Reflection

Critical reflection TSL 3111

Throughout the whole coursework, I had gain a lot of new knowledge regarding to the
development of teaching materials.
Teaching materials are the resources a teacher uses to deliver instruction. Each teacher
requires a range of tools to draw upon in order to assist and support student learning.
These materials play a large role in making knowledge accessible to a learner and can
encourage a student to engage with knowledge in different ways.
The first task; creating mind map based on the journals that I have read really opens my
eyes that there are a lot of different materials that I could use in my lesson. The
materials also have their own implication to the lesson. It will affect the teaching styles
and the learning styles of the pupils. Before this, I thought that the purpose of having
material for a lesson is to add a fun and more hands on experience to the learning. I
never thought that I could have a really big impact to the lesson that it could change the
style of teaching and learning. I also never contemplate the possibility that the pupils will
have problem in using a material that I have design for a lesson due to the fact that it
didnt suit their proficiency level. The first task also exposed me to the possibility that
every materials used can have it own pros and cons.
Next, I am required to plan and write a lesson plan for a 60-minute lesson based on the
KSSR syllabus. Adapt. Then, design and exploit the teaching and learning materials for
the lesson planned. Lastly, exhibit my teaching and learning materials.

As for task 3, I am required to design a checklist to evaluate my teaching and learning
materials. The checklist must be based on the factors of selecting teaching and learning
materials.

It is important that the teaching and learning materials can withstand multiple criteria in
selecting the proper and suitable teaching aids. However, I need to ensure that the
teaching aids suits pupils level and cultural factors. Then, my teaching aids needed to
be accessible, practical, durable, and authentic. Lastly, the teaching aids needed to be
low cost, clarified, versatile bad bring impact towards my pupils. I spent time on
research and thanked to the sample check list given by my lecturer, I am able to
produced own check list based on the factor of selecting proper teaching and learning
materials.
To sum up everything, teaching and learning materials played an important role in the
Malaysian classroom. Suitable teaching aids help pupils to learn more efficiently.
However, teachers need to prepare a check list to ensure their teaching and learning
materials are prepared based on several factors of selection. The check list helps
teacher to build or use the best teaching aids in the class. Lastly, it is important for
teachers to use suitable teaching and learning materials in the class.

REFLECTION

DEVELOPING AND USING RESOURCES FOR THE PRIMARY ESL CLASSROOM
(TSL 3111)

There are four parts of tasks for the TSL 3111, Developing Resources
Coursework Project Assignment. The first part is demonstrating an understanding of
principles of materials selection and adaptation by using suitable graphic organiser(s).
The second task is designing and exploiting teaching and learning materials by planning
and write a lesson and from the lesson, we have to adapt, design and exploit the
teaching and learning materials for the lesson planned. The third task is designing a
checklist to evaluate the teaching and learning materials for the lesson that I have plan
before and the last part is writing a critical reflection.





There are lot of new things and knowledge I have learnt throughout the process
of writing TSL 3111, Developing Resources Coursework Project Assignment. The first
task is requiring us to read four different articles and we need to write graphic
organiser(s) to demonstrate our understanding on the principles of materials selection
and adaptation. Reading the articles have widen my knowledge and enhance my
understanding about the factors in selection and evaluation of teaching resources.
However, reading alone without scribbling and highlighting the important points will not
help in improving and memorizing the ideas we have develop in mind. Thus, the
purpose of transferring the information into a mind map is to help us see the key point of
the principles of materials selection and adaptation. Writing and jotting it down had
helped me to perceive and identify the strengths and weaknesses in developing
teaching and learning materials. Besides that, reading through the articles also helps to
open my mind and increase the awareness of the importance of materials in language
instruction. Allwright (1990) argues that materials should teach students to learn, that
they should be resource books for ideas and activities for instruction and learning, and
that they should give teachers rationales for what they do. Allwright emphasizes that
materials control learning and teaching. Therefore, materials are the centre of
instruction and one of the most important influences on what goes on in the classroom.



