Q.5 What is an activity? Discuss the importance of activity method. Name
the different types of activities you would use in English?
Answer:
Activity method is a technique adopted by a teacher to emphasize his or
her method of teaching through activity in which the students
participate rigorously and bring about efficient learning experiences.
It is a child-centered approach. It is a method in which the child is
actively involved in participating mentally and physically. Learning by
doing is the main focus in this method. Learning by doing is imperative
in successful learning since it is well proved that more the senses are
stimulated, more a person learns and longer he/she retains. Pine G
(1989) mentions that in an activity based teaching, learners willingly
with enthusiasm internalize and implement concepts relevant to their
needs.
So our understanding on the activity method by now should mean any
learning that is carried out with a purpose in a social environment,
involving physical and mental action, stimulating for creative action or
expression.
Why do we need to use activity based learning method?
The information processing theory in psychology views learners as active
investigators of their environment. This theory is grounded in the
premise that people innately strive to make sense of the world around
them. In the process of learning, they experience, memorize and
understand. Students need to be provided with data and materials
necessary to focus their thinking and interaction in the lesson for the
process of analyzing the information. Teachers need to be actively
involved in directing and guiding the students’ analysis of the
information. It requires active problem solving by students in finding
patterns in the information through their own investigation and
analysis. With continued practice in these processes, students learn not
the content of the lesson but also develop many other skills.
- It enhances creative aspect of experience.
- It gives reality for learning.
- Uses all available resources.
- Provides varied experiences to the students to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge, experience, skills and values.
- Builds the student’s self-confidence and develops understanding through work in his/her group.
- Gets experiences, develop interest, enriches vocabulary and provides stimulus for reading.
- Develops happy relationship between students and students, teachers and students.
- An activity is said to be the language of the child. A child who lacks in verbal expression can make up through use of ideas in the activity.
- Subjects of all kind can be taught through activity.
- Social relation provides opportunity to mix with others.
Kinds of activities:
The activities used in this strategy can be generalized under three main categories:
- Exploratory - gathering knowledge, concept and skill.
- Constructive - getting experience through creative works.
- Expressional – presentations.
The Activities you could focus on:-
Experiencing:
watching, observing, comparing, describing, questioning, discussing,
investigating, reporting, collecting, selecting, testing, trying,
listening, reading, drawing, calculating, imitating, modeling, playing,
acting, taking on roles, talking, writing about what one can see, hear,
feel, taste, experimenting and imagining.
Memorizing:
Sequencing ordering, finding regularities and patterns, connect with given knowledge, use different modes of perception, depict.
Understanding:
Structuring, ordering, classifying, constructing, solving, planning,
predicting, transferring, applying knowledge, formulating ones
individual understanding, interpreting, summarizing, evaluating,
judging, explaining and teaching.
Organizing activities:
The process of organizing activities must be based on curricular aims
bringing together the needs, ideas, interests and characteristics of the
children with the knowledge, skill, experience, and personality of the
teacher within a given environment. The extent to which the teacher
works with students individually or in groups affect the relation the
teacher has with each child.
Steps required for Effective Organization of Activities.
a. Planning.
b. Involving children in the learning process.
c. Each child is made an active learner.
d. For each activity ensure you follow the principles of:
- What?
- How? Work directions step by step, including:
- With whom? Where? How long?
- What after?
e. Ensure you give clear instructions before each activity. It must focus on the above a, b, c, d.
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Q.2 Explain (i) the structure of guided discussion method (ii) the assessment procedure of classroom discussion.
Answer:
The guided discussion pedagogy is an active learning technique which
offers many benefits to your students. Guided discussion exposes
students to a variety of diverse perspectives, helps them recognize and
investigate their assumptions, improves listening and conversation
skills, fosters connection to a topic, and affirms students as
co-creators of knowledge. As they participate in discussion, students
situate new knowledge within the context of their current
understandings, thus facilitating a more thorough understanding of the
course material. Despite the many benefits, instructors are sometimes
hesitant to start discussions because of its unpredictable aspect and
its potential challenges. This worksheet offers basic tips and
strategies on how to effectively plan and conduct classroom discussions,
as well as prevent problem situations. Guided discussion, when used
strategically and intentionally, can excite and engage students,
fostering a deeper understanding of the content and its application to
their lives.
