Revised curriculum evaluation rubric.

Module #7 Course Evaluation Rubric

When I teach children, I enjoy using story books as a teaching material. Teaching materials include anything which can be used to facilitate the learning of a language. They can be linguistic, visual, auditory or kinesthetic, and they can be presented in print, through live performance or display, or on cassette, CD-ROM, DVD or the internet (Tomlinson, 2001, p. 66). Tomlinson(2001) also mentioned that teachers should have needs and wants to be satisfied too. Personally, I am very interested in designing lesson plans using WebQuest.

Tom(2004) mentioned in his article “The Learning Power of WebQuest” that WebQuest is inquiry oriented cooperative learning activities through internet resources. There should be no reinforcing what students already know. Web Quest can break authentic problems and tasks into small steps. So the lesson format should be well organized including knowing, comprehending, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating. In a real Web Quest, new information need for transformation within learners themselves.

When developing criteria for material evaluation, Tomlinson(2001) suggested that it is extremely useful to develop a set of formal criteria for use on a particular evaluation and them to use that set as a basis for developing subsequent context-specific sets. One way of developing a set of criteria is as follows:

 1. Brainstorm a list of universal criteria
 2. Subdivide some of the criteria
 3. Monitor and revise the list of universal criteria
 4. Categorize the list
 5. Develop media-specific criteria
 6. Develop content-specific criteria
 7. Develop age-specific criteria
 8. Develop local criteria (p. 31)

Before making rubrics for grading the material, I would like to mention briefly what is material evaluation. Material evaluation is a procedure that involves measuring the value of a set of learning materials ( Tomlinson, 2001, p.15). When we evaluate the course, we need to take some aspects into considerations such as who evaluate the course, what can be evaluated, why evaluate the course, how can you evaluate it, when can you evaluate it, what is done with the results of evaluation(Graves, 2000, p.214). Graves(2000) also explains seven criterion which are to be evaluated and I would like to use them when I make rubrics.

 1. The goals and objectives
 2. The course content
 3. The needs assessment
 4. The way the course is organized
 5. The materials and methods
 6. The learning assessment plan
 7. The course evaluation plan (p.214)

Now, I would like to evaluate teaching material based on the information what I learned from the course. I found very interesting WebQuest and the URL is
http://questgarden.com/author/create/preview.php?u=72601&l=93105-091206131201.

This WebQuest is designed for 1st grade of elementary school by Ana Castillo who is working at elementary school. She used the story of “ The Little Red Hen.” Through this WebQuest, she wanted students to enjoy listening to a story, completing art/crafts activities, speaking, coloring and writing.



Evaluation result



There are additional information regarding the most effective way of conducting an material evaluation by Tomlinson (2001).

 1. Make sure that there is more than one evaluator.
 2. Discuss the criteria to make sure there is equivalence of interpretation;
 3. Answer the criteria independently and in isolation from the other evaluators.
 4. Focus in a large evaluation on a typical unit for each level.
 5. Give a score for each criterion.
 6. Write comments at the end of each category.
 7. At the end of the evaluation aggregate each evaluator’s scores for each criterion, category of criteria and set of criteria and then average the scores.
 8. Record the comments shared by the evaluators.
 9. Write a joint report (p.32)

Tomlinson(2001) mentioned that material evaluation is initially a time-consuming and difficult undertaking. However, doing evaluations formally can contribute to the development of an ability to conduct principled informal evaluations quickly and effectively when the occasion demands. Also, I hope to be more open-minded what criteria I need to satisfy when I write the course book or activity book for children someday.

References
Graves, K. (2001). Designing language courses. Boston,MA: Heinle.
March, T. (2004). The Learning power of webquest. New Needs, New Curriculum, 61(4), 42-47.
Tomlinson, B. (2001). Are Materials development?. What is material development, 2(3), 1-40.

Module #6: Blog reflection of Chapter 5, Formulating Goals and Objectives.

When teachers prepare lesson plans for class, we are thinking what is going to be an objectives and what kind of goals are needed to be planned. Studies on teacher’s planning processes in the 1970s and early 1980s showed that teachers are primarily focused on the concretes of the classroom: What they will teach, how they will teach it, the students in the classroom.

