What can I say . . .

Hi guys,

Close to midnight and I think almost everybody has sent their assignments on time. Congratulations for a great job done and THANK YOU.

Good luck colleagues.

Feedback time!

Hi everybody,

It is time for you guys to give me some feedback so I can improve the contents and activities we worked on Module 3. I want to say I had a great time working with you and I am sure we will see each other around.

Please take a minute to post responding to some (or all) of the statements below:

1. Something I learned in this module

2. Something I will apply in my present/future teaching situation

3. Something I would have liked to learn more about

Da rubric!

I can't wait to see your presentations tonight and get all of your ideas together. Here is the rubric we will use for this activity.

You guys rock!

Looking for the "perfect" book

I'm attaching the summary of ideas of the elements a good EFL textbook should have. Keep in mind all of this depends on the context, level and kind of students you have.

Take care!

Syllabus design

Hi guys,

Here is the summary of the four concepts kept in mind when designing a syllabus. See you in class!

LEARNABILITY

This concept explains that some structural or lexical items are easier for students to learn than others.

Based on this concept we teach easier things first and then increase the level of difficulty as students’ language level rises.

This concept might tell us that, at beginner levels, it is better to teach uses of was and were immediately after teaching uses of is and are, rather than follow is and are with the third conditional.

FREQUENCY

This concept tells us that it would make sense, especially at beginning levels, to include items which are more common in the language, than ones that are only used occasionally by native speakers.

Thanks to this concept we are in a position to say with some authority, for example, that SEE is used more often than UNDERSTAND, than it is to denote vision (e.g. Oh, I see). It might make sense, therefore, to teach that meaning of SEE first.

COVERAGE

 This concept explains that some words and structures have greater scope for use than others.

We might decide, on the basis of this concept, to introduce GOING TO future before the present continuous with the future reference, if we could show that GOING TO could be used in more situations than the present continuous.

  

USEFULNESS

 This concept explains the reason that words like BOOK and PEN figure so highly in classrooms (even though they might not be that frequent in real language use) is because they are words normally used in that situation.

This concept helps understand that words for family members occur early on in a student’s learning life because of the context of what students are linguistically able to talk about.

Reasons to use supplementary material

Some teachers tend to think that adding supplementary materials can create chaos and mess during the class. But that is not true. Reasons that this kind of material actually provides variety and improves creativity of teachers as well as students are:

* to provide extra practice in grammar, vocabulary and 

   pronunciation.

* to provide extra practice in skills work.

* to add variety in lessons.

* to replace materials in the textbook that the teacher thinks is 

   unsuitable.

* to add something that seems to be missing from the textbook.

* to include more authentic material in lessons.

Read again pages 177 to 180 of chapter 11 in our textbook and describe briefly an activity you could do with realia, pictures or cards to support one of the reasons stated above.

P.S. This our last forum! I'm missing you already.

Web based activities

Hi everybody,

I see some of you might have still questions about the web based activity you are to share with your classmates for the second grade of the module. Here is a list of the steps and the link to access the samples I showed you the other day in class. Have a blast!

1. Select a non-educational web site.

2. Create a lesson using that web site.

3. Write a lesson plan for the class. (Keep in mind the elements and approaches we talked about as well as the instructional objectives material)

4. Talk briefly about the web page and the activity in class. (Wednesday March 11)

5. Send the lesson plan by mail. (Deadline: Thursday March 12) I know you are to start the next module that day but I am so nice that I am giving you an extra day. Isn't your teacher the best?

Samples: http://www.slideshare.net/willys007/tefl-web-based-activities-45616217

Textbooks and their flaws.

Hi everybody,

Hope you had a great weekend. Here is our third forum. We are going to talk about the use of some basic elements in class tomorrow. One of them is the textbook. Using a textbook has many different advantages but it might get some disadvantages as well. Look at the following chart presenting some common difficulties students and teachers might face when using books. Choose a problem and post a solution to overcome that difficulty. Thanks for sharing!"

Weakness	Teacher/Student Difficulty	Ways of Overcoming Problem
The textbook is designed as a the sole source of information.	Students only see one perspective on a concept or issue.
Textbook is old or outdated.	Information shared with students is not current or relevant.
Textbook questions tend to be low level or fact-based.	Students assume that learning is simply a collection of facts and figures.
Textbook doesn't take students' background knowledge into account.	Teacher does not tailor lessons to the specific attributes and interests of students.
Reading level of the textbook is too difficult.	Students cannot read or understand important concepts.
The textbook has all the answer to all the questions.	Students tend to see learning as an accumulation of correct answers.

