As Stephen pointed out : “Regardless of the number of students in a class, a primary goal should be to make the classroom a more interactive and engaging place.”
This course outlined the development of an interactive, technology-based teaching strategy using interactive tools.
From Interactive Lectures at http://www.thiagi.com/interactive-lectures.html I could use:
-“Best summary “idea can be used at the end of a story presentation or a WebQuest. Teams of students could build their summaries, post them on a WallWisher page or on the class blog and then evaluate their own work through comparison .The assessment phase could be done in a jigsaw pattern: the initial teams will be broken and create new teams which have a member from every initial teams. The new team will evaluate the written work according to the rubric given initially or according to their own-designed rubric.
- Dyads and triads
The activity consists of three parts. During the first part, participants listen to a lecture, taking careful notes. During the second part, each participant writes a closed question on a card. During the next 7 minutes, participants repeatedly pair up and answer each other questions, scoring one point for each correct answer. During the third part, each participant writes an open question. During the next 7 minutes, participants repeatedly organize them into triads. Two participants answer each question and the person who gave the better response earns a point.
http://www.microsoft.com/education/story.aspx made me seriously think about creating interactive stories through Power Point. (Important: View the document in slideshow mode to see the interactivity. Links and orange buttons are clickable.)
Searching more about the topic I came into http://englishconversations.org/interactive-stories/ , a great blog with interactive stories for different levels and on practicing different points of grammar .
My idea would be to give to 2 large groups a story with questions as those created by Mark White and let them answer in their ways . After having their final versions I could mix them up in a Power Point presentation .The presentation could be used then as a tool for another class to re-create the questions asked initially .
This way writing , speaking ,listening and reading skills are used .Moreover, the presentation with both sides of the story could be enriched by students with visual and auditory elements related to the content of each slide .
Who's reading ?
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Week 5 Course Task 3: Describe a change
" Describe a technology-related change that you will implement to help with one or more of the issues you mentioned last week. Explain why you think it will be useful in resolving the issue(s)."
Liliya thinks WebQuests can substitute the lack of materials needed in class .
Stephen, well-organized, would use technology to solve teacher and students issues. Besides tracking students’ progress he would like to move the learning outside classroom with technology .He also gave me a hand to bookmark 2 sites about how to write a good book report.
Khuloud would like wikis as part of her lessons.
Luiza believes she needs a technology-related change in order to teach students how to write a film/book review and ‘The Plagiarism Checker' to find out if their work is copy paste from internet.
Azhar would use technology to communicate with her students through sending "e-mails and chatting" and creating "online discussion boards", using Nicenet . "Blogs" & "Wikis" are also a solution for her to help students improve writing skills.
Victoria likes her delicious tool as a help in creating technology-enhanced classes .More than that she sees the improvement of all aspects of a foreign language acquisition (student–oriented). International e-mail exchange in class projects, Web Quests – to invite collaboration, promote and exercise 'higher-level thinking process and practice skills inherent to any language learning project, research, Video-conferencing are all mentioned in her post as a future usage of technology in class.
I thought problem-based learning would be beneficial for me and my students because it addresses to all learning styles and make them work cooperatively.
Arjana shares my idea that Webquest as a tool, even if it is a time-consuming process, it’s definitely worthwhile.
Janet has access to a digital camera with a microphone and she would like to record her students’ presentations and uploaded on the Internet. Establishing a wiki with the class is a way to help with their writing, she thinks.
I do not know how many we are left in this course but my colleagues’ responses to this task make me believe that this particular course will have a great positive impact on our students. It will not be easy for us to try to implement everything we have learned so far , but for sure , at some point , we will be become technology savvy teachers .
Liliya thinks WebQuests can substitute the lack of materials needed in class .
Stephen, well-organized, would use technology to solve teacher and students issues. Besides tracking students’ progress he would like to move the learning outside classroom with technology .He also gave me a hand to bookmark 2 sites about how to write a good book report.
Khuloud would like wikis as part of her lessons.
Luiza believes she needs a technology-related change in order to teach students how to write a film/book review and ‘The Plagiarism Checker' to find out if their work is copy paste from internet.
Azhar would use technology to communicate with her students through sending "e-mails and chatting" and creating "online discussion boards", using Nicenet . "Blogs" & "Wikis" are also a solution for her to help students improve writing skills.
Victoria likes her delicious tool as a help in creating technology-enhanced classes .More than that she sees the improvement of all aspects of a foreign language acquisition (student–oriented). International e-mail exchange in class projects, Web Quests – to invite collaboration, promote and exercise 'higher-level thinking process and practice skills inherent to any language learning project, research, Video-conferencing are all mentioned in her post as a future usage of technology in class.
I thought problem-based learning would be beneficial for me and my students because it addresses to all learning styles and make them work cooperatively.
Arjana shares my idea that Webquest as a tool, even if it is a time-consuming process, it’s definitely worthwhile.
Janet has access to a digital camera with a microphone and she would like to record her students’ presentations and uploaded on the Internet. Establishing a wiki with the class is a way to help with their writing, she thinks.
I do not know how many we are left in this course but my colleagues’ responses to this task make me believe that this particular course will have a great positive impact on our students. It will not be easy for us to try to implement everything we have learned so far , but for sure , at some point , we will be become technology savvy teachers .
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Week 5 : Task-Create a rubric
How will you measure what students learn?
Tough question if I take into consideration that I have never used rubrics before. Because I have never heard about them. And I am sure I have attended all the classes.
This was one of the things which has been problematic for me this week. And I am sure I will have to practice it a while in order to be a skilful designer. Even if the task seemed problematic for me I am sure it will help a lot in the classroom. Subjectivity will be lower, my students will have clear objectives to go for and involving them in creating some can definitely help them clarifies their thinking (mine at this point , regarding this topic is still blurry ) .
