week?

(This activity is when we were told to use the checklist given to us and evaluate a chapter on a textbook. Then, we need to state what trouble we face and then we need to come up with a solution.)

Textbook Evaluation Checklist

Patricia Byrd and Marianne Celce-Murcia

Evaluation of the fit	Yes (a good fit)	Perhaps (an adequate fit)	Probably (a poor fit)	Absolutely not (wrong for curriculum, students, and/or teachers)
Fit between the textbook and the curriculum
Fits curriculum goals		/
Has appropriate linguistic content	/
Has appropriate thematic content	/
Fits the pedagogical and SLA philosophy of the program/course		/
Fit between the textbook and the students
Explanations understandable and useable for students	/
Examples understandable and useable for students	/
Activities appropriate for students	/
Thematic content understandable	/
Fit between the textbook and the teachers
Fits the language skills of our teachers	/
Fits the knowledge based of our teachers	/
Provides explanation that can be used by our teachers	/
Provides examples that can be used and expanded by our teachers	/
Fits the needs and preference	/
Provides in-book or instructor’s manual support for teachers	/
Overall evaluation of the fit of the book for this course in this program
Should the text be selected		/

In our opinion, this checklist, by Byrd, is not appropriate for an in-depth chapter/textbook evaluation. Looking at this the holistic view, we can see that this checklist seems to be a good evaluation at first but after viewing this checklist analytically, we deduced that this checklist is suitable for the overview of the textbook/chapter. In lay man’s term, this checklist just focuses on whether the textbook/chapter meets the need of the students, teachers and the curriculum, as a whole.

A full analysis of the textbook/chapter is hard to be done because the checklist is too simple and a bit vague. Furthermore, this checklist does not include the micro-evaluation stage that is crucial, even though it contains the macro-evaluation stage.

Our suggestions would be to use this checklist as the overview evaluation and then complemented by another checklist that involves a more in-depth evaluation. Then we can consider the evaluation is good.

Reflection
I never did an evaluation on textbook before. I also never use a checklist before so this experience is really a good thing for me especially since I am going to be a teacher in the future. As a pre-service teacher I guess i can say that I need to look more at other checklist as each have their own advantages and disadvantages. I only used one and its not much so definitely I need to get as much knowledge on these checklist because I will have to use them.
After learning about checklist for textbook, I found it interesting that even textbook is in need of a checklist. I always thought that a textbook is perfect to use for all sort of teaching and everything in it is flawless. So finding a checklist for textbook is really suprising and change my way of thinking on textbook.
Like I said I only used one checklist so to improve my knowledge is by knowing what are the purpose of the checklist as one is not entirely the same as the next.  

not sure what week is this from?

What influenced the building of materials development

1) Principle of SLA influenced the developing of material through theories that have been introduced in SLA.

 -Exposing language in authentic use: things that we do everyday actually play a big role in developing the material for example as easy as starting a conversation or reading, watching or listening English material, if students like to watch English movie or cartoon we can relate the story that they have watched in building the materials.

-Develop confidence: some students have problems with their confidence, what we doesn’t know is those who quiet actually have lot of thought but they are unable to talk about it because of their level of confidence. In order for us to build the material consider those who are quiet, meaning that the material can stimulate the student’s confidence.

2) Principle of teaching and learning.

-Helps learners to feel at ease: using textbook as the only learning material will make the lesson a little boring, with the used of other materials such as graphic, video or audio visual can enhance the lesson quality.

-Maximize learning potential: to build a good material for students teachers have to look through what the students have achieved in their previous lesson therefore the material that teachers have to develop must enhance the students prior knowledge.   

3) Learners + parent’s goal

-Materials that we develop should not always cater their interest but the materials should at least stimulate their interest in learning rather than demolishing the dust, as you can see learners and parent’s goal are connected to each other, this is because both of them share something which is motivation. From the learners point of view we call it intrinsic motivation where students develop their interest within themselves while from the parent point of view its extrinsic motivation where parents motivate their child in learning.

4) Country’s vision + Curriculum goals & objectives

- Both of them connected to each other. For example, other groups have mention about “Celik IT” and ability to speak English. Our country need the students to master in both IT and English therefore the material that we should develop must have the ability to boost the students knowledge about IT  and English. Other than that parent’s goal and country’s vision are connected as well, parent want their children to learn and acquire knowledge therefore the country’s vision have to consider what the parent want, PIBG or PTA here are main roles in building the visions.      

Reflection
I thought that developing a material was only with the goal of helping the learner/student. I never knew that it has so much more than it seem. When I was in primary school, I thought that my teacher always just make material in which ever way she like. But after doing this activity I found that I was wrong.
This greatly affects my knowledge as now I have to look at a few things before and after i finish making my material for the future students. I guess I will need to read more principles and familiarize with it if I want to make a a great material.

week 9?

