Platform

    Endorsement Platform

Section I. Language development and Learning Dynamics

The dynamics of learning a language differ from one person to another.  There are a number of factors which influence the process such as motivation, like, inborn ability, and requirement.  This means that the learning experience of every student in class is going to be different.  Therefore, educators should design lessons which attempt to reach the most students.  The first step prior to instruction is getting to know who students are.  Biography cards provide a lot of information regarding students’ backgrounds and the body of knowledge they bring to class.  This information is greatly helpful at the moment of planning effective lessons related to students’ stories and interests.  When students are exposed to topics that sound familiar to them or they feel expert at they are more likely to get engaged and actively participate and share in class. This way they are bringing their identity to classroom and the affective filter is reduced as well. 

In order to find out where students are at regarding language development, I have used diagnostic written and/or verbal tests in the form of short interviews and placement tests.  The interpretation of this    pre-assessment has helped me  identify the stages of language acquisition my students are at. From my experience I know that a group of students belonging to the same grade level might exhibit a great diversity regarding students’ readiness. While some students are already able to understand messages, participate in conversations and write stories, others are just getting immersed into the pre-production stage.  This diversity of the students’ level of performance interferes in the development of the lesson if the right strategies are not selected. Having a deep understanding of the stages of language acquisition enables me to properly address every student’s needs. 

For example, students can be grouped by similar stages within the second language acquisition SLA process.  Those who are in the pre-production and early production stage might gain confidence and the more advanced students might go further.  According to the circumstances and objectives of the lesson more advanced students might be placed within a group of students in the earlier stages so that they educate each other. It is important that the strategies fit the level of the students and help them to go to the next step by scaffolding.  For instance in the pre- production stage I plan to use visuals and gestures to point and show as much as possible so students understand what they are required to do without translating.  I think that especial emphasis has to be placed on listening comprehension through read-alouds, music, videos, or any multimedia supporting material. Error correction should be minimal.  Modeling correct use of language usage is a better way to reinforce learning when students make mistakes.

In the next stage, the early production, I have to provide students with opportunities to produce simple language by asking them yes/no or either questions. Pair or group work to discuss a problem is also another opportunity for students to produce without feeling afraid of making mistakes. Have students repeat phrases adding modifications help them to gain confidence, develop vocabulary and fluency.  For example students read the phrase: I feel hungry now then they repeat and modify the phrase.  I feel tired now. Students getting into the speech emergent stage should be introduced to more academic vocabulary and modeled how to use it in context.  They should be encouraged to make connections between the content they are learning with their background, retell stories, and create narratives which make sense to them.

As students walk through the stages, more complex thinking processes are developed.  In the upper levels I anticipate to create opportunities for students to discuss content, make inferences, give opinions, compare, analyze and synthesize information. In this process, explicit vocabulary instruction is necessary.  Most textbooks offer a list of vocabulary according to the grade level.  However, EFL learners might need further vocabulary instruction.  There are words that might interfere in students’ comprehension of a text.  Besides, minimal error correction especially in the earlier stages contributes to lower students’ affective filter. The key to success is scaffolding.  Students have to receive comprehensible input so they can fulfill the task required without feeling frustrated or bored. Having a deep understanding of the Bloom’s taxonomy is equally important at the moment of planning lessons which help students walk through the stages of language acquisition.  I have to be careful not to challenge students beyond their current abilities.  Students who are just starting to learn will develop the basic thinking processes: recall and understand information. As instruction goes on more complex processes are developed. For instance, beginner students start by listing classroom objects.  Students show their understanding by pointing objects around the classroom.  Later on they use the new words in sentences.  At this point they are applying what they have learned.  Then they can compare objects. For example I might require my students compare in which ways a pen and a pencil are similar and different and decide which one they prefer and why.  This way, students are analyzing and evaluating.  In other words, they are developing higher order thinking.

Once students have come to master the basic interpersonal communicative skills BICS, this knowledge can be used as a bridge toward the development of more complex academic language.  The teachers have to design activities that lead students to use more complex vocabulary, expressions, and structures.  The process has to be gradual and scaffolded.  For instance, providing students with formulaic expressions such as: In my opinion… I consider…. I strongly agree because…..facilitates students ability to spontaneously interact.  In the same way, teaching them how to use linking words, how to turn a verb into a noun, and encourage them to always use adjectives are just few tips that help students to move from the informal  use of the language to a more formal one.  Another way that teachers can help students to develop academic language is by exposing them to genres like poems, politics, science, stories, and other disciplines.

