12th Grade Areas for Consideration in Training Sessions ACtion Pack 12
Twelfth Grade ========================= This is the text version of the PowerPoint Presentation =============================== Slide 1 Methodology Topic-based modules Clear objectives, clear outcomes Process approach to skills Comprehensive skills development Discovery approach to grammar 3-dimensional approach to vocabulary Pronunciation Recycling Learner development Assessment Model Lesson Plans for differentiation (both ends of bell curve) =============================== Comments: The basic premise of Action Pack 12 is that secondary students learn English best when they are dealing with interesting and meaningful text. This program's methodology is based upon the most recent research on learner development and foreign language acquisition & instruction. I almost think of the methodology as architecture. Tell me about your English classes. Age of learners (birthday) Number of pupils in a classroom. How often do they meet for English and how long are the periods? Do teachers have their own classrooms, or do they travel? =============================== Slide 2 Clear Objectives & Clear Outcomes Clear direction for learning. Modules, lessons & tasks Carefully worked-out stages Clear communicative outcomes Student Book Contents (TB13) Warm-up sub-topics/lessons w/ corresponding grammar 6 skills Communications Workshop (writing & speaking) Review
=============================== Comments: One of the key advantages of this program is that throughout the course, there is a clear direction for learning. Modules, lessons and tasks all have carefully worked-out stages and all lead up to clear communicative outcomes. In the Teacher's Book, Please notice how the arrangement is divided into the Lesson, the Language and the Skills. Start with a warm-up. The sub-topics/lessons are listed with their corresponding grammar & skills activities. This is followed by the Communications Activities for both writing & speaking. And finally the Review section. In this case, grammar, vocabulary & pronunciation are reviewed. ============================= Slide 3 Clear Objectives & Clear Outcomes
Stage 1, Warm-up Introduces module topic; key vocabulary; objective box (clear signposts) Stage 2 - main input lessons Grammar Focus (contextual grammar input) Skill Focus (communication strategies) Stage 3 - Performance Communication Workshop using lesson strategies & language Stage 4 - Review/reflection Revision of module main language Activity Book Check Your Progress =============================== Comments Stage 1, Warm-up Introduces students to the module topic. It prepares students by focusing on key vocabulary areas and involves them through listening and personalization activities. Module objective give students clear signposts as to what they'll be studying in the module. Stage 2 - main input lessons, are Grammar Focus lessons which provide grammatical input within the context of the theme. The remaining lessons are Skill Focus lessons, which develop all 4 skills and provide students with strategies for dealing with communication. Stage 3 - Performance Each module builds up to a Communication Workshop. These include writing and speaking tasks which enable students to use the strategies and language they have acquired throughout the module. Stage 4 - Review/Reflection This lesson contains revision of the main language from the module. It is backed up in the Activity Book by "test yourself" activities which enables students to reflect on what they have learnt in each module.. =============================== Slide 4 Clear Objectives & Clear Outcomes
The Lessons Lesson structure mirrors module structure. Stage 1, Before you start Stage 2, Main input Stage 3, Main performance (production stage) =============================== Comments: The structure of the lessons mirrors the module structure by following the same basic stages of learning. Stages 1-3 Stage 1, Before you start (warm-ups) Stage 2, Main input (Skills Focus lessons, listening & reading, followed by a focus on vocabulary. Grammar Focus lessons. Stage 3, Main performance - all lessons lead up to a productive stage. In skills lessons there are writing & speaking activities. In grammar lessons, there are freer written or oral grammar practice. =============================== Slide 5 Clear Objectives & Clear Outcomes
