Well.. That's the End!!

In the past 2 years, two of my colleagues were dealing and talking about some tasks that they should do until a certain time and they seemed really interested. While they were sharing what they learnt, I was impressed by the way they found solutions to different classroom problems, the way they enriched activities and brought variety into classroom. It was that moment I had decided participating in this course. Luckily I was chosen for this course.

At first, things, tasks, assignments and two post policies etc were a bit confusing. Even, I forgot to post answers to other blogs in the first two weeks. Allocating time for the readings was also challenging as I as also busy with teaching 40 hours a week both for day and night classes, writing my thesis and studying French for Phd. However, the more I read the more interested in the course I became. I noticed that many of the problems in my mind had their own solutions and when technology was integrated into classroom activities, things were becoming easier. For example, teaching large classes is an important issue for many teachers of English Language. Things such as Think-Pair-Square, ConcepTest were really helpful. Additionally, learning online tools such as ANVILL, Project Based Learning together with WebQuests, Multiple Intelligences, issues such as learner autonomy etc, all these have helped me to enrich my perspective in language teaching.

I want to thank everybody who helped me here, in this course, by suggesting new ideas which I would never think myself, by making comments to my posts, to my peer editors for my project and especially to Robert for his motivating feedback and generous help in guiding me in my way through this course.

Aveka

Week 9

Searching, finding articles or sending articles to journals is what we do in our everyday life in academic world. Especially, we all have to follow the journals in order to keep up with the recent developments in or fields. In my country there is a common belief among ELT scholars that they are the ones who send articles to US or UK journals and they claim they do not get a response from the editors or the answer comes too late. Or, some claim that their articles are not published because of prejudice. This week it was my luck that I found answers to those questions by asking Koller and Glass. Thanks Robert for giving us this chance! I wonder if it is possible to contact them when we search for a special thing or before sending an article! 

The second issue was Multiple Intelligences which I pay special attention to. Many people in my country do not receive the necessary education based on their  intelligence and learning style. In fact, they do not receive an intelligent test at all. Many go on their education with their hidden talents. In a class dominated by logical/mathematical dominant students, the musical dominated students will be seen as unable to learn both by the teacher and the other learners. So, teachers should be careful about exploring the students' learning styles and intelligences and should give them a chance to explore their  capacity also. If there are students  with different learning styles, the teacher can use different web sites which address students' needs such as pictures, videos, writing  or musically enriched sites for English learning.

Thanks...

Towards the end :(

Hi all,

I feel happy that I have learnt many useful things thanks to this program. Each week we gained an insight about new trends and applications in L2 teaching through the web. ANVILL is one of them. In fact, it was really difficult to find my way in it at first. Thanks to explanations of Robert everything is fine with Anvill now. Many of the students in my class have been trying chatting with foreigners. They say the chat sites are useful for them to practice their English and I agree about it. When it is done through an online tool such as Anvill for educational purposes, it will be perfect for the students. Again, I believe I have to spend some time on Anvill before I use it in class.

Creating a class page is important. I had thought of it 4 years ago and created a blog in 2008. For this week's task, I did not create a new one but preferred to show the one I have been using. It is for my students who take reading course and for the academicians who want to pass the UDS (a nonsense grammar based exam- adapted from Grammar Translation Method-) exam. I use it actively but I had to delete many things from the blog as it included many Turkish explanations inside.

It was another wonderful week again.

Thanks

WEEK 7

This week was perfect for me because I learnt about www.awesomestories.com
This site is really helpful for me and I have already tried it in my intermediate class. It was also an evident that one computer classrooms can also benefit from it actively. In fact, as it has been suggested in http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm, there are many things the teacher can apply using one computer in class. At least I realized that many of my friends in this program use youtube. By the way, youtube was forbidden in my country before but now we can use it.

Additionally, learner autonomy has a crucial importance in teaching. If you come and talk to teachers in my workplace, you will hear many teachers complaining that the students don't do their homeworks, don't study the units, don't know important vocabulary etc.. The solution for these complaints is interactivity in class, different audio-visual sources, group works, projects etc. Many things can be added to this list. However, the students should be given a chance to explore their own way of learning or they should be directed to explore it through different methods. The teacher should give them the room for taking their own responsibility to learn by themselves.

And the activity sources for the post I sent http://www.awesomestories.com/biographies/vincent-van-gogh/story-preface:

This one is another page in the same web-site. It is about the life of Beethoven.

"BEETHOVEN - UNHAPPY CHILDHOOD"

"Beethoven was born in the attic room of his family home in Bonn, Germany during December of 1770. Because his birth record is missing, no one can be sure of his exact birthdate. 

