Weeks 7-8

CONTEXTUALIZING LITERACY LESSONS

FOR FILIPINO LEARNERS
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES for the Week

At the end of the week, students must be able to:

1. Discuss the importance of contextualization in teaching
2. Choose a wide array of classical and contemporary literary pieces written in the local setting
appropriate for a specific grade level.

TOPIC OUTLINE for the Week

Lesson 4: Contextualizing literacy lessons for Filipino Learners

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
 Accomplishment
Checklist

Weeks 7-9
Below is a checklist of your Activities and Assessment Tasks this week. To help
you be guided accordingly, make sure to revisit this page and mark all activities that
you have accomplished.

Lesson 4: Contextualizing literacy lessons for Filipino Learners

 Activity No. 4.1:

 Activity No. 4.2:
 Worksheet No. 4.1.

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
 Lesson 4
Contextualizing literacy lessons for Filipino Learners

Why use a contextual learning approach?

For any teaching and learning approach to be adopted as an acceptable pedagogy, it must demonstrate
that its core principles are in keeping with the broader body of pedagogical findings. Contextualized
teaching and learning approaches have been proven to be grounded in:
1. Pedagogical theory: Contextual learning activities are aligned with the mainstream pedagogical body
of knowledge, including Motivation Theories, Social Learning Theories, Problem-cantered Learning
and modern psychological and physiological research around how human brains learn.
2. “Real world” application: Rather than teach for the abstract or theoretical world, using contextual
learning strategies helps companies prepare their employees to take on real-world challenges that
their staff faces in the workplace.
3. Specificity: Because the contextual learning approach to training a workforce relies on “context”,
trainers can offer content built to deal with company-specific context in mind.
4. Speed: By focusing on the “big picture first” (more on this later), this training approach trains
employees much quicker than the traditional “crawl…toddle…walk…run” approach.
While other training approaches might also work well, the inclusion of contextual learning examples as part
of corporate training will help produce a workforce that’s more adept at real-world problem solving.

Contextual learning strategies in practice

The following best practices should be considered when designing your contextualized approach to
learning and training your corporate staff:
1) Design with the most relevant approach in mind
There are a number of contextual learning strategies that you can implement, including Knowledge-based,
Skills-based and cognitive approaches. Make sure that you choose the strategy that’s most appropriate to
the learning you wish to impart to your audience.
For example, while a skills-based approach might work in one context, in another it might ignore the
practical application required to effectively transfer knowledge regarding a specific learning objective.
2) Design for effectiveness
For a contextualized approach to learning to be effective, it’s not sufficient to just impart the knowledge or
skills required to achieve a learning objective. You need to design activities that also teach the procedure,
processes and discipline on how and when to apply those skills and that knowledge in a given context.

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
3) Design for transference
Often, when an employee moves from one position to another (horizontally, laterally or even externally, to
another organization), they need to be able to transfer their skills, knowledge and experiences to that new
environment.
A research-based publication of the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
National Research Council found that much greater transfer of knowledge takes place when information is
organized in a conceptual framework. When that happens, learners were found to be more adept at
applying what they learned to newer situations in the workplace.
Therefore, it is important that you design your contextualized learning activities in a way that learners are
able to adapt and transfer them to newer contexts, as opposed to relating them to just one specific context.
4) Design with social consciousness
The typical workforce today is highly multicultural, with employees coming from different ethnicities, cultural
and social backgrounds. Therefore, it is imperative that when pulling together contextualized learning
activities as part of a course, you also factor in those social “nuances”.
In some cultures, for instance, it may not be appropriate for male and female colleagues to participate in
two-person activities. As a result, learners with specific cultural backgrounds might be resistant to
absorbing new information/skills using a contextual learning approach that challenges their ingrained social
norms.
In such a situation, slightly changing the makeup of the learning team, perhaps into a small group
configuration (as opposed to one male and one female), might create a better context for learning to be
transferred more effectively.
5) Design iteratively
Compared to traditional approaches, contextual learning involves a slightly different approach to designing
learning activities. You need to be more iterative in designing learning content, by starting with an
immediate focus on broad contextualized learning activities that learners need to perform as part of their
daily work routine first.
You can then build supporting contextual learning activities that focus on the basic skills and knowledge
required to effectively carry out those broad activities. This approach is repeated in several iterations,
enabling learners to get a better appreciation of the “big picture” first; and therefore subsequently grasp the
“smaller” nuances that make up that broader view.
6) Design for groups
The most successful contextual learning strategies are those that are designed with groups of learners in
mind– as opposed to focusing on individual learners. That’s because in the real world, learners must
interact with fellow workers, supervisors, management teams, and a host of other individuals and groups.
By designing your contextual learning activities with groups of interdependent learners in mind, you stand a
better chance that learning will mimic the real world where these individuals will subsequently interact. In

