DEVELOMENT

OF WRITING
The Development of Writing
✔ A large number of languages in the world today exist only
in speech and do not have a written form
✔ For languages that do have writing systems, the
development of writing is a relatively recent phenomenon
✔ The roots of writing tradition go back only a few
thousand years
✔ An account of the early history gradually emerged but it
comprises many gaps and ambiguities
✔ It is difficult to decide whether a piece of graphic
expression should be taken as an artistic image or as a
symbol of primitive writing
✔ Practically it is possible to differentiate or assume as artistic
expression conveys subjective and personal meanings and
linguistic symbol is conventionalized and institutionalized
✔ Problematic area: In Egyptian an Greek the same word was
used for both ‘write’ and ‘draw’
✔ The Fact: Writing systems evolved independently of each
other at different times in several parts of the world – in
Mesopotamia, China, Meso-America etc.
✔ Much of the evidence used in the reconstruction of ancient
writing systems comes from inscriptions on stones or
tablets found in the rubble of ruined cities
Precursors
✔ Tables discovered in various parts of the Middle East and
south-east Europe from around 3500 BC.
✔ Large number of tablets found in sites around the Rivers
Tigris and Euphrates made by Sumerians
✔ Such tablets seem to have recorded matters such as
business transactions, tax account, land sales etc.
✔ However, The interpretation of single signs and early
groups of signs is often not possible
✔ There are no clear borders between picture/symbol
and what is already a sign in a writing system (specific
phonetic content which would be read in the same way
by any reader in a group of readers)
✔ The system was developed so that information could be
recorded
✔ Use of clay tokens having several distinctive shapes,
seem to have been used as a system of accounting from
at least 9th millennium BC.
 Around 3100 B.C. people began to record
amounts of different crops.

Barley was one of the most important crops

in southern Mesopotamia and when it was
first drawn it looked like this.

✔ Scribes drew the sign on soft clay tablets using a pointed

tool, probably made out of a reed.
Scribes were very important people. They were trained
to write cuneiform and record many of the languages
spoken in Mesopotamia.

Without scribes, letters would not have been written or

read, royal monuments would not have been carved with
cuneiform, and stories would have been
told and then forgotten.

Scribes wrote on different shaped objects depending on

the type of information they wanted to record
✔ Although the signs had changed over the centuries
there were more changes to come. Nobody can
explain why the changes happened
✔ The most ancient tablets have signs drawn in boxes.
Later, the signs were written in rows, arranged in the
order in which they were read
✔ Another change was that the tablets were written so
that all of the signs appeared to be
lying on their side
✔ The barley sign looked like this
✔ Not only the shape, but also the use of the sign had been
changing. The barley sign could now be used in two ways.
✔ It could represent barley, as on this tablet, which tells us
that Urra-ilum was given barley.
✔ It could also be used to represent a sound. The Sumerian
word for barley was 'she'. So the barley sign was used to
represent the sound 'she' in a word.
✔ For example, one tablet tells us about cakes given out
from the temple. The Sumerian word for figure cake is
'she-er-ku'.
TEACHING STRATEGY
-a long term plan of action designed to achieve a
particular goal
-used to help students learn the desired course
contents and be able to develop achievable goals in
the future
- identifies the different available learning methods to
enable them to develop the right strategy to deal
with the target group identified
TEACHING STRATEGIES
• Teaching strategies that facilitate student-centered learning and
teaching.
Brainstorming Flipped Classroom

Case Studies Group Work

Debates Discussion

Questioning Simulations
 10 MOST IMPORTANT TEACHING STRATEGIES
Strategy #1 Similarities and difference identification
✔ enables learners to compare and contrast the different elements
✔ helps in classification, enabling the learners to distinguish between
various ideas

Strategy #2 Note taking and summarizing

✔ enables the students to keep information for a long time while being
able to use it for analysis and presentation purposes
✔ encourages participation through questions and other forms of
clarification
 10 MOST IMPORTANT TEACHING STRATEGIES
Strategy #3 Provision of recognition and effort reinforcement
✔ enables students to understand the link between effort and the
recognition they expect
✔ Recognition provides the students with the motivation to continue
adding efforts, ensuring that they are able to achieve their goals

Strategy #4 Homework and practice

✔ enables students to practice skills acquired from the previous lectures.
✔ enables the student and teacher to form a communication policy that
underlines the time framework and the methods for carrying out the
prescribed assignment
 10 MOST IMPORTANT TEACHING STRATEGIES
Strategy #5 Nonlinguistic representation
✔ includes using mental images, physical models, pictorial
representations, graphical organizers and flow charts methods to pass
a message to the learners

Strategy #6 Objective setting and feedback provision

✔ used when learners are expected to develop, personalize and
communicate individual objectives
✔ stresses on the student performing a self-assessment to measure
success achieved from the lecture
 10 MOST IMPORTANT TEACHING STRATEGIES
Strategy #7 Generation and test hypotheses
✔ enables teachers to analyze systems while also solving identified
problems
✔ involves problem solving, system analysis, decision-making, historical
investigation, experimental inquiry and invention methods
✔ helps in explaining the importance of coursework by describing the
importance of each element.
✔ analysis of the system helps the students in goal development and
tackling of any barriers that they may face achievement of the stated
goals.
✔ involves testing the accuracy of the hypotheses and testing other
elements to determine whether different solutions will be arrived at
 10 MOST IMPORTANT TEACHING STRATEGIES
Strategy #8 Use of cues, organizer and questions
✔ used to ensure focus is maintained on the relevant important data
while ensuring students are able to maintain deadlines by having
advanced organizers
✔ helps students compare different scenarios
✔ really helpful in topic identification, addressing of available questions,
generation of mental pictures by the student, prediction of the next
occurrences and answering the asked questions.
✔ a summary is then developed for the information learned and the use
of the information
 10 MOST IMPORTANT TEACHING STRATEGIES
Strategy #9 Concept attainment process
✔ enables the teacher to develop examples for use in
demonstration of available new concepts.
✔ use of examples and non –examples, where students are able
to relate to the intended concept

