Educational Tools

Week 5

Task 1 - I've Got it Covered-Creating Magazine Covers to Summarize Texts

 

1.  Read through this great lesson plan:  I've Got it Covered-creating magazine covers to summarize texts .

2.  Choose ONE of the texts in the page below to read:

     http://www.edutopia.org/digital-learning-technology-resources

3. Access ReadWriteThink interactive tool and create your own magazine cover, newsaper page, or brochure to summarize your text.

 

I think the tools presented here are more than just reading tools, but they are also writing tools.  I will definitely use Bighugelabs in my class to create Magazine Covers with my students when they are summarizing a passage.

I chose "Mentoring and Coaching for Effective Tech Integration" by Mary Beth Hertz , to create a Magazine Cover summarizing the article.

 

My Magazine Cover

Click here to download:
Magazine_Cover_2.docx (436 KB)
(download)

Here is the link to the article: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/mentoring-coaching-tech-integration-mary-beth-hertz

 

 

Task 2 - Using Plays to teach about characters, plots, setting and conflict in Dramatic Tragedy

This final week we are studying about digital tools to enhance reading skills.  In this particular task we have to read a specific lesson plan and to think how we could adapt the plan to our classroom.

First of all, my students reading skills, unfortunately, are not good.  Most of them do not know how to read in their own language, and that makes my work somewhat more complicated. However, I always try my best to help them to go a little bit further.  It is not easy, but believe me it is very satisfactory in the end.  For this reason, I thought deeply and I adapted some parts of the lesson plan, taking into account my students’ limitations.  I chose a short story called: “The Blind Vulture”, it is a Hitopadesha Tale.

Here is my idea

I would use this kind of activity with ESL intermediate and advanced students.  I think it will take about 5 hours to cover all the activities.

Previously in this activity the teacher has worked with the students explaining what a plot is, and the different parts that form a plot.  The students have already practiced a little bit identifying these parts with some exercises in class.

After these concepts are clear, the teacher will project the video of the story “The Blind Vulture”, asking the students to take notes of the characters of the stories, what happened in the story and what were the final events in the story.

Then the teacher will group the students to work with the script of the story. They will read the story as groups and will double check the notes they took during the video presentation.  If they have missed something, this is the time to catch up.

The teacher will ask the different groups to come to the board and write down:  the characters of the stories and the connection between them in the story.

Later, the teacher will ask the students to use The Plot Diagram to fill out the plot with the different events in the story. The students will use the simple version:  Beginning, Middle and End.

In another session, the teacher will explain the next activity to the students.  They will have to change some elements of the plot to make the story finish with a happy ending. Each group will discuss their own change alternatives, to decide what would be a better outcome to get a happy ending.

Finally, the students will present to the class their new story.  These are some of the alternatives they have, to present their new stories:

  • ·        Make a role-play of the new version of the story.

 

After all the presentations, students will choose which new version they like the most and will explain why.

 

 

Cool Extra Idea  - Publish your ebook

Here's our final idea for you to try out and then use it with your students. 

Creating readers one at a time!

Create the best readers by publishing with ebooks and epubbud.

Once you create your own activity you can upload that and share it with the world.

Here is the activity created for this last.

 

I tried this activity twice. I think my students will love this tool because it gives them the opportunity to write a book with their own stories, to publish and to share it with other people . I am planning to use it in the near future.

Here is the link:

 http://static.epubbud.com/read.php?g=6GUQVF5H...

 

Week 4 Task 5

Explore and create

The tools we used this week as all the previous ones are great.  I can see my students loving them.  Some of them, like Voki, Audioboo, educreators and Showbeyond give them the opportunity to talk in English using an Avatar or just pictures and their voices for some of them who are afraid to talk in front of the camera.  It will be a good beginning to practice in order to lose their stage fright.

Others like Intervue and Voxopop, help them to formulate questions and to invite other people to share their thoughts about the topic.

Knovio, another great tool, will be better for advanced students who can create a more complete presentation using PP slides and integrating their explanation of the topic.


Now my Lesson Plan:

Theme: Family

Time Frame: 3 hours

Group: ESL Beginners and above

Goals: Students will be able to:

1.      1. Describe their family (members, hobbies, physical characteristics, etc.)

2.      2. Create a video speaking in English about their family using a video recording tool such as educreations.com.

Steps:

  • 1.      The teacher will present to the students a video describinghis or her own family using educreations.com. I will use my example:

          http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/02012012-lesson/423409/

  • 2.      Then, the teacher will show the students how to use the site.
  • 3.      After the tutorial students will choose to draw or to upload some pictures of their family for the video.
  • 4.      Using the educreations classroom account, the students will create a video.
  • 5.      Videos will be posted on the educations classroom account.
  • 6.      As a sum up activity, videos will be presented to the whole class for comments and to compare what features are common in their families.    

Co Comments are welcome!

Co

 

 

 

 

 

Week 3 Task 4.

Listening List. Going Beyond with your Listening Math.

