Two questions about Dogme that kind of dog me.

Today, I watched Daniel’s interview with Scott Thornbury, which I thought was great, by the way, but it brought up some more questions, especially regarding materials and assessment.

Materials

I know that one aspect of Dogme from what I’ve read so far is the provision of materials by students. However, from my own experience students tend not to do what you ask them to do or perhaps they forget, but I remember one time a few years ago, I had asked students to bring their favorite possession to talk about for the next class. Unfortunately, only a handful of students out of a class around 25 or so brought something, which of course resulted in students presenting things such as an eraser, or other school supplies, if my memory serves me well; I could be wrong though as I said this was a few years back. I think some students did use an article of clothing which was OK, but it would have been nice if they had brought something that they chose after careful consideration. I was also probably hoping that if they had brought something they would have prepared some of the English that they would need, although from what I gather, Dogme seems to focus on spontaneous English. Again, I could be wrong. The question then is what can a teacher do in order to be confident that when asked, students bring the necessary materials? Should I dock points if they come unprepared? But is that the best solution? Perhaps, everyone has already experienced the above situation and perhaps it can never be avoided especially in large classrooms, so maybe I shouldn’t lose any sleep over it.

Assessment

The second concern involves assessment. My main sources of assessment and evaluation come from quizzes, midterm and final exams, attendance, participation and in-class activities usually in the form of worksheets that I collect to mark. Sometimes I also have presentations. Now, I remember in Daniel’s interview that Scott first replied ‘None’ to his question about what kind of testing should be used, but then went on to mention different testing methods, integrative, holistic, skills and how that it was difficult to do, but not impossible, with such tests as the Cambridge proficiency test being available. As I am always curious about how other teachers assess/evaluate their students, I started to think, ‘Well, how would one really evaluate/assess students in such a class?’ Can tests still be incorporated in such a method such as Dogme ELT, or would class-by-class evaluations based on presentations and participation be used, or would portfolios be possible? I would assume that the evaluation would be somewhat subjective, but it would be interesting to hear about other teachers’ evaluation schemes. I’m starting to think that I should buy Scott’s book, Teaching Unplugged, but with all the reading I have to do, especially now that I am in grad school, I am not sure if I would have the time, and besides, what better way to learn about such a method than discussing it with one’s peers, right?