Lesson Plan: When Ends Change

One of the most wonderful experiences that I have gained during these precious weeks is to make use of these tools in our curriculum. It takes time to devise a lesson plan that adapts one or two ideas or tools. However, I feel so happy to achieve this aim. The current plan will adapt another lesson plan created by Haley Fishburn Moore. I liked its idea very much. How would the story have changed if Romeo had received the letter? It can develop my students' creativity, critical thinking skills and how to look at things from different perspectives. This treasure includes not just a great idea, but a variety of amazing tools that help students to analyze and understand novels and plays. Among these tools are Story Map, Drama Map, Timeline, Plot Diagram, Venn Diagram, Comic Creator, and Stapleless Book. In addition to the printout materials, e.g., Plot Tree Worksheet, Ideas for "Happily Ever After" Presentations, Group Assessment, and Grading Rubric.

I will use the same idea, but with the use of other tools that we used during Week 5, e.g., Bighugelabs, and epubbud. In English textbooks for Egyptian secondary schools, there are a lot of narratives included. I will choose one of them and try to adapt Haley's lesson plan.

Title

The Pearl - A Story of Greed

Materials Needed:

1. Computers 
2. Internet access
3. The Pearl: A Story of Greed  (Copied by Me using epubbud)
4. Plot Tree Worksheet  
5. Grading Rubric
6. Group Assessment
7. Blank sheets & pencils

Digital Tools:
 

1. Story Map
2. Bighugelabs 
3. epubbud

Class Level:

• 12th Grade (Between 18 - 19 years old) advanced students.

Time Frame:

• Two 50-minute classes

Lesson Objectives:

 

By the end of this lesson, students will:

• read a story to get the main idea and the moral lesson behind it.
• analyze a story ( ... characters, setting, conflict, and resolution) using Story Map Tool.
•  determine a turning point of a story.
•  write a new happy end.  
•  use Bighugelabs to create a cover to the new story.
•  use epubbud to create the story using the new end.
• share e-stories in their edmodo group. 

Steps:

1. Divide the class into groups of three.
2. Ask them to read the story (The Pearl: A Story of Greed) in their textbooks or read it online as I typed it using epubbud. The aim of the first reading is to get the main idea and the moral lesson behind it.
3. Tell the students that they are going to read the story again to analyze its elements, e.g, characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution using Story Map Tool.
4. Once they finish the analysis, ask them to print their products and share with their colleagues.
5.  Using Plot Tree Worksheet, ask the students to determine a turning point of a story (e.g., Kino agrees to throw the Pearl away ..... ) and think of another happy end.
6.  Ask them to work into groups and write their first draft using a blank sheet putting in mind the Grading Rubric criteria.
7. After finishing their first draft, tell them to use Bighugelabs to create a cover to the new story and save it on their computer.
8. Then, ask them to start creating their stories with the new ends using epubbud. 
9. Once they finish their stories, ask the groups to share their e-stories in their edmodo class and give feedback to each other.
10. Ask the students to complete the Group Assessment to check what they have done and how other group's members work and cooperate while working together.
11. Using edmodo, create a Poll so students can vote for the most wonderful e-story. Then, create badges for the Top 5 Winning groups.

I'm sure that my students will create amazing e-stories with different ends. Of course, there are other tools involved in the lesson plan created by Haley Fishburn Moore. However, I don't want to overwhelm my students with such variety. I think that two or three are enough in a lesson. This will help students focus more on the content not only the form. 

This is the last task of Digital Tools with Purpose in the Classroom e-course, but it is the first step towards my new journey. I feel that I have a big bag full of tools, experiences and more chances to innovate and create. I think that you will hear about another revolution in Egypt in the coming weeks .... but in Azhar's Classes. I will try to pick up what is suitable for my students' levels and learning styles. Last year, I amazed my students using wikis. This year will be more productive, interesting and excising. Really, I can't find words to thank all people responsible for such amazing chances to learn. You changed my life to a great extent. Now, I'm interested in everything new in the field of teaching English as a foreign language. I can't stop myself! All the time I search for a new beginning. 

