We've finally come to the final post in our class blog this semester. To wrap things up and to showcase your final projects, one member of each group should post a link to your group's web-based lesson or activity as a comment before 5:00pm on Saturday (5/5). Each member of the class should view and comment on at least 3 other groups' projects by 7:30pm (5/5).
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRoxy, Rana, and I created a Forum to be used as a supplement for ESL students who are preparing to take the TOEFL test, though it would absolutely be helpful for other students interested simply in improving their English. As you can see, there are sections of the forum for teacher and student instructions, reading, writing, listening/podcasting, speaking, grammar, and translation. Our forum is a great way for students to engage with the English language, and with eachother, in order to practice different skills in an interactive setting. Please let us know what you think.
ReplyDeleteI really like your ideas. I think putting everything on this Forum is a great way for students to interact. I like that you put a section for translation so that students can ask questions in their native language. The podcasts are a good way to practice for the listening part of the tests. And, I like that you incorporated listening questions for each of the podcasts. I think this will motivate the students to listen more carefully, because they are prompted to answer this question, and explain why they chose this answer. Great Job!!!
DeleteYour project really touches me. It is so powerful. I like that you separate the basic language skills in different box. Students can focus especially on the one that they are interested in. For some students, they could follow certain section to practice their weaker areas. And, I also like the translation section. I think the non English tolerance will encourage learners to engage the automatic learning from asking questions in primary language to contributing to the forum in English finally.
DeleteI agree with Dan and Min, creating this Forum is powerful and an excellent tool for students to interact. I too like the our Forum is user friendly for all levels of TESOL levels. I especially like the way you utilize higher order of thinking skills into your Forum. Great job ladies! It was a pleasure having you as classmates! Enjoy your summer! Cat
DeleteI think that this form can be a very useful tool for students due to it's potential for growth and expansion. There are many possibilities for with this type of set up. The form includes opportunities for students to listen to English and to interact with others which is excellent!!
DeleteVery cool work guys. I think that your forum would be super popular. TOEFL students are always looking for ways to study and with your forum you could get them to meet and interact with each other. You also covered a lot of things! Excellent job ;)
DeleteBelow is a link to our class project. The project is for each group to create their own wiki about a famous person from their home country or region. The task is split into two activities: the first, the students create a generic wiki on Tom Cruise; the second has the students altering the generic wiki to reflect the information on the famous person of their choosing.
ReplyDeletehttp://ludancatesl5073.wikispaces.com/
Awesome project. It is a great idea to use the scavenger hunt as a way for the students to get acquainted with the Wiki format. I think that having them make a wiki about a famous person from their country will be appealing to students, because they might pick someone they are already familiar with, so they will be able to be more focused on perfecting the language and the technology involved. This seems like something that students of all ages, backgrounds, and proficiency levels will enjoy, as well as an entertaining project for the teacher to monitor.
DeleteI definitely agree with crmr. This is a great project. Students will be attracted to build their own wiki through which they would like to interact with others excitedly. When they introduce famous people from different countries, they will be in a positive emotion to spread their own cultures as well. Through the common contribution to the wiki, they feel satisfied by engaging in a fashionable class, also confident in using English to introduce their own idols.
DeleteIn addition, we decided to put this lesson into "real time" practice. To see how long it would take students to fulfill the basic requirements of the tasks. With research, etc., this lesson could stretch out to about a week's worth of class time. Something to consider when creating activities. Thanks for your positive comments! Cat
Deletep.s. there is always room for extensions too!!!
I thought as I looked at the scavenger hunt section that you did an awesome job of taking what could have been quite complex directions and putting them in a simple, easy-to-understand language. I also feel that students will like to do this with famous people from their countries. My only minor criticism is that I would have chosen someone with the acting heft of Jean Claude VanDamme or possibly even the superb Steven Segal. Good job!
DeleteThis is a project which is ready to be used in classrooms right away. I like the activity idea about writing about a famous person from the student's home country. This way, students will be able to learn English as well as to learn about each other countries. It also addresses one of the most important criteria that teachers should have which is adopting a pedagogy that strongly relates to language and identity construction. Great job and I knew that you guys will definitely make a great project :D awesome
DeleteI really like the idea of this activity. Students in an activity like this, can practice writing and vocabulary and in the same time they will write about someone they like in their country. Students will share some cultural knowledge with each other which is very important for ESL learners. Good Job!!
Deletecheck out the wiki I did for fun just to see how long this activity would take for students in 'real-time'
Deletehttp://catwoman-9lives-of-a-feline-fatale.wikispaces.com/
I like the whole idea you guys came up with. The instructions are all very clear and easy to understand. I like that they have to do one for someone from their own country too. If the class is full of international students then it turns them into a teacher and if they have to share in class they are going to have to use a lot of vocabulary, and even if they don't share in class they still have to write a good bit and research things that they would not other wise know.
