TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY

THE IMPORTANCE OF SPEAKING

It´s important that teachers help students to develop speaking and oral interaction skill. The goal is students can communicate in simple and routines tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar topics and activities. They must be able to maintain a simple conversation.

To facilitate the development of these skills teachers should pre-syntactic conversation structure rather than grammar sentence structure; a conversational mode both provides interactive examples and exchange models of FL. Moreover, teachers can provide visual (and general non verbal) support (pictures, gestures, facial expressions, etc.); they are crucial to help comprehension of the new language and possibilities to interact.

How to organise a speaking/oral interaction activity

1.      Contextualise the activity and engage the learners

2.      Revise (/Teach) the language the learners will need to produce in the activity

-          By modelling the language

-          By drilling the language (words, phrases, sentences)

3.      Give instructions for the activity

4.      Distribute hand-outs

5.      Organise groups/pairs

6.      Let the activity start

7.      Monitor the activity

8.      Provide feedback

9.      Get learners to reflect on the activity

PHONICS

Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing the English language by developing learners' phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes—in order to teach the correspondence between these sounds and the spelling patterns (graphemes) that represent them.

The goal of phonics is to enable beginning readers to decode new written words by sounding them out, or in phonics terms, blending the sound-spelling patterns. Since it focuses on the spoken and written units within words, phonics is a sublexical approach and, as a result, is often contrasted with Whole language, a word-level-up philosophy for teaching reading.

The phonetic method of teaching how to read is employed by many schools all over the world as it is the most effective method to teach kids how to read. Reading and phonics are deeply related to each other, and this method makes use of that link to help a child in picking up the basics of reading.

The phonetics method of teaching to read concentrates entirely on the sounds made by alphabets. By using the phonic system of learning, children learn to associate letters with sounds, which are then linked to sounds of speech. This method thus enables a child to be able to read faster and on his/her own.

Since the phonics method concentrates on sounds rather than words, it is easy for children to grasp the proper pronunciation of a word, its enunciation, as well as it articulation. Reading and phonics have always been closely associated. The human brain processes information through two basic pathways. They are the auditory path and the visual path. The auditory pathway has a short term memory and is used to learn, understand, and use the various methods of teaching.

Some educators who support the phonic method believe that when children master the pronunciation rules, they can read on their own. 

Educators who oppose this method believe knowing the sound without knowing the meaning of the word does not work. Some educators do not teach the pronunciation rules; words in books are read aloud in class. The children are supposed to remember how each word sounds one by one as they encounter them in the context of a story or other reading materials.

There are several types of phonics instructional methods and approaches:

·         Analogy phonics

Teaching students unfamiliar words by analogy to known words (e.g., recognizing that the rime segment of an unfamiliar word is identical to that of a familiar word, and then blending the known rime with the new word onset, such as reading brick by recognizing that -ick is contained in the known word kick, or reading stump by analogy to jump).

·         Analytic phonics

Teaching students to analyze letter-sound relations in previously learned words to avoid pronouncing sounds in isolation.

·         Embedded phonics

Teaching students phonics skills by embedding phonics instruction in text reading, a more implicit approach that relies to some extent on incidental learning.

·         Phonics through spelling

Teaching students to segment words into phonemes and to select letters for those phonemes (i.e., teaching students to spell words phonemically).

·         Synthetic phonics

Teaching students explicitly to convert letters into sounds (phonemes) and then blend the sounds to form recognizable words.

Here we want share with you this video that is about jolly phonics. Jolly phonics is a fun and child centred approach to teaching literacy through synthetic phonics. With actions for each of the 42 letter sounds, the multi-sensory method is very motivating for children and teachers, who can see their students achieve. The letter sounds are split into seven groups as shown below.

READING STRATEGIES 

“Thinking about how you read”

Before Reading

During Reading
 

- Cross-check

-    Reread

-       Predict and Confirm

-       Skip, Read On, and Go Back

-      Connect Background Knowledge to the Information in the Text

-      Think about Explicit and Implicit Information

-      Stop and Review

After Reading

Why use strategies?

Good readers have developed good habits when they read. They call these habits strategies. 

Strategies help you learn HOW to understand. If you know HOW to understand, then you are more likely TO understand.

Moreover strategies help you realize HOW you are thinking so that you can think more deeply and more consciously.

There are seven reading strategies:

-  Make connections.

§  Text to self (similar events in your life)

§   Text to text (books, movies, T.V., etc.)

§  Text to life (real world events)

CONNECT yourself to the text! Go passed the OBVIOUS!

