Teaching Techniques

There are no good or bad, useful or useless teaching techniques to teach. When you study and analyze all the teaching approaches and techniques you can conclude that the best technique is the one that gives you the results you aimed.

Of all the techniques presented I would select the share and process information technique. I prefer these techniques because they allow for a meaningful communicative interaction. The students can actively participate by providing, orally, the information required to complete the tasks. As an example, to reconstruct the story sequence you can use various exercises ( story map, plot diagram, bottom-up strategy, etc.) that will allow for oral and written communication. I have used the above techniques, and to my surprise, they activate the student's participation.

Another technique I like to use is the sentence strips. This is an excellent way to help students improve their writing and oral skills by using color coded strips to organize sentences. Once they complete the sentence, then they read it aloud.

Each of the techniques, methods and approaches have advantages and disadvantages, but one can adopt and adapt their best features and create our own "tailor made" teaching technique.

Journal #2 Classrooms dynamics to promote oral communication

Creating a dynamic learning atmosphere, thus a dynamic learning experience, requires a lot of creativity and willingness to do it. To promote student's oral participation we need to create a trustful relationship with our students, one where they would not feel apprehensive, shy nor afraid to express themselves freely.

There are various strategies we can use to engage students into oral communication within themselves. One activity could be conducting debates, using topics they had previously selected. Two students would be the moderators (group 1 and group 2), three students would be the debaters,the rest of the group will ask questions about the topic, and the teacher facilitates the activity as it respect to time allotment, expressions used, etc. Another activity to engage them into communicating could be the "teacher's substitute" while reading a selection. A student is selected to act as the teacher for the day (20-30 minutes), the student would ask the group reading comprehension questions.

Journal #1 Difference between:

A. use = how the language is used in communication, or the function of language. To put into service or apply for a purpose; employ

usage = is the grammatical explanation of some language; the customary way in which a language or a form of language is spoken or written.

We communicate using the language, regardless if it is correct or not, while the usage of a language means the application of the grammatical rules in our communication. In meaningful communications, students are more concerned with the function of language (use).

B. accuracy= accuracy refers to the ability to produce grammatically correct sentences that are comprehensible

fluency= fluency refers to the ability to produce rapid, flowing, natural speech, but not necessarily grammatically correct speech.

C. functional syllabus= language programs with functions being the primary organizing feature. The course content is based on functions not grammatical structures.

structural syllabus= a syllabus in which grammatical structures form the central organizing feature. A structural syllabus proceeds from simple grammatical structure to more complex grammatical structure.

Structural syllabuses are organized according to grammatical complexity while functional syllabuses are organized according to the functions of the language.

The whats, whys, hows and whos of content based instruction in second language education

Communicative language teaching has as it goals for the students to obtain communicative competence in a second language. Various other approaches are included in this method, among them: the Natural Approach, Cooperative Language Learning, Content Based Teaching and Task Based Teaching.
The author of this article, Maria Dueñas, focuses on the Content Based Instruction (CBI) as one of the second language teaching model. The effectiveness of this method is that it integrates both, the target language and some meaningful content in the learning process.
According to various proponents of the CBI method, there are four characteristics of this model: (1) subject-matter core which establishes that the curriculum shouldedbe derived from the subject matters , rather than from forms. (Dueñas, 2004); (2) use of authentic texts, that is, use only texts that are intended to be used by native speakers of the language; (3) learning of new information meaning that the learner should use the second language to learn new information using as the basis their previous knowledge of their own culture and what they have learned of the new culture; and (4) appropriate to the specific needs of the students, that is the learning materials, topics and texts should be geared to fulfill the cognitive and affective needs of the students.
The CBI core strategy is to give the students the opportunity to use the new language productively, both orally and in writing. Another strategy is the use of extensive reading, as many studies have revealed that reading coherent material promotes language development and content learning. (Dueñas, 2004)
One key element for the success of the student who are exposed to this method of learning a second language is the motivation. They feel motivated when they recognize they are actually learning, and what they've learned is pertinent.
The author also presented some CBI models ranging from radical to more flexible frameworks. The first model is the immersion education in which the second language is the medium of instruction. The second model is the shelterd courses, a method that proposes the segregation or shelter of the student from the native speakers for instruction purposes. The third method presented was the adjunct courses, an approach used mainly at the university levels. It intends to connect a language course with a regular academic course. The content instructor focuses on the academic concepts while the language instructor emphasizes language skills using the academic contents as the basis for the learning process. The last model presented is the them-based model. This is the most commonly used CBI model . In this model themes are the central ideas for the development of the curricular units.
Content based instruction is an excellent strategy for teaching a second language. It provides for the use of relevant and pertinent content that will promote language competence. It effectively integrates language and content so that the student learns in a balanced way.