The Tasks Communication Workshop (SB16,17; TB28,29) Before you start Writing Workshop (Writing a Report) Model text, work on style, linking & organization Speaking Workshop (A Discussion) Function File Pronunciation exercise/communication strategies Stage 1, Preparation Brainstorming, paragraph ideas, planning, rehearsing Stage 2, Performance Speaking task or written draft Stage 3, Reflection Writing Workshop Talkback stage =============================== Comments The tasks in the Communication Workshop are all staged in the following way: Before you start - In this stage students are prepared or doing the task. In the Writing Workshop, there is a model text plus work on style, linking and organization. In the Speaking Workshop, the input phase includes a Function File, a short pronunciation exercise and work on communication strategies. Stage 1 - Preparation Includes brainstorming ideas, writing paragraph plans, planning what they are going to say, rehearsing useful words & expressions. Stage 2 - Performance Use notes & ideas from the Preparation Stage either to perform the speaking task (roleplay/discussion) or to write a draft of their composition. Stage 3 - Reflection In the Writing Workshop, when students have finished writing they are encouraged to check their work & improve it, before giving it to their partners. Then, in the Talkback Stage, students think about what they have written, react to what their partners have written or assess their own performance. =============================== Slide 6 Clear Objectives & Clear Outcomes
The Modules, the Lessons & the Tasks Clarity of direction Builds confidence Motivates students Fosters independent learning Teacher support Plan interesting & rounded lessons Manage class more effectively Assess communicative performance of students =============================== Comments: WHY DO I HAVE TO FOLLOW THIS? This clarity of direction is not only confidence-building and motivating for students but also helps to foster independent learning (about which we'll speak a bit more) This approach enables the teacher to plan interesting and rounded lessons, manage the class more effectively and assess the communicative performance of students. =============================== Slide 7 Process Approach to Skills What does this mean? Educational research What do we do? Focus on actual process of communication to develop the 4 skills. Focus helps communication both in English and in Arabic =============================== Comments: So what in the world does a process approach to skills mean? You'll remember that we spoke about educational research on learning and child development. We know that the development of all 4 skills (reading, listening, writing & speaking) requires a clear and explicit focus on the actual process of communication. This focus helps students deal with communication in English, and, at the same time, increases their awareness of communication in their own language. =============================== Slide 8 Process Approach to Skills Strategies (Reading, SB8;Listening, SB12) Strategies boxes; step-by-step procedures Systematically developed & recycled Staging (Communication Workshop, TB28,29) Task achievement, confidence, communication awareness Integration of skills Efficiency itself! Transfer information & ideas to other skills activities. =============================== Comments: So we talk about strategies, staging, and the integration of skills. Strategies The strategies boxes contain communication strategies which help students deal with and overcome communication problems. The strategies are systematically developed & recycled throughout all the levels of Jordon Opportunities. Strategies boxes focus explicitly on different stages or aspects of communication and provide students with step-by-step procedures for dealing with them. After that, students have opportunities to carry out the strategies while doing a communicative task. Staging not only helps task achievement and builds confidence, but also develops students' awareness of communication itself. Integration of skills is efficiency itself because students can use the information or ideas from one skills activity while doing another. =============================== Slide 9 Comprehensive Skills Development
Reading, Listening, Writing & Speaking Reading One main reading focus lesson + shorter reading texts in both Grammar Focus lessons. Text types (bios, newspaper, interviews, websites) Task types (predictions, true/false & multiple choice) Reading strategies (detailed analysis, self-assessment) Literature Spots (more extensive reading) Listening (4-7 texts per module) Text types (radio programs & documentaries, dialogs) Task types (predictions, sequencing, identifying speakers) Listening strategies (SB10) =============================== Comments: The 4 skills are developed in a systematic manner (based on what we know about learning). All the important areas of the 4 skills are covered comprehensively. Reading Each module has one main reading focus lesson & there are also shorter reading texts in both of the Grammar Focus lessons. Text types include biography extracts, newspaper stories, interviews, websites, questionnaires, reports, etc. Task types include checking predictions, true/false and multiple choice questions, open-ended and w ho-said-what questions. Reading strategies include detailed analyses, dictionary use, self-assessment, predictions. Literature Spots give students opportunities for more extensive reading. Listening Each module contains 4-7 listening texts. Listening to text types include the following: radio programs & documentaries, dialogs in a variety of contexts, telephone conversations, etc. Include standard British, American & Australian English. Task types include making predictions, identifying speakers, listing & sequencing events, identifying important words. Listening strategies that students have used at earlier levels are recycled & revised. This helps students develop strategies for listening on their own and helps them to focus on contextual elements in dialogs such as style & mood. =============================== Slide 10 Comprehensive Skills Development
