EFL SECONDARY

Qué son los Wiki
¿Qué es un Wiki?

Un Wiki (del hawaiano wiki wiki, «rápido») es un sitio web colaborativo que puede ser editado por varios usuarios.

Los usuarios de una wiki pueden así crear, editar, borrar o modificar el contenido de una página web, de una forma interactiva, fácil y rápida; dichas facilidades hacen de una wiki una herramienta efectiva para la escritura colaborativa. (definición tomada de Wikipedia) (en inglés, en francés)

Principales características de los Wikis. En general permiten:

– La publicación de forma immediata usando sólo el navegador web (ej. Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, etc.)

– El control del acceso y de permisos de edición. Pueden estar abiertos a todo el mundo o sólo a aquellos que invitemos ().

– Que quede registrado quién y cuándo se ha hecho la modificación en las páginas del wiki, por lo que es muy fácil hacer un seguimiento de intervenciones ().

– El acceso a versiones previas a la última modificación así como su restauración, es decir queda guardado y con posible acceso todo lo que se va guardando en distintas intervenciones y a ver los cambios hechos (véase aquí).

– Subir y almacenar documentos y todo tipo de archivos que se pueden enlazar dentro del wiki para que los alumnos los utilicen (imágenes, documentos pdf, etc. ejemplo de documento pdf alojado en el wiki).

– Enlazar páginas exteriores e insertar audios, vídeos, presentaciones, etc. ().

Todo esto los dota de un gran potencial para el trabajo colaborativo en el aula.

Diferencias entre los Blogs y los Wikis:

Blogs

– Normalmente un sólo autor/editor + comentarios
– Estructura cronológica empezando por la última “entrada”
– Links externos

wikis

– Muchos autores al mismo nivel
– La estructura puede ser variada, sustituyéndose las versiones a medida que se modifica.
– Links externos e internos

CLASS STAGES

1. OBJECTIVES

When preparing a class, teachers should consider what it is that the students are going to learn. This is the reason why an Objective is established previously to teaching a class. This objective comes from a context such as: Shopping, parties, the weather, movies, books, traveling, etc. This context is set around what is going to be learnt. Contexts are classified in bigger categories known as domains; these domains are namely the public domain, the academic domain, the work domain, the family domain, the entertainment domain, the social domain and the individual domain.

It is important for the students to know what they are going to learn. The objective should be specified in every class.

Grammar topics are the structures that are taught throughout the program. They have been previously arranged in a logical sequence to provide students with the information in an organized fashion. Structures are organized according to their usefulness and are introduced correspondingly. The “usefulness” of a structure is determined by the number of appearances a structure exhibits in the language produced and received by an average person on an average day. Examples of Grammar Topics include: Simple Present Affirmative Statements, Past Perfect Negative Statements, Future Continuous Questions, Modal Verbs, First Conditional Clauses, or Inverted Verb/Subject Structures.

A Context is the social setting within which the new grammar structures (or other language tools, for that matter) are presented and practiced. Communicative classes imply connection to real life communication, and should therefore be held within a real life context. Examples of communicative topics are: Sports, Movies, Cars, Dating, Parties or Food.

Communicative Functions refer to the reasons why grammar structures exist. They exist to aid speakers (or writers) in the process of carrying out communicative tasks. They serve in the process of communicating a thought, expressing an idea or describing a feeling, for example. Each grammar structure permits the user of a language to communicate a specific necessity. The Simple Present allows a speaker to describe their routines, while the Past Perfect enables the user to talk about an action that happened before another action was completed in the past. Those are the communicative functions for these two grammar structures; they express the use of any given structure.

Objectives must:
• Be level appropriate
• Be attainable
• Be measurable
• Be as short as possible
• Use words that imply communicative competence
• Describe the function of the language to be taught
• Avoid using the language to be taught
• Avoid using technical terminology
• Use everyday language
• Clearly mention the context
• Be clear
• Be specific
• Use correct English
• Begin with the words “You will be able to…”

Examples of appropriate objectives:

You will be able to ask for items in the market.
You will be able to give instructions as the office.

