Teaching & Learning

Teaching & Learning

1. Lesson Plan

   • Can be a simple mental checklist.
   • Can be a complex two pages typed lesson.
   • Serves as combination guide, resource, an historical document reflecting our teaching philosophy, student population, textbooks, and most importantly our goals for our students.
   • These lessons remind us the goals and objectives of our lessons for our students, it also records of what we did last class. We can recycle it if we teach the same course, or if we have to miss a class.
   • A good lesson is the result of both macro and micro planning.
     • In the macro level, a lesson plan is a reflection of a philosophy of learning and teaching which is reflected in the methodology, the syllabus, the texts.
       • Once this has been decided
     • The micro level is the lesson itself, based on the macro level.
       • This takes place
   • Has a beginning, a middle and an end. Also a brief description of the course and level.
     • Normally starts with a warm up or review activity. That will connect the lessons.
     • 1st Content is introduced or presented. -2nd Comprehension is checked. -3rd A form of guided practice is implemented. 4th Some type less structured communicative activity takes place.
     • Time management can be challenging. Teachers should decide ahead of time what part could be skipped or shortened or saved for the next class.
     • The final section of a lesson should include comments that end the lesson such as a review summary of the lesson and that indicates homework or assigments.
   • It is helpful to write down the grammatical structures and key vocabulary that will be covered. Or what has already been covered. what they already know. Material to be used. Noting any homework or assignment to be returned.
   • Contingency plans in case something goes wrong
   • Group work
     • Instructions can be given before breaking up the class.
     • There are times when random pairs make sense, other times it is better if the teacher does it.
   • Should be coherent, flexible and have variety.
   • Models
     • The hunter model: a good lesson starts with anticipatory set, or hook to attract students' attention. The next phase is guided practice or monitoring. A closure statement reinforces the lesson, before the final independent practice that helps the students connect the lesson to the real world.
     • Presentation practice production (PPP) model contains three stages. The teacher presents a teaching point with new language to the students, they practice the language teaching point, and finally the students produce the language on their own. Fits better for beginning level class of adults.
     • Engage-study-activate (ESA) model: During the engage phase the students' attention and interest are aroused. During the study phase, they focus on language. At the end they activate all their language knowledge and skill with communicative tasks.
     • Sheltered Immersion Observation Protocol (SIOP). A good lesson starts with motivation (building background). The representation would include language and content objectives, interaction and feedback. Next the lesson would go to practice and application. It would end with review and assessment, with and optical extension (contingency plan or homework assignment).
     • Encounter, clarify, remember, internalize and fluently use (ECRIF). The encounter stage might include eliciting vocabulary from students. They use the new vocabulary during the clarify stage. Activities such as listen and repeat are used during the remember phase. The purpose of the internalize phase is to enable students to personalize the new knowledge or skill. Finally the fluency use phase is a time for communicative tasks use the language.
   • Activities
     • Can be thought of in terms of "stirring" and "settling". Stirring activities gets the students moving around, talking. A settling activity has students sitting quietly, listening.
   • Lessons also need to be planned to give students opportunities to practise and improve their language skills.

2. A good teacher, cannot help but bring his or her own sense of good learning and teaching into the classroom

3. A teacher must consider the background of the students. the objectives of the lesson, the skills to be taught, the activities, the materials and texts, the time constraints and the connections to previous and future lessons.

4. Teaching is based on the skills and instincts children bring with them to the classroom.

5. The development of attitudes and responses which contribute to the process of developing competence in another language.

6. Ways for working with the language for real.

7. Syllabus

   • Content goals: concerned with the elements of language and ways in which they are used.
     • Structures: grammatical structures.
     • Topics and situations: these programmes the work is arranged according to topics and situations like the family.
     • Functions: the focus here is on what the learner can use the language for. Like expressing likes and dislikes.
   • Attitude goals.
     • Good syllabus are also concerned with attitude and response. You will find phrases like: Pleasure and confidence in exploring language.

8. We have to make English a human event, not just a set of information. We do this by using it for real communication, giving and receiving real messages

9. There's no point on correcting every single mistake the students do in English

   • It is very important how we treat mistakes. Constant correction is undermining.

10. Exposure

    • Authentic exposure: Magazines, books, articles, labels, shows.
    • Restricted exposure: Texts specifically designed to be accessible for learners.
    • In order to learn a language we need to be exposed.