Lesson Plan

English Lesson Plan                 Teacher:  Mrs. Ruiz          Grade:  2^nd       Date:  October 3, 2011

Theme:  The Rat and the Cat

General Strategy:  After Reading

Reading Comprehension Strategy:  Use of Technology

Cooperative Learning Strategy:  Role Playing

Curricular Integration:  Theatre

Grade Expectation:  L/S 2.3- Uses basic vocabulary and language patterns to identify and describe familiar concepts related to self, to family, and environment and to interact with peers.    

Depth of Knowledge:  Basic Application

Objectives:  After completing the lesson, the student will:

1.      demonstrate the use of basic vocabulary to read familiar words of the story and to interact with peers.

2.      dramatize parts of the story The Rat and the Cat.

3.      participate voluntarily and enjoy working together in class.

Initial Activities	Development Activities	Closure
ü  Routine(greeting, attendance, date, weather) ü  Theme on Board ü  Reflection on Friendship	ü  Oral Discussion of the story(characters) ü  Dramatizations	ü  Input from the students (What did you learned today?, What word you have difficult yet?, How do you feel?, What is your favorite character?)

Materials:  computer, power point presentations, masks

Modifications for SES:  *copied material of the story           *read to          *individual help

Teacher’s Reflection:  They loved it!!

Article 4

The teacher who care about their students need to learn what types of competence are and how they relate to each other.  According to the CMDT Model, the five competences are: 

• linguistic competence- is knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of a language. Linguistic competence asks: What words do I use? How do I put them into phrases and sentences?

• strategic competence- is knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating. Sociolinguistic competence asks: Which words and phrases fit this setting and this topic? How can I express a specific attitude (courtesy, authority, friendliness, respect) when I need to? How do I know what attitude another person is expressing?

sociocultural competence- (non-linguistic knowledge

ü  for appropriate deployment of linguistic resources)

actional competence- (carrying out/understanding

communicative intent by performing and

ü  interpreting speech acts and speech events)

• discourse competence- is knowing how to interpret the larger context and how to construct longer stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole. Discourse competence asks: How are words, phrases and sentences put together to create conversations, speeches, email messages, newspaper articles?

What is Content-Based Instruction Method? Read this!!!

Content Based Instruction

Content based instruction (CBI) is a teaching approach that focuses on learning languge through learning about something. Although CBI is not new, there has been an increased interest in it because  it has proven very effective in ESL and EFL  programs around the world.

What is Content based Instruction?

Content-based teaching differs from traditional language classes because language comes second to the content. In other words, the teacher runs a course on current affairs, or American history, or fiction writing, through which students also learn English. It’s important to note that English ends up as subordinate to the material, although the teacher must recognize and be prepared to help students with language skills.

Types of content based instruction:

• The Sheltered Model: It is used at university where the goal of teachers is to enable their ESL students to study the same content material as regular English L1 students. Sheltered CBI is called “sheltered” because learners are given special assistance to help them understand regular classes.
• The Adjunct Model: Undertaken by ESL teachers.  The aim of Adjunct classes is to prepare students for “mainstream” classes where they will join English L1 learners.
• The Theme Based Model: These classes can be taught by EFL teachers who create content material based on the needs and interests of the students.

Other types of teaching may fall within the realm of CBI. English for Specific Purposes and Task based instruction are both examples of CBI.

Content based lesson:

Because of the nature of the content, all four skills get integrated. It’s important to note that the content continues through the whole course, not just a handful of lessons. A course on shopping one day, using the bank on another day, and making hotel reservations in English at a different class session is an example of a CBI class.

An example of  CBI lesson can be approached following these steps:

• Preparation
• A subject of interest is chosen.
• Finding suitable sources that deal with different aspects of the subject. These could be websites, reference books, audio or video of lectures or even real people.

• The lesson
• Using small groups
• Assigning each group a small research task and a source of information in the target language to use to help them fulfil the task.
• groups sharing and comparing information.
• A result in the form of an end product such as a report or presentation of some kind.

