Blog Post: Monitoring Your GAME Plan Progress

I have been doing research on the Internet to find resources that will allow me to offer authentic, meaningful and motivating activities within my classroom. I feel my students are privileged since there are so many websites available for students to practice English. Although any there are many pages designed for language students, practically all of the information found in the target language can be adapted. Some of the sites found are organized around a textbook content and students need to register to have access to all of the materials. One positive aspect is that most of these sites are free. We do have problems with paid resources. Unfortunately, we do not have a budget for this purpose. I do not feel I have to modify my action plan. Student evaluations and satisfaction surveys have demonstrated we are on the right track.

I have learned that as teachers we must find strategies for selecting student materials and resources that will effectively work for our students. Organization is a key word for organizing and sharing the material and general course information. It is very easy for both teachers and students to “get lost” in our new virtual world of online information.

Throughout this process of implementing my GAME plan, I have seen that students not all students have the technology skills required to work online. Sometimes I must invest a little more than I would like to in preparing students to complete the tasks. How can I help these students without taking away from the others and at the same time stay within the class lesson plan?

Miriam

Week 3

In order to implement my GAME plan, I will research the options for implementing differentiated instruction through the use of technology. The amount of resources that are available for EFL language learning and teching is enormous. The access in my university to the different modes of technology and online materials is greater and gained more important than ever before. One of the major developments in our English language teaching program is the implementation of the coursebook software, our online workbook and the interactive white board. I will continue to participate in teacher development courses that will provide further insight to the use of the hardware and the software applied directly to the use of the Touchstone series.

Searching the internet is another great strategy for implementing in any language classroom. This is a great resource and can provide students and teachers with almost any type of information required for the classroom. In a collaborative effort, a team of five teachers and I have researched the Internet to identify online websites that will help students prepare for their Institutional TOEFL exam. Students will take the Exam on November 25th. Advise and recommendations are welcome.

Miriam

My GAME Plan

Implementing technology in the English as a Foreign Language classroom provides for setting to merge the best features of proven and familiar language teaching methodologies, and simultaneously offer motivating and meaningful activities planned to focus on the learning process of the content material and enable students to apply their technological and creative thinking skills to become self directed learners of the target language.

My GAME Plan

Goal

In accordance with the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers, my GAME plan involves adopting strategies to a) Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments and b) Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. A key factor in the success of incorporating digital age tools and resources concerns the effectively planning for authentic and meaningful lessons that are student-centered and interaction based to promote active and inductive learning.

Action

The actions recognized as critical to meeting the abovementioned goal is to continue my work with the Touchstone series for learners of English which encourage students to be self-directed learners and to apply critical thinking skills through the application of the interactive whiteboard, self-access software and online resources such as our online workbook which is managed through Fronter, a virtual learning environment, which enables students to foster the understanding of the course content.

To model digital-age work and learning, I have been working as project leader for our faculty development courses for the implementation of technological tools in our English program. My responsibility is to “collaborate with students, peers, parents and community members using digital resources to support student success and innovation.” This semester we have been successful in involving students and teachers in the use of webquests, blogs and wikispaces. I am especially proud of our teamwork for the preparing students to present the Institutional TOEFL exam through the use of online resources.

Monitoring

We have been constantly monitoring and being monitored on the progress of our program through class observations for peer feedback, class observations from our English Program Directors, analysis of quizzes, written exam and oral evaluation results, and teacher and student satisfaction surveys.

Evaluation

By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of our program strategies we can work to further develop our action plans to incorporate new strategies and ideas to strive for full student engagement

Miriam

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009a). Program One. Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology [Motion picture]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Area. Baltimore: Author.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T), Retrieved November 12, 2009, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.

Week 8: Conclusion: Transitioning from Knowledge to Synthesis - Reflection

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.

