Methodology II
María José Drápela
I.
An Ecology of Houses
Learning Goal
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Classify Key
Vocabulary
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Duration
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55 minutes
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Necessary Materials
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Text “An Ecology of
Houses”, dictionary, worksheet with written activities, one computer,
speakers and one data show (audible text).
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Teacher Modeling
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*(Pre Reading)
Students will listen to the teacher as he/she reads out loud one time, first
in a lower speed than normal and the second time what students will listen
to, will be the original audible text in a regular speed.
*(While) The Teacher will make (before the
class), cards with images and cards with key words. At first teacher and
classmates will rehearse the matching between words and pictures. The teacher
will show the class an image, call someone to come up front and choose the
word he/she thinks is the one that matches with the image. It can be also in
groups without going to the front, just answering between the alternatives,
everyone sitting down. After two times, (two or three rehearsals matching the
word with the correct image), students must know the correct matching between
words and pictures/images.
While the audio is
being played and listened to, the images in front of the class will belong to
the content of the text.
Each student will
have his/her own text in a paper sheet.
Students will then read
the text again in silence and underline the words they think are the clue to
deduce what the text is about.
Each student will
have his/her own text and own worksheet with the written activity.
*(Post) Make a list
with the words you think most describes what the text is about. Twenty words.
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Think Check
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Short written
activity. Students must choose the correct given sentence that MATCHES with
the correct concept given in the written exercise. Students already know the
words in the exercise with cards and images, so this time they will select
sentences that matches with the words used before. The images in the picture
this time are written down in a sentence. They must use previous knowledge.
EX: … the phenomena of the physical
world collectively, including plants, animals, and the landscape, as opposed
to humans or human creations.. These words belong to the concept of nature.
…and so on:
NATURE….. the
phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, and
the landscape, as opposed to humans or human creations.
ECOLOGY……the branch
of biology concerned with the relations of organisms to one another and to their
physical surroundings.
LANDSCAPE…… a
picture representing an area of countryside.
FOLIAGE…..plant
leaves collectively.
ENVIRONMENT…..the
surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or
operates.
OUTSKIRTS…..the
outer parts of a town or city.
SPRAWL…. spread out
irregularly over a large area.
DOWNTURN….a decline
in economic or other activity.
INHERIT…..derive (a
quality or characteristic) from one's parents or ancestors.
ECONOMICS…..
DECREASE…..
POPULATION…..
CITIES…..
NEIGHBORHOOD…..
The long sentence is
given by the teacher, it has nouns and adjectives, the isolated word, the
concept, is the one students must know and use to answer.
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Guided Practice
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Students must answer
the worksheet that contains twenty exercises like the one above. Twenty
concepts matching twenty sentences with nouns and adjectives so that students
could deduce what concept is the sentence talking about. Students already
manage different nouns and verbs.
After this, students
must match the concept with the correct image.
EX:
Choose between all the words given, the one
you think best suits
…ECOLOGY
….NATURE
…NEIGHBORHOOD
From the whole list,
choose ten words and build sentences un related to the text.You can change
from a noun to an adjective or vice versa
EX: My friend lives in a
small neighborhood
We have to take care
of nature, each day there is less
green
on earth.
My big sister prefer natural products to eat.
The way we can help is
through an ecological attitude.
Last summer I met a fun
boy called John , he told me he
was an ecologist
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Independent Practice
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Here you will find
the same kind of exercises related this time to different topics. Choose one
and bring it to the next class.
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Learning goal
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Identify main and supporting ideas
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Duration
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55 minutes
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Necessary materials
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Text, videos, dictionary
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Teacher modeling
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Eco-friendly building promoting power-saving
Eco-friendly and power-saving. What does these two words mean?
Teacher will show and explain
what is a main idea and a supporting one. The he/she will show students how
to identify these two types of ideas in a text, in this case, in the text
Eco-friendly building promoting power-saving
EX: Does the title helps me to think what the text is about?
What does eco-friendly
mean?
Is the main idea in the
first two paragraphs?
-The title helps me to deduce what the text is about
-Eco-friendly means: not harmful to the
environment.
-For the past 15 years, the owner of an eco-friendly
building in Nagoya has promoted the conservation of power through the use of
natural sunlight and plants. The main idea is in the first paragraph
KEY INFORMATION
How to identify the
main idea of the paragraphs?
That main idea may
be stated at the beginning of the paragraph, in the middle, or at the end.
The sentence in which the main idea is stated is the topic sentence of that
paragraph.
The topic sentence announces the
general theme (or portion of the theme) to be dealt with in the paragraph.
