Just stumbled across this site with ideas on how or what tasks with technology in lesson planning might look like based on general units. Worth looking into more.
Research has shown that CMC:
can help increase students' motivation to learn the foreign language,
lower their anxiety,
increase their fluency in the target language,
lead to improved intercultural competence and democratize classroom communication.
I agree with this author's idea. In my teaching experience using CMC to teach language, I can notice my students' progress i the target language. They express their motivation and even introvert students are more open to share their ideas.
Keep in mind that students who study languages with different orthographies may encounter specific difficulties during CMC sessions. Be prepared with creative solutions, such as suggesting computers and keyboards that accommodate the characters your students need.
The author says that CMC helps in all of these areas, but doesn't provide any information about his sources. I think this shows the value of including links to other websites in blog posts about education!
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.
Synchronous tasks can include: text, audio, virtual worlds... can be: highly interactive and collaborative, instant, quick with shorten forms, spontaneous and may generate multiple incorrect forms while students negotiate meaning.
I would like to use this list as a check list when I create a synchronous activity. This list also can applies to any communicative task in the classroom.
I provide the correct answer (present indicative or infinitive) in the form of a comment on the same tweet. This gives students who follow the Twitter feed and receive notifications an opportunity to quiz themselves in real time.
Students who do not have a Twitter account can go to my school website and follow along with the embedded stream.
I didn't know you could do that either. I wonder if students without accounts would still be disadvantaged, though, since they wouldn't receive notifications in real time...
In both cases, students understand that I am paying attention and rewarding their efforts and attention to detail, and feel that their hard work is being recognized.
There is great power in positive reinforcement
I ask permission first
For the students who provided the work, this is a great motivator to keep the high-quality work flowing, while for the other students, it serves as an example of good work.
"This (free) resource includes ideas on how to work with texts in online/remote teaching that Emily Hellmich has used in her own classes. Whenever possible, she includes links to examples and to templates that you can use yourself."
Some colleagues, Eliot Borenstein (Professor of Russian @ NYU) and Shannon Spasova (Assistant Professor of Russian @ Michigan State), started this FB group in the spring and it has been an invaluable forum for me to connect with instructors around the country throughout the spring emergency remote instruction and into planning for fall. It also provides some comic relief.
Orientation experiences support students' transition to the first year of college, which is essential for student success.1 This support is particularly important for those students from historically marginalized populations.
boost students' confidence for success online,
foster a sense of community among students, faculty, and staff,
equip students with the tools necessary to be positive community members,
facilitate academic preparedness and skill-building (e.g., time management),
provide support and engagement resources, and
give students the opportunity to use the technology they will encounter in their courses.
As in any other learning experience, educators should first identify the desired learning outcomes of the student orientation
nteractive Learning Objects (ILOs): Campus leaders should think through how content will be delivered in order to achieve course objectives and consid
(LMS), or virtual campus, creating a student orientation course within the same virtual space fosters a seamless experience for students
Modality: Think
The course learning outcomes can also help inform what topics should be reinforced in live sessions.
Course location:
employing an ILO where students have to respond to academic integrity scenarios will enable them to relate to the material better than if they simply read an informational page about academic integrity.
acilitated v
e counterbalanced with how the onsite orientation is assessed (with consideration toward creating an equitable experience).
digital badge in the LMS.
to teach students how to become successful online learners. More specifically, we hoped to boost students' confidence in learning online, equip students with the tools necessary to be positive community members, and give students the opportunity to use the technology they would encounter in their courses.
and build basic competency in the digital tools
time-management tip
the importance of study groups,
how to practice "netiquette" (
"Start with Why"
We created an assignment that included the self-enroll link and directions with screenshots on how to locate and submit the completion badge.
A well-planned online orientation is essential for student success ahead.
There are a lot of teachers out there who, like me, are not tech savvy, so Canva is the perfect fit for us because it takes all of the guesswork out of designing a highly engaging, aesthetically pleasing visual!
I find this sentence important because it drives home the point that authentic resources can serve a variety of purposes, from "hooking the students" or activating global knowledge to complex assignments resulting in student presentations, etc. It's a good reminder that, rather than searching for that one perfect piece while under pressure to plan a lesson, it's a good idea to start a digital collection of materials that strike me as interesting.
Think of each authentic resource you have for a theme as a puzzle piece looking for its “best
I really appreciated reading this as I just tried recording my first screencastify minilecture yesterday and found it really challenging! One tip that I got from this that I will try is to put the recording in EdPuzzle so that I can put in some comprehension checks!
I found this to be a very informative and helpful article with lots of practical suggestions and useful links. I wish I had read this before I tried to make videos with Screencast-o-Matic for my classes this past Spring. I could have used his suggestions! I will definitely be referring to it when I begin to make videos for my classes this fall. I too liked how he put his video into EdPuzzle to increase student interactivity. Thanks for sharing it!
Hey this is really useful. I have a feeling that I'm going to be using screencasts often as I convert all my teaching to online in the fall. It will be most useful for grammar explanation types of lessons. It looks like it is just what is needed to fill that need for personal explanations that the students want. I prefer interactive worksheets but I get the feeling students don't like them as much as I do.
I used Screencast-o-matic for sharing my presentation while creating a video and it was a great program. Kaltura is also a great way to create presentations.
Instead of you being their main source of language input… put your authentic resources to work. I started playing with Google Classroom and here’s a snapshot of what you could do to PLAN and ORGANIZE learning.
This is an example of using authentic videos for an interpretive assignment. We study house-related vocabulary in ch.6B of "Autentico 1" (the textbook we use with our Spanish 2 students). An activity like this would work in that unit.
Megan Smith wrote about ways to adapt a lesson about houses for a traditional class to one for an online class. She included interpretive, interpersonal and presentational activities.
I love the way she set-up these examples. Has anyone done something similar? What was your experience with the 20% Free Time? I'm considering something similar in the "fall"... which is coming up quickly. No matter the schedule, I've always liked the idea, 20% Free/Genius Hour. If you have experience with this, I would love to hear about how you set them up.. and assessed them.