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My PortfolioTanzina Chowdhury

BMAR Rifles College, Bangladesh

TEA Fellow

George Mason University

Portfolio Outline:

Introduction of my portfolio

Reflection as a Teacher

Fieldwork Reflection

Resources from the Experts of GMU

Action Research Proposal

Lesson Plan Section

Strategy Sheets

Thanks

Introduction:To a teacher, it is the most important thing to find out the gaps between students’ capability and classroom realities, for which a student might be able to do his best or might do the least. Because only

coming to school does not mean that students are learning. They can be taught effectively only when teachers are able to keep the students, interest, when teachers help to find out tacit knowledge of the students and help them discover it within themselves. The most important thing in doing so is that, teachers must have the knowledge of what they themselves are doing, what is the real needs of the students, how far teacher s themselves are able to face that need. Because I do believe the proverb, “Who shall kindle others must himself glow.” To be clear to oneself about one’s own work, I think, Portfolio is the most effective medium. It is a kind of treasure that cannot be described; only the person who is related to this can feel the necessity.

Before coming here, I personally was not much familiar with the idea of keeping portfolio. I only divided my syllabus and went to my classes. But now I know how important it is to keep the portfolio. Actually one part of our course is to make electronic portfolio and we are developing our ‘Professional Development Portfolio’. It will help me to collect evidence of ongoing learning and knowledge of this course. Because it contains:

Examples of lesson plans

Strategies of student centered activities

a personal reflection and my fieldwork reflection

Summary of our technology training

A glimpse on our conferences here and resources from the Experts of GMU

Some thoughts of my cultural values integrated with USA culture

Gratitude

So to know myself better, to have better ideas about my work, to share all these with my other fellow mates here, to show gratitude to my honorable teachers and people from IREX, I Tend to publish my portfolio.

Reflection as being a teacher

The principal goal of education is to create men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done- The motif of my teaching profession has been set thus. I think teachers play vital roles in building a nation as teachers work like guides organizers, motivators, advisors and facilitators and thus are the model role players as leaders. But every teacher is different from others in viewing three aspects differently:

1) one's own educational experience

2) one's views of the profession in a culture

3) personal Role model

So I am going to describe my viewpoints about why I am unique as a teacher dividing in the above stated three.

A) Critical reflection upon experience is an effective technique for professional development...Self directness including self learning from experience in natural settings is an important component of adult learning..... these views motivate me to write my reflection on uniqueness of being a teacher by elaborating my own educational experience. I always want to integrate new techniques in my classrooms to make it more effective and interesting to my students. Though we don't have any project work in our curriculum, I personally try to engage my students in project work. I have already done projects with Japanese students, Canadian students and students of Netherlands. I assess my students by PBL . Because I want

1) To give effective teaching in spite of having many shortcomings of resources and facilities

2) to assess students frequently

3) to find out the ways of development

4) To give students feedback

B) Teachers and students both need knowledge and skills to succeed. They must learn civil responsibility and master their new roles as global citizens. Both need to develop research and critical thinking skills, experience with new technologies, cultural awareness, and habit of getting involved in community issues and diversified teaching skills. So I always feel the necessity of being developed within our national cultural context and involved my students in several cultural activities. I also involve them in knowing global cultures also.

C) I always try to convey myself an information that I am a model role player in front of my students and also my colleagues and for this reason , I should always do works with positive impacts. That's why I always engage myself in doing activities as listed below:

1) to achieve educational and professional experiences

2) to develop our classroom demonstration

3) to plan better classroom teaching methods

4) to be skilled more in using English

5) to express and discuss my experiences with my other colleagues motivating them to share

6) to build an atmosphere of exchanging teacher's views

7) to make all these a continuous process

Now in conclusion I want to say that as a teacher I feel responsibility towards my students, my colleagues my nation and my country as well. I enjoy my profession and I know that there can be no mental development without interest. The vision of my life is to develop myself, my students and the whole atmosphere of teaching and learning. And I believe who shall kindle others must himself glow

Fieldwork Reflection:

Being a TEA Fellow, I have been assigned to present my Fieldwork Reflection and this will be based on my visits to Thomas Jefferson Middle School. I first visited the school on September 25, 2007.

The name of my mentor teacher is Jennifer Kumnic and the level of my class is 6, 7, and 8. She basically teaches ESOL/HILT B language Arts, Social Studies and Science classes. After introducing me in her class, the words she told me were really encouraging for me as she said, “Tanzina, its America and you are having the opportunity to explore yourself. Do as much as you can, use the maximum resources which we have and keep my brain as much as you can.” Being captivated with those words, I think I will be able to do my best.

The question, which we have been given, has three parts. So, my presentation is divided below into three separate parts:

Part A:

Similarities of Jefferson Middle School with my Native Institution

As educational systems are different of the two countries, not that many similarities are noticed here. There are teachers, students, classrooms, teaching, learning office, office room staffs, Administrators—all these things are familiar to me. Teachers, enthusiasm, love, affection towards their students and students respect towards their teachers are also more or less the same.

Part B:

Differences

Student’s number: The number of students of my class here is 20, but in our country I have to handle 120 students in one class.

Classroom decoration: The class is well decorated. There are several posters on different themes and speeches of great men/women hand around the wall of the whole class. There are many posters with historical truths, geographical information, greetings around the world,

etc. There is a Word wall also where the students list their new words daily. I have also found some posters about educating students their academic things like poster of signs and punctuation, poster describing “Tense” etc.

