Assessment #1

Subject Code: EDGT940

Subject Title: Materials and IT

By: Amanda Reynolds

Student Number: 4916918

Due Date:

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Amanda Reynolds Subject Code: EDGT976 Student Number: 4916918
Introduction
The following assignment will review four teaching materials for English language
learners at the primary school level in a state school within the New South Wales
education system. It is important to point out that teachers of English for Additional
Language and Dialect (EAL/D) do not use commercially produced textbooks to
improve the English of first phase learners, rather they use resources available from
the Department of Education or create their own from a variety of sources, for a
variety of teaching situations. For example, team teaching within the classroom,
withdrawal, individual and small group work.

Suite of Teaching Resources for Primary School Students.

1.Course book.

Thematic Picture Kit for ESL Beginners

Publisher: NSW Department of Education and Training.

Special Needs Students and Equity Programs
Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Components

Figure 1
Teachers
Guide
Listening and
Speaking

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Amanda Reynolds Subject Code: EDGT976 Student Number: 4916918
 Figure 2 Thematic Picture Dictionary

Figure 3Thematic Picture Dictionary Workbook

Figure 4Thematic picture dictionary Kit Student Worksheet

Figure 5Compact Discs Listening and Speaking

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Amanda Reynolds Subject Code: EDGT976 Student Number: 4916918
DESCRIPTION
This kit is produced by the New South Wales(NSW) Department of Education. It is a
resource for teachers to use with students in the early first phase of learning English.
It has 20 units of themed work covering school, classrooms, computers, illness and
medication, sport, beach and others. The exercises vary in difficulty based on the ESL
scales. Transcripts of the listening are provided. Answers to questions are provided.
The teacher could use the materials on their own or they could extend them and
adapt them to “make them more communicative and authentic” for their own
teaching environment. (McDonough & Shaw. 2003.p76)

TEACHING IDEA
The first unit ‘School’ has a diagram of a school with 15 lexical words that are
displayed as the mouse glides across the picture. I would take photos of the school I
was working in and label with the students the labels which that school uses for
those buildings. The students and I would them complete walks to the buildings for a
variety of reasons. For example, roles, notes or money to the office and lunch orders
to the canteen. Together we would jointly construct a simple sentence about the
excursion. Then, we would complete some of the work together from the topic on
school visiting skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Evaluation
Using the Materials test from Tanner & Green (1998) Tasks for Teacher Education.

Method: This kit clearly states in its overview that it is a resource to assist beginning
learners of English in primary school. I would not recommend that this kit be used as
it is but to adapt and extend activities on the topic to make them more
communicative, authentic and relevant to the environment where you are working.

Appearance: This kit was produced in 2010 and the illustrations are out of date but
can be used as follow up material.

Teacher Friendly: The kit is well organised by themes and there is a section for
listening, speaking, reading and writing. It provides answers. It can save you time and
is easy to use.

Extras: There are two compact discs (cds), a workbook, a dictionary and
accompanying worksheets.

Realistic: The language is appropriate and includes common conversational phrases

and acronyms. Picture icons are used to assist the learner to respond.

Interesting: The topics are adequate and cover the basics of schooling, the body and
Australiana.

Affordable: The cost is unclear but it is supplied by the department and has been
available since 2010 so most schools probably have access to one.

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Amanda Reynolds Subject Code: EDGT976 Student Number: 4916918
Level: The levels of difficulty are linked to the ESL scales.

Skills: It covers Listening, speaking, reading and writing with increasing difficulty.