Taking these tools into consideration we can:

  • 1.     Ask students to explore the website and choose one interview to write a review about to present in front of the class.
  • 2.      Expose students to different English accents and expand their vocabulary.
  • 3.      Expose students to maintaining a polite conversation about a specific topic.
  • 4.      Ask students to choose a topic and record themselves using one of the tools from www.mediabistro.com, and then share it with the class. 
  • 5.    Assign to each student a word using the vocabulary list of the lesson to research the meaning and record a video using Wordia.com.
  • 6.      Present a 10 Questions video and start a discussion about the interview.
  • 7.      After a field trip, propose that the students review what they learned using Woices.com.
  • 8.      After presenting, and after working in class with Smories.com, ask students to choose a passage from a book to be recorded in class using this site.

 

Week 3 Tasks 3

Listening Math.  I chose 7 + 12

Here is my lesson plan.

Digital Resources:

http://134.2.2.16:8080/backbone-search/

http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/3-unique-ways-to-record-edit-and-publish-your-audio_b980

Computer lab with internet access and headsets.

 

Class Level: ESL intermediate level and above.

Time Frame: 2 ½ to 3 hours.

Lesson Goals:

·        Practice listening skills.

·        Review the formation of questions.

·        Review the intonation and rhythm when asking questions.

·        Practice how to answer questions in a polite manner and maintain a conversation.

Steps:

Start brainstorming about interviews.  Ask students if they like watching interviews on TV or listening to interviews on radio.  What kind of questions are normally asked by the interviewers?  Review formal and informal ways to ask “Wh” and “Yes / No” questions, using student’s answers.   Then present the video chosen from Backbone.   Ask the students to take notes of the questions asked the interviewer.  Analyze these questions at the end of the video taking into account:  what kind of questions were asked during the interview, “Wh” or “Yes / No” questions?  What was the intonation for each?

As homework, students will work in pairs to prepare an interview.  They have to decide the topic they are going to talk about in the interview, write at least 6 questions, and develop the interview.  For the next class, the teacher will check the students’ questions and do the recording using one of the tools suggested at http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/3-unique-ways-to-record-edit-and-publish-your-audio_b980.  After finishing the recording, the teacher will review with the students to check for use of the target language, intonation and pronunciation.

Possible Difficulties:

·        Computers and headsets are not working properly.

·        The computer firewall protection system does not allow using mediabistro.  In that case the teacher could record the interviews using another device like a cellphone or another website.

Week 3 EVO Class digitools

Task 1 and 2

As many of my colleagues have said, 30 minutes was not enough to go through these listening tools.  I spent the time to go through all of them and this is what I found:

1.      Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals.  This one I found very useful.  Using movie segments students can work on specific grammar points.  There you also can find the worksheet to work with that specific movie and even the answers.

2.      Smories.com.  These are stories read by children to children.  This can be used for ESL students, too.  The students can follow the reading, practice intonation, pronunciation and rhythm. Most of my students are women with small children and this site is great to motivate them to read to their children at home and at the same time practice the language.

3.      TIME 10 Questions.  Interviews with business leaders, entertainers, and influential figures around the world.  Very interesting and authentic material.  This one, particularly, will be useful for giving opinions, starting discussion or simple listening comprehension activity.

 

4.      Backbone.  Here you have the opportunity to choose among a variety of topics: business, education, etc.  Also you have 5 different ways to search for a specific topic.  Topics are presented through interviews.  This site can be used to present a new topic or to start a discussion in class.

 

All these sites are new for me.  I usually use this website: www.elllo.org for listening activities.  This one, I would say is similar to Backbone.  At this site you find a variety of topics to choose from.  They have interviews, games, mixers, videos and news.  Most of them have the scripts, audio, MP3 format, and a test about the topic.  A very unique thing that I like is about the scripts.  They have some words or expressions in bold letters; students can click on that word and they listen to the meaning of the word and get examples of how to use it.   This site is great for listening comprehension, new vocabulary, starting a new topic, and more.

Another thing I like for listening practice are songs.  Normally, I brought a song for a special occasion like Valentine’s Day, to practice a specific tense, a value, or sometimes because some of the students want to know the lyrics of a new song.  I combine listening and writing in this activity, I prepare my own blank mode worksheet.

My students love this activity, they listen, write the song by filling in the blanks, and then we check new vocabulary, new expressions.  Finally, we sing the song, practicing pronunciation as well.

Reflections on Task # 4

I checked these others tools and found them all very useful too.

Prezi.  This is great for creating presentations and biographies.  It is great because it allows you to add music, pictures and videos to your presentation.

PhotoPeach is wonderful for visual presentations.

Sliderocket.  The way that it is presented here it is excellent for creating presentations that describe a process. In my case I will use it to ask my ESL students to describe how to prepare their favorite food or, after going to the library, describe how to obtain a library card, and even create a presentation to describe the process to enroll in our program for the first time.

