Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Blogging ... in Action - Carmen Martín Gaite
A blog with at least a page about a beloved Spanish author of mine - Carmen Martín Gaite, as I'm looking for the text of one of her novels with which to create a wordle!
Day 6 Reading Payne-Smart (2008)
Payne Smart, M. (2008). Listening to Themselves: Podcasting Takes Lessons Beyond the Classroom: Student-produced podcasts bolster knowledge and communication skills. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/podcasting-student-broadcasts on 31 July 2012.
This is an interesting article which does not only expound the fun and attraction of digitalizing learning (via podcasts as its example), but also the example of showing students that their work could be accessed by a worldwide audience. Mr. Coley’s mode of continual communication with his students via podcasts he makes, which students can listen to on their way to school or back, encourages learning that takes place outside of the classroom. I agree with the creator of the online Kidcast community that an important advantage of involving students in the publishing process of their progress and engaging students outside of the classroom is that these activities give the students a sense of purpose and direction, instead of viewing them as academic drills which should stay in the classroom and not bring with them to apply in their life outside of it.
This is an interesting article which does not only expound the fun and attraction of digitalizing learning (via podcasts as its example), but also the example of showing students that their work could be accessed by a worldwide audience. Mr. Coley’s mode of continual communication with his students via podcasts he makes, which students can listen to on their way to school or back, encourages learning that takes place outside of the classroom. I agree with the creator of the online Kidcast community that an important advantage of involving students in the publishing process of their progress and engaging students outside of the classroom is that these activities give the students a sense of purpose and direction, instead of viewing them as academic drills which should stay in the classroom and not bring with them to apply in their life outside of it.
Day 6 Homework bookr
I found this photo album on bookr from a trip to Spain with Spanish annotations. I like the photos as they are very close to ordinary life in Spain. It could be a good idea to use as a realia in the Spanish classroom.
The following is an album I created !
All albums on the bookr site will churn out an embed code when you click on "Blog this" under the album. To make corrections, click on "Recycle this" on the same page.
The following is an album I created !
All albums on the bookr site will churn out an embed code when you click on "Blog this" under the album. To make corrections, click on "Recycle this" on the same page.
Day 6 Vocabulary Building + Translation and Grammar Checking
Discussion of Reading
- Students are going to use online translators anyway. Better to teach them how to use them properly (use shorter sentences, being aware of nuances of language)
- Jeff's blog post: giving up one self; not translating word for word from the native language
- Interesting idea suggested in the article: inserting a passage from the target language into babelfish and help students become aware of the potential pitfalls
- Analogy of Judo: not becoming stronger than your opponents, but knowing your opponents' weaknesses
Vocabulary
- Languages with pronunciation on mp3 - IE languages
- WorldBook has some visual vocabulary things - pick the French version and once inside, there's a Spanish tab to change everything into Spanish
- Visuwords - ESL only. Can be used to teach etymology
- Visual Dictionary (Merriam - Webber) with 3D pictures - ESL only
- IB Realia - Photos from native country for authentic language teaching (no Spanish yet) [Google "images from Spain"] :)
- Alternative realia source - The Realia Project (search Spain)
- Create flash cards on Quizlet - Ways of using: 1. Free account allows maximum 8 people per group where they can compete against each other 2. apps for most device
*** useful embed code for any webpage: <iframe src="http://www.google.com" style="width: 90%; height: 300px"></iframe> " Make it big enough so the flashcard shows, and students can play the thing on your blog! ***
- Build a Jeopardy game or browse through other people's
- Rather elementary vocabulary, but different ways of testing good for perhaps time filler. A word is read out, we click on the object the word was referring to, the object disappear. Digital Dialects.
- IMAGES
- Search by a text, bookr then scour publicly available images from Flickr and create a book for you
- Live Mocha - free membership for all benefits?
- TRANSLATION
- A list of bookmarklets from google translate to embed on browser. Pick the language to be translated into
- Spanish spellchecker - still work without signing up
Monday, 30 July 2012
Day 5 Homework Using embedding from archive.org and teaching with Spanish Classic
I have embedded this simplified Spanish Classic La Regenta from archive.org. This book is a abridged version of the original. And I could use this in class with some sort of graphic maker to analyse a particular passage, and for us to introduce a new grammar point or new vocabulary.
