Blogging in exams
Posted by shanetechteach on August 13, 2009
I have an idea, an idea that has consolidated after a great little chat with valued members of my PLN. Currently, my year 12 Health class is in a unit that has an exam essay as the designated assessment genre. The conditions of the exam must include an unseen stimulus. What this has traditionally meant was the teacher develops a stimulus, stimulus is distributed to students on exam day, students write a response. Its time to bring this into the digital (real) world.
My plan is to teach my students the value of blogging, and commenting on blogs to generate conversation. There will still be an initial stimulus distributed, students will still need to respond. But the similarities with the traditional exam essay end there. The students’ initial response will be a blog post. During the unit they will be encouraged to develop (monitored) online relationships with existing bloggers. They will be encouraged to invite specific bloggers to comment on their blog. To me, this is the ultimate in unseen stimulus. No one could predict what comments or questions could be offered.
This exam would run for a period of time, at this point I think at least one week. Students would be required to continue blogging in response to the questions and comments offered. They will need to support their opinion with evidence, however aligning with the genre hyperlinks will be acceptable.
There is a potential problem if some students do not generate much traffic to their exam blogs. This becomes a management issue for me. I’ve got some people who are willing to comment so I know I can draw on those if required. At worst, I can be the commenter.
The kids seem pretty excited about the idea, and blogging has begun in earnest.
