ENGLISH REVIEWER

Lesson 10: Differentiated Instruction for English Learners

One of the difficulties in the modern classroom is the vast diversity of learners. As the
digital age unites the world and its people ever so closer, the classroom now has more
differentiated learners with very different backgrounds, ethnicities, abilities,
competencies, and many more as ever. As we value individual differences, the
education landscape becomes less and less of a one-size-fits-all environment. Thus,
teaching in such an environment must be able to reflect this very nature of our learners.

Furthermore, the real-world is naturally differentiated. People learn at different rates.

They bring with them different backgrounds and knowledge. They learn best in different
ways. If we want our learners to be prepared in this type of environment, teachers should
also differentiate instruction in their classrooms. In this lesson, we are looking into how we
can use differentiated instruction in the classroom.

This provides the learners the opportunity to maximize their learning, whether as
individuals or in small groups also describes the efforts of the teachers to address the
variance among learners, giving them the best learning experience possible. In order to
implement differentiated instruction, teachers need to focus on the essential learning and
key concepts of the lessons. They would also need to attend to the student differences to
be reflected in the teachers' assessment and instructional activities. Being that the
teacher would have to modify content, product, and process in order to adapt to the
learners. Teachers could differentiate their lessons via content, process, product, and/or
environment according to their learners' readiness, interests, and or learning profiles. This is
where the teachers role to encourage learners to participate in respectful work comes in.
Respectful work refers to classwork and activities that are relevant and meaningful to
them.
At the core of differentiated instruction is the development and promotion of
respectful tasks. As mentioned earlier, respectful tasks are activities that "respect" the
learners by taking them into account in the development of learning experiences for
them. This means that the teacher prepares the activities ensuring leaners readiness to the
cognitive complexity required by the task. This makes sure that all learners are expected
to grow upon taking on the activity. It is a common practice to let the more advanced
learners to have more of the same task as they could complete them in the time required
of the teacher while the lower-level ones are given more chances to practice what they
do not know. The key term here is to provide all learners the opportunity to explore areas
they have difficulties with or expand their understanding on the topic/lesson at hand. This
is where flexible grouping could help teachers in organizing their class to the program
activities that fit them Learners take part on many different groups as they move and
change groupmates and work alongside them, or alone matching the task to the
learners' readiness, interests, and/or learning styles.

In addition, a key feature in the success of developing respectful tasks is to assess

instruction. Here, the teacher evaluates learners' understanding of key concepts in the
lessons as they are delivered to the learners. This gives the opportunity for the teacher to
determine whether the activities provided could be differentiated to different kinds of
learners. This could be done only when assessment occurs in a consistent manner.

Differentiating via Content

There are four ways the teachers can differentiate via content. This involves:
➢ Compacting the curriculum where the teacher determines which parts of the lesson
do the learners have prior knowledge about and highlight those areas that learners
have not mastered yet.
➢ Learning contracts are individual agreements between the teachers and the
learners or their parents where the teacher provides a certain level of freedom,
while the learners agree to meet the class expectations within the given time.
➢ Tiered lessons are taking single lessons and adapting them to the needs of learners
of different skill and competency levels.
➢ Leveled texts provides the learners with content written at the reading readiness of
the learner.

In order to develop tiered lessons/activities, the following steps could be considered:

➢ Choose activities based on the learners' essential learnings.
➢ Think and consider the learners:
o readiness level in terms of skills, reading, thinking, stock information, and
others;
o interests;
o learning styles; and
o talents.
➢ Create activities that are interesting and cause the learners to use key skills of the
unit.
➢ Chart the complexity of the activities.
➢ Create activities to ensure challenge and success.
o Consider materials ranging from basic to advanced
o Consider forms of expressions from familiar to unfamiliar ones
o Consider learners' experiences from personal to unfamiliar
➢ Match learning tasks to learners based on their learning styles and readiness.

Differentiating via Process

Process deals with how teachers teach and process the lessons to the learners This
can be done in various ways. However, the teacher must consider the learners in making
a decision. Some strategies on the use differentiating instruction via process include:
➢ Cubing is a teaching strategy that helps the learners look into a topic from six sides
(hence the cubing name) to enable them to understand its complexity. The principle is
to develop a strong topic by looking into t from the following perspectives:
o Describing it
o Comparing it
o Associating it
o Analyzing it
o Applying it
o Arguing for and against it

➢ RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) is a writing strategy that aims to help the learners
gain a better understanding of their role as a writer and communicator by developing
their ideas through the development of a clear sense of purpose in writing. Depending
on the focus of the lesson, the teacher could use the strategy to make the learners
 think about the topic/writing activity from a perspective perfect in the context of the
unit/lesson.
Role Audience Format Topic

Newspaper reporter Newspaper readers News article Current state of the

Philippine health
department

➢ Graphic organizer is a visual means of displaying information using a combination of

text and visuals forming a diagram. It arranges information in such a way that would
describe their relationship with one another, therefore making the concept it tries to
portray more comprehensible to those looking at the material.

