Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Specific Didactics (5-6)
Specific Didactics (5-6)
Teachers as managers
Teachers need to foster student engagement and securing cooperation so that teaching can occur. English teachers
of young learners need to develop a plan for managing their classroom that will keep learners engaged on tasks and
avoid giving them opportunities to misbehave and get out of control.
YLs have so much energy, are so easily distracted, and tend to be very egocentric
Effective teachers need to be good managers of the following aspects:
Managing the pace of the class: YL have short attention spans, teachers need to move quickly from activity
to activity.
Managing the time: the teacher should keep the class moving from activity to activity and interject fun
activities throughout the class period. Although the teacher should maintain the pace of the class, s/he
should also remember to give enough “wait time” for students to answer, so that they can formulate their
answers in their heads before saying them out loud. Waiting 3-5 seconds can increase the quantity and
quality of responses.
Managing activities: planning the material and instructions for all activities ahead of time will help you keep
the pace of your class. If your activities need some supplies, then you should organize the materials before
the class and plan for some time to be spent passing out the supplies to each student. If the activity requires
complicated instructions, then it will be important to prepare simplified instructions. Teachers need to
prepare carefully for every aspect of the activity.
Using transition activities: moving from one activity to the next takes planning and some creativity. Getting
students’ attention quickly and efficiently is important to keep the pace of the class, for this, you can use
attention getters like whistles, bells, or even turn off the lights. You can incorporate brain breaks.
Experienced teachers seem to keep a good pace effortlessly, these teachers have built-in purposeful routines
that they have mastered after years of practice and experimentation.
Managing behaviour with routines: One of the main ways to manage a class full of young learners is to
develop classroom routines. Young children gradually become familiar with established routines that help
them feel confident. Anxious or immature learners will tend to react negatively to changes in the normal
classroom pattern, especially in their first year of schooling. For example:
Starting the class with a greeting
Designating classroom helpers (“helping hands”)
Taking attendance (“roll call”)
Establishing the date and the day
Establishing objectives
Cleaning up the room
Giving homework
Ending the class
If a teacher establishes certain routines that YLs can expect, then students will have a sense of security every time
they walk into the classroom. Some teachers put a routine map on the wall, so students have a visual cue of every
part of the class period. The teacher can designate certain parts of the board to communicate the day’s objective
and the homework.
Managing behaviour with rules: Teachers of YLs always have rules. How you set up those rules and how you enforce
them will determine your success as a teacher.
Be sure you know the school rules and incorporate them into your classroom.
Clearly communicate the rules and co-construct rules with students whenever possible.
Be sure that the rules incorporate consequences for both positive and negative behaviour.
Involve parents or family members to help manage YLs behaviour.
Basic rules:
Do not talk when somebody is talking.
Raise your hand if you want to say something.
Be kind to others.
Work hard.
Share.
Cooperate.
UNIT 6
Assessment
It’s a process of identifying learning goals and determining how well students are meeting them. It is something that
is ongoing, a process of monitoring learning and teaching. Assessment is part of the learning process; in practice,
teachers assess learners all the time. When learners participate in class or pair work, teachers note those who are
having difficulty decoding a new word, by talking informally with a student before or after class, teachers learn a
great deal about their learners’ progress and their own teaching.
Testing
It’s one type of assessment that formally measures learners’ English language performance. It is usually given at set
times during the term: at the end of a unit, or the middle or the end of a term. A test can measure specific
knowledge or overall proficiency in using the language. It can be developed by a teacher or be a high-stakes,
standardized test given by an educational institution or ministry. It can involve choosing among multiple-choice
items, filling in blanks, completing sentences, writing texts, or giving short oral answers and yielding a score, a grade,
or, in the case of standardized tests, an overall score, and often, a ranking to each student’s performance compared
to all who took the test.
Evaluation
Involves the use of test scores or assessments for some kind of decision making. Usually, these are only one source
of information to determine the success of a particular program, course, or approach to instruction. Other sources
might include curriculum, objectives, materials, methodology, or teachers. They might also include classroom
observations, interviews with students or parents, and student evaluation as evidence.
