Drama Techniques in English Language Learning.

Hello guys! I haven't been around for some weeks but I'm back! hehe. Today I'll share with you some information about Drama Techniques, something that I've been using in my Didactic classes.  

I hope the information I'm about to post will help you in some way!

First of all let's define What Drama is?

As Charlyn Wessels the author of the book "Drama" says: "Drama is doing". This simplified definition accurately depicts drama as the direct involvement of learning by experience. A famous Chinese proverb informs, "Tell me and I will forget; teach me and I will remember; involve me and I will learn". Rather than just listening and remembering, or seeing and explaining, the students take a personal journey through kinetic experimental learning. 

The student learns more  than information, by developing practical "hands-on" skills for applying meaning into real-life situations.

Benefits of using Drama Techniques.

Using drama techniques has many advantages within the classroom curriculum. Using them could increase personal confidence in our students; something very important in everything but primarily in a personal aspect. 

Stephen Whitear observes that speaking is not only words, structure, and pronunciation, but feelings, motivations, and meanings.

1.  Drama is Fun.

A fun class improves the learning environment as the affective filter is lowered. The combination of drama techniques with learning a second language brings about a fun, enriching and purposeful experience. Learners want to enjoy the learning process and drama allows them to experiment with language  and laugh at the same time. Nobody said that English classroom had to be serious.

2.  Drama is a relaxed and informal way to learn English.

Text books only provides one possible way to communicate the message, but when a learner is given individual choices of how to say something, allowing them the freedom to step out the box, the right answer/wrong answer concept is removed and communication becomes more informal while the learner can remain enjoyably relaxed. 

3. Drama helps to learn new vocabulary and expressions in their proper environment.

Drama helps to extend, retain and reinforce vocabulary and sentence structure trough role-play and communication games. (Mordecai, Fernandez & Coil, Sam)

When a teacher brings in a particular scenario, along with some props and costumes, certain words and expressions take on a new meaning in context.

4. Drama helps in proper pronunciation and intonation in English.

Clarity of spoken English is absolutely essential for clear communication. The teacher can use words and expressions  found within the drama script to focus on particular phonetic sounds ans assists with correction on an individual basis. As Goodwin writes: "Drama is a particularly effective tool for pronunciation teaching because various components of communicative competence (discourse intonation, pragmatic awareness, nonverbal communication) can be practiced in an integrated way."  

5. Drama builds confidence in the learner's ability to speak English.

The goal of many teachers is to build confidence within their students. Sometimes is pretty difficult to talk in front of people, primarily for the lack of confidence in  our speaking and the cultural ideology of not making mistakes.That's why drama helps on confidence, because on the stage, exactness in language is not as critical as communication. The focus is not on exact speaking, but on enabling students to communicate. As students are provided various activities to get involved with the language, their personal outlook on the stage and their speaking confidence become greatly enhanced.

6. Drama builds a better understanding of culture.

There is a strong connection between language and culture. Withing short skits and drama activities, cultural elements can be explained and better understood. Being able to include familiarity with these cultural learning points helps to bring a stronger relationship between the language and its meaning.

7. Drama removes the focus from the English textbook.

As we know the use of the English book is pretty important at the beginning of learning a language, but the teacher has to look for the ways of remove it from the learner, if not you're at risk of being a "booky teacher".The actual learning of English comes when the learner can experience the language in a real environment. Role-play simulations are good methods for learners to use language learned within the textbook. The goal of the teacher is to lead learners to use the language in real situations, not the memorization of the textbooks dialogues.

8. Drama involves the whole person as a total physical activity.

Dramatic activities in learning English apply a kinesthetic, emotional, and experiential approach to learning. Language, together with feelings and movement, blend together to affect the whole person.

This is just a few information that I shared about the topic mentioned and I hope it could help you in some way.
See you in the next post.
Blessings.

Learning to teach adults

This post is about the third book I've read this days and it is called "Learning to teach adults" by Nicholas Corder.












First of all Nicholas Corder shows us some points of view about defining adult. He presents some entries in which we could define What is an adult, like age, maturity, and life cycle, but we can't define what adult is by these concepts because we could find them in different kinds of people with different ages as well.
Like Nicholas says: "We are all products of our environment, our genes and our experiences" their ages, tastes, perceptions, politics, attitudes, knowledge, experience, aptitude, ability and intelligence are all different.

How will I attend to the individual learning style needs of the students, both instructionally and personally? 

The book show us that there are different kinds of learning styles like :
* Activist learning style.
* Theorist learning style.
* Reflector learning style.
* Pragmatist learning style.

