Game

Unit: My Interest Opinion Topic: Animal P.3

Unit: Interests Opinion Topic: Place To Go Holiday Travel M.3

Unit: Weather Topic: Season M.4

Song

   Five little ducks   

 The Farmer In The Dell

Clap You Hands

Old McDonald

Culture

  What is Culture? 

	Edward B. Tylor   (1832-1917)

Culture is a powerful human tool for survival, but it is a fragile phenomenon.  It is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our minds.  Our written languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are merely the products of culture.  They are not culture in themselves.  For this reason, archaeologists can not dig up culture directly in their excavations.  The broken pots and other artifacts of ancient people that they uncover are only material remains that reflect cultural patterns--they are things that were made and used through cultural knowledge and skills.

The word culture has many different meanings.  For some it refers to an appreciation of good literature, music, art, and food.  For a biologist, it is likely to be a colony of bacteria or other microorganisms growing in a nutrient medium in a laboratory Petri dish.  However, for anthropologists and other behavioral scientists, culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns.  The term was first used in this way by the pioneer English Anthropologist Edward B. Tylor in his book, Primitive Culture, published in 1871.  Tylor said that culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society."  Of course, it is not limited to men.  Women possess and create it as well.  Since Tylor's time, the concept of culture has become the central focus of anthropology. 

From:http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_1.htm

Unit : Foreign Culture Topic : Eastern and Western Culture M.3

Unit Culture Topic Beliefs M.2

Unit: food and Drink Topic: Type of food

Unit : Eastern and Western Culture Topic : Entertainment M.3

Unit: Pop Culture Topic: Entertainment M.1

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it. 

Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group members:

• gain from each other's efforts. (Your success benefits me and my success benefits you.)
• recognize that all group members share a common fate. (We all sink or swim together here.)
• know that one's performance is mutually caused by oneself and one's team members. (We can not do it without you.)
• feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for achievement. (We all congratulate you on your accomplishment!).

Why use Cooperative Learning?

Research has shown that cooperative learning techniques:

• promote student learning and academic achievement
• increase student retention
• enhance student satisfaction with their learning experience
• help students develop skills in oral communication
• develop students' social skills
• promote student self-esteem
• help to promote positive race relations

5 Elements of Cooperative Learning

It is only under certain conditions that cooperative efforts may be expected to be more productive than competitive and individualistic efforts. Those conditions are:

1. Positive Interdependence   (sink or swim together) Each group member's efforts are required and indispensable for group success Each group member has a unique contribution to make to the joint effort because of his or her resources and/or role and task responsibilities
2. Face-to-Face Interaction (promote each other's success) Orally explaining how to solve problems Teaching one's knowledge to other Checking for understanding Discussing concepts being learned Connecting present with past learning
3. Individual & Group Accountability ( no hitchhiking! no social loafing) Keeping the size of the group small. The smaller the size of the group, the greater the individual accountability may be. Giving an individual test to each student. Randomly examining students orally by calling on one student to present his or her group's work to the teacher (in the presence of the group) or to the entire class. Observing each group and recording the frequency with which each member-contributes to the group's work. Assigning one student in each group the role of checker. The checker asks other group members to explain the reasoning and rationale underlying group answers. Having students teach what they learned to someone else.
4. Interpersonal & Small-Group Skills Social skills must be taught: Leadership Decision-making Trust-building Communication Conflict-management skills
5. Group Processing Group members discuss how well they are achieving their goals and maintaining effective working relationships Describe what member actions are helpful and not helpful Make decisions about what behaviors to continue or change

Class Activities that use Cooperative Learning

1. Jigsaw - Groups with five students are set up. Each group member is assigned some unique material to learn and then to teach to his group members. To help in the learning students across the class working on the same sub-section get together to decide what is important and how to teach it. After practice in these "expert" groups the original groups reform and students teach each other. (Wood, p. 17) Tests or assessment follows.

2. Think-Pair-Share - Involves a three step cooperative structure. During the first step individuals think silently about a question posed by the instructor. Individuals pair up during the second step and exchange thoughts. In the third step, the pairs share their responses with other pairs, other teams, or the entire group.

3. Three-Step Interview (Kagan) - Each member of a team chooses another member to be a partner. During the first step individuals interview their partners by asking clarifying questions. During the second step partners reverse the roles. For the final step, members share their partner's response with the team.

4. RoundRobin Brainstorming (Kagan)- Class is divided into small groups (4 to 6) with one person appointed as the recorder. A question is posed with many answers and students are given time to think about answers. After the "think time," members of the team share responses with one another round robin style. The recorder writes down the answers of the group members. The person next to the recorder starts and each person in the group in order gives an answer until time is called.

5. Three-minute review - Teachers stop any time during a lecture or discussion and give teams three minutes to review what has been said, ask clarifying questions or answer questions.

