Proud to be tvmbo - Kortlopend Onderwijsonderzoek

Questioning
Think about the kinds of questions you use in the classroom and design both short
questions which appeal to lower order thinking skills (LOTS) (such as ‘Is this a triangle?
How many sides does this triangle have? What do we call this shape?’) as well as
questions appealing to higher order thinking skills (HOTS) (such as ‘Write down three
characteristics of a triangle’). Design open questions to stimulate thinking, even at beginning
levels, so that learning is meaningful and challenging and incorporates higher
level thinking skills (Genesee 2007). It is sometimes helpful to prepare your questions
in advance.
Use scaffolding
Use scaffolding (see glossary) for reading, listening, speaking and writing. Graphic or
cognitive organizers and mind maps are useful. For example, ask learners to complete
a table as they watch a video on an artist, or to complete a gapped text as they listen to
you explaining about a recipe. In this way, you engage learners continually and actively.
Vocabulary
When working with vocabulary, use a variety of ways of learning it. For example, use
pictures, teach it in context (in sentences), recycle it, play word games. Be aware of the
words which you want your students to learn related to your topic, for example natural
disasters, earthquake, volcano, tsunami. Talk with your students about how they can,
guess words, for example by looking at prefixes (in-, un-, de-) and suffixes (-tion, -ent,
-sion) or by relating words to words they know in other languages. Make posters of
useful language together and hang them in the classroom as you work on a topic. Encourage
your students to focus on and use new words by saying something like “I’m
looking out for these words today: twice, divide, half as much, double”.
Feedback
A positive attitude and motivation can be related to learning English: the attitude of
students is especially important here (Genesee, 2007). Give compliments for what students
do well, in order to boost their self-confidence. It is important that they know
what they are doing well. Give feedback to learners on their work, concentrating perhaps
on one or two aspects of the topic or language. Don’t correct all their mistakes
but encourage learners to experiment with the language and try things out and be creative.
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