Hello everyone! Thought we’d check in and see
how you’re doing so far.
The first big task you had as group was “building
a wheel”. To do this, each group member contributed to the task, in order to
make the best possible wheel, taking into account the materials and time you
had available. What did you learn about
yourself and your role within the group? For example, we (Merry and Pippin)
are the brave, funny, handsome ones of the bunch.
Also, right about now you should be analyzing a course book. How is that
going?
A course book can be quite useful. It´s almost
like a map that helps students get from point A to point B. But what if the book is not the right “map”
for the journey that you and your students are on?
We´d like to read
about how you feel about course books and how they should be used (or if they
should at all)
Have a good day today and do something amazing!
(like commenting on this post for example)
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderBorrarFirst of all, it wasn't so difficult to work wtih Astrid and Carolina since we are friends and we know each other very well. We didn't have any kind of problem in deciding which idea was better.
ResponderBorrarThere is one thing that I would like to mention and is the fact that I'm constantly thinking that my ideas are useless and it's better to choose others. it's pretty much something related with "no me tengo fe" issue that I definitely would like to change.
My role within the group was a combination of creating the wheel, providing materials and ideas. We worked as a group and perhaps that was an advantage becuase we ended up creating a pretty and useful wheel :).
We have already finished with part 1 and 2 of the course book and at first it was kind of difficult to do because we dind't understand the instructions and after bothering Miss Fonseca 2736273 times we finally understood. i wasn't an easy task because our coursebook didn't contain all the aspects mentioned in the template so we spent a lot of time looking for more information. Also, the second part specifically the turn-taking and the focus sections were complicated too because we didn't have an example on how to proceed. Maybe, some examples in the instructions would've been better for us to understand.
Moreover, regarding the use of the coursebook I personally believe that the overuse of anything is not the most constructive way to do/learn/work something, and the same happens with coursebooks. In my intermediate practicum I had the opportunity to work without a coursebook and I felt totally free because we were able to teach in ways that fit the students level of english instead of following contents and instructions by a coursebook. Of course, I cannot leave aside the idea that coursebooks are made as a support for teachers and students and, in a way, help the developtment of contents and plannings. I'm not against coursebooks but I disagree with the idea of using them a lot because I think that we are obligated to follow step by step everything what is on it and, most of the time, teachers do not realize if the students actually learnt because they are concentrated in moving on to the next unit.
Regarding the wheel activity I would like to say that I considered it to be innovative and interesting. Personally, I was amazed by the fact that I really thought that my idea of the wheel would be the best and the smartest. Unfortunately, and at the same time interestingly, I found that my classmate Vania thought about a wheel design quiet simple and superior that proved to be resistant.
ResponderBorrarwhat’s more ,I was even more amazed when I saw a bunch of different wheels above the table.
If we transfer this idea of the wheel to the Teaching classroom I get to understand that we , as EFL teachers have our own conceptions, ideas and 'ways' to teach and learn.
Consequently, I was able to see and understand that we all have our own ideas and that we can benefit form each other. Working as a group to made the wheel taught me the importance of working collaboratively. Additionally, It also reminded me of the text that I read ‘’what I learned from giving quiet children space’’ mainly because the author looked for help and suggestions with their peers.
In regards to the task in which we had to build a wheel, my group and I worked perfectly as we know each other very well. At first, we tried Carolina's idea but we realized that it had a more square-like shape rather than a circle one, so we started designing the wheel with my idea, and in the end, we achieved the task. From this task, I learned that I'm quite open-minded since I accepted very well the opinions and other's ideas.
ResponderBorrarMoving on to the course book analysis, it has been a real challenge for me since I tend to get lost very easyly when I don't have a clear guideline. This occurred mainly in level 2 since my group and I struggled a lot with it because there were no samples and some parts were a bit confusing for me. Despite that, we managed to do the analysis and, although I'm still confused with some parts, we have already done level 3, so I think now we are on the right track (I hope so). Perhaps, more examples in level 2 (which was the difficult one) could have been useful so that we could have used them to guide our analysis.
Finally, I consider that course books are helpful in the sense that they provide a sequence of contents that the teacher can follow as they are in line with the national curriculum. However, I don't think course books are essentials due to the fact that sometimes they tend to be clearly focused on receptive skills. So, if we only use the book, we will be neglecting or leaving the productive skills aside. Moreover, some contents are a bit decontextualized. For example, during my practicum I had to teach extreme sports and the ones that appeared on the course book were sports that my students had never heard of before. Hence, my partner and I modified the sports and we taught extreme urban sports that the students were more familiar with, for example BMX, parkour, skateboarding, rollerblading, and we mixed these with some of the sports that appeared on the course book. As I said before, I consider the course book only a guide for the contents and not very useful in terms of activities and materials.
I actually like coursebooks, they can be really helpful...but not ALL of them. For my practicum I had to work with a coursebook that I didn't like at all. Not even my mentor teacher liked it. When I was asked 'why' I didn't like the coursebook I could never give a proper answer as it was just a general perception I had of the book.
ResponderBorrarMy group and I are analyzing that same coursebook and now I can actually pinpoint what aspects of the coursebook I do not like. First of all, it is too repetitive. Every lesson is constructed the same way, with almost the same activities over and over again. Another thing I found odd is that it focuses on reading and listening, leaving speaking and writing almost as by-products of the other two skills. I may not be an experienced teacher but I can say that I disagree with how that coursebook is coonstructed.
