TESL 0150: Unit 2: Evaluating resources for Aboriginal identity unit

For this activity, I have chosen the aboriginal identity lesson and evaluated that. Here is the link to that: Aboriginal Identity

This lesson plan is for CLB 8 international students aged between 25-40 in an ESL class.

The lesson objectives are as following:

• Learn about common stereotypes and misconceptions of Aboriginal people and discover the media’s role in the perpetuation of these stereotypes and misconceptions
• Reflect on some of their own ideas about Aboriginal people learn about the ways that Aboriginal people are trying to break down common misconceptions and stereotypes and reclaim their identity
• learn about urban Aboriginals and explore ways in which the lives and experiences of these people may be similar to their own
• Explore the lives and achievements of well-known Aboriginal people including politicians, artists, actors, musicians, lawyers, and Chiefs

This lesson Plan includes various activities such as introducing themselves, discussions, vocabulary, a survey involving all four skills speaking, reading, writing and listening.

Given below are the evaluation criteria that I have used and the comments.

Criteria	Comment
Is it suitable for the age of your students?	This resource is suitable for the learners of this age as it involves them thinking about their identity and critical thinking, they would be able to understand it.
Are your students likely to enjoy using it?	As a newcomer to Canada, they will definitely enjoy getting this information about the Aboriginal identity and shed many of the misconceptions.
Are the target learners likely to be able to follow the instructions?	The material provides clear and simple instructions and students will be able to follow these easily.
Do the materials help the learners to use the language in situations they are likely to find themselves in after the course?	Yes, the first activity in the resource is introducing themselves which we do often in real life, also, discussions, giving a presentation, sharing an opinion, so this gives them plenty of opportunities to use the language in various situations.
Is the proportion of the materials devoted to the development of reading skills suitable for your learners?	There is a lot of reading material and activities in this resource such as reading a text and taking notes, answering questions and conducting research which will definitely help in developing reading skills.
Are the communicative tasks useful in providing learning opportunities for the learners?	This resource gives the learners an opportunity to read, listen, write and speak and after most of the activities, there is a discussion to make sure that they have learned and practice the speaking skill.
Are the activities in each unit linked to each other in ways which help the learners?	The activities are well organized and connect beautifully.

I think this is such a wonderful resource to learn about Aboriginal identity and being new to Canada myself, I enjoyed this activity a lot and learned from it. 

If I were to change anything about this unit, I’d incorporate more visual materials for students to use. This could be done by showing the students videos on YouTube of say traditional Indigenous dance or music or possibly of interviews with prominent Indigenous people.



References:

Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks. (2012). Canadian Language Benchmarks. Retrieved from http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/pub/language-benchmarks.pdf

Collins. A. (2016) Framework for Evaluating ELT Materials. Retrieved from http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/te714ac792/2016/02/29/framework-for-evaluating-elt-materials/

LISTN First Peoples: Learning Materials for Newcomers (2016) Retrieved from https://listn.tutela.ca/resources/resources-for-teachers/listn-resources/first-peoples-learning-materials-for-newcomers.html

Tomlinson, B. (2014) Developing Materials for Language Teaching. Great Britain: Bloomsbury Academic

TESL 0150: Unit 1 Reflection

(Source: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/copyright-definition-2948254 )

Unit 1 was about developing materials and copyright. I found this unit very interesting as
I did not have any clear understanding of copyright and licensing. I learned a great deal of information from the assigned readings.

It really helped me to understand the concepts of copyright, public domain, fair use and open licensing.

Copyright is applied to any creative work, so when a created work is created, it is automatically copyrighted without going through any legal process. However, in order to protect the work from infringement, the author can choose to register the copyright. Nobody can use the copyrighted material without getting the permission of the copyright holder. I also learned that copyright ends 70 years after the death of the author and then the content goes into the public domain.

Fair use allows people to use the copyrighted material but under certain principles which are: Nature of use, type of work, the amount used and commercial impact. If the answer to these questions allows the material to be used, then it is considered as fair use.

Public domain means that the material can be used anywhere and in any way without any restrictions. The work goes into the public domain if the copyright is expired if the author releases it in public domain and the work which is not copyrighted or created under certain conditions.

Open licensing allows the authors to share their work openly while maintaining control over what others can do with it. There are different licenses in this category such as creative commons, general public license and MIT license.

In this unit, we were also asked to determine whether we would like to consider our work under public domain or creative commons. Now, after understanding the differences in two, I would like to copyright my work under creative commons Attribution (CC BY) under which Others may reuse, redistribute, revise, and remix the creation as long as they cite me.

References:

Kimmons, R. "Copyright and Open Licensing." K-12 Technology Integration.
Kimmons, R. (2016, May 11). Copyright Basics for Teachers [Video File].

Watch Now UK (Producer). (2012, May 9). Creative Commons & Copyright Info [Video File]

TESL 0140: Unit 4: Self Evaluation

(Source: https://workspirited.com/writing-self-evaluation  )

My updated learning Plan:   Goals

This is my fourth TESL course and I can not believe that it has come to an end. In unit 1 of this course, we were asked to set the learning goals. I also set the goals for this course and now, in unit 4, we are asked to reflect on the goals. I think that overall, I achieved my goals. I learned a lot during this course and it has been an invaluable journey.

As per my goal, I learned the different assessment and evaluation methods and their use in different contexts. To be honest, before starting this course, assessment and evaluation meant the same for me but now, I know that both serve different purposes. Assessment is to measure the student learning and evaluation gives the judgment on whether the goals are achieved. I also learned that formative assessment is for making improvements in the learning so it is conducted during the course and whereas summative assessment is at the end to look at the student accomplishments. I also learned to distinguish in assessing the productive and receptive tasks and four approaches which are validity, reliability, authenticity, and washback, very important for these assessments and things to consider when developing an assessment.

To accomplish my goals, I initially decided to spend an hour everyday but things always do not go as planned. Some of the days, I could not study so ended up spending more hours during my off days from work. I learned a lot from the assigned readings and conducted additional research on the internet to expand my understanding. I also participated in the class discussions and read the classmate's posts which really helped me a lot to achieve my goal. I plan to reach out to the ESL teachers and discuss assessment and evaluation with them, which I have not dome till now. I think that will strengthen my knowledge. Following is the assessment rubric that I created for self-evaluation and resources that I found useful during this course.

Assessment Rubric:

Criteria	Feedback
Score(4-5) Achieved all the goals completely with the help of assigned readings, active participation in discussions, activities and quizzes, found other resources to strengthen the learning, devoted time regularly
Score (3) Achieved most of the goals with the help of assigned readings, discussions, activities and quizzes, found other resources to strengthen the learning devoted the required time
Score (1-2) Could not achieve most of the goals, difficulty to do assigned work did not actively participated in discussions, lack of time

Useful Resources:

AMLE: Formative and Summative Assessments in the Classroom

https://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/WhatsNew/WNDet/TabId/270/ArtMID/888/ArticleID/286/Formative-and-Summative-Assessments-in-the-Classroom.aspx

Bow Valley College: Instructor Tools for PBLA

https://centre.bowvalleycollege.ca/tools/instructor-tools-pbla

West Virginia Department of Education: Examples of Formative Assessment

https://wvde.state.wv.us/teach21/ExamplesofFormativeAssessment.html

ESL Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association: Understanding ESL Learners: Assessment  

https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Specialist-Councils/ESL-3-4%20Assessment.pdf