WEEK 3, vocab-related CALL sites

ULTRALINGUA.com
I accessed the Food.inc website and looked up an article on Haiti, placing the URL in the Ultralingua.com site dictionary. This was the result when I double-clicked on Haitian
"Haitian n.
A native or inhabitant of Haiti.
Haitian adj.
Of or relating to or characteristic of the republic of Haiti or its people: “Haitian shantytowns.”
phrases
Haitian centime n.
100 centimes equal 1 gourde.
Haitian Creole n.
A creole language spoken by most Haitians; based on French and various African languages.
Haitian monetary unit n.
The monetary unit in Haiti."

I find this option the best of all that were discussed in the FIVE articles for this week's activities. This enables the reader (and since when did reading STOP being a JOYFUL activity????? Ref. Gruba) to remain on the actual reading text site without flipping back and forth between sites. In short, it looks like a thorough definition and explanation are provided, in a very non-invasive manner. It will be possible for the students to have a fluid reading approach. These definitions in English can be used to formulate the mini-concordance by assigned groups, or by class in the event there is a small class size. Students can negotiate for the most important words to include in their concordance or corpus. After the teacher edits the list by eliminating the passive or low frequency terms to assist the students in paying attention to the most high frequency and utilized vocabulary, a test can be given to assess their acquisition of the terms. It would be interesting to do an initial quiz immediately after the reading and before the students begin to put together a concordance, then again immediately after they have assessed and assembled the mini-concordance, and then finally after they have studied their self-selected mini-concordance to see if there is a marked increase in the internalization of the information.

WORDCHAMP.com
Placing the same URL address in this READ site yielded less definition and explanation. Further, in order to put the words in a list for later use as flash cards, etc., one is required to be part of a class which the instructor can apparently set up for free. However, the students must pay $12.50. This is not a bad idea if the instructor wants the students to create a wordlist, or if they want to have their students chat online with penpals. This last option would be an interesting one to pursue, as long as the total expenses of the class permitted it.
This site provides the technology for students to create their mini-corpus or mini-concordances online, and the same process can be applied as for Ultralingua.

Blog 2 CALL January 19, 2010

Dear TESOL bloggers,

I found three great sites that contain short stories that can be used in K-8 classes.
http://www.indianchild.com/short_stories.htm This contains SHORT INSPIRING STORIES. The site is user-friendly and not slick, simply functional: scan list, select story and click, print text, read with kids and do your follow-up activities.

The second site is slicker, contemporary, is better indexed, but is basically a good resource for texts:
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/childrenindex.html SHORT STORIES

These can be used as a text for cultural or ethical conversation courses, the point de départ for a writing or dialogue/role-play activity. I would suggest studying a genre such as the fable, then having the kids write individually or as a group to create their own fable. The fables could be copied and assembled into a book that would be distributed to the parents and kept for posterity. Students (people!) love to get published!!!! Great for parent teacher conferences or for the first parents' night of the scholastic year. The stories would make great displays, either all together in a display window in the hallway, or featured one story a week on a special board. The student would read their story either in the library (read "New York bookstore') or in the classroom for their peers.
So now you have reading, vocabulary building, discourse, literary genre, art of writing and editing, peer editing, group project, publishing, reading out loud, celebrating creativity!! IT'S WIN WIN WIN.

Blog 1 CALL January 14, 2010 Previous CALL experience

Dear TESOL bloggers,

It is January 12, 2010, the beginning of my last semester in the MA program in Applied Linguistics/TESOL at University of Illinois at Chicago. I will chronicle my journey into CALL-land for TESOL, bringing to the blog screen questions, concerns, debates and 'Aha! moments' as they occur. I not only appreciate, but I expect you, the readers, to contribute your own constructive comments, ideas and suggestions. All for one and one for all!

I have extensive experience with Blackboard Discussion Board, Voice Board, Grade Center, posting items and web links, as faculty in university courses. I've dabbled in Dreamweaver, Jing and Hot Potatoes. Clearly, I have a long way to go!

My primary concern in CALL class is to KISS *keep it simple schweetheart* so that CALL projects are user-friendly and allow for minimal interference when students are accessing the site and doing the project.

One of my main questions is how to set up EFFECTIVE group projects. What have you, my readers, experienced in terms of successful, or UNsuccessful group projects, or even solo CALL projects?

Looking forward to learning the software and sharing my observations and questions with you!