Week 4: Reflections

This week we have had four assignments:

1- Discussing the Impact of Technology on improving Reading and Writing skills:

A) Reading Articles
The reading articles this week have been interesting as usual. On Nicenet, where our course discussions are taking place, I summarized and commented on some points in Jarek Krajka's article on Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction.

One issue raised in this article is that writing on a blog puts students at ease, because they are not restricted by the classical writing rules. It adds that students get more excited and motivated when their works are displayed on the Internet, read and commented on by other people.

Jarek points out that one advantage of using online materials is that they are up-to-date, unlike textbooks, which may have been in use for several years. Moreover, online materials are authentic and unintended to be used in classrooms, which makes them more exciting for students.

Jarek also warns that if students and teachers are not technology-literate, then it is absurd to use technology as an aid in teaching. At least students need to know how to surf the Internet, have typing skills, and a reasonable level in English that enables them to comprehend and interact with online materials. Teachers also need to be able to solve minor technical problems with computers and have another lesson plan ready to use in case there was a breakdown in connection with the Internet during the lesson.

Additional Articles this week:
In his article E-mailing to Improve EFL Learners' Reading and Writing Abilities: Taiwan Experience, Chao-chih Liao presented his experience with using emails to improve students' writing skills. I liked the idea of swapping emails where a group of English language students in some part of the world exchange emails with students from another part of the world. Not only this activity improves the writing skills, but it also enhances students' awareness of other cultures. Therefore, I suggest that we try it out here! What do you think?

Another interesting reading article this week was Andreea I. Constantinescu's paper on Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension. She argues that reading is interrelated with vocabulary, claiming that students need to know at least 95% of the vocabulary in a reading passage in order for them to comprehend it well. Andreea also emphasizes the importance of developing students' reading strategies through the use of multimedia.

B) Discussing skill-building websites (Reading and Writing):
After discussing the impact of technology on improving the skills of Speaking and Listening last week, this week we have started discussing the influence of technology on Reading and Writing. In this task, we had to go through a list of websites and find two or more specific web pages that would work for us in our class. You could find the links of these websites on my Delicious page.

The websites that I was interested in most were the TV411 website and the Breaking News English website.

From the TV411 website, I chose a writing activity that would work perfectly with my business students (intermediate), who will soon have to write a job cover letter. The good thing about this web page is that it helps students to gather and organize the information needed in a job cover letter in a nice step-by-step presentation. The final stage of this activity is free writing. Students should find no difficulty here because the pre-writing activities, i.e. gathering and organizing information, have done a great deal of the work.

Another activity I selected was from Breaking News English, which offers interesting lesson plans about recent stories in the world. For my General English students (intermediate), I have chosen an up-to-date lesson about the recent Internet censorship problem between Google and China. This is really a useful activity because it tries to address all four skills, i.e. reading, writing, listening and speaking. What is more, the story of the dispute between Google and China has been a point of focus in the world media recently, particularly on the BBC. Students may already have heard about this problem in their mother tongue language, and therefore, they should have no problem with digesting the subject.

2- Preparing a technology-enhanced lesson plan:
After reading about technology-enhanced lesson plans from the website of the University of Tennessee, we had to prepare a technology lesson plan based on the model template that our course teacher, Dr Deborah Healey, has suggested.

In my lesson plan, I prepared a lesson for my English Course (Reading & Writing). The lesson, which is titled: Introducing the Five-paragraph Essay, has capitalized on some materials printed out from the Internet. The reason I printed out the materials is that I can't get access to them from my class since it is not accommodated with technology.

3- Describing issues in class that technology might tackle:
After briefly describing who my students are (so that readers will have the necessary context), I outlined two issues with one of my classes this semester, hoping that technology will help to tackle these issues:

- I have difficulty finding and organizing materials. I spend a great deal of time thinking about ideas that could be used in the writing session. I often end up having a headache and feeling disappointed!

