Students Are the Master of Their Own Grader

In learning English, students have their own ways and methods. Some students think that they enjoy learning English through doing some exercises related to grammar or writing skills. Other students might think that by practicing English in terms of speaking will enhance their ability. On the other hand, the tests done in school will cover all skills which are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. That means students have to deal with this situation in class. As the consequences, students who realize that they are weak in one skill would feel insecure on how they should deal with the tests they do not really master at. There must be a solution for this.
 

Since the teachers will grade the students, they should do it wisely. Teachers should not just take the score from written tests but also from the students’ performance in class.  Some actively-speaking students should get some appreciation from the teacher because they often dare enough to speak up, while others do not. Although that speaker-kind-of student has weakness in writing, their performance in speaking should cover their English comprehension in so-called a “unique way”.
 

In Indonesia, the use of scoring rubric in class is getting popular. Especially in English subject, teachers should develop a fine and appropriate rubric which later students use to grade one another. This is quite fair since students will be assessed based on the students’ judgment and the teacher’s rubric as well. These two considerations in scoring will benefit students. First, students will know how well they are performing since there are some criteria that they should achieve based on the rubric. Second, students will experience how to score someone’s performance based on the rubric given.
 

This is the actual matter that we, the English teachers, should focus on. We should not let the students down just because they are weak in some skills. Moreover, we should enhance and facilitate their excellence to be even better. Of course we have to make them be sure that other skills are also important to master. It can be done by giving the material that they find it attractive.