Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction and Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books.

            This week’s readings and activities made my inspiration grow bigger.

After reading Jarek Krajka’s article about using the Internet in ESL writing, my mind was filled with new and exciting ideas for my lesson plans to come when my vacation finishes in two weeks. I couldn't agree more with the author when he says that one of the benefits of incorporating on-line lessons to the curriculum is that the Internet gives students variety and choice (as opposed to using the course book only). Even though I am very much into using the Internet with my ESL students, I used to assign the same text or exercise. Now I learned that asking and encouraging learners to do something different will end up in a more productive outcome. Krajka also mentions that the use of the Internet will increase student’s cultural awareness and provide completely authentic materials. The author makes a call for attention at the end of his article when he points out that the teacher's wide computer expertise and his active role both before and during the on-line lesson are the most crucial keys to the success of such a lesson. I am sure that nobody can argue that statement since we should use the Internet as a useful teaching aid and we, teachers, have to be savvy when it comes to use online materials.

Mei-Ya Liang’s article about E-books was an extensive source of both, really useful websites and really useful guidelines on how to use the materials we would get from these websites. Her questions about skimming, getting main ideas and details from E-books are a real treasure that I intent to use. Her evaluation criterion is decidedly accurate and useful as well. I have already chosen a book to work with my advanced students next term: The Art of War by Sun Tzu. I have chosen this book inspired by John Hunter’s TESOL 2013 opening speech.

Sources:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/13e2f80dfb591367

http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Liang-ExtensiveReading.html

http://www.bygosh.com/index.html            http://www.bygosh.com/artofwar/index.htm

Aural and Oral Skills Teaching

       This week's readings have been both, enlightening and entertaining.

       It is really necessary that teachers provide tasks that integrate all the skills in order to benefit our students, as mentioned by Julia Gong (The employment of CALL in teaching second/foreign language speaking skills). Here I would like to add the need to chunk materials and activities. For example if you are planning for a receptive skill like Listening, make sure that you include a meaningful productive Post-Listening task like writing about the student's own opinion or experience. I agree when Ms. Gong says that using computers provide a safe environment for our students, but I have to say that my students still need the teacher's reassurance and feedback when we go to our CALL classroom. It is true that their enthusiasm increases whenever I use any technological approach during class or when I assign homework, so Julia Gong is right about the motivating factor of technology.

       While reading Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials by Lindsay Miller I was greatly surprised to hear that the use of the Radio was still on! I pretend to include it on my teaching. I just have some questions...Are these Radios online? Can we have their broadcasting schedules and topics in advance? Is it legal to record their programs in order to use them in class? The Pre-During-Post is a must when it comes to lesson planning for a receptive skill in my institution. Therefore, I use it almost every day. For authentic aural material I tend to use Randall's ESL Lab and Breaking News English. I also ask my students to record themselves using my Ipad and then I used the recorded conversations with other classes. I am also very much into making my students produce videos, first they need to write their own material (after researching the net), then they need to look for pictures that illustrate what they are talking about, finally they need to put all together with their voices in the background. I also use their videos as authentic material!

Speaking lesson plans

       I would like to talk about a lesson plan that I found at esl.about. It really got my attention since it deals with the grammar usage of Modals of deduction, something my intermediate students find challenging, which are so well addressed. The name of the lesson plan is Teenage Problems-Giving advice. Esl.about is one of the many destinations to get lesson plans, and it is definitely a really good one. 

esl.about

       I have to say that meeting Lindsay Clandfield in person at an ABLA Convention in Santo Domingo, which was an inspiring moment, made me read ALL his recommended lesson plans. I especially enjoyed his First Day plans since we all know that it is in that important day that we set the tone for the rest of the course (you never have a second chance to give a great first impression!). I would love to use his Out of the Classrooms plans but that is not allowed where I work. One Stop English is an ideal site to find fun and innovative plans for all English levels!

onestopenglish

Delicious Social Bookmarking

       Creating my Delicious account was quite easy since I signed in using my Facebook account. I find it so simple to use, just click on Add to Delicious on your bookmarks bar and add a short accurate description about your link. You should also add tags to group your links under different categories. Here you have a link to my Delicious account so you can follow me!

rosmerycba

Rosmery from Bolivia

       All the readings about Web Searching were really useful. Nevertheless I learned a lot from two of them. 

       First, Technology Tip of the Month. I was amazed by how much better you can use Google by adding Boolean searches. It got my attention that Google does not read AND nor NOT, so you need to use a + sign in front of a required word AND
before but not after the hyphen NOT. If you are searching for a phrase then you need to put " " around the phrase.

