Teaching Methods 

 

 For Teachers.............

 

 

 

The best part of teaching as a profession is that it is never the same. Here is an extensive (not exhaustive) list of teaching methods some of which can really be helpful if customized well. I found it from https://teaching.uncc.edu/learning-resources/articles-books/best-practice/instructional-methods/150-teaching-methods. It is a nice platform for people interested in pedagogy!

The best thing we can do is add more methods to this list!

Happy navigatioon! 

150 Teaching Methods

1. Lecture by teacher (and what else can you do!)
2. Class discussion conducted by teacher (and what else!)
3. Recitation oral questions by teacher answered orally by students (then what!)
4. Discussion groups conducted by selected student chairpersons (yes, and what else!)
5. Lecture-demonstration by teacher (and then what 145 other techniques!)
6. Lecture-demonstration by another instructor(s) from a special field (guest speaker)
7. Presentation by a panel of instructors or students
8. Presentations by student panels from the class: class invited to participate
9. Student reports by individuals
10. Student-group reports by committees from the class
11. Debate (informal) on current issues by students from class
12. Class discussions conducted by a student or student committee
13. Forums
14. Bulletin boards
15. Small groups such as task oriented, discussion, Socratic
16. Choral speaking
17. Collecting
18. Textbook assignments
19. Reading assignments in journals, monographs, etc.
20. Reading assignments in supplementary books
21. Assignment to outline portions of the textbook
22. Assignment to outline certain supplementary readings
23. Debates (formal)
24. Crossword puzzles
25. Cooking foods of places studied
26. Construction of vocabulary lists
27. Vocabulary drills
28. Diaries
29. Dances of places or periods studied
30. Construction of summaries by students
31. Dressing dolls
32. Required term paper
33. Panel discussion
34. Biographical reports given by students
35. Reports on published research studies and experiments by students
36. Library research on topics or problems
37. Written book reports by students
38. Flags
39. Jigsaw puzzle maps
40. Hall of Fame by topic or era (military or political leaders, heroes)
41. Flannel boards
42. Use of pretest
43. Gaming and simulation
44. Flash cards
45. Flowcharts
46. Interviews
47. Maps, transparencies, globes
48. Mobiles
49. Audio-tutorial lessons (individualized instruction)
50. Models
51. Music
52. Field trips
53. Drama, role playing
54. Open textbook study
55. Committee projects--small groups
56. Notebook
57. Murals and montages
58. Class projects
59. Individual projects
60. Quizdown gaming
61. Modeling in various media
62. Pen pals
63. Photographs
64. Laboratory experiments performed by more than two students working together
65. Use of dramatization, skits, plays
66. Student construction of diagrams, charts, or graphs
67. Making of posters by students
68. Students drawing pictures or cartoons vividly portray principles or facts
69. Problem solving or case studies
70. Puppets
71. Use of chalkboard by instructor as aid in teaching
72. Use of diagrams, tables, graphs, and charts by instructor in teaching
73. Use of exhibits and displays by instructor
74. Reproductions
75. Construction of exhibits and displays by students
76. Use of slides
77. Use of filmstrips
78. Use of motion pictures, educational films, videotapes
79. Use of theater motion pictures
80. Use of recordings
81. Use of radio programs
82. Use of television
83. Role playing
84. Sand tables
85. School affiliations
86. Verbal illustrations: use of anecdotes and parables to illustrate
87. Service projects
88. Stamps, coins, and other hobbies
89. Use of community or local resources
90. Story telling
91. Surveys
92. Tutorial: students assigned to other students for assistance, peer teaching
93. Coaching: special assistance provided for students having difficulty in the course
94. Oral reports
95. Word association activity
96. Workbooks
97. Using case studies reported in literature to illustrate psychological principles and facts
98. Construction of scrapbooks
99. Applying simple statistical techniques to class data
100. Time lines
101. "Group dynamics" techniques
102. Units of instruction organized by topics
103. Non directive techniques applied to the classroom
104. Supervised study during class period
105. Use of sociometric text to make sociometric analysis of class
106. Use of technology and instructional resources
107. Open textbook tests, take home tests
108. Put idea into picture
109. Write a caption for chart, picture, or cartoon
110. Reading aloud
111. Differentiated assignment and homework
112. Telling about a trip
113. Mock convention
114. Filling out forms (income tax, checks)
115. Prepare editorial for school paper
116. Attend council meeting, school boar meeting
117. Exchanging "things"
118. Making announcements
119. Taking part (community elections)
120. Playing music from other countries or times
121. Studying local history
122. Compile list of older citizens as resource people
123. Students from abroad (exchange students)
124. Obtain free and low cost materials
125. Collect old magazines
126. Collect colored slides
127. Visit a local restaurant
128. Specialize in one country
129. Follow a world leader (in the media)
130. Visit an employment agency
131. Start a campaign
132. Conduct a series
133. Investigate a life
134. Assist an immigrant
135. Volunteer (tutoring, hospital)
136. Prepare an exhibit
137. Detect propaganda
138. Join an organization
139. Deign ways of collecting money for a a good cause
140. Elect a "Hall of Fame" for males
141. Elect a "Hall of Fame" for females
142. Construct a salt map
143. Construct a drama
144. Prepare presentation for senior citizen group
145. Invite senior citizen(s) to present local history to class including displaying artifacts (clothing, tools, objects, etc.)
146. Prepare mock newspaper on specific topic or era
147. Draw a giant map on floor of classroom
148. Research local archaeological site
149. Exchange program with schools from different parts of the state
150. In brainstorming small group, students identify a list of techniques and strategies that best fit their class.