Classroom equipments: I found a computer with Internet connection, a music player, a projector, big boards in the classroom and all these things indicate how well the classroom is equipped with all the resources which are inevitable for effective learning and creating an atmosphere of effective teaching.

Teacher-Students Relationship:Friendly and interactive

Student oriented classroom/activities of the students instructed by the teacher.a. Students are engaged continuously in different activities.b. Discussing always with one another.c. Divided into small groups.d. Doing team work.

Teacher’s strategies in the class. PMI Method:

For motivating students she maintains PMI Method. P stands for Positive, M for Minus, and I for Interesting. Students are given marks for positive and interesting deeds and marks are deducted for doing any negative attitudes. Students are divided into small groups. Points go to the group and often the whole week, a team is announced as the winner according to the points in has earned. The winning group is rewarded with small things put the purpose of motivation becomes successful

Every day in the board Jennifer writes content objectives and language objectives so that the students find easily what are they going to do that day and for what.

Giving home works and the ways of correcting it: The teacher corrects the homework through the projector. On that day students were actually correcting their home works about “Fill in

the Blanks”. But at the same time, Jennifer was describing all grammars related to it, and students were pronouncing every single new word.

Doing Daily Summary: One student has to submit each day the “Daily Summary”, which actually is based on their previous day’s activities. That particular student has to write it and read it in front of the whole class. Every other student participates discussing that writings positive or negative side. The teacher also takes part in the discussion and helps students to understand writing strategies, grammar, vocabulary, etc.

Collaborative teaching: Jennifer co-teaches in the math class also. This is a very new thing for me. Most of her students go to math class and she also goes there, takes care of her children, and helps the math teacher in doing different classroom activities.

Part C:

Which differences are potentially useful for my school.

1) Decorating my class with posters, speeches, maps, to cream more visual effects among the students.

2) Building more intense relationship with students being more friendly and interactive.

3) Dividing the students into small groups for pair work and team work.4) Follow PMI Method5) Following different classroom activities which will be more student-

oriented.6) Assessing students more frequently not only through exam papers but also

through PMI Method and home works.7) Sharing ideas with students to increase spirit of teamwork and confidence

level.8) Writing everyday, on the board “Content Objectives” and “Language

Objectives”What I have got from my fieldwork, will be treasured in my mind for the rest of my life.

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Resources from the Experts of GMU:

1) Dr. Steely

Seminars on:

Structured Reflection for professional improvement and Change, Overview of Seminar Goals, Fieldwork Reflection, Academic Program, Introduction to Portfolio, Lesson Planning, The Role of the teacher in the student centered classroom, teaching strategies, Lesson planning for co-operative Learning.

All these sessions were so helpful for outlining our portfolio and doing other activities that without them, I don’t think that WE would be able to do anything. My heartiest gratitude to Dr. Steeley for sharing with us such tremendous view points of her. I have learnt many things about portfolio and co-operative learning from her sessions.

Dr. Steleey’s articles on Co-operative Learning and How to write a narrative guide me a lot to write my lesson plans and strategies.

Referrence: blackboard.gmu.edu. IREX PORTFOLIOSITE

2) Dr. Farnoosh Shahrokhi

Seminars on:

Overview of Leadership and US education, Life Style Inventory(LSI), mi Theory, Educational Leadership, MI curriculum Development and teaching, A frame work for Leadership- Moral purpose, Action Planning support and preparation, A framework for Leadership building Relationships.

Reference book: Leading in a culture of change

Michael Fullan

LSI Report:

Seminar on Educational Leadership

By Dr. Shahrokhi

SESSION # 2Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Theme: The LSI Thinking Styles and Effective Management Topic: Self-Improvement PlanParticipant’s Name: Tanzina Chowdhury, BMAR Rifles College, Bangladesh

Step 1: Looking at your completed LSI profile, you will notice that each style’s extension from the center of the Circumflex varies in length. The further extensions from the center indicate styles that are predominant in your profile. Your two longest style extensions have the greatest influence on your behavior, and are called your primary and backup styles. List them below.

Primary Affiliative (2 o’clock position)

Backup Self-Actualizing (12 o’clock position)

Step 2: Using the style interpretations in this guide, decide which styles are working for you (your strengths), and which styles might be working against you (styles that may be reducing your effectiveness). Based on what you learn, choose one style from those you’ve listed to start with first. Select one behavior associated with this style that you would like to change. You may choose to eliminate a characteristic you feel is self-defeating, or to strengthen something about yourself that you see as positive and effective.

The style I have chosen to work on is Approval (3 o’clock position)

What does this style mean to you?

My score for the Approval style means I tend to believe that:

I have to be accepted everywhere

I have to do things which others like

I have to make impression on others

Step 3: We think and behave as we do because we have been influenced by significant people and situations in our lives. Consider your life: try to identify and isolate the influences you’ve experienced that may be associated with this style.

Significant Person (or situation) Ideas/Behaviors You Might Have Learned

My mother

Respecting others too much from social and religious view point

My mother always takes care of me so much that I have always been dependent on her and this dependent tendency has ultimately led me to this approval position.

Step 4: Consider the consequences of using this style and list them as indicated below.

Personally

Positive Consequences Self-Defeating Consequences

Personal growth

Personal improvement

Relaxed

Confident

Enjoying life

More individual sense of self

Concerned with being liked.