Differentiating via Product

Differentiation based on product guides the learners to a list of possibilities products
to demonstrate their learning of a concept. This can be done by providing the learner
with choices relative to the product they may need to produce. These choices are based
on their readiness, interests, and learning styles. As such the teacher must be able to
present clear expectations from the learner and se concrete and realistic timelines based
on the learner’s readiness. These could be set through the learning contracts between the
teacher and the learners.

LESSON 11: Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning is an approach to education that engages groups to
enhance the learning experience through groups of two or more learners. The group is
tasked to work together to solve problems, complete tasks, and learn new concepts. The
approach actively engages the learners to process and synthesize the lessons' concept
and information. This is far from the simple memorization of facts and figures, and gives
the learners the opportunity to work with others in arriving at a new learning.
Collaborative and cooperative learning are sometimes used interchangeably.
Cooperative learning is a special kind of collaborative learning. In cooperative learning,
learners work in groups on a structured activity. In such structure, learners are assigned
individual roles to perform. These roles are commonly interrelated in order for them to
achieve their goal. The success of the individual members of the group become the
success of the entire group.
In collaborative learning, individual participants are also responsible for the team
and its success. However, their roles, resources, and organization are left up to the
participants themselves. This leads the groups to be more self-directed.

Some of the benefits of using collaborative learning in the classroom include Turning
learning into an active process. As learners engage with their peers in the collaborative
learning scenario, they must organize their defend that point to their peers, and convince
others that their argument thoughts, present them in a cohesive argument, demonstrate
their point, is current. This gives them the perfect opportunity for communication and
argumentation.
➢ Promotion of learning from others perspectives. Aside from being able to
communicate their ideas to others, collaborative learning also provides the venue for
the learners to listen to ideas of others, especially from those of different backgrounds
and varied viewpoints.
➢ Taking criticisms and advice. As learners listen to others' perspective, they will be
encountering criticisms and arguments. Such practice will help the learners improve
their own craft while learning how to adjust their own performance to become better.
➢ Teaching critical thinking. Especially when the activities are done within the confines of
the classroom and the length of a single period, learners are encouraged to quickly
synthesize their responses and complete their task.
➢ Developing public speaking and active listening skills. In a collaborative activity,
learners learn to develop active public speaking skills. The one increase in social ease
helps them take and share ideas easily and more comfortably to the group.

In using the collaborative learning strategies in classes, there are some things that could
be considered.
➢ Introduce the use of group work to the learner at the beginning of the year. This
enables the learners to set their expectations in the activities the teacher will be
using throughout the year.
➢ The teacher should also set ground rules for participation and contributions from the
learners during sessions.
➢ The teacher should plan for each stage of the collaborative work.
➢ The teacher should carefully present how the groups will operate and the grading
system.

Examples of Collaborative Learning Activities for English Classes

➢ Think-Pair-Share: Learners then turn to their groups or partners and share their
responses. The teacher could take this further by asking the learners to choose their
collective response.
➢ Debate: Teacher assigns roles to the learners. One could take the affirmative side of
the proposition. Another takes the negative side. The last one could weigh the
merits of the arguments and provide a choice.
➢ Group problem-solving: Present the learners with a problem. It would be better if
they are presented with a problem that is close to a real-world one that is similar to
their experience.
➢ Project-based activities: Learners are presented with a project that they are going
to complete. One way to do this is to introduce the class to a project at the
beginning of the lesson/unit or have the class think of a project that they would we
to complete based on the lesson/unit.

Lesson 12: Gamification

In simple terms, gamification is the integration of game-like mechanics in
traditionally non-gaming scenarios. In schools, gamification has been incorporated in
various aspects of education. Points gained are rewarded with badges, learners are
ranked, and "winners" or the honor students are celebrated. In recent years gamification
has seeped into the classroom where teachers are now employing gaming elements in
their lessons.

Gamification is not as simple as handing the learners a game to play. The teacher
must carefully structure the classroom in order for the game elements in the classroom to
be more effective to the learners. There are four game elements that are at the core of
gamification:
➢ Engagement Games - are naturally engaging. The most successful games are
the ones that are really engaging to the players. This is because games provide
the players with a clear goal to reach and a compelling gameplay to
accomplish this goal.
➢ Opportunities for practice - Games provide the players with the opportunities to
practice what they have learned in the past and let them apply these learnings
in new and creative ways. These can even include rote activities that have
been employed in new gameplay scenarios.
➢ Assessment - Games do not stop play to assess the players' knowledge and skill.
Assessment is intrinsically integrated in the gameplay as performance-based
assessment.
➢ Feedback - Games continuously provide the players feedback to simply let
them know how they are doing in the game. Games tally score and keep track
of the players' progress throughout the gameplay.

There are some of the basic elements of games that teachers could consider in
gamifying their learning experiences. Remember that these elements are not the
only elements that could be incorporated in our lessons.

