How I Teach Vocabulary.

I see lexis development as a process over time, just like this portfolio is a development over time.

Lexis is not a “fire and forget exercise,” but one that is slow, deliberate, and quality focused vs. quantity focused. It’s not how many new words I can cram into my student’s notebooks and short-term memory, but it is the deep processing of a few words each week – words that not only are understood by the student, but words that are used in his/her daily vocabulary.

I firmly believe that you don’t know a word until you really know a word – until you are able to explore all the possible items that could be associated with that word.

It means exploring to see if a word has a synonymn or antonym. To see if it can take a prefix or suffix. To see if it has collocations or lives in any lexical sets. It means searching for idiomatic or figurative meanings for the word. Real lexis development is so much more than knowing the denotation of the word in question. It’s uncovering what lies beneath.

I also advocate 3r’s.

Reduce: I don’t dump endless lists of vocabulary on my student. I serve small portions for purposes of quality.

Reuse: I don’t “fire and forget.” I regularily reintroduce words just met throughout the lesson. I also revist those same words often during future sessions.

Recycle: I reach back to the beginning, and bring back words that were learned weeks, months, perhaps even years ago.

I encourage and advocate the use of vocabulary words, not their memorization.

ePortfolio: How to

Just stumbled upon a vast treasure around ePortfolio and blogfolio development. To begin with I would like to explore this article, and comment on it here. Electronic Teaching Porfolios: Multimedia Skills + Porfolio Development = Powerful Professional Development. – by Dr.Helen Barrett, University of Alaska Anchorage.

Opening Exploration: Expanding the ePortfolio definition.

The ePortfolio, according to Barrett, is a process. It’s a paradigm shift from normal methods of evaluation – instant gratification via a grade, vs. the “growth over time” mindset that governs portfolio work.

ePortfolios document evidence of teacher/student competencies, and guide long-term professional development.

Barrett.

Afore mentioned competencies may be stipulated by the school, or by national standards. – The important point here is that portfolios work in alignment with these standards or competencies. They hold examples, (artefacts from here on ) that are chosen by the student, demonstrating development towards, or mastery of, a given competency.

Barrett notes two assumptions that are important to have onboard:

1.) a portfolio is not a haphazard collection of artifacts (i.e., a scrapbook) but rather a reflective tool which demonstrates growth over time; and 2.) as we move to more standards-based teacher performance assessment, we need new tools to record and organize evidence of successful teaching, for both practicing professionals and student teachers.

>> An aside: I see the ESL feild moving towards standards-based assessment and teaching. The old school is just that…old. Outdated. Marriage to course books and painful grammar memorization – the way it has always been done, is dying. (Was it ever alive?)

The updated classroom will rely on customizeation. Personalized classrooms will very likely soon be the norm, and with that huge change I think we’ll see course content and assessment practices change dramatically. Fade in: Competency based classrooms supported by porfolio development in the creation of a life-long ESL learner.

In my head, the way we work things now is geared toward mass classrooms – where one size is force fitted to all. The same book for everyone – if you’re a basic student, you study this, if you’re intermediate, this, etc. Focus is on material, not on student.

The updated classroom will be based upon standards and competencies. To graduate from basic level, you need to demonstrate that you can do this, etc. How you reach mastery will largely depend on you and your student. You can personalize.

Porfolios can act as a means of tracking progress, demonstrating mastery, and tools to identify problem areas and areas for improvement. Best of all, they are 100% personal.
>> End Aside.

Barrett identifies several important benefits to developing an ePortfolio.
– Developing technology skills.
– The chance to model and evangelize
“2. Modeling: If teachers develop electronic teaching portfolios, their students will be more likely to have their own electronic portfolios.” — Barrett
– Porfolio development process is Professional development for both teachers and students.
Here’s how:

* Collection – teachers and students learn to save artifacts that represent the successes (and “growth opportunities”) in their day-to-day teaching and learning
* Selection – teachers and students review and evaluate the artifacts they have saved, and identify those that demonstrate achievement of specific standards (this is where many electronic portfolios stop)
* Reflection – teachers and students become reflective practitioners, evaluating their own growth over time and their achievement of the standards, as well as the gaps in their development
* Projection (or Direction) – teachers and students compare their reflections to the standards and performance indicators, and set learning goals for the future. This is the stage that turns portfolio development into professional development and supports lifelong learning.
* Presentation – teachers and students share their portfolios with their peers. This is the stage where appropriate “public” commitments can be made to encourage collaboration and commitment to professional development and lifelong learning.

Intro to the Portfolio Development Process

Developing a porfolio must include the following stages:

1. The Collection stage: Learning to save artefacts which represent achievement of competencies – OR – which show an area of opportunity. (How interesting that you would include this in your portfolio.)- this is based on day-to-day learning. (Remember from last post: a porfolio is a living document that must be fed regularily in order to be effective.)

2. The Selection Stage: review and evaluate artefacts in order to id those that really demonstrate achievement of target competency.

