LESSON 1: THE MACRO SKILLS OF COMMUNICATION

• Composing (C) • Grammar Awareness (GA) • Vocabulary and Concept Development (VCD) • Listening Comprehension (LC) • Reading Comprehension (RC) • Attitude towards Reading (ATR) • Study Skills (SS) Example:

Competency Talk about oneself and one's personal experiences (family, pet, favorite food) Language Domain Oral Language (OL)

Step 3. Determine the nature of competencies (Knowledge, Skills, and Values)

The target of the competency maybe knowledge (conceptual and factual understanding), skills (abilfty to perform or demonstrate linguistic skills and activities), and values (appreciation for language, development of right attitudes and dispositions). Example:

Competency Language Domain Talk about oneself and one's personal experiences (family, pet, favorite food) Oral Language (OL) Skill Nature

For steps 4-7, use the template below.

Competencies Topic/ Content :Ji|iessm eiit^ Learning Experiences Materials

Step 4. Determine the topic or content and time allotment.

The target competency contains specific topic or lesson. The first column of the curriculum guide "Quarter/Week/Theme" provides clue to the topic at hand.

Talk about oneself and one's personal experiences (family, pet, favorite food) Language Domain * Nature Topic Oral Language (OL) Skill Talking about oneself and other topics

The curriculum guide provides the minimum standard for the Filipino learners. The time allotment in the first column of the curriculum guide proper also serves as the minimum duration of learning the topic. Our learners may acquire or develop the target competency much ahead of the expected time.

tim e Allotment Competency Language Domain Nature Quarter 1, week 1 Talk about oneself and one's personal experiences (family, pet, favorite food) Oral Language (OL) Skill

Step 5. Select assessment strategies.

The most important principle to remember when selecting assessment strategies is constructive alignment. It is the "coherence" among the learning outcomes, assessment, and learning experiences in an educational program.

Learning outcomes

s \ f e i S g j * ““** [ Assessment j

Spady uses "matchmaking" as a synonym for alignment. He explains that alignment basically means the "perfect match" of four things, namely: 1. what is important for the learners to learn; 2. what we teach them; 3. how we teach them; and 4. what we assess when we ask them to perform.

Indeed, the backward design approach makes teachers consider the objectives or competencies of the subject first. These competencies embody the knowledge and skills teachers want their students to have learned at the end of the subject.

Once the competencies have been established, the second stage involves consideration of assessment. The backward design framework suggests that teachers should consider these overarching competencies and how students will be assessed prior to consideration of how to teach the content. Example:

Time Allotment

Quarter 1, Week 1 Talk about oneself and one's personal experiences (family, pet, and favorite food) Language Nature Assessment Strategies

Oral Language (OL) Skill Individual and collaborative speaking activities (self-introduction and completing sentence stems)

Clearly, the verb used in the competency provides clue as to the type of assessment strategies to be used in the classroom. In the example, the target competency involves the ability to speak the target language; the assessment therefore, should provide learners the opportunity to use the language in oral form.

Step 6. Plan learning experiences.

Make sure to match the learning activities with learning outcomes. Examine the table below.

Target Competency Learning Activities/Experiences Recognize that printed text has meaning • Look at pictures of familiar scenes and say what they mean • Take part in Shared Reading Activities

(Focus on Whole Language/Meaning) • Use books independently, turn pages in correct order, pints to and talks about picture • Read short simple stories with picture

Recognize letters of the alphabet, tone marks, and other language features (Focus on Parts of Language/Accuracy) • Read/say the sound of letters in isolation • Read/sound out short words in isolation • Write the letters of the alphabet • Read and write own name correctly

Step 7. Design learning materials. Tomlinson (2003) indicates that effective language materials: • expose the learners to language in authentic use; • help learners to pay attention to features of authentic input; provide the learners with opportunities to use the target language to achieve communicative purposes; • provide opportunities for outcome feedback; • achieve impact in the sense that they arouse and sustain the learners' curiosity and attention; and • stimulate intellectual, aesthetic, and emotional involvement.

IV. APPLY

On your own, choose one competency to unpack. Identify assessment strategies, learning experiences, and materials aligned with it. Complete the table below with your answers.

Content Standard

. . .... Performance

Standard Competencies Topic/ Content Assessm ent Learning Experiences Materials i V

Lesson Synthesis:

What are the benefits of using the backward design in instructional planning?

How do you feel about our week-long plan? Is it feasible? Can you implement your plan?

UNIT SUMMARY

In this unit, you learned about the important principles and guidelines in instructional planning in general and mother tongue instruction in particular. You also learned and practiced curriculum unpacking strategies. It is hoped that you can now understand the various elements of the curriculum guide and you can articulate these elements with competence and confidence to your peers and students. Unpacking strategies enable us to unravel the wondrous gifts inherent in our own curriculum guide and equip us to contextualize our teaching.