But before incorporating games in learning experiences, teachers could consider

the following:
• The teacher should have a clear idea of the linguistic aims of the lesson.
The teacher should ensure a lot of learner interaction and productivity
during the lesson. Using collaborative concepts, the teacher can make
the gamified learning experience more engaging to the learners.
• Allow elements of learner autonomy as they create and adapt rules and
solve problems along the way.
• Give accurate and actionable feedback on language and multiple
points in the lesson.
• Allow the learners to have multiple opportunities to complete the game.
• Move game mechanics from competitive play, but rather adapt to more
completion-based games.

Then, how could gamification be implemented in the classroom? Below are some
of the steps that could be taken to gamify the lessons:

1. Survey the learners. In order to determine the right gamification strategy for the
learners, the teacher needs to pinpoint exactly where the learners are having
trouble with. For instance, if slide presentations bore them, adding interactive
elements might improve learner engagement. This is why surveying them is
important. Teachers will be able to find ways to engage the learners better.
2. Define the learning goals. Gamifying learning involves providing the learners with
clear learning goals. This comes in two forms: learning goals, which help the learners
understand concepts and skills, and behavior goals, which help learners work
efficiently. Then, the teacher can structure the lesson to meet these goals. These
structures could present the learner with choices. Choice is a big part of gaming
and gamifying the classroom could benefit the learners when they are provided
with options to tackle problems and reach learning goals.

3. Structure the gamified experience. This is where actual gaming elements are
incorporated in the lesson. The teacher can adjust the scoring system for the lesson
or activity. For example, instead of giving points or grades, learners could be given
experience points (XP) and use it to track their progress in the lesson. The teacher
could also structure the lesson to come in stages or levels like the games the
learners know.
4. Identify resources. For any activity, the teacher should also identify the resources
needed to actually implement the lesson or activity. This also means that the
learners could be organized to groups to work on the project together.

5. Apply feedback mechanism. A big part of the success of games is because they
provide the learners immediate feedback of their progress. So, to gamify the
learning experience, the lesson or activity must be structured to provide a way to
help learners visualize their progress and get immediate feedback of their
performance. Then, this can be combined with rewards that correspond to their
progress. This can be in the form of praises, stars, or stamps.

The main objective of gamification is to simply make learning fun and engaging to
the learners. This is perhaps the most important aspect of gamification.

Lesson 13: Assessment in Learning English

Assessment is conducted to determine whether the learners know,

understand, and are able to perform knowledge and competencies required of
them. Assessment could be viewed in three lenses:

Assessment for learning - This is a type of assessment that determines the

learners' background knowledge and skills, and tracks their progress in
understanding.

Assessment as learning - This type of assessment is a more learner-centered

approach. This lets the learner reflect on the results of his/her progress and plans the
next steps to improve performance.

Assessment of learning - This is the more traditional view of learning as it

measures the learners' attainment of the learning objectives or goals of the lesson or
of the standards.

What is assessed?

The teacher in the classroom would focus more on the following areas to
assess under the K to 12 Curriculum:

Content Standards - These are the essential understandings that the learners
should learn. It basically answers the question "What should the learners know?", as
stipulated in the K to 12 Curriculum.

Performance Standards - These are the abilities and skills that learners must be
able to demonstrate in relation to the content.

Learning Competencies - These are knowledge, skills, and attitudes that

learners have to demonstrate in every lesson or activity.

Concept Development - This is a measure of how the learners are able to

progress in the attainment of the standards.

How are learners assessed?

 Learners' progress is not only based on the tests given to them, but also on the
learning that takes place within the classroom and in different settings outside of
the classroom setting. The main purpose here is to gather evidence of the learners'
learning through the daily activities the teacher provides by the things that they
say, write, and do. These may emerge from the interactions in the classroom, their
presentations, or the projects and assignments they submit. From this information
about the learners gathered by the teacher, assessment in the classroom would
follow a cycle:
Define Learning
Outcomes

Make adjustments to Create assessment

the next lessons based activities and assess
on the results analyzed the learning outcomes

Analyze the
learners result

Defined learning outcomes determine which standards or competencies will

be assessed. Then, the teacher creates assessment activities to measure the
defined outcomes and given these activities to the learners, the teacher then
collects and analyzes these results, and uses them to adjust the next lessons,
provide more activities, or move on to the next one.

Summative Assessment (Assessment of Learning)

The purpose of summative assessment in the traditional sense is to evaluate

learner performance usually at the end of the quarter, term, or year. It provides the
teacher an understanding of how the learners fare against the set standards in the
curriculum. Summative assessments are usually the basis for grades of learners or
teachers. Common summative tests are:
• Periodic/Quarterly examinations
• Final project or creative portfolio.
• Final performance, demonstration, or report
• Chapter tests or end-of-unit tests
• Standardized tests (NAT, NCAE, and others)