Universidad Nacional
Maestría en Educación con Énfasis en el Aprendizaje del Ingles
Textos, Programas y Proyectos Prof. Cindy Rodríguez Portfolio
Cristel Hernández November, 2015.
Table of Content
Purpose of Portfolio .......................................................................................................................... 1
Section 1. Statement of Beliefs, Definition and Context ....................................................... 1
Section 2. Needs Analysis Instrument ........................................................................................ 2
Section 3. English Language Curriculum Overview................................................................ 3
Section 4.Curriculum/Course Evaluation ................................................................................... 4
Overall Rationale ............................................................................................................................... 4
Top Ten Learnings ............................................................................................................................ 4
Purpose of Portfolio This portfolio was designed to provide teachers with criteria and practice to become part of curriculum, course design, course evaluation and textbook selection and evaluation. Therefore, I had the opportunity to examine and analyze my teaching reality in order to identify aspects that needed to be changed as well as challenges, needs and opportunities to improve students’ foreign language learning process. Through this means several aspects were taken into consideration in order to reach the goal of the course. To start, elements that form part of curriculum were reviewed, the teaching situation was critically analyzed to detect areas of improvement, changes to the curriculum were considered, and students’ needs were identified as well as the implications in curriculum goals, objectives and professional development. Lastly, proposal of the redesign course was also assessed as well as the teaching practice. Therefore, the sections of the following portfolio are, Section 1. Statement of Beliefs, Definition and Context Section 2. Needs Analysis Instrument Section 3. English Language Curriculum Overview Section 4.Curriculum/Course Evaluation
Section 1 Statement of Beliefs
Motivation and self- awareness on the foreign language will rapidly improve students’ performance on the language. This belief is related to how motivated students feel towards learning a foreign language. This belief comes from personal experience, teaching experience and theory studied. From the personal perspective, I learned a second language by being immersed in the culture and the country, but not understanding what people said. Therefore, an intrinsic motivation and need of communicating and understanding I learned English in a very short period of time. Besides this, from my teaching experience, student react positively when teachers motivate them through simple ways such as talking to them in a low tone of voice, giving them stickers, congratulating them in public or sending positive messages home where their parents can also know that their children are doing a great job. In this sense, Deci, Vallerand, Peletier and Ryan (1991), mentioned that studies “have shown that students who had more self-determined forms of motivation for doing schoolwork were more likely to stay in school than students who had less self-determined motivation” (p.331). In my teaching, I always try to encourage students to speak English at all times. I also, send messages home to let their parents know how good they are doing in my classes. Besides this, I have tried to be calmed and talk in a soft voice to the students who give trouble in the class by trying to let them be aware of the importance of the class. Additionally, I paste stickers or put stamps on the students’ listening quizzes from the 70s to 100s. I believe they all deserve them since they have tried their best and I have seen that they like to look at their sticker or stamp. I continuously tell my students how lucky they are by knowing a foreign language and another way to motivate them and encourage participation is by talking about current, real and interesting topics or events.
A bad attitude will not lead to language learning; on the contrary, it will worsen it.
This belief is true in many aspects of life, if a person does not have an adequate attitude, things will not go as planned. Having an open mind and always having positive thoughts can help your body and mind. When learning, a students should do is/her best effort to achieve his/her goals, but she/he also needs to set a positive and enthusiastic attitude; with time it will become a habit. In my teaching experience, I have seen students who do not set this positive attitude and continuously complain in class. These students only see its negativity and criticize what is done in the class and the teachers’ actions. Most of the time, these students get lower grades than the rest and believe that it is the teacher’s fault. Hosseini and Pourmandnia (2013) believe that “negative attitudes can be changed, often by exposure to reality for example, by encounters with actual persons from other cultures. Positive attitudes on the part of language learners can cause the development of an integrative motivation and this can consequently facilitate second language progress” (p.64) In the practice, this is a delicate topic to handle. In a school, as in any other context, many things need to be taken into account to judge why the student is not having a positive attitude in class. In my school, teachers talk to the DAI which stand for “Departamento de Apoyo Institucional” which are the counselors and psychologists’ of the school. In many cases, they handle more personal information of the students than the teachers and taking to them help in gaining a new perspective or know what the problem is, and therefore, understand how to approach it. Language is directly related to what happens in the world. I believe that learning a new language opens up a variety of possibilities for students. Not only it gives the tools to communicate, or to get a good job in the future, but it also makes students explore new worlds and contexts. This belief is strongly related to world culture and not being an ignorant. Learning a foreign language requires knowing the cultures that speak it, in the Costa Rican context, not only having the United States as a reference but also the other 57 countries in the world. In my teaching practice, I encourage students to get to know these cultures a bit more, even though I would love to have more time in order to go deeply on the subject. Nevertheless, students still seem surprised and find themselves eager to learn new things; even more, when I try to break stereotypes by showing pictures of African countries and how these countries are not only savannahs, lions and elephants all around. Additionally, the
foreign language can also be a tool to talk about important topics worldwide such as such water waste or Siria’s situation right now. The author De Valoes (2014) stated some benefits or reasons of why people should learn a foreign language. As part of his list, he mentioned that, “Foreign languages expand one’s world view and limit the barriers between people: barriers cause distrust and fear” and “Foreign Language study creates more positive attitudes and less prejudice toward people who are different” (n.p). In this sense, a language can not only be a tool to communicate, but also a tool to learn new cultures.