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
designing group learning, you’ll also leverage the power of individuals learning from other individuals –
something that routinely occurs in the workforce today.
7) Design assessments appropriately
When designing your contextualized approach to learning, you should evaluate learners based on authentic
assessments, instead of measuring their command of remembering or blindly performing specific activities.
Jon Mueller, Professor of Psychology, defines authentic assessment as assessments where learners are
required to show their command of what they learned, by applying that knowledge and those skills to real-
world tasks.
Assessing the outcomes of contextualized learning activities based on authentic assessment will ensure
that transfer of learning has actually occurred and that employees are well equipped to put the skills and
knowledge learned to effective use in their workplaces.
Contextualizing learning using scaffolding
Contextualized instruction, as it suggests, refers to teaching students the content in a context, i.e.,
embedding the concepts in meaningful activities and in a scenario that makes sense to the students to
enhance their understanding and to make the concepts more relatable. It is important to remember that
skills that we want to teach to students, such as problem solving, analytical thinking or even dribbling a ball,
do not exist in isolation; using purposeful contexts and learning activities, we can show students where
these skills are applicable and why they should know them.
Scaffolding is one such process that allows the students to work in a contextualized setting and solve
problems while focusing on building the associated skill. The following figure presents a pictorial
representation of how scaffolding works — if we want a student to achieve the learning outcome which is
new to them and out of their reach (by virtue of being on top of a building), we can build scaffolds or
supporting structures around the building to help the student get to the learning outcome. These supports
involve meaningful activities and continuous feedback and assessment to ensure that the student is able to
build independence. Like scaffolds in construction, the scaffolds in teaching are temporary structures that
are removed, i.e., less and less feedback is offered, as the student develops the targeted skill.

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
Scaffolding focuses on the skills involved in the task rather than completing the task itself. This is because
our aim for instruction to make students independent and be able to use what they have learned in other
contexts — to generalize their knowledge and use it in other settings.
Zone of Proximal Development by Vygotsky
Scaffolding cannot be explained without
mentioning Vygotsky’s research on how people learn. He
believed that development happens because we learn and, in
order to learn, we must be presented with tasks that are just
out of our reach. For example, when a child who is able to
read three-letter words comfortably, is presented with a four-
letter word, he might not know how to pronounce it initially,
but with a little bit of help from the teacher — reminding him
to break down the word into syllables — he would be able to
say the word and this ‘skill’ will then be available to him to
apply for other words, four-letter or more.
Learning can be divided into two zones: the zone of actual
development and the zone of proximal development. The
zone of actual development is the one in which students
apply techniques and skills they already know and are
successfully able to complete tasks. The zone of proximal
development is when help from a more knowledgeable
person allows the students to master a new skill and learn
through guidance and encouragement. In our above
example, when the child is given a three-letter word, he is in
the zone of actual development. When confronted with the
four-letter word, he is in the zone of proximal development.
This is the zone where new skills are learned.