Communicative competence and communicative language teaching

Looking back to my childhood experiences with the English language I can now understand the implications of being communicative competent in a second language.

When teaching any second language it is important to understand the difference between competence and performance. Communicative competence, according to Hymes, is being able to use the language correctly to communicate. Knowledge of the grammar and syntax will help the speaker to form phrases and sentences correctly. On the other hand, performance deals with the ability to use the actual language, which according to the author, can never directly reflect competence, unless the ideal speaker-listener know and uses the language perfectly.

This article also presents the effect of the sociocultural factors in the process of a second language acquisition. According to Hymes there are two kinds of competence: linguistic competence , which deals with the correct use of the language grammar, and communicative competence, that deals with the appropritate use of the language in a particular situation.

Teaching communicative language encompasses learning not only the rules of grammar, but also learning how to use the language to communicate. (Widdowson, 1972) It is also important to teach, based on Widdowson ideas, both communicative competence along with linguistic competence. By doing this students will acquire needed skills naturally and use the language in any social situation.

Other teaching perspective to achieve communicative competence was presented by Canale and Swain. They proposed an incluisive approach; socila context, learning grammar and word meaning as the basis to develop communicative competence. The objective is to be able to develop in the student communicative competence, thus enabling them to effectively communicate in any social situation.

The importance of these theories is that we, as teachers of English as a second language, should recognize the factors affecting the acquisition of a second language. When teaching the basic skills of the language we must ensure to provide for the application of the skills taaught.
Practice makes perfection, my hope is that eventually my students will utter precise and correct sentences that will make them to be communicative competent.

Mourning the Death of Handwriting (Cont.)

I entered third grade in 1990, the year of the great alphabet change. My teacher, Linda Garcia at Central Elementary in Wilmette, Ill., says my class was one of the last to learn the loops and squiggles. "For a while I'd show my kids both ways," she says. "But the new alphabet is easier for them, so now I just use that one."

Garcia, who has been teaching for 32 years, says her children consider cursive a "rite of passage" and are just as excited to learn it as ever. But once they leave her classroom, it's a different story. She doesn't know any teachers in the upper grades who address the issue of handwriting, and she frequently sees her former students reverting to old habits. "They go back to sloppy letters and squished words," she says. "Handwriting is becoming a lost art."

Why? Technology is only part of the reason. A study published in the February issue of the Journal of Educational Psychology found that just 9% of American high school students use an in-class computer more than once a week. The cause of the decline in handwriting may lie not so much in computers as in standardized testing. The Federal Government's landmark 1983 report A Nation at Risk, on the dismal state of public education, ushered in a new era of standardized assessment that has intensified since the passage in 2002 of the No Child Left Behind Act. "In schools today, they're teaching to the tests," says Tamara Thornton, a University of Buffalo professor and the author of a history of American handwriting. "If something isn't on a test, it's viewed as a luxury." Garcia agrees. "It's getting harder and harder to balance what's on the test with the rest of what children need to know," she says. "Reading is on there, but handwriting isn't, so it's not as important." In other words, schools don't care how a child holds her pencil as long as she can read.
s that such a bad thing? Except for physicians — whose illegible handwriting on charts and prescription pads causes thousands of deaths a year — penmanship has almost no bearing on job performance. And aside from the occasional grocery list or Post-it note, most adults write very little by hand. The Emily Post Institute recommends sending a handwritten thank-you but says it doesn't matter whether the note is in cursive or print, as long as it looks tidy. But with the declining emphasis in schools, neatness is becoming a rarity.

