Dear all,
Am a new teacher , teaching for the first time in my life, and I am very worried about the teacher portfolio. I would be grateful if you answer the following questions. If you have any tips and\or advice, I really appreciate them.
1- Is there a format for the portfolio? For example, introduction and then subheadings.
2- I teach the four skills : listening - speaking- writing - reading. Is it acceptable to mention that at the time being my teaching methods are influenced by my experience as being an ESL learner myself? Or is it a must to mention an approach such as whole language approach for example?
3- Is it necessary to include sample lesson plans?
4- Is there a need to justify the use of supplementary materials?
Thank you very much in advance
First time teaching and need help with teacher portfolio
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Hi RaniaRania wrote:Hi!
Help us to help you!
What teacher portfolio? What course are you doing?
Rania
I am teaching a Northstar - Upper Intermediate level integrated skills (listening- speaking- reading - writing & grammar).
In the memo given us to us by the English Dep, the portfolio should include the following
1- Educational goals & objectives.
2- Teaching methods
3- Innovations introduced into the course.
4- Sample of students work.
5- An up-dated record of students results.
Hope this is clearer now.
Thanks for replying
-
joshua2004
- Posts: 264
- Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2004 7:08 pm
- Location: Torreon, Mexico
Are you in a teacher education program or is this required by your job?
1- Educational goals & objectives.
These are like you stated, to build the four skills. This means that your objectives are going to include activities which give the students practice in the four skills. This is something I normally think about everyday. I look at my plans and think "Do I have a reading activity, do I have a listening activity?" Those are the two I emphasize the most since this is how people mainly learn a language. Then I make sure students get a fair amount of speaking and writing practice.
I am having difficulty getting speaking practice in since middle school students aren't exactly prone to taking the spirit of my lesson and making the most of it. So I always try to give them something scripted to ask each other or some other activity where they go around the class asking or telling someone something.
2- Teaching methods
The methods you choose are things like group work, group discussion, pair work, anything but "I stand in front of the class and just talk." Today's teacher needs to be dynamic in how the learning is presented and practiced.
3- Innovations introduced into the course.
Technology is not used enough in the classroom and still considered an innovation. If you can show how you use internet resources such as keypals, educational learning sites, teaching materials from the net like www.breakingnewsenglish.com then it shows some innovation.
You can be innovative on how you show movies in the classroom. Instead of just turning on the movie, you can use movies to check students listening comprehension by asking targeted questions after watching 15-20 minutes. You can turn it into a writing exercise my students having to write a short summary of that part of the movie. Or they could make a comic book of the movie. It can turn into a speaking exercise by having to write and perfom a dramatic play from the movie.
4- Sample of students work.
self explanatory
5- An up-dated record of students results.
I generally do not grade students daily work, it would take way too much time and they don't really benefit from so much feedback. What I am trying to say here is that students will still show wonderful progress without so much corrective feedback. In fact, too much critical feedback can actually be damaging to a students self esteem and progress.
I keep track that students are doing the work. If some students decide to not do the activity and would rather talk or play around, at the end of the activity I go around and mark whoever didn't do the activity. (Its faster to mark who doesn't get credit for the activity and give everyone else full credit than to mark one by one, who has the work done.)
I assess students from a quiz every two weeks or so. I dictate about 5 questions over a movie, story or something else students are real familiar with that we have done. (Or if I don't have something I might ask personal questions like "did you eat cereal today? If not, what did you eat and do you normally cook?")
I then grade the answers, which should be complete sentences, and the questions. I give 2 points for writing the question correctly and three points for the answer. And shaving off .1 points for every misspelled word, incorrect preposition use , conjunctions, etc. I take up to a point off for verbs out of tense or if missing. It might sound confusing if you don't know your grammar, but the main thing is to focus on the verbs. If the verb is incorrect or missing, then take up to a point off. The reason for this is that correct verb usage is difficult and they are the most important parts of the sentence. If the verb is wrong or missing, the meaning can be lost.
This type of quiz assesses listening and writing abilities.
1- Educational goals & objectives.
These are like you stated, to build the four skills. This means that your objectives are going to include activities which give the students practice in the four skills. This is something I normally think about everyday. I look at my plans and think "Do I have a reading activity, do I have a listening activity?" Those are the two I emphasize the most since this is how people mainly learn a language. Then I make sure students get a fair amount of speaking and writing practice.
I am having difficulty getting speaking practice in since middle school students aren't exactly prone to taking the spirit of my lesson and making the most of it. So I always try to give them something scripted to ask each other or some other activity where they go around the class asking or telling someone something.
2- Teaching methods
The methods you choose are things like group work, group discussion, pair work, anything but "I stand in front of the class and just talk." Today's teacher needs to be dynamic in how the learning is presented and practiced.
3- Innovations introduced into the course.
