10th - What are some ways to differentiate a lesson plan, and how you explain each type?

Each type of lesson planning has its benefits and its disadvantages. When planning, teachers must take into account the different types of learners they have due to not all of them learn in the same way.

I can differentiate the lesson plans in these:

Learners’ interests

This lesson plan is made according to what the students want to learn their intentness, concerns, curiosities, etc. Some learners would like information about an specific topic but others would not like it. So, we better find out how to work it well.

Interests are emotionally and/or cognitively based. They might involve using varied kinds of instruction, which correspond to modality preferences, or construction of materials to facilitate learning.

Learners’ needs

This is the subjective or objective evaluation component regarding instruction. While some students’ needs are obvious, as in the hearing impaired student requiring an amplification system in the classroom, or students needing enrichment activities to stimulate them, others are not apparent.

Interestingly, a study showed that teachers employing higher levels of differentiated techniques experienced increased feelings of self-efficacy and demonstrated greater willingness to try instructional approaches. We relate that this sense of self-worth may also be experienced by students.

Learning styles

In this case, teachers put special attention in the different learning styles students have. Each lesson plan must full fill the requirements each of the learning styles have.

Tier lesson

This is the most applied type of lesson planning. They go from basic to advanced. This kind of lesson planning are the ones called “step by step” because it goes gradually according to the process of the students.

Tier lessons and scaffolding are implemented like the rungs of a ladder, moving from lower to higher levels of understanding.

"A lesson plan is the instructor’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time. Before you plan your lesson, you will first need to identify the learning objectives for the class meeting."

Stiliana Milkova

9th - What is a teacher’s style of delivery and what is your style of delivery?

A teacher’s style of delivery refers to the teaching strategies and methods employed by the teacher. I have realize about some teachings styles, and I have divided into the following categories:

Formal Authority: This kind of teachers might be so instructor-centered and Students play a very small part in the classroom. These teachers are the ones who established not only evaluations, but also ways to teach and how to work. 

Model: These are the ones who does the thing to then the students do. The instructor define the steps an way to follow and the students have to putting into practice. The instructor may be the one who demonstrates the procedures; students may be the ones practicing the procedures, or some combination of both. 

Facilitator: such kind of teachers are the ones, that from my point of view, are the best ones due to they give the students the necessary tools and help but will never make the students’ work. It is an style that is student-centered because the student is the one who must make the initial move to achieve some tasks. 

Delegator: are the ones who give the students too much responsibility. They just give the task and no help. The duty is on the students. 

I think that my teaching delivery style is facilitator because I tend to give my students help but I never do their work or put it to easy. If not you can check the following link:

http://members.shaw.ca/mdde615/tchstylsquiz7.htm

"Just as people have individual learning styles, teachers have teaching styles that works best for them. It is important to be aware of your preferences when creating and delivering online instruction."

Ps. The book has too limited information

8th - What are convergent and divergent questions? How can these types of questions help students initiate addressing reasoning as an active process?

In the book, we found that convergent questions are those which have not a difficult answer, in other words, they are just yes/no questions or limited questions. convergent questions are questions with a specific answer. They lead you to an expected result or answer. Questions usually starts with what, where and when. 

Example:

What is your name?

What is in that container?

What animal having 2 legs?

I do not think these kind of questions can help students initiate addressing reasoning as an active process because they limit the student to a simple answer.

On the other hand, we have the divergent questions or we call it opened questions. This type of questions give the students the opportunity to analyze what they are asked, and therefore they have to think outside the box when answering.

A divergent question can result from a convergent one. An example

would be:

Asking the definition of the word “open-minded”. If the one answering

the question has never seen the word, and arrives at the correct

answer through generalization and inductive reasoning by thinking

about the meaning of the words ”open” and “minded”, synthesizing these

two words, and analyzing the meaning through the synthesis, then it is not only, at first, a convergent question and answer but also a divergent question and answer as well.

Both kind of questioning are important, however the covergent questions, I think limit the students too much, but the divergent helps better initiate addressing reasoning as an active process.