DeleteWiki's are my favorite! Such a good idea for building classroom community while teaching. Great job on organizing the content in an easy to understand manner.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHey guys here is Tiffany, Tadeuz and Octavios' (me) final project. We made a podcast for English learners. It's hosted on blogger so it lets user interact with one another. The idea behind the podcast is to assist Polish speakers as they travel the United States. It has listening activities and worksheets that can be done independently or within a classroom.
ReplyDeleteCheck it out!
http://goo.gl/I9N6e
Great podcast, it was very clear. The sample conversations of asking directions and ordering in a restaurant are very helpful when you’re traveling. Ted you did a Great job on translating. Overall the podcast was awesome!!!!
DeleteI think this podcast is very fun. It keeps the listeners' attention and the music is great. It makes want to dance. Most importantly Polish students can learn useful words and phrases to order food and travel to the USA.
DeleteFantastic idea. I loved listening to the Polish. This would be helpful for a traveler, especially in tandem with the activities you all provided.
DeleteThese podcasts are really funny!! I think these are great to learn some survival vocabulary. It is a great idea to incorporate the worksheet with the podcasts. This way the students can have something that will help them to follow the podcasts if they are lower level. well done.
DeleteIt was nice to hear a little Polska again. It has been too long. This seems to be very helpful and knowing what words / phrases to use in a restaurant is always a great topic. Good job!
DeleteYou all did an awesome job! Podcast was especially clear and enjoyable to listen too! Adding documents as a support tool was exceptionally brilliant!
DeleteAgain, excellent job!
Enjoyed having your team on the back row with ours! Cat
awesome and really enjoying job. The podcasts are so fun and clear. I listen to them more than once and I liked them even more. Great project!! :D
DeleteI really enjoyed listening to the podcast. It is very clear and helpful to know how to order from restaurants it is useful topic for ESL learners.
DeleteIf I have time, I will to try to go to the Polish traveling. And the podcasts is very interesting and clear. I like you blog. Have nice summer holidays.
DeleteI think your podcasting is useful for people who want to learn Polosh. You make authentic situations as examples for students. This can help students gain the Polish in a comprehensive way. The most important step you made is you made a daily conversation for listener. It is much more attractive than just academic listenning material.
DeleteThanks everyone! We had fun making the podcast. I really enjoyed viewing everyones final projects as well!
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteWe created an activity using blog. In this activity students work with idioms and create dialogues. Once students have 5 short dialogues they will record them and them put them into a video format with transcripts. In the dialogue box tap you will find a video as an example of what we want students to do.
http://coolidioms.blogspot.com/
Rick and Raneem
Great job, Rick and Raneem. You make the idiom learning full of both interesting and challenge. I like the part that students learn to create their own dialogue with new idioms. And the more interesting about your activity for me is that students can also get familiar with technical usage. This is really helpful for students to get involved into the independent learning by internet.
DeleteThere is really a lot that can be done with idioms and I think your group did an excellent job. I like the fact that you chose some that are not very common, but are very interesting, such as "cherry pick" and "man of letters". Check out Angela and Jeremy's Idioms Express for more.
DeleteExcellent job Rick and Raneem! Very user friendly! Organized! Clear! Fun! Some of your idioms, I have never heard of ... man of letters? Excellent. It was such a pleasure to get to know you as classmates! Cat
DeleteHi, Rick and Raneem. I think your blog is very interesting. The idioms you showed in your blog tell students specific usage in the daily conversation. Furthermore, you put the idioms in the real dialogue in which you two act a role play. Your podcasting clip helps me a lot to understand the usage of idioms you showed in an authentic situation.
DeleteI liked the way you incorporated podcast for students to research the meaning.You made the podcast that is very interesting and easyo understand. And you also give students example and activities to help students knowing idioms and using. I think this is a good blog to study idioms.
DeleteVery clear and well organized great idea to teach idioms. I like the way you changed colors. Very colorful and user friendly.
DeleteThis is very clear and organized well! It looks like a good tool for teachers who need a resource to turn to when teaching idioms.
DeleteSuper organized and very simple to understand. Idioms are something that I think anyone can use, even English speakers. Plus since you are using a blog users can add idioms in the comment section ;)
DeleteGreat activity and I like how you give them an example of what you are looking for. IT might be helpful to have some brief instructions on how to use windows movie maker for teachers that want to use it in the classroom.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHey guys, Jeremy and I created a blogger as our final project. Based on English idioms, we design four activities to improve students' thorough understanding of daily expression of native speakers. Visitors can engage in the idioms familiarization across each activity and interact with others through comments. Hope you like it!
ReplyDeletehttp://ajiexpress110.blogspot.com/
Another great activity using idioms, I liked the way you incorporated MICASE for students to research the meaning. Also the way students had to create their own sentences using idioms and comparing it with other learners. I will use this activity in my classroom, good job.
DeleteI love how you use MICASE to help students learn the idioms that you present in your dialogue. I like the picture activity as well. (The blog's bookshelf background is great).