Evaluación
Es un proceso para identificar las metas de aprendizaje y determinar qué tan bien los están cumpliendo los estudiantes. Es algo
que está en marcha, un proceso de monitoreo de aprendizaje y enseñanza. La evaluación es parte del proceso de aprendizaje; en la
práctica, los profesores evalúan a los alumnos todo el tiempo. Cuando los alumnos participan en la clase o emparejan el trabajo,
los maestros notan que los que tienen dificultades para descifrar una palabra nueva, hablando informalmente con un alumno antes
o después de clase, los profesores aprenden mucho sobre el progreso de sus alumnos y su propia enseñanza.
Pruebas
Es un tipo de evaluación que mide formalmente el rendimiento en el idioma inglés de los estudiantes. Por lo general, se brinda en
momentos establecidos durante el término: al final de una unidad, o al medio o al final de un término. Una prueba puede medir el
conocimiento específico o el dominio general en el uso del idioma. Puede ser desarrollado por un maestro o ser un examen
estandarizado de alto riesgo otorgado por una institución o ministerio educativo. Puede implicar elegir entre elementos de opción
múltiple, rellenar espacios en blanco, completar oraciones, escribir textos o dar respuestas orales cortas y obtener un puntaje, un
grado o, en el caso de exámenes estandarizados, un puntaje general y, a menudo, un clasificando el desempeño de cada estudiante
en comparación con todos los que tomaron el examen.
Evaluación
Implica el uso de puntajes de prueba o evaluaciones para algún tipo de toma de decisiones. Por lo general, estas son solo una
fuente de información para determinar el éxito de un programa, curso o enfoque particular de la instrucción. Otras fuentes pueden
incluir currículo, objetivos, materiales, metodología o maestros. También pueden incluir observaciones en el aula, entrevistas con
estudiantes o padres, y la evaluación del estudiante como evidencia.
A comprehensive or ideal assessment system consists of all three. Assessment, testing, and evaluation help:
Learners to know how they’re progressing
Teachers to know how effective the instruction is
Administrators to know how well the program is making progress toward program goals
Funders to see the results of their investment
Principles of Assessment
Developing or identifying appropriate assessment for young learners involves understanding the basic criteria that
guide all assessment, as well as the special guidelines for assessing young learners.
Basic assessment guidelines:
Reliability: for a language assessment to be reliable, the results should be accurate and consistent. If
students who demonstrate the same basic proficiency in listening or reading in class score differently on an
assessment, then the assessment’s reliability is questionable. If two teachers score a student’s writing or
speaking with very different scores, then the reliability is also a problem. It may be that the directions were
unclear or the scoring criteria were confusing.
Validity: for a language assessment to be valid, the decisions made by the test must be meaningful
appropriate, and useful. It also has to assess what it purports to assess. The task should be appropriate for
assessing the desired skill. Assessments have social and educational consequences; they must be fair, and
what they are used for must match their intended purpose to be valid assessments.
Practicality: an assessment task is practical if needed resources are available for the assessment task. One
also has to consider the amount of time and training needed for scoring the assessment.
Authenticity: a language assessment is authentic if the language being assessed is used in ways that are
appropriate and relevant to young learners. An assessment should be also “child-friendly”. In general, paper-
and-pencil tests do not meet the criteria of authenticity for young learners.
Washback: washback refers to the effect that tests have on teaching and learning. Its impact can be positive
or negative. Ideally, a test should promote more effective instruction: what is tested should be what is
agreed upon as the most important language knowledge and use. However, in practice, the scenario is quite
different, since assessment seems to “drive” teaching by forcing teachers to teach what is going to be
assessed”. It can also influence the language curriculum and policy.
When focusing on alternative or formative assessment, the interpretation of the above criteria may change.
There is extra information on the last part of unit 6, about how to assess every skill of the language (listening,