- I feel that many of my students are not quite motivated. In the class, there is no good interaction between students and teacher, and some students seem to be uninterested. In addition, many students skip classes!

4- Blogging:
This is a weekly task that we have to do in this course. Dr Deborah suggested that we should write our reflections on Friday so that other participants will have the chance to comment on them. I usually write my reflections on Thursday but this week I have been slow because I have had a lot to do at work. Let's hope things will be better next week!

Finally, I hope you enjoyed reading my blog and look forward to seeing your comments here.

Note: please cast your voice in the poll above. Thank you!

Yours,

Mohamed

Week 3: Reflections:

This week we have had to meet the following behavioral objectives:

1-Using Delicious.com to store useful links: Participants in this course (Audience), after reading the instructions about using Delicious.com (Condition), will create and begin to use their own Delicious site, and share the URL of their site (Behavior) including at least three links with appropriate tags (category descriptions) (Degree).

2- Aural/oral skill-building websites: Participants in this course (Audience), after reviewing at least two different speaking, listening, and/or pronunciation web sites in terms of use in their classes (Condition), will share comments about the sites, including the target audience, skill(s) enhanced, and an overall recommendation (Behavior) in at least one post on Nicenet that includes the URL for the web pages (Degree).

3- Using technology in teaching: After reading about using technology in teaching (Condition), participants in this course (Audience) will explain how they might use technology to improve their students' aural/oral skills (Behavior) in at least one post on Nicenet (Degree).

4- Blog: Participants in the course (Audience) will share their reflections on what they did and what they learned this week related to aural/oral skill-building and Delicious and comment on another person's post (Behavior) in at least one post on their own blog and one comment (Degree).

1.1 Using Delicious.com to store useful links:
Personally speaking, this is the first time I have come across such a website that allows Internet users to bookmark links that they like online. The purpose of the site is to enable the user to have easy access to his or her favorite links from any computer. For me, I use a workstation and a laptop to do my work at home and I always had to store my URLs on both computers. Fortunately, I don't have to do that now because I can always refer to My Delicious Page online.

The good thing about having a Delicious page is that you can share it with others, especially your students and colleagues. Moreover, you don't have to worry about losing your bookmarked links if your PC breaks down or gets infected by a virus.


2.1 Aural/oral skill-building websites:
In this task, we had to review a number of skill-building websites in order to select some activities that cater to our students. In addition, we had to include the URLs of the websites and activities that we had chosen, mention the level of students who could use these websites, and give our overall recommendation about the sites.

The purpose of this task is obvious. Technology can be used by teachers to prepare activities for their students. Additionally, teachers can make use of the ready designed lesson plans on the Internet.

For me, I chose two activities for my Business Students from Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab and About.com, both of which I recommend to English teachers:

The first activity that I selected was a two-minute listening exercise that contains a conversation between two people making business proposals. It is followed by five multiple-choice questions and a text completion quiz. The students are able to review the script of the conversation where key vocabulary are concentrated on.

This exercise is terribly useful for learners to practice not only their listening skills, but also their speaking skills. I believe that these two skills, i.e. listening and speaking, are interrelated because without an input there can't be an output. Of course, reading is another important language input but it might not probably be able to do as good as the listening does to the pronunciation of a target language.

The second activity was a speaking exercise that trains students on making telephone calls to request travel information, product information, leave a message and sell a product. The roles of each pair student in each conversation is clearly stated.

Speaking in a foreign language on the telephone could arguably be a problem to even advanced students. In a face to face conversation, you can use your body language in addition to words to express yourself. Over the phone the story is different. You have to use words only, and that's why it's difficult for learners.

3.1 Using technology in teaching:
In this task, we had to read at least two articles on using technology in teaching and then had to explain how we might use technology to improve our students' aural/oral skills.

My first post on Nicenet was an overview about what I read in Dennie Hoopingarner's Best Practices in Technology and Language Teaching, and Lindsay Miller's Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials.