      The second reading that taught me a lot was "Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need". I discovered new search engines like

iSeekEducation
which works very well when I need to refine and narrow my search.

IDEA 
A Portal where you can Browse or search a debate topic database with pro/con arguments 

Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus
Use this one when you need definitions, etymology, pronunciation, synonyms.

        I loved iSeekEducation. I made a search for Essay Writing and the first results were really accurate!

Which readings you enjoyed? Did you learn any other tips?

Thanks for reading,

Rosmery from Bolivia.



Sources 
http://pages.uoregon.edu/dhealey/techtips/june2009.html

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html

Some humor...

        There are countless kinds of blogs about countless issues. People can decide whether to blog about their private lives or public endeavors. Blogging about English as a Second Language is nothing new. To my mind, ESL blogs should be filled with relevant content, provide adequate links, and be presented in a simple format.

       On the first line we have CONTENT. When you host an ESL Tutor Blog, you must consider being as focused as possible. I have seen blogs that are all over the place, providing students with a lot of different information. I think it is better to have different blogs for different skills. In this way you might as well consider grouping the skills in productive skills (e.g. speaking, writing, grammar...) and receptive skills (e.g. reading, listening..) so you will end up with two blogs under one account.

       To continue, we need to have links that are interesting and important to the material you are blogging about. Since there are so many great ESL sites, we can be tempted and add a bit too many of them as reference. For receptive skills, I would recommend sites like Randall's ESL Lab and for productive skills, especially for  grammar, I would go with ego4u.com. The fun fact here is that you will have to research and find those hidden online treasures and link them from your blog!

       On the last line, simple equals elegant. Try to keep your site as simple as possible. Remember that students' attention must not be lost. Simple does not mean boring. You can use sites like cooltext.com to make your headlines pop (I used cooltext to make my pink buttons). 

       As you can see, ESL blogging is not that hard to accomplish. Just keep it elegant, focused and with relevant content.

Thanks for reading,

Rosmery from Bolivia.

       Professional Discussions are being used all around the world to tackle three main circumstances:to assess knowledge and explore behaviours and values, 

as an alternative to the reflective account, and 
to help deal with sensitivities(Ellen Lancaster of Cardonald College). They are sometimes unproductive. In my experience, unproductive Professional Discussions had taken place when rules were not clearly set, when people were not prepared enough to move the discussion forward, and when the person in charge was not open to discuss wild(out of the box)ideas. Nevertheless, a well conducted discussion could definitely help an organization thrive nowadays.

       As for the Ground Rules, I happen to find them very thorough. My contribution would be to create a rule which states that when you feel like someone is "attacking" you(writing about something you did or wrote), you should not "attack back"(explain why you did or write something). This will be really useful to keep the discussion on track and moving it forward instead of backwards. 

       The Online Discussion Rubrics are clear and fair.

Thanks,

Rosmery from Bolivia.

P.S. I would like to share the link to a really complete Power Point Presentation about Professional discussions. It is free to download.

https://www.google.com.bo/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sqa.org.uk%2Ffiles_ccc%2FProfessional_Discussion_Presentation_12Oct07.ppt&ei=YlBeUayTK5HH0AGC84DwDQ&usg=AFQjCNEo4N0DQSZCDFPmgdocMCn6O4EJTA&sig2=1e1AMW-mFGuUBtzIbcnfxw&bvm=bv.44770516,d.dmQ

<iframe width=1280 height=720 frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://screencast-o-matic.com/embed?sc=cqfIoBZqnA&v=5&ff=1" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe>

       All around the world new classes start with a formal or informal presentation of both, the educator and the students. Since this Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web E-Course is being taught at a university level to experienced English teachers around the world, we did the presentations in a formal manner.

       This course is part of the E-Teacher Scholarship Program. During the first week our first assignments were:

1.  Visit the course website and explore it (https://sites.google.com/site/webskillsuo/)

2.  Fill out the needs assessment survey (http://tinyurl.com/cqkjgvr)

3.  Join the class discussion on Nicenet.   You can find Nicenet at http://www.nicenet.org

       Once completed the tasks above, we were asked to create a blog in order to reflect about what we had learned so far.

       Since I have already used Wikis, Nicenet and Blogs this first week I will focus on commenting on my classmates' blogs as soon as they build them. 

       If any of you (my classmates) need help with any of the assignments, you can always contact me through my email teacherroscba@gmail.com, or my Skipe rosand2001, or if you prefer Facebook you can find me as RosmeryCBA.

        I am looking forward to hear from you!