"Eliciting questions from students is a noble goal. The ability to generate questions serves as a renewable source of intellectual energy that makes it possible for students to continuously inquire, explore, problem-solve and, indeed, create in setting after setting"

- William F. McComas

7th - What are two ways classroom design has changed over the past twenty years?

The classroom design is not just about the material we have there, but also the way in which we set them up.

We can notice that trough the years, the classroom design has changed a lot. However two main characteristics I can notice are:

- Desk arrangement

- The way the instruction is given

20 years before, the order of the desks were no that good, not that appropriate and not htat appealing. What do I mean by that, well I mean that before due to the arregmeant of desks you always saw tha back part of the head of your classmate. It was the traditional arreagment, one student’s desk after the other student’s desk. Except for the first student in a row, everyoneelse is looking at the back of another’s head. How do you suppose that might influence instruction? To where is the students’ attention drawn?

But nowadays, teachers look fo many different ways in which they can arrange the desks the best, and therefore make an create a better learning environment.

Moreover, instruction has changed a lot. Why? Because 20 years ago the teacher was the one who had all the power and control and participation of the class, students were just fill out with knowledge without being participants of it. In our times, students take an active role in the classes.

“An arrangement that is disagreeable to 

the student may erect a needless barrier, 

possibly one that will prevent learning.”

McCorskey and McVetta 1978

6th - What are three types of comprehension, and how do these differ from one another? Provide one example of each type.

Comprehension involves some, or three main aspects:

- Memory

- Cognition

- Metacognition.

Each of them has a definition; Memory is the storing and then recalling and retrieving the information from the past and takes it to the present.

Cognition is said to be the higher function of the brain (thinking, knowing, etc), the ability of the brain to store, retrieve and retain info.

And Metacognition is the lower function of the brain, managing the individual’s knowledge.

“Cognition is “thinking”, and Metacognition is “thinking about thinking”.

- Cengage Learning Australia 2010

Well, just being simple, types of comprehension are three: Literal, Applied and Implied.

Literal: Fact-based evidence of comprehension. It is mainly or basically the information that is in the material

Ex: Liverpool is wonderful.

Applied: It is when the student contrasts and compares the information with his/her own real life situations.

Ex: Liverpool is wonderful, but Ataco is even better. (Contrasting and comparing)

Implied (so difficult to explain): It implies that the student has to not only understand the material but also reach his own understanding with the given material.

Ex. Students may talk about Liverpool and Ataco and begin comparing the two cities and what makes it better.

5th - How can someone give effective feedback to his/her students?

Feedback is a special and important tool in the teaching learning process, not only because it helps the teacher to asses the students process, but also because it helps students to improve in their four skills.

We can have two types of feedback: Negative feedback and Positive feedback.

We can provide feedback to our students orally and written. One way to give feedback in an oral way is trough Improvement comments. Personally, I like this technique because it avoids any grading or scoring of work and concentrates on the success and improvements in the areas we are going over. But we also can give feedback in a written form. Written feedback has the advantage that the student can refer to it over and over again. With oral feedback, students usually forget what they have been said. 

Some characteristics of good feedback are: 

1. Tangible and Transparent

2. Goal-Referenced

3. User-Friendly

4. Consistent

"Feedback is the breakfast of champions"

- Ken Blanchard

4th - What are the purposes of teacher’s classroom questions?

Many students think that teachers tend to ask question just to provoke the, or to make the feel embarrassed. To make them feel they do not know a thing!! Bun in fact, it is not so… Questioning has many purposes, may be not purposes, we better call them aids. Questioning helps in a variety of ways, and we can number a few of them:

• It helps the teacher to achieve his/her goals.

• Questioning is a means of developing and extending student dialogue.

• It helps to involve students in the classes more actively.

• It develops critical thinking skills and inquiring attitudes

• It can be utilized as a review tool.

• Finally, it could be a tool to make students to look for their own learning.