Prefer to imitate

Reluctant

Professionally

Positive Consequences Self-Defeating Consequences

Improving relationship

Able to take risk

Creative

Innovative

Self set standard

Growing ability to handle conflict

Follow rather than a leader.

Prefer to imitate.

Step 5: Consider how your life would be different if you changed your behavior in this area.

Some positive differences: I would become more straight forward, individual and would be able to face challenges more courageously.

Some negative differences:

I would become aggressive, super sensitive and egoistic.

LSI study helped me to find out my strengths and also lacking on which I want to do more development. For my own personal development as a teacher leader, it seems to me very useful .

MI Theory:

Multiple Intelligence is a thing that every teacher must confront though I myself was not aware of it before Dr. Shahrohkhi introduced it to us. I have integrated MI Theory in my lesson plans and strategies. I hope I will do a lot on this after returning home.

3) Dr. Woody:

Seminars on:

Educational Leadership, Understanding Change, Knowledge Building, Co herence making, Culminating projects.

I am including here some worksheets which we have done with Dr. Woody. These worksheets will remind me how I have gradually discovered myself. Like what are the positive things that we do in our school, what I can do after returning, how I can make coherence in Leadership Building and how to make chaos in establishing a moral purpose. And I feel so happy that I have done all these things here which will have a positive impact on me in my future,.

Materials from Dr. Woody

A) Creating and Sharing Knowledge

“Leaders and managers must create opportunities for learning”

My school supports people taking time to work together and sharing information in these ways:

Doing cultural activities

Conducting meetings with teachers

Having extra times before classes start

This is a new knowledge sharing strategy that I would recommend for use in my school:

Subject based meeting:

1) Finding out the requirements of the students

2) Discussing with colleagues what to do in the classroom

Here are two things that I know about doing my job( tacit knowledge) that are not a part of my formal training and have made me successful:

1) Students are free to share their personal information with me.

2) I have trust building relationship with most of my colleagues.

B) Leading in a Culture of Change

Coherence Making

“The most powerful coherence is a result of having worked through the ambiguities and complexities of hard -to-solve problems.”

What do you feel when you think about "living on the edge of chaos"?

I think chaos is change. Every sensible person needs change to go ahead. The more we talk for change, the more we are going to find out things. The more people use tacit knowledge, the more they are clear. So living on the edge of chaos makes me spirited for being change positively.

How might "living on the edge of chaos" effect your approach to disturb a situation and then create appropriate coherence?

I think disturbance should have a moral purpose. When I will disturb some atmosphere or other people with a view to establish some positive change, it can create appropriate coherence.

What leadership characteristics do you have to develop your capacity to create conditions for coherence making?

1. Afffiliative- To create harmony and build emotional bonds

2. Increasing Lateral Accountability (interactive, collaborative, never ending system)

What leadership characteristics might you work on to develop your capacity to create conditions for coherence making?

1) Coaching- To develop people for the future

2) Sorting- A process embedded in knowledge, creation and sharing

C) Leading in a culture of change

The Hare and the Tortoise

Learning the Leadership

“Organizations transform when they can establish mechanisms for learning in daily organization life”

How does the fable of the Hare and the Tortoise apply to you?

This fable always reminds me that I should not be and must not be over confident. It also helps me to remember that everybody around me has something special; there is nothing to boast on myself. I always observe other people. And the most important thing in my life is maintaining of time.

When you decide to discuss a change in a process or practice with others in your school, what are 3 important concepts you will need to keep in mind?

1. Mission and Vision:

My mission is to enrich my students with the vision that they will be able to develop their critical thinking level.

2. Values:

a. I have to be familiar with every students’ (those I deal) familial and economical background.

b. Students should be taught their moral values within the social context.

3. Goals:

Students’ development

Positive reactions from the students’ guardians and others around me

4) Dr. James Upperman:

Seminar on:

Student centered Teaching Strategies

5) Dr. Allan Sturrock:

Seminar on:

Inquiry Learning

6) Dr. Scott Bauer:

Seminars on:

Action Planning, Presentation skills,, Research and Technology, Needs, Goals and Context in Action Planning, Feasibility of intervention in Action Planning, Sustainability in Action Planning, Action Planning Synthesis.

We have done lots about Action Planning with Dr. Scott and Dr. David like Root Causes Analysis, Capacity for Action, Moving to Objectives, Developing a Deep Understanding, Some question to myself about my Actions, Analyzing a change I plan to implement in the Future, Writing Action Plan, Logic of Action, Implementation and Consequences. We have also got an Evaluation Plan Worksheet with which we have to work after returning to our own institution throughout the whole year.

7) Intensive Technology Training:

I would like to give my heartiest thanks to this department. These people have done a lot for us. I, personally can say, that I had a very little idea about Technology before I came here. But Mr. Mohan with his other colleagues has done a tremendous job for us. We have classes on Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint presentation. They have shown us every minute detail in everything. I will be very grateful to them for the rest of my life.

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Action Research Proposal Section : We have an excellent teacher on ESOL Methods and he is the great, Mr. George Flowers. The seminars we had with him were on: ESL Methods, Standards and Assessment and Approaches to ESL/EFL Teaching: International Contexts, Research on Language Acquisition, Key issues on Second Language Acquisition, Input and Interaction, Bilingualism and Cognition, Affective, Social Cultural Process, Standards and Assessment, Diagnostic and Placement Issues, Aligning Assessment Goals, Using Authentic Assessment to Promote Student Metacognition.

