JOURNAL AS PART OF AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT

Journals

Today, journals occupy a prominent role in a pedagogical model that stresses the importance of self-reflection in the process of students taking control of their own destiny. A journal is a log (or “account”) of one’s thoughts, feelings, reactions, assessments, ideas, or progress toward goals, usually written with little attention to structure, form, or correctness.

Models of journals use in educational practice have sought to tighten up this style of journal in order to give them some focus (Staton at al., 1987). The result is the emergence of a number of categories or purposes in journal writing, such as the following:

·      Language-learning logs

In English language teaching, learning logs have the advantages of sensitizing students to the importance of setting their own goals and then self-monitoring their achievement.

·      Grammar journals

These types of journals are especially appropriate for courses and workshops that focus on grammar.

·      Responses to readings

These journals have the specified purpose of simple responses to readings (and/or to other material such as lectures, presentations, films, and videos).

·      Strategies-based learning logs

The specialized journals that focus on strategies that learners are seeking to become aware of and to use in their acquisition process and are closely allied to language-learning logs. 

·      Self-assessment reflections

With the possibility of a few stimulus questions, students’ journals can extend beyond the scope of simple one-word or one-sentence responses.

·      Diaries of attitudes, feelings, and other affective factors

The affective states of learners are important element of self-understanding.

·      Acculturation logs  

Because culture and language are so strongly linked, awareness of the symptoms of acculturation stages can provide keys to eventual language success.

Most classroom-oriented journals are what have now come to be known as dialog journals. They imply an interaction between a reader (the teacher) and the students through dialogues or responses. Journals obviously serve important pedagogical purposes: practice in the mechanics of writing, using writing as a “thinking” process, individualization, and communication with the teacher.

It is important to turn the advantages and potential drawbacks of journals into positive journals into positive general steps and guideline for using journals as assessment instruments as follows:

·      Sensitively introduce students to the concept of journal writing.

Show the students examples of journal entries and give specific topics and schedules for writing in order to make them comfortable with the process.

·      State the objective(s) of the journal.

Integrate journal writing into the objectives of the curriculum in some way, especially if journal entries become topics of class discussion.

·      Give guidelines on what kinds of topics to include.

Give clear guidelines to ease the students in including the topics into their journals.

·      Carefully specify the criteria for assessing or grading journals.

Let the students know what kinds of criteria that will be used to assess their journals. Furthermore, maintain reliability by adhering conscientiously to the criteria that you have set up.

·      Provide optimal feedback in your responses.

McNamara (1998, p.39) recommended three different kinds of feedback to journals:

§  Cheerleading feedback, in which you celebrate successes with the students or encourage them to preserve through difficulties.

§  Instructional feedback, in which you suggest strategies or materials, suggest ways to fine-tune strategy use, or instruct students to their writing.

§  Reality-check feedback, in which you help the students to set more realistic expectations for their language abilities.

·      Designate appropriate time frames and schedules for review.

It is essential to budget enough time within a curriculum for both writing journals and for your written responses. Therefore, set schedules for submitting journal entries periodically, return them in short order.

·      Provide formative, washback-giving comments.

Journals are the most formative of all the alternatives in assessment. They are day-by-day (or at least weekly) chronicles of progress whose purpose is to provide a thread of continuous assessment and reassessment, to recognize mid-stream direction changes, and or to refocus on goals. Therefore, it is might be better for giving credit for the process of actually writing the journal, and possibly a distinction might be made among high, moderate, and low effort or quality. But to accomplish the goal of positive feedback, narrative summary comments and suggestions are clearly in order.   

2004 CURRICULUM

Background

·         Goverment wanted to improve the national education system to create a society which is able to compete and adapt with the development of era.

·         Goverment wanted to concern not only in the aspect of academic competence but also in moral aspect as well as art, and sport.

Guideline

·         The forth change of UUD 1945 paragraph 31 about education

·         TAP MPR No. IV/MPR tahun 1999

·         UU No. 22 tahun 1999

·         PP No 25 tahun 2000

·         GBHN tahun 1999

Basic Principle

The basic principle of KBK is communicative competence model, which was presented by Celce-Murcia, Dornyei, and Thurrell (1995). In this principle, language is a communication tool so that the language model constructed is a model which prepares students to communicate by using language and participate in the society in which the language is used.

