Specific Objectives for FE1 March 2016
All speaking activities start out with general English and then progress to an activity specific to their major. For example, for Unit 3 speaking, students do page 25, as is, discussing their emotions within their groups. This is then followed by a slight variation of the activity on page 25 where they discuss their emotions related to their major, for instance, what about your major makes you happy; what about you major makes you excited; what about your major worries you; what about your major makes you proud, etc.
Unit 1
By completing the speaking and writing activities of unit 1, the students will be progressing towards introducing themselves and their topics for the midterm presentation (MP) and final presentation (FP). In addition, for the FP, students will be able to tell the audience why they choose their major or what majors they are thinking about choosing.
Unit 2
By completing the speaking and writing activities of unit 2, the students will be progressing towards discussing contributions their major makes (has made) to the world or society or people during the FP and also discuss their career goals during the FP. Unit 2 writing builds on unit 1 writing by expanding on the idea of why a student chose his/her major to what does that major provide to society.
Unit 3
By completing the speaking and writing activities of unit 3, the students will be progressing towards describing a specific event, invention, technique, or development from their major during their FP. Unit 3 writing builds on unit 2 writing by picking one of the contributions from unit 2 and fully developing that idea by writing a descriptive paragraph. In addition, by completing page 25, which was slightly modified as “My Feelings about my Major”, the students will be progressing towards to providing a more detailed description of why they chose their major, which builds on unit 1. These actives will provide students with the confidence that is required when giving a presentation (MP and FP), especially when describing a technique which is essentially a “How To” which is the topic for the MP.
Unit 7 and Unit 11 and MP
By completing the speaking and writing activities of unit 7 and pages 123-125 of unit 11, the students will be progressing towards giving a poster presentation for their MP on a how to topic related to their major. The MP will introduce students to unit 11 on how to give a presentation, which will help prepare them to give a full-length, polished presentation for their FP on their major. The MP is based on unit 1, introduce yourself and the topic to the audience, unit 2 make a list of steps for the how to topic, unit 3 describe in detail those steps for your how to topic, unit 7 teach something about your major (combining units 2 and 3 for listing and describing a How To topic) and unit 11 giving a presentation. The MP also reinforces the READIC scale (C: content related to speaking and writing prompts) introduced to the students at the beginning of the semester. The MP will help the students to progress towards fulfilling the levels described by the descriptors in the READIC for the FP.
Unit 4
By completing the speaking and writing activities of unit 4, the students will be progressing towards discussing 3 important qualities that make a good KNU student for achieving their career goals specific to their major during their FP. Unit 4 writing builds on unit 2 writing by expanding upon the career goals discussed in unit 2 and how to achieve these goals. After Unit 7 and MP, the students should be better equipped to discuss how to topics, specifically achieving their career goals discussed in unit 2 by following 3 important qualities of a student. During their FP, the students will be progressing towards telling the audience what they consider as 3 important qualities of a KNU student (e.g., Engineering student: good at math, critical thinker, and problem-solving) and how those qualities can help them achieve their career goals.
Unit 6
By completing the speaking and writing activities of unit 6, the students will be progressing towards giving a short biography on a person they admire in their major during the FP. Unit 6 writing builds on unit 3 writing by describing a person from their major. During their FP, the students will be progressing towards telling the audience why they would like to emulate this person.
Unit 11 and FP
By completing the activities of unit 11, the students will be progressing towards giving their FP on their major. Students will have the opportunity to use the skills that have been introduced throughout the course and present on the various aspects of their majors that they have spoken and written about. Most importantly, the presentation should celebrate the students’ work that they have done throughout the semester.
Classwork and attendance: Formative assessment, 30 points
Attendance: 7 points: Students are allowed to miss 2 classes for KNU FLE sanctioned events and excuses. If a student is more than 20 minutes late, the student will lose 1 attendance point for for the second incident and any subsequent incidents after first receiving counseling for the first incident on the importance of good attendance to prepare for the MP and FP.
Classwork: 23 points
The classwork is formative. Thus all 15 weeks, 25 hours of class time, are considered classwork, not just individual projects or activities. As such, students will receive marks of satisfactory completion or progressing towards satisfactory completion for various activities from the textbook and for all classes for the first 8 weeks. This is in agreement with Dr. Finch’s philosophy of giving students time to learn how to participate in class and also time for students to fully understand the teacher’s expectations. Basically, satisfactory completion means that a student is on task, engaged in the task and attempting to sincerely complete the task, in other words, the student follows the directions and makes an honest attempt to do the activity to the best of their ability. For example, two students, one completes a task and the other does not, could both receive satisfactory completion for a task as long as they were on task, engaged and made an honest attempt to complete the task. This takes into account students who have no or extremely low English abilities but are still engaged in the task giving an honest attempt. These students should not be punished for their lack of ability. After the midterm starting week 9 and after the student counseling sessions, students will receive marks of complete or incomplete for their classwork and participation during class based on the criteria mentioned above. Keeping track of complete and incompletes is not difficult to do using a duplicate copy of the attendance sheet because a majority of the students complete the activities and only a very small percentage would need to have marks recorded as incomplete. For the formative classwork for which 23 points are allocated out of 100, the students will complete various activities from the textbook (and some supplementary actives) in class as pairs or groups throughout the semester. Following Dr. Finch’s principle of letting the students work at their own pace in a workshop style of class, it is expected that not all ten classes will complete the same amount of activities in the FE1 textbook. Below is the plan for the classwork activities to be completed in the book so students can fulfill their formative class requirement by completing these activities. I do not expect to finish all these pages. At the beginning of the semester, each activity on a page has no specific weight assigned to it. At the end of the semester, the number of activities completed in the FE1 textbook will be summated for each class to determine the weight of the activities for each class. In other words, if a class completed 23 activities that semester, each activity is then worth 1 point. I expect at least 3 activities per unit to be completed (8 units *3=24 points). In this example, each mark of satisfactory completion or progressing towards satisfactory completion would receive 1 point.
