sábado, julio 17, 2010

INNOVATIONS

Teaching Demo

Phrasal Verbs Plan
Outline
1. Lead in
Put 3 dashes on the board _ _ _.
Tell student to guess the verb (get). Elicit an example of a ‘get’ phrasal verb that they know e.g. get on with.
Students then brainstorm phrasal verbs they already know with get.
Write these on the board.

Tip: Tell students there are around 10,000 phrasal verbs in the English language
and elicit from students why they are so important. Highlight the following
information:
1) English speakers tend to use the phrasal verb rather than the Latin based
equivalent (e.g. give out /distribute, put up with/ tolerate etc) and so they are
high-frequency.
2) Understanding phrasal verbs therefore is very important but often it is difficult to understand the meaning of a phrasal verb from their individual components e.g. put up with.

2. Presentation of phrasal verbs
Provide a context for ten phrasal verbs with get which the students will use in later stages of the lesson.
The dialogue on worksheet 1 also provides a model for the dialogue writing activity in stage 5.
Tell the students they are going to read a conversation between two people. Hold up flashcards of two people and students guess their job. They are actors. Elicit names for the actor and actress (e.g. Peter and Susan). Tell the students the two actors are now working on a film together and are having a chat about working on their latest film.
Write the following questions on the board.
Are Peter and Susan enjoying working on their latest film?
Hand out worksheet 1. Tell the students to read the dialogue and answer the above question.
Feedback from the students that Peter and Susan are not enjoying working on their latest film.
Now ask the students to read the dialogue again and underline all the phrasal verbs with ‘get’.
After completion students compare with their partners to check they have underlined the same verbs.

3. Checking Meaning
Handout the worksheet 2 to the students. Allow students 5 minutes to complete the exercise.
Feedback answers together.
Answers: A – 7, B –8, C – 4, D – 1, E - 9, F – 10, G – 2, H – 5, I – 6, J – 3

4. Gap Fill
Give the students the gap fill worksheet 3.
Allow 5 minutes to complete the exercise. Check answers as a class.
Answers
1) get off lightly
2) get rid of
3) get away with
4) got over
5) get out of
6) get through
7) get up to
8) get wound up
9) get on with

5. Preparing the written conversation
Working in pairs, students need one piece of paper between them.
Tell students that they are going to create a written conversation similar to the Brad and Nicole dialogue.

Tell students to write down;
1) the names of two people (students in the class, or famous people).
2) the place where these people are having the conversation
3) the topic they are talking about

Now demonstrate the activity in front of the whole class with a student. Elicit where they are having the conversation (e.g. in a museum) and what they are talking about (e.g. football).

Now ask students the following instructions checking questions about the activity:
• Do you discuss together what you write? (no, it is a spontaneous written conversation)
• Is it like chatting on the internet? (yes)
• Does each person write? (yes)

Tell students to write a conversation between their two people as demonstrated. Tell the students they have to include 6 phrasal verbs with ‘get’ in the conversation.

Give the students around 15 minutes to write the conversations. The teacher needs to monitor this task carefully paying particular attention to the students’ use of the phrasal verbs.
Tell the students that they will now perform their conversations in front of the class. Allow the students time to practice reading them out. Students then perform the conversations in front of the class.

6. Card Game (Extended speaking practice)
Before the lesson chop up the discussion cards (on worksheet 4).

Students work in groups of 3 and have a set of cards between them. They put the cards face down on the table between them. Demonstrate the activity with two students. Nominate one of the students to pick up the first card. He/She asks the question on the card to you and the other student.
You both answer the question. Take it in turns to pick up the question cards and ask the questions.

Tip: This activity should take approximately 15 minutes. The teacher monitors the
speaking activity making notes on any mistakes (and very good use of language)
made with the phrasal verbs.

After the speaking activity the teacher writes a few mistakes (and very good use of language). Give students time to correct the mistakes. The teacher then elicits ideas and corrects the sentences as necessary on the board.

7. Suggested follow-up activity
discuss strategies which students have already used when learning phrasal verbs. It’s a good idea to give your own suggestions
www.teachingenglish.org.uk