Day 5 Graphing Technology & Digital Reading, e-Magazines, and Newsource
Stylus and draw pad (e.g. Bamboo for mac), then use on:
- http://drawonthe.net/
where you insert a URL, or by dragging a javascript onto bookmark and start drawing on anywhere on a page.
Dicussion of reading
- L2 reading: some people claims that there should be 90% or 95% of functional reading level, or students will get frustrated
- If that lacks challenge, find something students find interesting (contents) but challenging (language level)
- archive.orgarchive.org - it aims to archive everything that has been published on the Internet (google's doodles?)
- Waybackmachine - find pages that have been taken down that they could have crawled
- We Give Books, Oxford Owl - picture books for primary-aged students
- Tumblebooks - 30 days free trial. Includes Spanish books read out (in a South American accent) [speak to teacher-librarians to find out if the school district has a subscription - they might!] or access through vpl.ca here !
eMagazines
- Readability bookmarklet, or "reader" which is automatic on the right hand side of the URL (can be used on any website without the "print version" button, to clean up all the jazz including ads and formatting)
- Wow!!!!! Links to semi-authentic magazines in Spanish through EBSCO
- 24Hours in Spanish hola24h
- Today's newspaper front page from all around the world: Newseum
- Calibre is a free downloadable software
Day 5 Reading Polio (2008)
Polio, C. (2008). Making the most of online translators in foreign language classes. CLEAR News 12(2). Retrieved from http://clear.msu.edu/clear/newsletter/files/fall2008.pdf on 29 July 2012.
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The use of a machine translator has long been a problem with
learning a second language. Perhaps the biggest reason for using online
translator is a lack of confidence in one’s ability in the second language,
which I have personal experience with. Another reason is perhaps laziness,
although I think it plays a relatively much smaller part. The article suggests
a number of strategies of twisting the potential pitfalls of using online
translator into potential benefits of their utilization. I have learnt about a
strategy which I will be able to implement in my classroom, which is to pick a
text in the second language and analyze how it gets translated in one of those
online translators, in order to raise students’ awareness of the potential
pitfall of its misuse and learn to maximize the usefulness of the tool.
Thursday, 26 July 2012
Day 4 Reading Tennant
Tennant, A. (year unknown). Reading matters: What is reading? One Stop English. Retrieved from http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/reading/reading-matters/reading-matters-what-is-reading/154842.article on 26 July 2012.
The article is more interesting than its title suggests. I agree
with Tennant that recognition of words does not constitute the activity we call
reading. I also agree that we read in our first language more than we realised. We
read announcements on the pole at a bus stop, lost cat notices, corny sayings
on a stranger’s T-shirt, on a continual basis. Realising this, why should we as
classroom teachers limit ourselves to introducing long texts or texts that are
traditionally considered reading materials, in our L2 classroom? We run the
risk of overloading students with information, the difficulty burden, etc. I
will definitely take the suggestions of this article into account, and continue
to be aware of the way I teach reading in L2.
 |
| Image source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/l/lost_posters.asp |
Day 4 Homework: Embedding music on a blog
Music Playlist at MixPod.com
I have provided a music-only version of Shakira's song Suerte. The idea is to get them to write their own lyrics to the song in groups based around a theme that they have chosen. This is going to act as a unit revision of the all the themes that have been covered, where they can apply all the grammatical knowledge they have learned, and use specific sets of vocabulary according to the theme they have chosen. For example, if they have chosen the theme of Sports, they will be writing the lyrics around Sports, using all the grammatical knowledge across the unit to accomplish the task.
Day 4 Music in the Classroom
http://www2.sd38.bc.ca/~GPowell@sd38.bc.ca/LLED480D/FOV4-000B8880/day04
Resources on Spanish music
- The irrelevance of a language without its culture (e.g. Esperanto)
- TEFL website that wants you to subscribe in exchange of lesson plans that use music. Can be modified for any languages!
- Spanish track list on MySpace
- Music notator service (free?) for musical groups to compose a piece of music
Resources on Spanish music
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Day 3 Homework Screencast
I found this art / history on Khan Academy, one of the prolific suppliers of educational videos we learnt in class, which poses an example of how to use Screencast as an educational tool and potentially integrating this tool into one's blog for extracurricular purposes.
1) Sign up for one of the services we looked at today.
1) Sign up for one of the services we looked at today.