This can also be the result of the situation that in Romania we use the 1-10 marking scale in assessment and converting the 4 components of a typical rubric in real grades will be a little difficult ,but sure not impossible. Yes, I know, you will say that I could use something similar with”Exemplary “is equivalent to 10. “Qualified “could be 8 or 9. “ “Developing “goes to 6, 7. and “ Beginning “ to 4 or 5 . In our system 4 is failing. There are rare the cases when there are grades of 3, 2 or 1.
Letting this aside, rubric designing seems worth, anyway, for me. Having clear criteria to assess it will prevent me of evaluating holistically. Moreover, it will help focus on one step at a time. More than once I have the tendency to assess more skills at once.
Every cloud has its silver line .
Tough question if I take into consideration that I have never used rubrics before. Because I have never heard about them. And I am sure I have attended all the classes.
This was one of the things which has been problematic for me this week. And I am sure I will have to practice it a while in order to be a skilful designer. Even if the task seemed problematic for me I am sure it will help a lot in the classroom. Subjectivity will be lower, my students will have clear objectives to go for and involving them in creating some can definitely help them clarifies their thinking (mine at this point , regarding this topic is still blurry ) .
This can also be the result of the situation that in Romania we use the 1-10 marking scale in assessment and converting the 4 components of a typical rubric in real grades will be a little difficult ,but sure not impossible. Yes, I know, you will say that I could use something similar with”Exemplary “is equivalent to 10. “Qualified “could be 8 or 9. “ “Developing “goes to 6, 7. and “ Beginning “ to 4 or 5 . In our system 4 is failing. There are rare the cases when there are grades of 3, 2 or 1.
Letting this aside, rubric designing seems worth, anyway, for me. Having clear criteria to assess it will prevent me of evaluating holistically. Moreover, it will help focus on one step at a time. More than once I have the tendency to assess more skills at once.
Every cloud has its silver line .
Week 5 : WebQuest
The link http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index_sub3.html guided me towards WebQuest , “an inquiry-oriented online tool for learning” .
After being introduced to PBL , this tool provides the technology-enhanced cooperative and collaborative way of putting it into practice . Most or all of the information that students explore and evaluate comes from the World Wide Web, it usually involves group work, and it can be as short as a single class period or as long as a month-long unit. Students have to learn how to learn, and learn how to work with each other. The teacher, as a designer, builds the base of resources which is used by students to complete the task.
WebQuest has been designed to help students develop their high order thinking skills : , critical thinking , problem solving ,analysis skills, and their decision making skills. Anyway , it is a tool that requires a certain level of reading ability and it can’t be used with beginners . In the same time it cannot be helpful to teach factual pieces of information .By using multimedia, WebQuests also help with multiple intelligence work, addressing to all of them.
The same guide showed me the logical steps in creating a WebQuest :
1WebQuest introduction - related to students' interests, ideas, past experiences, or future goals
2 The task - a formal description of what students will have accomplished by the end of the WebQuest. Here I found the phrase : “Built into a good WebQuest is the notion of scaffolding”. “Scaffolding is an instructional technique whereby the teacher models the desired learning strategy or task, then gradually shifts responsibility to the students. How teachers interact with students as they complete a task is important to the students' ability to perform the activity.” ( http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1scaf.htm). Under these circumstances the teacher gains another role : model or guide .
We can also give an example of a finished project –this allows them to assess and calibrate their own efforts as they begin work on the project.
3. Process –a description of the steps learners should go through in accomplishing the task, with links embedded in each step.
I enjoyed the ideas of kids doing portfolio pieces based on the work that they were doing on the WebQuests.The ABC book seemed another interesting outcome of another WebQuest .The children wrote a summary of what the book Island of the Blue Dolphins was about. And then they took every letter of the alphabet and found something interesting from the book that related to Island of the Blue Dolphins and wrote an ABC book.
4.Resources
5.Evaluation - rubric -clear goals, matching assessments to specific tasks, and involving the learners in the process of evaluation.It can be very helpful to point out three types of student examples: exemplary, acceptable, and unacceptable. The range between exemplary and acceptable work may be great and will spur the students to strive for excellence, while the demonstration of what constitutes unacceptable work will set clear minimum standards for all to achieve. The goal is for all students to have a good experience of the project.
6. Conclusion-this step allows for reflection by the students and summation by the teacher. Setting aside time for discussion of possible extensions and applications of the lesson honours the constructivist principle: "We learn by doing - but we learn even better by talking about what we did." During the concluding section of a WebQuest, you can encourage your students to suggest ways of doing things differently to improve the lesson.
The last step was visiting some examples of WebQuests at http://webquest.org/search/index.php . “Since 2005, over 20,000 WebQuests have been created on the site. QuestGarden members can download WebQuests created by other teachers and adjust them to meet their specific needs. Though there is a wide range of quality, QuestGarden WebQuests tend to be more up to date and complete than WebQuests found elsewhere.”
Because students love learning about animals I visited http://questgarden.com/106/55/4/100712164312/ -“ Which pet should we get ?”, developed by Michal Remer, McGill and http://questgarden.com/01/41/2/050911225028/t-index.htm - “Alphabet zoo “, by Debi Lindberg, Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary.
After being introduced to PBL , this tool provides the technology-enhanced cooperative and collaborative way of putting it into practice . Most or all of the information that students explore and evaluate comes from the World Wide Web, it usually involves group work, and it can be as short as a single class period or as long as a month-long unit. Students have to learn how to learn, and learn how to work with each other. The teacher, as a designer, builds the base of resources which is used by students to complete the task.
WebQuest has been designed to help students develop their high order thinking skills : , critical thinking , problem solving ,analysis skills, and their decision making skills. Anyway , it is a tool that requires a certain level of reading ability and it can’t be used with beginners . In the same time it cannot be helpful to teach factual pieces of information .By using multimedia, WebQuests also help with multiple intelligence work, addressing to all of them.
