Final Reflection 2015

I was asked to think about strengths and weaknesses of the year, just like Crónica, TN and other channels do at the end of the year. There are thousands of moments that can be considered strong or weak enough to be mentioned in this post. Maybe I rather choose things that I want to do or have again next year and things from which I have learnt so as not to repeat them.

And now that I come to think again, at this time of the year, it sounds like a Christmas wish or plead to Santa!! I know I will have it, but I want to insist on this, just in case! I want to work with Clau again. That has been my strength this year, my support when I felt I was falling to pieces. So practical, she always has the exact words to make you feel better after the Tsunami. Always willing to work, always willing to make changes and to make things more interesting and funnier. She led me through the tangled world of 6th form, full of extra activities and responsibilities. I think we became a good team, with lots of ideas and open to suggestions.

Now, regarding the things I consider that I need to change for next year, I must mention first “communication” in general. Communication at school is not flowing fluently all the time. We are lacking moments in which we can sit down and reflect upon our work throughout the year. Fridays are not enough and the focus of our attention gets diverted to other aspects which are also important but may not be fundamental. I think we need to tackle obstacles when they occur, not at the end of the year when nothing can be done. We need to talk things over collaboratively, so as to find solutions to situations as a team. If I am to be specific, I’m referring to parent’s meetings. I take responsibility for the communication that failed between parents and me. I am responsible for the misunderstandings that occurred for things that I took for granted. Yet, the amount of things we are asked to bear in mind during the year is overwhelming if we consider the little time for reflection we have.  

This year has been a hard one for me, as I couldn’t reach the main objective: help students work their differences out, help them develop empathy for others. I know I failed. Today I came across a blog post which mentioned the 4 principles which should be present in the XXI century education: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, learning to live together. (Delors, 1996). I feel I could develop the first two, but I couldn’t accomplish anything valuable regarding the other two. Thus, these four pillars will be taken into consideration when planning lessons next year.

Delors, Jaques et al. (1996). "The Four Pillars of Education". Unesco. Retrieved 17/12/2015 from: 

http://www.uni-kassel.de/wz1/mahe/course/module4_1/01_delors96.pdf

Piloting coding & gaming in the classroom...

To program or not to program? That's the question!

It is crucial to enhance students with one of the key skills of the XXI century: programming. Just like we teach reading or writing, programming should be included in every teacher’s agenda. 

As Mark Zuckerberg has already stated "In 15 years we'll be teaching programming just like reading and writing...and wondering why we didn't do it sooner." It is fundamental to incorporate principles of coding in our lessons as another skill to be developed. By starting from a young age, students will have developed the necessary strategies to succeed in the XXI century. 

Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science since it helps foster problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. Steve Jobs claimed that “Everybody in the country should learn how to program a computer... because it teaches you how to think”. There is no need to be an expert or to start big in order to program, the only need is to be willing to accept challenges! 

  

Mystery Biomes Game

6^th form students at Newlands School have been studying the different biomes of the world and they would love to put this knowledge into practice by having Mystery Hangout Sessions to guess the biomes where is school is located.

1) Mystery Hangout 20 Questions: Each class tries to figure out the Biome of the other class without knowing beforehand.

Type of questions:

Some questions are similar to the traditional Mystery Game, but there are other questions that could be helpful

-         About the Weather: is it hot most of the year? Is it cold most of the year? Is the temperature moderate?

-         About the precipitation: does it rain less than 25 cm annually? More than … cm annually?

-         About the geographical features: is it icy? Are there many trees? Is it sandy?

-         About the flora, fauna and its adaptations: do plants have thick leaves? Are animals adapted to cold/hot weather.

2) Biome Exchange (10 minutes) - Each class shares information on the local biome. What is it like to live there? What animals or plants are typical in their region? How do you prepare for seasonal changes? What natural resources are found in the area?

Type of Biomes we are planning to connect to:

Desert - Less than 25cm of rain annually
Tundra - Glaciers, little plant life, north of the Arctic Circle

Taiga (Or Boreal Forest) - Below the Tundra (Russia, North America) Northern Hemisphere
Temperate Forest - Pacific Northwest of the United States, New Zealand
Tropical Rain Forest - Central and South America,

Grasslands: North America prairie, the Pampas, steppes of Eurasia
Deciduous Forest - Dense forest with four distinct seasons

References::

http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/grasslands.htm

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss5/biome/

Argentinian Sins in the classroom

It might be that teacher's concern at the very beginning of the year is mainly Behaviour. It could also be the fact that we wish to settle the way we should work for the rest of the year. Now that I come to think of it, it could also be that I have been too influenced by the teachers my students had before. Whatever the reason is, I feel terribly worried about my student's behaviour. 

