Metodika – skripta – I. kolokvij

6.10.2014.

Introduction

1. What are the reasons for choosing the teaching profession according to the teachers?

- teachers can make a huge difference, they can shape their students' future

- creativity

- job satisfaction, variety of days – no dull day!

2. Which qualities are most frequently mentioned by the students and the parents?

children

- enthusiastic, supportive, happy, friendly, fun, fair, caring about children, ready to help,

honest, truthful, making sure everyone is always included, keeps explaining, aware of

one’s standard

parents

- be able to get to know children quickly

- be able to work out what makes individual child tick

- adaptable, flexible – aware of different types of children they teach

What makes a good teacher? (video)

- firm but fair

- sense of humour

- gets you involved in the subject

- enthusiastic

- friendly, but able to control the class

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- listens to you

- involved in the lesson

- able to inspire, passionate, relating subject to real life

- good communicator

- consistency

- approachable – if you have a problem

- like a big kid

Discussion (odavdje smo zapravo počeli konkretno zapisivat)

Are good teachers born or made?

the “t” factor - “(born) teacherness”

There is something called the “t”-factor – it consists of some general and some

specific qualities. We are born with some of these qualities and some we acquire with training

or (-)

Perhaps there are people born with certain qualities that make them more ready to

teach, but this is not enough, training helps you develop good teaching skills. Training is

perhaps more important than the qualities you are born with! (-)

T - factor: general qualities

1. Content knowledge – the teacher should be an expert in his field, he/she should know a

lot about his/her subject; he/ she should also follow the new developments in his/her field

(-)

2. Intelligence

1. ability to think creatively and rationally(-)

2. problem-solving(-)

3. ability to conclude form specific to general and vice versa(-)

3. Inter-personal relationship – a teacher should have the ability to get on with people;

people person (outgoing person with good communication skills)

4. Organization - ability to think systematically; teachers should be systematic and

organized in what they do

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5. Responsibility - ability and willingness to take on responsibility for the others (teachers

are responsible for their students during the lesson/school day/school trips; they have to

make sure nothing bad happens to their students)

6. Confidence - good self-image, belief in own abilities; teachers must believe in what they

do, they have to be, in a way, “complete” persons with good self-image; students will

notice immediately if you feel insecure, if you are not confident – this happens quite often

– and the students lose their respect

7. Motivation - drive to succeed and do your job well; dedication to excellence – good

teachers want the best from their students and themselves

8. Sense of mission - strong belief in value of what you are doing as a teacher

9. Enjoyment - satisfaction and personal fulfilment – a good teacher will let you know

he/she is glad you got a good grade/you are successful at something you do

10. Desire to learn

11. Industry - ability and willingness to work hard

12. Charisma, leadership – not many people have this quality; this is something you are born

with

Discussion

- Have you got anything to add to this list? PATIENCE!

T - factor: specific qualities(-)

1. sensing where the learners are at; “feeling” what they know and don’t know

2. knowing how to transform own knowledge about the language into a form that is

accessible to learners

3. knowing how to design and administer activities that will foster learning

4. knowing when learning is or is not happening by way the learners behave

5. getting one’s “buzz” from when the students succeed, learn, progress

Discussion point

- Students read a part of an article on effective and ineffective teachers

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The Characteristics of Effective and Ineffective Teachers (Teacher Education Quarterly,

Winter 2002)

key words:

- apprenticeship of observation

- affective/cognitive issues – improving student self concept is a more worthy goal than

promoting students’ academic achievement; immediacy – physical and psychological

closeness of the teacher to the students

categories

- emotional environment

- teacher skill

- motivation

- student participation

- rules and grades

Conclusions (-)

• beliefs about teaching are well formed before preservice teachers enter teacher preparation

– because students have experienced thousands of hours of their teachers’ classroom

behaviour before entering teacher training programme; preservice teachers enter teacher

preparation programs with well established filters for what constitutes effective teaching

• “apprenticeship of observation”

• conceptions of teachers and teaching focus more on affective than cognitive issues!

