A Theme-based, Blended Learning Approach to Teaching Authentic Readings

A Theme-based, Blended Learning Approach to Teaching Authentic Readings

Introduction

I started using English before I could speak Korean and liked to study English

Therefore, I majored in English Language and Literature in my undergraduate degree This was a great experience for me and I decided to pursue English teaching, as a career To follow my goal, I applied to the Graduate Schools of TESOL at HUFS in order to become a better teacher This portfolio represents my experience as a student and reflects my attitude to teaching

This portfolio shows what I have found most valuable and worthwhile throughout teaching English Instead of teacher-led lecture class in school, I realized the powerful learning method by cooperative and collaborative group activities and trying to make lessons personal It begins with a teaching approach, describing my theoretical background and methods Furthermore, focuses on theme-based instruction, collaborative and cooperative learning, blended learning, and student-centered classrooms And I created a unit plan to fulfill the idea above

The theme of the unit plan is Ocean Pollution It gives opportunities to students to think about the ocean pollution we are confronted with and offers solutions to prevent the disasters we are making With regard to the activity design, students will do different types of interactions and be cooperative with a high participate rate Lesson one gets students to think about the importance of the ocean and basic knowledge of the ocean Lesson two helps student to predict the reasons of pollution and what causes do human make Lesson three allows students to realize how the pollution affects the global environment and lastly, in lesson four, students come up a solution of ocean pollution and make examples to help revive the ocean’s ecosystem The final part of my portfolio comprises an assessment that measure students’ understanding and an educational website (www.bluebirdvillage.com) that students will access and use throughout the unit

My goal as a teacher is to make every student enjoy learning language, build confidence, and gain knowledge I hope my students will feel happy with learning English and become a successful language learner Learning second language is time consuming, frustrating, and difficult but I am sure it is worth it.

Teaching Approach

Theoretical Background

Constructivism has become one of the biggest influences on language teaching in the last twenty-five years The current interest in constructivism follows a theory that links learning with creating meaning from the leaner’s experience (Duit & Treagust, 1998) In the 1960s, with behaviorist education practice, educators experienced the frustrations, which led to the emergence of constructivism and constructivist ideas In behaviorism, teachers are fully responsible for the leaner’s performance, but this idea started to fade for many reasons such as the complex context of the learning environment and the poor performance from students In contrast to behaviorism, constructivists argue that knowledge is not passively received but built up by the learner (Von Glasersfeld, 1995) For this reason, constructivists switched the priority from knowledge as a product to knowing as a process

Constructivism is a learning theory that states that learners construct their own knowledge by themselves There are two main principles to fulfill constructivist pedagogy One is that it should be designed as learner-centered Every educational need must focus on the learners Second is that knowledge can’t be passive; it should contain learner’s experience or background knowledge (Duit & Treagust, 1998)

“Social constructivism focuses on an individual’s learning that takes place because of their interactions in a group” (Harder, 2010, p 103) Students bring their rich prior experiences, background knowledge, and principles that they use in constructing new understandings Nowadays, teachers recognize the power of student interactive, collaborative and cooperative class activities in learning For example, classrooms these days are designed to have students work in pairs or partners, as well as to share their opinions in whole class discussion activities

Many researchers have shown that social constructivism is an effective means to learn a second language Constructivism is an active process and learning is situated (Merrill,

1992) It emphasizes that instead of passive learning, active learning is effective Piaget

(1973) states that expansion of knowledge is the result of individual constructions made by the leaner’s understanding In Korea, Kim (2005) found in his study that academic achievement of students improves in constructivist teaching environments Traditionally in Korean classrooms, students were expected to agree and obey unquestioningly to the teacher

However, this view is beginning to change Teachers are starting to believe that their students should participate actively in class, join in interactive language learning tasks and become autonomous learners Autonomy requires responsibility, since being autonomous requires students to account for their actions (Shapiro & Koren, 2007) Littlewood (1999) states that learners should take responsibility for their own learning It is because first, under any circumstance, all learning should deal with the learners themselves, and second it is because even though leaners finish their formal education, they need to develop the ability to continue learning For encouraging learners to improve their achievements and learning processes, it is important that teachers and educators recognize the learning styles and strategies of their learners Lester and Onore (1990) claim that a teacher’s beliefs about teaching and learning affect the learners in these ways

Under constructivism, Vygotsky’s concepts of zone of proximal development (ZPD) and scaffolding have influenced how we think about knowledge and how it develops, which has influenced classroom instruction The ZPD is defined as the gap between the actual developmental level and the level of potential development and solving problems with help from an adult or in working together with more capable peers (Vygotsky, 1978)

Vygotsky’s theory does not mean that teachers can teach anything to the learner; development is possible only when the instruction and activities that are suitable for the learners are within their zone promote development The teacher must make activities that incorporate what learners know and also what they can learn with the help of more capable peers (Karpov & Haywood, 1998) Teachers should understand students’ current proficiency level and how much they can they acquire If the concepts are too difficult and complex for the students, then they can’t learn them

Next, scaffolding, which is directly related to constructivism, is support that helps learners successfully complete a task based on their learning ability For example, when a toddler starts to learn to walk, parents hold their hands for help Then after walking, parents don’t help any more That is an example of scaffolding When no longer needed, it is removed The reason we use scaffolding is because it provides for a supportive learning environment for learners In a scaffold learning environment, students are encouraged to ask questions, provide feedback and support their peers in learning new content This process encourages students to take a more active role in their own learning Students take part in the responsibility of teaching and learning through scaffolds that make them move up in their current knowledge levels Through this interaction, students are able to take ownership of their own learning

