Lesson 7.

LEARNING STRATEGIES AND ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUE AS

APPLIED TO TEACHING LANGUAGE

A. Teaching Strategies in Language Teaching

B. Modular Instruction Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Lessons (POGIL)

C. TOS and Test Question preparation for English subjects

D. Think-pair-share

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of these weeks, the pre-service teacher (PST) should be able to:

a. Identify and discuss learning strategies for an English lesson

b. Select appropriate assessment technique to assess the extent of learners’ mastery

a. Articulate constructive feedback to improve learners’ performance

LESSON PROPER

Preliminary Activity

Recall the test you have taken as a student. List some of the things you think the teacher should
do before making the test.

Analysis

This activity should make you aware that in test construction there are several things that you
need to consider. What they are will be discussed in the following sections.

A. 6 Essential Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners

1. CULTIVATE RELATIONSHIPS AND BE CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE

A successful classroom, our educators agreed, is one in which students feel known, appreciated, and
comfortable taking emotional and intellectual risks. That requires intentional planning and consistent
messaging by the teacher.
Understand the value of home visits to get to know students’ families and takes care to incorporate the
particulars of students’ lives, such as pets’ names and favorite sports, into lessons. Students are most
engaged when they feel a personal connection to a lesson or unit, a connection that’s created in part by
a teacher’s investment in culturally competent relationships.

2. TEACH LANGUAGE SKILLS ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

English language learners should not be learning the fundamentals of English in isolation; they should be
applying their developing language skills to rich academic content in all subjects.

“It is key that in mainstream classrooms, teachers understand their role as language teachers,” says
Valentina Gonzalez, a district leader in Katy, Texas, suggesting that all teachers should be aware of the
specialized idiom they work within. “If we teach math, then we teach the language of mathematics. If
we teach science, then we teach the language of science.” Math teachers, in other words, should take
the time to teach the unfamiliar vocabulary of mathematics—add, subtract, calculator, solve—
concurrently with the teaching of math skills.

3. EMPHASIZE PRODUCTIVE LANGUAGE

Educators agreed that productive language skills—hard-to-master dimensions of language fluency like
speaking and writing—should be front and center from day one, even if students feel hesitant about
them.

Beginning English Language Learners (ELLs) often develop receptive language skills like listening and
reading first. Educators who are unaware of the typical path to fluency may believe that students who
can follow verbal or written directions will be able to produce oral or written language, but that’s usually
not the case.

To support reluctant speakers, Tan Huynh, an educator who blogs at Empowering ELLs, suggests using
sentence frames. “For example, when a science teacher wants ELLs to produce a hypothesis, they might
offer the sentence, ‘If ___ was added, then ___ because ___.’ This sentence frame provides clues that
empower ELLs to sound and think like scientists,” Huynh says.

Andrea Honigsfeld, a professor of education at Molloy College in Rockville, New York, suggests that all
lessons touch on every letter of the acronym SWIRL, which stands for Speak, Write, Interact, Read,
Listen. The approach intentionally privileges productive language skills “from the beginning,” she says.

4. SPEAK SLOWLY—AND INCREASE YOUR WAIT TIME

Easier said than done. Still, many of the teachers I spoke to said this simple change is vital. You can
record yourself speaking in class to measure your cadence, and adjust.

“Adding in an extra three to five seconds after we pose a question offers all students time to think,”
explains Gonzalez. “However, for English learners, it also gives time to translate, process their thinking,
translate back into English, and develop the courage to answer. If we call on students too quickly, many
of our students will stop thinking about the answers—or trying to answer at all.”
That means undoing some of our own habits, according to Larry Ferlazzo, a high school ESL teacher in
Sacramento, California. “Researchers have found that typically most teachers give one to two seconds
between asking a question and expecting a student response,” he says. “The same researchers have
shown that if you wait three to five seconds, the quality of responses is astronomically greater.”

5. DIFFERENTIATE—AND USE MULTIPLE MODALITIES

All kids learn better when they engage with material in multiple ways: Lessons that involve writing,
speaking, drawing, and listening, for example, give students four opportunities to deepen

Mary Gaytos

Mary Gaytos

their understanding of the work. For ELLs, those additional engagements also provide a little breathing
room so they can work through the language barrier.

