Shaping the Way We Teach English: Module 04, Pair and Group Work
Hello guys, this week we will be analyzing the use of collaborative activities.
Part I (Class work)
First, as you watch the first segment of the video, observe the following class. Look for answers to the questions...(j
1. How is the class organized (chairs, tables, desks)?
2. How are the pairs and/or groups organized?
3. What kinds of interactions occur between the groups and teacher, and within the groups themselves?
Use the Describe, Interpret, Evaluate (steps 1 through 3) process to analyze the class events.
After viewing the first segment of the video reflect on the following (classwork in pairs: hand it in today):
1. What were your results with the Describe, Interpret, Evaluate process? Was there anything about the class that surprised you or was new for you?
2. In what sequence did the activities occur, and why?
3. What kind of learning do you think took place among students during the small group work? During the contest (game)?
Second,watch the second segment and and discuss the following questions:
1. What is the role of the teacher? The students?
2. What kind of group management techniques do you notice?
3. What is the purpose of using group work in this case?
After viewing the second segment reflect on the following(classwork in pairs: hand it in today)
1. What kinds of direction did the students give each other? Did you notice any examples of student self-corrections?
2. What kinds of spontaneous communication took place between students?
3. What were some of the pros and cons of an all-class writing event like this one?
Part II (Homework: Individually post the answers on this blog. Due on April 8th, 2016)
Read the the section of Module 4 in Readings
This module showed examples from a class of younger learners and from a university-level class.
1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might thestudents’ performance affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in
the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom
itself?
Katherine Gissel Amador Izcano
ResponderEliminar1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
- I think the second activity could work better with both age groups because students not only cooperate each other as a group, but also, they apply self-management, social skills/ learning, and spontaneous communication. I probably adapt some variations like a panel or debate, at the end of the activity between the groups discussing the answers or another point of view of a certain topic.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might the
Students’ performance affects the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
-The role of assessment was to prepare students giving directions about the cooperative tasks. Students need some help getting started. Also, giving group grades. We can notice that in the first segment. The results and the students’ behaviors could affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes.
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom itself?
- In the first segment, students were discussing and sharing opinions about the movie they saw before the class. The teacher was always monitoring the class and following their discussions and sometimes helping them and giving feedback. The classroom was divided in order to move the chairs and work in groups. In the second segment, students were always working together and self-monitoring each other, they were analyzing grammar points and how the sentences were written. The teacher was checking the students’ behavior and perception about the topic. The classroom was organized in order to give the opportunity to the students to work in group.
Cristian Monge Martinez
ResponderEliminar1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
According to what I saw the second activity could work with the ages of both groups, because in each group they work together having self-management in each group as well I will adapt some activities such as: panel or maybe debate according to they ages.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might the Students’ performance affects the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
The role of assessment in the classroom was to prepare each students or in they group directions of how to work cooperatively because is the main point of the class as weell we can noticed that the students present some disadvantages because the students can affect the future lessons plans accoring to the students.
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom itself?
Well according to the fisrt segment all the students in their group were discussing and sahring ideas about what they were doing in the class something very important is that the teacher were always helping the students in what they were doing with the task assigned by the teacher in order to have better results at the end because in the class we saw different types of ages as well different needs, the teacher role during the whole class she was observing all the time they activities she did a great job with them, the class were organized very well they didnt have problems to work in group helping each other.
1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
ResponderEliminarI consider that contest game could work perfectly with both age groups, I just would suggest changing the topic with Young children giving them clear instructions and instead of talking about a movie the questions could be about a short story or a particular song presented in the class, in this way the teacher will increase students’ motivation without varying to much the task.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might the students’ performance affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
In both activities the teacher assessment was presented guiding them in the task the teachers were giving directions clearly and monitoring the process of the activity.
The students’ performance could affect the future lessons if they do not feel comfortable or they are intimidated by the teachers’ correction in the tasks. Also the students` discipline could affect the learning therefore the teacher should have good group management monitoring learners’ behavior in the classroom.
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in
the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom
itself?
In the first example the teacher was guiding and monitoring during the task. Helping the trios when they needed .The students were discussing in their groups even if the teacher was not observing them. The classroom was clean and the desks well organized.
