Thursday, July 29, 2010
I took two Chinese guys and two Korean guys camping a couple weekends ago. I believe it was the first time for all of them. The guys loved fishing, so the plan was to catch our food, although we brought some back-up supplies. But the trip was also good exercise for their English, since English was the common language the five of us spoke. I gave them a guide to identifying fish and knowing the criteria to keep them. They used this guide to discuss, sometimes argue, which fish they caught. It was a blast overall, with a bonus of learning for them and me. I think I will incorporate nature guides in lesson plans and, if possible, some sort of outdoor field trip, most likely not camping but maybe the zoo.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Literacy and Citizenship
You may remember a while back I mentioned a cool event for literacy instructors and volunteers related to citizenship? Well, i realized that I never posted the info on the blog, so here it is! RSVP still possible today, but the event is Thursday, so if you are planning to attend, you might want to email asap!
Also, I just got an email from Arlington Reads about a 5K run for literacy on August 14. I'll post a link with information on that as soon as I can find one.
Also, I just got an email from Arlington Reads about a 5K run for literacy on August 14. I'll post a link with information on that as soon as I can find one.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Yuni's self evaluation
I personally believe that the process of L2 acquisition is quite different from acquiring the mother tongue. As we discussed in the class, EFL students do not live in English-friendly environment and have less chances to exposure to English. People can take advantage of the grammar rules because they can save and effort identifying certain patterns by themselves.
However they often fail to use grammar rules when they face the situation to talk with native speakers. They may lose the connection between learning and applying grammar rules.
As an inductive approach, you can encourage students’ intrinsic motivation and try to shift their attentions to communicative ability. You can give them possible scenarios that communicative problems can occur due to the violation of grammar rules to increase their interest and explain the grammar rules for them.
A deductive approach seems to work better with the exceptional grammar rules, but a combination of two approaches will be the best.
However they often fail to use grammar rules when they face the situation to talk with native speakers. They may lose the connection between learning and applying grammar rules.
As an inductive approach, you can encourage students’ intrinsic motivation and try to shift their attentions to communicative ability. You can give them possible scenarios that communicative problems can occur due to the violation of grammar rules to increase their interest and explain the grammar rules for them.
A deductive approach seems to work better with the exceptional grammar rules, but a combination of two approaches will be the best.
Self-Evaluation GERUNDS
I truly don't know how I could have made my grammar instruction more communicative. I believe that it was inductive given that I started with real life questions first, before leading into the explanation of the grammar rule. The questions I asked were real-life. Perhaps some of you could comment and give me suggestions here. If I were to do the lesson again, I would give more examples before giving the partnered activity so the Ss might better understand the grammar rule.
Yuni's test assessment
I found the “written comprehension” test from http://www.englishclub.com/esl-exams/levels-test-wc.htm.
This time-limited test has pretty good face validity because I as a task taker could see what they try to measure for each question. For example, both Q1 and Q4 are asking if task takers understand the usage of comparative adjectives.
If I were a test developer, I would be satisfied with construct validity as well. For example of Q7, the main construct of the question assumes to be the different usage of “like” as a verb or as an adjective, it has been measured successfully with good construct validity.
It also includes pragmatic aspects of language like Q4 or Q9 which test takers can easily hear in daily-life situations.
One of disadvantages of on-line tests is the time issue, but this website provides a timer so that students can finish this test in a limited time.
However, the website does not provide any information on correct answers with detailed explanation. Test takers cannot get any feedback from this test.
This time-limited test has pretty good face validity because I as a task taker could see what they try to measure for each question. For example, both Q1 and Q4 are asking if task takers understand the usage of comparative adjectives.
If I were a test developer, I would be satisfied with construct validity as well. For example of Q7, the main construct of the question assumes to be the different usage of “like” as a verb or as an adjective, it has been measured successfully with good construct validity.
It also includes pragmatic aspects of language like Q4 or Q9 which test takers can easily hear in daily-life situations.
One of disadvantages of on-line tests is the time issue, but this website provides a timer so that students can finish this test in a limited time.
However, the website does not provide any information on correct answers with detailed explanation. Test takers cannot get any feedback from this test.
Erica's Self Evaluation
My second mini-lesson went a bit better than the first one. I might have made it more communicative by playing Jeopardy! ® on the blackboard, rather than the computer. Being that far away from the class was a mistake. I couldn’t hear the students’ answers well, and it was noted that I frowned a lot when I had to ask them to repeat. Next time I would have the categories with answers written down and just write the categories and amounts on the board. Standing closer to my students and being more upbeat and enthusiastic would go a long way toward making the lesson super-communicative. I do think that letting the groups work together to come up with the right answer is a great group activity, but I would change it a little so that a different person each time got to answer out loud. That would keep any dominant students from doing all the work, and ensure that others got an equal chance to participate.
Evaluation of a Quiz and Self
The grammar quiz, focusing on proposition usage, can be found at Dave's ESL Cafe or by clicking on this link: click here.
Practicality
This quiz is practical in the context of time needed to take and grade the test, cost of the test, and method of grading. Its small size makes it easy for students to finish in a small amount of time and for teachers to grade, even if the class sized is large. The quiz can be printed from online, retyped, or completed online easily. The quiz is also a blend of norm- and criterion-referenced.
Validity
This quiz is valid on a small scale. With only 10 questions, it doesn't include all prepositions, actually being limited to just a few. It is also very face-valid for the students and content-valid, being very obvious in its intention of determining their understanding of prepositions.
