Reading Anthology for CONALEP Teachers

Contents

The 5 E's .......................................................................................................................................3 Flexible Grouping .........................................................................................................................5 Adolescents ..................................................................................................................................9 The importance of setting time to activities when planning a lesson ........................................... 10 Five Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans (and how to avoid them) ................................... 11 Major Categories in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives(Bloom1956) Categories in the Cognitive Domain: (with Outcome-Illustrating Verbs) ................................................................................. 15 Competency Based Approach ..................................................................................................... 16 Why choose a competency-based approach? .............................................................................. 16

Module 1
Area Topics
1.1. Important things to take into consideration when planning 1.2.- Grouping and activities

Making a plan

1.3.- Relevance of activities to age and level 1.4.- Use of resources 1.5.- Timing

The 5 E's
The 5 E's is an instructional model based on the constructivist approach to learning, which says that learners build or construct new ideas on top of their old ideas. The 5 E's can be used with students of all ages, including adults. Each of the 5 E's describes a phase of learning, and each phase begins with the letter "E": Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. The 5 E's allows students and teachers to experience common activities, to use and build on prior knowledge and experience, to construct meaning, and to continually assess their understanding of a concept. Engage: This phase of the 5 E's starts the process. An "engage" activity should do the following: 1. Make connections between past and present learning experiences. 2. Anticipate activities and focus students' thinking on the learning outcomes of current activities. Students should become mentally engaged in the concept, process, or skill to be learned. Explore: This phase of the 5 E's provides students with a common base of experiences. They identify and develop concepts, processes, and skills. During this phase, students actively explore their environment or manipulate materials. Explain: This phase of the 5 E's helps students explain the concepts they have been exploring. They have opportunities to verbalize their conceptual understanding or to demonstrate new skills or behaviors. This phase also provides opportunities for teachers to introduce formal terms, definitions, and explanations for concepts, processes, skills, or behaviors. Elaborate: This phase of the 5 E's extends students' conceptual understanding and allows them to practice skills and behaviors. Through new experiences, the learners develop deeper and broader understanding of major concepts, obtain more information about areas of interest, and refine their skills.

Evaluate: This phase of the 5 E's encourages learners to assess their understanding and abilities and lets teachers evaluate students' understanding of key concepts and skill development. Constructivism is a learning strategy that draws on students' existing knowledge, beliefs, and skills. With a constructivist approach, students synthesize new understanding from prior learning and new information. The constructivist teacher sets up problems and monitors student exploration, guides student inquiry, and promotes new patterns of thinking. Working mostly with raw data, primary sources, and interactive material, constructivist teaching asks students to work with their own data and learn to direct their own explorations. Ultimately, students begin to think of learning as accumulated, evolving knowledge. Constructivist approaches work well with learners of all ages, including adults.
http://enhancinged.wgbh.org/research/eeeee.html

Flexible Grouping
Catherine Valentino
What Is Flexible Grouping? Flexible grouping is not a new concept in American education. It has its roots in the original one-room rural schoolhouse where students of varying ages, backgrounds, and abilities were grouped and regrouped to meet instructional needs. As towns and cities grew and universal education became a national goal, ways of grouping students changed. The assumption that students of the same age learned at about the same rate caused most schools to group students in classes by their ages, a practice that continues today. Whole-class instruction was a natural outgrowth of that decision. Observing that same-age children learned to read at widely varying rates, teachers began to divide students into subgroups based on perceived ability. Math subgroups soon followed. But change is happening. Today, classrooms are filled with children from an increasing variety of cultural and economic backgrounds. As part of a national push for citizens who can think, solve problems, work with others, and learn on the job, educators are taking a close look at the implications of using whole-group and ability-group instruction exclusively. Teachers are discovering that informally grouping and regrouping students in a variety of ways throughout the school day can make a teacher's job easier and students more productive. This teaching strategy is called flexible grouping. Teachers who use flexible grouping strategies often employ several organizational patterns for instruction. Students are grouped and regrouped according to specific goals, activities, and individual needs. When making grouping decisions, the dynamics and advantages inherent in each type of group must be considered. Both teacher-led and student-led groups can contribute to learning. Teacher-Led Groups Teacher-led groups are the most common configuration used in classrooms today. They include whole-class, small group, and individual instruction. In general, communication paths in teacher-led groups are almost exclusively between teacher and student. Teacher-led groups are an effective and efficient way of introducing material, summing-up the conclusions made by individual groups, meeting the common needs of a large or small group, and providing individual attention or instruction.

