Of direct questions

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students’ writing:

These tips focus on the process of writing comments on students’ papers (whether on rough drafts or final drafts), rather than on the process of grading papers. Grading and commenting on papers are certainly interconnected processes. However, while instructors often think of writing comments on papers as simply a means to justify grades, that purpose should be secondary to helping your students improve their writing skills.
These tips are organized into four categories:
Course Planning
Writing Comments in the Margins
Writing Final Comments
What Else Can You Do?
Course Planning
Before the course begins, think about what kind of writing you will assign, and how you will respond to that writing.
Design each writing assignment so that it has a clear purpose connected to the learning
objectives for the course. Craft each assignment as an opportunity for students to practice and master writing skills that are central to their success in the course and to academic achievement in your discipline. For example, if you want them to learn how to summarize and respond to primary literature or to present and support an argument, design assignments that explicitly require the skills that are necessary to accomplish these objectives.
Sequence your writing assignments to help students acquire skills incrementally, beginning with shorter, simpler writing assignments to longer, more complex papers. You might also find it helpful to develop a sequence for writing comments. In other words, decide ahead of time which aspects of the writing you will focus on with each assignment. For example, you may decide to focus your comments on the first assignment on the writing of the thesis statement, then focus comments on later papers on the success with which the students deal with counter-arguments. Sequencing your comments can help make the commenting process more efficient. However, it is essential to communicate to students before they turn in their papers which aspects of the writing you are going to focus on in your feedback at which points in the semester (and why).
Develop and communicate clear grading criteria for each writing assignment. These criteria will help you be as consistent and fair as possible when evaluating a group of student papers.
Developing and using criteria is especially important when co-teaching a course or when asking TAs to grade papers for the course. Distribute the grading criteria to students (or post the criteria on the course Web site) so that they will know how you will evaluate their work. While there are shared criteria for “good writing” that apply across academic disciplines, each discipline also has certain standards and conventions that shape writing in the discipline. Do not expect that students will come into your class knowing how to write the kind of paper you will ask them to write. For example, a student who has learned how to write an excellent analytical paper in a literature course may not know how to write the kind of paper that is typically required for a history course. Give students a written list of discipline-specific standards and conventions, and explain these in class. Provide examples of the kind of writing they will need to produce in your course.
Develop a process for writing comments that will give students a clear idea of whether they have or have not achieved the course’s learning objectives (and with what degree of success). Students should be able to see a clear correlation among 1) written comments on a paper, 2) the grading criteria for the assignment, and 3) the learning objectives for the course. Thus, before you start reading and commenting on a stack of papers, remind yourself of the grading criteria, the learning objectives, and which aspects of the writing you want to focus on in your response.

Writing Comments in the Margins

The first time you read through a paper, try to hold off on writing comments. Instead, take the time to read the paper in its entirety. If you need to take some notes, do so on another piece of paper. This strategy will prevent you from making over-hasty judgments, such as faulting a student for omitting evidence that actually appears later in the paper. (In such cases, it may be appropriate to tell the student that you expected that evidence to be presented earlier–and the reason why). While you may expect this strategy to take more time, it can actually save you time by allowing you to focus your feedback on the most important strengths and weaknesses you want to bring to the writers’ attention (see “Writing Final Comments,” below).

