Using Podcasting in ESL Classrooms

      With the development of technology and social media, podcasting becomes more and more popular since everyone who has a computer and gets connected with the Internet can make their own podcasting. In addition, with podcasting, people are no longer limited by the showtime since they are able to download their favorite shows into their computers and MP3 players; therefore, they can watch or listen to the shows as much as they want at anytime or anywhere.

      These features of podcasting also encourages the use of podcasting in learning and teaching, especially in language learning classrooms. I choose one episode of podcasting for ESL learning, ESL Podcast 1093 - Having a Picnic, which is available at ESL Pod. This website can be considered as a good resource for both language teachers and students to teach and learn English. The episode I choose is a daily conversation between two friends who go to have a picnic together. After listening to this episode, I find that I can have this episode in my future teaching. For example, I am able to use this episode as a warm-up activity when the topic of my teaching is about picnic, and this will meet for the following learning objectives:

SWBAT

1. Develop their listening skills, especially everyday English rather than academic English.

(The speed of this conversation is slow, so this would be appropriate and helpful for low level students who need to improve their listening skills)

2. Learn some new vocabulary which is related to their daily life, such as picnic, champagne, and lavish. 

3. Get to know some American culture. For example, in this episode, the two people mention what food do they have for the picnic, this may be different from students who live in a different cultural background.

      Additionally, I would like to help my students improve their speaking or writing skills through encouraging them to come with their own ideas for preparing their favorite picnic after listening to this episode. For example, it seems possible to encourage students to work in pairs and have a role play which is related to the topic of picnic. Also, I am able to encourage students to write a paragraph or journal to describe what do they like to bring for a picnic. 

Creating Comic Strips

      Creating comic strips is another interesting and effective way for students to learn something, especially language students who intend to learn a foreign language. There are some Internet tools which can be easily used by both teachers and students to create their own comic strips, for example, the website Strip Generator is a good choice. Through the Strip Generator, students will be able to use ready-made characters and items, and they are also free to choose their favorite frames for their strips. In addition, registration is not required, so this Internet tool is really convenient and effective.

      I have created my first comic strip, How Can I Help You, through the Strip Generator. I find that this website is really easy to use since I am able to pick up comic frames, characters, and items which are already provided. Additionally, I could add dialogues in my strip if I need. These features are helpful for not only language students but also language teachers. In my future teaching, I would like to use this website and encourage my students to create their own comic strips which are based on some topics. For example, if the lesson is about buying things, I will be able to encourage my students to use some vocabulary and sentence structures to create their comic strips. Through this way, students will feel more interesting to practice what they have learned; at the same time, students are encouraged to be more creative.

Performance Indicator-ESL.E.PK-1.2.1

Students learning English as a second language will use English for self-expression, artistic creation, and participation in popular culture. They will develop and use skills and strategies appropriate to their level of English proficiency to listen to, read, and response to oral, written, and electronically produced texts and performance, relate texts and performances to their own lives and other works, and develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances represent.

      In order to assess students' creations, encouraging students to orally tell the story or actor out their comic strips can be an effective and meaningful method. Through this method, for teachers, we will be able to see that if students have mastered what they have learned in the class, such as vocabulary, sentence structures, or even cultural contexts; for students, they will be benefit from this method since they are provided an opportunity to practice orally. In addition, this "act out" activity will enlighten their participation.

Using Photo Stories to Teach English

      For both regular and flipped language classrooms, it is important to include various resources and different activities during the language class. Especially in our modern society, with the rapid development of technology, language learning can be developed through various resources rather than just based on textbooks. Using videos to create photo stories is considered as one effective and meaningful way to teach a foreign language. 

      For many language teachers, one way of having videos in the class is to create videos which are related to the topic by themselves. There are several Internet tools that can be used to create videos, for example, Animoto can be a good choice. Through Animoto, a language teacher is able to create a free video by adding pictures, music, and texts.