Whole-Class Instruction Whole-class instruction is often used to introduce new materials and strategies to the entire class. Working with the whole class to introduce new concepts can build common experiences and provide a shared basis for further exploration, problem solving, and skill development. Whole-class instruction also can help identify students' prior knowledge and experiences that will affect new knowledge acquisition. Small-Group Instruction Small-group instruction is familiar to most teachers; it is an often-used strategy. Small groups can provide opportunities for working with students who have common needs, such as reinforcement or enrichment.

Students Working Alone in Teacher-Directed Activities Although learning to work cooperatively constitutes an important educational goal, students must also learn to work independently. Individual responses may prove especially helpful for students in refining their own thoughts. For example, after sharing strategies in small, student-led groups, each student might reflect on the group's problemsolving methods and formulate a personal problem-solving strategy. Student-Led Groups Student-led groups can take many forms, but they all share a common feature-students control the group dynamics and maintain a voice in setting the agenda for the group to follow. Student-led groups provide opportunities for divergent thinking and encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning. One of the benefits of student-led groups is that they model "real-life" adult situations in which people work together, not in isolation, to solve problems. Students working in groups learn to work with people from varying backgrounds and with different experiences, sharpening social skills and developing a sense of confidence in their own abilities. A variety of group types and a sampling of activities that may be appropriate for each are described below.

Collaborative Groups The essence of collaborative learning is the team spirit that motivates students to contribute to the learning of others on the team. Because team success depends on individual learning, members share ideas and reinterpret instructions to help each other. In this environment, students convey to one another the idea that learning is valuable and fun. Students in collaborative-learning groups can make predictions or estimations about a problem, share ideas, or formulate questions. After working independently, group members might cooperate in composing either an oral solution or a written response. These groups prove particularly effective for open-ended problem-solving investigations. Collaborative groups come in all sizes and configurations, depending on the instructional goal to be achieved. Two strategies for using collaborative groups are described below. Circle Sharing In circle sharing, children sit in a large circle so that each student can see the rest. The leader (either the teacher or a selected student) presents an open-ended statement or problem, and each student in turn responds with his or her own conclusion. One student records each group member's response in order. Students may "pass" as their turn comes up, but they should have an answer ready when the circle is completed. As an alternative, students can pass a sheet of paper from one to the next. When the signal is given, the first group member writes down his or her idea for approaching the investigation. The paper then passes to the person on the left. This strategy is excellent for brainstorming divergent approaches to a problem. Four Corners Pose a question or problem with four parts, operations, or solving strategies. Have students select which of the four is their choice to work with. Have each child go to the corner of the classroom where that problem part is displayed. This is a quick way to get children who have similar interests together to do further problem solving.

Performance-Based Groups Sometimes groups of students with similar needs might benefit from additional support in the completion of a task. Unlike traditional ability groups, performance-based groups form for a short time and respond to the dynamic nature of learning. Performance-based groups are most effective when formed on the basis of a particular need rather than in response to predetermined performance levels. Performance-based groups provide a means for increasing students' access to a particular concept or skill.

Suitable strategies for these groups include introducing language, using concrete models, playing a concept game for skill practice, or practicing strategies. Strategies for use with performance-based groups are listed below. Group Study Group study most often occurs after a session of whole-group instruction. After the main concept is discussed as a class, students get into small groups of two to four to complete a cooperative assignment that reinforces, expands on, or tests their knowledge. Groups can brainstorm ideas or complete various explorations or investigations. Interview for Options After working individually on an investigation, group members take turns interviewing each other to determine how each person approached the problem. After they have all had a chance to share their thinking, the group can summarize what they learned from the interviews. Use of graphic organizers or posters can be helpful

