國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 What Is Written In The Stars? Renee Tsai, 2014 Lesson Overview Subject: English Grade: 1st graders in high school Topic: Reading—What Is Written In The Stars? Concepts: Part of speech (esp. adjectives); Descriptive sentence writing; Reading expository essays Essential Questions: 1. What and how are the English adjectives used to describe people’s physical appearances and personalities? 2. How do astrologists categorize people and what are the personality traits (key words) that distinguish one from the other? 3. How is the distinctiveness of each category illustrated in the reading? What supporting ideas or facts are used? 4. Is it true that everything is written in the stars? Objectives Students will know 1. how western astrology came into being 2. the characteristics of people in different astrological categories 3. famous people that exhibit the typical personality traits as claimed by the astrologists Students will understand 1. how to use English adjectives in descriptive writing 2. what techniques the author uses to describe people and back up their accounts with more detailed facts and examples 3. the structure of and expository essay as well as paragraph writing Students will be able to 1. 2. 3. 4. use adjectives and the given sentence patterns correctly categorize people, words, or better, concepts show categorization by drawing a diagram collaborate with students at different proficiency levels, with different /similar interests in accomplishing their writing/reading/oral tasks 5. apply their acquired knowledge of astrology into real life and think critically 1 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 Lesson Sequence Lesson Sequence ( Time: 6 class periods) Reflection Resources: There are six worksheets used in the lesson plan: one for the teaching of categorization and adjectives for appearances and personalities, one for the vocabulary, one smiley word game, one reading GO, one psychological test, and one for keeping record of students’ progress. Please see the appendix. San Min Textbook B1U6 What Is Written in the Stars? Computers, Projectors, Blackboards, Worksheets Who? Two classes of 37 students participated in the lesson plan. Only two of them passed the GEPT the basic level, five others took the same test but failed, and the rest never took the test. Few of the students have good command of English. The spelling is way below average and the pronunciation is a big problem. They have trouble with parts of speech, let alone making complete English sentences. The very first word dictation test in the semester shows that both classes are composed of students of varying proficiencies. To be specific, in one class, 14 reached an accuracy of 70%, 21 below 40%, with the remaining 3 in the middle. It is not surprising that most of the time, a majority of students show bored faces in class. Introduction When the lesson plan was carried out, I’d been working with these students for more than two months and had accumulated some information about their varied abilities. Measurement of their readiness was based on their performances in exams during the first 1.5 months in the first semester. With low proficiency came low interest/ motivation. Since it was impossible to meet the needs of all the students with one single instruction, it was hoped that through flexible grouping and a couple of tiered activities, students would revive their interest in the subject and started learning from where they had been. To prompt their interest in the Knowing thyself is the foundation of knowledge and key to success. lesson and to get them more involved in the learning tasks, Psychological tests are tools widely used to help us understand some personal information was ourselves but how about astrology? Every one of us is assigned a gathered prior to the teaching of star sign according to our birthday. Do you agree with whatever’s the lesson, say their horoscopes. said in the astrology book about you and your friends? Have you ever tried to judge an acquaintance by his/her star sign? Are you in Also, a survey composed of 10 2 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 the habit of checking your horoscope forecast before you leave home? How may astrological knowledge help improve your relationship with others? In the end, we’ll check how likely it is to guess at a person’s star sign by certain personality traits and discuss if it’s sensible to approach a person by use of astrological knowledge. Teaching strategies and learning experiences Prior to the lesson: The psychological test (W4) was run on the