StAIR Design & Form

StAIR Design & Form CEP 811

STAND-ALONE INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCE DESIGN FORM Project Title: Developer:

Describing what people are wearing Jean-Claude Aura

The project in a sentence…

In one sentence, what is this project about?

Students will learn how to describe what people are wearing.

Audience Describe the relevant characteristics of the intended learners (e.g., grade level, special needs or advanced).

This lesson is intended to false beginners. They need to have a bit of computer literacy in order to go through the StAIR.

Instructional Objectives What do you want the learner to learn? (Be sure to reference the subject matter as well as appropriate curriculum standards.)  Students will be able to identify, pronounce and name the most common clothing items, their colors and patterns.  Students will form phrases with clothing items along with their colors and patterns.  Students will be able to describe what people are wearing using the Present Continuous form.

These objectives align with the IELTS standards whereby students are required to describe events, places and people, both verbally and in writing. This StAIR is about describing people, but the rule about adjective order applies to other topics.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: February 2009

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StAIR Design & Form CEP 811 Pedagogy What are your instructional strategies? (Be sure to design and include at least two different strategies, such as, but not limited to, inductive and deductive.) Briefly describe the flow of interaction for the learner.

This StAIR encompasses 3 different strategies: 1. Deductive: This will be the case in the first part where students learn the different clothing items, their colors and patterns. They see a picture and click to see what it is (and possibly how it is pronounced: something I am planning to do if time allows) 2. Inductive: This strategy concerns the second part where students learn about the formation of the Present Continuous. They see a couple of examples on what people are wearing and then come up with the rule.

3. Scaffolding: This strategy will be necessary in the last part where students have to use the Present Continuous to describe what people are wearing. At this stage, students may be overwhelmed with too many things to remember: The formation of the Present Continuous both in the singular and plural, the order of the adjectives, and the name of each clothing item, its color and pattern. Students will be given incomplete sentences and then choose the correct completion from the multiple choice answers. As they progress, they will be given less support until they manage to form complete sentences all by themselves describing what people are wearing.

Active Response What will you ask the learner to do to demonstrate understanding? ďƒ˜ In the first part, students will have to identify/name the clothing items, their colors and patterns. ďƒ˜ In the second part, students will have to complete sentences using the correct form of the Present Continuous to describe what people are wearing. ďƒ˜ In the third part, students will have to prove their understanding of the material by composing complete sentences describing with complete accuracy what people are wearing.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: February 2009

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StAIR Design & Form CEP 811 Feedback How will you give the learner feedback on the actions taken?

For correct answers, students will get a cheer, applause, or any other sound indicative of a successful attempt.

For incorrect answers:  In the first part, students will have to keep trying until they get the right clothing item or the color or the pattern. In the case where they have to make a phrase using the clothing item, its color and pattern, they will be redirected to the slide that explains the order of adjectives.  In the second part, students are redirected different slides that explain either the Present Continuous formation or the singular and plural rules depending on the type of mistake students make.  In the third part, things get a bit more complicated as students’ mistakes could fall under these three types: 1. If they get the wrong vocabulary item, they will be redirected to the vocabulary slides.

2. If they get the wrong form of the Present Continuous, they will be redirected to the grammar slides.

3. If they the wrong adjective order, they will be redirected to the slide that explains the order of adjectives.

Planning your StAIR The StAIR is divided into 3 parts: 1. Part 1: Vocabulary: Colors, Clothes, Colored Clothes, Patterns, Colored Patterned Clothes 2. Part 2: Grammar: Present Continuous 3. Part 3: Comprehensive Test This is the first page of the StAIR.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: February 2009

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StAIR Design & Form CEP 811

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: February 2009

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StAIR Design & Form CEP 811

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: February 2009

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StAIR Design & Form CEP 811

StAIR Report 1. What is the main objective of your StAIR, and how is it linked to your curriculum standards?

The main objective here is to enable beginner students to describe what people are wearing using patterns, colors, clothing items and the present continuous.