2) Create a Screencast sample. (i.e. something that you might be able to use with a class.) Embed the result in a post on your blog and comment on how you could see this working for your class.
Additional Resources: (If you are so inclined)
Using Educational Video in the Classroom: Theory, Research and Practice
By Emily Cruse, M.Ed., Curriculum Director, Library Video Company
Is that a Fish in Your Ear? - Bellos
EdTech of the future - Infographic
Day 3 still...
Creating Screencast !!!
Intervue.me : T can pose a question, Ss record in front of their computer. The videos go to the T's private account and only T can view them.
Intervue.me : T can pose a question, Ss record in front of their computer. The videos go to the T's private account and only T can view them.
Day 3 Reading Tomalin (2008)
Tomalin, B. (2008). "Making culture happen in the English language classroom". Teaching English BBC. Retrieved from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/making-culture-happen-english-language-classroom on 23 July 2012.
I find it interesting that the writer of the article links cultural awareness to emotional intelligence. It is true, of course, since the incorporation of the cultural elements of the target language in the language classroom not only makes the language intellectually relevant, but also emotionally evocative. This is especially true in the case of using universal languages such as art and music. I have found that using music in my Spanish classrooms became an enjoyable experience both for my students and me as a teacher. I have used calming music and uplifting music, and the atmosphere in the classroom was affected according to the type of music I picked. It was fun all around! My sponsor teacher, more so than me, successfully brought elements of culture into her classroom. For example, she had our students make tacos in class and eat them.
I find it interesting that the writer of the article links cultural awareness to emotional intelligence. It is true, of course, since the incorporation of the cultural elements of the target language in the language classroom not only makes the language intellectually relevant, but also emotionally evocative. This is especially true in the case of using universal languages such as art and music. I have found that using music in my Spanish classrooms became an enjoyable experience both for my students and me as a teacher. I have used calming music and uplifting music, and the atmosphere in the classroom was affected according to the type of music I picked. It was fun all around! My sponsor teacher, more so than me, successfully brought elements of culture into her classroom. For example, she had our students make tacos in class and eat them.
Day 3 Video in the clasroom (continued)
(I'm opening a new post because Blogger's text editing is tiresomely inefficient.)
Practical Tips (all link can be found on Gordon's blog here)
Practical Tips (all link can be found on Gordon's blog here)
- To skip ads at the beginning of youtube videos : adblock
- youtube for schools will give tips on how to chop off beginning/end of movie. See here
- Destinos and other telenovelas: can be used for the classroom or professional development on one's own :)
- Khan Academy - serious, relevant lessons - Languages section "flipping the classroom": direct instruction happens at home with students watching a video, and students bring their questions to the classroom where the homework is also completed
- Common European Framework of Reference for Languages - A1, A2 ... C1, C2
- The "Flip" section on TedEd allows educator-teachers to customise the quiz, put open ended questions in Think. A unique link will be created. Can flip any Youtube video.
- learn360, discovery education (school board subscription needed)
- ****Keepvid bookmarklet**** Drag Keepvid bookmarklet towards the top of keepvid.com and drag it up to favourite bar. In the future, when visiting a youtube site, just click on the bookmarklet (because it's a javascript) and the video will be automatically downloaded for you
- ****Quietube**** also has a bookmarklet. It will eliminate the surrounding distractors on the platform on which the youtube video was hosted (useful when linking to a youtube video on teacher's blog for students to click on)
Technology in the Classroom Blog
This is a website I came across that talks about technology use in the classroom. This page specifically talks about technology use in the foreign language classroom, and more specifically the use of a flip camera that can be used to record students doing presentations in a target language, and the videos recorded can be instantly played back to the whole class while it connects to a computer.
Day 3 Video in the classroom
Discussion of Canning-Wilson's article Practical Aspects of Using Video in the Foreign Language Classroom
- un-inspiring - common sense, writing the article just for something to publish
- common knowledge now was not common knowledge when article was written
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
example
Example:
use
the translator to get Ss to translate something they know in Spanish
into English and see how far off it gets, then warn Ss that you can tell
if they just copy and paste!