Aspects of planning which were not immediately tied to the here and now of the classroom, such as goals and objectives or how the class fit into the curriculum as a whole were not in the foreground of their thinking (Graves, 2000, p.73). When I read this sentence, I was confused as I have thought goals and objectives are very important. However, it does not mean that teachers don’t have goals and objectives but rather that these are implicit in what they do rather than explicitly stated, or that they are a later part in the planning process (p.73). This chapter is explaining what goals and objectives are and the relationship between them as well as a variety of ways to formulate and articulate them.

What are goals and objectives and what is their relationship?

Goals
The author is describing the goals are a way of putting into words the main purposes and intended outcomes of your course (p.75). This is easily explained if we use the comparison of a journey, the destination is the goal; the journey is the course.

Objectives
Objectives are statements about how the goals will be achieved. Through objectives, a goal is broken down into learnable and teachable units. By achieving the objectives, the goal will be reached. Another aspect of the relationship between goals and objectives is that of cause and effect. If students achieve A B, C objectives, then they will reach Y goal (p.77). When I read this statement, I was not very clear about the relationship between the goal and objective but Figure 5.2 helped me to understand the relationship clearly.



Objectives are in a hierarchical relationship to goals. Goals are more general and objectives more specific. Some teachers have found it helpful to have three layers of goals and objectives. The important point is that each layer is more and more specific. One objective may serve more than one goal (p. 78). Formulating goals and objectives helps to build a clear vision of what you will teach. A clear set of goals and objectives can provide the basis for your assessment plan (p.79)

This chapter introduced four kinds of skills how to set the goals. Among them I am interested in two kinds of goal organizations. One is KASA and the other one is Stern’s organization. David has used a framework which he calls “A TASK,” which is derived from the KASA( knowledge, awareness, skill, attitude) framework (p.83).
*Knowledge goals address what students will know and understand. These goals include knowledge about language and about culture and society.
*Awareness goals address what students need to be aware of when learning a language. These include areas of self-knowledge, understanding of how the language works, and understanding of others’ use of language.
*Skills goals address what students can do with the language. This is perhaps the broadest area, encompassing the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, as well as the functions and tasks one accomplishes through language.
*Attitude goals are those that address the affective and values-based dimension of learning.

On the other hand, Denise uses Stern’s 1992 framework ( p.83)
*Cognitive goals includes explicit knowledge, information and conceptual learning about language and about culture.
*Proficiency goals includes what students will be able to do with the language.
Affective goals include achieving positive attitudes toward the target language and culture as well as to one’s own learning of them.
*Transfer goals include learning how what one does or learns in the classroom canbe transferred outside of the classroom in order to continue learning.

This is the time to see how to formulate goals.
*The first step is to list all the possible goals you could have for your particular course, based on your conceptualization of content, your beliefs, and/or your assessment of students’ needs.
*Next step is to look for redundancies, and to identify priorities based on your beliefs and your context. One way to organize your goals is to use the categories you have used for conceptualizing content. These categories might include communicative functions, topics, grammar, tasks, reading, writing, interpersonal skills, etc. For example, if your course integrates the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, then you can have four major goals, each one related to a skill (p.83).

This time, let’s study how to formulate objectives. Mager suggests that for an objective to be useful, it should contain three components: performance, condition, and criterion.
Performance describes what the learners will be able to do, condition describes the circumstances in which the learners are able to something, and criterion, the degree to which they are able to do something (p. 86). Brown (1995) added subject, who will be able to do something, and measure, “how the performance will be observed or tested.”