We have to take into account all of them, because every single person learn from different ways and we have to pay specially attention to that.
Recognizing students' needs we'll be able to create a better learning environment for our students, specially adults. We have to motive them with themes of their interest in order to catch their attention.
We have to be prepared instructionally and personally for a good learning of our students and in order to satisfy their necessities in education.

How will I see growth in the learners according to their stated needs/goals, as well as my course goals?

We will see that growth by the results of our students' evaluations, and in their performance in the class as well. Assessment is the right answer, assessment is part of any course and is vital for both you and your students to make judgments about their progress.
Students assessment begins at the very first session, there are 3 types of assessment:

* Formative
* Summative
* Continuous Assessment.

Formative assessment is the kind of assessment that you will do as the course progresses. Summative assessment, on the other hand, takes place at the end of a unit or a course and continuous assessment is the combination of formative and summative assessment, instead of saving everything up for one big final  test, students are assessed at various stages of the course.

Something important is that we have to know that adult students like continuity of assessment. It enables them to set a series of shorter-term goals.

How do I use the learner's experiences within the instruction?

We have to catch our students attention and one important and valuable thing would be using their own experiences, in that way they will feel that their experiences are so important because we take them into account.
Using them in order to have a better learning, that's what a good teacher knows. Topics of their interest and according to their ages is something that we have to know when looking for information and when creating our classes. We as teachers can teach them how to apply English in their everyday life as their own experiences.
Something important: We have to get to know our students....

Learning to listen, Learning to teach.

Today's post is about a book which is called "Learning to teach, learning to listen: The power of Dialogue in Educating Adults" by Jane Vella.

My comments would be specifically about Part 1 (A process that works and why) including topics like "Twelve Principles for effective Adult Learning" and "Quantum thinking and Dialogue Education".

Also I'll be answering the question:

Why does Danah Zohar call dialogue a quantum process?

TWELVE PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE ADULT LEARNING.

As we know teaching to adults is so different and sometimes kind of difficult, we already know how's to work with kids at kindergartens and to work with teenagers, all of them has different likes and interests.

The approach to adult learning based on these principles holds that adults have enough life experience to be in dialogue with any teacher about any subjects and will learn new knowledge, attitudes or skills best in relation to that life experience.

1. Needs assessment:

This principle is about participation of the learners in naming what is to be learned. It's pretty important to know what they really need to learn because when adult learners are bored or indifferent, it means their themes have been neglected in the design of the course. One important thing that we have to know is: needs assessment not form the course;  it informs it.

2. Safety:

In this principle safety refers to safety in the environment and the process as well. We create a context for learning. That context can be made safe.

Safety is a principle linked to respect for learners as decision makers of their own learning.

3. Sound relationships:

Sound relationships between teacher and learner and among learners involve respect, safety, open communication, listening and humility; by doing this learners feel safe enough to share their true feelings.

4. Sequence and reinforcement:

Sequence means the programming of knowledge, skills, and attitudes in an order that goes from simple to complex and from group supported to solo efforts.

Reinforcement means the repetition of facts, skills, and attitudes in diverse, engaging, and interesting ways until they are learned.

5. Praxis:

Praxis is a Greek word that means "action with reflection or learning by doing".

It is an ongoing process, of course we use it in our daily lives all the time as we do something, reflect on its implications, and change. In a learning situation; we can use case studies inviting description, analysis, application, and implementation of learning.

6. Respect for learners as decision makers:

Respecting learners as decision makers if their own learning is a principle that involves the recognition that adults are in fact decision makers in a large part of their lives.

7. Ideas, Feelings, Actions.

We know that learning involves more than cognitive material (ideas and concepts). It involves feeling something about the concepts (emotions) and doing something (actions).

Learning with the mind, emotions, and muscles and giving attention to the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor aspects of adult learning is a principle that is often neglected.

8.Immediacy:

Adult learners need to see the immediate usefulness of new learning: the skills, knowledge, or attitudes they are working to acquire.

9. Clear roles:

Another vital principle of adult learning is recognition of the impact of clear roles in the communication between learner and teacher.

Adults students need to reinforcement of the human equity between teacher and student and among students. It takes time for adults to see themselves and the teacher in a new role.

10. Teamwork:

Team work is itself both a process and a principle. Teams provide, in the adult learning experience, a quality of safety that is effective and helpful.

Team work can't be taken for granted. What happens in the team is what is happening every day. As adult educators we must remember that feelings are never simulated.

