Describe an inquiry or problem solving activity appropriate for ELLs that you have used, participated in, read about, or just now thought of. Describe which critical thinking skills it requires students to use and develop. Then, describe how this activity supports language and content learning for ELLs. Finally, comment on how podcasting could be used within the inquiry and problem solving process in a manner which supports language and content learning for ELLs.
An inquiry that jumped out at me was the oral history exercises in Cummins Chapter 7. I guess it really appealed to me because I am a history buff and I thought the activity was really cool. Of course, I am presenting that chapter on Tuesday so I won't go into great detail here. I don't want to give it all away. Essentially, the students did interviews of family to discover their own history. The students discovered that internet tools were not one size fits all and they had to be creative in coming up with alternatives to what the net provided them. Additionally, the students had to learn to synthesize multiple sources of information and organize that information. They had to learn how to reframe questions to seek additional information and use language in meaningful and authentic ways. Most important I think is the students learned to make connections and look at what they were learning with a critical eye and consider how history affects them. They did their presentations with iMovies but I think conducting their interviews and publishing them as podcasts would have added another interesting dimension to the project for them.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Reading prompt #5
Popular second language acquisition theories stress the importance of "comprehensible input." While most agree this is important, many others argue we also need to focus on output as well. What are some ideas you gained from the Egbert chapter about how technology can be used to encourage creativity and production? How does this help promote language learning? Share any experiences you've had with any of these or similar ideas in language learning classrooms. Finally, comment on the potential of Wiki's to allow language learners to collaborate in creative and productive ways.
Thinking in terms of adult language learners I like the ideal neighborhood activity. I think I would have the students develop a map of important services and government offices that recent immigrants may need to get settled into their new neighborhood. I would have the students include pictures to help new immigrants "see" what they are looking for instead of just a point on a map. I would also have the students work together to come up with frequently asked questions based on their own experience and do a web quest to find the answers. Wikipedia might be helpful here as an additional resource for them to use to find the information they need. I don't know if I would have the students do a wiki on this or just publish a web page. I guess I still have reservations about a full blown wikipedia page. I am leary of inappropriate information finding its way on to the page or someone vandalizing the page. For me, the jury is still out on that one.
Thinking in terms of adult language learners I like the ideal neighborhood activity. I think I would have the students develop a map of important services and government offices that recent immigrants may need to get settled into their new neighborhood. I would have the students include pictures to help new immigrants "see" what they are looking for instead of just a point on a map. I would also have the students work together to come up with frequently asked questions based on their own experience and do a web quest to find the answers. Wikipedia might be helpful here as an additional resource for them to use to find the information they need. I don't know if I would have the students do a wiki on this or just publish a web page. I guess I still have reservations about a full blown wikipedia page. I am leary of inappropriate information finding its way on to the page or someone vandalizing the page. For me, the jury is still out on that one.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Software Evaluation # 1 Auralog: Tell Me More Education
Title of Software: Tell Me More Education
Producer: Auralog
Target students (e.g., age or grade-level of students): The portion of the demo I saw seemed to be most appropriate for older students, perhaps 7-12 or adult students.
Proficiency level (e.g., beginning, intermediate, advanced): Intermediate, although the demo didn't allow me to see any other level of proficiency.
Description:
Provide a brief description of what the program is, what it does, how it looks, how the user interacts with it, etc.
The activity I was able to interact with was a trip to New York. The demo puts the user at customs in the airport in New York and you must interact with a customs agent. It had effective photos to support the language use. Additionally, there were also individualized activities to allow the learner to work on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, associated with the scenario. I particularly like the pronunciation activity that lets the learn via an oscilloscope compare their pronunciation to the pronunciation of a native speaker at both the word and sentence level. I would have liked to have gone through some of the lessons for lower proficiency level students to see what they were asked to do or see what some of the other lessons in order to gain a full range of what the program offers in terms of content.
Language skills targeted: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Also included grammar and vocabulary exercises.
Evaluation:
What are the program’s strengths or weaknesses? Do you feel it would be effective for helping ELLs learn English? Why or why not? Would you use it in your classroom? Why or why not? What method or approach to language teaching does this program appear to represent?