From now on, let’s review the summary of guidelines to consider when formulating goals and objectives (p.94,95):
1. Goals should be general, but not vague.
2. Goals should be transparent.
3. A course is successful and effective if the goals have been reached.
4. Goals should be realistic.
5. Goal should be relatively simple.
6. Goals should be about something the course will explicitly address in some way.
7. Objectives should be more specific than goals.
8. Objectives should directly relate to the goals.
9. Objectives and goals should be in a cause-effect relationship.
10. Objectives should focus on what students will learn and/or processes associated with it.
11. Objectives are relatively short term. Goals are relatively long term.
12. There should be more objectives than goals.
13. Don’t try to pack too much into one objective.
14. The goals and objectives give a sense of the syllabus or the course.
15. A clear set of goals and objectives provides the basis for evaluation of the course and assessment of student learning.
16. Both goals and objectives should be stated in terms of the learner.
17. Your course may have two or three layers of goals and objectives.

During reading of this chapter, I could have more clear picture on making goals and objectives. I hope this could be applied when I make my own curriculum.

Module #5 : Annotated Bibliography.

This assignment was conducted by Sooyeun Kim, Sujin Kim and Youngran Song. The target learners are elementary students.



Citation 1:
Armbruster, B. B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2003). Put reading first: the research building blocks for teaching children to read. Jessup, MD: National Institute for Literacy.

Summary:
This paper was published by the Partnership for Reading. It is a collaborative effort of the National Institute for Literacy, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Department of Health and Services. This scientific reading research was studied to be available for educators, parents, policy-makers, and others with an interest in helping all people learn to read well.

This paper gives a guidance to teachers how to teach children the reading successfully. It describes the findings of the National Reading Panel Report and provides analysis and discussion in five areas of reading instructions: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension covering from kindergarten to the grade three.
Phonemic awareness instruction. It shows various example activities to build phonemic awareness. Identify and categorize phonemes, blend phonemes to form words, segment words into phonemes, delete or add phonemesto form new words, and substitute phonemes to make new words. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words. This paper suggests various activities in blending and segmenting words.

Phonics instruction
Along with phonics instruction, young children should be solidifying their knowledge of the alphabet, engaging in phomenic awareness activities, and listening to stories and informational texts read aloud to them. They also should be reading text (both loudly and silently), writing letters, words, messages, and stories. This paper suggests to use practice materials such as short books and use in practicing writing and workbooks.

Fluency instruction
Reading to children is not the only benefit of fluency but also increase their knowledge of the world, their vocabulary, their familiarity with written language, and their interest in reading. Through reading aloud, children also can learn listening and speaking. This paper suggests the activity of perform a play to teach fluency.

Vocabulary instruction
Vocabulary is very important. It describes how to teach vocabulary indirectly and directly by illustrate examples of classroom instructions.
Text comprehension instruction
It shows the effective comprehension strategies for teacher : Explanation, thinking aloud, guided practice, application, and for students : Asking questions about the text they are reading; summarizing parts of the text; clarifying words and sentences they don’t understand; and predicting what might occur next in the text.

Review:
This paper concluded by key finding from the scientific research and answers the questions form. This paper made a conclusion based on huge amounts of scientific researches, this make this paper credible. In addition, questions and answering form made readers to understand the message very quickly and precisely.
This paper suggests many topics to ponder in English education for Korean students in EFS environment, where only the phonics are taught not for phonemic awareness. We can see the precise and step-by-step curriculum how to teach young children literacy. This can be one of supporting article that EFL context such as Korea should start English by reading and in the class, amount of education between speaking, listening, writing and reading should be balanced for young children .

Citation 2:
Chard, D. J., & Osborn, J. (1999). Phonics and Recognition instruction in early reading program:guidelines for accessibility. Learning disabilities research and practice, 14(2), 107-117.

Summary:
This article investigated school and classroom factors related to primary-grade reading achievement, using quantitative and descriptive methods. Fourteen schools across the United States with moderate to high numbers of students on subsidized lunch were identified as most, moderately, or least effective based on several measures of reading achievement.
A combination of school and teacher factors was found to be important in the most effective schools. Significant factors included: (1) strong links to parents; (2) systematic assessment of pupil progress; (3) strong building communication; (4) a collaborative model for reading instruction, including early reading interventions; (5) time spent in small group instruction; (6) time spent in independent reading; (7) high pupil engagement; and (8) strong home communication.
The most accomplished teachers were frequently observed teaching word recognition by coaching as children were reading, providing explicit phonics instruction, and asking higher level questions after reading. In all of the most effective schools, reading was clearly a priority at both the building and classroom levels.
The author outlines a non-categorical approach to reading disability, describes the reading intervention program they have developed for older low-progress readers and seeks to demonstrate how students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds can, and do, make substantial progress when offered effective reading instruction based on the available scientific research evidence.

