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Pinning Down the Butterfly: Assessing Creativity
クリエイティブライティングの評価方法 ～創造性をどう評価するかの指針について～
Dr Jane Spiro
Saturday, November 14, 2015
30 people attended the event at Tottori University.
Dr Jane Spiro, Head of Applied Linguistics and Principal Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and a featured speaker at the National JALT conference in Shizuoka, came to Tottori and did a presentation on “Assessing Creativity.” She discussed creative writing and shared with the audience several examples of her own students’ work. Then, she had us think in detail about the question of “Can creativity be assessed and can assessment be creative? She showed examples creative writing tasks that language teachers can give their students, then share ways of assessing the writing so that the assessment is transparent, objective, and meaningful to learners. She demonstrated that assessment can be a creative opportunity (for both the learner and the teacher), and shared examples of what this means in practice for both teachers and learners. Her main principles of assessing creativity are as follows: (1) Be clear on definitions (creativity should be “making something new and unique” to teach learner), (2) Make sure to build the “making new” into the language task, (3) Be clear what the task goals are, (4) Assess based on achievement of task goals and have no hidden agenda. We learned the importance of giving students creative control over their own learning (Dr. Spiro showed examples such as the “Hole-In-The-Wall” education project in India), of allowing them opportunities for being creative in the classroom, and most importantly, we learned how to effectively and efficiently assess creative tasks in the language classroom that leads to both more motivated language students and more exciting and rewarding classes for all involved. 30 people attended this very creative and yet practical Tottori JALT presentation.
Reported by Christopher J. Hollis
Event Report on the National JALT Website can be found here
CLICK HERE to see more photos.
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An Afternoon of Educational Methods Exchange with Hiroshima JALT - 2015 October 3rd
教育方法について語ろう～JALT広島支部のみなさんとともに～
25 people attended the event at Tottori University.
CLICK HERE to see more photos.
The event consisted of two workshops, a mini-workshop, simultaneous poster sessions, and an information session, and welcomed 25 enthusiastic participants.
The event started with a workshop on Lateral Thinking by Simon Capper. He first explained what lateral thinking is and why we should use it in class. He then introduced some lateral thinking puzzles and demonstrated how to do the puzzles in class. After enjoying trying out the puzzles, the participants walked around freely, perusing the posters set up by John Herbert, Monika Szirmai, and Don Cherry. The poster sessions respectively concerned the teaching of the diversity of Englishes in the world in a Global Studies program, the use of corpus methods in language teaching, and the introduction and the display of sound color charts for in-class pronunciation practice.
After a break, the participants enjoyed a mini-workshop on the teaching of pronunciation with colored blocks by Don Cherry. This was followed by an information session where JALT SIGs, including Teaching Young Learners and Learner Development ,were introduced. The afternoon event concluded with a workshop on Content for Speaking Classes, by Jim Ronald. He talked about self-disclosure and language needs, and demonstrated how they could be incorporated into classroom activities to encourage active participation.
Reported by Wakako Takinami
To get copies of the presenters PowerPoints and Handouts from October 3, please click the following links:
* 2) LATERAL THINKING PowerPoint
* 4) Information about the PRONUNCIATION CHARTS
* 5) Information about TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS Special Interest Group
* 6) CORPUS-INFORMED LANGUAGE TEACHING poster
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A focus on classroom activities by Andrew Caldwell and Bettina Begole - July 5, 2015
27 people attended the workshop at Tottori University.
Caldwell began by explaining how he modified Dictogloss, or Grammar Dictation as it is also known, for use in his junior high classes. He explained that his students work in pairs rather than groups, and he reads the text four times: In the first reading, the students listen only; second reading, student A takes notes; third reading, student B takes notes. After the fourth and final reading he asks the students to use their notes to reconstruct the text, and after this they compare their writing with other pairs. Caldwell pointed out that to have a positive effect, Dictogloss should be done on a regular basis.
Andrew Caldwell - DICTOGLOSS Presentation (Click here)
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Begole's presentation was titled Learning activities disguised as games and she began by emphasising the importance of students having fun while they are learning. Her workshop was about activities that can be used with students who cannot yet read or write and are thus not quite ready for four-skills lessons. First, she talked about different types of bingo that can be used in the classroom, for example, telling the time. She then divided us into groups, gave each group a different game and asked us to make our own rules and plan a way to use the game in our classes. Finally, each group explained their game to the other participants and Begole gave extra information explaining how she has used each game.
For more photos of Andrew and Bettina's presentations, click here
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Tottori JALT Extensive Reading Workshop by Dr. Rob Waring - April 12, 2015
31 people attended the workshop at Tottori University.
Dr. Waring provided insight into the overrepresentation of intensive reading as a method of learning inJapanese schools, highlighting tendencies in Asian education systems of focusing more on knowledge than use of language, with little assumption that material covered will be recycled in later lessons. Waring also called attention to the inherent risks of exaggerated sense of student failure in the "teaching causes learning" paradigm. Participant discussion brought attention to the necessity of repeated exposure to chunks of language in order to make use of active vocabulary. Also explored were the benefits of extensive reading on fluency as well as improvements in vocabulary as measured on standardised tests. Waring presented a plethora of resources for incorporating extensive reading into a variety of teaching systeems.
Here are some photos from Tottori JALT’s Extensive Reading Workshop by Dr Rob Waring on April 12, 2015. It was an impressive workshop that helped all of us to get a better grasp on Extensive Reading and its importance in and out of the language learning classroom. Thank you, Dr. Rob Waring, for coming all the way from Okayama to talk to us here in Tottori prefecture. We at Tottori JALT hope you enjoy these photos.
Comments from participants:
• I knew that extensive reading was important for students to master English, but Dr Waring made it very clear how extensive reading is the essential part of English learning.
• Very informative! I got many hints for my English teaching at my senior high school.
• I learned the importance of reviewing vocabulary during class.
• It was so encouraging to hear we need a good balance between intensive and extensive reading. It was a great presentation.
• I was very impressed with Dr Waring’s expertise and really appreciate him coming and sharing his knowledge.
• I understand now that we should focus on learning, not on teaching. We always tend to teach too much.
• The forgetting curve illustrates the grim reality of how ineffective our teaching methods have been.
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