Week – 5 - ''The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.'' (Marcel Proust, French novelist)

Hello My Dear Journal,

One more week finished and there is so much I have to reflect on.

At the very beginning we went on a trip to a new land.  The design of the voyage route was full of new destinations that we had to achieve that I decided first to explore the content and only after that to set off.

Alternative Assessment

The first task was a bit challenging as we had to analyze several resources on alternative assessment and the tools used to assess students’ learning.

How to assess? There are a lot of different ways to do it: multiple choice tests, fill-in blanks, True-False, matching that have become common in education. These tests are teacher-created. But how can we help our students to develop into ‘productive citizens’? There is a solution: to give them meaningful tasks and watch if the students can apply their knowledge and are capable of doing so. It’s essential that we teach our students how to apply their knowledge into a real context.

Having analyzed the article on Assessing Learning “Alternative Assessment” I found out that the alternative assessment methods (checklists, rubrics) are not only different from traditional ones in structure, but they have a different grading system. The teachers’ role here is crucial as they have to decide upon the most and the least useful assessment tools taking into consideration what is appropriate in their teaching context.

These tools give opportunities for teachers and their students to focus on communication, learn to negotiate, share and develop. In my opinion, the students should be informed that their activity is assessed according to the rubrics provided. This will keep students motivated and involved and moreover, it will lead to creating a learning community where everybody is expected to take their own responsibility for assessment. The learners will have opportunities for self- and peer-assessment.

For incorporating alternative assessment into classroom activities I created the Do’s and Don’ts list which I would like to share with you:

• Draw up very clear assessment criteria and make these known to the students;
• Use checklist and rubrics to evaluate student performance;
• Make sure that you can use it;
• Explain the benefit from alternative assessment to the students. Students need to get comfortable with the process;
• Familiarize them with the use of checklists and rubrics to make them start assessing their learning and provide feedback to the peers;
• Be supportive and be aware of group dynamics when observing students working in small groups;

·         Make it beneficial, decrease isolation;

·         Be positive and objective while giving feedback and grading.

Don’ts

• Make tasks too complicated ;
• Isolate the students from the process;
• Focus on wrong or right answers;
• Focus too much on the grades required, opposed to the quality of learning.

To tell the truth while reading the article I learned so many interesting things that I wasn’t aware of. I do use different tools for assessing the students’ progress, and I have always found it difficult to do. Probably it happened because I still use the traditional assessment.

It is the fourth year that educational system in our country has implemented new curriculum. We started from the Primary school and next year we are going to have new curriculum standards for secondary school. So using checklists, rubrics for assessing students’ progress is something new in our teaching context which we are learning to apply now. I believe that our course will help me to become more proficient in this area and moreover, improve my teacher skills through interactive web.

 I have already created rubrics for assessing my 9 th grade students’ writing in “Write On” project. The task is to write a story based on the set of pictures "Are We Alone in the Universe?”. The students can give different titles. It depends on their imagination and creativity.  It was my first experience of creating a rubric and I liked it.

Some Issues and their solution

There are some issues that need considering while implementing new approaches into my assessment.  

Last week when writing about class issues I pointed out one big problem that really exists in my class. The students do not like writing. They like to read, speak English, analyze texts, and discuss the movies. When it comes to writing they find it not important and it draws them back.

I think the problem lies in the assessment that is traditional. The parents insist on having tests that are more traditional and teacher-created. Why? Because when the children have to take final exams or entrance university exams they will have to do multiple choice tests mostly based on grammar-translation method. So, this is a big issue.

I am trying to change this old approach in my classes, but at the same time I don't have to forget about the 'assessment' the students have to be ready for at the end of the semester and school year.

I am very thankful to our tutor Robert who gave a fantastic idea about having students create the tests for the class or unit. I think it would be alternative assessment which will bring a valuable difference into the class.

I even didn't think of giving students the chance to create the tests themselves. I am sure that the students will feel more responsibility for their learning, as before creating the tests they will have to learn all the material.
 If they do it in groups or with the partners, there will be another chance for them to revise the topic and share their knowledge.

Less Teaching and More Learning – Project Based Learning

The next port that we had to reach was: "Less Teaching and More Learning".