Reliability
The quiz has a few shortcomings in reliability. It is very consistent in its form, however, being multiple choice, students are given options to guess at as opposed to independently coming up with an answer. Also, as it is an online quiz originally, the availability of computers and internet access can be affecting factors of its reliability in administration. The test doesn't change; the questions are the same each time you go back to it. Scorer reliability will not be an issue since it is multiple choice with definite answers.
Authenticity
The questions are good examples of real-world language use and contain subject matter that is interesting and useful to language learners. There is no story line in this quiz, but a story line can easily be implemented if modifying this quiz or creating a replica.
Washback
There is poor opportunity for washback with this online quiz. If the quiz was administered as a paper form, then washback could be present. When necessary, incorrect answers are marked and correct answers or given.
Self-Evaluation
My lesson on Tuesday, 7/6, pertained to giving and receiving directions for driving, walking, bicycling, etc. where the individual is responsible for getting themselves to the desired destination, as opposed to a specific grammar aspect. If there was less teacher monologue in the beginning, more time could have been allocated to interaction between students. Instead of listing all of the vocabulary in the beginning, I could have engaged students earlier by asking them for directions, steering them towards using the intended vocabulary, explaining the vocabulary words if and when necessary. I do think that the activities that would eventually occur in the lesson are very communicative.
Practicality
This quiz is practical in the context of time needed to take and grade the test, cost of the test, and method of grading. Its small size makes it easy for students to finish in a small amount of time and for teachers to grade, even if the class sized is large. The quiz can be printed from online, retyped, or completed online easily. The quiz is also a blend of norm- and criterion-referenced.
Validity
This quiz is valid on a small scale. With only 10 questions, it doesn't include all prepositions, actually being limited to just a few. It is also very face-valid for the students and content-valid, being very obvious in its intention of determining their understanding of prepositions.
Reliability
The quiz has a few shortcomings in reliability. It is very consistent in its form, however, being multiple choice, students are given options to guess at as opposed to independently coming up with an answer. Also, as it is an online quiz originally, the availability of computers and internet access can be affecting factors of its reliability in administration. The test doesn't change; the questions are the same each time you go back to it. Scorer reliability will not be an issue since it is multiple choice with definite answers.
Authenticity
The questions are good examples of real-world language use and contain subject matter that is interesting and useful to language learners. There is no story line in this quiz, but a story line can easily be implemented if modifying this quiz or creating a replica.
Washback
There is poor opportunity for washback with this online quiz. If the quiz was administered as a paper form, then washback could be present. When necessary, incorrect answers are marked and correct answers or given.
Self-Evaluation
My lesson on Tuesday, 7/6, pertained to giving and receiving directions for driving, walking, bicycling, etc. where the individual is responsible for getting themselves to the desired destination, as opposed to a specific grammar aspect. If there was less teacher monologue in the beginning, more time could have been allocated to interaction between students. Instead of listing all of the vocabulary in the beginning, I could have engaged students earlier by asking them for directions, steering them towards using the intended vocabulary, explaining the vocabulary words if and when necessary. I do think that the activities that would eventually occur in the lesson are very communicative.
Last Blog Assignment
1. http://www.englishclub.com/esl-exams/levels-test-wc.htm
This website shows a test that evaluates your level in English written comprehension. Thus, it is a Reading test. It gives you 15 minutes to solve 20 questions. If you click a bar "Now click for your level" you'll check your level in terms of reading comprehension.
I like it in terms of practicality; that is, the test itself is very easy to understand and it takes a second to check your score. Money does not seem to be an issue at all. In addition, this test is quite reliable since it is very consistent; the given 20 questions are always the same. In terms of validity, it is still good in that it measures what it is intended to measure. Finally, it uses authentic langauge.
One big problem is that this test does not show you the concrete result. In other words, it does not have a WASHBACK part at all. Even if I know my level of reading comprehension, I don't have any idea about what I missed.
Lastly, having only 20 questions can also be a problem. This test should have a question bank made of at least 100 similar questions so that we can have a different problem set next time.
2. How can I make the grammar teaching more "communicative"? Evidently, L2 is different from L1. And it is ideal to have an inductive approach in EFL classes. However, researchers and scholars argue that deductive approaches have a lot of demerits.
I realized that my grammar teaching on Tuesday was quite deductive. Even though I started with an example, the whole teaching was based on rules. I remember I repeated "3rd person, singular, and present" over and over again. I like Krashen's idea about "Comprehensible Input" but I also know that it takes time. Within 10-15 minutes, how can we successfully teach grammar to students with inductive approach? I have no answer yet..... I should have given more examples in the first half of the teaching. By doing so, students can possibly realize the rule by themselves.
This website shows a test that evaluates your level in English written comprehension. Thus, it is a Reading test. It gives you 15 minutes to solve 20 questions. If you click a bar "Now click for your level" you'll check your level in terms of reading comprehension.
I like it in terms of practicality; that is, the test itself is very easy to understand and it takes a second to check your score. Money does not seem to be an issue at all. In addition, this test is quite reliable since it is very consistent; the given 20 questions are always the same. In terms of validity, it is still good in that it measures what it is intended to measure. Finally, it uses authentic langauge.
One big problem is that this test does not show you the concrete result. In other words, it does not have a WASHBACK part at all. Even if I know my level of reading comprehension, I don't have any idea about what I missed.
Lastly, having only 20 questions can also be a problem. This test should have a question bank made of at least 100 similar questions so that we can have a different problem set next time.