Student Dyads, or Pairs Grouping students in pairs often forms the basis for peer and cross-age programs. Various strategies for use with student pairs include the following. Partner Turns Students are paired before a whole-class presentation is made. As you make your presentation, give pairs a chance to share ideas, information, and plans or strategies for problem solving. This strategy provides a good way to quickly reinforce active listening and individual approaches to problem solving. Think, Pair, Share After whole-class instruction, have individuals think about what strategies they would use for approaching the investigation. Students should write down their ideas. After a time, have pairs meet to share their ideas and strategies. This approach helps encourage divergent thinking and provides students with immediate feedback on their approaches to problem solving. As with any change, implementing flexible grouping requires a period of adjustment. But the results will be worth the effort!

TEACHER-LED GROUPS Grouping Options Whole Class/ Small Groups Teacher's Role

Activities

Explains procedures Provides instructional scaffold Faciliates discussion Provides explicit instruction Affirms student diversity Guides individual development Encourages individual student interests

Outlining day's agenda/schedule Giving an overview of concepts Sharing student work Presenting strategies Developing background knowledge Applying key concepts, strategies and skills Composing written responses Completing understanding Creating own investigations Organizing collaborative project Collaborating on projects Sharing group projects Discussing students' evaluation of group's success Applying key strategies and concepts Discussing different perspectives Organizing short-term groups Introducing new concepts Teaching sppecific concepts, strategies and skills Assisting partners Tutoring peers Responding to peer writing Collaborating

Individual

STUDENT-LED GROUPS Collaborative

Describes students' roles Describes students' interpersonal skills Encourages student interaction Monitors group effectiveness Guides understanding Affirms student diversity Identifies students' needs Provides instructional scaffold Provides explicit instruction Identifies students' interests or needs Models instructional strategies Guides understanding

PerformanceBased

Dyad (Pairs)

http://www.eduplace.com/science/profdev/articles/valentino.html

Adolescents
It is strange that, despite their relative success as language learners, adolescents are often seen as problem students. Yet with their greater ability for abstract thought and their passionate commitment to what they are doing once they are engaged, adolescents may well be the most exciting student of all. Most of them understand the need for learning and, with the right goals, can be responsible enough to do what is asked of them. It is perfectly true that there are times when things dont seem to go very well. Adolescence is bound up, after all, with a pronounced search for identity and a need for self-esteem; adolescents need to feel good about themselves and valued. All of this is reflected in the secondary student who convincingly argued that a good teacher is one who knows our names (Harmer 2007; 26). But its not just teachers, of course; teenage students often have an acute need for peer approval, too. There is almost nothing more exciting than a class of involved young people at this age pursuing a learning goal with enthusiasm. Our job, therefore, must be to provoke student engagement with material which is relevant and involving. Herbert Puchta and Michael Schratz see problems with teenagers as resulting, in part, from the teachers failure to build bridges between what they want and have to teach and their students worlds of thought and experience (1993: 4). They advocate linking language teaching far more closely to the students everyday interests through, in particular, the use of humanistic reaching. Thus, material has to be designed at the students level, with topics which they can react to. They must be encouraged to respond to texts and situations with their own thoughts and experiences, rather than just by answering questions and doing abstract learning activities. We must give them tasks which they are able to do, rather than risk humiliating them. Part of our work is to provoke intellectual activity by helping then to be aware of contrasting ideas and concepts which they can resolve for themselves though still with our guidance.

Extract from Describing Learners/ Adolescents (pgs. 83, 84) The practice of English language teaching by Jeremy Harmer / Pearson Longman

