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.
