DESIGNING A WORKSHEET

The main task for this week was creating a worksheet based on our own principles for materials design. For this assignment, I decided to team up with one of my classmates because the workload was huge and we also shared the same teaching context. Thus, in this post, I will explain in detail the worksheet-making process and what procedures we went through to create the final product.

To ensure that the worksheet was created logically and systematically, we followed Jolly and Bolitho’s (2011: 113) design for “the production of new or adapted materials” (introduced in Week 2):

By using this framework to describe the working process, with the inclusion of the evaluation stage and feedback loops, I will show how designing materials is not a linear task but instead dynamic and complex. Furthermore, the following set of materials design principles was used to control the quality of the worksheet. We adapted this from Howard and Major’s (2004) comprehensive list of principles, from which we could build upon.

Initial discussions

Firstly, we had a discussion in class during the Week 7 session to come up with new ideas for the worksheet and decide which group of learners we want to focus on. Due to the fact that my partner and I both had experience teaching in Vietnam, our chosen target was Vietnamese teenage students who are preparing to go to the UK forstudyg. They are at lower intermediate level (B1). With my own experience as a Vietnamese student studying in a British university, I could see that a lack of shared cultural background can potentially lead to a breakdown in communication. Therefore, we decided that the theme of the worksheet would be something related to British culture and history. Then, we brainstormed more specific topics, including:

– Historical buildings

– Festivals/ Concerts

– Movies

As we are living in Brighton, we initially came up with the idea that we could go out and take photos or record videos of historical buildings like the Pavilion or the upcoming festivals. However, while the footage could be used as illustration or prompt for discussion, we still need to look for texts or audio for the students to work on the language use.

When we looked at some authentic texts describing the Pavilion, most of them were too long or used advanced vocabulary (C1). In addition, the texts mainly discussed the architectural aspect of the building instead of its history. Considering that Vietnamese teenagers might not be interested in these topics or find them relevant, we decided to reject this idea. Regarding the festivals, most of the descriptions were too short and the quality of available video recordings was not good enough to be used in classrooms. Moreover, none of the festivals were within the time period for this task so we could not go out and film them ourselves. Thus, this option was not chosen. Finally, we considered the last option – movies. In terms of authentic texts, there were many film reviews and trailers on the Internet that we adapt and put into the worksheet. The only problem was deciding which movie to use because a movie could be representative of British culture but not be interesting enough for the students. Also, some movies tend to be outdated quickly. In the end, we chose the Harry Potter series due to the fact that it has become a part of British culture (with Harry-Potter-themed shops in many cities) and Vietnamese teenagers are quite familiar with the story.

After some more discussion with other classmates, we found out that the Writing part of the Cambridge FCE test actually has a section on reviews, including film reviews. As many Vietnamese students are expected to take an English proficiency test before they can come to the UK to study, we believed that it would be most suitable to tie in the Harry Potter theme with the task of writing a film review – the students can prepare for the test while learning something they are interested in at the same time. Thus, we listed the following objectives before coming to the next meeting:

– Search for some film reviews, which are suitable for the learners’ level, on the Harry Potter series.

– Find out the exact requirements of the Writing test.

– Find sample worksheets, sample tasks and a list of useful language for writing a review.

In retrospect, I could see that we went through all the first three steps in the Jolly and Bolitho’s framework in this first meeting: (1) identification of learners’ needs, (2) exploration of language use, and (3) contextual realisation of materials. While the second step will be explained further in the next part, it is clear that the materials design process, at least at this stage, is not linear but instead unpredictable and complicated with different elements influencing each other. Moreover, different design principles, such as authenticity and contextualisation, have all played a part in the production process.