Reading, Listening, Writing & Speaking Writing 1 major writing task per module Writing Workshop text types (review, description of place, informal letter, a story) Strategies (brainstorming, note-taking, paragraph planning, drafting & checking content) Talkback stage (read, use & react to each other's writing) Speaking (pair work, group work) Found in each lesson Functions (giving opinions, likes & dislikes) Speaking Workshops (discussion of a painting/pair work) Speaking Strategies (expressing oneself fluently, showing interest in other speakers, making stories exciting, dealing with mistakes) =============================== Comments: Writing - each module has a major writing task in the Writing Workshop. Text types include a report (Mod 1), a review (Mod 2), a description of a place (Mod 3), an informal letter (Mod 4) & a story (Mod 5) Strategies are integrated into the stages of the Writing Workshop, and include brainstorming ideas, audience awareness, paragraph planning, note-taking, drafting and checking content. The Writing Workshops are followed by the Talkback stage where students read, use and react to each other's writing. Speaking activities are found in every lesson. There are also a variety of whole class, pair work & group work activities The following functions are focused on: giving opinions, asking for and giving & refusing permission, expressing likes and dislikes and so forth. The Speaking Workshops have these tasks: pair work discussions of a painting, telling a story, etc. Speaking strategies include interacting, ways of expressing one's self fluently, showing interest while listening, making stories exciting and dealing with mistakes. =============================== Slide 11 Discovery Approach to Grammar What does it mean? Inductive approach (from the specific to the general) 13 major grammar areas Stages of the approach Before you begin Reading & listening; meaning of text Presentation Focus on target grammar items Practice Initial & guided activities; guided written & oral practice Language Problem Solving (every 2 modules) (SB34, TB46) Grammar Summary (SB95-98) Mini-Grammar in Activity Book (AB80) =============================== Comments: The discovery approach in learning grammar is inductive, in which students can discover grammar themselves and work out rules of form and usage before comparing them with those in the Grammar Summary at the end of the SB. Inductive reasoning goes from the specific to the general. Deductive reasoning goes from the general to the specific. You'll remember that Grammar Focus lessons alternate with Skills Focus lessons in each module, and a total of TEN major grammar areas are dealt with. Stages Before you begin - Students first do tasks on reading & listening texts which develop the module topic and introduce a new sub-topic. At this stage, students only concentrate on the meaning of the text. Presentation - In this stage students' attention is focused on the target grammar items in the text. Practice - These are carefully graded & get the students to apply the rules that they may have just discovered. Initial activities, guided activities, and then guided written and oral practice activities. The Language Problem Solving sections come after every 2 modules & focus on particularly difficult areas for most students such as question tags and modal verbs. The Grammar Summary is found in the SB & provides a list of rules and examples. The Mini-Grammar is found in the Activity Book and is a highly comprehensive resource for both students and teachers. =============================== Slide 12 A 3-Dimensional
Approach to Vocabulary Dealing with vocabulary in context Negative strategy vs. reading strategies Focus on words/content = intelligent guessing (SB5) Pre-teaching large vocabulary loads Learning vocabulary in context Key Word boxes Warm-up Vocabulary notebook Using vocabulary in context Working through a module to Communication Workshop Writing Workshops & Writing Help (SB80) Useful vocabulary (SB81) =============================== Comments: Dealing with vocabulary in context. A negative strategy that some students develop is trying to understand every word or looking up every word in the dictionary. In JO a lot of attention is given to the development of reading strategies which help students with words: Working out the meaning of words form the context; Looking at the part of speech Looking for words that are similar in Arabic Using dictionaries Similarly, listening strategies help students to focus on important words or content when they are listening and help them to guess when they are not sure. When texts, particularly listening texts, contain a large load of new vocabulary, important items are also