In this activity, students are required to listen and understand a talk. Question (A) is asking about what are the changes that happen to the teenagers and the counsellor’s role in helping students to solve the problems. Question (B) will be about what effects that growing up have on teenagers. Firstly, students will be discussing about the questions based on the audio recording. The question starts with a bottom-up process where students have to listen to the topic in the talk and later on they will have to answer a question about changes that teenagers are facing now, activities that involved in this question are answering and duplicating. First, the listener will listen to the topic and then they will answer the question, other than that they are actually duplicating what is mention by the speaker in the audio. Next, the question which can a counsellor help them to solve those problems actually involved top-down process, students have to discuss the question based on what they know simply saying that they will have to utilize their schemata. We would say that the extending activity involved in the question because they have to think beyond the text by continuing whether talking to a counsellor can help students solve the problems.

Question C need the students to use both top-down and bottom-up processes. To understand what they have to do, first they have to listen the audio recording and recall back a situation where they seek for someone advices and then they will have to relate the experiences to their friends. The audio recording acts as a guide for them to recall what information that they can use in relating the experience to their friends. This guide or scaffolding, become the base of their knowledge and they can get access to it. This is the combination of both top-down and bottom-up processes, often called the hybrid process.

The listening process play a crucial part in this activity because they need to be able to understand the text to be able to answer the questions. To be able to understand this, they need to listen properly to the audio recording. Picking up the major points from a text is the most crucial ability to master and by training them to listen properly, little by little, they would be able to pick up the points from a recording. This contributes to generate meaning from what they heard. With the information they collected, it is now possible to answer the questions by referring back to what they heard and thus comprehension is established.

Reflection
Doing this activity was hard for me as I was having a hard time to understand on how this activity is supposed to be conducted. But thanks to my group member I can say that I understand most of it now. Although there is no guarantee that I will remember this activity for long. But I guess this activity is good to be use in class not because it was us who made it but its because its an activity that is possible to use. I may not be able to use it now but when I start teaching, this blog would be one of my first platform for designing and remaking activity for my students.  

Week 4 and Week 5 reflection

So this two week we were given one task if my memory serve me right. It was using the checklist given to us by our lecturer to do an evaluation of a textbook more specifically a chapter of the textbook well actually two chapter or three. My group we were given the Byrd checklist which sounds more like bird than Byrd right. Well that's just my own opinion. After we did our analysis and evaluation were to make a presentation slide about the problem we face during using the checklist and the solution we can use.

How it affects me?
Well at first it was hard and confusing reading Byrd's article since we never read anything related to checklist criterion and stuff like that. So there a lot of fuss on how we should do the presentation because no one really understand the article at first. As for me I thought the two checklist given inside the article were both Byrd's checklist but instead the first checklist was the original version from where the Byrd's checklist were modified and the second checklist was the real Byrd's checklist. That was my own mistake for not noticing. So just reading and understanding the article was confusing but with the help of my friend we manage to understand it. Then we use the checklist on two chapter of the textbook and we found it hard to do. Because the Byrd's checklist is only suitable for use if you want to make an evaluation of the textbook as a whole not chapter by chapter. So we conclude that the only way for us to make an evaluation of a chapter in a textbook is to use other checklist that specifically targets chapters of a textbook.

How does it affect my current level of knowledge?
I never knew that we(future teacher) need to make an evaluation and analysis of a textbook. It comes as a shock to me that we need to an evaluation of a textbook.  I always thought that textbook are there only for us to follow it and teach the students with it and now that  I know i'm going to need to make an evaluation in the near future I feel a little bit relieved that I have knowledge on checklist and how to use it as well as when and which one I need to use for my evaluation. So I guess i'm thankful my lecturer gave me this knowledge.

How can I use this knowledge to improve myself?
In textbook there are a lot of activity from different theme. From my experience as a student I found  that a teacher of mine when she uses the textbook to teach me it always follow the sequence in which it was already decided. Even when the activity does not suit our need or is not that good she still uses it. So for me, i'm thinking that isn't it better to use the textbook according to the suitability of the activity and not just following the sequence. Another point is that if the activity is not suitable then would it not be better to use a different activity. I doubt that she used a checklist to improve or modify the activity in the textbook because if she did then we wouldn't use the textbook in every single class.
If it were me it should be possible for me to make a new material which is suitable for them and although constant evaluation of textbook is somewhat not entirely possible nowadays at least the use of checklist should be implement so that I and other teachers can at least see the activity that can and cannot be use for class. As teacher we should and must modify the activity when the need of it rises.

week 7

Examples of Digital Language Learning Material

-          Facebook

-          Twitter

-          Blogger

-          Prezi

-          Wordpress

-          Tumblr

-          Youtube

-          Edmodo

-          Schoology

List down SLA theories and principles

-          Interactionist theory (Long, 1985; 1996)

-          Sociocultural theory

-          Communicative language teaching

-          Comprehensible Input theory (Swain, n.d.; Krashen, 1991)

-          Affective Domain (Krashen, 1991)

Criteria of technical usability:

-          Errors

(i)                  Less serious errors = affect the work of the user

(ii)                More serious errors = endanger the preservability of users’ outputs

-          Efficiency

·         Refers to how well experienced users can operate an application after they have mastered it.

