Justifcation of lesson for Rotterdam
We have made our website on World War II in the Netherlands. This topic is very interesting subject and is given in all Dutch secondary schools. Our site has been made to give varied and interesting lessons while incorporating different methods. Here is the list of methods that I used to make my lessons for Rotterdam.
Clil based curriculum
Clil was the main methods for making this curriculum design which was developed by David Marsh (1994). The objective of Clil is to incorporate another subject or part of a subject (in this case The Netherlands in WWII so history) and teach this in a second language with the dual aim of learning the content of a subject and a second language simultaneously. Our website shows quite clearly that these principles have been followed.
Backwards design theory
The backwards design theory by Wiggins and Mc Tighe (1998) is a theory, that advocates to first create final objectives before designing activities. . After I made my final objectives and then created the final product did I have a clear understanding of what I wanted the students to make.. Only then did i make the activities that would help the students to obtain the necessary skills to complete the assignemnts.
Penta-pie ( Westhof's schijf van vijf)
This was another one of the main methods for making the lessons. This method always begins with input which gives the student adequate information from which it is clear as to what the student will be learning about involving the topic, the vocabulary and language structures when having to processing the information. The next stage of the penta-pie is the processing of the information. These exercises always involved compensating strategies for example reading a text and answering WH questions. This is very important to get the student to process the meaning of the input.
The compensating strategies I used were either a productive or receptive exercises or activities. The final part of the Penta-pie is the output. My exercises were always authentic and challenging and were made with the intention of letting the student show what they had learned from the input and the processing exercises. These exercises also had the a degree of difficulty that also needed some pre-knowledge using the level plus one principle were new knowledge can be added to the source of knowledge that they have already acquired
Bloom’s Taxonomy
I made my tasks also using the steps of critical thinking for effective learning by Benjamin S. Bloom (1956). The input lessons were made with the intention that the students had to remember what they had just read and listened to in order to make the exercise and continue further. The next exercises in the processing section were also used as a stepping stone to the output following exercise. The goals and objectives were also clearly written as is stated in Blooms objectives and outcomes ‘Good design begins and ends with solidly written learning objectives. These objectives serve as guideposts, both for students taking the course and the instructor’ My goals and objectives were also clearly stated at the beginning of each lesson.
Theories from Staatsen, Ebbens and Ur
Staatsen advocates using a film clip at the beginning of the lesson to give the students visual reinforcement and allows the students to imitate and understand vocabulary so I used a film in three of my four lessons to begin with.
There are lots of individual exercises that the student has to make which allows the student to work at their own pace as explained by Ur (2012) which is especially useful as the exercises are done using a computer on the website instead of an exercise book. This gives the student an opportunity to focus on their own learning development and gives a sense of individual responsibility towards their work as defined by Ebbens (2009).
We have made our website on World War II in the Netherlands. This topic is very interesting subject and is given in all Dutch secondary schools. Our site has been made to give varied and interesting lessons while incorporating different methods. Here is the list of methods that I used to make my lessons for Rotterdam.
Clil based curriculum
Clil was the main methods for making this curriculum design which was developed by David Marsh (1994). The objective of Clil is to incorporate another subject or part of a subject (in this case The Netherlands in WWII so history) and teach this in a second language with the dual aim of learning the content of a subject and a second language simultaneously. Our website shows quite clearly that these principles have been followed.
Backwards design theory
The backwards design theory by Wiggins and Mc Tighe (1998) is a theory, that advocates to first create final objectives before designing activities. . After I made my final objectives and then created the final product did I have a clear understanding of what I wanted the students to make.. Only then did i make the activities that would help the students to obtain the necessary skills to complete the assignemnts.
Penta-pie ( Westhof's schijf van vijf)
This was another one of the main methods for making the lessons. This method always begins with input which gives the student adequate information from which it is clear as to what the student will be learning about involving the topic, the vocabulary and language structures when having to processing the information. The next stage of the penta-pie is the processing of the information. These exercises always involved compensating strategies for example reading a text and answering WH questions. This is very important to get the student to process the meaning of the input.
The compensating strategies I used were either a productive or receptive exercises or activities. The final part of the Penta-pie is the output. My exercises were always authentic and challenging and were made with the intention of letting the student show what they had learned from the input and the processing exercises. These exercises also had the a degree of difficulty that also needed some pre-knowledge using the level plus one principle were new knowledge can be added to the source of knowledge that they have already acquired
Bloom’s Taxonomy
I made my tasks also using the steps of critical thinking for effective learning by Benjamin S. Bloom (1956). The input lessons were made with the intention that the students had to remember what they had just read and listened to in order to make the exercise and continue further. The next exercises in the processing section were also used as a stepping stone to the output following exercise. The goals and objectives were also clearly written as is stated in Blooms objectives and outcomes ‘Good design begins and ends with solidly written learning objectives. These objectives serve as guideposts, both for students taking the course and the instructor’ My goals and objectives were also clearly stated at the beginning of each lesson.
Theories from Staatsen, Ebbens and Ur
Staatsen advocates using a film clip at the beginning of the lesson to give the students visual reinforcement and allows the students to imitate and understand vocabulary so I used a film in three of my four lessons to begin with.
There are lots of individual exercises that the student has to make which allows the student to work at their own pace as explained by Ur (2012) which is especially useful as the exercises are done using a computer on the website instead of an exercise book. This gives the student an opportunity to focus on their own learning development and gives a sense of individual responsibility towards their work as defined by Ebbens (2009).