The same guide showed me the logical steps in creating a WebQuest :
1WebQuest introduction - related to students' interests, ideas, past experiences, or future goals
2 The task - a formal description of what students will have accomplished by the end of the WebQuest. Here I found the phrase : “Built into a good WebQuest is the notion of scaffolding”. “Scaffolding is an instructional technique whereby the teacher models the desired learning strategy or task, then gradually shifts responsibility to the students. How teachers interact with students as they complete a task is important to the students' ability to perform the activity.” ( http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1scaf.htm). Under these circumstances the teacher gains another role : model or guide .
We can also give an example of a finished project –this allows them to assess and calibrate their own efforts as they begin work on the project.
3. Process –a description of the steps learners should go through in accomplishing the task, with links embedded in each step.
I enjoyed the ideas of kids doing portfolio pieces based on the work that they were doing on the WebQuests.The ABC book seemed another interesting outcome of another WebQuest .The children wrote a summary of what the book Island of the Blue Dolphins was about. And then they took every letter of the alphabet and found something interesting from the book that related to Island of the Blue Dolphins and wrote an ABC book.
4.Resources
5.Evaluation - rubric -clear goals, matching assessments to specific tasks, and involving the learners in the process of evaluation.It can be very helpful to point out three types of student examples: exemplary, acceptable, and unacceptable. The range between exemplary and acceptable work may be great and will spur the students to strive for excellence, while the demonstration of what constitutes unacceptable work will set clear minimum standards for all to achieve. The goal is for all students to have a good experience of the project.
6. Conclusion-this step allows for reflection by the students and summation by the teacher. Setting aside time for discussion of possible extensions and applications of the lesson honours the constructivist principle: "We learn by doing - but we learn even better by talking about what we did." During the concluding section of a WebQuest, you can encourage your students to suggest ways of doing things differently to improve the lesson.
The last step was visiting some examples of WebQuests at http://webquest.org/search/index.php . “Since 2005, over 20,000 WebQuests have been created on the site. QuestGarden members can download WebQuests created by other teachers and adjust them to meet their specific needs. Though there is a wide range of quality, QuestGarden WebQuests tend to be more up to date and complete than WebQuests found elsewhere.”
Because students love learning about animals I visited http://questgarden.com/106/55/4/100712164312/ -“ Which pet should we get ?”, developed by Michal Remer, McGill and http://questgarden.com/01/41/2/050911225028/t-index.htm - “Alphabet zoo “, by Debi Lindberg, Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Week 4 Task: Technology-enhanced lesson plan; Optional discussion: lesson planning;Project Task 2: Describe some issues
The purpose of planning is to help to focus our minds .Lesson plans are first of all a thinking process. The purposeful use of assistive technologies is to enable all students to participate in the process of learning. Technology is important as a tool for developing our students’ higher order thinking skills: critical thinking skills and problem solving capabilities. Creativity is also enhancing this way.
I was thinking about what I have written regarding similarities between the two types of lesson planning in our optional discussion, namely “In both types of lesson plans we have to think ahead at the same questions: Who are the students for this activity? Why do you want to do it? What will it achieve? How long will it take? What might go wrong? What will be needed? How does it work? How will it fit in with what comes before and after that? “
And I was struck by the discovery that this is what Deborah has been guiding us to do. Think about the class and its issues. Think about the benefits of employing technology more in our teaching. Think about B plans, back-up plans, in case something goes wrong with our initial plan. Think about the integration of our lesson in a larger context , see sections about “ Review of previous lesson “ and “ Review before the end of the class session “ in her template .
More than that, she has been feeding us with useful tips meant to make easier our trip into web skills journey.
Having us share our thoughts about the week on our blogs she uses reflection as another tool for helping us in our learning process. Galvez-Martin (1998) defines reflection as “a way of thinking about educational matters that involves the ability to make rational choices and to assume responsibility for those choices” , and Rosier (2002) indicated that reflection after the event is an important part of the learning process.
I was thinking about what I have written regarding similarities between the two types of lesson planning in our optional discussion, namely “In both types of lesson plans we have to think ahead at the same questions: Who are the students for this activity? Why do you want to do it? What will it achieve? How long will it take? What might go wrong? What will be needed? How does it work? How will it fit in with what comes before and after that? “
And I was struck by the discovery that this is what Deborah has been guiding us to do. Think about the class and its issues. Think about the benefits of employing technology more in our teaching. Think about B plans, back-up plans, in case something goes wrong with our initial plan. Think about the integration of our lesson in a larger context , see sections about “ Review of previous lesson “ and “ Review before the end of the class session “ in her template .
More than that, she has been feeding us with useful tips meant to make easier our trip into web skills journey.
Having us share our thoughts about the week on our blogs she uses reflection as another tool for helping us in our learning process. Galvez-Martin (1998) defines reflection as “a way of thinking about educational matters that involves the ability to make rational choices and to assume responsibility for those choices” , and Rosier (2002) indicated that reflection after the event is an important part of the learning process.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Week 4 Discussion: Reading/writing/vocabulary skill-building
The Internet holds great promise for all who are willing and able to take advantage of the opportunities. However, as with anything that seems too good, to be true, there is a catch: finding the best sites can be difficult. Our group of teachers-students seems designed to simplify and enhance our experience on the Internet. With everybody’s help, whether you are an experienced Web surfer or a new user, you will be directed to numerous informative, entertaining and remarkable sites .The Internet spans an unlimited array of web-sites extremely helpful for enhancing each of the English skills.
This week’s first discussion made us read some articles about how to use computers to enhance ways to teach reading and writing. We had several multi-skill websites on our list this week and the list became even larger after my colleagues’ posts. Individually we had to find two or more specific web pages that would work for us in our class. I investigated and included the specific web address (URL) of the pages, theirs titles, the target students, why I think it will work, and why I think it will be useful. I have also developed ABCD objectives to go with these pages.
I have followed and discussed about : http://wwf.panda.org/ and http://www.manythings.org/#des.