2. How can I make the grammar teaching more "communicative"? Evidently, L2 is different from L1. And it is ideal to have an inductive approach in EFL classes. However, researchers and scholars argue that deductive approaches have a lot of demerits.
I realized that my grammar teaching on Tuesday was quite deductive. Even though I started with an example, the whole teaching was based on rules. I remember I repeated "3rd person, singular, and present" over and over again. I like Krashen's idea about "Comprehensible Input" but I also know that it takes time. Within 10-15 minutes, how can we successfully teach grammar to students with inductive approach? I have no answer yet..... I should have given more examples in the first half of the teaching. By doing so, students can possibly realize the rule by themselves.
Blog for the last day of class!
For the blog today:
1) page 464 #2 = find an English language test somewhere online and evaluate it based on the criteria in Brown.
2) Self-evaluate your grammar teaching from Tuesday, and talk about how you might make your lesson more communicative, more inductive, or less focused on explicit grammar.
3) Read and comment on 2-4 posts.
Thanks for being a great class! I've really enjoyed having you in class for the last 5 weeks!
Just a reminder that the final exam will be Monday from 3:30-5:30 in the computer lab. Feel free to bring books, notes, etc.
And enjoy the weekend!
1) page 464 #2 = find an English language test somewhere online and evaluate it based on the criteria in Brown.
2) Self-evaluate your grammar teaching from Tuesday, and talk about how you might make your lesson more communicative, more inductive, or less focused on explicit grammar.
3) Read and comment on 2-4 posts.
Thanks for being a great class! I've really enjoyed having you in class for the last 5 weeks!
Just a reminder that the final exam will be Monday from 3:30-5:30 in the computer lab. Feel free to bring books, notes, etc.
And enjoy the weekend!
Erica's Test Evaluation
Subject/verb agreement
This quiz tests subject verb agreement, using the simple present and past tenses.
Practicality:
I found this test to be very practical. The quiz is available for free online, which makes it affordable, easy to manage, and can be easily printed out for the students. This class can also be taken online, but I would rather it be a pen and paper test, unless my class is spending a lot of time on the computer. For a key, it’s easy for me as teacher to answer the questions myself and then submit for grading. I can then print out the answer key for grading myself.
Reliability:
This test appears to be very consistent. It asks the students to choose between two possible answers. The tense is the same on each question, however. There is no ambiguity—the answers are clear.
Validity:
I believe that it is valid, both for content and face. The students should believe that they are being tested on whether or not they can properly conjugate a verb and make it match the subject.
Authenticity:
Authenticity is whether or not the test relates to the material taught, and I believe this does. If you are teaching grammar, you are going to explain to your students that some verbs take an ‘s’ at the end and some don’t, and it depends on your subject.
Washback:
Once students’ tests have been graded and returned, if they got any wrong answers that the other answer is the right one. I think that it may take another mini-lesson by the teacher to reinforce why, if very many students got a lot of answers wrong, though.
This quiz tests subject verb agreement, using the simple present and past tenses.
Practicality:
I found this test to be very practical. The quiz is available for free online, which makes it affordable, easy to manage, and can be easily printed out for the students. This class can also be taken online, but I would rather it be a pen and paper test, unless my class is spending a lot of time on the computer. For a key, it’s easy for me as teacher to answer the questions myself and then submit for grading. I can then print out the answer key for grading myself.
Reliability:
This test appears to be very consistent. It asks the students to choose between two possible answers. The tense is the same on each question, however. There is no ambiguity—the answers are clear.
Validity:
I believe that it is valid, both for content and face. The students should believe that they are being tested on whether or not they can properly conjugate a verb and make it match the subject.
Authenticity:
Authenticity is whether or not the test relates to the material taught, and I believe this does. If you are teaching grammar, you are going to explain to your students that some verbs take an ‘s’ at the end and some don’t, and it depends on your subject.
Washback:
Once students’ tests have been graded and returned, if they got any wrong answers that the other answer is the right one. I think that it may take another mini-lesson by the teacher to reinforce why, if very many students got a lot of answers wrong, though.
Jason's Test Assessment and Grammar self-evaluation
Test on Prepositions
This is a pretty simplistic if not somewhat long multiple choice test on prepositions of time. From the standpoint of the 5 principles we discussed, my opinion is that:
1. From the standpoint of practicality, this test is very practical. The multiple choice makes it very quick and easy to grade and also pretty quick and easy for students to take.
2. From the standpoint of reliability, this type of test is one of the most reliable for the professor to grade. You will still need to make sure (as much as possible) that the students are well fed and well rested but in terms of grading, you should have no reliability issues because there is no room for your opinion or bias to enter into the choice of grading.
3. From the standpoint of Validity, the test seems like it would be a perfectly valid test, validly measuring what it aims to measure. However, inevitably you will have some students trying to guess at some of the answers and having the potential to get the right answer from just guessing while not super high is high enough to warrant a comment.
4. From the standpoint of authenticity, it offers a little in the way of real world authenticity because you are using the the prepositions in real, valid sentences. However, this language is not very relevant or meaning to anyone and does not offer very much authentic creativity and authentic use of language. Its a little stinted as well.
5. From the standpoint of Washback, there doesn't seem to much you could do in terms of giving good feedback other than reteaching the grammar lesson.
In terms of the grammar lesson that I gave on Tuesday, one of students made a suggestion about giving more examples using myself or other students and I think that this would be one great way to make the lesson more real-life and real world. Maybe I could tell a story and act out the story that I am telling while I tell it using prepositions to related myself to various objects in the story. I could also have the students act out something using prepositions. Maybe you are in a clothing store and your friend tells you that he or she saw the coolest/cutest whatever and it was over there to the left of such and such or something and so the students would have to go find the item based on the clues they were given. I think our treasure hunt was really communicative in this way but it could be polished.