I've read a thousand articles about dealing with disruptive students and behavioural issues in the classroom. The truth is that I couldn't come with any definite conclusion or solution to the problem as many English webpages come with recipe-like ideas which may prove useful for foreign students. But my Argentinian students' of English have the Argentinian gifts of talking without listening to the person they are talking to, interrupting when it is somebody else's turn to talk, making unnecessary “funny” comments which disturbs the rhythm of the class, just to mention the most noticeable ones.

Thus, as it is an innate characteristic which comes with them and is activated once they receive their Argentinian ID, most of my students share this quality. I have a minimum of 19 students who talk at the same time, who interrupt, who ‘share’ unnecessary. What could be done when the majority of students behave similarly, when they feel that this kind of behaviour is the expected one for their ages in the XXI century?

I have tried a variety of feelings to ‘share’ with them, like emoticons in whatsapp. I’ve been happy that we had the challenge, confident that we could improve, disturbed that I couldn’t notice any change, angry because they didn’t react to my ‘speeches’ and sad because last Wednesday I realised I lacked the most important issue: trust. Every time I talk to them o even threaten them I, myself, don’t believe a word of what I am saying, how on earth can I transmit it to my students. Unfortunately, I am an Argentinian teacher of English who doesn’t trust the system any longer.

Next issue: how to 'kick the board' and do something for these Argies, both teachers and students...

21st century skills - Final Reflection

5th forms project have been designed and developed to enhance some of the skills necessary for a 21st century learner.

- Summarizing skills: when dealing with summarizing skills, students worked really hard reading webpages, books and cards which had information about the different projects. They read paragraphs and they had to obtain the main ideas, summarizing them in one or two sentences. Then, they created collaborative presentations with the information they gathered. They also designed mind maps which helped them study.

- Logical & Creative thinking: in our first project Helping Hands students analysed the situation of children in different parts of the world, they connected the place where they lived with their needs. They also read about children's rights and the extent to which they are respected or not around the world. They created a comparative chart collaboratively and they drew conclusions regarding this issue. During Green Helping Hands project students analysed the impact our actions have had on the environment. They investigated about energy & environmental issues. For this they had to find reliable sources, select relevant information, summarize the ideas and show them in a creative way. 

- Communicative skills: during assemblies students trained their skills for communication. They were asked to share their ideas and thoughts about the topics both fluently and accurately. They were given different functions which helped them develop their ideas further as well as specific vocabulary to be more precise when they expressed their beliefs. Besides students had various situations in which they made informal presentations during the projects.

They also developed their communicative skills in writing when they created different pieces of work such as comics, stories, descriptions, presentations, reports.

During the videocalls, students faced the challenge of communicating with both native and non-native speakers from different parts of the world, sometimes with unknown accent or with technological difficulties, but always achieving a successful exchange of messages.

- Reflective thinking (reflective moments): All of our projects contributed to the development of reflective skills as students used their knowledge of the world, their feelings and their perceptions to consider the different themes we worked with. Not only did they reflect upon their social commitment to people in need or the environment, but also about the role of ancient civilizations in shaping our culture and heritage. Furthermore, during the project The Time Machine they also implemented a journal in which they reflected upon their learning and the process carried out in the lesson. 

- Bringing the world into the classroom: 5th form students have connected with different classes from around the world, both synchronically and asynchronously. They have enjoyed learning about other cultures, sharing their interests and guessing the locations while developing geographic skills. They also used social media to report what was going on in real time, they used online browsers and maps to locate geographical features and monuments, as well as books, encyclopaedias and atlas.

- Collaborating with other teachers? (bilingual projects / cross cultural content / global themes) 

Even though it has not been agreed on during the teacher’s meeting, we worked on a bilingual content when we studied Ancient Greeks. We profited from the fact that students studied Greek myths and legends in Spanish at the beginning of the year, in order to build in knowledge regarding this ancient civilization. 

As far as cross cultural content is concerned, we have already mentioned that each of our projects dealt with topics that bridged gaps and expanded students’ view of the world.

5th form Projects took into account global themes such as children's rights, the environment, pollution, poverty etc; which aimed at raising social awareness and building global citizenship. 

Evidence of Reflection Class III

Finally, I delivered a second class to put all the concepts in bilingual education together, my reflections....

