Assignment: Reflection about newspaper article; establish email contact with instructor(s)

last modified: 4/2/13

Purposes: Major: Encourage thought about the complexities of assessment and its stakes and stakeholders. Minor: Confirm reliable two-way email communication and document transmittal

Product: A two-part expression of thoughts and feelings, including some knowledge (and possibly also expression of lack of and need for knowledge). Length: up to 2 pages; difficult to do in less than 1 page (1 page = 250 words). Format: Text file (.txt, .doc, .docx, or .rtf) attached to email.

Evaluation: The following link is to the scoring guide for this assignment. If you read the scoring guide before you complete your assignment, you will know exactly what to do to get the score and grade you want.

Procedure:

Read this assignment COMPLETELY before you begin your reflection. Since it is the first assignment of the course, it lays out some important policy considerations.

BEFORE you read the article linked below, think about a significant period of classroom learning in your education, which then resulted in a significant test of that learning. The subject area does not have to be language courses. Then - still BEFORE you read that article - write about half a page in which you briefly describe the learning and testing circumstances (what, when, where, how), and then consider more subjective matters related to the assessment situation, such as: Why that kind of test? Was it appropriate? Did you understand why you were being taught and assessed that way? How have your later life experience, education, professional development affected your view of that earlier learning and assessment experience?

Now read the article, and then revisit your first reflections. Here are some guidelines that you might follow, but if you have a better idea, go with it: 1) If the article increased your understanding of that old learning/ assessment experience, explain how. If it did not, tell what you need to know in order to improve your understanding, or else why you already had a sufficient understanding of the past situation. 2) Offer a few thoughts about how the Washington math teaching and testing situation relates to your world of language learning and teaching.

About the language you write: English is preferred; if that is your native language, use it. If English is not your native language, you may use any of the following without further consideration: Spanish, French, or German. For other languages: let's discuss.

EMAIL this assignment to the instructor. Do NOT write or print it out and hand it in. Use the address that you want your instructor to use to contact you during this course. If you do not have your own internet provider and email service, you should get PSU internet and email access (“Odin”) right away (<www.account.pdx.edu>), or arrange some other email and internet service.

Problems? If you do not understand the terms of this assignment, or for some other reason encounter some obstacle in carrying it out, contact the course instructors. Such contact, at least until the process is abused, will count as "on-time" completion of the activity.

A note about setting up your own email:

Many people have incorrectly constructed email e-addresscards. When someone auto-adds them to an addressbook, the new listing shows up just as [e-nickname]@xxx.yyy. Of course that's your email, but it appears in the field where your human name should show. The results: Your name is alphabetized by your nickname, rather than by last name. If your e-nickname is much different from your human name it's hard for people to know who you are when they're going through what may be hundreds of names. The problem is even worse if someone uses a colorful but very different name, such as - true stories from a couple years back, and probably not a good idea in an academic setting - "honeygirl" or "whoflungpoo")

If you're not sure what this means, try sending yourself an email and then auto-adding yourself to your addressbook.