If you are interested in this e-course, here are our session online spaces:

• Edmodo: main environment, message board for announcements and discussions.
  Group Code: 9m0oq6
• Our Wiki: syllabus, weekly tasks, weekly discussion threads and tutorials.
• Our Diigo Group: online social bookmarking space where we keep all the resources being shared by the group.
• scoop.it : visual content aggregation.
• Recording of EVO Wrap-Up.
  

Last, but not Least

BIG THANK YOU TO DIGITOOLS COMMUNITY

 

See you @ EVO 2013

How to Digitalize What you Read?

Many people think of reading as a skill that is taught once in the first few years of school. All what teachers do is just to teach only new vocabulary and concepts relevant to new content. Seen this way, reading is a simple process: readers decode each word in a text and then automatically comprehend the meaning of the words. Do you think … this is the right understanding of reading?

Think for a moment about the last thing you read … an essay, a newspaper analysis, a report, a novel? If you could recapture your mental processing, you would notice that you read with reference to a particular world of knowledge and experience related to the text. The text evoked voices, memories, knowledge, and experiences from other times and places. As experienced readers read, they begin to generate a mental representation, or gist, of the text, which serves as an evolving framework for understanding subsequent parts of the text. As they read further, they test this evolving meaning and monitor their understanding, paying attention to inconsistencies that arise as they interact with the text. If they notice they are losing the meaning as they read, they draw on a variety of strategies to readjust their understandings ... an article about reading by Christine Cziko et al.

Reading, according to this view, is not only knowing some new words and concepts, but also knowing new experiences, cultures and other voices. Students need to adopt some strategies that can help them to learn how to read to make connections and build new perspectives. Week 5 provides me a variety of tools and ways to involve my students in reading texts and novels. Let's know more about how to make your students want to read not just for understanding but also for pleasure!

Objectives of Week 5:

During this week participants will:

• have an overview of the possibilities for developing learner's reading skills in a digital world
• discuss what they've acquired for their teaching toolkit and assess their own learning during the session

Tasks of Week 5:

Task 1 Creating Magazine Covers to Summarize Texts

During this task, we read a very great lesson plan. It is a comprehensive plan where you can find objectives, resources, tools and steps. Then, we were asked to choose an article from this link. It is really a very rich link where you can find a variety of articles that can be a guide for your teaching in the 21st century with its numerous requirements. The third step was to choose one of the following tools .. ReadWriteThink interactive tool, Fodey or Bighugelabs to create a magazine cover, news page, or brochure to summarize the article we chose earlier. I took a lot of time and effort to choose an article. All of them are so rich with ideas and thoughts.  At last, I selected an article by Marc Prensky "The 21st-Century Digital Learner". 

This article talks about involving students in making decisions about their learning. I do this with my students all the time. I listen to their views about their way to learn and what make them involved and like their school. We have to do this, because we talk about the life of a person not a pot. We have to give them a VOICE to tell us what they feel, what they need, and what they want to do. I just want to send this message to all teachers from all over the world .... PLEASE GIVE YOUR STUDENTS A VOICE .... I'M SURE THEY WILL SURPRISE YOU! Here is its cover using Bighugelabs. It is an innovative way to make connections and visualize new concepts. 

Task ... Cool Extra Idea: Publish Your E-book

In this task, we were asked to use Epubbud to publish our e-books. It is a great idea where we can feel ownership by creating our own books and let all people around the world read them and leave comments. By this tool, you will give your students a chance to e-publish themselves and create their own world. While surfing the internet about how to use Epubbud in my teaching, I found a wiki about this tool. It can be a beneficial resource for you to read and create your e-books to enrich your classrooms. For me, I created an e-book about some of the tools that we have explored during our Digital Tools e-course. Here is the link .... Happy Reading!

This is not the last task to do. There is another thing that I have to do before saying Good Bye EVO 2012. The next post will discuss how to use such tools adapting a lesson plan provided by our moderators in my own teaching context.