The second task is the designing of lesson plan for a 60-minute lesson based on
the KSSR syllabus and we have to adapt, design and exploit the teaching and learning
materials for the lesson planned. Planning and designing a lesson is not a new area of
learning to us as we have been practicing in planning a lesson for these five semester
already. This task has help to improve my way in designing lesson plan that meets with
the requirement needed especially by considering the factors of materials selection and
the students level and abilities in learning English subject. Learning to plan a lesson is
a lifelong process. It is an art that is truly mastered only after years of practice (ELT
Methodology: Principles and Practice, Page 25). The process of designing and creating
the teaching materials is one of the best parts in this second task. Materials that I used,
for example, big book, strip of cartoons, visual aids and interactive quiz by using Power
Point presentation gives so much positive impact on the students perception towards
learning the topic and it gives so much fun and enjoyment atmosphere in the classroom.
I understand that teaching materials will help the teachers to present the lesson
effectively and in an interesting manner. With these learning materials as learning aids,
pupils are able to carry on their learning activities. Thus, it is very crucial to select the
best and appropriate learning materials for the primary students. For example by
considering all the factors and principle of materials selection and adaptation so that the
teachers can help to improve and strengthen the overall development of the pupils
potentials, especially development of cognitive, physical, emotional and social aspects
(Educational Psychology & Pedagogy: Learner and Learning Environment, Page 133
and 134).

The third task is designing a checklist to evaluate the teaching and learning
materials. Preparing the checklist is a new scope for me to learn. It is quite hard
because I have to really understand the lesson plan and relate it with the factors in
selection and evaluation of teaching materials. There are seven factors that I consider in
my checklist, and there are levels, content, clarity, accessibility, versatility, cost
effectiveness and impact. These factors gave me an overview of the materials that I
have chosen for the lesson. In the process of doing the checklist, I keep on asking
questions to myself about the seven factors and try to relate the factors with the lesson
that I have design. Through this process, I realized that materials are not the main
things that we have to consider, but the learners themselves. Since the end of 1970s,
there has been a movement to make learners rather than teachers the centre of
language learning. According to this approach to teaching, learners are more important
than teachers, materials, teaching methods and evaluation. As a matter of fact,
curriculum, materials, teaching methods, and evaluation should all be designed for
learners and their needs. In other words, learners should be the centre of instruction
and learning. Thus, I understand that it is the teachers responsibility to check to see
whether all of the elements of the learning process are working well for learners and to
adapt them if they are not.

To put it into a nutshell, I would say that this TSL 3111 Coursework Project
Assignment have taught me a lot about teaching and learning materials. Instruction
alone would not be enough in the teaching and learning process. It would need
materials to improve pupils understanding and attract their attention. Besides that, I also
learnt that learners is the first priority when planning a lesson and I need to bear in mind
that although materials helps to simplify the wider teaching context, but as a future
teacher to be I cannot rely heavily on them as materials cannot control the instruction.
Another important knowledge that I have learnt is that, whenever we want to choose
materials, it must be appropriate for a particular class and it need to have an underlying
instructional philosophy, approach, method and technique, which suit the students and
their needs.

