Integrated+Unit+Cottrell

Even-though I am not currently employed and I am looking for a special education position, I found this course to be invaluable. Many of the students I have worked with have a variety of language difficulties and have many parallels to ESL students. By taking into account the culture which my students come from I can better relate the current content to their experience. No matter what subject you are teaching using the four language domains (reading, writing, listening and speaking) provides a good basis for a solid lesson. When I plan my lessons I will always make sure to have my students perform each of these skill sets around the content. This easily allows me to address a variety of learning styles and provide repeated exposure to the skill at hand. I believe the most important strategy I learned from this class was to make sure my lessons are based on real-life situations. The closer I can relate the new skill to what my students are used to on a day-to-day basis to quicker, easier, and more completely they will learn that skill. Learning can sometimes feel like an uphill climb during a blizzard, but having a well prepared teacher supporting you like snowshoes can make the experience into a winter wonderland.
 * Self-reflection statement:**



Interactions 1 is the listening and speaking component of a complete language learning system. Interactions combines the use of topics that are based on real life and the use of extended verbal interactions to help students. The authors use a system of activate ting prior knowledge and previewing vocabulary that allows students to link what they know with the material to be learned. Students spend time listening to native speakers on a provided CD and listening to their peers speak. Students are given opportunities to practice with given lines and create their own language. Interactions covers a wide variety of topics that students will require to be successful in life. They cover things such as: Cooking and buying food, school life, entertainment, sports, and even other cultures. These topics will provide students with the basic language they will need to live full lives. Ten chapters comprise the depth of Interactions 1. Each chapter provides a basic overview of what will be learned the leaves much to be desired. The authors start each lesson by having the students think about and share what they know about the situation they are about to learn about. They preview the vocabulary so that students will have an understanding of any new words they encounter. Students then repeatedly listen to passages listening for different information each time. Students usually work in pairs to practice using the skills they’ve studied. Students are asked to roll-play a provided situation that serves as excellent practice. The format is easy to follow and provided full color pictures. No websites were provided with the text. This text is certainly lacking in this area. Students are required to learn a large amount of vocabulary across the entire book but it is broken up into salient sections. They need to be able to listen to spoken language and pull a variety of information from it. The students evaluate the language they hear. Students are required to practice a large variety of interaction styles and situations. They spend almost half of the class practicing speaking with their partner, the teacher and the class as a whole. This is the first in a series of texts. It is aimed at beginning level students but in my opinion requires a large amount of language to even use the text. It seems to be appropriate for most school aged students. Interactions 1 covers a variety of interrelated themes. The themes are based on common situations the students will find themselves in on a daily basis. There is a chapter on school life, nature, health, media, social life, sports, and food. The content is a bit simplistic but it is designed to be a beginning text. Most of the class activities in Interactions 1 are pair based. Partners practice using the language they’ve just heard used. They create their own language by using the prompts from the text. The students are challenged to take a photograph and provide dialog for it. At the end of each section the class role-plays many of the situations they have worked on. The student are again provided a picture and asked to base their role-play on it. This text does not provide homework for the lessons. There are a few Cloze notes activities that could be used as an assessment by the teacher. The text provides the students with self-assessments but no formal tests. The teacher will be observing the pair interactions, and role-plays to assess the student’s mastery of the skills.
 * Class assignments:**
 * LISTENING & SPEAKING **
 * Textbook Evaluation //__Interactions 1 Silver Edition; Listening/Speaking Judith Tanka and Paul Most.__// **
 * Theory **
 * LAYOUT **
 * WEBSITES **
 * LINGUISTIC CONTENT **
 * THEMATIC CONTENT **
 * CLASS ACTIVITIES **
 * HOMEWORK **
 * TESTING ACTIVITIES **

Each lesson starts with students discussing what they already know about the theme of the lesson. This could provide the class with a chance to review pertinent and previously learned information. There are no formal review sections in the text. The students could use the role-plays to practice language they have previously mastered. This text did not provide any expansion ideas or additional activities. This text is certainly lacking in this area. There were no ideas for special activities provided by the text. This text is certainly lacking in this area. Each student will need to have their own copy of the text. In addition they will need individual access to a CD player and headphones. The teacher may want a projector to show the text pictures to the class as a whole. No other equipment is needed. The units are not connected in a linear fashion. The only commonality that they have is that they are common, day-to-day situations and themes that relate to the personal life of all students. The students could complete the chapters out of order with no real impact on their learning. This text provides the basics of listening and speaking. It leaves much to be desired but is based on a solid foundation on interactions. A creative teacher could use this text and expand upon it to enrich the student’s learning.
 * REVIEW ACTIVITIES **
 * ACTIVITIES NOT USED **
 * SPECIAL ACTIVITIES **
 * EQUIPMENT REQUIRED **
 * CONNECTIONS BETWEEN UNITS **
 * COMMENTS **

