lunes, 3 de diciembre de 2012

Method Exam



Methodology II
María José Drápela

I.                    An Ecology of Houses

Learning Goal
Classify Key Vocabulary
Duration
55 minutes
Necessary Materials
Text “An Ecology of Houses”, dictionary, worksheet with written activities, one computer, speakers and one data show (audible text).
Teacher Modeling
*(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.
Think Check
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.
Guided Practice
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

Independent Practice
Here you will find the same kind of exercises related this time to different topics. Choose one and bring it to the next class.









Learning goal
Identify main and supporting ideas
Duration
55 minutes
Necessary materials
Text, videos, dictionary
Teacher modeling
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.









Think check
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

Guided practice
(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…




Independent practice



















SPEAKING
Date


Content



Vocabulary




Language





Values: Tolerance towards other cultures or people who talks different
Objective/skills
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



















Resources

One computer
One data show
Worksheet
Pencils






SPEAKING
Date
Content
Objective/skills
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.











Resources



WRITING
Date
Content



Vocabulary




Language






Values
Objective/skills
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.
Resources







WRITING: Fifth Grade

Date
Content


Objective/skills
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
Resources


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.- 


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