His baptism record did survive, however.  It reveals the child was christened onDecember 17, 1770 - at a time and place when infants were typically baptized the day after birth.  As a result, Beethoven's birthday is commemorated on December 16.

As a lad, Ludwig had a difficult life.  His father was a heavy drinker who never actualized his potential.  Although Beethoven greatly loved his mother, she was unable to mitigate her husband's shortcomings. Their home, in Bonn, was generally an unhappy place.

Ludwig inherited his grandfather's musical talent, but his father treated him harshly.  Although the senior Beethoven boasted of his son's ability, he did not praise him in public.  Historians and biographers believe the young boy never knew his father was proud of him.

Beethoven, an impressive keyboardist, was composing by the time he was twelve.  Greatly encouraged by his teacher - Christian Gottlob Neefe - the youngster thought he had a muse who whispered in his ear. 

Later Carl, his brother, recalled how fortunate it was - for the entire family - that Ludwig had such talent.  Soon his skills produced income.  The timing could not have been better since the family's inheritance - from Beethoven’s paternal grandfather - was nearly gone.

Escaping the turmoil in his own house, Beethoven found peace at the home of friends - Eleonore and Stephan von Breuning - whose mother (Helene) understood the growing child was fragile, needing protection. "It's our job," she would say, "to keep the insects off the flower."

Lost in music, the teen-aged Beethoven went to Vienna where he could study with the best teachers. Plans changed, however, when his forty-year-old mother became extremely ill.

Returning home to Bonn, Beethoven lost the person he loved most.  Thereafter, his father's drinking problem worsened.

Music lessons in Vienna were put on hold as Beethoven remained in Bonn.  Realizing his father was incapable of managing the family’s finances, Ludwig persuaded the Elector of Bonn (his father's employer) to pay him half the earnings, so he could care for the family's obligations.   He was then nineteen years old.

By 1790, Bonn's leaders knew about Beethoven's skills.  They selected him to write a cantata commemorating the death of Joseph II, the popular Hapsburg emperor.  "Cantata on the Death of Joseph II," was the result. 

This work, never publicly performed during Beethoven’s lifetime, provides an early clue to the composer’s blossoming genius.  With its simple-yet-beautiful melody, the musicinitially rises - then falls back into itself. 

It was a technique Beethoven would use - to great acclaim - for the rest of his composing career". 

This is the color-coded text I provided in my post. Lets imagine that the students did not understand the phrase "attic room" in the first line. Clicking on it the students will see the picture on the left. Additionally, there are videos, other texts to read provided in each chapter of the reading. 


This web-site can even be used for different reading activities; not only for autobiographic purposes.  And it is really helpful if the teacher wants to bring variety of sources into one computer classroom. 










I also mentioned about a quiz which the students will listen at the end of the lesson after reading the above mentioned website. Here are the quiz questions. 

 Listen to Professor Sykes talking about George Orwell. Choose the correct answers. Listen twice

1    Professor Sykes works

a at Oxford University.          b as a writer.             c for the radio station.     d for charity events

2    George Orwell came back from India

a when he was three.              b in 1903.               c in 1913              d when he was four.

3    Orwell’s family

a paid a lot of money for his school.           b paid a lot of money for his university education.

c didn’t pay for his education.                     d was poor

4    In Paris,  Orwell

a wrote a book.        b had a number of poor jobs.        c couldn’t find work.    d got married

5    The Road to Wigan Pier is about

a real people’s lives.         b Orwell’s time in Paris.          c the war in Spain.   d ill people

  

WEEK 6

Unfortunately, this week things did not go well for me. As the new semester has just started I have had much difficulty in sparing time for this week's assignment! I am so sorry for this. I think something will not be as successful as I want. But this is only for this week!!

This week, teaching to large classes was really important together with interactive powerpoint slides. First of all, teaching to large classes is a nightmare. For many teachers, after graduation from university and being sent to a school as a teacher for the first time, many teachers face with large classes as their first experience. This is such a bad situation that I still remember my teaching to a large class in my first hour of teaching life. It was really nightmare!! However this week I found some really useful techniques that work with large classes. The article by Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw explains very important issues. Think-Pair-Square, ConcepTest explanations were perfect. Additionally, just-in-time teaching using web and interactive lecturing gave me great ideas. When teaching experience combines with such concrete solutions, I know that teaching to large classes is not a problem. I think my solution in teaching to such large classes was downloading ppt slides and just read what is written there. Interactive powerpoint slide technique really helped me. Now I can realize which slides are well prepared and interactive, and which are not. Do you know what I realized? I did not use interactive methods in my slides before. This is one of the reasons why my students did not want ppt based lessons :(  It is this program I learnt many things about teaching, not only about teaching through web- but also about my own teaching skills. 