pre-taught through Key Word boxes. Learning vocabulary in context Key vocabulary areas are presented to students explicitly through Key Word boxes. In the Warm-up section of each module, important vocabulary relevant to the topic is revised and presented. Vocabulary features are illustrated systematically, thus helping students to systematize their vocabulary learning. Examples are: un_ &, _ly words; compound words; American & British words. Using vocabulary in context Students build up vocabulary as they work through a module, so that when they get to the Communication Workshop at the end of each module, they have enough vocabulary to use it productively to write on the theme. Key Word boxes provide students with useful vocabulary that they can use when doing the communication tasks. Writing Workshops are supported by the Writing Help, which has a section on useful vocabulary and on useful words and expressions. =============================== Slide 13 Culture Comparing cultures (TB27, 33) Skills Focus lessons Differences between target cultures and their own. Traffic problems, British newspapers, national stereotypes - English, American, Scottish, English & Welsh educational systems, holiday jobs, communication style Quote ... Unquote (TB23) Throughout Student Book Provide interesting cultural insights Culture Corners (SB45, 85) Every 3 modules Factfiles & magazine articles + tasks Literature Spots (SB88, 90) Important stories & writers Develop extensive reading skills =============================== Comments: Input about English-speaking cultures appears frequently in lessons. This is supplemented by the Comparing Cultures spots in the Skills Focus lessons. Here students reflect on the differences between the target cultures & their own. Some of the Quote....Unquote spots, which appear throughout the SB, also provide interesting cultural insights. More cultural input is provided in the Culture Corners which appear every 3 modules. These consist of factfiles and magazine articles plus accompanying tasks. Literature Spots help students learn about important stories and writers from literature at the same time as developing their extensive reading skills. =============================== Slide 14 Learner Development Development of independent & active learners Skills & habits for life Student Book & Activity Book Learning to Learn Awareness of components Awareness of learning styles Dictionaries, organizing vocabulary books, setting up grammar notes Differentiated instruction Graded activities in Activity Book Check Your Grammar/Progress Self-assessment Identification of problem areas =============================== Comments: Learner Development is a very important feature of JO over the course. Students are encouraged to develop as independent and active learners of English. These skills & habits will make them better students throughout their educational lives. The Student Book and Activity Book provide activities to encourage learner independence. Before Module 1 there are 3 introductory "Learning to Learn" lessons. These prepare students for using the course by making them aware of the different components available to them. They also develop students' awareness of different learning styles and, through self-assessment, awareness of their individual grammatical knowledge. They develop earner independence by helping students to use their dictionaries, by organizing their vocabulary books and by setting up their grammar notes. Differentiated instruction Extra practice in the Activity Book At the same time teachers can give more proficient students additional reading to maintain their interest & enthusiasm. The graded grammar activities in the Activity Book are important in mixed level or mixed ability classes. One star activities are simpler; 2 star activities are a bit more complex; 3 star activities are the most challenging. Each module begins with clear module objectives (In this module you will ....) which give students a clear idea of what they will by studying. At the end of each module, in the Activity Book, students have opportunities to analyze and reflect on their learning form the module. The Check Your Grammar and Check Your Progress sections allow students to check their learning or grammatical structures and to identify problem areas. =============================== Slide 15 Assessment in
