Table of Content

My Signature Pedagogy - Ramji Acharya

Signature Pedagogy is a distinct style of teaching designed by an individual considering resource, content and audience. As a teacher, I enjoy teachin

My Signature Pedagogy

Signature Pedagogy is a distinct style of teaching designed by an individual considering resource, content and audience. As a teacher, I enjoy teaching and I believe different individuals have different techniques for teaching. Similarly, I do have a different strategy as an English language teacher. In my teaching style, personal narrative revision and discussion play an important role. Sharing personal narratives in language teaching is my signature pedagogy as it can be applied to teach reading writing listening and speaking. Actually, it can cover all the factors of language learning if it is systematically applied to the language classes. On the other hand, maximum revision of the previous class is one of the variables I have ever included in every class. I am not sure about quantitative data on the time-division for different tasks in the class but I always summarize and ask students about the previous class what we did and what we had to remember from the previous class to support today's class. Almost 50% of my time in my class I spend in sharing and recapitulation of my previous class and I added 50% of the new content from my planning in the class. For the remaining time, I again summarize the class highlighting the major takeaways from the class.

Teachers’ Narratives as Teaching Materials

When I was a schoolboy studying in class five I used to wait for my sister disparately. We were in a different school. She had to go for an hour's walk as the nearby school was only up to five and she was in grade eight. There was an interesting reason why I used to wait for her eagerly?........ 

My childhood stories are my energizer for the class. As an English language teacher, I take personal narratives as my teaching materials. Sometimes I asked my students to share a story before we begin the class. These techniques work only when I am teaching writing and reading as well. In language teaching, students enjoy stories rather than essays and other types of academic texts. So while teaching I share my stories and encourage students to share theirs. 

Along with sharing my story, I expect students to have a sense of past tense. It is also expected to have good listening and creative thinking skills as well as questioning. Students sometimes ask ‘why did you do so…?’ sometimes they asked incorrectly and I correct them indirectly making sure that the students noticed that mistake that s/he committed. 

While sharing their personal narratives students are expected to listen carefully. The teachers [I] use different types of logical connectors like likewise, therefore, and so on. Those words develop the students' fluency in speaking along with word election and event sequencing. In my pedagogy student should enjoy the class as well as learn the intended outcome of the curriculum. While applying this pedagogy the teachers should have the basic knowledge to relate all the language skills with the narratives. By sharing narratives teachers can teach vocabulary critical thinking, questioning, and active listening (Koening & Zorn, 2002). If the teacher wants s/he can ask students to summarize the narratives in some points it can be written or verbal this activity can improve the students' written or spoken ability.

Revision and Recapitulation 

Revision is one of the major components of my signature pedagogy as it reminds students about the previous knowledge as well as helps the class to connect with the previous one. Revising the previous discussion requires students to think and remember which enables the students to memorize the past events as well. In my signature pedagogy, the term revision exists in two ways they are: unit revision and the lesson or the previous class revision. As I mentioned in the Introduction section the lesson revision exists in every next class as a part of the compulsory element and the unit revision exists at the last of the unit in which mostly I sum up all the discussion and asked the confusion and takeaways of the lesson to the students. Revision and recapitulation are best practiced in grammar teaching however it is my compulsory element in my language teaching pedagogy it is highly beneficial in the story and generally long text reading.  

Though the role of revision is significant the teacher should wisely use these techniques to give students new tests every day as input hypothesis (Kreshen,19920) demands I+1 in instructional practices students should get something new every day according to the level of knowledge they acquired. The revision merely covers the existing knowledge and is supposed to have a different example which may create excitement in the learning process even though the content is quite familiar to the students.

Revision and recapitulation can be defined synonymously because they occur in the class for the revision of the existing knowledge however the use of the techniques can be placed in different stages of the instructional process. Generally, I use these terms differently in different contexts. Revision generally covers the major highlights of the lesson which can be used as a transitional activity and can be a quick energizer and is my technique of opening the class. Similarly, the term recapitulation in my pedagogy is the final takeaway and the desired outcomes of the lesson which students can share as their summary of learning. Generally, I use this term at the end of the lesson. 

Role of Revision in Grammar Teaching

Grammar is identified as a set of rules. All the rules of the English language are interconnected but they can not be taught altogether. In this situation, the revision act plays a significant role in language teaching or grammar teaching as it can support the connection of the related variables in the sharing. A quick revision of concord during the process of teaching tense is really beneficial as the relation of the subject and verb and verb and the time in the sentence are connected inseparably.

Role of Revision in Long Text Teaching

Reading multiple subjects and remembering the necessary information is not an easy job. Long texts are boring to read and cant be taught in a day or in a class. I divide the text into different sections and teach in segments along with the activity which I have mentioned. For this activity, the revision activity bridges the gap due to the interval and easily connect the scenes of the two segment. This technique makes the long text simple and interesting to read. Posing short and relevant narratives in between the segments of the long text create different test and enthusiasm in the students for learning. 

Conclusion

Along with the situation of teaching and the teachers, the teaching style can be different and the set of styles can be called the signature pedagogy of the individual./ teacher. Learning a language can be a pleasurable experience with personal narratives and they are a part of our life and can be used as low-cost teaching material. In my teaching sharing personal narratives and regular revision, activities have a major role along with the additional content-based instruction. Sharing narratives in general teaching helps students to develop critical thinking, questioning, and rational making along with story development whereas in grammar teaching it helps to develop vocabulary, action sequences, and tense. On the other hand, it is also helpful for long text teaching making it more interesting and comprehensive. This is how I have developed my signature pedagogy and is more appropriate in practice as well.

Ramji Acharya

Kathmandu University

School of Education

References

Koening, J. M., & Zorn, C. R. (2002). Using storytelling as an approach to teaching and learning with diverse students. Journal of Nursing Education, 41(9), 393-399.

Krashen, S. (1992). The input hypothesis: An update. Linguistics and language pedagogy: The state of the art, 409-431.


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