Reading 2 Canning-Wilson (2000)
Canning-Wilson, C. (2000). Practical aspects of using video in the foreign language classroom. The Internet TESL Journal 6(11). Retrieved on 24 July 2012 from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Canning-Video
Canning-Wilson’ article outlines some common
knowledge about using video in the foreign language classroom. For instance,
the use of visual cues, including video, improves students’ listening
comprehension. A lot of her summaries about current theory on the use of video
as an educational medium of instruction strike the reader as dry and
uninspiring. She follows her summaries with a few interesting and less examined
points. For example, she points out the
advantages in using video in the foreign language classroom becomes salient
when audio passages involve relatively long stretches of conversation and
generally a higher difficulty. Another interesting point that warrants further
investigation is that teaching with video has affective advantages.
While Canning-Wilson introduces us to some
interesting potential for using video in the foreign language classroom, her
arguments for the practical implications of using video as a teaching tool are
not sufficiently adequate to extricate the usefulness of video over pure audio
materials. For example, she says,
“It can be argued that language found in videos could help nonnative speakers understand stress patterns. Videos allow the learner to see body rhythm and speech rhythm in second language discourse through the use of authentic language and speed of speech in various situations.”
On the other hand, another researcher
she quotes makes an argument for using video that is more sound,
"Video can give students realistic models to imitate for role-play; can increase awareness of other cultures by teaching appropriateness and suitability; can strengthen audio/visual linguistic perceptions simultaneously; can widen the classroom repertoire and range of activities; can help utilize the latest technology to facilitate language learning; can teach direct observation of the paralinguistic features found in association with the target language; can be used to help when training students in ESP related scenarios and language; can offer a visual reinforcement of the target language and can lower anxiety when practicing the skill of listening." (Arthur, 1999, as cited in Canning-Wilson, 2000)
The article ends with a list of key
considerations for using video in the classroom with language learners. Again,
like much of the rest of the article, the list comes across as rather
disappointingly cliché. Questions are asked such as “How is the video used in a
classroom context?”, “How does video support the curriculum?”, “Can the
comprehension of the video be measured without visual support?”, “Can the
comprehension of the video be measured without auditory support?” and “How practical is the video to improve
a learner’s academic listening and/or conversational listening skills?” I found
this article to be grabbing clichés around language learning to form a
recursive paper.
More voice plays
Create your own QR code embedded with a audio clip. Can be used for a scavenger hunt?
How? copy the QR code, paste on a worksheet and stuff in every student's agenda.
Vozme to generate mp3
Voki avatar that speaks a script which you put in
**** Looks interesting: Spoken text ****
Other audio apps
VoiceThread (+iOS app), http://voicethread.com/
Translate and Speak http://imtranslator.net/translate-and-speak/
How? copy the QR code, paste on a worksheet and stuff in every student's agenda.
Vozme to generate mp3
Voki avatar that speaks a script which you put in
**** Looks interesting: Spoken text ****
Other audio apps
VoiceThread (+iOS app), http://voicethread.com/
Translate and Speak http://imtranslator.net/translate-and-speak/
Voice Thread
VoiceThread allows the teacher to comment as a slide show goes on in the background
- Teacher can do funny voices as a conversation between two characters of a story
- Teacher can prompt response in class as the recorded voice pauses
Day 2 continued
To save your own audio clips that you can embed onto your blog
- Audioboo (iPhone/iPod/iPad app available)
- Chirbit
- Vocaroo
*Note!!! They may not keep your files for too long
Student created samples
Get instant feedback from students. Listen to an ongoing record of their progress. Using the Audioboo app on an iPod Touch, students can upload to your acount directly, or record to their own space and forward their best effort. (Vocaroo will let students record and email to a mailbox of your choosing.)
Dropvox lets students send straight to your Dropbox from an iPod
http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/dropvox/
Student created samples
Get instant feedback from students. Listen to an ongoing record of their progress. Using the Audioboo app on an iPod Touch, students can upload to your acount directly, or record to their own space and forward their best effort. (Vocaroo will let students record and email to a mailbox of your choosing.)
Dropvox lets students send straight to your Dropbox from an iPod
http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/dropvox/
Day 2 Audio in the Classroom
Students' online footprint
How to protect students' identity online when we ask them to create a blog? For the blogs of the teacher educators, we do not post their contact details or too much immediately identifiable details. Some school districts, in fact, allow photos of students to be posted online, as long as a release form is signed.
