Running head: A Reflective Journal

A Reflective Journal on Dynamic Units, Lesson Planning and Assessment for EFL
By Pedro Mario Rodrguez Campos
Universidad Surcolombiana
April 29th, 2016

Running head: A Reflective Journal

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Dynamic Units

Often teachers are thinking in the best method, approach and strategy to teach
their students and feel anxious about the path they might follow considering to achieve
specific goals for a lesson. Thus, it is useful to know the power of dynamic units, those kind
of units are presented as an innovative tool to become language more Meaningful in the
classroom as Shin (2007) mentioned: If language is being used meaningfully in the
classroom, it is not taught only in isolated chunks or by breaking the language into its
grammatical or semantic components. p. (2). Taking into account a very important aspect
of language as is context as Shin (2007) also underlined language is being used within a
context that either mirrors real world discourse or possibly uses subject matter content, such
as [...], depending on age of the learners and their purpose for studying English. p. (2)
owing to the fact that must be though the teaching practice to success being that students
feel more comfortable when they became aware of competences they will be able develop
in a particular situation in real world.
A unit of instruction is defined by Shin (2007) as a series of lessons that are
connected to each other, possibly by a theme, grammatical point, or language function.
Because of that teacher can program many single lessons within a unit and use it to carry on
with teaching and learning process in an organized, and ordered plan.
Planning Lesson
Teachers commonly take an attitude in front of planning. Because sometimes
they feel that a plan it is not needed to be conscious of what are the contents students will
be learned. Jeremy (2012) stated when dont plan and leave everything to chance they

Running head: A Reflective Journal

sometimes have wonderful lessons, full of creativity and fun. But it is a big risk. due to the
fact that I think is very important to make a plan of what, how, when, and of course, why
would you like to teach a specific topic or theme to your students. In addition, Jeremy
(2012) affirmed when teacher plan too much and then follow the plan exactly, without
changing a single thing, whatever happens in the lesson, the lesson may be uncreative and
boring. Thus, I strong believe that if you really want to achieve your goals in a lesson you
must give yourself the opportunity to think and plan according to your students needs, but
not become a slave of what you already stated in your plan due to sometimes you will need
face some unexpected problems during the lesson, in that sense you should be flexible, and
always bearing in mind goals but no too much close to the plan.
Assessment
All the aspects of the teaching and learning process must be evaluated and
assessment is a useful manner to do it, according to Fred Genesee & Else, V. Hamayan.
(1994) assessment is an essential component of educational decision making. p. (212) In
that sense I totally agree with that concept, because I realize in my teaching practice that
assessment is a strategical tool which usually represents the only way to obtain evidence
about how is taking place learning process of EFL in the classroom. Classroom-based
assessment approach represents an objectively procedure to identify as stated by Fred
Genesee & Else, V. Hamayan. (1994) the specific needs of individual students, tailor
instruction to meet these needs, monitor the effectiveness of instruction understand student
performance in class, and make decisions about advancement or promotion of individual
students to the next level of instruction. p. (212) In this regard, assessment becomes a
priority for instruction form the point of view that teachers must plan the assessment

Running head: A Reflective Journal

according to learning styles, intelligences, level of proficiency and so forth. Finally,

assessment must be adapted to local circumstances to be effective.
References
Shin, J. (2007) Developing Dynamic Units for EFL. English Teaching Forum, Number 2.
Retrieved from http://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/07-45-2b.pdf.
Jeremy, H. (2012). Teacher Knowledge Core Concepts in English Language Teaching.
Planning lessons 79 and Planning Sequences 80. Pearson. England. Pages 8595.
Fred Genesee & Else, V. Hamayan. (1994). Educating Second Language Children. The
whole child, the whole curriculum, the whole community. Classroom based
assessment. New York: Cambridge University Press. Pages 213-237.