11. Engagement:

Through learning tasks we invited learners to engage themselves actively in the strategic issues of their organizations and of the community. This is quantum thinking: learning as a process of a participative universe.

12. Accountability

How do they know they know? Who is accountable to whom? First, the design of learning events must be accountable to the learners. What was proposed to be taught must be taught; what was meant to be learned must be learned: the skills intended to be gained must be visible in all the learners; the attitudes taught mus be seen; the knowledge conveyed must be manifest in adult learners' language and reasoning.

QUANTUM THINKING AND DIALOGUE EDUCATION

I would start talking about quantum thinking by answering this question:

Why does Danah Zohar call dialogue a quantum process?

Danah Zohar calls a quantum process, the means of doing quantum thinking.

But, What is quantum thinking? 

Quantum thinking means looking at the world in a new way.

The purpose of dialogue education is to evoke optimal learning with adults. It is designed from a set of assumptions about the nature of society and human beings.

A new semester with Didactic's World.

Far from my blog since a couple of months I would start today with a new post :)
This semester is for Didactic 3 and I'll be sharing with you all the new and important knowledge that I will be acquiring through the days.
Today's post is about some chapters of the book "Teaching by principles" by Douglas Brown, specifically chapters 13 and 14 of the old version of the book.

I've been reading this chapters and they're so interesting because they show us a lot of information pretty helpful for us as teachers. There are some things that I already knew it but there are some other information that I didn't know as well.

Chapter 13 is named: Classroom Management
and
Chapter 14 is named: Strategies-Based Instructions.


After reading them, I had to answer these questions:
1.How is order set up and kept in learning environment?
2.What is the impact of strategies-based instructions on teaching English as a foreign language?

Now I present  my thoughts about these questions.

1.How is order set up and kept in learning environment?

There is a full set of points that are necessary  to set up and kept order in learning. First of all class environment  is very important because when students have a well-decorated classroom they would feel encourage to learn the language. Physically the classroom must be neat, clean, orderly in appearance and if it's possible free from external noises.
Talking about seating arrangement, student's desks should facilitate interaction within them and group or pair work. Another very important point is your voice and body language; you should know how to use them in order to have and understandable class.
Being prepared to work under adverse circumstances is something so important as is to play all the roles a teacher has. A good learning style contributes to order because if you use a good one, you would have all your students attention and primarily their learning would be in the best way. A positive classroom climate and the balance between praise and criticism would create self-confidence in the students, so it means order, behavior and participation would be better.

2.What is the impact of strategies-based instructions on teaching English as a foreign language?

The impact of SBI is that focusing in our teaching techniques and methodology we can encourage, build and sustain effective learning in our students.
By teaching them how to look at themselves and how to capitalize on their talents and experiences, they would learn lessons that would carry them beyond any language classroom. So it means they won't just stay with what they have learned in class and they would look for information by their own.
Learning strategies are germane to the eventual success of learners.

Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (MI)

Hi fellows, I would to begin today's post with this quote: "Being an intelligent creates a lot of questions and no answers". (Janis Joplin) 

This quote is pretty related for today's topic because I'm going to talk about Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences.

Who is Howard Gardner?

Howard Gardner, Ph.D. is a professor at Harvard University and the author of many books and articles. His theory of multiple intelligences has challenged long-held assumptions about intelligence, especially about a single measure of intelligence. Dr. Gardner also co-directs Harvard's Project Zero.

I think, you could be asking yourself: What is he talking about? or some of you could be intrigued about which of them you could have.... Just let me tell you that at the very beginning I was like you, but don't worry I'm going to explain to you what's about every single intelligence.

Being intelligent  does not always mean that someone tests well, a problem with teachers and school administrators have struggled since the earliest days of organized education. Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences helps educators think differently  about "IQ", and about what being "smart" means. The theory is changing the way some teachers teach.

Here they are! The original seven intelligences!

1. Linguistic Intelligence: A sensitive  to the meaning and order of words.

2. Logical-mathematical Intelligence: Ability in mathematics and other complex logical systems.

3. Musical Intelligence: The ability to understand and create music. Musicians, composers and dancers show a heightened musical intelligence.

4. Spatial Intelligence: The ability to "think in pictures", to perceive the visual world accurately, and recreate (or alter) it in the mind or on paper. Spatial intelligence is highly developed in artists, architects, designers and sculptors.

5. Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence: The ability to use one's body in a skilled way, for self-expression or toward a goal. Mimes, dancers, basketball players, and actors are among those who display bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.

