Creating an Interactive PowerPoint in WEEK6

I created an interactive PowerPoint titled "World Quiz" this week.
I incorporated several elements such as "making the students to anticipate"
"making them to respond to it", "make them to think in pairs" and "Making quiz pair activity".
I often use questions or incomplete sentences to allow the students think and use their inner speech. I think producing appropriate pauses is important to allow the students think and respond to it.




When I was making the PowerPoint, my son who is a college student told me that he didn't like classes using PowerPoint because they are boring. So I said, "this PowerPoint is an Interactive PowerPoint. Maybe your teachers don't know how to use them interactively."

The model of interactive PPT is really great. Seeing is believing, Once you see the PPT,, you can understand what the Interactive PowerPoint is. This course provides with good learning opportunities and useful information.

Creating a WebQuest in WEEK5

In the week 5, I gradually got ideas for the final Plan by reading about PBL (project-based learning) and WebQuest. I think the PBL and the WebQuest  are powerful tools for learner centered approach as well as rubrics and alternative assessment.
Changing I would like to expect in my class is introducing WebQuest. It might be a good solution for my several problems that I post in WEEK4.

So I tried making a WebQuest for the first time. It is titled A Class Timetable as I post on Nice net.

WebQuest : A Class Timetable 

Class timetable (sheet) is commonly used by students in Japan. The project is making an English version. Targeted learning items are time, days of the week and school subject. The students can learn those items individually and as many time as they want to do  at home. The tasks include a reading and listening comprehension task, a listening task and a writing task.
After they did the tasks at home, they will review the same learning items and they will do a speaking task of the oral presentation about their class schedule or activities in a week. 

With introducing  WebQuest into my class, students will be able to access it to learn about targeted items and do the project individually at home on Sunday or during a summer vacation or a winter vacation. The project will provide with a meaningful opportunity to use in English.

Making my first WebQuest was very hard. I took long time to find appropriate Web resources according to the lesson plan. Making a file for the worksheet and a rubric was  also difficult. Moreover, I tried using Japanese  as well as English  since my students might not understand the process of the tasks in English. They will learn how to use WebQuest gradually, and I hope they will be able to use WebQuest with only English descriptions.

What I learned in WEEK 4

In the week 4, I discussed on teaching reading and writing with technology, after reading articles on the topic. Then, I thought about the current concerns that I have in my teaching context and posted concerns such as lack of time to input, limited content in the textbook, many students, and easy to get distracted.Finally, I wrote a technology enhanced lesson plan. it was really good and tough experience because I had to synthesize the ideas about the objectives, web sites, learners' needs, technology setting and activities including critical thinking and meaningful context using 4 skills.

I chose Phonics Silent-E as a topic for  my lesson plan. Since I found a great web site called Starfall http://www.starfall.com/, I had been thinking about using pages in the site for my teaching. I faced on the reality that my school has poor technology environment when I started to plan.
In my teaching context, bringing my computer into the classroom is the most realistic, because no computer in the classroom, the computer room are usually used by another class and Lab is in another building far from our building. In addition, I need to think about other concerns such as lack of time, limited content in the textbook, many students, easy to get distracted.
Therefore, I concluded that it is acceptable to have the students learn in whole group with one computer in the classroom and to provide them with homework which requires learning individually with technology at home. I chose following web pages:

1. The movie "Silent-E" http://www.starfall.com/n/skills/silent-e/load.htm?f
2. Making a word http://www.starfall.com/n/make-a-word/silent-e/load.htm?f
3. Picture hunting http://www.starfall.com/n/picture-hunt/long-a/load.htm?f

Finally, I am very glad that the classmates posted comments for me and shared their great ideas and helpful information for me. Thank you very much!

What I learned in WEEK3

In WEEK 3, I found many useful  web sites for my teaching and posted them in my Delicious. And also, as I read previous project reports, I can get more concrete ideas for my project.
I have learned about the advantages of CALL from articles. Especially, I pay attention to the fact it provides the private environment that enables learners to learn listening and pronunciation at their own pace.
Yesterday, in the 5th graders class, I tried talking about internet for learning English. My students really showed their interests in internet in terms of accessing authentic English. They seemed to have confidence in handling the internet by themselves. I hope CALL will stimulate their interests in real English and motivate them to learn English.

Video for young learners

  

I have found this video appropriate listening skill building web for my students.

I think I need to give pre listening activity (making schema)  and post listening activity (Q&A) when I use this for my students.

Reading skill building web for young learners

Click here ↓

Emily Elizabeth Goes to School 

This is my favorite because readers can choose a word from the option so that they can make their own story. And also, this focuses on phonics learning. I'm glad to find this for my students.