We're running a workshop here in Kalmar about the grading system in the new Lgr11 system on 1st November, from 6.30 pm to about 8.30 pm. We'll be in Room E312 in the Nisbethska Building, Linnégatan 5 in Kalmar (just off Esplanaden - turn off when you come to Ekelunds Konditori and it's the big, old building which used to be a girls' school!).
The workshop will be led by Dr Chris Allen, who's the main contact person for Language Didactics here at Linnaeus University's Kalmar campus. I'll be present too to participate in the discussions.
If you're interested in following what goes on, we'll be broadcasting live from E312 on Adobe Connect. Click on this link to join us on 1st November:
https://connect.sunet.se/engelskalgr11/
It may not be possible, by the way, for participants via Connect to speak to the hall directly, but I'll be keeping an eye on the Chat window and relaying comments on it to and from the hall.
If you're unable to participate on 1st November, you'll be welcome to watch the recording afterwards. You're welcome to continue the discussion by commenting on this post on the blog.
The agenda for the meeting on 1st November is to look at the Council of Europe Grading System and to use it to grade some pupils via recordings which have been made on behalf of the Council of Europe. The main aim is focus our attention on the thinking behind the CoE's grading system and to discuss how it can be applied to pupils in the real world!
We may organise further workshops in the spring, where we'll be continuing the examination and discussion of the Council of Europe's grades, with particular focus on written performance and on specific examples from Swedish schools.
For anyone reading this who isn't familiar with what's happening in Sweden, Lgr11 is the new school syllabus in Sweden, which was brought into effect on 1st July 2011. In the subject of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) they've decided to use the Council of Europe's grading system, CEFR, as the yardstick against which the performance of Swedish pupils in MFL will be measured, so Swedish language teachers need to find out about CEFR …
David Richardson
Linnaeus University
SOL
Kalmar
Friday, 14 October 2011
What's happening with this blog …
This blog's got a bit big now! I'm going to keep it open as a repository for all the brilliant ideas my students have had so far, but the new courses are now using this blogs:
http://ictinenglishteachinggroup1.blogspot.com/
http://ictinenglishteachinggroup2.blogspot.com/
http://ictinenglishteachinggroup3.blogspot.com/
http://ictinenglishteachinggroup4.blogspot.com/
http://ictinenglishteachinggroup5.blogspot.com/
These groups are only just getting started, so there won't be much there for a couple of weeks.
------------
Apart from that, I'll continue using this blog for special occasions, one of which is coming up on 1st November (see above).
http://ictinenglishteachinggroup1.blogspot.com/
http://ictinenglishteachinggroup2.blogspot.com/
http://ictinenglishteachinggroup3.blogspot.com/
http://ictinenglishteachinggroup4.blogspot.com/
http://ictinenglishteachinggroup5.blogspot.com/
These groups are only just getting started, so there won't be much there for a couple of weeks.
------------
Apart from that, I'll continue using this blog for special occasions, one of which is coming up on 1st November (see above).
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Voice Thread
The modern technology has lifted the field of education to the high levels. The teaching tools which were used in the 20th century are being replaced at a high rate especially in the developed countries. Teachers are eager to try the modern tools in their class rooms. These methods do not only capture the learners interest but they also leave a mark in the learner’s memory. Whatever method the teachers choose, they can be sure that learning takes place.
Voice thread is a modern technology which facilitates easy and interesting teaching and learning. It is a free online programme and it is used to narrate stories, chant rhymes using pictures, text, and music all over the world. With voice thread, a group of conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. The good thing with voice thread is that no software is needed to be installed.
For one to use the voice thread, the following are needed
A computer and the internet
Microphone
Windows XP
And USB, audio file in mp3/wav format
Open an account at...... http://voicethread.com.
Steps towards creating a voice thread:
Open an account at http://voicethread.com.
Choose a topic you want to discuss or teach
Decide on the audience that is what age group the topic is suitable for.
Choose the materials you would like to use. One can either take photographs, import from different sites on the internet as long as they are allowed to be used for private purposes.
The photographs are then used as a guiding factor for example if one has taken photographs in African sceneries, then one can discuss the topic with the help of the photographs. At this point I would like to mention that photographs are not needed, a topic can be enough to discuss depending on the audience.
Choose the media you would like to use and this can vary from digital photo story to power point.
In the voice thread website, there is a place written create, click on create in order to create your Voice thread.
Organize your work and delete the areas you find inappropriate for use and decide who should be allowed to view and comment on your work.
Useful features in the voice thread:
Doodle: Doodle allows you to emphasis on the important features on your work. If the creator fins that the green sceneries are important in Africa, then he/she will draw circles around the green sceneries on the photographs. One can draw and comment on it at the same time.
Commenting on the voice thread:
There are five ways of commenting on the voice thread:
Telephone: Use a telephone to leave your comments to the creator.
Microphone
Text
Audio file
Video with webcam
Advantages of using voice thread:
It does not need any software to be installed.
It accepts Ms Word, excel, power point and even digital photo story.
It is free for educators to use.
It is easy to create.
One can control who to watch and comment on the voice thread.
One can participate while others are commenting on it.
The physical impaired can participate in commenting by using the phone and the sign language.
The learners can also create their voice thread and allow the teacher to comment on their work. Mrs. Ngai a teacher in the USA has done this successfully. You can find her work in the following website: http://www.ngaiclassroom.meyertown.com/voicethread.htm.
I recommend voice thread to all teachers. The fact that both the teacher and the learners can use it is good.
Sunday, 27 March 2011
My StoryMaker
http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/embed.cfm
Can a lion share a muffin with an elephant? Yes, why not?
