View Content #25111

From https://senorfernie.wordpress.com/

Albert Fernandez has written an honest, insightful two-part reflection on assessment, the complexity of natural language, and a teacher's tendency to micromanage students' learning. 

In Part 1, he concludes, "Micromanaging students has a detrimental effect on my students’ language acquisition and production. A hands-off approach with an appropriately leveled assignment paints a truer picture of the students’ abilities and proficiency." Read the post here: https://senorfernie.wordpress.com/2018/05/10/editing-final-projects-an-exercise-in-giving-up-micromanagement-part-1/

In Part 2, he expands: "The way I like to explain this to my students is to tell them that there are as many correct ways to say something as there are people to say it. I might communicate a message in one way, with one certain set of words in English or in Spanish and someone else can say the exact same thing with completely different words but the meaning can be exactly the same.

"But where math and science and grammar have a correct answer to every question (most of the time), language has infinite correct answers. There is no one way to say anything. There is no “wrong” if I can understand the message that the other person is trying to communicate.

"Because of all this, I can allow my students the freedom to use the TL they have in their heads to write or speak and edit themselves. I don’t have to have the kids say something in exactly the same way that I say it for it to be valid." Read Part 2 at https://senorfernie.wordpress.com/2018/05/13/micromanaging-the-class-part-2-am-i-getting-in-the-way-of-student-communication/