Respond as a reader, not as a writer. Do not tell students how YOU would write the paper. Instead, tell them how you are responding to each part of the paper as you read it, pointing out gaps in logic or support and noting confusing language where it occurs. For example, if a sentence jumps abruptly to a new topic, do not rewrite the sentence to provide a clear transition or tell the student how to rewrite it. Instead, simply write a note in the margin to indicate the problem, then prompt the student to come up with a solution. This strategy is especially important to follow when a student asks you to respond to a draft before the final paper is due; in this case, your aim should be to help the student identify weaknesses that he or she should improve and NOT to do the student’s thinking and writing for them. Of course, in some instances, it is necessary and appropriate to give the student explicit directions, such as when she or he seems to have missed something important about the assignment, misread a source, left out an essential piece of evidence, or failed to cite a source correctly.
Ask questions to help students revise and improve. One way to ensure that your comments are not overly directive is to write questions in the margins, rather than instructions. For the most part, these questions should be “open” rather than “closed” (having only one correct answer.) Open questions can be a very effective way to prompt students to think more deeply about the topic, to provide needed evidence, or to clarify language. For ideas on how to phrase open questions, see Asking Questions to Improve Learning.
Resist the temptation to edit. Instead, mark a few examples of repeated errors and direct students to attend to those errors. Simply put, if you correct your students’ writing at the sentence level, they will not learn how to do so themselves, and you will continue to see the same errors in paper after paper. Moreover, when you mark all mechanical errors, you may overwhelm your students with so many marks that they will have trouble determining what to
focus on when writing the next draft or paper.
Be specific. Comments in the margin such as “vague,” “confusing,” and “good” do not help students improve their writing. In fact, many students find these comments “vague” and “confusing”–and sometimes abrupt or harsh. Taking a little more time to write longer, and perhaps fewer, comments in the margin will help you identify for students exactly what they have done well or poorly. Information about both is crucial for helping them improve their writing.

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lesson plan is the instructor’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time. Before you plan your lesson, you will first need to identify the learning objectives for the class meeting. Then, you can design appropriate learning activities and develop strategies to obtain feedback on student learning. A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates these three key components:
Objectives for student learning
Teaching/learning activities
Strategies to check student understanding
Specifying concrete objectives for student learning will help you determine the kinds of teaching and learning activities you will use in class, while those activities will define how you will check whether the learning objectives have been accomplished (see Fig. 1).

Steps for Preparing a Lesson Plan
Below are six steps to guide you when you create your first lesson plans. Each step is accompanied by a set of questions meant to prompt reflection and aid you in designing your teaching and learning activities.

1. 
   Outline learning objectives
   

The first step is to determine what you want students to learn and be able to do at the end of class. To help you specify your objectives for student learning, answer the following questions:
What is the topic of the lesson?
What do I want students to learn?
What do I want them to understand and be able to do at the end of class?
What do I want them to take away from this particular lesson?
Once you outline the learning objectives for the class meeting, rank them in terms of their importance. This step will prepare you for managing class time and accomplishing the more important learning objectives in case you are pressed for time. Consider the following questions:
What are the most important concepts, ideas, or skills I want students to be able to grasp and apply?
Why are they important?
If I ran out of time, which ones could not be omitted?
And conversely, which ones could I skip if pressed for time?

2. 
   Develop the introduction
   

Now that you have your learning objectives in order of their importance, design the specific activities you will use to get students to understand and apply what they have learned. Because you will have a diverse body of students with different academic and personal experiences, they may already be familiar with the topic. That is why you might start with a question or activity to gauge students’ knowledge of the subject or possibly, their preconceived notions about it. For example, you can take a simple poll: “How many of you have heard of X? Raise your hand if you have.” You can also gather background information from your students prior to class by sending students an electronic survey or asking them to write comments on index cards. This additional information can help shape your introduction, learning activities, etc. When you have an idea of the students’ familiarity with the topic, you will also have a sense of what to focus on.
Develop a creative introduction to the topic to stimulate interest and encourage thinking. You can use a variety of approaches to engage students (e.g., personal anecdote, historical event, thought-provoking dilemma, real-world example, short video clip, practical application, probing question, etc.). Consider the following questions when planning your introduction:
How will I check whether students know anything about the topic or have any preconceived notions about it?
What are some commonly held ideas (or possibly misconceptions) about this topic that students might be familiar with or might espouse?
What will I do to introduce the topic?

3. 
   Plan the specific learning activities (the main body of the lesson)
   

Prepare several different ways of explaining the material (real-life examples, analogies, visuals,
etc.) to catch the attention of more students and appeal to different learning styles. As you plan your examples and activities, estimate how much time you will spend on each.
Build in time for extended explanation or discussion, but also be prepared to move on quickly to different applications or problems, and to identify strategies that check for understanding.
These questions would help you design the learning activities you will use:
What will I do to explain the topic?
What will I do to illustrate the topic in a different way?
How can I engage students in the topic?
What are some relevant real-life examples, analogies, or situations that can help students understand the topic?
What will students need to do to help them understand the topic better?

