LITERATURE REVIEW
What is meant by the term 'syllabus'?
When to evaluate a syllabus, it is essential to keep in mind the possible definition of the term to provide a basic framework for evaluation. According to the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics a syllabus can be defined as 'a description of the contents of a course of instruction and the order in which they are to be taught' (Richards et al. 1992, 368).
Textbooks hold a cogent role in the teaching /learning process as they are the basic agents of transmitting knowledge to learners. One of the primary functions of textbooks is to make the existed knowledge available and apparent to the learners in an organized way. Hutchinson and Torres (1994) argue that any
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Besides, a textbook can guarantee that students in different classes will receive a similar content and therefore, can be evaluated in the same way. In other words, textbooks provide the standards in instruction. Moreover, they include a variety of learning resources such as workbooks, CDs and videos, etc., which make the learning environment colorful and interesting for the students. They do not only provide a framework for teachers in achieving the objectives of the course, but also act as a guide to the teacher in the classroom. The content of English language textbooks influences what teachers teach and learners …show more content…
A checklist is an instrument that helps practitioners in English Language Teaching (ELT) evaluate language teaching materials, like textbooks. It allows a more sophisticated evaluation of the textbook in reference to a set of generalizable evaluative criteria. These checklists may be quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative scales have the merit of allowing an objective evaluation of a given textbook through Likert style rating scales (e.g., Skierso, 1991). Qualitative checklists, on the other hand, often use open-ended questions to elicit subjective information on the quality of course books (e.g., Richards, 2001). While qualitative checklists are capable of an in-depth evaluation of textbooks, quantitative checklists are more reliable instruments and are more convenient to work with, especially when team evaluations are involved. Evaluative
Textbooks are essential and informative, however it is not the main core value of education. If we truly depend on textbook, our world would be as naïve as natives in colonization era. Schopenhauer provides the difference between reading and thinking. “Reading forcibly imposes on the mind thoughts that are as foreign to its mood and direction” (Schopenhauer, pg. 89) Reading is an escape of reality. It penetrates the mind and alters thinking. “The mind is totally subjected to an external compulsion” (Schopenhauer, pg.89) although reading is prominent, it can impair personal thinking. “That the surest way of never having any thoughts of your own is to pickup a book every time you have a free moment.” (Schopenhauer, pg. 90) When it comes to reading college content, it has no originality. We are attaining our foreign thinking from a text that has been modified thus teach one purpose only and that is to provide facts. We cannot attain wisdom from textbooks. Universities provide textbooks that are a copy of another copy; that is to say, the information is the production of somebodies else’s idea following by, another mans ideas and so on. “All that has ever been taught is a critique of a words and fifty critiques of them as preserved side-by-side and intermingled” (Nietzsche, pg. 187) What can we obtain from a mixtures of words? Well criteria met. It is possible to have our own thoughts and ideas; if we only foreshadow on textbook we will become a textbook itself. “People who pass their lives in reading and acquire their wisdom from books are like those who learn about a country from travel description” (Schopenhauer, pg. 91) we have to obtain our wisdom from our own thoughts and not from what is editing in from of
Brooks, J.G. &Brooks, M.G. (1995). Constructing Knowledge in the Classroom. Retrieved September 13, 2002 for Internet. http://www.sedl.org/scimath/compass/v01n03/1.html.
All assessments need to be authentic to assess a student's knowledge successfully. For this analysis I chose the reading comprehension lesson on Aunt Flossie’s Hats which covers the standard: LAFS.3.RI.1.2; determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea. This is a summative assessment used to register the student’s knowledge of the lesson. For this assessment to be an accurate gauge of the ELL’s ability I modified the verbiage of the worksheet in the English Learner’s native language. Modifying the summative assessment will provide me with a thorough overview of the English Language Learner’s comprehension level without any language barriers.
Savage, J. & Fautley, M. (2008). Assessment for Learning and Teaching in Secondary Schools. Dawsonera [Online]
In an effort to create a context for learning, one needs to define the language that will be used to teach a subject. So often in schools, from first grade through graduate studies, when teaching a new subject matter or concepts it is necessary to teach the vocabulary that will accompany that subject. However, we often spend little time making sure that vocabulary is learned and consequently without the prerequisite knowledge of vocabulary of learning the learning of information related to it is difficult. This need for definition of relevant language is seen in multiple sources with textbooks being on of the greatest sources of it. The books highlight, bold, or italicize critical words and provide definitions of the word or within the text or margins. This definition of terms gives the reader the knowledge basis to understand the content of what they are reading. If the books authors did not define these terms, then understanding the information they are trying to convey would be difficult.