Interactions Access is a text that uses a variety of strategies to help students learn. They focus on real life content that helps the students connect to the language. They activate the student’s prior knowledge, cultivate critical thinking, graphically organize information, and scaffold the instruction so that students can quickly and easily master the skills. By using these strategies mixed with student interaction the text provides opportunities for students to go beyond the lesson. The text is broken up into 10 chapters. The chapters cover a variety of topics the many of the students will have personal access to. The topics covered range from community based, to work, and even to dreams. The chapters do not progress linearly and might even be used out of order. Chapters have a consistent layout throughout the text. They begin by having students discuss what they know about the topic at hand. The students preview the vocabulary so they are not confused by it when they encounter it. The students then read a passage or short article and answer questions based on it. They then work in pairs discussing what they read and finding information in the passage. No websites were provided with the text. This text is certainly lacking in this area. Students are required to demonstrate a variety of linguistic skills in this text. They need to identify parts of speech, main ideas, pronouns, details and vocabulary. Often the students are asked to fill in blanks or properly complete sentences. They need to be able to identify new words and use strategies for deciphering the meaning. The text assumes that the students are at level 3 or 4 in the language used in the text. Students read phrases, passages, articles and even fragments. They do not spend a great deal of time with extended reading. The themes are based on common situations the students will find themselves in on a daily basis. There are chapters on topics such as: family, shopping, cities, food, work and nature. They do not follow a linear progression and could be used out of order if desired. I was surprised to find that one topic is e-Commerce. The activities in the text are group based. The focus on interacting with others based on a topic. As an example, they fill out a travel questionnaire and discuss with each other the results. Many of the group activities are having students read the same passage and work in groups to complete a graphic organizer based on the topic. Students also write in their journals about their feelings about the topic and what they learned. The text provides and audio CD so that students can read along. This text does not provide homework for students. It could be easily adapted by the teacher. This text does not provide any formal testing materials. The teacher could easily any of the lesson sections as an assessment. The student are completing sentences, defining vocabulary, and filling in crosswords. The teacher could use any of these as a way to check for understanding. Students are asked to complete a self-assessment In each lesson there is a reviewing vocabulary section. The students either complete the sentence, or otherwise define the word. Students are asked at the beginning of each lesson to discuss what they already know about the topic at hand. In many of the lessons there is an extension section that could be used to provide additional opportunities to practice newly learned skills. Many of the extension sections are similar to the lesson in that they are fill-ins, and sentence completion for the most part. This text does not provide content for special projects. Students will require a personal copy of the text and if needed access to a CD player and headphones. There does not appear to be any linear connection between chapters and topics other than they are all real-to-life. Students are often asked to use their prior knowledge and build upon it. Interactions provides a good way to mix reading with interaction. Students do not spend much time actually reading passages but they do spend time deriving information from what they read. This text is a good foundation for a creative teacher who might add to it in the way of homework and extra projects.
 * READING **
 * //__ Interactions Access Reading by Pamela Hartmann and James Mentel. __//**
 * THEORY **
 * LAYOUT **
 * WEBSITES **
 * LINGUISTIC CONTENT **
 * THEMATIC CONTENT **
 * CLASS ACTIVITIES **
 * HOMEWORK **
 * TESTING ACTIVITIES **
 * REVIEWING ACTIVITIES **
 * ACTIVITIES NOT USED **
 * SPECIAL PROJECTS **
 * EQUIPMENT FOR ACTIVITIES **
 * CONNECTION BETWEEN UNITS **
 * COMMENTS **