4. 
   Plan to check for understanding
   

Now that you have explained the topic and illustrated it with different examples, you need to check for student understanding – how will you know that students are learning? Think about specific questions you can ask students in order to check for understanding, write them down, and then paraphrase them so that you are prepared to ask the questions in different ways. Try to predict the answers your questions will generate. Decide on whether you want students to respond orally or in writing. You can look at Strategies to Extend Student Thinking, http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/P4_4.php to help you generate some ideas and you can also ask yourself these questions:
What questions will I ask students to check for understanding?
What will I have students do to demonstrate that they are following?
Going back to my list of learning objectives, what activity can I have students do to check whether each of those has been accomplished?
An important strategy that will also help you with time management is to anticipate students’ questions. When planning your lesson, decide what kinds of questions will be productive for discussion and what questions might sidetrack the class. Think about and decide on the balance between covering content (accomplishing your learning objectives) and ensuring that students understand.

5. 
   Develop a conclusion and a preview
   

Go over the material covered in class by summarizing the main points of the lesson. You can do this in a number of ways: you can state the main points yourself (“Today we talked about…”), you can ask a student to help you summarize them, or you can even ask all students to write down on a piece of paper what they think were the main points of the lesson. You can review the students’ answers to gauge their understanding of the topic and then explain anything unclear the following class. Conclude the lesson not only by summarizing the main points, but also by previewing the next lesson. How does the topic relate to the one that’s coming? This preview will spur students’ interest and help them connect the different ideas within a larger context.

6. 
   Create a realistic timeline
   

GSIs know how easy it is to run out of time and not cover all of the many points they had planned to cover. A list of ten learning objectives is not realistic, so narrow down your list to the two or three key concepts, ideas, or skills you want students to learn. Instructors also agree that they often need to adjust their lesson plan during class depending on what the students need.
Your list of prioritized learning objectives will help you make decisions on the spot and adjust your lesson plan as needed. Having additional examples or alternative activities will also allow you to be flexible. A realistic timeline will reflect your flexibility and readiness to adapt to the
specific classroom environment. Here are some strategies for creating a realistic timeline:
Estimate how much time each of the activities will take, then plan some extra time for each
When you prepare your lesson plan, next to each activity indicate how much time you expect it will take
Plan a few minutes at the end of class to answer any remaining questions and to sum up key points
Plan an extra activity or discussion question in case you have time left
Be flexible – be ready to adjust your lesson plan to students’ needs and focus on what seems to be more productive rather than sticking to your original plan
Presenting the Lesson Plan
Letting your students know what they will be learning and doing in class will help keep them more engaged and on track. You can share your lesson plan by writing a brief agenda on the board or telling students explicitly what they will be learning and doing in class. You can outline on the board or on a handout the learning objectives for the class. Providing a meaningful organization of the class time can help students not only remember better, but also follow your presentation and understand the rationale behind in-class activities. Having a clearly visible agenda (e.g., on the board) will also help you and students stay on track.
Reflecting on Your Lesson Plan
A lesson plan may not work as well as you had expected due to a number of extraneous circumstances. You should not get discouraged – it happens to even the most experienced teachers! Take a few minutes after each class to reflect on what worked well and why, and what you could have done differently. Identifying successful and less successful organization of class time and activities would make it easier to adjust to the contingencies of the
classroom.For additional feedback on planning and managing class time, you can use the following resources: student feedback, peer observation, viewing a videotape of your teaching, and consultation with a staff member at CRLT (see also, Improving Your Teaching: Obtaining Feedback, http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/P9_1.php and Early Feedback Form, http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/earlyfeedback.pdf).
Conclusion
To be effective, the lesson plan does not have to be an exhaustive document that describes each and every possible classroom scenario. Nor does it have to anticipate each and every student’s response or question. Instead, it should provide you with a general outline of your teaching goals, learning objectives, and means to accomplish them. It is a reminder of what you want to do and how you want to do it. A productive lesson is not one in which everything goes exactly as planned, but one in which both students and instructors learn from each other.

