Presentation Notes

Group 1: Intermediate High School class; activity done for reinforcement

-Thank you for telling us the purpose (good use of vocabulary they've learned through incidental learning)
-Good clarification of instructions, though they could have been clearer to start with. You should build the foundation for the activity a little more before you start it; "We're going to do a fun drawing activity..."
-Fun drawing activity! Very well received! You should go a little slower with the steps of the drawing, but I know you didn't have a lot of time during class to present. Very detailed-great! Was it a little too detailed?
-Good job with walking around and giving feedback.
-Your class was very into the activity!
-A potential problem = getting control of the class again after they did the group thing & the feedback time.
-Good follow-up activity; creative use of the vocabulary to reinforce it more.
-I like the fact that it encourages them to be creative!
-Well done!

Group 2: Beginners, Primary School, 7 years old; for reinforcement

-Great use of realia!
-With 7 year olds, some might get restless while looking at the others, so what would you do to keep all of them engaged?
-What would you do for error correction? That seemed a little disorganized. Could you have done that differently?
-Not everyone got to participate or go to both stations.
-How would you deal with all the problems that could come up when working with kids (hurt feelings, etc.)?
-Could the kids take over the class? How could you prevent that?
-Good idea for homework-coloring the pictures.
-Good job!

Group 3: Beginners, Primary school, 7-8 years old; for reinforcement

-If you're going to do a group activity with this age group, make sure you put them into groups instead of allowing them to put themselves into groups. I think you noticed that after awhile.
-The instructions could have been clearer; people started chatting and trying to figure out what you wanted them to do while you were still giving instructions and examples.
-Good use of the whiteboard; however, can 7-8 year olds reach the top of the whiteboard? Maybe a handout with those pictures on it would have been better?
-Is this age-appropriate? Is it level-appropriate? Would they be able to read and understand the words on the list you gave them?
-You needed to give more feedback as the students came up to write on the board. Could you go over the items again after each group presented, in order to further reinforce the vocabulary?
-There wasn't enough vocabulary on the list to complete all the rooms.
-Giving homework was a good idea, but how did you want the students to describe it? Through speaking during the next class? Writing a few paragraphs isn't possible with this age & level. Writing anything at this level would be difficult, but doable if it's the right thing. Any other ideas for what could work for homework?
-Good work!

Group 4: High school, intermediate; for reinforcement
-At this age, I would suggest putting them into groups yourself, but it all depends on the class. Some classes can handle that, some can't.
-The game show was a good idea! You gave a good explanation and lead-in, "You'll get a chance to be a millionaire in this class!"
-Very fun! Very engaging! Very age-appropriate!
-Will the students from the other groups stay engaged while one group is in the spotlight? Can you give them something to do while they watch? Maybe a handout or worksheet? Any other ideas?
-The only concern is keeping control of the class and keeping them on task.
-You have to come up with better answers to give during the Teacher lifeline.
-Great fun!

A Reminder

Just a reminder that your Final Paper is due at the beginning of our next class. You must bring a hardcopy with you to class; I will not accept any papers electronically. Happy writing!

Reading homework for our next class

Read the following articles before our next class:

"Building Vocabulary Through Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes"

"Using Goals and Feedback to Improve Student Performance on Vocabulary Homework"

Online Discussion: Self-Reflection & Presentations

After seeing all of the presentations, answer the following questions:

For self-reflection: Which presentations will work in your classroom? If there are any that won't work, can you modify them to work? How? Remember, if you teach in more than one context, choose just one context on which to reflect.

For the presentations:
1) In what other teaching contexts would these activities work?
2) What was the purpose/goal of each presentation? Was the purpose/goal achieved?
3) Would the activities presented have helped you learn the vocabulary if you had been the learner?

Revised Course Outline

Course Outline

December 26th

Midterm Exam

February 13th
Topics:
1) Testing vocabulary
2) Training vocabulary learners
3) Resources

Readings:
For Class:
1) Chapters 8, 9, & 4

For Online Discussion:
1) Chapter 3
2) “The Use of Corpora in the Vocabulary Classroom”

February 27th
Topics:
1) CALL and vocabulary learning
2) Creative vocabulary teaching

Readings:
For Online Discussion:
1) “CALL and Vocabulary Learning”
2) “Creative Vocabulary Teaching”

March 13th

Topics:
1) Prefixes, Roots, & Suffixes
2) Vocabulary homework

Readings:
For Online Discussion:
1) “Building Vocabulary Through Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes”
2) “Using Goals and Feedback to Improve Student Performance on Vocabulary Homework”

Due: Final Project Paper

"The Use of Corpora in the Vocabulary Classroom"

After reading the article, "The Use of Corpora in the Vocabulary Classroom", turn to page 2 of the article. Search online for one of the three corpora listed in the article: BNC, VLC, or ICE. Check out the webpages of these corpora and tell us what you found. Do you think it could be useful in your classroom? If you think it could be useful in your classroom, tell us how you would use it. If you do not think it would be useful in your classroom, tell us why not.

Chapters 3 & 4 Discussion

After reading Chapters 3 & 4, please tell us which sources of words you are using in your classrooms right now. Are there any sources you wish you were using or would like to start using?