Burch (2007) did a case study on scaffolding One of the main aims of the study was to examine the achievement of scaffolding to the young learners in literacy learning Another purpose was to recognize the use of scaffolding techniques as young learners extend their knowledge for reading and writing in the classroom setting It was discovered that the implications for instruction and student learning were remarkable Young learners learn written language with their prior knowledge and background and the individuals they encounter “It is this social interaction with adults and peers in writing and reading contexts that provides them opportunities to manipulate and explore language especially print on their own” (Burch, 2007, p 48)

Scaffolding allows student to gradually develop their reading and writing skills to become more independent As learners construct their own knowledge, become more and more independent, and self-manage their own learning, their problem-solving skills develop (Clay, 1998) However, it is important that too much support shouldn’t be provided so that students can continue to make decisions for themselves independently and feel confident

Next, the noticing hypothesis is relevant in learning language with constructivism Schmidt (2004) introduced the noticing hypothesis and stated, “noticing is the necessary and sufficient condition for the conversion of input to intake for learning” (p 17) The noticing hypothesis is relevant to learning language with textual enhancement because textual enhancement is a technique that makes highlighted aspects of the input more noticeable The important point is that even though the target language is provided, learners are in charge of their own acquisition They are responsible for their own learning To bring learner’s attention, one way to make the context more noticeable is to use textual enhancement Goldschneider and Dekeyser (2005) stated that when the input is made physically noticeable, it attracts more attention from the learner, which will lead to the process of the input becoming easier

Teaching techniques such as textual enhancement include bolding, color-coding, underlining, italicizing, capitalizing, and using different font types and sizes to attract more attention from learners (Doughty & Wiliams, 1998) These types of noticing attention will lead to the learners to recognize the target objectives and to process them for more efficient acquisition (Robinson, 1995) Shook (1994) did a case study to investigate the effects of textual enhancement In the study, he found that participants who were exposed to textual enhancement (bold and capital letters) did better than others When learners read an article, and if it includes highlighted target language, students can easily understand that the word is important Even though learners don’t understand what the word or grammar structure is, at least they can notice the linguistic feature Noticing will influence subconsciously as time goes by and the awareness of the target language will be learned However, Schmidt (1994) claims that input alone is not sufficient for language acquisition It is more important for learners’ to have intake out of the offered input Therefore, with textual enhancement, learners must try to understand the linguistic features by themselves and engage with them in a productive way With the new words and grammar from the comprehensible input, learning is reinforced Learners must practice with their peers or groups and recognize how the target language is used

Last, in a constructivist classroom, there are many affective factors that need to be accounted for Affective filter was first introduced by Dulay and Burt (1977) and is incorporated into Krashen’s Input Hypothesis (1985) Krashen stated that there are four factors that influence SLA, and that anxiety and motivation are especially important to consider because if learners’ responsibility is high, anxiety influences a lot in language learning Research has shown that anxiety is an important factor in second language learning MacIntyre (1999) states that language anxiety occurs when learners are worried and have negative emotional reactions while acquiring or using the second language

Steinberg and Horwitz (1986) found that more anxious students used less explanation in describing unclear tasks compared to less anxious students That is, high-anxious students tended to make less effort to speak about difficult subjects in the target language This shows that anxious students experienced the fundamental problems in learning vocabulary (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991) Additionally, Gardner, Lalonde, & MacPerson (1987) noticed that anxious students tended to have smaller word production than the less anxious students, and Steinberg and Horwitz (1986) noted that learners’ speech seemed to be less complex

Most language learners experience a feeling of anxiety during their L2 study To support the idea, Raisati (2001) researched language-learning anxiety from EFL leaner’s perspective Raisati wanted to know how anxiety influences L2 learners Moreover, he wanted to find out the factors that hinder or negatively affect language learning and reduce anxiety Participants experienced some degree of anxiety and stated that language-learning anxiety posed problems for their performance Raisati mentioned that there are several factors that cause anxiety The biggest anxiety they felt was by the teacher and peer’s negative evaluation When the participants were not ready in advance, during class anxiety was high The important factor from the case study is that learners said that with a little help, the teacher and peers could reduce their anxiety The teacher should make the classroom stress-free as much as possible so that students can learn the material confidently In the article, participants point out that the teacher has an important role in reducing anxiety for the student Teacher should make extra meetings for students so that they will feel more at ease with the teacher, and this will lead to a friendly environment Additionally, teacher should help students to worry less about passing or failing the course

Teaching Methods

Each teacher has his or her own way of teaching a second language The teaching style must match the student’s needs and it should be properly adjusted in the lesson schedule All four language skills are used throughout unit However, students who I am teaching want to especially focus in reading therefore it is mostly emphasized With this information, I adopted cooperative and collaborative learning, theme-based instruction and blended learning in the unit theme Ocean Pollution

Cooperative learning is a teaching method that connects with the ideas of constructivism outlined in Section 2.1 above, in which small groups of students work together to achieve a common goal to maximize their own and each other’s learning (Johnson and Johnson, 1994) Students share information, help, and achieve their learning as a group According to Vygotsky (1978), interactions with peers are an effective way of developing skills and strategies, noting that with cooperative exercises, less competent students would get help from the more skillful students

There are many benefits when students work together First, students will learn more being active rather than by simply watching and listening by the teacher Second, weak students working individually often gives up when they are stuck, but with in groups they have to go on Strong students explaining to the weak students will find gaps in their own understanding and fill them in during activities Third, students often delay their assessment when they work by themselves but in the group the chances are low Fourth, students have more opportunities for critical thinking as they can exchange different ideas Fifth, students improve in their oral communication skills as they practice during discussion Last, students can get more personal feedbacks while working collaboratively Thus, my unit plan includes many activities in which students work together For example, during the reading activity, students will work in groups to make the reading article in order With exchanging information to each other, this strategy will enable students to improve social interaction Students are clarifying ideas and negotiate during the class and save time solving difficult tasks

Another collaborative activity is the student “dictionary” After they finish each lesson, students will make their own dictionary through the class website by adding new words in the glossary activity This will help students to be proud of their effort in making it, thus increasing their motivation

