Another Idea of a Lesson

Having posted my reflections, I can't help sharing another idea with you. It  relates not to this week’s task but to developing grammar and speaking skills, but still...

As I was busy yesterday writing my tasks and some other papers, I didn’t have much time to prepare for my today’s Club. So, I decided to use the links I had saved to download a ready-to-use printable worksheet. It took me more time than in case I would be writing my own ;-), but, eventually I found something acceptable – a multi-purpose board game with verbs

As my young learners are studying Past Simple, I asked them to use the verbs on the board in the Past Simple to make a story. Before getting started with the game, each participant chose a character and introduced it to the group. Then, moving around the board, they had to use the verbs to add the next sentence to their story. The verbs often conflicted with the initial idea of the authors, so they had to change the plot several times and  eventually produced funny dynamic stories. 

For example, one girl wanted to tell a story about Cinderella, but she had the verbs: to go, to leave and to finish. Her story was like this: 

 "Cinderella went to the beach. She went for a swim and left her bag on the sun bed. Somebody took her bag. When she finished her swim, she was very sad."

My observation is that often students can’t make a story, because they lack ideas. This board game provided them with verbs, so they were able to generate ideas. The kids liked it so much that we decided to repeat it next Sunday.

I think this activity can be used with all ages at the basic and pre-intermediate levels. Enjoy.

Week 7: Busy and Rewarding

So, it’s Sunday night again. It’s sad to see that the number of the weeks on our course wiki is dwindling. On the one hand, of course, we are all getting worn out by the intensive reading, thinking and writing; one the other hand, it has already become an indispensable and enjoyable part of my life, and I even can’t imagine what I will do when the course is finished. Of course, I will go back and explore the issues I have saved for later study, but I will be missing the rhythm of our weekly assignments and deadlines, which have kept us moving ahead so far.

Week 7 has been still more exciting and provoking than the previous ones.  

Autonomous learning is the topic that has much more implications than those discussed. Actually, when one looks at it at the beginning, one sees it as a way out, as a promising solution to some really annoying disadvantages of the conventional education. Once you start practicing it, especially of you want it for real, if you really mean to foster the learner autonomy, you discover, that, yes, some old problems are solved, but there are new ones, of a different nature. Actually, few people realize, that fostering learner autonomy, we are turning the life upside down, back to front, inside out. We are letting the genie out of the bottle, and we won’t be able to get it back again. Splitting away from the old system, we are losing the protection, the support, the stability of the paved road, and get onto a swampy field, where no one bears responsibility for your success. These two lines have much more implications than the reasonable discussion within the course could accommodate, and I am ready to carry on, if someone is interested. I even feel that I will write a couple of posts, even if no one declares his/her interest, because these issues have to be voiced.

One Computer Classroom has become another highlight of the course. It was highly rewarding to read both the discussion and the practical tasks. I read all posts, but there was no chance to give feedback to all of them. I replied either to the posts where I had a question, or which somehow provoked me into writing. I do not want my friends, whose posts didn’t get my feedback  to think that their lesson plan didn’t get my attention. It did, and I use this blog opportunity to thank every participant, as well as our teachers, Sherie, Jodi and Sean for your valuable comments.

I have posted some links to the historic real life samples of my one computer classroom classes. Trying to learn some new techniques, I designed and posted two more lesson plans: Literature Books Characters Database and Tanagrams, and I will report how they went in a thee-week time, because we have to finish what we have been doing.

Week 7 brought us to the final stage of the Project. It’s sad to realize that we have come to the beginning of the end – the draft project report is due by Wednesday. It took some time to find a partner for the peer review, but our group completed the task the first. The remaining part of the week was left for my project implementation.

I will remind in a nutshell that my project is to introduce reflective learning by means of creating a special  space on my website for my full-time university students. The things I have done so far:

- described the target group

- identified the problem

- found a technological vehicle to bring about the change

- negotiated the project with the students

- showed the students how to use the site

- discussed the first posts with the students

- developed the rubric

- explained the students how to use the rubric

- wrote a couple of replied to the questions asked by the students

- marked the students posts and returned them to the students to make corrections in their posts

- discussed the students’ engagement in the project in class three times

My feeling is that the project is evolving well and will keep going after our course is finished.

You are welcome to come to observe it online either here:

http://www.writespeakenglish.com/ICANclub//index.php

(please, find the 4th orange bar from the top entitled “Reflective Learning”)

 or here:

http://www.writespeakenglish.com/ICANclub//index.php?PHPSESSID=7abd7aee9cfc8db200f61e4f9364733b&action=recent

(the recent posts, which can belong to different threads, but it’s the shortest way to find the posts in question too)

I am running this project as an open teaching project, so everyone, both you and your students, are welcome to join. My students say that they liked it and find it rewarding. I hope we will both succeed.

Week 6: The Interactive Presentation

Working with presentations has been a rewarding experience. I have familiarized myself with quite a few techniques. It's a pity there is not time to practice all of them, but I certainly will, little by little.
prezi,com, because the moment I saw it, I fell in love with it.

Although the Prezi interface is easy enough, the creation of my first Prezi took more time than I expected.
On the one hand, I am still thinking in terms of slide show, which restricts my imagination.
On the other hand, I could not find the way to overlay the images to produce an impression of zooming in, as I would do with Power Point.