6. Numbered Heads Together (Kagan) - A team of four is established. Each member is given numbers of 1, 2, 3, 4. Questions are asked of the group. Groups work together to answer the question so that all can verbally answer the question. Teacher calls out a number (two) and each two is asked to give the answer.

7. Team Pair Solo (Kagan)- Students do problems first as a team, then with a partner, and finally on their own. It is designed to motivate students to tackle and succeed at problems which initially are beyond their ability. It is based on a simple notion of mediated learning. Students can do more things with help (mediation) than they can do alone. By allowing them to work on problems they could not do alone, first as a team and then with a partner, they progress to a point they can do alone that which at first they could do only with help.

8. Circle the Sage (Kagan)- First the teacher polls the class to see which students have a special knowledge to share. For example the teacher may ask who in the class was able to solve a difficult math homework question, who had visited Mexico, who knows the chemical reactions involved in how salting the streets help dissipate snow. Those students (the sages) stand and spread out in the room. The teacher then has the rest of the classmates each surround a sage, with no two members of the same team going to the same sage. The sage explains what they know while the classmates listen, ask questions, and take notes. All students then return to their teams. Each in turn, explains what they learned. Because each one has gone to a different sage, they compare notes. If there is disagreement, they stand up as a team. Finally, the disagreements are aired and resolved.

9. Partners (Kagan) - The class is divided into teams of four. Partners move to one side of the room. Half of each team is given an assignment to master to be able to teach the other half. Partners work to learn and can consult with other partners working on the same material. Teams go back together with each set of partners teaching the other set. Partners quiz and tutor teammates. Team reviews how well they learned and taught and how they might improve the process.

 

Reference

Kagan, Spencer. Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing, 1994. http://www.kaganonline.com/

Unit: Interest Opinion Topic: Animals P.3

Unit. Place Topic.Direction M.1

Unit : Myself Topic : Autobiography M.1

Unit : Weather Topic: Season P.6

Unit : Culture Topic : General Information M.5

Most of these structures are developed by Dr. Spencer Kagan and his associates at Kagan Publishing and Professional Development. For resources and professional development information on Kagan Structures, please visit: http://www.kaganonline.com/

Learning Style

   Learning styles   

Learning styles are various approaches or ways of learning. They involve educating methods, particular to an individual, that are presumed to allow that individual to learn best. Most people prefer an identifiable method of interacting with, taking in, and processing stimuli or information. Based on this concept, the idea of individualized "learning styles" originated in the 1970s, and acquired "enormous popularity"
Proponents say that teachers should assess the learning styles of their students and adapt their classroom methods to best fit each student's learning style, which is called the 'meshing hypothesis.
The alleged basis and efficacy for these proposals has been extensively criticized. Although children and adults express personal preferences, there is no evidence that identifying a student's learning style produces better outcomes, and there is significant evidence that the widespread "meshing hypothesis" (that a student will learn best if taught in a method deemed appropriate for the student's learning style) is invalid. Well-designed studies "flatly contradict the popular meshing hypothesis".

From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles


Unit: Science and Teachnology Topic: internet M.6

Unit: Place Topic: General Information M.3

Unit: My Interest Topic: Animals P.3

Unit: Tourism Topic: Weather M.5

Unit: Personal relationship Topic: Appearances M.4

Multiple Intelligences

  Multiple Intelligences 

The Multiple Intelligences (MI) Institute is committed to the understanding and application of Multiple Intelligences Theory in educational settings, from pre-school through adult education. Through our online course and support channels, face to face professional development, consulting services, and curriculum and resource development offerings, we support programs and educators seeking to tap into Multiple Intelligences and pedagogical framework to create and provide learner-centered, goal-driven applications of Multiple Intelligences Theory in any learning context.


From >>>http://www.miinstitute.info/
 Unit: Environment Topic: Pollution M.6

Unit: People Topic: Friends M.2

Unit: Health Topic: Medical Service M.5

Unit:Travel Topic: Direction P.6

Unit: Holiday Topic: Halloween M.3

CBI

 Content based instruction (CBI) 

 Content based instruction (CBI) is a teaching method that emphasizes learning about something rather
than learning about language. Although CBI is not new, there has been an increased interest in it over the last ten years, particularly in the USA and Canada where it has proven very effective in ESL immersion programs. This interest has now spread to EFL classrooms around the world where teachers are discovering that their students like CBI and are excited to learn English this way.

From:http://iteslj.org/Articles/Davies-CBI.html
From:Picture


Unit: Myself Topic: Personal Information M.4

Unit: Culture Topic: Beliefs M.2 (Part1) 
Unit: Culture Topic: Beliefs M.2 (Part2)
Unit: Culture Topic: Beliefs M.2 (Part3)

Unit: Health Topic : Medical Service M.5 (Part1)
Unit: Health Topic : Medical Service M.5 (Part2)