This is a pretty simplistic if not somewhat long multiple choice test on prepositions of time. From the standpoint of the 5 principles we discussed, my opinion is that:
1. From the standpoint of practicality, this test is very practical. The multiple choice makes it very quick and easy to grade and also pretty quick and easy for students to take.
2. From the standpoint of reliability, this type of test is one of the most reliable for the professor to grade. You will still need to make sure (as much as possible) that the students are well fed and well rested but in terms of grading, you should have no reliability issues because there is no room for your opinion or bias to enter into the choice of grading.
3. From the standpoint of Validity, the test seems like it would be a perfectly valid test, validly measuring what it aims to measure. However, inevitably you will have some students trying to guess at some of the answers and having the potential to get the right answer from just guessing while not super high is high enough to warrant a comment.
4. From the standpoint of authenticity, it offers a little in the way of real world authenticity because you are using the the prepositions in real, valid sentences. However, this language is not very relevant or meaning to anyone and does not offer very much authentic creativity and authentic use of language. Its a little stinted as well.
5. From the standpoint of Washback, there doesn't seem to much you could do in terms of giving good feedback other than reteaching the grammar lesson.
In terms of the grammar lesson that I gave on Tuesday, one of students made a suggestion about giving more examples using myself or other students and I think that this would be one great way to make the lesson more real-life and real world. Maybe I could tell a story and act out the story that I am telling while I tell it using prepositions to related myself to various objects in the story. I could also have the students act out something using prepositions. Maybe you are in a clothing store and your friend tells you that he or she saw the coolest/cutest whatever and it was over there to the left of such and such or something and so the students would have to go find the item based on the clues they were given. I think our treasure hunt was really communicative in this way but it could be polished.
Test Assessment
http://esl.about.com/od/printablequizzesforclass/a/printable_toefl_vocabulary_practice_test.htm
The test that I found was a Vocabulary test. Instead of just asking you what each word means, they use the word in context to help the students learn the vocabulary words and give them extra help by having the surrounding words.
I think this test is valid. It measures what it intends to measure. It's looking to see if they know their vocabulary words and if they can figure out what another word for 'inquiry' could be by looking at the context then they will pass the test. I think it's very obvious about what it is trying to teach. As soon as I looked at it I knew it was trying to test the students knowledge of vocabulary words they had previously learned.
In my opinion this test is authentic. It is likely to be enacted in real-life. Someone could be speaking or you could even be reading a book and see that the words people use may not be one you know but by looking at the whole sentence you can come to realize what exactly 'inquiry' could mean using a simpler word you know.
We could use the washback with this test. It all depends on if the teacher would do it or not. The test itself could have washback but it's up to the teacher to do it or not. I would say this test is practical. It isn't too long and it isn't too short. It also isn't totally expensive. You would come up with a few sentences that include big words, print out a few copies, and then give the test. It is very practical.
For reliability this test would work if we made sure that the bias were cut out. If we put our students ID numbers on instead of their names you can help any bias happen. With regards to fatigue or carelessness we really don't have any control over that.
Self-Eval:
In order to make Jason and I's lesson more communicative I think that using more self examples would help. I believe we needed more examples, to expand on our lesson, and we also really needed to be more interactive when the lesson was being given. Being more interactive, giving more examples of us and the students would have made our lesson more communicative and more real world life for them.
The test that I found was a Vocabulary test. Instead of just asking you what each word means, they use the word in context to help the students learn the vocabulary words and give them extra help by having the surrounding words.
I think this test is valid. It measures what it intends to measure. It's looking to see if they know their vocabulary words and if they can figure out what another word for 'inquiry' could be by looking at the context then they will pass the test. I think it's very obvious about what it is trying to teach. As soon as I looked at it I knew it was trying to test the students knowledge of vocabulary words they had previously learned.
In my opinion this test is authentic. It is likely to be enacted in real-life. Someone could be speaking or you could even be reading a book and see that the words people use may not be one you know but by looking at the whole sentence you can come to realize what exactly 'inquiry' could mean using a simpler word you know.
We could use the washback with this test. It all depends on if the teacher would do it or not. The test itself could have washback but it's up to the teacher to do it or not. I would say this test is practical. It isn't too long and it isn't too short. It also isn't totally expensive. You would come up with a few sentences that include big words, print out a few copies, and then give the test. It is very practical.
For reliability this test would work if we made sure that the bias were cut out. If we put our students ID numbers on instead of their names you can help any bias happen. With regards to fatigue or carelessness we really don't have any control over that.
Self-Eval:
In order to make Jason and I's lesson more communicative I think that using more self examples would help. I believe we needed more examples, to expand on our lesson, and we also really needed to be more interactive when the lesson was being given. Being more interactive, giving more examples of us and the students would have made our lesson more communicative and more real world life for them.
On The Last Day of Class...
1. Please click here for the test: http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/302.html
This test is a valid test for being able to use indefinite articles. There are several questions that are more difficult, as they are the exceptions to the rules. It is good because the questions start out easy, but then become increasingly difficult, though I wish that they also had some easy questions at the end. It seems to be targeted toward an intermediate level of understanding.