In my second post I pointed out that although many of the online tools suggested in the articles this week are not difficult to use, teachers and students need some time to get acquainted with them. Examples of these are some of the websites on Larry Ferlazzo's lists of Best Sites To Practice Speaking English. Therefore, I think asking my students to practice their speaking skills on these websites will be time-consuming and an additional burden. Besides, because it is not required from them in the syllabus of the course to use online tools, they may not be encouraged to do it. However, on the level of blogging and the websites that address listening and vocabulary, this should be alright with most of my students.


Note: Do not forget to participate in the poll above!


Yours,

Mohamed

Week 2: Reflections

This week, we have had four assignments:

1-Describing one of our classes that we think would benefit from making a technology-inspired change. In this task, we were required to describe our students and the classroom setting (see 1.1 & 1.2 below).

2-Sharing a behavioral objective of a class we are teaching right now, using the ABCD model, that's (Audience, Behavior, Condition, Degree), see 2.1 below.

3-Discussing the Web searching through reviewing different search engines on Noodletools. In this task, we had to mention which search engine we used, what we searched for, and whether or not we would recommend this search site (see 3.1 below).

4-Reflecting on what we did and what we learned this week by writing on our blogs (it is what you are reading right now). In addition, we are supposed to post at least one comment on another classmate's blog (preferably on a blog that has few or no comments from others).


1.1: Describing Students:
Writing the description of our students has been really a useful task this week. This activity allows the teacher to understand the characteristics of his or her students and how these could help in facilitating teaching. Things such as the gender of students, their nationalities and cultural background, their ages, their levels in English and their computer literacy are all valuable assets for the teacher.

- Gender and Culture:
If you have a class with 11 females and 9 males who come from a society such as mine, you won't probably ask the eleventh female to work with the ninth male when your activity requires pair work. Many students do not feel comfortable to do that in class. This is why you may sometimes end up having pairs and groups.

- Nationalities:
Different nationalities could also be a plus for teachers. For instance, one can design a pair-work activity that requires from the students to ask and answer questions about local foods or beautiful places to visit in their respective countries. This will arguably keep students in suspense to know more about each other's backgrounds and cultures, making it sound more authentic.

- Age:
Age is another factor that should be considered. Classes, especially those that run in the evening, may have students with different ages, with some being in their 18s and others in their 40s. It is important in this case that teachers choose activities that cater for all ages in the class.

- Students' levels in English:
Some students have a good English but others are struggling with their language. Hence, it's a good idea to put good students work with the weaker ones.
Good students may feel bored when the teacher focuses on the weaker students. Similarly, weak students may feel alienated when the teacher sees from the eyes of good students. Therefore, striking a balance is vital.

- Computer Literacy:
If all students and the teacher are familiar with computers and Internet, then it is a good idea to integrate technology to enhance teaching.

1.2 Describing the Class Setting:
The classroom setting is another important factor that could enrich the teaching and learning environment. First, is the temperature and lighting enough in the room? A room with no air-conditioning or a heating system, and/or poor lighting would not put students at ease. Second, is the room spacious? A tiny crowded room could restrict the movement of kinesthetic students who like to move around when learning. Third, is the class accommodated with technology? This would enable the teacher to play videos, use Power-point presentations, and hook up to the Internet.

2.1: Behavioral Objectives using the ABCD Method:
According to the article How to Write Clear Objectives that our professor, Dr Deborah, suggested, the rationale behind writing teaching objectives is to "define what you will have the students do" and to " provide a link between expectations, teaching and grading ".