To encourage students to work cooperatively, the activities will be theme-based Theme-based is using the teaching materials, learning materials and classroom activities with a particular topic or theme (Lúðvíksdóttir, 2011) Its main goal is for students to acquire second language competence by working on certain topic areas (Briton, Snow & Wesche,

1989) Brown (2001) states that theme-based instruction is practical and promotes effective language learning It gives students opportunity to acquire English by using the language in meaningful and authentic contents Yorks and Follo (1993) suggest that students learn better from thematic, interdisciplinary instruction than from a traditional, single-subject curriculum This method of teaching links on learners’ interests, creating a sense of purpose and community in the classroom By building on their interests it will increase learners’ motivation To choose themes for a language course, we have to consider their interest potential and appropriateness for students Additionally, the teacher must think students’ need and requirements so that students will not get bored during the lessons

Under the unit Ocean Pollution, the theme is likely to be interest and relevant to students of their age Students have a bit of background knowledge from mass media and at school they learn about pollution briefly Because students already acquired the knowledge, it can activate previous schemata By using real news and website articles, authentic materials can be used in real classroom situation During the lesson, students will learn something As students learn the subject using their second language not only they will gain knowledge but also they will develop their linguistic ability in their target language In my portfolio, students will study about ocean pollution They will acquire the knowledge of the ocean pollution and learn in their target language, English Students can use language to fulfill the purpose, which can make students both more independent and confident Moreover, students can become motivated as they become familiar in the topic The students I am teaching want to develop a much wider knowledge and with rich content it will improve and support their general educational needs

With the theme-based instruction method, the class will be student-centered To make classes student-centered, the teacher’s role is very important Teacher must be a facilitator, and not just stand in front of the class giving knowledge to students A facilitator is an instructor who leads the class in pair work or group activities based on the material covered Allowing students to identify and correct their errors, solving the problems by themselves is important By revising their mistakes, students can learn and understand their weaknesses and strengths and develop their knowledge If the lessons are student-centered, students will engage more actively rather than be passive Also, students will assume more responsibility for their learning and participate their best to understand the lesson

Finally, the unit plan incorporates blended learning Williams, Bland, and Christie

(2008) define blended learning as a “combination of traditional face-to-face learning and distributed learning, the latter of which is an instructional model that allows lecturers, students, and content to be in different locations” (p 43) Access to learning is one of the key factors influencing the growth of distributed learning environments (Bonk, 2002) There are many benefits using combining blended learning during class Blended learning systems provide an opportunity for reaching a large, globally spread people in a short period of time

A learning management system (LMS) is a good resource for blended learning, because it can be used to support learning in classrooms LMS enables students to manage students’ pace and access to course content It can include forums, quizzes, lessons, blogs, and video tutorials In my unit plan, there is a clear learning sequence using the combination of the in-class activity and on-line class activity For the pre-class, students do a lesson activity and watch a short video, which contains 4-5 questions By completing the answers, students can gather information of what they will learn and do more energetic activities during class Also, it is very useful for visual and auditory learners, so it accommodates students’ different learning styles With their background knowledge, students will do a reading activity and then exchange opinion within groups Last, adding new words in the glossary activity will be the post online activity Like I mentioned, blended learning is well integrated in the unit plan and its flow is clear and logical

Creating a leaner centered environment for students is very important in acquiring second language Under the theme-based unit plan, teachers must make sure that students participate in all activities and motivate student’s ability Try to combine on-line and in-class wisely.

Unit Plan

The Learners

All students are between the ages of 13 and 14 Students are currently enrolled in first/second grade of junior high school Two of them are 13 years old and other two are 14 years old Among four, one 13 year-old and one 14 year-old are sisters They are all girls and they have been learning together for more than two years All students started their English from Elementary School That means they studied more than 6 years Some of them have studied abroad in English speaking countries from one month to three months All students are interested in Korean idols Before class, they always talk about their favorite singers and exchange information about the singer’s schedule For ice breaking, we often talk about them Also, they are all stressed for many exams during their daily life Therefore, I try to make their homework simple and less stressful Students go to other institutes to learn math, science, Korean, and history For this reason, I tend to make the content related to build extra knowledge Students are sometimes shy to speak in English They have a lack of confidence and their personalities are generally quiet To make them communicate well, most of activities are in groups Another important thing is, even they are above average in exams, they think English is a boring and difficult subject

All the students want to have good grades for school English exams, so the unit plan on Ocean Pollution has a strong reading component However, not only reading is emphasized, but also other four language skills, such as listening, writing and speaking are used while they are learning

Students all have similar levels Their listening proficiency is the highest because of the exposure of listening to the teacher for a long time At some point, I think their levels are advanced-low but especially with science context in this unit, their level would suit intermediate-high (ACTFL, 2012) In speaking, their proficiency level is intermediate-mid I personally think they can approach to a higher level if they were less embarrassed Reading is their strongest language skill Like most Korean students, they are trained with reading skills and matching the answers for grammar or comprehension questions Even though they get the right answers, I don’t think they understand the reading articles perfectly Moreover, with the difficult vocabulary, their level will match intermediate mid Lastly is writing The four students have difficult time writing Memorizing just the meanings of the vocabulary and grammar without how it works in a sentence is very challenging Moreover, it takes student such a long time to write a short paragraph Therefore, their writing proficiency is intermediate-low

General level of English proficiency

Language Skill Proficiency Level Descriptions

Listeners are able to understand, with ease and confidence, simple sentence-length speech in basic personal and social contexts

Speakers are able to handle successfully a variety of uncomplicated communicative tasks in straightforward social situations Conversation is generally limited to those predictable and concrete exchanges necessary for survival in the target culture

Readers are able to understand short, non-complex texts that convey basic information and deal with basic personal and social topics to which the reader brings personal interest or knowledge, although some misunderstandings may occur