-  Ask Questions.

What do you get?

What other questions do you have?

What do you wonder about as you read?

Why ask questions?

§  Asking questions helps keep you focused on the text.

§   If you run into problems, things you just don’t understand, then you can check yourself with a question.

-  Determine Importance.

Why is important?

Determine importance is important because you have to decide what is important, you don’t have to remember everything. You can prioritize the information you need in order to understand.

 

- Think about what a teacher might ask on a test.

- Think about what the author hints might be important later on.

-  Infer and Predict.

Good readers are like detectives.

They use clues to determine what is happening in a story. This is called INFERENCE! 

KNOWLEDGE + TEXT = INFERENCE

- Visualize.

It is important visualize. If you don’t picture the events of the story, you will get bored.    

- Synthesize

What is the meaning of what you are reading?

-   Use Fix up Strategies

           Reread                                          Underline

                                                                                  

                                                            

                                                                      

                          

             Use a dictionary                                             Read aloud

                                                                                                       

                                        

                                                                                                                          

           

TPR

Hello again! we can share with you some contents related to the TPR (Total Physical Response).

What is TPR?

TPR is a method of teaching language using physical movement to react to verbal input in order to reduce student inhibitions and lower their affective filter.

• Total Physical Response(TPR) is due to James Asher.
• TPR is an example of Comprehension Approach.
• The emphasis is given to listening comprehension.
• Children listen and respond with actions.
• Speaking is a natural product of listening.
• Game like movements reduce stress.
•  Language chunks are practice rather than single items.
• No grammar explanation is given.
• Listen before speaking. 

TPR is not: Simon says, gesture based songs, simply using commands to practice English.


You can watch this video to learn more about TPR.

Now, we attach a scheme about Language teaching TPR Principles:


 

+ Assessment

In this post, we attach the slides which correspond to the videos for reflecting about the assessment for learning.

Vídeo 1

1. The way assessment for learning was delivered in the video.

In this video, teachers use the following ways of assess the learning:

* Peer assessment.

* Self-assessment.

* Teacher make questions to students.

2. The benefits this strategy had for the pupils in the lesson.

We believe that, self-assessment help students to reflect about their own learning. It is a key strategy to involve students in taking more responsibility for their own learning. Perhaps the biggest drawback is that it requires greater involvement by the teacher.

On the other hand, peer assessment can be considered part of peer tutoring. As with other forms of peer tutoring.

3. Any planning or resources that had been prepared by the teacher.

The resources that had been prepared by the teacher are: self-assessment sheet.

4. what ideas or thoughts the video has provoked for your own lessons.

We think that the teacher shouldn’t the only person that assess the process of teaching-learning but children have to be aware of their learning acquisition, for the learning be more effective.

Vídeo 2

 1.  The way assessment for learning was delivered in the video.

    

  In the video the teacher uses two different ways of assessment:

             * Peer assessment

             * Self assessment

 2.  The benefits this strategy had for the pupils in the lesson.

The children are more confident, responsible, and independent. They also realize what and why they are learning, and how they can improve it. Moreover, they can see what’s wrong and how they can correct their own mistakes.

 3. Any planning or resources that had been prepared by the teacher.

Traffic lights, they have a notebook with different traffic lights. The red means 'I understand this work. I think I am ready to move on'. The yellow means 'I understand some part of this. I would like more time to work on it. And the red says ‘ I found this very difficult to understand I would like more help with this’.

- Looking for mistakes of a reading.

 4.  what ideas or thoughts the video has provoked for your own lesson.

Not only the teacher is the factor of the class what have to evaluate the learning, also children can and have to reflect on their own learning because in this way they could look for strategies to improve their learning. On the other hand, if something goes wrong we can adapt our lesson, in order to make meaningful the teaching learning process.

  

Vídeo 3

1.  The way assessment for learning was delivered in the video.

In this video, teachers use three ways of assess the learning:

*  Observation: teacher does this assessment when she observes how children reflect upon the     new knowledge that they have acquire.

*   Peer Assessment: it has to do with the assessment that the teacher does when she asks them in which way can improve the performance of their classmates.

* Self-assessment: in the video we can see this kind of assessment when children have to put their thumb up, medium or down depending of the difficult that the activity has for them.

2.  The benefits this strategy had for the pupils in the lesson.

In our opinion, with this strategy children can be aware of their teaching-learning process and reflect on it.

3. Any planning or resources that had been prepared by the teacher.

In this lesson, the teacher has considered a good resource bring to class a woman who represent the Queen, when children ask her the questions, it will be more motivating and funny than read the information in a document.