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
A third zone that exists is one that is beyond the students reach even if the teacher was to help. These are
skills that they are missing key knowledge of.
Characteristics of Scaffolding
1. It is a collaborative interaction with someone who is more knowledgeable. This could be a teacher,
a parent and even a peer.
2. It operates in the zone of proximal development . The student is provided support and help only for
the skills that are needed to solve a task which is just a little out of his/her reach.
3. It is withdrawn  as the learner becomes more competent in using the skill.
Scaffolding is a recommended practice for acquiring a skill by analysing how, when and why it should be
used. This is achieved by embedding it in a relevant context.
Phases of Scaffolding
Scaffolding operates in four distinct stages. Let us review these four stages in the context of the reading
situation mentioned above. Let us assume that the student is proficient in reading phonic books with three-
letter words and now the teacher is working with him on a higher level book with four letter words. The
context here is the story that they are reading.

Note that the indicator of student achievement in this case is the successful reading of four-letter word in
the book being used. This does not mean that the student can now go and read any four-letter words. It
does mean, however, that the student was able to achieve the functional goal of reading four-letter words in
the book even when his overall competence of reading four-letter words and higher is limited to simple
books.
Modeling
Since modeling is the first phase of scaffolding and focuses on how the student should feel, think or act, it
can be divided into three strategies for instruction, as shown below. Let us analyse them in context of
solving a math equation.

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
Think aloud and talk aloud modeling is similar to each other as both involve verbalization, showing the
students how to approach the situation at hand. Performance modeling, on the contrary, shows the
students the correct way of solving the situation.
Types of Scaffolds
Scaffolds are of two types: structural scaffolds and interactive scaffolds .
Structural scaffolds are static in nature and can be pre-planned before the class. These could be in the
form of inquiry questions that the teacher could ask, any objects that she might have available in the
classroom for engaging students more, especially those who need more ways of representation of the
problems. Setting up the activity in advance and allowing for repeated opportunities to practice the skill are
all structural scaffolds. They are created by:
> engineering the context, i.e., the activity in which the students will learn the skill
> skill routine, i.e., predictable order of steps in the activity.
Interactive scaffolds are dynamic in nature and are responsive actions taken during the instruction to
address student needs. These are the scaffolds that are systematically withdrawn as skills are learned.
Being aware of the frustration level of students, demonstrating solutions when the student cannot see them
are some examples of interactive scaffolds that can only happen in class.
Peers are a scaffold as well and depending on how the class is set up, they can ask as both structural and
interactive scaffolds. Can you think of ways you can use peers for scaffolding while teaching content of
your choice?
Challenges of Scaffolding
As teacher, we want to help our students as much as possible. However, with scaffolding, it becomes
important to stop giving help when we start to see that the student is on the right path of success. This
giving up on control can be hard and it might be harder to watch students make errors and struggle.
The right amount of scaffolding is important — too much would lead to boredom while too little would cause
the students to become frustrated.

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
Scaffolding vs Shaping
Last but not the least, there is another concept related to scaffolding: shaping.
Shaping is discrete skill instruction which does not involve a context and focuses on the development of the
skill, by sequentally mastering the subtasks. Independent mastery must be achieved on a subtask before
progressing to the next one. The major difference between shaping and scaffolding is that shaping is not
contextualized. For example, teaching students how to dribble a ball without telling them that it is used in
basketball is discrete skill instruction.
Shaping and scaffolding share some commonalities as well.
Both involve task analysis, which involves analysing the activity the teacher wants to do with the students,
the complexity of the activity, any necessary equipment and environmental conditions, etc.
Task demands are reduced by simplifying the skill to be learned. For example, the focus of the reading
situation was on four-letter words only.
Both support student learning.
Conclusion
As promised in my last post on differentiated instruction, in this article I elaborated on teaching through
scaffolding. I was only able to scratch the surface here and I hope that the examples were helpful. Please
let me know if you have any questions or would like me to do a follow-up post on any of the mentioned
concepts. I did not elaborate on shaping a lot and if you would like to read more about it here, give me a
shout. Vygotsky’s theory of learning as well as other theories of learning is topics I will write about in the
future.