Reflection
After completing this coursework, I had managed to improve my knowledge on
developing materials for teaching. I had realized that not only school facilities,
administrations and the teacher that boost up the effectiveness while teaching, but the
materials are the most important things. It is a must to prepare a very effective teaching
aids for the pupils. By having good teaching aids, the teaching process will run smooth
without the teacher feels tired about the teaching.
First of all, from the first task, we are needed to search and read 4 articles on
principles of materials selection and adaptation. Reading part would be not a big
problem but searching for the correct and suitable articles would be quite hard. Due to
some difficulties such as not enough sources, I had to look for online journals that give
information on the principles of materials selection and adaptation. Even though using
internet might see easy, without proper skills and guidance from our lecturer, the
suitable journals would be hard to get. Nevertheless, even I managed to find suitable
articles, I still had to check whether my classmates had already took it or not. If they
already took it, I find another article to replace the one that already taken. This part had
taken me few days to be done. After choosing the articles, I had to show it to our
lecturer to check whether the articles is good to use or not.
Next, after the choosing part done, I continue to read and take out points to
prepare for graphic organizers. This is also quite hard. When it comes to graphic
organizers, it must be simple, nice to see and full of useful information. I found that
doing graphic organizers is very hard because I must use my own words to write the
information, which means that every details in the journals, cannot be left without
understanding the meaning of it. There are articles that took me two days to completely
understand the whole ideas and when I finished understanding the journals, the graphic
organizers could be done easily. Even though these parts took me days to finish but
once I managed to complete everything, I feel joy not only managing to complete but
also adding some more new information in my knowledge.
After that, task 2 in waiting to be done. For task 2, I had paired up with Fiona, to
make a 60 - minutes lesson plan based on KSSR syllabus. After that, for the lesson
plan, we were needed to adapt, design and exploit the teaching and learning materials.
Lastly, we were needed to exhibit the teaching and learning materials.
For the lesson plan, both Fiona and I agreed to take previous lesson plan and
modify it. Focusing on improving the materials, we had gather our effort to prepare a
sample of a farm which contains few types of animals in it. Which means that we are
going for realia instead of just pictures to show it to the pupils. Preparing for realia, my
partner and I had made sure that it is safe to be touch and seen by pupils. Safety
measurement had been into consideration so that this material is safe to be taken into
classroom. During the process, we had faced a problem which is time is not enough to
prepare a good one because of we were going for practicum. Nevertheless, we still
managed to finish the realia and I am happy about it. From this part, there are some
values that we had practiced. The first one is cooperation. Being cooperative makes the
job easier and quickly done. Next one is it is not wrong to give full effort to do things.
The next task would be task 3, which is I am need to prepare a checklist to
assess whether the materials used are good and effective. Taking consideration from
different perspectives, I had prepared a checklist which contains 9 mains topic. From
my own experiences during practicum, I believe that the checklist that I had prepared
would be great to follow to make sure that the materials are effective for the pupils. The
factors that I choose are practicality, content, level, versatility, accessibility, impact, cost
effectiveness, durability and authenticity. All these factors, when achieved, it will
produced a good and effective materials for the teaching and learning lesson.
Last but not least, after went through all the tasks, I believe that teaching and
learning materials are very important to help the pupils. It also helps not only the pupils
but also teachers in some ways. Nevertheless, every checklist should be different
according to the surroundings, for example, pupils, schools, norms and so on.
Principles in material adaptation Presentation Transcript
Principles in Material Adaptation

o Relate your teaching materials to your objectives and aims.
o Make sure that you know what language is for. You should choose a material that
your students can use effectively for their own purposes.
o Keep your learners needs in mind.
o Pay attention to the relationship between language, learning process and the
learner .
Key Learner Variables
o Personality
o Motivation
o Attitude
o Aptitude
o Preferred Learning Styles
o Intelligence

o Personality: Personality affects the materials that we want to design. Learners
might be introverted or extroverted. The material that we design should encourage
even a shy student in the classroom .
o Motivation: Highly motivated students learn faster and better. As teachers, we
should design activities that motivate our students .

o Attitude: Learners have some attitudes to learning. They can learn something in
different ways. The most important point is that we should satisfy our students
needs by combining our experiences and their needs.
o Aptitude: Some people seem more readily than others to learn another language.

o Preferred Language Styles: Some students might be more comfortable in a spoken
language whereas others are more comfortable in written material.
o Intelligence: It has also an effect in learning a foreign or second language.
Contextual Factors
o When planning and determining your goals, consider the learners:
o Age
o Interests
o Aptitude
o Mother Tongue
o Motivation
o Reasons for learning
o Personality
o Academic and educational level.

o Factors that affect course planning, syllabus design, selection of materials and
sources :
o The role of English in the country
o The role of English in the school
o Resources available
o Time available
o Physical environment
o The number of pupils
o Management and administration