Which Button Do I Click?

Task 5: Explore and  

Create

During this week, we explored a variety of tools that help our students' improve their speaking skills, add some confidence to their voices, and feel happy while completing the required tasks. Among them are Audioboo, Voxopop, Voki,  Fotobabble, Tube It, Sketchcast, Blabberize, Showbeyond, Intervue, Knovio, Educreations,  Recordr ..... and more. During task 5, we were asked to use one of these tools to devise a lesson plan for speaking practice. Actually, I took a lot of time asking "Which Button Do I Click?". Finally, I decided to mix 2 tools at the same time wishing enjoyable time for my dear students. Let's know more about it! 

Please, Humans

Save Our Lives!

 

Materials Needed:

1. Computers 
2. Internet access
3. Headsets for recording
4. Webcams
5. Blank sheets & pencils

Digital Tools:
 

1. Blabberize
2. PowerPoint Program
3. Knovio

Class Level:

• 11 Grade (Between 17-18 years old) Advanced Level Students

Time Frame:

• Two 50-minute classes

Lesson Objectives:

By the end of this lesson, students will:

•  discuss the problems that animals face as a result of humans' acts.
•  talk about the developments that the humans have done for animals.
•  make an argument between animals and humans using Blabberize.  
•  create video presentations using Knovio about animals' problems and suggest solutions.
•  listen to pairs and groups' products and give feedback.
•  embed revised products in their class wiki.

Steps:

1. Divide the class into 2 big groups.
2. Tell the students that they are going to make an argument. 
3. The  first big group will play the role of animals. They can work in pairs discussing the problems that animals face as a result of humans' acts. They can use blank papers and pencils to jot down their initial ideas. 
4. The second big group will play the role of humans that result in animals' problems. They can work in pairs talking about the developments that humans have done for animals.They can use blank papers and pencils to jot down their initial ideas.
5. Once students finish their discussion together, ask them to use Blabberize to create their Blabbers. It is so easy to use this tool. They can choose a picture (e.g., an animals or equipments) they are going to talk about, add mouth, choose a sound and record or upload an audio.
6. When students finish their Blabbers, ask them to present their products to other colleagues and give them feedback.
7. After listening to the argument between animals and humans, ask students to work in groups to choose a certain problem that animals talked about in the first task and suggest some solutions. First, they use the internet to search for information and pictures. Then, they use the PowerPoint program to create their slides.
8. Once they finish their slides, ask them to use Knovi to upload slides, record a video using their webcam and share their video presentations in the class wiki. Knovio is an innovative tool for turning PowerPoint slides into rich video presentations with just a web browser and webcam. With Knovio, you can take static PowerPoint slides to a new level with video and audio presentations that can be accessed anytime on-demand and shared with others through email and social media.

Really, I enjoyed this week so much exploring and trying these new tools. I'm sure that my students will like them because they enable their voices to be heard and their confidence to be grown. Thanks so much my Dear Moderators for such treasures.

Bring Life into Your Classes by TalkTools

Week 4 reminds me with a research that I did in my Special Diploma 8 years ago. Our professor asked us to find a problem that our students face while learning the English language as a foreign language. That time, I was a novice teacher for just a year. This means that I have no any expertise with students and the difficulties that may face in their learning process. Thus, I decided to meet those students and talk about their experiences and learning problems. One of the most difficult skills that most of my students talked about is "HOW TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES IN ENGLISH FLUENTLY". 

I never forget one of my students' words, "I want to express my ideas and feelings freely, but what If I made a mistake, what if I didn't  find the word that I need, what if my colleagues laughed at me, what if you didn't say well done ...... ".  Then, I felt that the problem is not my students' way to learn, but my way of teaching. I'm the only blamed person because I couldn't break the ice between my students and the Giant Fear of Speaking. From that time, I began to create a safe environment where students can convey their thoughts and emotions more easily. This is what makes week 4 important for me because it provides me with a variety of tools that help my students to speak and forget about the barrier between their tongues and words. 

