Week 4: Reflections and summary of activities

I have been very busy this week with assessment and much other work at school. Still, it was awesome; a lot of work but also a lot of learning. The activities of this week in the course consist of much reading, webquesting, thinking, observation, reflections and hands-on tasks.

The reading materials are concerned with how technology could be used to teach reading and writing and how to integrate it in lesson planning. We have also to go through a suggested sample lesson plan with technology. There have also been three discussions on Nicenet each of which has a special thread. All the discussions are so interesting. They have been good opportunities for all the participants to exchange and share ideas and experiences. “Describe some issues” thread is about describing a class and how technology would help solve certain class problems. It aims at reflecting critically on issues we face in our classes and thinking of ways to cope with them using technology. “Reading/writing” thread focuses on using technology to teach reading and writing skills. We have to read some articles and visit some websites concerned with the topic. The task is to find other new webpages and suggest how each of these could be structurally implemented in English language classes. The last thread “Lesson Plan with Technology” is concerned with designing lesson plans that integrate technology following a sample provided by Prof. Deborah Healey.

I have got some feedback from my mates that I really appreciate because they are so interesting. It’s really had to make it perfect alone, but with the help and useful insights of the others, work would always be much better. I have learned a lot from them all!

A sample EFL Lesson Plan Integrating Technology

Here is a sample EFL lesson plan in which I have tried to maximize the use of technology. Please go through it and leave a comment. Thank you.

Sample Lesson Plan with Technology

Class (name, type of student):

Lesson focus: Comparison

Class: Elementary

Main Activities: Reading – Grammar – Writing.

Duration: 60 minutes

Materials

Technology component downloaded from/accessed in class at:

Internet connection – Video – Pictures – two short texts -

Other material:

A Handout – a computer – a data show – loud speakers – Blackboard – chalk…

Introduction

Review of previous lesson:

Review of the verb “to be” in the present simple.

Review of vocabulary (adjectives).

Objectives of this lesson (tell students about them):

Using a video and two short texts with pictures (C), elementary students (A) will be able to explore and gather information about different gadgets compare them (B) using appropriate language in oral and written forms (D).

Procedure

Presentation (teacher or student), including key vocabulary

Warm up: (5 min)

· Students watch a video from: http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=167387 and answer the two following questions:

- What is the video about?

- Which coke is denser?

· Reading: Use texts with questions on hand outs. (The texts scripts are below the lesson plan)(20 min)

Text 1 source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Describe_laptop_briefly

Text 2 source: http://webopedia.internet.com/TERM/d/desktop_computer.html

- Pre-teaching vocabulary: although – weigh – run on – fit – monitor – slimline

- Pre-reading Task: what do you think the texts are about?

- While reading Task: Are these sentences “true” or “false”? Justify.

a. A laptop is bigger than a desktop.

b. A desktop can work with a battery.

c. Two types of desktop computers are desktop model computer and tower model computer.

Correction: Oral correction

- Post-reading task: Find in the first text a sentence that expresses comparison.

Correction: Correction on the board for further exploitation. (a transition to the next activity)

· Grammar: Comparison (30 min)

- Presentation: Using the example “older laptops…” present the different degrees of comparison. Use PPT or the blackboard and a handout which explains the lesson in details.

- Practice:

a- Oral practice: students compare pairs of volunteer students standing at the front or compare pairs of pictures taken from flickr.com or Google image.

b- Written practice: students do two exercises on a handout. (Correction on the board with the focus on structure).

c- Further practice: http://www.better-english.com/grammar/comp2.htm

· Writing: (5 min) Enough time just to give instructions.

Students should go to the class blog to get their tasks. They have to compare iPhone and Blackberry. Students do a webquest to learn about the two gadgets:

Watching a video on: http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=167387

Suggested websites:

- http://na.blackberry.com/eng/ataglance/

- http://www.apple.com/iphone/iphone-3gs/

Pictures of the gadgets:

- iPhone : http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=iphone&m=text

- Blackberry : http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=blackberry&m=text

· Follow up: The students use the information they get from the web questing, write a paragraph comparing iphone to blackberry and post their productions on class web.

Activity (student):

The student:

- watch a video and answer comprehension questions.

- Read texts and do comprehension tasks.

- Understand the ways the English people compare between things and recognize the target grammatical structure.

- Compare between people and things in oral and written forms.

- Use computers and the internet to do webquesting and search for specific information.

- Write a comparative paragraph describing things.

Learning styles addressed:

- Visual learners through the use of the video and the pictures.

- Kinesthetic/Tactile learners: Hands-on tasks using computers or hand outs.

- Auditory learners: using the video and the teacher talk.

Technology alternative (in case things don't work as planned):

- Download the video and the website on the computer.

- Print pictures of the target objects.

Review before the end of the class session:

- The different degrees of comparison.

Homework:

Compulsory Writing task: the comparative paragraph of iPhone and Blackberry.

Optional grammar task: Students do the exercise on comparison in

http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~lfried/grammar/comparatives.html and send me and email for

correction.