 Section II. Preinstructional Student Assessment and Elaboration

First step before starting formal instruction is to know where students are at.  Based on my knowledge of formal and informal pre assessment I plan activities and select strategies that meet my students’ individual needs.  I have used Biography cards for this purpose.  These cards provide valuable information about students concerning their background, interests, and family.  I have also used other strategies like cultural quilt, mosaics, my life in six pictures in order to gather information about my new students.  These strategies have helped me to get to know who my students are regarding their personal lives. Getting an overall understanding of my students’ world also contributes to foresee potential problems in class.  Students coming from broken families are usually the motive for low achievement, bullying, or violence.  I have experience that when I know the difficult situations that a particular student is going through, I feel better prepared to address the problems that might emerge and eventually help that student to overcome difficulties.

Another valuable source of information is parents.  School conferences and home visits provide pertinent and accurate details about students.  I can ask questions like: is there anything I need to know about your child? How does your child feel about learning English? Does he like it or not?  Does he have friends and like to socialize or is he rather an introvert?  Has he learned any English before? Does anybody in your house speak English? during the conferences. In Ecuado  rian schools, teachers have a scheduled time reserved for parents’ conferences.  This is a great opportunity for parents to get involved.  Most parents are mainly concerned about their children’s academic performance.  I usually tap into this opportunity to go beyond and inquiry more about personal issues especially when I talk to the parents of struggling students.  

About academic performance, teachers in Ecuador are required to administer a diagnostic exam at the beginning of the school year.  The results of these exams are the basis for the planning of content for the first unit.  Understanding the skills, experiences, and knowledge that students bring to school is extremely relevant for teachers to be able to help students make connections between their prior knowledge and the new content concepts.  I prompt my students to elaborate on their prior knowledge and experience by giving them the opportunity to always connect the new concepts with their own life experiences.  For instance, I use to ask my students to bring personal objects that tell about them for their introductions the first week of classes or when providing examples I usually use popular names, sports, music, or movies that students are familiar with.  If they are required to prepare an oral presentation, they are given the opportunity to choose the topic they like or feel more confident with.  When teaching a new topic, I have students write everything they already know about the topic.  At this point L1 and pictures are allowed.  Then I introduce key vocabulary.  I find vocabulary quilt very useful for this purpose because students have the opportunity to activate background knowledge about the vocabulary they will need.  Then students make connections with what is being taught for further practical application. These learning experiences are really meaningful for students. This process of activating, connecting and applying permits students constantly make sense of new concepts and apply them immediately.

 I strongly believe that team work produces more effective results.  One way in which I can collaborate with my colleagues to develop authentic and useful assessment is by sharing my knowledge and understanding with them. I can tell them that students are more than a white paper where we teachers are going to write.  They need to understand that all experiences, knowledge, and skills students bring to school play an important role in the process of teaching and learning.  Basing the planning of instruction on the level of students’ academic performance exclusively prevents teachers from designing lessons which impact students, keep them motivated and engaged, and produce meaningful learnings. I think that a professional development community where teachers share their experiences and more expert professionals teach alternative strategies for the benefit of students is a must for every school. 

Section III. Instructional Planning and Implementation

In order to help students to develop their potentialities, there is a number of factors that we should consider at the moment of creating the instructional planning.  We need to define where students are in terms of sociocultural, academic, cognitive, and linguistic development. One important area I consider when I start planning is students’ biography focusing on their culture. Students come from different backgrounds and have different needs.  Some students might have failed previous courses and lack self-confidence.  Some students might feel strongly identified with a particular social group and have their own beliefs.  Some might be deeply motivated to learn English while others simply find it difficult and useless.  The knowledge of my students’ background enables me to use pertinent illustrations, class discussions, comments and activities which produce meaningful learning experiences.

 My understanding of how far my students have gone regarding academic knowledge permits me to choose strategies that allow more advanced students to grow and prevent those in early stages from feeling frustrated.  To do so, planning scaffolded tasks contribute to students’ development according to their individual readiness.  It is my job to create conditions in which my students have the opportunity to be challenged and move on to a new zone of proximal development and encourage the learner’s autonomy.  For instance, instead of saying read this paragraph and answer the following questions, I plan to scaffold the task, break up the learning into chunks. For this particular assignment, first I preview the text with students, and discuss key vocabulary. Once they have gotten familiar with the topic I propose different activities students can choose.  Choice boards give students the opportunity to express their learning through a variety of tasks.  Activities should be carefully designed in order to reach the most students’ learning styles, interests, and level.