It has been an effective lesson as I could notice students’ active involvement and desire to speak. Most of them raised their hands and asked their own questions as the video we watched offered ideas and inquiries as well as fun. During the lesson there was a slight change in the sequence of plan. The language focus was carried out before expected as a couple of students noticed that the sentences they were given to read had “two verbs, one in the present and the other like in the past” (student’ sic). The previous day we worked on the changes a fictional city suffered and students described the way it looked in the past and the way it is nowadays. So, when the lesson began I reminded students of the two cities and asked them the following question: “In your opinion, what has happened? (making reference to a space left between the two pictures). Later, every time a student shared a “human action” I asked him/her if it was performed in the past and if we stopped doing it or if we continued doing it. Finally, I elicited from students the fact that there are actions that we did in the past but still have an effect in the present. Students participated actively because they felt they discovered how to use and frame this new item of language.

As far as formative assessment to monitor learners’ progress is concerned, several aspects were considered so as to engage students in an active participation and productive language skills. Each student was given the time to read the slips of paper, match them and think of the consequences individually. I have two students who feel threatened when they have to speak in front of the class, so they generally write what they are planning to say before exposing themselves and their ideas. Besides, different interaction patterns were used so that students could think on their own but also enrich their beliefs with their partners’ ideas in order to build up the information together. For example, after watching the video, students were given some minutes to think of some questions individually. After that, they discussed their thoughts in small groups and finally they shared their ideas as a whole class. They thought individually, they discussed in small groups and finally they shared to the classroom. In the end, traffic lights were used so that students evaluated their own understanding of the topic. Through this self-evaluation technique I could gather information regarding the student’s feelings in relation to the language item. Most of them agreed that the content was not difficult but that they needed more time and activities to process it since they felt like “yellow”. Only two students demanded a new explanation because they couldn’t grasp the idea of the lesson and other seven students gave “green light” to the lesson because they felt confident enough to use present perfect to talk about human impact on the environment.

Having participated in this course offered me a range of new possibilities to explore in the bilingual classroom. Even though I have been teaching for 10 years I always find I have got new things to learn. I have been using learning targets and success criteria for a few years and this course has strengthened the idea that they are crucial for students’ betterment since they clearly show them what they are expected to do, say and how to reach the desire outcome. This year I have also started working with the four C’s and they provide my lessons with a variety of tasks and skills which make them more meaningful. I have slightly developed my understanding of the triptych, I found the use of it interesting and hard at the same time as I had never heard of it before. I generally have a functional language routine at the beginning of the lessons and sometimes it is not related to the tasks of the day or it relates back to the previous day’s activities. Yet, if I think of it as the language for, it might be useful as I give students the chance to use an item of language accurately which is contextualised. I still think I need to continue being trained as there are things I could not grasp in these three months and which are crucial such as language through. As I have not sufficiently developed my ability to implement language through in my lesson plan, I consider I need to investigate more about it. Having read about essential questions and the revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy, I realise I both are useful to plan my lessons so I consider I need to keep them  at hand to make sure I include activities that cater for these cognitive demands.

Evidence of Reflection Class II

When I participated in the course of Teaching Bilingual Education I delivered a lesson taking into consideration the theory analysed in class. Here I share my reflection on that lesson.

I consider that the lesson was effective in terms of students understanding of content. The most significant aspect which helped students understand the information better was the activation of prior knowledge. As Petty (2006) claims, “to make progress in ‘understanding’ means linking to prior knowledge”. Because there were so many instances in which students worked on content, it was easier for them to comprehend how to use it in the main tasks. First of all, the video gave them an idea on the topic and offered them more information about water. Then, the use of pictures and labels triggered students’ knowledge of vocabulary which was known or stored somewhere in their minds. Together, they worked out the lexical items they needed for the lesson. Besides, they had to think of the links of those concepts to the topic in question. After all these interventions, students were ready to tackle the texts without difficulties and to use the data included to understand maps, which also gave them more information to build their own conclusions and hypotheses. I think that the lesson run smoothly because there had been enough activation of prior knowledge and scaffolding so that students could work out the text autonomously. Mehisto, Frigols & Marsh (2008) consider that we need to anchor the information into our prior knowledge in order to move it into our long-term memory so that it can be recalled at a later time.