Some tips to make your questions worthy:

• Ask clear question

• Ask questions of primarily academic nature

• Wait for the students answer, do not push them to rush

• Encourage students to ask and answer

• Use not only volunteering but also non volunteering students

• Demonstrate the students there is not such thing as stupid answers.

To sum up, I like this quote:

"A teacher's questions impact student achievement, retention and participation. They fulfill numerous instructional purposes including: assessing understanding, reviewing and summarizing, developing critical and creative thinking skills and inspiring interest and motivation."

 - Cotton, 1989

3rd - What’s your call on the following? Assessment in education must, first and foremost, serve the purpose of supporting learning.

Without assessment, education could not be measured properly. Even with assessment, education and learning is not measured properly… imagine if assessment would not exist.

It is an essential part of learning, and it is a clear support of learning. When students are told to talk about assessment, they immediately think about exams and evaluations, and for sure, they are afraid of them.

In this chapter number 3, the book mentions that we need or must put assessment due to it (assessment) helps, encourage and motivates learners to develop every single skill by their own. The new system of evaluation leads to this: the student to be independent.

The two most common types f assessment are Peer-assessment and Individual-Assessment. The two of them are equally and achieve the goal teachers want if they are done appropriate.

We need to assess our students for some purposes:

• Gives the students a idea of what the teacher expects.
• Helps the students to be aware f their learning.
• Measure (in some way) the learning of students.
• Tells teachers if they are achieving or not the goal they have set.
• If something is not working you can notice it trough assessment.

As I already stated, assessment is an important and immovable part of the teaching process learning.

2nd - University study requires students to take responsibility for their own learning, to be more self-directed, to make their own decisions about what they will focus on and how much time they will spend on learning both inside and outside the classroom. How can you get the students up to this point by the end of the course or the year?

It is for certain that the independent learning is not easy to manage and to accept. Most of us, most of students have faced the problem that they do not what to do or how to internalize the change between the university and their previous studies. We do not have to say that studying in a university is so much difficult than the other previous levels.

When students that have just gotten into the university are asked to develop some task with critical thinking (thinking outside the box), they face serious problems because they weren’t taught how to work without the help of a teacher. They will be surprised for all the work they have to do by their own!

And that doesn’t mean that the teacher will not help them at all, of course the teacher will help but he or she will be more a kind of a guide rather than a direct help.

Independent study is a step by step process, in which the student has to find the way through which he or she can acquired knowledge by his or her own. But all the responsibility does not go just for the student but also for the teacher. The teacher must work hard to get the students to learn independently at the end of a course. 

The independent learning will let the student to internalize the learning. When teachers let students learn by themselves, students become aware of their own learning.

The teacher have to encourage the student to learn by him or herself and from the very start, te teacher has to clarify that he will not do the student’s work, he will serve most like a guide.

That is a good start for going to the indendent learning!

1st - In your own words, explain how more interesting and innovating strategies can create a positive and challenging learning environment for your or someone’s students. ( Captivating Your Class Effective Teaching Skills, 1 Enlivening “A” Level teaching and learning)

When teaching, you have to pay attention to many details. It is not any new thing for us. Every single class will not be developing in the same way and if it is develop in the same way, it will not take the same rhythm and route as the previous one. 

That is why we have to use innovating strategies to keep the interest of the students and therefore let learning to happen trough a good environment. To begin, we, as teachers, have to keep updating ourselves, regarding to media due to this media will encourage and will take the attention of the students more easily.
 

Also, the chapter already read gives some clues to make the student feel comfortable in the classroom and for knowing how to control not only the time the teacher speaks but also the time the students speak. It sounds kind of contradictory or meaningless but it does have a lot of meaning. It says so, because the teacher, of course, has to give enough time to the students to participate, but also have to control of the time students speak, being careful that the most talkative students do not take too much time in their participations.

Honestly, this book gives a lot of helpful suggestions we can use to make our classes better. 

Task 11 - What Are The Goals Of Classroom Management?What Do You Think Are The Most Important Principles Of Classroom Management?

