Lesson Plans and Text Book Evaluation

Slide 1 : 1 PLANNING LESSONS AND UNITS HOW TO PLAN A LESSON TECHNIQUES, TEXTBOOKS, AND TECHNOLOGY TEXT BOOK SELECTION AND EVALUATION Prepared by Ferit KILIÇKAYA

Slide 2 : 2 PLANNING LESSONS AND UNITS Katherine Barnhouse Purgason A teacher wants to learn how to plan lessons. How to plan What to plan

Slide 3 : 3 The following considerations underlie planning What is taught is defined by students. do with English in Real World 2. What is taught is defined by real language use. Materials are authenticDiscourse levelA range of language functionsProficiency‘Do’ rather than ‘Learn about’ 3. Sound principlesTheory of learningLanguage Learning

Slide 4 : 4 4. Lessons are structured for maximum learning. Objectives Activities Awareness of the learners Class time 5. Classroom atmosphere 6. Student-centered learning Learners express their own meaning Active roles Autonomy

Slide 5 : 5 7. Activities reflect actual communication. Information gap Choice Feedback 8. Accuracy and fluency 9. Interaction between learners and texts and among learners

Slide 6 : 6 Having a syllabus and a text. Why need a lesson plan then? What can be covered in one class period Order of activities Adding or omitting activities Few Resources ? Lesson planning is more involved.

Slide 7 : 7 Constraints Time? Students?(Their level, age, motivation ...) Physical conditions? Institutional grading policy or national exams?

Slide 8 : 8 THE SHAPE OF A LESSON X We can’t say ‘This is what a lesson should look like.’ We can say a lesson should have a begining, a middle and an end. The beginning a warm-up or attention-getter (Ice Breaker) The Middle according to your class, it varies. The end reviewing what you do in class

Slide 9 : 9 PRINCIPLES Some general principles Lessons need variety (Grouping, teacher-centered, student-centered activities) Classroom management issues Transitions, instuctions or explanations

Slide 10 : 10 Using the plan Help you X Bind you Personal Use Sticky notes Writing down ideas before class A usable form Formal Use Use a format that is easy for principals or supervisors to follow

Slide 11 : 11 FORMAT OF A LESSON PLAN Purgason Background Description of the students, class and syllabus/texts Recent Work Overall objectives Procedures Related future work Comments/self-evaluation

Slide 12 : 12 HOW TO PLAN A LESSON Brown GUIDELINES FOR LESSON PLANNING How to Begin Planning goal, terminal and enabling objectives Variety, Sequencing, Pacing, and Timing Gauging Difficulty Individual Differences Student Talk and Teacher Talk Adapting to an Established Curriculum Learner Factors Institutional Factors 7. Classroom Lesson “Notes”

Slide 13 : 13 FORMAT OF A LESSON PLAN Brown Goals ObjectivesTerminal Enabling 3. Materials and Equipment 4. Procedures 5. Evaluation 6. Extra Class Work

Slide 14 : 14 SO, Whatever form a lesson takes, it should help teachers Make decisions Solve intructional problems Deal with classroom management issues Record progress Be accountable to peers or supervisors

Slide 15 : 15 TECHNIQUES, TEXTBOOKS, AND TECHNOLOGY Brown Designing and Implementing techniques Lesson plan Text book selection & evalution

Slide 16 : 16 BACKGROUND Principled teaching: a borad understanding of how learners learn and how teachers can best facilitate that process. Context of learning: An understanding of who your student are. How are they? What are their goals in language learning?

Slide 17 : 17 TECHNIQUES REDEFINED Task: A specialized form of technique or series of techniques closely allied with communicative curricula, and as such must minimally have communicative purposes. Activity: Virtually anything that learners do in the classroom. Referring to a classroom, it is a reasonably unified set of student behaviors, limited in time, directed teacher with a particular objective. Procedure: The actual moment-to-moment techniques, practices, and behaviors. Practice, behavior, exercise, strategy... : technique Technique: Various activities that teachers or learners perform in the classroom.

Slide 18 : 18 CATEGORIZING TECHNIQUES From Manipualiton to Communication Manipulative side: A technique is totally controlled by the teacher and requires a predicted response from the students. Communicative side: Student respesonses are completely open-ended and therefore unpredictable.

Slide 19 : 19 2. Mechanical, Meaningful, and Communicative Drills A drill: a technique that focuses on a minimal number (usually one or two) of language forms (grammatical or phonological structures) through repetition. T: I went to the store yesterday. SS: I went to the store yesterday. T: Bank. SS: I went to the bank yesterday.

Slide 20 : 20 Mechanical Drills: They have only one correct response from a student, and no implied connection with reality. T: The cat is in the hat. SS: The cat in the hat. Meaningful Drills: They may have a predicted response or a limited set of possible responses, but they are connected to some form of reality. T: The woman is outside. Where is she, Ahmet? S1: The woman is outside. T: Right, she’s outside. Where is she, Mehmet? S2: She’s outside. T: Good, Mehmet, she’s outside. Now, class we are inside.

Slide 21 : 21 Communicative drills: They offer the student the possiblity of an open response. T: Good morning, class. Last weekend, I went to a restaurant. John, what did you do last weekend? John: I went to park and I play soccer. T: John, “I play soccer” or “ I played soccer”? John: Oh, I played soccer. T: Good! Mary, did you go to the park last weekend like John? ...