 Regarding cognitive development, for students who are more academically talented is easier to go through the levels of thinking of Bloom’s model. However, for those students who are less academically ready, the process might take more time and practice.  Even though these students are starting to master recalling and understanding thinking processes, they still need to be challenged to go further and develop higher order thinking skills like applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating.  Therefore, tasks have to be planned in such a way that more advanced students do not give up in frustration or boredom when activities are limited to lower thinking processes or less academically ready students feel threatened by activities they do not feel confident with.  At the moment of planning instruction I have to carefully consider how many of my students are the different levels of language acquisition.  For example, the fact that I have five students in the advanced fluency stage, few are in the intermediate stage and most of them in the earlier stages helps me to make decisions on how to group students in a way that everyone has the opportunity to develop their abilities.  I usually reflect on the TPSI technique to break the class into groups.  I have found that sometimes, explaining the lesson as a whole class can be beneficial, while others working in partners is much more productive. In other circumstances small groups can be even much more efficient.  From my experience I can say that providing individual attention to students who are struggling is much more beneficial than having them work in groups.

 In the Ecuadorian context linguistic diversity is not a big deal.  All students speak Spanish as their first language.  Public schools teach English as a foreign language EFL.   Therefore, students do not struggle with content areas due to the language. However, teaching English in an environment where students do not really see the need of it can be challenging.  My biggest concern as an EFL teacher in a Spanish speaking country is to get my students motivated to learn.  The knowledge I get from my students’ backgrounds is the basis for me to boost my students’ interest for learning. I have used music, movies, books, or singers they like to develop my lessons.    From experience I can say that those students who have developed their Spanish literacy and have a high cognitive development are better English learners because they transfer the concepts and ideas to L2. In the same way, those students who poorly use Spanish enormously struggle when learning the second language.  This is a clear evidence of the ice berg theory proposed by Cummins.

Having identified who students are and at what cognitive and academic level they are I construct my teaching planning. My lesson plans reflect the objectives and strategies I intend to use. Having clear objectives contributes to students’ learning.  Before beginning instruction I let my students know what it is expected from them at the end of the course.  At the beginning of every lesson I tell my students how and what we are doing during the lesson. At a certain point I even tell them why we are doing a given activity so they are aware of the process of learning.  By doing so, little by little students get used to activate higher mental processes and apply them on further situations.  Eventually they will develop autonomy and self-efficacy. 

In Ecuador, mixed ability classes are very common.  After the pre assessment, I usually find that most students are in the speech emergence stage, few in the pre instructional and very few in the intermediate or advance fluency stage.  This panorama requires me to look for strategies that help those less academically ready students and encourage those on more advanced stages to continue learning.  Some strategies I plan to include in my instructional planning are using native language, differentiating instruction, and scaffolding. 

The use of native language is somewhat controversial.  Some experts suggests that the fact that two languages are different, the habits of L1 would interfere with L2.  However, more recent research claims that bilingualism has some positive influences of L1.  Obviously, negative transference will occur as well.  However, the number of positive transference is greater.  When students are learning a second language, inevitable they will compare and contrast L1 and L2 as they try to understand words, sentences, and patterns.  Based on this research based belief I am not afraid of using L1 in class particularly when learners are just starting their second language acquisition. During the first stages I would warn students that they will be challenged to hear and use the most English possible but they are still allowed to use L1.  I think that allowing L1 contributes to lower the affective filter of students which otherwise would become a barrier to acquire the language.  However, the use of L1 has to be limited to extraordinary situations.  Before making use of it I usually try mimic, drawings, or circumlocution to convey a message.  From my point of view the greatest benefit of allowing L1 in an EFL class is the possibility to find out what experiences and knowledge students bring to class.

