UNIT 33 GIVING FEEDBACK

 We should start giving feedback without a grade Brookhart suggests that we teach kids to learn to incorporate our feedback and that we should design similar assignments in which students have opportunity to use the feedback. Research has shown that writing comments is more effective for learning that giving grades (Page, 1958; Butler and Nisan, 1986; Gioka, 2006). I tried this with my Grade 11 Chemistry students after they wrote in their reflection journals. I commented on various points that they made in their journals without giving them a grade. The quality of students’ reflections increased over time.  Furthermore Feedback is giving information to someone about their learning and/or showing them that you have understood (or not) what they have said. In the classroom, teachers can give feedback to learners, and learners can give feedback to teachers or learners can also give feedback to their classmates.

When teachers give feedback to learners, they give them information about their learning. Teacher feedback can focus on learners’ language or skills, the ideas in their work, their behaviour, their attitude to learning or their progress. The written or oral feedback should include guidance on how learners can improve their work.

Nobody is going to teach us how to be a good teacher, it depends on us the determination and the desire to give our best to become the teachers that we really want to become.

Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

UNIT 32 CORRECTING LEARNERS

There are different ways in which we can organize our learners in the classroom. For example, learners can work on their own, as a whole class, in pairs, in teams, in groups. Organizing learners into different working patterns is what we mean by “grouping learners”.

Whole class activities enable students to practice the language at the same time; these help students increasing their  confidence, especially among shy or weaker learners.

Individual activities give students the opportunity to work at their own pace and to focus and organize their thoughts.

Pair and group activities supply students with opportunities for emerging longer turns and fluency through interaction.

We can let students sometimes to work in pairs, groups of three or four people and even large groups according to the number of students we have. We have to remember that if we do this kind of opportunities, we will have to mix the weaker students with the best ones, in that way they will learn from each other and in the end we will have good developed outcomes.

Roles given to each group will help managing the different tasks that students may have at the moment grouping. A teacher never has to put pressure on their students; we just have to monitor their activities letting the class flow go until they have finish.

UNIT 32 CORRECTING LEARNERS

As teachers one of the most difficult tasks that we have is to correct learner’s mistakes and that is because we don’t want to make our students to feel sad or embarrassed. There are many techniques in which we could make our student aware of the mistakes that they are making without hurting their feelings.

Finger correction: Is when we point to the word where the student is wrong, without saying a word.

Gestures: we can use this when we don’t want that our students get interrupted at the time that they are using the target language, we can use gestures to still make our students be aware of the slips they have committed.

Echo corrections. Is when we repeat certain utterances after the students have said something wrong.

We correct learners sometimes when they have made a mistake and we want to show them that something is wrong. There is a range of correction strategies and techniques we can use to indicate (show) that there is a mistake, and the ones we choose depend on a number of different factors, for example the aim of the activity, the age of the learners and the language level of the learners.

Keep on mid that over-correction can result in learners not wanting to say anything in class because they are afraid of making mistakes.

UNIT 31 GROUPING LEARNERS

We can let students sometimes to work in pairs, groups of three or four people and even large groups according to the number of students we have. We have to remember that if we do this kind of opportunities, we will have to mix the weaker students with the best ones, in that way they will learn from each other and in the end we will have good developed outcomes.

Roles given to each group will help managing the different tasks that students may have at the moment grouping. A teacher never has to put pressure on their students; we just have to monitor their activities letting the class flow go until they have finish.

There are different ways in which we can organize our learners in the classroom. For example, learners can work on their own, as a whole class, in pairs, in teams, in groups. Organizing learners into different working patterns is what we mean by “grouping learners”.

Whole class activities enable students to practice the language at the same time; these help students increasing their  confidence, especially among shy or weaker learners.

Individual activities give students the opportunity to work at their own pace and to focus and organize their thoughts.

Pair and group activities supply students with opportunities for emerging longer turns and fluency through interaction.

Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

UNIT 30 TEACHER ROLES

What are teacher’s roles?

There are different roles in the language classroom when talking about teachers. There also different stages in the class to manage the classroom and to be successful guide for learners through the whole lesson.

The different ways of teacher’s behavior and managing the class are called teacher roles. The different teacher’s roles vary according on the teaching approach on the students learning styles and learners needs.

