The app I used was called "Sock Puppets" They first wrote out a script then recorded them using the App. Finally, we had them switch iPads and watch the other "puppet shows".
I love the idea. But....unfortunately, how many public schools can or would fund a bunch of ipads to use in the classroom? I believe this is an expense that should be used. but, here in TX we dont even have $$ for basics! :(
Cool!! If anyone is looking to see how a hangout could work, and you speak Spanish or Chinese, maybe try this out!
The idea is simple: I want to host a public Hangout (so anyone can join) and people may come in and practice with me any one of the three languages I speak (Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and yes English too!). I’m not counting Japanese yet because I still can’t really produce Japanese effectively.
As many as 145 languages are spoken in Minnesota public schools. This fall, students with the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communication are working with MPRNews to explore that classroom diversity -- and sharing a bit of what they find as they go.
Incredible. I knew Minnesota is diverse.. you just need to go outside and see it. But, data shown in this page is amazing.
I also have read some of the other posts. I think that this could be a good resource for high school or college because it shows facts, and authentic stories.
By understanding your students' levels of linguistic proficiency, you will become more competent at differentiating instruction to promote linguistic and academic achievement. You will also feel better, because students will participate and feel more confident as they successfully respond.
The use of the Web2 can provide opportunities for collaboration, authentic communication in a discourse community and provide what Warschauer and Kern (2000) termedas networked-based language teaching. Some ofthe general benefits of using technology in ESP are the use of authentic tasks, tools, and context (Bremner, 2010; Evans, 2012).It provides interaction and communication among learners, uses collaborative learning, focuses on socio-
do not provide motivation, enthusiasm or personalization
earning management systems (LMSs)
ave generally been used as static sources of content with no social appeal like social networks, such as Facebook or YouTube
while also impeding general pedagogical support with their default settings and familiar features
social networking platforms have been acclaimed to provide learners social communication, autonomy,fluid online discussions, and identity management
ease interaction, e-discussions by focusing on the use of technology to support education
informal and relaxing atmosphere and make learning effective (Dalton, 2009). Social networking allows students and teachers to build a rapport and overcome inhibitions
Integrating social software with LMS aims at active participation, interaction and collaborationbetween the members of an academic community
Web 2.0 tools consist of blogs, microblogs, wikis, podcasts, virtual worlds and social networks
he benefits of using Web 2.0 in education are the new interaction styles between students and teachers, immediacy of information, access to authentic learning environments, content sharing, collaboration and enhancement of learning experience
Facebook
Twitter, Edmodo, and Ning
On the whole, the reasons language instructors may opt to choose Edmodo in class are that teachers and students connect, assignments, back channeling, a paperless learning environment, its backpack feature,the library feature, Apps, homework, badges, learning continues outside the classroom, assessments, interface, sharing, and its private and safe learning environment
the use of Twitter facilitated collaboration, communication and data exchange among students in real time.The role of the instructor is underscored as she/he acts as a mediator, supporting the content, organizing the activities, and clarifying the use of the educational tool
a service offering language learning quizzes via Twitter hasbeen established (TwitterLearn, 2008)
Check this out--appears to be a comprehensive site about the use of technology for educators and students.
Different platforms suit different sorts of interactions and appeal tostudents and educators in a diverse manner
From the Edmodo platform, two main features are utilized. First, the Edmodo forum is used for both teacher-to-student communication and student-to -student communication. The communication topics include subjects such as assignments, questions, announcements, etc. Second, the Edmodo Assignment Center is used for testing the students on each learning topic and easily collecting their answers
Although we have an in-house LMS at Northwest, I created an Edmodo platform for my Intermediate Russian I course for the fall to see how it will work. I'll use it in conjunction with the in-house LMS, which may prove to be cumbersome. We'll see.
As far as the assessment of students’ performance goes, the conventional assessment through graded assignments is backed up by students’ social learning activities. Network buildingand self-regulated learning canbe indicative of students’ progress throughout the course.Ongoing assessment or formative assessmentstrategies(integration of performance and feedback and reflection) can facilitate learning and review students’ performance
The empirical evaluation of the research highlights the dominanceof intrinsic motivation(students’ intentionsto use Twitter/perceived enjoyment)over extrinsic motivation in explaining the adoption of social media in the class
n order to provide assessment, instructors could evaluate students’ learning progress by reviewing their reflections. Communication (teacher-student/student-student)throughout the learning processcan also providefeedback information that may aid assessment
nstructors could evaluate students’ learning progress by reviewing theirreflections on what they have gained through networked learning
Plickers might be interesting for quick multiple choice responses.
giving them opportunities to contribute to a class blog or something where their classmates will get to see their hearts and minds in this other forum. I think that really opens things up.
But Cain particularly feels for one group of introverts: the quiet kids in a classroom.
Our most important institutions, like schools and workplaces, are designed for extroverts,
why is it that kids who prefer to go off by themselves or to work alone are seen as outliers?
How about the very definition of “class participation?”
how best to cultivate the talent of those students.
a student who has one or two or three friends, and prefers to go deep with their friendships instead of being one of a big gang, there’s nothing wrong with that at all, in terms of it being a predictor for adulthood.
If the kid is perfectly happy the way they are, they need to get the message that the way they are is cool.
make sure to build quiet time into the school day, especially when kids are younger. Have 15 minutes set aside every day where the students just read.
maximize choice.
less group work in general.
do more work in pairs, which is a way that both introverts and extroverts can thrive.
challenge teachers to rethink what they mean by class participation and start thinking of it as classroom engagement instead.
account the research of Anders Ericsson, who invented the concept of “deliberate practice.”
tools that allow students to participate through their electronic devices as opposed to raising their hand.