      I tried Animoto and used it to create a 30-second photo stroy, English Vocabulary for Clothes. I added six pictures that showed different clothes in my video, and I had a sentence which included clothes vocabulary for each scene. Through this short video, I believe that students will be well informed with vocabulary, especially some visual learners.

      In addition, I would like to encourage my students to create their own photo stories by using this Internet tool. For example, I could encourage my students to record the weather of each day by taking pictures. And then, after a week, students may be encouraged to create their videos which are based on the topic of weekly weather by adding some weather vocabulary and sentences in their videos.

Performance Indicator-ESL.E.2-4.1.1

Students learning English as a second language will use English to acquire, interpret, apply and transmit information for content area learning and personal use. They will develop and use skills and strategies appropriate to their level of English proficiency to collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts.

      In order to assess students creations, it seems reasonable to encourage students to give a short presentation. For example, it is possible to invite students to share their photo stories in the class and encourage them to describe their photo stories through the presentation. Therefore, as a teacher, I will be able to check if students have mastered these related vocabulary, and how they use these vocabulary in their daily life.

My TED Ed Class

      TED Ed is a meaningful Internet tool which provides a number of speeches that are delivered by people from different fields. Through this TED Ed, I created my first online class for ESL students. I chose the video "The World's English Mania" by Jay Walker in 2009.

      My objectives of this video lesson are:

1. To help students develop their abilities on listening to details

2. To help students develop their abilities on listening to and comprehending the main idea of the video

3. To provide students some background knowledge on English learning

4. To encourage students to further develop their abilities on critical thinking

     In order to assess if these objectives have been met, firstly, I would like to ask my students to answer questions which are provided in my TED Ed class after they watching the video. There are two multiple questions in the Think section, one is to assess if students are able to listen to details, and the other is to see if students have comprehended the main idea of this video. In addition, through the last Discuss section, I will be able to see students' own opinion on this topic which could indicate students' development on both comprehension and critical thinking, and what they have learned about English learning through this video. 

      Except these questions, I would like to encourage students to share their discussion for the Discuss section with their neighbors or even the whole class during the class time. Moreover, I believe that it would be effective if I offer some in class activities, for example, I could encourage each student to think of three sentences that are based on this video. One of these three questions should be wrong, and the other two should be right ones. And then other students will be encouraged to decide which is the wrong sentence, and which are right. Through this activity, students will be encouraged to recall the video as detailed as they can, therefore, I will be able to see if they have developed their abilities on listening to details.

Changes and Challenges: The flipped classroom

      I believe for most of us, it is not unfamiliar to come up with some key features of the traditional classroom, such as attending the class, taking notes, and completing assignments since most of us have experienced the traditional classroom for a long time. As the article Flipping Your EL Classroom: A primer notes, many students feel confident in the classroom while facing difficulties and confusions outside the classroom. It is reasonable to consider this as a common problem that many students will encounter since in a traditional classroom, students are usually play the role of receivers which indicates that they may passively accept the knowledge and information.

      In order to help students build their confidence and learn more effectively, a concept of "flipping your classroom" has been brought up. It refers to a kind of new classroom - students prepare for the class outside the classroom, bring their homework to the class, and then complete their homework in the classroom, which could be considered as the opposite of our traditional classroom. 

      The videos plays an important role in the flipped classroom since students are provided with instructions through videos outside the classroom. In the article Flipping Your EL Classroom: A primer, the author talks about two main resources of videos: existing videos and creating videos. There are many good Internet tools that teachers are able to use to find some existing videos that are related to the class, such as YouTube, TED-ed, and TeacherTube. Also, teachers are able to create some videos as instructional videos for their students.

      Through the flipped classroom, students are not only encouraged to develop their ability of self-learning but also the ability of collaborative learning since students are also encouraged to work in pairs or groups in the classroom to complete their assignments. As the article Three Reasons to Flip Your Classroom notes, one of the meaningful reasons to have the flipped classroom is to development the interaction between both teachers and students, especially for language learners, they will be provided with opportunities to practice what they have prepared and learned outside the classroom to work together to solve problems and then grab something new. 

