Welcome to my blog. I use it to share activities with my English students and with teachers in different training workshops. If you like what you see, why not leave a comment?
Can you find the words that are pronounced differently between a British and General North American accent? Click the picture to make it full sized and then use the annotate function to mark the words.
Click to view the full sized image.
Task 2:Classify the Question Types
It's important to become familiar with the types of questions typically asked in this section of the exam. Click the link and find the tab for your group. Then read the questions and classify them.
Design and Evaluation of Training Programs - Week 7 - Critical Reflection in Teacher Development
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 7 of the course Design and Evaluation of Teacher Training Programs and Workshops for the Master's in English Teaching at ULACIT. Today we will do several activities to explore the topics of film analysis, and reflective practice as professional development strategies, discuss the ADDIE model for training development, and review a framework for connecting content, learning goals, and activities.
Today's Goals:
Explore the ways that film analysis can serve as an entry point for reflecting on teaching.
Discuss the role of reflective practice in the process of ongoing professional development and as a problem solving strategy.
...
Guiding Questions:
How can fictional depictions of teachers and learners provide insight into the teaching-learning process?
What is reflective practice and why should it be an essential skill for teachers?
What are the aims of my training course and what objectives do I need to achieve them?
Warm Up: Memorable Fictional Teachers
What teachers can you think of from fictional books, movies, TV shows, and cartoons? What were they link? Were they "good" teachers? Why or why not?
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Richards (2017) suggests the use of fictional teachers and classroom scenes as artefacts of analysis to promote discussion and reflection. Watch the film clip below and be ready to discuss the following questions.
What teacher qualities are depicted?
How do the students view the teacher?
What kind of interaction takes place between the teacher and the students?
What assumptions about teaching and learning does the clip seem to be making?
What would you change if you could re-shoot this scene? - e.g. to make it more realistic? Contextualized for Costa Rican teachers in 2022?
Task 1: Sharing your PD Journal
Let's take a moment to share one of the entries you made in your PD Journal in Week 6. As you share your highlight, let's think about how this tip connects to how we as individual teachers can develop in our practice and how we as trainers can use these techniques to support teacher growth with teachers we work with.
Engage in Critical Reflection
Learn how to engage in critcal reflection
Taek part in group problem solving
Use clips from movies or extracts from fiction to explore teaching
Try doing something different
Click to view full size image.
Task 2: Defining Critical Reflection
Richards (2017) discusses the importance of critical reflection as a professional development strategy in chapter 19, but what is critical reflection? Read the following definitions taken from Farrell (2019, pp. 16-17). What do they have in common? How are they different?
Human activity in which people recapture their experience and think about it.
We can stand outside ourselves and come to a clearer understanding of what we do.
A moral as well as rational process of deciding what ought to be done in a practical situation.
The process of making sense of one's experiences by examining one's thoughts and actions to arrive at new ways of understanding one's self as a teacher.
The mental process of structuring or restructuring an experience, a problem, or existing knowledge or insights.
Not an end in itself, but a tool or vehicle used in the transformation of raw experience into meaning-filled theory that is grounded in experience.
A holistic way of meeting and responding to problems, a way of being as a teacher that emancipates us from merely impulsive and routine activity, and enables us to direct our actions and know what we are about when we act.
Farrell takes a principled approach to reflective practice. He outlines these six interconnected principles that effective reflective practice entails:
Reflective practice is holistic.
It is evidence-based.
It involves dialogue.
It bridges principles and practices.
It requries an inquiring disposition.
It is a way of life.
Task 3: Levels of Reflection
Critical Reflection or Reflective Practice is a skill that one can learn and get better at. Some authors prefer to view reflective practice in terms of levels of reflection meaning that as a teacher becomes more skilled, they are able to reflect to higher levels of abstraction. Click your group link below to take your quiz. Make sure you each go to a different section of the document. When you finish, discuss your results.
Check Your Level: Authors might differ on their particular descripion of the levels of reflection but there are generally recognized to be at least three. Farrell (2019, pp. 24-25) cites Day's model.
Descriptive: Teachers focus their reflections on behavioral actions. This involves a focus on teacher skills. (Scores below 75)
Conceptual: Teachers also include justifications of their actions based on current theories of teaching. This involves articulating a rationale for practice. (Scores 75-104)
Critical: Teacher include both descriptive and conceptual reflections but also look beyond theories and practices to examine their meaning within ethical, moral, and social ramifications. This involves examining the socio-political, moral, and ethical results of practice. (Scores 105-120)
Task 4: Cycles of Reflection
Other authors prefer to think about reflective practice in terms of an ongoing iterative process of continual refinement and exporation. Flip through the cyclical or iterative reflective practice models in the Google Slides presentation below. What do you think they mean? What elements do they seem to have in common? What is different?