Writers are able to meet some limited practical writing needs They can create statements and formulate questions based on familiar material Most sentences are recombination of learned vocabulary and structures These are short and simple conversational-style sentences with basic word order

Note Adapted from to the ACTFL Proficiency Standards (2012)

The Learning Environment

The class is designed one time a week Each class is fifty minutes in duration The duration is flexible so if the students are struggling, the class goes a bit longer The classroom layout is simple Each two desks face another two desks, making a square Teacher generally sits near students to check their understanding Most of the time, students study with their partners or in groups of 4 Near the student’s desk there is a white board and a laptop computer Teacher is responsible for bringing his or her own laptop computer With the laptop computer, teacher shows the class homepage (www.bluebirdvillage.com) In the right side class, there are books for students to read and the left side there are materials such as glue, paper, scissor and a homework calendars The atmosphere is very bright so that the students feel comfortable and calm There are no assigned textbooks The teacher provides all materials such as reading articles, reading comprehension, worksheets (vocabulary) and flashcards (grammar) Also the teacher makes a short video

A unique aspect of the learning environment is the educational website Students will use the course LMS before class and after class There is one pre-activity using lesson activity, which students will watch a video and answer questions The video lasts 3-4 minutes with 5-6 questions This will give students a brief understanding about the lesson For the post activity, students will use glossary activity Each student will add 2-3 words in the glossary activity After the whole lesson, students can get a rich class “dictionary” and this will expand their awareness of the lesson and teacher can check their understanding through students work

When students learn in small groups, the cost is expensive For the result, students’ parents have great interest and high expectation in learning English Sometimes, parents become over-invested However, some parents are trying to put less pressure on their children, but others still give huge stress These parents often call to check the student’s English level, and complain how they aren’t studying with an appropriate attitude These experiences cause the student to develop low self-confidence and anxiety As a teacher, it is important to gain parent’s trust Giving them plenty feedbacks on student’s note or homework and quarterly meeting will meet parent’s need Nowadays, students sometimes talk about their friends’ English institute and compare their English levels Their friends were going to an institute in Kangnam and were reading a more difficult book All four students also take extra English classes in a big institute However, they think if they go to Kangnam, they will get better grades in school and become more fluent in English It is important to make all of my students interested and help them to build their motivation.

Unit Goals

Our oceans are the lifeblood of Earth They flow over nearly three-quarters of our planet, and hold 97% of the planet’s water No matter how far from the shore that you live, oceans still affect your life and lives of your families and friends Especially, our country is a peninsula, therefore it is necessary to undertake a unit on Ocean Pollution and learn about the importance of the ocean and study about the pollution which human makes Also, it is necessary to study because the theme will be taken in junior high school Studying in advance for scientific knowledge will meet students’ interest and their need of learning Thinking about different causes and effects, following by focusing on solving problems in groups, students will gain an understanding that we have to protect the ocean and be responsible for it This thematic unit on Ocean Pollution is organized into the following lessons

• gain a better understanding of the ocean and the importance of what resources we get form the ocean

• identify the ocean pollution causes and effects to our eco-system

• develop learning strategies through practice in using: classification, sequencing, comprehension and self-assessment

• discover various organizations that protects the Earth

• learn a variety of vocabulary terms that pertain to the theme of Ocean Pollution, and also learn many parts of speech (noun, adjectives, verbs, etc.)

• learn how to use a variety of grammatical structures

• learn how to use various discourse styles such as summarizing and expressing an opinion

Learning Threads

Overview of content, language, and language skills

- article about different kinds of resources, which can get from the ocean

- video about oceans and what are their features

(atmosphere, nutrition) and verbs (circulate, devise) related to the resources what we get from the ocean

- use passive and superlative in-class reading – reconstruct reading article and exchange information speaking – share their opinion with their groups online listening – watching a short video writing – add words in the glossary

- article about different causes of threat to our eco- system

- video about the world’s largest oil spill

- use nouns (urine, sewage) and verbs (suffocate, dissolve) related for the ocean pollution

- use passive and non- referential

‘it’ in-class reading – reconstruct reading article and exchange information speaking – share their opinion with their groups online listening – watching a short video writing – add words in the glossary

- article about why the ocean pollution is serious to us

-video about how it affects to ocean marine animals

- use nouns (gill, sonar) and verbs

(decompose, migrate) related to the effects of the ocean pollution

- use relative clauses and conditional sentences in-class reading – reconstruct reading article and exchange information speaking – share their opinion with their groups online listening – watching a short video writing – add words in the glossary

- article about solutions, which we can do to save the ocean

- video about global organizations help solving the ocean pollution

- use nouns (gutter, drain) and verbs (compost, prevent) related to the solution of the ocean pollution

- use future tense and imperatives for advice in-class reading – reconstruct reading article and exchange information speaking – share their opinion with their groups online listening – watching a short video writing – add words in the glossary

The use of authentic materials in an EFL classroom is what many teachers involved in foreign language teaching have discussed in recent years Rogers (1988) defines authentic materials as appropriate and quality in terms of goals, objectives, learner needs and interest and natural in terms of real life and meaningful communication Authentic materials are significant since it increases students’ motivation for learning, makes the learner be exposed to the real language as discussed by Guariento & Morley (2001) Therefore, the unit Ocean

Pollution covers authentic content throughout the whole lesson

Moreover, matching students’ need (to a more academic study), reading and speaking is required The content matter of subjects appropriate to students’ grade level and the topic is familiar so it won’t scare them With many group projects, students can improve their weakness and be confident eventually From the theme Ocean Pollution, not only students will learn knowledge but also they can build responsibility and understands that Mother Nature requires special attention A general-to-specific perspective is employed For instance, in lesson one, students learn the importance of the ocean and try to figure out what significant resources do we get from the ocean In lessons two and three students explore the cause-and- effect relationship of the ocean and the seriousness of it Finally, in lesson four, students brainstorm the solution and think how they can solve the problem

Lesson 1: Importance of the Ocean

Why is the ocean important?