ATESL Adult ESL Curriculum Framework

4: Selecting Methods and Materials


Overview

Following from Sequencing Tasks, this section of the
ATESL Curriculum Framework takes a principles-
based approach to selecting methods and materials
for inclusion in the ESL curriculum. Like outcomes,
assessment, and tasks, materials are often
recommended or included in curriculum documents
(i.e., curriculum-as-planned) and are selected to
meet identified learning needs. However, final
decisions regarding materials and methods often
take place while a course is being taught (i.e.,
curriculum-as-lived) in response to the preferences
of the instructor, the immediate interests of the
learners, and the learning context. In this section,
Selecting Methods and Materials, we seek to
Highlight a responsive approach to instructional
practice that focuses on effective teaching and
learning strategies rather than relying on specific
methods or approaches.
Offer a set of principles to consider when selecting
effective learning materials to contextualize and
support ESL curricula.
Instructional methods and beyond
Principles for selecting materials


Materials may contribute to both goals and content but they
cannot determine either. What is learnt, and indeed, learnable is a
product of the interaction between learners, teachers and the
materials at their disposal.
19



Materials are a lasting portrayal of language and culture, and within ESL programs, effective
materials are often passed from instructor to instructor to support learners from session to
session. Materials are not the driver of the teaching and learning process; rather, they provide
support and context for learning outcomes and tasks.
In an e-survey of the ATESL membership, respondents were asked What kinds of materials do
you use with your learners?
20
Not surprisingly, results indicated that 100% of the respondents
use teacher-prepared materials in their programs. In addition to using teacher-prepared materials,
94% of respondents also use authentic materials, 85% use published materials, 84% use online
materials, and 34% use course packs. When ESL program administrators in Alberta were
interviewed,
21
they reported that a wide variety of materials are used in their programs, and
specifically, they referred to textbooks (with Canadian content, when available), dictionaries,
web-based resources such as online repositories and websites, CLB-based documents,
22

profession-specific materials (e.g., professional literature, textbooks, case-studies), in-house
generated materials and resources, and learner-generated materials. The following challenges
were raised by the program administrators as they spoke about materials:
Limited resources to support Canadian Language Benchmarks-based curricula and instruction
Limited profession-specific resources
Lack of correlation between ready-made materials and the specific outcomes identified within the
curriculum
Lack of textbooks and other published learning materials that include Canadian and multicultural
content Limited funding to support training initiatives for learners and instructors to effectively use
educational technologies
23
(including technology-based materials and resources)
The following section addresses nine principles for selecting materials to support and
contextualize curricular goals, learning outcomes, and tasks (see Figure 1).
24
Accompanying
each principle is an explanation of its role and importance, examples illustrating the principle in
practice, and a set of questions that highlight key considerations to bear in mind when selecting
materials. The principles are relevant for selecting, adapting, or creating materials.


Figure 1. Nine principles for selecting materials for ESL curricula


Materials support the development of learners' English language proficiency for effective
communication in real-world situations
Materials are consistent with learning outcomes and support the tasks included in the curriculum
Materials build on learners' skills, backgrounds, and experiences
Materials focus learners on the salient features of language in use
Materials support a mindful approach to learning
Materials support the development of intercultural communicative competence and provide Canadian
content
Materials expose learners to a rich variety of current, relevant, stimulating, and meaningful language in
use
Materials present language at an appropriate level for learners, that is, at a level that is not too easy,
and not too difficult.
Materials accommodate a flexible responsive approach to instruction

Materials aligned with the CLB or Essential Skills
Conclusion
References
Lecture 8: Materials Adaptation

1. Why do we need to adapt materials

Despite the great effort that textbook writers make to meet the needs of the intended users, textbooks
are subject to adaptation when they are actually used in the classroom. After all, most commercial
textbooks are not written for any particular class. What makes the matter worse is that sometimes the
teachers are compelled to use certain materials, that is, materials imposed by authorities. In a word, in
most ELT cases, teachers have to adapt the materials they are using if they want their teaching to be
more effective and more interesting.