The article “Less Teaching and More Learning” by Susan Gaer gave me more confidence in my positive attitude towards Project Based Learning. 

Three years ago my 5^th grade students participated in the Project “Bat Chen Diaries”. Within the project my students had to start writing their dairies. It was a bit challenging for all of us. Some of my students didn’t have any desire to keep the diaries (especially boys); others even if they wrote didn’t do it regularly. Then I asked the students to prepare a poster where they would describe one memorable event or just write a poem “My Diary”.

They were informed that the activity would be graded. It motivated them so much (the grades) that even those who were not very happy about the task at the beginning produced the posters that impressed everybody. While assessing I created some rubrics which were agreed with the students: presentation skills, content, fluency and organization.

The students enjoyed the activity so much that asked me to have such presentation every month as they had a lot to share and there was only one rule to follow: they had to continue writing their dairies.

Summarizing the main ideas of “Less Teaching and More Learning” by Susan Gaer and my personal experience we can conclude that Project Based Learning:

• Motivates students in their learning;
• Makes learning purposeful and meaningful;
• Provides real life experience and promotes learning for life;
• Creates learning community where each member’s efforts are valued and contribution is appreciated;
• Creates opportunities for self- and peer-assessment;
• Inspires students for doing research work;
• It is an effective tool for integrating technology into curriculum 

Webquests can also be considered as one of those effective tools for integrating technology into curriculum.

I created one. It was a bit difficult and at the beginning I even didn’t click on ‘Publish’ and it wasn’t saved. Thanks to my classmates, when they followed the link and couldn’t find my WebQuest they wrote to me about the problem and I had some time to change the content and add some images. I cannot say that I finished everything with the WebGuest, but it was a great experience of mine. Again my tip “Yes, I Can” worked. If you click here, you will have a chance to see it.

The Port of our Destination

 Project Step # 4- Technology Related Change

 Writing is fundamental not only in learning the language, it is also essential in all other subjects. I defined developing writing skills as one of the most important changes that I need to bring into my teaching context.
I have always worried about my students' writing. I get my students to keep dairies and write short stories. They bring them to school only twice a week (Monday and Friday) just to show that they keep them and share some stories with us.  When the students gave comments on their peers’ writing some of them expressed their desire to  bring their new  stories and  read them in class, others (not very many) who had already created the blogs promised to post theirs in the blogs.
I felt very happy when the children mentioned the blogs as it meant that they would create their writing pieces using the keyboard and afterwards post them in their blogs. 
I reminded the students about the procedure: first to show their stories to me for checking and proofreading, and only then to make their contributions to the blogs.

Now I see that little by little we are moving from pen-and-paper to word processing. It is our first and the most noticeable achievement in changing my students' attitude towards using the computer for writing. 
I am sure that reading the posts and giving comments will bring more motivation in improving their writing skills using technology. 

There is one disadvantage that we experience now. Our school is moving to another place due to the building reconstruction, and therefore we were disconnected from internet. So, the students and the teachers will have to do all the work at home (provided they have internet access).

I was a bit confused about the situation and thanks to  Massa , my classmate, who suggested having off-line activities with the students and get them to write, analyze, peer-check and leave a comment about their pieces of writing .

We all are here to share and care. We learn from each other.

 I really appreciate all the comments and support that I get from our captain Robert and other ‘crew’ members (my classmates) while “we are on a voyage to new discoveries” which we see now "with new eyes”.

Bye, my  Dear Journal.

Have a good time and enjoy your weekend!

See you next week.

Week 4 - The most important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them. Sir William Bragg

Hello My Dear Journal,

I haven’t talked to you for a week but it doesn’t mean that I forgot you. All this time I have been thinking about you.  I just waited till I have enough to tell you. Now the moment has come. So, if you are ready to listen, I’ll start.

As usually I began the week with exploring the materials and the content of Week 4. I can divide the tasks into two categories: challenging and enjoyable.

 First I will tell you about the challenging ones.

It was about reading some of the articles about ways to use computers to enhance ways to teach reading and writing. We had several multi-skill websites on our list and the task was to find two or more specific web pages that would work in your class.

Having read and analyzed the resources on using internet in ESL writing instruction  I got a lot of information on how we can use internet as a teaching aid, through which students will be able to write and create.

What do we want our students to write?  It can be a letter to a friend, a formal letter, a biography, a description of a person, a description of an event and a place, a description of a book, essays, a newspaper report, etc.

The authors focus on teaching writing using different approaches in achieving the goals: cooperative learning in an online classroom; use of email writing as an instructional and learning tool. The articles also give the advantages of using Web that provides the students with the opportunities to use email for collaborating and working together with other classmates and their teachers. Also learning how to use computer motivates students’ learning intrinsically.

 Computer literacy can give a lot of opportunities to the students: from setting up a class page, creating blogs and teaching basic searching skills to participation in the international projects.

 What are the benefits? The students learn how to interact, write emails both to each other and to their international pals, use discussion forums, make posts, learn the great possibilities that Web provides them with. Moreover, it is a good way for making students use English regularly not only in- but also outside the classroom.

When all the goals are set, the next step is integrating online activities into the syllabus. Is it an easy task to do? The teacher should be aware of challenges of the online learning environment. There are a lot questions that need clarifying: Are all the students computer-literate? Can they search for the sites and then save and print them out? Do all the students have computers and internet access outside the classroom to complete their tasks?

The teachers’ role here is invaluable as they have to be well prepared for the lesson, considering every detail in advance, know the content of the sites, how long it might take them to load and how much assistance the students need; anticipate technical  problems,  have an emergency lesson plan in case of a connection breakdown.

How often can a teacher have online lessons? The authors give a suggestion of a balanced syllabus of the course including online elements. For example, four hours out of six should be given to grammar, vocabulary activities based on the course book materials. One hour can be spent on working online giving students samples of different pieces of writing for analysis or exploring the Web. In order to make students writing purposeful, meaningful and relevant, the teacher can give them chance to participate in real writing exchange and then giving different topics stimulate students’ writing.

The online lessons should be followed by another off-line giving the teacher time to correct students’ writing pieces and post them on the class website for reading. In this way the students’ performance can be discussed, students will develop listening and speaking skills while reflecting on the online class activities.

All the students are offered a lot of choices to use the internet sites and each student must be encouraged to do something different and then compare what they found orally.

So, online writing lesson can be divided into pre-, while- and post-stages, which can integrate all the language skills (reading, vocabulary work, listening and speaking activities).

 What are the advantages of online lessons? This is a contrast to the traditional course book; the Web is multi-national and without borders, students increase their cultural awareness, they get to know and appreciate other cultures, giving them chance to feel the whole world, moving freely from one place to another. Moreover, the internet lessons are rewarding when the students realize that what they read or read belongs to outside the world and they themselves are the members of the global community.

Taking into consideration all the information and tips that the resources gave me I followed the link that was recommended to explore. The website is focused on developing different language skills: grammar, reading, writing and listening. The target audience is 6^th grade students.  The materials are designed for students and teachers to use in an online lesson. At the same time the page structure allows the users to work autonomously as the activities are followed by the answer keys. The reading section offers a number of stories and reading comprehension tests. The grammar section appealed to me as it has the tests on different grammar aspects and they can be done both in class and as a home task. The writing section displays students’ writing on different topics. I think my students will like creating (writing) a story as it will involve them in making their own efforts and contribution.

The opportunities that site  gives the users are hard to overestimate. I would use the tests with my 6 grade students to enrich and practice their vocabulary and improve their grammar. The tests have different levels from easy to difficult ones. Bilingual quizzes may attract more users. It also has the section that can assist teachers in creating their own tests and quizzes.

Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan

The next two tasks can be defined as enjoyable ones. It didn’t take me much time to write the Technology Enhanced Plan as I was sure of its content having taken into account my students needs and expectations. Here is my plan:

Class : English language; Creative Writing;   6^th grade students (age 11-12); visual, kinesthetic learners;

Duration: 6 lessons a week; each lasts 45 minutes;

Materials: computers, net books

Technology component downloaded from/accessed in class at:

http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/stories/stories.htm;  

Other materials: students’ dairies

  Introduction

Review of previous lesson: Students will revise descriptive and narrative domains of writing; and read some extracts from their own dairies “It Happened to Me”.

