5.2(b) Our perfect evaluator
Aim
To decide on the skills needed to be a good evaluator.
You need
Lots of different coloured pens, flipchart paper and magazines, your evaluation charter from 5.1(c) Our Evaluation Charter, activity sheet 38 and at least 45 minutes.
What to do
a) Divide into small groups. Thinking back to the chicken nuggets sketch and the Prove it! activity about gathering evidence, talk about the skills needed to be a good evaluator. Do a word storm on flipchart – that helps get the ideas out and everyone can take part.
b) Looking at your list, show these key skills in pictures, either by drawing them, or by cutting out pictures from magazines, which get your message across. Try not to use words. If you prefer, you can do this work individually or in pairs. You might draw a character or stick person for example with big ears to show they are good listeners, or holding a magnifying glass to show they look closely at what’s going on, or you might draw a series of symbols.
c) Come back together. Take it in turns to put up your picture. Give five minutes for the others to call out key words that describe what they see in the drawing, without you interrupting. Make sure someone in the group writes these words up on the left side of a separate piece, or pieces, of flipchart, headed ‘Skills of a good evaluator’. After each group has had its turn, check if anything is missing and add these to the list. You now have your list of skills of a good evaluator. You might want to make a new drawing and label all these skills on it.
What next?
Look at your list of skills. Add in the other headings across the top of the chart as in the example below, or copy activity sheet 38. Do you as a group have the range of skills you have decided are important for good evaluation? If not, what is missing and how can you get it? An example of how the chart works is given below. The completed chart can be typed up and added to your evaluation toolkit. It can be updated as you take action to develop the group’s evaluation skills.
| Skills of a good evaluator | Do we have this skill in the group? | Yes: how can we share it more widely in the group? | No: how can we get it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listening skills | Yes | Practice exercises in unit 1.3(a) Did You Hear What I Said? in the whole group. | |
| Use of drama in evaluation | No | Who might know about this? Arrange for them to come and run a workshop for us | |
| Next skill | |||
| Next skill |