Oppressed

I liked reading Freire's article about oppression. I felt that it helped point out things that all teachers should be aware of when working with students because you will have some students who are being or feel oppressed. It is important to be aware of this so you can know how to approach teaching. Letting the students know their voice is worth being heard no matter who they are is very important. Sometimes oppression is something we just forget about or that goes to the back of our mind because we are not the ones being oppressed. After reading this, it helped me remember that it is a big issue and something that we should not just put on the back of our mind. There are some things we may not be able to ever make fair when it comes to money and schooling, but what we can do as teachers is allow our students to not feel oppressed in our classroom and give them a voice.

Assessment

Reading both Kuma chapter 13 and the Assessment article, lots of the information reminded me of things we have talked about and learned in our ENG 345 class which is about assessment in TESOL. The article I felt seemed to make it clear that authentic forms of assessment are necessary. This means having oral presentations, portfolios, writing assignments, discussions, observation as a form of assessing as opposed to multiple choice tests, fill in the blank tests, etc. We have been saying the same thing in my other class. It seems that students get more out of authentic assessment and it does a better job of assessing the student.

The Kuma chapter, discusses observing and assessing observations. This in it self is an authentic form of assessment. I felt Kuma discussed the importance of observation quite well. I really liked the M & M scheme and all of the ten steps for assessing observations. I have been doing my 100 observations for TESOL in an ESL classroom, reading this chapter has helped me think about things a bit differently. I almost wishes I had read this chapter before I started my observations.