2. My grammar instruction was a bit too deductive to be "communicative." I believe that having some examples and going over them would have been more useful than going over the rules first. On the lesson plan I wrote, I actually covered the rules first and did the PowerPoint second, but in class I just did the PowerPoint. I do not think that this would necessarily be the best way to teach articles in an actual ESL class because of the limited amount of reading comprehension. I have learned much about my teaching style and that I, too, love grammar, but I also know that too much grammar instruction early on in my L2 learning has caused me to over-monitor my speech.
This test is a valid test for being able to use indefinite articles. There are several questions that are more difficult, as they are the exceptions to the rules. It is good because the questions start out easy, but then become increasingly difficult, though I wish that they also had some easy questions at the end. It seems to be targeted toward an intermediate level of understanding.
2. My grammar instruction was a bit too deductive to be "communicative." I believe that having some examples and going over them would have been more useful than going over the rules first. On the lesson plan I wrote, I actually covered the rules first and did the PowerPoint second, but in class I just did the PowerPoint. I do not think that this would necessarily be the best way to teach articles in an actual ESL class because of the limited amount of reading comprehension. I have learned much about my teaching style and that I, too, love grammar, but I also know that too much grammar instruction early on in my L2 learning has caused me to over-monitor my speech.
1) TEST ASSESSMENT p. 464 #2
At quick glance, I thought this site would be great as a test resource:
After viewing the Modal Diagnostic, I changed my mind.
1) It looks practical in that it's not expensive to print (it must be taken on-line), nor time consuming to take, nor to grade. Of course, it wouldn't be practical if each student had no access to a lab full of computers.
2) Reliability is not an issue because the diagnostic has multiple choice questions. Multiple people could grade it without inconsistency as long as the answer key is followed.
3) I do not feel the diagnostic is valid. As a native English speaker, I do not feel the directions are clear so I feel it would not teach the student anything by taking it. I don't agree with all of the answers. Thus, I don't see the purpose of taking the diagnostic, thus, I see no face validity. There is no content validity because of the multiple-choice questions. There is no construct validity because the diagnostic does not prove mastery of the modals. We'd have no idea if the students could actually use the modals to write sentences. They could guess on every question and possibly pass it.
4) The diagnostic is not authentic because the questions are isolated and "bear no relationship to one another."
5) The diagnostic does not foster Washback because incorrect answers would not lend themselves to any "insight into further work." I do not see how the diagnostic could be used as a learning tool.
After viewing the Modal Diagnostic, I changed my mind.
1) It looks practical in that it's not expensive to print (it must be taken on-line), nor time consuming to take, nor to grade. Of course, it wouldn't be practical if each student had no access to a lab full of computers.
2) Reliability is not an issue because the diagnostic has multiple choice questions. Multiple people could grade it without inconsistency as long as the answer key is followed.
3) I do not feel the diagnostic is valid. As a native English speaker, I do not feel the directions are clear so I feel it would not teach the student anything by taking it. I don't agree with all of the answers. Thus, I don't see the purpose of taking the diagnostic, thus, I see no face validity. There is no content validity because of the multiple-choice questions. There is no construct validity because the diagnostic does not prove mastery of the modals. We'd have no idea if the students could actually use the modals to write sentences. They could guess on every question and possibly pass it.
4) The diagnostic is not authentic because the questions are isolated and "bear no relationship to one another."
5) The diagnostic does not foster Washback because incorrect answers would not lend themselves to any "insight into further work." I do not see how the diagnostic could be used as a learning tool.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Teaching Activity 7/6/10 GERUNDS
In case y'all could use the materials from my presentation today, please feel free to email me: ronda.glasser@mavs.uta.edu
I'd have attached them to this blog, but I do not know how to do so.
Awesome presentations today!
I'd have attached them to this blog, but I do not know how to do so.
Awesome presentations today!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Line-Up for Tuesday and modified reading schedule
On Tuesday we will be teaching our second mini-lessons. Here's the line-up:
1) Ronda
2) Katie and Jason
3) Yuni
4) Erica
5) Derek
6) Yilmin
7) Allison
8) Matt
Also, I'll remind you that I've changed the reading assignment for next week. Rather than reading chapters 23-26, please read chapters 22-24. The means that on Thursday, we'll discuss a little about form-focused instruction, as well as assessment. While I suggest that you at some point at least skim through chapters 25 and 26 related to Lifelong Learning, we will not be discussing these in class.
1) Ronda
2) Katie and Jason
3) Yuni
4) Erica
5) Derek
6) Yilmin
7) Allison
8) Matt
Also, I'll remind you that I've changed the reading assignment for next week. Rather than reading chapters 23-26, please read chapters 22-24. The means that on Thursday, we'll discuss a little about form-focused instruction, as well as assessment. While I suggest that you at some point at least skim through chapters 25 and 26 related to Lifelong Learning, we will not be discussing these in class.
Speaking: by Derek and Yilmin
Types of Performance
1) Imitative- Imitative works not for the purpose of meaningful interaction but for focusing on elements of language form, e.g. oral drills.
2) Intensive- Intensive goes a step beyond imitative to include a focused practice more about phonological and grammatical aspects.
3) Responsive- Short replies to questions by teacher or other students represents responsive speaking.
4) Transactional- Transactional, a type of dialogue, has a purpose of exchanging specific information and facts.
5) Interpersonal- Another form of dialogue, interpersonal, unlike transactional, conveys more social relationship-based dialogue.
6) Extensive- Extensive is usually in the form of a monologue report or summary by intermediate to advanced levels of students.
Teaching Techniques
1) Indirect Conversation- students have free reign and are encouraged to engage in interaction outside of the classroom.
2) Direct Conversation- the teacher plans a conversation program in advance.
