July 11, 2009 at 8:33 pm (English, English Language Learners, English Proficiency, Lessons, Math, Resources, Science, Social Studies, Technology)
Tags: ELL Activities, ELL Writing, ELL writing activities, interactive, Ning, Ning for classroom use, publishing student writing, Technology, website, Writing Projects
In December, a colleague of mine, Kevin Byers, told me about a site that he was using with his students – Ning.com/. I was curious about the site and decided, after talking to him about it for a while, to try it with my students. Over winter break, I created my classroom Ning. I decided that I would keep the site closed so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it being open to everyone. My students had to access the site by invitation only through e-mail, so I decided that I would use their ePal accounts. After returning to school, I got permission from my principal and was ready to begin the process.
I first had to teach my students about social sites (which Ning is), how to communicate on them, how to navigate to the site, selecting an avatar, and the list goes on. My students loved it immediately. It was something that they were interested in doing not only every day at school, but also at home. After I had buy-in, I knew that I must keep the purpose of the site academically related.
We started by having discussions in the forum section about the books that they were reading. Invitations to join the site were extended to all of my students, but also to administrators and other teachers that were interested in posting information. This became a place where all of my students could communicate.
From there, I moved to embedding videos on the site. The first round of videos were based on what my students were studying in social studies class. For one group, a video on ancient Greece, for another, an archaeological dig, and for the last group, Chinese immigration. After watching the video, there was a question and they needed to respond to it. They could also respond to someone else’s comment. I found that this was an engaging way to bring content into my classroom so that I could support building background knowledge.
While gcast.com/ was free, I was able to embed podcasts that my students had given over various books so that others could listen to it.
Moving into next year, I plan on teaching my students about blogging (as there is a blog feature). I think that this can be a great way to lead into a more technical writing, especially if they begin quoting other sources (which I would like for them to do).
If you decide to start your own Ning (which means “peace” in Chinese, by the way), there are several things to keep in mind.
1. Decide if you want your site to be open or closed. As the creator of the site, you have network creator privileges and select the level of security that you want.
2. You can also decide what types of features that you want on the site (videos, blogs, groups, forums, music, events, etc).
3. You can decide the level of control over what information is posted. For some features, you can establish a requirement that the network creator must approve posts.
4. Each member of the Ning has their own page. As network creator, you can decide if they can change the colors on that page (this was something that I did allow).
5. Since my Ning was for academic purposes, I knew each student’s login information. This was not only a safeguard feature, but also one of practicality. I can’t tell you how many forgot their login information.
6. The content of the Ning is really up to you, the creator and to your members. The sky is the limit!
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March 28, 2009 at 6:40 pm (Technology)
This is the second and final part of Dr. Marzano’s speech. It is primarily about assessment.
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March 28, 2009 at 6:24 pm (Technology)
Dr. Marzano spoke at the CUE (Computer Using Teachers) Conference in March 2009. This is the first part of his keynote. I believe that it shows very practical implications for schools and school districts around the country.
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February 3, 2009 at 7:00 pm (English, English Language Learners, English Proficiency, FEP: Fluent-English Proficient, LEP: Limited-English Proficient, Lessons, Resources, Social Studies, Teachers, Technology)
Tags: AASL, American Association of School Librarians, authentic writing, ELL, ELL Writing, ELL writing activities, ESL, ESL Activities, ESL writing activities, ESOL, interactive, LEP: Limited-English Proficient, news websites, online, publishing student writing, web etiquette, Writing Projects
A couple of weeks ago my cousin passed away, and I traveled to Georgia to be with my family for the funeral. My cousin’s death was published in the local and state news papers and online. I was previously aware of the interactive side of news (being able to comment on an article) but had never commented on any articles or been on the receiving end of those comments. People who new my cousin or our family left notes of sympathy, love, and encouragement after the obituary. I thought this was a wonderful use of the interactive web. However, there were also comments left from readers of the news story (separate from the obituary). Some of the comments and opinions left were uncensored as far as how they may impact and affect the family of the deceased. I saw this as the less attractive side of the interactive web.
Since then, I have been pondering how to blog about my new experience with the interactive web and what I learned from it. First, I think the ability to comment on the news can be thought provoking and beneficial. The comments of sympathy, love, and encouragement were overwhelming and brought joy and warmth to our family. However, I don’t think that it is a place where the random reader should write whatever they want just because they can. Maybe this falls under web etiquette.
So, why did I blog about this and what does it have to do with English language learners? I think that this is another form of authentic writing that can be used with our students. Standard 2 of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) standards for the 21st-Century Learner states that “Learners use skills, resources, and tools to draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.” As members of a democratic society, it is essential that our students know how to think critically and make informed decisions. It is also important to teach them how to participate ethnically and productively (AASL standard 3). The interactive news websites can be a tool we use to facilitate the teaching of these skills.