• effective/ineffective teachers:

effective teachers ineffective teachers

EMOTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

care about their students; warm, friendly, caring

create a tense classroom; cold, abusive uncaring

TEACHER SKILL

know how to create an effective learning unproductive learning environment

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environment

organized, prepared, clear boring lectures

TEACHER MOTIVATION

care about learning and teaching; enthusiastichate teaching; “burned-out”, “just going through the motions”

STUDENT PARTICIPATION

activities involving students in authentic learning; interactive questioning, discussion

requiring isolate behaviour with little interaction, activity or discussion

RULES AND GRADES

motivate their students; little difficulty with classroom management

unreasonable or unfair assignments, tests and grades

caring about students’ accomplishment; advocacy for student success; fair rules and grading

require and maintain high standards of conduct and academic work

20.10.2014.

Lesson planning

Lesson planning - definition

• the activities of a teacher that are concerned with organizing lessons prior to the

lesson; such organization may concern the students, materials, tasks, aids, teacher

language and so on.

• involves the ways in which the teacher draws these diverse elements of a lesson plan

in one cohesive whole

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THE PLANNING PARADOX

- What happens in the lesson is a result of an interactive system which is extremely

complex. As the lesson progresses - and students interact with the teacher and the

language they are studying – things evolve and develop, depending on what has happened

and what is happening minute by minute. However, by encouraging future teachers to write a

lesson plan we might be producing teachers who are unaware of the complex patterns which

are woven in the interactions between the teachers and the students and students and the

language.

- To conclude: on the one hand, it makes no sense to go into any situation without thinking

about that situation, without planning the tasks and outcomes, without planning what we want

to do. Yet, at the same time, if we pre-determine what is going to happen before it has

taken place, we might be in danger of missing what is in front of us, and we may be

closing off avenues of possible evolution and development.

The planning continuum

Most teachers do think about what they are going to teach before they go into the

lesson:

Three types of teaching are represented by these photos. How would you call a teacher who is

represented by the photo of a jungle path/corridor etc.?

1. “Jungle-path” teacher – the teacher has no real idea what he or she is going to do before

the lesson starts; the lesson is created moment by moment with the teacher and the students

working with whatever is happening in the room.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of “jungle-path” teachers?

advantages disadvantages

creativity

high skill

ability to react quickly and appropriately

laziness

lack of organization

learning value

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interesting lessons

interesting/real-life topics

flexibility

a degree of carelessness

negligence

unprepared teacher

2. “corridor” teacher – they prepare a plan in their head as they walk towards the class

advantages disadvantages

similar to “jungle-path” teacher

a certain degree of planning still present

similar to “jungle-path” teacher

3. “formal” teacher – they write a very detailed lesson plan – partly to give themselves

confidence that they have done their best to plan for any eventuality

advantages disadvantages

high degree of preparation

organized

high learning value

control/classroom management

efficiency

lack of creativity

not flexible

boring/de-motivating

Harmer (p. 365): The actual form the plan takes is less important than the thought

that has gone into it; the overriding principle is that we should have an idea of what we

hope our students will achieve in the class, and that this should guide our decisions how

to bring it about.

The purposes of lesson planning

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gives the lesson a framework

allows teachers to think about what they are going to do

acts as a reminder for the teacher – reminds the teacher to cover the required content in an

organised way

raises the teacher’s confidence and reduces anxiety

improves the teacher’s timing

acts as an aid to reflection and development (future lessons!)

basis for evaluation (by observers and supervisors)

Content of the lesson plan

- the content of the plan may consist of the various elements; possible elements include:

• goals and objectives

• procedures (warm-up, presentation, activities)

• aids and materials

• teaching strategies (eliciting, error treatment)

• class organization (whole class, group work, pair work)

• timing

• concept questions

Concept questions - also referred to as concept check questions or CCQs - are questions

designed to check learners’ understanding of a language item

• possible problems

• alternative procedures

• additional activities

Goals vs. objectives

• goals

– general, longer-term aims which may cover several lessons

– for example, to improve students’ reading comprehension

• objectives

– specific aims of one lesson or part of a lesson

– for example, to practice Past Tense

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Guidelines for ordering components of a lesson

1. Put the harder tasks earlier (why?)

On the whole, students are fresher and more energetic earlier in the lesson, and get

progressively less so as it goes on, particularly if the lesson is a long one. So it makes sense to

put the tasks that demand more effort and concentration earlier on (learning new material, or

tackling a difficult text, for example) and the lighter ones later. Similarly, tasks that need a lot

of student initiative work better earlier in the lesson, with the more structured and controlled

ones later.