Objectives of this lesson : Using descriptive and narrative domains of writing and addressing the real audience students will be able to produce texts that show appropriate sentence fluency, word choice and organization and after proof-reading, checking and finalizing it to post them either in blogs or send them via email to their peers.

Procedure

Presentation: At the beginning of this stage the teacher writes the title of the series It Happened to Me “Working in the Bank” on the board and asks the students to give their associations with the title and think of the vocabulary that can be used. The teacher introduces the vocabulary (Pre-reading activity):  (bulletproof glass, secret signals, suspicious, dropped down) and asks the students to think about the content of the story.  Then the teacher directs the students to the site to do the task.

Activity (student): The students go online http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/stories/stories.html and start working on the story. First they read the text, then do online tests on reading comprehension; after giving the right answers (as they won’t be able to go further if the answers are not correct) they will go to the vocabulary section. The students together with the teacher analyze the answers and work on the vocabulary making up sentences of their own using new vocabulary. The final stage of the task is to create the continuation of the story.

Learning styles addressed:  As my students are mostly kinesthetic and visual learners I will ask them to act (role-play)the end of the story in class and use pictures and animated images for creating a story for posting in blogs or sending via email to their classmates and the teacher.

Technology alternative (in case things don't work as planned): If there is technology or internet connection breakdown, I will prepare hard copies of the stories and hand them out to the students and have them work in pairs. In this way they will be able to prepare a role play and act it in the class; and later when they are at home (provided that they have internet access) send their pieces of writing to their classmates and the teacher.

Review before the end of the class session: Students will revise and practice sending emails with attachments and making posts in the blogs. My students are provided with net books, so in case there is reliable internet connection they will be able to accomplish all the tasks within 5 days (1 day for creating the end of the story and sending it to the teacher; 1 day for the teacher’s error correction; 2 days for designing and posting, 1 day for reflection and assessment).

 Homework: Read the story “Working in the Bank” from series “It Happened to Me”, think about the end of the story, write it using new vocabulary and send it to your teacher for proof-reading and finalizing. After receiving it back from the teacher, design it and post in your blog or send it to your peers via email in the attachment.

Class Issues

When the lesson plan is ready, we teachers will have to  think about anticipated problems if there are any. There should be, I think.   

The learners are 6^th grade students (age 11-12) who started learning General English as a foreign language in the second grade (age 7-8). Their learning is based on developing four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Most of the students have low-intermediate level.

The project is focused mainly on developing writing skills. Writing is fundamental to learning in all disciplines. Writing in English for non-native speakers is also challenging.

So, one of the most important issues is how to make our students write. I must confess that using technology in the classroom is something new in our context that’s why our students would prefer writing using keyboard rather than using pen and paper.

Some students do not have good computer skills, others get lost while browsing in the Web. Some prefer to work in groups as they do not feel confident enough to work autonomously, they prefer watching other people working.

So, summarizing the class issues we can highlight the following ones: lack of computer skills, experience and very low motivation; lack of confidence and fear of risk-taking, limited  internet access. The students prefer lurking to working; they still have false beliefs about using computer assuming that computers are in the classroom only for playing games. Here we must expect parents’ support which is essential in students’ learning process.

My Dear Journal,

The time flies so fast indeed

Still there’s so much we need

To read and write and analyze

And then create the online class

We worked all nights and days so hard

That it affected our heart

Don’t worry it is not at all disease

It’s our Learning that’ll never cease.

Thank you  for being so patient. :-)

Hope to see you next week with new stories of mine.

Bye.

Week 3 - " We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give".

Hi, My Dear Journal.

I must confess that I missed you. I have always thought that writing what you have experienced is very easy, but now I see that there is so much to reflect on that I even don’t know what to start with.

Probably I will start with my first steps in Week-3.

I began with exploring the learning objectives and the tasks. 
The first task – creating Delicious page - appealed to me so much that I decided to create my delicious page as soon as I understood the procedure. When I succeeded in that I felt really proud. Again my tip “Yes, I Can” worked and made its input.

 All internet users have their favourite sites and I am not an exception. I have always wanted to bookmark mine and sometimes instead of doing it I copy-pasted the links and saved them in word doc., and very often I lost them. So, creating Delicious page is a solution to the problem.