DeleteThanks Angela!
DeleteWOW great blog and awesome activities. I like how you guys used many sources of technologies in your blog , like the MICASE, many pictures and a podcast. Perfect job Min and Jeremy
DeleteI think the podcast is really fun. You simplified some common idioms so that their meaning is very clear. You enunciated in the podcast so that the pronunciation is easy to understand and mimic. I like how you also added 3 more activities so that the students can search MICASE for the meaning of the idioms using authentic materials. You end with a simple but effective assessment technique of producing sentences.
DeleteAnother fun way to learn about idioms! Jeremy, you are so soft spoken and Min, your English is beautiful and easy to listen too! Very professional layout as well! Fun getting to know you two in class! Have a great summer! Cat
DeleteThe lesson has a very simple format in which students can easily work the activities. I also think that incorporating corpus component is great because allows students to find a variety of uses for the idiom. Also having the students use the urban dictionary is excellent since allows them to find the correct meaning if the guess is wrong. Overall very well done and great pictures.
DeleteI like you blog min and Jeremy. You made the podcast that is very interesting and easyo understand. And you also give students 4 activities to help students knowing idioms and using. I think this is a good blog to study idioms.
DeleteI think your podcasting is really fun. Besides giving a student listening practice of the idioms, you put these idioms in authentic situation for students to make it crystal clear to understand. I also like the combination of MICASE PRACTICE. It tells something more than just dialogue. It helps students figure out a variety of uses about the idioms.
DeleteI really like the variety of your activities. The podcast is really clear and using corpus is really great. Well done Min & Jeremy !
DeleteThis looks like an EXCELLENT place for students trying to improve their English. I liked that the transcript for the dialogue is displayed directly under the audio box so that students can easily follow along and notice the idioms being discussed. Great job organizing the site too!
DeleteVery cool, I like that you have the transcript on the page. And I also LOVED that the dialogue was HILARIOUS!!!!! I would definitely listen to this even if I didn't need to learn the language. Awesome stuff guys!
DeleteOH and I forgot to note that I LOL'd several times while listening to the podcast! Very funny!
DeleteGreat activities. Dialogue the activity entertaining,and I think it was a great idea to include audio and script. Nice job!
Delete(For anyone who hasn't posted their project yet, and/or cares, I figured out how to make the link work when posting in this comment box. I went to this site and scrolled down to the hyperlink section. Sorry I didn't post this earlier.)
ReplyDeletehttp://corpus.alieneyes.com
ReplyDeleteI really like your use of the concordance here. First of all, your directions are really easy to follow. The first activity is great to help the students get a feel for how to use the corpus. The second activity seems very useful as well, because infinitives can be tricky for students learning English. I think the detailed examination of infinitive use required by the second activity would be very beneficial for students.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSorry, I could not open it ~ must be my slow country server. Glad I met you ~ say hey to A&M for me! Cat
DeleteI like how clear and easy the instructions are.Great job on designing the site and organizing the material. This looks like a great resource for teachers and students!
DeleteI like the overall look of your page and the instructions are all super clear. I like that the first activity is to help the users learn how to use the concordance and the second is so that they learn from the concordance. Nice job :)
Deletehttp://xinyidongdong.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThis is Dongdong Cao and Xinyi Wu`s final project
If I ever decide to learn Chinese, this is where I will start. It seems like a really helpful compilation of resources. I like the initial explanation of the Chinese characters; it was interesting to read.
DeleteI agree with CRMR, this is the go to site in learning Chinese. Extremely professional AND user friendly. Pat yourselves on the back! Thrilled to have you two as classmates! Cat
Deleteamazing project Dongdong and Xinyi, the blog is not complicated at all, it's arranged in a really nice way that learners and guests will understand it very fast. I agree with Cat and Crmr your project will be the first step for me to learn Chinese :D well done.
DeleteThe layout of the blog is great. Students can easily visualize the content. You noted some very important language facts about Chinese too. The video where students imitate pronunciation is very interesting. I like the illustrations using the arrows for sound/air. For example, sometimes you release air through your nose and sometimes only thought your mouth. Excellent Job!
DeleteGreat job guys, you made me want to learn Chinese. I thought it was going to be hard to learn about the Chinese characters but you made it seem easy. I enjoyed reading about the Chinaology
DeleteI like it! I think that even if I didn't want to learn Chinese it would be fun to see how Chinese characters have developed over the years. I also think that you guys did an excellent job with the look for your page. It's very Chinese ;)
DeleteThis is a fantastic Chinese learning resource! Everything is organized in such an easy to read manner. Even though it's a blog, you made it seam personable and enjoyable to interact with. It looks like a lot of effort went into all the information in the site. Great job!
DeleteI like the design of the blog. It actually feels more like a website than a blog. A section on how to create a wiki might be helpful under the teacher instructions.
ReplyDelete