Review:
In this paper, the most interesting part is that the author considers family background and reading performance. To accomplish literacy to the students teachers have to coach them. Facilitate how to sound the letter and how to think during and after reading. Additionally, the students’ family background should be considered.

Citation 3:
Sun, G. Y. (2000). A Case Study of Communicative Language Teaching in China. TESL canada, 3(1), 67-86.

Summary:
This paper discussesd the implementation of communicative language teaching (CLT) methodology within the English as a foreign language (EFL) context in the Peoples’ Republic of China. It suggests investigating the context of an English language teaching program first, and then adapting the program to the Chinese context in order to more effectively implement the communicative methodology. Key questions regarding curriculum design are used as a case study of an EFL context in China.
It is concluded that there must be a compromise between CLT methodology and the EFL context, because CLT is at root a curriculum development. Three principles are judged to be helpful in understanding this problem: (1) in EFL teaching, the impact from the context on a program is more significant than in the English as a second language (ESL) context. The more that is known about the context, the better the new methodology can be adapted into the program: (2) Introducing methods of classroom activities is helpful, but not sufficient; adaptation should start from the beginning of the curriculum design; and (3) Adaptation of teaching methodology will be more successful if the theory of learning and teaching where CLT methodology is derived from is reviewed and studied with the characteristics of the program context in mind.
In this paper, a preliminary stage of context assessment of curriculum design in an EFL context in China was suggested. A framework of context is provided for developing a communicative language teaching program in China. In trying to integrating context into curriculum, three fundamental questions are raised and discussed. The situation and practice of adapting communicative language teaching methodology in Private Pui Ching Commercial College is discussed as a case study. There has to be compromise between CLT methodology and the conditions and provisions of the context in which it is to be implemented. The adaption of CLT in the EFL context is first of all a curriculum development.

Review:
The following principles that mentioned in this article will be helpful in understanding the adaptation of communicative language teaching methodology in not only China problem but also Korea:
1. In EFL teaching, the impact from the context on a program is more significant than that in an ESL context. The more they know about the context the better we can adapt this new methodology into the program.
2. Introducing methods of classroom activities is helpful, but not sufficient. The adaptation should start from the beginning of the curriculum design. Conditions of the context should be taken into account throughout the whole process of program development.
3. Adaptation of teaching methodology will be more successful if the theory of learning and teaching where CLT methodology is derived from is reviewed and studied with the characteristics of the program context in mind.

Citation 4:
Bock, R. (1995). Why Children Succeed or Fail at Reading. NICHD's program in learning disabilities, 10(3), 120-126.

Summary:
Most children will learn to read, no matter what method is used to teach them. But unless they receive special help, at least 20 percent of them cannot master this simple task that the rest of us take for granted. Their difficulty is painfully obvious when they try to read out loud. Children with reading difficulties stop and start frequently, mispronouncing some words and skipping others entirely. The first casualty is self esteem: they soon grow ashamed as they struggle with a skill their classmates master easily. In the later grades, when children switch from learning to read to reading to learn, reading-impaired children are kept from exploring science, history, literature, mathematics and the wealth of information that is presented in print. In America, about 10 million children have difficulties learning to read. From 10 to 15 percent eventually drop out of high school; only 2 percent complete a four-year college program.

The words we speak are made up of individual pieces of sound that scientists refer to as phonemes. The word “bag,” for example, has three phonemes. The problem arises in converting the natural process to print. NICHD studies have found that at least 20 percent of children must be taught English letter-sound system directly in order to learn to read successfully. The greatest possibility for success lies in identifying and treating these children before they reach third grade.

