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. 

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. 

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

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: 

Task about Global English (in accordance with the new competence aims) / Oppgave om global engelsk (i samsvar med den nye læreplan i engelsk)

Here is a task that fulfills the following competence aims. Assessment criteria are included:

1 1) to discuss the growth of the English language as a universal world language 

 2)   write different types of texts with good writing structure and coherence that are adapted to a specific purpose and situation.

 3)   use standard forms of grammatical structures, spellings, conjugation patterns, varied sentence structure and varied cohesive devices.

4)   assess various sources and use content from these sources independently, critically and in a way that the content can be verified.

The above aims have been translated to English by me from the Norwegian version since Udir has still to upload the English version of the new curriculum. 

Her er en oppgave som oppfyller følgende kompetansemål. Vurderingskriterier er inkludert: 

   1)  drøfte framveksten av engelsk som et verdensspråk

·         2) skrive ulike typer tekster med struktur og sammenheng, tilpasset formål og situasjon

·         3) bruke mønstre for rettskriving, ordbøying og variert setnings- og tekstbygging i produksjon av tekst

·         4) vurdere forskjellige kilder og bruke innhold fra kildene på en selvstendig, kritisk og etterprøvbar måte

Assessment Form, Task and Assessment Criteria for a Short Story about Indigenous Peoples / Vurderingsskjema samt Oppgave og Kriterier til en Novelle om Urfolk

Elevene våre på Studisepesialiserende Vg1 har skrevet en novelle om urfolk.
Her finner dere oppgaven samt kriteriene og her finner dere vurderingskjema. Kriteriene for innholdet er laget i samarbeid med mine kollegaer Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug og Linn Therese Jostem. Her finner dere et annent skjema med vurderingskriterier som jeg utviklet tidligere om å skrive en novelle som ikke har med urfolk å gjøre.

Pupils taking general studies at my school have been writing a short story about the Indigenous Peoples. Here is a document where you will find the task along with the assessment criteria. Here is the assessment form we used to correct the short stories. The assessment criteria for the content of the task have been developed with critical input from my colleagues Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug og Linn Therese Jostem. Here you can see another form with assessment criteria which I had developed earlier and which can be used for writing any kind of short story. 

The Victorian Period/The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde/Oral Conversations

My students just had an oral conversation with me about the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the Victorian Period. These conversations give me a real good insight into what they have learnt. Here is the task and here is the handout they got in order to work with this task.