"I worry that cursive will go the way of Latin and that eventually we won't be able to read it," says Garcia. "What if 50 years from now, kids can't read the Declaration of Independence?"

I am not bothered by the fact that I will never have beautiful handwriting. My printing will always be fat and round and look as if it came from a 12-year-old. And let's be honest: the Declaration of Independence is already hard to read. We are living in the age of social networks and frenzied conversation, composing more e-mails, texting more messages and keeping in touch with more people than ever before. Maybe this is the trade-off. We've given up beauty for speed, artistry for efficiency. And yes, maybe we are a little bit lazy.

Cursive's demise is due in part to the kind of circular logic espoused by Alex McCarter, a 15-year-old in New York City. He has such bad handwriting that he is allowed to use a computer on standardized tests. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that only 0.3% of high school students receive this particular accommodation. McCarter's mother tried everything to help him improve his penmanship, including therapy, but the teenager likes his special status. "I kind of want to stay bad at it," he says. These days, that shouldn't be a problem.

Mourning the Death of Handwriting

By Claire Suddath Monday, Aug. 03, 2009
I can't remember how to write a capital Z in cursive. The rest of my letters are shaky and stiff, my words slanted in all directions. It's not for lack of trying. In grade school I was one of those insufferable girls who used pink pencils and dotted their i's with little circles. I experimented with different scripts, and for a brief period I even took the time to make two-story a's, with the fancy overhang used in most fonts (including this magazine's). But everything I wrote, I wrote in print.
I am a member of Gen Y, the generation that shunned cursive. And now there is a group coming after me, a boom of tech-savvy children who don't remember life before the Internet and who text-message nearly as much as they talk. They have even less need for good penmanship. We are witnessing the death of handwriting.
People born after 1980 tend to have a distinctive style of handwriting: a little bit sloppy, a little bit childish and almost never in cursive. The knee-jerk explanation is that computers are responsible for our increasingly illegible scrawl, but Steve Graham, a special-education and literacy professor at Vanderbilt University, says that's not the case. The simple fact is that kids haven't learned to write neatly because no one has forced them to. "Writing is just not part of the national agenda anymore," he says.

Cursive started to lose its clout back in the 1920s, when educators theorized that because children learned to read by looking at books printed in manuscript rather than cursive, they should learn to write the same way. By World War II, manuscript, or print writing, was in standard use across the U.S. Today schoolchildren typically learn print in kindergarten, cursive in third grade. But they don't master either one. Over the decades, daily handwriting lessons have decreased from an average of 30 minutes to 15.

Zaner-Bloser, the nation's largest supplier of handwriting manuals, offers coursework through the eighth grade but admits that these days, schools rarely purchase materials beyond the third grade. The company, which is named for two men who ran a penmanship school back when most business documents were handwritten, occasionally modifies its alphabet according to cultural tastes and needs.

Handwriting has never been a static art. The Puritans simplified what they considered hedonistically elaborate letters. Nineteenth century America fell in love with loopy, rhythmic Spencerian script (think Coca-Cola: the soft-drink behemoth's logo is nothing more than a company bookkeeper's handiwork), but the early 20th century favored the stripped-down, practical style touted in 1894's Palmer Guide to Business Writing.

The most recent shift occurred in 1990, when Zaner-Bloser eliminated all superfluous adornments from the so-called Zanerian alphabet. "They were nice and pretty and cosmetic," says Kathleen Wright, the company's national product manager, "but that isn't the purpose of handwriting anymore. The purpose is to get a thought across as quickly as possible." One of the most radical overhauls was to Q, after the U.S. Postal Service complained that people's sloppy handwriting frequently caused its employees to misread the capital letter as the number 2.

How children learn

Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily

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By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer – Tue Jul 21, 3:08 am ET

WASHINGTON – The best time to learn a foreign language: Between birth and age 7. Missed that window?

New research is showing just how children's brains can become bilingual so easily, findings that scientists hope eventually could help the rest of us learn a new language a bit easier.

"We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who is part of an international team now trying to turn those lessons into more teachable technology.

Each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday.

Kuhl offers an example: Japanese doesn't distinguish between the "L" and "R" sounds of English — "rake" and "lake" would sound the same. Her team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.