In the second activity the teacher was leading the class guiding and correcting the students’ mistakes. Some students were a little bit distracted taking and not paying attention so the teacher stayed silent, until the students noticed it and paid attention to the teacher`s instructions . However others students were focused in their work, they were discussing the reading and making self-correction and checking grammar in the sentences they did. The classroom was organized in table groups by 4 members .The class has enough space in order to the teacher could walk around the students, monitoring the activity. Also there were posters stuck around the classroom and the board had a big paper with information about sockeyes salmon.
1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
ResponderEliminarI think that the first activity could work well with both groups, because students learn to work in a cooperative way, besides with the game they feel motivated and comfortable. Moreover, this type of activities foster participation in the class and it can be used with a story or with any topic that they have learned to have like a review or summary.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might the
students’ performance affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
In the first activity, assessment take place when they are making the game and the teacher can see if they are correct or not.
In the second activity, assessment is done when the students finished making the sentences and of course the teacher could see who works well or not. Also teachers could have made assessment when they were monitoring the activities, they could see who worked or not.
Students´ performance can affect future lessons if the students managed the topic correctly that was introduced through the activity or not, because if they couldn´t comprehend well or don´t have complete understanding of what they had to do, it could affect that the teacher continue with other topics.
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom itself?
In the first activity, I could see that the teacher was assisting and monitoring them through the activities, the students were sharing ideas and the teacher was guiding them. Classroom was organized so students could work comfortable.
In the second activity, the teacher just gave instructions and they worked independently. Students did a great job working in groups. The classroom was decorated with teaching materials such as: charts, pictures, information about the activity they were doing, and other topics related with their subjects., as well as organized.
Arleth F. Maradiaga
1._As I read, I believe that second activity could work better with both age groups because students not only cooperate each other as a group, but also, they apply self-management, social learning skill, and spontaneous communication. I can adapt some variations like a panel or debate, at the end of the activity between the groups discussing the answers or another point of view of an specific topic.
ResponderEliminar2._ Well, he role of assessment was to prepare students giving directions about the cooperative tasks. Students need some help getting started. Also, giving group grades. I noticed that in the first segment the results and the students’ behaviors may affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes.
3._In the first activity, I can see that the teacher was assisting and monitoring students through the activities, and the students were sharing ideas and the teacher was guiding them. The Classroom was well organized so students could work comfortable.
In the second activity, the teacher give instructions and they work independently. Also, Students did a great job working as a group.
Fatima Tjada
1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
ResponderEliminar-I think that in both groups could work better, because in both they cooperate with their student they discuus in groups and that is important. also they apply self-management, social learning skill and so on.we can include debates like an activity between group (a) and (b) for example.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might the Students’ performance affects the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
-The role of assessment was to prepare students guiding by the teacher also making cooperative tasks (group and pair work). also it is important that the teacher was teaching to work in groups because that was the point, but also the students use self-correction by themselves during their work together.
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom itself?
- In the first segment, students were sharing opinions about the movie they saw before the class. The teacher was always monitoring the class and The classroom was divided in order to move the chairs and doing it in order sure and work in groups. In the second segment, students were always working together and self-monitoring each other, and also they can correct their mistakes. The classroom was organized in order to give the opportunity to the students to work in group.
BY: CARLOS SEVILLA
1. I believe that the contest game can work perfectly with both age groups, but we should try to include interesting topics for students that can lead to the motivational development of themselves. Otherwise, it does not matter the variety of activities we want to include; they will not be interested in participating and working collaboratively.
ResponderEliminar2. For both activities the teacher's assessment can be perceived as the guiding of the class through giving directions and monitoring students' performance. One of the most common way for assessment is the cooperative tasks that teachers give to students in order to make them work collaboratively and creating a well-prepared environment for learning. Also students' attitude can affect the lesson plan of a class; the more frustrated they are, the less participation they will have in class so it is recommendable to monitor them and to make them feel confident with all the activities we have planned for it.
3. In the first segment the teacher was using a guiding approach in which she was giving instructions, monitoring students performance and helping them whenever was needed while students were discussing a lot without needing the teacher to stand behind them and this can be because they were surrounded of all the materials they needed to complete the task.
