Stair report

StAIR Report CEP 811

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura Date: February 2009

1. What is the main objective of your StAIR, and how is it linked to your

curriculum standards?

The main objective here is to enable beginner students to describe what people are

wearing using patterns, colors, clothing items and the present continuous.

The curriculum states that “… students will be able to use English to a purposeful end … and

that students will be able to use English to convey meaning accurately…” This StAIR develops

students’ ability to use English meaningfully in real life situations

.

2. How is your StAIR designed?

The StAIR is very straightforward. It does the following sequentially:

1. It teaches 11 basic colors. (black, blue, brown, green, grey, orange, pink,

purple, red, white and yellow)

2. It tests on these 11 basic colors.

3. It teaches 19 clothing items. (belt, cap, coat, dress, hat, jacket, pullover, scarf,

shirt, shoes, shorts, skirt, socks, suit, tie, trousers, T-shirt and glasses – although the

last is an accessory)

4. It tests on these 19 clothing items.

5. It presents a variety of colored clothes.

6. It tests on this variety.

7. It teaches 6 patterns. (plain, spotted, checked, striped, flowery and patterned)

8. It tests on these 6 patterns.

9. It presents a variety of patterned colored clothes.

10. It tests on this variety.

11. It teaches the Present Continuous.

12. It tests on the Present Continuous.

13. Finally, it provides a Comprehensive Test that checks students’ understanding by

giving them multiple choice answers.



3. What instructional strategies are implemented in your StAIR?

My StAIR utilizes 3 different instructional strategies.

A. DEDUCTIVE STRATEGY

Basically, this strategy is used here to teach vocabulary. Students learn a few colors and take a

test on them. It’s very simple. They see the word, hear the word, then memorize the word. Here’s

a sample of what they get during the learning phase:

And this is a sample of what they get during the testing phase.

They also learn some clothing items and take a test on them.



The same applies to colored clothes, patterns, and patterned colored clothes.

B. INDUCTIVE STRATEGY

This strategy is used when teaching the order of adjectives. Students see examples of the

patterned colored clothes and then try to deduce the order in which they are used (pattern + color

+ clothing item). Here’s what they see at the learning stage:



In the last slide, they have to study the 4 slides about patterned colored clothes (here only 3 are

presented) and choose the correct answer in the question slide.

C. SCAFFOLDING STRATEGY

The entire StAIR is designed upon the scaffolding strategy. It starts gradually by presenting

colors and testing on colors, then clothes and testing on clothes, followed by colored clothes and

testing on colored clothes. After that, patterns are presented with a test on them, followed by a

rule regarding the order of adjectives presented in b. Later on, the Present Continuous is

introduced along with a mini test on it. The last stage is the Comprehensive Test, which

encompasses all the points tackled throughout the StAIR.

There’s a point to note, though. If students get the wrong answer in the Comprehensive

Test, they are not simply warned about their mistake. They are redirected to further

explanatory slides that give additional examples, as is the case with the colors and the

present continuous.



There are more re-teaching slides in the stair itself. These are just a few.

4. So what do you reckon are the strengths and weaknesses of your

StAIR?

As you can see from the design, the StAIR starts off with colors and gradually

increases the difficulty of the next activity. It doesn’t present more than one new point

at a time. I’ve tried it with very weak students, and they didn’t seem to face any

problems. Some had to go back to the explanation part, but that’s normal.

As for the weaknesses, there are none! I’m just kidding Just like with every technology-based

educational object, students must have minimal literacy in technology in order to

work independently. My StAIR requires students to know some basic concepts about

computers: where to locate the StAIR on the hard drive, how to unzip it, and where to

click on the StAIR so they proceed in the right direction. That’s all.

5. Is there any other comment you would like to add that would benefit

your StAIR users?

Yes. My StAIR targets users of multiple intelligences. Some people are more auditory

than visual, or both. That’s why I’ve added audio sounds to the StAIR in case users

would like to hear the word or expression, thus increasing their learning abilities.

However, users can always turn off the sound if they don’t like the recording, which

has my voice in it by the way.

Stair report

Documents

Transcript of Stair report