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
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 Spain
Sunday, February 13, 2011
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!
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!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
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
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
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