It was also rather hard to switch between the editing and presentation modes. On top of this, when I checked the link that I had uploaded on the wiki, Prezi told me that the link has expired. What a shock!
However, it wasn't that bad. Somehow I found the presentation online, it was intact. So, here it is:

http://prezi.com/dtufy3aosox5/welcome-to-minsk-belarus/

I also re-loaded this URL to wiki to replace the non-existent one.

So, the job is done and I hope in future I will be able to use Prezi with more confidence.

Week 6: The Project

The Launch of the  Reflective Learning Project

I have announced the new Reflective Learning Project in two groups of full-time students (the total of 23 students).

I would like to remind our group that I meant my Reflective Learning Project to be an open teaching  experience, and I invite everybody to join, if you wish to try it out. Please, let me know who is willing and I will help you with the registration.

I have also sent a newsletter to the participants of the On-Line Writing Project (all who are registered at the web-site). Some on the on-line participants have visited the site to have a look at the project, but have not posted anything there.

The Reaction of My Students

Some of my full-time students welcomed the idea, others remained indifferent or skeptical.

At the moment, I have 8 students registered on the site. Four of them have written about their learning process and asked questions. The most enthusiastic one has asked 5 questions.

I have posted learning tips on reading, listening, writing, articles, conditionals.

The posts can be seen here.

http://www.writespeakenglish.com/ICANclub//index.php?action=recent;start=0

In face-to-face communication, the participating students said that they liked the idea and find it exciting to write for the Internet and get replies online.

However, 4 participating students is not the 25 per cent I targeted. Actually, I would like to engage more than 25 per cent. The reason for my goal to be that modest is that at the university we have got standard assessment rules, and I can’t formally demand that students engage in this project. The group composition this year is not the best one. There are 6 students who do not show much interest in studies. They miss classes and failed the winter exams. They are not likely to take up additional tasks. So, actually, we are talking about 17 active students, and 8 people out of 17 possible is a good result at the moment.

Managing the Project

I keep working with the students: I send them instructions how to use the site and consult them when they have technical difficulties. I also inform them of the new posts and encourage them to do what is suggested there.

Today I have sent them the rubrics, which, hopefully, will help them get more effectiveу with their posts.

Week Five: The Medium

So, we have reached the medium. This means, that the harder part of going up-hill is done, now we are working smoothly and soon we will start descending the hill, coping with more and more  tasks. The threat there will be to avoid going too fast, and the challenge - to be able to accomplish the project within the deadline.

Week 5 was highly enjoyable to me: we were doing project-based learning (PBL), a learning technology I have been using for a long time, and which I find highly effective. The generous gift from our dear teachers was WebQuests, which I highly appreciate. Once the course is finished, I will surely start contributing to that facility.

I also enjoyed wrting rubrics. The first rubric I created at the beginning of the week was consumption - I just found a ready-to-use rubric. Creating the second rubric

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=2154837&

was quite a challenge, and I am happy we were offered it, because it is an essential skill for a teacher. A good rubric  is a kind of a guide for students. I am looking for the feedback from our teachers and colleagues. I hope they will give me tips how to improve it.

As for the project, I finally make up my mind how I am going to accomplish it. Again, I am wondering what other solutions wil  be offered. 

I have already given feedback to some participants and look forward to further discussions.

Week 4: Ode to Writing

Week 4 was an exciting period, as we came to discuss writing. Reading the suggested articles and viewing on-line resources, which were generously shared by my colleagues, allowed me to build a collection of tools for a variety of writing challenges. Although I actively participated in the discussion, I feel like summarizing my perspective on writing.

First, before we get down to practicalities, let’s pronounce what we mean by writing. To me, writing means immortality. Writing for the Internet means fame + immortality. It’s an unprecedented opportunity to leave something behind. It’s ...

No words. The above is enough. Let’s make a pause and just think about it.

....

If we look at writing from this angle, then what is our mission regarding teaching writing?  

First, we have to ring the bell and tell our students about that. We have to tell them, that with the advent of the Internet they received a chance to make their lives meaningful. We have to teach them to look at themselves as unique missionaries, who came to this world make something happen. And writing, better to say expressing themselves by means of a lasting media, is both ends and means.

If we look at writing as “ends”, i.e. something that will make a difference, than we have to teach our students to discover their unique mission, to develop their confidence and to empower them to say what has to be said.

Speaking about “means”, we have to equip them with (a) linguistic, (b) paralinguistic and (c) technical knowledge and skills, such as

(a)

grammar

vocabulary

spelling

syntax

macrosyntax (how texts are built)

stylistics

(b)

layout

colors

fonts

hypertext

graphics

animation

(c)

creating blogs/sites/forums

searchability (choice of keywords and frequency of words)

tagging

branding

domain names

promoting (e.g. through social networks)

administering

accessability

security

Obviously, this list is not complete. But we’d better work on it, because, if we do not know what we have to teach, how can we help our students get on the top, grab this new opportunity, which has just opened? I invite everyone to look at this list and add both what else is needed in the 21st century and what tools and resources are available to teach all these.

Having this list in mind, we can sort the numerous links we have gathered and then we will be able to see what is missing. I maintain that in the 21st century teaching writing without teaching promotion online is supplying gasoline without supplying cars. Isn’t it the reason it is so hard to motivate students develop their writing skills?

Motivation – that’s another issues I would ask my colleagues to share. What do you do to motivate your students to start writing?