Best Wishes...............

Deepali Agravat

Education cartoon-13 (Unlearning-2)

Pull out your head, man!

vishal bhadani

We are pathetically obsessed with learning. Are we on the right track? Or what if whatever we call learning turns out to be fatal? Just look at this ostrich who has unlearnt what is traditionally called 'conventional practice'. It might be called stupid or an outcaste, so be it; it will be saved from death unlike learned-buried-heads. 

What is unlearning? Fortunately enough, there is no method of unlearning unlike learning, it seems moving away from something rather than towards something.    

USING SONGS IN CLASSROOM TO TEACH LANGUAGE:

Songs in the classroom: a useful tool

Songs are part of daily life for most people. Who does not enjoy music at home, while travelling or studying, or even at work? Language teachers can use songs to open or close their lessons, to illustrate themes and topics, to add variety or a change of pace, present new vocabulary or recycle known language. But how do songs actually benefit your students? There is strong practical evidence supporting the use of music in the English language classroom; there is also a growing body of research confirming that songs are a useful tool in language acquisition. In fact musical and language processing occur in the same area of the brain. (Medina, 1993)

Types of songs

There are many types of songs which can be used in the classroom, ranging from nursery rhymes to contemporary pop music. There is also a lot of music written specifically for English language teaching. A criticism of the latter is that they often lack originality and musical appeal but there are good examples to be found of stimulating, modern, ‘cool’ music, appealing to the real tastes of language learners. However, the lyrics may not always be suitable: they may, for instance, contain slang or offensive words, there may be grammatical mistakes and they may only marginally teach the language points you want to focus on.

Which learners like songs?

Howard Gardner once said: “It’s not how intelligent you are, but how you are intelligent.” No two students learn in exactly the same way. In any classroom there will be a mix of learning styles, and one student may ‘use’ more than one style, depending on what the task or topic is. To appeal to these differences is a huge teaching challenge. Gardner distinguished eight styles of learning, and students in his ‘aural/musical’ category will have a lot of benefit from learning through songs. They are strong in singing, picking up sounds, remembering melodies and rhythms; they like to sing, hum, play instruments and listen to music. This is not to say that learners with other learning styles cannot benefit from songs. Of course they can, because in the activities we develop with songs we can dance and act (physical learning style), read, draw and do puzzles (spatial intelligence) tell stories, and write (verbal learning styles).

Why are songs so suitable?

Songs are known to lower the “affective filter” or, in other words, to motivate learners to learn. So, what positive contributions to language learning can songs make?

Socio-emotional growth

Physical development

Cognitive training

Cultural literacy

Language learning

What can you do with songs in the classroom?

The sky is the limit! There are a few things to keep in mind: simple, repetitive songs often contain a recurrent grammatical pattern which is useful to teach (especially with younger children). More difficult songs often contain interesting vocabulary and idioms. Also there is often a message, a theme, or a story underlying a song which students can discuss, explain, debate, and write about at almost any level.