Instructors, usually working in small groups, can explicitly show children that words are made up of tiny sound segments. There are many ways to impart this knowledge. One way is to have children clap in sequence as each speech sound in a word is slowly pronounced. Other methods may involve having children move a small plastic tab or other marker as each sound is made. After the students master this step, instructors can teach them that the letters in words stand for the tiny sounds in speech. This teaching technique, commonly referred to as “phonics” instruction, is usually again introduced slowly at first, perhaps in combination with putting plastic markers beneath letters on a page in sequence with each letter the student “sounds out”. After this phase of instruction is completed, and when children can read the words on the page in an accurate and rapid manner, the student can then be exposed to teaching methods that emphasize immersing children in good literature.

Review:
Early results of other studies suggest that key areas of the brains of people with reading disabilities function differently than in people who read easily. NICHD-funded scientists are also taking advantage of powerful new technologies that allow them to observe the inner workings of the brain. One such method, functional magnetic resonance imaging, uses a computer-directed, magnetic device to obtain brain images. Using this technique, researchers are comparing the brain function of people with reading disabilities to the brain functioning of skilled readers. It is hoped that the technique will allow them to observe the changes that that take place in the brain as individuals learn to overcome their reading impairment. These research projects may one day provide the basis for effective new treatments for reading disabilities.

Citation 5:

Richard, R. D. (1993). The Writing Activities for Extensive Reading. New ways in teaching reading, 5(4), 188-189.

Summary:
In extensive reading, students select their own books and read a great deal at their own pace. They are encouraged to read easy and interesting books and to stop reading a book if it is too hard, too easy, or boring. Generally, students do not answer comprehension questions on the books they have read. When students have finished reading a book, the author does not give them comprehension questions or test them on what they have read. Rather the author uses activities that allow them to draw on their reading to help them with other aspects of English, such as increasing their vocabulary knowledge or improving their oral fluency.

Many teachers of English, in both second and foreign language contexts, are familiar with the activity called free writing. The purpose of free writing is to help students get started, to generate ideas, often considered one of the most difficult steps in writing. Generally, the teacher does not correct or evaluate free writing. Here are the instructions that the author gives to his students for timed repeated thinking and writing:

1. For one minute, think about a book that you have read.
2. Now write about the book for two minutes.
3. Stop. For two minutes, read what you wrote and think again about the story.
4. Now write again for two minutes. Start over from the beginning. (Do not continue from what your wrote in step 2.)
5. Repeat step 3.
6. Repeat step 4.

Teachers of English might also be familiar with timed repeated reading, an activity that helps learners improve their reading fluency. Students are instructed to read a text at a comfortable pace for overall understanding for a set period of time, often one or two minutes. At the end of the time, they stop, making the last word they read. They go back to the beginning of the text, read again for the same period of time, stop, and mark the last word. The process is repeated a third time. Most often, learners read more the second and third times than they did the first time.

Timed repeated skimming and writing combines timed repeated reading with timed repeated writing. Instead of reading at a comfortable pace for overall understanding, students skim their books. Then they write about their books for a given period of time. The goals are to improve the skill of skimming, to help students with getting started in the writing process, and to help students become more fluent writers.

Review:
The author is a strong supporter of extensive reading. Good things happen when EFL students read extensively. Studies show that they not only become fluent readers, but they also learn new words and expand their understanding of words they knew before. In addition, they write better, and their listening and speaking abilities improve. Extensive reading activities such as the two described in this article make student reading a resource for language practice in reading, vocabulary learning, listening, speaking, and writing.

Citation 6:

Acha, J. (2009). The effectiveness of multimedia programmes in children’s vocabulary learning. British journal of educational technology, 40(1), 23-31.

