Informal v. formal assessment For tests: Warm up (don’t make it instantly hard) Let Ss know how they will be assessed Let Ss check for comprehension of transactional language of test before beginning Make sure you’re assessing your goals, so Ss know what to prepare for Don’t use assessment as threat or punishment Sometimes not…
Week Reading Culture Writing Likely Grammar Points Week 1 THE FOLK STORY Aesop: Lion & the Mouse (Greek) Intro narrative storyline Identifying key words before reading (S) Sentence strips Phrasal verb collection (S) Ice-breakers Community-building Class “scrapbook” Class norms Meaning of name Paraphrasing moral of assigned story (S) Student experience: a personal moral Dialectical journal…
This is a semester-long course for college-age and older students at an intermediate level in an American private school or college. It uses traditional folktales, legends and fables as a tool for developing reading and writing skills, and for examining cultural beliefs and experiences. The class meets twice a week for 2.5 hours each session,…
Reading Develop comprehension strategies and skills that will transfer to reading activities in the future. Objectives: SWBAT… Infer meaning of vocabulary from context. Select key words that carry meaning for the story. Identify topic sentences and major supporting details. Chart a reading on a timeline to identify sequence in the narrative genre. Identify explicit meaning;…
[download sequence] This is a semester-long course for college-age and older students at an intermediate level in an American private school or college. It uses traditional folktales, legends and fables as a tool for developing reading and writing skills, and for examining cultural beliefs and experiences. The class meets twice a week for 2.5 hours…
Linguistically sensitive content teaching (a) versus content based language teaching (b): (a) Teaching geography: testing what they know know about geo, but build writing skills. (b) Texts from geography, teach reading strategy, vocab bldg, ling structures: assessment more linguistic. FOCUS ON LANGUAGE. Tales are tools to get to language.
Linguistically sensitive content teaching (a) versus content-based language teaching (b). (a) Teaching geography: testing what they know know about geo, but build writing skills. (b) Texts from geography, teach reading strategy, vocab bldg, ling structures: assessment more linguistic FOCUS ON LANGUAGE. Tales are tools to get to language.
Specific Goals Affective: Develop a sense of safe community in the classroom, for optimal learning about language and about each other as cultural individuals. Objectives: SWBAT… As a group, develop norms for fostering community Through regular focused group activities, get to know one another, .[foreground this] starting with more neutral topics and moving gradually to…
There are several areas of competency that my students will build during my course, and I will evaluate each during the needs-assessment phase at the start of the session. Goal 1: Develop English competency by exploring narrative structure as a listener, speaker, reader and writer. This goal requires the most astute needs assessment of the…
This theme-based course is geared to high-intermediate to advanced ELs who will have sufficient vocabulary and cognitive skill to learn to use English in order to explore the rich world of traditional international folktales. At the top of the mind map is a line showing “Story Elements”: some of the key features that define the…
Specific Goals Affective: Develop a sense of safe community in the classroom, for optimal learning about language and about each other as cultural individuals. Objectives: SWBAT… As a group, develop norms for fostering community. Through regular focused group activities, get to know one another, starting with more neutral topics and moving gradually to deeper personal…
5.1: Questions about goals and objectives I’m writing this after I read the chapter, so it’s hard to answer. However, here are some of the questions I have had, and will need to reference the book during writing, to make sure I’m heading in the right direction: What is the difference between a goal and…
Fundamental Beliefs about Learning I: I believe that a sense of cohesion among students and teacher — the forging of bonds between individuals to create community — is essential for optimal learning, and that it is the teacher’s responsibility to build that. Consider the classic scenario in grade school classrooms: children uniting against the teacher:…
At the top of my mind map I’ve listed, in very abbreviated form, my overarching goals (rooted in my beliefs) and the expected outcomes for the students I defined in my context statement. Examining several simple folktales I identified a few key elements. Often (certainly not always) they unfold in a linear in somewhat predictable…
What I want my students to learn in the course, given who they are, their needs, the purpose of the course (SWBAT) General Language is creative and intellectually rewarding in other than language-specific ways Communication and mutual understanding is foundational They are capable of producing art with language Four skills are intertwined Content Specific Traditional…
Belief One — I: I believe that a sense of cohesion among students and teacher — the forging of bonds between individuals to create community — is essential for optimal learning, and that it is the teacher’s responsibility to build that. Consider the classic scenario in grade school classrooms: children uniting against the teacher: whispering,…
4.3b: Think of a specific language course which I taught. Which aspects of the chart in Figure 4.4. did the course focus on? Which aspect(s) were the organizing principles for the course? Conceptualizing Content According to Language, Learner & Social Context I’ll focus on my conversation class in Mexico because it was the one for…
1. THOU: I believe that a sense of cohesion among students and teacher — the forging of bonds between individuals to create community — is essential for optimal learning. Consider the classic scenario in grade school classrooms: children uniting against the teacher: whispering, giggling, throwing spitballs and mimicking the instructor behind his or her back…
Students 10–20 US community college or continuing education EL students (male and female) from various language backgrounds (ages 20 and up) Educational experience: Literate in L1 and English (high intermediate to advanced), with some competence in study and composition skills Purpose: To advance communicative and written English skills for educational, professional or enrichment purposes Will…
I am struggling to think of a concrete example that I can dissect, but I can’t. So I’ll invent a hypothetic class from SIT, and there have been some like this. I never watched the clock because I was so engaged. I was having fun or was otherwise mentally occupied, but never on only one…
Major constraints in developing your course & challenges to address for success Will people sign up for the course because they have the interest to sustain them through the work, or will it be because it seems an easy fit for a requirement? The class is predicated on student interest in the topic; how will…
English for teens at a language institute in their country (EFL setting). There are 12 students, 5 boys, 7 girls, 13-14 years old. Class meets in the afternoon for two hours, two days a week, for three months. Why are they taking the classes: their own interest, or requirements of someone else? How much English…
Designing a Language Course is a Work in Progress The classroom is like an ocean: always in flux. Even if the students are the same, their levels of energy or interest or attention or enthusiasm in a given moment continually shifts. What the teacher says, how students feel about each other, the events of their…
