Welcome to Skillful
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Welcome, and thank you for registering for the class this term.
Our aim is to cover all of unit 2 of Skillful 4: Reading and Writing, which we should be able to do in our 16 hours of classes over the next four-and-a-bit weeks. In addition to your paper book, there is also a very useful digital version of the text, and an online workbook for further practice.
If you have not already done so, please register for the digital version of Skillful, and then join both the online class and the online Workbook class, for which there are short presentations posted on Classroom.
As with the Google Apps for Education that we will use and this class blog, it might take a couple of sessions for you to become familiar with these tools, but I am confident that you will find that initial effort worthwhile. By moving some of the work to out-of-class activities, we can then focus our class time on preparation for and discussion of the skills you will practice at home, or wherever you like.
Introduction to students — page 6
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| The digital version of the book is very convenient |
Another point that I like in her introduction is Zemach's emphasis on practice, for which she suggests that we do "a little bit each day." The research on this is strong: regular deliberate practice in small chunks of time is far more effective than long sessions once or twice a week (Schwartz et al. 2016, ch D). Since we meet twice a week, and on consecutive days, this is especially important to bear in mind.
Question
As Warwick and Rogers often do, giving readers a specific question or two to respond to is often an effective way to engage readers. It helps to check that we understand what we have read, that we have thought about the ideas critically, and to that we can apply them to our own of more general situations.- Which one of the five strategies that Zemach introduces on page 6 do you think will be most useful for you to focus on over the next four weeks?
References
- Schwartz, D. L., Tsang, J. M., & Blair, K. P. (2016). The ABCs of how we learn: 26 scientifically proven approaches, how they work, and when to use them. [eBook edition]. W. W. Norton & Company. https://www.amazon.com/ABCs-How-Learn-Scientifically-Approaches-ebook/dp/B016CAJLBA/ref=sr_1_1
- Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education
I think Zemach’s advice on preparation before attending class is the most useful for me to focus on during our class over the next four weeks. As I work during the day, I think spending 30 minutes before the evening class can allow me to be ready to study. I agree with Zemach that showing up well fed and well rested are important to do well in the class. In the past, I used to attend evening classes without having dinner as I thought that I would have been fine. However, I was starving during the class and was unable to focus on the lessons. Since I would not want to repeat the same experience, which is not an effective way of studying, I will follow her suggestion by having some things to eat and take some rest to get some energy before class. Furthermore, I also agree with her on looking at the discussion point before class. During the day I usually deal with a lot of work and deadlines, so I will feel overwhelmed at the end of the day. Therefore, before the evening class begins, I will allocate 10 minutes to look at the lesson to support my learning.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I remembered that the ones who had got the highest scores or got the good grade in my class during my university time were those who had prepared themselves before classes. They had read the text books and even written down some important points before a lecture delivered by the instructors. Of course, they became the favourite students of the teachers.
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ReplyDeleteReviewing your work can lead to excellent feedback because it provides various benefits. The main reasons for studying your work and recapping previous lessons are vocabulary building and understanding your mistakes.
Had learners reviewed their work frequently, they would have learned about the Achilles heel, which is that memorising vocabulary requires some practice. Spelling mistakes sometimes cause misunderstanding so should be avoided. Moreover, fluency in writing can not be enhanced without regularity. As much as learners write, results in better performance of writing.
After often reviewing my work, I can reduce repetitive mistakes and learn how to write faster.
I like all of Zemach's suggested strategies, but reading Phing's short essay reminded me of why I review things so often in my classes. It takes time for information, ideas and skills to crystallize in our brains, and refreshing the paths in brain helps to make them more permanent, and available for use in other contexts.
DeleteI'm sure we'll get to review something you've already covered in today's class. Again.
A small formatting tip.
DeleteIn the Google Doc, paragraph breaks are formatted in the standard way: the first line is indented and there is a space between paragraphs. This is not possible in most online forums.
The solution is to type "Enter" once more to add an empty line between each paragraph.
But do not go space-space-space or Tab to indent. Those are bad habits inherited from the ancient days when we wrote in typewriters. Writing tools have evolved massively since those olden times or my own university days, and modern digital writing apps offer far more sophisticated tools for appropriately formatting our written work.
DeleteThere are many strategies for effective english learning, but the one that I think will be the most useful for me when I enroll in this class is “ask questions and interact”. The advantage of attending a language class is that you can actively communicate and interact with classmates. Through participation in class, one will not only learn new vocabulary and structures from listening to others, but is also able to put the new words in practice through speaking and writing. Apart from that, the teacher is there to correct your grammatical mistakes and make recommendations for improvement. Moreover, your classmates will help you activate new vocabulary and encourage you to speak. The interaction is also more natural. However, one may argue that strategies like reading newspapers and watching movies can help you improve English too. I also agree with this statement, but considering the fact that we are now enrolled in an English class where we have classmates, why don’t we just make the most use of it and interact with each other? Based on my experiences, reading and listening, which are passive skills, can be easily developed on your own than active skills like speaking and writing. Therefore, I, as a student of an English for Academic Purpose class, am of the opinion that for me, personally, the strategy “ask questions and interact” will be the most useful strategy.