Practical tips and tasks for using songs

Focus it

Start with a focusing activity: anything that will get students thinking about the subject of the song. Have them think about the title of the song, in groups of pairs. Find a picture that relates to the subject of the song and have students make guesses about it.

Highlight it

Put a selection of important words from the song on your board. Have students ask each other what the words mean. Then, have students in groups write or tell a quick story that uses the words. You can also get students to circle, underline or highlight specific words or word categories.

Stop it

Again, write a selection of words on the board. Students must shout STOP any time they hear one of the new words. You could also stop the song before a word you want them to guess.

Lip sync it

Have students lip sync the song before a team of judges in a Class Idol show. This allows them to become familiar with the words, rhythm, stress and intonation before actually singing the words out loud.

Strip it

Cut the song into strips. Give each student one strip to memorize. Students put the strips in their pockets. They get up and tell each other their part of the song, without looking at their part or showing their part to anyone else. Students then organize themselves in the right order, speak the song and then listen and check. You can also have students put the strips on a table in order.

Question it

Have students ask each other questions about the song (about the words, about the topics or about characters in the song). For more advanced students you could choose two songs of a similar theme, and split the class into two teams. Have each group listen to their song and draw up a list of (open or True/False) questions. Pair each student with a member of the opposite team and have them take turns asking their questions.

Gap it

You can prepare a gapped version of the lyrics and let students complete them before listening and then check afterwards.

Write it

Have students write a letter to the main character or the singer, send an answer to a person referred to in the song, rewrite the song as a story, write a story which began before the story in the song and led to it, or write a story which will continue after the song.

Change it

Change words (adjectives, adverbs, nouns -names, places or feelings), and invent new lyrics for the melody. If you have karaoke versions of the songs you can then let students sing their own versions.

Draw it

Get students to draw or collage the song and compare the visualizations in class.

The possibilities are endless. Music and songs are fun, and most people enjoy them. 

Arti Kotak

Discover – Share – Present

Share what you know and love through presentation, infographics, documents and more…

21^st century has witnessed an unprecedented expansion of information and easy excess of the same. Gone are the days when an academician would prepare some precious academic notes and could execute the same notes throughout the years or at times decades. Technology has provided many platforms for acquiring and exchanging vital information which was previously limited to a few elites or closed coteries. www.slideshare.net is one such platform for sharing your PPTs, PDFs, documents and more. For plagiarist mind set it’s a store house of ready to use presentations and documents. However, the sensible minds it’s a platform for storing, sharing and sustaining the prepared data to the world.

SlideShare began with a simple goal: To share knowledge online. Since then, SlideShare has grown to become the world’s largest community for sharing presentations and other professional content.

SlideShare was founded in October 2006 and acquired by LinkedIn in May 2012. It allows users to easily upload and share presentations, infographics, documents, videos, PDFs, and webinars. In Q4 of 2013, the site averaged 60 million unique visitors a month and 215 million page views. SlideShare has become among the top 120 most-visited websites in the world.

Happy musing...

With best wishes,

Mihir Dave

Education Cartoon-12 (Unlearning-1)

Knowledge should not be power! 

vishal bhadani

Knowledge is considered as power! Let's unlearn this notion. In Indian tradition it is the ultimate purifier! Aim of education is to make people grow together without competition and sense of controlling. And history stands witness to the facts that whenever knowledge was used as power it has destroyed lives, Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombarding for instance! After all, Victor Hugo puts it, what the world needs is not the fire but light!

The Animal School – A Parable

Once upon a time the animals decided they must do something decisive to meet the increasing complexity of their society. They held a meeting and finally decided to organize a school.

The curriculum consisted of running, climbing, swimming and flying. Since these were the basic behaviours of most animals, they decided that all the students should take all the subjects.

The duck proved to be excellent at swimming, better in fact, than his teacher. He also did well in flying. But he proved to be very poor in running. Since he was poor in this subject, he was made to stay after school to practice it and even had to drop swimming in order to get more time in which to practice running. He was kept at this poorest subject until his webbed feet were so badly damaged that he became only average at swimming. But average was acceptable in the school, so nobody worried about that – except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of her class in running, but finally had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up time in swimming – a subject she hated.