Helen Thorpe, a journalist who spent a year observing Eddie Williams’s classroom in Denver in order to
write a book about immigrants called The Newcomers, marveled at Williams’s method of differentiation.
“Eddie would enunciate very clearly in English multiple times, he would write it on the board, and he
would go to the projector to give a visual. And, finally, he’d be asking the kids to verbalize aspects of the
lesson themselves,” she says, tracing Williams’s efforts to move his students from receptive to
productive language fluency.

Toppel uses a strategy called QSSSA to scaffold classroom discussions with ELLs. The letters stand for
Question (the teacher poses a question, then gives ample think time); Signal (a designated motion like a
thumbs-up, a finger on the nose—something that lets students indicate that they’re ready to answer);
Stem (the teacher provides a sentence starter for the question—for example, for “What is your favorite
place to read a book?” the stem might be, “My favorite place to read a book is _____”); Share; and
Assess.

6. INCORPORATE STUDENTS’ NATIVE LANGUAGES—AND DON’T BE AFRAID OF TECHNOLOGY

Bilingualism is the goal, of course, not replacement.

Ferlazzo uses a strategy called “preview, view, review,” which leverages a student’s native language
skills as a foundation for learning the new language. He introduces a topic and encourages students to
preview it in materials in their home language (often using multilingual videos and other online
resources); he then teaches the topic in English, and then has students review the information in their
home language.
Ferlazzo also encourages teachers to embrace technologies that students find helpful, like Google
Translate. He stresses that the app can be a useful way for students to translate words quickly—but
warns that it can quickly “become a dependency” if it’s used as more than a handy dictionary.

Thorpe agrees that Translate can take pressure off teachers, who sometimes find that they “just stand at
the front of the room and say things over and over. And if the kids didn’t know what those words are,
they’re out of luck.” Translation technology means you can say it once (or twice) and let the students
use the technology to translate key words and phrases.

B. MODULAR INSTRUCTION PROCESS ORIENTED GUIDED INQUIRY LESSONS (POGIL)

Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning or POGIL is a student-centered instructional approach. In a

typical POGIL classroom or laboratory, students work in small teams with the instructor acting as a
facilitator. The student teams use specially designed activities that guide them through the three phases
of the learning cycle.

Phase 1: Exploration

During this phase, students work on finding trends or patterns of regularity in the environment or data
provided by the instructor. This could be achieved through a combination of readings, models, graphs,
equations, pictures, experiments, or demonstrations. During this phase, students generate hypotheses,
test their hypotheses and develop an explanation of their observation.

Phase 2: Concept Invention

In this phase, students define or “invent” a new concept using the trends that emerged.

Phase 3: Application

During this phase, students apply the newly discovered concept to new situations, thus deepening their
understanding.

In a POGIL classroom or lab, individual students within a team are assigned specific roles such as
manager, presenter, reflector, timekeeper, and recorder.
To sum up, POGIL allows students to explore and use discipline content to construct understanding and
develop content mastery, while also developing important cognitive and affective process skills,
including higher-level thinking, problem-solving, and communication through cooperation and reflection

C. TOS and Test Question preparation for English subjects

A table of specifications or TOS is a test map that guides the teacher in constructing a test. The TOS
ensures that there is balance between items that test lower level thinking skills and those which test
higher order thinking skills ( or alternatively, a balance between easy and difficult items) in the test. The
simplest TOS consists of four (4) columns: (a) level of objective to be tested, (b) statement of objective,
(c) item numbers where such an objective is being tested, and (d) Number of items and percentage out
of the total for that particular objective

Mary Gaytos

Mary Gaytos

Watch: https://www.slideshare.net/sapicoabigail/table-of-specification-58994998

Sample of a Table of Specifications

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

TABLE OF SPECIFICATION

Course Title: BUILDING AND ENHANCING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Pre-term X Midterm _ Pre-final _ Final

Exam: Midterm Semester/School Year: 2020-2021

CONTENT/TOPIC TIME

ALLOTMENT

(in Hrs.)ITEM PLACEMENT

(LEVEL OF THINKING) TOTAL

Remembering Understanding Applying Analyzing Evaluating

Creating
1. Introduction to the Concept of New Literacies 6 5 2,3,4,6 7 1
7

2. Globalization, Cultural and Multicultural Literacies 11 8,9,12,13,22,26

10,11,14,15,17,23,25, 21 20, 24 16,18,19, 27, 20

3. Social Literacy 4 33 30,31,32 29 28 6

4. Financial Literacy 6 37 36 34,35

38 39,40 7

TOTAL 27 9 15 5 4 7 40

Prepared by: Noted:

DR. MARIA G. GAYTOS MS. MARIA GRACE I. MIRADOR

Associate Prof. V Program Head

Approved:

DR. CHRSITOPHER A. DURAN

DEAN, College of Education

D. Think-Pair- Share

What is think-pair-share?