What resources do we get from the ocean?

What is the biggest oil spill?

Why is the ocean polluted?

How does ocean pollution affect the global environment?

Why is it so serious?

Lesson 4: Ocean Pollution Solution What are organizations doing to save the oceans and marine life?

What can we personally do to help revive the ocean’s ecosystem?

Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning a language The more words you know, the more you will be able to understand what you hear and read A leading linguist Nation (1974) noted vocabulary is not an end in itself A rich vocabulary makes the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing easier to perform Vocabulary is fundamental in second language acquisition Because of the students’ need of having a strong reading class, the unit is designed to focus on learning vocabulary They will repeatedly go the learning vocabulary by each class At the end, students will be confident using the new words and they can always go back to the “dictionary” whenever they don’t know the word

Textual enhancement enhances the saliency of input in written or oral texts capturing learner’s noticing of targeted forms and thereby enhancing their acquisition (Sharwood-

Smith, 1991) Therefore, in my lessons, all vocabulary that the student will learn will be

“bold” If the letters are bolded, students will be more likely to notice it It will immediately let students notice something about the language that they might not notice on their own way Additionally, not only single vocabulary but also formulaic language will be learned

Formulaic language refer to multiword or multiform strings produced and recalled as a chunk, like a single lexical item, rather than being generated from individual items and rules (Hickey

○adj irreplaceable, essential, first of all, in detail, as you can see

○adj fatal end up, no matter how, for example, in conclusion

○ adj inevitable let’s check about, on the other hand, in short

○ adj genetic whenever you want, bottom line, make sure, such as

Grammar is the backbone of language and must be understood in order to communicate effectively Long and Richards (1987) stated that grammar plays a central role in the four language skills and vocabulary to establish communicative tasks In the unit, as reading is emphasized, learning grammar is necessary Therefore, same as the vocabulary, textual enhancement will be used

With regards to the theme Ocean Pollution, throughout the reading articles, all grammar structures will be “underlined” Moreover, there is repetition and overlap of grammatical functions For instance, in lessons one and two, students use modal verbs and in lessons three and four, students practice using conditional sentences Hence, throughout the lesson plan, students are able to repeatedly practice specific grammar structures in various tasks that will naturally lead to a better understanding

(it can be…to drink)

Present Perfect (has been purified)

Conditional Sentence (if they are not…)

Conditional Sentence (if we can reduce…)

The four language skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening are highly interconnected and, therefore, cannot be taught independently Listening and reading both rely on input from an outside source and require knowledge of the language, background knowledge, and comprehension skills The productive skills of writing and speaking are more complex as they require taking knowledge of a language a step further to actually produce new language (Anjum, 2012) All four skills are needed to successfully integrate into an environment is used

Hence, under the theme Ocean Pollution, the four language skills are integrated throughout the lessons in natural and complementary ways All lessons starts with a listening activity before class using lesson activity Students can build background knowledge to make the reading activity more smoothly In class, the primary material is based on reading, however, not only it focuses on reading but also speaking in pairs and groups are required After they study the lesson, students will do writing such as adding new words in the online glossary activity

Rearrange article about the resources we get from the ocean online – extra text resources to read

Completing worksheets for vocabulary and grammar Glossary activity for their homework

Listening to a video about different oceans and answer several questions

Group discussion and exchanging their opinion

Rearrange article about the causes of the ocean pollution online – extra text resources to read

Completing worksheets for vocabulary and grammar Glossary activity for their homework

Listening to a video about the biggest oil spill and answer several questions

Group discussion and exchanging their opinion

Rearrange article about the effects of the ocean pollution online – extra text resources to read

Completing worksheets for vocabulary and grammar glossary activity for their homework

Listening to a video about the seriousness of the polluted ocean and answer several questions

Group discussion and exchanging their opinion

Rearrange article about the solution of the ocean pollution online – extra text resources to read

Completing worksheets for vocabulary and grammar glossary activity for their homework

Listening to a video about the global organizations and answer several questions

Group discussion and exchanging their opinion

Lesson Plans

The lessons for this unit Ocean Pollution progress from the broad information of the theme to a more specific and detail facts For instance, students will learn about the importance of the ocean first and then identify the facts of pollution and how it affects to our eco-system After learning the evidences, students will make up a solution This sequence of events allows the students to think logically and rationally

For the sequence of instructions and tasks, the primary goal is to give a wider knowledge for all students and sharing opinions, contributing orally as well as to produce extended reading Therefore, teacher will first give instructions for students and then students will take charge For example, each lesson, teacher will gather brainstorming from students and explain the topic briefly By reading articles, students will interact and communicate with their pairs or groups and modify the understanding and try to rearrange the article by their own language The four lessons are linked together; therefore, the unit is easily understandable for students

Activities and tasks can help students with learning language and building their relationship with their pairs or groups From the relationship in the classroom, students will eventually expand to their daily life and social situation Integrated-skills approach to teaching is an appropriate way to facilitate communication, since in real life the skills occur together, not isolated (Littlewood, 1982) Therefore, various tasks and activities, which integrate four skills, can build confidence in school life and further in acting in real condition Regarding the activities, most of the activities in Ocean Pollution are making sequences of the reading, comprehension checks, and discussion They are based on cooperative group work and communicative activities For example, in the glossary online activity, students will add 3-4 words each and this will eventually make a class “dictionary” Students will understand the benefit of collaboration Within these tasks and activities, it provides students to practice reading, listening, and speaking skills Moreover, completing these tasks, students will produce a greater amount of language than they would use in teacher-led activities

13 to 14 aged junior high school students

SWBAT identify different kinds of resources, which can get from the ocean

SWBAT summarize and exchange information relating to the article

SWBAT share their opinion with their groups

SWBAT recognize and use nouns (atmosphere, nutrition) and verbs (circulate, devise) related to the resources what we get from the ocean

SWBAT use passive and superlative

2 desks (one person per desk) are faced to another 2 desks making a square shape (total 4 desks) As for technological materials, one computer for teacher is set prior to class A whiteboard to write down student responses to teacher’s questions will be needed Students must prepare their own dictionary Plus, all worksheets and flashcards are prepared before starting class

Students must login the class website (www.bluebirdvillage.com) and do one activity, which is “Intro” Under the “Lesson One”, students must click the banner and read directions and complete all the work before class

Time Sequencing of Activities Interaction Focus Resources

1 Teacher mentions about the online before class activity and elicits vocabulary from students

What was the video about?

