Week 4: Reflections

Web Skills Course Week 4

AGENDA
1. Task:                      Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan
2. Discussion:            Reading,Writing and Vocabulary Skills
3. Project Step 3:        Class Issues,Needs or Problems

 Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan

I visited  e-how.com  for instructions as to how to write a  Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan(TELP)
Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan and learnt the essentials of writing a TELP.

Next I visited Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Instructional Technology to view some Sample Lesson Plans

In the light of these two sources I wrote my own lesson plan to be implemented in my class at Govt. Degree College (Boys) Havelian. The title of the Lesson Plan is Rustam's Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan

Template of this lesson plan is a bit different from the traditional one we are used to. A traditional Plan has the format of 4Ps: Preparation, Presentation, Practice and Production.

Since technology has been introduced into TELP (Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan), it presents a slightly different look. Still, we can see much similarity to the traditional one.

 Reading, Writing, and Vocabulary Skills

Articles on CALL

We can use computers to enhance ways to teach reading and writing.  For this week I read the following two articles about using CALL in writing and reading activities.

• Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction (2000)                                                    http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Krajka-WritingUsingNet.html
  
  
• Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books (2004)                      http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Liang-ExtensiveReading.html                       

Multi-Skill Websites

I then visited the following websites. Each website contains useful WebPages detailing the activities to use CALL Tools in teaching reading, writing and other language skills. Here is the list of multi-skill websites that I explored as an assignment for Week 4 of Web Skills Course:

i.                    Breaking News English                              http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/                                                                                           
ii.                  Lauri's ESL Website - grammar, vocabulary, listening exercises.               http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/                                     

iii.                ESL Independent Study Lab - Michael Krauss
              http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html

iv.                Activities for Students    http://a4esl.org/

v.                  Many Interesting Things for ESL Students
             http://www.manythings.org/

One thing that needs to be taken account of is that all the activities cannot be introduced in all the contexts. The teacher needs to be selective keeping in view his/her teaching setting. Also we can’t rely only on technology to teach language skills. Technology should be used as an aid or at the most it may be integrated into usual classroom teaching. In my particular setting I use technology only once or twice in a fortnight just to pique students’ interest. There are many problems attended upon technology.

Project Step # 3: Class issue, need, or problem

For this thread we were required to briefly describe the class we are teaching and then discuss some of the problems we are facing in our classrooms. I read NiceNet posts of some of my course mates and was surprised to see that they were afflicted with the same problems as was I. In a post on the NiceNet I discussed some of my classroom issues. As a wrap-up I decided to focus on three major issues which are:

(a) Poor reading and writing skills (I don't mention listening and speaking because we don't teach them and Education Board doesn't asses them).

(b) An apathy towards English Language Learning

(c) Low motivation on the part of students.

For this course I plan to specifically focus on the development of writing skills. As for low motivation and apathy to English Language Learning, these can be addressed through the use of technology. I hope when technology will be brought to the classroom frequently, students will be attracted to language learning. The use of technology will boost their morale.

I am happy with the smooth progress of the course. All the course mates are cooperative. Some have expertise in CALL. I am privileged to be part of this highly learned community. I couldn’t continue my academic studies after matriculation as a regular student in a college or university. I did my masters in English literature as a private candidate. There are many learning gaps that I am trying to bridge with more hard work. I am lucky to be on this prestigious course where I am doing peer learning along with facilitator’s well thought teaching plan. Technology interests me much. I know I can motivate my students back into the classroom with technology. 21^st century learners are more technology savvy than my generation. I know I can’t turn my classrooms fully technology dependent but I am sure that I can, as a bare minimum, integrate technology as a useful aid in our pedagogy.

Stay connected to my Reflections. I’ll be returning soon with fresh dispersed meditations.

Rustam