** EDIT ** I have uploaded 200 of my favorite pictures to my gallery. Check it out! Leave a comment, what do YOU think?
I just recently finished with the finals week from the 1st semester! It was incredibly time-consuming and difficult, however, very interesting to experience this 'week-from-hell' from the teachers point of view. I now know that the university is INCREDIBLY particular in how they want their final exams formatted - To the extent that the ink MUST be red, the left side of the paper must show the point awarded (+2) , while the right side shows the points deducted (-2) But since I didn't ask prior to giving the exam, they are stuck with my version until next semester. I figure its better to give an interesting, useful, and unique final exam and apologize after the fact, than to ask for permission and be told no.
For the final speaking exam, I divided each of my classes in to teams of 5 students. Each team had at least 1 digital camera. (Some of you know where this is going!) I then gave them a list of vocabulary terms, slang phrases, idioms, proverbs, and other points of interest... things I had taught over the course of the semester. They were to take a creative picture of each... the picture needed to portray the vocabulary term or phrase. Then I assigned each team to create a PPT and present their pictures to the class. In this way, I would be testing their speaking ability as well as their understanding of the vocabulary terms.
I gave them complete freedom in creating their presentation. They could act, create videos, use photoshop, use props, anything they wanted! The most important thing to me was that they proved they understood the vocabulary. This result, understanding of the material, is the same result as their boring, standardized tests. The difference (I hope) is that with this format, the experience helps the students retain some of their knowledge. In China where most university courses are lecture based, (and the final exam is worth 70% of the grade) the typical student crams a lot of information into their short-term memory, regurgitates it on the test, and promptly forgets it the very next day.
The results were AMAZING! It completely validated all the hard work I have done here, all of the long long hours preparing curriculum, lectures, teaching, correcting, reviewing.... I am so proud of my students.
Most of the vocabulary terms on the test will seem random for the uninformed reader. However, we had many classroom discussions, movies, and lectures that connected all of these seemingly random vocabulary topics into a coherent semester.
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