Thanks! Really!

WEEK 5-A HARD WEEK !

Each week I find the assignments more interesting but challenging on the other hand. This week was a hard one indeed! First of all, I learnt very useful rubrics and “ rubistar”  as the most useful website. The rubrics I sent are the ones we are using in our school. I think they are clear. As Robert suggested there are still some confusing points in speaking rubric. I will share it with the director soon.

PBL was thought us when I was a student at university in ELT department. However, if I am not wrong, we learnt it in connection with Task based approach. It is a modern approach and what I like most in PBL is that it takes English out of class and students have to deal with it in their free time after school. One of the basic points it provides is students don't see English as a classroom language. It is not a history lesson that they can't feel outside the class.

WebQuests are really innovative and I should develop it more. When searching information on the net about WebQuests, I noticed it can be applied in many different areas and there are some really interesting pages. In zunal.net, integrating English learning with mythology was a brilliant idea. Even, using multiple-intelligence theory of Gardner, the common tendency of the students can be analyzed and the projects may be adjusted accordingly (Just an idea).

Finally, I had to spend some time on making a WebQuest and finally i did although I had problems publishing it. The reason why I chose introducing a touristic place for my project is that it is very popular in the world and students can go there in 20 minutes by a minibus. In Pamukkale, there are many tourists with whom they can communicate easily (I know because I did the same many years ago). This way they will be able to see what they learn in class is not something from the other planets but it is used among people for communication. Additionally, while searching for information they will read really interesting events in history which I believe they will like. Writing what they learnt for class corner and introducing it to other students orally will make them use all four skills interactively!

That’s what I learnt this week!!

Aveka

WEEK 4 REFLECTION

Until now, it was the Week 4 assignments thanks to which I realized some important points. First of all, as the project homework, I understood that I could not control some students or at least I couldn’t attract their attention to my courses. While thinking and searching about it, I read an article about disruptive students and classroom activities to deal with them. One of those activities were based on “group work” activity. Thanks to this, I had to read some about group work activities in teaching different skills. When all these are combined with technology use in class, I realized the variety of possible solutions.

In technology enhanced lesson plan, I had to think a lot about how to apply it into classroom activity. For this reason, I read about “activities in teaching grammar” in Penny Ur’s book titled “A Course in Language Teaching” and “educational technology and other teaching equipment” part in the book “The Practice of English Language Teaching by Jeremy Harmer. Trying to enrich those activities in grammar instruction with videos, web-based sources and activities was very challenging and creative for me.

Last, making benefit from the web pages suggested by my friends here for reading and writing skill-building websites was very helpful. I especially want to thank Abdulla Hameed for suggesting so many links for us. I also want to thank my friends who found the site I suggested very useful. 

aveka: Lesson Plan Template

http://teaching.concordia.ca/resources/lesson-plan-template/index.php

Lesson Plan Template

Title of lesson
Purpose (“why” of the lesson, where and how does it fit into the course/curriculum)
Learning outcome(s) (what will students be able to do/know by the end of the lesson)
Bridge-in (focus student attention)
Pre-test (activate and diagnose prior knowledge)
Input from you (main content: ideas, information, concepts, principles, procedures and examples)	Guided practice (application of knowledge: classroom activities for students, problem to solve, etc.)
Closure (recap key concepts, helps students consolidate knowledge)
Check for understanding (what questions will you ask and when to determine students understand)
Assessment (how does this lesson relate to assignments/homework/readings) http://teaching.concordia.ca/resources/lesson-plan-template/index.php

week 4: Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan (Work Sheet Provided)

Relative Clauses


Combine the sentences into one single sentence using relative clauses. Use pronouns instead of nouns where it sounds better. There may be more than one possibility.

1 My flat is in an old part of the city. It was built in the 1920s.
__________________________________________________________________________________
2 There are lots of bars and restaurants in the neighbourhood. I live in the neighbourhood.
__________________________________________________________________________________
3 My neighbour comes from Ecuador. He works on the fruit farms around the city.
__________________________________________________________________________________
4 The neighbour makes a lot of noise walking around. His flat is above mine.
__________________________________________________________________________________
5 The traffic is also very noisy. It passes my flat.
__________________________________________________________________________________
6 The local market sells excellent local produce. It is a two-minute walk from my flat.
__________________________________________________________________________________
7 In my study there are doors leading to a balcony. The balcony overlooks the street. You can see a long way in both directions from my balcony.
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
8 The price of flats in this area has risen a great deal since 1998. I bought my flat in 1998. This means I could
make money if I sold my flat.
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
9 The government carried out a census. According to the census there are more people moving into the area.
This makes me think that the council should invest more money here.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
10 I once wanted to apply for a property grant, so I rang the council and spoke to a woman.
She told me that I should go to the local council offices. I could pick up an application form at the local council offices. I should fill in the application form and return it as soon as possible.
__________________________________________________________________________________