Instructional objectives

Hi guys,

As we already know writing objectives is vital for teachers because it helps us to get a sense of direction as well as to know what kind of activities include in order to get what we want from students. Here are two links with the presentation on how to write instructional objectives and an article I put together with a more specific explanation on how the ABCD model works. Hope you like it and use it to write your lesson plan objectives. Have a lovely weekend!

Prezi presentation: https://prezi.com/bspn9-lqk9ff/what-are-instructional/

Article on the ABCD model: http://www.slideshare.net/willys007/the-abcd-model-for-writing-objectives

Lesson plan samples

Hi guys,

Hope you are all excited about planning your lessons for the web site activity. As I promised here are the two sample lesson plans we checked in class and I have added one of my own lesson plans which is not perfect but it will help you get more ideas of what I want to see. Keep working hard!

PPP lesson plan: http://www.slideshare.net/willys007/ppp-sample-lesson

PDP lesson plan: http://www.slideshare.net/willys007/pdp-sample-lesson

Extra lesson plan: http://www.slideshare.net/willys007/sample-lesson-plan-willy-45520268

Team 1: Laura, Viviana, Juan David, Monica and Gina

Welcome team 1,

Your mission should you choose to accept it is to go through the following 4 steps individually (20 minutes), then with your partner discuss the use of the different tools in EFL teaching (10 minutes) and finally present your ideas to the rest of the groups (10 minutes). As always, should you or any of your team be lost surfing the internet or caught visiting other webpages, the teacher will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck!!

Step 1:
Watch the video on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI
Think of what language skills a teacher could promote using blogs.

Step 2:
Check the following link. What skills could students practice with it? http://edu.glogster.com/

Step 3:
Go to: http://translation.babylon.com/
How could an English teacher use a site like this one?

Step 4:
Check the following two links. How could students benefit from using these two websites?
http://www.ted.com/talks/browse

http://esl-bits.net/

Team 2: Cesar, Xavier, Yaneth, Fabian and Huberto

Welcome team 2,
Your mission should you choose to accept it is to go through the following 4 steps individually (20 minutes), then your partner discuss the use of the different tools in EFL teaching (10 minutes) and finally present your ideas to the rest of the groups (10 minutes). As always, should you or any of your team be lost surfing the internet or caught visiting other webpages, the teacher will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck!!

Step 1
Go to the following link and listen for a while:http://splendidspeaking.podomatic.com/player/web/2006-10-26T05_07_12-07_00
This is an example of podcasting. How do you think a teacher can use this tool with his/her students?

Step 2
Check the following online dictionary: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
Take a look at the different dictionaries they have in there. How could a teacher maximize the use of a tool like this with his/her students?

Step 3
Check the following sites: 
http://online-voice-recorder.com/es/

https://voicethread.com/

What kind of activities could teachers ask students to do here?

Step 4
Check the following two sites:
https://storybird.com/

https://prezi.com/

How appealing do you think students will find them?

Team 3: Laura, Alberto, Dorian, Orlando and Hector

Welcome team 3,
Your mission should you choose to accept it is to go through the following 4 steps individually (20 minutes), then with your partner discuss the use of the different tools in EFL teaching (10 minutes) and finally present your ideas to the rest of the groups (10 minutes). As always, should you or any of your team be lost surfing the internet or caught visiting other webpages, the teacher will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck!!

Step 1
Go to google and find a page that can tell you a little more about what a wiki is. Think of some ways of using this with your students

Step 2
Check the following site: http://www.newspaperme.com/
How would you integrate a site like this to your classes?

Step 3
Check the following link: http://vocaroo.com/
Is a site like this of any help for a student? How could you help your students to use it?

Step 4
Find the name of two online encyclopedias. Take a tour of the site and make a list of advantages and disadvantages of using a site like these with your students.

Team 4: John, Sidney, Mariano, Camila and Ana

Welcome Team 4,
Your mission should you choose to accept it is to go through the following 4 steps individually (20 minutes), then with your partner discuss the use of the different tools in EFL teaching (10 minutes) and finally present your ideas to the rest of the groups (10 minutes). As always, should you or any of your team be lost surfing the internet or caught visiting other webpages, the teacher will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck!!