However, I think that time constrains have been an issue in this first lesson I was observed. I was so concerned about giving students opportunities to access prior knowledge that there were many questions students asked and time was not enough. Then I had to rush through language, so content and language focus had not been properly balanced. This understanding is essential to me as a practitioner because I think that next lesson needs to have fewer activities, but more effective ones so that there is no need to activate knowledge with three different tasks and there is more time to dedicate to the comprehension and production of language. Because I was not yet confident about the lesson format I couldn’t handle timing properly. I will now need to organize the activities coherently, bearing in mind time sequences so that I can work on both content and language simultaneously, since content and language acquisition go “hand in hand”. (Mehisto, Frigols & Marsh). This could be important to students because it could have a better impact on their learning of both content and language progressively and systematically, in a meaningful way.

Another aspect I would like to improve for the next lesson is the kind of questions I ask students during the lesson. I noticed that most of the questions I pose are questions that guide, questions that lead and, in a smaller degree, questions that hook. Yet, I did not include enough essential questions, which are open-ended, thought provoking and intellectually engaging (Mc Tighe & Wiggins). Acquiring this skill is significant for me as a practitioner since essential questions aim at stimulating thought, provoking inquiry, sparking more questions, thus, demanding for higher order thinking skills. Because I am not yet confident about this topic, I will need to plan thoroughly the type of questions that might be asked to trigger students understanding.

Language Competence at my school

Task 2: Language Competence

The acquisition of English as a foreign language at Newlands School starts at the age of three in kindergarten. Students use the functions of the language as a daily, systematic and organized process, establishing their first encounter with English through songs, games and drama; activities which favour the exposure and exploration. Once students start junior school, they keep learning the language through communicative tasks which are based on meaningful content, contextualized in projects. This fosters the development of the linguistic competence which is required to sit for their first international exam in 6^th form: KET, Key English Test – Cambridge ESOL. When they start senior school students deepen their learning of the language through the study of curricular content in subjects such as environmental management, literature, history. The knowledge acquired allow students to sit for PET (Preliminary English Test), FCE (First Certificate in English) and CAE (Certificate in Advanced English) administered by Cambridge ESOL as well as the diplomas of academic achievement: IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education); ICE (International Certificate of Education) and AICE (Advanced International Certificate of Education) administered by CIE (Cambridge International Exams) 

In the case of primary school, students’ performance is graded in the report card using four levels: outstanding and satisfactory are given to students who successfully achieve the contents; whereas in needs of improvement and below standard are used with learners who cannot reach the expected performance in the different areas of the language. Report cards show students’ level regarding general knowledge, spoken and written performance, thinking, investigation and communicative skills, behavior among other concepts.  Besides, students are evaluated on the effort they make to achieve those goals, which is described in three categories.

Furthermore, daily achievement is graded bearing in mind a learning intention, and a rubric which expresses the success criteria for each task. These learning intentions or objectives are related to the development of communicative functions of the language such as expressing ideas in the past, making predictions/plans about the future, talking about experiences, giving opinions/suggestions/advice among others. Marks are shared with students daily, and, in some cases, they grade themselves according to their own perception of their performance offered in class.

Taking into consideration the global scale of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe 2001), I consider that some of my students possess the strategies described in B1 level even though they sit for KET, which represents A2 level. I notice that they:

Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics, which are familiar, or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

Yet, I think that it is important to point out that some other students in my group are at a lower level (A2) as they master some of the strategies described in A2 as well as a few of the ones mentioned in B1.

Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.

To conclude, I think my students’ performance varies from basic to an independent user of the language, depending on the aspect in question as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the learner.

Considering my linguistic competence level, I think that that I fall into the category of effective operational proficiency, C1. This category claims that I can understand demanding texts and recognize the implicit meaning, that I can express myself fluently and accurately using a wide range of language for social and academic, and professional purposes, and that I can produce clear, well-structured texts respecting organizational patters, connectors and cohesive devices.  However, I consider I can handle some of the skills describe in the C2 level too. For example I can differentiate finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations

All in all, the CERF is a framework to classify linguistic competence in the foreign language which has proven useful for the design of school programs. As it is claimed, the CERF “[…] was designed to provide a transparent, coherent and comprehensive basis for the elaboration of language syllabuses and curriculum guidelines, the design of teaching and learning materials, and the assessment of foreign language proficiency.” Nonetheless, it should not be taken as fixed description of our students’ level or our yearly plan since variations may occur and competences may be mixed resulting in a new category. As it is mentioned in CERF, it  […] does not offer ready-made solutions but must always be adapted to the requirements of particular contexts.

References:

http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre1_en.asp. Retrieved April 19^th 2014.

Task 1: Interview & CLIL

I am participating in a course for bilingual teachers and I would like to share some reflections.

