Group items tagged

1. Kids get into groups and are given a stack of pictures into which I have put pictures from each of the above category. I usually put around 15-20 in each stack. When we do nouns.... I will place big signs on the board with "common" "proper" "abstract" "concrete" "plural" and any others we are studying. Their group has to go through their stack and find one to correspond with each topic AND they have to have a justification for each. 2. When I do prepositions, I give each student a situation picture and have them list as many preps. as they can find in each picture. I give a prize for the most found. 3. When we study characterization, I give each student one picture from the "people" envelope and have them write a brief character sketch based on what they perceive. 4. When I do verbs, I will give each row ONE picture. I tell the students in the first seat of each row to take out one piece of paper. When I say "GO", the first person looks at his picture and comes up with one action verb. Then very quickly writes it down and passes it back. The next person has to write down another action verb and pass it back to the next. It just keeps going. The person in the back runs the picture up to the front person. I usually start another picture back as soon as the first person passes it to the next. In about 4-5 minutes, I stop and the row with the most and the most accurate verb list gets a prize or pig points. 5. When we do short stories, I give each person an envelope in which I have put 2-3 people (characters), 1 place picture (setting) and 1 picture from the situational. After we have discussed the "elements",they begin to write their own short story based on what they have in front of them. 6. When I teach a vocabulary word that is a little more difficult, I always go to my stack to find one that illustrates it. For example, I found a perfect picture of a clear blue lake with not one ripple to show them "placid". They never forgot that word. 7.

Challenges: several factors shown in the model that defined challenges in learning environment according to the teachers' perceptions. They had shared that, they have limited content on ICT based materials to apply and implement in the learning environment. These also included the lack of digital resources suitable for special needs learners, the non-digitalized assessment and tasks. Moreover, the elements of interactivity are limited in the learning environment. In terms of connection, the space and the facilities for special education is still limited. Moreover, it has been assumed that the special needs learners had limited confidence to use the ICT facilities and to operate it. The teachers felt that they could not the ICT facilities in learning because they lacked the skill and experience to operate the ICT facilities. "Although access to ICT is not a problem; teachers felt they lack the necessary skills to integrate ICT"(Ngah & Masood, 2006, p. 238). The government has provided the facilities, however, the teachers are unable to utilise it. Benefits In term of benefits of a blended learning environment, the teachers felt that ICT will give them the opportunity to enhance their computer literacy skills. They might only know what it is, but they can learn and use it in their teaching. Moreover, it wills build-up teacher creativity to build their own learning environment that suits the students. For example, the animation project helped the special needs students to learn a new skill and enhance their attention and motivation (Yusof & Aziz, 2010; Yusof & Song, 2010). According to previous research by Mayer & Moreno (2002), Mayer's principle had shown the benefit of using the multimedia as the tool help enhance student engagement. He also stated the guideline to ensure the suitable elements in the multimedia content (Mayer & Moreno, 2002; Yusof & Aziz, 2010). The use of ICT helps them to minimize the use of paper, and the activities on a computer ca