Time flies like an arrow! That's what I'm having now. The clock is ticking! Two more weeks to go to share the project reports and about three weeks to finish the final draft of my Project Plan.
Wow! What a marvelous weeks we had!
Engaging students in class is one of the ways to enhance learning process. Just like Smith said that a teacher requires not only knowledge of subject matter but also knowledge of how students learn how to transform them into active learners. and further Johnson mentioned that "Learning is a social process that occurs through interpersonal interaction within a cooperative context. Individuals, working together, construct shared understandings and knowledge."
Both says about interaction between teacher and learner, it's all about interaction. Creating an interactive class is one of the ways to keep the students engaged and participated in class activities. There are some general lectures of interactive activities based on http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/whatis.html such as:
Think-pair-share, Concept test, the Question of the Day and Longer activities.
These types of activities provide feedback on what students have learned, enabling us to either discuss a particular concept in more detail or move on with confidence that students have mastered that concept.
Large class. In my experience, to almost always have large classes in every semester becomes common to find some lacks in our teaching -learning process. So indeed, me as the teacher has to work harder to create the various activities that can involve all students in the same time and limited time. In my case, I always give clear instructions at the beginning of the class so the students know what to do and pay attention to.
Another thing to consider when facing a large class, is what we call Just In Time Teaching (JITT). It can improve student learning and increases in-class teaching effective teaching and learning practices. It specifically:
- improves students' preparation for class
- enhances student motivation for learning
- promotes on going formative assessment of student learning (by both instructors and students)
- informs in-class activities that target students learning gaps
The key to successful JITT implementation is developing a set of effective questions that will be posted online for students to answer before the next class.
Just like Donna said, that Power point is very commonly used in teaching, but it is rarely used interactively. This is the thing that some teachers forget to (even me sometimes.) The interactive one is kind of teacher's effort to create an interesting class, to keep students awake and to get students' attention to materials given. What more important than those mentioned above is to have students better understanding about the goals of the lessons.
In my project, in the near future I plan to put technology into learning process. I and my co teacher are going to work together and use Self Access Centre as a media of supporting class activities. We will also use Class Blog as a media of evaluation and communication. We'll use this to show students that it will work for improving their writing ability. We'll put some goals to achieve and of course provide the ground rules earlier to keep everything under control and work properly.
Interaction is the key!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Week 5: Project-based Learning, WebQuest, and Rubric
Seeing the world through students eyes! That's what I learned most in this week as Donna said to me, and indeed I got the points of what Donna did tell me. You are just kind of a mirror to me Donna, showing our "sins", correct us when we were wrong, no judgement, and keep us believing and motivating that we can do everything for our own goods.
Being a better teacher is always about giving the options to students and this week I learned so much about that. One of them is project-based learning. Just like Gaer's project title: Less Teaching and More Learning. So, by designing a well prepared project, we'll have the opportunity to develop more on monitoring the students works and improvements. Using tools can be very helpful, effective and efficient. We can use Rubrics to give student's chance on checking their assessment result online and finding the correction more details. This is my rubric's address: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=2072997
Project-Based Learning also gives a new atmosphere for students to have collaborative and peer learning. They communicate each other, give comments and correction, even at the end, the teachers have to check again and give more inputs. On line discussion can be another alternative to do so. At the beginning, perhaps, It will take a big effort to set everything as we wish and need more time to prepare and provide valuable and easy access information. This can be also uploaded through WebQuest: this is the page for gathering and sharing valuable materials provided for the class. And here is my WebQuest address: http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=108896 I still need to work on it more, since I still just put a preliminary design for it.
It's an excellent week for me though. even I have to fight with fever and heavy flu at weekend. I found this week very fascinating and challenging.
Happy sharing!
Being a better teacher is always about giving the options to students and this week I learned so much about that. One of them is project-based learning. Just like Gaer's project title: Less Teaching and More Learning. So, by designing a well prepared project, we'll have the opportunity to develop more on monitoring the students works and improvements. Using tools can be very helpful, effective and efficient. We can use Rubrics to give student's chance on checking their assessment result online and finding the correction more details. This is my rubric's address: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=2072997
Project-Based Learning also gives a new atmosphere for students to have collaborative and peer learning. They communicate each other, give comments and correction, even at the end, the teachers have to check again and give more inputs. On line discussion can be another alternative to do so. At the beginning, perhaps, It will take a big effort to set everything as we wish and need more time to prepare and provide valuable and easy access information. This can be also uploaded through WebQuest: this is the page for gathering and sharing valuable materials provided for the class. And here is my WebQuest address: http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=108896 I still need to work on it more, since I still just put a preliminary design for it.