Given one of Stephen’s post I have also found useful resources at http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/writing/.
I am proud of myself that finally I could make my links active on the Nicenet interface. The formula is simple : (a href =“ URL”)URL(/a) with no spaces .
Note : ( stands for < and ) stands for > .
This week’s first discussion made us read some articles about how to use computers to enhance ways to teach reading and writing. We had several multi-skill websites on our list this week and the list became even larger after my colleagues’ posts. Individually we had to find two or more specific web pages that would work for us in our class. I investigated and included the specific web address (URL) of the pages, theirs titles, the target students, why I think it will work, and why I think it will be useful. I have also developed ABCD objectives to go with these pages.
I have followed and discussed about : http://wwf.panda.org/ and http://www.manythings.org/#des.
Given one of Stephen’s post I have also found useful resources at http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/writing/.
I am proud of myself that finally I could make my links active on the Nicenet interface. The formula is simple : (a href =“ URL”)URL(/a) with no spaces .
Note : ( stands for < and ) stands for > .
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Week 3- Discussion 2 : Aural/oral skill-building websites
This week we have explored the aural and oral skills and seen how much some websites could help involve our students in real-world , authentic materials with the help of text, video, and voice tools.
I have followed Pronunciation Tips from the BBC at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/ and Randall's Cyber Listening Lab: http://www.esl-lab.com/ . I have commented on their features as oral/aural-skills websites and I found them both useful in enhancing the variety of approaches in listening, speaking and pronunciation. Especially the last one, because I haven’t given too much thought to this skill before, especially in the context of using websites. I have also presented http://www.onestopenglish.com/index.asp in another post and my colleagues agreed on its utility, as well.
At this point on our Nicenet discussion about this topic there is a huge amount of information about aural/oral skill-building websites which I have to explore and bookmark on my Delicious page.
I am amazed about the rich environment developed on each of our discussions and the collaborative learning that is taking place.
Thank you for your great work , course mates !
I have followed Pronunciation Tips from the BBC at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/ and Randall's Cyber Listening Lab: http://www.esl-lab.com/ . I have commented on their features as oral/aural-skills websites and I found them both useful in enhancing the variety of approaches in listening, speaking and pronunciation. Especially the last one, because I haven’t given too much thought to this skill before, especially in the context of using websites. I have also presented http://www.onestopenglish.com/index.asp in another post and my colleagues agreed on its utility, as well.
At this point on our Nicenet discussion about this topic there is a huge amount of information about aural/oral skill-building websites which I have to explore and bookmark on my Delicious page.
I am amazed about the rich environment developed on each of our discussions and the collaborative learning that is taking place.
Thank you for your great work , course mates !
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Week 3 Discussion 1: Aural/oral skills readings
“Using technology in teaching “ – the first discussion this week .We had to read : Miller L., Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials /April 2003 issue of ESL Magazine; Gong J., The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Skills / Post-Script, Volume 3. 1, July 2002; Busà M.G., New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation.
After reading we had to explain how we might use technology to improve our students’ aural/oral skills in at least one post on Nicenet .
There were similar but also different points of view about employing technology as a self-study method and as a useful tool in the English class. As teachers, I think we always have to learn how to spark creativity and encourage a long-lasting love of language while finding useful resources to help make our classroom productive. Of course, the considerable variety in teaching contexts and learning aims makes it difficult to set hard-and-fast rules that can be applied across different learning settings. In my opinion, face-to-face communication is as valuable as using technology in class and outside it. We have to use a balanced blend of them.
I have been using technology in my classes as you could see in my two previous posts. I should complete them with the software I use. For example ,“Welcome 2 “ CD-ROMs is a set of fully animated vocabulary & grammar presentation which ensures solid understanding thoroughly consolidated in special designed exercises. I have been using it with a group of 9 year-old students in private lessons. The girls couldn’t wait to get involved in the interactive learning. In the same area I can add the AeL CD-ROMs to which students have reacted positively because many who previously considered learning as work, now think of it as a game.
Part of my kids is involved in e Twinning partnerships. The e Twinning projects aim to encourage European schools to collaborate using Information and Communication Technologies . The project was born under the European Union's e-Learning program and is now part of the Lifelong Learning Program. The main concept behind e Twinning is that schools are paired with another school/s elsewhere in Europe. The two schools (or more) then communicate using the Internet ( for example, by e-mail , video conferencing, written papers , audio recordings ) to collaborate, share and learn from each other. It encourages and develops ICT skills as the main activities inherently use information technology. Being 'twinned' with a foreign school also encourages cross-cultural exchanges of knowledge, fosters students' intercultural awareness, and improves their communication skills. These projects last for any length of time ranging from only a week, to months, up to creating permanent relationships between schools. Schools (both primary and secondary) within the European Union member states, including Norway and Iceland, can participate in the eTwinning project.
I joined this e twinning community in 2007. Projects developed: “United in Diversity”, “Few words make European children friends”, “Meeting Point”, “The world is small”. My children had partners from all over Europe and made a lot of e-friends. They keep in touch with them via e-mail, Yahoo Messenger or registered mail.
At the level of my school we also had a Comenius partnership financed by the European Union with Turkey, Latvia and Lithuania as partners, for a period of 3 years (2006-2009). I was the coordinator and my children had another opportunity to learn how to use a forum and how to learn IT literacy in order to create English materials.
All of these don’t mean I wouldn’t have anything else to learn from this course (from my instructor and from my colleagues).
I have found out that I should try to create authentic environments of learning, which should always have the following features: visibility of the speakers, participation of the listeners, environmental features, and real-life language features. I realized that I should integrate listening with other teaching activities –for example some useful practice may be obtained by the use of pair-work or group-work (students take turns to repeat the listening part) and when students’ listening is improved through repetition to some extent, a role-playing and imitation are appropriate to them. It is a process that remembering is changed into understanding. This way the oral activities improve students’ aural abilities. After listening, reading the materials is also a good opportunity for others to practice their listening, which at the same time makes students be accustomed to varied accent. Furthermore, accuracy of pronunciation through reading is improved. Then, doing blank filling and writing down their opinion about listening materials will help students understand them correctly and fully.
