A didactic plan for a communicative translation class

1. A didactic plan for a communicative translation class Dr. Constanza Gerding Salas Leipzig Universität - Universidad de Concepción May 2012

2. A didactic plan • Unlike a unit plan, that covers an entire unit and may span several days or weeks, a didactic plan covers one well-defined set of contents to be covered in one class period. • Each unit plan and didactic plan should reflect the needs of the students and correlate with a philosophy of education.

3. Main aspects • A key aspect of effective teaching is having a plan for what will happen in the classroom each day. • Creating such a plan involves: • setting realistic goals • deciding how to incorporate required materials • developing activities that will promote learning.

4. Elements of a didactic plan • (A continuity component that reviews contents from the previous lesson) • Title of the lesson • Time required for completing the lesson • List of required materials: infrastructure, tools, documentation, etc. • Learning outcomes (objectives) • The set of skills or concepts to be taught/learned • The means required (specific text selected: difficulty, length, typology, etc.)

5. Elements of a didactic plan • An instructional description of the sequence of events that will make up the lesson: teacher's instructional input and students’ (non-)guided practice • Suggestions about independent practice for students to extend skills or knowledge on their own • An evaluation component, such as a set of questions to answer, peer evaluation, a test, etc. • (Analysis component the teacher uses to reflect on the lesson itself, such as what worked, what needs improving. This aspect can only be completed in the light of what was actually done in class, the class output, and the weaknesses that came up…)

6. Setting learning outcomes First thing: create an objective, a statement of purpose for the whole lesson. • Identify a topic for the lesson, which will help you develop the goals. • If you have some flexibility in choice of topic, consider your students’ interests and the availability of authentic materials.

7. Setting learning outcomes • Identify specific points that are connected in some significant way with the topic of the lesson. • Identify specific learning strategies that can be useful for this particular lesson. Remember: An objective drives the whole lesson and it should answer what students will be able to do by the end of the lesson.

8. Setting learning outcomes • Objectives must begin with a verb that states the action to be taken to show accomplishment. “At the end of this class the students should be able to…” • The teacher must ensure that student achievement expectations are reasonable.

9. Selecting material • Lesson plans must correlate with specific learning principles. • Truly authentic communication tasks: • involve solving true problems or discussing a topic of interest. • allow students to use the skills they have, and to self-correct when they realize they need to. • The criterion of success is the completion of a task.

10. Selecting material • Today, texts for translation practice can be easily obtained from the web • It is sometimes difficult to find out whether a given text has already been translated. • Other sources can also be used. • The teacher must make sure that the text chosen contains the elements to be taught and that the degree of difficulty is adequate for the students’ linguistic, cultural and translational level.

11. Types of assignments • Whole-class: teacher lectures to whole class, which collectively participates in discussions. Useful for new unit presentation. • Small groups: students work on assignments in groups of three or four. Useful for longer translation projects. • Workshops: students perform various tasks at a time. Useful for translating and elaborating glossaries at a time. • Independent work: students complete assignments individually. Useful for homework translation briefs. • Peer learning: students work together, face to face, so they can learn from one another. Useful for sharing strategies or material, revision, peer editing, etc.

12. Questions to be taken into account • Purpose of the assignment? • How does it fit with the rest of the lesson plan? • Learning pre-requisites needed to attain the task? • Amount of time needed to complete the task? • Time and effort provided by the teacher to student grading and feedback? • How will content knowledge or skills be evaluated?

13. Important! There must be a close correlation between objectives, contents, tasks, materials, activities, and evaluation.

14. Thank you! Nice meeting you! The very best to you all!