Objectives of Week 4:

During this week, participants will:

• explore online tools to enhance learners' speaking skills
• have a hands-on activity to learn how to use the tool of their choice
• share their findings with their peers

Task 1: Learning about Speaking Tools

In this task, we were asked  to watch a video created by Ana to know more about speaking tools that we can use with our students. She differentiated between two kinds of tools: Synchronous and Asynchronous. Here is the video:

 

According to our moderators, there are a lot of Synchronous and Asynchronous tools. Here are two lists of them:

ASYNCHRONOUS TOOLS:

http://mailvu.com/ (video mail) 

http://www.keek.com/ (post your status in video) 

http://www.aviary.com/tools/myna# (create podcasts) 

http://screenr.com (create screencasts) 

SYNCHRONOUS TOOLS:

http://wiziq.com (platform for online classes) 

http://www.socialhangouts.me/ (online video chat) 

http://trendtok.opentok.com/ (twitter video chat) 

http://www.slideshare.net/zipcast (turn a slideshare pres. into a webinar) 

http://skype.com  

http://www.hoot.me/ (study with a facebook contact)   

 

Task 2: Video Interview

We were asked to use http://recordr.tv, a site which allows us to record videos with our webcams or with our microphones only. The task is to listen to Ana's 2 questions (Why did you choose to be a teacher? & What do you like most about being a teacher?), then answer them using the same website. Really, I feel so sad because I couldn't use it at all. I tried it out many times, but  there was an error message that appeared after clicking "upload". So, I used another tool that allows us to record our voice and capture the screen at the same time. It is www.screenr.com. Here is my screencast.

Task 3: A Video Questionnaire

intervue.me allows you to create questionnaires and then have students leave video replies. In task 3, we were asked to use this tool to record a video reply answering the question of Ana (How do you celebrate Christmas with your family?). I created an account and created my questionnaire that included just one question "Which tools do you like most in our DigiTools e-course?". However, it didn't work well when I wanted to record a video reply to Ana's question. Again and again, I selected another tool that I regularly used with my students. It is audacity; an audio editor for recording, slicing, and mixing audio.

Task 4: Draw your Family

Two new tools were provided to complete task 4. One of them is Sketchcast that  allows us to record our voices while we draw on a virtual white board. Another alternative is Educreations. It is a site where you can create and share great video lessons with your iPad or browser. I tried Sketchcast, but it didn't work well. I think that there are some missing programs or updates in my laptop. Then, I tried Educreations. Really, it so fantastic and easy to use. Sometimes, I like to play with colors, voices and pictures like my students. That's why I'm so close to their hearts. In 5 minutes, I created my video lesson describing my family. I think that my students will like this tool so much as they like drawing and hearing their voices.

This is not the end of week 4, there are a lot of tools that I have to explore before choosing one or two to create my lesson plan. I know that this will take more time, but I enjoy time with these treasures.

It is Time to Mix!

As I gave myself more time to explore more tools, I decided to mix two of the 12 images provided in Tasks 1 & 2. One of them is wordia.com and I talked about it a lot in the previous post. The second tool is Time 10 Questions.  10 Questions provides unique access to world and business leaders, major entertainers, and other influential figures from around the world. A selection of reader-submitted questions on TIME.com serves as the basis for a candid interview with each newsmaker. Really, I admired this channel. It includes authentic input for my EFL students. I thought that these real persons and shows will help students to improve their listening skills. They will be familiar with the real situations and responses. By this tool, I can bring real life into my poor classrooms. 

Task 3 Listening Math:

My Choice is:








= 13



Here is the Lesson Plan using these images above:

Digital Resources:

1. Time 10 Questions: www.youtube.com/show/10questions
2. Wordia: wordia.com
3. Computer Lab with internet access
4. Headsets for recording
5. Movie Maker Program for creating videos
6. YouTube accounts for uploading videos

Class Level:

• 11 Grade (Between 17-18 years old) Advanced Level Students

Time Frame:

• Two 50-minute classes

Lesson Objectives:

By the end of this lesson, students will:

•  listen to the lives of some famous people through YouTube.
•  listen to these people to identify 10 difficult words.
•  search for these difficult words using wordia.com.  
•  create a biography about a famous person using these words.
•  use Movie Maker program to tell the story and upload it to YouTube.
•  listen to their colleagues’ biographies and give feedback.
•  embed revised videos in their class wiki.