Differentiating instruction is another strategy that facilitates the process of learning and teaching mix ability classes.  In spite of the large number of students per class in Ecuadorian schools, differentiate I  instruction becomes essential in order to help all students succeed. To do so, I think that teachers have to consider what students need before planning instruction.  The answer to this question is flexible groups, choices, and tiered assignments.  I anticipate personalizing learning through flexible grouping.  Those students, who are ready to move on, work together and are benefited from more advanced tasks. On the other hand, those who need extra support are given the opportunity to work on more basic activities.  The different learning styles are also considered at the moment of grouping.  While a group of bodily kinesthetic learners might better fulfill a task in certain occasions, a multi ability group of visual, musical, kinesthetic learners could collaborate one another to successfully finish a product. Giving students choices is another way to differentiate instruction. I can do so through tiered assignments. I plan to incorporate project menus, learning centers, and choice boards in my teaching.  I consider that when students have a varied menu of activities to choose, they are more motivated to accomplish them.  They are more likely to go further and get interested in learning beyond class instruction. For instance, some activities for a learning center might include the role play of a story, the creation of a song, or a poster, or a debate which challenge every student’s particular learning style or interest.

Scaffolding strategies will definitely be incorporated in my repertoire of strategies. Scaffolding helps students to progressively move to stronger understanding and avoid students’ frustration and ultimate failure. For example if students do not master basic verbs required to understand a reading text, I use scaffolding to incrementally improve their mastery of verbs until they are able to independently use strategies to learn verbs.  Scaffolding contributes to reduce negative emotions and self-perceptions students might experience when trying to accomplish a task that is difficult for them without the assistance of a more knowledgeable person.  I know that not all my students learn at the same pace.  It is essential that I am aware of those students who are not ready to move on in order to provide them with the necessary support.

Now that I have set clear objectives and selected pertinent strategies I design my lesson plan.  It clearly exhibits the three main phases: Activation, connection, and affirmation. In order to activate the prior knowledge, I usually plan activities like making predictions, small groups and whole class discussions, pictures descriptions, story- telling among many others.  The BDI strategies such as DOTS charts, mind maps, vocabulary quilt, U-C-ME chart, listen and sketch and so on offer templates that allow me and my students to follow the process.  When the content of the lesson is presented students connect the new knowledge to the prior one.  This connection guarantees the understanding and assimilation of the content.  If students do not have a place in their brains where to connect what they are studying, learning will simply not happen. For the affirmation step, I challenge my students to come up with new illustrations regarding the lesson taught, give their personal opinion, make questions, summarize the content, or make  posters, graphic organizers.  These activities are oriented to encourage higher order thinking processes.

The more students are asked the more opportunities they have to develop their ability to analyze, criticize, make judgments, and summarize information. These mental processes contribute to the cognitive growing of students greatly. One important aspect during instruction is grouping. I usually reflect on the TPSI technique to break the class into groups.  I have found that sometimes, explaining the lesson as a whole class can be beneficial, while others working in partners is much more productive. In other circumstances small groups can be even much more efficient.  From my experience I can say that providing individual attention to students who are struggling is much more beneficial than having them work in groups.   

Section IV. Authentic Assessment of Instruction and Students Progress

Assessment is defined as a group of strategies used to identify what students know and what they are able to demonstrate (Herrera, Morales, & Murry, 2013).  In my classroom, I have been evaluating my students in the traditional way.  The strategies were limited to paper and pencil tests which did not really reflect the authentic students’ learning.  Assessment of skills like listening and speaking were usually omitted.  However, I have come to the understanding that achievement can be and should be assessed in a more integrative way considering not only the academic area but also the cognitive, linguistic and sociocultural aspect of students.  If  I evaluate my students bearing in mind all these aspects, I will be able to identify the most suitable  strategies which fit my students’ needs and so I can make the necessary accommodations before reaching the end product.  This is why I consider formal and informal formative assessment as a key to students’ achievement.

Informal formative assessment involves observing students while they learn, tapping into the on-the-fly moments, and dialoguing with students.  This type of assessment contributes to keep students’ affective filter low which is vital for learning to happen. One way to keep track of students’ progress is through observation checklists.  This checklist includes students’ names, space for four or five targeted areas, a code to determine to what extent students have or have not developed a skill, and a space for comments.  This information allows me to reflect on the effectiveness of the strategies I am using, make pertinent accommodations for students who are falling behind, and keep parents informed about their children performance.  On-the-fly moments are good opportunities to help students expand their knowledge, find out answers by themselves, and make connections with prior learning.  So many times I felt like some questions my students made were taking my lesson far from the objective.  I would gently try to get the lesson back by lightly responding the question. Even though expanding the lesson from on-the-fly moments implies a variation of the planning, I do recognize the value of those moments and plan to be alert to identify them and get the most out of them. Dialoguing with students is another way I anticipate to use to informally assessed my students.  In spite of the large number of students per class, it is always possible to keep a record of those who need extra support.  I plan to register my observations and conclusions from my informal conversations to use as a reference for my planning and parents’ conference. Informal formative assessment will be an essential part of my daily teaching.