Can you remember the names of the ocean?

2 Introduce the topic of “Important of the ocean” by asking the following questions:

Do you remember your first impression of the ocean?

Have you had a special experience related to the ocean?

3 Teacher gives worksheet #1 Student works in individual and match each word and definition

4 Ss check their partner’s answer and practice the sentence using the speech bubble

5 Teacher gives grammar practice and with pairs, student reads the overview of the grammar using follow the instruction

6 Teacher gives pieces of reading article to students It is divided into 4 pieces Students must make them in order

7 Teacher gives reading comprehension worksheet First, students do it by themselves and then check their answers with pairs

8 Students share their opinions/feelings with their group

After reading the importance of the ocean, does your impression on ocean changed?

Can you think other resources rather than the article?

9 Teacher summarizes the learned vocabulary and grammar points

10 Teacher talks about next week class.

Teacher tells students must do the listening activity under “Lesson Two” pairs group pairs group

L grammar practice reading article questions discussion questions whiteboard

Students will add 3-4 vocabulary, which they have learned throughout the lesson in the “glossary” activity in the website

Can you imagine a hot shower without shampoo and breathing without oxygen? From your room to the whole nature, you cannot find anything unrelated to the ocean In here we will think about the importance of the ocean in four reasons

First of all, the ocean can hold and circulate more water, heat and carbon dioxide than the atmosphere Ocean plants produce half of the world’s oxygen, and then these amazing waters absorb nearly one-third of human-caused carbon dioxide releases In detail, Oxygen is the most important resource we get from the ocean (A) More than half of our Earth’s oxygen is made by Phytoplankton Ocean takes heat from the sun and keeps our planet’s temperature in relative balance

Secondly, ocean also provides human with many kinds of food resource such like fish and shellfish They are a significant source of protein for human (B) When you think about your daily meals, from salty seaweed to sweet scallops, you will realize that the ocean gives us an irreplaceable, renewable source of food and nutrition And these are one of the most essential food resources for healthy eating Besides seafood, several ocean ingredients are used in making peanut butter beer, soymilk and frozen foods (C)

Thirdly, you can find ocean ingredients flowing out of your medicine cabinet to help fight viruses and other diseases These ingredients are not just for medicine but it is also good for beauty Fish scales are used for collagen of skin lotions and seaweed is processed for skin cream (D) These are the most essential items for our daily life However, these would not be around in abundance or at all if it weren’t for the ocean and some special organisms

Lastly, metals such as gold, copper and many others are also involved in ocean ingredients The ocean is actually one of the greatest sources for metals Diamonds, gold, silver, metal is found in greater number and quality in the ocean rather than on land (E) Even though mining the ocean is still quite difficult, many scientists and engineers are trying to devise better technology with effective process With advanced technology, oceans will be giant source for industry in the future

As you can see, ocean is always around our life Without the ocean, our beautiful weather, foods and medicine, even our basic life would not be possible Thus, as a part of the huge nature, we should concern more about the ocean and try to keep it clean

A Why is the ocean very important for the earth? Choose right answer

1 Because the ocean can produce heat for us by making much carbon dioxide

2 Because phytoplankton can be nutritious food for our daily meals

3 Because we can get some buttermilk from the ocean for making peanut butter

4 Because, the Ocean is related almost all things on the earth from the air to chemical ingredients

B Find some items, which are not related to the ocean

1 A skin cream, which contains some rose oil

2 Some Chocolate flavored ice cream

3 A plastic spoon, which colored like shiny silver

4 A shampoo, which is scented with the lemon

C Decide whether that sentence is true or false

1 The ocean covers more than half of the planet ( T / F )

2 All of the oxygen is from the ocean ( T / F )

3 Ocean takes heat from the sun and keeps the temperature balance ( T / F )

4 The ocean make the earth be less hot by keeping heat ( T / F )

5 The ocean is giant source for metals like gold and silver ( T / F )

6 Mining the ocean is as difficult as doing on the land ( T / F )

D Look at the five letters (A, B, C, D and E) that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the reading material Where would the sentence best fit?

It is estimated that approximately 25 percent of all protein consumed by people comes from fish Besides seafood, oceans are connected to what you eat in many more ways

• • the envelope of gases surrounding the earth or another planet atmosphere

• • more continually or freely through a closed system or area irreplaceable

• • the process of providing or obtaining the food necessary for health and growth nutrition

• • impossible to replace if lost or damaged essential

• • plan or invent by careful thought devise

Synonyms flow, without price, air, food, priority, move around, sky, worth, come up, compose, daily bread, important

Use the synonyms to describe each term

A superlative is a form of an adjective or an adverb used for comparison

The superlative form of an adjective or adverb can be formed by:

- Adding the suffix -est if the word has one syllable

- Preceding with most (or least) if the word has more than one syllable

- Scan the reading article and underline 2 examples using _+est and 2 example using the most (ex He is the most intelligent person.)