2. Have quieter activities before lively ones (why?)¸

It can be quite difficult to calm down a class – particularly of children or adolescents

– who have been participating in a lively, exciting activity. So if one of your central lesson

components is something quiet and reflective it is better on the whole to put it before a lively

one, not after. The exception to this is when you have a rather lethargic or tired class of

adults; here ‘stirring’ activities early on can actually refresh and help students get into the

right frame of mind for learning.

3. Think about transitions (how?)

If you have a sharp transition from, say, a reading–writing activity to an oral one, or

from a fast-moving one to a slow one, devote some thought to the transition stage. It may be

enough to ‘frame’ by summing up one component in a few words and introducing the next; or

it may help to have a very brief transition activity which makes the move smoother.

4. Pull the class together at the beginning and the end (why?)

If you bring the class together at the beginning for general greetings, organization and

introduction of the day’s programme, and then do a similar full-class ‘rounding off’ at the

end: this contributes to a sense of structure. On the whole, group or individual work is more

smoothly organized if it takes place in the middle of the lesson, with clear beginning and

ending points.

5. End on a positive note (how?)

This does not necessarily mean ending with a joke or a fun activity – though of course

it may. For some classes it may mean something quite serious, like a summary of what we

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have achieved today, or a positive evaluation of something the class has done. Another

possibility is to give a task which the class is very likely to succeed in and which will generate

feelings of satisfaction. The point is to have students leave the classroom feeling good.

What are the reasons for modifying the lesson plan?

• magic moments - some of the most affecting moments in language lessons happen when

a conversation develops unexpectedly or when a topic produces a level of interest in our

students we had not predicted

• sensible diversion - students might start trying to use some new grammar or vocabulary

which we had not planned to introduce - yet this suddenly seems like an ideal moment to

do some work on the language which has arisen, and so we take a diversion nd teach

something we had not intended to teach

• unforseen problems - some students may find an activity that we thought interesting

What did we learn?

1. Always have extra activities in case there is some time left – you must keep your

students busy, otherwise you’ll have problems with discipline.

2. Try to give homework in the middle of the lesson – if you try to do this after the bell,

they won’t listen to you.

3. It is not so difficult to prepare an interesting lesson. Use available media, such as the

internet.

4. Learn your students’ names as soon as possible. It is a sign of respect. At the

beginning, ask them to write their names on a piece of paper.

5. Coursebook is not a Bible. Feel free to supplement it with additional activities.

6. Combine work and fun (games). Try to make your lesson as dynamic as possible.

7. Plan your lessons so as to encourage your students to particpate as much as possible.

8. And remember: you can only get back from your students what you “invest” in them.

27.10.2014.

Lesson plan - structure

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TITLE PAGE

• aim (goal)

• objectives

What is the difference between goals and objectives?

• teaching strategies (instructing, explaining, questioning, evaluating - activities you do

as a teacher - terms you use to describe these activities are quite general; another

example would be eliciting, error correction etc)

• learning activities (terms you use to describe what the students will be doing -

brainstorming, guessing, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, answering

questions, copying)

• aids and materials

• student groupings (whole-class grouping, individual work, pair work, group work)

• “summary” of a lesson

- phases of the lesson:

– INTRODUCTION

– DEVELOPMENT

– CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

• housekeeping

• warm up

– objective

– procedures

– estimated time

– aids and materials

– student grouping

DEVELOPMENT

• STAGE 1: Brainstorming

– objective: to introduce a new topic

– procedures

• ask students to say as many facts…

• put students’ answers on the board

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• if there are not many facts on the board give some hints

