WEEK 4 & 5

Week 4 - Material Development (2)

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.

WEEK 3 CLT

Week 3 - clt MD

REFLECTION
How does the lesson affect me on my study?
In this tutorial we are required to identify the theories behind communicative language teaching approach.
Based on what we have done it really affect me on my study because I will not just only use this knowledge for my assignment or final exam but I will also use it for my lesson in the future. The theories behind CLT also help us in creating our material for teaching other than that we are also required to refer to the KBSM so that we can really understand what we are doing, with that we can understand what we are dealing with.  
Does the tutorial helps me on increasing my prior knowledge? 
It really does helps me on increasing my prior knowledge because as I said before it will help me in my assignments, exams and future lesson for my future students. We already learned about CLT before but with this tutorial it increased our knowledge on what CLT is all about.  
Can I use this knowledge later on?
I can really use this knowledge later on. Future lesson for my future students will not go smoothly if I did not learn about this.

WEEK 2 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

Based on the tutorial that we have done I realize that there are lot of things that influence the building of materials development. As a future teacher material development helps teachers on giving lesson to their students, there are things that should be considered on building the materials. How does the lesson affect me on my study? It clearly shows that the lesson have opened our mind on how materials work in lesson and how it connected with the development of students. The tutorial was not meant for just answering an exam in our final but it will also helps us in the future to deal with our students for example principle of SLA and teaching and learning guide us on how to make sure our material can be successful in teaching lesson to students.           

Does the tutorial helps me on increasing my prior knowledge? To be exact, at first I thought that building materials for lesson rely on the teacher but I was wrong. To build a good material needs to have several views for example learner, parent’s goal and country’s view. Without those things the materials will not suit the lesson and maybe the materials will not be materials that help students to develop their knowledge. Teachers have to be concern on student’s interest so that they can relate their materials thus making their lesson more engaging. Other than that parent’s goal and country’s view can share one specific goal which is having a great future for the children, for example they want their children to have confidence and enthusiasm in learning therefore teachers must play their role in making their lesson more engaging.

Can I use this knowledge later on? I would say absolutely yes. Why? Because this lesson is not just for exam but it’s actually a knowledge that will helps us later on when we are in our class teaching the next generation.             

Task 11

Responding to students essay

Responding to student’s essay can be a burden if you don’t know how to do it. If you are too nice maybe the students will not be aware of their mistakes next time but if you are too cruel students will feel down and eventually students won’t have the encouragement to finish their work. To be honest the students essay was quite hard to read but still I can understand what is the student are trying to say.

When it comes to respond to the student essay I need to decide what method should I use to gives respond. Now I know how hard it is to mark students essay and how difficult to respond to their essay. In order to respond to the student essay I would use the method which is I will call the student to meet me face to face so that I can talk straight away to him or her. When it comes to give respond to a lot of students I will call students in group which are doing the same mistakes in their essay and then I will comment them as a group and not by individual.   

Task 10

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.

      The development of technology nowadays had change the teaching pattern of school in Malaysia. Technology can be a lot of different things such as mobile phone, computer, web base tool and Internet. We have to realize that integrating technology in writing is the best way to teach students nowadays. Computer or laptop are must have things for students nowadays and Internet connection are vital for students. Other than that technology manage students to be more creative in finishing their work and not to mention technology also motivate students.

Without laptop students cannot finish their work and do research regarding their assignments. Students who study in university are required to submit their assignment in form of typed on papers and not hand write assignment, that is why I said that laptop are must have thing for students nowadays, for them laptop are their soul and they can’t live without it. Early in the article I had mention that Internet connection are vital for students, this is because Internet is the place where students can get information for their assignments other than reading books in library.

When it comes to do their assignments students tends to be more creative because of the technology that we have today. There are times where students can show their creativity when doing a presentation. Besides students, teachers and lecturers also becomes more creative when teaching their students. This is because teachers and lecturers can add in visual ad to their presentation so that students will not feel boring when it comes to study about writing. Other than that videos and songs also can help students to learn writing. Videos and songs are the most useful things to add in because students sometimes are stress out with their work so in order to teach students in relax condition these things should be include in the lesson.

Motivating students to learn writing is not impossible when you know the techniques. For example social networks are things that can be use to teach and learn writing. For instance when it comes to do a writing lesson teachers can simply use “Facebook” “Twitter”or “Blog” to start a writing lesson. Teachers just have to put up a question on their social networks wall and let the students answer the question straight away and they don’t have to wait for class to teach the students. With this method students are able to give lots of idea because the process does not involved face to face interaction.

As a conclusion integrating technology in writing lesson really does help students to learn writing. Other than that technology help students to be more creative and motivated them in learning writing.                   

Task 9

Assessing student's essay

 "The Essay"

     As a future teachers we are ask to assess this student's essay and to be honest it is quite difficult to be a teacher and how I wonder a teacher can mark all of the student's essays in just a few days, it takes effort to do that. Continue with the essay, we decided to give this student 10 out of 20. Although there are lot of grammar mistakes and spelling errors still we can understand what is the student are trying to say in his or her essay. There are some good vocabulary that are used in the essay and it shows that the student are really trying to do the best for his or her essay. All in all we decided to gave the student 10 out of 20  which is enough for the student to pass.

Task 8

Question 1

Construct two instructions for two activities regarding the map shown.

1. Your friends car have been stolen while she was shopping at the Wisma Merdeka and now she wants you to text her the direction on how to go to the Police Station. Your essay must be at least 180 words. The direction must start from Wisma Merdeka.

2. You are a student from peninsular Malaysia which is studying in Kota Kinabalu. Your friend from your hometown asks you to write a letter about the places that you have visit in Kota Kinabalu. You must only write the places stated on the map. Your letter must be not more than 180 words.

Question 2

You are teaching the theme “Environment” to a form three class with intermediate level of proficiency. Describe one activity on how to integrate the following thinking skills into your lesson.

a)analysis

b)application

My title for the activity will be "Care for the environment"

           In order to teach my students about environment, I will show my students some pictures of our environment that have been polluted, after that students will have to point out some ways on how to manage our environment and ways to reduce and stop the pollution.