Apps that allow students to contribute to class discussions, sometimes anonymously and sometimes not.
I agree this statement of "Number one would be to make sure to build quiet time into the school day, especially when kids are younger. Have 15 minutes set aside every day where the students just read."
Question: As a classroom teacher, I am with my students 42 minutes per day, how can I take almost half of this time for reading? Shouldn't this issue be addressed as a whole school wide??
I agree with you Diane - that would be way too much time for reading in just your class. In some classes, I do a 5 - 10 minute "free-writing" exercise that is individual. It seems like you'd need to scale the time so that it's appropriate for your class.
A lot of students who might be reticent at first will feel emboldened by having first discussed it with a partner.
Wow, just imagine how much calmer the world could be if classrooms were set up to allow for multiple temperaments as well as learning styles?!
Also, the think-pair-share concept is fantastic; I've been using the "alone-paired-large group" sequence for language learners in groups since I got my CELTA certification and it's been hugely successful. Nobody wants to be wrong in public, and when learners have a chance to discuss it with a partner first, they are more likely to share their ideas.
I now turn to Twitter friends for help in the same way that I turn to the teachers on my hallway. Recently, a friend in my Twitter feed pointed me to a great strategy for structuring classroom discussions, a practice I'd been struggling with (http://angelacunningham.wordpress.com/2009/05/teaching-students-to-dialogue.html).
he primary reason for my inability to embrace differentiation as a teacher was that, until recently, I'd never experienced differentiation as a learner. Like most practitioners, I've spent too much professional development time sitting in lectures delivered to entire faculties. No one offered preassessments, tiered lessons, or learning contracts to my colleagues or me.
Indeed, Twitter is where many educators have come together to formulate their professional learning networks (PLNs). But Twitter is still daunting to many people, and while Google Plus remains closed to the general public at th
This article talks about the ways in which a PLN helped educators eventually connect their classes via Skype. Students might not use Twitter, but Twitter connected educators.
Abstract:
Over just the past decade, online learning at the K-12 level has grown from a novelty to a movement. Often using the authority and mechanism of state charters, and in league with home schoolers and other allies, private companies and some state entities are now providing full-time online schooling to a rapidly increasing number of students in the U.S. Yet little or no research is available on the outcomes of such full-time virtual schooling. The rapid growth of virtual schooling raises several immediate, critical questions for legislators regarding matters such as cost, funding, and quality. This policy brief offers recommendations in these and other areas, and the accompanying legal brief offers legislative language to implement the recommendations.
Some of my students use LINE (similar to WhatsApp) to talk with their conversation partners in Japan to practice Japanese and learn about Japanese culture. Mobile phones play a great role in foreign language courses now.
WhatsApp in your classroom with the purpose of improving students’ oral skills.
Resources
The following publications, Web sites, and listservs offer additional information
about creating Web-based language learning activities. This Resource Guide
concludes with an annotated bibliography of ERIC documents on this topic.
Communicate the public nature of Twitter to parents. Consider an opt-out alternative for students or parents who are uncomfortable with participating in the classroom chat.
I've also used my school's platform "discussion board" as if it were a twitter chat feed--some students got really into it, and I think I could implement some of these suggestions to make it more universally engaging
assist students in moving back and forth between their own words and technical or course-specific terms. And help highlight particular content with the use of sentence starters.
i've do this, at some level, for almost every new project or activity I do in my classroom--the students feel so empowered when I ask them to share their opinions and reactions to the structures of the course.
Thanks for sharing, Carmen-- I am also considering students who do not have Twitter, or parent concerns, and I wonder if small group work might be a solution- Using the twitter account of one student, another student or group of students help to compose responses, stay hidden from their online contributions.
Hi Veronica--you could also consider making a class handle. I did that with an Adv. class once, and simply gave all the students the info to log in. They could all post from that handle, and sign tweets with their initials.
Especially middle/high school parents/students may feel more comfortable using a platform provided by the district. I am also planning to use the discussion board in the district's platform. I can definitely use the tips in this article.
Web 2.0 as “a second generation, or more personalised, communicative form of the World Wide Web that emphasises active participation, connectivity, collaboration and sharing of knowledge and ideas among users
there is a longer time lag between sending and receiving text messages or audio files via the chat facility, although both parties are online at the same time. We thus coined a new phrase to capture the speed of such interaction, semi-synchronous, which is under investigation in this research.
'semi-synchronous' engagement for language learning seems highly useful, to allow students time to formulate responses and even research vocabulary or grammar structures that they need to use before production in TL.
there is a tendency to not reach the stage of resolution in online asynchronous text-based discussion
It was hypothesised that, in comparison to synchronous conversations, more accurate output would be generated in semi-synchronous dialogues, as this would allow students with a little more time to organise their output while waiting for their partner’s responses. Furthermore, we hoped that semi-synchronous interaction would function as scaffolding for synchronous conversation, as most of the participants had not yet achieved an advanced level of speaking proficiency in their target languages.
facilitated the development of their speaking proficiency.
more feedback and more accurate output emerged,
check their WeChat messages at least once a day and reply as soon as possible; • learn to be a helpful tutor and provide as much feedback as possible; • ask their language partner to repeat and/or explain anything they did not understand; • ask their language partner to express the same thing in different words, if failing to understand; • not be afraid of making mistakes; • correct each other’s mistakes; and • speak clearly at a normal speed.
suggested that tasks “start from specific questions to more open-ended discussion” as students became more familiar with each other and with the learning environment.
the majority of students preferred the recorded speech and the writing task in comparison to the semi-synchronous conversation