Monthly Archives: April 2009
Suggested Writing Topics
Our dear colleague Dr. Essam has provided us with some suggested Book-oriented and Free Writing Topics that could be useful for third year secondary classes – second semester. I have uploaded it so that you can download it if you find it useful. Click the following link to download it.Suggested Writing Topics
ABC Teaching
First of all, let us remember together the different instructional events necessary for effective teaching.
- The planning phase
- The pre-instructional phase
- The instructional phase
- The practice phase
- The evaluation phase
A. The planning phase
This takes place outside the classroom where the teacher identifies lesson objectives and how he is going to achieve them. In addition to this, the teacher should think of and prepare all the materials for his presentation and tools he will need for practice and evaluation of his students’ performance.
B. The pre-instructional phase
This stage includes three different sections to help prepare students for understanding the new stimulus.
1. Warming up: The teacher has to decide which of the following techniques he is going to use:
- Relating lesson objectives to students’ experience
- Carrying out tasks that are related to the performance objectives
- Competition and prizes
- Telling an anecdote
- Using the establishing set technique
2. Recall of prerequisites: The teacher needs to recall the information that is necessary for understanding the new stimulus (material). He may use one of the following techniques:
- The recall exercise
- Using flash cards, pictures and games
- Asking questions
3. Informing students of the lesson objectives: Here, the teacher informs his students of the different tasks they are going to carry out throughout the lesson to help them achieve the lesson objectives and to organise their studies later.
C. The instructional phase
We can divide this stage into two sections:
1. Presenting new vocabulary: The following procedure is highly recommended for presenting the new words:
- Use the word orally in context
- Explain or elicit its meaning
- Teach and drill pronunciation
- Write the word on board or show its written form
- Teach spelling
- Teach how to use productive vocabulary
2. Presenting the new stimulus: The technique used differs according to the type of the lesson in hand. (This will be handled in detail in coming posts).
D. The practice phase (Formative evaluation)
The purpose of this stage is to help students use the language fluently and fairly accurately.
- In case of comprehension or reading lessons, the teacher can ask comprehension questions to check students’ understanding. This is also considered as some kind of informal assessment.
- As for oral communication skills i.e. grammar and language functions, the teacher can start with mechanical drills as “controlled language exercises”. These may take the form of: repetition drills, substitution drills or chain drills. These types of exercises help students enunciate the new language forms. Then, the teacher moves on to “guided language exercises” which include “transformation exercises” and “substitution tables”.
E. The evaluation phase (Summative assessment)
This is the final stage where the teacher decides to choose any type of the following tests or exercises:
1. Comprehension lessons 2. Oral communication skills lessons
– Asking comprehension questions – Role play
– True/ False questions – Games
– Multiple choice questions – Problem solving
– Matching exercises
Final Revision – Third Secondary – Second Semester – Ministry of Education/ Qatar
Hooray! Dr. Essam, my dear colleague, has finished preparing the final revision for the third secondary students of Qatari schools. We should thank him for allowing us to upload it for the benefit of all colleagues, teachers and students. Some pages have been left blank for teachers to add the comprehension passages they think would be a good practice for their students. Now you can download the “Final Revision” and enjoy using it.
Abomody's space 