Hello, colleagues
This time, we are going to focus in the next two readings: Lesson Planning and Integrating the Four Skills. The deadline to post your participation is Wednesday, so everybody will have the chance to reply to everybody's comments on Thursday and Friday.
Well talking about the first reading :Lesson Planning, I can say that I really like it, because it explains in a very easy way all aspects that we have to take in consideration when we are planning, at the same time that give us a brief Description of each of these elements like how an objective have to be written it depending of bloom´s taxonomy, how important are materials and equipment in a lesson plan. I believe that write a lesson plan should be very simple if we focus on our students needs because they will give us a point of reference to develop our plans. Another important thing that I like about the reading is how important is that our lesson plan will be centered in both teachers and students, because most of the time teachers are the once that have full participation in the class and students are there just like passive listeners.
ResponderEliminarIn addition, lesson planning can help us to insure the successful running of our classes. I will like to share with all of you some information related with the topic that in my school we take in consideration when we are planning, those are the nine instructional events created by the psychologist Robert Gagne, the nine events are: gaining attention, inform the objectives to our students, stimulate recall of prior learning, present a stimulus (content), elicits performance, provide feedback, asses performance and finally enhance retention and transfer
ResponderEliminarLesson planning
ResponderEliminarFirst of all I would like to define lesson planning: A lesson plan is a detailed description of the individual class that a teacher plans to teach on a given day. In other words, for me a lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide instruction throughout the day. It is a method of planning and preparation. A lesson plan traditionally includes the name of the lesson, the date of the lesson, the objectives the lesson focuses on, the materials that will be used, and a summary of all the activities that will be used as well as the evaluation process.
In my lesson plan, it is a must to make a clear presentation of the overall goals of the course, by following a specific format. To create or write a good lesson plan, I have to bear in mind what I want my students to perform at the end of the lesson or specific period of time.
Something that really called my attention was the fact of having two different names for the objectives, because I always worked with general and specific objectives and never with terminal objectives and enabling objectives as the reading mentioned, but I think they are almost the same. Beside these differences the rest of the parts of the planning are almost the same, the writer talked about materials, procedures, assessment and other parts that are the same (time – sequencing – pacing – and variety). Besides these aspects the text also refers to the fact of teachers not writing a new curriculum, instead we as professors have to adapt our planning to the existing one. By considering students special needs, abilities and contexts which is something that is very important to take into consideration when we are writing a plan.
To conclude, it is trivial for me to mention that children bring to their language learning their own personalities, likes or dislikes and interests, their own individual cognitive styles and capacities and their own strengths and weaknesses so we cannot exclude all these aspects in the planning process.
Integrating the four skills
ResponderEliminarAs the reading states there are two forms of productive performance (oral and written) and two forms of receptive performance (listening and reading), but what we must do in order to have meaningful classes is to look for skills integration in our planning and class development. Now a question comes to my mind, Why integrated skills? The answer according to the writer is very easy “the integration of the four skills diminishes the importance of the rules of every skill in a separately way” instead, it tries to see and develop the learning process as a whole. It can be achieved through the use of models and approaches such as: 1) The content-based instruction which is very interesting. But what really calls my attention is the fact of learner focusing on useful, practical objectives as the subject matter is perceived to be relevant to achieve long-term goals.
The second model which is also very dynamic and interesting for me is the task-based instruction, in which according to the writer “the priority in this approach is not on the form of language, but rather on the functional purposes for which language must be used”
And finally, the third model that really sparked my curiosity was the experimental learning model in which according to theorists, this model includes activities that engage both left- and right brain processing, which contextualizes language, that integrates different skills, and that points out toward authentic, real-world purposes.
To conclude, I would like to point out about some important aspects concerning the readings that impressed me a lot. For example the fact of having an integrated lesson but combining different approaches or models to get to the same point or achieve the same goal. The second aspect is the experimental learning model which is new for me, and it focuses on offering our students a direct encounter with the subject matter or topic being studied rather than just reading or talking about any unimportant topic. It is like having constructivist patterns in this model. (Learning by doing).
