Being Creative: Teacher-Created materials
Our seventh session was about creating our own materials. Theresa’s presentation started with a very relevant question: ‘Why make your own materials?’, to which the answer is related to previous sessions and the reading we had to do for this week. As Jolly and Bolitho (2011) claim ‘The process of materials writing raises almost every issue which is important in learning to teach: the selection and grading of language, awareness of language, knowledge of learning theories, socio-cultural appropriacy – the list could be extended’. What I also find relevant to this question is the argument that ‘it is not until teachers have attempted to produce their own materials that they finally begin to develop a set of criteria to evaluate materials produced by others’. (Jolly and Bolitho, 2011). I find the latter quotation extremely important as this is part of the reason why we created our own materials. How can someone evaluate someone else’s work if they haven’t gone through the whole process themselves, following specific principles and frameworks? Some teachers might also move onto creating their own materials in the future, so in order for them to do so and for others to be able to evaluate these materials, the part of creating something yourself seems crucial.
Emily and I decided to create a worksheet together. We both work at the same school and our contexts are similar. Emily teaches the CAE class and I teach FCE. Exam contexts are very important to us both as our students are very serious about achieving their goals and getting a certificate in English. Some of the tasks in both exams are similar as well, and that’s what we decided to focus on. We thought it’d be good to create a worksheet for speaking part 3 of the CAE exam. The task is exactly the same for FCE students; however, the CEFR criteria of evaluating the students’ performance are different. CAE students are expected to do the task using more advanced vocabulary, and speaking fluency should be of a higher level. As some of my students took the FCE exam recently and have now moved on to CAE, Emily and I thought that it would be a good idea to create a vocabulary and speaking worksheet to help bridge the gap between B2 and CAE students’ vocabulary and speaking competency.
Before talking about the process of creating our own worksheet, I would like to mention a few things about speaking part 3 task of the FCE and CAE exams. In this part of the exam, the students are given a central question and five prompts related to the question to discuss. ‘They are expected to discuss some or all of the prompts in relation to a question, expressing and justifying opinions, evaluating and speculating. They are then asked another question which will engage them in negotiating towards a decision related to the written prompts that they have previously discussed’. Taken from: http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/181566-cambridge-english-advanced-cae-from-2015-speaking-part-3.pdf
Following Jolly and Bolitho’s process of writing materials (2011) I will now explain the path of creating our piece of material and how we ended up to its final form.
Identification: What both Emily and I realised before we started creating our worksheet was that even though our students have quite a lot of ideas and can express opinions, most of the time they struggle with speculating as well as using advanced vocabulary to negotiate with their partners. The main question and aim behind our decision was how we could help students get from B2 to C1 so they can respond to the task appropriately.
Exploration: according to Jolly and Bolitho (2011), this refers to ‘what language, what meanings, what functions, what skills, etc.’ we would focus on, and this is described in our rationale:
Rationale
This part of the Cambridge exam is exactly the same format at B2 (First) and C1 (Advanced) level. Therefore, there is a need to challenge students and push them to use a level of language which is worthy of a C1 level. This lesson will include functional language for negotiating; giving opinions, asking for opinions, agreeing, disagreeing and reaching a conclusion. Here are the differences between B2 and C1 in terms of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages):
“C1) Can select a suitable phrase from a readily available range of discourse functions to preface his remarks in order to get or to keep the floor and to relate his/her own contributions skilfully to those of other speakers. Can use language flexibly and effectively for social and professional purposes.
B2) Can initiate discourse, take his/her turn when appropriate and end conversation when he / she needs to, though he /she may not always do this elegantly. Can help the discussion along on familiar ground confirming comprehension, inviting others in, etc. Can take an active part in discussion in familiar contexts, accounting for and sustaining his/her views.”
The key difference between the two levels is being able to choose a suitable phrase to relate his/her own contributions skillfully to those of other speakers. Whereas, in B2 they can take turns appropriately but not always elegantly. In addition to this B2 can discuss familiar topics whereas C1 can discuss not only familiar topics.
Ideas adapted from: http://ebcl.eu.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/CEFR-all-scales-and-all-skills.pdf
See teacher’s notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1waPAyJXi5t9h1rIr7qj2-HDtVe87Ix-jH2QiWYcnXeE/edit?usp=sharing
Contextual Realisation: As our main aim was to bridge the gap between B2 and C1 related to students’ vocabulary and speaking competency, we decided to focus on discourse markers and ‘advanced’ phrases and expressions to complete the task. To do so, we used some expressions taken from Tim’s free English lesson plans. (https://fr eeenglishlessonplans.com/2016/03/10/cae-speaking-part-34-phrase-worksheet/ ). As the list was long, we then adapted that list and kept only the phrases we considered more ‘authentic’. ‘Authentic’ in this case means expressions that students would use to complete the task as well as ones that sound more ‘natural’ and students can use and listen to in real life.