-          Learnability

·         How long beginners’ use of a system before they learn the essential skills necessary to perform their tasks

-          Memorability

·         Ability of an occasional user who previously used the system to remember its operational system

Criteria of pedagogical usability

-          Feedback

(i)                  The system or learning material should provide the student with encouraging and immediate feedback è encouraging feedback increases learning motivation; immediate feedback helps the student understand problematic part in their learning

(ii)                Learning is based on the fact that mistakes are corrected immediately and progression cannot happen when corrections are not done.

-          Motivation

(i)                  Affects learning and makes people behave the way they do

(ii)                Motivation = the way to do things by reference to instincts, desires and reinforcement; support the direction on one’s general behavior

(iii)               Motivation affects alertness and vigor

-          Goal orientation

(i)                  When the goals of teacher, students and LM are closely aligned, best results are obtained

(ii)                Goals should be clear cut and able to motivate them to achieve them

(iii)               When the students themselves do not set their goals, their meaningfulness should be justified from the point of view of motivation

(iv)              Students should be able pursue their own interests in relation with learning goals

-          Learner control

(i)                  Learner’s memory should be pushed to the limit when learning a new topic

(ii)                Materials should be broken down to be learned into small meaningful units

-          Applicability

(i)                  The approach taken in learning material should correspond to the skills that the learner will later need in everyday and working life

(ii)                The skills or knowledge acquired should be able to be transferred to other contexts

(iii)               Learning something new can be accomplished effectively by relating it to practical tasks

(iv)              LM should be at appropriate level from the point of view of learner’s learning process

-          Added value

(i)                  Induce creativity in learners when using DLLM

(ii)                Other kind of added value: adaptability to individual needs, number of flexible options, learning is controlled and initiated by learners, interesting contents, development of communication, active participation of students

-          Learner activity

(i)                  Learners’ independent activity may increase when a teacher stays in background; a facilitator

(ii)                Learning materials can support learner’s activities by being interesting and based on real life

-          Cooperative/collaborative learning

(i)                  Studying with others to achieve common learning goal

(ii)                Instead of just acquiring personal knowledge, learners construct knowledge as members of community in practice

-          Valuation of previous knowledge

(i)                  Previous knowledge from the learners are assumed to be possessing some skills that previously been presented

(ii)                LM that respects learner’s previous knowledge takes account in differences of skills and knowledge in learners and encourages them to take advantage of it in learning.

-          Flexibility

(i)                  Learner’s learning differences should be taken into account.

(ii)                Information gained in pre-test can be used to provide learners with different routes or methods of studies.

Rough outline of DLLM

- using prezi as a platform to develop the DLLM
-includes 6 activity; each according to the levels or bands according to the School-Based
Assessment (SBA) that the MOE developed
-Using a chapter from the English Form 2 textbook; making sure the chapter is interesting and
relatable to the students thus relevant to be used in their everyday and working life
-Each activities are different from each other; might include one language skills. might be more than
one (e.g. reading and writing in on activity)
-Might be focusing on linguistic, thematic or both types of content
-Each activity is a prgression of the previous one; the first activity (band 1), increasing with each
activity progress
-Making sure the materials follow the criteria of technical of technical and pedagogical usability  

Virtual Design

a) Harmony
 - the manner elements of a display interact together in a pleasing manner.
-it pulls the pieces of visual image together.
-can be achieved through repetition and rhythm, where rhythm is the flow decipted in a visual and
helps direct eye movement.
-to ensure harmony 3x3 grid must be used.
-rhythm should either be a clockwise or counter clockwise.

b) Balance and Symmetry
-we can bring balance to the elements of different sizes by either moving them closer of farther from
the centre of the page.
-symmetry is when one half of a visual display is a mirror image of the other half.
-types of symmetry: horizontal, approximate horizontal, radial and asymmetry.


c) Emphasis
-create dominance and focus in their work.
-it emphasize colour, value, shapes or other design elements to achieve dominance. For example
"facebook" page used dark colour as their background and the symbol "f" for "facebook" in light
colour.

d) Alignment
-Alignment of elements within a screen is important part of organizing and grouping.
-should visually maximize differences between text, label and pictures.

e) Unity
-relationsjip among visual elements that helps all elements to work together.
-gives a sense of closure or oneness to a visual image.
-can be achieved through use of similar shapes, common pattern or use of a common background.


