Memorable Learning

MEMORABLE LEARNING

Methodologies and Tools in English Teaching for 21st Century.

By: Paula Alexandra Couto February 2023

Classroom Teaching / learning practices...

What kind of teacher am I?

Teachers always:

1. Plan lessons
2. Understand learners
3. Manage the lesson
4. Know the subject
5. Sort out and manage resources
6. Assess learning
7. Integrate ICT
8. Take responsibility for professional development
9. Use inclusive practices
10. Use multilingual approaches

What do we have to teach?

The English Syllabus

What are the 21st century skills?

The 21st century skills

Developing an awareness of and proficiency in:

• critical thinking and problem solving
• collaboration and communication
• creativity and imagination
• citizenship
• digital literacy
• student leadership
• personal development

Memorable Teaching Learning

What is it?

What was the most memorable class you have ever had?

What makes a class memorable?

It's important to create fun opportunities in class and to listen to us.

Teachers can learn that it’s important for us students to feel that you care about us as people.

Believe in your students and what they are capable of doing and to let them know that.

Sometimes you have to be very creative to help us learn what you want to teach us.

How memory works....

The diagram in the figure is a representation of the memory system: Information moves from Sensory Input through Sensory Memory and Short-Term Memory and eventually into Long-Term Memory. Our brains are programmed to pay attention to the unusual - something different.

(Richards, 2003, p. 17).

Memorable Teaching and Learning ....

"Since our "thinking cap" is strongly influenced by patterns, not facts, remembering information is maximized when it is provided in contextual, event-oriented situations which include motor learning, location changes, music, rhythm, and novelty…. We do poorly when we "piecemeal" learning into linear, sequential facts and other out-of-context information lists". Eric Jensen, Super Teaching, p. 26

Making the Teaching/Learning process MEMORABLE ...

• Think about what you really want your students to learn.
• Use technology and let your students use it too.

• What happens outside the class is as important as what happens in the class.
• Use hands-on approaches strategies.
• Involve students in their learning and their evaluation.
• Always give quality feeback to your students.

Practical Examples:

1. Blended Learning
2. Project work
3. Oral Presentations;
4. Participating in international projects
5. Writing blogs and online magazines
6. Writing and recording e-books
7. Recording videos and podcasts
8. Gaming

Can you think of any other examples?

Memorable Teaching Listening and Speaking

Memorable Listening and Speaking Activities

Understanding your learners and their needs is an important part of classroom teaching and planning. This professional practice involves making decisions about teaching that includes an understanding of the students' characteristics, including their level of attainment, their age, interests, preferred ways of learning, group dynamics, their motivation to learn, their educational, social, cultural and linguistic background, any special educational needs they may have, their level of autonomy and their personality.

Listening Activities

Listening will help students:

• to improve their understanding of the foreign language and its pronunciation.
• It obliges students to concentrate to do the exrcises.

There is a wide range of listening activities:

• course books;
• videos or small films with no subtitles;

Speaking Activities

Speaking activities will help students to:

• express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance;

• produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns;
• use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the language;

• organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence;

Speaking Activities

• Simulations;
• Role Play;
• Brainstorming;
• Interviews;
• Story Completition;
• Reporting;
• Picture Narrating;
• Picture Describing;

Listening / Speaking Activities

Students can: - prepare their own activitie, present them to class; (take an important role in their learning process); - have the chance to participate in a motivating activity; - protect themselves from the imediate reaction from the public (feel at ease); - record and listen to themselves, and then correct their own mistakes; - repeat the process as many times as they want until everything is perfect; - use digital tools and develop their siklls.

Memorable Teaching Reading and Writing

Memorable Reading and Writing Activities

Reading and writing in a foreign language is a challenging task for any learner. Reading helps the students to improve their understanding of the language and build their vocabulary but it requires self-discipline. Writing requires a lot of work: it takes time to plan, draft, revise, edit and consider the audience. Both can start with brainstorming and discussion.

Reading Activities

Is READING Boring?

Type of texts:

Students must read a wide range of texts:- emails - posters - menus - newspapers articles - informative texts - timetables - job adverts - literary texts (poetry, short stories, novels, etc.)

Why not the LITERARY text?

“[Literature is] something which alludes to reality…” (Widdowson, 1999, p. 118) “[The literature is] the best which has been thought and said in the world” (Arnold, 2006, p.50)

Why not the LITERARY text?

“Each word (…); shapes our feelings, names them and attributes them to an imaginary personage who takes it upon himself to live them for us and who has no other substance than these borrowed passions; he confers objects, perspectives and horizons upon them. Thus, for the reader, all is to do and all is already done; the work exists only at the exact level of his capacities; while he reads and creates, he knows that he can always go further in his reading, can always create more profoundly, and thus the work seems to him as inexhaustible and opaque as things. Jean Paul Satre

Why not the LITERARY text?