Materials adaptation should be based on the results of materials evaluation. Of course different
materials have different potential areas for adaptation. The following are some common deficiencies of
existing ELT materials:

fail (unable) to fulfil the goals and objectives specified by national or local syllabuses or curricula
fail to fulfil the goals and objectives of schools where the materials are used
cannot be finished in the time available
require facilities or equipment or other supporting materials that are not available
not engaging the learners personality
detrimental to the learners culture
not cater for the learners interests

McDonough and Shaw (1993:86) have listed more reasons for materials adaptation. The most important
reason is that there is mismatch between what is needed and what is provided by materials.

2. Principles of materials adaptation

Grant (1987) has listed the following principles for materials adaptation:

1) Making dialogues communicative
2) Making learning activities relevant and purposeful
3) Meet your learners needs, both external and psychological
4) Use models of real, authentic language

Very often, adaptation involves supplementation, that is, teachers add materials from other resources to the
textbook they are using. It is believed that authentic materials are better than non-authentic materials for
supplementation. So teachers who make a point of collecting authentic materials find it much easier to adapt
textbooks. This is especially true in ELT contexts where authentic English materials are not always readily to
hand.

DONTS in materials adaptation:

1) Teachers should not adapt materials too casually, e.g. based on his or her own preferences or tastes;
2) Materials adaptation should not be done at the expense of completeness and overall framework of the
materials.
3) Materials deleted or added should not go beyond a reasonable proportion, otherwise consider alternative
materials.
4) Teachers should not adapt materials only to cater for the needs of exams or tests.

3. Level of materials adaptation

Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels:

1) Macro adaptation

This is ideally done before the language programme begins. After comparing what is covered in a textbook and
what is required by the syllabus or examination, the teacher may find that certain areas or even whole units of
the book can be omitted, and certain contents need to be supplemented. Macro adaptation is very important
because it helps to avoid waste of time and energy of the teacher and the students as well. It also helps the
teacher to see in advance what he or she needs to supplement so that he or she can keep an eye on materials
that could be used.

2) Adapting a unit

This could be reordering the activities, combining activities, omitting activities, rewriting or supplementing
exercise material, etc. Unit adaptation helps to make the classroom teaching more smooth and cohesive. It also
helps the teacher to better fulfil the aims of a unit.

3) Adaptation of specific activities

Occasionally an activity is regarded as valuable, but it is not well-designed or it is not feasible in a particular
class. If the teacher does not want to give up the activity, he or she needs to adapt it.

4. Specific adaptation

Maley (1998:281, in Tomlinson, 1998) suggested the following options for materials adaptation:

Omission: the teacher leaves out things deemed inappropriate, offensive, unproductive, etc., for
the particular group.
Addition: where there seems to be inadequate coverage, teachers may decide to add to textbooks,
either in the form of texts or exercise material.
Reduction: where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or emphasis.
Extension: where an activity is lengthened in order to give it an additional dimension. (for example,
a vocabulary activity is extended to draw attention to some syntactic patterning.)
Rewriting/modification: teacher may occasionally decide to rewrite material, especially exercise
material, to make it more appropriate, more communicative, more demanding, more accessible
to their students, etc.
Replacement: text or exercise material which is considered inadequate, for whatever reason, may
be replaced by more suitable material. This is often culled from other resource materials.
Re-ordering: teachers may decide that the order in which the textbooks are presented is not
suitable for their students. They can then decide to plot a different course through the textbooks
from the one the writer has laid down.
Branching: teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or to suggest alternative
pathways through the activities. (for example, an experiential route or an analytical route.)

5. Materials adaptation: some examples



Assignment

Study the materials provided, choose a unit that you think needs adaptation, and make some suggestions about
possible adaptation so that the unit can be used more effectively in the class. Write a one-page report about
your suggestions and prepare to give a ten-minute presentation.