3) Transactional Conversation- examples would include ordering from a catalog, purchasing something at a retail store (e.g. buying a GPS at BestBuy), or talking to a doctor about symptoms; when the purpose is an exchange of information or facts.
4) Practicing Grammar Orally- this would include oral grammar drills or other types of imitative and intensive performance.
5) Individual Practice- examples include oral dialogue journals or other instances where students practice oral expressions. In particular, in small classes, this technique offers students the ability to talk about their concerns without the risk of embarrassment.
6) Other Interactive Techniques- Any activity that requires the student to interact with others orally, such as interviews, discussions, and debates.
Assessment
1) Imitative Speaking Tasks- checking accuracy when repeating small groups of words or sentences, focusing on sounds segments.
2) Intensive Speaking Tasks- focuses on understanding of formulaic usage of a limited number of controlled expressions.
3) Responsive Speaking Tasks- students' responses to simple questions from teacher or other students is checked for appropriateness in context.
4) Interactive Speaking Tasks- assessment via students' interaction between each other during interactive activities
5) Extensive Speaking Tasks- high-level speaking tasks such as oral presentation or retelling a story using paraphrasing skills.
Critical Thinking Questions
1) How can class size affect technique choice?
2) The textbook suggest we do not correct local errors, but how much is too much? Should we ignore all local errors or when should we begin correcting them?
3) What are some strategies of classroom management and setup to create the most comfortable environment for students to express freely (high WTC).
1) Imitative- Imitative works not for the purpose of meaningful interaction but for focusing on elements of language form, e.g. oral drills.
2) Intensive- Intensive goes a step beyond imitative to include a focused practice more about phonological and grammatical aspects.
3) Responsive- Short replies to questions by teacher or other students represents responsive speaking.
4) Transactional- Transactional, a type of dialogue, has a purpose of exchanging specific information and facts.
5) Interpersonal- Another form of dialogue, interpersonal, unlike transactional, conveys more social relationship-based dialogue.
6) Extensive- Extensive is usually in the form of a monologue report or summary by intermediate to advanced levels of students.
Teaching Techniques
1) Indirect Conversation- students have free reign and are encouraged to engage in interaction outside of the classroom.
2) Direct Conversation- the teacher plans a conversation program in advance.
3) Transactional Conversation- examples would include ordering from a catalog, purchasing something at a retail store (e.g. buying a GPS at BestBuy), or talking to a doctor about symptoms; when the purpose is an exchange of information or facts.
4) Practicing Grammar Orally- this would include oral grammar drills or other types of imitative and intensive performance.
5) Individual Practice- examples include oral dialogue journals or other instances where students practice oral expressions. In particular, in small classes, this technique offers students the ability to talk about their concerns without the risk of embarrassment.
6) Other Interactive Techniques- Any activity that requires the student to interact with others orally, such as interviews, discussions, and debates.
Assessment
1) Imitative Speaking Tasks- checking accuracy when repeating small groups of words or sentences, focusing on sounds segments.
2) Intensive Speaking Tasks- focuses on understanding of formulaic usage of a limited number of controlled expressions.
3) Responsive Speaking Tasks- students' responses to simple questions from teacher or other students is checked for appropriateness in context.
4) Interactive Speaking Tasks- assessment via students' interaction between each other during interactive activities
5) Extensive Speaking Tasks- high-level speaking tasks such as oral presentation or retelling a story using paraphrasing skills.
Critical Thinking Questions
1) How can class size affect technique choice?
2) The textbook suggest we do not correct local errors, but how much is too much? Should we ignore all local errors or when should we begin correcting them?
3) What are some strategies of classroom management and setup to create the most comfortable environment for students to express freely (high WTC).
Blog Assingment 8- Reading
Reading- Yuni & Katie
Types of Classroom Reading Performance p.371-373
1. Oral and silent reading- For Beginning and Intermediate levels this type of classroom reading performance can serve as a evaluative check on bottom-up processing skills, help with pronunciation check and it can serve to add extra student participation. For advanced levels the only advantage can be gained by reading orally. A few disadvantages include other students not paying attention when one is speaking, oral reading is not authentic language, and it is actually just recitation instead of participation.
2. Intensive and extensive reading- Intensive reading is a classroom-oriented activity focused on the linguistic or semantic details of a passage. This type of reading includes grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like. Extensive reading is mostly outside the classroom and includes pleasure reading. An advantage of this is students don't overanalyze.
Principles for Teaching Reading Skills p.373-376
1. In an integrated course, don't overlook a specific focus on reading skills
- Focus on student's reading skills and check if students have been spending enough time to extensively read some books, long articles, and essays without looking up all the unknown words every time.
2. Use techniques that are intrinsically motivating
-Select the topics or material relevant to student's interests or goals to increase the level of intrinsic motivation. It is sometimes helpful to have students create their own material for reading and assess themselves
3. Balance authenticity and readability in choosing texts
-Simplify texts by adjusting lexical and structural difficulties depending on the proficiency level of students but be cautious not to lose the natural redundancy, humor, wit, and other captivating features of the original material.
4. Encourage the development of reading strategies
-Get your students to use some reading strategies introduced in the textbook, but also encourage them to develop their own reading strategies rather than sticking into one of strategies.
5. Include both bottom-up and top-down techniques
-A combination of top-down and bottom-up processing is important by having students to predict overall meaning and then moving to each level of language itself.