Elements of Communicative Competence Model:

a.       Discourse Competence

a Spoken and written communicative competence

b.      Linguistics Competence

a Competence to use grammar, vocabularies, pronunciation, punctuation, etc.

c.       Socio-Cultural Competence

a Competence to select the appropriate deployment of linguistic resources.

d.      Actional Competence

a Competence of carrying out/understanding communicative intent by performing and interpreting speech acts and speech events

e.       Strategic Competence

a Competence in communication breakdown

Curriculum 2004 of English Instruction for SMP

A. Name of Curriculum	Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi
B. Target	To be able to use English to communicate oral and written fluently and accurately based on social context.
C. Objective	Developing the communicative competence in that language focusing on oral and written competence. The competence covers listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Encourage the essence and the important of English as one of the foreign languages that can be used as learning equipment. Developing the understanding about interrelationship between language and culture and also broadening the culture firmament. So that the students have the concept of cross culture understanding and involved in the cultural variety.
D. Sequence of Skill	Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing
E. Actional Competence	Listening Comprehend various meaning (interpersonal, ideational, textual) in various oral instructional texts and monologue especially in form  descriptive, narrative, spoof/recount, procedure, report, and anecdote.
	Speaking Express various meaning (interpersonal, ideational, textual) in various oral instructional texts and monologue especially in form descriptive, narrative, spoof/recount, procedure, report, and anecdote.
	Reading Comprehend various meaning (interpersonal, ideational, textual) in various oral instructional texts and monologue especially in form  descriptive, narrative, spoof/recount, procedure, report, and anecdote
	Writing Express various meaning (interpersonal, ideational, textual) in various oral instructional texts and monologue especially in form descriptive, narrative, spoof/recount, procedure, report, and anecdote.
F. Discourse Competence	This competence refers to the ability of applying some devices to produce a well-organized text. Devices: Coherence, Cohesive, structure, genre, Contextual.
G. Linguistic Competence	This competence refers to the ability of applying grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling appropriately.
H. Socio cultural Competence	This competence refers to the ability to deliver message correctly and appropriately based on the socio cultural context related to the communicative activity.
I. Strategy Competence	This competence refers to the ability and skill to apply various strategies in communication.
J. Material	Thematic, Text type: Descriptive, Narrative, spoof/ recount, procedure, report, and anecdote.
K. Method	Teachers are able to use any kinds of methods.

Curriculum 2004 of English Instruction for SMA

A.    Name of Curriculum	:  Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi (KBK)
B.     Target	:  The SMA graduates are expected to be able to access any information in the target language.
C.     SMA Divisions	:   IPA (science)     IPS  (social)     Bahasa (Language)
D.    Objective	: 1.  Developing the students’ ability to communicate in both passively and actively. 2.  Make the students realize that English is one of the most important foreign language in academic field 3.  Developing the students’ understanding between language and culture. 4. To achieve the competence of the target language.
E.     Sequence of skills	:   listening à speaking à reading à writing
F.          - Standard Competence/ Actional Competence -          Linguistic Competence -          Socio-Cultural Competence -          Strategic Competence -          Discourse Competence	:  1.  Listening         Understanding interpersonal, ideational, and textual meaning in interactional text and monologue in form of descriptive, narrative, spoof/recount, procedure, report, news item, anecdote, analytic exposition, hortatory exposition, explanation, discussion, commentary, and review. 2.  Speaking         Express interpersonal, ideational, and textual meaning in interactional text and monologue in form of descriptive, narrative, spoof/recount, procedure, report, news item, anecdote, analytic exposition, hortatory exposition, explanation, discussion, commentary, and review. 3.  Reading Understanding  interpersonal, ideational, and textual meaning in interactional text and monologue in form of descriptive, narrative, spoof/recount, procedure, report, news item, anecdote, analytic exposition, hortatory exposition, explanation, discussion, commentary, and review. 4.  Writing Express interpersonal, ideational, and textual meaning in interactional text and monologue in form of descriptive, narrative, spoof/recount, procedure, report, news item, anecdote, analytic exposition, hortatory exposition, explanation, discussion, commentary, and review. The ability to use grammar, vocabulary, intonation, pronunciation, punctuation, etc. The ability to use English in social- cultural context. Communication breakdown The ability to use English in both oral and written communicatively.
G.    Material	:    Communicative text types in form of descriptive, narrative, spoof/recount, procedure, report, news item, anecdote, analytic exposition, hortatory exposition, explanation, discussion, commentary, and review.
H.    Addition Material for Program Bahasa	:    In this program, students are introduced to the literature products. Students have to be able to make Reader Response, students can develop competence to respond the literature product and use the language esthetic.
I.       Method	:    Student Centered Learning Activities: small group discussion, Simulasi/Demonstrasi,  Discovery Learning, Cooperative Learning, Contextual Instruction, Project-Based Learning, Problem-Based Learning/Inquiry.

Obstacle of KBK

Lack of socialization to the education practitioners so that the teachers cannot implement KBK appropriately.

Groups Comments

In our opinion, Competence-Based Curriculum is a good government’s effort to improve the education in Indonesia. Government wants to change the education system from the teacher-centered to the students-centered method. By implementing KBK, the students are expected to be more creative and active in achieve their own knowledge thus they can get the competence. However, both teachers and students have not been ready yet. This curriculum is functioned as a bridge to the KTSP. So, we should not judge that KBK is totally failed since it guides to the KTSP.

KBK is also an effort to give autonomy in each region in order to decide the most suitable education policy. Yet, the government contradicts autonomy of each region by the existence of National Examination.