A common challenge of guided discussion is involving all students and
keeping all the student voices in balance. You may have one student that
dominates the discussion, a select group that participates while the
others remain silent, or a student who never contributes no matter how
“inviting” the discussion. One way to foster active and equal engagement
is to divide the class into groups. Three is an effective group size
namely because it is small enough that students feel comfortable sharing
and large enough that they feed off each others’ ideas. Whether or not
you divide the class into groups, you can help discussion by creating a
democratic culture in your classroom. Preface the discussion by saying
“I really would like to hear from everyone on this issue, so let’s be
careful that we keep our voices in balance”. Ask students to offer their
insight into what makes for a good discussion. If a student begins to
dominate, you could divert to others by saying “So Leslie has expressed
her perspective on the issue, now let’s hear some other reactions”. For a
student who undercontributes, you may ask the student to summarize the
previous points, and ask “What is your perspective on the issue?” If the
problem of the talkative student continues, however, speak to the
student privately. Tell her that you really value and appreciate her
contributions but need to be able e to hear from less participatory
students as well.
Assessment procedure of classroom discussion:
Whole-class discussions can encourage students to learn from one another
and to articulate course content in their own words. While generally
not conducive to covering large amounts of content, the interactive
dynamic of discussion can help students learn and motivate them to
complete homework and to prepare for class. Leading discussions in which
students contribute meaningfully requires a great deal of instructor
forethought and creativity. The suggestions below can help you to
facilitate good class discussions and improve your classroom climate, a
piece of the Fearless Teaching Framework.
Devote a moment to communicating the value of discussion to your
students. It may help to convey your rationale for discussion, perhaps
deepening not only their sense of why they are expected to engage in
active learning but also their engagement with the course.
Before Class
- Review lesson-related material, even if you have already mastered content. Extemporaneous recall can breed trouble.
- Plan. Write out more discussion questions than you think you will need before class begins, but don’t treat your questions like a to do list. Your questions should be a resource for you; they should not inhibit your students from taking the discussion in a productive direction.
- If students were assigned reading prior to a class meeting, plan to use the text. You may want to begin class with a short reading from the text and have discussion flow from that reading.
- During Discussion
- Every student should have an opportunity to speak.
- Encourage students to look and talk to each other rather than to just look and talk to you. Too often “discussions” take the format of a dialogue between teacher and a series of students.
- Before the discussion starts, ask your students to take several minutes to write down everything they know about the topic of the discussion. This will prime them for the discussion.
- If possible, make the class space more conducive to discussion. Arrange seats in a circle or in a manner that enables students to see each other easily. Don’t let students sit in seats that are outside this discussion space.
- After asking a question, wait at least eight to ten seconds before calling on someone to answer it (measure the time by counting silently to yourself). Otherwise, you signal they need only wait a few seconds for the “right” answer to discussion questions.
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Q.2 What is cooperative learning and what are different strategies used for it?
Answer:
Cooperative learning is an educational approach which aims to organize
classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences.
There is much more to cooperative learning than merely arranging
students into groups, and it has been described as "structuring positive
interdependence." Students must work in groups to complete tasks
collectively toward academic goals. Unlike individual learning, which
can be competitive in nature, students learning cooperatively can
capitalize on one another's resources and skills (asking one another for
information, evaluating one another's ideas, monitoring one another's
work, etc.). Furthermore, the teacher's role changes
from giving information to facilitating students' learning. Everyone
succeeds when the group succeeds. Ross and Smyth (1995) describe
successful cooperative learning tasks as intellectually demanding,
creative, open-ended, and involve higher order thinking tasks.
Cooperative learning has also been linked to increased levels of student
satisfaction.
Five essential elements are identified for the successful incorporation of cooperative learning in the classroom:
- positive interdependence
- individual and group accountability
- promotive interaction (face to face)
- teaching the students the required interpersonal and small group skills
- group processing.
According to Johnson and Johnson's meta-analysis, students in
cooperative learning settings compared to those in individualistic or
competitive learning settings, achieve more, reason better, gain higher
self-esteem, like classmates and the learning tasks more and have more
perceived social support.
Cooperative Learning Strategies To Try Today
Let’s face it, there are a lot of cooperative learning strategies out
there to choose from. The most popular and most-utilized of the
cooperative learning strategies is probably the Think-Pair-Share
technique. This is where students think about a topic or question, then
pair up with a classmate and share their thoughts about it. Educators
use these types of cooperative learning strategies in their classrooms
because first, they get the students to work together in a team, and
second because they are an effective way for students to learn. However,
it’s always a good idea to try out a new strategy or two to change
things up a bit. Here are five cooperative learning strategies you
probably haven’t tried yet.