Using cell phones in class can be advantageous A technology is a great help for teachers and I believe that a cell phone can also be an useful tool to use at school. Similarly as the computers and projectors, a cell phone can help a student in their learning process while they use it accordingly. This belief comes from my teaching practice; even though the school has a policy against the use of cellphones in the class I have used them in my classes. For example, at times the computer lab is occupied by another group, and then I tell my students to look for the information and write it down on their notebooks. Another way I use cellphones is to look for words they do not know or to make videos. On the first trimester of the school year, I asked students to make a new version of the “Three Little Pigs”, for this, I asked them to do it through a short video. These are some examples of the uses that teachers can give to cell phones and they can be easily adjusted to the subject matter.
Having its own classroom improves teaching As a personal believe, I consider that if teachers have their own classroom, the class can change very much. Each teacher has its own personality, teaching style and likes. By having their own classrooms, each teacher can even teach by only entering into their classroom; it can speak for itself. In the Costa Rican culture, every school is different; in some teachers have their own classroom, but in others they do not. Yoshida (n.d) label these teachers as floating teachers, since they have to move around after the class finishes. Being a floating teacher also means that teachers have to rush more during the day and make sure they have the materials they need before going to the next class; otherwise, they would have to go back to their locker or the teacher’s lounge. The author said that “The key to being a floating teacher is to plan everything out ahead of time and ensure that your materials are organized and handy at a moment’s notice” (n.p). On the other hand, if a teacher has his/her own place, students also change environments, move around and clear their minds before changing subject matters. Another key aspect with floating teachers is that some teachers
complain because the previous teacher left the class dirty or disorganized. Therefore, if a very teacher has his/her own space, they can organize the class however they like, decorate it with posters or pictures related to the subject matter or even put up the projects made by students with the assurance that nothing bad will happen to them. In my teaching practice, I have always been a floating teacher and I always have to rush. I need to make sure I have what I need and very frequently I need to go back and get something I forgot. I believe that if I had my own space students could also sense culture in a better way. For example, in the United States schools decorate for Valentine’s Day, Halloween or St. Patrick’s Day, that is culture. I could bring that to my class, but when you have to visit your students one or twice a week you can never express the same feeling rather than just living it.
Definition of Context The context is defined in a private bilingual high school. The class is called Oral Communication and it is the fourth English class besides Literature, Grammar and Writing and Social Studies.
For the
level, there are four English teachers and each teacher is in charge of each subject matter. People
Students are in eighth grade and are around 14 years old. Most of them are Costa Rican, but some of their parents are from Spain, Cuba, China, Colombia, Netherlands, and Peru among others I may not know of. Students share the Costa Rican culture and they feel proud of it; they also seemed amazed when they learn about new countries and cultures. Their mother tongue is Spanish and they are learning English as a foreign language; however, a couple of students have lived in the United States for some years and most of them travel there for vacations. In addition the majority of students have studied in the institution since preschool, nevertheless, many new students entered in seventh grade.
The School administration plays an important role in the school. There is a Language Department which is control of the English teachers as well as the French, Mandarin and Portuguese teacher. The aspects regarding evaluation and content such as lesson plans and tests are checked in this department. On the other hand, pre-
school, elementary and high school have its own principal and coordinator, all the other aspects such as academic performance and behavior are discussed by the principal and the school’s counselor.
Similarly, parents are also involved in the
learning process and teachers are asked to send e-mails to parents to let them know their children’s performance in class and tests through a school’s virtual platform. Physical setting
The school is located in San Juan de Santa Barbara de Heredia. The minority of the students live near the school. Most of them are brought by their parents or use the school busses. The school provides students with spacious classrooms and open fields to play soccer, basketball or sit under a tree. The classrooms are for students; therefore, teachers have to move around after each class finishes. In each classroom, teachers can find a computer, an interactive board, a whiteboard, and lockers for students and a fan. Usually, noise is not a problem while teaching, only when a teacher takes his/her class to work outside on the benches and are not being monitored.
Teaching resources
At the beginning of the school year, the institution sells the books that will be needed for the school year. Each teacher is asked to use the books, besides a virtual platform for the Spanish subject matters (Santillana Compartir) and a platform for the English classes (Cengage Learning National Geographic Inside or Edge). Apart from these resources, each teacher is responsible for creating his/her projects, homework, classwork activities and tests.
Name of course and description
The class is named Oral Communication. It does not have a prescribed curriculum; on the contrary, the teacher has to plan his/her own lessons. Two years ago, it used a book to follow. However, last year they set the idea of relating the Oral Communication class with the other English classes. In that sense, it was recommended that students practice the grammar rules studies in Grammar and discuss or fully develop the content seen in Literature or Social Studies. Nonetheless, at times this is hard to follow since each subject matter is taught by a different teacher and sometimes there is no consistency. In other words, at times it becomes hard to get together with other teachers and plan how the Oral Communication class can be helpful for their classes.

The content of the class is not prescribed, but the evaluation is. Students have two oral tests of 20% each and two listening quizzes of 5% each. Students are also evaluated on the use of English and English production as 10% of their grade, classwork and participation with a 15% each.
Time 
The Oral Communication class is taught in three lessons a week. The previous school year, the three lessons were in a block; however, this year the lessons are separate through the week. Therefore, each group receives a block of two lessons on one day, but has the third lesson on a different day. This has been a difficult aspect to handle since three lessons of 40 minutes are not enough when you have a group of 24 students. Each group receives classes on different times of the day and, as mentioned, throughout the week.