We have raised our own Action Research Question, submit our Action Research Proposal with Introduction, Methods, Ethics, Findings, Action Plan, Literature Review.

I feel myself so much fortunate that I have got this chance to have classes with him. I am now able to do many systematic searching of solutions of my problems in my educational career.

Books:

1) The Power of Questions A Guide to Teacher and Student Research , (Beverly Folk, Megan Blumenreich)

2) Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners, (J. Michael O’Malley, Lorraine Valdez Pierce)

Template for Action Research Proposal

Introduction

Statement of the problem and justification:

As a English language teacher I always think how I can provide my students with effective and interesting teaching. To me what really important is, understanding, not only knowledge. The word understanding contains several meanings like explanation, interpretation, perspective, self knowledge etc and if a person has clear understanding on anything, he or she can apply that, both literally and practically. That is why, I always give emphasis on understanding. But at the same time, the message that always strikes me is that I have to create

true and sustainable atmosphere for my students so that they can feel free, comfortable and interested to 'Understand'.

But the tragedy is that, I myself is not comfortable as well as able to create such an atmosphere most of the time in my classes. I have several limitations for which I practically do not get chances to create a suitable atmosphere. The reasons are:

1) Students of mixed abilities

2) A large classroom containing 100-120 students

3) Classrooms with limited facilities or no facilities at all.

4) Short duration of classes

5) Resource constraints

6) Fixed curriculum and and traditional assessment systems

7) Students fascination and fear only to pass exams

All these practical, materialistic and psychological problems overwhelm me and my students and we actually don't do those activities in the classes which are essential for EFL students. To overcome all these I have to motivate my students to learn for gathering knowledge and understanding at the same time. That is why I have chosen the topic of motivating my EFL students.

Now the question arises why it is worth studying. I basically teach 11 and 12 grade students. These students already have their journey of learning English for 10 years. But for our faulty system of education and question setting and evaluation, they always tend to set their goals only to pass. A series of hollowness becomes their company for life long. But just after passing the 12th grade, they have to sit for admission tests for graduation in any branch or any faculty and those are the places where they become totally lost about English. Because here they need total understanding of the language. And after passing these stages they have to go through this understanding process for the rest of their lives because in the long run English is the most wanted language for developing carriers in future. So I always feel the necessity to make their understanding clear about English. But it is I who have to fight against all hindrances which I stated above and inspire my students motivated to learn, not only learn but they have to acquire it. So, I think it will be more relevant to me working with this problem of motivation.

CONTEXT:

I think I have already covered some of the context information in my statement of justification. Now I want to give some statistics about my school. The name of my School is BIR SHRESTHA MUNSHI ABDUR ROUF RIFLES COLLEGE. We have around five thousand

students in our school. We have 1st grade to 12th grade. But I particularly take classes of 11th and 12th grade students.

Number of my students: We have two shifts in our school. I work in day shift. In day shift there are about 1500 students in 11th and 12th grade. There are three faculties such as Science, Business Studies and Humanities. As an English teacher I have to work with all these students.

Age of my students: My students are between 15-17 years old.

Number of my classes per week: I have to take 24 classes per week. So daily I take 3 or 4 classes with different groups. I may have three or four classes with each group per week.

Class duration: Each of our class time is 40-45 minutes. During the time I have to manage all my activities like taking percentages, collecting or checking home works, having class lectures, exercising and so on.

Background of my students: As ours is a third world developing country, most of our people live below the poverty line. And most of my students are from middle. Their economic condition are more or less satisfactory but not too high. Most of their parents are wage earners and some of them are businessmen. And the most important thing is that many of their parents are illiterate. They actually do not get the chance to exercise English at their home and also at different surroundings.

Language learning system in our institution: Our institution follows National Curriculum and Exam systems. We have to complete the syllabus and then take exams. After completing 11th grade the students have to sit for college internal exam. If they pass, they are promoted to 12th grade and then completing it they sit for the board exam, and that is called H.S.C. So students are always busy in preparing their lessons for passing exams only. Here one may ask me, where lies the problem then. The problem starts when the question is unpredictable in the HSC or after passing HSC in the admission tests they cant do well in English. Because they lack basic understanding and this type of tests really require basic knowledge in English.

Language Proficiency level of my students: My students come from different districts with different proficiency level of their understanding English though they all come after passing 10th grade. Most of the students of my class are weak in English. So when I take classes I have to take care of the fact that 60 percent will not understand at first when they will be introduced first with any new lesson

These are all about my students and about my institution.

Statement of Research purpose:

As EFL teacher I have to face all the problems that I have stated above. So I feel it necessary to motivate my students to learn English not only to pass exam but also to understand

and acquire it. I want my classes really effective for learning. The students should be made understood the real necessity of English language and at the same time they have to be made interested in the classes. I want to apply some nontraditional methods to make my students motivated to learn. Because traditional methods tend to focus instruction on skills emphasized in the test. I want my classroom with more relevant activities which will be valued in the real world.

Research Question:

What nontraditional instructional methods can I use to improve student engagement in large EFL classes at BMAR Rifles College?