Although the topic sentence may appear anywhere in the paragraph, it is
usually first - and for a very good reason. This sentence provides the focus
for the writer while writing and for the reader while reading. When you find
the topic sentence, be sure to underline it so that it will stand out not
only now, but also later when you review.
Which are the supporting ideas of the first paragraphs?
First things to know:
Supporting details are statements which support your topic or theme.
You support your main idea by explaining it, describing it, defining it, or otherwise
giving information about it. You will usually need to actually look up or
research this information!
When you are writing an essay or report, each paragraph after the
introduction should discuss one supporting detail. Depending on how many
paragraphs you want to include, you can have any number of supporting
details.
These details are then repeated or rephrased in your concluding
paragraph, to restate the fact that they support your main idea.
give more information about the topic and or details or information
that backs up an sentence.
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Think
check
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Match sentences with
concepts
Paragraph 1:
When I think of
nature, I conjure up an image of a landscape unadulterated by human presence.
Nature, it is
thought, is not our houses, nor does it exist in our backyards or along the
banks of a polluted or drying-up river.
Matches with : The
Concept of Nature
Paragraph 6:
Probably the most
notable consequence of resource extraction for local environments is water
contamination
…increased pressure
on water supplies due to residential development
Matches with :
Damage made by population
Identify at least
ten sentences from the text (two from each paragraph), and match it with a
word from the given list that you think will help you reach the main idea of
each paragraph. Once you´ve made pairs, build a short sentence with your own
words
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Guided practice
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(Pre)The text will be divided in eight
paragraphs(An ecology of houses), so students will know which paragraph the
teacher is talking about
Teacher will show to the class different
pictures with a space under it, in that space there has to go a sentence.
EX: The picture is divided in two. The first
half shows a landscape with a few houses and a family having a good time with
relaxed faces. The other hal, shows N.Y. traffic jam, people in the streets
with upset expressions on their faces.
Students will have to relate each sentence
they are given to one of the images (right, left).
There are sentences that talk about what is
nature and sentences that talk about what is to kill nature through over
building neighborhoods, suburbs, cities, etc., polluting through car
emissions, gain money through building up malls, etc.
All the pictures are divided in two,
sometimes nature is on the left and sometimes is on the right. Each sentence
must fit under each picture. Sentences are given
EX: These are the sentences that go under
each picture
-I conjure up an image of a landscape
unadulterated by human presence
-The construction of strip malls, roads, and,
particularly housing along the outskirts of cities in a seemingly haphazard
and unplanned fashion
-Nature, it is thought, is not our houses,
nor does it exist in our backyards or along the banks of a polluted or
drying-up river.
-We are currently facing enormous
environmental problems
-Nature has been constructed - in our
imagination
-This process has (and has had) implications
for human evolution by altering the process of natural selection.
- Since the 1980s, the primary cause of the
changing landscape in the United States has been suburban sprawl
-I hear birds chirping and mosquitoes buzzing
in my ear
And so on…
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Independent practice
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SPEAKING
Date
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Content
Vocabulary
Language
Values: Tolerance
towards other cultures or people who talks different
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Objective/skills
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Activities/Strategies
(Pre) Teacher reads
in front of the class a short dialogue between a Spanish boy and a Chinese
girl, both talking in English with different accents. Teacher will make
different accents imitating how each of the kids would talk. This is a short
demonstration just to introduce students to listen not to a perfect English.
After this, students will watch the video “The Italian man who went to
Malta”, it´s a funny video to engage them and they get to listen how an
Italian man talks in English and what could happen if the pronunciation is
not clear.
“The Italian man who went to Malta”, it´s a
funny video to engage students so they get to listen how an Italian man talks
in English and what could happen if the pronunciation is not clear. Just to
check if they understood (not assessed), they will answer the following
questions:
What country does
the man come from?
What happened when
he arrives to the hotel? Why did that happen?
What were the words
the other people got confused with?
What was the most
fun part in your personal opinion?
What was the video
about?
Did you have a hard
time trying to understand?
Do you like
listening to other accents or does it make you laugh?
(Post) ) Students
must watch and listen to the video “Achmed the dead terrorist”, another funny
video which shows kind of a role-play. It’s the conversation between a Muslim
and an American guy. It´s clear enough, it´s not too fast, there are pauses,
and particular pitches when it has to be with sarcasm or direct jokes.
Tell what the video
is about. Use third person. Describe the characters and the conversation.
Pick up a classmate, and try to make the same dialogue, inventing new parts.