Time out — how do you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze. Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever there's a particular sound. The baby quickly learns to look on that side whenever he or she hears a brand-new but similar sound. Noninvasive brain scans document how the brain is processing and imprinting language.

Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl's research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit.

"You're building a brain architecture that's a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever is native, Kuhl explains — or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two languages.

It's remarkable that babies being raised bilingual — by simply speaking to them in two languages — can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months.

Italian researchers wondered why there wasn't a delay, and reported this month in the journal Science that being bilingual seems to make the brain more flexible.

The researchers tested 44 12-month-olds to see how they recognized three-syllable patterns — nonsense words, just to test sound learning. Sure enough, gaze-tracking showed the bilingual babies learned two kinds of patterns at the same time — like lo-ba-lo or lo-lo-ba — while the one-language babies learned only one, concluded Agnes Melinda Kovacs of Italy's International School for Advanced Studies.

While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty.

"We're seeing the brain as more plastic and ready to create new circuits before than after puberty," Kuhl says. As an adult, "it's a totally different process. You won't learn it in the same way. You won't become (as good as) a native speaker."

Yet a soon-to-be-released survey from the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that researches language issues, shows U.S. elementary schools cut back on foreign language instruction over the last decade. About a quarter of public elementary schools were teaching foreign languages in 1997, but just 15 percent last year, say preliminary results posted on the center's Web site.

What might help people who missed their childhood window? Baby brains need personal interaction to soak in a new language — TV or CDs alone don't work. So researchers are improving the technology that adults tend to use for language learning, to make it more social and possibly tap brain circuitry that tots would use.

Recall that Japanese "L" and "R" difficulty? Kuhl and scientists at Tokyo Denki University and the University of Minnesota helped develop a computer language program that pictures people speaking in "motherese," the slow exaggeration of sounds that parents use with babies.

Japanese college students who'd had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated "Ls" and "Rs" while watching the computerized instructor's face pronounce English words. Brain scans — a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography — that measure millisecond-by-millisecond activity showed the students could better distinguish between those alien English sounds. And they pronounced them better, too, the team reported in the journal NeuroImage.

"It's our very first, preliminary crude attempt but the gains were phenomenal," says Kuhl.

But she'd rather see parents follow biology and expose youngsters early. If you speak a second language, speak it at home. Or find a play group or caregiver where your child can hear another language regularly.

"You'll be surprised," Kuhl says. "They do seem to pick it up like sponges."

Teaching Methods

There is an array of methods, techniques and approaches to teach, not only the English class, but all of the academic courses. Some of these methods and approaches were the basis for teaching the English language, and others were hardly criticized and rejected.
In my English class I use what I call an "eclectic approach", combining the best features from the various methods and making them useful. From the Suggestopedia method I integrate the music and aromatherapy to create a relaxing performing atmosphere ( I use it mainly on test days). Students need to perform physical activity also, therefore some lessons are planned using TPR. There are other instances in which Krashen's natural method needs to be in place. If the student does not want to communicate at a given time I will allow him to remain silent. Nonetheless, I will follow up on that student as to make sure he is able to use the language basic skills (bics) to communicate in the target language.
The method I prefer is the Communicative language approach. This approach aims to develop communicative competence in the English language, thus allowing some language interaction in the student's vernacular language.
I believe all of the presented methods are very useful to teach in our classes. Let's take advantage of them, and be as creative and innovative as we can be!!!!!!!

Professional Organizations

Today almost all of the professionals are grouped under an association or organization. The main reason for the creation of these professional organizations is to protect and represent the interests of the professional practitioners. They also serve as a mean to enforce and maintain the standards and ethics of the profession.
As a member of various professional organizations I have first handed experienced the benefits of being part of that association. For example, the PRTESOL, a nationwide organization for English teachers, offers a wide variety of professional and educational seminars, conferences, and workshops to keep teachers up to date with the latest trends in teaching English. These organizations also provide certifications in various teaching areas.
Professional organizations are an excellent vehicle for career advancement, you get to know many professional peers and job opportunities available.

