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Teacher Development Course

Assignment Coversheet


Name of Student: Martyn Peters
Branch: The Anglo Florida
Tutors: Aurora Hernandez and Gaby Ladron
Assignment Title: Material Assignment 3
Word Count: 1000
Date of Submission: 29
th
of April, 2011

Student Statement:

I confirm that:

I have provided an accurate word count.
I have acknowledged the use of other peoples word and ideas throughout,
using quotations or citations as appropriate.
I understand derivative work will be marked down, and that plagiarism is a
serious offence which may incur penalties up to and including expulsion
from this course.



Signed: _______________________________________________________________

Name: ________________________________________________________________

Date: _________________________________________________________________











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Material Assignment Three
Martn Peters

Aim; Adapt material for remedial work with a specific group.

Remedial comprehension skills

1. Discuss the rationale for the type of material and state the remedial aims. Identify
the stage where the material would be used.

Many of the students in my group have trouble reading instructions and following
them, especially in exam situations. This remedial work should get them to work
individually and in pairs practicing their exam comprehension skills. The students are
usually very needy and teacher led. They almost always wait for an explanation from
myself, something that damages their comprehension. In exam situations I cannot
explain anything to them, the result is very low scores for some weaker students.
Through the use of this material I hope to create more individually responsible learners
who are self reliant rather than teacher led. Students should become more self-
dependent through the use of the skills we will be practicing in this class. Through the
practice of exam technique and highlighting certain skills they should be able to stop
relying on their teacher. It is very important to encourage self reliant, responsible and
independent learners. For me this fits into a progressive view of education, one I believe
in and follow fully.

The material has been adapted from a typical exam from my school. The reason I
chose these exams is that they are exams that the students will see every evaluation
period. They are exams that the school syllabus applies five times every school year. I
have chosen to highlight the main questions and instructions in order to make these
items stand out and be clearer for the students. I want the students to take their time
when they enter into exam conditions and have a set of comprehension tools ready to
use. I also want them to activate schema for the specific subject. Whether it is in the
classroom or before taking the exams in real life, the students should consider the
activation of schema as an important exam technique. Students should also be able to
integrate any exam taking skills from L1 to L2. I am not sure if students practice exam
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method in L1, however if they do I would love to be able to create some crossover
between their exam taking skills in L1 and L2.

The lesson will begin with a discussion about difficulties encountered during
exams. The aim would be to identify where students feel the most difficult parts of an
exam are. This would agree with what George (1972) says about remedial work, his
first step being mistakes should be found and listed1. The idea that students are aware
of their mistakes and that their attention is drawn to these mistakes is very important.
This should also activate schema for the students and they should be thinking about
exam technique. It will also aid to activate any exam taking techniques they have in L1
or L2. When we identify the areas that students have problems in we can talk about
ways that each student approaches every question and what techniques they use. This
will then lead into the handout2 with the adapted material in order to focus the lesson,
instead of leading a general discussion about exams and problems faced.

Students would then read the handout3 and identify the main instructions and
techniques they use when they approach an exam. It would be an inductive lesson, as
the students would be searching individually for the items they think are the most
important. The vocalization of their techniques should draw attention to the process
they are using and should help them identify where they are encountering problems.
The phrases/words/instructions that they have most difficulty with when they take an
exam should also be highlighted. Important category items, such as title, question, and
concept should be highlighted as well. Students should identify what the question is
asking them. I would then ask them to do what they usually do and how this could be
modified to lead to greater understanding, I would like them to vocalize the process and
report to the class. When the students report to the class as a group we could discuss the
pros and cons of each students technique. I would check the students handouts and see
the highlighted terms. I would especially like them to identify and highlight the written

1
Nation, I.S.P. and Newton, J., Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking Routledge,
2009
2
See appendix 2
3
See appendix 2
4
instructions; we can maybe see where they misunderstand these instructions. Most of
my students when verbally quizzed have the correct answers to the questions. I believe
they find difficulty in following the instructions and understanding the wording of the
questions. This part could perhaps slow down their exam technique and draw their
attention to what the question is really asking them.

Hopefully doing this should instill the desire or need to get rid of the mistake4 in
the students, one of the four things needed to get rid of errors according to Johnson
(1988), it should also give the learners an internal representation of what the correct
form is like,5 having seen all of the representations above. I believe that it is worth
dedicating an entire class to this process and so the stage that this would be used would
be at the beginning of a class and maybe last about an hour of an hour and a half class. I
think it would come halfway through an academic school year, so I could really see if
the group was struggling with exams. If there were only a few students in a group
struggling then I would perhaps take a different approach and talk to those students on
an individual basis.

The class is also based on a scaffolding approach and task-based learning. I believe
that an inductive task based approach will help the students to understand more
thoroughly what they are doing. If they can realize they have made mistakes in the past
this should help them take responsibility with their own learning techniques. R. Van
Der Stuyf has shown that scaffolding provide(s) a content framework and a reminder
of the content in the text6. This should help them access the technique whenever they
are faced with an exam. Hopefully the class would encourage good exam technique.