Discussion of the Day 1 article
Elisabet shares her experience of learning English. There was no native speakers in her learning environment. Elisabet notes that her listening skills nowadays still depend on the speaker. It is important to be strategic about the kind of listening materials to assign students of the appropriate level. Some say that materials need to be level appropriate, while others say that they need to be one step beyond the current level of students.
Content
Example: C1 Spanish, female voice
How to protect students' identity online when we ask them to create a blog? For the blogs of the teacher educators, we do not post their contact details or too much immediately identifiable details. Some school districts, in fact, allow photos of students to be posted online, as long as a release form is signed.
Discussion of the Day 1 article
Elisabet shares her experience of learning English. There was no native speakers in her learning environment. Elisabet notes that her listening skills nowadays still depend on the speaker. It is important to be strategic about the kind of listening materials to assign students of the appropriate level. Some say that materials need to be level appropriate, while others say that they need to be one step beyond the current level of students.
Content
- To insert something like a "Word of the day" gadget, go to insert gadget in Blogspot's "layout", insert HTML/JavaScript
Example: go to Learn Japanese: get your own widget, some websites will allow you to customise the widget. Now update this post, before you go to insert the widget.
- Listen a minute (ESL)
When it comes to audio files that do not come with an embed code, use this code and insert the link of the audio file
<blockquote><EMBED height="20 CHANGE IF YOU WANT" SRC="http://www.listenaminute.com/a/accidents.mp3" VOLUME="50" loop="false" controls="console" AUTOSTART="FALSE" width="300"></embed></blockquote>
<blockquote><EMBED height="20 CHANGE IF YOU WANT" SRC="http://www.listenaminute.com/a/accidents.mp3" VOLUME="50" loop="false" controls="console" AUTOSTART="FALSE" width="300"></embed></blockquote>
- Audio-Lingua (European languages with Euro standards)
Example: C1 Spanish, female voice
Monday, 23 July 2012
Online polling to use in class with students:
Twiigs
Polleverywhere
Check out these links !
Check out these links to some successful use of blogs for educational purposes.
Reading 1 Aponte-de-Hanna (2012)
Aponte-de-Hanna, C. (2012). Listening strategies in the L2 classroom: more practice, less testing. College Quarterly 15 (1).
This article focuses on the needs for developing L2 learners' listening skills and provides some strategies in point form as to how L2 teachers can use to enhance listening skills as an active process in the acquisition of new languages. I have found it interesting that, in the history of Language Teaching, listening has been seen as a passive form of skill, as opposed to writing, reading, and speaking, that were seen as procedural and declarative knowledge in a second, or, foreign, language. It is also interesting the idea that students acquire listening skills through osmosis - do they? Perhaps they do! I have found in my practica experience that students do well in listening, while they could at the same time lag behind in the three other skills in new language mastery. It is useful to have an awareness, as teachers of languages, of the importance of developing students' "metastrategic awareness" with which they expand their autonomy as language learners.
This article focuses on the needs for developing L2 learners' listening skills and provides some strategies in point form as to how L2 teachers can use to enhance listening skills as an active process in the acquisition of new languages. I have found it interesting that, in the history of Language Teaching, listening has been seen as a passive form of skill, as opposed to writing, reading, and speaking, that were seen as procedural and declarative knowledge in a second, or, foreign, language. It is also interesting the idea that students acquire listening skills through osmosis - do they? Perhaps they do! I have found in my practica experience that students do well in listening, while they could at the same time lag behind in the three other skills in new language mastery. It is useful to have an awareness, as teachers of languages, of the importance of developing students' "metastrategic awareness" with which they expand their autonomy as language learners.
Creating another blog
I am really excited that so far into the Summer this is the second blog I have created for the remaining classes until graduation.
Day 1 Web Presence
LLED 480D 952 3 LANGUAGE AND TECHNOLOGY class
Instructor: Gordon Powell
Class blog: goo.gl/33Ory
So far, we have seen a video about technology and discussed technology in the second language classroom. I think that technology is especially important for the foreign language classroom, as it helps place students in the contexts necessary for authentic language exposure that is not always available to students learning a foreign language (second language acquisition will have a slight advantage over that).
Instructor: Gordon Powell
Class blog: goo.gl/33Ory
So far, we have seen a video about technology and discussed technology in the second language classroom. I think that technology is especially important for the foreign language classroom, as it helps place students in the contexts necessary for authentic language exposure that is not always available to students learning a foreign language (second language acquisition will have a slight advantage over that).
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