I am very pleased to read Deborah’s article “Technology Tip of the Month” because it has expanded my competency in web searching for needed information. Those tips are really good because they help get the information easily. The script you put as an entry in the search bar determines the efficiency of the findings.
“Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need” states a list of interesting web search engines which are all interesting, but some of them I think are more than the others only because their interfaces are different, they use a lot of ads or they are specialized in certain domains. I have tried many of them using the same entries “ICT for education” and “communication mistakes” +ELT to compare them. Ask, Clusty, ipl2, Wikipedia are quicker and simpler and provide more appealing links. So, I would recommend these for academic but also special searches. As far as the trial I did, Intute’s responses are not quick and efficient and I had to reformulate my entries twice or three times to get something. If your are looking for issues related to the USA, American Memory, usa.gov, library.northwestern.edu, factfinder and many others are great.
In fact, I can not recommend a particular site rather than another one because when I consider these search engines, I usually think of how good they are to English teaching. As a teacher, I know that all of them work well. It only depends on what we want them for. I can choose Americanrhetoric for example to download speeches and make use of them in my classes. I would also go to maps.nationalgeographic.com to make use of maps to teach geography or culture. Of course, these sites are different in terms of content, design, themes and search manner, but I believe that they all might work well for a teacher of English. What do you think?
Showing posts with label Week 2: Reflections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Week 2: Reflections. Show all posts
Friday, April 16, 2010
A Trial to Implement ABCD objective method in an English Class
I usually prepare my lesson plans following a standard sample though with simple changes. I have also known about different ways of formulating objectives and preparing my lessons and even tried some. I have never tried the ABCD method, but I think it is not far away from what we do here. This is, then, my first trial and let’s see how good I am at applying it and what new advantages it would bring to my teaching:
My class is composed of three main parts each of which aims at focusing more on a certain language skill. That is why I would describe it as lesson of integrated skills because it aims at developing reading, speaking and writing respectively. It is also a theme-based lesson because all the activities are on the theme of “house”. This is the way we have been working here in Morocco since the adoption of the Competency-Based Approach in the Moroccan schools. English is, therefore, taught in modules each of which tackles a particular theme and builds particular competencies.
Reading:
My students will be exposed to a short text of three paragraphs about a girl describing her home: location, the type of home, rooms, others parts of the home and why she likes it. The time needed for the whole activity is 15 minutes.
Audience: Elementary level students aged 14 – 17.
Behavior: The students skim and scan the text and answer a comprehension exercise based on the content. They have to recognise key information and fill in a form.
Condition:
• A class of 30 students.
• Prerequisites: the students have studied vocabulary related to house, the present simple, cardinal and ordinal number, simple sentence structure…
• A quick review of cardinal and ordinal numbers and house-related vocabulary.
• The students are given a text supported by a picture showing a building composed of floor and flats. The picture is to be exploited to set the scene before reading the text.
• The students are given 8 minutes to read and fill in the form.
Degree: The students will be able to distinguish between essential and secondary information in a simple text.
Speaking:
The topic is “My Dream Home”. The students will ask and answer each other questions describing the home they dream to have. (25 minutes activity)
Audience: Elementary level students aged 14 – 17.
Behavior: The students use appropriate expressions to talk about their houses.
Condition:
• By the end of the lesson, the students are given a set of questions to ask each other: The are as follows:
- What is your dream home? (a flat, a house, a villa…)
- Where is it?
- How many rooms are there? What are they?
- Are there any other parts? What are they?
- Do you like your dream home? Why?
• Modelling: Teacher gives an example with a chosen good student. Two good students asked to give another example.
• Then the whole class is to be asked to work in pairs to come up with their own dialogues. Timing: 3 minutes.
• Students exchange roles and perform for another 3 minutes.
• Voluntary students come to the front and act their dialogues. Timing: 10 mintutes.
Degree: By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to
Writing:
On the light of the comprehension and speaking activity, the students are to be asked to write a paragraph about their dream home. (20 minutes activity).
Audience: Elementary level students aged 14 – 17.
Behavior: Students use appropriate and correct structures and vocabulary in a simple paragraph structure.
Condition:
• Prerequisites: The students have already studied capital letters, some punctuation markers, simple and short sentences structures with the verbs in the present simple.
• Instructions and the topic should be clarified using the board and the previous comprehension text.
• An example of the paragraph should start should be written on the board: (This is the picture of my dream home. It is …………………………)
• Time for editing is 10 minutes.
• Students should be given a rubric to take into consideration while writing.
• Teacher does around and gives help in need.