First meeting

At the first group meeting, we compared all the film reviews that we could find from different online sources:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/harry-potter/8637540/Harry-Potter-and-the-Deathly-Hallows-Part-2-review.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jul/07/harry-potter-deathly-hallows-part-2-review

https://reelrundown.com/movies/Film-Review-Harry-Potter-and-the-Sorcerers-Stone

The first two reviews were from more popular and mainstream news sources so they were guaranteed to be high-quality writing. However, the vocabulary being used in those reviews seemed to be too challenging for our target students, especially the one from the Guardian. Furthermore, they did not follow a basic introduction-body-conclusion structure, which might be difficult for the students to follow and understand if they have never read a movie review in English. As a result, we decided to choose the third review, which was from a website for movie enthusiasts. It is stated on the site description that all of their articles were approved and edited; thus, we believe that the quality of the article is good enough to be used in our worksheet. Still, the original review was still too long so we had to simplify the text and replace advanced words with more familiar ones.

After choosing the review, we searched for instructions on how to write a movie review. For example:

The review outline in this instruction sheet also helped to inform how we should modify the original text.

Next, we considered different types of tasks to include in the worksheet, including gist tasks, controlled practice, or open exercises. One of the sources we found was a blog (https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/worksheets/exams/cambridge-exams/fce/fce-writing/fce-reviews/) which contained various sample worksheets and grammar exercises for writing a review.

Finally, the objectives until the next meeting were to finalise the text, compile a list of useful language for writing a review, and decide what type of exercises we would include in the worksheet.

Second meeting

In this meeting, we looked at different examples of tasks and suggested language for writing a review. Take these online sources for instance:

http://www.rubenvalero.com/english/content/fce-review

http://englishexamhelp.com/how-to-write-a-review-for-new-fce-exam/

https://www.examenglish.com/FCE/Cambridge_First_writing_part2_review.htm

In addition, we also found an example page from the Macillan textbook “Ready for First”:

After shortening them to a list of structures and phrases, we compared them with the adapted text to check whether the text was suitable for the students’ level yet or not. Then we decided that the worksheet should first include some vocabulary exercises to introduce vocabulary to students. In terms of vocabulary selection for teaching materials, Mishan and Timmis (2015: 115) suggested that the lexical phrases or collocations used in a lesson should be selected based on these criteria: (1) Frequency; (2) Difficulty; (3) Semantic predictability; (4) Strength of collocation; (5) Pedagogic convenience. The chosen words were also highlighted in the text. Next, we decided that the vocabulary should be presented step-by-step so students could become more familiar with them. Thus, we created a matching exercise to introduce the definitions and parts of speech of new vocabulary. Then a sentence completion exercise was created using the same words so students could see how the keywords are used in relation to other words. We used data from the British National Corpus (http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/) to create more authentic sentences for the task. However, as some of them contained words that might be unfamiliar to students, we simplified the sentences to put the focus on the new words. The adapted text and vocabulary exercises are shown in the following worksheet (Task 3, 4 & 5):

As can be seen on the worksheet, we also created two other activities for introducing the topic of the lesson. The first was a “mingle” activity which focused on the speaking skill, requiring students to walk around the classroom and asking questions as suggested on the worksheet. This type of kinaesthetic activity can help to warm up the classroom atmosphere and motivate learners. The second one used a set of four icons representing different movie genres – teacher can use these to help students brainstorm ideas or lexical phrases related to the topic of movies. The small box next to the second task contained the question “What other types of movie genre do you know?”, aiming at students who could finish the main task quicker than others. This type of open question provides an opportunity for differentiation in the classroom, which means that students at different proficiency level can work at a different pace without feeling left behind.

Finally, we put some writing activities in the last section of the worksheet as the final goal of the lesson was that students can write a film review by themselves. However, at this point in the project, we did not have much time left so we decided to simply put a list of useful structures, some space for writing, and instructions on what the students can write about. At first, we thought that we could choose a random movie trailer to include in the teacher’s notes. However, as mentioned before, movies tend to be outdated quickly so we need to find another way to provide students with a starting point for their review. As a result, we decided to include some icons near the instructions of the writing task. The teacher can use AR apps to embed a clip or a link to a website describing the movie. Then, during the lesson, students can freely use their mobile phones to watch the clip and search for information about the movie. In cases where students are not allowed to use mobile phones in class, the teacher can show the clip on a projector and print out the wiki page of the movie to give to each student. The use of AR technology on a worksheet like this can offer more flexibility to both teachers and students because they can freely choose the materials suitable for each teaching context. Furthermore, based on the AR trigger images for this task, we went back to the reading text and created an after-reading activity using the same technology. The icon was placed below the text and the embedded clip could be any trailer teachers may find on Youtube from the same movie. Another extra activity was added at the end of the worksheet, requiring students to work together and create a review video by themselves. Just like before, teachers can embed a clip of Youtubers reviewing movies to set an example to students on how they can complete this task at home.

