Appunti di laboratorio di lingua inglese, Laboratorio di lingua inglese, Francesca Mancini

TSA:

assesses a general academic aptitude that applies to a wide range of different countries, from

• Geography to Politics, provides a benchmark that all applicants can be measured against,

regardless of their background, nationality, gender or qualifications.

offers a vital additional selection filter for coursers that typically attract a large filed of high

• achieving applicants.

is useful for assessing the suitability of applicants to courses which attract candidates from a

• wide variety of subject backgrounds.

correlates with future academic achievement: research shows a strong positive relationship

• between TSA scores and on-courses success.

Every book of pedagogy has a chapter dedicated to Bloom. The 6 descriptors of thinking ability

developed by Bloom and revised about 20 years later by Anderson are:

Bloom’s taxonomy Anderson’s revised terms

knowledge remembering

comprehension understanding 2

Bloom’s taxonomy Anderson’s revised terms

application applying

analysis analyzing

synthesis evaluating

evaluation creating

These skills are divided in two levels: the first three are the low level (remembering, understanding

and applying) and the second three are the high level (analyzing, evaluating and creating).

In 1956, Bloom developed the taxonomy to describes the domain of critical thinking. In order to

propose higher form of thinking in education, this are the bases of pedagogy. We use them when

we design the education. Bloom identified three domains of educational activities:

Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge);

1. Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitudes);

2. Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills).

3.

But there are some subcategories.

The verbs which can stay in the range of remembering are:

recognizing;

1. recalling;

2. listing;

3. describing;

4. identifying;

5. retrieving;

6. locating;

7. naming;

8. finding.

9. Sample Sentence Starters Potential activities and products

What happened after… Make a list of the main events of the story.

How many… ? What animals where in the story?

Can you name… ? Make a shopping list…

Can you recognize… ? Write something on a diary…

Who discovered… ? To create a timeline.

Do you know when… ? Play a memory game…

The verbs which can stay in the range of understanding are:

interpreting;

1. exemplifying;

2. classifying;

3. summarizing;

4. interferring;

5. comparing;

6. explaining;

7. distinguishing.

8. Sample Sentence Starters Potential activities and products

Can you write in your own words? Retell the story in your own words. 3

Sample Sentence Starters Potential activities and products

Can you explain.. ? Make a short summary.

Try to classify. Search for synonymous.

What is your interpretation… ? Interpreting a work for art.

What do you mean for… ? Describe an experience.

Can you rephrase… ? Classify why.

Draw a story map.

The verbs which can stay in the range of applying are:

executing;

1. working out;

2. producing;

3. completing;

4. organizing;

5. implementing;

6. making preparations.

7. Sample Sentence Starters Potential activities and products

Can you group by characteristics such as… ? Retell the story in your own words.

Try to work out a graphic… Produce something similar…

Can you organize… ? Organize in sequences….

How can you implement… ? Complete this chart…

Which factors would you change if… ? Can you distinguish between…

Can you execute… according to the given

instructions

Work out a man.

Organize a poster showing.

The verbs which can stay in the range of analyzing are:

differentiating;

1. focusing;

2. underlining;

3. outlining;

4. structuring;

5. integrating;

6. finding.

7. Sample Sentence Starters Potential activities and products

What do you see as others possible outcomes? Design a questionnaire to gather information.

Can you distinguish between… ? Write a commercial to self a new product.

What could happen if… ? Find the difference in… 4

Sample Sentence Starters Potential activities and products

Can you develop… ? Organize…

Try to underline. Make a family tree to show the relationship.

Can you select Develop an experiment.

Try to underline the most important sentence.

The verbs which can stay in the range of evaluating are:

assess;

1. decide;

2. argue;

3. conclude;

4. judge;

5. test;

6. score;

7. critique.

8. Sample Sentence Starters Potential activities and products

Is there a better solution to… ? Form a panel to discuss views.

Do you think … is a good or a bad thing? Express your opinion on a specific issue.

How do you feel if… ? Find advantages/disadvantages.

Collect, discuss and interpret data.

What do you think about… ? Draw inferences from data.

How effective are… ?

The verbs which can stay in the range of creating are:

arrange;

1. combine;

2. create;

3. design;

4. invent;

5. hypothesize;

6. develop;

7. plan;

8. produce;

9. construct;

10. Sample Sentence Starters Potential activities and products

Can you design a… ? Invent a new ending.

What would happen if… ? Create a new product.