METHODS:

A. Procedure:

I would like to take a naturalistic research approach to understand the meaning and nature of my students and situations why they are not successfully responding to study EFL and so my research will tend to examine objects of study through qualitative methods. This process will be generally interpretive in character, explaining why something is taking place, describing the quality of experience by gaining a deep understanding of the particular problem of my question. So my:

1) purpose will be: probing for understanding Seeking solution of particular

Interpretation and analysis

2) methods will be: qualitative (words) Multiple methods ( triangulated data)

B. Sampling:

The focus of my study will be my colleagues and my students. In choosing my subjects and process, I will focus on validity and reliability. I will consider consistency, dependability, conformability and credibility of the evidence for validity and reliability of my naturalistic, qualitative research. For these reasons my subjects will be chosen from my own institution.

C. Data collection:

I think I will collect data by Observation, Interviews and Samples of student work. For that I will use Figure 5-1 from the book The power of Questions by Beverly Falk and Megan:

Connecting data collection techniques with research questions:

Sub questions Data 1 Data 2 Data 3

How can I psychologically motivate my students to learn EFL

Observation

(Students in the class)

Interviews

(Colleagues and students) Close ended and open ended questions

Samples of student work

(Student work)

What techniques I can apply implicitly in the classroom to attract their attention

How can I promote them in sustaining their

attention

What techniques they could implement at home to motivate themselves to learn EFL

I will use these three types of data and will form Triangulation using them so that I can be sure whether the results are justified or not. Because only one evidence will not be enough for Action research. If the outcomes will be more or less same, I can assess my research a successful one. I will make some plan for collecting data, such as:

Who will collect the data?

I myself.

Where will I collect each type?

ObservationInterviews

Samples of students work.

When will I collect each type?

In the class and outside the class.

For how long will I collect?

For two months (20 days in collecting each type of data.)

D. Organizing data:

I will read and re-read all the data, make notes of anything that strikes me as significant or unusual. I will also make a list of all the main topics. Major topics and subtopics may emerge. Reflection of data collection will go side by side because these will help me to find new insights, directions and questions. I know that there is no right path for analysis. But if my research plan is coherent, the findings will be supported by evidence and then analysis of the findings will make sense. So my approach to data analysis will be Emergent analysis. I will do one more thing for analyzing data and that is peer work to ensure that I am organizing my data around themes which reflect everyone’s perspectives and that make sense.

E. Ethics:

First of all I will obtain permission to conduct the study from the Authority of my institution.

I will not allow myself to publish any of my research report without the permission of my Authority

I will not disclose any of my colleagues’ names without their consent.

Students’ interview comments and sample work will not be particularized either.

I will involve my study participants in the data analysis process to protect them and to create shared understanding.

FINDINGS:

After all these data collection I have to tell this story to present compelling evidence for my claims and to make a thoughtful, insightful and clear analysis of it. The way of my telling story will be A report of the themes in the data. What I

will learn from the research, I will present them in a report format. Each theme will be introduced by explaining how often this theme comes up in the data and under what condition. So my report writing will be enriched with examples from the data of student talk, work samples and other sources to help the reader imagine clearly.

ACTION PLAN:

The reason everyone goes into education is to have a powerful influence on the educational lives of students. Action research helps reinforce and cement the belief that together (teachers and administrators) can make a difference.

Glickman, 1995

These words seem to me very much similar of my thoughts when I was searching for my Action research question. As a teacher I do believe that we teachers can make the difference if we are conscious and eager to do that. And if the authority does favor to this eager group of teachers, the institution can certainly be the pioneer of change for the better. My question of this action research will be to find out the ways to motivate EFL students to learn English. I think Findings of my action research will be a great source of the change. Action research question is for placing my problem in a larger framework and in the context of existing knowledge to see how others have explored. Many class hours I have already spent on teaching grammar but when I ask my students to say something or write something on a specific topic, most of them fail terribly to do that. Always a thought comes to me what could be the reason behind this. I find in horror that we teachers are failing continuously to motivate the students to learn English effectively. So motivation thought always comes to my mind and haunts me. So when I got this chance of Action research, I thought that it would be the best chance to find out ways of motivating students. So I have taken this question.

After finishing all my research work and building my own story, I will explore it to others.

There will be many ways to share my work. I want to share, all the result as well as story of my Action research, beginning from the very small area and then expand it into large areas gradually. First of all I will organize a workshop with my other participant colleagues to show our work. I think this kind of presentation will show how to support EFL students in our institution as well as other institutions. Then I will submit it as a proposal to our authority. I may also publish this Action Research online with the permission of my Authority.

Literature review by Tanzina Chowdhury

Thinking on the write path : Mohammad Ali Salmani-Nodoushan emphasizes the importance of cognitive orientation to the success of EFL students in writing courses.

For me, as a teacher, exploring issue of interest of the students is the most charming thing. That is why I have taken the problem of motivating EFL students. Becoming responsive to the interests and needs of our students can enable us to better support their learning. I am really involved in the issue and I always try to find out the ways to motivate students to learn. And for literature review, I have first taken this research article to make me better understand of my problem and also an idea of solution the problem.

The words “cognitive Orientation” seem to me very related to my problem question. As the theme of my enquiry is motivation, I think if there is cognition in study, there must have the motivation also. Here the writer’s first emphasis is on “….the process of acquiring a second language began glittering in the light of new trends”. New trends means to find out new techniques for motivation to write. The whole article deals with writing skill. Here the writer found that the reason of failing students’ learning English is ‘inadequacy of cognitive competence’. And that’s why he proposes ‘a cognitively oriented approach to the task’. According to him we often teach grammar, structures of sentences, use of language, logical presentation, development of ideas, creative use of imaginative symbolic thinking. But what we lack, actually “… we not taken any successful steps further to achieve the goal…have had a negative impact on our students’ motivation.

