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!