feedback - How to Use Screencasting to Give Feedback to Learners

Videoretting bruker et program som tar opp aktivitetene på en dataskjerm. Skjerm-og lyd opptak brukes for å gi tilbakemelding på elevtekster. Jeg bruker programmet Screencast-O-Matic som er gratis og kan lastes ned her
Jeg begynner med å skriver ned noen punkt som jeg har tenkt å gi tilbakemelding på (som kladd til meg selv). Jeg pleier også å utheve deler jeg har lyst å kommentere slik at jeg ikke glemmer noe. Jeg bruker automatiserte merknader eller makroer jeg har laget til å påpeke grammatiske feil i teksten. Makroene kan lastes ned her. Jeg vil gjerne presisere at jeg markerer ikke alle feilene. Jeg bruker også å spore endringer i word slik at det jeg skriver i elevteksten vises i en annen farge. 
Etter dette begynner jeg å gi kommentarer på teskter. Elevene hører meg snakke, men de ser ikke meg. De ser sin egen tekst på skjermen og ser meg gjøre endringer på den. Det jeg skriver i teksten blir tatt opp og når jeg peker med musen til deler i teksten ser det ut som en gul ring på teksten. Det er lett å stoppe videoen underveis og skrive over deler man ikke er fornøyd med.
Disse videoene laster jeg opp på Screencast-O-Matic sin nettside og lager en passord til tekstene. Elevene får lenke til sine videorettete oppgave samt passordet på It's Learning. Jeg laster også opp filen der jeg har skrevet merknader på ITL.
Man kan også velge å laste opp filene på You Tube. En annen mulighet er å lagre filene på pc-en slik at elevene kan overføre til sin pc med minnepinne.
Tilbakemeldinger jeg gir er utarbeidet utifra anbefalinger fra Hattie and Timperley (2007) i artikkelen The Power of Feedback. Disse prinsippene er følgende:
Feed up (klargjøring av målet) 
Feed back (hvordan står eleven i forhold til målet, hvordan har eleven prestert til nå) 
Feed forward (hva trenger eleven å gjøre for å komme seg videre)
Her er et eksempel av en elevtekst jeg har rettet. Videoen er publisert etter tillatelse fra eleven. 


Video feedback basically uses a screen capture program which records the screen of a computer as if you have a video pointed at it. Screencast-O-Matic digitally records activities on a computer screen and is accompanied by an audio narration. It is available free online and can be easily downloaded to a computer from here
The preliminary work involves reading the learner text (which needs to be submitted digitally), and making a few notes or highlighting a few parts in the text, so as to remember what to comment on later. Then, a voice over narration is added where in-depth comments about the learners’ tasks are made. The video can be paused anytime and it is possible to write over the whole video or certain portions if necessary.
In addition to commenting on the text as a whole, I usually use Macros to point out language errors and also use track changes feature in Word to write my comments within the text. You can download my macros here. I promise you it will make your life so much easier as a teacher. And no, I do not point out all kinds of errors or all errors learners make. I point out a few and then talk about them and try to explain the grammatical rule quickly in the video.
The digital file can then either be: 1) published on theScreencast-O-Matic’s website and the pupil given access to this link (You can add a passwod), 2) published on You Tube in a closed account, or 3) saved on to teacher’s computer as a video file to be transferred to learners’ computers using a memory stick. 
When I give feedback to the pupils, I keep in mind Hattie and Timperley's recommendations for effective feedback as outlined in The Power of Feedback (2007). They propose that in order to provide effective feedback the teachers need to point out the:
1) the learners’ goals or the notion of feed up 
2) progress being made towards the goal or feed back and 
3) What the learner needs to do next or feed forward.
Here is a sample of an essay which I assessed using video feedback. It has been published with the student's permission.




Hattie John and Helen Timperley (2007), The Power of Feedback, Review of Educational Research. Retreived from  <http://education.qld.gov.au/staff/development/performance/resources/readings/power-feedback.pdf> Last accessed 10.03.2014

tirsdag 4. mars 2014

Creating a News Broadcast Digitally: Group task

Her kommer en oppgave som vurderer kommunikativ og digital kompetanse for elevene på Vg1. Elevene lager en nyhetssending som de leverer som en video. Vurderingskriterier er også inkludert i oppgaven. Takk til Ingrid Vik, Marthe Steigler, Viktoria Glomnes og Rosy Arnesen for at jeg fikk lov å dele videoen deres slik at andre kan se hvordan de løste oppgaven. Jeg takker også min tidligere kollege Anne Marit Nielsen som delte idéen til oppgaven med kollegaen Richard Minde, som videre delte idéen med meg. En stor takk til Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug for samarbeidet med å utvikle vurderingskriterier til oppgaven.  
Oppgaven har absolutt overføringsverdi og kan lett brukes i andre språkfag både på Vg1, Vg2 og Vg3. Du kan se videoen her:  
Here is brilliant task which assesses the communicative and digital competence of the learners of the English Language. Learners create a news broadcast which they hand in as a video file. The assessment criteria are also included in the document. I also have the permission of four of my students to upload their work/video as a sample video that shows how they answered this task. Thank you Ingrid Vik, Marthe Steigler, Viktoria Glomnes and Rosy Arnesen. I must also thank my colleague Anne Marit Nielsen who shared this task with another colleague Richard Minde who further shared it with me. And a big shout out to Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug for her input in developing the assessment criteria. You can see the video here: