Wiki Writing

Why Wiki?

I've found it difficult to have students work on their writing with technology because it:

A: Needs feedback

B: Is kind of lame

In class last week, we talked about collaboration tools and one of them was making a wiki. This lead to some research. The article I read focused on writing a wiki as a class. The assignment was to keep a wiki over the course of the semester and post 47 things. The study found that students who kept up with the wiki and made more edits did better on the final exam. The argument was that the students had more interest in writing and therefore were more engaged in learning about it. It was found that students were interested in what other students wrote and wrote better for their own assignments. There isn't a link between wikis and better writing, but it shows a link between interest and being a better writer.

Nakamaru, S. (2012). Investment and Return: Wiki Engagement in a "Remedial" ESL Writing Course. Journal Of Research On Technology In Education, 44(4), 273-291.

The general idea is this: Have students create an article, read and comment on other articles, revise, teacher comments, final draft.

Sites

I found Wikispaces good because it has no adds and has a bulk user creator. It also has a really good system for making comments. You can also change the permissions on the page as well. The draw backs are is that it looks kind of bland and there are no ways to change that unless you pay. It is also a little bit of work to set up users (but this gives you a good deal of control, including setting passwords.).

The other site is I tried was Wikia. The benefits are that the design has more customization and anyone who knows it exists can then contribute to the article (it sends an email when someone does.) The disadvantages are that there are lots of advertisements and no system for making comments outside of altering the actual text. Security is also an issue because anyone can write on it (makes it easy to set up though). Navigation is strange and hard to find things you wrote.

The Assignment

Create a narrative essay. The story is a personal or made up story.  Collect your stories by your country of origin. Write the essay on a wiki page, comment on other student articles, and revise work.

The wikispace page.

The wikia page. Feel free to contribute to this! Add your country by adding a page and write your narrative.

Reflection and Potential Uses

What is great about this is you can have the whole set of directions available. It is also nice because you can model what you want done in class (for instance, we commented on an essay by an old student) and have them explore on their own.

It is also really neat to see the articles and comments pop up. You'd be surprised what your students can create in a short time.

What is also neat is that students can have this for ever.

Finally, this could be an interesting way to not only do narratives, but many different types of essays, summaries, news reporting, classroom study guides, really anything. The idea is they work together to collect the parts of the whole and comment on each other's work.

Note Taking

As I was in class this week, I realized that I just ask my students to take notes without ever really explaining how to do that.

I think I've left that skill to other people or specific classes that have it in the objectives.  The problem is that students fall through the cracks, just started studying that month, or never learned it well.

So for this week I'm writing a guide to note taking.

Click here to see the guide.

Here is a document for hand outs or whatever.

Here is an example of how to take notes as well.

Bad Presentations

I'm trying to be a better presenter and making better presentations. Going to blog about it this week.

It started when I was watching some student presentations. I noticed that my ESL students truly crutch on reading a Power Point word for word. I also noticed some major word and color fouls. Then there was the questions of plagiarism (yikes!). While I try to stick to these rules, that doesn't seem to work for my students. They need some explicit instruction if I am going to allow them (optionally or otherwise) to use a presentation tool in class.

So this week I made a presentation on my presentation rules for presentations.




You can find the whole thing here. There is a script to go with the slides as well which you can access through the settings button or by looking at the original.

Now would also be a good time to mention other presentation tools besides Microsoft PowerPoint.
Try making a Prezi, GoogleDocs, Zoho, or something crazy. Click here for a list. I like the online ones because if you are like me, sharing presentations is a big deal.

Some neat presentation tips with a business slant, could easily be adapted to ESL.

Happy presenting!

Vocabulary Building

Ideas for Vocabulary Building

Goal

To learn vocabulary at the end of a chapter, before a test, when introducing vocabulary, previewing, reviewing, or studying.

The idea is to look at three different ways to teach students study skills while having them learn the content vocabulary.

Level could be all, it just depends on the student's technical aptitude.

Types

Flash Cards

Flash cards are tried and true, so how does technology improve it? Well. Very well. You can add media, share, and use premade programs to play games, review, drill, spell the words you want to learn.

Quizlet

Example of the whole flash card set.

Drillster

Drillster is a little bit more intense. Better maybe for those machines who want to study TOEFL or GRE.

The example is an Educational Psychology flash card set. It can have media as well as multiple columns for definitions.

Mind Map

Connect the words in sentences. Really useful for a set of words that have a shared theme. Really illustrates the point that a word is not used in a singular fashion.