Course taught During my first year of teaching experienced, I worked at the Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano and taught a course for adults on Saturday morning from 8:00- 12:00. 1. What is the name of the course? English Now Integrated Skills 07 2. What role did you have in planning the course and/or preparing materials for the course? I had to follow the content of the book, but I was free to plan the activities I desired meanwhile I followed the objectives of the course. 3. Who were the students in the course? Why were they taking the course? What do you think they expected to know/do as a result of taking the course? What role did they play in any changes you made to the course as you taught it? The course was taken by adults. Most of them had scholarships from their jobs, and others did not but were also taking it mostly because of their jobs where they needed to speak in English. They all wanted to speak in English and get their message across easily; the course was mainly focused on present tenses were they had to talk about everyday situations. While I taught it, I did not follow the book very much, instead I planned my own activities with the topic of the book. Students had to talk more and the activities were student-centered.
4. What were your goals for the course? What did you expect the students to know or be able to do as a result of taking the course? I wanted them to speak more and to improvise their conversations; to be less prepared on what to say in daily conversations. 5. How was the course organized? The course was taught in in two months with only one session weekly. ďƒź What were the main focuses? The main focus of the course was to practice the four skills; however, while analyzing I realized not all of them were fully practiced. ďƒź What were some regular features of the course? I tried to complete some exercises from the book and audios. However, I always planned activities where they had to work in groups and talk while creating a top 10, a poster, or prepare an interview or presentation. 6.What kinds of materials were used? I used the course book, and the practice book as homework. Posters were always used, songs, audios and videos. 7. How was student learning assessed? The class participation and use of English was evaluated and they had to do two interviews with the teacher and two essays; they were the midterm and final tests. 8. How was the course assessed? Were the students involved? Assessment depended mostly on the teacher. By this time, I did not incorporate self or group assessment. Students were not fully involved. 9. What do you think were successful aspects of the course? Why? What do you think were unsuccessful aspects of the course? Why? With this group I worked with impromptu speeches and they were very afraid, but knew the importance of them. After several times of doing it, they liked it and enjoyed it more.
10. How were your beliefs about learning and teaching manifest in the way the course was organized, in the materials that used, and in the way student learning was assessed? I believe that the speaking skill was the most practiced since students seemed very afraid in speaking in front of others. While analyzing, most of the activities were centered on the speaking ability and the listening or reading was to enhance the topic discussed. In my opinion, students should have had more involvement in peer and self-assessment to become more aware of their own learning process and class participation. In relation to my beliefs, students did have a positive attitude towards their learning process; similarly, most of their motivation was intrinsic due to work responsibilities. Moreover, the textbook that had to be followed included many aspects regarding cultures and context. Therefore, a lot of advantages and ideas for class activities could be extracted from the book.
Section 2 Needs Analysis Pre-course needs assessment Who the learners are The group of students taking the course is eighth grade students. They range between the ages 14 and 15 years old. There are four eighth grade groups and 24 students in each group. Each class has a similar quantity of boys and girls and they get along very well since most of them go back a long way since pre-school. On the other hand, some students started class in the institution in seventh grade. Learners’ level of language proficiency
In each group there are around 6 students with very good language proficiency. They can express themselves easily while monitoring their speech and using challenging structures and vocabulary. Similarly, most of the students are at a low intermediate level where they do not manage verb tenses very well, do not use irregular verbs or negations correctly and do not use the third person singular rules correctly, but can express their ideas. Additionally, there are around 10 students from all of the groups that have a very low language proficiency level. They have very limited vocabulary and do not handle basic grammar structures; these students hardly ever speak in English or produce a sentence correctly. Course content and evaluation
The content of the class is not prescribed, but the evaluation is. Students have two oral tests of 20% each and two listening quizzes of 5% each. Students are also evaluated on the use of English and English production as 10% of their grade, classwork and participation with a 15% each. The class content depends on the teacher and it is emphasized to review topics seen in the Literature or Social Studies class. Interests As teens, students enjoy to talk about updated topics. Also, they like to have visual examples of what the teacher talk about or explains; videos, songs, role plays, posters or
presentations are a good way. Additionally, students also enjoy going to the computer lab and do research on their own. Last of all, students like to do speaking activities where they have to talk about interesting and new topics. Initial Assessment Activity #1
Activity #2
Target group
Eighth grade students 24 students per class
Eighth grade students 24 students per class
Name of the activity
“Walk it through”
“Describe me”
Recognize students’ feelings towards the speaking skill. 1.The teacher explains the purpose of the task and how it will be done. 2. Colored papers will be pasted on the walls around the class. Each paper will have a statement and three faces 3.Each student will draw the type of face that relates to the situation and his/her reality. 4. Students do not have to go in order, but they must answer all of the statements. 5. After everyone has finished, with a quick view of each paper the teacher will mention to the class how well or not they feel according to the situations mentioned as a general overview and they can comment on it. Colored papers with a statement, pens.
Describe classmates and describe myself.
At the beginning of the first class, after the students
In the middle of the class. Duration: describing other
Purpose of the activity
Outline
Instruments and/or list of material that may be required Moment
1. Teacher explains purpose of the task and goes over instructions. 2. Each student will paste a white sheet of paper on its back with its name on it. 3. Students will describe their classmates by writing something positive on their paper. 4. Students will not know who wrote what. 5. Each student goes over what their classmates wrote and share it with the class. They can comment whether what their classmates wrote is true or not.
