Five ways to differentiate a lesson plan

“Since students don’t learn the same way, we need to teach them the way they learn”, it means that teaching involves teachers to use and apply different strategies to make each of the students learn, even when all of them are different, and obviously they learn in different ways. Differentiated instruction provides teachers with the appropriate tools to structure lessons to satisfice their students learning needs.

We can differentiate our lesson plans in this way:

Learning by Pace

This involves the time on task that best accommodates learners. While some learners need a good deal of time to complete an assignment, others may require less time, or a small extension of time, in order to address the material presented. Teachers must be creative and apply different techniques with all of the students for them to do a good job and to enjoy the class.

Learning by Ability Level

This is about the general or promethium expectation of students’ performance, competency and skills according to their age or grade. Achievement level may vary from one discipline to another, so that grade or age level is acceptable, but content adeptness within a subject area may differ. Determining differences in ability levels is often facilitated through scores on standardized tests. These serve as the determining factor for what is considered “on level” and what is above or below it.

Learners’ Interests

Students are interested and concerned about many things, and finding out what those things are is a good tool for teachers who want to use different and interesting strategies for teaching. Students’ interest refers to the areas where they are focused due to intentness, concern, curiosity, importance, consequence, and variations of thinking or feeling regarding learning fields. Interest are emotionally or cognitive based, they may involve previous experiences and knowledge about certain areas.

Learners’ Needs

The needs of a learner represent the gap between what the learner wants to get out of the learning experience and his or her current state of knowledge, skill, and enthusiasm. Student needs vary as much as individuals themselves at any given time. Emotional components, assessment tools, achievement in one area and not in another, students’ sense of security, and stress factors are all considered when determining learners’ needs.

Learning Styles

This is attention to the way individuals process and retain information. It means the way in which students learn.  Learning styles group common ways that people learn. Everyone has a mix of learning styles. Some people may find that they have a dominant style of learning, with far less use of the other styles. Others may find that they use different styles in different circumstances.

Tier Lessons

These are lessons in which the assignment begins at a basic level and builds in complexity. The instruction is designed to add layers for greater cognitive skill application and comprehension. Tier lessons and/or scaffolding are implemented like the rungs of a ladder, moving from lower to higher levels of understanding.

Style of delivery

Teachers teaching methods and style of delivering the class are based on a specific philosophy of education that teachers acquire and perfect through time and experience because developing an effective teaching style for our subject-area requires time, effort, a willingness to experiment with different teaching strategies, and an examination of what is effective in our teaching.

Lesson-planning represents the thoughtful preparation and delivery of predetermined material or content that is deemed to be important. Furthermore, good lesson planning is essential to the process of teaching and learning because a good lesson plan is the base for a good class and it gives the teacher the confidence and the structure required to deliver the lesson. A teacher who is prepared is well on his/her way to a successful instructional experience and also has fewer difficulties at the moment of delivering the lesson.

The development of interesting lessons takes a great deal of time and effort, but this activity becomes easier as we gain some experience and years of work. Also, it is important to know that a good lesson plan is not enough because we need to have interesting deliver procedures along with good classroom management techniques in order to make our classes interesting and facilitate our students learning. Those are skills that we must develop and put into practice

Convergent and divergent questions

Not all the questions that we ask in the classroom are equally. The kinds of questions, that we ask, depend on what we are testing, and they can make a big difference in the assessment. There are both similarities and differences one may find when comparing convergent and divergent questions. Both types of questions are necessary in order for a person to become a critical thinker.

The two types of questions are: convergent and divergent questions.

Convergent questions:

This type of questioning involves recall and limits answers to questions to a single or small number of responses. It is referred to as closed questioning. There is no specified requirement for the learner to be involved in thought processes involving analysis, making a generalization, synthesis, prediction, or reflection. These questions have only one correct answer, and they test rote knowledge of concrete facts. Examples of these questions include multiple choice, definitions, true/false, fill in the blank and calculations where there is only one correct answer.

Divergent questions:

This type of question encourages a general or open response of the learner. This relates to indirect teaching strategies. There is no single best answer. Nonetheless, there is the potential for incorrect answers to divergent questions. Subsequently, it is often appropriate and necessary to follow up divergent questions with more detail, new information, or encouragement regarding deeper thinking/reflection.