On the other hand, the second segment showed how students were sharing their opinions about a movie while the teacher was monitoring them. It is noticeable the arrangement of the classroom that helped them to become aware of the task they were completing. Students were divided in groups and they had the opportunity to correct others' mistakes. Finally they had some posters stuck on the walls which allowed them to have a cheerful environment.
1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
ResponderEliminarA. For young and university levels both activities could work perfectly. For both I'll modify the topic for onather with a real interest to them. The first activity is presented for university levels in order to do it with kids I could change the way they response to the answers. Instead of answer individually at first they could negotiate it in the groups and then answer. It will help them to stress cooperation, confidence, interdependency and individual accountability.
In the second activity which is used for young-learners, I'll modify the the last part when the teacher discuss the task, students can report to the the whole class what they did. Also adding a little bit of competitiveness in the collaborative task. It would increase their leadership skills, interdependency and group strategies.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might the students’ performance affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
A. The role of assessment in these activities were to performe a collaborative task. In the first was focus on individual grades and in the second one was group graders.
Students' performance affect the purpose, reasons and objectives that teachers prepared for the lessons. If groups of pairs were organized for a specific purpose or as group goals, and students don't follow them it means changing teachers plans to students plans and this is the moment when students' learning styles take place. The teacher most pay attention to those styles and bring them to the class and using them for future classes for manteing the concentration and motivation to the class.
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom
itself
A. I noticed that the teacher in both cases was giving structuring for performing the task and monitoring students in they development of it, at the end they were engage of revising and making corrections to the tasks. Every group is focused on performing the task, sharing ideas, and working together. Also asking when they didn't understand something for clarification. The classroom were large and the groups were not longer (3-4) which helps the groups work effectively and give the time for the teacher to monitor every group as needed. The environment in the classrooms looks attractive to the students and there is enough space for them to work.
Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
ResponderEliminar· I think that the first activity could work very well with all ages, because that would help the students to interact each other and the can learn to work in group and help their classmates. But also the second activity is a very good idea to work with teenagers and children both are good activities but I really liked the first one. I would not make any adjustment because I can adequate them for any topic.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might the students’ performance affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
· The role of the assessment was to give the students instructions to make each activity and guide them to complete each task correctly. The students´ performance it could be better in the future because they will achieve any task that the teacher will plan.
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom itself?
· What I saw in the first activity is that the teacher explore the students´ background with a task that include a reading that they must read in the last class and them they work in pairs to make a summary about that reading. The environments of the classrooms were adequate to the tasks that students develop. The students learn how to work with their classmates and I think that the teachers did a really good job.
1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
ResponderEliminar. I think that both activities could work with young and university students. However, the activities should be interesting for the student in order to motivate them. And I think that with young people we can change the way they have to respondem, maybe they can do it in groups.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might the
students’ performance affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
. I think that in that class assessment was applied in the way that students have to develop a task in collaboration with their classmates. The student´s performance could affects the future lessons in the way that their behavior was not the best, because sometimes they don´t look so interested in the class.
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in
the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom
itself?
. I noticed that the teacher was always helping students by giving directions to them. Each group was partcipitating in developing the task, they were disscusing and working together. Working in groups helped them to be more comfortable and correcting mistakes by themselves.
1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
ResponderEliminarIn my opinion the second activity could be a good idea for the two groups, because with that activity students can help each other as a group. It means that with things such as: social skill learning and spontaneous communication.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might the students’ performance affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
The assessment's role in the classroom was to prepare students to give directions about the cooperative task. As we can saw in the video students' behaviors can affect the lesson that the teacher has for her/his class.
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom itself?
In both cases the teacher was as an instructor, with this I mean that the teacher was using a giving approach. Giving the students the opportunity to develop the task by themselves while the teacher was monitoring students in the development of the activity.
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminar1. The second activity could work well with both age groups because they can interact with their classmates and also they can feel more comfortable and correct their mistakes together. A good change for this activity could be the way in which students have to answer the questions its better if they can have the opportunity to make the question to their team and all together discuss the posible answer.
ResponderEliminar2. The assessment's role in the classroom its so important because here the students attends to the instructions and they have to performance the task through the colaborative learning.
3. In both segments the teacher just give the instructions and was guiding the task but who performs the task were the students, so the participation of the teachers are just to guide and in some cases to advice their srudents.So the focus in this kind of activities is on the students rather than teacher.