CAE Speaking Phrases
| Agreeing
I’d go along with that. Absolutely! I couldn’t agree more. You have a point there. I entirely agree with you. I totally agree. Good point. |
Disagreeing
I take your point but… I tend to disagree with you there. |
| Starting to make a conclusion
The bottom line is we have to choose one… It’s a tough one, I’m torn between … and …. Shall we go with ….? |
Asking for opinion
What’s your take on….? Where do you stand on….? In my opinion…., would you go along with that? What are your thoughts on this? You wouldn’t disagree with that, would you? |
| Giving Opinion
Another point I’d like to add about…is… It’s also worth bearing in mind that… I’d also like to point out that… |
Pedagogical Realisation: Our activities and exercises were based on a ‘scaffolded’ way of presenting and doing the task. More specifically, we created an audio of ourselves performing the task and we produced different activities and exercises for the first, second and third listen before students actually perform the final task. Timings for the audios were also kept; the first audio which answers the first question of the task is two minutes long and the second lasts one minute as it’s the conclusion of the discussion. According to Cambridge this whole task should last approximately four minutes. One minute for the examiner to set up the task, two for the students to answer the question and one final minute for the candidates to get to a conclusion.
Audios:
Physical Production: To get to the final product we met about 3-4 times and we constantly added and changed things. We had to think of the size of the worksheet which should be two pages long and we struggled with it a bit as we had a lot of information to include. We also included a visual right at the top of our worksheet which we would use as a warmer and to activate schemata. What helped a lot with the fact that we wanted to include more information in less space was that we could also have a ‘Teacher’s notes’ sheet. We thought this would be helpful for both experienced and novice teachers as it would work as a ‘guide’ through activities.
Find the final worksheet here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EHeJfaUzBiU-2m9RhBVbBp-rXT12PbJHebku2xteD7k/edit
Our next step was to use our evaluation criteria from week 2 to examine whether we were following them and to what extent. We didn’t check the ‘flick-through’ test at the time as we didn’t think it was particularly relevant, and didn’t give a final score for each category; however, we made sure that the criteria we had come up with were met. I am going to provide a more detailed evaluation for each category in this post.
Likert Scale:
|
1 |
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neither Agree nor Disagree | Agree | Strongly Agree |
First impressions
The first impressions are a ‘flick test,’ where the teacher quickly flicks through the materials and forms an instant impression.
Appearance and Design
- The overall appearance is visually engaging.
1 2 3 4 5 - The layout is clearly structured.
1 2 3 4 5
Content and Context
- The content is relevant to my learners’ interests.
1 2 3 4 5
This is a topic that appeals a lot to my students and they always engage in conversations related to jobs. One of the reasons why they want to obtain a certificate in English in the first place is that it’ll help them in their professional lives in the future. - The content is relevant to my learners’ needs.
- 1 2 3 4 5
Even though my students are sitting the FCE exam, they have to do a similar task as this one and a lot of them have expressed their interest in joining the CAE class in the future. - The topics are culturally sensitive.
1 2 3 4 5 - Topics can be localised.
1 2 3 4 5 - There are examples of authentic language in use.
1 2 3 4 5 - The teacher’s book supports novice teachers.
1 2 3 4 5 - There is supplementary material
1 2 3 4 5
We have provided additional questions for students to perform the task. - Tasks are adaptable.
1 2 3 4 5
The worksheet and the order of activities could be easily adaptable depending on the specific area the teacher would like to focus on.
Practice
- Tasks involve practising a mix of language skills (reading, listening, etc.)
1 2 3 4 5 - There are opportunities to review from previous units.
1 2 3 4 5
Not necessarily units, as a book is not applicable here, however students have done speaking part 3 before and this could facilitate a review. - There are opportunities to recycle language within the unit.
1 2 3 4 5
There are opportunities to review language within the task. - Tasks promote communication between students.
1 2 3 4 5 - Tasks promote peer collaboration.
- 1 2 3 4 5
- Tasks allow for personalised practice from the student.
1 2 3 4 5
We haven’t included much personalisation in this lesson but this could be part of the students’ homework; create new questions, bring them to class, discuss and perform the task again with new questions.
Methodology
- A clear methodology informs task design.
1 2 3 4 5
Parts of the lesson were based on Task Based Learning. - The methodology is appropriate to the teaching context.
1 2 3 4 5 - Tasks encourage noticing of specific language features.
1 2 3 4 5
Yes, it encourages noticing discourse markers. - The tasks promote student autonomy.
1 2 3 4 5
There’s a lot of peer work and students need to notice language while listening to an audio and then use it to perform the task. Towards the end, we have included an active listening activity which could promote student autonomy.
Students’ use of materials and evaluation: I haven’t used our worksheet yet as I teach FCE at the moment and it’s aimed for CAE students; however, Emily will be using it for her last assessed observation and a lot of my students who passed the FCE exam recently attend Emily’s CAE class at the moment. I’ll definitely have a conversation with Emily after her observation to see how my previous students performed the task. Additionally, I would like to adapt our worksheet in the future so that it fits the B2 CEFR criteria and my students’ needs.
On the whole, creating our own materials was an enjoyable and useful experience. We had the opportunity to put everything we had worked on into practice and see how principles for materials writing work in reality. I enjoyed working with a partner as I think it’s always helpful to discuss and evaluate ideas with another teacher. Team teaching, sharing classes and teaching ideas are also part of my everyday practice, and, in reality, if we ever decide to be materials writers, we’ll probably have to co-operate with other people and be team players. That’s definitely a moment I’ll never forget!
References
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.