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November 24, 2008 at 8:23 pm (English Language Learners, Lessons, Resources, Strategies, Teachers, Technology)
Tags: ELL authentic writing, ePals, pen pals, students e-mailing, writing for an audience
Almost a month ago, I signed my classes up at www.epals.com. It is a website that matches classrooms from around the world that are looking to work on similar projects together. I had my students get parental permission and started e-mailing teachers in other countries that had students of a similar age. I finally had a class respond over the weekend and my students e-mailed students in Italy today. My students are incredibly excited and enthused about communicating with students from around the world.
Here is how it works. After you get parent permission (the site wants it for students under the age of 13, I made all of my students get one), you create an account for each student. There are several options on the types of accounts that you can create for them – those are explained at the site. After you have created the accounts, you get to select the amount of monitoring that you would like to have over each account. I selected the highest level of monitoring, which means that each e-mail has to be approved for delivery both incoming and outgoing. My students grumbled a little bit about this, but when I explained why this was necessary, they understood. It was also a selling point with parents. Students can access their account anywhere they have access to the internet. I have signed up for computer lab time, our ePals are e-mailing us from their homes.
Even after our first day e-mailing, I can see the types of conversations that we will have about letter writing, use of slang, how to write questions, spelling, and editing on the computer. I am excited to have them start receiving responses.
Eventually, I want them to share the books that they are reading and the literature that their ePals are reading. This might lead into a shared project – the sky’s the limit!
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November 21, 2008 at 10:32 am (Lessons, Resources, Teachers, Technology)
Tags: education, ELL, English Language Learners, online sharing, powerpoint, presentations, slideboom, Technology, website
Slideboom.com is a place where you can host your PowerPoint presentations or search for presentation that have been uploaded by other users. The website is very easy to use and quickly uploads presentations. Slideboom is a great tool for sharing your presentations with other educators and students. Also, if you create a presentation at home or at school, just upload it to slideboom and you can access it from any location. I hope you find slideboom.com as easy to use and useful as we have. If you would like to look at the presentations we have uploaded, you can find them at slideboom.com/people/ellclassroom. Feel free and please download them and modify the presentations to meet the needs of your students.
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November 15, 2008 at 10:52 pm (English, English Language Learners, Lessons, Resources, Strategies, Teachers, Technology)
Tags: authentic student publishing, authentic student writing, Book Reviews, ELL Writing, ESL Activities, ESL English activities, ESL writing, ESL writing activities, incorporating technology with writing, published student writing, student book reviews, summarizing, teaching plot, writing on the computer, Writing Projects, writing with technology
As I looked at my students’ proficiency levels at the beginning of this school year, I noticed that most of my students struggled with their writing. My district requires quarterly assessments, and again, they were unsatisfactory or partially proficient in writing. I didn’t just want them to write for class, but I wanted an audience and for them to publish it as often as possible.
I was surfing Amazon and it finally connected for me – my students could post book reviews online. I decided to find a way for them to use this site to publish their writing. As I looked further into the site, I discovered that they could post their reviews as “A Kid’s Review.” This was perfect as I don’t want them to put up their names or locations. They will log in under my name, type their reviews, and post it as a kids’ review.
Earlier in the year I showed my students amazon.com (most of them had never visited the site or heard of it) and how to search for books and read book reviews. So that was where I started. With a borrowed laptop and LCD projector, my students and I search the site, looking specifically at book reviews. We pulled up reviews on books that they were reading. They were shocked that people wrote reviews about books that they didn’t like and that people didn’t necessarily like the books that they loved. They were also concerned that the authors would read the reviews and see that people didn’t necessarily love their book. We made sure that we previewed some of the reviews before class so that we could specifically show them some examples where the reviewer had a lot of voice and was creative. One of my students wanted to post a review about his favorite book right there, so we did. He dictated what he wanted to say, read it over, edited it, and then we posted it. It takes about 48 hours for a review to post, so I checked back a couple of days later, and there it was. I showed it to him, but he said that he had already looked online and seen it.
My next step was to have my students start breaking apart reviews and looking for the “must haves.” I created a PowerPoint presentation to show students the various parts of a book review.
Pod area set up ready for class.
After going through the example, students worked in groups to highlight the major parts of their book review.
Students highlighting book reviews.
Groups working.
I discovered that it was difficult for them to tell the difference between opinions and plot. I can tell that we are going to have to work on this as they begin writing their own reviews – which will be next week.
If you would like to see or use the PowerPoint, it is uploaded at: http://www.slideboom.com/people/ellclassroom
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November 12, 2008 at 9:42 pm (English, English Language Learners, Lessons, Resources, Strategies, Teachers, Technology)
Tags: Authentic Writing Assignments, Book Reviews, Dialog Journals, ELL Writing, ePals, ESL Writing Projects, Holiday Letters, publishing student writing, summary writing, Technology and writing, Writing Projects
I am trying to focus my classroom instruction on authentic student writing this year. I feel that if students feel that they have a real audience, then they will craft better writing. I have devised several ways to publish their writing.