The importance of setting time to activities when planning a lesson

Idolina Camargo The first thing to include at the margins of every activity programmed for the class period, is the amount of time available for that specific activity; estimates for each stage of the lesson or activity. If there happen to be break times, they need to be included, do not for any circumstance, and leave that time off the original lesson plans. It is way too easy to overbook time that way; breaks are sometimes a necessary component, whether the class is a group of college/university students or pre-scholars. Lastly, a teacher should write down the amount of time for each activity with a little bit of what one could call "wiggle room." Some activities may finish more quickly (or more slowly) than anticipated. Having extra activities or workbook exercises makes one more adept at handling extra time without coming across unprepared or poor with time management. The same way, planning a few extra minutes for wrap-up or similar closing comments also allows for a few minutes to get the students to work to a good "stopping point" for the day or for the class period. Time management can be very challenging for novice teachers. It is even challenging for experienced ones who cant accurately predict how long an activity will take or when a specific discussion will become so engaging that it will be difficult to stop in the time planned. Nevertheless, it is important to note the number of minutes allotted to the activity in the margin of the lesson plan. Many a times, an activity is underestimated in terms of length, so teachers should decide ahead what part of a lesson can be skipped or shortened or saved for next class in case you are running short of time. This at no moment means that teachers should not over plan. There are times when an activity will take less time than anticipated or suddenly seems too easy or difficult, so the teacher has to decide to sacrifice it. Good teachers tend to over plan and always have some useful five to ten minute supplementary activities available up their sleeve. It can definitely be a very frightening experience for beginner teachers to look up at the clock and find that they still have ten minutes left till the end of the class and have not the slightest idea of what to do. It is very useful to plan every single minute of class at the beginning before stepping in the classroom. In this timing, seating arrangements for the various activities should be taken into consideration. Planning pair or group work seating arrangements in advance is a lot more efficient than just standing in front of the class moving the students randomly. Planning these seating arrangements beforehand helps the class run smoothly and saves teaching time.

Five Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans (and how to avoid them)
Dr. Robert Kizlik Successful teachers are invariably good planners and thinkers. In my career as a teacher and teacher educator, I have read and evaluated thousands of lesson plans written by education students at all levels. On a consistent basis, I see mistakes that distort or weaken what the plans are supposed to communicate. You can improve your lesson-planning skills by first thinking carefully about what the lesson is supposed to accomplish. There is no substitute for this. In teaching students how to develop lesson plans, the following are mistakes I have observed that students make most often: The objective of the lesson does not specify what the student will actually do that can be observed. The lesson assessment is disconnected from the behavior indicated in the objective. The materials specified in the lesson are extraneous to the actual described learning activities. The instruction in which the teacher will engage is not efficient for the level of intended student learning. The student activities described in the lesson plan do not contribute in a direct and effective way to the lesson objective. A lesson plan that contains one or more of these mistakes needs rethinking and revision. Below is a rationale and guide to help you develop effective lesson plans and avoid the five common mistakes. FIRST, YOU MUST KNOW HOW TO PLAN The purpose of a lesson plan is really quite simple; it is to communicate. But, you might ask, communicate to whom? The answer to this question, on a practical basis, is YOU! The lesson plans you develop are to guide you in helping your students achieve intended learning outcomes. Whether a lesson plan fits a particular format is not as relevant as whether or not it actually describes what you want, and what you have determined is the best means to an end. If you write a lesson plan that can be interpreted or implemented in many different ways, it is probably not a very good plan. This leads one to conclude that a key principle in creating a lesson plan is specificity. It is sort of like saying, "almost any series of connecting roads will take you from Key West Florida to Anchorage Alaska, eventually." There is however, one any only one set of connecting roads that represents the shortest and best route. Best means that, for example getting to Anchorage by using an unreliable car is a different problem than getting there using a brand new car. What process one uses to get to a destination depends on available resources and time. So, if you agree that the purpose of a lesson plan is to communicate, then, in order to accomplish that purpose, the plan must contain a set of elements that are descriptive of the process. Let's look at what those elements should be.