Another good point is performances, through them children can acquire knowledge and also it is very useful to make pair assessment.

     4. What ideas or thoughts the video has provoked for your own lessons.

For us, the video shows a lot of ideas of how make children participate of their learning process. For this aspect, pair assessment and self-assessment is very important.

Our own rubric

In this post we attach a rubric that we have done for the subject Management, planning and assessment of the foreign language. Though this rubric we will evaluate the skill of writing and it is destined for the 3º grade of primary school.

Writing activity

1. Pre-writing

The teacher promotes in classroom a topic. (e.g.: My Family). Then, the teacher asks children about their family, how is their family, how many people are in their family, how are they like? And the teacher even say them something about his/her family, in this way children will be more motivated and interesting about the topic. Then, the teacher is going to show his/her children a key vocabulary using flashcards (He/She is going to show them a flashcard and explain who appears on it (father, mother, son, daughter, grandfather, grandmother, sister and brother).

2. While-writing

They will have to write about their family, how many people are in their family, what are their names and how they are like. Then, the teacher asks them where would be their ideal vacation with their family. (It doesn’t matter if they don’t know to say something in English, the teacher will help them, the main aim of the activity is that the children produce a legible, creative, and organized writing.

3. Post-writing

When they will finish the activity, we ask for a volunteer who wants to show the rest of the class his/her writing, in this way he/she is developing her/his oral skills.

Writing Rubric	Necesita mejorar	Podría estar mejor	¡Buen trabajo!	¡Excelente!	%
Contenidos	Los contenidos presentados no se acercan a los esperados.	Acercamiento a los contenidos tratados en clase.	El alumno ha puesto en práctica los contenidos aprendidos en clase.	El alumno ha expuesto los contenidos de una manera lógica y ordenada además de introducir propuestas.	20
Organización/ Estructura de los contenidos	Está desorganizado sin una secuencia lógica de ideas.	El alumno ha ordenado de manera confusa los contenidos, aparecen en un grado muy leve algunos mecanismos de orden (after, secondly,etc).	Uso apropiado de mecanismos de coherencia y cohesión. Está organizado de manera entrecortada, con una secuencia de ideas lógica pero incompleta.	Uso adecuado de mecanismos de coherencia y cohesión. Está muy bien organizado, con una secuencia lógica de las ideas.	15
Gramática y vocabulario	Uso inadecuado del vocabulario básico así como una notable ausencia del vocabulario específico del tema y de estructuras gramaticales con errores frecuentes.	Uso adecuado de vocabulario básico, sin embargo hay una ausencia en el vocabulario específico del tema y de estructuras gramaticales simples y complejas con algunos errores.	Uso adecuado y variado de vocabulario tanto básico como específico y de estructuras gramaticales complejas con pocos errores.	Uso adecuado y variado de vocabulario (específico y básico) y de estructuras gramaticales complejas  sin errores.	20
Creatividad/ Originalidad	El número de respuestas que el alumno/a emite es muy reducido. Produce escasas categorías de respuestas diferenciadas. Las respuestas que emite son frecuentes.	Emite pocas respuestas. En ocasiones esporádicas produce categorías de respuestas diferenciadas. Empieza a producir respuestas menos frecuentes.	Emite un número aceptable de respuestas. Produce un número adecuado de categorías diferentes de respuestas. En la mayoría de ocasiones produce respuestas poco frecuentes en el entorno.	Es capaz de producir muchas ideas. Es capaz de ver y abordar las situaciones de formas diferentes. Produce respuestas que son poco frecuentes en el entorno.	15
Presentación /uso del lenguaje	El texto resulta incomprensible. Dado que no ha tenido en cuenta aspectos como el orden en la escritura, la separación de párrafos, márgenes, etc.	El texto es comprensible pero requiere que el lector descifre el texto sometiéndose a un gran esfuerzo.	El texto es comprensible. Requiere aclaraciones mínimas por parte del lector.	El texto es comprensible. No requiere aclaraciones por el lector. Se puede leer de una forma amena y sin interrupciones.	10
Ortografía y puntuación	La escritura de las palabras es incorrecta. La puntuación y el uso de las mayúsculas son utilizados de forma inapropiada.	La escritura de algunas palabras es  correcta. La puntuación y el uso de las mayúsculas es a veces correcto.	La mayoría de las palabras están escritas correctamente. La puntuación y el uso de las mayúsculas son correctos.	Todas las palabras están escritas correctamente. La puntuación y el uso de las mayúsculas son también correctos.	20