Strategy #10 Mental rehearsal

✔focuses on variations and internalization enabling students to
obtain ideas on ways of altering skills and procedures with
response to different elements
TEACHING METHOD
TEACHING METHOD
-refers to the general principles, pedagogy and
management strategies used for classroom instruction.
-A systematic way of doing things
-Implies an orderly and logical arrangement of steps
-More procedural
-Used by teachers to enable student learning
-Determined partly on subject matter to be taught and
partly by the nature of the learner
TEACHER-CENTERED METHODS OF INSTRUCTION

Low Tech High Tech

Direct Instruction Flipped Classroom

Kinesthetic Learning Inquiry-Based Learning

Differentiated Instruction Expeditionary Learning

Personalized Learning

Game-Based Learning
 LOW –TECH METHODS
Direct Instruction -  is the use of straightforward, explicit teaching techniques,
usually to teach a specific skill. It is a teacher-directed method, meaning that the
teacher stands in front of a classroom and presents the information.

Kinesthetic Learning - learning takes place by the students carrying out physical

activities, rather than listening to a lecture or watching demonstrations

Differentiated Instruction - involves providing all students within their diverse

classroom community of learners a range of different avenues for understanding new
information (often in the same classroom) in terms of: acquiring content; processing,
constructing, or making sense of ideas; and developing teaching materials and
assessment measures so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively,
regardless of differences in ability.
HIGH-TECH METHODS
Flipped Classroom - blended learning method that reverses the traditional
learning  environment by delivering instructional content, often online, outside of
the classroom. It moves activities, including those that may have traditionally been
considered homework, into the classroom

Inquiry-based Learning - emphasizes the student's role in the learning process.

Rather than the teacher telling students what they need to know, students are
encouraged to explore the material, ask questions, and share ideas.

Expeditionary Learning -  involves “learning by doing” and participating in a

hands-on experience. Students may participate in fieldwork, learning expeditions,
projects or case studies to be able to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to
the real world, rather than learning through the virtual world
HIGH-TECH METHODS
Personalized Learning- aims to customize learning for each student's
strengths, needs, skills and interests. Each student gets a learning plan that's
based on what he knows and how he learns best.

Game-based learning - allows learners to explore different parts

of games as a form of learning. Games can be designed by teachers and
other education specialists in a way that balances academic subjects such as
history with the strategies, rules and social aspects of playing a game
TEACHING TECHNIQUE
TEACHING TECHNIQUE

-A well-defined procedure used to accomplish a

specific activity or task
 6 TEACHING TECHNIQUES
1. Flipped Classroom (Inverting your class)
✔ involves encouraging students to prepare for the lesson before
class.
✔ the class becomes a dynamic environment in which students elaborate on
what they have already studied
✔ Students prepare a topic at home so that the class the next day can be
devoted to answering any questions they have about the topic.
✔ allows students to go beyond their normal boundaries and explore their
natural curiosity
✔ Delivery of instructional is usually through online or outside the classroom
 6 TEACHING TECHNIQUES
2. Design Thinking (Case Method)

✔based on resolving real-life cases through group

analysis, brainstorming, innovation and creative
ideas

✔prepares students for the real world and arouses their

curiosity, analytical skills and creativity
 6 TEACHING TECHNIQUES
3. Self-learning

✔Allows students focus on exploring an area which

interests them and learn about it for themselves

✔Believes that “Curiosity is the main driver of

learning.”
 6 TEACHING TECHNIQUES

4. Gamification
✔ Learning through the use of games is one of the teaching
methods that has already been explored especially in elementary
and preschool education. 
✔ By using games, students learn without even realizing.
✔ Learning through play or ‘Gamification‘ is a learning technique
that can be very effective at any age.
✔ It is also a very useful technique to keep students motivated.
 6 TEACHING TECHNIQUES
5. Social Media

✔utilize social media in the classroom

✔ varied and effective as there are hundreds of social

networks and possibilities
 6 TEACHING TECHNIQUES
6. Free Online Learning Tools
✔There is an array of free online learning tools available
which teachers can use to encourage engagement,
participation and a sense of fun into the classroom.

✔Teachers can create an interactive and dynamic

classroom environment using, for example, online
quizzes to test student’s knowledge.
 Let’s Sum It Up!
Approaches - way of looking at teaching and learning,
which use classroom activities or techniques to help
learners learn
Strategies - long term plan of actions designed to achieve a
particular goal
Methods – logical and orderly arrangement of steps used
by teachers to enable student learning
Techniques - well-defined procedures used to accomplish
a specific activity or task
TAKE AWAY
Great teachers are
passionate about what they
teach and respectful of
those they teach.
– Michael Josephson