Gold+Stars

I use gold stars in my classes. They are a very important part of my assessment scheme and if I am to talk about them just now is because I think not many people use gold stars the way I do.

Each of my pupils can get as many as 100 gold stars per term. They can get gold stars for writing productions, oral productions, integrated skills (presentations), and classroom participation.

On each of these four categories, a maximum of 25 gold stars can be obtained, and we negotiate a fixed number of gold stars per type of production. A written production is worth 5 gold stars, while audio files are worth 12 and classroom presentations, 25.

Gold stars are obtained irrespective of the quality of the productions. In this way, a “neutral” approach to errors allows students to be more willing to expose their real level of English. Quality is of course assessed somewhere else, but the rules are that the total amount of gold stars a pupil gets amount to 30% of his or her final mark for that term. That means that a very weak pupil can pass if he or she has managed to submit productions, while a strong one may get a poor mark.

A gold star scheme also implies that I have to design quite a number of tasks to allow my pupils to practice what we have learned in class, so that they can reach the maximum number of gold stars. This is good for me because I have to think fast and adapt to what I perceive they need or would enjoy the most.

The idea behind is that pupils are forced to work the different language skills evenly while an environment is created where:




 * Participation and sharing are easy
 * Error is demystified
 * Different tasks are produced from different settings
 * Learners control 30% of their mark
 * Different levels of English and motivation coexist

I use this learning strategy with pupils of all ages You can see it here applied to:

fluwiki.wikispaces.com (15-16 year olds) wikicfgs1y2.wikispaces.com (VET pupils) futureprofessionals.wikispaces.com (2nd Batxillerat)

Any suggestions?