WEEK 3 REFLECTION

This week the issue on aural and oral skills was challenging for everybody I think. At least, teaching listening and speaking has been something which I did not actually like . The reason for this most of the students tell they don't like those lessons and their prejudice merged with mine within the course of time. I still remember my first hour in teaching listening. It was something abstract for me and for the students 5 years ago in my first course. However, grammar teaching or reading activities were quite nice on part of me as we had "concrete" books rather than "sounds" which students could not hear. As I gained experience and thought about what to do in that course, I began to read more on them (teaching listening and speaking) and I got the importance of listening skills in L2 teaching. In fact, I had been affected by Direct Method at first, then Behaviorism, then Communicative Approach then.. :) Now I am an Eclectic!! But, how I understood the importance of listening was the order of  L1 acquisition, and it was true that we just listened to our environment for a long time before producing a word except for babling.


Now we have films hours, internet pages for listening and speaking, English music is favourite everywhere etc. This week I have reviewed everything again. Especially, Miller's article was quite informative for me to check my pre-listening and post-listening activities.

By the way, delicious.com was really delicious because I used to bookmark my favourite sites on the browser and the fear of formatting my computer was a nightmare.

I love this course:)
Aveka

PRE AND POST LISTENING QUIZ IN WATCHING HOUR

WARM-UP ACTIVITY for  “Alice In Wonderland”

 

1) Look at the poster and guess the topic of the film.

2) Look at the dialogue below  the poster and try to match the characters with the

names.

Alice:It’s a calendar.

Absolem :Compendium.It tells of each and everyday since the Beginning.

The Rabbit:Today is Gribling Day in the time of the Red Queen.

Absolem:Show her the Frabjous Day.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum:Mmm. Yeah.Frabjous being the day you slay the Jabberwocky.

Alice: Sorry?Slay a what?

Tweedledum:Oh,yeah.That being you,there,with the Vorpal sword.

The Red Queen:And what is this?

Alice:From Umbradge.

The Red Queen:What happened to your clothes?

Alice :I outgrew them.I have been growing an awful lot lately. I tower over everyone in Umbradge.They laugh at me.So I have come to you,hoping you might understand what

It is like.

The Red Queen:My dear girl,anyone with a head that large is welcome in my court.

Someone find her some clothes!Use the curtains if you must,but clothe this enormous girl.

Hatter:You know what tomorrow is,don’t you?

Alice:Frabjous Day.How could I forget?Wish I’d wake up.

Hatter:Still believe this is a dream,do you?

Alice:Of course.This has all come from my own mind.

Hatter:Which would mean that I’m not real.

Alice:Afraid so.You are just a figment of my imagination.

BACK-UP ACTIVITY

A-    General Questions

1. What kind of film is it?
2. Who are the characters? Which one is your favorite? Why?
3. Who is the main character? What does s/he do?
4. Describe the characteristics of Alice?
5. How does Alice and Hatter  meet each other?
6. What is the name of the Red Queen’s sister?
7. What happens in the movie?
8. Did you like the movie? Why/ Why not?
9. Which part did you like most? (sound quality, visual quality, soundtrack, performances, plot.. )

B)Filling the blanks with the given words below. There is ONE extra.

head – collect – slay– look – hungry – steal – love-majesty

The Queen=(Whispering) Did you _____ my tarts?

Frog=No !!

The Queen=Squimberry juice.

Frog=I was so _____ ! I didn’t mean to!

The Queen=Off with his _____ !

Frog=My family ! Oh,please,please don’t !

          No! I have little ones to _____ after!

      The Queen=Go to his house and ______ the little ones.

                          I love tadpoles on toast almost as much as I _____ caviar.

      Soldier=Yes,Your _________.

C)Who said these sentences?

1)_________:I’m sorry,Hamish.I can’t marry you.You are not the right man for me.

2)_________:Off with their heads.

3)_________:Fairfarren,Alice. Perhaps  I will see you in another life.

4)_________:No, it is my crown ! I’m the eldest!

5)_________:Wait,this is my dream.I’m going to wake up now and you’ll all disappear.

6)_________:Oh,Racie.We don’t have to fight.

7)_________:I love you,Margaret,but this is my life.I’ll decide what to do with it.