The author takes two things to give emphasis:

1) Content independent cognitive skills

2) Concerned with understanding how the process of learning occurs in the classroom.

To create the atmosphere in the classroom “Relationship between the learners and the materials” is of prime importance. So all these words ‘process of learning’ and ‘relationship’ has made me think of taking this article as one of my literature review.

The author again and again emphasizes on those situation in the class where the learners can feel at ease to learn and to discuss. So the whole classroom situation should be to develop an insight in the learner, enabling him to make his own selections and interpretations of the existing situations. The Insight provides the learner with opportunities to stretch his skills beyond the classroom setting.

I have mentioned earlier that this article is based on the process of writing. So here the techniques are for motivating students for writing effectively and correctly. First of all ‘Deductive Approach’ is discussed here which means ‘writing as a way of organizing ideas’. He tells that writing is not a linguistic process. It encompasses a wide range of exercises that go beyond the linguistic scope. Secondly the writer thinks that the students need to learn how to think logically and how to develop his ideas convincingly. The teacher’s job is, therefore, to develop the learner’s cognitive abilities rather than merely focusing on the problem of syntax and vocabulary. Thirdly this cognitive approach leads students to assess their own structures, which, in turn, leads to the understanding of communicative competence. And it is the time when the teacher can attribute largely to motivate students to write. Teacher’s behavior guides the student’s behavior. The teacher’s main role I s to activate ‘Productive thinking’ in his pupils by developing appropriate strategies.

So, I find here that the teacher’s role is to divert students’ attention from mere linguistic structures to the communicative part. Here the writer takes paragraph writing and he identifies that “unfortunately, the main part of the teacher’s correction concerns that of the learner’s grammatical mistakes and little is done with respect to the overall organization of the composition.” According to him the main trouble lies in ‘operational intermediates’ which means disorganized ideas. This can be attributed to the students’ excessive preoccupation with correct structures which overwhelms their capacity for reasoning. So the students should be informed of the primacy of thought over linguistic expressions. The learners should know how much information they are required to put in their composition. Students also need to be equipped with knowledge of so called cohesive devices and a good deal of practice in using cohesive devices seems necessary. But teaching such devices in isolation would not be of much use rather different type of composition writing practice is necessary.

The students need to develop productive thinking in order to connect sets of events together. The writer suggests here “to hand out pictures that, when looked at serially, provide a brief account of stories”. Because “…such pictures can spur the cognitive ability to the students.” They should think of a logical or natural sequence for pictures.

After doing all these, students can develop cognitive skill for their writing and know logical strategies for critical writing. Here the teacher’s role becomes less important. Still the teacher can help to identify the common logical fallacies that the students may face. Teachers can also provide their students with examples of written materials. Lastly Revision is suggested. Students should be teaching to review their writing, predicting what problems they may have and what possible reactions they may have to their writing.

Studying this article has helped me lot to make a introductory idea of my research problem. Lots of insights have been discussed here to find out the problems of the students’ inability to communicate correctly, specially writing problems are found out. There are also some exclusive suggestions and solutions on which a teacher can give emphasis. I found them very relevant and necessary for my research proposal.

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Lesson Plan Section

Lesson Plan- 1

Title : Fable

Grade level: 6, 7,8th grade, HILT B

Participants: 19

Time : 90 minutes

Designed by: Tanzina Chowdhury

Tea fellow, Bangladesh

Language objectives: 1) to know about fables

2) To learn about the author (Aesop)

3) To increase vocabulary

4) To practice Reading aloud

5) Reading comprehension

Content objectives: What is a fable?

Brainstorm, what you know about Tortoises and Hares?

Read Text( a fable)

Discuss how stories teach moral values

Introduction: Greet students

Students will be divided into five groups and work in groups

KWL to find out what students know about fable they can share fable of their own countries

Review stories, pictures and the title of the fable

Teacher will ask students to tell what they know about Tortoises and Hares, including where they live, what they eat and how quickly they move. Teacher will note down the response on the board fewer than two different topics, TORTOISE and HARE.

Teacher will instruct students to listen attentively and silently during reading. Teacher will read aloud some portion and other portion will be read by the students. Here students will play BUMP (to ask a student abruptly) to hold their attention.Students will have the idea about difficult and new words because they will be asked to read before they come and finishing reading, they will note down their new words in the WORD WALL. Teacher will write words in the board while reading.Teacher will ask open ended question such as, how does the tortoise move? How does the hare move? Who wins the race? What did you learn from the story?Teacher will give feedback on the moral of the story like, who are the two characters? Who wins? Who does not win? Why?

ASSESSMENT: Students active participation individually

Students responses towards peers while group working

Lesson plan-2

Title: Fable

Grade level: 6, 7,8th grade, HILT B

Participants: 19

Time: 90 min


Language objectives:

How to write sentences How to describe an animal

Content Objectives:

Create new vocabulary Art of story telling Personification

Introduction:

Greet students Review previous reading( Students will be asked questions to tell the story) Divide students in groups After group formation teacher will explain instructions precisely. Each group will work on different tasks Students will complete the tasks on time Presentation of different group work Other groups will give feedback

Task: 1

Teacher will type the task in BIG FONT and give to the groups with chart paper and color pencils Describe the character HARE or TORTOISE. They will learn through WEBS as prewriting

strategy

HARE---------TORTOISE

Each group will come out with their task and present them in front of others Students will give their peers feedback.