Here is a chart some roles teachers often adopt

Role	The teacher
1.       Planner	Prepares and reflects on the lesson before teaching, anticipates problems and selects, designs and adapts materials.
2.       Manager	Organizes the learning space, makes sure everything in the classroom is running smoothly and sets up rules and routines.
3.       Monitor/Observer	Goes round the class during individual, pair and group work activities.
4.       Facilitator	Provides opportunities for learning, helps learning to access resources and develop learner autonomy
5.       Diagnostician	Works out the causes of learners for help and active about language.
6.       Language resource	Can be used by the learners for help and advice about language.
7.       Assessor	Evaluates the language level and attitudes of the learners by using different means of informal and formal assessment
8.       Rapport builder	Tries to create a good relationship with and between learners.

 

The teacher’s role must be appropriate according to the learner’s progress. The types of activities that were are going to develop with our students must be according to the syllabus we have and also with the content we are teaching.

To finish a  small comment might be added and that is that as Teachers, we have to help our students in order for them to acquire different knowledge about the second language so they will have a competent communication to use according to their needs.

Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

UNIT 29 CATEGORISING LEARNERS MISTAKES

Mistakes can be both good and bad according to the learner process in which they are just playing with the language and they are trying to figure it out how the language works.

Mistakes as we know are either errors or slips.

There are many reasons why students make errors here I’m going to mention some: L1 Interference which is when students think all the time in their first language and that has a consequence on their second language.

Errors are mistakes when the learner does not know the language, this happen very often at the time of the process of learning a new language.

Slips: are kind of developmental error which occurs in the class but mainly students can correct them and will overcome the problems of fossilization.

Fossilization: is when a word wrongly acquired or learned got stuck in our brain and is difficult to correct because is in our brain memory. This can be resolved by lots of repetitions “drills” in which the language repeats the vocabulary wrongly acquired.

Mistakes can be oral or written, with the teachers help this kind of mistakes can be corrected.

Learners can lose motivation and the disire of learning the language if we try to correct every single mistake they make, thats why a teacher must know the right time when to correct these language falences.

Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

UNIT 28 IDENTIFYING THE FUNCTIONS OF LEARNERS LANGUAGE

To identify the different function of the language we must know what a language function is.

Functions of learners are the purposes for which learners use the language in the classroom. These purposes include taking parts in activities, interacting with the teacher and among students. Students might use different language functions as they take part in different parts of the lesson.

Some examples in which students might be using this sort of language are:

Greeting

Explaining

Suggesting

Checking instructions

Negotiating

Agreeing

Disagreeing

Prompting

Learners need a range of exponents so that they will be able to interact appropriately among them and also with the teacher.

Mostly in classrooms learners will use components which are kind of neutral in style. In some contexts the same words won be able to fit because that depends if students are learning for different purposes like for example: business, commerce, economics etc.
Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

UNIT 27 USING LANGUAGE APPROPIATELY FOR A RANGE OF CLASSROOM FUNCTIONS

How do we select language appropriately for a range of classroom functions? Well classroom functions are the purposes for which we use the language in the classroom. These factions are many and they are also varied.

Every single word or phrase we use in the classroom will have some sort of impact at the moment of imparting our classes; therefore we have to be careful at the moment and the manner of saying such phrase because sometimes our students might the wrong approach.

Between the different functions and exponent we might find the following

Getting learners attention, instructing, modeling, encouraging, nominating, prompting, formality or informality

Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

UNIT 26 SELECTION AND USE OF TEACHING AIDS

The main question right here would be, how do we select and use teaching aids?. Well the answer is very simple but first of all we have to know what teaching aids are.
Teaching aids are the resources and all the equipment available that we can use in the classroom, these are not only referring to technological resources if not to all the resources that we can bring to the classroom these can be: Whiteboards, computers, dvd players, cd players, overhead projectors, visual aids, realia, all these resources can help us to do a more didactic class which is going to help us to develop lots of fun activities.

Realia: Are real objects that we as teachers we can bring into the classroom.

Flashcards: Can be used to teach individual words, these are pictures of objects as prompts for practicing grammatical structures.

Puppets: Are an excellent resource for teaching young learners. These are toys made of cloth which helps students to get into a speaking interaction. These instruments are good for shy students which can verily talk among their partners.

Charts: are posters that we can stick around the class as extra information on vocabulary, lexicon or other information related to our class.