Task 1: Inteview & CLIL

Transforming practice after theory

Four students in my educational context were interviewed with the purpose of analysing the challenges they face by learning content through an additional language and the elements/instances they would pick out as supporting their learning. The students interviewed belong to a bilingual school located in the southern area of Buenos Aires. Two of them are in 5^th form primary school; and the other two are in 3^rd year, secondary school. The four students have attended the same bilingual school since kindergarten and they have a standard level of English, both spoken and written.

To begin with, students were asked about the topics learnt the previous year in order to see whether they gave more importance to content or language, or both. Primary school students mentioned mainly grammatical items of the language. However, secondary school students remembered topics dealt with in different subjects such as literature, environmental management and history. This might give evidence on the fact that the main focus of the lessons in primary school last year was grammar. Therefore, they were asked whether they studied any particular content which might be related to Spanish in order to trigger their memory and they mentioned the knights, Manuel Belgrano and May Revolution.

In relation to the difficulties they find when they have to study content in the foreign language, the four students coincided in that using the correct words is hard and expressing the ideas in English takes them longer than in their Spanish lessons. This might be because the language demanded by the content may not properly highlighted in the lessons, as it is suggested by Coyle (2010). Students stated that when they have to study content it is easier if they work with a partner preparing posters, filling in a shared document, using books or the computers. Finally, they claimed that when there is something that they can’t understand they use the material available to work out meaning, they ask their partners or, as a last resource, they ask the teacher.

Having read The CLIL Tool Kit: Transforming theory into practice, and analysed the answers obtained in the in the interview I realise that it is important to consider the four components of CLIL when planning a project, content, communication, cognition and culture, so as to achieve a successful and meaningful performance. I have significantly improved my understanding of the learning of the different types of language which is demanded by the content (language of, for and through). Additionally, I have learned the theoretical reason behind a task that I have included in my project and which links classrooms throughout the world. As Coyle (2010) puts it “CLIL integrates language learning and content learning at cognitive and cultural levels appropriate to the learning. It is this interaction which results in new learning scenarios which are different from regular language or content lessons”

References

Coyle, D et al. (2010). Content and Language Integrated Learning. UK: CUP. 

Mystery Games

I strongly believe that our students need new skills for the XXIst century: skills for collaboration, for teamwork, to share knowledge, for interaction. That’s the reason why I design school projects which cater for those needs since they are multi faceted: they integrate the teaching of content with language learning, focusing on the communication of ideas through technology. Taking risks and being innovative as well as becoming global citizens capable of engaging in collaborative and cooperative projects with people from around the world are other key skills our students are required for their future. For these reasons, I have been promoting collaboration among schools from all around the globe. The interaction among schools has been carried out by means of synchronous and asynchronous meetings that Newlands students hold with kids from other parts of the world via Google Hangout. During these encounters students play games, give and receive information, engage in research tasks, solve problems among many other highly motivating and meaningful tasks with the purpose of achieving a certain goal decided beforehand by the teachers. In this particular lesson, instead of reading information from a book or searching data on the internet, students played a Mystery Game with students from North Korea and Uganda in which, by means of Yes/ No questions, students had to guess where the other class was located before they guessed your location. Due to time differences, we held this meeting in an asynchronous mode by recording three videos: 1) five questions to ask the other school, 2) the answers to the other school’s questions, 3) 10 clues which give relevant information about the country. This lesson was successful since it was a meaningful way to learn about other cultures with real people telling us about themselvevs.

Follow Brandon Hall, to learn more about this:

Mystery Game # 2

We sent some videos to friends in the world in order to find out where they are located...



Mystery Game 2 Questions from Daiana Martinez on Vimeo.

Some Reflections on Teacher Development & Learning

Excellence in teaching is what most educators pursue. In order to become a better teacher, training is needed so as to deepen our knowledge and refine our skills, and to be considered professionals of education. A professional can account for their decisions theoretically and improve their practices after reflection. According to Timperley (2008), there are four important issues regarding our role as teachers which need to be accounted for:

a)      What our students learn is directly related to what and how we teach,

b)      Teachers decisions are crucial in this complex activity of teaching,

c)       Teachers are responsible for setting the appropriate conditions for students to learn, conditions in which we engage our students’ background knowledge to be associated to the new knowledge in organized frameworks which can be retrieved and used.

d)      Teachers and students context shape reality, their understandings of it and their experiences.

