StAIR Report CEP 811 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 Report 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 Report 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:
Created by: Jean-Claude Aura
Date: February 2009
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StAIR Report CEP 811 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.
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 Report 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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