We use the passive form to say what happens to people and things, to say what is done to them For example:

- The car is being repaired

We use the passive form when we don't know who did the action For example

- The car was damaged while it was parked on the street

- The shirts were made in Japan

We use the passive form when what was done is more important than who did it For example:

- It was approved by Kim last week

- I was informed by the manager only two days ago

- Scan the reading article and circle 4 examples of passive voice

What is an example of ? superlative passive

• Make notes if you want

• Remember to use the vocabulary and grammar that we learned in the lesson today

1 After reading the importance of the ocean, does your impression on the ocean changed? (positive or negative)

2 What resources do you get from the ocean?

3 Can you think other resources rather than the article?

The Pacific Ocean is the biggest ocean of the world and covers more than 30% of the Earth’s surface The name “Pacific” come from the Latin word: “pacificus” which means peaceful So Pacific Ocean means peaceful ocean The lowest known point on earth is called Challenger Deep and is located in the Pacific Ocean near Guam in the Philippine Sea and the depth recorded is 11,035m

The Atlantic is the second biggest ocean in the world and is between the continents of America and Europe and Africa The Atlantic Ocean is about half the size of the Pacific Ocean and covers roughly 20% of the Earth’s surface However, it is growing in size as it is spreading along the Mid-Atlantic Coast Did you know that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the longest mountain range on Earth? It spreads from Iceland to Antarctica beneath the Atlantic

The Indian Ocean is located between Africa and Austral-Asia The waters of the Indian Ocean provide the largest breeding grounds of the world for humpback whales and also a fish, which was thought to be extinct The Northern Indian Ocean also is the most important transport route for oil as it connects the oil-rich countries of the Middle East Each with Asia Every day tankers are carrying a cargo of 17 million barrels of crude oil from the Persian Gulf on its waters

The Arctic Ocean is located around the North Pole across the Arctic circle There are many polar bears living on the Arctic ice The lion’s mane jellyfish can also be found in the Arctic Ocean’s waters It grows up to 2.4m across and lives on plankton and fishes

The Southern Ocean is located around the South Pole across the Antarctic Circle in the Southern Hemisphere off Antarctica The Southern Ocean is the home of Emperor

Figure 1: Online Lesson one activity “Intro”

13 to 14 aged junior high school students

SWBAT compare world’s largest oil spill

SWBAT summarize and exchange information relating to the article

SWBAT share their opinion with their groups

SWBAT recognize and use nouns (urine, sewage) and verbs (suffocate, dissolve) for the ocean pollution

SWBAT use passive and non-referential ‘it’

Assessment

From the achievement test, it is easily to check student’s progress and accomplishment Not only students can get feedback from the teacher but also students can check their weakness as well As, the achievement test, teachers can show it to the parents too Students who I am teaching and their parent want to have a clear grade for their test The total score for the test is 100, and each point per question that students achieve is written on each question In the case of short-answer and discourse completion questions, partial score is allowed

Content able to present own opinions with ample reasons in detail and in an organized manner with confidence able to present own opinions with proper reasons in detail and in an organized manner able to adequately present own opinions with proper reasons in an organized manner unable to present own opinions with proper reasons

Vocabulary able to easily use a variety of verbs, adjectives, nouns, and collocations in several contexts able to use a variety of verbs, adjectives, nouns, and collocations with occasional mistakes able to adequately use a variety of verbs, adjectives, nouns, and collocations unable to use a variety of verbs, adjectives nouns, and collocations

Grammatical structures able to elaborate sentences using proper conjunctions, relative pronouns with confidence, or sequential markers with ease able to elaborate sentences using proper conjunctions, relative pronouns, or sequential markers with occasional mistakes able to adequately elaborate sentences using proper conjunctions, relative pronouns, or sequential makers; unable to elaborate sentences using proper conjunctions, relative pronouns or sequential markers;

1 The ocean pollution is important to all lives on the Earth Because… (5) a Ocean is one of the most beautiful parts on the planet b Animals cannot live without sea salt c Creature cannot live without fresh air and water d Ocean makes most carbon dioxide by storming

2 Why are the oil spills seriously harmful to the ocean? (5) a Oils on the ocean surface do not dissolve, it stays on water b Oils suffocate birds and seals c Sticky oil makes fish blind and not be able to swim in right way d Oil also gets caught in the throat of sea birds Thus birds cannot swell prey

3 We learned how used water could be harmful to the ocean Considering the context, select proper word in those below sentences about wastewater (Each 5)

In [a Developed countries / Developing countries] this wastewater [b is stored / is treated], cleaned and [c dumping into / dumped into] the sea or river Even though they [d dump /are treated], they are never the same as fresh water

4 Considering the food chain, choose the suitable word from vocabulary box to use in the blank below (Each 5)

[a ] can have an adverse effect on the food And we eat the food Heavy metals and other

[b. ] can accumulate in seafood and make it [c. _] to eat Some of environmental organizations monitor this contamination and also [d. _] seafood safety tips pollution Helpful Fishing provide environmental grow contaminants harmful plants eat shrimp solve

5 How can rubbish pollute the Ocean? (5) a All types of rubbish are decomposed too fast to clean up b Since paper is consisting of torn trees, ocean cannot purify pieces of trees c Animals cannot live in the water contaminated by the rubbish d Oxygen reduces by decomposing rubbish in the water

6 Read the flowing statements and rewrite them using relative pronoun ‘which’ (5)

We can think about the oil spill

Oil spill has been one of the biggest causes of the ocean pollution

7 Why oxygen levels are important to the ocean? (5) a When carbon dioxide levels go up, the number of marine animals decreases b When oxygen levels go down, it is difficult for the marine animals to survive c Oxygen level means the poison level of industrial and agricultural wastes d High oxygen level can decompose oils on the ocean

8 Read the flowing statements and rewrite them as conditionals (5)

As birds can move and fly well, their hunting and feeding children is not difficult