Popplet 

...is cool. It is a mind map that is really easy to use. You can have multiple people working on it too.  

This is an example that was done with the whole class. Notice how all the words weren't used but could have been. It was fun being able to move things around and connect it.

Prezi-Typically a presentation tool (blogged about it here), but it could easily become a mind map as well.

An in Depth Look

Go into more detail on those really difficult words. Take a look at the definition, translation (depends on your view of the use of translations obviously), synonyms, antonyms, the root and the derivatives from the roots, an example sentence, and a picture.

Presentation tool/ Word Processor (Google docs, Zoho, PowerPoint, Word, Open Office, etc.)
Example

Popplet
Example



Prezi could also be used for this as well. An added advantage might be a video embedded as well.

How to Use

Hopefully a lot of these are self explanatory but here are two ways:

One is to assign it as a project. This way you don't necessarily need a class with a computer or whatever. Have students bring in a copy or their computer to share with other students as partners. It can be assigned individually or let them choose their favorite method.

Another way is to build it together as a class. Have the students make the pieces of the parts individually and then as a class come together and build one set.  This is good as a precursor to an individual project because you are giving the scaffolding to do the project individually later.

If you come up with any other uses or programs, please share!

Prezi and QR

Prezi+QR

What it is...

This week I made a Prezi. I admit it wasn't the first time I've used it, but it is definitely the best I've made. It is also connected with a QR code information gap activity for some production.

Prezi is a presentation tool that zooms.

If you don't know what a QR code is, check this out.

If you want a list of QR code readers for smart phones, check this out. iOS, Droid, Black Berry.

In a nut shell, the idea is that students know about "didja" or "didya"

Level

High beginner to low intermediate

Materials

• Computer and projector for the Prezi.
• Each student (or half) needs to have a QR Code reader or even half. If not, the QR part can be removed.
• Handouts.

I+1

Students will need to at least have been introduced to past simple verbs and how to make a question with them. Knowing short and long answers are also helpful.

Goals

Students will recognize and use relaxed pronunciation in past simple questions.

Students will understand that

• There is informal and formal speech and when to use it
• There are rules to relaxed pronunciation

Students will be able to…

• Pronounce “did” with pronouns in questions
• Listen to informal register using “did”

Students will know…

• Relaxed Pronunciation
• Past simple questions and answers

Lesson Plan

Go over the Prezi. Let them hear the examples and ask questions.

Did ya? on Prezi

Follow up with the QR code activity. It tells a little story. I had the students go around the room and ask each other, looking for the answer to their question. The students can then copy down each other's questions.

What to Take Away

Prezi is a pretty fun way to do presentations. I still see the use of PowerPoint in that it can have individual moving text. The benefit of Prezi is that it A) looks cool, and B) gives students a bigger question and reviews often. Check out a list of benefits and disadvantages for Prezi here.

QR code is interesting. I'd been using it to just have students look at a website or something else. It could potentially be used as a link to have students follow along on for a Prezi, which is one of the functions of it.  It seems like a cool information gap activity. It might also work well for a scavenger hunt activity as well.

Revealing Attitudes

Revealing Attitudes about Writing

Introduction

This is a little exercise that I have done on a first day of a writing class to spark conversation and get students to really let you know how they feel about writing. I got this idea after reading an old, but good, article about writing.

Goals

• Reveal student attitudes to writing
• Icebreaker
• Preview
• Journal
• Motivate

Preparation

First make a Poll Everywhere account. Make a new poll with the question "How do you feel about writing?"

You can keep it open ended or have multiple choice answers such as:

• I'd rather do something less painful like jump off a bridge.
• I'll do it, but complain bitterly because I'm bored.
• I like it okay if the topic is good.
• Why aren't we writing right now? My pen aches!

Or even hate, dislike, like, love could be answers.

A journal entry work sheet

In Class

1. Have students take the survey and see each others results. (If you don't have a computer screen/ projector, write out or hand out the instructions. You can then see the results on your phone or laptop or whatever and read them to the class)
2. Discuss answers after reading the results and find out what students like and don't like about writing.
3. Follow up with the journal entry work sheet where you discuss the following quote and then write.

"A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket." -Charles Peguy

Let's Do This

I Pledge

I hereby pledge to create an ESL activity, project, lecture, conversation, whatever, that integrates technology in the classroom. I pledge to update once a week (or untill I want to blow my brains out).

Activities will be conscientiousness of resources that teachers have. Activities will be easy to use, regardless of teacher/student skill with technology. Activities will engage students and immerse them in an activity to pull the idea apart and play.