6. Interpersonal Intelligence: An ability to perceive and understand other individuals -  their moods, desires, and motivations. Political and religious leaders, skilled parents and teachers, and therapists use this intelligence.

7. Intrapersonal Intelligence: An understanding of one's own emotions. Some novelists and or counselors use their own experience to guide others.

For some of you all of them could be interesting or maybe you already know about them but for some others don't.

Maybe you are thinking... Oh! I have some of them! I already identified them!, but believe it or not every single person has all the MI!. The thing is that not everybody has developed them %100. So, now you know that and try to improve them.

But this haven't finished! Howard Gardner talks about an eighth intelligence.

Gardner discussed the "eighth intelligence" with Kathy Checkley, in an interview for Educational Leadership.

8. The Naturalist Intelligence: It refers to the ability to recognize and classify plants, minerals, and animals, including rocks and grass and all the variety of flora and fauna.

The ability to recognize cultural artifacts like cars or sneakers may also depend on the naturalist intelligence. 

Implementing Gardner's theory in the classroom.

When asked how educators should implement the theory of multiple intelligences, Gardner says: "It's very important that a teacher take individual differences among kids very seriously. The bottom line is a deep interest in children and how their minds are different from one another, and in helping them use their minds well."

Lesson desing: Some schools focus on lesson design. This might involve team teaching (teachers focusing in their own intelligence strengths), using all or several of the intelligences in their lesson, or asking student opinions about the best way to teach and learn certain topics.

Interdisciplinary units: Secondary schools often include interdisciplinary units.

Students projects: Students can learn to "initiate and manage complex projects" when they are creating student projects.

Assessments: are devised which allow students to show what they have learned.

Apprenticeships: can allow students to "gain mastery of a valued skill gradually, with effort and discipline over time."

It has been all for today and I hope you liked it!

Blessings and thanks for taking the time for reading my articles!

Motivation

Today I will share with you some information that is very important for us as teachers or future ones!

It is about motivation!

Williams and Burden said:

Motivation is a state of  cognitive and emotional arousal, which lives to consciuos decision to act, and which gives grace to a period of sustain intelectual and physical effort in order to attained a previously set goal.

There are 3 different types of motivation that I'll deal with:

Integrative Motivation:

When students want to learn a language to become part of a speech community (integrate). People who immigrate to new countries are some examples of people who may want to identify with the community around them. An important aspect of this form of language learning is using language for social interaction. This form of motivation is thought to produce success in language learners. This is often compared to instrumental motivation.

Instrumental Motivation:

Wanting to learn a language for the purpose of obtaining some concrete goals such as a job, graduation, or the ability to read academic materials. This form of motivation is thought to be less likely to lead to success than integrative motivation.

Intrinsic Motivation:

Motivation in learning that comes from a sense of empowerment in being able to do something. Doing something for the sake of doing it without thought of rewards such as praise, grades,  candy, or money.  Intrinsic motivation can be contrasted with extrinsic motivation where the learner performs a task in order to receive some kind of reward.

Intrinsic motivation is thought to have far greater benefits in the long run. This in turn suggests that ESL teachers should try to foster intrinsic motivation instead of providing rewards for doing well. However, because ESL teacher rarely have long term contact with students, they opt for the quick fix solutions to make their classes run smoothly now - something to think about next time you want to bribe a class of hyperactive grade 4s with candy and a quiz.

Extrinsic Motivation:

Motivation through rewards such as points, candies, compliments, money, test scores, or grades. These rewards are externally administered and may inhibit learning in the long run, although seeming to be effective in the short run. One problem is that they are addictive. Researchers generally agree that intrinsic motivation is better for longterm learning.

In order to have motivated students I'll will give you some teaching strategies for unmotivated students...

1. Deal with disruptions first.

2. Compliment unmotivated students.

3. Involve unmotivated students in classroom discussions.

4. Present your lessons in creative ways.

5. Keep the atmosphere lighthearted.

6. Create a strong mental link between education and life fulfillment.

I hope this information could be of great importance to you!

It is for me!

I would like to finish today's post with this Chinese Proverb:

“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.”

 

Blessings!

Towards Reflective Teaching

How are guys!? I hope you're doing oqek, I haven't write for some days but I'm back haha! With music's help in this cloudy day!

Today I want to share with you some experiencies and comments about my teaching practicum I've been developing since some weeks ago and at the end I'll talk how we can do reflective teaching.

Working with teenagers is not as easy as someone could think and  additionally if you have 48 students (in my case) or more!

There's a big variety of humors, behaviors, different thinking types between them and not counting the teenager's problem they're dealing with.