6. Follow the SQ3R sequence
-Guide students to follow five steps for approaching a reading text: 1) skim through the text for main ideas, 2) make questions about the text, 3) read again the text to find answers to questions, 4) reprocess the main points of text, 5) assess the important points of the text and incorporate it into long-term associations.
7. Plan on prereading during reading, and after-reading phases
-Keep in mind to spend some time introducing a topic to students before they start reading to give them a sense of purpose for reading while they are reading, and to ask some comprehensive questions as a follow-up writing exercise after they read.
8. Build an assessment aspect into your techniques
- Try to carefully assess student's comprehension using external cues such as doing, choosing, transferring, answering, condensing, extending, duplicating, modeling, and conversing.
Assessment p.385-386
For assessing reading there are three things you should look at:
1. Be specific about micro- or macroskills
2. Pay close attention to what strategies for reading are being examined
3. Differentiate between bottom-up and top-down tasks, as well as form versus meaning
These are some possibilities we can use:
1. Perceptive Reading- basically a recognition of symbols, letters, or words.
2. Selective Reading- where you focus more on morphology, grammar, and lexicon.
3. Interactive Reading- this includes responding to questions but also things like re-ordering sequences of sentences.
4. Extensive Reading- which includes summarizing, note taking, or outlining.
Critical Thinking Questions:
1. What are some disadvantages of Extensive Reading and why?
2. How can you increase the affective power of reading?
3. How can we help students to distinguish between literal and implied meanings?
Types of Classroom Reading Performance p.371-373
1. Oral and silent reading- For Beginning and Intermediate levels this type of classroom reading performance can serve as a evaluative check on bottom-up processing skills, help with pronunciation check and it can serve to add extra student participation. For advanced levels the only advantage can be gained by reading orally. A few disadvantages include other students not paying attention when one is speaking, oral reading is not authentic language, and it is actually just recitation instead of participation.
2. Intensive and extensive reading- Intensive reading is a classroom-oriented activity focused on the linguistic or semantic details of a passage. This type of reading includes grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like. Extensive reading is mostly outside the classroom and includes pleasure reading. An advantage of this is students don't overanalyze.
Principles for Teaching Reading Skills p.373-376
1. In an integrated course, don't overlook a specific focus on reading skills
- Focus on student's reading skills and check if students have been spending enough time to extensively read some books, long articles, and essays without looking up all the unknown words every time.
2. Use techniques that are intrinsically motivating
-Select the topics or material relevant to student's interests or goals to increase the level of intrinsic motivation. It is sometimes helpful to have students create their own material for reading and assess themselves
3. Balance authenticity and readability in choosing texts
-Simplify texts by adjusting lexical and structural difficulties depending on the proficiency level of students but be cautious not to lose the natural redundancy, humor, wit, and other captivating features of the original material.
4. Encourage the development of reading strategies
-Get your students to use some reading strategies introduced in the textbook, but also encourage them to develop their own reading strategies rather than sticking into one of strategies.
5. Include both bottom-up and top-down techniques
-A combination of top-down and bottom-up processing is important by having students to predict overall meaning and then moving to each level of language itself.
6. Follow the SQ3R sequence
-Guide students to follow five steps for approaching a reading text: 1) skim through the text for main ideas, 2) make questions about the text, 3) read again the text to find answers to questions, 4) reprocess the main points of text, 5) assess the important points of the text and incorporate it into long-term associations.
7. Plan on prereading during reading, and after-reading phases
-Keep in mind to spend some time introducing a topic to students before they start reading to give them a sense of purpose for reading while they are reading, and to ask some comprehensive questions as a follow-up writing exercise after they read.
8. Build an assessment aspect into your techniques
- Try to carefully assess student's comprehension using external cues such as doing, choosing, transferring, answering, condensing, extending, duplicating, modeling, and conversing.
Assessment p.385-386
For assessing reading there are three things you should look at:
1. Be specific about micro- or macroskills
2. Pay close attention to what strategies for reading are being examined
3. Differentiate between bottom-up and top-down tasks, as well as form versus meaning
These are some possibilities we can use:
1. Perceptive Reading- basically a recognition of symbols, letters, or words.
2. Selective Reading- where you focus more on morphology, grammar, and lexicon.
3. Interactive Reading- this includes responding to questions but also things like re-ordering sequences of sentences.
4. Extensive Reading- which includes summarizing, note taking, or outlining.
Critical Thinking Questions:
1. What are some disadvantages of Extensive Reading and why?
2. How can you increase the affective power of reading?
3. How can we help students to distinguish between literal and implied meanings?
Principles of Writing and then some
Principles of Writing
1. Teach students helpful writing techniques...
a. Know your audience
b. Plan and prepare
c. Set realistic goals
d. Revise, get feedback, then edit
2. Keep the balance between the writing process and what you write (the product)
3. Know your audience, especially regarding their culture and literary schemata
4. Draw connections between the reading and writing processes
5. Use as many real-world writing tasks as humanly possible.
6. Emphasize the entire writing process
a. Brainstorming/Freewriting
b. Write a draft
c. Revise (then return to previous step)