Finally, the class would also encourage efficient reading as according to Penny Ur,
efficient reading involves concentrat(ion) on the significant bits, and skim(ming) the

4
Taken from Nation, I.S.P. and Newton, J., Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking
Routledge, 2009.
5
Taken from Nation, I.S.P. and Newton, J., Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking
Routledge, 2009.
6
Taken from Van Der Stuyf, R. Scaffolding as a Teaching Strategy Definition and
Description.
5
rest; may even skip parts he or she knows to be insignificant.7 It would help students
hugely if they could become efficient readers and apply this in exam conditions. There
are a number of other factors during an exam and it would be excellent if the students
good focus on good exam techniques and economic reading skills.







































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P.62 Ur
6
Bibliography

Nation, I.S.P. and Newton, J., Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking
Routeledge, 2009.

Ur, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Van Der Stuyf, R. Scaffolding as Teaching Strategy Adolescent Learning and
Development. From http://condor.admin.ccny.cuny.edu/~group4/






































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Appendix One; Group Profile and Lesson Plan
Group Profile:
Age Group: Grade 4. 10 11 Year Olds.
Number of students: 25 in the group.
English Level: Breakthrough English users. A1 level.
Class time: Monday 7.00AM 8.30AM Mondays.
Profile:

Out of all my grade 4 groups this group suffers the most from not understanding
exam questions and having difficulty when trying to understand exam questions. The class
is also very teacher led and students rarely practice individually on their own. There is a lot
of course material in the syllabus that needs to be covered and sometimes students have to
do independent study at home. Something they struggle with as well. There is also the
chance that many students have their parents helping them with this work. All in all it has
been very difficult to create responsible independent studious students.

When it comes to following written instructions, students struggle to understand and
follow what to do. This is the main reason I am adapting material to work with in this
group. One reason the students struggle is that they are very visual learners. They are also
very kinaesthetic and some of the best activities and learning they have achieved was
through these types of activities.

Affective Needs: Students need lots of support and guidance. Some students have low
confidence when it comes to expressing themselves. Out of all of my groups they have the
lowest attention span and need lots of tasks and changes in rhythm and pace during the
class in order to be engaged and active.

Linguistic Needs: As above students suffer from understanding written instructions and
comprehending what questions ask them to do. Their spoken abilities vary a lot amongst
the group. There are some students that are ahead of others.





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Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan Title Remedial Comprehension Skills
Concept/Topic to Teach Remedial comprehension work and remedial exam
technique
General goal/Aims Students will be able to understand written instructions.

Students should be able to use a set of skills in order to
mine and extract data from a Social Studies exam.

Students will improve their exam taking technique
through remedial work.
Specific Objectives Prepare students for the exam taking process by
activating schemata

Practice intense reading of questions in an exam.

Practice scanning and extracting specific information
and identifying what the question needs from you.

Practice intensive reading in order to answer specific
questions.

Generally develop skills in the above areas.

Transfer any L1 exam taking techniques to L2.
Required Materials Handouts (appendices 3 & 4) blackboard, chalk, pens.
Anticipatory Set, lead-in

Activate schema. Prepare
students for exam
analysis. Pre-reading of
exam questions.

Show the Ss text we are
going to follow.

10 Mins. Ask Ss how they usually approach an exam.
Ask them whether they panic when faced with an exam.
Do they think the questions are unfair. Activate any
schema for exam technique and find out which parts Ss
find most challenging. Hand out Appendix 3 Ask Ss to
identify the most difficult parts they find in the exam.
Task (Step by step
procedures)



10 Mins: Ask Ss to highlight key instructions on
appendix 3. Let Ss compare their answers with each
other. Ask Ss why they identify these instructions as
most important. Check their understanding of the exam
questions.
Post Task 5 Mins: Students come together to compare answers and
reasons why they chose the instructions in the exam as
important ones.
Task 2 Pre-task 5 Mins: Tell students they only have a few minutes to
read the exam questions. Ask Ss what they think the
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exam is testing with each title in the section. Tell them
the important part of the reading is getting the general
idea of the text.
During Task
Objectives
Remediate scanning.
Fine tune comprehension
skills.
10 Mins: Ss read the exam and questions(appendix 3)
Whilst students are reading help them look over the text
and point out important titles and sections in the exam.
Monitor understanding and help them where they may
need it.
Post task Students have to identify the themes of the exam as a
class as whole.
Plan for independent
practice

Second Activity objective:
Practice answering exam
questions
10 Minutes: Students should read the questions intently
and pay attention to the detail. They should then attempt
to answer questions on the mock exam. They should pay
close attention how the questions refer to the maps and
how they are worded. They should practice intense
reading.
Closure Show students a variety of exams from previous
evaluation periods and have them identify the main
questions and understood what they needed to do.
During the class I will check the answers written and see
if the instructions have been followed.
Assessment I will check the answers from the following exam and
make sure that the students have understood what they
needed to do. During the class I will check the answers
written and see if the instructions have been followed.
Adaptations (for lower
level students)
Very low reading level students may work in teams
paired with a higher reading level student. Students
should talk about the reading process with each other.
Extensions (For gifted
students)
Students who finish early can begin writing their own
exam questions and use questioning language used in the
class.
Class Duration 90 Minutes
Group Description See above