1. The second activity could work well with both age groups because they can interact with their classmates and also they can feel more comfortable and correct their mistakes together. A good change for this activity could be the way in which students have to answer the questions its better if they can have the opportunity to make the question to their team and all together discuss the posible answer.
ResponderEliminar2. The assessment's role in the classroom its so important because here the students attends to the instructions and they have to performance the task through the colaborative learning.
3. In both segments the teacher just give the instructions and was guiding the task but who performs the task were the students, so the participation of the teachers are just to guide and in some cases to advice their srudents.So the focus in this kind of activities is on the students rather than teacher.
1. I think the second activity could work well with both age groups since they can work together, share their ideas, self-correct their mistakesand create a paragraph or short story. But I think this activity could work better if we give at each group a different topic that catch their attention to create a short story and then to present to their classmates.
ResponderEliminar2. In both activities assessment played an important role since students were encouraging in develping those activities and follow instructions of the teacher. In the first activity assessment take place when they were answering T/F statements and at the end of the game she gave at the winning group extra points. In the second activity assessment was done when students finished the paragraph. Also the teacher offered her help by guiding and organizing in a correct way the struture of a paragraph in a correct way and identifying the students’ mistakes.
3. In the first class the teacher gave a clear instructions so students in group disscused and shared ideas about the movie they was in the last class. The teacher were guiding, monitoring and helping the students by giving feedback. The class were divided in two groups to answer true or false the statements. In the second activity students worked together and monitoring each other . They created sentences , analyzed the sentences and correct their mistakes. The teacher just guided the students to complete the task.
Aida Suazo Betancourth
Part II
ResponderEliminar1. Both activities (contest/collaborative writing) work well for both ages.
The adaptations I would make to the contest are:
a. Instead of writing V or F with the chalk or marker, I would give them cards so that they can stick their answers on a wall.
b. I would divide the class in more groups with few members.
c. I would try with Wh-Questions.
The adaptations I would make to the collaborative writing are:
a. I would give the students more time to select their roles in the group and to share ideas (brainstorming) before they start writing.
b. I would give them the opportunity to write a complete composition within their groups instead of fragments. This will help them to develop coherence and cohesion in their writing.
2. I like the fact that the teacher was there, giving feedback, helping and monitoring but not having too much intervention or influence in students´ work. Students´ performance will show the teacher the effectiveness of the class organization and techniques used.
3. Observations
a. Teachers were always there for the students. No too far, so that they could help them when needed; not too close so that they encourage autonomy.
b. Other groups were always working. It didn´t matter if the teacher was close or far. They were focused and engaged with their tasks.
c. The classrooms were well organized and decorated with helpful information for the students when producing language.
Student: Josue Daniel Moreno
1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
ResponderEliminarIn my opinion both activities can work, teachers can adapt it according to student’s ages. But I liked more the second activity because of the self -management it means that they have a previous technique before the activity.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might the
students’ performance affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
the role of assessment in the classroom is to guide the students, giving them directions and monitoring the learning process accomplishing the goals step by step.
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in
the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom
itself?
The first activity the teacher was guiding, assessing students while they were developing the activities.
In the second activity the teacher gave instructions and the students worked independently. I think behind self-management the teacher taught a technique which allows self- correction.
1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
ResponderEliminarIn my opinion both activities can work, teachers can adapt it according to student’s ages. But I liked more the second activity because of the self -management it means that they have a previous technique before the activity.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might the
students’ performance affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
the role of assessment in the classroom is to guide the students, giving them directions and monitoring the learning process accomplishing the goals step by step.
3. The focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening in
the foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom
itself?
The first activity the teacher was guiding, assessing students while they were developing the activities.
In the second activity the teacher gave instructions and the students worked independently. I think behind self-management the teacher taught a technique which allows self- correction.
1. Which of the activities could work well for both age groups? What kinds of adjustments or adaptations might be necessary?
ResponderEliminarIn my opinion the first activity could work very well with all ages, because it would help the students to interact each other and the can learn to work in group and help their classmates. But also the second activity is a very good idea to work with teenagers and children both are good activities but I really liked the first one. I probably adapt some variations like a panel or debate, at the end of the activity, questions and answers.
2. What role does assessment play in the classroom activities that you saw? How might thestudents’ performance affect the future lessons that the teacher plans for these classes?