Task-2

Teacher will distribute Word Strips written with adjectives to describe those animals. Students will be asked to separate the adjectives for each animal and draw the pictures and will

make another poster with pictures and adjectives Each group will show their work before others.

Task- 3

Discuss with group members and determine what kind of friend Tortoise or Hare would be, based on their words and actions in the text.

Complete the given sentence and elaborate their ideas through Role play( Students can act out during presentation)

Task-4

Teacher will try to find out the definition of personification by asking students What is not normal in the story, and have them give examples, students will talk about the morals of the story.( Then teacher can say to them about animal’s talk and having human charecteristic is called personification. We find this in most fables)

Assessments:

Students’ active participation

Students’ presentation, how they come out with their work

How much enthusiastic they are in doing

Lesson Plan-3

Title: Grammar

Topic: Adjective

Number of students: 18

Grade of the students: 6, 7 8; HILT B

Class Time: 90 minutes


Content objectives:

1) Previewing2) Making list of adjectives3) Writing sentences using listed adjectives4) Reminding rules to one another5) Mot memorizing but understanding clearly


1)knowing the definition of Adjective

2) knowing how to use adjectives in a sentence

3) developing grammar

4) having clear idea how to use adjective

Activities:

Brain storm: Asking students what they know about adjectives Asking to find out adjectives from the previous text( the fable)

Show the students one item from the classroom materials and ask them to think about appropriate adjectives to describe that.

List adjectives on the board what they mention

Invite students to work in pairs to write two sentences using the listed adjectives

Jig Saw Activities: Step 1: Students will be divided into 6 groups each group containing three members and each member will have separate identity number.

Step 2: The day’s lesson will be divided into three parts containing several rules of using Adjectives.

Step 3: Students will be given time for reading.

Step-4: They will form one temporary expert group by having one from each group.

Step-5: They will discuss the same rules in the same expert group and write down those in their notebook.

Step 6: Students will go back to their own Gig Saw groups.

Step 7: Each student will present his segment to other group members of his own and thus each group will be introduced with all the rules given by the teacher.

Step 8: Teacher will take the quiz on the given and exercised topic.

Assessment:

1) Teacher will move while the group discussion will be going on.2) Will assess students while they can’t understand3) Having the quiz teacher will know how successfully each student achieve the goal.

6) Making list of adjectives7) Writing sentences using listed adjectives8) Reminding rules to one another9) Mot memorizing but understanding clearly

1) Knowing the definition of Adjective

2) Knowing how to use adjectives in a sentence

3) Developing grammar

4) Having clear idea how to use adjective

Lesson plan-4


Title: Writing a narrative

Topic: Tell about a time when you did something helpful to others. What did you learn from it?

Grade Level: 6, 7,8

Participants: 18

Time: 90 minutes


.The students will be able to use specific details by using a web chart of 5 Ws( Who, What, When, Where, Why)

They will be able to organize ideas using time order Self management Using knowledge and experience

Content objectives:

Brain storming Asking questions

Introduction—(warm up by previewing)

The teacher will brainstorm the students by asking them short questions about 5Ws. The teacher will write the responses on the board. She/he will encourage the students to speak out some connecting words used with 5Ws.The

teacher will ask the students to write down the words on their work sheets.

Activity-1: The students will be given blank sheets of paper to make a web chart of 5Ws.

They will try to compose a short narrative paragraph on “a time when you did something helpful to others and learning from it” using the answers to 5Ws.

They will use some key words from the board and write the topic sentence and the body.

Activity—2 the students will then trade their work sheets with the student, sitting next.

They will check each other’s performance and write short comments like no topic sentence or no proper body.

Then the students will take back their sheets and make corrections.

They will then check their paragraph by answering the following questions (checking)

i) Have I ended each sentence with a punctuation mark?

Are my capitalization and spelling correct?

Activity-3

Students will be asked to write down the whole topic finally including all those new ideas and corrections. And then they will give it to the teacher for final checking.Assessing and Evaluating

The teacher will move about and monitor the class by being available to each and every student. She/he will check whether the students are trading their paper or not.

Teacher will check the final papers of each student and will give it back to them with comments

Lesson plan -5

Title: Comparative study between fable and myth

Grade level: 6, 7, 8, HILT B

Participants: 19

Time: 90 min


to know about fable and myth

to write sentences

to learn how to use Venn Diagram

to develop critical thinking level through comparing and contrasting

Content objectives:

Brain storm through previewing

Open ended questions

Comparative study between the fable “ The hare and the Tortoise” and the myth “Why Rattlesnake has Fangs”

Activities:

Task 1: Individual works

Students will be asked open ended questions about the definition of fable and myth.

Questions can be on the characters of the Hare or the Tortoise

Questions about Rattlesnakes (What does the sun god forget to give Rattlesnakes...)

Task 2: Reflection through Venn diagram / Group work

students will be divided into groups

Teacher will explain what Venn diagram is and how it will work here.

Students will be asked to think about the common things in the fable and in the myth( type of the text, Fiction or nonfiction, purpose of the text, features of the text)

Students will write the common things in the middle of the diagram.

They will think about the characteristics of the myth and the fable and write about myth in the right side and fable in the left side.