White paper and tape.
have presented themselves and have mentioned something about themselves. Duration: 15 minutes
people 10 mins Describing myself (24 stds) 40 mins
Rationale Activity #1 “Walk it through”, helps the teacher to know how students feel. Every group is different, and even though students have the same age or share the same context, each class can behave differently. By doing this, the teacher can easily view if students feel comfortable in speaking English or feel afraid. Having faces express students’ feelings can help because it is much more visual, students can easily do it without worrying about giving long answers and it is also easy for the teacher to analyze it. If a paper has many “happy faces”, then it means that students feel OK. If there are “sad faces”, then the teacher knows about a group weakness that needs to be worked on. Finally, the “meh” face also tells the teacher that students need to strengthen their communication skills and confidence. Similarly, this activity can surely identify problems and priorities. By analyzing how many types of “faces” there are on the papers, the teacher can start recognizing the areas of improvement of the group and can also start establishing objectives around students’ needs. Moreover, the statements provoke reflection on students’ own learning. In a quick and easy way, students observe if their performance is helping them improve their learning process or not as in the case of the statement “I always speak in English to my classmates”. When students read this, they immediately reflect if they do it or not and deep down know that their proficiency level depends or related to their answer.
Problematizing For this activity, students need to be trained or at least they need to be very well guided. If they are going to walk around the classroom, the teacher would like to have some balance and not a crowd over one piece of paper. Therefore, students need to be divided in pairs, so each pair can go to one paper. Additionally, students can be told to walk clockwise and that they cannot skip a paper. This way, they would move around in a natural and easygoing way. This activity promotes honesty, group work, cooperation, organization and speaking.
Rationale Activity #2 “Describe me” is an activity where students can describe each other. In this activity, students will have a white paper on their back and students will write descriptions about their personality. In this case, students will be busy thinking about what to write on their classmates’ back and will not pay attention to who writes on their paper. After students have walked around and have written on each other’s’ back, then each student presents his/her paper. They do not have to say everything that their classmates wrote; only what they consider important. In this sense, students can later describe themselves by mentioning what other people consider about them. Problematizing For the development of this activity, students need to comprehend that only positive comments should be added to the papers of their classmates. Likewise, the activity needs to be explained clearly and could be rehearsed in order to make sure that students understand it. This activity promotes cooperation, community, partnership, organization.
Ongoing Assessment
Activity #3
Activity #4
Generalities Target group
Name of the activity
Purpose of the activity
Outline
Eighth grade students 24 students per class
“Tell me about you” Provide and ask for personal information. 1. Teacher explains purpose of the task and gives instructions. 2. Students pair up boy-girl 3. Each student will have a hand out with personal questions. 4. Each student will make the questions to his/her partner and write them
Eighth grade students 24 students per class
“Draw it” Describe a picture to someone as detailed as possible and to draw it. 1. Teacher explains purpose of the task and gives instructions. 2. Students pair-up and sit in front of each other. 3. Each student will have a picture with many things happening at the same time. The student has to describe the picture as
down (they can stand up or sit down). 5. Then, the roles change. 6. At the end, each pair share to the class an interesting fact they found out about their classmate.
Instruments and/or list of
Hand-out, pen/pencil
material that may be required Moment
At the middle of the class. Duration: 15 mins
precise as possible. 4. Student B listens attentively and tries to draw what is being described. 5. Then, students compare the picture. 6. Students switch roles, but using a different picture. Hand-out with pictures, white paper, pencil and eraser. At the middle of the class. Duration: 30 minutes
Rationale Activity #3 Activity #3 “tell me about you” focuses on main structures used in English. In the learning process of a foreign language asking and giving personal information is basic; nevertheless, students at times take this for granted but do not handle it perfectly. Therefore, this activity can be a way to assess students’ ability in giving and asking for information. In terms of content, students have to structure their questions and use the correct verb tense and word order in their responses. Also, during this activity the teacher can assess students speaking performance and observe which questions are the hardest to make or answer. Moreover, the activity includes telling their name, spell words, tell numbers, descriptions among other aspects; therefore, students can analyze the areas of improvement and can be reviewed as a class. In that sense, students can recognize their weak areas and improve them. Then, students can reflect on their own learning process by mentioning real contexts where they would need to provide this information. Hence, a role play can later on be planned and dramatized. With this, students would review the content and act it on a real situation. After the activity is done, the teacher can pass out pieces of paper where students can answer the following questions:
How did I feel in this activity?
Was I able to comply with the activity’s purpose?
What was the hardest/easiest for me?
Once the students have answered the questions by analyzing their performance, they can give to the teacher to have a broader perspective of the activity, besides what she/he observed in its development. Problematizing
Within this activity the teacher needs to verify that students are describing the picture and not showing it to their partners by having the class properly organized. The skills practiced in the activity are patience, organization, honesty, accuracy, listening and speaking.
Rationale Activity #4 This activity’s main objective is to promote speaking through a a relaxing way. The idea of this task is that students make an effort in describing the picture to their classmates, without showing it, so that they can draw it as similar as possible. For this reason, students need to be specific and detailed. At the end, students can enjoy comparing the two pictures and can discuss how different they had imagined it or how similar the two drawings are. In this activity, students can also be aware of the importance in perception. When speaking a foreign language, students need to be as clear as possible to avoid ambiguity.
Problematizing The dynamic of this activity is very simple and students can get it easily. However, they do need to be honest in describing the picture without showing it to their classmates. The idea is that student A describes it as detailed as possible so that student B can draw it. Nevertheless, if student B sees the pidture, it will not be as fun.
