The Tip of the Iceberg!
I read many interesting articles and visited some
multi-skill websites as part of this week’s learning. I feel I have only seen
the tip of the iceberg. There is still so much to explore!
This week we focused on websites that build reading, writing
and vocabulary skills. As I was going through the Nicenet posts of all the
webskills participants, I found a common strain in all of them. It seems
students everywhere do not like to read or write. So much time is either spent
watching meaningless things on television or chatting with their peer group.
Introducing our students to the wonderful websites dedicated to reading and
writing may change the scenario.
Penzu is an exciting way to make students write more. It is
an online personal journal. It seems way more attractive than writing a regular
pen and paper journal. Discovering Make Beliefs Comics, where one can create
their own comic strip, was so much fun. I made my first comic strip too (URL: http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=22618129C1432329).
Tools like Storybird or Dvolver Moviemaker, where you can write a story
creating visuals of your own, certainly is an attractive way to encourage students
to write more. These sites are really going to make my classes so much more
interesting and fun.
Quizlet is a tool which allows you to make your own sets
of flash cards according to the needs of the lesson. Games and
quizzes, based on these sets, can help make a teacher’s life easy and generate
positive interest towards the topic in question. This is surely another tool
which I am going to use in my classes.
Some of the websites which are suitable for my
students’ needs are ESL Independent Study Lab (URL: http://legacy.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html), Lauri’s ESL Website (URL: http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/)
and Activities for ESL Students (URL: http://a4esl.org/). I explored these in detail
and could find so many great activities that my students can benefit from. I
looked up some of the websites and pages explored by other participants and
found them to be very useful.
For extensive reading there are many wonderful
sites. The following are some which I found to be of great help: http://www.er-central.com/, http://bygosh.com/, http://americanenglish.state.gov/ebooks/ and http://etralc.usf.edu/lit2ro/.
Describing
a class issue:
We were asked to describe our classes as part of
the steps towards our final project. I found that many of us had similar
classes with similar issues. However, students’ lack of motivation in reading
and writing seems to be a common issue. Lack of wholehearted participation and declining
interest levels are also common problems. Even if they have the resources,
students in other parts of the world, do not understand the value of reading
books. This is the time to change their views, introduce them to the splendid online
resources available and help them to appreciate the value of reading books.
The main issue in my class is the students’
inability to communicate their thoughts in English due to lack of exposure and
confidence. Unavailability of resources at home and school is the main
hindrance to exposure.
Nevertheless, I am sure the future holds much more
possibilities! I look forward to that beautiful and bright future!
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