It's an excellent week for me though. even I have to fight with fever and heavy flu at weekend. I found this week very fascinating and challenging.
Happy sharing!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Week 4: Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan
What a hectic week!
Do the readings, fulfill the tasks, comments e-friends' opinion and share my weekly experience (what I a m doing right now) in this blog or do my office things have driven me to be 'superman' this week. It's a great week after all.
What a 'wonderful' coincidence that everything is deadline. I feel great actually, even I have to keep everything up at the same time. It is said "The more we have works and can meet all things at defined time, The more we learn time management better. Hope so!
This week I have to cope with Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan. What I had in my mind while reading this task was thinking about making plans for my class and using new ways of teaching in sharing the knowledge to students.
Technology becomes very important today and we have an obligation to be able to participate in this New Era. Technology can help us in developing and improving the way we learn and share with students.
In my case, I'll be co-lecturer for Essay Writing 1 Class. so I and my partner will work as a team to conduct a technology supported writing class. My partner will share the theories to students and I'll handle the technology used for supporting this class. We designed a Technology Enhanced Lesson Class that we will use in coming semester, create a class blog as a media for monitoring and doing the students works, progress and evaluation.
What technology does today to our world, hopefully can help us also in improving our ways of teaching and students; ways of learning.
Here is my Lesson Plan for week 2:
Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan
Lesson Title: Part of an Essay
Lesson Author: Meita L. Sujatna
Grade Level: third Semester students (pre-intermediate level)
Subject Area: Introduction paragraph
Time allotted for the lesson: 100 minutes (1 meeting)
Short Description of Lesson: at the end of the lesson, the students will be able to write and analyze the introduction paragraphs
Classroom layout: The lesson will be delivered in a classroom but it is an option to move to Self Access Centre (SAC) room where students can access the multimedia facilities provided by university (scheduled as non-class activities). They will work individually.
State curriculum Standards met in this lesson: We will use the standards provided by the university
Instructional Objectives:
1. The students will listen to presentation given by lecturer
2. The students will have opportunity to have Questions and Answers session
3. The students will be able to understand and analyze the sample of introduction paragraphs given
4. The students will be able to write the introduction paragraphs
Materials and resources needed for this lesson:
1. Part 2-Blanchard, Karen & Christine Root.2003. Ready To Write More.Longman. Pearson Education.
2. Part 2-Oshima, Alice & Ann Hogue. 1998. Writing Academic English. Longman. Pearson Education.
Technology resources for this lesson:
1. Computer
2. Internet
3. Self Access Centre
Web address needed for this lesson:
3. http://writingguide.geneseo.edu/ (only for lecturer)
Student’s Present level of performance and knowledge: The students have taken Basic Writing 1 & 2 and Internet class
Instructional Procedures:
1. Discovering those who have written e-mail, letters or private journal
2. Reminding the students that they will have to write things in near future like posting their essays to class blog, final report, or even letter of application after they graduate from university
3. Asking the students to write a short sample of writing, it can be letter, e-mail or an application letter (it has relation with lessons to go)
Techniques:
1. Explaining the part of Essay which comprises the paragraph parts: Topic Sentence, Three support paragraphs, concluding Sentence
2. Giving samples and recognizing the Parts of an introduction
3. Recognizing general and thesis statements
Activities:
1. Students will listen to explanation
2. Students will do some exercises given related to techniques above
3. Lecturer will give corrections or ideas
4. Discussion
Lesson Closure:
The lesson will be closed by making correct sample of introduction paragraphs and read some students revised works.
Adaptation for Special Learners: Since in in our class there are not students with specials needs, we don’t have to do any adaptation.
Supplemental Activities:
1. The students will be ask to access SAC for getting information needed for the lessons
2. Remedial given or provided when students have difficulties or questions
Assessment/Evaluation:
1. In some meetings, the evaluation will be given in the classroom (at the end of lesson while summarizing it) to ensure the students that the materials given are fully understood in the form of class works.
2. At defined meetings the students will have to post their essays and comment other posts at class blog
Students Products: Essay and Recommendation posted in Class Blog
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Week 3: CALL for Oral/Aural Skills
Hello e-friends,
Talking about CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) for Oral/Aural Skills has become more attractive to those who live in this machine age. The paradigm has changed, namely from the teacher- centered to the learner-centered approach. Using IT as a means of supporting media has become one of the ways to improve quality of language exposure, and students’ experience is important to support the learning process in classroom as well. The use of computer is unavoidable and important to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of learning process itself. As IT develops and becomes closer to people’s daily life, the challenge to use computer and IT for learning and teaching purposes becomes stronger.