Usage of more (than the usual 3 of mine) skill-building sites (already added up in my delicious treasure) will create a wider and more efficient way to capture my students’ interest. Introducing them to the world of web tools will be the best way to explore and develop their higher order thinking , more valuable because such skills are more likely to be usable in novel situations (i.e., situations other than those in which the skill was learned).
After reading we had to explain how we might use technology to improve our students’ aural/oral skills in at least one post on Nicenet .
There were similar but also different points of view about employing technology as a self-study method and as a useful tool in the English class. As teachers, I think we always have to learn how to spark creativity and encourage a long-lasting love of language while finding useful resources to help make our classroom productive. Of course, the considerable variety in teaching contexts and learning aims makes it difficult to set hard-and-fast rules that can be applied across different learning settings. In my opinion, face-to-face communication is as valuable as using technology in class and outside it. We have to use a balanced blend of them.
I have been using technology in my classes as you could see in my two previous posts. I should complete them with the software I use. For example ,“Welcome 2 “ CD-ROMs is a set of fully animated vocabulary & grammar presentation which ensures solid understanding thoroughly consolidated in special designed exercises. I have been using it with a group of 9 year-old students in private lessons. The girls couldn’t wait to get involved in the interactive learning. In the same area I can add the AeL CD-ROMs to which students have reacted positively because many who previously considered learning as work, now think of it as a game.
Part of my kids is involved in e Twinning partnerships. The e Twinning projects aim to encourage European schools to collaborate using Information and Communication Technologies . The project was born under the European Union's e-Learning program and is now part of the Lifelong Learning Program. The main concept behind e Twinning is that schools are paired with another school/s elsewhere in Europe. The two schools (or more) then communicate using the Internet ( for example, by e-mail , video conferencing, written papers , audio recordings ) to collaborate, share and learn from each other. It encourages and develops ICT skills as the main activities inherently use information technology. Being 'twinned' with a foreign school also encourages cross-cultural exchanges of knowledge, fosters students' intercultural awareness, and improves their communication skills. These projects last for any length of time ranging from only a week, to months, up to creating permanent relationships between schools. Schools (both primary and secondary) within the European Union member states, including Norway and Iceland, can participate in the eTwinning project.
I joined this e twinning community in 2007. Projects developed: “United in Diversity”, “Few words make European children friends”, “Meeting Point”, “The world is small”. My children had partners from all over Europe and made a lot of e-friends. They keep in touch with them via e-mail, Yahoo Messenger or registered mail.
At the level of my school we also had a Comenius partnership financed by the European Union with Turkey, Latvia and Lithuania as partners, for a period of 3 years (2006-2009). I was the coordinator and my children had another opportunity to learn how to use a forum and how to learn IT literacy in order to create English materials.
All of these don’t mean I wouldn’t have anything else to learn from this course (from my instructor and from my colleagues).
I have found out that I should try to create authentic environments of learning, which should always have the following features: visibility of the speakers, participation of the listeners, environmental features, and real-life language features. I realized that I should integrate listening with other teaching activities –for example some useful practice may be obtained by the use of pair-work or group-work (students take turns to repeat the listening part) and when students’ listening is improved through repetition to some extent, a role-playing and imitation are appropriate to them. It is a process that remembering is changed into understanding. This way the oral activities improve students’ aural abilities. After listening, reading the materials is also a good opportunity for others to practice their listening, which at the same time makes students be accustomed to varied accent. Furthermore, accuracy of pronunciation through reading is improved. Then, doing blank filling and writing down their opinion about listening materials will help students understand them correctly and fully.
Usage of more (than the usual 3 of mine) skill-building sites (already added up in my delicious treasure) will create a wider and more efficient way to capture my students’ interest. Introducing them to the world of web tools will be the best way to explore and develop their higher order thinking , more valuable because such skills are more likely to be usable in novel situations (i.e., situations other than those in which the skill was learned).
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Week 3 - How I have been using technology in teaching.
I have said that my favourites are songs and videos. I have talked about songs in my previous post and I am going to tell you something about using videos now.
Non-verbal behaviour or paralinguistic features of the spoken text are now available to the learners when using videos, so learners can develop their listening skills in a richer language context.
Almost any video can be used to teach English according to the language point you wish to teach and the level of your student(s). Videos can be used:
-to practice/consolidate a range of language points
-to introduce subject(s) for debate
-to encourage conversation amongst students
-to improve writing skills
-to introduce new vocabulary
-to develop listening skills (with visual aid)
-to improve pronunciation
Besides the agendaweb videos I also used whole movies as “ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory “ , “ My fair Lady “ ,” Lady and the tramp” , “ Alice in Wonderland , “ Ratatouille “ , “ Mary Poppins “ ,and Pinocchio “ . I designed different while-watching and post-watching activities.
For example for “ Pinnochio “ , I had a summary of the film to be completed with the names of the characters and discussions about the themes developed in the film : process of growing up and making choices. For “My fair Lady “my students had to match quotations from the film with the character who had said those words , to answer a quiz and , after being introduced to the myth of Pygmalion, to compare it with the film.
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/ is another site I usually use for the development of the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing and provides enough material to practice each of them. Children just love it because it is colourful, funny and has a large variety of topics for their age (<13). It has two parts : learning English and Teaching English . Following the latter one you will find yourself at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/. There you will find a huge variety of activities to do in class, teaching tips, lesson plans, articles, news and so on .Take some time to explore it !