Step 1
Visit the following site: http://es.englishcentral.com/videos#!/index/all/all/trending/0
What kind of skills could students practice here?

Step 2
Check the following site: http://penzu.com/
Is there anything a teacher could do with his/her students in class using this site?

Step 3
Visit the following cartoon genrator: www.toondo.com
What kind of skills could students practice here?

Step 4
Find out what a wordle is. What could teachers do with this tool?

Educational Technology: Good or Evil?

Hi everybody,

Here are the link to the two videos we watched in class. If needed, watch them again and post your comments to the following question: Is the use of Educational technology taking us away from the real nature of teaching?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA1Aqp0sPQo

http://www.ted.com/talks/ramsey_musallam_3_rules_to_spark_learning#t-381128

Approaches to lesson planning: The product

Four beautiful posters to explain the two approaches we studied tonight. Way to go!

Approaches to lesson planning: The process

All of the TEFL Diploma 2015 course trainees putting their heads together to summarize two approaches to lesson planning. Thanks for your hard work!

More on lesson planning

Here is a list of the links where you can get the information we discussed today in class. Good luck!

The planning continuum: http://www.slideshare.net/willys007/lesson-planning-45441568

PDP: http://www.slideshare.net/willys007/pdp-framework-45441887

PPP: http://www.slideshare.net/willys007/ppp-approach-45441916

Elements of lesson planning: http://www.slideshare.net/willys007/elements-of-lesson-plans

Advantages and disadvantages of lesson planning

Here is a short list of pros and cons of lesson planning. Do you think it is necessary to have a written lesson plan for every single class we teach?

Some advantages and disadvantages of lesson planning - HIMANSHU MALLICK

Advantages of Lesson Planning

1. It inspires the teacher to improve the further lessons.

2. It helps the teacher in evaluating his teaching.

3. It develops self confidence in the teacher.

4. Proper care is taken on take into consideration, the level and previous knowledge of students.

5. The teaching matter is organized in a time-frame.

6. It inspires the teacher to ask proper and important questions.

7. It provides guidance to the teacher as to what and home he should teach.

8. It helps in creating the interest of students towards the lesson.

9. It stimulates the teacher to think in an organized manner.

10. It helps the teacher to understand to objectives properly.

Limitations of Lesson-Planning

1. In new or odd situations teacher feels himself helpless.

2. Sometimes simple matters become complicated.

3. More time is required to plan a lesson.

4. Teacher cannot work/teach independently.

5. There is lack of flexibility in lesson-planning.

6. The teaching process becomes more difficult.

TEFL Module 3 Overview

Hi everybody,

Here is the tentative plan with the goals for Module 3. Enjoy!

TEFL - MODULE 3 - WILLY S.

CURRICULUM AND MATERIAL DESIGN

CHAPTER 21 – PLANNING LESSONS

CHAPTER 11 – EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER LEARNING RESOURCES

VIRTUAL SUPPORT COURSE   www.ablaonline.org courses: TEFL module 3

http://teflrocks.blogspot.com/

DAY 1: March 4, 2015 (5:00 – 9:00)

Goals:

Understand goals and work plan.

Talk about the importance of planning a lesson by discussing some general beliefs.

Learn about the main elements of a lesson plan by prioritizing from a list.

Discuss two different planning approaches by making posters.

Learn how to work with the virtual course by creating our profiles.

DAY 2: March 5, 2015 (5:00 – 9:00)

Goals:

Understand how educational technology has impacted ELT by learning about its development.

Research on different ways of using technology to enrich EFL classes by having a virtual quest.

Talk about textbooks by discussing their pros and cons.

Practice how to write instructional objectives by following a model.

DAY 3: March 10, 2015 (5:00 – 9:00)

Goals:

Discuss tips to use a textbook by reflecting on a graph

Talk about syllabus criteria by learning the features of different types of syllabus

Talk about the different uses of objects, pictures and things in the EFL class by making presentations.

Share some hints on how to use some presentation aids by preparing an activity.

DAY 4: March 11, 2015 (5:00 – 9:00)

Goals:

Review the contents of the module by experiencing some communicative activities.

Present web based activities and their lesson plans.

Assignment 1: Participation in the support course (A minimum of 2 entries per activity)

Assignment 2: Lesson plan for the web-based activity and presentation.