According with the first reading I can confirm that the teacher cannot be able to teach without his or her lesson plan. Can be tedious on the part of the teachers especially when it is done for the first time, lesson plans are actually very essential in inculcating students and pupils necessary skills, knowledge and wisdom they need.Lesson plans is vital in teaching, it gives us the guide that we need to pull through. Lesson plans will easily help us to achieve our goals and objectives, and same can be said on the part of our students. In our first class in this course We learned If we have reached adulthood, you have surely planned events, trips, parties, and so on so, well, lesson planning uses those same skills, except the objective is the learning of our students in a very specific way and under very specific conditions. So, with that said, let's do it.!!!
ResponderEliminarI teach in preschool and know that successful literacy is needed in all areas. I agree with the need for reading to be intertwined with writing, speaking, and listening in all content areas. Some form of writing I try to do in the other content areas. Whether it is information reading, statistical reading, persuasive reading, or entertaining reading, we need to know the strategies to make meaning real. However, all kids need exposure to reading, listening, writing and speaking across the curriculum.
ResponderEliminarHowever, how do we get all teachers in all content areas to respond to this and incorporate more reading, listening, writing and speaking across the curriculum?
First Reading: LessonPlanning
ResponderEliminarPlanning is the most important tool for teachers, because it gives you the security of what are you teaching, follow your activities is also important to understand how the task fits into the broader goals and outcomes for the student. You have to be clear with the goal for your class, before planning a lesson you have to be organized and have sequence with the activities in the planning. A teacher also needs to think about all the things that they are going to need in the lesson, for example, all of the resources that are going to be used and everything that they might need. In other words, students know when you are improvising a lesson and they feel insecurity of the learning process
Second Reading: Integrating the four skills
It is very important to acquire a language the use of different skills in the classroom, because most of the students learn in a different way, using different activities they will be able to be recognized vocabulary step by step and they will be implementing in a context. This is part of how the students learn a language using nice procedures activities in the classroom they will be motivated to participate in a communicative approach. Also one skill reinforce another skill, if you read most of the time you will be a good writer and if you listen a good model you will have nice pronunciation. Using integration the students will be more successful to acquire a second language
Marìa Brenes
ResponderEliminarIn regards to the reading "Lesson Planning", I consider that having a lesson plan in order to be used as a guide during the class is really helpful because it helps the teacher to develop the different strategies prepared for the students in a more organized and complete way. For these reasons, it is necessary to know the different elements that a lesson plan includes, for example: the date, the name of the lesson that is going to be taught, the different objectives, the variety of materials and resources that will be used, the objectives, and the assessment of the lesson.
Additionally, the lesson plan should be considered a tool that will provide enough confidence to the teacher when giving a class, and on the other hand, to provide motivation and enthusiasm to the students when reciving a class.
In sum, a teacher really needs a lesson plan, otherwise, he or she will be lacking one of the most important and necessary teaching as well as learning instruments.
Marìa Brenes.
ResponderEliminarRegarding the second reading "Integrating the Four Skills" , I think that in order to be successful during the acquisition of a second language is strictly necessary to integrate the four basic skills: speaking, reading, listening, and writing.
All the students need exposure to these areas in order to be successful learners because all the skills are integrated, one skill complements the other, for example reading reinforces writing, or listening reinforces speaking.
Also, it is nice to see how the author of the reading portrays the idea of "how the integration of the four skills diminishes the importance of the rules of every skill in a separately way”. It means that the learning process is depicted as a whole process instead of separating each of the skills, it tries to point out the process as a whole element.
Finally, teachers should be aware of the importance of integrating the four basic skills in order to prepare successful students who can feel motivated when learning a second language.
As we have said Lesson planning is an important tool that teachers must follow in order to develop different contents in a class taking into consideration different aspects like level,age and students learning styles and needs.
ResponderEliminarWe know that a good lesson plan should include different elements which were mentioned on the reading, but we must also know that good lesson plan is theone that anyone is able to read, understand and devleop in a class (assistant).
We also should consider the intitutional policies that are requested in lesson planning but we can not forget basic elements such as transitions that eventough they are not very common in the lesson plan is an important factor that guides the students into the learning process.
Integrating skills is one of the best ways to help our students learn a second language in a challenging way. In opinion as I have said TBI or TBLT is one of the friendlies approaches to use the skills of the language in the best way using communicative and real live activies.
ResponderEliminarThe other approaches were interesting too and I know that as teachers we must put into practice the best ideas and suggestions of them.