**Text review: grammar** **//__Interactions 2 Grammar__// by Patricia Werner and John Nelson** **Theory** Interaction 2 Grammar is the grammar component of a complete language learning system. This text uses a combination of activating prior knowledge, repeated exposure, group work and discussion to help students develop grammar skills. These aspects allow students to easily grasp concepts and for the teacher to know where their students stand. The students are repeatedly asked to apply what they have already learned to new situations. Interactions 2 Grammar covers a wide variety of real life topics that students will easily relate to and use day-to-day. It covers topics such as: school life, money, work life, preferences, and cultural diversity. These topics are geared to students who have a considerable amount of the target language already (level 3-4). Interactions 2 Grammar is broken into 10 chapters. Each chapter starts with a pre-discussion of what students know of the topic at hand. The chapters continue by laying out the grammatical rules the students are to use. They repeatedly practice this skill in a variety of ways. Sometimes they are completing the sentence, other times finding errors, they work on short stories, and even use [pictures and diagrams. They work in pairs and discuss what they have learned and help each other to gain a more complete understanding. The students share with the group so that all students benefit from varied perspectives. The format is repeated in each chapter so that the students know what to expect and can feel comfortable stretching their skills.
 * LAYOUT **

The authors provide an online version of the teacher’s manual at www.mhhe.com/interactionsmosaic. Students are required to learn skills across all aspects of grammar. They cover topics such as parts of speech, conjugation, proper punctuation, error analysis, and spoken word. Students are required to rewrite passages and make corrections as they go. They often discuss what they’ve learned and provide examples. Students spend a large amount of time working in pairs to complete sentences and short stories. They spend time especially with verb conjugation. This text requires the student be fairly proficient in the target language and is appropriate for school aged students and older. Interactions 2 Grammar covers many interrelated themes. Each chapter focuses on a different theme and set of grammatical skills. Chapters have titles such as: City Life/ Nouns and Articles, Jobs and Professions/The Present and Past Perfect Tense and New Frontiers/The Passive Voice. The themes range from school, city, and work life. Business, lifestyles, preferences, culture and even rites of passage are used to help the students connect to the skills they are learning. Students spend most of their time working in pairs on workbook like activities. They complete Cloze sentences, rewrite passages and discuss the topics. At the beginning of each chapter the class discusses a picture of the theme they will be using. This activates the student’s prior knowledge and helps prepare them. At the end of the chapter the class again discusses the theme and the skills they have worked on. In my opinion there are not enough class activities. This text does not provide homework for the lessons. There are no formal testing materials provided by the text. There are several permanent product activities in each chapter that a teacher can use as an assessment. It certainly provides the teacher with a basic understanding of the student’s progress. Class discussions also serve as a way for the teachers to check for understanding. Teachers can also circulate during pair work to assess student achievement. In each lesson the text provides several sections of review. Near the beginning of each lesson the students review pertinent skills and information. The students repeated go back over previous skills so that they are sure of them and prepared for the coming lesson. Every 3 chapters the lessons start with extended review of past skills. There are several activities devoted to review allowing students a chance to catch up and the teacher an additional chance to assess student learning. In addition, each chapter stats with a class discussion that can be used to quickly review topics. This text did not provide any expansion ideas or additional activities. This is an area of deficit for this text. There were no special activities or projects provided by this text. Each student will require their own copy of the text to use as a workbook. The teacher may want to use a projector to show things to the entire class to spark discussion. The chapters are not presented in a linear fashion though similar themes are adjacent to others. The only commonality they have is that they are real life situations the students will find themselves in on a regular basis. This book provides an in-depth look at proper grammar. The lessons are a little too cookie cutter and can become monotonous. There are no expansion ideas or homework. The strategies the text uses may be effective but will not provide for a rich learning experience. A savvy teacher could use this text and make a large amount of adaptations and additions. The series of text I reviewed all were similar. They provide a decent beginning but would require quite a bit of teacher adaptation to be truly useful. When I found the series I thought it would be a bonus to have all the lessons be similar but now wish I had used a variety of texts.
 * WEBSITES **
 * LINGUISTIC CONTENT **
 * THEMATIC CONTENT **
 * CLASS ACTIVITIES **
 * HOMEWORK **
 * TESTING ACTIVITIES **
 * REVIEW ACTIVITIES **
 * ACTIVITIES NOT USED **
 * SPECIAL ACTIVITIES **
 * EQUIPMENT REQUIRED **
 * CONNECTION BETWEEN UNITS **
 * COMMENTS **

Here are the text reviews I did for EDUC 547 Here is a link to the Supermarket cultural unit plan
 * Documents:**