Comprehension Texts:

Laptop A laptop is a small mobile computer, typically weighing 3 to 12 pounds (1.4 to 5.4 kg), although older laptops may weigh more. Laptops usually run on a single main battery or from an external AC/DC adapter that charges the battery while it also supplies power to the computer itself, even in the event of a power failure. from:http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Describe_laptop_briefly

From: http://images.google.co.ma/images?hl=fr&q=laptop&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

Desktop Computer A computer designed to fit comfortably on top of a desk, typically with the monitor sitting on top of the computer. Desktop model computers are broad and low, whereas tower model computers are narrow and tall. Because of their shape, desktop model computers are generally limited to three internal mass storage devices. Desktop models designed to be very small are sometimes referred to as slimline models. From: http://webopedia.internet.com/TERM/d/desktop_computer.html

From: http://images.google.co.ma/images?um=1&hl=fr&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1 &q=desktop+computer&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&start=0

New Vocabulary: although – weigh – run on – fit – monitor – slimline

Task 1: what do you think the texts are about?

Task 2: Are these sentences “true” or “false”? Justify.

· A laptop is bigger than a desktop.

· _____________________________________________________________

· A desktop can work with a battery.

· _____________________________________________________________

· Two types of desktop computers are desktop model computer and tower model computer.

· _____________________________________________________________

Why I should use technology in my classes?

The students of my class are in the third grade in junior high school, the last level before moving to senior high school. They are 14 – 17 years old. They have studied English for seven months now. I teach them English as a foreign language (elementary level) two times a week, one hour per session. They have good skills in using computers.
Our classroom is very ordinary with two-seat tables set in rows and the teacher's desk in the front. It can have up to 40 students, but I only have 30 in this class. We use a chalk-board. There is no air conditioner but the room is supplied with electricity. Very old tech gadgets (a TV set, a stereo, a video player and VCD) could be borrowed from the administration.

Another Problem we suffer from is the total absence of any materials in English. It’s been about six years now that junior high school students start to study English, but no materials have been brought to the school.

Why I am saying this? I believe technology would solve the problem. I am not satisfied with the way I have used technology so far because the results have not been satisfactory. I tied to make use of Moodle in my last trial, but it turned to be a fiasco. My students didn’t show much motivation and interest. I have, therefore, done a kind of informal research to find out the reasons.(This might respond to Mohamed Hassan’s questions). Some of the results are as follows in my context:

· Their interest in using the internet differs from ours.

· Almost al the students have got emails, but they don’t use them for emails exchange but for chatting. They don’t like to wait for responses. They say they prefer synchronous chat. Many of them have never consulted their email boxes.

· For some school options, English is not as interesting as other subjects as is the case of the students of Science Maths option or may be engineering. Therefore, the students just do things because they are obliged and skip lesson whenever they have the opportunity.

· Working in Moodle was not compulsory and it was not a part of the assessment system. So, students found it not necessary to do it.

· I only displayed plain texts on www.mernaoui.eduspoke.com. There should have been more interesting things and the design should be appealing.

· An example of how to do the activities should be given in class so that all the learners know what they are supposed to do…

Technology would never be a solution is it is not used appropriately and what might work within a certain context would not necessarily for all. I do consider that the failure of the trial is mine. My project is then to use technology in a better way. It should be more effective. But why should I use Technology in my teaching? Is it because it is the tendency? Or just to make my classes different? It’s none of these. If I am to use technology, it’s because I am certain of the problems it would solve and the facilities it would bring.

· We have no books or English sources in my school that I can use. The internet offers plenty of free materials. I can also make use of audios and videos that provide authentic language. Plenty of websites provide pictures that I can use as visual aids.

· Using technology is motivating. When my students see me coming to the classroom with a CD/cassette player or my guitar, they always feel more motivated without even knowing the content because simply it is not an ordinary lesson.

· Most of the students are now virtual worlds citizens. We should make a move towards them because whether we like it or not they are more attracted live there more. If they are bound to the electronic world where their lives are at risk, we should make a step towards them and make them learn while doing what they like.

· Computers and the internet are good resources for work projects.

· Among the competencies the students should acquire and develop in the Moroccan curricula is technological competencies. Integrating ICT in my classes helps attain this aim.

· Technology facilitates group work. The students can make use of communication technology to keep contact among them such as using emails, SMS, Listsev…

· Using web educational tools would maximize the time the students get acquainted to English in their daily lives.

· Using technology encourages student-centeredness. The teacher would be a mere facilitator and a guide. Technological tools would do the job for him and thereby offer more room for students to observe, think, practise, evaluate…

· It also encourages learning by doing as is the case in web questing or problem solving tasks.

· To set the scene for topics, contextualize issues and so on, technology would be the best tool.

· Technology saves time.

· It is also a good source for me as a teacher to prepare and get materials…

These are some of the ways that make convinced by the importance of technology in education and give the good reason why I keen on being interested in it.