A Ten-Step Process for Developing Teaching Units

A Ten-Step Process for Developing Teaching Units

1. Mass-market coursebooks may not be a suitable match for a given classroom.

2. The answer, based on our experience, is that teachers in either situation can act as curriculum designers themselves.

   • postmethod pedagogy where teachers “acquire and assert a fair degree of autonomy in pedagogic decision making”
     • “they rely mostly on context-sensitive local knowledge to identify problems, find solutions and try them out to see what works

3. MAIN ELEMENTS OF THE TEN-STEP PROCESS TO CREATE AND REVISE TEACHER-GENERATED MATERIALS

   • (1) is intended for use by teachers themselves to facilitate the creation of teaching units, (2) incorporates a backward-design model, and (3) assumes the importance of reflection in teaching.
     • 1. “people support what they help to create” and will be more invested when they participate in the design and creation of the curriculum (Jennings and Doyle 1996, 171).
     • 2. s its backward-design approach to materials and curriculum development. Prior to the curriculum project, teachers would.
     • 3. the purpose of reflection is for teachers “to make informed decisions about their teaching”

4. it developed organically out of discussions and as teaching units were created, reflected upon, and revised over time.

   • TEN STEPS FOR DEVELOPING TEACHING UNITS
     • Step 1: Student needs
       • Teachers may execute their own needs assessments, methods—among which are questionnaires and structured interviews—be employed to analyze student needs.
     • Step 2: Goals and objectives
       • to create goals and objectives to define learning outcomes based on student needs. If students meet all the objectives, they will therefore also meet the goals.
     • Step 3: Test tasks
       • The creation of the language task to assess students’ performance in relation to the specific objectives and broader goal of the teaching unit.
     • Step 4: Language and skills
       • Teachers volunteer to pilot the test while other teachers record the explicit language and sociolinguistic skills used to complete the task.
     • Step 5: Sequence
       • Is to order the selected language and skills into a sequence. Teachers should now consider the amount of time available for instruction.
     • Step 6: Materials
       • Teachers then use the lesson objectives to create in-class activities, homework, and quizzes to help students develop the language and skills to succeed in the unit.
     • Step 7: Teaching
       • Teachers conduct the lessons and utilize the materials that were generated prior to the beginning of the teaching unit. It is important at this stage for teachers to not only conduct the lessons but also take careful notes of student reactions, behavior, and performance
     • Step 8: Reflection
       • Following classroom instruction, teachers return to their notes and make reflective observations based on their experiences.
     • Step 9: Evaluation
       • The teachers not only reflect on the unit but also evaluate it and make suggestions for the next round of revisions. It is important to separate observation from analysis and interpretation to avoid jumping to conclusions about the success of the teaching unit.
     • Step 10: Revisions
       • Conceptualization in the experiential learning cycle and is the stage when the teacher “prepares to reenter experience by devising strategies consistent with personal learning goals, the nature of the content, and the form of the experience” (Moran 2001, 18)