3. Reflection: “become a reflective practitioner.” – Barrett. Both teachers and students must develop the ability to see where they have successfully mastered a competency, and where they need to do more work. This only happens when you take the time to reflect – to pause and see where you have come, where you are, and where you want to go. This can only happen when you have a portfolio – the artefact holding tool.

4. Projection: Once you are aware of what you have accomplished, compare your reflections to the standards, competencies, performance indicators etc., you are working toward and plan learning goals for the future. “This is the stage that turns portfolio development into professional development and supports lifelong learning.” – Barrett.

5. Presentation: Share your portfolio with your peers. Allows for collaboration and development of support networks. – This is where I see part of the power of blogfolios – you can instantly access a wider community and not grow in isolation. Every entry in your blogfolio could become a conversation, further deepening your learning – others can ask questions you never thought of before, you can link to deeper sources of information and include them in what you are learning…the bottom falls out, and you fly.

Quick Summary:

ePortfolios are growth over time tools.

They cache student choosen artefacts of achievement or areas of opportunity.

They are purposeful.

They are standards based, allowing for personalizeation.

They develop vital technology skills.

They provide modeling options – if you do it, your students may too.

Portfolios should develop in stages: Collect, Select, Reflect, Project, and Present.

Portfolios are lifelong learning and development tools.

Intro to ePortfolios

Portfolios: A small exploration into what they are, and how I can use them to help our teachers develop into life-long learners.

 

“Definition  An ePortfolio is a web-based information management system that uses electronic  media and services. The learner builds and maintains a digital repository of artefacts,  which they can use to demonstrate competence and reflect on their learning. Having  access to their records, digital repository, feedback and reflection students can achieve  a greater understanding of their individual growth, career planning and CV building.  Accreditation for prior or extra-curricular experiences, a sense of control over how they are represented and direction over what is shown makes the ePortfolio a  powerful tool.”

I think there are some important keywords or ideas here:

1. The learner builds and maintains a digital repository of artefacts.

2. These artefacts are stored to demonstrate competence and to aid in the reflection process.

Just from reading this simple definition by David Tosh‘s pdf report via Ben Werdmuller  titled ePortfolios and weblogs: one vision for ePortfolio development  I am able to see some key components that are missing from our PD program.

Competency statements around our training program must be developed. They must be measurable and observable – you can tell when they have been met, and the teacher’s portfolio demonstrates that they have been meet.

The second “lightbulb” that went off for me as I read this definition was that the teacher not the institution, is responsible to build the portfolio and include information, or artefacts to borrow from Tosh, that shows how he/she has met a certain level of competence. 

Quick Definition>>A competency:  describes the work related skills and behaviour needed to effectively perform in a role. Core competencies are required for all role profiles. Specific competencies are required for some role profiles.

Portfolios must be portable, and must belong to the teacher or student developing it. When teacher/student moves on from present location, he/she should be able to take their portfolio with them as a means of demonstrating what they have learned, and what they are learning.  

There is something so important that I am really…wanting to help our teachers realize: A portfolio is a way they can see where they have been, where they are, and where they should be going. I think great teaching spends a great deal of time under the microscope of reflection. I want to encourage passionate and engaged teachers. I think portfolios are a great tool to help accomplish that goal. 

Development and maintenance are the key activities in the success of an ePortfolio,  enabling a student to actively engage in their learning and progress. By maintaining  their own ePortfolio a student reflects on what they are doing and have done and  considers why they are doing it and the reasons for understanding of the direction a student wants to pursue.

-Tosh.  

Key words from that quote:

Development and Maintenance: I think I need to spend time educating around proper useage of a portfolio: this is a living thing that must be followed up with, or it will just die. It’s like a life cache.

So far, I think many of our teachers have simply not grasped the idea of what a portfolio is, and how useful it can be. The fault is a lack of education around them. Maybe a session around portfolio development would be helpful.  

Active engagers: It’s so easy for teachers to just switch into glide mode. To be sucked into the current of their lives, their busy schedules, their commute times, class prep time, family time, fun time, that the whole idea of being “actively engaged” in the teaching/learning process becomes history. Real teachers never cease to learn.  

Regular reflectors: I’ve realized many things about how I teach by simply taking some time to…THINK about what just happened in the previous class. Portfolios are great for this, they provide a space to record those thoughts, those questions, those self-explorations that are so vital to development. I think a portfolio could be a launch pad for action research – a place to identify where areas of opportunity exist, and a place to store findings as a result of research, as well as record results of application in the classroom.

If the portfolio were a blog…now that is an interesting thought. The teacher/student could post their reflections, action research, personal mapping (where I was, where I am, where I’m going). The interesting thing here is adding a whole other diminsion to the portfolio: The diminsion of community. The social portfolio, where the owner is not developing in isolation, but inside a community of practice.

Other teachers can read developments, and offer praise, suggestions, advice, feedback etc. to further aid the development process.

My action step, from what I’ve been reading so far: Educate more. I need to continue learning about portfolios and how they can/could/have been deployed.  I need to share about portfolios with our teachers, and explain what they can do, how they can enable a teacher, and how they can encourage growth.