This time I am sure my bookmarks will be safe and I will refer to them without any problems. Moreover, I have already told my colleagues at school about delicious.com. Some of them have already started creating theirs after they visited mine at http://delicious.com/elmisha/.

What I like about taking the course is the fact that whatever you learn you can probe and apply, share and make your peers use the tools that you have already practiced. At the same time studying is not an easy thing to do, as we also have a lot of reading materials for analysis and discussion.

For the second task we had to read one of the articles about CALL, review two websites and share comments about the sites in discussion forums.

I read Lyndsay Miller’s article Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials and found out that it gave very interesting information on improving listening skills. While reading the article I had a feeling that I had already read it, but then I figured out that this was exactly what we thought we had to do when I started teaching. 

The main question for us teachers, who had never met native speakers or spoke to them, was how to make our students understand the spoken language and respond properly. At that time we could well very read, translate the texts and learn them by heart. 

 Whenever we met a native speaker the tongue "froze" and all the vocabulary disappeared. Later I understood why it happened. The key lay in the lack of real communication which implied speaking and listening.

At the same time very much depends on the methods of teaching and the materials that the teacher uses. The lessons on listening should “allow learners a greater degree of independence when confronted with listening to the foreign language in a real world context, and that means using authentic texts”.

What can the students listen to in the classroom? What can the teacher bring to the classroom to provide the students with authentic listening materials? Radio, TV and Video, CD or DVD or Internet resources? All of these resources are available, but to what extend are the valuable and effective?

Radios – They are easy to access, but at the same time they are the most difficult of aural text for learners to listen to because the non-verbal information is missing. This is the information that helps understand the message, and the learners have to focus on the listening skill which is most difficult for them.

TV and Video - Television and Videos in the classroom gives the learners opportunity to have more information when listening. The students can both see what is happening and listen to the text. Non-verbal information is now available to the learners and the learners can improve “their listening skills in a richer language context”. Watching films or TV shows in English is a great way to help you improve your English. Especially your listening skills, but you can also improve your spoken English too.

 Nowadays internet resources have become a part of our and the students’ everyday life. So I explored the net and found some sites that I would like to share.

I decided to begin with one site that gives a lot of possibilities;

http://www.learnenglish.de/ImproveEnglish/improvelisteningpage.htm

It provides the users not only with links to films in English but also offers the tips on how to use films to improve the language. Moreover it recommends film pages. The only thing that I felt not very comfortable about was that the films were not free (though the price was not very high, still we have to pay).

The site also provides a lot of links for audio books, so while listening read the script one can read the script. Besides, there are many vocabulary and dictation pages.  Every Wednesday there is a listening session on Skype.

The site is good and I would recommend it for use with adult learners.

 This site http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/ I use in my classroom with the children who just start learning the language as it is a great tool for those who want to improve the basic skills.

The site provides the teachers, students and their parents with free games, songs, stories and activities for children.  It also has all types of pre, while and post-listening activities in the “Listen and Watch section”. It has great variety of songs, short stories, kids talk, kids’ news and tongue twisters.

I have used this site for several years; it has listening materials for all the topics from A to Z.

I strongly recommend this site for the Primary school teachers, their students and parents.

The Project task was the one as that gave us the idea of the Final task – Writing a Project. It was great to read and analyze real projects created by the teachers who took the courses previously. When I looked one of them through I asked myself: “How long did it take the author to create such a project?”  Then I reread it and found there the rubrics that we had already learned. So, I think it will not be hard for us to create the similar one only provided that we study well. :-)

 Camellia Pagila, the author of the project, is from Romania.  Her class is similar to mine (the one I selected for the project). The class consists of 30 students (age 12-13) and is divided into two groups – 15 students in each.  The students have English twice a week, each class lasts 50 minutes. All the students are familiar with computers and internet and have internet access at home.

The teacher analyzed her students’ needs and set the goals and the learning objectives. The first stage of the project is focused on developing writing skills and creating three blogs: creative writing, off-class English Drama activities and in-class activities. The timeline of the project is 14 weeks – 13 weeks for implementing the project and 1 week for assessment.

The project is well organized and is based on the textbook:  English Scrapbook-OUP which gives the teacher opportunity to organize her lessons according to the syllabus and integrate technology in the classroom. The author of the project also provides the rubrics for assessing the students’ work.