So What? Why should we concern ourselves with critical reflection or reflective practice? Can't we just train teachers to have all the knowlege and skills they will need to be effective in the classroom?
Task 5: Reading Response
Last week you completed the second part of the Linkedin Learning Course and you were asked these questions.
What are three takeaway ideas from this section of the course?
For each idea explain why you chose it and give a specific example about how it can be applied to the context of designing a training course for teachers.
A Breakdown of the ADDIE model: In this section of the online course, the instructor went through the different stages of the ADDIE model.
Analyze: What to train? What to leave out?
Readiness? - Why will this benefit the learner?
Experience? - What relevant prior experience do the learners have?
Application? - How will the learners apply this?
Design: Determine your delivery method, activities, and the length of the training.
Rationale?
Objective?
Activity?
Evaluation?
Feedback?
Develop: Create the materials and activities. Your design may be modified based on discoveries made during the development stage.
Implement: Try it out.
Evaluate: Assess the effectiveness of the course.
Does the training work?
How could it be improved?
Who achieved the goals?
What % achieved the goals?
Task 4: Project Check-In
So far what have we done? We have chosen a general topic of the training, carried out a needs and context analysis, and began the process of brainstorming possible content and ways of structuring the course. However, we are still missing a major part that can help you put the pieces together with your design, the objectives!
Click to see full sized image.
The Backward Design framework is a very helpful way to get started. How does it work?
Identify Desired Results: Start with your content and ask yourself, "What do I want learners to know or be able to do by the end of the training?"
Determine Acceptable Evidence: Ask yourself, "What can trainees do to show me that they have learned?"
Plan Learning Experiences: If you know where you want the trainees to end up, what do they need to do to get there?
References:
Farrell, T. (2019). Reflective Practice in ELT. Equinox Publishing Ltd.
Graves, K. (2000). Designing Language Courses. National Geographic Learning.
Richards, J. (2017). Jack C Richard's 50 Tips for Teacher Development. Cambridge University Press.
Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Devleopment.
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 7 of the course Teaching Grammar for the Licenciatura in English Teaching at ULACIT. In this class we will do several activities to explore the topic of functional approaches to grammar teaching. We will also consider the importance of the concept of genre in language teaching and we will participate in a demo lesson following the Teaching-Learning Cycle. Finally, we will begin working on your Grammar Syllabus Proposal project.
Today's Goals:
Discuss the principle features of a functional approach to grammar teaching.
Follow the Teaching-Learning Cycle to discover the features of a text genre.
Review the stages of the Grammar Syllabus Proposal project.
Guiding Questions:
What are the features of a functional approach to grammar teaching?
What is the Teaching-Learning Cycle and how can it help your students develop their genre competence?
What grammatical forms can help my students achieve a communicative aim?
Warm Up: Movie Preferences
Click the link below, find your name in the document, and answer the questions.
Take 7 minutes to discuss the following questions with your partners related to reading your did for this week.
What do you understand to be the difference between structural and functional approaches to grammar?
The chapter introduced to important concepts with confusingly similar names. What did you understand was the difference between:
Focus on Form (FonF)
Focus on Forms (FonFS)
The chapter introduced the concept of Communicative Competence, which itself is composed of four related ideas. What can you say about the following ideas?
Grammatical Competence
Sociolinguistic Competence
Discourse Competence
Strategic Competence
What does the term genre refer to? How is it related to the concept of discourse?
Look at the graphic below that describes the steps in the Teaching-Learning Cycle for teaching genre. What are the steps of the cycle and how does it work?
The Teaching-Learning Cycle
Click to view full size image.
Task 2: Teaching-Learning Cycle Demo
In this chapter you read about functional approaches to teaching grammar. Functional approaches a focused on purposeful and effective use of the language to accomplish different communicative acts. This means that teachers need to be aware of the interaction between grammar and discourse conventions according to genre and context. Burns suggests the use of the Teaching-Learning Cycle as a method for helping students develop genre awareness and competence.
Activity 1: Discuss these questions with your partner. Then move on to the next activity.
Have you ever received a rejection letter or email?
If so, what did it say? If not, what do you think a letter like this should contain?
Who would probably send a rejection letter?
When would the letter be sent?
What should the tone of the letter be?
How does the writer probably want the reader to feel?
What is its purpose? What details does it need to express and why?
Activity 2: Click your group link below and following the instructions in the document.
For one of your group projects this term you will create a proposal for a syllabus for a conversational English course. You will generate the language content for this syllabus by following a step by step process to select grammar, vocabulary, and learning tasks related to Can Do descriptors from the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Then you will make decisions about how to sequence your content into units and you will write a brief synthesis paper describing the design choices you made.
Burns, A. (2016). Functional Approaches to Teaching Grammar in the Second Langauge Classroom. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Teaching English Grammar to Speakers of Other Languages (pp.84-105). Routeledge.