2. LESSON PLANNING

Board Set-Up

The board must be set up as exemplified below:

1. Date
2. Academic Day 6. Teacher’s name
3. Level 7. Vocabulary
4. Objective
5. Homework

I. Warm Up 5’ – 15’

a. Short activity
b. Free of specific grammar or vocabulary requirement
c. NOT an oral production activity
d. Related to the communicative topic
e. Helps students get in the mood
f. Lowers affective filter
g. Allows late comers to arrive

II. Preview 5’ – 15’

a. Short activity
b. Free of grammar or vocabulary requirement
c. Oral production activity
d. Allows students to interact
e. Uses pair or small format work
f. Related to communicative topic
g. Allows students to share at the end

III. Introduction 1’ – 5’

a. Specifically mention the context
b. Specify/Clarify the objective
c. Answer students’ questions about objective

IV. Vocabulary Presentation 15’ – 20’

Purpose
Present the new vocabulary.

Key questions
a. What vocabulary am I going to teach?
Vocabulary that is relevant to the lesson
Vocabulary that is useful throughout the lesson
Vocabulary that is level appropriate
Vocabulary that is related to the communicative topic

b. How much vocabulary am I going to teach?
8 words top

c. How am I going to teach it?
Inductively
Involving students as active participants

While teaching vocabulary

Stages
a. Elicit
b. Help
c. Give the word
d. Have students repeat the word
e. Write the word
f. Have students record the word in their notebook
g. Have students use the word in a sentence

V. Grammar Presentation 15’ – 20’

Stages of the Grammar Presentation
a. Set the context
b. Ask your students the “Leading Question”
c. Ask students the “Catalyzing Question”; this is the question that generates the communication need. This question has to be worded in such a way so as to avoid the structure to be taught.
d. Offer your students the necessary information to answer the “Catalyzing Question.”
e. Write the answer to the “Catalyzing Question” on the board.
f. Write the function of the grammar structure on the board.
g. Offer some more examples that use the structure and write them on the board; make sure to offer enough examples, so that the students can deduct the form on their own.
h. Give your students the chance to discover the form.
i. Clarify the form and write it down on the board. (Formulas are welcome).
j. Teach your students the related phonology.
k. Have your students repeat the examples as much as necessary. (Individually, if needed)
l. Ask questions that call for the use of the grammar just taught.
m. Make sure to get complete sentences from your students; these sentences should be provided orally.

VI. Practice: 30’ – 40’
Students are provided with opportunities to practice the new knowledge that has been presented.

a. These activities must be student-centered.
b. Activities are held in all type of formats (whole class, small groups, pairs, and individual).
c. Use of additional materials is welcome (realia, visuals or worksheets).
d. The teacher monitors and provides feed back.
e. The teacher applies different correction techniques.
(When; Immediate, delayed. Who: self, peer, direct, How: board, repetition and drilling)

Activities should increase in complexity and freedom progressively as described by the types of activities presented below.

Production activity types

Structured activities: Exercises where all the information is given to the students and they simply use it to complete the exercise.
Ex: 1. choose the best option. I am___ (tired – tiring) because I went to the gym.
2. Organize the sentence. (went – to – yesterday – they – the – gym)________

Semi-Structured: Exercises where part of the information is given to the students.
Ex: 1. Open questions. What did you do yesterday?

Unstructured: Exercises where students have to come up with all the information in order to complete the task.
Ex: 1. Recreate a situation. You are boyfriend and girlfriend and you are having an argument.

Comprehension activities
Pre-Activity:
Set context
Offer background information (where is the situation taking place, who is participating, etc.)
Students guess what is going to happen (from the title, from the picture, by listening to the first sentence).
Students can also discuss about the topic of the conversation with the entire group.

Focus Question
Comes from the end of the conversation
Check the answer after the first listening / reading

While:
Work on activities that require students to get information from the listening / reading
The following are exercises that can be used.
a. Comprehension questions: students get to answer different type of question formats, such as: True-False, Yes-No, Multiple choice, Long answers, information questions (Wh), Matching information (two columns and match the information from one with another).
b. Cloze exercise: The students complete the information that is missing from the worksheet.
c. Re-sequencing: Students get the whole text with lines that have been shuffled, and they have to organize it.
d. Tell the differences: Students spot the differences they find from the conversation they are reading and from the one they are listening.
e. Ducks in a row: It works nicely for songs, but it can also be used in conversations. Students have a section of the dialog and once they hear it they have to stand up and make a line.
f. Flashing sync: Students have a card with a word; once they hear it they flash it.

Post-Activity:
This is an oral production activity related to the listening / reading. Students can work in different activities such as:

a. Repeat the conversation
b. Paraphrase
c. Similar conversation different context
d. Debate
e. Talk about what could happen next.