1. Focused Listing Cooperative Learning Strategy
If you’re looking for a new brainstorming strategy then you’re going to
love this one. The focused listing strategy is designed for students to
generate words to define or describe something. For example, you would
give the students a main topic, then ask them to create a list of words
or phrases that describe that topic. From there, you can put students
into small groups to discuss their lists or
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you can first put them into groups to generate the lists. Once the lists
are completed, you can use the list to help facilitate a small group or
whole-group discussion. If you are using the focused listing as a
gateway to your lesson, then you can choose one list that all students
agree upon and use that.
2. One-Minute Papers
This strategy can be used to gather feedback from you students after a
lesson is taught. First, write the following questions on the front
board and have students answer them by themselves.
- What was the most important thing you learned from the lesson?
- What is still unclear about the lesson? What questions do you still have?
- What is one thing about the topic that you want to know more about?
Next, put students together into groups to facilitate a discussion. Have
students do a Round Robin (take turns talking) and discuss each of
their answers to the questions listed on the board. Once students have
all answered the questions, then have students figure out which answers
they have in common. They can then take this information and come up
with the most popular answer to each question, which they then can
discuss with the class as a whole.
3. Uncommon Commonalities
If you are looking for a strategy that will help your students become
more cohesive, then this is a great one to try. Group students into
teams of four and have them come up with a team name. Give each team
member a piece of paper and have them fold it the long way in fours and
label each section, 1, 2, 3, and 4 at the top. Next, write a question on
the front board, such as “How many siblings do you have?” The teams’
goal is to discuss the question with their group and figure out what
they all have in common. If all four team members have one brother, then
they will write that in column four, if all three of them have one
brother then they will write that in column three and so on. The
activity continues with each new question that is put on the board.
4. Forced Debate
This strategy requires students to use their communication skills to
work within a group. Here’s how it works: The teacher writes a
proposition on the front board, such as “Should there be a vending
machine in the school cafeteria?” then the students who agree move to
one side of the classroom and the students who disagree move to other
side. Once students are on one side of the classroom, that is now their
group. The teacher then forces them to debate the opposing side that
they have chosen.
This strategy really utilizes students’ critical thinking skills and
forces them to really think about the question as a whole in order to
argue for the opposing side rather than what they really feel about the
question.
5. Cooperative Graffiti
Another great brainstorming technique to try is cooperative graffiti.
This strategy requires students to think about a topic and write down as
many ideas as possible using different-colored pens. To start, divide
students into small groups and give each group a large, butcher block
piece of paper and a variety of colorful pens. Write down a broad topic
on the front board, and on your command “Go!”, instruct students to
write down as many ideas as they can that correlate with the topic you
wrote on the board. Once the time is up (about 5-10 minutes), then have
students try and organize their colorful ideas into categories.
Five Basic Principles of Cooperative Learning
There are five fundamental elements involved in cooperative learning. In
fact, these five elements distinguish cooperative learning from other
forms of group learning. These elements can be thought of as pieces in a
puzzle. When all of these elements are present in a learning situation,
the result is a cooperative learning group. The five basic elements of
cooperative learning are:
- Positive interdependence
- Individual and group accountability
- Interpersonal and small group skills
- Face-to-face promotive interaction
- Group processing
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Q.4 a) Critically analyze importance of set induction.
Answer:
Set induction is about preparation, usually for a formal lesson. When
the students are set, they are ready to learn ('are you set?'). Set
induction is thus about getting them ready, inducing them into the right
mind-set.
Sets are used before any new activity, from introduction of a new
concept to giving homework. It is important in each set both to create
clarity about what is expected happen (both what you will do and what
they should do), and to create motivation for this to occur, with
students being fully engaged in the learning.
Set induction can be done by such as:
- Explaining potential benefits to the learner.
- Giving clear instructions.
- Describing what is going to happen.
The STEP acronym may be used to help remember what to do:
- Start: Welcome the students, settle them down and gain attention.
- Transact: Understand their expectations and explain yours. Link with previous learning.
- Evaluate: Assess the gap between their expectations and current reality. Clarify any discrepancies for them.
- Progress: Move on to the main body of learning.
Why
Perrott (1982) identified four purposes of set induction.
- Focusing attention on what is to be learned by gaining the interest of students.
- Moving from old to new materials and linking of the two.
- Providing a structure for the lesson and setting expectations of what will happen.
- Giving meaning to a new concept or principle, such as giving examples.
So what?
So if you are teaching, think about and prepare carefully for getting
your students in the right state of mind to be ready to understand and
learn.
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Q.3 b) Discuss different techniques of students evaluation.
Answer:
Evaluation is the process of determining the worth of a program. A plan
must be made to accurate evaluate any type of program, whether it is a
training course or concerns the effectiveness of and customer
satisfaction with a new product. Many different types and methods of
evaluation are available depending on the information that needs to be
assessed.