Unit 1: pages 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10
Unit 2: pages 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19
Unit 3: pages 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31
Unit 4: pages 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44
Unit 5: pages 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55
Unit 6: pages 61, 62, 64, 65, 66, 67
Unit 7: pages 73, 74, 75, 78, 79, 80, 81
Unit 11: pages 121, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135
The objective of completing these pages is for students to progress towards social, affective, cognitive, and linguistic growth critical to the students' academic and personal success. There will be one topic for units 1-11. The topic will be the students’ major. Students will give a presentation about their major for the final exam. The materials and research for this presentation will come from units 1-7, 11 speaking activities. The presentation will be on all the tasks the students have completed during the semester in class and at home. By completing these activities on the various page listed above, students will be progressing towards gaining the knowledge and confidence necessary to present on their major. In other words, the presentation is on what students have discovered during their classwork activities about their majors and gives them a chance to celebrate their accomplishments.
Writing: 20 points
The goals of the writing activities in the FE1 workbook are two-fold: 1) learn how to use the writing process (steps 1-9) as a tool in the writer’s toolbox and 2) research content about a single theme (students’ majors for March 2016) to help the students prepare for their final presentation. This is not a new concept for this facilitator. If you look at my March 2014 teaching plan, you will see that I have already carried out this concept quite successfully choosing countries as the single theme. Below is an excerpt from my March 2014 teaching plan. In March 2015, the theme was on KNU in general.
“There will be ONE topic for units 1, 3, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 9. Each group will pick a country. Students will give a presentation on that country for their final exam. The materials and research for this presentation will come from units 1, 3, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 9. The presentation will be based on all the tasks you have completed in class. In other words, the presentation is on what you have discovered in FE1 and gives you a chance to celebrate your accomplishments.”
Goal 1 for the writing for March 2016
There are 9 steps to the writing process. The objective is for students to see these steps as tools rather than as assignments to be completed. The students are given a writer’s toolbox worksheet based on David’s workbook to learn how to use those tools. As such, if the students complete all the steps of the writing process for each assigned unit of writing, the students will receive a complete for that writing task. Following Dr. Finch’s principle of letting the students work at their own pace in a workshop style of class, it is expected that not all ten classes will complete the same amount of writing units in the FE1 textbook. The plan is to do units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 for the paragraph writing. Based on my experience, I expect the students to at least finish 6 units of writing. Thus, for 6 units of writing, each unit of writing would be worth 2.5 points for a total of 15 points (points are adjusted if 7 units of writing are done). If the 9 steps of the writing process are completed and the writer’s toolbox work sheet is attached to the writing pages from the book and placed in the back of the pocket in the FE1 book, the students can earn all 15 points.
To avoid student burnout and promote social, cognitive and affective growth, two units will be done in the form of group writing using posters as the medium. The students still go through the writing process as a group. The remaining 5 points is for student reflection on the writing process. They will choose their best paragraph and type it up as well as write a new paragraph. The new paragraph will be on why it is their best paragraph and on their thoughts about the writing process. This will be a one page typed assignment with at least 250 words for their reflection on the writing process. If the students complete the reflection assignment giving it an honest attempt (the teacher will use his 9 years of university teaching experience in Korea to determine if an honest attempt was made), the students will earn all five points.
Goal 2 for the writing for March 2016
During the writing workshops, I will monitor and provide feedback to the students on their content about their majors so that they can be successful during their midterm and final presentations. I will give feedback on grammar and mechanics when requested specifically by a student. The students’ content in terms of well they respond to the writing prompt is much more important. The objective of the writing is for students to achieve personal growth as well as cognitive growth as it pertains to the writing process and their major. There will be one topic for units 1-11. The topic will be the students’ major. Students will give a presentation about their major for the final presentation. The materials and research for this presentation will come from units 1-7 writing actives. The presentation will be on all writing tasks the students will have completed during the semester in class and at home. By completing these activities, students will be progressing towards gaining the necessary knowledge and confidence to present about their major. In other words, the presentation is on what students have discovered during their writing activities about their majors and gives them a chance to celebrate their accomplishments.