Jordan Opportunities 2 Assessment Guide (TB103) Ideas for informal & continuous assessment Writing Workshop assessment Self-assessment activities Information about the tests 5 progress tests in the Activity Book (AB 12, 13) Tests in TB, pages 109 =============================== Comments: The Assessment Guide on page 103 of the TB is an excellent resource. It contains the following: Ideas for informal & continuous assessment of students' classwork or homework A special section on the assessment of writing workshops. Ideas for carrying out self-assessment activities and for linking self-assessment with your own assessment. Information about the Tests in the Teacher's Book & the Activity Book. There are 5 progress test in the Activity Book. In addition, there are tests in the TB on pages 109. =============================== Slide 16 Assessment What is at the heart of effective instruction???? Assessment! Research tells use what needs to be taught. Now comes the hard part. How do we teach it ALL? How do meet individual needs? How do we keep pupils on track? =============================== Comments: Assessment, and consequently instruction, should focus on student strengths: What they CAN do, What they KNOW, and How they are growing and progressing as English-language learners. Small, well-focused interventions are able to produce significant and profound change. =============================== Slide 17 Assessment In the past..... THE TEST L "Wedded" to instrument which drove instruction. Now teachers employ a range of assessment strategies; not just one! Develop a repertoire of assessment techniques & tools. Provides for more effective instruction & learning. Assessment - an organic part of instruction Time savings =============================== Comments: In the past, we tended to rely on only one kind of instrument - THE TEST - to do all of our assessment work for us. We became so wedded to this instrument that much of our thinking about assessment, AND THE WAY WE TEACH, is still subtly influenced by testing. The system of assessment I want to describe takes a different approach. I want to encourage teachers to employ a range of assessment strategies - NOT JUST ONE - and to develop a repertoire of assessment techniques, or tools, to apply these strategies. It will also mean more effective instruction and learning. Assessment should be an organic part of our instruction, and we need to recognize that many of the things we do in the name of instruction are, in fact, assessment approaches, too. I believe this will mean less work for teachers and more time for instruction. and the assessment information we share with students and parents will be more helpful and meaningful. =============================== Slide 18 Assessment Anxiety Teachers are busy people......... Potential for an outbreak of chaos everyday..... Obligations School administration Colleagues Parents "Why isn't my child progressing?" "I hold you personally and entirely responsible...." Our own families & friends So, who needs to sleep at night???? =============================== Comments: Teachers are busy people. That's because, depending on how many pupils we have in our class, there's a potential for 20 or 30 different revolutions about to break out at any given minute of the teaching day! We also have obligations to our school administrators and to our colleagues across the hall. And, of course, there are the parents of the pupils we teach who are always wanting to know how their children are progressing - or worse, WHY they're not progressing faster. Parents are often inclined to hold us personally and entirely responsible for the next generation. And besides being teachers, we're supposed to be free and fun-loving human beings who have obligations to our families and friends. So who needs to sleep at night????? The nub of the problem is that our job in the classroom is not teaching. We've been wrongly labeled! You see, it's not what we do that matters - its what the children do. They're there to learn and we're there to help them learn. =============================== Slide 19 Six Key Assessment Strategies Observation What are they doing? Interaction Ask questions, prompt, probe, encourage, give feedback. Re-create the learning Retelling, changing the viewpoint. Reflect with pupils on the learning How does this "feel"? What's going on? Evaluate Stimulate learning "artificially" with a test or similar instrument. Learning artifacts (portfolio work) Collect samples of students' work. =============================== Comments: There are 6 main ways we can go about gathering information on our pupils' learning growth: 1. We can observe the learners while they are learning. That's right - we just look at them and see what they're doing! 2. We can interact with the learners as they are learning. We can ask questions, prompt, probe, model, introduce expectations, encourage, critique, give feedback, scaffold the learning to see what happens, modify the task to see how well they manage, and lead our pupils on to new tasks - all the while praising and applauding, coaxing and directing. 3. We can help the learner re-create the learning. This might involve retelling what happened, or changing the viewpoint by taking on a role, or changing the mode of expression - for example, by turning a verbal idea into a visual idea, or by using drama to explore the consequences and implications of a story the pupils have read. 4. We can reflect on the learning and encourage the learners to reflect, too. 5. We can simulate the learning behavior "artificially" with a test or similar instrument. 6. We can collect learning artifacts or products of learning to document or authenticate our assessment of the learning. (Samples of pupils' work to show what they can do.)
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