Plan Analysis

A teacher is a person who provides schooling for others. A teacher who facilitates education for an individual student may also be described as a personal tutor. The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out by way of occupation or profession at a school or other place of formal education. Teachers may use a lesson plan to facilitate student learning, providing a course of study which covers a standardized curriculum. But do a lesson plan is kind of difficult sometimes when you realize that you have a family to dedicate time, you have social life out, and the most important you do not have time to prepare a innovative lesson plan.
As a profession, teaching has very high levels of stress which are listed as amongst the highest of any profession in some countries. The degree of this problem is becoming increasingly recognized and support systems are being put into place.
There are many factors that contribute to stress among teachers. These factors include the amount of time spent in class, preparing for class, prepare a lesson plan, counseling students, and traveling to teacher conferences; working with a large number of students with various needs, abilities, disabilities, and cognitive levels; learning new technology; changes in administrative leadership; lack of financial and personnel support; and time pressures and deadlines. While trying to deal with these issues teachers also have to deal with personal problems and issues. These stresses can also affect teaching quality.
There are many healthy and unhealthy forms of stress management. Finding time and ways to relax, developing a healthy lifestyle, accepting what cannot be changed, and avoiding unnecessary stress are all ways to deal with the stresses of teaching.
For those reasons, this plan really helps in many ways to innovate in the teaching process, because it is easy to apply and work on it. It gives different practices that help students to learn step by step because it is well organized in order to develop the knowledge. Sometimes teachers do not want to complicated their jobs and they keep doing the same practices without taking into account what students want and with this plan students can feel identify with some of the practices because are implemented for students interest. And in many of the practices or exercises the student is the one who built the knowledge. Something very important is that students really learn or become interested in the class because unfortunately most of Costaricans teachers are always fallow the same routine (which make students get bored), maybe because they are scared of innovate or something else, however as this plan show us, you can innovate by doing simple things and challenge yourself to find new things.
This plan really innovates and helps us to enjoy with our students a lesson totally different from the other ones.

sábado, junio 05, 2010

INNOVATIONS

DEFINING EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION

This article is based on different language teaching innovations and why some ideas spread while others do not.

First, there are some goals to understand why sociocultural patterns affect the implementation of innovations. Educational language teaching professionals must have as part of their intellectual preparation, the educational change. Second, curriculum development and teacher development are inseparable issues.

What the idea projects, is that cultural, economic, political and some other factor mediate the possibility of change and that exists some limitations. All innovation is risky and fraught with difficulty. This is relevant because many teachers and principals must reinvent their classes. A critical understanding of important issues is reach just by mixing the practice and theory of innovations. Is important to understand that this sociocultural factor can vary a project’s success depending on the place it occurs. Some examples of innovations:

· The notional –functional syllabus= seeks the needs of adult learners as being quite different from those of secondary school students. They require foreign language instruction that is geared to specific professional and personal needs. It was innovative in two aspects:

o Based on learner communication oriented approach to language instruction.

o Was analytic rather than synthetic.

· The process syllabus= Promotes innovation through a problem-solving model change. In this syllabus, content, materials, methodology and assessment are negotiated between instructor and the learner’s through the course. They can help to select course content and material on how they want to be taught and assed.

· Natural approach= created to meet needs of beginning and early- intermediate adult learners. Monitor hypothesis is conformed by 5 hypothesis:

o Can be used just for monitor or edit output.

o Learners acquire syntax and vocabulary by guessing and inferring the meaning of linguistic information.

o There’s a natural and predictable order of development in which learners acquire the grammatical structures of the target language.

o Effective factor such as, self-esteem, anxiety and social and psychological

o Distance can impede learner’s progress in the target language.

o Promotes communication in the target language rather than focus on its structure. Also, teachers should allow linguistic competence to emerge over time and error correction should focus on meaning, not grammatical form.

· Procedural syllabus= was initiated because of dissatisfaction with the grammar translation method. Second, it develops a meaning-focused methodology in which students learn language by communicating. The idea of using games to promote communicative language use predates the the beginning of the project.

· Task based language teaching= focuses on analytic activities and material. Contributes to work in different groups based on top-down activities.

· Context based approach= means that language learning is contextualized and purposeful.

· Produces declarative and procedural. So, students will gain procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge. Innovations which focus in the content are very important because with this activity teachers can attract and transform classes into interactive and effective songs.

Implications for educational change

Curricular innovation is complex. Is an activity affected by ethical and systemic constraints like that one must learn by doing the thing

A diffusionist perspective on curricular innovation involves:

Explaining differences in the rates of adoption by users in terms of potential adopters’ and social characteristics, variables and attributes of innovation.

Understanding the personal and social consequences of innovations and analyzing how change may be designed, implemented and maintained.

Characteristics of a renewed and innovative pedagogical practice.

It should not be routinize a conscious act and enable a good atmosphere in the classroom, participation, permanent interactions between teacher and students.

A place where a holistic view of knowledge is stimulated.

Where students’ interest in learning is awakened.

lunes, mayo 31, 2010

ANNIE SULLIVAN


ANNIE SULLIVAN

I’m a Teacher…

Annie Sulllivan is the one who called my attention. This is for many reasons. It’s true that there are lots of good teachers, people who give everything they have for their passion. But, Annie Sullivan is a clear mirror representing the spirit and hope of those who instead of circumstances and the hard path they face; always do their best and get rid of troubles and bad moments.

The most important as a teacher is following our intuition, keep a clear mind and be patiente. Just do our duties.

“Are you a street sweeper? So, be the greatest one”

It doesn’t matter what your job is, the truly important is be the best on what you do.

HAYLEN.C.V

Teacher's Prayer

Lord, Please help me,
To strengthen their voices,
bodies and minds,
To express their feelings and
control them sometimes,
To explore what's near
and venture afar,
But most important to love
who they are.

sábado, mayo 29, 2010