Jones, 1997 (as observed in the above mentioned article) argues that "clear objectives can help the instructor design lessons that will be easier for the student to comprehend and the teacher to evaluate". I agree with this statement but the question is how these objectives will be determined and by whom? In my opinion, most objectives of teaching are decided by the teaching institution based on their assumptions of what the students need. However, it is not guaranteed that these needs correlate with the actual learner needs. I believe that learners should also be engaged in determining their own needs. This could be done through conducting recurrent needs analysis using questionnaires and personal interviews with a sample of the target students. This could ascertain the most pressing needs, on which curriculum developers could set the teaching and learning objectives.

- Behavioral objectives of my class:
Using the ABCD method, I tried to describe (on Nicenet) the behavioral objectives of one of my classes this semester (English 101 – Reading and Writing). At the beginning, I tried to write behavioral objectives for the whole course but due to the vagueness of the course syllabus, the objectives were unclear. In a later post, I came up with four behavioral objectives for a single lesson. These were:

Given a reading text of 350 words about Animal Talk (Condition) students in my English 101 (Audience) are expected to use the skills or skimming and scanning (Behavior) to answer 8 out of 10 comprehension questions in a period of 10 minutes (Degree).

Given a 130-word reading text about interesting places to visit in New York City (Condition) students in my English 101 (Audience) will be able to find and edit (Behavior) 10 punctuational mistakes out of 10 in a period of 5 minutes (Degree).

Given 10 topic sentences about Nuclear Power (Condition) students in my English 101 (Audience) are expected to underline the topic and circle the focus (Behavior) of at least 8 statements (Degree).

Given a paragraph about Superstitions that includes two unrelated sentences to the topic (Condition) students in my English 101 (Audience) will be able to eliminate (Behavior) both unrelated sentences (Degree).

- Bloom's Revised Taxonomy:
Bloom's Revised Taxonomy is a good way to classify objectives in a cognitive way that "follows thinking process". This taxonomy puts Remembering at the bottom of a pyramid, going upwards sequentially to Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, up to Creating at the top.

In each category of Bloom's Taxonomy, certain verbs are used to describe the behavioral objectives. More on which verbs to use in each category is found here.

3.1: Web Searching:
Honestly, I have never used any search engine other than Google since I knew what an internet was. For me, Web Searching was synonymous with Google. Having reviewed several search engines on Noodletools, I found that many of these engines have wonderful features that allow the researcher to get the best possible hits or results he or she looks for. One example is Clusty, which groups similar results under specific clusters, provides extra sources, and lets the user view the results according to the Internet address ending, like .com, .edu. , .org., etc.

One additional thing I have learned this week is that there is a science for searching. After reading Dr. Deborah's tips on Web Searching I understand now that I could have gotten better hits for my searching had I used these techniques before. For example, words like "the" or "a" should be avoided, the (+) sign should be used to limit the search, and the best results are in the first 20 hits. Previously, I would just write the things that I'd like to search for in a conversational way such as "The advantages and disadvantages of using technology in the classroom", and then go through the results one by one, reaching until the third page or further. But this is now something of the past.

Yours,
Mohamed

Welcome To My Blog ( Week 1 Reflections)

This blog has been created for the purpose of posting weekly reflections about what I have learned from a 10-week online course titled 'Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web' offered by the University of Oregon, USA. This course has now been running for less that a week but I have already learned some interesting new things and come to know many professional English teachers from all over the world. We discussed the rubrics - an assessment tool - for evaluating discussion in our course. It was agreed that the rubrics are sound and fair. The course teacher, Dr Deborah, has suggested that 50-75 words should be the target of any comment but students can still write up to 250 words. I haven't used rubrics in assessing students' work before and so familiarizing myself with such tool is vital.

The second interesting thing I have learned during this week was creating this blog. Our online class is now having a discussion (on Nicenet.com) on how to use a class blog. For me, reading about blogs and going through the easy steps of setting up my own blog makes me feel that my teaching will be interesting if such a strategy is incorporated in my lesson plan.

Finally, I have shared the address of my blog with the other classmates and encouraged them to come here and post their valuable comments.

Best Wishes,

Mohamed Hasan