For me, the most relevant issue that teachers need to consider is related to the integration of knowledge and skills, i.e.: the link among particular teaching activities, students’ responses to those activities and what they actually learn. Teachers need to have acquired knowledge of the curriculum, how to teach it and how to assess it. Besides, the ability to identify what exactly students know and can do is a prerequisite for teaching that is responsive to students’ needs. When teachers are aware of how the decisions they take in the lessons may affect their students’ performance either positively or negatively, they can start improving those practices in order to guarantee an effective learning environment. Teachers should take greater responsibility for the learning of all students. Additionally, teachers need a variety of ways to assess the students’ outcomes and progress, ways that include but go beyond standardised testing such as interviews, analysis of students’ written work, classroom observations, among others. Thus, a theoretical understanding of teaching is the basis for making ongoing principled decisions about practice.

However, the aforementioned issues can be reached if certain conditions are assured. Teachers need to have the possibility of belonging to professional learning communities with other colleagues in order to acquire new knowledge and skills to become more effective educators. External experts (within the school or from outside) may offer new possibilities to challenge the assumptions and the social norms in which the group operates. Yet, there is a need to promote sustainability in education in order to develop skills, knowledge and values that promote behaviour in support of professional teaching. Schools need to have an organizational infrastructure which supports professional self-regulatory inquiry skills and teacher learning. Furthermore, all learning activities require trust and challenge. Change involves risk taking, and before teachers take risks they need to trust that their efforts will be supported, not belittled.

Timperley H. (2008). Teacher professional learning and development. ImprImerie Nouvelle Gonnet. France: Belley. 

Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos - MOOC

En esta oportunidad estoy participando de un curso masivo online y abierto sobre el "Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos" (ABP) en el cual conoceremos proyectos de referencia, los analizaremos, y hasta diseñaremos nuestros propios proyectos. Además tendré la oportunidad de contactar otros docentes, y profesionales de la educación con quienes podré debatir y conocer sus puntos de vista en relación a esta metodología.

Para comenzar, preparé una breve presentación asi mis compañeros y profesores me conocen!

21st Century Learning - Part 4: Context

This year, after our head's recommendation, we changed the books from the home reading programme as the context was not student friendly. It was not related to their realities so students found it hard to grasp meaning. As they were classics, the characters and the plot were difficult to relate to their daily life or their knowledge of the world. As a result interaction between student was not very successful because they could only reproduce the main ideas in the text without getting involved or feeling identified with characters or situations. However, the topics dealt with during the projects are related to the students' context so they felt motivated and engaged to interact and communicate their ideas and thoughts.naturally.

21st Century Learning - Part 3: Tools

"Standing still is not an option". We agree with this statement and because of this we try implement digital tools either for reflection, such as this blog, for training for instance courses or seminars, and for fun such as the use of social networks.

It doesn't matter weather teacher or students feel more at ease with technology, as learning is a two way Street. Besides, technology should be a means to an end, not the end in itself. Both teachers and students can teach and learn at any momento using the technology available, and profiting from each other's expertise.

21st Century Learning - Part 2: Content

 

We agree that language itself is not enough for our 21st century students. In fact the three main areas of content covered in the video are considered within 5th form projects: cross curricular, cross cultural content and global themes. There are some instances that still need to be polished such as bilingual Project, but we still work across the curriculum collaborating with teachers from other groups in primary and secondary.

 

What we consider to be unacceptable is to expect everybody to be the same as we are, not to acknowledge diversity. We would like to include cross cultural activities this year, communicating with schools from other countries within the connecting classroom framework. It would be interesting to share different points of view regarding the same topic globally, in order to reflect on our own culture and to discover how it differs from others.

 

5th form Projects take into account global themes sucha as children's righs, the environment, pollution, poverty etc; which aim at raising social awareness and building global citizenship. In this way we pretend to expand their view of the world.

21st Century Learning - Part 1: Skills

After having watched the video from Pearson ELT on the importance of developing 21st Century skills, here are our reflections.

 

Even though we do not belong to the same generation as our students, we do not consider ourselves digital immigrants, we are not outsiders. We feel comfortable with using technology in the classroom and we consider ourselves flexible enough to adapt to what the situation requires. We accept the challenge to help our students develop the digital skills they need to process the huge amount of information available to them. We are conscious that there is a need to add into our plans instances in which they filter and summarise the data the Internet has to offer.

 

Summarising skills can be implemented from the very beginning. We can train our students to summarise key points from texts read, songs, any given topic, and we can even have a "Summary of the lesson" activity at the end of the day.

 

In relation to our first project, Helping Hands, we could include logical thinking strategies when gathering data about the situation of children in Argentina, and about the process of collecting items for donation. This is an aspect we need to go on exploring. Also, regarding creative thinking, students could be asked to present results using different tools and media.