Dvolver. I like this one because is easy to use for creating movies and it is free; you can share your work, and it gives you the opportunity to choose from different characters, settings and music. I think the students will love to use this tool to create dialogues, and imaginary stories.

Fodey.com. I found this one good for writing articles, conclusions.

SpellingCity.com. I already knew about this site and I think it is excellent for practicing vocabulary. The students can practice the vocabulary and spelling for the weekly unit. There are a lot of ways to practice vocabulary using games, tests, using the words in different contexts, writing sentences with them and so on.

Tagxedo and Wordle.
These two are similar. Both are good for review and revisiting vocabulary.  Students can create art with words.  Also it can be used to brainstorm new vocabulary or ideas associated with a new unit or an old concept that was worked in class.

 

EVO 2012 Classdigitools Week 2

Task 1: Creative Writing: Character, Setting, and Plot

 a. Let's start the week with some creative writing!  To get started, select one of the four Characters in Column 1, one of the four Settings in Column 2 and one of the four Plots in Column 3.  (Your choices will probably not be in the same row).

 b. Once you have selected your three pictures (one character, one setting, one plot) write a 50-word story-starter (introduction to a story) based on the pictures. Include as much or as little information as you need to stay within the 50-word limit. Share your story-starter in the COMMENT AREA below.  Comment on other participants' story-starters as well.

 

This is my creative writing. I chose 1C, 2B, 3C

As I've imagined myself as a child again sitting and watching my life from the beginning, I can remember my family celebrations with our relatives. My dad was always making toasts for a good future, while I visualized myself going to a futuristic school in a very remote galaxy.

 

Task 2: Creative Writing Tools Review

 a. Now let's discover some online tools for creative writing. Click on each of the three pictures you chose for your character, setting and plot.

 b. After you have opened the links and read through the descriptions of the three tools, choose at least one to share with other participants in our Edmodo Group. Describe your understanding of what the tool does and how you would use it. What age group would you recommend the tool for? What is unique about the tool? Do you see possible problems or limitations?

 

This is my review about the creative writing tools I checked.

The Story Starters from Scholastic is very easy to use. Students will have the opportunity to select from different formats (letter, notebook, newspaper, and postcard) to write their stories. There is a Spin that gives the students the topic that they are going to work with, even if they do not like what they got the first time, it can be changed. Before starting to write the students have the option to press the Help button to see the tutorial, which will teach them how to use the program. The program also gives you the option to draw and print.
Story Starters was made for students from K-6 grade, however, in my case; I think I can use it with my beginner ESL students as a collaborative writing exercise, or as pair or computer center activity. It is also a good tool for creative writing. The only concern I have it is that you cannot either save the work done or link the page to share it with others.

I also checked Pic-Lits and I found this one very useful as well. It has 3 different categories that you can use for your writing piece: Write it, Rhyme me it and Master it (this one if for advanced writing). Each category explains the genre (what it is about) and has examples. To start writing you have to choose one picture and then you decide what style of writing you are going to use: Drag-n-drop or Freestyle, the first one gives you the words that can be used in your writing piece, the other is up to you and your imagination. This program can be used for different levels and ages for specific writing purposes. The work can be saved and shared. The limitation I found is that you only have one picture to write about and that can restrict your writing piece.

Here is the link for a little example that I created using Pic-Lits: http://www.piclits.com/viewpoem.aspx?PoemId=135084

 

 

Task 3 – Collaborative Writing 

 a. Now that you've had a chance to write a story starter and research various writing sites, let's try some collaborative writing. Below is a list of sites designed to allow multiple writers to collaborate on written projects. Click on a few of these sites and choose one that you think looks like a good place to create a brilliantly creative piece of collaborative literary experimentation.

b.  Once you have registered (if necessary) for the site of your choice, read through the story-starters your fellow participants posted in the Comments section on this page. Copy and paste one of the story-starters in your collaborative writing site, add your contribution to the story and then share the link with other participants in our Edmodo Group. Make sure your online collaborative page is public and open to participants.  


For this task I chose Sonia starter story and the first collaborative tools I tried was Mixedind. Here is the link: http://www.mixedink.com/#/Classdigitools/Coll...

When my colleagues tried to collaborate adding more ideas to the story they couldn't see anything, that is why I tried with Entri the second time. Here is the link:http://entri.co/TPugs8 .

And finally, these are my reflections on the collaborative writing sites I used this week:

I tried two collaborative writing sites:  MixedInk and Entri.  Both are easy to use, however, in the first one I realized that it is a really tricky to find the posted work that your colleagues are working on.  I think it is better to have the email addresses of the people you invite to collaborate with you to form a group using their email addresses.  That way your work will be accessible to everyone, otherwise it is almost impossible.  

On the other hand, Entri is very friendly to use; you do not have to sign up to use it and it is really simple to write on it.

I believe both sites will work well in a classroom, using the proper settings and will be very useful for creating collaborative writing.  I enjoyed working with both of them.

 

 

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