Steps:

1. Using Time: 10 Questions www.youtube.com/show/10questions, the teacher asks the students to listen to 2 shows about the lives of two famous persons (e.g., Mike Tyson & Condoleezza Rice).
2. The teacher asks them to listen to these two shows again and identify 10 difficult words that they hear them for the first time.
3. The teacher tells the students to work in groups of three and start to search for these words using wordia.com. In wordia website, there might be some videos clarifying these words.
4. The teacher asks the students to think of a famous person they know and start creating his or her biography. Students should put in mind the parts of biographies and using the words that they searched about their definitions earlier.
5. Once students decide on the information that should be involved in their biographies, the teacher asks them to use Movie Maker program to create a video including recording this story, adding music and pictures related to this person, and adding the words of the biography.
6. After finishing their videos, the teacher asks the students to present them in front of their peers to give some feedback.
7. Each group revises its video and uploaded it to YouTube.
8. The teacher tells the students to embed their videos in their class wiki.

Issues to Consider:  

The teacher must check if:

• The headsets and internet access at the computer lab are all working.
• The Movie Maker program installed on the computers.
• The students write difficult words while listening.
• The students work in groups while creating and recording their biographies.
• The students have YouTube accounts before uploading their videos.
• The class wiki is open to embed the created videos. 

Task 4 Go Beyond with your Listening Math:

The most difficult task started when I got my math result. It is 13. This means that I have to find 13 ways to help my students enhance their listening skills using the resources and websites I have explored in my treasure hunt. I will go beyond my baby treasure hunt and think about what I can do with the 12 treasures that our moderators provided us in this week. 

Here is my listening list:

1. Using Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Blog,  I can ask my 11 grade high school students to watch Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief video to pick up the grammatical rule presented and write its parts with some examples from the video. I believe that EFL students can pick up language and this is the first step towards acquiring not just learning the English language. Of course, this is according to the Natural Approach by Stephen Krashen.
2. Listening to the same video of Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief involved in Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Blog, I ask my students to listen again to complete the condition with general truths about Medusa as a practice.
3. As my students love watching videos, I  can ask them to watch two or three interviews using Time 10 Questions about famous people. Then, I ask them in pairs to prepare some questions about a certain person they want to know more about him or her. They can use the internet to find answers to such questions. Once they have the answers, they play the roles of the interviewer and the interviewee recording their speech by Audacity program. We can use such recordings in other classrooms as a model or in listening lessons.
4. As an ice-breaking or warm-up activity , I can ask my students to watch a video from Time 10 Questions to know something about famous people before reading a text about a certain character. So, they can listen to real voices and read more details about them. I think I can find some interviews that are suitable for the course I teach.
5. Using the Blank Mode of Listen and Write website, I can ask my students to listen to an audio or a video to fill in the blanks. It is some sort of practicing new words and listening to specific items. Here is a video explains how to use all modes of this wonderful website.
6.  AMNY includes authentic materials where New Yorkers talk about themselves. I can ask my students to listen to anyone of them and jot down all what they knew about this person. Then, I ask them to work in pairs. Each one will talk about the person that he or she listened to. They can also check if they say right information by listening again to their persons.
7. Backbone Corpus Search is a very rich website. I can download some audio files and their transcripts for my students. I can use them when I teach a lesson called "The World of Work". This lesson is about jobs. Among the titles that attracted my attention in this website are lawyer, police officer, taxi driver, translator, web designer, an Irish farmer .... etc. I will ask my students to listen to such persons, then, choose one job that they would like to be in the future and talk a little about it from his/her own point of view.
8. I have a small dream. I wish my students meet one of the TED speakers and ask him or her some questions about their lives, jobs, achievements, ... etc in just 15 minutes online. I'm sure that this will enhance their listening skills and encourage them to be concentrated while asking and listening to the answers ... who knows?
9. Listening to an audio text from the course, I ask the students to write down difficult words while listening. Then, I ask them to go to Wordia search site to find their meaning and any details about them. They can also find videos and games that explain these words.
10. If there are no videos about the new words for which the students search in Wordia, I ask them to go to YouTube to find some videos that are suitable and upload them to Wordia. They can also create their own videos about these words after getting the meaning. This will help other students later.
11. If there are no games explaining these words, I can ask my students to use Kudo Game Lab to create their own games and upload them to Wordia. I'm sure that this will make my students creative and innovative as they play with language.
12. My students can create their walks or echoes using Woices. I ask them to record and upload their description of the places where they live. Then, they can listen to their voices many times. We can create a library about our city "Sohag, Egypt". This will help me in teaching other classrooms and will develop their speaking and listening skills.
13. As an introductory activity for our Class Wiki, I can ask my students to record something about themselves using Myna (an online audio editing tool). Then, they embed their audio files in the introduction section.