 

Even though fifth form projects deal with working with teams to try to promote social change, it may be necessary to go more deeply into what it means to work as a team, the roles involved, the expected attitude and behaviour, learning to act both as a good leader and as a good follower.

 

Developing communicative skills is a central issue. In fifth form students have several opportunities to exercise these skills throughout the year, however they mainly give informal talks or presentations. We could try to implement the teaching of formal presentation skills so that students gain more confidence and develop accuracy in a formal register.

 

We consider we should include reflecting moments within our plans, making them explicit and providing them with a specific timing in the assembly. This year we aim to raise students' awareness in relation to their learning styles and provide them with tools to enhance their strong points while at the same time improving their weaknesses.

About questions & tasks

Questioning

Even though the usefulness of teaching strategies to aid understanding of texts has been proved, comprehension is still a silent, private process which is difficult to be observed and measured. Brown admits that reading comprehension is “totally unobservable (we have to infer comprehension from other behaviour)” (2001:315). Nuttall (2005) agrees that it is problematic since the comprehension process is invisible. In an attempt to solve this conflict, Nuttall suggests that questions are a way to get access to what is going on in the reader’s minds, but she suggests an improved version of the traditional approach. Questions need to be used as “aids to successful exploration of the text” (2005:182) as she believes that reading tasks are “opportunities for learning, not tests to be escaped if possible” (2005:181).

 Kinds of questions in a reading assignment

Nuttall (2005) claims that the purpose of questioning in a “teaching approach” to reading is not to test but to make students notice the way language is used to carry meaning, and the strategies readers can use to understand texts (p. 181). There is a variety of questions that foster an inquisitive role from readers and they can be classified in four different aspects:

- Presentation of questions: open-ended questions, multiple choice questions (MCQs), and true/false (T/F) questions.

- Forms of questions: according to their grammatical pattern (yes/no question, alternative questions, wh- questions and how/why questions)

- Types of questions: questions of literal comprehension, questions involving reorganization or reinterpretation, questions of inference, questions of evaluation, questions of personal response, and questions concerned with how writers say what they mean.

- Questioner: teacher or student.

 Nuttall (2005) claims that questions can be presented in three ways: open-ended questions, multiple choice questions (MCQs) and true or false (T/F). Open-ended questions can be answered in any way the student considers appropriate, and their typical examples are how and why questions since they offer the greatest scope for the responder; MCQs offer a number of possible answers to choose from; and finally, T/F present a statement about the text and the reader has to decide whether it is true or false, based on his or her understanding of it (pp. 186)

Questions can also be sorted out according to their grammatical form: yes/no question, alternative questions, wh- questions and how/why questions. Answers to yes/no questions are short and do not require readers to compose a larger sentence. Alternative questions demand respondents to choose between two options. Wh- questions, including why and how questions require full sentences as answers which are more challenging since they vary in content and structure (Nuttall, 2005, pp. 184-185).

Nuttall adds that questions can also be classified “according to the skills they require from the reader, [which] is much more important than their grammatical
form” (2005:187). She classifies them into six types “questions of literal comprehension, questions involving reorganization or reinterpretation, questions of inference, questions of evaluation, questions of personal response and questions concerned with how writers say what they mean” (2005:188,189).

First, Questions of literal comprehension are aimed at checking the basic understanding of the text, and answers can be directly and explicitly found in it. Cubo de Severino et al. (2008) explain that words from the text are used in the questions so that readers make use of their short term memory to store data from the text and answer literal questions (p. 49).

Second, questions involving reorganization or reinterpretation are slightly more difficult than the previous type as they require the reader to reinterpret literal information or to put together pieces of information from different parts of the text, considering it as a whole rather than sentences in isolation.

Third, questions of inference demand readers to discover what is implied in the text, not just its explicit meanings. In order to answer these questions, the reader needs a deep understanding of the text, to be able to decipher its implications. They aim at comprehension, making students rebuild the text with their previous knowledge.

Fourth, questions of evaluation require readers to judge the writer´s intentions
and how far these intentions have been achieved in the text. The typical examples are questions of literary appreciation in which readers need to analyse techniques by which the writer tries to influence him/her.

Fifth, questions of personal response do not depend purely on the how the writer influences reader but on how the reader reacts to the text according to textual evidence. That is to say, the reader can explain his/her own feelings towards the text based on his/her understanding of it.

Finally, questions concerned with how writers say what they mean seek to offer strategies for tackling texts in general, making students aware of what they do to interpret texts.