The teacher: can use hand gestures, facial expressions, and mime, she or him can use this strategy to show and teach vocabulary to their students.

Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

UNIT 25 SELECTION AND USE OF SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS AND ACTIVITIES

As we know in education and specially when teaching a second language, we must have a diverse choice of supplementary materials for our classes, the use of books which include grammar, vocabulary, phonology practice materials, collections of communicative activities, teacher’s resources and web materials. Supplementary materials could be also newspapers, magazines, articles videos, etc. these types of materials are called authentic sources.

To fit these materials into our syllabus, we have to get the right choice from them, according to the purpose we want to gain from those sources and answering the question will be adequate according to my student’s level? If we do that we will have a successful class with a huge variety of learning opportunities for our students.

Here there are some selection of classroom aids

Aids:

Resources and equipment available to use in the classroom, as well as the resources we can bring into the classroom are:

•          Cassette recorders

•          CD players

•          Video recorders

•          Overhead projectors

•          Beamer

•          Visual aids

•          Realia

•          Flashcards

•          Puppets

Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

UNIT 24 SELECTION AND USE OF COURSEBOOK MATERIALS

One of the main questions to answer while we select to use coursebook materials would be how do we select and use coursebook materials?

 Coursebook materials are all the materials in coursebook package that we use in a classroom. Teachers often base their selection of teaching material on a “needs analysis”. Here we have to think carefully on the things

To build up a class profile we have to consider the gender, the amount of students we have, the age, the average of percentage of students.

To choose our coursebook, we need to answer some important questions. The right chose depends on the answers to those questions: Is the material visually attractive? Is the material well organized? Is it culturally appropriate? Is it suitable for your learners’ age and their needs and interests? Will the topics be motivating to suit their age, gender, experience, and personal interests of your learners? Is the material at the right level? Does it give learners enough opportunities to use the language?

In case that we couldn’t have the expectations we had about the coursebooks, we should do the following.

·         Replace the coursebook material.

·         You need to use materials with the same focus/aims from the other resource.

·         Some examples: teachers’ website or supplementary materials.

·         The other choice is to adapt the coursebook material.

·         You can change it to make it suitable for you students.

·         There are many ways you can use to adapt material that is not suitable. Here are some ideas
Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

UNIT 23 CONSULTING REFERENCE RESOURCES TO HELP IN LESSON PREPARATION

The main question in this unit would it be how do we consult reference resources?

First of all we have to know what reference resources are. Reference resources are all the sources of information about language and about teaching that we can refer to for help in lesson preparation. They include reference materials.

Reference materials are: dictionaries, books, grammar books articles, magazines about the language.

Supplementary materials in a coursebook: Phonetic charts, list of irregular verbs, websites on the internet.

As well as the materials are considered as resource materials, we have to consider that people are also called resources like the department of colleagues who teach foreign languages or from other subjects.

All the materials or resources can be found in physical or on the net, so it is important that if we use the internet, we have to find relevant information.
When we think about other kind of resources to help our lesson preparation, we have to denote the necessities that our students have and also what we expect from them. As teachers, we have to push forward our students spectations by pointing different tasks to be developed.
Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

UNIT 22 CHOOSING ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES

Assessment means collecting information about learner’s performance, progress or attitudes in order to make judgments about students learners. At the moment of assessing students, we can choose from informal or formal assessment.

Informal Assessment: this type of assessment can be taken just by monitoring a lesson

Formal Assessment: this kind of assessment might be taken through tests and examinations and grade will be given to the students.

These are some types of assessment

1.      Cloze test

2.      Gap-fill

3.      Jumbled sentences

4.      Sentence transformation

5.      Proofreading

6.      Multiple-choice questions

7.      True/False/Don’t know (T/F/DK) questions

8.      Information transfer

9.      Matching

10.  Sequencing

11.  Dictation

12.  Summary writing

13.  Guided discovery

14.  Interview

15.  Information-gap

  In Conclusion at the time of assessing students, we have to mix both informal and formal assessment because not everything needs a grade. We also have to understand that not every student is going to respond as the way we would like.

Here there are some cites in which you’ll be able to find more information about assessing students.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/formal-versus-informal-assessments

http://www.uri.edu/hss/education/to/assess_stu_learning.pdf
Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.