Reading Prompt #10

We've talked a lot in class about how technology can be used to help ELLs learn English. The Internet is also an excellent resource for teacher professional development. Describe ways you have used Internet resources for your own professional development as a language teacher. If you haven't already done this, describe some of the resources in the Egbert chapter you would be interested in trying.
Next, briefly describe how images such as those from Flickr and other free photo sharing sites can be used in ESL classrooms.

I like the tappedin web page. To me, teaching, like learning is a collaborative activity in many respects and this web page allows teachers to network with other teachers and share ideas and activities. I think a resource like this can help alleviate the frustrations that teachers, especially teachers with limited technology experience, feel when dealing with new technologies. Teachers can go to this web site get answers and ideas. They have less pressure to constantly rely on their own creativity and where technology is concerned, talking to other teachers can stimulate your own creative juices. I think this can be particularly important for less experienced teachers. So to me, a tool like tappedin is invaluable for teacher professional development in the CALL realm. I couldn't help but notice that the teacher in the Egbert Chapter 10 scenario realized that her unpreparedness would effect her students benefit of technological tools. In my opinion, her supervisor should have had that same sense about her preparedness. As a leader, that supervisor should have made sure that she had the tools she needed to take full advantage of the computer lab. He set her up for failure by pushing her into the computer lab without ensuring she had the training she needed to make it a success. His failure to do so ended up trickling down to the students who ultimately found it as frustrating as the teacher did. As teachers we want to set our students up for success. The same holds true of school administration, if CALL is to be effective the teachers need to be set up for success as well. Ultimately each teacher is individually responsible for their classroom, but it is not unreasonable to support expectations that match what they are doing. Sorry, just couldn't help getting on that soap box. Now back to CALL. I really like bringing things like Flickr into the classroom. I know as a history buff and posting the Dachau and Verona pictures on my blog really made me feel empowered to write my own history. I know that seeing those things and being able to touch them gave me a much higher sense of involvement than just words alone. I have to admit it is really cool to see the things you've read so much about up close and personal. I think what I would do with Flickr is have my students do virtual field trips. I would let the students pick a topic that interest them and then search for pictures about that topic and then do a slide show that the narrate and/or sub title the slides with their own explanation of what the viewer is seeing or do actual field trips and give the students camera's to take their pictures and do the same thing.

Software Evaluation #2: ESLReading Smart

Title of Software:

Producer: Alloy Multimedia

Proficiency level (e.g., beginning, intermediate, advanced): beginning, intermediate and advanced students grades 4-12

Description: It is a reading and writing program that is designed for students in the above grades and proficiency level. It is very flexible and allows teachers to tailor to specific student needs. It provides multicultural readings and is backed by research conducted by prominent researchers in the second language learning field, for example Krashen and Cummins. The activities are fairly intuitive, but appear pretty easy to teach to a student who may lack some basic computer skills. It also allows for collaborative activities for the students and provides excellent lesson plans and teaching suggestions for teachers. Additionaly, all the materials are printable so if a teacher has limited computers or special needs students they can print the lessons to help overcome these challenges.

Evaluation:
What are the program’s strengths or weaknesses? There are three things that I think are real strengths for this program. First, the definite attention given to providing reading materials from a large variety of cultural backgrounds. Second, the program is designed to meet the objectives of state learning standards. Third, the program has 24/7 customer support and provides updates as technologies change.

Do you feel it would be effective for helping ELLs learn English? Why or why not? I think the variety of activities and readings definitely are advantageous for language learners and it appears to really focus on developing academic skills and vocabulary that we learned form Chapter 1 of Cummins are a problem area for ELLs at the 4th grade and beyond.

Would you use it in your classroom? Why or why not? I would definitely use this program in my classroom. Mainly because the software conforms to y intuitions as a teacher of how to teach reading and writing, especially the idea of exposing students to different genres of writing and teaching strategies for dealing with the way different types of information are presented to the learner.

What method or approach to language teaching does this program appear to represent? To me this program supports the communicative classroom very well, and the reading and writing assignments are very much like Cummins and others have described as the best way to teach reading and writing in the second language classroom. I particularly like the potential for bringing students' own cultural background into the classroom and the opportunity for transformational activities to build on what the students may already know. personally, I think this is the best CALL program I have seen so far.

Reading Prompt #9

Which of the limitations, caveats, and challenges with regards to computer assisted language learning apply to your current (or future) classrooms? How could these be overcome?

It seems to me that the biggest concern for teachers may be cultural differences in how copyrighted material is viewed and/or handled. Intellectual property rights are not necessarily universal. As a teacher, I think I would need to try and familiarize myself with how different cultures that are represented in my classroom may view both technology and the use of material that technology provides. Additionally, it seems to me that helping students learn the rules for referencing information is a critical part of developing academic proficiencies that students need to succeed long term in American schools, especially at the university level. I also was surprised by the students in Egbert Ch9 that had physical and developmental barriers to using computers successfully. I had not even thought of that until I read the chapter. I think I need to educate myself a little more on that one. I think the idea of having other forms of backup to the computer is definitely a good idea. I know that sometimes for older learners they just prefer good old books and paper and pencil. Something I need to consider since I really want to work with adults who may view themselves as to old to learn new tricks and resist the use of technology.