8)_________:Curiouser and Curiouser.

D) Role play the conversation below paying attention to the intonation and stress.

Absolem: Nothing was ever accomplished with tears.

Alice: Absolem.Why are you upside down?

Absolem: I have come to the end of this life.

 Alice: You’re going to die?

Absolem: Transform.

Alice: Don’t go.I need your help.I don’t know what to do.

Absolem: I can’t help you if you don’t even know who you are,stupid girl.

Alice: I’m not stupid. My name is Alice.I live in London. I have a mother named Helen

and a sister named Margaret.My father was Charles Kingsleigh. He had a vision that

stretched halfway around the world,and nothing ever stopped him.I’m his daughter.

I’m Alice Kingsleigh.

Absolem: Alice, at last. You were just as dim-witted the first time you were here.

You called it ‘Wonderland’,as I recall.

Alice: Wonderland.

E) ALICE’S SONG

Complete the sentences with the correct words and listen to the song.

                found   -   hit   -   where   -   until   -   try   -   back   -   me

Tripping out,spinning around

I’m underground

I fell down

Yeah,I fell down

I’m freaking out

________ am I now?

Upside down and I can’t stop it now

Can’t stop ________ now

I, I’ll get by

I, I’ll survive

When the world’s crashing down

When I fall and ________ the ground

I will turn myself around

Don’t you ________ to stop me

I,I wont cry

I ________ myself in Wonderland

Get _________ on my feet,the ground

Is this real?

Is it pretend?

I’ll take a stand ________ the end

(Refrain)

WEEK 3- FILM ACTIVITY FOR LISTENING APLLIED IN MY CLASS

[Attachment(s) from Cenk TAN included below]

Dear Colleagues,   This Week's Film is:   Alice in Wonderland [2010]   Duration of the Film: 108 min.   See Attachment for the Activity   Thanks to Mine Özcelik for her contributions                           ENJOY IT...   Cenk TAN. "Teacher of Foreign Languages" "Professeur des langues étrangères"

__._,_.___

Attachment(s) from Cenk TAN

Week 2 Review

Hi all again,

The second week of the e-learning program was quite interesting for me. Honestly, I hadn't known so much about search engines except for the very common ones. Many people sent quite useful and interesting search engines I didn't know before.

The second benefit of Week 2 was the ABCD Model which I applied in the class. Instead of telling the subject to the class and directly focusing on the content of the course, introducing the objective of the course to students helped them to get insight into what is expected from them, I believe. At least, how I checked it was from their assignment. Although some still had a few problems about what is expected from them, the outcome was quite impressing. Last, I hadn't thought about my students so thoroughly. I realized some facts about them such as their past learning experiences.

Thats all for now.

Aveka

Hamburger Model for Writing a Model paragraph

This is the image I used in my writing course for ABCD Learning objectives task

1st Week Reflection by Aveka

Hello all,

This is a great pleasure to be here. Although it seemed quite easy to complete the tasks, I now realize that it takes time!! I want to add something about this course:  Some of my collegues had partcipated in this program in the previous years. I used to ask them what they did, what to do to participate in it etc. So I am quiet happy now.

Information Technologies is gaining more and more importance for sometime. In my classroom at university,  there was no technological device some time ago. However,  there has been some great advances for us and for the teachers. Each class was equipped with a computer with internet connection, 5 speaker surround audio system, LCD television with satellite to watch channels in the U.S.A and the U.K.

Apart from those devices,  the number of students in the classrooms was limited to 25 students. During my undergraduate education in ELT,  we were taught many teaching approaches and methods,  but when the class conditions are not good and when there is nothing except for a teacher and at least 50 students with negative attitutes towards learning a foreign languge created by traditional teaching methods such as grammar teaching and vocabulary memorisation only,  those approaches or methods did nothing helpful at all. Such technological devices such as computer in the class gave us th chance to apply the techniques of "Communicative methods".

Just after those innovations in ou classes,  the school bought an interactive internet programme produced by Pearson andLongman company. We could check all  our students' progress in all skills except for speaking. That was great fo everybody. At the moment,  we are all using such interactive programs,  videos,  internet games during the lessons and teaching is both easy and effective on part of the teachers and fun on part of the students.

This is what I think about teaching English through the web. Do you agree??

Thanks,

Ali Erarslan
(Aveka)

1st Week Reftection by Aveka

Hello all,

This is a great pleasure to be here. Although it seemed quite easy to complete the tasks, I now realize that it takes time!! I want to add something about this course:  Some of my collegues had partcipated in this program in the previous years. I used to ask them what they did, what to do to participate in it etc. So I am quiet happy now.