Before and after I taught my unit over main idea and summarizing informational texts, I gave my students an assessment to determine what they know about the subject. My first assessment was called a pre-test and they did not receive an actual grade for this. This test was designed to give the teacher an idea of what the students know about main idea and if they
Assessment is “the process of collecting, synthesizing, and interpreting information to aid in decision making” (Airasian, 2000, p. 10). Similarly, Payne (2003) defines assessment as “the interpretive integration of application tasks (procedures) to collect objectives-relevant information for educational decision making and communication about the impact of the teaching-learning process” (p.9). This means that assessment is a form of collecting data which has meaning when making judgments on students’ learning. It is an effective way to assist students’ learning, identify their weaknesses and strengths and also to recover the effectiveness of curriculum programs. On the other hand, Moon (2000) suggests that assessment is “a way of providing feedback on learning and teaching” (p.148).
In the past, assessments were popularly conducted for the purpose of accreditation, but with the growing change in the quality of education, it has become evident that assessments aren’t just products to qualification but as Sieborger (1998) identifies, is that assessment is the process of gathering and interpreting knowledge to make valid and justifiable judgements about the learners performance and the assessors ability to transfer and establish knowledge to the learners.
Assessment, in the context of education, was defined by Lambert, D (2000, pag 4) as the processs of gathering, recording and using information about pupils' responses to educational tasks. Despite some can consider that assessment is separated from the learning process, assessment is, in fact, an essential part of the learning proccess. Maguire, M. and Dillon, J. (2007, pag 213) pointed out that assessment is intrincately bound-up in the teaching-learning cycle.
... for teachers to choose materials that will hook students and motivate them to engage in their own learning. Teachers should provide multiple learning opportunities in which stu¬dents can experience success and can begin to build confidence in their ability to read, write, and think at higher level. By connecting strategies for learning, such as searching, compre¬hending, interpreting, composing, and teaching content knowledge, students are given the opportunity to succeed in their education. These elements include: fundamental skills such as phonemic awareness, phonemic decoding, and other word analysis skills that support word reading accuracy; text reading fluency; strategies for building vocabulary; strategies for understanding and using the specific textual features that distinguish different genres; and self-regulated use of reading comprehension strategies.
...g a book for the course. As a result, publishers continues to dominate the market by making their product the only product in order to become successful in class.
The overall essence of education or knowledge acquisition is reflected in an axiom by Confucius which says “Tell me, and I will forget; show me, and I will remember; but involve me, and I will understand. Back then, it was clear that learning was a comprehensive process which involves passionate exchanges between students and their teachers; unfortunately this is not the case in most modern classrooms. Instead of the expected bidirectional communication between learners and teachers, in the modern learning environment there is a unidirectional system which involves the teacher incessantly hurling facts at students who, due to their passive roles as mere receptacles, have fallen asleep or; in the case of “best” students are mindlessly taking notes. This leads to a situation where knowledge has neither been conferred nor acquired.
As a teacher, is very important to use a wide range of learning and teaching resources, from books or other printed materials so, that students are encouraged to explore issues of interest,
In spite of the importance of assessment in education, few teachers receive proper training on how to design or analyze assessments. Due to this, when teachers are not provided with suitable assessments from their textbooks or instructional resources, teachers construct their own in an unsystematic manner. They create questions and essay prompts comparable to the ones that their teachers used, and they treat them as evaluations to administer when instructional activities are completed predominantly for allocating students' grades. In order to use assessments to improve instruction and student learning, teachers need to change their approach to assessments by making sure that they create sound assessments. To ensure that their assessments are sound they need include five basic indicators that can be used as steps to follow when creating assessments. The first of these indicators and the first step a teacher must take when creating a sound assessme...
The syllabus is a commonly created and shared document in the education world (Parkes & Harris, 2010). For some high school, and most higher education courses, it is the first form of contact between an instructor and their students. The organization and content of the syllabus sets the tone of the course and stands as a resource throughout the semester or year. Continual analysis, reflection and refinement helps to maintain the syllabus as a dynamic educational resource for every student in that class (Slattery & Carlson, 2010). An effective syllabus provides, not only an introduction and overview into the course, but also outlines the academic standards and essential questions that are to be covered, shares the course schedule and