7⁸

Material development is basically dealing with selection, adaptation, and creation of teaching materials (Nunan, 1991). In practice, it focused on evaluation, adaptation of published materials and creation (development of teaching materials by teacher in line with the existing syllabus)

8⁰

given to the teachers in preparation and assessment;
the match with requirements (e.g. standardization classes, coverage of a syllabus, preparation for an examination).


An evaluation is not the same as an analysis. It can include an analysis but the objectives and procedures are
different. An evaluation focuses on the users of the materials and makes judgements about their effects. No
matter how structured, criterion referenced and rigorous an evaluation is, it will be essentially subjective. An
analysis focuses on the materials and it aims to provide an objective analysis of them. It ‘asks questions about
what the materials contain, what they aim to achieve and what they ask learners to do’
The evaluator’s theory of learning and teaching

1. 
   Language learners succeed best if learning is a positive, relaxed and enjoyable experience.
   

2. 
   Language teachers tend to teach successfully if they enjoy their role and gain some enjoyment themselves from the
   

materials.

3. 
   Each learner is different from all the others in a class in terms of his or her personality, motivation, attitude, prior
   

experience, interests, needs, wants and learning style.

4. 
   Each learner varies from day to day in motivation, attitude, mood, perceived needs and wants, enthusiasm and energy.
   

5. 
   There are cultural differences between learners from different countries.
   

6. 
   The teacher is responsible for the initial generation of energy in a lesson; good materials can increase that energy.
   

7. 
   Learners learn what they really need or want to learn.
   

8. 
   To engage the emotions of learners. Laughter, joy, excitement, sorrow and anger can promote learning.
   

Second language acquisition research (SLA)
The principles of second language acquisition are relevant to the development of materials for the teaching of languages:
Materials should achieve impact (through novelty, variety, attractive presentation).
help learners to feel at ease.
help the learners to develop confidence.
2 | P a g e
What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and useful.
giving learners responsibility for making decisions.
show the learners to language in authentic use
The learners’ attention should be drawn to linguistic features of the input
provide the learners with opportunities to use the target language to achieve communicative purposes.
learners differ in affective attitudes and materials should offer variety and choice.
maximize learning potential by encouraging emotional involvement which stimulates both right and left brain activities
provide opportunities for outcome feedback
help the learner to develop cultural awareness and sensitivity.
achieve affective engagement.
Types of materials evaluation ***
1 Pre-use evaluation 2 Whilst-use evaluation 3 Post-use evaluation
Pre-use evaluation
Pre-use evaluation involves making predictions about the potential value of materials for their users. It can be
context-free, as in a review of materials for a journal, context influenced as in a review of draft materials for a
publisher with target users or context-dependent, as when a teacher selects a coursebook for use with her
particular class. Often pre-use evaluation is impressionistic and consists of a teacher flicking through a book to
gain a quick impression of its potential value.
Making an evaluation criterion-referenced can reduce subjectivity and can help to make an evaluation more
principled, systematic and reliable. This is especially true if more than two evaluators conduct the evaluation
independently and then average their conclusions.
Whilst-use evaluation
This involves measuring the value of materials while using them or while observing them being used. It can be

more objective and reliable than pre-use evaluation as it makes use of measurement rather than prediction. It is

very useful but dangerous too, as teachers and observers can be misled by whether the activities seem to work
or not. what can be measured in a whilst-use evaluation:


Clarity of instructions
Clarity of layout
Comprehensibility of texts
Credibility of tasks
Achievability of tasks
Achievement of performance objectives
Practicality of the materials
Teachability of the materials
Flexibility of the materials
Motivating power of the materials
Impact of the materials
Effectiveness in facilitating short-term learning