As quoted by Gong, (Levy 1997: 1) offers an unrivalled range of possibilities to provide learning experiences that are impossible without a computer. In the past, language learning was restricted by the six-sided classroom and many language learners did not have the opportunity to interact with native speakers in a meaningful way. Nowadays, the CALL environment becomes an ideal safe haven for learners to practice interaction. The computers, accompanying software packages and network have been used in a number of ways to assist language learning.
Further, Gong quoted some experts saying that, the potential of the computer medium for teaching language speaking skills has been realized by researchers, programmers and language teachers. In second/foreign language classrooms, the CALL environment creates situations that stimulate interest, allows dialogue and communication, enhances reactivity, fosters a sense of personal worth, facilitates collaboration among students working together, permits rich learning experiences for all students and strengthens communication skills (Borras 1993; Pennington 1995, 1996; Cameron 1999; Hardisty et al. 1989; Inoue 1999; Kohn et al. 1997; Powell 1998).
The paradigm has changed from lecturer-centered to students-centered. It is obvious that computers can facilitate the gap between lecturer and students. Lecturer can easily use computer and access the internet to have opportunities to improve their teaching method which can be adapted to current conditions and students can put themselves into better communication skills in modern and more fun ways.
And then, Meita: 2010 in her paper “IT Suporrted SALL” mentioned that English is often still a handicap for its users. Knowing and learning English since primary school to university level was not a guarantee for the students to be able to absorb and use them optimally. It is quite often learners and teachers and curriculum are bound by the conditions of that in fact the theoretical and not practical course also limited by time and opportunity to practice as an individual, especially in classes with large numbers of students. We must pause and ask: What has been taught in class?How many of us / students who have been able to use English to communicate? Many of the students simply learn English only because they have to, not because they need to or know what benefits are. They have not been forced to use them. How then can we encourage our students to learn and to communicate properly. Therefore this reason is enough for us to be more innovative in supporting and providing conditions for effective learning and efficient.
Stephen Krashen said ‘… two independent systems of second language performance:
'Language acquisition (language acquisition) was obtained naturally and subconsciously, which is like a child who is learning his first language, the speaker on this system does not only focus on the speech but also its meaning, while in the learning system was obtained consciously in the form of formal instructions, such as the grammar lesson that we are achieving in school. Both systems must be conducted , depending on the skill, and the creativity of the teachers
So, CALL for Oral/Aural skills is becoming a compulsory to enhance the students’ speaking ability.
Week 3: Bookmarking with Delicious
Hello everybody.....!
Bookmarking is something that I always do while finding interesting URL or links. But what I did was bookmarking them directly to my browser (because it was the only thing I could do). The list became very long then. I had to force my eyes to focus searching the addresses I needed. It became more annoying when I clicked a wrong link and I had to go through the list again. Do you know what happened to those fabulous bookmarks when my computer got crashed or virus attacked and I had to re-install the computer? I cried. Absolutely! Because I was too lazy to make notes of those URL and I had to try very hard to re-locate all (not all actually) the bookmarks that I needed desperately. It occurred few times, and meant crying few times as well.
At the beginning, It was quite easy for me when I had to create a delicious page, because Healey has given us a very informative 'how to'. But then the problems came when I lost my track keeping the terminology in my head. 'Tags, title and how to put tags in Tags bundle. So trial and error really happened to me. And then, things changed after I found the way to do it as easy as that. Now, I am really, really, really enjoying it!
You know what? This week gives me a relieve! I find delicious.com is a miracle for me, since I never heard about it before.
Thanks to Donna who introduced me to this new experience. You can see the dates when I bookmarked the links. I kept doing this almost every day in this week.
Happy Bookmarking!
Bookmarking is something that I always do while finding interesting URL or links. But what I did was bookmarking them directly to my browser (because it was the only thing I could do). The list became very long then. I had to force my eyes to focus searching the addresses I needed. It became more annoying when I clicked a wrong link and I had to go through the list again. Do you know what happened to those fabulous bookmarks when my computer got crashed or virus attacked and I had to re-install the computer? I cried. Absolutely! Because I was too lazy to make notes of those URL and I had to try very hard to re-locate all (not all actually) the bookmarks that I needed desperately. It occurred few times, and meant crying few times as well.
At the beginning, It was quite easy for me when I had to create a delicious page, because Healey has given us a very informative 'how to'. But then the problems came when I lost my track keeping the terminology in my head. 'Tags, title and how to put tags in Tags bundle. So trial and error really happened to me. And then, things changed after I found the way to do it as easy as that. Now, I am really, really, really enjoying it!