TEACHING METAPHOR

TEACHER IS A FARMER

IKA FITRIANI

Teachers have an important role in our daily. They are the real hero for this country since they have been working hard in order to make the young generations are able to write and read. The young generations can know the new knowledge due the teacher help them to transfer it. Thus, we can say that teachers are noble job in this world.

We can say that teaching is quite challenging job. It is not as easy as we imagine. Teaching activity is like a farmer who cultivate paddy in the field. Perhaps, some people will be curious about what the relationship between a teacher and a farmer as both of those jobs are absolutely different. However, if we analysis those two jobs have similar philosophy.

To begin with, we would like to discuss about farmer philosophy. Farmer actually is not an easy job as what many people think about. A farmer has a lot of jobs before and after cultivating the field. His/ her jobs are like an endless cycle which is always rolling every day. One more important thing, farmer is not a job toward stupid or uneducated person. That statement is quite wrong as a farmer has to have a lot of knowledge as well as skills about everything related to agriculture.

One of knowledge that a farmer has to have is about weather, condition of soil, and characteristics of plants. Those three points above are what a farmer has to consider before cultivating the field since they are related and affected one another. Paddy, for instance, is a plant which needs a lot of water and usually planted in a lowland area. Based on the characteristics above we have to know when we should plant paddy. Should we plant it in dry or rainy season? Is it appropriate when we plant paddy in the highland with its cool temperature? Can we plant it in the shore or sandy soil? For whom who do not know this knowledge, of course cannot get good quality paddy.

Besides, a farmer has to have ability as a designer and manager. What does it mean by designer and manager? It may become the questions which come up in your mind. Designer means that farmer should be able in designing the field whether we will plant the crops in form of horizontal or vertical, terasiring, or tumpang sari system. Then, we also have to decide the appropriate distant between each crops that it can absorb the nutrition and grow well. Then, as a manager, farmer should be able in managing the time when he/she should plant seeds, give a pesticide and fertilizer, and have harvest in the best time.

Not only about designing the field and managing the time, a farmer still has to be able to solve the problem in his/her field. Of course, there will be a problem like insect, weeds, and others. They are actually the challenging things that should be solved. Farmer should have ways how to solve the pest that infect the plants. He/she has to decide the appropriate nutrition or pesticide for his/her plants. A farmer should not make a mistake since it will affect the crops, perhaps the crops will died or even unfertile.

Then, a farmer has to have a good ways how to harvest all his/her crops and distribute the product to the consumer. If the farmer has a good procedure in the process of cultivating the crops from the beginning till the end, of course he/she will have a good product. However, a farmer has to still consider the way how to harvest and to distribute the product in the right way in order to get the best quality and fresh product.

Those farmer philosophies above are quite similar to the teacher.  As we have talked, a farmer has to have large knowledge about how to cultivate certain plants. Farmer has to be good in learning about weather, condition of soil, and characteristics of plants and so does a teacher. Teacher as well as a farmer has to have good knowledge toward her/his students’ characteristics, how the condition of his/her school, the resources provided at the school, and other factors. By understanding those kinds of things, a teacher will be better to decide the most appropriate ways or methods based on the situation, condition, and characteristics of students.

Then, as a farmer who has to have an ability to design the field and manage the time well, teacher also is to be able to do so. A teacher is someone who is in charge in designing the teaching methods in the class. He/she has to be able to make the class is life and comfortable that students can absorb materials. Moreover, a teacher should be a good manager as well. Not only managing the time so that the material can be delivered to the students but also managing the class to make it run in order.

If a farmer has many problems in his/her cultivation process, so does a teacher. Both of them have to be able to solve the problem in his/her field. Of course, there are lot problems that a teacher has in the class, such as lack of student motivation, less of resources, and others. However, those problems are not the obstacle in teaching learning process. Teachers have to be creative and innovative in facing any problems. We can use not only conventional ways (lecturing in front of the class) but we also can use various ways by using games, discussion, songs, and other ways in improving students motivation. Then, improvement is also important that teacher should socialize and share with others to have some improvement that he/she is not stuck in his/her own point of view.

Furthermore, the statement that a farmer has to have a good ways in harvesting all his/her crops and distributing the product to the consumer are related to a teacher who is responsible toward students’ success. Teachers have to design the atmosphere which supports the students in gaining materials that students can be success not only in examination but also in their life. When students can pass the examination or get a job means that teachers are successful in his teaching learning job. Moreover, when the students become a successful person in his/her future is a kind of pride and happiness for teacher just like a farmer whose crops are good and have a high price in the market.

 In conclusion, when we talk about teachers’ job, we can relate it toward farmers’ job. Even though both of these occupations sound different, they are quite similar actually. From the philosophy, those two occupations have a lot of relationship, such as teacher is farmer, crops are the students, field is the class, pest is teaching problems, fertilizer and pesticide is the teaching methods, harvesting is teaching learning result.