CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT

“Articulating what you will explicitly teach or explicitly focus on in the course
and knowing why you have made those choices.”

So far, you must be able to:

1) know the flaws in K-13 based on your own context,

2) make your own context (based on five considerations on chapter 2, page 16),
3) articulate your own beliefs (based on four views on chapter 3, page 28),
4) problematize your own context.

In this chapter, you will be able to:

1) formulate the concept of your own content (based on the three categories on page 43),
2) add the categories with one unique aspect (based on your own problematized context).

In order to achieve the goals, you need to scrutinize and understand these following guideline
questions:

1. Three important points based on John Kongsvik (p. 37)

a) Conceptualizing content involves making choices.
b) It is a recursive process like writing.
c) Any syllabus prepared prior to meeting the students will be transformed in its implementation,
and thus it is worthwhile building room for students’ responses into the syllabus itself.
2. These two quotations (p. 39)
“What do I want my students to learn in this course, given who they are, their needs, and the
purpose of the course?”
“What do I feel is most important for my students to learn, given the resources and constrains
of my situation?”
By heart, answer those questions based on your own situation.
3. The explanation of the figure 4.3 on pages 44-53 (including figure 4.4)
4. Look at these, and what can you learn from:
a) Grids : Anne LeWarne (p. 55), Claire Winhold (p. 56-57)
b) Mind Maps : Iris Broudy (p. 41), Denise Maksail-Fine (p. 59, p. 61), Toby Brody (p. 62),
Monica Camargo (p. 64)
c) Flow Charts : Chris Conley (p. 67, p. 68, p. 69)
Now you should do this:

Based on your answer of number 2 on this guideline and also number 6 of your take home exam,
make your own grid, mind map, or flow chart that consist of these following categories:
a) Focus on Language
- Linguistic skills
- Topics/themes
- Competencies
- Situations
- Tasks
- Speaking
- Reading
- Communicative functions
- Listening
- Writing
- Genre
b) Focus on Learning and Learners
- Affective goals
- Interpersonal skills
- Learning Strategies
c) Focus on Social Context
- Sociolinguistic skills
- Sociocultural skills
d) ADDITIONAL Unique category (based on your problematizing (no 4 of your take home exam))
 DEVELOPING MATERIALS

“Decisions about developing materials are rooted in your beliefs, understanding, and experience.
They also depend on your goals and objectives, the way you conceptualize the content of the course, the
way you organize and sequence your course, and your understanding of your students’ need.
Your experience has provided you with a basis for decision making as well as a repertoire of techniques.”

So far, you must be able to:

1) know the flaws in K-13 based on your own context,

2) make your own context (based on five considerations on chapter 2, page 16),
3) articulate your own beliefs (based on four views on chapter 3, page 28),
4) problematize your own context.
5) formulate the concept of your own content (based on the three categories on page 43),
6) add the categories with one unique aspect (based on your own problematized context).

In this chapter, you will be able to:

1) develop material for your course based on your concept

In order to achieve the goals, you need to scrutinize and understand these following examples of
materials:

1. Cyndy Thatcher-Fettig’s unit on pages 158-160

2. Chris Conley’s unit on pages 161-163
3. Denise Maksail-Fine’s on pages 165-166

Now you should do this:

Develop the materials for one unit for your course. Including the texts, visuals, and other
things that you think important and can support the learning process. These are the considerations:

1. Consider your course organization: what the each unit focus is and what the unit content is,
according to your goals and objectives. Which list of language components and skills you wanted
to include.
2. Consider your context.
3. Consider whether you have a balance of exercises that target specific language and skills, and
activities that allow students to draw on the entirety of their language learning resources.
4. Consider the ways in which the activities build on each other and recycle language and skills.
5. Consider the figure 8.2 on page 156