Technology is not used enough in the classroom and still considered an innovation. If you can show how you use internet resources such as keypals, educational learning sites, teaching materials from the net like www.breakingnewsenglish.com then it shows some innovation.
You can be innovative on how you show movies in the classroom. Instead of just turning on the movie, you can use movies to check students listening comprehension by asking targeted questions after watching 15-20 minutes. You can turn it into a writing exercise my students having to write a short summary of that part of the movie. Or they could make a comic book of the movie. It can turn into a speaking exercise by having to write and perfom a dramatic play from the movie.
4- Sample of students work.
self explanatory
5- An up-dated record of students results.
I generally do not grade students daily work, it would take way too much time and they don't really benefit from so much feedback. What I am trying to say here is that students will still show wonderful progress without so much corrective feedback. In fact, too much critical feedback can actually be damaging to a students self esteem and progress.
I keep track that students are doing the work. If some students decide to not do the activity and would rather talk or play around, at the end of the activity I go around and mark whoever didn't do the activity. (Its faster to mark who doesn't get credit for the activity and give everyone else full credit than to mark one by one, who has the work done.)
I assess students from a quiz every two weeks or so. I dictate about 5 questions over a movie, story or something else students are real familiar with that we have done. (Or if I don't have something I might ask personal questions like "did you eat cereal today? If not, what did you eat and do you normally cook?")
I then grade the answers, which should be complete sentences, and the questions. I give 2 points for writing the question correctly and three points for the answer. And shaving off .1 points for every misspelled word, incorrect preposition use , conjunctions, etc. I take up to a point off for verbs out of tense or if missing. It might sound confusing if you don't know your grammar, but the main thing is to focus on the verbs. If the verb is incorrect or missing, then take up to a point off. The reason for this is that correct verb usage is difficult and they are the most important parts of the sentence. If the verb is wrong or missing, the meaning can be lost.
This type of quiz assesses listening and writing abilities.
Last edited by joshua2004 on Fri Nov 04, 2005 11:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
First of all, thank you very much for your detailed reply. It gave me a clear idea about what to discuss under these headings. Many thanks for the site.joshua2004 wrote:Are you in a teacher education program or is this required by your job?
1- Educational goals & objectives.
These are like you stated, to build the four skills. This means that your objectives are going to include activities which give the students practice in the four skills. This is something I normally think about everyday. I look at my plans and think "Do I have a reading activity, do I have a listening activity?" Those are the two I emphasize the most since this is how people mainly learn a language. Then I make sure students get a fair amount of speaking and writing practice.
I am having difficulty getting speaking practice in since middle school students aren't exactly prone to taking the spirit of my lesson and making the most of it. So I always try to give them something scripted to ask each other or some other activity where they go around the class asking or telling someone something.
2- Teaching methods
The methods you choose are things like group work, group discussion, pair work, anything but "I stand in front of the class and just talk." Today's teacher needs to be dynamic in how the learning is presented and practiced.
3- Innovations introduced into the course.
Technology is not used enough in the classroom and still considered an innovation. If you can show how you use internet resources such as keypals, educational learning sites, teaching materials from the net like www.breakingnewsenglish.com then it shows some innovation.
You can be innovative on how you show movies in the classroom. Instead of just turning on the movie, you can use movies to check students listening comprehension by asking targeted questions after watching 15-20 minutes. You can turn it into a writing exercise my students having to write a short summary of that part of the movie. Or they could make a comic book of the movie. It can turn into a speaking exercise by having to write and perfom a dramatic play from the movie.
4- Sample of students work.
self explanatory
5- An up-dated record of students results.
I generally do not grade students daily work, it would take way too much time and they don't really benefit from so much feedback. What I am trying to say here is that students will still show wonderful progress without so much corrective feedback. In fact, too much critical feedback can actually be damaging to a students self esteem and progress.
I keep track that students are doing the work. If some students decide to not do the activity and would rather talk or play around, at the end of the activity I go around and mark whoever didn't do the activity. (Its faster to mark who doesn't get credit for the activity and give everyone else full credit than to mark one by one, who has the work done.)
I assess students from a quiz every two weeks or so. I dictate about 5 questions over a movie, story or something else students are real familiar with that we have done. (Or if I don't have something I might ask personal questions like "did you eat cereal today? If not, what did you eat and do you normally cook?")
I then grade the answers, which should be complete sentences, and the questions. I give 2 points for writing the question correctly and three points for the answer. And shaving off .1 points for every misspelled word, incorrect preposition use , conjunctions, etc. I take up to a point off for verbs out of tense or if missing. It might sound confusing if you don't know your grammar, but the main thing is to focus on the verbs. If the verb is incorrect or missing, then take up to a point off. The reason for this is that correct verb usage is difficult and they are the most important parts of the sentence. If the verb is wrong or missing, the meaning can be lost.
This type of quiz assesses listening and writing abilities.
Regarding your question, the portfolio is required by my job.
Thanks again.