   Formal formative assessment serves as practice for students and helps me check at what extent my students have comprehended during the learning process.  I intend to use a variety of strategies such as: foldables, extension wheels, tickets out, posters, graphic organizers, visual presentations among many other activities to collect evidence of my students learning.  These strategies will reveal the understanding of my students.  This way I can easily detect what part of the content is not clear enough or who is struggling with what.  This information will help me to identify the strategies that are working as well as those that are not working.  Those strategies that are not benefiting students will be replaced for new alternatives that allow students to better develop their skills according to their particular learning styles, levels of readiness, and interests. 

According to the Ecuadorian Educational Regulation, schools are required to evaluate students through summative assessment.  This assessment is administered at the end of each term in the form of a paper based exam.  Too many times the results from these exams do not reflect what the student really knows.  One way to genuinely identify students’ progress, their weaknesses, and strengths is through authentic assessment. This type of assessment provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate what they are able to achieve in a variety of ways, provide teachers with enough information to make accommodations, and emphasize on real world problems. 

            Performance-based assessments, portfolios, dialogue journals, and play-based assessment are just some examples of authentic assessment types that help teachers and students evaluate their performance and outcomes.  In my school, it is required that the three or four teachers working with the same grade level come up with a single mid- term exam for all the students.  The information that we gather from those exams is not completely accurate.  There are many external factors that affect students’ performance during the exam such as the affective filter, the content being evaluated might not been studied by certain groups, the time or the place of the exam.  This is way I anticipate proposing authentic assessment as an alternative to traditional exams.  I am suggesting having students work on a mid-term project that will replace the pen and paper test.  Students will have the opportunity to choose to work either on a video making, play, a speech, a movie, or a song.  Students are informed about this project since the very beginning of instruction and they are provided with a rubric that tells them what they are expected to do.  When students work on this type of activities, they are benefited in the way that they are motivated to to their best, they learn to work cooperatively and learn from each other, their individual skills are highlighted so they feel more confident, and their cognitive processes are developed since they are required to solve problems, imagine, create, and analyze.  These processes are not encouraged in traditional teachers-made tests.

            The information that authentic assessment provides allows me to effectively identify those students who are struggling and the reasons of their difficulties.  I will reflect on my own teaching and the strategies I am using during instruction in order to find the areas that need to be modified and accommodate instruction for students to achieve.  Once struggling students are identified I will review their biography cards to find out what their strengths are so I can build up on them. From my experience I can say that even the lowest achiever has a special skill, or especial interest.  It is my job to identify what that particular characteristic is so that I can use that potentiality as the basis for planning assessment activities. 

Section V. Reflective Monitoring and Evaluation

            Working for a public school made me aware of some teaching perspectives which not necessarily responded to my beliefs. However, despite disagreeing with some processes such as diagnostic tests, the mandatory use of a text, and the emphasis on summative assessment only, I ended up being part of that system.  

Regarding pre assessment, I had to adjust to my school’s procedures, which respond to the ministry of Education guidelines.  In Ecuadorian schools pre assessment is done at the beginning of the school year through diagnostic tests which mainly evaluate grammar competence.  The results of these tests are statistically analyzed in order to identify grammar areas needing reinforcement. The areas subjected to reinforcement are those parts of the content which most students are failing at. Bearing in mind the concepts of the prism model, now I can see that pre assessing my students in this way provides me very little insights regarding individual students’ needs. Furthermore, this way of assessment prevents me from learning about my students’ performance beyond their language proficiency.  Therefore, I think that pre evaluating my students’ cognitive, academic, and sociocultural areas is equally important and necessary to design a student-centered instructional plan which creates positive and meaningful learning experiences which serve as the basis for cognitive growth.     

As regards instruction itself, one of the biggest issues I struggle with is the use of the textbook. Honestly, the whole planning is based on the book content.  This fact has forced me to develop lessons from the units proposed by the book. The illustrations, topics for discussions, and examples respond to those on the book or ideas of my own which not always coincide with students’ interests. Consequently, knowledge does not make sense for students. Therefore, they just memorize content to pass a test, exam, and the course. Cognitive development does not have any possibility to happen.  This reflection makes me think of the possibility of developing an English program which is not guided by one single book.  In this case, the program should be student-centered. Content, objectives, and strategies should emerge from students’ interests, background, readiness, and learning styles. I strongly believe that a student-centered class is the best place for students to feel engaged, participate in class, share ideas, and learn.  This is the environment where I can create hundreds of situations for my students to develop their cognitive skills. 

