WEEK 4

Dear All,

Today, 23rd April, is a very special day in my country because it is the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day. It is a present given by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, to children. He believed that children are our future and they deserve the best. Thus, this special day is celebrated together with guest children all around the world.

HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY

It is almost the end of academic year. We have only one more month , so both faculty and students are impatiently looking forward to the summer holiday. It is getting warmer and warmer everyday, which is one of the reasons why students are so sleepy in the class but so hyperactive outside.



As for the course, I am trying to do my best to complete my assignments. I have already learnt lots of things. Since I am not used to working at my pace, it is another challange for me.

Our  first task was reading articles about ways to use computers to enhance the teaching of reading, writing, and vocabulary.  I read the following articles;

1- 'Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-Book' by Mei-Ya Liang.
He provides books for extensive reading and asks students to rank the books based on some criteria. Students skim the books and vote for them

2- 'Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension' by Andreea I. Constantinescu.

She states that vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension are interrelated. By means of L1 literacy, a reader can make use of top-down (comprehension is achieved by using background knowledge and making predictions) and bottom-up (fundamental basics of letter and sound recognition), strategies and activate his/her schemata. In this respect, vocabulary knowledge is important in reading proficiency. She adds that teachers should be aware of the benefits of technology integrated lessons.

Among the multi-skill websites,  I chose http://a4esl.org, which offers grammar exercises focusing on a grammar item at a time, I designed the following ABCD objective:

A: 15 Adult students at Intermediate level
B: Students are required to use grammar correctly
C: http://a4esl.org/, where each exercise focuses on a specific grammar point such as subject/verb agreement, participles, and the like.
D: Students are required to be 99% correct since the grammar questions in the national exam are challenging

As for the project step, Robert requested us to focus on a problem in our lesson   that we could overcome by means of technology.

I think my students are good at grammar. They know grammar rules by heart. However, they have the lack of ability to put their knowledge into practice.

I may set up a class wiki so that they can be more productive and aware of both their and each other's performance.

The final task of the week is to prepare a technology enhanced lesson plan. Robet wanted us to use his temple. I checked Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Instructional Technology website, which is an amazing school interms of technology. I makes use of many tools such as Wordle, Voki, VoiceThread, Edmodo, and the like.

Sorting out some time and reading my friends' lesson plans, I recognized that my first plan actullay was primative. Though the updated version is not amazing, I belive it is far much better. Here is my lesson plan. I thought BombayTV is interesting to evaluate students' tense knowledge. I also suggested  animato for a slide show and pimpampum if my students are short of pictures.

My colleague Abdouse from Senegal has a great idea. He making use of survey monkey is able to give instant feedback to his students, which I will think of.