Summary:
This paper was to examine which presentation mode is more effective for primary school children who are learning new vocabulary in a second language with a self-paced multimedia programme : either presenting only one stimulus (either verbal or pictorial) or presenting two stimuli simultaneously (verbal and pictorial). Participants were 135 third and fourth grade Spanish children and they read an interactive multimedia short English story presented by a computer program. Twelve key words(donkey, drawer, penknife, hammer, bricks, ladybird, waistcoat, bonnet, mittens, jug, tray and napkin) were inside the button. These words were unknown to the children by pretest and author tested the vocabulary after the children read the story with the multimedia programme. In this multimedia, children click the button on unknown words while reading. There were three groups that could see the corresponding annotation word-only, picture-only, both word and picture. An ANCOVA was used to analysis the research. The ‘word-only’ group shows higher percentage of recalled words than the ‘word and picture’ group, both in the immediate and the delayed posttest.
Generally, we think that combined use of a word and a picture may reinforce the memory trace in children, but this paper revealed different concept. The present data strongly suggest that adding the picture to the word involves extra cognitive resources. For that reason, in a second language vocabulary learning multimedia program for children, presenting only a word is more effective than presenting the word together with the picture or only the picture.
Yet, this paper cited other studies that when high-order processes are involved , integration of information, pictures have been useful to interpret text and construct deep understanding.

Review:
To developing materials it is important to understand the particular context and the particular course. Teachers nowadays have to recognize the digital context that postmodern students are related. The new possibilities of e-learning with hypermedia formats and the individualization of the learning process calls for integrated educational and techno-logical research as a means to assure effective learning results. This paper assist to teachers how to use digital sources and to curriculum developer how to develop the digital materials in terms of learning language.
Author claims that simultaneous presentation of verbal and pictorial stimuli has not always proved to be useful in self-based learning, probably because of limited working-memory capacity for a detailed description of working memory. This paper could change the teaching vocabulary pedagogy in Korea.

Module 4 Content Analysis

Chapter 4 Conceptualizing Content

Graves (2000) mentioned about the process of conceptualizing content as below;
1.Thinking about what you want your students to learn in the course, given who they are, their needs, and the purpose of the course
2.Making decisions about what to include and emphasize and what to drop
3.Organizing the content in a way that will help you to see the relationship among various elements so that you can make decisions about objectives, materials, sequence and evaluation.
When designing a language course, there are a number of features which you can choose to highlight or to include in your map. What you choose depends on the constraints and resources of your context, who your students are, their needs, why they are taking the course, and whether and how the course has been described to students or the public, as well as your own experience and preference (Graves, 2000, p.39).

If I want my students learn about wild animal in the course for example, I would like to make mind map with graphic organizer as below;

Topic: Wild animal


I would like to choose the topic by asking children’s opinion which would be a way of involving them in the learning process. One of the most important preliminary steps to one of the students involved in this project, is to read, to understand, to interpret, to establish a pleasant relationship with the text (Graves, 2000, p.63)

Chapter 8 Developing Materials

As per my understanding, materials are including anything which can be used to facilitate the learning of a language. They can be visual, internet or any other sources for teaching. Decisions about developing materials are rooted in your beliefs, understandings, 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’ needs (Graves, 2000, p.166).Graves(2000) also summarized fifteen considerations for material development and they are very useful to know.

1. Make relevant to their experience and background
2. Make relevant to their target needs
3. Make relevant to their affective needs
4. Engage in discovery, problem solving, analysis
5. Develop specific skills and strategies
6. Target relevant aspects
7. Integrate relevant aspects
8. Integrate four skills
9. Provide intercultural focus
10. Develop critical social awareness
11. Aim for authentic tasks
12. Vary roles and groupings
13. Vary activities and purposes
14. Authentic
15. Varied

Chapter 9 Adapting a textbook

In the classroom, teachers are using textbook as a teaching material. Graves(2000) mentioned that there are advantages of using textbook such as it provides a syllabus for the course, a security for the students, a set of visuals, consistency within a program across a given level. However, in spite of those advantages, there exists some disadvantages such as the content or examples may not be relevant or appropriate to the group, the content may not be at the right level, there may be too much focus on one or more aspects of language and not enough focus on others.. etc. Due to some disadvantages of using a textbook, teachers need to adapt a textbook for the students.
Also teachers may be in a situation where they need to create their own activities or are encouraged to do so. In case that teachers do not have experience of creating their own materials, a good way of beginning is to adapt those they find in textbooks.
In my case, I often simplify the language of the descriptions to suit the level of my students. Because when I use the authentic book, the content is very easy
,but sometimes they are using their own languages which foreigners do not understand. Also I change the game rule and make them more exciting for each grade level. These kind of adapting process enables me to stand back from the routime of my daily teaching and consider it from a different perspective, which may give me new insights into my teaching.