students and collected prior to the lesson. Also, students, divided into six heterogeneous groups of 6 (one of 7; two students of the same readiness level in each group) were asked to copy the new words listed in the vocabulary on a card. Each group worked on a particular part-of-speech (v. n. adj.), depending on their draw of luck. The assignment was collected at the beginning in the first class period. (1) Students of the same group (the heterogeneous group) were seated together and each of them was given a list of adjectives (W1). Students’ task was to categorize those adjectives as required and discussion over the appropriateness of the categorization was encouraged. In the meantime, dictionaries of any kind were allowed. Fifteen minutes later, from each group a student was randomly selected to write down their chosen words for a designated cell and then students were encouraged to comment on or modify the given answers. The whole activity took up about 30 minutes and for each correction of the spelling and misplacement of words, five points were given to the group. Then each group should select from the word bank (W1) six adjectives to describe their group, using “S BeV/linking verb …. “. When the task was done, each group was to read the sentences to the whole class. Review of the sentence pattern “S BeV/linking verb …. “ was given by the teacher to the whole class as a wrap-up. Before the class was dismissed, instruction on the assignment (W2) was given. In brief, students were asked to categorize the new words in the lesson into four groups (n. v. adj. adv.) and copy them into the given table. (2) The second period started with a review of students’ assignment. Students focused on the pronunciation of each word, spelling-to-sound correspondence, stress, and syllable structures. Moreover, students were to investigate nouns as well as adjectives and reported the common adjective and noun inflections (-tion, -ive, -al, -ic) they had found. Later, Students were divided into six groups 3 interesting psychological questions was carried out. All the activities in the lesson revolving around personality traits and the use of adjectives in describing a person. Flexible grouping was the major concern in the lesson plan. For fear that the lesson plan might fail, students were informed of the dynamic grouping prior to the lesson. Also classroom arrangement (chairs and desks) had been illustrated and practiced several times by the time the lesson plan was put into practice. A well-set environment helped the teacher with the monitoring of the students’ team work and students, especially those with poor motivation and attention, could jump at the “learning track” with better efficiency. Moreover, the report cards were distributed to the students in the first class period and the students were told to keep the cards at hand all the time. (1) group work >> whole class Writing activity (30 mins) >> Oral activity (10 mins) >> Teacher wrap-up lecture (10 mins) Generally speaking, students were very excited about the activity, for, first, five bonus points meant a lot to them and second, guessing at the 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 of six (one of seven), this time, homogenous ones. Cards of three different colors (green, yellow and red) were distributed among the groups such that low achievers got green cards, intermediate, yellow, and high, red. Students were told to select items corresponding to their color cards in the word jeopardy, and if they got the question item right, they would get two points. However, if they chose those questions from more-dangerous colors (red > yellow > green), they would be given one extra point. On the contrary, if they chose the less dangerous items, one point would be deducted with one level decrease in danger. The word jeopardy took up fifteen minutes. Students then moved on to do Worksheet 3, which was a review on the usage of adjectives. Students hand in their W3 upon completion. Before the class was dismissed, students were told to review the new words at home for a dictation test in the next class period. (3) The third period started with the word dictation test. Students needed to write down the English words as well as their Chinese translation. During the test, where there were ambiguities, students were encouraged to ask the teacher either to repeat the English words or to explain in English the words’ meanings. After the dictation test, students formed the homogenous group again and their prior-to-the-lesson vocabulary cards were distributed among the groups so that cards with adjectives were given to the low