Diseño de Materiales - Week 6 - Coursebook Based Teaching Pt. 1
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 6 of the course Diseño de Materiales in the Licenciatura in English Teaching program at ULACIT. In this class we will begin our two week focus on effective use of coursebooks in ELT. We will begin by debating the pro's and con's of coursebook based teaching before reviewing a principled approach for planning and teaching with coursebooks in a responsible and effective way. We will also take some time to review your research for your Materials and Macroskills paper. .
Today's Goals:
Debate the pros and cons of using a coursebook as the primary didactic material in an ELT program and compare your arguements with ones made in the professional literature.
Review a planning framework for working with coursebooks in a professionally responsible way.
Share findings from your research and brainstorm additional areas of exploration for your macroskills paper.
Guiding Questions:
What are the arguments in favor and against using a coursebook as the primary didactic material in an ELT program?
What principles or frameworks can help teachers make better decisions about how to use coursebook materials?
Task 1: Mini-Debates
In this task you will compete with your partners in three mini-debate tasks. Here are the steps to follow.
Spin the wheel to choose a topic. You now have to defend this statement.
Present your most convincing arguements for 45 seconds.
Your partner then presents his/her arguments against the statement for 45 seconds.
You and your partner express your true opinions about the statment.
Then switch roles and play another round.
Task 2: Pros and Cons of Coursebook Based Teaching
In this activity, you will have a class debate about the pros and cons of coursebook based language teaching. Students in favor will have two minutes to speak. Students against will have two minutes to reply. Then there will be a final two minute period for open discussion. During this time, judges will take notes of the arguments.
Take a moment to review some of the arguments from the professional literature about the dominating influence of coursebook based methodologies in ELT. Use the highlight function to mark any of the ideas that came up in your debate.
Task 4: Materials and Macroskills Research - Input Session
Your Materials and Macroskills research paper is due on March 27th. Take this time to share the ideas you generated through your research task this week. Use the study guide you created to explain the key concepts from the article you read.
Umbrella Topic: Speaking Skills
Guiding Questions: What is involved in second language speaking? How do learners acquire speaking skills? What frameworks, methods, or techniques connected to materials can be used to teach speaking?
Conclusions
Core Idea 1: What is your key idea?
Significance: Why is this idea interesting to you?
Branching Ideas: What are some components, questions, and branching ideas?
Core Idea 2: What is your key idea?
Significance: Why is this idea interesting to you?
Branching Ideas: What are some components, questions, and branching ideas?
Next Steps: What research do you still need to do?
References:
McGrath, I. (2016). Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Edinburgh University Press.
Ur, P. (1991). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.
Introduction: In today's class we begin our two week study of Part 3: Conversations in the listening test. Complete the collaborative tasks below with your partners.
Task 1: Practice Your British Pronunciation
Remember the three tips your teacher showed you to help you better identify pronunciation features of the British accent. With those in mind, pronounce the following sentences first in your regular accent and then repeat them in your best British voice. Have fun with it.
Mark is our teacher.
I can't take a bath after class.
I asked for a bottle of water at the bar.
I hated writing letters. Email is better.
Task 2: Analyzing Conversations
Click your group link below and follow the instructions to analyze the conversation transcripts.
Some general information questions may ask you to identify the location where the conversation takes place or the occupation of the speakers. Click the link below then go to the section that corresponds to your group.
Task 3: Focused Practice - Group Quiz - ID People and Places
Have one member of your group share the screen. Click on the group quiz and complete it with your partners. The first quiz will have you identify people speaking or referred to by the speakers. The second quiz will have you identify the location of the coversation or places mentioned by the speakers. Be sure to check the transcripts for any questions you get wrong.
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 6 of the course Teaching Grammar for the Licenciatura in English Teaching at ULACIT. In this class we will do several activities to explore the concept of discourse, differentiate it from syntax, and discuss the teaching technique of using discourse frames to help students develop their ability to communicate.
Today's Goals:
Share they key ideas of your hot seat question in a 90 second impromptu presentation.
Explore the concept of grammar beyond the sentence level.
Create a sample activity using discourse frames to help students communicate using a target grammar structure.
Guiding Questions:
What is the difference between discourse and syntax?
What insights can I learn by viewing grammar from discourse perspective?
How can I use discourse frames to support my students' language development?
Warm Up: Sharing Our Hot Seat Question Tip
For homework this week you created your Hot Seat video podcast. For our warm up, you will synthesize your podcast in a 90 minute impromptu presentation for your partners in which you mention the grammar point, explain the key concepts learners need to understand, and provide examples of how teachers can clarify these ideas with students. Click play on the video timer and begin your speeches. The following prompts may help you organize your ideas.
The grammar topic I chose was ...
