Podcasting for English!

     These days "podcast" is a very common word, however I did not exactly know what it was until I watched Podcasting in Plain English. I can definitely understand why podcasting would be so incredibly useful not only to those who are learning English but for anyone learning a language. Podcasts are essentially mini lessons/lectures that one can download and listen to whenever they want and repeat it as often as they wish.

     After doing a little bit of podcast "snooping" on the world wide web. I found a short, but useful podcast called "Making Soups and Stews" which teachers could definitely use to help their students meet standards especially Standard-ESL.C.9-12.2 which states, "Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for literary response, enjoyment, and expression."

     The reason this podcast stood out to me than all of the others was because I absolutely love food and I really love cooking. If I were an ESL student this podcast would definitely help me to better my English so that I can use it for both enjoyment and expression.

Animoto in the Classroom

     Today I used a program called Animoto to create a vocabulary slideshow for beginner level ESL students. Prior to using this program I had never heard of it until today. The program itself did not take more than a few minutes to figure out how to use and the final product looked nice considering I used the trial version and the Animoto watermark is still on my video.

     Last week I really enjoyed using TedED to create interactive lessons for more high intermediate - advanced students. In contrast, I think that Animoto would be more useful for beginners and low intermediate students. The short lesson I created involved introducing new vocabulary for the theme of going on a trip that would be helpful for students just starting out as opposed to a student that is geared more towards higher level grammatical concepts.

     With regards to students using this program, I think it would be a good way for them to meet ESL Standard - ESL.E.2-4.2 which states "students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for literary response, enjoyment, and expression." For example at the end of a travel unit, I would instruct my beginner students create a photo and text slideshow using Animoto. The assignment would include 10 sentences about an imaginary trip they are going on. Each slide would include a sentence with at least one new vocabulary word along with an image of the word.

This activity would be used to evaluate their comprehension of the new vocabulary learned during the unit while simultaneously allowing the students to be creative.

Learning the Difference Between Count and Non-Count Nouns with Ted ED

Today I created my first TEDEd lesson and used a YouTube video depicting the differences between count and non-count nouns. The lesson creating process was easy to follow and different take hardly any time at all.

The main language learning object of this lesson is to help students understand what count and non-count nouns are as well as what the differences are between these two main categories.

In order to incorporate this lesson into my classroom and evaluate whether or not my student(s) have understood the concept. I would hand out a worksheet with two columns. One would be labeled "Count Nouns" and the other side would be "Non-Count Nouns" I would then give the students a minute and a half to write down as many nouns as they could think of while putting them in the correct columns. I would then write the same two columns on the board and have a basket full of slips of paper with different nouns written on them. One by one students would take a noun from the basket and write it on the board under the column they think it belongs under. 

Polleke's Blue Room and ESL Standards

     Playing games for ESL practice can be both fun and informative. After playing Polleke's Blue Room it is easy to understand how these sorts of educational games can aid students in the learning of English. The objective of this game was to search for clues to unlock the door to the blue room and escape. At first I thought, "Okay, how hard could this really be?" I played the game once and spent around 15 minutes trying to find clues but the game was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. I ended up having to follow the walk through in order to beat it. 

     With regards to how this game would help ESL students learn and meet standards, I think it would help students learn new vocabulary, give descriptions, and use the subjunctive at a very basic level. A standard that would fit this description would be performance indicator-ESL.I.5-8.4.1.3 which states, "students request and provide information and assistance, orally or in writing, for personal, social, and academic purposes." 

In order to incorporate this game into a classroom setting I think that it would be good to have
pictures posted on a whiteboard or a PowerPoint slide of each section of the room and then ask students to describe what they can see in the room before playing the game and then after playing the game to test whether or not they have have benefited from the game. I would then divide the classroom into groups of three and tell them to try to beat the game together. If they are not able to beat the game after 30 minutes I would then provide them with a walk through of the game as a class discussion