Section 3.1 Conceptualizing Content Rationale The course I am redesigning is Oral Communication which is one of the four English classes that students have. The other three classes are Grammar and Writing, Literature and Social Studies. In essence, teachers should be in contact with each other to work together on the same topics in order to reinforce students’ learning process. However, this is not always done. Some teachers develop further the topics covered in the literature classes, while others simply think about random conversational topics and develop them in their class. Therefore, teachers do not have a clear and concise curriculum to follow, they only have the literature books that students use and extract topics that can be developed in the Oral Communication class. For that purpose, the proposal of the curriculum redesigning is based on topics. From the six units of the book, three main topics were extracted: asking and giving personal information, culture and human rights. Then, from the second main topic, five other subtopics will be developed. The main core of the course is to be organized around cultural topics to know and understand other cultures different from the native culture. Within it, the speaking and listening skills are the areas that will be reinforced mostly. In order to do so, students will apply metacognitive strategies by planning, monitoring and self-assessing their work before, during and after each conversation students have. Additionally, it is planned to strengthen certain competencies in students such as time – management, planning and organizing and the application of roles as in the cooperative learning. As part of the interpersonal area, there are also goals to be achieved as well such as manners, social awareness, self- management and responsibility. The interpersonal area becomes very important because each class has around 24 students; in other words, each group is big and for speaking purposes, students should be able to work in group. Moreover, the course will also touch
upon
the
sociocultural,
sociopolitical and sociolinguistic aspects to be able to understand cultural aspects of identity, values, norms and customs. As well as to think critically and to use the correct register depending on the situation and audience. Lastly, the main component of
the course is culture and speaking English is only the tool to get to know about different nations and realities. Mind map: http://prezi.com/jpxpiqlrqmd/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share Objectives and Goals Objectives formulations according to Brown Students will be able to present and dramatize a talk show in which each student will represent a role through a controversial topic.
Subject
Students
Performance
present and dramatize a talk show
Conditions
N/A
Measure
controversial topic
Criterion
N/A
Objectives Checklist CRITERIA
COMMENTS
1
Goals are general, but not vague.
2
Goals are transparent (Don´t use jargon).
3 4
Goals are reached for making the course effective. Goals are realistic (time).
5
Goals are relatively simple.
6
Goals address course´s aspects.
7
Objectives are more specific than goals.
8
Objectives are related to goals.
9
Objectives and goals are in a causeeffect relationship.
N/A
10
Objectives are focused on what students learn not simply on the activity.
It takes into account the activity with the students.
Too broad, too general. They need to be limited It uses appropriate language. The course does not have clear objectives and goals. They are realistic, but they do not have a clear path of where they will get to. They do not seen to be complex, but they need to be more detailed. There is no existing of the course content, goals, and objectives besides the teacher’s. Objectives and goals seem to be the same. No distinction.
11
Objectives are short term. Goals are long term. Objectives are more than goals.
No distinction.
13
Objectives are limited to specific language skills.
It is focused on speaking.
14
Goals and objectives give a sense of the course syllabus. Goals provide the basis for the evaluation of the course. Objectives give the basis for the assessment of the student learning.
Not at all
12
15
N/A
Not at all
Rationale Currently, the course does not have a course goal or clear objectives to follow. The objectives that are followed are the ones created by the teacher in his/her lesson plans. In this case, an objective from a lesson plan was analyzed. Clearly, the objective was very vague; it was not specific on what was expected from the students or how the students would reach the objective. Therefore, each Oral Communication class floats on the air by being planned monthly and not having a goal to reach. It fully depends on what the teacher decides to do and on the focuses she/he wants to give to the class. Thus, it has a severe consequence on students. They might perceive that there is a lack of relationship between the topics covered and the activities done in class. Additionally, not having a goal can also lead to subjective evaluations and class assignments since there is not a clear profile of what students should be or should not be able to do. Evidently, this course entirely depends on the teacher without a notion of where to go.
Section 3.2 Scope and Sequence

Components
Competencies
Learning Strategies
I Trimester Asking and giving personal information Chinese Culture
II Trimester African Culture
Interpersonal Goals
III Trimeste
Civil Rights Movement
Bedouin Culture
Costa Rican Culture
Yugoslavian Culture Human Rights
Oral Communication
Cultural Linguistic Political
Organization
Topics
I Trimester
II Trimester
III Trimester
Asking and giving personal information Chinese Culture
African Culture Civil Rights Movement Costa Rican Culture
Bedouin Culture Yugoslavian Culture Human Rights
Focus
Evaluation
Speaking Listening
2 Proyectos 2 Quices de comprensión auditiva Task #1 (Show and Tell) Task #2 (Impromptu Speech) Uso del Ingles Trabajo cotidiano
Speaking Listening
2 Proyectos 2 Quices de comprensión auditiva Task #1 (Debate) Task #2 (Roundtable) Uso del Ingles Trabajo cotidiano
Speaking Listening
2 Proyectos 2 Quices de comprensión auditiva Task #1(Survey) Task #2 (Impromptu Speech) Uso del Ingles Trabajo cotidiano
Reading as a Source American Names A Lion Hunt The Three Chicharrones Dragon Dragon
The Civil Rights Movement Martin’s Big Words Passage to Freedom
Zlata’s Diary The Clever Magistrate
Rationale a) Why did you choose that content? b) What did you choose to organize your units around? Why? c) Why did you choose that sequence? (What is the basis for the sequence? Is it flexible?) The proposal for the class Oral Communication takes into account topics to promote the speaking skill. To start, let’s correlate the content of the course with the beliefs and goals of the course. The main objective of the class is to encourage students to use English by extracting the topics from the readings of the Literature class as a reinforcement of the content that will be evaluated. Similarly, it gives students a broader view of the world by
simply using the foreign language as a tool. This belief is highly related to culture and it is presented in the topics that will be developed on the course. Additionally, two other beliefs presented on the scope and sequence is motivation, self-awareness and attitude. The selfawareness is presented on the strategies (plan, monitor and evaluate) that students will use to assess their progress on the language. In the same way, the sociocultural, sociopolitical aspects and the interpersonal goals are promote having a positive attitude on students and motivate them in learning more. Lastly, the use of cellphones can always be present in class during class research and activities. The distribution of the course was done in trimester since this is the way the high school evaluates students; it cannot be changed. However, the topics to be developed were taken from the reading students covered on the Literature classes. For every trimester, students go over three to four readings and the basis of the course is to have the same order as the Literature class; in other words, to go over the same topic during the same trimester. Nevertheless, the Oral Communication is also flexible since some topics can be more developed than others or eliminated depending on students’ needs or according to the flow of the school year. Additionally, the two tasks proposed by trimester can also be changed to a news report, roleplays, interviews, movie reviews, speech or even a short learning/feelings portfolio of how much they believe they have improved. At the end, the idea of the Oral Communication class is to complement the Literature class by reinforcing knowledge and by giving students a wider view of the context from the readings in a comfortable and relaxing environment where students can learn without being stressed.
