FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN WRITING IMs (ORNSTEIN)

1. Understanding requires matching the materials to the learners’ abilities and

prior knowledge. If students do not understand the materials, frustration sets in,
making learning more difficult. The teacher/writer must know whether the
materials are suited to the level of the students and whether they will understand
those. Thus, the teacher/writer must provide for background lessons and check-
up activities and exercises to assess students’ understanding. This is especially
important for younger and slower students and when introducing new concepts.
2. Structuring /Clarifying involves organizing the material so that it is clear to the
students. It is especially important when new subject matter is introduced, and
when it is being linked to the previous lessons.
 Directions, objectives, and main ideas are stated clearly. Internal and final
summaries cover the content.
 Transition between main ideas is smooth and well integrated.
 Writing is not vague.
 Sufficient examples are provided.
 New terms are defined
 Adequate practice and review assignments reinforce new learning.
3. Sequencing refers to the arrangement of the materials to provide for continuous
and cumulative learning where complex concepts are taken only after
prerequisite skills and concepts have been mastered. There are four basic ways
of sequencing a material:
 Simple to complex
 Parts to whole
 Whole to parts
 Chronological arrangements
4. Balancing materials require establishing vertical and horizontal balance or
relationships. Vertical relationships refer to a building of content and experiences
in the lesson, unit and course level. Fourth grade language concepts build on
third grade concepts; the second unit plan builds on the first, etc. Horizontal
relationships establish a multidisciplinary and unified view of different subjects;
for example the content of the social studies course is related to English and
science.
5. Explaining refers to the way headings, terms, illustrations, and summary
exercises are integrated with the content. Does the example illustrate major
concepts? Are the major ideas identified in the chapter objectives and overview?
Do the headings outline a logical development of content? Do the materials show
relationships among topics, events, facts to present an in-depth view of major
concepts? The students should be able to discover important concepts and
information and relate new knowledge on their own through the materials.
6. Pacing refers to how much and how quickly the lessons in the textbooks are
presented. The volume or length of the materials should not overwhelm students,
but there must be enough to have an effect. As students get older, the amount of
materials can increase, the presentation can be longer and more complex and
the breadth and depth can be expanded.
7. Reviewing refers to the extent to which the material allows students to link new
ideas to old concepts in the form of a review. High-achieving and older students
can tolerate more rapid pacing than low-achieving and younger students, thus
less proficient learners would need more review or linking than the more
proficient ones.
8. Elaborating ensures that students learn better through a variety of ways. The
idea is to provide in the textbook opportunities for students to transform
information to one form to another, and to apply new information to new
knowledge – by using various techniques such as comparing and contrasting,
drawing inferences, paraphrasing, summarizing and predicting. A series of
elaboration strategies help students learn new materials. The author must
provide students with a broad list of questions (of comparing and contrasting,
drawing, analogies, etc.)
9. Transfer of Learning may be done in a number of ways. Transfer of learning
maybe concept-related, inquiry-related, learner or utilization-related. The first two
organizers seem to work best with intrinsically motivated students and the
second two best with student who needs to be extrinsically motivated. Since
most students need some extrinsic motivation, learner-related and utilization-
related materials will be more effective with majority of students.
 Concept-related, drawing heavily on structure of knowledge, the concepts,
principles, or the theories of the subject.
 Inquiry-related, derived from critical thinking skills and procedures
employed by learning theorists or scholars in the field.
 Learner-related, related to the needs, interest or experiences of the
students.
 Utilization-related -show how people can use or proceed with them in real
life situations.
 PRINCIPLES IN MATERIALS DESIGN (NUNAN, 1988)
Materials should be clearly linked to the curriculum they serve. The curriculum
cycle below illustrates the three phases of the curriculum development.

Authentic versus created materials

 Authentic materials refer to the use in teaching of texts, e.g. photographs, video
selections and other teaching resources that were not specially prepared for
pedagogic purposes.
 Created materials refer to textbooks and other specially developed instructional
resources.

Advantages claimed for authentic materials are (Phillips and Shettlesworth, 1978;
Clarke, 1989; Peacock, 1997):
 They have a positive effect on learner motivation because they are
intrinsically more interesting and motivating than created materials. There is a
huge source of authentic materials for language learning in the media and on the
web, and these relate closely to the interests of many language learners.
 They provide authentic cultural information about the target culture.
Materials can be selected to illustrate many aspects of target culture, including
culturally-based practices and beliefs and both linguistic and non-linguistic
behaviour.
 They provide exposure to real language rather than the artificial texts found in
created materials that have been specially written to illustrate particular
grammatical rules or discourse types.
 They relate more closely to learners’ needs and hence provide a link between
the classroom and students’ needs in the real world.
  They support a more creative approach to teaching. Teachers can develop
their full potentials as teachers, developing activities and tasks that better match
their teaching styles and the learning styles of students.

However, critics of the use of authentic materials point out that:

 Created materials can also be motivating for learners. Published materials
are often designed to look like teenage magazines and other kinds of real-world
materials and may be just as interesting and motivating for learners.
 Authentic materials often contain difficult language and unneeded
vocabulary items. Since they have not been simplified or written based on any
lexical or linguistic guidelines, they often contain language that may be beyond
the learners’ abilities.
 Created materials may be superior to authentic materials because they are
generally built around a graded syllabus, and hence provide a systematic
coverage of teaching items.
 Using authentic materials is a burden for teachers. In order to develop
learning resources around authentic materials, teachers have to be prepared to
spend a considerable amount of time locating suitable sources for materials and
developing activities and exercises to accompany the materials.