Every group will come out with their own diagrams and each student from every group will explain that.

The diagrams can be put on the bulletin board of the class

Task 3: Critical thinking

There will be the open discussions on several topics like:

1. Which is your favorite and why?

2. Which you don’t like and why?

3. What do you know about growing up?

4. How the hare and the rattle snake grow up in the fable and in the myth?

From the discussion they will be assigned to something about growing up of their own.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on their individual performance.

How clearly they can come up of their own Venn diagram

How critically they can think and write their assignment

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Strategy section:STRATEGY: 1

1. Name of method or strategy:

Group work

2. When is this method or strategy useful?

o In secondary or higher secondary level

o In large classes of 100 students with mixed abilities

3. Why or how is this method or strategy useful?

To improve academic achievement

For increasingly interactive workplaces

For giving students stable supportive environments for learning

For using maximum amount of time

To give students opportunities to learn from one another rather than receive

information from the teacher or text alone.

To evaluate students’ understanding

4. What are the steps involved in using this strategy or method?

Writing something about concerned topic

o Discussing what they found common among the group members

o Choosing the most interesting ones

o Writing again in a final sheet

o Sharing with other teams

o Enriching vocabulary by crossword puzzle

o Comparing list of activities with other teams

5. When would this method or strategy be useful in your setting?

Secondary or higher secondary English language learners face major difficulties in

acquiring English. For graduating they must earn the required number of high school

credits. So they need thorough knowledge of English. They have to understand

content based English. They can also enrich vocabulary and writing skill through this

method.

6. What would you like other teachers in your school to know about this method or

strategy?

As we have large class we face difficulties to reach each students. Group work involves all students and engages them in the class as they work with peers or in teams. I would like to give emphasis on this point of involving all students as all of our classes contain heterogeneous students. This method also meets the need of interest and enthusiasm of the students as all have to do certain activities personally and in team.

STRATEGY: 2


Jigsaw


a. To deal with logic problem

b. To teach rules of specific grammar topic


Emphasizing positive interdependence among students

Clarifying and enhancing understanding

Becoming responsible for teaching other members

Feeling each individual important


Divide students into 3/4 persons Jigsaw group

Divide the day’s lesson into 3/4 segments

Assign each student to learn one segment

Give students time to read

Form temporary expert groups by having one student from one jigsaw group

Discuss the same segment in the same expert group

Bring students back into their gigsaw groups

Each student will present his segment to the group

Give a quiz where students will answer individually


In a large classroom

In developing reading and writing skill

In introducing new topic

Introducing different rules within a short period of time


strategy?

I think Jigsaw will be a very effective method for teaching grammar rules. I would like to

introduce this strategy to my colleagues saying that we can cover teaching lots of rules of

grammar within a short time and in a large classroom with this gigsaw method

Strategy: 3


MI Theory


To exercise 8 intelligences of the students.

3. why or how is this method or strategy useful?

Improving listening and speaking

Giving students opportunities to work together

Giving students opportunities to develop

Fostering creative thinking.


o Discussions ( bodily kinesthetic)

o Visual presentation ( spatial)

o Co-operative learning ( interpersonal)

o Peer tutoring ( interpersonal)

o Independent study ( intrapersonal)

o Self-esteem building


Heterogeneous groups of students with assigned roles to perform

Lesson structured for positive interdependence among group members

Evaluation through individual testing and group recognition

6. What would you like other teachers in your school to know about this

method or strategy?

o Student centered learning activities will improve our students a lot.

o Students will get benefit from observing learning strategies used by their peers.

o Students will be benefitted more from face to face verbal interactions.

o Teachers will promote communication that is natural and meaningful.

STRATEGY: 4


Web chart


Outlining and listing ideas for narrative writing


For practice making introduction

Increasing ability to communicate through writing

Practicing vocabulary while making web chart

For connecting real life ideas in writing

Skimming for main ideas


Brain storming for finding key words

Writing the theme word at the centre

Listing ideas around it with different features of the main word. This could be done

through predicting while answering the 5 wh questions.

Connecting real life experiences for finding out features or incidents / using

knowledge and experience.

Making the web as larger as possible by connecting.


It is a different interesting strategy for listing out ideas for writing. Students will work

in group and will share their ideas in web charting. By sharing ideas students will be

able to gather more information about the topic. And the web direction will make

them synthesize ideas and thus prepare them for writing.

6. What would you like other teachers in your school to know about this method or strategy?

This strategy is really helpful for making students understand their own topic. They

will easily organize their ideas make list about what they are going to write. Each

group will come out with their own web chart and will write their own

comprehension.

STRATEGY: 5


Venn Diagram


In writing when somebody wants to make comparison between two things


To develop English Language

To comprehend the meaning and message of the two separate things at the same

time.

To have clear conception about two things watching features of them side by side


Assign tasks for each member in a team

After making sure that all students know what the topics are to be compared, give

each team a Venn Diagram with labeled of the two sides

Each team will have some minutes to write down what the two subjects have

common and what they don’t have in common.

Things common to both of the subjects will be written in the middle space.,

Unique elements for one topic in the left side and other in the right side.

Two teams join, with reports from both teams sharing their diagrams

Diagrams with team names can be placed on bulletin boards.


For writing in a team.


strategy?

It is helpful for teaching our students techniques of team building and also make them

interested in writing something of their own.

Thanks to all for hearing me with so much patience and good day to you all.

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