Online Resources
1. Oxford Owl –Synthetic Phonics
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/home/reading-owl/expert-help/what-is-synthetic-
phonics

Description/Evaluation
This is a website from Oxford University Press to support parents, teachers and
students with the learning of phonics to assist reading. The information available for
parents includes free e-books for 3-11 year olds, guide to phonics, pronunciation of
the phonemes, videos, games and blog articles. The information for teachers
includes free teaching resources, videos on how to teach the sounds, e-books,
worksheets and notes and professional development articles. On the interface page,
there is at the top right- hand corner a log in place for students which links students
to phonic related reading material and activities. I was not able to test this but the
teacher section is very similar to what is on the home page for teachers to peruse.
This site was confusing to navigate because there are free activities and then there is
also subscription activities that students and teachers have to log in for but trial
viewers have no access to those pages. I think the site is done that way to entice you
to buy the subscriptions and extra materials available from the publishing house. The
other

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Amanda Reynolds Subject Code: EDGT976 Student Number: 4916918
with this site is that it is U.K based and follows their educational terms and policies
even though you select your country as Australia. Students learning English and non -
English learners would find this site difficult and frustrating.

2. Languagenut

http://www.languagenut.com/en-au/

After login

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Amanda Reynolds Subject Code: EDGT976 Student Number: 4916918
DESCRIPTION/EVALUATION
This website offers a teacher/school/individual the opportunity to learn many
languages including English. From a trial login, I was able to peruse the site for a
primary school individual learner. The software is manageable and has reasonable
input. The language was introduced through themes like About me, animals, food
and drink. The site provides practice games, and sentence building, which I was not
able to view on trial login. It is presented in a pleasant and attractive manner
without too many possible icons to confuse students. Part of the program tests your
skills and keeps your results and rank as this site is world -wide therefore it can
encourage learners to progress further. Cost however, could be an issue for some
schools as it is more than $500.00 a year for a school subscription. Perhaps you can
log in individually for free like Duolingo. It covers the skills of reading, writing,
speaking and listening but as I said the trial did not give me access to all aspects so I
am not sure exactly how they are covered.

3.Department of Education NSW Staff Portal

https://staff.det.nsw.edu.au/user/amanda.j.reynolds/staff-
portal

DESCRIPTION /EVALUATION
This is the Department of Educations, official staff login page. On the top of the
interface page you then select Curriculum Resources and this takes you to Teaching
and Learning. Next you select the multicultural link, where you now have access to
EALD section and HENRY PARKES EQUITY RESOURCES sections.

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Amanda Reynolds Subject Code: EDGT976 Student Number: 4916918
In the EALD section teachers can locate information about EALD learners, support
documents, teaching and learning information, planning, resources and professional
development. All of this information assists the TESOL teacher to comply with the
Departments expectations for EALD students. It also covers differentiation of lessons
collaborative programing and New Arrivals Program(NAP), plus resources. In this
section, there is advice for schools, Acara, ESL scales, ESL steps, student resources
and readers. The readers can be can be viewed online where the text can be
modelled whilst reading and then five activities covering reading, writing, listening
and speaking skills.
In the Henry Parkes Resource section, you can obtain access electronically and to
physically borrow resources from the centre. This resource would be fabulous for a
beginning EALD teacher as they could obtain resources for free and return them
when they are finished. This site can be confusing to begin with but as the teacher
familiarizes themselves with the site it becomes easier to manipulate and it provide
in depth detail of what to teach, how, supplying resources if needed, plus how to

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Amanda Reynolds Subject Code: EDGT976 Student Number: 4916918
assess it in terms of ESL scales. So overall a great place for NSW teachers to be
familiar with.

REFERENCE LIST
McDonough, J. and C. Shaw (2003). Materials and Methods in ELT (2nd Ed.).
Malden, MA: Blackwell. Chapter 4: Adapting Materials, pp. 73-86

Murray, L. & Barnes, A. (1998). Beyond the “wow” factor: Evaluating

multimedia language learning software from a pedagogical viewpoint. System,
26(2): 249-259.

Tanner, R. & Green, C. (1998). You can't always get what you want. In Tasks
for Language Teacher Education (pp. 120 - 129). Harlow, Essex: Longman

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Amanda Reynolds Subject Code: EDGT976 Student Number: 4916918