38 perforated shelf edge labels
1 year ago
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Project Post: Wikispaces and Luxtutor Dictionary & Concordance
My project target audience is high intermediate to low advanced university French conversation and/or composition classes. Students will each post their final projects to a class Wikispaces page. This will include a summarized text of their presentation, embedded power points, images. My first intent is for them to display and share their hard work with their colleagues. The second objective is for them to use the target language in negotiating the questions they will use for the jeopardy game, in what order they will list their projects, which special links or graphics or media they will include. The third objective is for them to 'teach' (i.e. communicate successfully to) each other, so there will be a short exam in the form of jeopardy to test salient points at the end of the semester based on the information they post to assess their success. Units of study from which they will present will be in business issues or current events, historical units such as Charles De Gaulle/WWII/the French Résistance, colonization (Indochina, Africa, Caribbean), francophone culture or history, New Wave film genre, contemporary film to name a few areas of research.
Journal #9 Computer Mediated Communication, a couple options
Linguistic Funland http://tesol.net/penpals/
This site allows teachers to do a post or a search by age group for other teachers' classes who are also looking for penpals. There is also an individual listing option, by language, by age group where students can post and search. Your specific requests can be made such as whether you are looking for native speakers. As for setting up chatting opportunities, the teacher would have to use another program. Not ideal because it's not full service, but it might yield a serious group of students to work with.
http://www.nicenet.org/
Teachers with Internet access but without Blackboard will be able to set up several thread topics at a time, can view all of the responses, can edit or delete entire asynchronous threads. The teachers are given a class code which they give to the students. This is not a slick site, but it does appear to be operational and it is free. It was very easy to sign up a class. Texts should be kept at a minimum.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Post #8 March 4, 2010 EAP Note-Taking Practice
Note-Taking Practice!
In this podcast you will hear about the cyclonic windstorm 'Xynthia', which recently hit Western Europe. Please complete the pre-listening activities prior to taking notes from the podcast.
Activity 1. Pre-listening. Useful Terms. Click on the terms below to be linked to Encarta On-line Dictionary for the definitions and pronunciation. Read all definitions before deciding which one fits this context. To navigate back to this blog page, simply click on the return arrow. The terms are also recorded on the podcast.
Xynthia, Lothar
mobile home park
For further word searches: Encarta On-line Dictionary
From the list of vocabulary, we can see that the context of this podcast report includes references to the country of France, windstorms and some of their characteristics, the French Civil Defence Ministry, coastal phenomena, and mobile homes.
To reinforce your understanding of the above terms, do this simple matching activity alone or with a partner. (Answers are below in reverse order.)
1. Xynthia, Lothar
2. violent windstorm
3. Civil Defence
4. battering waves
5. The town was hard-hit by the cyclone.
6. mobile home park
7. sea wall
8. coastal development practices
a. devastated, struck, where much was destroyed
b. names of cyclones
c. edifice that protects a coastline from high waves
d. organism of government that protects its citizens similar to the
e. seaside construction and planning, especially near residences
f. cyclone or tornado are types of violent windstorms
g. huge tidal water swells that cause flooding
h. Neighborhood of homes that are on trailers and can be towed
[e c g a g d f b ]
Activity 2. Pre-listening.
A. Content: Weather Patterns
With a partner, please click on 'cyclones', and familiarize yourself with some of the terminology used in describing these natural wind phenomena. Make a list of new and/or additional terms or interesting facts that you would use in discussing or reading about cyclones.
B. Connecting: Your Personal Background & Knowledge
Discuss any knowledge that you have of where previous cyclones have hit, the damage to those regions, the kinds of aid these areas received from the global community. How many could you name? Did you know anyone personally who was touched by these natural disasters?
Now listen to the podcast. On note paper, leaving large margins to each side of your sheet, begin writing as you hear the report. Note dates, places, people, events. As you write, leave space between items so that you can listen a second time, adding notes to embellish your note-taking. After listening twice, please work on the follow-up activities below, alone or with your partner.
LISTEN NOW! <= Click here.
Activity 3. Post-listening. Search for details. Please answer the following questions. If you cannot find the answers in your notes, listen to the podcast until you hear them.
1. What dates did Xynthia hit Western Europe? Describe the cyclone activity in detail.
2. In what year did Lothar hit?
3. Which countries in Western Europe were hard-hit by the storm?
4. Describe the types of damage which occurred in those countries, including death toll, damage to dwellings.
5. What was it that reached a height of 7 meters?
6. During what era was the sea wall near St. Aiguille-sur-mer built?
7. What kind of coastal development practice is being criticized in this piece and why?
8. What did 1 million French and 1 million Portuguese households lose during the storm?
9. What kind of delays were experienced in France and northern Spain?
10. What is the name of the Paris airport, and what transpired there during Xynthia?
11. Give the three wind gust measurements and the country where they were recorded.
With your partners, compare answers. Listen again to the podcast if necessary.
Activity 4. Post-listening. Search for meaning. Write a synopsis in your own words of this report on Xynthia, then with your partner, practice presenting the report to each other as if your were a TV journalist reporting the story.
To verify your answers, you may read the text of this podcast.
NOTE TO INSTRUCTORS OF ADVANCED ESL /EAP
Overall, the Wiki resource and others like it, would be beneficial for this type of weekly exercise for an EAP class. Topics could be geared to the schools, students' interests, scholastic needs, etc. It would take time for the instructor to set up every week, but if the topics are of high interest, contain lots of new vocabulary, or are provocative in nature, class discussions would be exciting. If several instructors are teaching the same section, the weekly duty of selecting and setting up the podcast could be shared. Obviously public radio and other emissions can be used, but making one's own podcast enables the teacher's knowledge of students' interests to be taken more into account.
Varieties of pre-listening and post-listening can be done by having students work individually, in pairs or in threes. The advantage of paired work is combined knowledge, using the vocabulary to communicate. The advantage of working alone is that students will more easily identify their weaknesses. A combination of paired and group work would bring more variety, and would make students accountable to each other.
Just start at wikipedia.org and search the latest articles.
An additional post-listening activity could be done if pairs of students are each given a separate podcast to listen and prepare for class 'broadcasts'. This would entail using of all skills, and they would be required to use their new vocabulary in their class 'broadcasts'.
Yet another post-listening activity could be that each week a different group could post their findings on a wiki page, or a blog. And even more engaging (and time-consuming) could be a weekly newspaper that would afford students the opportunity of setting up sections, focusing on various areas of THEIR interest, by groups. Their activities could be construed as a service to fellow students. Discussion threads could be begun on one article per week, for example, or on all the topics if students are willing to moniter/answer them!
Happy podcasting!
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