I recently signed my class up for ePals. This is a program that matches classrooms from around the world. Your students e-mail other students their age. They can share their history, experiences, culture, etc. You can also set this program up so that you and the other classroom work on a project together. I want my students to not only establish a relationship with their ePal, but to talk about the literature that they are reading. I am hoping that it will broaden my students’ thinking. If this is something that you are interested in also pursuing, I would visit their site at www.epals.com
I am also going to use amazon.com to publish my students’ book reviews. They can post the reviews on books they have read under an account that I created. The website allows them to select under 13 as an option. When that is selected, the review shows up as “Kid’s Review” so I don’t have to worry about them adding their name or any personal information. I have just started this project, and will post my classroom experiences soon. The title of the post will be Amazon Book Reviews.
Another project that I am going to start next month with my students is a Holiday Letter. Every year, my husband and I seem to get letter after letter from family members telling us about their year. It really is a “year in review.” It seems to me that this is just another form of summary writing, which, let’s face it, most students struggle with. I am going to have my students write their own Holiday Letter and then mail it to family members that they don’t live with. I then plan to piggy-back this with summaries later on in the year.
I am also looking to incorporate dialog journals into my class. Another teacher in my district and I have started talking about ways to share our students’ writing with each other. So far, she sent my students some writing to assess. I am hoping that this will lead to a dialog journal of some sort. I haven’t completely worked out the logistics yet, but it is something that I am excited about.
I really think that all of these authentic writing projects will help my students refine and polish their writing. At least, that is my hope!
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October 29, 2008 at 10:02 am (English, English Language Learners, English Proficiency, FEP: Fluent-English Proficient, LEP: Limited-English Proficient, Lessons, Methods, NEP: Non-English Proficient, Resources, Teachers, Technology, Uncategorized)
Tags: 20 questions, 20Q's, academic vocabulary, Categorize, Compare and Contrast, content vocabulary, dyslexia, ELL, ELL Activities, games, handheld, inexpensive, interactive, online, reading, struggling readers, Technology, toys, vocabulary
Last Christmas, my husband and I were invited to a white elephant party and were looking for a nice but fun gift to bring when we came across the handheld game 20Q’s. My husband was immediately addicted and we bought one as our gift. That little bit of background leads me to my current thoughts on an inexpensive but useful classroom tool for English language learners or struggling readers.
In order to play the game, you must pick a common object that most people would know about, be able to read or have someone read the questions for you, and then answer questions about your object’s characteristics. The choices are yes, no, and sometimes. The online game provides more answer choices. Here is a sample question. (I indicated that my object was an animal.)
Q2. Does it have fur?
Yes , No , Unknown, Irrelevant, Sometimes, Probably, Doubtful
Fun for struggling readers:
My nephew turned 15 this summer and I was stumped as to what to give him that wouldn’t just be thrown in his room and never used. Thankfully, I remembered the 20Q’s game and thought that it would be something he would enjoy. I was right. He and my husband played with the game pretty much all day and then again at dinner that night. My nephew is what most educators would classify as a struggling reader due to dyslexia and isn’t interested in reading. However, this “toy” required him to read the questions presented in order for the game to guess his object. My husband commented later that he thought the 20Q’s game would help our nephew with his reading because there were times when he did not know a word and would have to ask for help.
Reinforcement/Fun for ELLs:
In an ELL classroom (only ELL students such as NEPs or NEPs and LEPs), 20 questions could be used to teach vocabulary and the characteristics of vocabulary. For example, if students are learning English for the first time, it is important for them to learn common school objects. The facilitator (teacher, instructor, para, tutor) will show them pictures of these objects or point them out around the school or in a book. Once the students are familiar with the names of these objects, identifying their individual characteristics creates a deeper understanding of the object and allows the students to then begin comparing and contrasting the objects or categorizing them into groups (comparing and contrasting and categorizing are higher level thinking skills).
In addition to the content vocabulary such as the school objects, ELLs would also need to understand the academic vocabulary that is included in the game such as yes, no, unknown, irrelevant, sometimes, probably, and doubtful. If the students have no knowledge of these words then it is impossible for them to answer the question correctly.
In a content classroom with ELL students, this “toy” could be useful as a “filler” (something that they could do after they have finished their work or if there are a few minutes left of class).
The game is available in stores such as Target, Wal-mart, K-mart, and Toys r Us for approximately $7-$10.
It is also online at http://www.20q.net/.
If you have used 20Q’s in your classroom or have any other ideas on how 20Q’s could be incorporated into the classroom, please share your experiences and ideas with us.
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