Evaluation
Current Evaluation Aspects to Evaluate
2 Proyectos 2 Quices de comprensión auditiva Producción Oral Uso del Ingles Trabajo cotidiano Trabajo participativo
Percentages (20% each) (5% each) 10% 10% 15% 15%
40% 10%
Proposal Aspects to Evaluate
2 Projects 2 Listening quizzes Task #1 Task #2 Use of English Classwork
Percentages (20% each) (5% each) 15% 15% 10% 10%
40% 10%
Description of Evaluation
Projects: Two projects will be developed throughout the course through an interactive, but formal presentation. Each project will be done in groups of four students, but each student will be assessed individually and the topic will be given ahead of time to be prepared. Additional guidelines and an evaluation instrument will be provided for this purpose. Language use will be taken into account. Listening quizzes: Two listening quizzes will be completed in which students will listen to a recording, track, or song and will complete the given evaluation. Listening quizzes intend to improve students’ skill by recognizing specific information from a conversation on a natural context. Students do not have to study for a listening quiz, but constant practice is highly recommended. The listening quizzes will not be informed beforehand.
Task #1 and Task #2: Two tasks will be developed by trimester. Each task will enrich the topics covered in class activities such as debates, puppet shows, roundtables, speeches, interviews, talk shows and more. The tasks may vary from an individual task to a group task.
However, each student will be assessed individually. The teacher will let students know beforehand when the tasks will be developed and if any material is needed. Additional guidelines and an evaluation instrument will be provided for this purpose. Language use will be taken into account.
Use of English: The frequency in which students use English during tasks, among peers and with the teachers will be assessed using a specific instrument for this purpose. Classwork: Classwork will be assessed through the planning stage of a task, being on task at all time, the interest shown, and the use of time wisely. An evaluation instrument will be provided for this purpose.
Rationale of Evaluation What will you and your students do with the information withdrawn from the evaluation?
In the case of the evaluation, I propose some changes. Firstly, it is important to highlight that this course does not have any written exam besides the listening quizzes which are mostly done in a short multiple choice quiz. The highest percentage in the evaluation is two projects of 20% each. These two projects are prepared in advance and are elaborated presentations where students have planned it to present it to the class or a different audience. Then, students will have two short listening quizzes per trimester. Depending on the improvement, the listening quizzes can be later changed to a short answer type of evaluation and not in a multiple choice. After that, the proposal contains two extra tasks to be done in class. These tasks can be debates, round tables, news report, roleplays, interviews, movie reviews, speech, conducting surveys, impromptu speech, show and tell, puppet shows among other activities. The main objective of incorporating these tasks is to encourage students to speak more in class by enjoying different types of activities from the other subject matters, but always guiding it with the corresponding topics. Lastly, classwork and the use of English are also assessed in a 10% each. I believe that with these changes made to the course, students will
interact among each other
be exposed to different types of activities
work in groups
be encouraged to use the foreign language more
increase their knowledge on topics
broaden their world view
be more sensitive to different cultures, contexts and realities
generate class discussions
analyze real situations that currently occur around the world
The evaluation should always go hand in hand with the course content, goals and objectives. As Graves (2000) said, “The way you have conceptualized the content and defined the goals and objectives provides the foundation for organizing the course” (p. 127). In this sense, a clear coherence should be denoted in a curriculum design. From the aspects mentioned previously and the proposed evaluation, I believe that students will get a clear view of the nature of the course and the way I want to reach the objectives.
Reference
Graves, K. (2000). Designing Language Courses: A Guide for Teachers. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Section 4 Course Assessment Ongoing Assessment Activity Ongoing Assessment Activity Target group
Eighth grade students 24 students per class
Name of the activity
“Minute Paper”
Purpose of the activity
Recognize the most significant aspects of the course in accordance with students’ learning outcomes and areas of improvement.
Outline
Pose 1-2 questions or statements in which students identify the most significant things they have learned from a given assignments. The question(s) can be general or content specific. Students have 1-2 minutes to answer the questions or statements on an index card.
Instruments and/or list of material that may be required Moment
What have I learned so far? What I have enjoyed the most is … What I would change about the course is…
Index cards, pens.