Can you create a new and unusual use for… ? Write about your feelings in relation to…

Write a role play.

How many ways can you… ? Sell an idea.

Can you develop a proposal which would… ? 5

6

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

We have to helping children to learning to think and learning to learn. Learning needs to be

constructive and situated.

Verbal/Linguistic

1. Enjoy listening, but are always ready to talk

• Love poetry, music, dialogues, skits, debates

• Learn thought verbal instructions

• Discuss about different characters point of view

1. Compose a poem

2. Brainstorm on…

3. Introducing people

4. Give a speech about

5. Summarize

6. Dramatize and role play

7.

Logical/Mathematical

2. They think in an ordered sequential way

• Use reason and logic to solve problems

• Put into sequences

1. Draw a chart or a diagram

2. Find causes

3. Count and rank

4. Compare and contrast

5. Divide according to patterns

6. Measure

7.

Visual/Spatial

3. Learn by seeing, watching demonstrations

• Enjoy leaning form visual display and colours

• Like pictures, graphical organizers, maps

• Make a picture, draw a map

1. Observe a situaton

2. Illustrate a story

3. Design cartoons

4. Make posters/collage

5. Build models/ give shapes

6.

Bodily/Kinaesthetic

4. They learn by hands-on experiences

• Like working with materials

• Remember that they have done more than what they have listened to or seen/read

• Make puppets

1. Move following instructions

2. Mime something

3. Perform thought dance, drama…

4.

Musical/Rhythmical

5. They can compose and perform musically

• They have a natural rhythm

• Have the ability to comunicate through music, poetry

• Sing and reproduce sounds

1. Make a rap

2. Compose poem, a song, a nursery rhyme

3. Play an instrument

4. Produce a short video

5. 7

Keep the rhythm

6.

Interpersonal

6. They work well as members of a group

• They are good leaders

• They are very persuasive

• When making decisions, they listen to the others

• Work in pairs, groups

1. Do interviews

2. Invent and perform skits

3. Develop games

4. Share the rules

5. Organize for the group

6.

Intrapersonal

7. Listen a lot to theirs own dreams, aspirations, emotions

• Self-focused

• Keep a diary, record…

1. Write about yourself, your experiences

2. Carry out an activity and explain to the others

3. Make a list of things you are interested in and link them to the topics

4.

Naturalist

8. They love categorizing

• They always observe things in nature others would miss

• They are able to recognize and make distinctions between things

• Run a terrarium

1. Keep a garden and grow vegetables

2. Observe and explore nature

3. Use recycle materials to recreate something

4. Collect and use leaves, flowers, herbs, brunches…

5. 8

Knowing is not enough: we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do. [Johann Wolfgang von

Goethe]

Faccio dunque capisco. [Maria Montessori]

Learning by doing

Stories, which rely so much on words, offer a mayor and constant source of life and of language

experience for students. Stories are motivating and memorable, rich in language experience and

inexpensive.

Surely stories should be a central part of the work all teachers, whether they are teaching the

mother tongue or a foreign language.

Here are some of the most important reasons why stories should play in a central role in teaching a

foreign language. [A. Wright, Oxford 2008]

Storytelling and language teaching

Stories are a powerful means of language teaching. A skillful teacher can use stories to develop

“more efficient listening, more fluent speaking and the ability to read and write easly and

competently”. [Garvie, 1990]

How can stories develop students’ language skills?

Stories can be used:

- to practice both speaking and writing skills;

- to encourage group sharing, team building and cooperative text-making;

- as opportunity to develop oral fluency and confidence;

- for specific language practice of tenses/adjectives;

- for specific language practice of functions;

- for development of extensive writing (narrative, description, dialogue and character

development);

- to provide an incentive for learners to write, edit, reformulate, their writing so it can be shared

with others;

- to prepare students for the narrative components of exams such as First;

- to encourage learners to read more appreciatively. [Jane Spiro Storybuilding, Oxford 2006].

Stories can develop memory, we remember even whole “chunks” of language. In retelling we also

summarize, edit and develop. We add or cut, we can exaggerate a character to make him/her

more frightening or funner. We need to be clear about what we want to say. Why, how and for

whom. Broad skills and abilities are required:

Have I made my point clear?

Have I marked clearly the stages of my narrative?

A good writer of stories is a good writer. A good storyteller is a skilled and confident. Can people be

taught to tell a story?

Storyteller

How to practice:

- giving emphasis;

- making the characters “rounded&rdqu