Still the coursebook was (surprisingly) helpful for me as it gave me guidelines on how to 'work' with the contents. It also was a way to ground the 'Planes y Programas' to something real and know what I was expected to do. I think that a coursebook will always have something good to offer be it texts, grammar rules or word lists.
Regarding to the wheel activity, I must say that it served as a very good example of how we, as teachers, should consider the different intelligences and learning styles of our students, and also the fact that we can't assess them in the same way if they all learn differently. Despite of the fact that one of the members of our team was absent this day, we still were able to come to agreements on how to build the wheel and divide the tasks in order to accomplish the objective. In this opportunity, I realized that most of the time I like to persuade others to accept my ideas and to have things done in the way I wanted. However, I also learnt that I have the ability to reconcile different ideas and that I am good at making decisions.
ResponderBorrarRegarding the analisis of the coursebook, at the beginning it was a bit difficult to understand the instructions, but after following the templates and samples, asking Miss Fonseca to answer our questions, and discussing with the team we could finally complete the three levels of the analisis.
In my opinion, the coursebook in general serves as a good guide for students in terms of contents and use of the language. However, I consider that most of them are not well contextualized and most of the time it may present a mismatch between the leel of the students and the target level of the coursebook. If this happens, most of the activites from the coursebook won't generate a meaningful learning in students, and they won't be able to apply their knowledge to a real-life context.
Regarding the activity of making the wheel, I learn that sometimes I need to learn how to communicate and express my ideas properly. I say this because when we decided which wheel we were going to create, mine was a lot easier and faster than the one we decided to do but since I was not able to explain my idea very well to my classmates they did not consider it. So we end up using an idea that it was better elaborate but that require it more time and effort than the one available.
ResponderBorrarNow in relation to the course book, I am not against the use of them as a backbone for your classes or a material/activity resource, but I do think that the overuse of them can harm our students in terms of motivation and participation. With my group, and as Ivón mentioned in her post, the course book that we were analyzing fell into the repetitiveness of activities where 90 percent of the activities were grammar-oriented. In that sense, using the course book every single class and asking the students to do the same exercises all the time is not going to help improve their motivation nor attitude towards English.
I loved the wheel activity, but unfortunately we were only two members of the group present, so we miss two different points of view. On the other hand, it was much easier for us to get to an agreement and chose the best idea(s). What I liked the most about the activity was that we could show out creativity, something very important but little considered.
ResponderBorrarThe analysis of a coursebook has been a very interesting task for me, since I found it very challenging to find mistakes and improve material that has been approved by the MINEDUC, supposedly queality material. I enjoy finding the best idea for improving the activities, instructions, etc.
I strongly believe that this is a very good practice for us, to get used to state our ideas in the best way when designing our own tasks and activities, and specially instrucitions.
(A bit late to post but...better late than never) How do I feel about coursebooks? I don't like them at all. It is true that they might help the teacher in terms of contents or activities, but coursebooks do not generally encourage spoken activities which are the ones through which we can get some evidence on how well understood are the contents. Because, as Mr. Ellis said, students could do all the exercises but not be able to communicate at all. In that sense from the wheel exercise to the analysis of the coursebook, I think that communicating, trying to get myself understood is the basis to trigger motivation towards language learning and knowledge-building . In that sense, coursebooks do not encourage this interactions (at least the one that my group analyzed) and that is the reason why I do not consider them useful or benefitial for students (if we base only on them). That is why I think that is so important to be able to twist the activities of coursebooks and to try to add that little extra something that could set off interactions that will give purpose to the language learning.
ResponderBorrarFrom my perspective the coursebook is a very useful tool, however we cannot forget that it is just one of the tools in the toolbox that teachers use.
ResponderBorrarThe overuse really affects the motivation of students and their role in the class. For example during my practice I asked some students to tell me how they feel in classes where the teacher always uses the coursebook. Most of the students told me that those classes were boring and that it was always the same.
Unfortunately, and based on my experience as a student, the exercises or the type of tasks in most of the course books are too repetitive, so you never feel surprised by them. I really believe that teachers can use the coursebook but also they have to use their own creativity in order to design activities for students. Maybe the coursebook can be used as a backbone in the sense that you can follow the topics and some activities but the rest is up to you.
Regarding the analysis of the coursebook, it was a huge challenge for me as I felt lost most of the first class. The level 2 and 3 were difficult to complete as we were confused because we felt that we missed instructions or explanations for some questions just right there in the paper. Of course asking to our teacher and discussing solved our problems.
The part that I really liked was bridging the gap as we got the opportunity to apply a lot of what we have learnt during all these years into the new tasks.
From my perspective the coursebook is a very useful tool, however we cannot forget that it is just one of the tools in the toolbox that teachers use.
ResponderBorrarThe overuse really affects the motivation of students and their role in the class. For example during my practice I asked some students to tell me how they feel in classes where the teacher always uses the coursebook. Most of the students told me that those classes were boring and that it was always the same.
Unfortunately, and based on my experience as a student, the exercises or the type of tasks in most of the course books are too repetitive, so you never feel surprised by them. I really believe that teachers can use the coursebook but also they have to use their own creativity in order to design activities for students. Maybe the coursebook can be used as a backbone in the sense that you can follow the topics and some activities but the rest is up to you.
Regarding the analysis of the coursebook, it was a huge challenge for me as I felt lost most of the first class. The level 2 and 3 were difficult to complete as we were confused because we felt that we missed instructions or explanations for some questions just right there in the paper. Of course asking to our teacher and discussing solved our problems.
The part that I really liked was bridging the gap as we got the opportunity to apply a lot of what we have learnt during all these years into the new tasks.