English Teaching Methodologies 2009 Blog

This page will contain the Assignments for ETM 3

Blogging Assignment 1(Due: April 23, 2009)

1. Follow the directions I give you and register yourself on Edublogs.

2. Write a post on this blog introducing yourself. In addition to your self introduction, I would like you to write 1) What you want to study in ETM 3; 2) Your strengths and weaknesses as an English teacher.

Blogging Assignment 2 (Due April 28 May 5, 2009)

Hello ETM 3 members!

For your next blogging task I would like you to discuss what kind of grammar you found most difficult to learn when you were a junior high school student and how you eventually learned it. When you are finished, please try to comment on another ETM 3 member’s post. For your reference please look at this diagram of the grammar that junior high school students are required to learn.

To show you an example of what I am expecting, I will blog below about Japanese grammar that was difficult for me to learn. Please read it before writing your post.

Before I first came to Japan, I took a 1 month class on Japanese and did not understand it at all. The most difficult grammar for me to learn was adjective verbs or 形容動詞. An example of an adjective verb is “omoshirokatta desu”. When I was studying Japanese I had had experience studying other foreign languages and was not intimidated by grammar. However, the concept of an “adjective verb” was completely bizarre to me. I remember thinking “why can’t adjectives just be adjectives, why do the have to ask as verbs?” Whenever adjective verbs appeared on a test, I would always get a 0 for that section. When I came to Japan I started hearing words such as “tanoshikatta” “omoshirokatta” and I started to use them after about 6 months in Japan. However, at this time I had not idea that I was using adjective verbs. After living in Japan for two years, I returned to the USA to study. When I was in graduate school, I took a Japanese class and when taking this class, I finally realized what adjective verbs were and how to use them. The teacher never taught me what an adjective verb was, one day I just “realized”. It was a little bit of a strange experience.

Blogging Assignment 3 (Due Wednesday, May 13, 2009)

What are your beliefs about learning and teaching grammar in a foreign language? Please share them with the rest of ETM3. See my post here as an example.

or

Choose one of the following sentences and then answer the following questions:

• I’ve got some bread. I haven’t got any bread.
• I’ve seen that film. I saw that film last week.
• If they build a reservoir, there will be plenty of water. If they built a reservoir, there would be plenty of water.

1. What is the difference between the 2 sentences?
2. Can you think of other examples which would show the difference?
3. How could you explain the difference simply to your students, using their own language?

From Doff, A. (1988). Teach English. CUP

Microteaching Assignment 1 (To be done on Thursday, May 22)

I would like 4 pairs of students to present a structure and then lead practice on that structure. When presenting the structure,  remember that you need to make sure students understand its form, meaning, and use. Also, when practicing the structure I expect you to use the techniques that we studied in class on May 14.

Blogging Assignment 4

Practice teachers: Today you had a class where you were supposed to 1) Present a grammar structure and 2) Conduct practice of that grammar structure. I would like you to write your reflection of this experience. Please include the following in your reflection:

1) What grammatical structure did you try to teach?

2) How did you plan to present the grammar structure in a way that would be easy for students to understand and catch their interest? When you actually presented the structure, do you think you were successful? Why or why not?
3) How did you plan to conduct practice of the structures in a way that would give all students the chance to practice. Of the below methods, which ones did you try?
1. Repetition -
2. Substitution -
3. Single word prompts -
4. Free substitution -
5. Picture prompts -
Were you successul in conducting the practice, why or why not?
4) Your thoughts about class management.

Everyone else: After the teachers have written their relfection. Write a comment on their page giving them feedback about the lesson. In your feedback, you can write what you would like or include the following:

1) Presenting the Structure: Did the teachers include the following in their presentation?

a)form: How to use the structure
b) meaning: What the structure means
c) Use: When the structure is used
What were some postive points about their grammar teaching? Do you have any advice about they can teach about form, meaning and use?

2) Practice: What were the strong points and weak points about their practice? Do you have any suggestions about how they can use
1. Repetition -
2. Substitution -
3. Single word prompts -
4. Free substitution -
5. Picture prompts -

3) Do you have any feedback about their class management?

The practice teachers’ pages are here:

Fly Fly and Santa 3

James and 3iOn

Reddemon and Yukke

Blogging Assignment5

Practice teachers: Today you had a class where you were supposed to

A) Present a grammar structure and conduct practice of that grammar structure.

or

B) Conduct a communicative acitivity.

For those of you who did the grammar activity, please talk about the following in your post:

1) What grammatical structure did you try to teach?

