Session 16: Writing task

Reflective point:

In the CLIL course it is mentioned the importance of the content subject and the language content in the University courses in order to improve the skills of the students not only in the specific concepts of each profession but in the communication in a foreign language too. Therefore, In the CLIL course is given the strategies that professors can use to create a proper environment for students learning. Moreover, the course involves the tools to design the activities to be performed in the University courses. These activities should promote four skills: Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing, where each one has a pre, while and post activity in order to scaffold the students learning according to the Bloom’s taxonomy. 

Session 14: Listening Comprehension

Session 13: Promoting speaking activities

Session 12: Speaking activities

The development of speaking skills is probably the higher challenge in the CLIL project. Therefore, several  elements should be included to have an effective speaking task.

Reflective point

It is important to create an appropriate environment in the classroom to help students speak. The students do not feel confidence to speak in English. Therefore,  having effective speaking task is an essential resource in the improving of students skills.

Session 11: Reading strategies

The reading strategies are tolls that help to students to extract the most part of the information in a reading text. The strategies should be used in the three parts of the activity. The Pre, the While and the Post.

Reflective point

In the design of the reading comprehension activity the reading strategies should be included in order to guide students in the text. Students will feel tha it is easy to follow the information in the text by using the reading strategies in each on the three parts of the activity.

Session 10: Rubrics

• A rubric is a scoring guide. ( Systemic observation technique)
• A tool that distinguishes teaching and learning by cleary stating criteria and describing levels of qualities.
• It’s an authentic assessment instrument used to measure students’ work (oral or wirtten outcomes).
• It’s a working guide for students and teachers, that must be handed out before the assignment begins to make students accountable for their learning process and quality of work. 

Reflective point

The use of rubrics ease the evaluation process and it is a good input to provide an adequate feedback to students. Moreover, students can see clearly what aspects in their skills should be improved.

Session 9: Alignment activities

Alignment means setting up the classroom activities that help learners achieve the lesson aims. If the aims, activities and assessments teachers create for their learners are aligned (i.e. match well), the influence of the teacher on the learning is at its greatest (Bigs, 2003)

Reflective point

Each of the activities designed in the CLIL project should to add the tools and the skills students need to perform the final outcome. Each activity has to be aligned with the others so that students feel more confident at the end of the course. In this alignment is necessary to set the ASSESSMENT and EVALUATION techniques and instruments that will be  needed to SCAFFOLD and provide FEEDBACK to the students.

Session 8: Drafting the CLIL Project

The first stage of drafting the CLIL project is to set the following aspects:

• Final outcome
• Content aim
• Language aim

Reflective point

All the aspects in the CLIL project should be integrated in order to improve the students skills in their content knowledge and English proficiency

Session 6: Providing feedback

Feedback is an essential tool to help the students improve their skills. Feedback is the space where professor not only tell students about what aspects should be improved but how they feel with the activities too.

A good feedback has as a result the improvement of student learning. A good feedback should contain the following characteristics:

1. Specific
2. Actionable
3. Timely
4. Respectful

Reflective point

Sometimes, we as a professors We care more about evaluation rather than providing good feedback to students. Most part of the time We think that students will improve their skills depending on the score, but the students can improve much more from good feedback actually.

Session 5: Applying theory

The session was the space to design the own reading comprehension task.

Reflective point

The reading comprehension task has three stages. In the pre-reading, the goal is activate the previous knowledge that students should use in the activity. In the while-reading, the goal is ensure that students have received the information in the text. Finally, in the post-reading, students should put in practice the knowledge in a scenario that promotes the critical thinking.

Session 4: Making questions

There are several kind of questions that professors can use to evaluate students learning. Some of them are:

• Multiple choice question
• Fill in the blanks
• True/False questions
• Open questions

Reflective point

The design of the questions is a process that requires enough time to be performed. It is important to consider what is the type of question appropriate to evaluate students learning. Other aspect to take into account is that the questions should be organized from LOTS to HOTS to scaffold the critical thinking in the students.

Session 3: Reding levels

According to Bloom's Taxonomy, there are six different levels in the learning process. The three first levels are categorized like LOTS (Low Order Thinking Skills) because in these levels only the memory and the concepts are applying. For their part, the  other three levels are categorized like HOTS (High Order Thinking Skills) because in these levels students reach the critical thinking and they can to create their own conclusions and knowledge.

The are three levels of reading that should be introduced in each reading comprehension task. The literal  consist in find the information directly in the text. The inferential is reading between the lines, in this one, readers interpret what is in the text. Finally, the critical is reading beyond the lines, in this case, readers connect the text with their own experiences.

Reflective point

I consider it very appropriate to scale in the learning process from LOTS to HOTS. The LOTS exercise promote students have clearly the theoretical aspects in a specific topic, while in the HOTS exercises, students can use the theory in real scenarios where the students can solve problems by themselves

Session 2: Set a purpose for a reading exercise

The purpose is the goal that should be reached in each session class. Depending on the purpose the activity is designed and the materials are selected.

When a reading comprehension task is designed, some aspects should be taken into account:

• Students’ profile for each level
• To state a clear purpose for the reading activity
• To design some questions or activities based on the reading
• If it is necessary, adapt the text or make it more appropriate for the level by using pictures, shorten it and avoid having more than 15 new words

The reading comprehension task involve three stages, which serve as stairs in the student learning process.

Reflective Point

The design of reading activities is a process that starts with setting the purpose of the task. The purpose is the north that the professors should follow in order to design the proper scenario to students learning. With a clear purpose, is easier to select the appropriate materials that will be used in the task.