Pianfetti (2001) as cited by Coiro (2003) state that "Today, the definition of literacy has expanded from traditional notions of reading and writing to include the ability to learn, comprehend, and interact with technology in a meaningful way". The new literacy strategies presented by Hartman (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009) offered great insight and are directly related to those involved in project work assigned in my language class. The QUEST Model presented by Eagleton & Dobler (2007) is structure to “practice skills and strategies within the context of authentic learning activities” through Questioning, Understanding Resources, Evaluating, Synthesizing and Transforming. Implementing this model in an English as a Foreign Language classroom and thereby working with inquiry based projects provides for unlimited opportunities for experiential and task-based instruction. Project work may very well be one of the few opportunities for an EFL student to experiment with the target language outside of the classroom and to use authentic materials in the target language and; therefore, the assigned tasks must allow for maximum exposure to the English language.
The experience gain from this course and the interaction with through the discussion boards has provided great ideas to incorporate in my teaching practice in regard to lesson planning involving wikis, blogs, podcasts and voicethreads. I am proud of what has been achieved within my classroom and I am committed to continue my endeavor to “ ... teach students to be more strategic learners in digital contexts” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). I have also had opportunities to identify one of my strengths in the the ability to demonstrate initiative to critically assess problems and implement creative solutions. The ability to solve problems is a basic skill in our lives and on of my goals is to provide students with opportunities to build upon this ability among the others mentioned in the 21st Century Fluency Quotient Insta Audit provided by Jukes (2007).
Due to the visionary efforts of our Foreign Languages Director, and at the time President of MEXTESOL (Mexican Teachers of English as a Second or Other Language), the concept of inquiry based learning as explained above has been an integral part of our TEFL program. It was born from the idea that one of the greatest problems of our English as a second or foreign language students is that regardless of their proficiency level most students demonstrated poor ability to communicate at a formal level in the professional community. Inquiry based learning is an important part of our experiential or task-based instruction. Many times it will be the only opportunity for students to experiment with English in an authentic environment outside of the classroom. The main idea is that all tasks should allow maximum exposure to the target language. It also allows students to experiment with the language creatively and related to topics they find interesting. This philosophy of teaching English as a Foreign Language correlates with the project I plan to develop for next semester through Digital Story Telling . As Dr. Armstrong (Laureate Education, 2009) explains, digital storytelling is bringing together images, sound, music and script to tell a story that has meaning to the students. This an excellent resource to stimulate students to use their English in a communicative way. Of course with software such as Jing, Camtasia, or Animoto will not check grammar but by working with this technology students will be required to use a level of English that allows the other person to understand what they are trying to communicate.
From time to time, I refer to Fred Deutsch’s School of Thought webpage and blog to read about his insight on education. In one of his posts he states that “Our job, as educators, is to prepare our students for their futures. This job today is especially challenging, because, for the first time in history, we cannot clearly describe the future for which we are preparing our children. Our world and the information that describes it are changing too quickly. The very nature of information is changing: how you find it, what it looks like, the way it behaves, where it comes from, what you do with it, and how we, as authors, create it.” What an exciting and challenging time as educators.
Miriam
References
Coiro, J. (2003, February). Reading comprehension on the Internet: Expanding our understanding of reading comprehension to encompass new literacies
[Exploring Literacy on the Internet department]. The Reading Teacher, Retrieved October 31, 2009, from http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/RT/2-03_column/index.html
Deutsch, F. (n.d.) School for Thought. Retrieved September 29, 2009, from http://www.school-of-thought.net/?page_id=362
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.
Jukes, Ian. (2007). 21st Century Fluencies Quotient Insta-Audit and the Info Savvy Group. Retrieved: September 7, 2009, fromhttp://www.committedsardine.com/handouts/tfcfia.pdf.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009b). Program one. New Literacies [Motion picture]. Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program four. Teaching Online Literacy Skills. [Motion picture]. Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore: Author.
No comments:
Post a Comment