ReplyDeleteTo Anik's thoughtful response, I would add that asking also helps your classmates. It gives them a chance to strengthen their own knowledge and skills by helping others, or if they are unsure, a question asked by someone else helps to clarify an idea for them as well.
DeleteAs we will also see next week, questioning what we read is also a healthy habit to get into. Do the ideas sound right? Are they reasonable? Is there enough strong evidence or reason to support what is being said? What might some weaknesses be? Also, what is well done? What do we like in the writing?
Questions are good.
My chosen strategy of Dorothy E. Zemach’s suggestion
ReplyDeleteDorothy E. Zemach presents us with five useful learning strategies in order to make the most of our study. They are all useful but if I need to select only one, I will choose the ‘Come to class prepared to learn’ approach.
I would say that getting prepared, and knowing the direction we are heading to is the most important factor leading to success. In the past I’ve never prepared myself before classes at all. But after studying the first unit, I came across seeing and reading the unit aims and I started to think that if I had read the objectives of the lesson and got myself prepared before the lesson, how much better it would have been . Of course, having a focus and preparing ourselves before classes would be very helpful. I do agree with the suggestion of Zemach that learners should show up well rested and well fed. An exhausted learner with an empty stomach could hardly be able to concentrate on his study. In case the number of hours are very limited and the learners could do the vocabulary parts at home before class, it will definitely be a lot better to do that as they can spend time working in other areas which are more challenging or more complex in class. Even though it is not the best strategy for everyone, I still believe that ‘Getting prepared and being ready before class’ can be beneficial to students.
Thank you Kitt. The bit I really liked in that paragraph by Zemach was in her first supporting sentence, where she begins by explaining that being well prepared includes being "well fed [and] well rested". It's easy for me to forget and to spend so long working on something that my performance suffers simply because I'm tired and need to sleep for a bit. At least seven hours of sleep is what my brain needs to function well, and sometimes a short nap, 20 minutes or so, during the afternoon gives a useful boost.
DeleteBeing well fed is not a problem for me these last few decades; sometimes being overfed can be a problem.
According to the strategies for successful learning by Dorothy E. Zemach, I believe reviewing your work will be the most useful for me to concentrate on over the next four weeks. I believe reviewing after class plays an important role and I will have more success in reading and writing if I start reviewing my work at an early stage.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that studying a little bit each day helps learners remember words easily. In the past, I always focused on learning English just before tests, and this method seemed to be effective at first, but after the tests I forgot what I had read and could not develop any ideas of reading and writing. After that , I try to read what I learn little by little, day by day as I believe that some days my vocabulary and grammar will help me generate my perfect essays and improve my reading skills, especially when reading unfamiliar, complex topics.
In conclusion, although there are several useful methods to help me learn successfully, in my view, I will focus on reviewing my work as I do not want to be the same person who could not develop and expand ideas as I was. This strategy, therefore, will help me little by little to learn English well and use it effectively. I hope after the next four weeks I will see my improvement in reading and writing works.
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According to what Zemach has suggested, there are five strategies to follow. All of them let learners improve their English skills in all areas . These strategies consist of coming to class with preparation, asking questions when needed, practicing, reviewing every single work, and being an independent learner .Although it seems like all of them are important, the most useful strategy for me is practicing. The details will be discussed in the following paragraph.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned earlier, practicing is the key to my study. Personally, I had tried many ways to be an effective learner; then I finally found out that it is practicing. It is more than what you have thought. Practicing makes information stick in my memory. Moreover, tons of lessons can be recalled easily after practicing. For instance, daily vocabulary review does a pretty good job for improving all aspects of English skill. Due to the reason that you have lots of practice, you can come up with a broad spectrum of vocabulary which consequently leads to a fluent English user.
In conclusion, I would like to say that all of the five strategies are important . Nevertheless, I will practice as much as I can, in the following classes, to ultimately benefit from this study.
From my perspective , the most important skill you should have in order to achieve effective English learning is to, “Be an independent learner”,which means you have allowed yourself to practice everywhere you go and every time you have opportunities. Language is about life, about how we live and how we communicate. It is blending in all activities we did so there’s never enough time for learning. If we narrow our knowledge just only gained in the class session, we will waste a lot of chances to become a better version of ourselves in speaking, reading, and writing English. Although being an independent learner is very necessary, I also think it’s still not enough. Planning your study and making a decision to set your goal is also needed. Having a goal aims to help you push yourself to develop skills in a specific period of time. Your goal can be a long-term or short-term commitment, according to your purpose of studying. However, when you have been studying something for a while, sometimes you will feel ineffective and lack energy to continue your work. But a goal will remind you of your purpose, why you need to do it in the first place and what needs to be done to achieve it, which on the other hand is telling you nicely to ‘Stick with your plan”. :)
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