achievers, nouns, the intermediate, and verbs, the high. They were asked to first correct the spelling errors on the cards they got and for each correction, a bonus point would be rewarded to each member in the same group. Second, together they made 6 sentences with the 6 words they chose from the given cards. The low achievers’ sentences consisted of no more than 7 words and those sentences made by the high achievers should contain more than 7 words. No such a limitation was given to the intermediate. In the process, the teacher walked around the classroom constantly, offering help and advice on the task. After twenty minutes, the vocabulary cards as well as the 6 sentences (only one copy from each group) were collected. Then they were told to bid farewell to their partners and meet new friends. The new grouping was done based on the psychological test result (grouping by personality or, say, grouping by their favorite foods). For example, in Class A, students scoring over 31 made up one group, two groups of students with scores 26-30, two groups with scores 18-25, and one 4 pronunciation of each word became surprisingly fun to them. I grew pickier and picker with their pronunciation as the session activity got closer to its end. Most importantly, lower achievers found that they were able to “win” points for their groups. will be exercised in the class. Each student is required to make a report card for him/herself prior to the lesson. They are to carry the report card with them throughout the whole lesson. The word jeopardy game is designed in such a way that questions items belong to three different difficulty levels. Ten items will be easy, ten intermediate and five advanced. (2) assignment check-up (5 mins) >> oral activity (20 mins) >> jeopardy (20 mins) >> writing (5 mins) Students arranged their desks prior to the class and were seated with their group members as told. My students had done word jeopardy a couple of times but this was the first time I differentiated my teaching by manipulating readiness and the output. It took me a while to explain the rule; however, it paid off to run the activity, students enjoyed the fun, even though it actually was a review test on the vocabulary. As always, students had fun with the word jeopardy game. Low 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 diverse group with varying scores. On their first encounter, students read the first sentence “I am ___, ___, and ___”at the bottom of W3 to their partners seated in front of them, while keeping the second one a secret. The listeners, on the other hand, were supposed to write down what they had heard and completed the first and second sentences on W5. If they had trouble understanding what their partners were saying, they could ask them to either interpret or spell the word in English. They changed hands when the teacher said “Change!” Then students exchanged their worksheets to check the answers. Then the modal auxiliaries were introduced. As one of the auxiliaries “might” was used in the second sentence on the worksheet. Students were presented with the following words and told that they were arranged in terms of order of probability. (The instruction was given in Chinese.) must > can may > could might (in the order of probability) S + must / can / may / could / might + VR To check if students really got the point, two more examples were given. achievers enjoyed it more than the high. (3) individual work (15 mins) >> group writing (20 mins) >> pair oral activity (5 mins) >> whole class (10 mins) This was not my first time to ask students to move desks and switch seats in the middle of the class. Students could be very quick after one or two practices. To save time, make sure to tell the students the “necessities” they needed to bring with them for before going into action. Another solution to teaching with flexible grouping was to illustrate to the students your ideal seat arrangement with a drawing at the beginning of the semester and told the students no matter which group they were assigned to, they 1. Joseph is wearing a mask. He (may / could) be sick. 2. Joseph keeps looking at the beauty sitting next to him. He (must needed to set the desks and chairs as illustrated and before / could) want to have her cell number. they headed for their destination. Exercises A & B on p. 110, SanMin textbook were given as an assignment for today. Usually I chose only 10 words for the dictation test. A quiz like this took up less class time and made grading easy for the teacher. I’d (4) conducted this activity in my class The fourth class began with a review on students’ assignment. A brief instruction on the pattern “S + must / can / may / could / might for long and my purpose of running this activity had changed have + p.p.” using the fourth item in Exercise A as an example. In short, students were told that when they were making guesses on a from a test on students’ memory past event or fact, they should add “have” after the modal auxiliaries for words to one that served double purposes—to help followed by a past participle. The following examples was given: students improve their English listening ability and to teach (i) Tina didn’t return my call yesterday. She ___________ (be collocation of important words. angry) at me. Students, regardless of their (ii) Tina couldn’t find her purse. It ____________ (be stolen). readiness / proficiency levels, enjoyed looking for mistakes on The teacher then led students to read through the first three 5 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 paragraphs. Next, students, as a group (psy group), read through paragraphs 4-7 and completed the first 4 columns of the graphic organizer. Also they were reminded to put ONLY adjectives in the column “personality traits”. They were given 20 minutes to complete the task. Dictionaries of any kind were allowed. One worksheet was collected from each group and the teacher went through the answers with the whole class. For this first check-up for the third column, the major purpose was to distinguish adjectives from non-adjectives. Finally, students counted for each astrological category the number of people in their group and indicated the numbers in the first column. One more worksheet was randomly collected from each group. the given cards. They happily turned the pages and double checked every single word. As for the sentence making, those of the intermediate level, easily accomplish the task while groups of the other two readiness level suffered a bit. It was necessary to walk around the classroom and, observe students’ team work, and offer timely support. The first encounter greeting activity was more interesting to the students than I had expected. (5) Because some students stumbled Students’ half-done GOs were graded and returned to them. The over the selection of “He” or teacher commented on the students’ work for the third column “She,” partly due to English “personality traits.” Proper adjectives were offered to help proficiency and partly to teen students express their ideas. The work was complicated and took temperament, I guessed. up 15 minutes of the class time. Then the instruction on the However, as expected, many second sentence pattern was given. students spelled the words to their partners after one or two (i) People say that S + V …. failed attempts at “reading the (ii) It is said that S + V …. sentence.” (iii)S is / are said to VR …. For convenience, grouping by psychological test was done with For example, the restriction on the number of (i) People say that a Taurus is hard-working. They seldom go on a students in a group. For one vacation. class, the size of group ranged (ii) It is said that a Taurus is hard-working. They seldom go on a from 5 to 7; for the other, vacation. however, the old grouping model (iii) A Taurus is said to be hard working. They seldom go on a was observed. vacation. Students thought the English interpretation during the word Following this, students accomplished Column 5 in the graphic dictation test very useful. organizer by modeling on the given examples; that is, to back up However, it seemed that such a their first statement, students should give a supporting sentence based on what they had learned from the reading. Students did the move was of very little help to the first cell with the help of the teacher. After accomplishing Column 5, exceptionally low achievers. These students always students did the fourth item at the top of W5. Worksheets were collected for grading. The teacher used 3 minutes to go through the complained about their poor memory and believing good last paragraph. The teacher made a brief comment on the lesson, 6 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 questioning the belief “Your star says who you are.” Exercise A p. 108 was given as an assignment for today. strategies could compensate for the memory problem, I played video clips featuring word learning strategies once but so far (6) closure I hadn’t seen any pleasant and All the graded worksheets were returned to the students. The concrete effects on these low teacher went through students’ problems / mistakes on the fifth achievers. One student showed column of the GO on W5 and then ran the second star-sign