Module# 3: Teacher curriculum interview

Pls click here to listen to my interview -> link to

podcast


I had an interview with my daughter’s online private tutor, Ronn Lloyd B. Lagdameo. He is from Philippines and has been working as an online English teacher for more than three years. At the beginning, he was employed by YBM SI-SA, the largest language institute in Korea, in the late January of 2007. He was also responsible for accomplishing the student's daily evaluation form, monthly progress reports and responding to student's inquiries via the teacher's website. His students vary from juniors to seniors. He conducted Free-Talking, Junior and Senior classes like TOEIC Speaking Sr., TOEIC Speaking Jr., English Connections, National Geographic, Timeless Classics and more. Also, he conducts classes through Skype at home.

Here are my questions that I asked him.

1. What is your teaching experience?
2. Could you tell me about your beliefs of teaching?
3. What is your target teaching level?
4. Do you think curriculum design is important? If yes, why?
5. How do you control the curriculum?
6. Do you give assignment after class?
7. Do you think test is important?
8. Do you have idea to make students concentrate on lesson?
9. What is the most important thing as a teacher?
10. What do you think the most important way to improve English as a learner?

He looked like a born-teacher as he thinks teaching as a fun job. He said teaching is not just a job, it is something that he really likes. When he makes curriculum, he considers students’ age, level, as well as learning background. He also regards curriculum design as flash light in the dark place. It gives him right track and it is going to be his guide. He does not give assignment to the young kids but gives it to the seniors. He feels that test is important as he could make sure students learned something from him.

He always connects fun activities to the lesson for young kids as they have short concentration time. I asked him what is the most important thing as a teacher and he said “passion” and “how much you like what you are doing.” Also he mentioned “practice” is the most important thing to master language as a learner. He has found this job to be particularly challenging as he gets to encounter different types of people every day. Likewise, teaching proves to be a difficult job but a very rewarding one. One cannot explain the joy a teacher feels when his student finally responds to questions properly. Indeed, he would like to continue being a teacher and continue helping non-English speaking students learn English in a fun and effective way.

Some of the textbooks are designed for the native speakers so teacher need to change curriculum based on EFL students’ needs. As Scarino (1988) mentioned, curriculum is consisted of strategies for teaching/learning in the classroom, learning resources, assessment scheme, strategies for evaluating all aspects of the curriculum as it progresses and syllabus which is a plan of action that outlines goals, objectives and content of the learning. It includes a general statement on method, assessment, and evaluation.

As Ronn is teaching English in private institute, he could manage curriculum by himself. However, school teachers need to follow the fixed curriculum and it is going to be teacher’s ability to manage it. As Ronn mentioned curriculum design is like a flashlight in the dark place, teacher need to develop it so that students could learn something more from teacher.

These days, Skype is used for the online conversation class and the most fantastic merit of this is that we could record the whole online conversation. The recording program could be easily downloaded through http://www.powergramo.com/. After recording, we could save it as AVI, MPEG , MP3 or QUICKTIME. Wow!! Students could review the lesson many times and parents could monitor the progress.

Through the interview, I learned that teachers need to enjoy teaching with good curriculum so that students get positive energy during learning. Also it is interesting to know very powerful recording device “Skype Recording System.” I would like to use it for myself as well as for my students.

Module 2, Curriculum Design for TESOL as a Dynamic System

It is not easy to decide how to teach the subject we are about to study. My target teaching level is elementary students and their understanding of lesson is depending on the teacher’s ability. Which means that designing curriculum is very important to satisfy students as well as the teacher.