At the middle of the course. It can be applied after the midterm test.
Rationale This activity can be carried out as an ongoing assessment with the purpose to evaluate students’ learning outcomes and how they have perceived the class. With the information gathered, students can express what they have learned so far, or what has caught their attention the most. Similarly, students can let the teacher know what activities they have enjoyed the most and what they would change. This way of assessment can let
the teacher know how students notice the class in terms of content, dynamic, evaluation, environment, behavior and teaching practice.
Final Assessment Activities Ongoing Assessment Activity Target group
Eighth grade students 24 students per class
Eighth grade students 24 students per class
Name of the activity
“Collage to Recall”
“Four Corners”
Purpose of the activity
Recall the most significant aspects of the class and what caught students’ attention.
Identify the aspects that made the course successful and recognize the areas of improvement.
Students create a poster in groups of four. The poster will only have pictures and a few words. In this poster, students will portray their perception from the course (what they learned, what they liked, did not like, what was confusing for them, the most interesting topic or what caught their attention the most).
Students fold the colored paper in four. In each square the student will write:
Outline
Things I learned in this course... Things I found interesting… Things I did not enjoy… Questions I still have…/Suggestions for next time…
By writing these statements as titles of the four squares, students will respond them by giving their opinions individually. Instruments and/or list of material that may be required Moment
Newsprint paper, magazines, markers, glue.
Colored papers, pens.
At the end of the course. This can be done at the end of a trimester or at the end of a school year.
At the end of the course. . This can be done at the end of a trimester or at the end of a school year.
Rationale Course Assessment Activity #1 The activity “Collage to Recall” is a dynamic, creative and fun way of doing a course assessment. With this activity, students can work in groups of four and they recall how the course was and represented through a collage. The main objective of this activity is that students express what they thought about the course through pictures, images or words without feeling bad about it. Then, when students finish the creation of the collage, they present it to the class showing respect and tolerance. Students need to understand that assessment should be continuous and that, as they are assessed, teachers always feel the need to be evaluated. The information that is intended to gather through this activity is very broad; from content to class environment or teaching practice. Students are not going to be limited, they are going to have the space to express what they enjoyed doing, what they remember the most and most importantly, the teacher can also know what students will remember from his/her class.
Rationale Course Assessment Activity #2
The second course assessment activity is an individual activity in which students reflect upon the things students’ learned in the course, what they found interesting, what they did not enjoy and some questions they still have or suggestions. With the information gathered, students can recognize the aspects that made the course successful and the areas that need to be improved. Likewise, after the course assessment activity #1, students have shared ideas and recalled information. Therefore, in the course assessment activity #2, each student will have recalled what he/she most liked or did not understand from the course. Then, after students have shared their “Four Corners” the teacher can go over the comments and take them into account for the next time the course is taught.
General Rationale The aim of this portfolio is to play an active role and reflect upon the redesigning of the curriculum of a given course taking into account the statement of beliefs, definition of context, needs analyzed, conceptualizing content, goals and objectives, the scope and sequence, and the course assessment. To start, in Section 1 the beliefs were articulated by taking into consideration culture, teaching and language learning and were reflected through various class activities and experiences. The beliefs stated in this section were the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Motivation and self- awareness on the foreign language will rapidly improve students’ performance on the language. A bad attitude will not lead to language learning; on the contrary, it will worsen it. Language is directly related to what happens in the world. Using cell phones in class can be advantageous Having its own classroom improves teaching
Then, the context was defined by describing the students and the institution by mentioning the physical setting, teaching resources, description of the course and a reflection was completed by analyzing a course taught by considering the teacher’s and students’ role. Then, in Section 2 was planned by creating two initial activities and two ongoing activities that could serve as needs assessments. This section’s objective was to reflect upon whose needs are commonly assessed and how they are really assessed. Therefore, the designing of the activities had to answer the “what, hows and whens” of needs assessment in the course that was being re-designed, but always taking into consideration the context and the beliefs that were previously stated in Section 1. Within the activities developed, the following information was the target group, the name of the activity, the purpose of the activity (stated like an objective), the outline, the instruments and/or list of material that may be required and the moment (week, day) when it is expected to be applied were mentioned. Lastly, the activities were analyzed by reflecting on the information it gathered, the problems and solutions identified, priorities, learning process and how this information collected will be useful for the students and the teacher. Section 3 of this portfolio was divided in two parts. In the first part, the content of the course that is being redesigned was conceptualized through a mind map in which the content, topics, skills, learning strategies,
competencies, macro skills, micro skills,
interpersonal goals, sociocultural skills, sociopolitical skills, sociolinguistic skills and culture. Likewise, the objectives and goals had to be analyzed and identify if they were complete, what they were missing and if they were realistic. To do so, the objectives were analyzed through a framework to evaluate the quality of the goals and objectives. Lastly, a checklist was also completed to be detailed in analyzing the effectiveness of the objectives and goals. In Section 3.2 the scope and sequence of the course was done through a grid in which the names of the units, the learning focus, the elements of language that were addressed in each unit and the time frame were displayed. Then, the scope and sequence was explained by saying why that content was chosen, and how it was related to the context, the beliefs and goals; how the units were organized, and why the sequence was chosen in that manner, and if it was flexible. Moreover, the evaluation of the existing course was also analyzed and a new evaluation was proposed through a chart with the basic elements. The beliefs, context, needs assessment, goals and objectives of the course were taken into account and had to show that they were interconnected. Finally, the evaluation proposed was explained by telling why the current evaluation does not work and how the proposed evaluation will contribute to students’ language learning process. Finally, Section 4 is about assessing the strategies, content, scope and sequence, techniques and methodologies of the course that was redesigned. For this purpose three activities were proposed to assess how the course was perceived by the students. One of the activities was planned to be an ongoing assessment while two other activities as final assessment.
