Stop being dependent Manual

Stop being dependent!

A new stage in your life is coming‌ Be a long life self-directed learner!

http://tomandshelly.empowernetwork.com/blog/break-the-chains-that-bind-you

Created by

Judy Maritza Peña Navarro Yuranny Marcela Romero Archila

“In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.” Tom Bodett

This manual can be useful for teachers who are interested in guiding The readers can find different sections such as the description of the possible users of the manual, the reasons for using it, the literature that supports the proposed activities, some key ideas that teachers can use or adapt depending on their students’ needs and contexts regarding self-efficacy for improving problem solving and time management and finally, the conclusions of the manual and its references.

http://www.embarcados.net/consultoria-franquicias/documentacion-franquicias/manual-operacion/

A self-directed learning manual

their students in the process of becoming self-directed learners.

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"I forget what I was taught. I only remember what I've learnt." Patrick White

http://app.emaze.com/@AOFZZFZI/t29-presentacion-definitivaguadalupepptx-copy1

experience

and

observation, it has been identified that students who are dependent learners, need a constant presence of the teacher. Furthermore, those who have emotional needs and their study skills are not well defined have a low academic performance and low skills for solving problems due to the negative impact in their academic progress.

The purpose of this manual is to guide students to change the perspective about themselves and how they solve problems and manage their time by suggesting scaffolding activities where students start reflecting, working in groups, self-monitoring and assessing their own performance.

Through this manual, students will give the first steps towards being less dependent learners and start taking an important part of their learning process.

A self-directed learning manual

Through

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The target learning population for using

Besides, they have not had an appropriate process for learning the language because in Elementary School they only had one hour of English Instruction per week and the teacher did not know the language. Consequently, it is in High School when they start learning the foreign language, and their level is low. On the other hand, these students do not have a suitable guidance of their parents due to the lack of interest about their children academic performance and behavior.

They are studying in a public school and are willing to enter in a public university. These students are used to work because the teacher is always telling them what to do, and they need to be pushed in order to fulfill the tasks.

At Juan Luis Londo単o School, there are different make up action plans in which students have the chance to do what they did not do along the term or even the year. This situation is very common, and when they enter the University, they come up against a different reality that is lived in the Universities and that they will have to face in everyday activities.

A self-directed learning manual

this manual is a group of thirty eight eleventh graders who are between 16 and 17 years old. These students have, in general, problems when using their mother tongue, since the results in different tests have shown that their reading comprehension and critical thinking processes are weak.

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purpose is to guide teachers in order to promote in students the required abilities to carry out concrete actions related to the topic of this manual. It is important to highlight that the activities presented below are flexible, and they can be adapted by including other steps depending on students’ proposals, progress, interests and needs.

This activity aims to make the eleventh graders reflect on their own weaknesses at specific domains that have a strong influence on their academic performance and in that way create a plan by setting some specific and clear goals to improve on these aspects.

A self-directed learning manual

In this section, you can find two samples of activities whose main

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to finish the teacher lets them work freely and just makes some feedback when they present the final outcome: the podcast or video.

Besides, every week on Fridays, based on the self-assessment done by the students, the teacher will revise the plan to check what changes are necessary to be done and decide with the students if the plan is working or not and to suggest more actions to be implemented by the learners.

A self-directed learning manual

The time proposed for carrying out this activity is 12 weeks, taking into account the hours per week for the class. That is to say six face-to-face hours and six hours of online work as well. Regarding the face-to-face work, the idea is that it can be developed in the classroom with the guidance of the tutor while the online work is totally independent and done by the students. At the first moment, the teacher starts leading the activity, then students continue working with the help of their partners;

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critically informed decisions about what is not going well and how they are going to master it. In here five levels are explained by Nunan (1996) which are: awareness (learners are made aware of the goals and content of the task); involvement (Learners are involved in selecting their own goals and objectives); intervention (Learners are involved and adapting the goals and content of the learning program); creation (Learners create their own goals and objectives) and transcendence (Learners go beyond the classroom and make links between this one and the world beyond the classroom).

Another important aspect is that students can foster self-regulation due to the steps along the activity, awareness, confidence, diligence and resourcefulness are proposed as a mean that allow them to take actions and processes directed to achieve their stated goals (Zimmerman, 1990) and also they can monitor their own progress and decide on a These stages were based on different plan if their present one is giving the students the not effective (Schunk, 1990). opportunity to make

A self-directed learning manual

The main purpose of this activity is to make students reflect on two important areas in their lives: as personal as to academic.