      Therefore, for both learners and teachers, even the education system, the flipped classroom not only creates some changes but also brings some challenges since through this new classroom, students are no longer passive receivers, but learners who actively prepare learning outside the classroom and solve confusions collaboratively in the class. Additionally, teachers are encouraged to use more Internet tools or technology in order to develop their flipped classrooms.

Gamification: an effective way of learning English

     As I mentioned in my last blog post, gamification which has been involved in language teaching and learning becomes to be a popular concept that more and more language instructors and teachers would like to have a try in their language class. It is truth that having games in a language class could be considered as an effective and meaningful way that not only help raise students' interests on learning a language but also actually encourage students to involve themselves in language learning and practice as much as they could.

     This time, I chose and tried an serious game, Third World Framer, which could be recommended by language teachers to their students as a good online game that students could play outside the classroom for autonomous learning.

     I played this game twice, and I would like to say that this game could be considered as a reasonable choice for English learners, especially intermediate English learners. When I played this game, I found that players need to plant some crops and wait for harvest to earn money to support their families and farms. Through this game, English learners would be able to learn a lot of new vocabulary, especially many farm words; for example, corn, wheat, and peanut since this game is a kind of management game which allows players to manage a farm and a family that in a third world. Additionally, this game provides language learners an opportunity to practice their English reading and comprehending abilities as players are required to read some hints and make decisions according to these hints. Moreover, this game also provides a good entry for intermediate English learners to learn something about cross-cultural knowledge because this game lets players to experience some cultural issues by themselves when players are playing this game.

Performance Indicator-ESL.I.5-8.1.1
Students learning English as a second language will use English to acquire, interpret, apply and transmit information for content area learning and personal use. They will develop and use skills and strategies appropriate to their level of English proficiency to collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts.

      As the article Kyle Mawer's task type notes, in order to assess if the learning objectives have been met, it is rational to give a small quiz on vocabulary to assess that if students have mastered the new vocabulary and then discuss the game strategy with students, encouraging students to describe their attitudes toward the game, and ask students for their reasons and decision making.Through the small quiz and discussion on various aspects of this game, teachers would be able to indicate that if students have mastered some new words,comprehend the context, and learned something about cross-cultural knowledge.

Playing the Game in an ESL class: Heart of Tota

     Involving games in a language class could be considered as an effective and interesting way to help students learn a language better, especially some digital games which are available online. Through these games, students are able to raise their interests in participating and practicing.

     I tried an online game names Heart of Tota. This is an adventure game which could lead students to keep exploring on an island to look for a rare artifact, "Heart of Tota".

     I played this game for twice. During playing this game, I felt that this game is easy to control since I just need to use my mouse to click on items to collect and directions to go. Through this games, students will be able to learn some new vocabulary and phrases since they are required to collect items such as tools to help them during their exploration. In addition, students will gain the ability of giving directions with the assistance of their teachers.

     During playing the game, it would be reasonable to consider the teacher as an instructor and monitor. Firstly, teachers could go through the instruction with the whole class, for example, asking students to read the instruction together, and provide more details to students if they are confused. This is a good opportunity for students to practice their reading and speaking skills as well as their comprehension competence. Also, teachers could show an example of how to play this game before letting students play by themselves to make sure that students are on the right track. In order to make sure that all students are actively involved, it may be better if teachers could divide students into teams and ask them to compete with each other by counting times they spend and checking times that they click until they find the "Heart of Tota". In order to assess if the learning objectives have been met, teachers could prepare a small quiz which includes vocabulary appears in this game. Additionally, teachers could ask each team to write down their own walkthroughs, and then check the provided walkthroughs with students together, especially the learning objectives are related to vocabulary and giving directions.

     From my own experience, I would like to say that having games in class is a good method to not only raise students' interests but also help students develop their own learning abilities through letting students explore by themselves.

Performance Indicator-ESL.E.2-4.1.1.3
Students select information appropriate to the purpose of the investigation, and relate ideas from one written or spoken source to another.