Sections
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3.1
Strengths
Weaknesses
The beliefs evidence emotional and social awareness. They encourage students to feel motivated and not to lose interest on using the foreign language. The context was detailed in order to provide a specific idea of the participants before starting the course. The activities designed as needs assessment encouraged students to reflect on their own learning and for community building.
Since the groups are large, some activities may be hard for the teacher to register the information that students give since the main goal is to gather information to analyze it later. Additionally, the activities may not become quick activities due to its large amount of students.
Having a mind map about how the course will be developed helps in having clarity without leaving aside aspects such as strategies, skills or competencies. Likewise, it shows how interconnected the social skills are with the topics covered including culture.
No having a main goals or specific objectives leads to confusion, ambiguity and subjectivity since the teacher does not have a specific ideas of the students’ profile. Therefore, this can cause to have very strict or very relax teachers in terms of assessment and assignments.
There is a wide variety of activities in which students can benefit from the nature of the course because they can enjoy group assignments and individual assignments. Additionally, students will be constantly assessed and can improve their speaking performance rapidly. Also, the evaluation has been changed to benefit the students by making it a communicative class.
More focus should be given to the values that students should practice in class.
The assessment course activities include group activities and individual activities in order to obtain more information from students.
A specific focus was not given on the assessment activities. Each activity included learning outcomes, students’ feelings, and perception of class environment.
Section 3.2
Section 4
Conclusion Top 10 learning 1. Importance of teachers’ beliefs in course design: When designing a course, teachers need to have very clear what their beliefs are regarding the learning process. By stating them and writing them down, teachers can understand better in what direction the course will head on to, and what aspects will and will not be allowed in your course. Likewise, by stating one’s own beliefs, the teacher can go through a deep self- reflection stage by recalling the main components when learning a foreign langue, his/her own learning process and what students will need. 2. Defining context: Before starting a class, or even planning a class or a course, teachers have to get to know their target population. For this, main aspects can be considered such as the amount of students in each class, students with curricular adaptations and what type of curricular adaptations, as well as the class where the course will be taught, the schedule and the time. In the same way, it is advisable to talk to previous teachers without creating prejudgments about students. 3. Elements of curriculum development and design: When creating or redesigning a course, basic elements need to be considered. First, a need assessment can be developed, then the context needs to be defined and the beliefs need to be articulated. Then, the goals and objectives are established or checked and the organization of the course can get started. Later, the materials that will be needed are developed as well as an assessment plan and the textbook can be adapted in order to have accordance with the previous aspects.
4. Carrying out a needs analysis: Needs analysis are essential when carrying out a course. This can be done at the beginning of the course and a lot of information can be gathered from this. The most common information are likes and dislikes; however, a needs analysis can also let teachers know students’ socio-economic condition, family situations or even emotional states. Additionally, needs analysis can also show students’ prior
knowledge regarding a topic or foreign language performance. In essence, a need analysis can be of great help for the teacher not only at the beginning of the course, but it can also be carried out at the middle of the course. 5. Analyzing curriculum goals, objectives and their relationship with students’ needs: When developing or designing a course, several elements needs to be considered, as commented previously, however, they also need to be continuously checked. In other words, a course needs to be constantly checked in order to verify that it can achieve its objectives along with the context where it is being carried out since time passes by and students’ interests always change. 6. Course Evaluation as on going and final assessment: A course, similarly as a textbook and the teaching practice, needs to be assessed. For this ongoing and final assessment activities can be planned and developed. With this information, teachers can have a better perspective on what the learning outcomes where and the development of the course. 7. Designing a teacher self-assessment: For a better performance, teachers must self- assess their performance. However, students and a coordinator can also assess teachers’ performance to get a broader view of their teaching practice. By doing this, teachers can become aware of strengths and areas of improvement in their teaching. With this information, teachers can see what activities students enjoy and how they perceive them as well as the aspects that need to changes or reconsidered. 8. Textbook Evaluation: In many cases, a textbook is not a guide or a tool for the development of topics but it is a curriculum for a course. In this case, textbooks need to be highly analyzed before choosing them for a course. Textbooks also have to serve students’ needs and the teachers’ beliefs. As many other aspects, a textbook needs to go hand-in-hand with the goals, objectives, context, beliefs and content of a course. If it does not fit these
aspects, the, it would make it harder for the teacher and students to have a clear objective of the classes and course. 9. ECRIF: This model on learning emphasizes on the students’ learning process. The first step is Encounter and students see or hear ne language or information. Then, in Clarify, students distinguish the meaning and use of the new knowledge or skill. Later the R for Remember and Internalize is a space where students have a chance to move the knowledge or skill from short-term to long-term memory. Then they begin to personalize it and use in different contexts. Lastly, the Fluent use gives students a space where they use the new language and communicate their ideas.
10. Five minute lesson plan: The five minute lesson plan is a quick and easy way to organize or redesign a course. It simply asks for the big picture of the class, or what you expect the most from your class or course. Then, the objectives and, the engagement or the hook of the class is established. Similarly, what will “stick” on students’ minds as they leave the classroom is also stated and how the evaluation of the class will be. Additionally, the lesson plan includes key words or phrases that students will learn and activities the teacher will design for curricular adaptations and the tasks.