After this meeting, our final task was to put everything together on a worksheet. The inspiration for the design came from classic movie tickets and cinema iconography. The worksheet was created on a Microsoft Word document, using free vectors from different online sources (e.g. https://www.freepik.com). For the two vocabulary exercises, we included small text boxes containing tips on learning vocabulary. Additionally, we create the Teachers’ Notes to accompany the worksheet.

In-class evaluation

Unfortunately, with this worksheet, we did not have a chance to use it in a real classroom and get feedback. Still, all the class members were given a session after the project to look at the worksheet produced by other people and give comments to each other. These are some of the comments we were given:

– Instructions: The instructions for Task 1 was problematic because it stated that students could only choose “one of the questions”. In cases where the class size is smaller or bigger than 12 (the number of questions), it would be confusing for students. For Task 3, words like “beneath” might be too difficult for students at this level and also not suitable for simple instructions.

– The reading text: There was no line numbering given to the text which could make it easier for students to find information. The gist questions given before the text were too simple and did not require students to read the entire text.

– The vocabulary exercises: Most people thought these exercises were clear and useful, but some wonder if other types of tasks can be applied here.

– The writing task: Someone mentioned that students could write their review on a separate piece of paper so we could use the writing space on the worksheet for other activities. At that point, we asked students to write a whole review without guiding them through smaller steps in the writing process. Thus, we were advised to include a writing activity which deconstructs the sample review in the reading activity and helps students understand the structure of a typical movie review.

– The design: Some people said that they like the design of the worksheet because it looked clear, attractive and professional. I think one of the reasons for this reaction was because we stuck to a consistent theme throughout the worksheet. Also, because not all teachers can print a worksheet like this in colour, I made sure the contrast was high and the layout was clear enough to print it in black and white.

Based on the comments, we made changes to the worksheet and came up with this final product:

The changes are as follow:

– Instructions for Task 1 and 3 were simplified.

– Line numbering and paragraph marking were given to the reading text. The text was reorganised into four paragraphs to make sure students can recognise different parts of a review.

– An open question was given at the end of Task 5 to allow for differentiation.

– The writing space was removed. A new matching activity (Task 6) was created to help students recognise the functions of each paragraph in the reading text. In addition, we included another small text box on the structure of a typical movie review. Teachers can use this to guide students through the writing process by asking them to write each section of the review one by one.

Conclusion

After this project, we have learned that creating your own teaching materials is a truly complex, arduous but also rewarding task. We have the freedom to adapt authentic materials to suit the needs of our students while also follow other materials design principles. The most important lesson, to me, was to see how feedback from other people can have a positive influence on the final product. My previous experience working with other teachers to create materials was not a pleasant one. This time, while the task is not easier at all, I can see how working collaboratively can significantly improve the quality of the teaching materials. With this new perspective on materials design, I look forward to working with my other colleagues on new materials in the future.

References

Howard, J. & Major, J. (2004) Guidelines for Designing Effective English Language Teaching Materials. In: Proceedings of the 9th conference of the Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics. pp.101-109. Available from: <http://www.paaljapan.org/resources/proceedings/2004/Howard.pdf>

Jolly, D. & Bolitho, R. (2011) A framework for materials writing. In: Tomlinson, B. (ed). Materials Development in Language Teaching (2nd edn). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.107-134.

Mishan, F. & Timmis, I. (2015) Materials development for TESOL. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.