THE LESSON PLAN Preliminary Information - The development of a lesson plan begins somewhere, and a good place to start is with a list or description of general information about the plan. This information sets the boundaries or limits of the plan. Here is a good list of these information items: (a) the grade level of the students for whom the plan is intended; (b) the specific subject matter (mathematics, reading, language arts, science, social studies, etc.); (c) if appropriate, the name of the unit of which the lesson is a part; and (d) the name of the teacher. The parts each part of a lesson plan should fulfill some purpose in communicating the specific content, the objective, the learning prerequisites, what will happen, the sequence of student and teacher activities, the materials required, and the actual assessment procedures. Taken together, these parts constitute an end (the objective), the means (what will happen and the student and teacher activities), and an input (information about students and necessary resources). At the conclusion of a lesson, the assessment tells the teacher how well students actually attained the objective. In a diagram, the process looks something like this: Input ======>process=====>output Let's look at each part separately.Input: This part refers to the physical materials, other resources, and information that will be required by the process. What are these inputs? First of all, if you have thought about what the lesson is supposed to accomplish, the inputs are much easier to describe. In general categories, inputs consist of: Information about the students for whom the lesson is intended. This information includes, but is not limited to the age and grade level of the students, and what they already know about what you want them to learn. Information about the amount of time you estimate it will take to implement the lesson. Descriptions of the materials that will be required by the lesson, and at some point, the actual possession of the materials. Information about how you will acquire the physical materials required. Information about how to obtain any special permissions and schedules required. For example if your lesson plan will require a field trip, you must know how to organize it. If your lesson will require a guest speaker (fire chief, lawyer, police officer, etc.) you must know how to make arrangements for having that person be at the right place at the right time Process

This is the actual plan. If you have done the preliminary work (thinking, describing the inputs), creating the plan is relatively easy. There are a number of questions you must answer in the creating the plan: What are the inputs? This means you have the information (content description, student characteristics, list of materials, prerequisites, time estimates, etc.) necessary to begin the plan. What is the output? This means a description of what the students are supposed to learn. What do I do? This means a description of the instructional activities you will use. What do the students do? This means a description of what the students will do during the lesson. How will the learning be measured? This means a description of the assessment procedure at the end of the lesson.

As an example, here is a template that has been used successfully to teach students to write lesson plans: Lesson Plan Format: Teacher_______________________________________ Subject_________________________ Grade Level________________________________ Date___________________________ Content: Indicate what you intend to teach, and identify which forms of knowledge (concept, academic rule, skill, law and law-like principles and/or value knowledge) will be included in the lesson. Prerequisites: Indicate what the student must already know or be able to do in order to be successful with this lesson. (You would want to list one or two specific behaviors necessary to begin this lesson). Instructional Objective: Indicate what is to be learned - must be a complete objective. Instructional Procedures: Description of what you will do in teaching the lesson, and, as appropriate, includes a description of how you will introduce the lesson to the students, what actual instructional techniques you will use, and how you will bring closure to the lesson. Include what specific things students will actually do during the lesson. Materials and Equipment: List all materials and equipment to be used by both the teacher and learner and how they will be used.. Assessment/Evaluation: Describe how you will determine the extent to which students have attained the instructional objective. Be sure this part is directly connected to the behavior called for in the instructional objective. Follow-up Activities: Indicate how other activities/materials will be used to reinforce and extend this lesson. Include homework, assignments, and projects. Self-Assessment (to be completed after the lesson is presented): Address the major components of the lesson plan, focusing on both the strengths, and areas of needed improvement. A good idea is to analyze the difference between what you wanted (the objective) and what was attained (the results of the assessment). Of course, there is an immense difference between being able to plan and actually being able to carry out the plan. However, if you have thought carefully about where you are going before you begin writing your plan, the chances of your success, as well as the success of your students, are much greater.
http://www.forlessonplans.com/lesson_teacher/index.php/

Major Categories in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives(Bloom1956) Categories in the Cognitive Domain: (with Outcome-Illustrating Verbs)
Knowledge remembering of previously learned material; of terminology; specific facts; ways and means of dealing with specifics (conventions, trends and sequences, classifications and categories, criteria, methodology); universals and abstractions in a field (principles and generalizations, theories and structures): Knowledge is (here) defined as the remembering (recalling) of appropriate, previously learned information. defines; describes; enumerates; identifies; labels; lists; matches; names; reads; records; reproduces; selects; states; views; writes. Comprehension: Grasping (understanding) the meaning of informational materials. classifies; cites; converts; describes; discusses; estimates; explains; generalizes; gives examples; illustrates; makes sense out of; paraphrases; restates (in own words); summarizes; traces; understands.

Application: The use of previously learned information in new and concrete situations to solve problems that have single or best answers. acts; administers; applies; articulates; assesses; charts; collects; computes; constructs; contributes; controls; demonstrates; determines; develops; discovers; establishes; extends; implements; includes; informs; instructs; operationalizes; participates; predicts; prepares; preserves; produces; projects; provides; relates; reports; shows; solves; teaches; transfers; uses; utilizes.

