Listen, I have something to say...

Authentic vs unauthentic source material 

Authentic texts/material are those which are not originally constructed for language teaching purposes.

 - General selection criteria for authentic materials:
language (pitch to ability),
purpose (aims and objectives),
speaker (accent, pronunciation, normal speed),
intended audience (type of audience, materials comparable to intellectual and maturity),
length (30 to 120 secs / break into segments),
visual support (pictures, maps, charts)

Things to consider when using authentic materials
- be familiar with materials & techniques
- learn to use equipment and tech supporting the materials
- spend time assessing, prepping, trying out the new materials
- copyright restrictions

What is the rationale for selecting a particular clip?
Just listening for details? Or does it go further to assess student listening for gist, inference, comprehension?

Does it encourage testing or teaching? What's the follow-up activity?



Advantage of using non-authentic material: controllable, directed

Using authentic radio program: many are poor pedagogical tools because they lack content. Advantage: real world; if more than two speakers, could be problematic for students if voices are similar

Using Video clips from films: authentic, find material such as sports (sportsmanship) that students can relate to [caveat: don't use material they are too familiar with], play-pause-predict-rewind if necessary  (a.k.a DRTA)

Use appropriate metalanguage to teach and discuss

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Representing: non-written product (audiovisual/ audio) to convey a message

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!!! Spiral progression - cuts across lessons, units, years. scaling not just difficulty within a particular skill, but more difficult skills - e.g. general inference to irony/sarcasm.

Choices

http://www.choiceofgames.com/

Cartoon strip creator

http://www.toondoo.com/

www.xtranormal.com

Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world

Gamers can save the world!

http://www.urgentevoke.com/

http://www.superstructgame.org/

http://www.worldwithoutoil.org/

Lesson Planning

Objectives - or where we are going? (Specific Instructional Objectives - SIOs should be observable)

For each pedagogical approach, there will be often be overlapping instructional activities

Lesson Plan -

A udience
B ehavior /performance - what I want the students to do or achieve during the lesson.
C onditions - during the performance / how do I assess them / what materials will I use to assess them
D egree - Criterion/quality -

Observable and measurable outcomes

Analyze learners - social status/general background/prior knowledge/motivation (strategies towards SDL)/readiness for teamwork (strategies towards CL)

Learning Outcome and plan lesson that answers the targeted outcome in some ways
include some ICT based activities

Plagiarism

Starting on my essay on Plagiarism, I've come to realise the perception of what I thought to be a clear cut matter might be far more complex. This has made me reflect on the incident during my contract teaching when I pulled a dozen students to the discipline master for plagiarism. I believe my actions were and are still correct - what I've come to question is why several of the students had a difficult time comprehending the 'crime.' Indeed one student remained defiant to the end - refusing to admit what he had done could be considered plagiarism. In those cases, it was not a matter of a lack of citation but a clear and wholesale theft of words (and works!). What must be done then to explain more explicitly to students the boundaries they cannot cross - and what they should do when those lines are not so clear.

The Internet, ease of computer access and the students' early proficiency in IT certainly make active plagiarism easier. But I think the solution, if there is one, lies not with making a better mouse trap such as academic plagiarism detection systems like SafeAssign (NIE) or MOSS (Stanford). Ethics, moral education, closer teacher-parent-student involvement - I think these are things we have to do as educators.