In this week’s websites to try there was this link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/ . If you access the “For Teachers “section on the right menu and you will find the section “Video “– The teacher. I have been using this particular section in my teaching because I consider idioms as a part of daily speech .They are used to convey a meaning quickly and are often easy to use and learn. They should be used carefully in a way that they add flavor to writing and speech; using too much, however, will result in diverting from the original meaning that they were intended for. There are often context clues in the idioms that suggest the hidden meanings. I have a deal with my students : they are taught by the BBC teacher a set of idioms a week and their task is to “ hunt “ for the appropriate context in the next English classes and use the idioms. If they can do that (and most of them took the chance) they have the maximum grade on the spot.
I have been using tapes and audio CDs, of course, but they do not provide the facial expression, the gestures, and the physical background to make a piece of listening easier to understand. The visual element is attractive and commands the attention better than audio alone because is much closer to real life.
Yours, in the land of Nod,
Cami
Non-verbal behaviour or paralinguistic features of the spoken text are now available to the learners when using videos, so learners can develop their listening skills in a richer language context.
Almost any video can be used to teach English according to the language point you wish to teach and the level of your student(s). Videos can be used:
-to practice/consolidate a range of language points
-to introduce subject(s) for debate
-to encourage conversation amongst students
-to improve writing skills
-to introduce new vocabulary
-to develop listening skills (with visual aid)
-to improve pronunciation
Besides the agendaweb videos I also used whole movies as “ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory “ , “ My fair Lady “ ,” Lady and the tramp” , “ Alice in Wonderland , “ Ratatouille “ , “ Mary Poppins “ ,and Pinocchio “ . I designed different while-watching and post-watching activities.
For example for “ Pinnochio “ , I had a summary of the film to be completed with the names of the characters and discussions about the themes developed in the film : process of growing up and making choices. For “My fair Lady “my students had to match quotations from the film with the character who had said those words , to answer a quiz and , after being introduced to the myth of Pygmalion, to compare it with the film.
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/ is another site I usually use for the development of the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing and provides enough material to practice each of them. Children just love it because it is colourful, funny and has a large variety of topics for their age (<13). It has two parts : learning English and Teaching English . Following the latter one you will find yourself at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/. There you will find a huge variety of activities to do in class, teaching tips, lesson plans, articles, news and so on .Take some time to explore it !
In this week’s websites to try there was this link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/ . If you access the “For Teachers “section on the right menu and you will find the section “Video “– The teacher. I have been using this particular section in my teaching because I consider idioms as a part of daily speech .They are used to convey a meaning quickly and are often easy to use and learn. They should be used carefully in a way that they add flavor to writing and speech; using too much, however, will result in diverting from the original meaning that they were intended for. There are often context clues in the idioms that suggest the hidden meanings. I have a deal with my students : they are taught by the BBC teacher a set of idioms a week and their task is to “ hunt “ for the appropriate context in the next English classes and use the idioms. If they can do that (and most of them took the chance) they have the maximum grade on the spot.
I have been using tapes and audio CDs, of course, but they do not provide the facial expression, the gestures, and the physical background to make a piece of listening easier to understand. The visual element is attractive and commands the attention better than audio alone because is much closer to real life.
Yours, in the land of Nod,
Cami
Week 3 - How I have been using technology in teaching.
Thinking that my children would have a great benefit from being in close contact with a native English speaker, in the winter of 2007 I applied for an American Peace Corps volunteer.
Since 2007 I have been working with American Peace Corps volunteers within the Peace Corps TEFL programme in Romania .That's how I managed to set up an English lab with a laptop with an Internet connection , a projector , a screen , speakers , 2 CD players, and an English library with 15 dictionaries for advanced students , 15 for beginners ,a lot of posters, flashcards, additional materials, and a large variety of English books (fiction and non-fiction , methodology , " How to teach ..." series , etc ) . In my lab there are over 250 titles and in the school library I managed to gather over 500 English literature books for children by donations from all over America. Having this place of my own means a huge difference in the ways I teach.
I consider technology as an useful way to promote language learning: all four skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The use of computer and the internet in classes is essential to actualize development in listening comprehension and oral skills. I use www.agendaweb.org/ on a regular basis. The variety of exercises to be used here focus on all four skills. This particular portal is dedicated to providing its visitors and everyone interested in learning English, with a wide variety of grammatical, audio and vocabulary exercises in order to enhance speech, and vocabulary. There is a large menu, containing a lot of sections, including a huge variety of exercises, organized by categories, along with their correspondent information and solutions. Grammar , vocabulary , verbs , listening , songs ( favourite ) ,listening , learning with news from BBC or BBC radio ( as also specified in the article “ Developing Listening Skills with authentic materials “ by Lindsay Miller ) , reading , videos ( also favourite ) and besides all these, the portal also offers an online dictionary. I tried almost any type of grammar exercise in order to practice new structures or to review the taught ones.
I have said that my favourites are songs and videos. Why?
Through music, children understand language; experiment with rhythm, words, tempo, and melody .Students will make the connection between print and spoken words. Last, but not the least they will learn how to think creatively and holistically. There are two processes involved in listening, and both can be utilized when songs are used in the classroom. The activity which is selected for a particular song will determine which of these processes is active. Cullen (1999) states that: “The first is bottom-up processing where the listener builds up the sounds into words, sentences and meaning. The second is top-down processing where the listener uses background knowledge to understand the meaning of a message. Practicing both of these processes is essential for developing listening comprehension.” Before having the first listening my students are asked a lead-in question, are shown some pictures of the band or have a short biography of the singer. The first listening allows them to tell me about the message of the song and the second one enables them to complete the missing words in the lyrics (usually selected according to a grammar / vocabulary point). The post-listening activities usually make us look deeper in the meanings looking for similes, metaphors, and other figures of speech. Of course, along with this procedure there are vivid discussions about the covert meaning of the artistic language. The third( and the fourth-sometimes ) listening is to practice pronunciation and to have fun .This is the part which is most enjoyed because they are allowed to mime , to gesture, to dance .Some other times , when we use a song with a well-made and to the point video I also elicit their opinions about the visual message . Listening is the language skill which most learners usually find the most difficult. First of all, we must take into account that the level of language input (listening) must be higher than the level of language production expected of the pupils. So we should have many speaking activities used in the first levels that enable pupils to participate with a minimal verbal response. However, in the last levels, pupils are encouraged to begin to manipulate language and express themselves in a much more personal way.