First of all, let’s think what classroom management means. Classroom management is the process of ensuring that classroom lessons run smoothly despite disruptive behavior by students. 

Classroom management is a pretty important part of a lesson. If the classroom management is fine, the lesson that is being imparted has a high probability of being successful.

Classroom management helps teachers to keep the affective filter low for students to learn.

Some of the most important principles of classroom management are the following:

• Discipline 

• Limits in the relationship between the teacher and the student. 

• Arrangement of material 

• Fairness in evaluations 

• Treat every single student equally

I just like what it says, it is a 100% true:

Task 10 - What Are Your Motives For Teaching? What Rewards Or Incentives Do You Get From Teaching? How Might Your Motives Interfere With Your Ability To Put The Needs Of Your Students Ahead Of Your Own?

Inspiration. That is my main motive for teaching. As many of my teachers have inspired me trough all my years to keep trying hard, I want to inspire my students to keep trying hard and not to give up with the first problem they have.

I want to change some students’ lives. I know that trough teaching I can do it. IN others words I want to teach to help other people.

Moreover, it is true that most persons choose this career just because it is known that teachers can get a very good wage. And why we deny it? It is true that it is part of the rewards it gives but for me, it s not the main reason. The best reward a teacher can receive is to see his or her students being successful and fulfilling their goals. 

And finally, I don’t think my motives are going to interfere with my ability to put the needs of your students ahead of my own because if I already stated I want to help my students, I will not let anything to stop me, even if they are my motives.

Task 9 - What I Like and What I Do Not Like about Working With Teenagers

There are many positive and negative aspects about teaching teenagers. Either of them will make us grow as teachers, no matter if we don’t like them or if we do. Apparently, working with teenagers should be easier than working with little children because you can be understood easier, students can catch the ideas faster and so forth. That is the idealism we all have crated but in fact, working with teens is quite more challenging, complicated and stressing but at the same time rewarding and satisfactory. The bigger the problems or barriers we face, the bigger the victory will be.

There are some positive things we can list:

Teenagers are curious. Teenagers are always trying and looking for new things to do, or looking for things to experience or try out, but sometimes this curiosity can go too further and therefore it can create some problems in the classroom.

Teens are energetic. They do not like to be still, sometimes it can be taken as a negative characteristic but in fact we, teachers, just need to know how to canalize and take advantage of that energy.

Teenagers can make their own decisions. Teenagers do not need much help to make decisions as children need it. That makes the job of the teacher easy.

Teens are very creative. They can make up an activity or an answer very fast, interesting ideas that can be applied in the classroom.

But there are also negative things:

Teens think they are the last Coca-Cola in the desert. They want to do many things just according to their judgment, and sometimes they do not like to be corrected.

Teenagers are quite more irresponsible. Sometimes they do not do activities or homework just for being doing something else.

Teens get distracted easily by any simple thing around them.

To sum up, working with teenagers has as many positives aspects as negatives but if we really like teaching and we know how to teach we can turn all those negative aspects into positive aspects and take advantage of them. Personally, I like to work with teenagers better rather than with children because it is a much more challenging experience and as a consequence a more rewarding one!

Task 8 - What Can The World Wide Web Offer ESL/EFL Teachers?

Teachers nowasdays are involved by technological aspects and tools that they didn't know years ago. The the World Wide Web is only one of them. The World Wide Web allows persons to search, share and download any information they want, therefore teachers must take advantage of such technology.

We can not say the Word Wide Web offers limited things to ESL/EFL Teachers because there teachers can find as much information as they desire. There, teachers can find from simple activities like warm ups and time fillers until more complex things like lesson plans or solvings of problems.

World Wide Web is a very useful tool that teacher who are not used to using technological things should use because it gives a lot of opportunities not only for teachers but also for students. And also beacuse it, somehow, make teachers' job easier.

Task 7 - How Can The Standard-Features Word-Processing Programs Be Exploited For Teaching Writing Skills?