jeopardy, “Guess who?” In the activity, students guessed at the name impressive progress with the guidance and help of her peer and the fewer the clues they used, the more points they got. The mentor. It seemed that these clues included information about the target person’s astrological students required one-on-one category, star sign, personality, and appearance. Following the activity, students were kindly asked to accomplish their report cards peer teaching. and commented on the truthfulness of astrological prediction. The (4) individual work (10 mins) >> whole class (10 mins) >> group question for the critical thinking was “ Is it true that your work (20 mins) >> whole class (8 personality is written in your star?” mins) >> group work (2 mins) As expected Column 3 were replete with mistakes. Team work went less well than before. It might be that a reading task like this was too challenging / difficult. Among all the grouping models, this psy group received the least fondness from the students. To me, this was fine and served as very good evidence for the idea “Little about us is written in the stars.” However, this compromised students’ fun and effectiveness in learning. (5) whole class (20 mins) >> group work (20 mins) >> whole class (10 mins) The review on the answers for the column “personality traits” was as challenging as expected. At first, students were encouraged to refer to W1 for proper adjectives. However, it was time-consuming so the teacher offered quick 7 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 answers to the students. The class was the most difficult one to the students. In fact, GO had been ranked top 3 difficult tasks by my students. (6) individual work Students enjoyed “Guess Who?” game very much and they reported that they learned more about personality traits and star signs after the game. Sadly, due to limited time, discussion over the question “Is it true that your personality is written in your star?” was wrapped in haste. Good news was that a couple of students were willing to share their ideas on the issue after class. Students’ Work Fig 1. A photo of categorization of personality / appearance adjectives 8 Fig. 2. Accomplished W1 sample 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 Fig. 3 Accomplished W2 sample Fig. 5 Accomplished W3 sample 9 Fig. 4 The 6-sentence activity (high achievers) Fig. 6 Accomplished W4 sample 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 Fig. 7 Accomplished W5 sample-1 Fig. 8 Accomplished W5 sample-2 Students’ feedback Fig. 9 Due to the limited time, the last two columns were left undone. Besides, it seemed weird to me to ask students to comment on their learning activities after a delay. All in all, most of the students enjoyed the activities I prepared for them in the lesson. 10 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 In addition to the given comments on each activity (Fig. 9), students’ feedbacks on flexible grouping, specifically the heterogeneous grouping, homogeneous grouping, and psy grouping, were collected. The homogeneous grouping enjoyed the greatest popularity among the students, followed by the heterogeneous grouping with the psy grouping lagging behind. The survey (W7) regarding their views on how group work (collaboration) helped with their learning showed that a majority of students strongly agreed that working with their peers significantly boosted their learning (60%), motivation in learning (51%), performance in class (63%), comprehension of teachers’ lectures, and relationship with their classmates (77%). Mostly importantly the bonding they formed in class went beyond class (61%). Not surprisingly, 57% of the students reported that they liked to work with high flyers. Few (29%) reported unfair grading by working as a group. Obviously teens needed peer support in many aspects in their life, including learning. Teacher’s Reflection According to Vygotsky (1978), learning accelerates in the learners’ zone of proximal development; namely, students’ learning will take off and hopefully, grow to its fullest, if proper intervention is offered. Following this line of thinking, students’ learning is the most effective when they learn from where they are. Moreover, students learn best when they are in a comfortable and supportive environment. However, it seems impossible for a teacher to create a comfortable effective learning environment and conduct a single teaching activity that meets all the individual needs in a class of about 40 students at the same time. A differentiated instruction classroom appears to be the solution (Tomlinson, 1999). At work in the