You know what? This week gives me a relieve! I find delicious.com is a miracle for me, since I never heard about it before.
Thanks to Donna who introduced me to this new experience. You can see the dates when I bookmarked the links. I kept doing this almost every day in this week.
Happy Bookmarking!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Week 2: Learning Objective
It's been great that the task of Week 2 will support me a lot for developing and improving my teaching method in my class. In this week we have some tasks concerning how to use various search engines, make learning objectives using ABCD objective, and also describe the class I'd like to use with my project.
What I had in mind when reading the task was "Wow.. It will guide me how to create a conducive class in applying technology into my class and create a better academic atmosphere by taking my students actively participate in learning activities."
Now, I found that not only google, yahoo, or wikipedia that can help me search the information I need for completing my academic purpose but also www.noodletools.com that links us to other search engines for our information needs, like INFOMINE, INTUTE and etc., then TWURDY http://www.twurdy.com/search.php (just like Jose Carlos Manrique said that " it can very handy, especially when you want to recommend a text to your students.")
It helps me a lot and my upcoming team teaching class more then, when the task came to ABC learning objective. Because by doing so, it will be easier when I have to teach in this class using this clear guidance. I plan to have my project in Essay Writing 1 class, where my co-teacher teaches this class and I'll be his teaching team conducting the project. The population of this class is about 15 to 20 or sometimes 25 students, the third semester of four years of English department course. We'll have a blog to share our ideas, experience or comments for students' essay.
The students came from different educational background. What I meant is the students came form different major in their high school; sciences and socials, none of them from language major. Their age between 20 to 21 years old and different socio-economic condition but basically they have the access to computer or internet in their house or our campus.
The class that we will use is in good condition with lcd projector installed. We use moving class style so every student will have different room to join every different subject.
In our campus, luckily, we have fully access to computer and internet. It is a fabulous coincidence that I work for Self Access Centre (SAC) is a learning environment where learners have access to a variety of learning resources. SAC is a means of self-study/co-curricular activities, especially for Self Access Language Learning (SALL) for students who find difficulties or wish to deepen and develop English Language Skills beyond the acquisition of material in classroom. SAC is integrated to technology (computers and internet) which will support the achievement of autonomy. In SAC, the learners is able to access various learning resources. Learners can select and use materials with or without the help of teachers or anyone else, utilizing suitable materials provided, learners are expected to make improvement in their learning process. So hopefully I can solve the problems that some of my e-friend teachers have.
I believe I and my students will have more benefits while doing the activities together.
What I had in mind when reading the task was "Wow.. It will guide me how to create a conducive class in applying technology into my class and create a better academic atmosphere by taking my students actively participate in learning activities."
Now, I found that not only google, yahoo, or wikipedia that can help me search the information I need for completing my academic purpose but also www.noodletools.com that links us to other search engines for our information needs, like INFOMINE, INTUTE and etc., then TWURDY http://www.twurdy.com/search.php (just like Jose Carlos Manrique said that " it can very handy, especially when you want to recommend a text to your students.")
It helps me a lot and my upcoming team teaching class more then, when the task came to ABC learning objective. Because by doing so, it will be easier when I have to teach in this class using this clear guidance. I plan to have my project in Essay Writing 1 class, where my co-teacher teaches this class and I'll be his teaching team conducting the project. The population of this class is about 15 to 20 or sometimes 25 students, the third semester of four years of English department course. We'll have a blog to share our ideas, experience or comments for students' essay.
The students came from different educational background. What I meant is the students came form different major in their high school; sciences and socials, none of them from language major. Their age between 20 to 21 years old and different socio-economic condition but basically they have the access to computer or internet in their house or our campus.
The class that we will use is in good condition with lcd projector installed. We use moving class style so every student will have different room to join every different subject.
In our campus, luckily, we have fully access to computer and internet. It is a fabulous coincidence that I work for Self Access Centre (SAC) is a learning environment where learners have access to a variety of learning resources. SAC is a means of self-study/co-curricular activities, especially for Self Access Language Learning (SALL) for students who find difficulties or wish to deepen and develop English Language Skills beyond the acquisition of material in classroom. SAC is integrated to technology (computers and internet) which will support the achievement of autonomy. In SAC, the learners is able to access various learning resources. Learners can select and use materials with or without the help of teachers or anyone else, utilizing suitable materials provided, learners are expected to make improvement in their learning process. So hopefully I can solve the problems that some of my e-friend teachers have.
I believe I and my students will have more benefits while doing the activities together.
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