The most important thing for learners to know is ...
For example ...
A way you can help your students understand is ...
Task 1: Putting the Pieces Together
In this activity you will need to arrange a series of sentences into a coherent paragraph. Click your group link below and begin working with your partners. When you finish, discuss the following questions:
How confident are you that you solved the puzzle?
What strategies did you use?
What specific clues from the text told you something about the probable order of the sentences?
In what way does this activity relate to grammar learning and teaching?
Now it is your turn to create a discourse frame activity. Click the link below and go to the section for your group. Choose a grammar structure to focus on and complete the task. You will share your ideas with your partners when you return to the main room.
Extra Resource: CLICK HERE - Discourse frames are not just useful for speaking exercises. They can also be used to help students learn to organize their ideas when writing.
References:
Celece-Murcia, M. (2016). The Importance of the Discourse Level in Understanding and Teaching English Grammar. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Teaching English Grammar to Speakers of Other Languages (pp.3-18). Routeledge.
Folse, K. (2016). Keys to Teaching Grammar to English Language Learners: A Practical Handbook. The University of Michigan Press.
Design and Evaluation of Training Programs - Week 6 - Conceptualizing Training Content
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 6 of the course Design and Evaluation of Teacher Training Programs and Workshops for the Master's in English Teaching at ULACIT. In this class we will do several activities to explore the topics of conceptualizing training content, exploring the use of questions as a teacher professional development strategy, and work with our group members to share our progress with our course project so far.
Today's Goals:
Explore the role of teacher questions in the learning process and reflect on our own use of questions in the classroom.
Discuss strategies for conceptualizing content for a teacher training course.
Share updates on your course project with your group members and discuss possible areas of exploration related to content, input strategies, tasks, and evaluation.
Guiding Questions:
What kinds of questions do I use in the classroom and for what purposes?
What is the role of questions in the process of guiding and supporing the development of teachers?
What content do I intend to cover in my training course proposal?
Warm Up: How do you say,...uh....muletilla?
We all have them, those little fillers, words and phrases that we use all the time which come to characterize the way we speak. Teachers have fillers too. Discuss the following questions with a partner.
Think of a memorable teacher that you had (good or bad). What were some of that teacher's fillers and typical phrases or questions?
What are some of your teacher fillers?
How do you know you have them?
Why do you think you use them?
Do you think they are helpful, harmful, or neutral for students?
What strategies can teachers use to become more aware of the language they use in class?
Task 1: Sharing your PD Journal
Let's take a moment to share one of the entries you made in your PD Journal in Week 5. As you share your highlight, let's think about how this tip connects to how we as individual teachers can develop in our practice and how we as trainers can use these techniques to support teacher growth with teachers we work with.
Review the Language you Use in Teaching
Observe how you use questions
Observe how you give feedback
Use lesson transcripts to explore classroom language
Click to view full size image.
Task 2: Awareness of Teacher Questions
Richards (2017) discusses the importance of observing how you use questions in the classroom in Chapter 5. Let's look at the topic of questions more closely completing the follwing activities.
Last week you read chapter 4 in Graves (2000) called Conceptualizing Content. Discuss the following questions with your partners.
What difficulties have you had in trying to conceptualize the training course you want to propose for your assignments in this course?
Have you found it challenging to think of the goals, general categories of concepts and skills to be addressed, or to identify specific content details?
Have you given thought to how you want to organize all the pieces of your course into a coherent whole?
What other concerns do you have?
Figure 4.1 on page 38 outlines six questions that guide conceptualizing content. Which of these questions have you already given some thought to? Which have you not yet considered?
Click to view full sized version.
Graves devotes a large section of the chapter outlining the kinds of content that can be included in a langauge course which she separates into three major categories:
focus on language
focus on learning and the learner
focus on social context
Now, think from your perspective as a designer of a teacher training course and answer these questions.
Which of those content areas overlap well with potential content areas for teacher training?
What additional category(ies) would you suggest could be used to conceptualize teacher training content?
Task 4: Project Check-In
Take the remainder of class time to share your progress, ideas, and concerns about the project for this course. Share your ideas from the content brainstorming activity.
What parts of your training are more solidly addressed?
Which areas need more work?
Click to see full sized image.
You were also asked to begin organizing your brainstormed ideas into a mind map to begin thinking about how you might structure the course, how the pieces relate, and identify areas that still need to be elaborated. Take a moment to share your mindmap and give comments to your peers.
References:
Darn, S. (2017). Asking Questions. ESOL Nexus. British Council. Retrieved from: https://esol.britishcouncil.org/content/teachers/staff-room/teaching-articles/asking-questions
Graves, K. (2000). Designing Language Courses. National Geographic Learning.
Richards, J. (2017). Jack C Richard's 50 Tips for Teacher Development. Cambridge University Press.
