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My activity - My choice for a vocational school and intermediate students of English

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My activity - My choice for a vocational school and intermediate students of English

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TOPIC: EDUCATION ,  WORK AND SKILLS

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WEEK 3  JIGSAW READING   TIZIANA ANGIOLINI

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE...... TO GET MORE IDEAS ABOUT THE CREATION OF JIGSAW ACTIVITIES 

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE...... TO GET MORE IDEAS ABOUT THE CREATION OF JIGSAW ACTIVITIES 

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This cooperative-learning reading technique gives students the opportunity to specialize in one aspect of a topic, master the topic, and teach the material to group members. Asking students to work together in a Jigsaw builds comprehension, encourages cooperation, and improves communication and problem-solving skills.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE TASK
WEEK 3 ASSIGNMENT

Instructions

In this assessment your task is to construct a jigsaw reading activity for your classroom. In the jigsaw reading activity your learners will be working in groups of three.

a. Find three texts on a similar topic either on websites or in print materials.

b. Think about what task you could construct for your learners for these three texts, along the lines of the jigsaw tasks that have been mentioned in the MOOC up until now.

c. Write out the instructions for your learners.

d. Write a short paragraph (40-60 words) explaining who the learners are in terms of age, language level, and interest.

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The academic demands of Irish secondary schools are turning off many young teenagers who would fare better in vocational training, former minister for education Ruairi Quinn has said.

Speaking at an education conference in South Africa, he said Irish research showed many 13 and 14-year-olds were "switching off" for a variety of reasons.

"These include a weak educational commitment in the home, disinterest or boredom from the young student, or a disconnect with the relevance of the curriculum subjects to the life expectations of the young person and his or her peer group," he said.

"This youth cohort, according to authoritative Irish studies, is destined to prolonged periods of unemployment for many, poorly paid short periods of semi-skilled work and an overall sense of alienation.

"This in turn can lead to a life of drugs and crime, or, increasingly in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, to antagonism to foreign migrant workers who appear to be excluding them from the local labour market.

Mr Quinn said it was his strong opinion that our educational system needs to move into an educational and training area which is also about learning by doing.

"This collective group work, under supervision with trainers/teachers and active projects with completed outcomes is more engaging for the participants than the present predominantly academic system in Ireland," he said.

"It is no coincidence, in my view, that in the European Union, the member states which have the lowest levels of youth unemployment are those countries which followed the German model of vocational apprenticeships in the workplace, leading on to certified qualifications for which there is a real labour market."

Future labour markets

Mr Quinn, who was speaking at a special conference organised by the European Commission and the United Nations Development Programme, said the German system could not be simply "culturally transposed" into other countries.

Instead, new ways, appropriate to the 21st century, must be found to prepare young people for the existing and future labour markets.

"Curricular change and a closer connect between the worlds of education and life in the real world outside school can help all students, not just those likely to fall into the Neet (Not in education or employment) category."

He also told the conference that a significant minority of primary and secondary schools remain single-sex institutions.

All new schools funded by the State to meet the demands of our growing population, however, were fully integrated and co-educational

"But I should tell you that efforts to bring about school amalgamations in old established communities have met with, sometimes, strong parental opposition," he said.

"For some who may themselves be past pupils of the affected school, sentiment and nostalgia cover a strongly held view that girls will do better academically if boys are not present in the classroom.

"Leadership from the patron and the board of management as well as all the parents in both schools, is a critical component of any process that may eventually emerge.

He said the incentives to help bring that about were the attractions of a greater range of subject choice for all students, along with the improved social skills developed when young people study alongside peers from a representative mix of abilities, backgrounds, ethnicities and genders.

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Secondary schools 'too academic' for many teens, says Ruairi Quinn

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The academic demands of Irish secondary schools are turning off many young teenagers who would fare better in vocational training, former minister for education Ruairi Quinn has said. Speaking at an education conference in South Africa, he said Irish research showed many 13 and 14-year-olds were "switching off" for a variety of reasons.