Saricoban and Metin (2000) have found that songs can develop the four skill areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Eken (1996, p.46) states that songs can be used:
-to present a topic, a language point, lexis, etc.
-to practice a language point, lexis, etc.
-to focus on common learner errors in a more direct way
-to encourage extensive and intensive listening
-to stimulate discussion of attitudes and feelings
-to encourage creativity and use of imagination
-to provide a relaxed classroom atmosphere
-to bring variety and fun to learning
You will find many fun and productive ways to use songs with lyrics in the classroom for, as Gene Buck says, “There is nothing finer on which to hang a memory than a song.”
Since 2007 I have been working with American Peace Corps volunteers within the Peace Corps TEFL programme in Romania .That's how I managed to set up an English lab with a laptop with an Internet connection , a projector , a screen , speakers , 2 CD players, and an English library with 15 dictionaries for advanced students , 15 for beginners ,a lot of posters, flashcards, additional materials, and a large variety of English books (fiction and non-fiction , methodology , " How to teach ..." series , etc ) . In my lab there are over 250 titles and in the school library I managed to gather over 500 English literature books for children by donations from all over America. Having this place of my own means a huge difference in the ways I teach.
I consider technology as an useful way to promote language learning: all four skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The use of computer and the internet in classes is essential to actualize development in listening comprehension and oral skills. I use www.agendaweb.org/ on a regular basis. The variety of exercises to be used here focus on all four skills. This particular portal is dedicated to providing its visitors and everyone interested in learning English, with a wide variety of grammatical, audio and vocabulary exercises in order to enhance speech, and vocabulary. There is a large menu, containing a lot of sections, including a huge variety of exercises, organized by categories, along with their correspondent information and solutions. Grammar , vocabulary , verbs , listening , songs ( favourite ) ,listening , learning with news from BBC or BBC radio ( as also specified in the article “ Developing Listening Skills with authentic materials “ by Lindsay Miller ) , reading , videos ( also favourite ) and besides all these, the portal also offers an online dictionary. I tried almost any type of grammar exercise in order to practice new structures or to review the taught ones.
I have said that my favourites are songs and videos. Why?
Through music, children understand language; experiment with rhythm, words, tempo, and melody .Students will make the connection between print and spoken words. Last, but not the least they will learn how to think creatively and holistically. There are two processes involved in listening, and both can be utilized when songs are used in the classroom. The activity which is selected for a particular song will determine which of these processes is active. Cullen (1999) states that: “The first is bottom-up processing where the listener builds up the sounds into words, sentences and meaning. The second is top-down processing where the listener uses background knowledge to understand the meaning of a message. Practicing both of these processes is essential for developing listening comprehension.” Before having the first listening my students are asked a lead-in question, are shown some pictures of the band or have a short biography of the singer. The first listening allows them to tell me about the message of the song and the second one enables them to complete the missing words in the lyrics (usually selected according to a grammar / vocabulary point). The post-listening activities usually make us look deeper in the meanings looking for similes, metaphors, and other figures of speech. Of course, along with this procedure there are vivid discussions about the covert meaning of the artistic language. The third( and the fourth-sometimes ) listening is to practice pronunciation and to have fun .This is the part which is most enjoyed because they are allowed to mime , to gesture, to dance .Some other times , when we use a song with a well-made and to the point video I also elicit their opinions about the visual message . Listening is the language skill which most learners usually find the most difficult. First of all, we must take into account that the level of language input (listening) must be higher than the level of language production expected of the pupils. So we should have many speaking activities used in the first levels that enable pupils to participate with a minimal verbal response. However, in the last levels, pupils are encouraged to begin to manipulate language and express themselves in a much more personal way.
Saricoban and Metin (2000) have found that songs can develop the four skill areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Eken (1996, p.46) states that songs can be used:
-to present a topic, a language point, lexis, etc.
-to practice a language point, lexis, etc.
-to focus on common learner errors in a more direct way
-to encourage extensive and intensive listening
-to stimulate discussion of attitudes and feelings
-to encourage creativity and use of imagination
-to provide a relaxed classroom atmosphere
-to bring variety and fun to learning
You will find many fun and productive ways to use songs with lyrics in the classroom for, as Gene Buck says, “There is nothing finer on which to hang a memory than a song.”
Monday, July 5, 2010
Week 3 - Task : Using Delicious.com to store useful links
http://delicious.com/pagila_camelia
This is the URL of my Delicious Account , a free and useful Web 2.0 tools tool which is going to help me save and share the sites that are important to me . Furthermore it helps me find bookmarks from other users on my network .
Setting up the account with Delicious only took a few minutes and required no special technical knowledge ( besides Deborah’s instructions ) . How I did it :
1.I went to the Delicious homepage.
2.I clicked on the “Join now “link.
3.I completed the same username and password as I have for my Yahoo e-mail account.
4.From the next page I chose to create a new delicious account.
5.Then I clicked on “Install Delicious add-on For Firefox “
6.After they were installed, I could bookmark pages easily by clicking on the “Save a new bookmark” from the next page
7.I completed the URL
8.I filled in the tags field and then saved them
9.That’s it!
And because I have visited Deborah’s page at her delicious site I practiced again and bookmarked her on my Delicious site. I hope she won’t mind!
Accessing my blog I could see a set of new tabs on my toolbar and clicking on the "Tag" button I could even bookmark the address of my blog !
Quite delicious when you can do it right off the bat!
This is the URL of my Delicious Account , a free and useful Web 2.0 tools tool which is going to help me save and share the sites that are important to me . Furthermore it helps me find bookmarks from other users on my network .