These types of questions are always open-ended, allowing the students to express themselves as they demonstrate their ability to reason in the subject. They have no single correct answer, and are more analytical, testing the students’ ability to synthesize information, offer educated opinions or create hypotheses based on their knowledge. 

Classroom design

School’s classrooms must be places whose atmosphere establishes a sense of security, ownership, and comfort in order for learning to be optimized. Children can and do learn in places where they say to themselves, “I feel comfortable here; I am comfortable here.” This is accomplished by having a classroom design that accommodates learners’ preferences for where they sit and areas in the room for their use.

In the school or academic setting, classroom management relies partially on the physical configuration of the room and also on the environment being conducive to social interaction. Thoughtful arrangement of the indoor and outdoor environments will support your learning goals for students.

That classroom design is not just about furniture in different places, but a room configured to provide areas for students to work in ways that meet their needs. Ultimately, the room design impacts on whether students have a sense of belonging in the classroom setting.

Many years ago, classroom had certain physical limitations. Those physical limitations impacted instruction in that they were stringent, due partially to the lack of flexibility of the room’s furniture. For example, desks and bench-type seats were secured to the floor, which did not provide for movement of them into different configurations for, let’s say, small-group work. A section of the room was built to accommodate coats and outerwear with closets. Most often books were stored in either desk drawers or the desk top, which lifted upward.

Now, the classroom setting has changed dramatically. Today’s classrooms could have the opportunity to have television, computers, Internet access, phones, and whiteboards with use of markers, Smart boards, new desk arrangements, etc. Also, teachers and students could feel comfortable and cozy in the classroom and teachers can reconfigure the room’s furniture to meet students’ needs.

Classroom ownership, for students and their teachers, results from having a sense of belonging. This occurs when a classroom design fosters and promotes the idea of elasticity through knowing that the physical environment is reconfigurable, shared, and invitational to learning.

There are two types of classroom design: The Traditional Classroom Design, and the Nontraditional Classroom Design.

·         Components of Traditional Classroom Design: Physical Setting

This classroom has, at its core, a design that is structured and set in place throughout the school year. The students’ desks and hard chairs are organized, with one being behind the other. The students face the teacher’s desk, which is customarily in the front of the room and well within the line of vision of all his/her students.

·         Components of Traditional Classroom Design: Instruction

The students’ attention is focused on the teacher, because looking at the back of someone’s head is certainly less appealing. Regularly, the teacher stands in the front of the room and primarily uses a lecturing presentation style of delivery. This is referred to as direct instruction, where students most often are the passive recipients of information. The classroom instruction is teacher-centered and subsequently teacher-controlled.

·         The Nontraditional Classroom Design: Physical Setting

The students’ desks are arranged in a U shape or semicircle, circles, or clusters, students are primarily looking at one another. Possibly, there’s a section of the room where a carpeted “comfy corner” has been provided. Flip-style seats, or beanbags, a rocking chair or two, and/or cushioned television-style seating are present.

·         The Nontraditional Classroom Design: Instruction

The teacher delivers lessons using varied and/or multiple styles of delivery in different parts of the room. These may include anecdotes, storytelling, small-group collaborative exercises, hands-on activities involving the entire class, partnerships, some individualization, and/or learning centers where the teacher serves as lesson facilitator.

What are the three types of comprehension

Comprehension involves memory, cognition, and metacognition. Memory is the storing and then recalling and retrieving of thoughts and feelings. Cognition and metacognition are recognized as being lower- and higher-level thinking.

Comprehension occurs when someone uses his or her memory and produces a certain level of thinking that allows them to understand or to have certain knowledge about something. It means the state of being comprehended or the capacity of the mind to perceive and understand. Any teacher can tell you that comprehension is one of the key components of education, because comprehension is its main goal.

Comprehension is demonstrated through things said, and/or actions and behaviors in three applications, which are the following:

1. Literal: Fact-based evidence of comprehension. It means what is actually stated.

For example, tests in which the students will be able to think and to put in practice their skills.

2. Applied: Comparison and contrast comprehension, resulting from making connections to one’s own experience, or read or heard material. Taking what was said and then what was meant by what was said and then applying the concepts or ideas beyond the situation.

Example,

3. Implied: Inferential comprehension, based on context or illustrative material being presented in oral, visual, tactile, or kinesthetic formats. It means what is implied or meant, rather than what is actually stated.

This active orientation results in learning, which involves conceptual change modifying one’s previous understanding of concepts so that they become increasingly complex and valid.