• help students make some conclusions

– estimated time

– aids and materials: board, chalk

– student grouping: whole class

• STAGE 2: First listening (global listening)

– objective: to check students’ listening comprehension

– procedures

• tell students to close their books

• tell them they are going to listen to the text about Ireland

• tell them to try to remember as many facts as they can

• play the tape

• upon listening ask students…

– estimated time

– aids and materials

– student grouping

• STAGE 3: (title)

– objective(s)

– procedures

– estimated time

– aids and materials

– student grouping

IMPORTANT: each activity has the same elements!

CONCLUSION

• Ending the lesson

– objectives

– procedures

• Additional activities

• Board plan

• Appendices

Beginning lessons

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Questions:

1. How do the authors define the term “lesson beginning”?

The part of a lesson between the moment when the teacher starts to interact with

students and the commencement of the first major activity.

The procedures teacher uses to prepare students for learning in that lesson (Todd).

Time frame: three to fifteen minutes!

2. Make a short overview of the information/advice the authors found in the relevant

literature.

- not much is said about lesson beginnings in EFL methodology textbooks!

• management of resources (checking equipment, the room, the furniture)

• practical suggestions: say briefly what the plan for the lesson is

• the review: to motivate the need for the new material + review might be followed by

homework correction in the form of a short quiz (to give the students a sense of

achievement if they have done well and to give the teacher insight into students’

difficulties)

• social interaction: greetings + chat

• purpose: to establish an appropriate atmosphere (playing a song, a warm-up + a

review)

• teacher should arrive early – the few minutes before the lesson is due to start can be

used for interaction with individual students, socialising or giving back homework and

discussing individual problems

• beginning should be clearly signalled

• inductive presentation/an indication of the topic/brief description

• pre-instructional procedure (set induction) – the procedure teachers use to get learners

into the state of readiness for learning: various functions

• conclusion: atheoretical approach to discussion of lesson beginnings!

Purposes of lesson beginnings

1. to establish appropriate AFFECTIVE FRAMEWORK

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- create friendly relaxed atmosphere

activities: music, introductions, greetings, joke, chat

- create suitable physical environment

getss to arrange furniture

- focus attention

activities: greetings, listening activity, visual stimulus (video)

- make class enjoyable

activities: game, light-hearted oral activity

- get everyone involved

activities: game, pair work, go over homework

- raise confidence

activities: chat (familiar questions), controlled activities, review, homework

(because prepared), plenary choral activity

- stimulate interest

anything lively or unusual

2. to establish appropriate COGNITIVE FRAMEWORK

- provide organising framework

activities: make connections with last lesson, describe activities or objectives for

the lesson, introduce topic

- stimulate awareness of need (linguistic/cultural)

activities: questions (based on picture), quiz

- elicit relevant linguistic knowledge

activities: brainstorming, oral activity

- elicit relevant experience

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questions

3. to encourage student responsibility and independence

makingss aware of learning skills and strategies – memorisation game, elicitation of

ss’ individual strategies

4. to fulfil a required institutional role

- give feedback

homework

- check on previous learning

activities: quiz, game, brainstorming, asking for summary, questions, check

homework

5. to fill in time

- to minimise the problems of late arrivals

activities: chatting, revision activities

3.11.2014.

Beginning lessons - nastavak

Strategies for beginning lessons

1. GREETINGS

2. CHATTING TO THE STUDENTS

advantages: an opportunity for real communication with a focus on meaning; teacher should

focus on the message and try to disregard mistakes(-)

disadvantages: such chat is often artificial, large groups make exchange of views difficult,

not everyone has something to say and not everyone is willing and able to talk; thus, chat

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often results in the teacher talking to two or three keenest students while the rest of the class is

ignored(-)

3. WARM-UP ACTIVITIES (warmers)

- activities primarily aimed at creating atmosphere and preparing the students for learning

(games, jokes, riddles, tongue-twisters…)

4. CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING

- the teacher can help the students become more aware of something they need or lack in their

learning (she may help them realize that they do not know how to express a certain concept in

English)

- the teacher may elicit the strategies the students use for certain tasks as a lead-in to strategy

training – for example, through a memory game the teacher might elicit what strategies the

students us to remember words as a lead-in to training in other vocabulary memorization

strategies

5. PREVIEWING THE LESSON

- directly: the teacher tells the students what to expect in the lesson

- indirectly: the teacher guides the students to form their own expectations (brainstorming)

6. REVIEWING THE PREVIOUS LESSON

- it provides additional opportunities to learn previously taught material and allows correction

and re-teaching of problematic areas; it also raises the students’ confidence as the material

will already be familiar to them

- questions, quizzes, summaries, games, practice exercises, going over homework

7. HOUSEKEEPING

- activities not directly related to learning, but required by the institution (checking

attendance, giving announcements and other administrative tasks)

8. TIME-FILLING – warmers, chatting, playing music – if there is the problem of late

arrivals

9. ZERO OPTION – going straight into the first activity without any preparatory opening

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Classroom managment

Classroom managment vs. discipline

- classroom management deals with how the things are done in the classroom (procedures and routines)

- responsibility of the teacher (organization, lesson planning, students strategies, routines)

Discipline

- Deals with how the students behave

- The actual act of self-control and appropriate behaviour as modelled by the teacher

- Responsibility of the students (depends on their choice)

Classroom management

- The way in which student behaviour mobement and interaction during a lesson are organized and controlled by the teacher to enable teaching to take place most effectively. (Todd)

- A component of general pedagogical knowledge

- A repertoire of strategies

effective classroom management=student achievement

Classroom management is enhanced when procedures are:

• Explained to the students • Modelled for the students • Practiced by students

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• Reinforced by practicing again and periodically (when necessary) • Practiced again

Learn to use nonverbal language – a nod, a smile, a stare, a frown, a raised eyebrow or a gesture is often all that is needed and it does not even disturb the class at work

Body lanaguage can speak volumes – use it to manage the classroom and minimize disruptions

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT (članak, naučit bar 5-6 strategija)

Discipline problems are listed as the major concern for most new teachers. What can teachers expect and how can they effectively handle discipline problems? Classroom management combined with an effective discipline plan is the key.

Strategies:

1. Begin each class period with a positive attitude and high expectations. If you expect your students to misbehave or you approach them negatively, you will get misbehavior. This is an often overlooked aspect of classroom management.

2. Come to class prepared with lessons for the day. In fact, overplan with your lessons. Make sure to have all your materials and methods ready to go. Reducing downtime will help maintain discipline in your classroom.

3. Work on making transitions between parts of lessons smooth. In other words, as you move from whole group discussion to independent work, try to minimize the disruption to the class. Have your papers ready to go or your assignment already written on the board. Many disruptions occur during transitional times during lessons.

4. Have a posted discipline plan that you follow consistently for effective classroom management. Depending on the severity of the offense, this should allow students a

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warning or two before punishment begins. Your plan should be easy to follow and also should cause a minimum of disruption in your class. For example, your discipline plan might be - First Offense: Verbal Warning, Second Offense: Detention with teacher, Third Offense: Referral.

5. Meet disruptions that arise in your class with in kind measures. In other words, don't elevate disruptions above their current level. Your discipline plan should provide for this, however, sometimes your own personal issues can get in the way. For example, if two students are talking in the back of the room and your first step in the plan is to give your students a verbal warning, don't stop your instruction to begin yelling at the students. Instead, have a set policy that simply saying a student's name is enough of a clue for them to get back on task. Another technique is to ask one of them a question.

6. Try to use humor to diffuse situations before things get out of hand. Note: Know your students. The following example would be used with students you know would not elevate the situation to another level. For example, if you tell your students to open their books to page 51 and three students are busy talking, do not immediately yell at them. Instead, smile, say their names, and ask them kindly if they could please wait until later to finish their conversation because you would really like to hear how it ends and you have to get this class finished. This will probably get a few laughs but also get your point across.