Setting up the account with Delicious only took a few minutes and required no special technical knowledge ( besides Deborah’s instructions ) . How I did it :
1.I went to the Delicious homepage.
2.I clicked on the “Join now “link.
3.I completed the same username and password as I have for my Yahoo e-mail account.
4.From the next page I chose to create a new delicious account.
5.Then I clicked on “Install Delicious add-on For Firefox “
6.After they were installed, I could bookmark pages easily by clicking on the “Save a new bookmark” from the next page
7.I completed the URL
8.I filled in the tags field and then saved them
9.That’s it!
And because I have visited Deborah’s page at her delicious site I practiced again and bookmarked her on my Delicious site. I hope she won’t mind!
Accessing my blog I could see a set of new tabs on my toolbar and clicking on the "Tag" button I could even bookmark the address of my blog !
Quite delicious when you can do it right off the bat!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Week 2- Proof of the pudding
1.I participated in the weekly discussion about web searching: After being fed with the amazing article “Choose the best search for your information need “ I laid my hands on different search engines, I analyzed them in terms of use in my own classes and shared their advantages and disadvantages in posts on Nicenet that included the web page (with URL), the search term, and my recommendation about the search engine.
I have learned that many, but not all search engines, allow me to use so-called Boolean operators to refine my search. I now know more than I ever knew about indexing, query refining and relevancy ranking.I know that :
-by putting double quotes around a set of words, I am telling the search engine to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change.
-attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that I do not want pages that contain this word to appear in my results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space.
-if I include * within a query, it tells the search engine to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches
-by attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don't add a space after the +), I am telling the search engine to match that word precisely as I typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing.
Dr. Bernie Dodge, co-developer of the WebQuest concept, suggests using NETS as an acronym for remembering a way to improve your search results. The NETS acronym comes from his suggestion to: "start narrow, use exact phrases, trim the URL, and seek similar pages."
I have at this point another useful piece of information to share with my children .
2. Another difficult, at first , task seemed to be the ABCD model for behavioural objectives. But all things are difficult before they are easy. After reading about the ABCD model, I shared some behavioural objectives for a class on Nicenet platform.
Clearly defined learning objectives are useful for instructors,and students • By clearly stating the results we want the learners to accomplish, we can identify whether students have gained the appropriate skills and knowledge. Because objectives should be stated before learners begin their instructional materials, they provide students the means to organize their efforts toward accomplishing the desired behaviors.
Looking back on my lesson plans I have found out that I generally used goals instead of objectives in my classes despite the fact that I used to write them on the board at the beginning of each class . My old “objectives “ were broad , general intentions, sometimes intangible, abstract .
From now on I will remember the ABCD's of writing clear learning objectives every single time when I write down one. Action verbs will help me to align objectives to an observable behaviour and it will be effective in making them clearer for my students. Even better, though, is to think at higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. At the higher levels, I can get the students to analyze a particular cause critically or provide reasons why something occurred. I have to make them do some evaluation or some synthesis using higher-order thinking. The more I can move my learning objectives beyond the lowest levels of thinking, the more I will improve my courses .
3. I(Audience) analyzed the students in 6th F (Condition) and described them (Behavior) in one post on Nicenet (Degree).
The in depth description of 6th F made me think about them more carefully . I realized that I should use peer help and teaching so that better students can help weaker ones. It came to my mind that some might suffer from the fear of making mistakes and I should allow them to speak in a controlled way first or get them act out more dialogues or even give them the chance to be part of the English plays that we usually prepare as extra-curricular activities in order to help them improve their self-esteem and self-confidence.
I have learned that many, but not all search engines, allow me to use so-called Boolean operators to refine my search. I now know more than I ever knew about indexing, query refining and relevancy ranking.I know that :
-by putting double quotes around a set of words, I am telling the search engine to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change.
-attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that I do not want pages that contain this word to appear in my results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space.
-if I include * within a query, it tells the search engine to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches
-by attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don't add a space after the +), I am telling the search engine to match that word precisely as I typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing.
Dr. Bernie Dodge, co-developer of the WebQuest concept, suggests using NETS as an acronym for remembering a way to improve your search results. The NETS acronym comes from his suggestion to: "start narrow, use exact phrases, trim the URL, and seek similar pages."
I have at this point another useful piece of information to share with my children .
2. Another difficult, at first , task seemed to be the ABCD model for behavioural objectives. But all things are difficult before they are easy. After reading about the ABCD model, I shared some behavioural objectives for a class on Nicenet platform.
Clearly defined learning objectives are useful for instructors,and students • By clearly stating the results we want the learners to accomplish, we can identify whether students have gained the appropriate skills and knowledge. Because objectives should be stated before learners begin their instructional materials, they provide students the means to organize their efforts toward accomplishing the desired behaviors.
Looking back on my lesson plans I have found out that I generally used goals instead of objectives in my classes despite the fact that I used to write them on the board at the beginning of each class . My old “objectives “ were broad , general intentions, sometimes intangible, abstract .
From now on I will remember the ABCD's of writing clear learning objectives every single time when I write down one. Action verbs will help me to align objectives to an observable behaviour and it will be effective in making them clearer for my students. Even better, though, is to think at higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. At the higher levels, I can get the students to analyze a particular cause critically or provide reasons why something occurred. I have to make them do some evaluation or some synthesis using higher-order thinking. The more I can move my learning objectives beyond the lowest levels of thinking, the more I will improve my courses .
3. I(Audience) analyzed the students in 6th F (Condition) and described them (Behavior) in one post on Nicenet (Degree).
The in depth description of 6th F made me think about them more carefully . I realized that I should use peer help and teaching so that better students can help weaker ones. It came to my mind that some might suffer from the fear of making mistakes and I should allow them to speak in a controlled way first or get them act out more dialogues or even give them the chance to be part of the English plays that we usually prepare as extra-curricular activities in order to help them improve their self-esteem and self-confidence.
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