Lesson/Review 3: Evaluating Podcasts, Videocasts, and Digital Stories

Lesson for Students: BookTalks

Over the last few weeks, you have been reading a book that you will share with your classmates. We have looked at book reviews, and as you know, it is important to share enough about the book to “hook” the reader, but not too much that you will ruin the ending. Today, you will listen to two podcasts on the computer that will effectively share book information with you.

1. Use the internet browser to go to the website www.bookwink.com

2. Use the play (a sideways triangle) and the pause (two parallel lines) buttons to start and stop the podcast. You can also drag the moving circle on the bottom of the video screen to watch part of it again.

3. Listen to the entire video without stopping.

4. Listen to the video again from the beginning. On your worksheet, record the main characters, the problem, and at least one (1) other main event. You might need to stop and start the video if it goes too fast.

5. Use the same format as your worksheet to outline the characters and main events of your book choice that will “hook” your reader but not give away the ending.

Review of Lesson and Website Resource

How will you use this resource to meet the needs of your instructional purposes?

This lesson will act as a model for how students can share the main information in their upcoming book talks. It is often difficult to model how to hook the listener with interesting or entertaining details, but both of these book talks on the website are concise and clear. It works as reverse pre-writing since the students must take the final product and extract the information that they need. It also reinforces the elements of a story map with characters, problem, and main events.

Why is this application and format appropriate for the lesson you plan to create (e.g., level of authenticity, relevance to target language, register, accuracy, interest level, and motivation)?

This format is applicable because it is a direct model of what I expect from them in class as they prepare their book talks. It is talking about books that are available to them in the library, and hopefully their interest is piqued.

I will be videotaping their book talks as well, and if I can figure out how to post it on the blog or class website, it will be taken to a new level of authenticity and motivation.

What handouts or directions will you provide students to focus learning

and adapt this resource for your instructional resources?

The students will have a basic graphic organizer. The graphic organizer will be a truncated story map including a spot for characters, problem, and main event(s).

There will be three copies of the same graphic organizer. The students will use two of the copies for the two books in the book talk, then they will use the same format to outline their book talk.

What are the potential problems, either language based or technical, that

you may need to troubleshoot or prepare for?

The speaker on the video speaks relatively clearly and slowly, but there is the possibility that it is too fast for some of my lower language learners. Hopefully the ability to pause, rewind, and re-listen will help with this process.

Lesson/Review 2: Evaluating and Using Web 2.0

Lesson for Students: Expertise on WikiHow

As an ambassador (http://www.wordcentral.com/) of your country, culture, and language here in the United States, you have certain areas of expertise that others do not have. We have been brainstorming some of those things in class, and now it’s time to share your knowledge.

1. First, open an internet browser and go to www.wikihow.com

2. Second, use your mouse to click in the middle box on the blue words that say “Write a how to.”

3. Then, enter a title that clearly describes your task.

4. Next, the computer will list some similar articles. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and select “None of these are duplicates. I am ready to create the article!” Select “Next.”

5. Fifth, write your hook in the “Introduction” section.

6. Then, 2rite your directions in the “Steps” section. Be sure to use numbers and sequencing words (first, second, then, next, etc.) to help your reader follow the directions.

7. Next, put a key phrase in the “Summary” section.

8. Finally, click on the “Publish” key to publish your work.

Review of Lesson and Website Resource

How will you use this resource to meet the needs of your instructional purposes?

This lesson will meet the needs of my instructional purposes on a variety of levels. First of all, it fits with my instructional objective of teaching students sequencing transition words. As modeled in the student directions, the students will be using the sequencing words and ordinal numbers to organize their information.

This activity appears to be a low-level writing activity because the students are writing simple sentences to describe a familiar task. The focus and clarity of those sentences, however, when correctly written will show a mastery of command verbs and appropriate word choice.

Why is this application and format appropriate for the lesson you plan to create (e.g., level of authenticity, relevance to target language, register, accuracy, interest level, and motivation)?

This activity is high interest for students because it allows them to share an area of expertise, read about fellow students’ interests and cultures, and be officially “published” on the internet. It is an easy way to show students that they have something of worth to share in the written word.

What handouts or directions will you provide students to focus learning

and adapt this resource for your instructional resources?

The electronic publication of this activity will be a culmination of prior work in the classroom. We will explore other wikihow.com articles to look for commonalities and to discuss what makes a set of directions easy or difficult to follow.

We will use a graphic organizer to focus the task. We will also work with peers to act out the directions to make sure that nothing is assumed in the process of giving directions.

When the students finally come to the computer lab for this assignment, they will have their organized thoughts ready to type including a “hook” sentence, their list of directions, and a list of brainstormed sequencing words.

Are the format, organization, design and language level of this resource appropriate for your instructional goals?

Wikihow is a very user-friendly format for students and adults alike. There do not seem to be any obvious language hurdles to this assignment.

Lesson 1: Photo Prompt 5Ws

Lesson/Review 1: Integrating web sites

Lesson for Students: Writing Lesson using Photo Prompts

Choose a photo from the choices on http://www.slideshare.net/beckerl1/pictures-for-writing-prompts.

Complete the 5Ws newspaper map to match your chosen picture. Be sure that your story has a clear beginning, middle, and end.

We will stop as a class before we begin writing. Be ready to tell your partner about your picture and ask them one question about their story (who, what, where, when, why, how).

Write your newspaper article that matches the story. Make sure that you are answering each question word from your map, and use appropriate past tense verbs.

Review of Lesson and Website Resource

Students: 5^th- 10^th grade ESL students from a variety of languages and language levels

English language level: Intermediate ESL

Lesson time: 45 minutes in lab

Class Location environment: This will be taught on laptops in the classroom. Students will be matched with a partner who they will talk with through the process.

What is the instructional purpose?

This is a creative writing activity to help students develop their ability to answer questions about a prompt in a complete sentence. It is scaffolded by question words for students who need more language support.

How will you use the website to meet your instructional purposes?

I feel like written journal prompts are often difficult for my students to answer accurately. By giving them choices in photos, they have another mode to construct ideas that is not based solely on language.

What handouts will I create?

I will provide the students with a graphic organizer that will allow them to gather their ideas in an organized manner before they verbally share their ideas with a partner. This will then help them take their ideas in note form and transform them into complete answers to the question words. I will double side the map for students who are able to complete responses to more than one picture prompt in the given time.

What are potential problems students might encounter in using this website?

I’ve found that the website loads pretty easily when I am searching, but as with any website with many pictures, there could be a delay in accessing the pictures when there are many students searching simultaneously. I will have the pictures up on a common computer connected to the projector if any students are not able to access the images.

School's out...for the summer?

I will be working with 5th-10th grade ESL students this summer through the MoundsView Summer School program. So, as the students begrudgingly return to school after only a brief taste of summer, I'm working to make these 5 weeks of their summer mornings something fun and educational all at the same time.

My students will range in age as I mentioned above (and a few of them I've had in my regular classroom during the last two years in the district). They will come from homes that speak languages including Spanish, French, Arabic, Japanese, Hmong, Cebuano, Cantonese, Tibetan, Swahili, Ilocano, Vietnamese, and Lao.

My basic goal with them at this point is to make sure that I'm balancing their experiences with reading, writing, listening, and speaking as well as working on specific skills that will make them clear and capable communicators and provide them with strategies to successfully approach high-language content materials in middle school and high school.

Here's to summer...school!