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Teens who divide their attention between watching the TV and texting on the their mobiles score low marks in their exams.

A new study suggests more time spent multi-tasking between different types of media is associated with greater impulsivity and a poorer working memory in adolescents.

The study focussed on "media multi-tasking" which describes the act of using multiple media simultaneously, such as having the television on in the background while texting.

But while the activity has risen sharply over the past two decades, little is known about what kind of an impact it has on young minds.

Researchers tasked 14-15-year-olds with a questionnaire.

They were asked how many hours per week they spent on various activities including texting, playing video games, reading, listening to music and watching the TV.

The teenagers were also asked how often they combined the various activities.

Next, the participants had their dexterity, vocabulary and memory tested.

Researchers also measured how impulsive and conscientious they were.

The teenagers were also asked whether they believed their abilities were fixed or whether they could be improved.

Finally they studied the participants' scores in English and maths, using the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System.

The results showed the participants watched an average of 12 hours of television per week.

Researchers also found the teens multi-tasked between mediums around 25 per cent of the time.

The study, published in Springer's journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, showed teens who spent more time multi-tasking with their electrical devices fared significantly worse academically than others.

These teenagers also scored lower in certain aspects of their memory, tended to be more impulsive and were more likely to believe that intelligence is not malleable.

The results extended previous findings from adults and suggest the relationships between ability and media multi-tasking are already established by mid-teens.

Professor Amy Finn, from the University of Toronto, said: "We found a link between greater media multi-tasking and worse academic outcomes in adolescents.

"This relationship may be due to decreased executive functions and increased impulsiveness - both previously associated with both greater media multitasking and worse academic outcomes."

She added: "The direction of causality is difficult to establish. For example, media multi-tasking may be a consequence of underlying cognitive differences and not vice versa."

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Teens who text while watching TV 'score lowest in exams'

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Teens who divide their attention between watching the TV and texting on the their mobiles score low marks in their exams. A new study suggests more time spent multi-tasking between different types of media is associated with greater impulsivity and a poorer working memory in adolescents.

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Boys who live with books 'earn more as adults'

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"A room without books is like a body without a soul," observed the Roman philosopher, Cicero. It can also be a sign of financial hardship to come. New research has uncovered a strong correlation between the earnings of adults and whether they grew up surrounded by books as children.

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Introduction to  the  TASK- PRESENTATION

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Introduction to  the  TASK- PRESENTATION

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The task which I am going to present is based on some interesting  readings and videos which have been suggested in the MOOC course by  COURSERA which I am doing this year.  In particular I found the articles from the BRITISH COUNCIL WEBSITE really interesting to think more about what to do and how to motivate our  learners.
Here are some LINKS to websites which are worth  checking before starting  to plan  jigsaw readings:
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/making-reading-communicative
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Dycus-Jigsaw.html
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/strategy/strategy036.shtml
http://saradavila.com/front/2011/06/11/animal-habitat-reading-jigsaw/
http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-jigsaw-cooperative-learning-30599.html

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Jigsaw reading can be done in two ways

Two separate stories
If you have two news stories that share a theme - for example two separate stories on crime - prepare comprehension questions for each story. Give one half of the class (Group A) one story, and the other half (Group B) the other. The students read their article, answer the questions and check understanding. Students then pair up with someone from the other group and tell them about their story, and listen to the other one. To help students remember their story you may get them to take notes. Alternatively, the students can keep the article with them to refer to. Be careful though, as lazier (or ingenious) students will either read the article aloud, or simply give it to their partner to read!!

One story split in two
Some stories can be clearly divided in two. Follow the same procedure as above, but giving each group only one half of the story. When the students are recounting their half of the article, make sure that the student with the opening half goes first.

Once the students have orally exchanged stories, they should then read the other person's article.

As a refinement, you can give student B questions to quiz student A about their article.

Jigsaw reading is a great way to introduce speaking into a reading lesson. It provides a real opportunity for genuine communication. In real life, we may tell people about a news article we have read, so this is a classroom activity that is fairly authentic.