Hi again.This time I am going to give you an idea about a workshop by Barbara Gilette with the title:Material Development from authentic Sources: Using broadcast and print sources.
Let's start by speaking about what is an authentic material.Well,It's a real document from the target culture which was not prepared for teaching purposes.The purpose of this material is for natives by natives.It's the same as realia which can be tickets, menus ,bus schedules,etc.
Ms. Gilette started her workshop by explaining the things she was going to speak about.She said she had a video and a written article.
Then the question was :Why should we use authentic material?It's because what is authentic is not prepared and not simplified.That's how you learn the right word and the latest vocabulary using culture as a motivating rule.At the same time it shouldn't be shocking to students.
What do you think of when choosing a piece of realia?
1-How does this fit in what I'm teaching?
2-What are my students' interests?
Ms.Gilette then gave us a piece of paper showing how to design the materials.It goes like this:
STEP ONE :Pre-Listening/Pre-Reading.
This is to prepare the students for the topic.We get some brainstorming to engage them with the subject and get some background knowledge.
STEP TWO:Core Text (Video or Reading)
It's a video or a written text .
STEP THREE:Global Understanding(Main Ideas)
Students try to find the main idea.It's better to start with global knowledge then to get to some relevant details.You don't want to encourage students to understand everything every time.
STEP FOUR:Relevant Details(Content /Language)
It's when we try to use this information productively.
STEP FIVE:Follow-Up/Skills transfer
Like for example if the material is used for listening practice,you can use the follow-up as speaking exercise,it's like doing a role play for instance.
To give us an example :
1-Ms. Gilette played a video from the ABC News about soccer in the US. A video is a very good way of teaching the language because it's a slice of real life which gives students a chance to be there.She said that sometimes she plays the first part of the video without the sound and asks them about what they understand.This is to show the students that they really understand more than they think they do.The second time they watch and she asks about some ideas.Then she can ask about more details.
2-For the second listening she gave us a list of questions like:
-How many young Americans play soccer?
-How much does 11-year-old Kyle love the sport ?
-What do you think a" soccer Mom" might be?
-Explain why soccer is an ideal sport to play. etc.
She said that you could grade the task according to the level of your students.
3-Then she gives the students a list of vocabulary and phrases to focus on some linguistic details.
4-The follow-up can be mock interviews.Here it's an interview with a famous athlete.But they shouldn't tell who the athlete is.It's like a mystery guest game.Then the class will guess who the athlete is.
Concerning the reading she gave us a piece of written realia from a newspaper which was a movie review of "The Pirates of the Caribbean:Dead Man's Chest." Then she started asking us questions like:
-What kind of article is this?
-What's the name of the newspaper?
-What does the writer think of the movie?
-When was this review puplished?
-What kind of film is it? etc.
In case you don't have suitable authentic articles ,you can get articles from the internet about a movie they know.
For your students you can lead a pre-reading discussion with them about movies.Then they read for the main idea.You can help them to find it in the title,sub-headings,and the pictures or they can read the first and last paragraphs of the article.We should train our students to be good readers.You can also use labeling:Which paragraph speaks about the characters?Which paragraph speaks about the plot? etc.
As for the follow -up ,she asks students to write a real movie review.
Finally I would say that the workshop was very interesting.Although most of us use something like this in our lessons,it will always be useful to have some confirmation that what we are doing is good.I believe we can find some tips in what we read which can really be rewarding.

Prepared by Balqees Abu Assali