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
 Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges
Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay
2nd Semester 2020-2021

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature)

ACTIVITY NO. 4.1

Name: ________________________________ Program and Year: ______________ Score: ___________

Class Time/Section: _______________
1. What is contextual learning approach?

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2. What is scaffolding?

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3. What do you mean by “scaffolding focuses on the skills in the task rather than completing the
task itself”?
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Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
 GENERALIZATION
Rubrics: This rubrics will be used to grade each of your answers.

Traits 2 points 3 points 4 points 5 points SCORE

Unsatisfactory Needs Improvement Satisfactory Outstanding
Content Content is Content is not comprehensive Content is accurate and Content is comprehensive,
Development incomplete. Major and /or persuasive. Major persuasive. Major points are accurate, and persuasive.
points are not points are addressed, but not stated. Responses are All points are stated clearly
clear. Specific well supported. Responses are adequate and address topic. and are well supported.
examples are not inadequate or do not address Content is clear. Specific Responses are excellent,
used. topic. Specific examples do not examples are used. timely and address topic.
support topic. Content is clear. Specific
examples are used.

Grammar, Answers contain Answers contain few Rules of grammar, usage, and Rules of grammar, usage,
Punctuation & numerous grammatical, punctuation and punctuation are followed with and punctuation are
grammatical, spelling errors. minor errors. Spelling is followed; spelling is correct.
Spelling punctuation, and correct.
spelling errors.

Cut here ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay
2nd Semester 2020-2021
Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through literature)

ACTIVITY NO. 4.2

Name: ______________________________ Program/Year: _______________ Score: _____________
Class Time: _____________

1. Explain the Zone of Proximal development by Vygotsky?

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Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
 APPLICATION / ASSESSMENT TASK
Answer the following worksheet as your assessment task.

Follow these instructions for the submission of this activity:

1. You may submit a hard copy of your outputs if you are not able to submit
online.
2. You may directly write your answers on the Worksheet below.
3. Submit on or before ___________________.

Rubrics: This rubric will be used to grade each of your answers.

Traits 2 points 3 points 4 points 5 points SCORE

Unsatisfactory Needs Improvement Satisfactory Outstanding

Content Content is Content is not Content is accurate and Content is

Development incomplete. Major comprehensive and /or persuasive. Major points comprehensive, accurate,
points are not clear. persuasive. Major points are stated. Responses are and persuasive. All points
Specific examples are addressed, but not adequate and address are stated clearly and are
are not used. well supported. topic. Content is clear. well supported.
Responses are inadequate Specific examples are Responses are excellent,
or do not address topic. used. timely and address topic.
Specific examples do not Content is clear. Specific
support topic. examples are used.
Grammar, Answers contain Answers contain few Rules of grammar, usage, Rules of grammar, usage,
Punctuation & numerous grammatical, punctuation and punctuation are and punctuation are
grammatical, and spelling errors. followed with minor errors. followed; spelling is
Spelling punctuation, and Spelling is correct. correct.
spelling errors.

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
 Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges
Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay
2nd
Semester 2020-2021
Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through literature)
WORKSHEET NO. 1.1.

Name: ____________________________________Program/Year: _______________ Score: _________

Class Time: ___________

1. Who is Vygotsky?
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2. What are the characteristics of scaffolding? Explain each?

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3. Explain the phases of scaffolding and cite examples each?

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4. Differentiate structural scaffolding and interactive scaffolds?

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Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
______________________________________________________________________________
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5. Differentiate scaffolding vs. Shaping?

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______________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges

Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021
Dr. Aurelio Mendoza Memorial Colleges
Teaching English in Elementary Grades (Through Literature) Module for 2nd Semester 2020-2021