"Lesson Planning"
ResponderEliminarEvery single teacher knows that a lesson plan provides many ways to keep the teaching process not monotonous, that it definitely improves our teaching skills, but do teachers really plan consciously and think what is best to their students? do teachers take into account that students learn in different ways?
As teachers we should know and be sure of what to teach and then develop the appropriate objectives, activities, assignments and even the materials that we need for each class.
Deciding what to teach, in what order, and for how much time are the basic components of planning.
Another aspect to consider is that when we have to miss a class, a lesson plan is a necessity for the substitude teacher, who is expected to step in and teach what had been planning.
"Integrating the four skills"
ResponderEliminarReal success in English teaching and learning is when the learner can actually communicate in English inside and outside the classroom. As teachers, we must find out the ways of enabling learners to use English freely, effectively, and as far as possible accurately, in realistic communication, which has become not only the major goal of all English language teaching, but also the students´ main concern when they make their efforts to study English. A big mistake is when teachers usually focus on one specific skill and the others are ignored. Integrating the skills can bring plenty of benefits to English teaching, and sometimes we have to adapt the textbooks and design activities for the integration of the skills.
Teachers try to find out which is the best way to integrate the four skills, but I think that the best way is the one you use to motivate them to learn a new language through hands on activities, new experiences and in a natural way.
"Lesson Planning"
ResponderEliminarAs we have discussed in the previous sessions, we do know that a lesson plan is the teacher’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time. Therefore, a lesson plan is an extremely useful tool which serves as a combination guide that reflects our teaching philosophy, student population, textbooks..., and most importantly, our goals for our students. Thus, I would state that a lesson plan is essential for novice teachers and convenient for experience teachers.
Deciding what to teach, in what order, and for how much time are the basic components of planning. The lesson plan serves as a map or checklist that guides in knowing what we want to do next; these sequence of activities remind us of the goals and objectives of our lessons for our pupils.
Doubtlessly, planning is a very preeminent tool for both teachers and students because it provides a structured "route" through the lesson so that you can be sure of meeting your lesson objective(s). Furthermore, it gives you a secure base from which you can project to your class the impression that you are organized and that you know what you are doing (that is one of the important elements of effective behavior management), and finally, it provides you, your mentor, your tutors, and colleagues with insights into the way you are approaching your teaching, and shows that you are helping your pupils make progress.
Written by: Jorge Paniagua Vargas
"Integrating the Four Skills"
ResponderEliminarIt is of paramount preeminence to point out that we as EFL teachers must develop our pupils' abilities in the target language. Notwithstanding, to do that, it is essential to apply an integrating approach for the development of communicative skills in the classroom, in which the four skills in the acquisition of knowledge of a foreign language can be taught in a coherent way, and practiced together, with a distinction of the importance of one upon the other.
I do deem that the integrated-skill approach exposes English language learners to authentic language and challenges them to interact naturally in the language. Learners quickly gain a true image of the richness and complexity of the English language as employed for communication. Moreover, this approach stresses that English is not just an object of academic interest nor merely a key to passing an examination; instead, English becomes a real means of interaction and sharing among people. This approach allows teachers to track students' progress in multiple skills at the same time. Integrating the language skills also promotes the learning of real content, not just the dissection of language forms. Finally, the integrated-skill approach, whether found in content-based or task-based language instruction, can be highly motivating to students of all ages and backgrounds.
Written by: Jorge Paniagua Vargas
Integrating the Four Skills reading I think that has been made as a guide for teachers of English as a foreign language to develop the students´ abilities in the language. So, we as a teachers we have to take in consideration that when we integrate this approach in our classes we will see a very good development of communicative skills in the classroom, in which the four skills in the acquisition of knowledge of a foreign language can be taught in a coherent way, and practiced together.
ResponderEliminarMaría Laura Calvo Díaz9 de octubre de 2012 17:44
ResponderEliminarFirst reading:
Lesson planning is important because it gives the teacher a concrete direction of what she/he wants to take up for a day also the teacher will be more prepared and confident while teaching the lesson. Another important aspect is that if you plan your lessons thinking about what do they really need, the students will appreciate your work as a model of well organized work to imitate. Finally remember that our students perceive how we feel and especially if we enjoy what we do, if so I'm totally sure that learning will be productive.