d. Finalize after extensive editing, including peer-editing
7. Provide interactive writing opportunities
8. Be sensitive when correcting errors, but don’t shy from correction
9. Explain and model the proper writing process and conventions
Types of Writing Performance
1. Imitation: Dictation
2. Controlled: Change present tense to past
3. Guided: Write about a video clip
4. Self-writing: Journal
5. Display writing: short-answer, essay answers, research papers
6. “Real” Writing
a. Academic: collaboration
b. Vocational/Technical: memos
c. Personal: email
Evaluation and Assessment
1. Content: what the writing is about
2. Organization: how the writing is organized
3. Discourse: How the paper “flows”
4. Syntax: Using it correctly for the task
5. Vocabulary: Self-explanatory
6. Mechanics: Dot the Is, Cross the Ts
Critically Thinking
1. Where should the emphasis be placed on a student's writing task, product or process? Why?
2. How can you use authentic writing tasks in groups/pairs?
3. Defend your position on the role of the teacher being either a model or an editor.
1. Teach students helpful writing techniques...
a. Know your audience
b. Plan and prepare
c. Set realistic goals
d. Revise, get feedback, then edit
2. Keep the balance between the writing process and what you write (the product)
3. Know your audience, especially regarding their culture and literary schemata
4. Draw connections between the reading and writing processes
5. Use as many real-world writing tasks as humanly possible.
6. Emphasize the entire writing process
a. Brainstorming/Freewriting
b. Write a draft
c. Revise (then return to previous step)
d. Finalize after extensive editing, including peer-editing
7. Provide interactive writing opportunities
8. Be sensitive when correcting errors, but don’t shy from correction
9. Explain and model the proper writing process and conventions
Types of Writing Performance
1. Imitation: Dictation
2. Controlled: Change present tense to past
3. Guided: Write about a video clip
4. Self-writing: Journal
5. Display writing: short-answer, essay answers, research papers
6. “Real” Writing
a. Academic: collaboration
b. Vocational/Technical: memos
c. Personal: email
Evaluation and Assessment
1. Content: what the writing is about
2. Organization: how the writing is organized
3. Discourse: How the paper “flows”
4. Syntax: Using it correctly for the task
5. Vocabulary: Self-explanatory
6. Mechanics: Dot the Is, Cross the Ts
Critically Thinking
1. Where should the emphasis be placed on a student's writing task, product or process? Why?
2. How can you use authentic writing tasks in groups/pairs?
3. Defend your position on the role of the teacher being either a model or an editor.
Listening - Types of Performance, Techniques, Assessment
I. Types of Listening Performance (Brown 308-310)
a. Reactive – This is essentially rote memorization. It is not as valid for an interactive classroom but it may have a small role in correcting pronunciation.
b. Intensive – For stressing specific components of language such as phonemes and intonation or for “imprinting” a phrase.
c. Responsive – Teacher speaks and students respond immediately. It can help with checking comprehension, questions and commands, or clarification.
d. Selective – Finding specific meaning within a longer discourse such as speeches, broadcasts, stories. This is similar to teaching the strategy of picking out the key words in an utterance.
e. Extensive – More effective for lectures and note taking and uses a top down method of teaching.
f. Interactive – Requires integration with speaking and other skills and includes all of the above types of performance. Leads to true, real-world communication.
II. Listening Techniques (Brown 312-317)
a. Bottom-Up – This technique goes from small pieces like phonemes to grammar specifics.
b. Top-Down – More concerned with schemata, which is what the student brings to the classroom.
c. Interactive – An exchange of ideas between two or more people and the effect that they have on each other.
III. Assessment (Brown 318-319)
a. Intensive Listening Tasks – More about distinguishing pieces of language such as phonemic and morphological pairs, stress patterns, recognition and paraphrasing.
b. Responsive Listening Tasks – This is about questions and answers
c. Selective Listening Tasks – Fill in the blanks, verbal responses, chart completion and sentence repetition.
d. Extensive Listening Tasks – Focus is dictation, dialogue, lectures and stories.
e. Interaction – Includes full skills integration and all of the above points including speaking.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. What type of technique would you use for the intensive type of listening performance and why?
2. How would you go about assessing a student or students in an extensive listening performance environment? Give examples.
3. In an interactive teaching situation, which uses all five of the other types performance, which performance type do you feel you might use more and why?
a. Reactive – This is essentially rote memorization. It is not as valid for an interactive classroom but it may have a small role in correcting pronunciation.
b. Intensive – For stressing specific components of language such as phonemes and intonation or for “imprinting” a phrase.
c. Responsive – Teacher speaks and students respond immediately. It can help with checking comprehension, questions and commands, or clarification.
d. Selective – Finding specific meaning within a longer discourse such as speeches, broadcasts, stories. This is similar to teaching the strategy of picking out the key words in an utterance.
e. Extensive – More effective for lectures and note taking and uses a top down method of teaching.
f. Interactive – Requires integration with speaking and other skills and includes all of the above types of performance. Leads to true, real-world communication.
II. Listening Techniques (Brown 312-317)
a. Bottom-Up – This technique goes from small pieces like phonemes to grammar specifics.
b. Top-Down – More concerned with schemata, which is what the student brings to the classroom.
c. Interactive – An exchange of ideas between two or more people and the effect that they have on each other.
III. Assessment (Brown 318-319)
a. Intensive Listening Tasks – More about distinguishing pieces of language such as phonemic and morphological pairs, stress patterns, recognition and paraphrasing.
b. Responsive Listening Tasks – This is about questions and answers
c. Selective Listening Tasks – Fill in the blanks, verbal responses, chart completion and sentence repetition.
d. Extensive Listening Tasks – Focus is dictation, dialogue, lectures and stories.
e. Interaction – Includes full skills integration and all of the above points including speaking.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. What type of technique would you use for the intensive type of listening performance and why?
2. How would you go about assessing a student or students in an extensive listening performance environment? Give examples.
3. In an interactive teaching situation, which uses all five of the other types performance, which performance type do you feel you might use more and why?
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