The curriculum states that “… students will be able to use English to a purposeful end … and that students will be able to use English to convey meaning accurately…” This StAIR develops students’ ability to use English meaningfully in real life situations .

2. How is your StAIR designed?

The StAIR is very straightforward. It does the following sequentially: 1. It teaches 11 basic colors. (black, blue, brown, green, grey, orange, pink, purple, red, white and yellow) 2. It tests on these 11 basic colors.

3. It teaches 19 clothing items. (belt, cap, coat, dress, hat, jacket, pullover, scarf, shirt, shoes, shorts, skirt, socks, suit, tie, trousers, T-shirt and glasses – although the last is an accessory) 4. It tests on these 19 clothing items.

5. It presents a variety of colored clothes.

6. It tests on this variety.

7. It teaches 6 patterns. (plain, spotted, checked, striped, flowery and patterned) 8. It tests on these 6 patterns.

9. It presents a variety of patterned colored clothes.

10. It tests on this variety.

11. It teaches the Present Continuous.

12. It tests on the Present Continuous.

13. Finally, it provides a Comprehensive Test that checks students’ understanding by giving them multiple choice answers.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: February 2009

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StAIR Design & Form CEP 811 3. What instructional strategies are implemented in your StAIR? My StAIR utilizes 3 different instructional strategies.

A. DEDUCTIVE STRATEGY Basically, this strategy is used here to teach vocabulary. Students learn a few colors and take a test on them. It’s very simple. They see the word, hear the word, then memorize the word. Here’s a sample of what they get during the learning phase:

And this is a sample of what they get during the testing phase.

They also learn some clothing items and take a test on them.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: February 2009

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StAIR Design & Form CEP 811

The same applies to colored clothes, patterns, and patterned colored clothes.

B. INDUCTIVE STRATEGY This strategy is used when teaching the order of adjectives. Students see examples of the patterned colored clothes and then try to deduce the order in which they are used (pattern + color + clothing item). Here’s what they see at the learning stage:

In the last slide, they have to study the 4 slides about patterned colored clothes (here only 3 are presented) and choose the correct answer in the question slide.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: February 2009

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StAIR Design & Form CEP 811 C. SCAFFOLDING STRATEGY The entire StAIR is designed upon the scaffolding strategy. It starts gradually by presenting colors and testing on colors, then clothes and testing on clothes, followed by colored clothes and testing on colored clothes. After that, patterns are presented with a test on them, followed by a rule regarding the order of adjectives presented in b. Later on, the Present Continuous is introduced along with a mini test on it. The last stage is the Comprehensive Test, which encompasses all the points tackled throughout the StAIR. There’s a point to note, though. If students get the wrong answer in the Comprehensive Test, they are not simply warned about their mistake. They are redirected to further explanatory slides that give additional examples, as is the case with the colors and the present continuous.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: February 2009

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StAIR Design & Form CEP 811

There are more re-teaching slides in the stair itself. These are just a few.

4. So what do you reckon are the strengths and weaknesses of your StAIR? As you can see from the design, the StAIR starts off with colors and gradually increases the difficulty of the next activity. It doesn’t present more than one new point at a time. I’ve tried it with very weak students, and they didn’t seem to face any problems. Some had to go back to the explanation part, but that’s normal.

As for the weaknesses, there are none! I’m just kidding Just like with every technology-based educational object, students must have minimal literacy in technology in order to work independently. My StAIR requires students to know some basic concepts about computers: where to locate the StAIR on the hard drive, how to unzip it, and where to click on the StAIR so they proceed in the right direction. That’s all.

5. Is there any other comment you would like to add that would benefit your StAIR users?

Yes. My StAIR targets users of multiple intelligences. Some people are more auditory than visual, or both. That’s why I’ve added audio sounds to the StAIR in case users would like to hear the word or expression, thus increasing their learning abilities.

However, users can always turn off the sound if they don’t like the recording, which has my voice in it by the way. 

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: February 2009

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