Chapter two shows 2 kinds of responsibilities with respect to designing a course.
For example, Patricia will have to make all the decisions relating to content and goals, organizations, materials, and assessment whereas Michael is expected to follow a text and methods. In this case, another type of challenge is that he will need to consider how to adapt the text to meet the needs of his students (Graves, 2000, p.14).
Also Graves mentioned that designing a course is similar to designing a house. Teacher needs to have a lot of information in order to design a structure that will fit the context. When design a course, teacher need to design it for a specific group of people, in a specific setting, for a specific amount of time (Graves, 2000, p.15). Figure 2.1 shows various aspects of context that we can define; people, time, physical setting, teaching resources and nature of the course and institutions. When teacher asked to design a course and not have much information about the context, we need to remember below three points.

The first is to try to get as much information as possible by asking for it specifically or by trying to find others who have taught in that context. The second is to design the course with a similar group in mind. The third is to work into your course design process flexibility so that you have more than one option at each step of the way (Graves, 2000, p.21). When I make lesson plan, I usually prepare additional 30% of activities as sometimes lesson is finished earlier than expected. Also it is important to know students’ exact level and character before teaching.

PPT asks five fundamental instructional concept questions as below:
 How can help students acquire and retain information?
 What can I do to enhance the ability of students to concentrate during the lesson?
 How can I encourage students to think critically?
 What will help me to motivate my students?
 How can I help my students to become self-motivated learners?

In Korea, since students learn English as a foreign language, it is learned as a subject not language. In kindergarten, teacher always tries to attract students’ attention with pictures or fun games otherwise they do not concentrate on the lesson. In elementary school, the students’ English level is so different. Therefore, they usually learn it at the private institute based on their level. Public school do not have lesson based on their levels so usually it is taught based on lower level. In middle school, their learning is focused on acquiring high point in their reading and grammar test. The situation is same in the high school. Students become more passive about learning language and they study English to get high score in the mid and final term test. In this situation, teacher’s role in school is very limited and we cannot teach what we want. I think it is important to consider how to adapt the existing text to meet the needs of students.

In chapter 3, beliefs about teaching and the role of the teacher are connected to beliefs about learning, although this is an area in which what a teacher does is sometimes in contradiction to what he believes, or professes to believe. The process of teaching can be viewed on a continuum in which at one end the teacher transmits knowledge to the students and at the other end the teacher and student negotiate the knowledge and skills and methods of learning. On the one end the teacher makes decisions about knowledge and skills to be learned, tells the students what to learn, or provides models or examples and expects or helps students to internalize them (Graves, 2000, p.30). Even two teachers asked to design the same course for the same students will design different course because of different in their experience, education, and beliefs. Personally I have experience to doze off during class when I was middle and high school. I hate bored class and try to make interesting class. I ask students “Did you have fun? after class. When students give me good feedback, I proud of myself but when students give me bad feedback, I think what is wrong with my lesson plan and curriculum. Students encourage teacher by giving active feedback during class. Also teacher motivate students by giving good lesson and finally students will know how to respond to an issue they had identified.

Module #1 First Assignment

1. What is your B.A. degree major, Where did you complete it, and when?
I majored in molecular biology in science dept. I graduated from university in 1993 and after graduation, I worked at foreign company as a export merchandiser.
I handled garment business for about ten years with American buyers such as Carter's, Guess, GAP etc.
After giving birth to second baby, I decided to quit my job and worked as a English teacher in Korea. I like teaching and want to be a better teacher.

2. Are you a pre-service teacher and if so, what is your target teaching level?
I have experience to teach kindergarten, elementary and middle school students.
However, I feel comfortable with elementary school students.

3. If you are currently teaching, what is the school, grade, subject? Are your current and target teaching levels the same or different?
I taught English in elementary public school for fourth grade students until last year. This year, as I plan to study off line course in CSUSB, I do not teach right now and concentrate on studying.

4. What is your experience with the school curriculum as a learner and/or as a teacher?
In the public school, I mainly used story book and course book for grammar and reading practice.

5. What mobile technologies are you comfortable with? Which applications do you use on your cell phone? Have you ever used mobile devices for language learning or teaching?
I have experience to download music to my cell phone but not for language learning or teaching.

6. What your expectations form a curriculum design course would be?
Through the curriculum design course, I would like to learn how to guide classroom curriculum planning. Also I would like to know how to guide the development of plans for student assessment.