The role of assessment was help and prepare students giving directions about the cooperative tasks. students' attitude can affect the lesson plan of a class the will get frustrated, the less participation in the activities.
3.the focus in the questions up to this point has mainly been on what you notice happening inthe foreground of the scenes. Watch the classes again and notice what is happening in the background. What do you notice about the teacher? About other student groups? About the classroom itsel f?
Students were discussing and sharing opinions about the movie they saw before the class, the teacher was guiding and monitoring during the task, the students were discussing and sometimes helping them and giving feedback. In the second activity the teacher was leading the class guiding and correcting the students’ mistakes. In this lesson some of the students were distracted. However others students were working, they were discussing the reading and making self-correction and checking grammar in the sentences they did. The classroom was organized in order to give the opportunity to the students to work in group.
1- I think the activities in the class are according the age of the students and help them to improve the comprehension of the language.
ResponderEliminar2- Work in group id good idea to the students develop cooperation in the class, but the behavior of the students when they work in groups can affect the future lesson that the teacher plan in the class.
3- In the first activity the teacher assigned activities and the students in groups share ideas about the activity. Also the teacher supervise the work of the students and guide them.
In the second the students work in groups and have the opportunity to correct mistakes by themselves, enjoy the activity and learning at the same time.
student:Heydi Lopez
Evelin Lopez Sauceda.
ResponderEliminar1.I think that,the first activity goes to with all ages,they can interact,they can participate in many ways and also,they can share their ideas.The second activity is very interesting because it works with young learners.
2.The teacher has to involve to the students in every activity,the students learn working in groups,but,in other hand the students' behaviors could affect the lessons that the teacher has for them.
3.The students were talking about the movie and the teacher was helping to the students in their comments.
Also,the students were working together and helping together in order to get the classes' goals.
I. In my opinion both activities encourage students to participate in the class. But the first activity could be adapted in all levels. Some of the adjustment or adaptations to make would be the level of the students and the contextualized words.
ResponderEliminarII. The teacher could evaluate the class not only by applying tests. Measuring the abilities of the students is an excellent technique to realize itself if they improve in areas such as vocabulary and pronunciation. These kind of activities help the students to assimilate knowledge. In this way it will be easier for students and the teacher to develop lessons in the future.
III. In the second class the teacher separates the class in four-students group she gives instruction constantly besides she uses teaching aids to a better comprehension of the students. The other groups work at the same time the teacher helps them to develop the activities. All the students interact each others.
I. In my opinion both activities encourage students to participate in the class. But the first activity could be adapted in all levels. Some of the adjustment or adaptations to make would be the level of the students and the contextualized words.
ResponderEliminarII. The teacher could evaluate the class not only by applying tests. Measuring the abilities of the students is an excellent technique to realize itself if they improve in areas such as vocabulary and pronunciation. These kind of activities help the students to assimilate knowledge. In this way it will be easier for students and the teacher to develop lessons in the future.
III. In the second class the teacher separates the class in four-students group she gives instruction constantly besides she uses teaching aids to a better comprehension of the students. The other groups work at the same time the teacher helps them to develop the activities. All the students interact each others.
I. I think the activies which were developed were encouraging students to participate in the class, avobe all , the firs activity was adapted to the students level, so they got fun and felt really confortable. Other wise they don't forget these experiences and will be effective learning.
ResponderEliminarII. The teacher were very active with the students, they were working in groups sharing ideas among them these technique is very effective to improve in some areas such as,vocabulary pronuncation and fluency . So cooperative learning is vitality to put in practice to become the students succesfull.
III. Besides the use of appropiate materials to help them in better comprehension in order to learn well the topic. But there were clear instruction constantly ,to develop the lesson and to acquire the knowledge in an easier way.
STUDENT: Ena Belinda Hernandez
The class is organized using chairs and tables
ResponderEliminarThe students work first individually then in pairs and finally as a group.
The interaction between the group and teacher are: First, students listen instruction gives by the teacher and then they work as a group. The group themselves interact each other in the groups with their ideas and opinions.
This video shows us how to use collaborative activities in the classroom as a teacher. And how the teacher can to integrate the four skills during a lesson. Also to motivate students working individually, in pair and as a group.