It is that literature gives you ideas to think with. It stocks your mind. It does not indoctrinate, because diversity, counter argument, reappraisal and qualification are its essence. But it supplies the material for thought. Also, because it is the only art capable of criticism, it encourages questioning and self-questioning.”(Carey, 2005, p.208)

Why not the LITERARY text?

How to choose the correct text?

Age of Students

Students' emotional understanding

Intellectual Maturity of Students

Students' Linguistic Proficiency

Why not the LITERARY text?

Students' interests and hobbies

Students' cultural background

Students' Literary Background

Why not the LITERARY text?

The literary text can be used in the EFL lessons to:

• indroduce new topics or themes;
• develop reading and comprehension activities;
• induce writing activities;
• develop critical thinking;
• help the student to create his / her cultural and citizenship awareness.

Memorable Teaching Critical Thinking And Problem Solving

Critical Thinking

Why do we need breaks in a car?

Critical Thinking

• IT is the process of thinking carefully about a subject or idea, without allowing feelings or opinions to affect you.
• It must be clear, accurate, consistent, relevant, sound evident, good resoned and fair.

To Promote Critical Thinking

• How am I directing learners in the classrooms to think beyond the obvious?
• What should I do to enlarge their skills to think beyond the textbook?
• How can I adapt the syllabus to promote critical thinking?
• And am I, in fact, asking questions to make them think at all? If yes, what are those questions?

7 Steps to Critical Thinking

• Formulate the question clearly and precisely.
• Identify the purpose, reasons, goals and objectives of what needs doing or answering.
• Gather information, facts, data, evidence, experiences about the problem from various sources.
• It’s also a good idea to get different points of view.
• Distinguish between facts and assumptions/opinions.
• Analyse and try to find similarities between similar incidents in the past.
• Conclude and decide on the actions to be taken or opinions to be formed,

Critical Thinking

Students can

• improve their flexibility and learning skills;
• be less passive and more interactive;
• enhance academic performance;

Critical thinking is the foundation of science and a society. Science requires the critical use of reason in experimentation and theory confirmation. The proper functioning of a society requires citizens who can think critically about social issues to form their judgments as citizens to overcome difficulties.

Problem Solving

Problem Solving is a mental process involving the ability to analyze and find the solution that best resolves the problem.

Students can:

• gain the ability to reflect critically on learning experiences;
• learn how to make decisions;
• learn other important skills such as creativity, collaboration and cooperation;
• get prepared for jobs that don’t exist yet.

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Memorable Teaching Evaluation

Remember...

“Teaching (…) in the twenty first century will demand more flexibility (…) we can’t possibly know everything about our academic field, but we can be more prepared for what we actually do in the classroom. (…) Teachers should read contemporary literature, go to the theatre and movies, watch television, write in all forms, and reflect on how all these activities contribute to what we do in class.” Elaine Showalter

Be Creative and don't be afraid to try new and old things in your classroom!

Resouces

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/21st-century-skills https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers https://www.britishcouncil.me/en/programmes/education/21st-century-schools/what/ctps https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-what-makes-a-class-memorable-heres-what-students-say/2022/03 (

Resouces

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kayi-TeachingSpeaking.html https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/15/03/making-learning-memorable https://johndabell.com/2018/01/03/9-principles-of-memorable-teaching/ https://www.readingrockets.org/article/making-it-stick-memorable-strategies-enhance-learning (16th February, 2023) Suggested Apps to use in the classroom: Kahoot.com vocaroo.com voki.com plikers.com canva.com liveworksheets.com mentimeter.com madmagz.com wordart.com bookcreator.com chatterpix .com storyjumper.com thinglink.com genially.com

Resouces

• Arnold, M. ([1869] 2006). Culture and Anarchy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Carey, J. (2005).What Good Are the Arts?. London: Faber and Faber.
• Jensen, E. (2009). Super Teaching: Over 1000 Practical Strategies. Thousand Oaks, California. Corwin Press.

• Lazar, G. ([1993] 2005). Literature and Language Teaching: A Guide for Teachers and Trainers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Mishan, F. (2005). Designing Authenticity into Language Learning Materials. Bristol: Intellect Books.

• Sartre. J.P. ([1948] 2006) What is Literature? Trans. Bernard Frechtman. London: Routledge

• Showalter, E. ([2003] 2005). Teaching Literature. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.

• Widdowson, P. (1999). Literature. London: Routledge

THANK YOU!

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