Name: Xiao(Echo), Zhang

Date: 01/27/15
Title: Teaching articles
Context: Grammar Methodologies, B

1. Brief description of the artifact: What is it? How is it used?

This is an artifact used in the first grammar class. There is an example grammar lesson on the first
page. Students are divided into groups to analyze this lesson, mainly according to the eight steps
of creating grammar lesson. Then the teacher leads us to find out the non-effective steps in this
example lesson. After that, teacher passes out the second handout, on which there are five section:
a short paragraph used as the context; five questions talking about basic information of this
paragraph; a blank for students to take notes; mechanical drills; and a meaningful exercise. My
instructor Matt presents this lesson as modeling in an effective way. First of all, he reads this short
passage, and checks for understanding. Next, he leads us to find the first two words modified by
article. Then students practice with partners. Secondly, the teacher asks learners some differences
between a and an. After explaining both pattern and function, the teacher does a mechanical
exercise with the class. There is no choice in this part; therefore, students practice it orally. Finally,
we get to the last page8 steps of creating grammar lessons.
2. Explanation of what new ideas, information, or awareness came form this artifact.
The new ideas I learned from this class are as following:
1). Student-centered teaching. In this class, the instructor prefers to be a listener rather than a
speaker. He gives students more time to discuss with partners, find out problems and solve with
them on our own. Moreover, the instructor lets students think and answer his questions instead of
telling learners the conclusion. According to Lambert&McCombs (2000), student-centered
teaching makes students actively involved in their own learning, monitor their thinking and
assume responsibility for their own learning. Based on Alexander & Murphy (2000), the research
shows that personal involvement, intrinsic motivation, personal commitment, confidence in ones
abilities to succeed, and a perception of control over learning lead to more learning and higher
achievement in school.
2). Reviewing. In the process of teaching, the instructor asked questions about previous lesson. He

helped us to review what we learned before, and to combine the new knowledge with former
theories. This is similar to developing student`s zone of proximal development. The zone of
proximal development, commonly referred to ZPD, is defined as the range of tasks that a child can
perform with the help and guidance of others but cannot yet perform independently. In brief, it is a
gap between a child`s/ student`s existing developmental state and his potential development. (S.
LaQua, 2015) Reviewing can be a great way to shorten such distance. A famous study on
forgetting textbook materials compared the percentage of material remembered after different
intervals of time conclude that after one day, 54% of material was remembered; after seven days,
35% was remembered; after two weeks, only 21% was remembered. Hence, without review, most
information will be lost from memory (Meg, 1997).
3). The teacher elicits students to do the exercise together before they do it individually . In this
class, no matter when we do activities, the teacher would model them for us. He shows us how to
do the activity. This is a simply and clear way for learners to understand teacher`s direction. Based
on Doff`s (2010) theory, elicitation makes students become more active, maintains their attention,
draws on what they already know or partly know, and motivates students to learn.
3. Reflection on how this will impact your approach to teaching and learning.
This class motivates both my learning and teaching enthusiasm. Student-centered learning and
teacher`s elicitation make me, as a learner, become more active in class. I get involved in the
learning activities. As a result, my learning efficiency is improved.
In my future teaching, I will try to transform a teacher-centered classroom into a learner-centered
one, and give students more time to talk. Meanwhile, I will ask students to summarize the
grammar rules from exercises, instead of telling them rules directly. In addition, the meaningful
exercises will be done orally sometimes.

References
Delvia, S., Jufri, & Yuli, T. (2013). an analysis of teachers` elicitation techniques in
the classroom at sma pembangunan laboratorium unp. Jornal of English Language
Teaching, 18-27.
Meg, K. (`997). Memory and the Importance of Review. Retrieved from Bucks
Country Community College: http://faculty.bucks.edu/specpop/memory.htm
Lambert, N., & McCombs, B. (2000). Introduction: Learner-centered schools and
classrooms as a

direction for school reform. In N.

Lambert, & B. McCombs (Eds.), How students learn (pp. 1-15). Washington, D.C.:
American Psychological Association.