Based on what the demo allowed me to do I think the real strength of this program is the ability to tailor lessons to the individual learner targeting their strengths and weaknesses. I don' think the program lends itself well to collaborative learning although creativity by the teacher could probably overcome this apparent weakness. I do think the program is engaging and interesting and would help ELLs with acquiring English. Although, I think it is somewhat scripted and doesn't necessarily allow the learner to create language use, but the scenario I ran through was realistic. I think I would use it in the classroom, but perhaps only for individualized learning, focusing on what I think is the program's strength; addressing specific learner's weaknesses. I don't know that I got to see enough of the program to determine its overall value for collaborative learning. The program claims to address any methodology and I think based on the demo that is true, to a degree, because once again I thought the scenario was scripted. Not a lot of room for the learner to create their own answers. Overall, I liked the program and would definitely consider using it in my classroom.
Producer: Auralog
Target students (e.g., age or grade-level of students): The portion of the demo I saw seemed to be most appropriate for older students, perhaps 7-12 or adult students.
Proficiency level (e.g., beginning, intermediate, advanced): Intermediate, although the demo didn't allow me to see any other level of proficiency.
Description:
Provide a brief description of what the program is, what it does, how it looks, how the user interacts with it, etc.
The activity I was able to interact with was a trip to New York. The demo puts the user at customs in the airport in New York and you must interact with a customs agent. It had effective photos to support the language use. Additionally, there were also individualized activities to allow the learner to work on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, associated with the scenario. I particularly like the pronunciation activity that lets the learn via an oscilloscope compare their pronunciation to the pronunciation of a native speaker at both the word and sentence level. I would have liked to have gone through some of the lessons for lower proficiency level students to see what they were asked to do or see what some of the other lessons in order to gain a full range of what the program offers in terms of content.
Language skills targeted: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Also included grammar and vocabulary exercises.
Evaluation:
What are the program’s strengths or weaknesses? Do you feel it would be effective for helping ELLs learn English? Why or why not? Would you use it in your classroom? Why or why not? What method or approach to language teaching does this program appear to represent?
Based on what the demo allowed me to do I think the real strength of this program is the ability to tailor lessons to the individual learner targeting their strengths and weaknesses. I don' think the program lends itself well to collaborative learning although creativity by the teacher could probably overcome this apparent weakness. I do think the program is engaging and interesting and would help ELLs with acquiring English. Although, I think it is somewhat scripted and doesn't necessarily allow the learner to create language use, but the scenario I ran through was realistic. I think I would use it in the classroom, but perhaps only for individualized learning, focusing on what I think is the program's strength; addressing specific learner's weaknesses. I don't know that I got to see enough of the program to determine its overall value for collaborative learning. The program claims to address any methodology and I think based on the demo that is true, to a degree, because once again I thought the scenario was scripted. Not a lot of room for the learner to create their own answers. Overall, I liked the program and would definitely consider using it in my classroom.
Dachau: We Shall Remember
This is the gate leading into the Dachau concentration camp. Opened in 1933 it was a "political re-education" camp originally, but it evolved into much more than that. Arbeit Macht Frei was on the gates of virtually every concentration camp. It means "work will make you free." Many of the victims of the camps believed they were being relocated for work. This was one of many things the SS did to maintain the illusion.
This is part of the memorial to the victims inside the camp. Never again is written in Russian, Hebrew, French, and German as well as English.
This picture is part of the memorial and the different color symbols are representative of the different badges worn on prisoner uniforms. The color and symbol system enabled an SS guard to tell at a glance the nationality of the prisoner, the crime they committed, and whether or not they were a repeat offender.
This is another view of the memorial to the victims with the camp administration building in the background.
This is the main entrance to the camp where all the prisoners initially entered to serve their sentence. The camp as stated earlier was a re-education camp so it was possible to get released. Johann Georg Elser the man, who planted the bomb in the Burgerbrau Keller in Munich in 1939 that narrowly missed killing Adolph Hitler, was a former prisoner of the camp. Hitler cut short a speech he was giving and left the hall twenty minutes before the bomb exploded. Elser was later executed here in Dachau. Some historians believe that the bombing attempt was staged by the Nazi's to prove Hitler's Divine providence.
This is the main road that ran between the barracks in Dachau. You can vaguely see the foundations of the barracks buildings. Thousands of prisoners were crammed into these buildings that were really only meant to hold several hundred.
This is the outside of the gas chamber and crematoriums at Dachau. They were not part of the camp initially. They were build later, i believe in the early forties as the camp began to evolve.
This is a picture of the ovens in the crematorium. The sign hanging in the rafter says "Russian prisoners were hung here."
This is a picture inside the gas chamber at Dachau. The sign in the corner says no prisoners were gassed here. We found out in another part of the camp that there was no documented proof that the gas chambers were actually used. part of that may be that they did not become operational until near the end of the war.