REFLECTION

Ok so I know a little about using a Digital Language Learning Material (DLLM) but I know some of them because I use them almost every single day if I do say so myself. Although I use them sometimes I wonder if I can really use it as part of  my teaching material one day. Right now i'm starting to doubt my ability to teach student in the future. But on the bright side I learn a very interesting DLLM which is known as Bitstrips and this is thanks to Stennia for showing me it. Its kind of like a meme but you can make one yourself from the background to the people face which can be match to someone else face. Since they can find a DLLM which is different than what most of us know I currently trying to find other DLLM which can be use as future teaching material.  

Thanks to this assignment that we did I have to say that I do not know how to use most of the DLLM that currently known to me. Right now i'm starting to learn how to use "edmodo" and "prezi". "Prezi" is harder to use but with time I think I can master using it which will be very helpful for me in the future when I start teaching. 

Week 3 Reflection or was it week 2

Material Development

For this week’s blog entry, we are asked to post a reflection regarding our previous assignments. Three questions are given as our guideline in writing our reflection. The questions are as follows:

1)      How does it affect me as pre-service teacher?

2)      How does it affect my current level of knowledge?

3)      How can I use that knowledge to improve myself?

Reflection

Firstly, when I was a student I sometimes thought that learning everything from a graphic novel would be the awesomes thing to do. But that would be impossible because if it possible then someone would have done it. The material though did interest me a lot. Well maybe not all of them but some of it. I mean how did the teacher makes them and why some of the material is good but other are not so good.  After watching the Jeremy Short video, I understand that some of the materials are not target to my needs instead it was for my other classmate.

Secondly, it really affects my current level of knowledge because in each passing week there is assignment and in these assignments is where the chance for me to gain more knowledge comes. I really like being exposed to the principles of behind material development because it will really help me for other assignment not just in the near future but also when I have become a full teacher. 

Lastly, with this knowledge I have gained a better understanding of how to make a material for my future learner. With this new found knowledge I really starting to think that I want to experiment in making my material so that I would be able to grasp the technical side of making a material. Success or not in making material the experience in making it would be very valuable.

Article duh~.

Write an article on the topic integrating technology in teaching writing. It can be anything related to the slides, own opinion, how you would use it in future.

              Well everyday more and more technology is being develop an being completed. It can't be deny that almost every single population in this world know how to use technology (excluding newborn babies) even if its just a simple vending machine. From my past experience, my generations doesn't really learn high level technology like mobile phones or computer until we were 12 years old and we even only learn the basic of it. But now even children as young as 7 years old know how to use high level technology like smart phone and maybe there are even younger people that are capable of using technology. Technology is part of everyone daily life. Which is why there would be no reason to not use technology to teach students in school anymore and with technology we can infuse a different way for students to write which will improve their writing skills much more faster and better then the traditional way.

                 The government should provide computers or laptops to school for student to use in their learning. It would greatly help the student to learn as they would be using something they are used to using already. The students can use Microsoft Word to use for writing and there are other application that can be use as well. Writing application like this will prevent the student from writing word or to be more precise prevent them from typing the wrong word as the application will tell them if they type the word wrongly. They would improve their grammar skill and not only their writing skill. Its like killing two birds with one stone. The use of Internet would also helps them because they would read more when they are doing their homework. They would gain more knowledge then they should have in school when the read in the internet.

                Next, integrating the use of technology in teaching writing should be done because it will greatly reduce the stress on both teachers and students. Student won't have to bring heavy textbook with the addition of the exercise book anymore to the school and teachers will only have to prepare the slides for the student to. Meanwhile, student can make their work clean and organize with technology. If it was paper, they would likely make mistake and then their work would be seen as dirty which is bad to look at. Students will also be likely write better when they want a positive feedback from other people like in websites like 'Facebook', 'Blogger' or 'Twitter'. Although for student to write in websites like these it may worsen their writing ability as they might use short forms of a word like 'lol' which means laugh out loud.

               Lastly, when I become a teacher I would definitely use technology to teach my students how to write because it be easier for the both of us. Firstly, I might teach more than 1 class so I would probably make a group website for my students. Everything would be done in that website like information sharing, forum, notes and even submitting assignment. This idea is from watching my lecturers doing it to me and my friends and it really helps students and teachers. So maybe I'm copying them but in the future lets see if I can do it better than them and maybe improve the way in my own way not sure how but surely do it one day.