Giving effective feedback

Feedback to any pupil should be about the particular qualities of his or her work, with advice on what he or she can do to improve, and should avoid comparisons with other pupils.

Feedback is one of the essential parts of learning because it helps students to understand the subject being studied and to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses; Students learn faster and more deeply if they know what the strengths and weaknesses of their performance are. 

Feedback consists on a retribution, response or information based on previously established objectives that teachers provide to students about their work, it means that providing feedback means giving students an explanation of what they are doing correctly and incorrectly. This information must include a guideline on what aspects students need to improve and how to do it.

The feedback that teachers need to provide to the students can be verbal or written, and it must be delivered just at the time that the students finish their work, so that students have the opportunity to respond to the commentaries that the teacher provides.

Feedback is very important in our lives, not only in our work lives but also in various aspects of our lives. It will help us improve more on the areas of our life that need improving on. At the same time, it allows us to be better, to become someone who can give more. It will also help you discover things about yourself. 

Teacher's classroom questions

Most of the time that teachers spend in school is spent asking questions to students for different purposes either to assess knowledge, to check if they have understood the activities, or to create a good classroom environment, so that questioning serves for the purpose of helping teachers achieve specific purposes and help students to develop the activities in the best way.

Questioning is an essential tool for both teaching and learning. It’s one of the most popular modes of teaching because it’s possible to transfer knowledge and understanding trough asking questions, it helps teachers to keep students involve in learning, students have the opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts, it develops dialogue between students, it helps teachers to evaluate their students learning, etc.

Questions can be materialized in an oral and written form, but the most used is the oral form as it develops reflective learning. There are 3 categories of teachers in regards to asking classroom questions: the first one is the group of teachers who practice questions in an intuitive manner, the second one is the group who use questions and do not plan for it, and the last group is the one that recognizes that asking questions is important and requires advance planning.

Asking questions is a skill that not all the teachers have, but they can acquire it by the time. When teachers ask good questions, students are able to feel more comfortable, to participate actively in class, and to be more independent. Also, it can foster interaction between the teacher and his/her students.  

Assessment in education

Formative assessment is defined as frequent, interactive assessments of student progress and understanding to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately.

Assessment is a fundamental aspect in education and every teacher has to do it. Assessment involves two mayor types of activities; the first one is based on collecting information about students’ knowledge and skills and the second one is based on checking if each student has the appropriate level of learning. Both imply measurement and evaluation activities that can be materialized through tests, oral questions, homework, write papers, problems, and presentations. Teachers can evaluate the score from those activities by comparing them one another or to an absolute standard.

Assessment has to be done with the purpose of supporting learning; for learning it is the most critical tool in developing and personalizing an individual student’s route through school, as it takes account of the specific learning needs of each student. Assessment guides students as individual learners because they will know what they strengths and weaknesses are. Through assessment students develop an awareness of how they learn and use that awareness to adjust and advance their learning, taking an increased responsibility for their learning.

Teachers view assessment as their responsibility to provide students with knowledge, examination tips and structures that result in formulaic approaches to examination questions. Also, it helps teachers to gain insight into what students understand in order to plan and guide instruction, and provide helpful feedback to students.

Independent learning

Working as teachers, we deal with a great variety of personalities and different types of students. Some of them have difficulties making the transition from high school to university because superior education requires students to take responsibility for their own learning and to make decisions by themselves. Also, it’s kind of difficult for students to make the transition from high school to university because they are surrounded by more distractions and the level of education is higher, so it means that they have to make a bigger effort and study more than how they used to study.

The main goal for teachers is to facilitate independent learning that is a process in which a student acquires knowledge by his or her own efforts and develops the ability for inquiry and critical evaluation.

One of the big challenges that we as teachers have is to encourage our students to make decisions by themselves about how they could learn the best and how they could be more independent and creative in their own learning. Also we have to create opportunities for them to pursue their own interests and practice skills in a variety of ways in order to create students able to know what they want or don’t, willing to take risks, able to set goals and initiate tasks with less direction and avoid procrastination.

Interesting and innovating strategies can create positive and challenging learning environment.

Teaching has to do not only with helping individuals acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes in different areas of learning but also with preparing them to be a useful and important part of the world.