7. If a student becomes verbally confrontational with you, remain calm and remove them from the situation as quickly as possible. Do not get into yelling matches with your students. There will always be a winner and a loser which sets up a power struggle that could continue throughout the year. Further, do not bring the rest of the class into the situation by involving them in the discipline.

8. If a student becomes physical, remember the safety of the other students is paramount. Remain as calm as possible; your demeanor can sometimes diffuse the situation. You should have a plan for dealing with violence that you discussed with students early in the year. You could also have a student designated to get help from another teacher. Send the other students from the room if it appears they could get hurt. If the fight is between two students, follow your school's rules concerning teacher involvement as many want teachers to stay out of fights until help arrives.

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9. Keep an anecdotal record of major issues that arise in your class. This might be necessary if you are asked for a history of classroom disruptions or other documentation.

10. Let it go at the end of the day. Classroom management and disruption issues should be left in class so that you can have some down time to recharge before coming back to another day of teaching.

10.11.2014.

Classroom management - nastavak

Good classroom managers:

- Elicit the cooperation from the students

- Prevent the occurance of problems

- Respond efficiantly when problem occurs

- Continuely ''scan'' behaviour of the class

- Establish positive relationship

- Are flexible

- Understand students' needs

- Control their own behaviour

- Model good behaviour

- Take into account individual differences (anxiety, motivation, aptitude, age, intelligence)

- Analyze their own classroom managment performance and learn from it

- Assume diffrent roles effectively

Teaching style:

- organized

- prepared

-calm

- relased

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• Teacher roles (objašnjavanje za svaku smo radili u parovima i nismo zapisivali)

1. Controller

− “leads from the front”; teacher-fronted classroom

− transmission of knowledge

− inspiring if teacher has knowledge and charisma

− disadvantages

− denies students access to their own experiential learning

− cuts down on students’ opportunities to speak

− can result in a lack of variety in activities

• advantage when:

− giving explanations, organising question and answer work and lecturing

− giving announcements

− order has to be restored

2. Organiser

− organising students to do various activities (giving info, telling them how they are going to do the activity, putting students into pairs/groups, closing things down when time to stop)

− 1st step: get students involved and ready

− 2nd step: give instructions in logical order and check whether they have understood them; demonstrate the activity; give them the time-frame

− 3rd step: when finished, organize feedback

3. Assessor

− feedback, correction & grading students

− important: the feeling of fairness

− be sensitive to students’ possible reactions

− give feedback with sensitivity and support

4. Prompter

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− T helps students “move” forward in a supportive and discrete way

− T helps, but doesn’t take over

− balance between taking the initiative away from the students and not giving the right amount of encouragement

5. Participant

− sometimes the T should join in - not as a teacher, but as a participant

− T can enliven the things up from the inside, rather than “standing back” from the activity

− disadvantage: T can easily dominate the activity because s/he is perceived as “the authority”

6. Resource

− T should be helpful and available, but resist the urge to spoon-feed the students

− offer guidance to where they can go and look for the info

− it’s OK to say “I don’t know, but I’ll tell you tomorrow”

7. Tutor

− working with individuals or smaller groups

− combining the roles of prompter and resource

− more personal contact: students have a real chance to feel supported and helped

8. Investigator

− T observes what students do in order to be able to give them useful feedback

− T should sometimes take notes on students’ performance; T observes both for success and for mistakes!

− T judges the success of different materials and activities in order to make changes in the future!

− T investigates what works well in class and what does not

− T tries out new techniques and activities and evaluates their appropriateness

− T investigates the efficiency of new methods

− T seeks to enrich his/her understanding of what learning is all about and what works well

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17.11.2014.

