week 7

week seven 

The best tool to work on project-based learning is the webquest design. But they need time to familiarize with this tool, they need to understand 100 percent. I see some students rather lost for they are used to work in a teacher-centered class, they are waiting for the teacher to explain in front of the class.
Once they learn how a webquest works, they get very enthusiastic, and they follow step by step by reading the WB from the net, but first they should be given some pre-activities using a fixed procedure to work on line,for example following instruction using the web,so that they feel free to work at their own speed. Checked the rubrica on line and comment   in a blog.etc.

On padlet, there are many actvities we and our students can do, I am amazed about how fast it is, we need connection to internet but it is easy to handle. it is very motivating to school kids
from a simple memo to complex activities, it is highly collaborative and easy to learn.

Week 6 already and I am starting to feel more confident and positive about my project,In my 28 student’s class there are 13 girls and 15 boys. Some of the advanced students in this class have participated in Debate Competition one of the initiatives of the English Opens Doors Program from the Chilean Ministry of Education. My students also have a prezi account and they know how to work with a touch board.

I had the idea of teaching more about their city activating their acquired knowledge giving them the task of  taking some pictures of their favorite places and preparing a prezi on line presentation to share oral information  using vocabulary related to :  locations, important places, prepositions of place there is/ there are, habitual present, like dislike and descriptions. I also wnat to connect this web pages with readings where they can develop that skill in any time ont olny during classes.

Best wishes!

Week 6

 
    I must admit that I am a fan of prezi.com and my students in high school have been using this tool in their classes. Now I consider ppt a tremendous tool to produce better and really interactive presentations, while I was building up my ppt for this course I realized the many possibilities it has to even create games, quizes, jeopardise, it takes more time than a prezi but it is worthwhile.
Now I have another tool to engage students in my classes, I personally believe that those classes where students are polled, and where you make pauses to make questions or work in groups are really the ones that appeal to me.
 I can mention the crossword lecture where the audience is given  puzzle to  summarize the lecture  by a series of one-word-answer question (which are converted into crossword puzzle clues). A talk show is another idea similar to debate for they can discuss about different points of view, concepts maps, the minute paper, and others.

And now of course thanks to the cloud we have the chance to continue assessing through the web, mails,  blogs, etc.

         When my classes give the students the chance to interact with the help of technology I feel my students more participative and motivated to this invitation to engage in my classes.

Week 5

“Learning is a social process that occurs through interpersonal interaction within a

cooperative context. Individuals, working together, construct shared understandings and

knowledge.”

And Plutarco was  absolutly right:” A mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be filled.”

My grand grand parents probably learnt things sitting one student behind the other with a teacher always talking and a test in a week.

Things have changed,  students cannot learn that way now, they are more adventurous , they need to learn by doing to work in teams, to interactand  to be the protagonist.

Week 5 My Webquest

I decided to try my first webquest using  Zunal .com, and it was very easy, for al the information and sequence is in every step of the way.

I will also explore the webquest garden to see if there are more possibilities to enhace the page,
I invite you to click here:

http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=219603

Greetings!

On my Rubrics

I explore the web looking for rubrics and of course rubistar is one of the best, but I also found many in the site I mentioned in the last post. Here I want to show you another site which is very useful when dealing with the assessment among peers: 

"http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/studentrubrics.html"

For the dimensions of quality/criteria I chose: volume, clear language, voice and body language, vocabulary and time limits.

For the levels of mastery I had to identify each end of the scale and then fill in the middle. For example:

1.      identify the characteristics of the highest level of performance for each criteria

2.      determine the characteristics of unacceptable performance (that which has not achieved the minimum required standard)

3.      consider what levels of performance fits between these two extremes.

Taken from http://www.flinders.edu.au/teaching/teaching-strategies/assessment/grading/designing-rubric.cfm

Here is my rubric:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0yYYkwLnwowYW93SlZlYnhuUzg/edit?usp=drive_web

Best wishes!

About PBL

When teachers and students get involved in a project, we can find the developing of certain skills, and the creation of a product , so we need first to observe and then to record what is happening during the process, and I consider the only way to assess this performance is through a rubric which clearly describes what we want from the students.

Here is a list of what we can assess when working in PBL, taken from "Saskatchewan Professional Development Unit":

• Written Assignments

• Stories • Paragraphs

• Plays • Essays

• Poems • Research papers

• Demonstrations (live or taped)

• Role playing • Retelling

• Debates • Experiments

• Reading • Cooperative group work

• Recital • Performance stations (mathematics, science)

• Presentations (live or taped)

• Oral—song, choral speech, report

• Visual —slide shows, puppet play, news program

• Dance

• Science fair

• Projects

• Seminars

• Portfolios

Do they sound familiar for you?

Of course they are familiar!

I have a present for all of you,  it is a page to get hundreds of rubrics

http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/

Hope you enjoy it!!!

Week 4

On week four

 First, after a big amount of great reading and exploring many web sites,  My delicious is becoming a generous page with links related to the teaching of English.

  I think I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, creating a tech lesson plan has been very clarifying and real for me. It is a feed back of what my students can do concerning the learning of a language, nevertheless I see an issue that has been missing at my school and has an impact in the students  reading skill. Non access to reading material is a serious  problem. Parents get the English book for each year and it has been so for many years, now we have the web, or the cloud to start a window for the students and teachers and access to reading material.

 They have easy access to the web through all their gadgets, they are always connected, what they need is an organized site to start exploring first and then create the reading habit.

Hope everything comes out nice in our week 5

best wishes!