VII. Evaluation
The evaluation stage happens immediately after the practice stage. The purpose of this stage is to verify the completion of the lesson’s objective. The procedure is virtually the same of that used for unstructured practice activities: the teacher addresses instructions for the students and gives an example of what they are expected to do; the teacher sets a time limit for the preparation of the activity, and then walks around the classroom offering help and facilitating the process. The students are finally asked to perform; the role of the teacher at this point is simply to evaluate the students’ performance. No correction takes place at this stage, for correction has thoroughly been done throughout the practice stage. The activity should allow the teacher to evaluate function, form and phonology, as well as vocabulary usage. The activity must therefore be an oral activity.

Function refers to the appropriate comprehension of the meaning of the structure, and understanding is evidenced through its logical use in appropriate situations. For example, if students are describing their last weekend, they should use a simple past structure; not a simple present one. Their using of the simple past at this point serves as evidence that the function of the structure has been understood.

Form refers to the appropriate comprehension of the grammar rules governing the structure. Here, attention should be focused on verb conjugation, syntax and other grammatical details. Understanding is evidenced through the correct application of the grammar rules. For example, if students are asking simple present questions, they should use the auxiliary verb “do” (“Do you practice any sports?” , not “You practice any sports?”). Their using of the auxiliary verb “do” serves as evidence that this grammar rule has been understood.

Phonology refers to the appropriate comprehension of the way in which the language is pronounced. Attention should be focused on the correct pronunciation of the different sound units (vowels, consonants, diphthongs, consonant clusters, contractions, blending, etc.) as well as on intonation, stress and rhythm. Understanding is evidenced through the correct production of sounds. For example, if students are asking simple present yes/no questions with the verb “be”, they should rise the intonation at the last syllable. Their rising intonation at the end of the question serves as evidence that understanding of this phonological issue has taken place.

When evaluating vocabulary the teacher should focus on the correct and appropriate use of the new words and idiomatic expressions. If the lesson was about greetings, for instance, students should say something like “I usually shake hands with my friends”, and not “I usually give the hand to my friends”.

Evaluation should be done for a random sample of at least 40% of the students; that is, 12 students for a 30 people group. If you have big groups, make sure to evaluate different students for each lesson.

The evaluation stage could take something like 15 minutes.

VIII. Wrap-up
The wrap-up is simply a natural and professional way to bring the lesson to an ending. It consists of a sentence, question, remark, witty comment, joke or proverb that evidently concludes the lesson. For example, if the lesson was about eating habits, the conclusion could be “Ok, so now you can go home and start changing your current eating habits for healthier ones” rather that having the bell ringing in the middle of an explanation and having that be the end of your class. Timing is very important here, and the teacher should therefore be highly aware of how much class time is left at every moment. The wrap-up should happen when there are still about five more minutes left of class time. Control pacing in such a way that you have the chance to fully cover your lesson plan. Always bring a watch as part of your classroom material. Carefully plan your wrap-up; it is something very simple, but it is usually pretty tough to just ad-lib something suitable and appropriate at this point.

The wrap-up stage could take something like 1 minute.

IX. Application
The application stage takes the last five minutes of class. The teacher should not only inform the students that they have homework to do, but they should also show the students what they have to do by offering an example. Homework is usually reading or writing.

If it is reading, an introduction for the reading should be done very much in the fashion of a pre-reading activity. Tell your students what the reading is about, who the characters are, where the action takes place, and so forth. Read the text once, if it is a short one, and if there are questions to be answered, answer the first one with the group. Whenever you have a longer passage, and time does not allow for a complete reading, go through the opening paragraph(s) and discuss any tasks to be done after completing the reading.

If the homework is writing, it will usually be either structured or unstructured; for structured exercises (eg. filling in the blanks, correcting sentences, matching, unscrambling words, etc.), complete the first one (or a couple more depending on complexity) with the group; for unstructured writing, offer your students a sample of the opening paragraph for the task they are expected to complete (eg. a diary, analysis of a newspaper article, a description of a place, etc.).

The application stage could take something like 5 minutes.

X. Extension Activity
The extension activity is merely a “just-in-case” or “if-time-allowing” activity. Teachers should always include one in their lesson plans in order to have something productive to do in the case that the lesson plan is covered faster that expected. Extension activities should give students the chance to use the new grammar and vocabulary, and should be related to the lessons’ topic, as well. It has to be a short activity that may be completed in a short period of time, provided that the lesson plan should be conceived in such a way so as to avoid big differences between “ideal” and “actual performing” timing.