9. Workshop Notes

[Kerala University English Teacher Educator’s Forum - KUETEF]


Notes from the presentation on preparation of Teaching Manual – (Workshop organized by KUETEF on Saturday, 21st November 2009)

•Wren and Martin’s High School English Grammar was once the Bible for language teachers- Times have changed – Today teaching the forms of language is not our primary purpose.

•Insights from Cognitive Psychology, Piaget , Bruner and concepts from Chomsky are incorporated into the teaching-learning process.

•We have moved from the teaching of mere language skills and have started to see language as a knowledge subject.

•The New Course Book is assembled to address ‘issues’, Constructivist principles and Critical Pedagogy.

•The focus is on helping learners learn by asking questions- Questioning in a structured way that leads to expose pitfalls/drawbacks of fossilized knowledge-
Cf: Education is in short the growth of the thought process.

•In transacting the content of the Course Book we are trying to address two questions basically: a. How do learners read ? b. How do learners write?

•Steps in reading : [Note: The strategy given below is for Std VIII, IX and X and not for Std V,VI and VII]

*As the learner reads he tracks it by putting a question mark, an exclamation mark or a tick mark- See CB.

*Collaborative reading which involves megaphoning the doubts- the pupil shares with his partner or friend his understanding of the passage.

*Scaffolded reading : The teacher asks scaffolding questions –It is not mere comprehension type question, but questions that lead the learner to form opinions, make predictions, make judgments , establish connections etc.-[Model reading can be attempted by the teacher if it will help the learner]… the third level of reading to generate thinking.

•The reading passage is seen as an input: the expected outcome can be a dialogue or a writing task.

* Individual attempt : Try to get an initiation for the written task by asking a question related to the passage the pupils have just read. Eg: What should the character ask then…

* The learners share their ideas with friends

* Pairs join small groups and share their ideas. [If students are smart, mere pair work would suffice and the teacher can ask them to present their written work]

* Presentation of group product . The best product/ the best written work is selected.

* Teacher editing/refinement

* Refined product goes to the student portfolio.


Preparation of Teaching Manual

• The strength of the process decides the quality of the product

• Each Teaching Manual to have the following three
1.Presentation of input 2. Processing of input and output 3. Assessment

• Each Teaching Manual should have one, two or even three activities which can be meaningfully transacted during the period

• There should be an assessment of Learner(quantitative, qualitative), Teacher and the material after the completion of a module or after one week.

• Earlier assessment aimed at finding out what child knows/ does not know. Now assessment aims at helping the child learn better

• Activities other than discourses may be necessary to sensitize learners to the issue. [Remember : ‘Issues’… is basically the burden of the textbook writer]

• Each unit in the new Course Book has a number of modules [A module is a meaningful division from which one ‘construct’ emerges ie; one written product] It takes roughly four to five periods of instruction to complete a module.

• Teachers of every Subject meet –The Subject Council prepares a detailed plan of what is to be transacted the following month. They prepare a Comprehensive Unit Plan (CUP) which lists the expected outcomes (skills, discourse, values, attitudes etc.) which emerge from the learner – CUP helps pooling of resources and identification of alternative strategies for instruction - Each Lesson Plan will have around five CUP’s – one for each module)


CUP
Name of unit :
Major CO’s : … The major thrust focus of the unit (issues)
Materials and resources
[The CUP has five columns]

Column 1 Input : Poem – Dream

Prose – When Wishes Come True

Column 2 Input Process

Entry activity
First reading

Second reading
Entry activity – reading
Column 3 Output

Comprehension and appreciation (thematic)

Note of appreciation
Parallel poem

Scaffolding question

Column 4 Output Process

Individual, pair, group, presentation, refinement

Individual, pair, group, presentation, refinement

Editing

Column 5 Assessment
Self assessment
Teacher assessment
Column 6 Resources

Audio cassette
CD
Additional poems



* * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** *