classroom, teachers are alone, struggling to bring everything in the textbook together in their instruction and make “learning” happen. It takes superb, if not supernatural, power to attain such a goal alone. The best way to save “normal” teachers from such a lonely, if not helpless, situation is the assistance from the students, since they are the only people who are present at the scene. Simply putting students in a group and expecting learning to happen is naïve despite the well-established finding that students’ performance improves when they work with their peers. Grouping requires a good reason and taxes on the teachers’ wisdom. To most teachers, grouping has been a headache, for there are so many factors to be taken into consideration, like students’ cognitive abilities, interests, affective needs, etc. A 11 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 bad grouping brings to the classroom more problems. Besides, a fixed grouping makes a dangerous breeding ground for typical problems such as unfair grading, peer discrimination, prejudice, etc. To avoid these possible problems, the lesson plan centers on how flexible grouping could be exercised in standard EFL classrooms and hopefully, it could bring about a better understanding of the relationship between grouping and learning in various aspects such as vocabulary, reading, writing, etc. Flexible grouping seemed to do magic in a mixed-ability classroom, for it took care of great individual differences while avoiding problems mentioned in the above. However, it was easy for students to get lost in the process in such a dynamic classroom. Good preparation was the only key to success in teaching with flexible grouping. The lesson plan was done and reviewed half a month before it was carried out, which highly increased the chance of success. Students’ help was another important factor so before the execution of the lesson plan communications between the teacher and the students should be carefully taken care of. Last but not least, instructions prior to each activity should be clear enough. Repeated instruction is not a waste of time, so do it when it’s necessary. Thanks to my students’ help, I have a really pleasant teaching experience with flexible grouping. Also from their smiles and laughter, I know, just like me, they also enjoy the new learning experience. It is a pity that few photos are included in the report because I was so preoccupied with the teaching in the process that I forgot all about picture taking. Usually my students are my photographers but they are also completely engaged in their learning, which is the major goal of the lesson plan. As for their academic performance, they did just fine in the following midterm as usual. References Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of all Learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 12 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 Appendix Worksheet (W1) Class adorable attractive beautiful bossy brave careless caring chubby clever communicative compassionate considerate cute determined down-to-earth easy-going enthusiastic friendly generous gorgeous Adjectives Positive Group greedy handsome hard-working harsh helpful honest humorous impatient independent insecure Name intelligent jealous large moody muscular obese optimistic ordinary outgoing pessimistic picky plain possessive pretty proud quick-tempered rude selfish shallow short No. skinny slender stocky straightforward stubborn superficial tall thin trustworthy unreliable Negative Appearance Personality Others 1. We are a __________ group. 2. We are ________________ students. 3. We look _______________. 13 4. But sometimes we are _______________. 5. However, we remain ___________ because we are ________________________. 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 Worksheet (W2) Class Noun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 14 Verb Group Adj. Name Adv. No. 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 Worksheet (W3) Class Group Name I am __________, _____________, and _______________. I am ________________________. (What is your star sign?) 15 No. 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 Worksheet (W4) Class Group Name No. Psychological Test 1. 早上起床之後 通常吃什麼當早點? 蛋和吐司---3 麥片------1 汽水---------6 什麼都不吃--2 2. 如果你可以選任何一樣你想吃的東西當早點你會選擇什麼? 蛋和吐司--2 其它別種東西-1 汽水--------3 蛋糕-------4 3. 午餐時?你會... 不吃東西 因為太忙或擔心體重---2 吃你想了一個早上想吃的東西----1 吃自己帶來的食物---------3 問朋友要吃什麼 再一起去吃-----4 4. 一位朋友請你吃一些她/他帶來的食物 你會... 吃一小口 因為實在太餓了-------3 為了保持禮貌 只吃一小口--------1 拒絕他/她的好意 因為你正在減肥-----2 吃兩口--------------------------6 5. 你未來的男/女朋友請你吃一樣 東西 你想那會是什麼? 