Slide 22 : 22 A communicative approch to language teaching can make some use of drilling techniques, but only in moderation. At the lower levels of proficiency, they can be quite useful in helping students to establish structural patterns, pronunciation elements.

Slide 23 : 23 3. Controlled to Free Techniques

Slide 24 : 24 A TAXONOMY OF TECHNIQUES CONTROLLED TECHNIQUES Warm-up Setting Organizational Content explanation Role-play demonstration Dialogue-Narrative presentation Dialogue-Narrative recitation Reading aloud Checking Question-answer, display

Slide 25 : 25 11. Drill12. Translation13. Dictation14. Copying15. Identification16. Recognition17. Review18. Testing19. Meaningful drill

Slide 26 : 26 SEMICONTROLLED TECHNIQUES 20. Brainstorming 21. Story telling 22. Question-answer, referential 23. Cued narrative-Dialogue 24. Information transfer 25. Information exchange 26. Wrap-up 27. Narration-exposition 28. Preparation

Slide 27 : 27 FREE TECHNIQUES 29. Role-play 30. Games 31. Report 32. Problem solving 33. Drama 34. Simulation 35. Interview 36. Discussion 37. Report 38. A propos

Slide 28 : 28 TEXTBOOKS The most obvious and most common form of material support for language instruction. A new teacher’s concern will not be to choose a textbook, but rather to find creative use for the textbook. Appropriate techniques for the exercises other techniques to use delete or change any of the exercises

Slide 29 : 29 OTHER WRITTEN TEXTS Texts are any of a wide variety of types or genres of linguistic terms. Texts can be spoken or written. Charts, essays, manuals etc. Textbooks are one type of text, a book for use in the classroom. Teacher Resource Books Other Student Textbooks

Slide 30 : 30 TECHNOLOGY IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM 1950s and 1960s : Language laboratory 1980s : Computer came on the scene. Other types of technological aids Commercially produced audiotapes. Commercially produced videotapes Self-made audiotapes Self-made videotapes Overhead projection

Slide 31 : 31 COMPUTER-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING (CALL) Benefits of including a computer component in language instruction (Warschauer & Healey): Multimodal practice with feedback Individualization in a large class Pair and small-group work on projects The fun factor Variety in the resources available and learning styles used Explatory learning with large amonuts of language data Real-life skill-building in computer use.

Slide 32 : 32 Some thoughts to start the wheels of your mind turning on the topic of computers and language learning Colloborative pojects Peer-editing of compositions E-mail Web page design Reinforment of classroom material Games and simulations Computer adaptive testing Speech processing

Slide 33 : 33 TEXT BOOK SELECTION AND EVALUATION Sometimes it is the responsibility of teachers to select the textbook. At the begining or end of the year, teachers might be asked to give their opinions. Teachers may need to know on a daily basis how to evaluate the textbook in order to utilize its assets and compansate for its limitaions.

Slide 34 : 34 A Sample Guideline   SURVEY OF BACKGROUND INFORMATION   A- Students   Age Ratio of male and female students Socio-economic level Language Setting Level of proficiency Reasons for studying English Skills needed Presumed interests

Slide 35 : 35 B- Teachers   Native or Non-native Command of English Training and experience   C- Syllabus   Type Goals Language area(s) in focus

Slide 36 : 36 TEXT-BOOK EVALUATION   A- Bibliographical data   The authors, the publisher and publication date Accompanying materials Completeness   B- Aims and goals   Targeted audience and prospective students Appealing to student needs Syllabus requirements Feasibility

Slide 37 : 37 C- Subject Matter Suitability and interest level (variety) Ordering of units or themes Variety of text types Register Cultural sensitivity Content authenticity

Slide 38 : 38 D- LANGUAGE CONTENT   GRAMMAR Number and sequence appropriacy Clarity and completeness Focus on language form or language use Consciousness raising   VOCABULARY Load suitiability Contextualisation Encouraging independent vocabulary learning Recycling of vocabulary

Slide 39 : 39 PHONOLOGY AND DISCOURSE   Phonological aspects Pronunciation Phonemic alphabet   SKILLS AND ACTIVITIES   Satisfaction of syllabus objectives Meaningful communication Critical Thinking Interest level Different learning styles (options)

Slide 40 : 40 METHODOLOGY   Principles Inductive or deductive learning Accuracy-fluency focus Use of language Personalization Learning-acquisition distinction Process-product orientation Learner autonomy Teacher’s role Student’s role

Slide 41 : 41 TEACHER’S BOOK   Comprehensiveness and flexibility Experinced or inexperienced teachers Cultural explanation Dealing with learner difficulties Keys to exercises and activities Guide to assesment   STUDENT’S WORK BOOK   Individuality of the tasks Type of exercises

Slide 42 : 42 PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS   Cost Durability Availability Supplementary materials

Slide 43 : 43 OVERALL EVALUATION   While deciding on whether a course book is an appropriate one, you should bear in mind that there will be no perfect one for your students on the market. The books that seem to meet your and your students’ needs may need adaptation and omission.

Slide 44 : 44 CONCLUSION In any case, the search for a sutiable text is endless; since every class is different, the objectives might be different, the teaching situation and setting might have changed, and what is considered proper language teaching principles today might be regarded as passe next year. The ESL-EFL teacher can keep current by visiting book exhibits at professional conventions, checking the new additions at the libraries and university bookstores containing ESL-EFL materials, and browsing through professional journals.