Nuttall (2005) explains that questioning as a reading task follows an analytical bottom-up approach, which differs from other types of tasks which are more global and ask for a top-down approach. In those tasks intelligence and experience become more important than language proficiency (p. 192). She sorts out tasks as follows: tasks with outcomes requiring little or no language, tasks with outcomes involving spoken language and tasks with outcomes involving writing.

The first group of tasks with outcomes requiring little or no language consists of activities using figures: grids, flow charts, graphs, maps, etc., in which the reader has to interpret the text as a whole to be able to transfer information to the figures.

The second group of tasks with outcomes involving spoken language deals with a more creative and integrative way of checking students’ reading comprehension. It consists of a number of varied activities which include drama, simulation, role play, debates, discussions, and reading out loud. In order to carry out these activities students need to work deeply on the texts to combine the information in them with their own creativity and schemata.

The third group of tasks with outcomes involving written language requires students to use what they have read to solve other activities. Typical examples include planning tourist brochures or documentary films based on a text describing a certain place, writing rules or instructions for a procedure or game described in a text, or retelling an incident from a different point of view among others.

 

Strategy 10: Students’ Opinion and emotional response to the text

Considering that reading is the result of the interaction between readers an text this section was added in order to check whether teachers highlighted the importance of students’ opinions and feelings towards the material dealt with.

Strategy 9: Identification of words (Lexical strategy)

Lexical Strategy

Cubo de Severino et al. (2008) start their analysis of these strategies by claiming that expert readers build up the meaning of the text offering their knowledge of the world, not only the one referred to content but also the grammatical and textual ones, regulating their cognitive processes. The acquisition of the written code allows readers to decode words and symbols as well as textual and paratextual elements in order to obtain coherence in the text. Van Dijk and Kintsch model distinguishes different levels within a text: morphological, syntactical, semantic, pragmatic and lexical (pp. 212-213).

 

The latter consists of a linguistic system in the readers’ mind which contains the lexicon, a phonological component dealing with the sounds and a semantic component dealing with the meanings. Emmorey and Fromkin (as cited in Cubo de Severino et al. 2008) support this idea by stating that the mental lexicon is the grammatical component which carries all the information about the words or morphemes: phonological, morphological, semantic and syntactic information about words (p. 224).

 

Cubo de Severino et al. (2008) distinguish two types of words: the lexemes, and the grammatical words. The former are units of lexical meaning such as nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. They can also have attached morphemes which are the minimum units which carry lexical or grammatical meaning through suffixes and prefixes. The latter are considered independent and empty words which lack a lexical meaning. They are also called functional words (p. 216).

 

Following these ideas, Cubo de Severino et al. (2008) assure that the previous knowledge of the topic and the understanding of key words in texts optimize the comprehension of the reading process. That is the reason why understanding how the mental lexicon operates is crucial in comprehension. The authors highlight a number of lexical strategies which aid in the development of metacognitive capacities. They are classified into five groups:

• Use of semantic characteristics: design of semantic maps, charts in order to integrate the new word with the stored information in the readers’ mind.
• Use of context: search of semantic elements in the text which are equivalent, complementary or descriptive in relation to the given unknown word.
• Analysis of word components: associations of lexical items using family of words, suffixes and prefixes among others.
• Recognition of words: use of a phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic or pragmatic processing to decode the word.
• Use of reference material: search of conceptual information which cannot be given by the text or mental lexicon in dictionaries, encyclopedias and text books.

Lewis (1997) claims that language consists of lexical chunks which can produce continuous coherent texts when combined together (p. 7). The author explains that an elemental lexicon consisting of individual words is not adequate to make readers functionally effective to tackle texts. He supports the idea that accurate

noticing of lexical chunks, grammatical and phonological patters “all help convert input into intake, and provide the central strategy of the Lexical Approach” (p. 53). Consequently, a sixth classification needs to be added: recognition of lexical chunks. McCarthy (as cited in Lewis, 1997) expresses that “Over-concentration on learning single words may hinder the development of the L2 phrasal lexicon and deny the opportunities this gives for rapid retrieval and fluent connections” (p. 56). Likewise, the development of foreign language vocabulary might be affected negatively by overconcentration on learning lexical items in isolation.

 

Oxford (Oxford, 1990) acknowledges that research has shifted from what students learn to how the process of learning occurs. That is the reason why it may be crucial to focus teachers’ attention on the training of the aforementioned reading strategies to acquire reading skills in ELT.