一塊蛋糕----1 一顆蘋果-----2 一片批薩-----5 一個胡蘿蔔-3 6. 你的狗對你奮力搖尾巴 企圖引起你的注意 你會給他... 給他一塊狗餅乾----3 一些蛋糕 ----1 什麼都不給 拍拍他就好----4 什麼都不給 還把他趕開 因為你認為不能讓你的狗養成要什麼有什麼的壞習慣----2 7. 夢中 你正在一家全世界最棒的餐廳裡 你想你會點... 菜單上列的每道菜 反正是做夢嘛!!-----2 一個大盤 裡面什麼東西都有的沙拉 --1 牛排-----------3 一個會讓你多長很多肥油的點心------4 8. 在一個熱帶島上 你覺得什麼食物是你一定要吃到的? 水果和蔬菜---4 肉和馬鈴薯---3 冰淇淋 巧克力和蛋糕? ---2 中國菜----5 9. 你現在是一個嬰兒 你媽媽正在餵你吃... 嬰兒麥片或嬰兒食物---6 肉和馬鈴薯-----4 綠色花椰菜------8 什麼都沒有 你媽正在做別的事------2 10. 你現在是六歲的小孩 你爸爸正在餵你吃... 批薩---------7 16 義大利麵-----5 泡泡糖 ------1 胡蘿蔔-------3 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 Worksheet (W5) Class Group Name No. 1. He / She is __________, _________, and ___________. 2.He might be a(n) ________________ because people say that ________________________________________________________(S + V ….) 3.Q: How would you describe yourself? A: I am __________, __________, and __________. 4. After learning this lesson, I don’t think he / she is a(n) ___________________. He / she must be a(n) __________ because he / she is __________, __________, and __________. It is reported that ______________________________________ (S + V ….) Graphic organizer of the reading Category 17 Star signs Personality Famous Adjectives to traits people in this describe category these people 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 Worksheet (W6) B1U6 Report Card 1 Task W1 What did I learn? Class Name No. Who did I help? How did I feel? How was my work? ☺ 2 W2 ☺ 3 W3 ☺ 4 W5 ☺ 5 T1 ☺ 6 J1 ☺ 7 J2 ☺ 8 T2 ☺ General Comment 18 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 The two jeopardy games Vocabulary Jeopardy Guess Who? Jeopardy 19 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 (W7) A questionnaire regarding students’ views on grouping Class Name No. 在參加過各種不同的分組上課活動後,我對分組上課的看法…… (1 表示非常不同意 5 表示非常同意) No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19. 20 21 22 23 24 25 Items 我覺得分組上課對於我上課的學習態度有幫助。 我覺得分組上課對於我的課業成績有幫助。 我非常了解我在小組裡面所扮演的角色以及應該做的事。 我覺得小組成員在課堂內外都願意協助我解決課業上的問題。 我希望放學後也能跟小組成員透過其他管道如網路討論功課。 我覺得我對小組的貢獻很高。 我覺得分組人數以 1) 2 人 2) 4 人 3) 6 人 4) 沒意見 最恰當。 我希望我有更多機會自己完成老師指派的課業任務。 我較能從單獨作業中獲得成就感。 我覺得分組合作對於我的生字學習有幫助。 我覺得分組合作對於我的文法、句型學習有幫助。 我覺得分組合作對於我的課文學習有幫助。 我覺得分組合作可以幫助我了解老師的講課。 我覺得分組合作促進我跟同學的感情。 我覺得分組合作讓我在課業有困難時比較能夠堅持努力不放棄。 我覺得無論有沒有分組合作我的課業成績都一樣。 我覺得因為分組合作造成小組成員成績都一樣很不公平。 我覺得因為有各種不同的分組型式,所以我的成績不受小組成員的影響, 評量很合理。 我覺得跟程度好的學生同一組對於我的學習較有幫助。 我覺得老師的分組跟我期待不同對於我的學習有害。 我覺得老師的分組跟我期待不同但我可以慢慢適應。 我希望能夠自行選擇小組成員。 我覺得如果每次都自行選擇小組成員我會因為找小組成員而感到困擾。 我覺得如果自行選擇小組成員,成績評量會不公平。 其他 20 1 2 3 4 5 國立北門高級農工職業學校 蔡淑華 Sanmin Book1 Unit 6 What Is Written in the Stars? Reading Astrology is everywhere. Open a newspaper or talk to a friend, and you will surely see it or hear about it. The Chaldeans are said to have been the first to have practiced Western astrology. They looked at the sky and recorded what they saw. In 1930, when Britain’s Princess Margaret was born, a newspaper published the astrological predictions for her life. It led to a surprising wave of public interest in astrology. Soon after, reading and learning about astrology became popular. Like Princess Margaret, everyone has a star sign that corresponds to his or her birthday. Each sign belongs to one of the four categories: fire, earth, air, or water. If two people are born under signs in the same category, they might share similar personality traits. For example, fire-sign people are often enthusiastic and energetic. With these personality traits, they usually make great leaders. Some famous examples are Napoleon Bonaparte and Winston Churchill. People born under earth signs tend to make plans before they take action. They follow their plans and are often successful in reaching their goals. These personality traits are illustrated in the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, and Kobe Bryant. Air-sign people are often friendly and communicative. They are eager to gain knowledge and always find things to learn in new experiences. These people are often surrounded by friends. Oscar Wilde, Abraham Lincoln, and Oprah Winfrey are in this category. Usually, people born under water signs tend to be sensitive to the needs of others. They like to follow their hearts instead of their minds. They are highly imaginative and often find great pleasure in art and writing. These personality traits are easy to discover when you read a novel by Ernest Hemingway or Amy Tan, or when you take some time to enjoy Claude Monet’s or Pablo Picasso’s paintings. So, next time you are not quite sure of yourself, why not look at the sky on a starry night? The stars may open your eyes to new ways of looking at yourself. —By Jules Crowell
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