• Some students read their productions for the whole class. (5 minutes)
• Correction: peer correction based on a checklist that emphasizes on meaning, punctuation, capitalization and sentence structure. (5 minutes)
Degree: By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to write a short and simple description of a dream house in a paragraph.
Reformulating objectives to one sentence ABCD objectives:
After some more focus and reflection I would summarize the whole thing as follows:
* Reading: Using a short text bescribing a home (Condition), the learners (Audience) will be able to skim and scan a text (Behavior) to disctinguish between essential and secondary information in a text (Degree).
* Speaking: Using given questions (Condition), the students (Audience) will be able to interact with each other (Behavior) to describe homes appropriately (Degree).
* Writing: On the light of the speaking activity above (Condition), the students (Audience)will be able to write (behavior) a short paragraph to describe homes correctly and accurately (Degree).
How does it look now? Looking for your responses.
My class is composed of three main parts each of which aims at focusing more on a certain language skill. That is why I would describe it as lesson of integrated skills because it aims at developing reading, speaking and writing respectively. It is also a theme-based lesson because all the activities are on the theme of “house”. This is the way we have been working here in Morocco since the adoption of the Competency-Based Approach in the Moroccan schools. English is, therefore, taught in modules each of which tackles a particular theme and builds particular competencies.
Reading:
My students will be exposed to a short text of three paragraphs about a girl describing her home: location, the type of home, rooms, others parts of the home and why she likes it. The time needed for the whole activity is 15 minutes.
Audience: Elementary level students aged 14 – 17.
Behavior: The students skim and scan the text and answer a comprehension exercise based on the content. They have to recognise key information and fill in a form.
Condition:
• A class of 30 students.
• Prerequisites: the students have studied vocabulary related to house, the present simple, cardinal and ordinal number, simple sentence structure…
• A quick review of cardinal and ordinal numbers and house-related vocabulary.
• The students are given a text supported by a picture showing a building composed of floor and flats. The picture is to be exploited to set the scene before reading the text.
• The students are given 8 minutes to read and fill in the form.
Degree: The students will be able to distinguish between essential and secondary information in a simple text.
Speaking:
The topic is “My Dream Home”. The students will ask and answer each other questions describing the home they dream to have. (25 minutes activity)
Audience: Elementary level students aged 14 – 17.
Behavior: The students use appropriate expressions to talk about their houses.
Condition:
• By the end of the lesson, the students are given a set of questions to ask each other: The are as follows:
- What is your dream home? (a flat, a house, a villa…)
- Where is it?
- How many rooms are there? What are they?
- Are there any other parts? What are they?
- Do you like your dream home? Why?
• Modelling: Teacher gives an example with a chosen good student. Two good students asked to give another example.
• Then the whole class is to be asked to work in pairs to come up with their own dialogues. Timing: 3 minutes.
• Students exchange roles and perform for another 3 minutes.
• Voluntary students come to the front and act their dialogues. Timing: 10 mintutes.
Degree: By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to
Writing:
On the light of the comprehension and speaking activity, the students are to be asked to write a paragraph about their dream home. (20 minutes activity).
Audience: Elementary level students aged 14 – 17.
Behavior: Students use appropriate and correct structures and vocabulary in a simple paragraph structure.
Condition:
• Prerequisites: The students have already studied capital letters, some punctuation markers, simple and short sentences structures with the verbs in the present simple.
• Instructions and the topic should be clarified using the board and the previous comprehension text.
• An example of the paragraph should start should be written on the board: (This is the picture of my dream home. It is …………………………)
• Time for editing is 10 minutes.
• Students should be given a rubric to take into consideration while writing.
• Teacher does around and gives help in need.
• Some students read their productions for the whole class. (5 minutes)
• Correction: peer correction based on a checklist that emphasizes on meaning, punctuation, capitalization and sentence structure. (5 minutes)
Degree: By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to write a short and simple description of a dream house in a paragraph.
Reformulating objectives to one sentence ABCD objectives:
After some more focus and reflection I would summarize the whole thing as follows:
* Reading: Using a short text bescribing a home (Condition), the learners (Audience) will be able to skim and scan a text (Behavior) to disctinguish between essential and secondary information in a text (Degree).
* Speaking: Using given questions (Condition), the students (Audience) will be able to interact with each other (Behavior) to describe homes appropriately (Degree).
* Writing: On the light of the speaking activity above (Condition), the students (Audience)will be able to write (behavior) a short paragraph to describe homes correctly and accurately (Degree).
How does it look now? Looking for your responses.
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