Nunan (1996) indicates that learners have to do the learning for themselves, they should be involved in their own learning. This concept of making the learners actively involved in their own learning processes is based on the philosophy of learner-centeredness.

As it can be noticed in the steps of the activity, the students are asked first of all, to start identifying problematic situations in one’s life, then get involved in these situations by suggesting solutions, next evaluating own problems in their lives and concluding by establishing a plan to overcome them.

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Personal Life problem

Reasons

Academic problem

Reasons

A self-directed learning manual

The activity is based on the movie “The blind side” which is about a real life situation in which the protagonist deals with certain problems on different personal aspects, but at the end, he realizes his potential as a student and football player. So, in the first part of the activity, the students will answer the following questions.

1.

Watch the movie: THE BLIND SIDE 2.

What is the plot of the movie?

3.

Who is the protagonist in the movie?

4.

Personal life and Academic performance are the two most affected areas in Mike’s life, define the problems and the reasons for each one of them.

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5. Now, in the second part of the activity, the students have already identified Mike’s problems. They will imagine they are friends. They will give some advice to him. Besides, they will state his problems in the following chart and at the same time try to figure out possible solutions.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Academic problem

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

A self-directed learning manual

Personal Life problem

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A self-directed learning manual

6. Next, it is the time for the students to reflect about themselves thinking of their role and performance at school as students; and will find out which problems of the previous ones mentioned, they feel identified with and what of those solutions can work for them too.

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7.

According to their identified problems, the students will elaborate a plan to follow with specific actions to start overcoming those problems. For that, they will make a schedule, stating specific objectives according to each situation they need to improve.

Objectives oriented to overcomi ng

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T

W

Th

F

S

SU

A self-directed learning manual

My Academic Problems

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A self-directed learning manual

8. Finally, they will make their schedule in Powtoon and create a podcast using audacity or create a video in Screencast-o-matic.

Also, they will upload it in Google Classroom in the link for this task, in order the teacher cane following eleven weeks, check it in advance to provide them feedback once a week ( on Fridays).

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A self-directed learning manual

According to Thomas, Strage & Curly (1988) there are two different types of self-directed learning activities: “Cognitive and self-management ones�.

This activity falls under the latter category because it focuses on learning

In the process of stop being dependent and starting the path as a selfdirected learner, one of the crucial aspects is the adequate management of time. Self-regulation skills such as time management, goal setting, and effort on hard tasks, are essential not only during school time but also in everyday life. (Zimmerman, 1998, as cited in Ramdass & Zimmerman, 2011, p. 198.)

For that reason, it is necessary to foster them in students through the use of metacognitive strategies to make students aware of how they learn.

Costa & Kallik (2004) state that people who are aware of what works the

A self-directed learning manual

strategies and study skills.

most for them are in a better path for becoming self-directed learners. For that reason, through this activity, learners can monitor how they use their time and set clear goals.

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The instructional time is 4 hours, and the time to be devoted by students independently is 8 hours; this activity is intended to be developed during 4 weeks.

However, the idea is that students apply these strategies along the school year and establish them as a habit in their lives.

The actions of the tutor are based on advising students and stimulating them to reflect by posing questions and real life examples. Furthermore, once the teacher has read the students’ comments and identified their pupils’ strengths and weaknesses, he/she can give feedback in order to have a better use of time.

There is a change in the role because students become active in their learning process, and they set their own short term and long term goals for monitoring it.

A self-directed learning manual

The assessment for this activity is going to be formative because its main objective is to raise awareness on how students manage their time, provide feedback and guide them to understand some metacognitive strategies and find the most suitable ones for them.

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Its purpose is to make students reflect and express the consequences of their time management decisions in the future. Students have to create their own Toonbooks by using www.toondoo.com. In the first toonbook, they tell how their lives as procrastinators

In the second one, they set some goals and visualize themselves monitoring their study time and having good

A self-directed learning manual

could be.

time management habits. In order to be able to do so, it is necessary to divide the activity in two main steps where

face to face and online instruction are combined.

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Step 1 The purpose of the first step is to have students reflect on what they do with their time, how they manage it, and analyze if they procrastinate or not.

A self-directed learning manual

Raising awareness on time management

In class, students reflect on what they normally do in the afternoons after school by completing the chart, on the next page, they can include other activities that are not listed.

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Last week, how many minutes did I spend for‌?