The use of innovating and interesting strategies in teaching has the potential not only to improve learning, but also to empower people to learn in a better way. Consequently, teachers seek for different strategies that help them to create the best environment for learning to take place making students feel comfortable and willing to participate in classroom activities so that creativity can be developed and innovation benefits both students and teachers.

Most students come to class with fears and uncertainty. Students fear failing tests, not fitting in with peers, and appearing ignorant in front of their classmates. Being afraid to ask questions, express opinions, or join group discussions can greatly hinder a student’s learning. But we can create an environment that nurtures their confidence and allows them to explore and expand their knowledge without undue risk or fear.

What are the goals of classroom management? What do you think are the most important principles of classroom management?

“The term ‘classroom management’ and ‘discipline’ are often used interchangeably”.

One of the biggest challenges that teachers face is managing a class full of students. It is even worse when students misbehave and the teachers don't have a well-organized plan or are not experienced enough to control the situation; consequently, some difficulties in learning take place.

“Classroom management is teachers’ strategies that create and maintain an orderly learning environment and discipline means teachers’ responses to student’s misbehavior”.

We could say that classroom management is the term educators use to describe methods of preventing misbehavior and dealing with it if it arises. In other words, it is the techniques teachers use to maintain control in the classroom. So, classroom management is those techniques, positive behaviors and activities that the teacher uses to facilitate the learning process and to create a good environment in the classroom.

A well-established classroom is one which contains all the elements and resources that the students need and one in which they can make use of those resources in the best way. Also, the actions that the teacher does should be focused on minimizing disruptions and fostering the learning and a good environment.

The goals of classroom management:

• To create a good classroom and learning environment

It does not mean to create inert and passive students; it means to motivate students to learn and to get them involved in the classroom activities.

• To support classroom community

It means that students are allowed to make the connections needed for learning to take place. Students need to feel comfortable to participate in classroom activities and to share their knowledge.

What are your motives for teaching? What rewards or incentives do you get from teaching? How might your motives interfere with your ability to put the needs of your students ahead of your own?

Teaching is not just a job, it is something that inspires me and it is something that changes my life every day that I do it. I could say that teaching is like a calling that I got because 5 years ago I would never imagine that I would be teaching, but now it has become a reality for me and I enjoy it pretty much not only the act of teaching but also the environment in which I’m involved and the interaction with my students.  One of my biggest motives for teaching is the satisfaction of changing my students' lives and the amazing experience of sharing some knowledge with them because it’s an amazing feeling to know that I am helping someone to be a better person.

It is pretty obvious that when you are a teacher you are going to be paid, but it is just a material reward and it is not a big amount of money. The real reward is the satisfaction that you get from the job for instance things like being a role model and a big influence for the students, being challenged every day, watching kids succeed and become into a member of the society; that kind of things are the ones that make you feel proud about being a teacher.

Those kinds of feelings and rewards sometimes lead you to put the needs of your students before your needs because as you get more involved with the students they become an important part of you and you worry more about them.

List the things you like about working with teenagers. Why? List the things you don't like. Why?

Adolescence is a stage that marks the transition between childhood and adulthood it means that adolescents have many important developmental tasks to achieve because they are in the process of forming their own identity; consequently sometimes it's hard for us to work with them because of their changing personalities and the many different process that they face. Even though these changes and all what it implies working with teenagers, it is an amazing job and it has become one of the most wonderful experiences that I have had. Even if sometimes working with teens gets hard for me because I tend to behave like a teenager, but I know I have to behave like a grown up and I do my best to do it.

What I like about working with teenagers:

1. Their energy. They are so energetic and they always want to participate and do the classroom activities that I assign.

2. I feel identified with them. I share some ideas, thoughts and behavior traits with them that make me feel comfortable and good teaching them.

3. They make me smile. They are so ingenious and they always say jokes or things that make me laugh.

4. They are curious. They are always asking questions and wanting to know more; they love to explore and try new things.

5. They are unique. Each of them is different and unique in a kind, so I have the amazing opportunity of discovering the personality of each teen.

6. They are self-conscious. They know what they are and what they want.

7. They are very creative. They always have plans and ideas that we can apply in the classroom.

What I don't like about working with teenagers:

1. Some of my students talk a lot during the class and I have to be asking them to be quiet and to pay attention.

2. Some of them are insecure. They doubt too much about their strengths and their potential.

3. Some students are irresponsible. They don't take learning seriously.

4. Bad judgment. Some of them don't know how to differentiate what is good or bad for them.

5. They prefer to do things on they own. Sometimes they don't like to do team work and they prefer to work alone.

What can the World Wide Web offer ESL/EFL teachers?