Advantages

• Language learning becomes more interesting and motivating.
• CBI offer a wide educational knowledge to learners in the form of the different topics instructed.
• It helps students to develop valuable study skills such as note taking, summarising and extracting key information from texts.
• Developing collaborative skills, especially when using group work, which can have great social value.

Disadvantages

• CBI implicit language instrucion can confuse learners and may give them the impression that they are not actually learning language.
• Overuse of native language can be a problem in some parts of the lesson.
• Finding information sources and texts that lower levels can understand can be difficult.

In a nutshell, although CBI is a challenging approach for both teachers and students, the outcome of its implementaion can be rewarding and motivating.

Summary Article 2

“The Whats,Whys, Hows and Whos of Content-Based Instruction in Second/Foreign Language Education”

By Maria Duenas

Content Based Instruction(CBI) promotes the use of subject matter for second language teaching purposes.  The CBI approach suggest the integration of the target language and meaningful content in the classroom.  In this specific approach, teachers use more content topics rather than grammar rules.

According to Brinton (1989) CBI is “ the integration of at particular content with language teaching aims the concurrent teaching of subject matter and second language skills.”

CBI is a more flexible operational framework with four characteristics:

1.        Subject matter core- the curriculum should be based from the subject matter

2.       Use of authentic texts- the materials should be produced for native speakers of the language

3.       Learning of new information- students use the new language to learn new information based on their knowledge of their culture

4.       Appropriate to the specific needs of students- the learning abilities are based on the cognitive and affective needs of the students

The article explained four methods of how use this approach.

1.       Immersion education

2.       Sheltered courses

3.       Adjunct courses

4.       Theme based models( the most popular)

Some of the pioneering works for this approach are:  Mohan (1986), Cantoni-Harvey (1987), Crandall (1987) and others.

Summary of Article 1

Japan and Puerto Rico have something in common.  Both countries are trying to improve English language teaching in their education systems.  The main goal is to improve the communicative competence.  This article helped me to understand the meaning of some theoretical communicative concepts and their applications to language and methods of teaching language.
Hymes said there are two kinds of competence:  linguistic and communicative.  The linguistic competence deals with writing and understanding grammatically correct sentences.  The communicative competence is writing and understanding sentences that are appropriate for a particular situation.  Widdowson views the language as acquiring the ability to use language to communicate. 
Knowing a language is more than how to understand, speak, read, and write sentences, but how sentences are used to communicate.  The main purpose is be able to communicate.  The perfect example is here in Puerto Rico, 10 or 12 years of instruction in English does not guarantee normal language communication. 
Stern, (1981) said that language teaching should be through the study and practice of structural, functional, and sociocultural aspects.

 We need to create opportunities inside our classroom to live the language through direct contact with the target language community.  

Article 3

As a English teachers, we are always looking for new ideas or strategies to teach English as a second language. The article discussed three strategies that we can use:  private dialog, immersion environment and the instructional songs.
Students can feel intimidated or afraid in a English classroom, is very normal.  The teacher needs to create a relax atmosphere in order for them to feel comfortable. Many students don't want to participate the first few weeks of school.  They need to hear what the language  sounds like before they will try to talk.  After they conquer that fear they will be able to progress.  That is one of the reason I don't obligate my students to participate all the time. 
The other strategy is using instructional songs.  These songs need a desired rhythm and have repetition.  The songs are going to help the students to aid retention and learn more quickly.

Journal One

The words "use" and "usage" are very often confused in the English Learners.  "Use"  is the act or practice of making something to function but "usage" is how that something is used.  


When we said that someone is fluent in a language we means that person  speak the language very easily and effectively.  In contrast, there are few people who are  not fluent but they don't make mistakes speaking the language.  That's the big difference between fluency and accuracy.  Personally I am neither one of them. As a teacher I would prefer my students to be more fluent.  They can learn the rules and grammar later on.
The functional syllabus focus more on function not grammatical structures.  This syllabus is more for conversational English or adults.  The structural syllabus focus on the grammar structure; is more complex, boring and take more time.