ACTIVITY

TIME

Sleeping Checking social networks (Facebook, Instagram, etc) Chatting with friends (whatsapp)

Watching TV Reading for pleasure Studying for tests Hanging out with friends Sharing with family Day dreaming

A self-directed learning manual

Doing homework

19 After that, students socialize their answers with their partners and teachers and reflect on what activities they devote more time and how much time they think they have wasted.

http://www.sodahead.com/living/are-you-aprocrastinator/question1585991/?link=ibaf&q=&esrc=s

The padlet also includes survey (taken from http://www.how-to-study.com/) to know if students procrastinate or not and it provides some advice according to students’ responses. Students can share their results in the padlet. http://ctreichler.wikispaces.com/Padlet

After students have done the first step, they start working on their first toonbook; they also begin applying some of the advice given according to the results in the survey with the aid of the teacher, and they start writing a diary where they express their ideas and concerns and also, write a plan of how they are going to organize their time for the development the activity.

A self-directed learning manual

In google classroom, pupils can find a padlet (http://es.padlet.com/yurannymaro/ dkjjaem16stk). Its purpose is to have students reflect and express their opinions about the Colombian culture and themselves regarding procrastination.

20 http://kineticknowledge.com/content-options/

Step 2

Learning to organize the time

My English teacher assigned me a task three weeks ago. As I had plenty of time, I did other more important activities. Tomorrow is the due date and I have not started yet. I think I will not sleep tonight.

A self-directed learning manual

In groups, students are given a card with a situation, they should predict what the results are going to be and represent it in a role play. These are some samples. (These situations were created having in mind some time management principles given by Malott, as cited in Wallace, 2007, p. 135).

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http://wellorderedlife.com/get-organized-time-management/

After the role plays, students share ideas and tell if they feel identified with some of the situations and then, students should provide some advice, and they draw some conclusions, if necessary with some guidance of the teacher. Then, students set two short term goals about having time management, and they observe themselves during a week by completing a checklist they

A self-directed learning manual

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designed with the aid of the teacher. Then, they review if they attained them and reflect on which proposed strategies worked for them by discussing and sharing with the teacher and partners

about their experience. These reflections should also be written in the diary in order to make the necessary adjustments and set new goals or restate the previous ones.

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Finally, students post their toonbooks in the google classroom wall and comment how the process was, how they organized their time for completing the activity and if they followed the plan they created at the beginning. They also reflect on what they have done correctly and what they need to improve. Additionally, they write in the diary how to continue using time management strategies

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The process does not end at this point. It is necessary a continuous monitoring of students themselves and the teacher who provides feedback.

A self-directed learning manual

along the year in order to have it as a habit for their lives.

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Teachers sometimes tend to focus

http://sakurasae-jasmine.blogspot.com/2011/02/studentcentered-learning.html

https://meganriceblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/freak y-friday-when-teachers-become-students/

As mentioned by Nunan (1996), it is necessary to involve students in their learning process and listen to their opinions in order to make the necessary adjustments to the activities to be developed in the class.

When including self-directed activities in the classroom there is a shift of the traditional role of teachers and students where the latter become active actors of their own learning and the former are just facilitators.

A self-directed learning manual

on language activities and let aside other skills that can foster not only language learning but also personal processes that allow them to identify what strategies work best for them.

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http://www.salesprogress.com/coachingleadership/bid/104537/Keep-Employees-Motivated-bySetting-Goals

The web 2.0 tools can be perceived by students not only as a way to entertain themselves but they can have a learning space through the use of these instruments as well.

A self-directed learning manual

As Schunk (1990) remarks students need to know the correct way to set realistic goals after identifying their weaknesses in order to evaluate their own process and establish concrete actions to follow.

25 http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/webhead/2006/03/web_20.html

Bodett, T. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved on June 19, 2015, from http://www.brainyquote.com/citation/quotes/quotes/t/tombodett394336.html #vk6z4HGc0EpISv40.99

Nunan, D. & Lamb, C. (1996). The self-directed teacher: managing the learning process. Chapter 1. Cambridge University Press. United States.

Ramdass, D., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2011). Developing Self-Regulation Skills: The Important Role of Homework. Journal Of Advanced Academics, 22(2), 194-218.

Schunk, D. H. (1990). Goal setting and self-efficacy during self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 25, 71-86.

Thomas, J. W., Strage, A. & Curley, R. (1988). Improving students’ selfdirected learning. The elementary school journal, 88 (3), 313-326.

A self-directed learning manual

Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (2004). Launching Self-Directed Learners.

Educational Leadership, 62(1), 51-55.

Wallace, M. (2007). Study skills in English. UK: Cambridge University Press.

Zimmerman, B.J. (1990) Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: An Overview. Educational Psychologist, 25, 3-17.

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