The World Wide Web consists of all the public websites connected to the Internet worldwide. The quickly growth of the WWW and the internet helps a lot to make widespread communication and to make the information spreads faster than ever before; furthermore, it helps to make computer based instruction easy and the fact that the Internet possesses the potential to retrieve and provide almost unlimited information very fast has made it to be a great tool in ESL classrooms.

The World Wide Web offers a lot of information, resources and materials for ESL/EFL teachers and also students. Teachers can take advantage of the compilations of online resources that websites have in order to use them in the classroom and use all these resources as language teaching tools.

Teachers can use websites for practicing language and developing skills because the World Wide Web has a large amount of web pages in which teachers can find very useful information and drills to use in the classroom in a creative and interesting way that make the students want to participate actively in their educational process.

There are many websites that teachers can use to teach grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, writing, etc. Those websites are very useful because they give valuable information and they serve as practice to the students. Also, teachers can use the different resources that internet has like videos, podcasts, presentations, books, audios, etc.

Writing skills are an important part of communication because good writing skills allow you to communicate your message with clarity and ease to a far larger audience than through face-to-face or telephone conversations. Writing is one of those skills that deeply require students to be motivated and able to practice and practice every day because writing skills need to be taught, they cannot be learnt unconsciously or by immersion like speech.

Nowadays, writing becomes easier because of many useful resources that we can take advantage of like word-processing programs. First, a word processor is an electronic device or a computer application software that performs word processing which means the composition, editing, formatting and sometimes printing of any sort of written material. So, word-processing programs are a very useful tool that helps teachers to develop writing skills in their students because no other technology resource has produced a big impact on education as word processing.

Word processing programs offer high diversity; that's why they are very useful for teachers. Furthermore, teachers can use them to propose instruction or activities that help students to develop writing skills. Because of its importance as assistance to teaching and learning, word-processing programs are known worldwide and they have become the most famous software in education. But before using these kinds of programs, we should check some requirements to know if these programs would be suitable for us; like the availability of software and hardware, the knowledge about how to use the equipment and the students' willingness and knowledge about how to use the equipment.

Do you think technologies (e.g., videos, computers, etc.) should play a central or a peripheral role in second language teaching and learning? Why?

Technology has become a very useful tool and an important component of education because we use it in many ways for instance, we can show a video to our students, we can play an audio, we can use e-books (instead of physical books), we can use blogs or online groups to develop topics, and so on; so that technologies should play a central role in teaching.

Technology has changed the paradigm of education because thanks to technology, education has gone from passive and reactive to interactive and aggressive. Students learn best when they are engaged and through the use of technology, students can become active participants as opposed to passive ones where they simply receive instructions or information.

Lately, the access to technologies is unlimited, we can use computers, tablets or even smartphones to have internet access and a large number of applications (like translators, dictionaries, recorders, applications to watch videos and to listen to podcast, etc.) that are very useful for teachers and students to improve their teaching and learning and as technology advances, it will be used to produce even more benefits.

Furthermore, we could use technology as a great advantage to make our teaching easier and more significant for our students, and also make our students get involved and participate actively in the acquisition of their knowledge. Technology used in the classroom helps students adsorb the material. For example, since some people are visual learners, projection screens linked to computers can allow students to see their notes instead of simply listening to a teacher deliver a lecture.

What do you think is the role of research in improving our understanding of teaching?

Research in teaching should be understood to mean digging deep into knowledge or existing issues so as to have enough knowledge and clear understanding of the subject area. In essence, research helps teachers to interrogate aspects of their teaching practices and evaluate their students learning processes with a greater understanding of its relevance to their teaching.

Research plays a very important role and it influence teaching in many ways. In fact, teachers are always learning, finding out things, analyzing information, adapting their behavior according to information received, looking to improve and adapting to modern demands and all of this constitutes research. Teacher research also gives teachers the opportunity to develop new and different relationships with both colleagues and students.
Teachers should look at research as a way to develop new understanding about teaching, learning, and educational administration. This new knowledge has significance because it will lead to the improvement of educational practice. Research in education is crucial because teachers can improve their practice by taking the time to conduct research and should be encouraged to do so.