This a the locker room in the barracks where prisoners could keep some of their personal items such as a bowl for eating. The camp rules were very stringent and a prisoner could be brutally beaten for an offense as simple as 'a speck of food' in their bowl.
This is the sleeping quarter of the prisoners. They would be stacked in here like "cord" wood with no mattress or blankets. Typhus was a big problem in the camp and many prisoners died of malnutrition, typhus, and other diseases, if they weren't outright executed.
This is a picture of a unique memorial to a group in Munich called "The White Rose." They were an anti-Nazi group at the University of Munich. Hans and Sophie Scholl threw a handful of Anti-Nazi leaflets from a stairwell into the atrium of a building at the university. A maintenance worker who was a Nazi party member saw them throw the leaflets and locked the doors and called the police. Hans and Sophie and other members of the white rose were rounded up and executed. The leaflets in the picture are reproductions of the actual leaflets and are on the ground outside the building where Hans and Sophie originally threw them from the staircase. Here's an interesting link if you want to read more about the The White Rose http://www.jlrweb.com/whiterose/index.html
It was a very moving experience to move around in the camp and think about what happened there. Even though Dachau was not an extermination camp on the scale of camps in other parts of Germany and Poland, you could not help but feel the enormity of what happened there. Many young Germans I talked to had come to terms with this sordid part of their national history, and expressed a desire to not be held accountable for the sins of their fathers. I certainly understood their feelings and in no way passed judgment on them for what happened. Rather I view it as a stark reminder of what can happen when extremism is allowed to take control. It is certainly something to keep in mind when leaders of countries or terror organizations state that they want to wipe a nationality off the map. After visiting Dachau, and reading about the Holocaust, I certainly understand why the state of Israel takes these threats seriously. I also thought the story of the White Rose was interesting, because at times I think we tend to forget that there was opposition to the Nazi movement.
Well, that's my mini tour of Dachau. I hope you find it interesting and I look forward to any comments you may have.
Reading Prompt #4
Why is communication and collaboration so important in the language learning classroom? What ideas did you gain from the Egbert chapter about how computers and technology can be used to facilitate greater communication and collaboration for students? Give any personal examples you have had using these or other ideas.
To me, collaboration and communication is important in the classroom because it allows students to do the very thing they are learning a language to do. To communicate and interact with other speakers of the language! these kind of activities allow the students to learn discourse pragmatics which to me is one of the most important aspects of language. I know from my personal language learning experience (a combination of grammar translation and audio linguistic learning) that I was really not prepared to interact with native speakers in their natural environment. When I was exposed to everyday language use I felt as though I had to learn the language all over again. Creating the collaborative classroom gets students started down the road to learning the language in meaningful contexts that they will actually use in everyday.
Of the examples of activities listed by Egbert I kind of like example number 3, the neighborhood map machine. I think this would be particularly useful in an adult language class to help learners negotiate their new world. I would probably have the students incorporate bus schedules and routes into this activity to help them learn not only where things of importance to them are located but how to get there.
I definitely agree with Egbert about assigning specific tasks to each student and being cognizant of proficiency levels. It has been my experience that if you don't the dominant students will take over and the activity will not be beneficial to every student in the group.
To me, collaboration and communication is important in the classroom because it allows students to do the very thing they are learning a language to do. To communicate and interact with other speakers of the language! these kind of activities allow the students to learn discourse pragmatics which to me is one of the most important aspects of language. I know from my personal language learning experience (a combination of grammar translation and audio linguistic learning) that I was really not prepared to interact with native speakers in their natural environment. When I was exposed to everyday language use I felt as though I had to learn the language all over again. Creating the collaborative classroom gets students started down the road to learning the language in meaningful contexts that they will actually use in everyday.
Of the examples of activities listed by Egbert I kind of like example number 3, the neighborhood map machine. I think this would be particularly useful in an adult language class to help learners negotiate their new world. I would probably have the students incorporate bus schedules and routes into this activity to help them learn not only where things of importance to them are located but how to get there.
I definitely agree with Egbert about assigning specific tasks to each student and being cognizant of proficiency levels. It has been my experience that if you don't the dominant students will take over and the activity will not be beneficial to every student in the group.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Reading Prompt #3
I cannot help but think that the technology itself is creating a divide. what I mean by that is that humans as general rule are creatures of habit and we get used to doing things certain way and are therefore slow if not reluctant to change. Technology on the other hand is the exact opposite. Systems, programs, technologies become obsolete almost over night. Having spent 20 years in a large government bureaucracy I can tell you that policy decisions certainly don't happen over night. So with that in mind, I think it is possible that technology simply outstrips reluctant humans and bureaucracies that are slow to adapt to new technologies and pedagogical theory that support its' use in the classroom will almost always lag behind the more fast paced technological changes. I wonder how many computer systems in the educational system have difficulties supporting the new technologies coming out because the hardware computing power doesn't keep pace with the software. I have to believe that that problem could be particularly accute in school systems with limited money for information technology solutions. Makes me wonder if Stephen Krashen might not be right about sustained silent reading with real live books that don't get outstripped by technology.