Writing, one of the four main skills, has always been a problem for ones and a piece of cake for others. But why is it so? It is so because of the lack of vocabulary we have.

Nowadays, there are many technologicals tools to better our writing skill, one of them WORD-PROCESSING PROGRAMS.

Word-Processing Programs are many, we can go from free to pay programs ( Calligra Words, Lyx, Quicksilver, Microsoft Word,etc). All of them can be used in the educational field, especially Microsoft Word wich is the most famous and manageable nowadays.

Teachers can ask the students to create paragraphs, essays, etc. These programs automatically will help the students with the mistakes they make and the students will be corrected instantly.

Undoubtedly, word processing is one of the most important technological tools that can have been applied to education due to it offers freedom to write and can be used without the help of a teacher.

On the other hand they have some disadvantages like:
- Students can get used to being corrected automatically and not pay attention to their mistakes anymore.

-Prevent student writers from revising their superficially neat-looking but unfinished writing.

- Not all the students have equal access to these programs.

But anyway, they can be applied, as I already stated, by teachers trough asking the students to write an essay, paragraphs ,etc. And students are helped because we can check and check our work before submiting it and if we have a mistake we would not have to make a total rewritten version, just modify the problems.

They should be applied more often in the classroom as a technological tool.

Task 6 - Should technologies play a central or a peripheral role in second language teaching and learning?

It is true that we, human beings, are involved by a big wave of technology and therefore all the aspects that, as humans, we face are involved by such technology. Educational aspects are not away from these reality and our students are exposed too.

Many years ago, we did not even though we would be able to have such technology, but now we do have it and we have to take advantage of it. Specially in our case, we could use many technological resources to make our classes more interesting and make learning happen. Videos, computers, etc should be used in the normal classrooms, but I think in a peripheral way. Because if we use them all the time, many normal situations may stop taking place, such groupal work, social interaction,etc.

Technology makes our lives as teacher easier due to nowadays it is not difficult to find , for example, an audio to play in the classroom, a video to be shown or even lesson plans are avaliable specially in the internet. We could make our students to read an specific article or task we want them to be develop in their houses in order to have more time in the classroom to discuss it or to teach another topics that require time that we often dont have.

Students, as I stated, should take advantage of this too. They shouldn't spend many hours doing something non productive but doing somenthing productive. We as students have many tools we can use, such tutorial videos, explanation videos, educatinal videos and so forth , that we can use to better our learning.

Technological tools should be taken into account when developing a class because it catchs our students' attention easily and make learning better.

But let's be careful, because if we want to make technology the center of all methodologies, it wont work because students could get bored by the overused of it, as all things in a high quantity bores us!

To sum up, technology should not play a central role in a second language teaching and learning, but a peripheral role.

Task 5 - What do you think is the role of research in improving our understanding of teaching?

Many times we assign some homeworks in which students have to make use of "research", according to us. But we are miss understanding it! In fact, do we really know what it involves and what it really takes?

"Research" is not only for students but (should be mainly) for teachers. It is quite important for us, as teachers, make research. 

By doing this, we will be able to keep updated and therefore to have better results in our classes and in our own understanding of teaching. What I mean by "keep update", well it means that we will know what strategies, approaches or techniques might work in some instances and wich might not.

Researching also allows us to get familiar with topics that we have to develop and we dont know very well. In addition, it helps to improve our way of teaching and consecuently it makes our students to learn more and to have a learning not mechanical but for life. Anyway, our goals as teacher is no other than make our students learn the most they can and "research" takes a great part into it.

Task 4 -What Experience Do You Have Of Learning A Second Or Foreign Language? How Would You Characterize The Teacher’s Teaching Method? How Effective Did You Find It?

First I want to clear that learning a new language is not recieved by all the people in the same way. Some of us learn better when we are taught trough some especific method or approach, others get it more whe are taucht by other methods and finally there are some of us who just can't learn trough any method.

I have been exposed to English for a little period of time, approximately for 5 years. But since I first started to study this foreign language I felt really atracted and I really liked it.