We as educators have to know how to deal with this kind of problems and the way we can give our students an answer because it can affects a lot to one of our students' stages they're going through. Remember it's a stage of changes in life.


 

Sometimes it's pretty difficult to get their attention in class, playing with them some times is not a good idea because at this age their interests are different from a child game. So we have to think a lot about a game that could get their interest in order to have a good teaching. In my case I tried to play a game with them but it didn't work, first of all because the classroom is kind of small and they are 48 students so, get their attention and the challenge of getting all of them involved in the activity was so difficult.(not all of them wanted to participate)

One thing we don't have to forget is we have to be one of them and think how would like them to receive the class.

Always have the lesson plan with you, this tool will always help you to have a good class management. At the time of doing it don't forget, it could be changed in any moment of the class and that's an advantage for us.

To know if we are having a good class we can reflect about it!

*What is a reflection?

Is the recalling of an event that has happened in the past.

*We can do it asking "What and Why"

*How does reflection take place?

When you see that there's a problem.

To do a good reflection you have to go through 3 stages:

Stage 1:

To think about the event itself.

Stage 2:

Recollection of the event.

Stage 3:

Review and response to the event.

Also to this you can add:

*Peer observation: Each participant would both observe and be observed.

*Written account of experiences: If you don't have a peer to reflect with, buy a notebook.

*Self-reports: Only for ourself.

Since we have written accounts and self-reports we can make:

*Autobiographies: This is share with everybody.

*Journal writing: This is only by ourself.

*Recording lesson: We can record a class taught by ourself and then we can analyze it.

and finally we have

*Conclusions: They are made by ourself.

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

How are you friends in this hot summer day!!?

Today I'm going to share with you some new information that can help you or that you can add to your new knowledge.

This is the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives:

(SWBAT) Students Will Be Able To...

1. Knowledge

- Define

- Identify

- Write

- List

2. Comprehension

- Set up
- Describe
- Give
- State

- Translate

3. Application
- Relate
- Describe
- Determine
- Apply
- Reduce

4. Analysis
- Identify
- Enumerate
- Analyze
-Evaluate

5. Synthesis
- Write
- Design
- Construct

Writing Instructional Goals and Objectives.

First of all I'm going to define what a goal is?
Goals are broad, generalized statements about what is to learn.

Listing your well-written goals' course and objectives is a good idea for you in order to know what your expections for the course are and place them in the syllabus is a good idea aswell because in this way you share them with your students.

There are 3 types of objectives:
* Cognitive (Mental skills)

* Affective (Beliefs and attitudes)

* Psychomotor (Physical skills)

When you create your own objectives they should specify 4 main things:

1. Audience - (Who? Who is this aimed at?)

2. Behavior - (What? What do you expect them to be able to do? Use action verbs to describe an overt, observable behavior.)

3. Condition - (How? Under what circumstances will the learning occur?)

4. Degree - (How much)

This is often called the ABCD's of the objectives and it's a wonderful way for you to do them.

A new semester has begun!

How are you fellows?? I hope you're doing ok!

Well, a new semester has begun in this 2012 and that means new challenges to go through and new experiences to know about, primarly because this semester I have to teach to Junior High school students and to be honest I'm kind of nervous about that because working with adolescents could be sometimes a little bit difficult and dealing with them and their hormonal changes, their moods, psycological changes and love problems could be tired aswell.

In class of didactics 2 we started to learn and review some things about working with adolescents and how we can teach them and manage a good class.

First of all we have learned 3 important things that are useful at the time of teaching and they are: Warm ups, icebreakers and time fillers.

I'll give you some reasons to use them:

1. To focus or re-energy on the first 5 or 10 minutes of the class.

2. Break the ice with new students.

3. To fill a small block when your lesson plan runs short.

4. To replace a lesson that students can't grasp or are bored with.

5. To have a hand for emergencies.

6. To use them when you are called in the last minute to substitute a teacher.

We are learning how a lesson planning is a good way to make decisions in advanced about what to teach, how to teach and the time assigment of every teaching procedure. We have seen some others aspects like why is a lesson planning so important and the benefits that teachers get from their lesson planning aswell.

The principles for a lesson planning are:

- Aim

- Variety

- Flexibility

- Learnability

And the lesson plan format is:

1. General objective

2. Materials

3. Time

4. Warm up

5. Presentation

6. Language notes

7. Practice (Controlled, semi-controlled and free practice)

8. Wrap up

9. Homework.

This is just the begining of my return to my blog!

I will share with you some other information through the semester.

bye bye and take care!