Reported by:
Ng Yi Phin JR1Z(3)
On 14th August 2021, a sharing session on multiple assessments was held as part of the Teachers’ Professional Development Day program. In this article, we are going to take a look at the Music, Physical Education, Art and Computer Departments’ sharing sessions.
Music
The Music Department’s sharing session was presented by Ms. Wong Sheau Hui, Head of the Music Department.
To start, she explained how the multiple assessment plan for her Department’s subject was formed. The Music Department first referred to the Junior Middle 1, Junior Middle 2 and Junior Middle 3 Dong Zong music textbooks. After discussing in groups about the theme and the main direction of the assessment, music teachers prepared their teaching materials according to the theme set.
Music Department Sharing Session by Ms. Wong Sheau Hui
After that, she introduced the assignments and activities held by the Music Department during last year and this year. She presented one of the assignments from last year: Chrome Music Song Maker. After a brief introduction, she introduced the main activity for this year, which was an online class singing project which is still in progress. This activity taught students about singing, recording, sound editing, PowerPoint, Google Slides, and video making basics.
Chrome Music Song Maker
She then played some examples of students’ singing, then talked about the judging criteria for students’ work in multiple assessments, individually and through groups.
After that, Ms. Wong discussed the concern about this teaching mode taking up most of the time for online classes and hence making it harder for some students to catch up. She explained that the solution to this is by giving students more time and space to solidify their basics. Another important aspect is to give students room for trial and error. Teachers will have to apply their methods according to the skills of their students for this to work. Students themselves must also find the cause of their problem and figure out a solution. After a lot of ups and downs, the task will finally be completed! Ms. Wong ended the sharing session with explaining the objectives of the class singing activity.
Our guest commentator, Principal Lee Lin Hui gave some feedback on the sharing session. She said that now, times are different. During the past, only rich people could learn music. However, music is now accessible to everyone, and everybody can make music. Students will not feel left out as they can play or create music like others do. She also praised the class singing activity as singing would normally boost someone’s mood and life quality. As a conclusion, she said that music is very important in our lives.
Main objectives of the class singing activity
Physical Education
Now, we will move on to the sharing session of the Physical Education Department. The Physical Education Department representative teacher, Mr. Lee Wei Le, started the sharing session by introducing the background behind the direction physical education classes are taking. Classes were affected by the “new normal” of attending classes, which was 4 online classes + 2 physical classes a week. The space and time available also changed the physical education classes’ way of teaching and its content. The classes also needed a balance between physical exercising classes and lecture classes.
Physical Education Department sharing session by Mr. Lee Wei Le
Next, he gave some examples of physical exercising classes and lecture classes’ content. For physical exercising classes, Boxing Dance, Tabata Workout, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), Segak classes, exercising games and other activities were included. There was also the first semester test, where students had to do the exercises prepared by the teachers and upload the videos of them doing the exercises to Google Classroom. The total marks for the test was 30 marks. As for lecture classes, there were classes about volleyball, baseball, frisbee, goalball, the Olympics, first-aid and others. There was a test on the topic taught through Google Form every 2 weeks and the total marks given was also 30 marks.
Contents and tests information for physical exercising classes and lecture classes
After that, Mr. Lee commented on students’ responses to these classes.
For lecture classes, he said the students’ performance was good. They were also very focused on their tests. These can be shown during the games played in class. He also explained that due to having the same courses, every class is keeping up at the same speed. The multiple assessment activity also has not been taking too much time out of regular classes. As a conclusion to the sharing session, the present multiple assessment is helping teachers understand the learning progress and physical fitness of the students. Meanwhile, students can boost their knowledge on the sports sector. In short, this multiple assessment can help to solve multiple problems faced and the Physical Education Department hopes that they will still be able to use it in the future online classes.
Principal Lee gave some feedback for the sharing session. She said that the physical exercise activities and lecture activities balance are good as they can keep students healthy and at the same time, increase their knowledge on sports. She also introduced the physical education lessons process in Taiwan which included the students’ homework that they have to complete with their parents to bond with each other and keep healthy together.
Art
The Art Department’s sharing session was conducted by Ms. Ong Sook Wan. First, she also explained three types of assessments frequently used, which included Formative Assessment, Summative Assessment and Performance-based Assessment. The Formative Assessment would help to make sure that the students really understood what they had been taught. After the introduction of Formative Assessment, she played a video about a unique painter who draws with both of his hands and explained that teachers would normally play interesting videos like this related to the topic to pique the students’ interests.
Formative Assessment used by the Arts Department
Video example
After the video, she showed a competition-like game designed for students which is related to the course. Ms. Ong stated that students seem to be more interested in games related to the topic being taught; matching games in particular. The Arts Department will also collaborate with the Music Department in order to give students a deeper impression and understanding of the lesson taught.
As for the Performance-based Assessment, the Arts Department has still been referring to other ideas and the assessment is still in the making.
As a feedback, Principal Lee Hui Lin said that through the classroom games, students get to increase their knowledge on different types of paintings and art periods such as the Renaissance Era. It will also teach the students to be more appreciative.
Matching game prepared by Ms. Ong
Performance-based Assessment Ideas
Computer Studies
Lastly, Mr. Chong Sau Hor was in charge of the Computer Department sharing session. He first started by stating that at the beginning of the online lessons, computer teachers faced a tremendous problem and had quite a lot of pressure. As the pandemic changed everybody’s lives, computer classes had to change from physical classes in the computer lab to virtual classes. They were afraid that students would not be able to understand and keep up with their teachers as their teachers could not see them as they usually could in the computer lab at school. However, after some time, teachers found out that online computer classes actually have a huge advantage – students could share their screens if they face problems! Therefore, teachers would be able to understand their students’ problems better and guide them.
Computer Department Sharing Session by Mr. Chong Sau Hor
Mr. Chong furthered on to explain the Computer Department’s objectives for the computer classes – making sure students have the eight important main skills, which are: a positive attitude, the courage to face failure, self-protection, the courage to dream, good communication skills, the ability to using sources in a correct way, better self-knowledge, and learning to be grateful and tolerant. After that, he talked about the main points to focus on for Junior and Senior students’ computer classes.
Main points to focus on for Junior and Senior students’ computer classes
Next, he explained the teaching content, teaching method and marks distribution for classes of each form, along with the reasoning for it. The same plan will be used for the Junior Middle 1, 2 and 3 online computer classes, whereas for Senior Middle 1 students, the Computer Department will use more apps to make sure it is related to the plan and enhance their experience. Other different activities will also be held for different forms.
He continued by answering the question of whether the assessments would improve the students’ understanding of the subject and improve their skills. As for the problem of the multiple assessment activity taking up most of the computer classes’ time, most of the students have not had an issue with it because they are able to keep up.
Lastly, he introduced the collaboration between the Computer, Arts, Physics and Music Department. However, the activity cannot be implemented this year due to the current pandemic. The Computer Department hopes that they will be able to do it next year or as soon as possible.
The feedback given by Principal Lee Hui Lin was that maybe teachers can try to let students incorporate their computer skills in other subjects to complete projects using the skills students have learnt.
Collaboration between the Computer, Arts, Physics and Music Department