The squirrel was excellent at climbing until he developed a psychological block in flying class, when the teacher insisted to start from the ground instead from the tops of trees. He was kept at attempting to fly until he became muscle-bound – and received a C in climbing and a D in running.

The eagle was the school’s worst discipline problem; in climbing class, she beat all of the others to the top of the tree used for examination purposes in this subject, but she insisted on using her own method of getting there.

The gophers, of course, stayed out of the school and fought the tax levied for education because digging was not included in the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to the badger and later joined the ground hogs and eventually started a private school offering alternative education...

Alas! The author is unknown.

  

Isn’t this thought provoking?

Isn’t it required to rethink about Education per say?

Is this the prime objective of Education?

Pooja Mehta

Relevant Blog Links

Kindly go through the following important Blog Links as the reference for English Teachers:

English/Language Arts/Speech

• A Teacher Writes
• Communications Exchange: Speech
• Creating Life Long Learners – Digital Storytelling
• English-Blog
• Eric MacKnight English
• Grammar Gang
• Huff English – Issues, Ideas, and Discussion in English Education
• If Bees are Few
• Inside Patty’s High School Classroom
• Kevin’s Meandering Mind
• Kindel’s AP English Classroom
• Persuasions Blog on Public Speaking
• Public Speaking and Presentations
• SCC English
• Shakespeare Teacher
• Teaching Literature to Adolescents
• Teaching the Outsiders (and more)
• The English Teacher
• The Writing Teacher

Best Wishes............

Deepali Agravat

How to Read ESL Workbooks ?

Workbooks can be an excellent tool for learning English as a Second Language regardless of your level. If you are not taking a class, you can study on your own with a workbook as a guide. Workbook chapters and exercises are designed to present a topic and help the student become comfortable with new vocabulary and grammar structures. Work on your own, find a tutor to help you or use a workbook as a supplement to your ESL classes.

Instructions

 1.      Practice the written words and phrases of the workbook exercises with audio. Many workbooks include audio materials; if yours does not, you can supplement the exercises with audio found online. You can find online English dictionaries to help you with confusing words or new vocabulary. If you're not sure about pronunciation, many online dictionaries provide audio of a native speaker pronouncing the word. Write down new vocabulary in a notebook that you can refer to as you learn.

2.   Find a tutor to help you. Because you will have a workbook as a guide, you don't need to work with someone who has experience teaching. A native speaker will be able to help you complete and check the exercises and explain new concepts. Find someone who wants to learn your first language and exchange time teaching. Studying with a language student will help you improve your skills as a student because you will understand what are effective teaching and learning tools from both sides of the lesson.If your partner doesn't speak your first language, she will be able to explain concepts in English only through the immersion method. Many English teachers use the immersion method even if they are fluent in a student's first language, as this is generally believed the best way to learn. Teachers trained in the CELTA (Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) method, for example, are taught to speak only English when teaching ESL regardless of the level.

 3.  Use supplementary materials. An English dictionary and a thesaurus will help you understand the meanings of new words and build your vocabulary. An English dictionary will speed up the learning process; you will have the definition in English instead of going back and forth between your first language and English. While a dictionary in English and your first language (i.e., a Polish-English/English-Polish dictionary) can help you learn the meanings of words, if you want to advance more rapidly work exclusively with English vocabulary. You can also find websites with lessons or activities on the same topic as your workbook exercises; these will give you an extra opportunity to practice the vocabulary, grammar structures and themes you have learned.

Have a nice day

Regards,
Sneha S. Patel

Education Cartoon-11

Isn't it true to education too?

-vishal bahdani

I don't think I should say anything. It is self explanatory!

Educational Software for better learning 

Every day we surf on Web and found many educational videos and we download it and at the end of the year hard disk becomes full. Do you have same question? Here is a solution…

Now you can comprise H.D. video into smaller size without compromising with screen resolution quality. Not only that even you can add subtitles also. I have converted 0.99 GB file in 180 MB with the same resolution quality. Use HandBreak 0.9.9 software

Yesterday I invested time in exploring software called Windows Live Movie Maker for editing video. You can add title, picture, music, caption, color effect, animation effect, text, etc. Here you can also cut, join and trim video.

YOGESH RAMANI