It’s a teaching strategy you should be using in the classroom! We’ll give you a full explanation here on
what this technique is all about, the benefits, challenges you may encounter, and how to implement
think-pair-share in your teaching.

Background Of Think-Pair-Share

Think-pair-share is a technique that encourages and allows for individual thinking, collaboration, and
presentation in the same activity. Students must first answer a prompt on their own, then come
together in pairs or small groups, then share their discussion and decision with the class. Discussing an
answer first with a partner before sharing maximizes participation, and helps to focus attention on the
prompt given.

Why Use Think-Pair-Share?

Using the think-pair-share technique allows students time for individual reflection, thinking, and
processing new information before they may be influenced by other students’ answers. This process
also teaches students how to explain their thoughts first to a peer, and then to a larger audience (the
entire class).

How To Use Think-Pair-Share?

Explain the technique to the students before beginning the exercise — describe the purpose, set
discussion guidelines and time limits, and model the strategy to ensure that students know what is
expected of them.

Step 1: Think

Begin with a specific question, and give students time to individually think about an answer, and
document their responses on their own, either written or in pictures. Students can be given 1-3 minutes
for this part of the exercise.

Step 2: Pair

Students now get into pairs. Decide beforehand whether you will assign pairs or let students choose
their own partners. Remember when pairing to think of student strengths and their personalities. Ask
the students to share what they came up with, with their partners and discuss. You can provide
questions for the students to ask one another. This part of the activity can take at least 5 minutes.

Step 3: Share

For this part, come back together as a class and have a whole class discussion. You can either choose to
have one person from each pair share with the class, or the discussion can be more open. Students can
also share with the class what their partner said.

Table of specification

slideshare.net

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Mary Gaytos

Benefits

Think-pair-share is a simple technique that enhances students’ critical thinking skills, improves listening
and reading comprehension, and helps with collaboration and presentation skills.
Students who are typically shy may feel more comfortable sharing with the class after sharing with a
partner, and students who are outspoken will benefit from first listening to others before sharing their
own opinion.

Challenges

One of the challenges of the think-pair-share technique is student engagement. You may want to think
about ways to ensure participation by finding interesting topics, or assigning participation points to this
exercise.

How To Use The Think-Pair-Share Activity In Your Classroom In Language Arts

Teachers can use the think-pair-share strategy at a number of different times within the classroom, such
as before introducing a new topic to assess prior knowledge, after reading an excerpt or watching a film
to encourage opinion formation and critical thinking, or before students begin an assignment, to help
them gather ideas.

To enhance reading comprehension and critical thinking within the language arts, use think-pair-
share after finishing a book or chapter. Ask the students questions to further understanding of themes
and characters, or some what-if questions. If you’re struggling to come up with questions, think of the 5
Ws — who, what, where, why, when, and the bonus, how?

Application
1. Make a lesson plan using the think pair share strategy

2. Make a table of specification in giving an exam on this chapter. Have only a 20-item multiple
choice test . Use this template: Refer to the example given in the module for reference

CONTENT/TOPIC TIME

ALLOTMENT

(in Hrs.)ITEM PLACEMENT

(LEVEL OF THINKING) TOTAL

Remembering Understanding Applying Analyzing Evaluating

Creating

1.

2.

3.

4.

Assessment:

1. Enumerate the 6 essential strategies for teaching english language learners

2. Give the steps in the modular instruction process

3. Describe each step in the think-pair- share strategy

Tue 11:30 AM

Mary Gaytos

Mary Gaytos

for lesson 8, please watch this: https://www.slideshare.net/fherafhey/english-language-teaching-

materials-and-media-instructional-material-and-media-and-its-function

English Language Teaching Materials and Media: Instructional Material…

slideshare.net

Tue 12:13 PM

Mary Gaytos
For lesson 9, please watch this: https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/ela/framework/planning.pdf

www.edu.gov.mb.ca

edu.gov.mb.ca

Mary Gaytos

PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT YOUR ACTIVITY OUTPUTS WILL ONLY BE UP TO LESSON 7. However, you
need to watch carefully the videos and lessons that I will be sending you because they will be part of the
test.

Mary Gaytos

Mary Gaytos

Finish your activity before the finals because I will be retiring, Godwilling.