THE FOLLOWING ARE ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 66 TO 70 ASKED BY PROF. DR. HERNANDEZ
Management:
Support to classroom management, such as outlines to plan and organize the courses, units, and lessons, should be included in the manual.
66. SUGGESTED FEATURES ON THE TEACHER´S MANUAL:
According to the Florida Department of Education, Bureauof Curriculum and Instruction, a Teacher´s Manual can be a strong selling point as long as it is well designed. If it is well organized and it includes the following basic features, it will be easily adapted and used in the classroom.
Practicality:
This feature refers to qualities such as how clearly it is written, if it is easy to use, if it is cheap enough to buy it, and if it will be used on several occasions.
Clearly, a Teacher´s Manual must be a useful tool for the teacher, and it is fundamental that it has a clear layout so we can read it and use it easily. A complicated manual will never be used by the teacher. Its cost is also an issue to be considered, for in many bookstores, what I have seen is that acquiring a Teacher´s Manual is conditioned to the amount of textbooks you buy.
Alignment:
The contents and activities have to align to student materials, for this is the most elemental reason for obtaining the Teacher´s Manual.
Coverage:
The manual should have enough content for teachers to dedicate time for preparing lessons. it should explain procedures in teaching, cultural aspects, answers, a plan for each lesson, enough content for each topic, and information about what may be more difficult for students and how to explain these.
Readability:
It should be easy to understand the manual, and the objectives and instructions should be clear.
Methods:
This feature refers to qualities such as how clearly it is written, if it is easy to use, if it is cheap enough to buy it, and if it will be used on several occasions.
Clearly, a Teacher´s Manual must be a useful tool for the teacher, and it is fundamental that it has a clear layout so we can read it and use it easily. A complicated manual will never be used by the teacher. Its cost is also an issue to be considered, for in many bookstores, what I have seen is that acquiring a Teacher´s Manual is conditioned to the amount of textbooks you buy.
Alignment:
The contents and activities have to align to student materials, for this is the most elemental reason for obtaining the Teacher´s Manual.
Coverage:
The manual should have enough content for teachers to dedicate time for preparing lessons. it should explain procedures in teaching, cultural aspects, answers, a plan for each lesson, enough content for each topic, and information about what may be more difficult for students and how to explain these.
Readability:
It should be easy to understand the manual, and the objectives and instructions should be clear.
Methods:
Methods for students to learn the subject, activities for large and small groups, different learner contexts and learning styles should be includd.
Assessment:
The manual should include ways to evaluate the learning.
Assessment:
The manual should include ways to evaluate the learning.
Management:
Support to classroom management, such as outlines to plan and organize the courses, units, and lessons, should be included in the manual.
From my own experience, some of the textbooks that we use in Costa Rica are not always published along with the teacher´s manual, or it is difficult to obtain it. In some cases, salespersons visit our schools and offer to give a teacher´s manuals and CDs that come as compliment of the instructional materials if the teacher sells certain amounts of books. Really, they are not giving anything for free, because the teacher has to work selling the books, collecting the money, and delivering it to the salesperson.
67. TECHNOLOGY CHANGES
Visual presentation has become very important, almost as relevant as the contents.Specialization features, such as graphic design, photography, and typefaces. These and titles of materials have become relevant.
The advances in technology have brought many innovations that could be used in the teaching process. Nowadays, many of our students have small gadgets like music reproducers, be these mp3s, iPods, small CD players, or their cell phones, which could be used for exposing our students to standard English songs or conversations. The students operate their cell phones for so many functions like filming short videos, taking pictures, passing images, songs, messages, to each other, just in seconds. Two other changes have been the access to cable TV and the use of DVD players to watch films. They also are members of social communities like chats in the web, Twitter or Facebook, where they can easily communicate with English speaking people all around the world. If we could only convince them to use standard English ! Those students who do, really outstand in our classes, and they recognize it is due to their constant exposure to the target language. They seem to acquire faster mastery of the language and a higher self-esteem.
As an English teacher, having my own blog provides me with a space where I can express my opinions and insights, or simply provide with information for colleagues or students. It makes me use the new technology and practice using it, making mistaskes and corrections, add ing images even from my own pictures, videos, sounds, to a degree I just keep surprising myself because of the diversity of possibilities in these presentations. I still have much to learn, but actually, I am enjoying it. I hope the reader does, too.
67. TECHNOLOGY CHANGES
Visual presentation has become very important, almost as relevant as the contents.Specialization features, such as graphic design, photography, and typefaces. These and titles of materials have become relevant.
The advances in technology have brought many innovations that could be used in the teaching process. Nowadays, many of our students have small gadgets like music reproducers, be these mp3s, iPods, small CD players, or their cell phones, which could be used for exposing our students to standard English songs or conversations. The students operate their cell phones for so many functions like filming short videos, taking pictures, passing images, songs, messages, to each other, just in seconds. Two other changes have been the access to cable TV and the use of DVD players to watch films. They also are members of social communities like chats in the web, Twitter or Facebook, where they can easily communicate with English speaking people all around the world. If we could only convince them to use standard English ! Those students who do, really outstand in our classes, and they recognize it is due to their constant exposure to the target language. They seem to acquire faster mastery of the language and a higher self-esteem.
As an English teacher, having my own blog provides me with a space where I can express my opinions and insights, or simply provide with information for colleagues or students. It makes me use the new technology and practice using it, making mistaskes and corrections, add ing images even from my own pictures, videos, sounds, to a degree I just keep surprising myself because of the diversity of possibilities in these presentations. I still have much to learn, but actually, I am enjoying it. I hope the reader does, too.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario