October 20th reflection of readings

The assignment was reading MCM’s book. I learned Guidelines for language classroom, instruction, ESP, and evaluation for selection and analysis for implementation.
I would like to mention about principles of lesson plan. There are mainly three elements of good lesson plan.
First, a good lesson has a sense of coherence and flow. If there is no coherence of lesson plan, not only the teacher is confused but also the students are confused, too. In order to avoid this situation, the teacher has to write lesson plan deeply and clearly.
Second, a good lesson exhibits variety. In order to avoid the students’ boredom, the teacher has to have a variety of activities. Fortunately, I found a good book for ESL activities. In that book, many interesting activities are introduced. In the future, I will use them to write a good lesson plan.
Third, a good lesson is flexible. The teacher often encounters unexpected things during lessons. In order to treat them, the teachers have to prepare for them. For example, If the teacher has extra time, the teacher has to add activity. On the other hand, If the teacher runs out of time, the teacher have to cut some activity.

I have a little experience to learn and write a lesson plan in Japan. In this reading, However, I learned what kinds of elements are needed to write a good lesson plan, so, I would like to apply this to my future lesson plan.

reflection of class September 29th

Aaron’s presentation

I was much moved Aaron’s presentation. There are some reasons why I think so.
First, he was like a professor. His presentation was like a lecture of university. He did his presentation with only textbook. I think that explaining things with only textbook is really hard, but he did.
Second, he was a good facilitator. He did not only speaking about textbook, but also facilitates discussion of the classmates. I think that he did very well.

Types of motivations
The discussion topic was motivations. There are a lot of styles of motivations. I think that extrinsic motivation can be better than intrinsic motivation even though the author said that intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic motivation. I think that balance between them is important.

September 22nd

Sponge Bob game
I love the activity that Brian and Stephanie did. That was the first time for me to do Sponge Bob game! I think that it is really helpful to have students reinforce their knowledge because students can enjoy the game and do the activity without anxiety.

Activities of the authors suggest
This week’s reading assignment was L and S chapter 1 and 2. I did not do the activity which we have to check the differences of first and second language acquisition. Dr. Smidt said that we should do the activity on the textbook. I really think so, too. Therefore, I will not only read materials but also so the activities which the authors suggest.

Journal #3 tomorrow is due day

It is quite hard and fun to create poster for presentation. In this weekend, we met three times. Because everyone is very busy and it is difficult to meet long time. We went to CSU and borrow the tools for creating poster. There are variety of tools and these reminded me my kindergarten days. I spent a good time. We have much information, so it is tough to synthesize information. We are still thinking how to present them in the class. I hope that we can success our poster presentation, because we spent much time.

Journal #2 The importance of peer teaching

I handed in our 5th genre. I draw a poster of writing center. Speaking of writing center, I always think about writing center. I mainly wrote followings, Organizing: how might you shape or organize your idea? Drafting: How can you connect your thoughts in a coherent flow? Revising: How can you re-see and reconsider your large and small scale choices? Editing: How can you improve your sentence and grammar skills? However, in peer reviewing, the peer mentioned that this poster is not suitable for our topic. So, I should rewrite. However, I really appreciated the peer reviewer because I have a chance to revise. I think that peer teaching system is really helpful.

Journal #1 How to write annotated bibliography

Today, we learned how to write bibliography. When I was an undergraduate student, I never be careful about it, because my university was not so strict with it. So, that was the first time to learn APA style. From the writer’s point of view, it is very troublesome and I sometimes tended to scream. However, from the reader’s point of view, it is really helpful to find out the references. Now that I am a graduate student, I would like to write clear and correct references. In order to do so, it is important to learn the basic style.

summary of styles and strategies

Styles
Visual: like to read and obtain a great deal from visual stimulation. Without any visual backup such as lectures, conversations, and oral instructions, they will be confused.

Auditory: enjoy and profit from unembellished lectures, conversations, and oral instructions. They are excited by classroom interactions in role plays and similar activities. They have difficulty with written work.

Kinesthetic and tactile: like lots of movement and enjoy working with tangible objects, collages, and flashcards. It is hard for them to sit at a desk for a long time.

Strategies
Cognitive strategies: enable the learner to manipulate the language material in direct ways, for example, through reasoning, analysis, note-taking, summarizing, synthesizing, outlining, reorganizing information to develop stronger schemas.

Metacognitive strategies: for example, identifying one’s own leaning preferences and needs, planning for an L2 task, gathering and organizing materials, arranging a study space and a schedule, monitoring mistakes, evaluating task success, and evaluating the success of any type of learning.

Memory-related strategies: these strategies help learners link one L2 item or concept with another, but do not necessarily involve deep understanding. For example, there are rhyming, the keyword method, and Total physical response.

Compensatory strategies: for example, guessing from context in listening and reading, using synonyms and ‘talking around’ the missing word to aid speaking and writing. These strategies help the learner make up fro missing knowledge.

Affective strategies: for example, identifying one’s mood and anxiety level, talking about feelings, rewarding oneself for good performance, and using deep breathing or positive self-talk.

Social strategies: For example, asking questions to get verification, asking for clarification of a confusing point, asking for help in doing a language task, talking with a native-speaking conversation partner, and exploring cultural and social norms.
These help the learner work with others and understand the target culture as well as the language.