Grouping students (ovo je zapisano s prezentacija)

Group work

- Harder for the teacher to monitor

- One student works, others have fun

- Different personalities – different goals

- Social skills

- Colaboration

- Different ideas

- Brainstorimng

- Responsibility

Whole class grouping

- Lockstep teaching: all of the students work on the same activity at the same time

Advantages

- It reinforces the sense of belonging among the group members: students are all ''in it together''

- Suitable for the activities where the teacher acts as a controller

- Often a preffered class style

Disadvantages

- It favours the group rather than the individual

- Everyone is forced to do the same thing at the same time at the same pace

Individual work

Advantages

- It allows teachers to respond to individual learner differences in terms of pace and learning styles

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Group work

Advantages

- It increases the number of talking opportunities for inidividual students

- Personal relationships are usually less problematic than in pair work

Disadvantages

- Noisy, teachers might feel they're loosing control

- Not all students enjoy group work

- Some students might become passive, while others dominate

What is a question? (ovo je iz njenih predavanja, mislim da se nije sve ovo pisalo na satu, u boldu je ono sto se pisalo)

What is a question?

A question, in the context of teaching, may be best defined as a teacher utterance which has

the objective of eliciting an oral response from the learners. (P. Ur, A course in Language

Teaching)

- questions: one of the most common forms of interaction in the classroom (teachers spend

four-fifths of their time questioning)

Are the teacher’s questions always realized by interrogatives?

Teacher’s questions can be realized by:

1) Interrogative

What can you see in this picture?

2) Statement

We’ll describe what’s going on in this picture.

3) Command

Tell me what you can see in this picture.

Purposes of questions

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1. to facilitate communication – the most frequent pattern of interaction in the classroom is

I - R – F (Initiation – Response – Feedback); questions provide an easy way for teachers

to initiate interaction

2. to focus attention – questions can be used to draw the students’ attention and highlight

important aspects of a topic

3. to evaluate the students – questions can be used to test knowledge

4. to review – reviewing content is frequently conducted through question-and answer-

session

5. to stimulate motivation, interest and participation - for example, asking questions

instead of giving a long explanation – this gives the students the opportunity to participate

and discover certain things for themselves

6. to stimulate thinking – if you ask demanding questions – certain types of questions

require certain types of thinking or cognitive activity

7. to socialise – questions can be used to establish relationship with the students – for

example, when chatting to the students at the beginning of the lesson

8. to initiate student-student interaction – sometimes, a teacher’s question can lead to

students discussing an issue among themselves

9. to control social behaviour – questions may serve discipline purposes; if a student is not

paying attention, the teacher may ask him/her a question to regain his/her attention

Types of questions

1. Classification based on the communicative value of the question

- communicative value refers to the value of the information conveyed in an exchange

to the interlocutors; in much everyday conversation, the information conveyed has

value because it is new to one of the participants in the communication – the

communicative value of questions in classroom discourse frequently differs from that

of questions in real life conversations

a) display vs. referential (genuine) question

Display questions

• How do you spell “busy”?

• What did Cinderella do at midnight?

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• the teacher already knows the answer and asks the question to test the students’

knowledge

Referential questions

• What did you do yesterday?

• Have you ever been to Paris?

• knowledge-seeking questions: these questions are asked to gain knowledge

• the teacher really wants to know the answer

- numerous research studies have shown that referential questions are predominant in

conversations outside the classroom – in the classroom, teachers ask far more display

questions

b) echoic vs. epistemic questions

Echoic questions

• do not call for any new information, but refer back to a previous response

• comprehension checks

– Does everyone understand the meaning of this word?

• clarification requests

– What do you mean?

• confirmation checks

– Did you say “he”?

Epistemic questions

• ask for new information, even if that information is already known to both parties

• both display and referential questions are epistemic

• echoic questions occur far more frequently in the classroom

Which types of questions are frequent in the classroom?

2. Classification based on the possible answers to the questions

- some questions restrict the number of possible answers

a)closed vs. open questions

• closed (convergent) questions

• limit student responses to only one correct answer

Who is the president of the USA?

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• open (divergent) questions

• allow for many possible correct student responses

What do you think about the main character?

b) polar/alternative/wh-questions

• polar questions

– require a yes/no response

– Do you like chocolate?

