How do I measure my effectiveness?
I am going to say someting a litle different than I just read. I like everyone else’s answers, but first I want to say that we all “just know” when a student gets what they need to. We know through their classroom responses and their participation.
Due to the variety of personalities and learning styles, and the lack of time to individualize instruction as much as would be desirable, I assess student progress and my effectiveness by many methods which include:
test scores
translations
oral participation
speaking in German
writing (there WILL be more writing!)
project scores
etc.
In other words students have a multitude of ways to demonstrate to me what they know.
Some people think I am too easy. Yes, and intentionally so. I do not give students good grades if they do not earn them, but I give them lots of opportunitys to repeat, revise and do over. If a student just is not interested or if he or she gets too far behind, I discreetly help them drop my class, often with the encouragement to begin again the next year. I will also help them after school, if they demonstrate interest. It is very difficult to fail my class.
Let me think more about problem solving skills.
I do try to give students enough guidance that they are not overwhelmed, but I let them devise solutions that are creative and personal. Sometimes it is a fine line, and each student is different, and each class is different.
Too little guidance, and students produce glitter posters or drop German ( yes – this happened)
Too much – and I am the only one thinking – students learn little.
Critical thinking: Hmm – this is hard – it is 10:00 pm. I try to not just teach grammar, vocabulary, reading and learning the language. I try to include questions about why people in different cultures do things differently. How has one country’s history influenced another’s, effects of famous Germans on the world: Einstien, Beethovan, Marx, etc. [Reply