All the activities are described in details and the tasks are clearly understood. The author of the project also provides the rubrics for assessing the students’ work.

I believe the students enjoyed the project as they had a great chance to make their posts, respond to other students’, work in blogs, report on their in- and off-class activities, and write dairies. In my opinion, all these activities are designed to motivate students’ learning and build their web skills through interaction.  

 Camelia did a great job and I am sure she was one of the best online students. 

  

Week 3 brought me more confidence and one more time proved the meaning of the saying: “ Better Learn, Better Teach”.

Bye, My Dear Journal.

See you next week!

Week 2 - "Writing is easy. It’s the thinking that is tough.” Jon Green

Reflective Journal

Hello, my Journal.

The time flies so fast! The second week of our course has already finished. So much has been done and learned! Now I will try to tell you everything in details.

When the week started I wanted to know the content and, of course, I went online.  I found out that there was so much to read. I looked through and started web searching. When I saw the number of the search sites to look through and analyze I got a bit confused. After Robert’s clear explanation the work went more smoothly.

I gave preference to INTUTE (though it was closed), iSEEK Education and Academicinfo Subject Guides, but there was one more that appealed to me. It was “Bing”. Anyone can get the info about the most important events of the week and the latest news; you can sign up for Bing Newsletter, search and even download the images and videos for free.

Writing ABCD objectives didn’t seem to be a very difficult task as I had read all the suggested materials.   However, when I started working on it I had to “lurk” and then to write my objective.  I used to have another model of writing, and this time the ABCD version had to be applied. The most challenging point was not creating the objective, but indicating cognitive (application, comprehension and  problem solving levels) and affective ones.

I must confess that ABCD model made me think more than I had expected, and at the same time it showed a better and more productive way of writing objectives so that both teachers and their students could benefit and be aware of the expectations and outcomes.

Project task: “Describe your class as it is now” didn’t cause any difficulties and was finished in no time as I gave the info about the topic that I was familiar with. The thing that I needed to improve was the class profile. I didn’t give clear description of the number of students or the teaching environment. Thanks to Robert’s comment I added necessary details so that to make the project task clearer. 

The main goal of this course is to improve students writing, reading, analyzing skills using computer technology in the classroom, and the initial stage is mainly focused on developing writing skills through interactive web. I am sure we'll achieve our goals and become better writers.

Bye. See you next week.

P.S.

My students like poetry writing. Last year within the project "Write On - The World is Small" they created  many stories and poems. 

Week 1 - Reflection

Hello, my Journal.

I can’t believe that the first week of our online course came to an end. The time has passed so fast.   So many things have already been done.

    To tell the truth, before the course I had a slight hesitation whether I will be able to be an effective participant.  I asked myself:”Can I be a good student? Am I prepared enough for this? When I start, will I be able to accomplish all the tasks before the deadline?”  I must confess that the answer was not always positive. For me it was something challenging. The first week has passed, my fears have disappeared and my story has begun.

    At the beginning I was so excited that I started my acquaintance with the course program long before it was officially opened.  I set many goals and continued my way with introducing myself, making friends and creating blog, discussing ground rules and rubrics and using Nicenet. It was something new and challenging for me. First I got lost, but then I concentrated and told myself magic words “Yes, I can” and everything went well.

   I created my blog, uploaded my photo, and wrote a short introduction. Though I was a bit confused, but when I managed it I felt really happy and proud.
 
   The next day I wanted everybody to know what I had learned and I shared my experience with my colleagues at school. We even created blogs with some of the students! I also wanted to teach my students how to make their communication effective and productive. Thanks to the discussion on the Ground Rules that was going on in the course, it helped me to make my list of rules:

   Be Positive – Whatever reply you receive try to be positive and show your positive attitude towards everything;
   Be Prepared – there can be different opinions about the same things, so we should be ready for that;
   Be Respectful – people should feel that they are within the secure environment where everybody's opinions are respected and valued; the discussion group should feel safe for everyone;
   Be Responsible - All comments should be clear, meaningful and relevant to the discussion topic and to what others have said;
  Be Helpful - our goal is to help each other.

After everybody had contributed the list became longer.

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success" - Henry Ford.

Hope we'll be working and learning together within the next nine weeks.