Responder
9 de octubre de 2012 18:10
ResponderEliminarSecond reading:
Integrating the four skills can help a teacher create a relaxed atmosphere in his or her class. The combination of activities involving different skills enhances the focus on realistic communication, which makes the students be more motivated and more involved and engaged enthusiastically in classroom activities.
I think it is necessary and important to integrate the skills to achieve meaningful learning, taking into account that not all students learn in the same way so there will be collaboration between them and motivation.
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
EliminarAs Jorge stated in his comment “the integrated-skill approach exposes English language learners to authentic language and challenges them to interact naturally in the language”. I think that we have to develop student’s abilities in the target language. With this approach we are encouraging our students to develop their communicative skills in the classroom, in which the four skills in the acquisition of knowledge of a foreign language can be taught in a coherent way, and practiced together, all the different skills.
ResponderEliminarIn a fragment of the Ms. Calvo's comment, she stated: "I think it is necessary and important to integrate the skills to achieve meaningful learning." Taking as a reference the previous quotation, I doubtlessly deem that one of the most preeminent goals for English teachers is to develop the four skills in their students. Nevertheless, traditional teachers prefer working these skills one by one in an EFL classroom leaving to the others in isolation. On the contrary, current teachers tend to carry out all at the same time, like a beehive where bees work in team; one helping out others. Therefore, according to my perspective, the second way is the best because I reckon that the four skills cannot be isolated, all of them have to be worked together in an EFL classroom situation in order to reach successful teaching and learning language.
ResponderEliminarNowadays, integrating the four skills have been applied by teachers into EFL classroom for their positive results and remarkable benefits for the students. Thus, teaching language demands integrating the four skills within EFL classroom situation; it offers us more advantages than disadvantages. For instance, developing the four skills in the classroom enables students to get language knowledge meaningfully for the communication. To sum up, we as teachers must bear in mind the integration of the four skills in the classroom in order to provide students with the necessary tools and abilities "to survive" in this English speaking world.
Written by: Jorge Paniagua Vargas
I was reading a book and I found this quote: "One of the most important principles of good teaching is the need for planning. Far from compromising spontaneity, planning provides a structure and context for both teacher and students, as well as a framework for reflection and evaluation" (Spencer, 2003, p. 25). Notwithstanding, as we have discussed before, planning is essential to the success of any element in teaching. Thus, the time spent in planning will make teaching and learning more efficient, and the difference between good and poor teaching in many cases is determined by the degree to which a teacher is prepared, through planning, to carry out the instructional program. Educators must, therefore, be willing to spend an appropriate amount of time in purposeful planning.
ResponderEliminarEffective planning is likely to ensure better deployment of teaching skills, the creation of a supportive and consistent learning environment, and more productive learning outcomes for pupils. Planning is an essential activity for all of us!
Written by: Jorge Paniagua Vargas
María Laura Brenes.
ResponderEliminarI agree with Andrea and María Laura Calvo who consider that regarding the second reading "Integrating the Four Skills" , the fact of relating the four basic skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening is a helpful way to develop the abilities of the students in an easier way.
In the same way, if a class is prepared combining all these skills, it can help students to feel more motivated because there is less chance to make them feel boried, which can interefere with the objective of learning.
María Laura Brenes
ResponderEliminarAditionally, regarding to what Maricruz said, once again, I would say that definitely having a good lesson plan in order to be used as a guide during the development of the class is a very useful tool that teachers should follow if they want to make sure that the class has been organized in the correct and best way.
And also, remember, how much important is to include all the different elements such as the materials, the resources, and to take into accounnt the differences among students.
I believe the way students act depends on teacher attitude. We carry a big responsibility in our classroom and everything we say will have an impact on the students, we must create a warm and protective environment but also create an effective plan to achieve the learning process in our students. Remember that our students reflect what their teachers are and if we want them to be better every day we must begin by giving the best.
ResponderEliminarEste comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarYes! Maria Laura Calvo I strongly agree with your last comment about “the way students act depends on teacher attitude” this year I have to use this in my classroom, I have to create a nice environment in the classroom with different learning strategies and activities, creating an effective leaning process because students know when they are learning successfully because we as a teacher have to use our curriculum to put in practice in the classroom
ResponderEliminar