9 How many items from the ocean do you have? Look around you and find items!

Collecting items from the ocean, write the reason why your item is related with the ocean Give 3 examples (10)

Ex) Coins: metals are founded from underground in the ocean

10 Why is it so serious to us if the ocean is polluted? Write more than 2 examples (10)

11 Write about three things you can personally do to save the ocean (10)

3.6.3 Unit Achievement Test Answer Key

1 c Every creatures cannot live without fresh air and water

2 a Oils on the ocean surface do not dissolve, it stays on the water

3 In [a Developed countries / Developing countries] this wastewater [b is stored / is treated], cleaned and [c dumping into / dumped into] the sea or river Even though they [d dump /are treated], they are never the same as fresh water

5 d Oxygen reduces by decomposing rubbish in the water

6 We can think about the oil spill, which has been one of the biggest causes of the ocean pollution

7 b When oxygen levels go down, it is difficult for the marine animals to survive

8 If they cannot move well, their hunting and feeding children will be much difficult

9 Various answers are possible with proper connection to the ocean

Ex) Tuna Can: Tuna is from the ocean and with tuna we can have tuna sandwich

Vitamin: Many vitamin ingredients are from the ocean

10 It is serious because if the ocean is polluted local marine are extremely harmed

- Oil doesn’t dissolve and it stays on the water surface and suffocates fish

- Oil spill gets on the gills and feathers to animals and it makes them difficult to fly

- Harm the food chain and this affect human as we eat fish

- Changes the sound of the waves

11 One of the main ways to reduce marine pollution is

- When we throw rubbish, we have to get rid of it carefully

- Save water Fresh and clean water is precious Don’t waste it

- Carry a reusable shopping bag instead of plastic bags.

Educational Website Analysis

The spread of social media and technology has changed the way teachers and students communicate The learning environment is no longer limited to traditional classrooms Using the Internet, students can get more opportunities to interact with their peers and teacher Therefore, I strongly believe that blended learning can open up a new learning system

Blended learning is an essential program in which a student learns at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control (Horn & Staker, 2013) There are many advantages using blended learning First, learner’s academic progress is closely monitored so that it is very personal Second, learner has the opportunity to learn in his or her pace and receive credit through assessment Third, learner must take responsibility for his or her own learning Last, learner has a closer relationship with the teacher or groups and this will gain a greater understanding or individual needs

To adopt blended learning in the unit plan, it should be wisely decided Blended learning is a combination of different learning techniques To make blended effective, it must be well designed so that which content must be learning during class and which might be better suite as digital content Moreover, the online activity and in-class activity should overlap The online activity should be obviously connected to the in-class content In my unit plan Ocean Pollution; blended learning is implemented well, as shown in Figure 5

• Build background knowledge from the video in a lesson acitivty

• Optional PDF reading online before class

• Study vocabulary from the video

• Share opinions within their groups in-class

• Practice vocabulary from the online before class and in- class activities in the glossary activity

• Optional PDF reading online after class

Figure 5: Structure of blended learning in the Ocean Pollution unit plan

As a online pre-class activity, technological modules such as Lesson and PDF file can allow students to study and understand the lesson before class at their own pace Each lesson in this unit plan contains a lesson activity With the same learning flow, students understand they have to do “Intro” at the beginning Under “Intro”, students watch a short video and answer the following questions To make the lessons consistent, each video last about 3 minutes and have 4-5 questions When learners answer the questions, if they get a wrong answer, they can’t move to the next page Learners have to watch the video again and get the correct answer At the end, if wanted, students can check how many answers they got correct at the first time

Additionally, learners will feel confident when they get the correct answer at once From the short video, students can grasp the background knowledge and guess the lesson topic before coming to class Furthermore, students can study in their own paces

Without the time limitation, students can reduce anxiety and build a higher motivation

It will also build students’ confidence in them as online and independent learners

Additionally, students can go back to the pre- online activity after they learn from class If students had difficulty when they were listening at first, with extra help in class, students can understand better

Figure 7: Extra information reading material

Another helpful online pre-class activity or online post- class acitivty is using PDF file

(see Figure 7) Students can get text resources for extra understanding Teachers can add materials or contexts that can’t teach during class because of the time issue With the context, students are provided with an overview of what they will do in class Because it is posted online, students can refer back to it anytime they want

For the online post-class activity, it is designed for collaborate group project using glossary activity (see Figure 8) Through the glossary, each student will add new words that they have learned in class or before online class Students can see glossary in the class website for each lesson Each student must add 3-4 words after the lesson The words can’t be duplicated It must be new words At the end of the unit, it will be the class “dictionary” Students can go through the glossary whenever they want They can go through before they start a new lesson or review for a perfect understanding after the class Glossary is very important because it offers a learner-centered pedagogy Students are in charge of their studies and responsible for their work As it is a group project, students will work together It will increase the understanding of content and provides greater motivation to stay on task

Blended learning is about finding better ways of supporting students in achieving the learning objectives and providing them with the best possible learning and teaching experiences (Bath & Bourke, 2010) Teacher should be aware of several important parts before applying online tasks to make the use of educational website successful One caution is that students may not be familiar with using educational websites Therefore, I designed the website simple and easy to start Another thing will be that some students might ignore the website and think it isn’t useful To make the website beneficial, all on-line work must be mentioned and learned in class Last is the lack of support Students can be lost or need help

Figure 8: “dictionary” glossary activity when they are working by themselves In order to avoid the problem, all techniques must be simple and the instructions must be clear With the consistency of the lesson designed, throughout the unit plan, students will easily understand after the first lesson Plus, there are clear instructions on each activity with an example Students can follow the direction and complete the task

Students are willing to learn differently these days Teachers must understand what students want and how they want to be learned Educational website proves to be a successful key in converting the traditional class Teachers must fully use the advantageous aspects of the technical modules and overcome the limitations