Professional Educational Associations

Professional Organizations
	Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education is an international,educational, and professional organization dedicated to the advancement of the knowledge, theory, and quality of learning and teaching at all levels with information technology.
	American Association of School Administrators founded in 1865, is the professional organization for over 16,500 educational leaders across North America and in many other countries.
	Association for Educational Communications and Technology is to provide leadership in educational communications and technology by linking professionals holding a common interest in the use of educational technology and its applicationto the learning process.
	American Federation of Teachers is an 940,000-member union of public and professional employees, including public and private school teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel (PSRPs), higher education faculty and professionals, employees of state and local governments, nurses and health professionals.
	American Library Association is the oldest, largest and most influential library association in the world. For more than a century, it has been a leader in defending intellectual freedom and promoting the highest quality library and information services.
	Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development is an international,nonprofit, nonpartisan education association committed to the mission offorgoing covenants in teaching and learning for the success of all.
	California Federation of Teachers (CFT) is education employees working at every level of California education, from Head Start to the University of California.
	Global SchoolNet Foundation (GSN), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, is a majorcontributor to the philosophy, design, culture and content of Internet-basedlearning.
	Illinois Federation of Teachers represents more than 75,000 teachers and paraprofessionals in K-12 school districts throughout Illinois, faculty and staff at Illinois' community colleges and universities, public employeesunder every statewide elected constitutional officer, and retirees.
	International Reading Association is the world’s leading organization of literacy professionals. Members rely on us for the professional development resources they need to reach our shared goal: Teaching the world to read.
	International Society for Technology in Education promotes appropriate uses of technology to support and improve teaching and learning.
	National Art Education Association is a non-profit, educational organization,promoting art education through professional development, service, advancementof knowledge, and leadership.
	National Association of Elementary School Principals has grown to become the most powerful voice of Pre-K-8 principals across the United States and around the world.
	National Association of State Boards of Education serves over 600 individuals,including members of state boards. These members are responsible for the educational interests of more than fifty million students in public schools and more than three million students in post-secondary institutions.
	National Association of Secondary School Principles includes a wide variety of people interested in secondary education. Although most members are principalsand assistant principals in public, private, and parochial secondary schools, many are central office administrators, professors of secondary education,teachers and department heads, or retired educators.
	National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) works to enhance the status and quality of geography teaching and learning. The NCGE promotes the importance and value of geographic education, enhances the preparation of geographiceducators with respect to their knowledge of content, techniques, and learningprocesses.
	National Council of Teachers of English, the world's largest subject-mattereducational association, is devoted to improving the teaching of English and the language arts at all levels of education. NCTE has 90,000 membersand subscribers in the United States and other countries.
	National Council for Teachers of Math with more than 110 000 members, is the largest nonprofit professional association of mathematics educatorsin the world.
	National Education Association is America's oldest and largest organization committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA claims over 2.3million members who work at every level of education, from pre-school to university graduate programs.
	National Middle School Association serves as a voice for professionals, parents,and others interested in the educational and developmental needs of youngadolescents (youth 10-15 years of age). NMSA is the only national educational association exclusively devoted to improving the educational experiencesof young adolescents.
	National Parent and Teacher Association (PTA) is the oldest and largest volunteerassociation in the United States working exclusively on behalf of childrenand youth. Members include parents, teachers, students, and other childadvocates.
	National School Board Association is a federation of state associations of school boards across the United States and the school boards of the Districtof Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. NSBA's programsand services assist school boards in achieving excellence and equity inthe public schools.
	National Science Teachers Association founded in 1944 and headquarteredin Arlington, Virginia, is the largest organization in the world committed to promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learningfor all.
	New York State United Teachers represents over 400,000 in-service and retired people in public elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, and health care institutions.
	United Federation of Teachers with some 125,000 members is the largest union localin the United States. It represents more than 68,000 teachers and 16,000classroom paraprofessionals. The union also includes a Retired Teachers Chapter of more than 32,000 members.