2) How did you plan to present the grammar structure in a way that would be easy for students to understand and catch their interest? When you actually presented the structure, do you think you were successful? Why or why not?
3) How did you plan to conduct practice of the structures in a way that would give all students the chance to practice. Of the below methods, which ones did you try?
1. Repetition -
2. Substitution -
3. Single word prompts -
4. Free substitution -
5. Picture prompts -
4) Were you successul in conducting the practice, why or why not?
5) How did you attempt to manage the class (keep all students involved and focused)?

For those of you who conducted the communicative activity, please talk about the following in your post:

1) What language did you hope the students would practice using through this activity?

2) How did you try to introduce the activity in a way that would attract the interest of the students?

3) Did students understand your explanation/demonstration of the activity? Why or why not?

4) What kind of group work/pair work did you use, and why? Was it effective?

5) How was your class management?

Everyone else: After the teachers have written their relfection. Write a comment on their page giving them feedback about the lesson.

For the grammar presentations, you can include the following:

1) Presenting the Structure: Did the teachers introduce the structures in a way that caught your interest? Did the teachers include the following in their presentation?

a)form: How to use the structure
b) meaning: What the structure means
c) Use: When the structure is used
What were some postive points about their grammar teaching? Do you have any advice about they can teach about form, meaning and use?

2) Practice: What were the strong points and weak points about their practice? Do you have any suggestions about how they can use
1. Repetition -
2. Substitution -
3. Single word prompts -
4. Free substitution -
5. Picture prompts -

3) Do you have any feedback about their class management?

For the communicative activity you can include the following:

1) Did the teachers introduce the activity ina  motivating way?

2) Were you clear about what you had to do?

3) Did the teachers walk around the class and keep you involved in the activity?

4) Was the teachers’ class management effective?

The practice teachers’ pages are here:

Grammar and Practice (Bison & Anthony)

Communicative Activity (Aroma & Forest)

Grammar and Practice (Noon & Untom)

Blogging Assignment 6 (Due: Tuesday, June 16, 8PM)

As a class we thought of the10 problems below that can arise from group work. For this blogging assigment, I would like you to propose a solution for three of the problems. Please write a post on the blog (the main page) by Tuesday, June 16. Please give your post the category “overcoming problems with group work”.

1. Active students speak a lot but inactive (passive) students do not speak so much
2. Group work management is difficult (If students like someone they talk to only that person but do not speak to people they do not like.)
3. It takes a lot of time – cannot cover the syllabus or study for the entrance exam
4. It is hard to monitor
5. Students might talk about another topic with their friends so the class might become noisy
6. Students use Japanese
7. Students do not challenge themselves
8. Breakdown of classroom behavior
9. Hard to assess group work because some do more and some do less
10. The teacher cannot correct learner mistakes

Blogging Assignment 7 (Due: June 24)

Ukey and Masan will write about the following by Monday, June 22

1) What language did you hope the students would practice using through this activity?

2) How did you try to introduce the activity in a way that would attract the interest of the students?

3) Did students understand your explanation/demonstration of the activity? Why or why not?

4) What kind of group work/pair work did you use, and why? Was it effective?

5) How was your class management?

6) Anything Else

Everyone else: Please give your feedback to Ukey and Madan by June 24. As students, what could Ukey and Madan have done to get better participation from you? Their page is here.

Blogging Assignment 8 (Due July 22, 2009)

Comment on the reading classes taught by Mizuho and Claddagh as well as Minimia and Star.

Optional Assignment (Due July 30, 2009)

Fill out a questionnaire about English writing and learn a lot of English!

Blogging Assignment 9 （Due July 29, 2009)

During the practice, please write which of the below areas you discovered to be your strengths and which areas you discovered to be your weaknesses. If you have a particular weakness, write how you think you can improve it. If you have a strength, write how you think you can utilize it in the English classroom.

Pronunciation, Stress, Rhythm, Intonation, Variation, Expressions

Blogging Assignment 10 (Due August 4, 2009)

Sayah, MickeyNezumi, Lucy, JohnnyB, and Walnuts: Please write a reflection of your lesson by August 3.

Everyone Else: Please write a comment on the teachers’ pages  by August 4. In you comments, you should include the good points of the teachers’ lesson and points to improve. If you wish, you can give the teachers advice in the following areas:

Lucy, Sayahh, and MickeyNezumi:
1) How to make a group
2) How to promote interaction among the students during the 並び替え jumble
3) How to talk about the meaning of the text.
4) How to conduct the pronunciation practice
5) How to give feedback on pronunciation

Walnuts and SuperJ
1) SuperJの読み方について
2) How to introduce the story.
3) How to have students do the comprehension questions.
4) How to reflect on the meaning of the story.
5) How to have the students answer the comprehension questions