Week 8: Reflection

Reflection on my “Personal Theory of Learning”

My personal theory on how students learn a language is eclectic, with the focus being a student-centered approach where the students are active participants. Reflecting on our work throughout our course, a modification to my personal learning theory is to create the build the bridge between learning theories, instruction and technology by keeping current on brain research and learning processes and theories which are crucial to successfully integrate technologies into EFL/ESL classrooms and, in consequence, increase student’s motivation and their achievement in learning languages.

Immediate Adjustments

Experience has shown that language students frequently arrive to my language classrom with netative experiences in second language instruction, others may be shy or unwilling to participate. During our course, we have worked with collaborative and cooperative learning activities with will provide a new approach to encourage students to use their creativity and their strengths through social interaction with group members.

One of the tools mentioned by Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski (2007) for promoting a collaborative experience are WebQuests. WebQuests are generally task-oriented. This allows the student to become immersed in large amounts of information in the target language and learning can be made meaningul, challenging and creative.

EFL students are faced with the daily task of acquiring and storing new vocabulary. "Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” This is how the linguist David Wilkins summed up the importance of vocabulary learning and adds that “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your English will not improve very much. You will see most improvement if you learn more words and expressions. You can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost anything with words!”, as cited by Thornbury (2002). Given this, strategies must be implemented to help students develop a large vocabulary.

In teaching vocabulary effectively, it is important to understand how the mind works in regard to memory. Dr. Orey (2009) states that the human mind has three kinds of memory: short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory and adds that long-term memories are stored in networks of information and that this information is stored as images and texts. Concept mapping tools will be implemented in my classroom to help learners organize information and helps learners visualize ideas and connections between ideas.

Long-term goal changes to my instructional practice

One of the main long-term objectives in my lesson planning is to provide students with multiple opportunities for pair work, group work, and collaborative activities which enable them to take and active and create role in constructing their learning. The activities must encourage students to use their different language resources and lessons must be personalized and meaningful. Power point presentations are an excellent resource for instructional technology to expand on structure form and use and inductive presentations of grammar points. Although each new grammar structure is previewed within a conversational model, and students are provided with opportunities to read, hear and understand the structure in contexts before they are encouraged to participate in application and consolidation activities, for reinforcement power point material can be presented through Power Point presentations which can include examples and generalized rules.

Technological resources such as wikis, blogs, voicethreads and podcasts can engage students in activities focused on free-open ended discussions, role plays, debates, presentations, reading and writing activities and will have an opportunity to produce the target language in meaningful and relevant contexts extracting experiences from their own lives to express opinions, preferences and personal ideas.

Miriam

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Thornbury. S. (1999). How to teach Grammar. Longman. England

Voice Thread

Meaningful Learning in the EFL/ESL Classroom

This is my very first voicethread.

http://voicethread.com/share/530125/

How exciting!

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

I have been spending some time learning about th cooperative learning resources described in by Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski (2007). I have read Chapter 7 of “Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works” and I can see how these educational technology resources could have great advantages in teaching second language. One of the major advantages is that we are providing opportunities for using a media that students enjoy and a high level of motivation is already established.

Also, some programs may be set up in real time and direct communication which would definitely lend itself to project work. Outside of class group project work has been a problem as students tend to just divide up the work and then combine it without collaborating beyond the division of tasks. It also has a social aspect which makes it more spontaneous and fun. Increasing the students out of class experiences with the language is a goal which we should strive for since they have to pull from all of their previous learning and being rewarded with effective communication.

My next task is to incorporate the Social Learning Theory with groups directly related to ESL. I am open to suggestions. I have been researching the VITAL project and I have also entered SL English (Sloodle). I am looking for a site that will allow students to participate with other students and use their oral communication skills but I feel it is important to have some type of monitoring ability for student safety.

I can see how student benefit from using these instructional strategies which correlate with the social learning theory. I am convinced that we must be prepared to create specific learning experiences that are appropriate for our students and our program. In order to do this, teacher’s require training and preparation and students require orientation.

Miriam

References:


Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.