Hilando Alternativas

8-Julio-2009 | ANA HELVIA QUINTERO

PROFESORA UPR

Hilando alternativas
La situación de estrechez económica por la cual atravesamos nos está obligando a repensar nuestras acciones y en ocasiones darles una nueva mirada. Esto a su vez apoya la solución de problemas que nos han acompañado por años. Por ejemplo, el alto costo de la gasolina promueve el comprar carros más económicos, que a su vez son menos dañinos al ambiente. En la educación ocurren situaciones parecidas, como la siguiente: la atención a estudiantes con rezago, cuyo problema muchas veces tiene raíces socioemocionales, se da por actividades fuera del horario escolar, en muchas ocasiones, sin relacionarse con la tarea diaria del maestro, ni en coordinación con el consejero o el trabajador social. La suficiencia de fondos permite que cada cual trabaje independientemente sin articular una solución que atienda la complejidad del problema. La necesidad ante la falta de recursos apoya el trabajo en equipo, lo cual a su vez respalda el que se trabaje en forma articulada con la diversidad de factores que inciden en la educación.

Recientemente tuve la oportunidad de ver en acción un ejemplo de la ingeniosidad, el trabajo en equipo y la solidaridad en un programa para desertores que se está desarrollando en Culebra, con muy pocos recursos económicos. La profesora Waleska Collazo, directora de la escuela elemental ecológica de Culebra, ha reunido un grupo de voluntarios que ofrecen clases a los jóvenes desertores al finalizar el día escolar: la bibliotecaria Sonia Arocho, que enseña español, las trabajadoras sociales Rosimar Vázquez y Tirsa Pérez, la enfermera del municipio, Ada Soto, quien enseña ciencias; María Ayala, también del municipio, enseña educación física. Se han creado vínculos con diferentes entidades que apoyan la atención de estos jóvenes. Así Nuestra Escuela (que atiende desertores escolares) los apoya ofreciéndoles orientación sobre estrategias para trabajar con los jóvenes desertores y les facilita los materiales educativos y los mecanismos para acreditar el trabajo de los estudiantes.

En el taller que ofreció Nuestra Escuela, sobre estrategias para el desarrollo socioemocional, los padres de los estudiantes desertores confeccionaron gratuitamente las comidas de los participantes. El Municipio ofrece el tiempo de las maestras de educación física y de ciencias y también brinda a los jóvenes trabajo de verano.

El Museo de Culebra brinda gratuitamente las clases de arte. Residentes económicamente pudientes de Culebra cubren los gastos para que los jóvenes tomen clases de navegación y buceo, y así desarrollen las destrezas para trabajar en Culebra, como convertirse en guías turísticos. Los comerciantes, a su vez, les ofrecen en las mañanas experiencias de trabajo. Entre todos apoyan la reinserción saludable de estos jóvenes a la sociedad.

Este programa hila el apoyo de la escuela, los padres, el municipio, las empresas, los residentes, en pro del desarrollo del estudiante. Ante la falta de fondos han creado un programa articulado que es ejemplo para todos. Ahora bien, estas alternativas que promueven el trabajo en equipo requieren que se repiensen los roles de trabajo, e inclusive se creen nuevas categorías. Por ejemplo, el trabajo en equipo requiere roles de coordinación y redes de enlace. Personas que estén mirando el todo y promoviendo las relaciones y conexiones. Trabajo que en el programa de desertores de Culebra realiza voluntariamente la directora Waleska Collazo, pero que en justicia debiera ser remunerado.

Es necesario que esta acción de enlace se dé también a nivel macro del gobierno. Así como en la educación interactúan una multiplicidad de factores, la solución tiene que integrar múltiples actores y relaciones. Es preciso, por ende, crear mecanismos y estructuras que apoyen y promuevan esta labor conjunta y articulada al abordar nuestros problemas. El hilar los mismos es en sí una tarea de mucha importancia

Lesson Plan- CALLA Approach

Universidad del Turabo

Escuela de Estudios Profesionales

Programa Ahora

Lesson Plan

I. Objective

The students will:

a. Learn to use graphic organizers (life map) as pre-writing activity for writing their autobiography.

b. Identify key moments of their lives to use in the creation of their life maps.

c. Organize, in chronological order, the key moments and create their life maps.