I have had many teachers, some have had a knowledge about methods and approaches of teaching but some others have not. My first English teacher was the best teacher

 I could ever have. You may be asking: Why was he such a great teacher? Because he was not boring at all and he always knew how to catch our attention. In fact, he was one of my inspirations to become an English teacher.

On the other hand, in the university I had the least prepared teacher I have ever seen. Even though he prepared the classes, he didn´t know how to use the tools and therefore all the students got lost and didn´t understend a thing.

They both used mostly the CCL and Direct method but for one of them they worked and for the other it didn't. But it just depends in how you apply it and how the teacher has created the rapport in the classroom.

I think teaching is not something innate, I think it is something you learn trough the years and according how much you like it. Sadly, some persons take it just like a job wich is not. IT IS MORE THAN A JOB.

Task 3 - What Are The Differences Between Teaching Approach, Teaching Method, Teaching Technique And Teaching Strategies?

Many times we think all of them are the same but indeed they are not. Here yo have definitions and a little explanations about them.

An approach to language learning consists of the techniques and activities you decide to use to learn a language, based on: our beliefs about language and how it is learned your learning style preferences the constraints of the learning situation A method is an overall plan for learning a second language, based on the theoretical approach selected. It involves the design of a syllabus for the course, which in turn consists of learning objectives and techniques for achieving those objectives. Examples: The Language Learning Cycle Total Physical Response Suggestopedia Counseling Learning Direct Method A technique is a particular method of doing an activity, usually involves practical skills Examples ThinkPair Share Role Playing Strategies  are Overall plans for implementing instructional goals, methods, or techniques Examples BuzzGroups Concept Mapping Graffiti We could sum up that Strategies go into Techniques, Techniques into Methods, and Methods go into Approachs.

Task 2 - Self-fulfillment: The Most Important Purpose

Self-fulfillment  is a concept used in philosophy and, to a lesser degree, psychology, referring to the realizing of one's deepest desires and capacities, and we, as teachers, want our students to be successful because it reflects ourselves. How come? Students are our own mirror, according to the personality and way we treat them, that is how they will behave.

That is why, teachers must believe in their students in order to have this feeling mutually. Even when students are not doing a good job teachers must encourage them and make them see that the student can do better and can overcome all the problems they face in the way to learning.

Students, most of the time, see the teacher not only as a teacher but also as a guide or example to follow in their lives; therefore teachers have to guide the in a good way, encourage them and teaching them that they don’t have to give up.

We know changing a life is hard, but when doing it, we don’t have to focus only in the academically aspects but in the spiritual and social life in order to make them successful in all aspects. Even though it is difficult it feels great whe you can see one of your students being successful in life… that is why: NEVER GIVE UP AND ENCOURAGE YOUR STUDENTS TO KEEP MOVING AND NEVER GO BACKWARDS. 

Task 1 - Inspire Your Students

WHY DO I WANT TO TEACH?

Because I know that by doing it I can change and better many of my students lives. I am aware that trough teaching I can not only help my students academicly but morally and prepare the to face real life situations.

It wont be easy for sure, but I like challenges adn I`m sure I can help students who have problems and encourage them to keep trying until they succeed.

HOW THE TRANSFORMATIONAL PEDAGOGY MODEL MAY IMPACT THE LIVES OF BOTH, PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICCE TEACHERS?

Transformational pedagogy could impact in such a way the lives of pre-service and In-service teacher that could help them to be understood and to understand much easier their students.

As the chapter says "The way teachers think and learners feel in school trascends the curriculum" teachers have to have a positive attitude in order to create a good enviroment and let the students feel comfortable and ready to learn.

Pre-service teachers can take advantage of this beacuse it will show them how to treat their students regarding to teaching and also will prepare them to face situations that could hold the learning of the students.

In-service teachers who were not doing a good job when treating their students might make changes to full fill some requirements of teaching. They gotta have clear that students are not only empty glasse in which they can put information, but teachers must know students have feelings and that sometimes such feelings can stop the learning process.