• alternative questions

– offer a choice of two possible answers

– Did you go on Saturday or Sunday?

• wh-questions

– allow a wider range of longer answers

– Where do you live?

Task 2: The Secondary A-Z of Effective Questioning (-)

1. Effective questioning

- an essential skill for a teacher

- waiting a long time for an answer

- happens in every lesson

2. Are all answers acceptable?

- yes-no

- you should encourage pupils to feel that their answers are acceptable

- all answers are acceptable as long as the students can support what they are saying

- it is a massive step for some students – just to have that confidence needed to answer

a question

- ultimately, you have to reach the right answer – that is the goal of teaching

- abusive answers are, of course, not acceptable

3. Classroom culture?

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- if you don’t have appropriate classroom culture, the students will not be prepared to

answer your questions

- nobody’s answers should be put down

- students should know they won’t be laughed at, and if they are, you will deal with it

- students should feel that they can be open and honest

4. Differentiation?

- right question to the right child

- question which has an element of challenge but the students should feel safe

enough to have a go and answer it

- mixture of closed and open-ended questions

- low-ability students: try to get an answer; high-ability students: ask them about their

opinions

- being aware of the child’s ability

- it will take you a long time to get to know your students, the level they are at and

what their limitations are

- each question is specific to the child

5. Hands - up? (strategies)

- variety / “no hands” rule

- name generator

- a pupil chooses another pupil to give an answer

6. Misunderstandings

- you can paraphrase your question

- ask other students if they misunderstood the question as well

- get the student to explain the question back to you

- ask other students what they think about the answer

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7. Planning

- questions prepared in your head/written in your lesson plan

- you should also think about the possible answers

- effective questioning is a skill that needs to be developed

8. Unexpected answers (strategies)

- you should make a “snap” decision whether this answer is useful for their learning

- some answers need to be ignored

- sometimes the unexpected answers get the lesson to take off

- sometimes you have to ask more questions to get the students back to the lesson

9. Waiting? - how much time (strategies)?

- you should wait until the students get restless

- 2 seconds/5 seconds

- waiting for an answer can be awful

- countdown

- don’t leave it too long, because the students might get anxious

- if after 5 seconds nobody has answered, the question wasn’t good enough

10. Questioning “gone wrong”

- closed questions, yes-no questions

- difficult questions

- wrong question to the wrong student – lack of knowledge

- don’t put people on the spot with your questions

- shy students: you should help them build their confidence

24.11.2014.

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Questioning – part 2

Questioning strategies

Repeating Rephrasing Prompting (visual or verbal) Providing Asking supplementary questions Redirecting (Asking sb else) Changing the level of cognitive demand (from genuine questions to yes/no questions)

Effective questioning

Wait time

- The pause which follows a teacher question either to an individual student or the whole class

- This pause lasts until either a students answers or a teacher adds a comment or poses another question

- Wait time of most teachers: less than a second!

- Research: wait time should be increased to around three seconds

Instructing

Instructing students can be classified into:

- Instructions: an important aspects of classroom interaction

- Directives – ''keep quite'', ''will you read this'', etc.

- Isolated utterances which aim to get students to do something (imperatives, interrogatives, declaratives)

- Instructions consist of series of directives, mixed with explanations which aim to get the students to do something, used to set up an activity

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Areas of content to be included in a set of instructions are:

- Goals and rationale (e.g. This activity will help you understand the use of modal verbs)

- Class organisation (e.g. You will do this in pairs)

- Roles of learners (e.g. Student A explains how to get to the hotel while student B follows A's directions on the map)

- Materials (e.g. Look at the picture on page five)

- Procedures (e.g. First make a summary and then explain it to another group)

- Language aspects (e.g. To do this you will need to use the second conditional)

- Time (e.g. I will give you ten minutes)

Tips for giving effective instructions:

- Use silence and gestures

- Speak slowly

- Check that students understand

- Make eye contact

- Plan ahead

- Use logical order – sequential signposts

- Don't expalin what is obvious

- Don't hand out materials before you give instructions

- Provide an example or demonstrate

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