The audio-tips page looks interesting to me. It seems to allow actual conversation that allows students to engage with native speakers and expose them to variation in the English language. Again, provide real and authentic language use that the students may actually use outside the classroom. To site an example from an adult ESL class I taught students constantly remarked that how things are spoken and how they are written are two different things. For example, "I am going to the store." That is what the students were learning but this is what is spoken most of the time "I'm gonnago tatha store." To me, these audio programs will help ELLs adapt to these crucial differences between what we write and what we say. It also seems to have great potential for building vocabulary which is near and dear to my heart. I think I need to try it out to really get a feel for what it has to offer.
The audio-tips page looks interesting to me. It seems to allow actual conversation that allows students to engage with native speakers and expose them to variation in the English language. Again, provide real and authentic language use that the students may actually use outside the classroom. To site an example from an adult ESL class I taught students constantly remarked that how things are spoken and how they are written are two different things. For example, "I am going to the store." That is what the students were learning but this is what is spoken most of the time "I'm gonnago tatha store." To me, these audio programs will help ELLs adapt to these crucial differences between what we write and what we say. It also seems to have great potential for building vocabulary which is near and dear to my heart. I think I need to try it out to really get a feel for what it has to offer.
Reading Response #2
Cummins et al. suggests that students engage in a variety of literacy activities based on the world around them, especially socially that transcend their pursuit of "academic literacy" in the dominant language of the school environment. According to Bransford and colleagues the traditional teacher-student model limits the transmission of information and skills. their research suggests that deep understanding and cognitive engagement are far more likely by engaging students in contexts where instruction builds on their previous knowledge and their learning is supported by a community of learners. To me, there is no better place to build and/or activate a community of learners than in cyberspace. Cyberspace provides no end of opportunities for meaningful and authentic use of language proposed by Egbert. Students have the opportunity to engage in activities that engage them in ways that have meaning for them and expose them to a much broader range of information, facts, and perspectives than the traditional "book" model of learning. The Blogosphere enables them to interact and engage individuals who may be prime time players in any number of subjects and problems of the day. Additionally, the blogosphere ESL enables them to engage not only native speakers of English in their learning process but individuals from their own cultural background as well as individuals from other cultural backgrounds with much different worldview than their own. It certainly broadens the learning horizon, and the fact that everything is out there for all to see adds another dimension to the idea of being both factually and linguistically accurate.
My first baby steps into the blogosphere have been enjoyable, although at times frustrating as I learn to master a new technical skill. I must say it is not as hard as I first imagined, but it is new and there are some things I need repetition on to master. What I have noticed right away is that I am much more careful about what I say and how I say it. The idea of being "public" gives me a sense of care and responsibility about my thoughts and ideas I might not otherwise consider. I think for the moment it perhaps holds me back a little bit, but as I get accustomed to blogging that will change. Being a history and literature buff, I think my blog will include lots of things related to those subjects. Although, some things could be somewhat controversial. For example, the Holocaust, but I think that deserves discussion especially since we hear so much in the news there days about Holocaust deniers and the implications for the world we live in, particularly from leaders like the Iranian president. I have some pictures I took from the Dachau concentration camp that I will at some point post and write about my feelings as I wondered through the camp.
My first baby steps into the blogosphere have been enjoyable, although at times frustrating as I learn to master a new technical skill. I must say it is not as hard as I first imagined, but it is new and there are some things I need repetition on to master. What I have noticed right away is that I am much more careful about what I say and how I say it. The idea of being "public" gives me a sense of care and responsibility about my thoughts and ideas I might not otherwise consider. I think for the moment it perhaps holds me back a little bit, but as I get accustomed to blogging that will change. Being a history and literature buff, I think my blog will include lots of things related to those subjects. Although, some things could be somewhat controversial. For example, the Holocaust, but I think that deserves discussion especially since we hear so much in the news there days about Holocaust deniers and the implications for the world we live in, particularly from leaders like the Iranian president. I have some pictures I took from the Dachau concentration camp that I will at some point post and write about my feelings as I wondered through the camp.
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