            In spite of the fact that the National Educational Regulations requires teachers to apply formative and summative assessment, most teachers, including myself, are forced to focus on summative assessment in order to complete the number of grades per student required on time.  Consequently, the percentages of failure are relatively high at the end of the school year. Then students are supposed to receive extra support before taking the remedial exams.  However, the instruction keeps the same strategies that have proved not to be working. Learning about formative assessment and how to conduct it formally and informally has made me realized of the importance of evaluating my students during instruction. This practice will help me to constantly reflect on the effectiveness of the strategies being used and replace those that are not promoting my students’ capacity of thinking, reflecting, and learning by themselves.

The absence of cognitive development was evidenced in myself in the summer of 2012 when I had the opportunity to be a student in USA for the first time.   Even though it was a great professional experience, keeping up with classes and assignments was not a simple task.  I could not deal with the amount of reading we had to do every day, the reflective writing, taking class notes, and working in class was somewhat frustrating at times. The fact is that for years Ecuadorian education has been limited to the simple transmission of knowledge mainly through memory and repetition of meaningless facts.  This was the reason of my frustration in American classrooms and the reason of today’s school failure, behavioral problems, and lack of motivation among Ecuadorian students. Now that I have the opportunity to observe how teachers work at Bergman Elementary School in Manhattan Kansas, I can see that children are taught to think at early ages and this makes a big difference. Therefore, I am wondering how I can teach my students to think and become independent learners.   

Throughout the courses I have taken I have come to the conclusion that in Ecuador, the poor development of cognitive processes is the root of the problem.  Thus, I consider essential that not only EFL teachers but also content area teachers understand the constructivist theory, the principles of Bloom’s taxonomy and BDI strategies for them to become experts on developing lesson plans which challenge students’ brains beyond the simple repetition of facts which are easily forgotten.  

In Ecuador, the term constructivism was introduced in the 1990s.  However, the theory has hardly been applied in the classroom. Constructivism argues that classes should not be teacher-centered anymore.  Instead, students should actively be involved in the learning process.  In other words, teachers are not the experts who lecture but rather they are the facilitators who propose activities, monitor, and help students to construct the knowledge by themselves.  Therefore, the activities proposed have to be very well thought and oriented to make students find out the knowledge. Group works, learning centers, team projects, technology based assignments, hands on activities are some examples of strategies which well- designed and applied have the power to boost higher thinking process such as creating, comparing, solving problems, analyzing.

            Similarly, Bloom’s taxonomy describes the levels of thinking from the least complex to the highest as follows: recall, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create.  Ecuadorian teachers need to  have the ability to make students move from the recall and understand level to higher order thinking processes.  One way to do so is by challenging students with activities that are rigorous and sufficiently complex. For example, to check reading comprehension, I might have my students change the end of the story.  In order to do so, they need to understand the text, review key vocabulary, summarize the story, and create a different ending.  During this process students are activating more complex thinking processes.  Using metacognitive strategies and making them explicit to students is key to cognitive development.  Having students answer questions like: What do I already know about this topic? How did I learn this?  What strategy did not work for me? How will I remember what I have learned? Why do I think that? helps them to reflect on their own thinking which eventually will make them become independent learners.

            Biography driven instruction strategies focus on the three phases of learning: activation, connection, and affirmation.  Activities such as mind maps, DOTS charts, vocabulary quilt, magic book, extension wheels, triafolds, offer easy templates that promote students’ thinking.  For instance, when using DOTS charts (determine, observe, talk, summarize) students first write words they know or think might be connected with the topic to be discussed.  At this point they are activating their prior knowledge.  Then as the new information is introduced they write the target vocabulary around the outside of the chart and make connections with the words they have previously written.  They share their connections with their peers.  In this stage they are connecting their ideas with the new knowledge. For the affirmation stage, students might write the definitions of the words or use them in a paragraph.  It is evident that through this process students’ brains have to recall, compare, summarize, and create.  These teaching practices benefit students in several ways.  They develop autonomy, activate higher thinking processes, make sense of the learning, and feel more engaged and motivated to learn.