II. Standard: #3 Writing Expectation: 3:7.5 DOK Level: 1

III. Materials Needed:

a. A sheet of drawing paper or folder

b. Colored pencils

c. Pictures, magazines clippings

IV. Lesson development

a. Group greetings; read the quote for the day: “History never looks like history when you are living through it”. John W. Gardner

b. An excerpt from Barack Obama’s biography is projected; a student will read it aloud. Teacher explains what an autobiography is and what it represents. Students will identify key moments of Obama’s life that are being mentioned. Student will list key moments of a person’s life that should be part of an autobiography.

c. Explain the lesson’s objective, and introduce the strategy to be learned, (organizing ideas) and its uses.

Explain how to use a graphic organizer to put in order writing ideas (teacher shows her life map and explains what the symbols being used represent).

d. Students begin to work on their graphic organizers (life maps) by pasting or drawing the symbols to represent the key moments of their lives. (Day 1-2)

e. Students will evaluate their work using the Rubric for Life Map/ Personal Narrative.

f. Students will give their feedback on how useful the life map was to help them complete the task. They will also identify other uses for the strategy learned.

V. Assessment

Completed life map (50 points value).

The Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach

The Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) is an instructional model for second and foreign language learners based on cognitive theory and research. CALLA integrates instruction in priority topics from the content curriculum, development of the language skills needed for learning in school, and explicit instruction in using learning strategies for academic tasks.

The goals of CALLA are for students to learn essential academic content and language and to become independent and self-regulated learners through their increasing command over a variety of strategies for learning in school.

CALLA's principal objectives are to assist students in:

• Valuing their own prior knowledge and cultural experiences, and relating this knowledge to academic learning in a new language and culture
• Learning the content knowledge and the language skills that are most important for their future academic success;
• Developing language awareness and critical literacy
• Selecting and using appropriate learning strategies and study skills that will develop academic knowledge and processes
• Developing abilities to work successfully with others in a social context
• Learning through hands-on, inquiry-based, and cooperative learning tasks
• Increasing motivation for academic learning and confidence in their ability to be successful in school
• Evaluating their own learning and planning how to become more effective and independent learners.

My Teaching Philosophy

"Education, therefore, is the process of living,
and not a preparation for future living".
Paulo Freire

Learning is living, and as long as you are living, you are learning. I believe that learning is a lifelong process. It not only encompasses academic learning, but rather learning all the necessary skills needed to live, laugh and love. I want to encourage my students to commit to their learning process, to strive for excellence in their academic goals and to be sensible and empathic in their social life.
As an English teacher I would like to provide a strong foundation for my student's lifelong learning. The skills, concepts and strategies I am teaching my students are the basis for their personal and eventually professional growth. Among my teaching goals: teach my students the beauty of the English language, foster their critical thinking and encourage a broader interest to learn other languages. In my English class I facilitate the learning experience by inducing the students to learn to think, act and react with confidence to their day to day situations. I want my English language learners to feel comfortable to communicate in the English language, to understand and be able to use the language arts to communicate effectively in their personal and professional lives.
To engage a student into learning a second language requires a lot of imagination and creativity. The main objective in my English class is to engage students into learning English, and hopefully to eradicate the anxiety and fear to speak English from the learning scene. I particularly like to use a variety of methods and strategies, given the fact that each student learn at a different pace, and their learning interests are also different. The teaching method I use the most is the communicative language approach. It allows the student a more flexible learning atmosphere, as it permits the use of the native language to communicate hard to express ideas and concepts. It also allows translation to the native language to benefit the students understanding of the information. Through writing exercises, reading of pertinent stories, music and poetry appreciation I hope to give my students an opportunity to think critically, and develop their ability to communicate their ideas, feelings and emotions effectively. Fortunately, I am teaching in the technology era, which means I have the advantage to use one of the most powerful tools available to a teacher: computers and all of its variants. The use of interactive practice exercises, parts of speech games and readings also enhance and facilitate the learning process.
To conclude, my personal goals in teaching have been strongly influenced by my belief that learning to teach and teaching for learning are lifelong endeavors. I became a teacher motivated by the excellent teachers I had and by the strong desire to be able to impact in turn other lives as mine was impacted before. I strive to be not the best English teacher, but the best mentor any student might have. I continue to learn new ways to teach ( actually I am studying to complete a Master's degree in English as a Second Language) and to be a better human being.