At last, I finished all the tasks of week 3. Yes, there are a lot of listening treasures. I just need more time to discover them. I also need to go beyond these traditional uses. I have to find some innovative ways to use them and make my students live in a real world.

Tools for Listening

 

More Fun & Fruits

Again and again, I started the third week so late.I try to catch up all the wonderful things my colleagues have done. Week 3 deals with one of the most important skills that we should give it more attention in our EFL classrooms. My students have no input to listen to the English language except for their teachers' voices in their classrooms. Thus, as an EFL teacher, I search all the time for tools and authentic materials that can help my students develop their listening skills, but in a funny way. I just want my students feel happy while learning. Really, this course provides me a lot of tools and treasures that can help me to achieve my goal. Let's know what I have learned during this week.

Objectives of Week 3:

During this week, participants will:

• have an overview of online tools that can be used to develop learners' listening skills.
• choose, at least, two online tools that might be used for listening skills and compare them.
• share their findings with the group.

 

Week 3 Tasks:

Task 1  Listening Treasure Hunt:

 

 

In this task, we were asked to find a hidden listening treasure by clicking on some images in just 30 minutes, then, take notes on what sites/resources I found interesting, their advantages and drawbacks. Actually, our moderators provided us with 12 images and gave us 30 minutes to do so. Really, I liked the idea of the alarm clock. It makes me be concentrated and wanted to find something at the end. 

 

Task 2  Listening Review:  

 

During this task, we were asked to share our listening treasures with our colleagues in our Edmodo group. To be frank, I found a very baby listening treasure. You know, I try to find something interesting, funny and suitable for my students' levels. I clicked almost all images, but No. 10 extremely attracted my attention and interest. It is http://wordia.com. Wordia is a games-based learning resource and video dictionary, which brings words and meaning to life. At the heart of the site is a powerful search engine. You can type in a word that you are exploring in class and it will find as many resources as it can! The search results will include the dictionary definition of that word and, where available, videos that explore the word and its pedagogy. They also include some games which feature the word in a teaching capacity. If there are no games or videos for the exact word, similar words will be shown instead. For example, the search term for 'sea' would also find words about 'ocean' and 'lake'. 

Advantages & Drawbacks: 

One of the drawbacks of this website is that there might not be a video for every word your class is using. In this case, you can encourage your students to explore the meaning of that word, and upload it to the site so that other students may learn from it. Also, I think that it is not suitable for higher levels like high school students. However, it includes a lot of words and videos that can be used by my students. However, I'm sure that my students will love learning by videos. They can listen to the correct pronunciation of words and see pictures that can identify them. All what I think about this website is that my students will learn new vocabulary in a funny way watching videos or playing games. It is a great fun. 

Starting task 3 , I found that 30 minutes are not enough to explore a hidden treasure. Thus, I decided to give myself extra time to know more tools and websites that can enhance my students' listening skills. I will talk about a mixture of two tools in the next post.