Formative Evaluations
Formative evaluations are evaluations that occur during the process.
These evaluations are used to measure how well the process is proceeding
overall and if changes are necessary. For example, in an educational
setting, a teacher may ask the students to write a short paper
reflecting on the topic just presented. The teacher can look at these
reflections to determine if the students are understanding the material
and make changes in their instruction to help students as they progress
in the classroom.
Summative Evaluations
The summative evaluation occurs at the end of the program. The
evaluation considers the effectiveness of the program as a whole and
makes suggestions to improve it. Businesses, for example, may ask that
consumers complete surveys and questionnaires after services have been
rendered to gather information. This information can help businesses
learn if additional training of its employees needs to be completed or
if the products and services it offers meet the needs of its clients.
Process Evaluation
Process evaluations focuses on how a program was implemented and how it
operates. The goal of the process evaluation is to see if the program is
meeting its intended goals. The evaluation includes looking at how the
program is delivered, the services it delivers and how it was carried
out. Process evaluation can determine why a program was successful or
unsuccessful and provides information such as whether the program can be
replicated.
Impact Evaluation
Impact evaluations measure the program's effects and the overall
effectiveness of realizing the goals of the program. The most effective
impact evaluations are those that occur over longer periods of time as
opposed to those programs that evaluate the immediate before and after
of a program. Long-term evaluations give a broader, more complete view
of the outcomes of the program. Impact evaluations tend to be more
expensive due to the time frames involved, according to the Minnesota
Department of Health.
Outcome Evaluations
Outcome evaluations measure the short-term impact of implementing
programs. The evaluation gives information on how well the program is
reaching its target audience. This can help gauge the initial impact a
program has and how the program is being received. The outcome
evaluation is able to assess the changing attitudes and knowledge of the
target audience.
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Q.5 Describe the purpose of teaching tools. How many types are there of teaching tools?
Answer:
Learning is more powerful and dynamic with tools that are already right
in front of you – and it’s up to educators to impress this on students
in the classroom. When you bring real things and authentic daily- life
situations into the classroom, listening becomes discovering, interest
becomes wonder, and passive learning becomes active exploration. Lessons
come to life with touch, motion, and sound. Teacher resources, insights
from fellow educators, and personalized support help you teach every
subject, from reading to coding, in ways that kids really get. All of
which makes those magical, a-ha moments happen much more often. For
everyone. The most powerful tools for learning are the ones students
love to use.
Teaching Tools include:
1-Teaching Aids.
They include:
(Cards, Charts, grids, Pictures, Drawing, photos, magazines, worksheets,
mindmapping. Technology, Video, digital material, data show, CDs,
Electronic prohrama, Dictionary, Websites,The comuter, the internet,
E-Book, Intelligent board, Blackboard, Realia, actual fields, Real
situations, Online Dictionaries, Graffic Organizers, virtual tours of
their latest exhibits,The real daily environmental things......)
2-Teaching resources / Material :
They include:
A-The actual daily- life sites and environmental realia.
B-Concrete teaching Material.e,g.(Book, classroom supplies for teachers, Realia, CD, Vedio tape, tablet, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV ..)
C-Theoritical teaching material. e.g.(Workshops, Training units)
3-Online Teacher's Tools / Resources:
- Google DOC's.
- Wordpress.
- Google forms.
- Logomaker.
- Internet readings.
- Kahoot.
- The Web Resources.
- Voice of America Learning English.
4-Electronic teaching and learning programs:
( Word program, Excel program, Power-point program, Access program, MS
picture management program, Movie-maker program, Free-mind program,
Lingoes program, Celestia program, Yanka program, Anki program, Jing
program, Hot potatoes program, MS Mathematics program, the Sage program,
Chemistry crocodile program, Physics Crocodile program and a lot of
other electronic programs. Electronic teaching enables the teacher to do
an electronic lesson plan and give an electronic lesson presentation.)
5-Teaching methods.
They include:
(Active learning method, Projects, Inquiry-based teaching method,
discovery method, Acting the scenes, Pointing, Role-playing,
Elicitation, CLT Method, Internet-based teaching method, Brainstorming
method, Electronic programs teaching, Classroom Network, observation,
imitation, repetition, Music, Songs, Games, Storytelling, Puzzles,
Riddles, Story theatre, Solving problems, Playing roles, Changing
roles,pair woek, Dialoguing, Group work, Co-Curriculum activities,
Involvement, Engagement, Debating, Interviewing, Practical learning,
analysis, Practice and research, Synthesis, Evaluation,
Imagination.......).
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