Analysis: The breaking down of informational materials into their component parts, examining (and trying to understand the organizational structure of) such information to develop divergent conclusions by identifying motives or causes, making inferences, and/or finding evidence to support generalizations. analyzes; breaks down; categorizes; compares; contrasts; correlates; diagrams; differentiates; discriminates; distinguishes; focuses; illustrates; infers; limits; outlines; points out; prioritizes; recognizes; separates; subdivides.

Synthesis: Creatively or divergently applying prior knowledge and skills to produce a new or original whole. adapts; anticipates; collaborates; combines; communicates; compiles; composes; creates; designs; develops; devises; expresses; facilitates; formulates; generates; hypothesizes; incorporates; individualizes; initiates; integrates; intervenes; invents; models; modifies; negotiates; plans; progresses; rearranges; reconstructs; reinforces; reorganizes; revises; structures; substitutes; validates. Evaluation: Judging the value of material based on personal values/opinions, resulting in an end product, with a given purpose, without real right or wrong answers. appraises; compares & contrasts; concludes; criticizes; critiques; decides; defends; interprets; judges; justifies; reframes; supports.
http://www.krummefamily.org/guides/bloom.html

Competency Based Approach Why choose a competency-based approach?

Establishing a program based on logic that is centered on competencies fits in a set of instructions commissioned by the Ministry of Education. These instructions are based on worldwide research that highlights the importance of the links between learning and context of use, thus helping the learners in making learning meaningful. For several decades, competencies have been used in the educational field. Since emphasis is put on the learners social and personal development, the aim is to make him reinvest his knowledge while performing tasks at school level as well as at social and professional levels. The program has been conceived with the purpose of ensuring sustainable and viable learning. Although the competency-based program is a novelty, its objectives are not new. Actually, educationists have always been interested in developing general know- how processes and in fixing knowledge acquired in class. This program will allow the Algerian learner to develop his capacity to think and act according to a vision of a world that he will construct day by day. This logic has a series of pedagogical implications such as: Making the school acquisitions viable and sustainable: The school will help the learner give sense to knowledge acquired in class and teach him how to make beneficial and relevant use of it. His learning must be reinvested not only in school contexts, (that is to say from one situation to another or from one disciplinary context to another) but also in contexts outside the school. Developing the thinking process of the learner: To achieve this aim, it is vital to reinforce the cognitive function of school by establishing tight relationships between acquiring knowledge and developing thinking processes. The emphasis put on the development of competencies makes it impossible to focus exclusively on acquiring disciplinary knowledge, but enhances the development of thinking processes necessary for assimilating them and using them in real life. Presenting learning contexts in relation to the needs of the learner: The learner must grasp the usefulness of the resources he develops in relation to the problems he meets in everyday life. The competency-based approach makes it possible to link the development of personal resources and the meaningful situations, which call for such resources. With this approach, the learner will acquire abilities to use the language for communication thanks to the interwoven processes of learning reading, listening, speaking and writing. Since language is central to all forms of communication, its mastery is necessary and basic to all school learning as well as interpersonal relationships.

Thus, the learner becomes able to get in touch with schoolmates and the adults around him, to express his own vision of the world, to make his the others culture and transmit his own culture. Putting an end to disciplinary barriers: The program recommends focusing on basic learning that the pupils will have to master during their course. This program will take part in the setting of transversal competencies in various fields: intellectual, methodological, personal, social and communicational. It aims at developing competencies in various real life situations, appealing to various sources that are related to disciplinary fields; the decompartimentalization encourages and favors the development of transversal competencies. Going beyond the disciplinary field, these transversal competencies will be implemented in a gradually widening field as they get used and developed in various contexts. Choosing a personalized pedagogy: To facilitate the development of the learners competencies, it will be necessary to rely on the resources that have to be explicited, developed and enriched. To achieve this aim, various pedagogical approaches will be preferred, keeping individual differences in mind.
http://eltarticles.webs.com/competencybasedapproach.htm