KidPix activity

Here is a quick little science activity I did in kidpix. The students must move each picture into the boxes according to whether or not they are a plant or an animal

What light in yonder window breaks?

Here are some pictures I took on a trip to Verona Italy that I thought I would share. Verona was the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. On the tour we went to where the locals claim part of the story took place.

Above is the balcony from which "yonder light broke" as Romeo called up to the fair Juliet according to the locals.

Above is a statue of Juliet in the courtyard where Romeo stood as he called up to Juliet. Local custom has it that if you rub the right breast of Juliet you will have good luck. I chose not to participate in the tradition but as you can see from the photo many a visitor has, as indicated by the high polish of Juliet's breast.

Although Romeo and Juliet was fictional. It is embraced by the good citizens of Verona as perhaps a true story. If you get the chance to go to Verona I recommend a visit to this courtyard. There are really good museums and there is history everywhere, including a really well preserved Roman coliseum.

Kidspiration Podcast storyboard

Here's our kidspiration story board. It is still nascent, but the general idea will be to develop a podcast that covers a day at school and exposes students to basic vocabulary such as clothing, food, telling time in English, as well as what a student might expect in various classes and the English usage they might encounter in their classes. It's still in the development stages but essentially it will take a student through a day in school. This ties in particularly well to Rosario's planned webquest about how a school day in Mexico compares to a school day here in the United States.

Quickshare

I chose BrainPop for my quickshare. http://www.brainpop.com/ It has numerous activities for in a variety of content areas such as science, English, social studies, and history. Brainpop does require a subscription for full access, so it is something you may have to talk to your school about for acquiring. Brainpop does have a lot of free stuff teachers can access so it gives you a real good idea about what it contains before you make the decision to buy the program.
I trolled around in the English portion of brainpop and I really liked the variety of activities it provides for English Language Learners, including the good ole five paragraph essay. It provides an animated video that explains the fundamentals of the 5-paragraph essay. I thought this was good because it gives the student a tutorial on how English arranges an essay. this allows the student to become familiar with the discourse style of writing essays in English that may different from their first language discourse organization. As those of us who grew up in American schools the 5-paragraph essay is a fundamental skill that is required throughout the course of an academic career. Anyway, I thought this was pretty cool and I recommend any teacher give it a look to see if it has a place in your computer assisted language learning classroom.

Reading Prompt #8

What is the difference between traditional standardized testing and authentic assessment? Describe how computers can be used for both. Which do you feel is a better use of computers? Describe examples from the readings or from your own experiences how computers can be used effectively for assessment, and/or how to effectively assess the work students do via the computer.

Traditional standardized testing tends to narrow curriculum for low income school districts because so much time is spent teaching to the test. Standardized tests tend to be culturally biased for English language learners and the methods used to hide these kids' test scores tend to marginalize these kids and force them out of the system which is counter to the expressed goal of NCLB. Authentic assessment on the other hand actually measures how much a student has learned and tends to factor out uninstructed factors such as poverty. Additionally, students become involved in the assessment process and take ownership of their learning. Students are realistically engage in authentic learning processes that cannot be measured by a standardized test.
Computers can be used for standardized testing or authentic assessment. Simply put a student can do everything on a computer that a paper and pencil test requires. Unfortunately, using a computer for standardized testing is a massive waste of the power of the computer in the classroom. The computer is much more effeciently used for projects such as the International Students project in Cummins chapter 3 regarding immigrants rights. Corresponding with elected officials and parents in both English and their native tongues is far more authentic than any canned standardized test. The text rich environment of cyberspace and the ability of students to do so much research is a better use of computer time. The ability to save multiple drafts of writing samples for example really allows teachers to provide feedback and allow assessors, teachers, parents and the students monitor their academic growth over time. Realistic projects focusing on real issues contributes so much more to academic language proficiency and it is measurable over time quite easily with technology. Multiple assessment forms allow teachers to teach and students to learn without pigeon holing students into narrow curriculum's required by standardized testing.

Reading Prompt #7

What are some important techniques for designing content instruction that supports both language and content learning? Egbert gives several examples of ways content and language objectives can be combined with technology objectives. Share some of your own experiences or ideas for combining these. In other words, give a specific example of how you could teach a content-area lesson with integrates technology and supports language learning for ELLs.

Content instruction really hasn't been my focus, but I did do a lesson in an adult ESL class about the American custom of Thanksgiving. I asked the students, who were from Mexico, if they had a similar custom in Mexico and what other holidays they had that were similar or different from American holidays. I instantly got a chorus of English from the students about their holidays. All I had to do from there was ask a few questions and make sure everybody had a chance to talk, the students did the rest and I think I learned as much as they did.

I was thinking that this lesson might be even better if I had the students work in pairs on a computer and research the history of Mexican and American holidays on computers and then write a paper comparing and contrasting the holidays and essentially do the same lesson as above incorporating computers into the lesson. In addition to being exposed to rich texts in Spanish and English I think it would be an excellent opportunity to help the students learn some basic computer skills they may find helpful in their everyday lives.