The dialogue will be evaluated. You must show what you did in front of the
class
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Resources
One computer
One data show
Worksheet
Pencils
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SPEAKING
Date
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Content
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Objective/skills
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Activities/strategies
You are a TV host,
and you´ve invited Cesar Millan to your show. You will make questions(most of
them WH), making conversation as well. Choose a partner who will take Cesar
Millan´s rol, your partner must imitate Mexican accent
Here is a video were
you can listen to Millan talking about how he came to USA.
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Resources
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WRITING
Date
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Content
Vocabulary
Language
Values
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Objective/skills
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Activities/strategies
Teacher will start
the class asking students if they had ever written an e-mail. There are some
who did and others who don´t. (Pre)Teacher will show on the board (projecting
the format of gmail or hotmail) using a fake address just made for the
exercise. They will pick a topic, this time “Writing an e-mail to a friend,
telling about your holidays”
This exercise will
be done by the whole group. The ones who have never written an e-mail, must
sit with someone who has. Teacher will give an example of how starting an
e-mail, show words related to the topic (place, sunny, sea, coast, travel by
car, travel by air, bagpack, travelling ticket, hotels, etc)
Teacher and
classgroup will build up the email. Teacher will just guide them by making
questions, so students will be the ones who give the ideas of what to write. Teacher
will pick the best ideas.
(While)
write a 10-line
email to a friend asking him/her
about the holidays. Use the vocabulary used in class and quantifiers. The
questions you make, must be enough so that your friend would tell you the
whole story thanks to your questions.-
(Post)Answer these
questions:
Do you think
holydays are necessary for your peace of mind?
What´s the best
place you have visited? Describe it with details. If you were a person who
Works in a travel agency, how would you make people want to vivsit a
determine place? Choose a place that you know and use what you remember to
convince someone else of visiting that place. You will read it in front of
the class.
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Resources
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WRITING: Fifth Grade
Date
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Content
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Objective/skills
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Activities/strategies
Teacher will show
students a magazine article that shows one girl´s idea of how to contribute
and help old people. After reading the text, students must com up with a
different idea towards the same topic, write it down and present it in front
of the class. They must get in groups of four.
Question: according
to what you read and listened to get in groups and answer the following
question, What the community should do to improve elderly people's life?
Write your ideas and
present them
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Resources
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San Nicolás
School (Canal Chacao)
This is a
school which is non British and subsidized. English level is basic. In the specific case
of the class I took, Third Medio, they were being prepared for the SIMCE test.
Most of the students, boys and girls, didn´t show much interest towards the
subject, except for three students, they wanted to learn more, but it was “them
against the whole group”. This classgroup most of the times were noisy, playful
and showed no interest at all. The guiding Teacher never asked me for a Lesson
Plan, considering they were focused on the SIMCE Test. I chose ING exercises,
tried to make interesting examples when making sentences and we worked with Irregular
Verbs as well. What the teacher always asked me for, was to make the typical
“GUÍA” .We never used the book ‘cause the teacher didn´t want to. I think that was a chance to improve in terms
of proper construction of a Lesson Plan and many other aspects. I couldn´t, so
that´s why I would like to talk a little about what an ideal situation would
be. The most difficult part for me in this process was to realize that most of
the people in front of you, had no interest towards what you could teach them.
I tried to make fun classes, when I felt
I was losing their attention I changed the mood, making contests with the
material we were working with (had to buy treats for everyone). If I had the
real chance to improve my experience I would have used material related to the
students interests, for example they liked very much Reggaeton, I would have
taken advantage of the lyrics, would have extracted so much material, working
with the four skills , just from a song. I would have shown them audiovisual
material of their interest with a pedagogical purpose. The importance of the
meaningfulness of the activity I think is fundamental, just because as much as
they like what they see, they will engage in an effective way and so the
learning process would have been fun, effortless and permanent. Its important
to consider the metacognition factor at each activity so students would apply
what they´ve learned each time, developing
critical thinking, relating capacity, among many others. The activity
must make students to use their background knowledge ALWAYS.The material I got
to use was just one data show with a laptop. Never had the chance to use
internet, where obviously a great gate would have been opened. I know every student would have been able to
use technology, they were 16, 17 years old, What teenager doesn´t manage
technology?
Build
correct activities?. Make proper Lesson Plans? obviously wasn´t hard because I
didn´t make any. I´m just getting familiarized with the process in this
subject. I know I have the skills to do it and since I nailed it with the
process itself, I´m sure I can take advantage of any material. Anyhow, before
every class, I always tried to start with something like a question or a
comment, just to have their attention .It was a good experience though. Now I
realize how important is proper planning and designing for specific purposes.-