In this interactive picture book, you can create different stories depending on the figures you use. It is easy to follow the instructions and create your own story. The first thing you need to do is select which characters you want to include in your book. Then select what the book should be about. After that, you can type and choose different characters, items, objects and settings depending what you want to happened in your story. There is so much you can do with your story, for example, you can move objects by clicking on them, change characters feelings and write what is happening in the picture. Afterwards, you can share your book with others, read it and print it. The library, Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh, in the U.S. is the creator of this website.
What you need to make it work
Flash Player
How the resource can be used by teachers.
As a teacher, you can make your own stories, which you can show and read to the children.
The story can be used as an introduction to a new topic or a theme.
The story can be a part of a portfolio, used for assessment.
How the resource can be used by pupils.
Children can create their own illustrated stories. They can read and display their stories to each other, and also present their story to the whole class.
Children are practicing writing, listening and reading when they use this website. They are practicing to listen when they are following the instructions, and when they listen to others' stories. They are practice reading when they read the instructions. And they are practicing writing, when they are writing their story.
Other considerations when using this resource.
Before you begin creating your story, it is good if you watch a little video with instructions. If you need help while you are creating your story, there is a little blue guy who can help you. Just click on him and he will help you.
Photo Story as an ICT resource
Photo Story is a program from Microsoft which you can use to make digital presentations. In the presentaions you can add picture - your own or from a general archive and to the pictures you can add text, music and recorded speech.
As I said before, Photo Story is a program from Microsoft and you can download it for free from their homepage.
To make this program work on your computer you need a license version of Windows and you need to have Windows Media Player 10 installed as well. To be able to record speech you must have access to a microphone or a headset.
Photo Story contains easy step-for-step instructions so both you as a teacher and your pupils easy will learn how to use it. When I first tried it, I did not have any pre-knowledge of the program and I learned very quick how to use it.
How Photo Story can be used by teachers and pupils
Photo Story as an ICT resource in the classroom can be used in multiple ways, the only thing that stops you is your imagination. Teachers can use the program to e.g. to introduce new areas of work, lectures, storytelling and much more. Pupils can use Photo Story to e.g. do different kinds of assignments, documentary a day out or a study visit the class made or things like that.
I have tried this program myself to do a Storytelling of the book Spotty and I totally fell in love with it! I am sure that this is a program I will use many, many times in my future work as a teacher.
I also think that this is a program which the pupils will appreciate to work with because first of all it is fun and also because I think that they will feel very proud of their final productions. Certainly will some pupils feel umcomfortable to hear their own recorded voice but this could be a good way to get knowledge of how important the pronunciation is. I also think that Photo Story is a good program to pupils who think it is uncomfortable to speak in front of the whole class, because maybe they will think it is easier to show a Photo Story they had made.
Other considerations when using Photo Story as an ICT resource
When you are using Photo Story as an ICT resource you must think about the copyright of pictures. If you have use pictures you have draw or taken with a camera yourself you do not have to worry about the copyright at all. A good idea is to have a scanner or a digital camera available! If you choose to use picture from different websites you must use pictures with no copyright. Websites that offers an archive of pictures without no copyright is e.g.
- www.flickr.com
- www.multimedia.skolverket.se
- www.fotofinnaren.se
Friday, 25 March 2011
In today’s society we use all kinds of different communication tools like Facebook, Twitter, Skype, MSN, YouTube, blogs and other platforms. I think that most people, regardless of age, are familiar with at least one of these tools, probably more. And I am pretty sure that every kid knows how to use a computer and the internet and I also think that most parents are well known with the internet and what you can find there. So, why not use this in the teaching?
When I joined Facebook a couple years ago I thought that it was a forum for young people. I was probably around 19 at the time so by “young people” I meant people no older than 30, maybe 35. Today, Facebook is not just a forum for “young people”. Parents and even grandparents are on Facebook and it is nothing weird about that. Same with blogs. People of all ages have blogs with different messages and different kinds of readers. There are fashion blogs, interior design blogs, and baby blogs and so on. A blog can be used in so many different ways with different purposes and I think this would be a great resource for ICT. Just like a platform for the pupils and the teacher to communicate on.
One thing that I have noticed while doing my traineeship as a teacher is that many parents feel like they have no control or no clue of when and what their kids have to do for their homework. We all recognize it, the parent ask the child “Do you have any homework today?” and the kid says “No Mum, I don´t”. I think you know what I mean and by having this blog the parents can keep themselves updated on their kids homework, tests, what they are working with right know and so on. Don´t get me wrong, I don´t mean that the parents should “check up” on their kids and be like “Hey, I read the blog and I know you have homework to do so stop playing videogames and start!”. The pupils must take responsibility for what needs to be done but the blog can involve the parents in the teaching.
Of course, you can’t take for granted that all pupils have a computer with internet at home but I do think we can be sure that all the pupils know how to use it and in one way or another they can easily get in touch with a working computer. If not in their home, there are computers with internet in school, library and even in most mobile phones.
How blogs can be used by teachers and pupils:
Like I mentioned before, this blog can be used like a learning platform. The teacher would, of course, be the “head chef” for the blog though the pupils and parents will have full access to it. The teacher can post information about tasks and lessons and the pupils can ask questions to the teacher or the other pupils.
Just to show you my thoughts about this blog I made a blog for fun (at www.blogg.se) and created different categories to different kinds of topics. When I, the teacher, post something on the blog I can choose to place it in the right category. For example if I want to post something about the content in next English lesson I place it under the category “Lessons”. In that way the pupils can easily navigate on the blog and find the information that they are looking for. Here are some categories that I made:
· Contact – contact information to me, the teacher, and the pupils email addresses so that they can email each other.
· Discussion – the pupils can discuss things at the blog like tasks, and this goes under the category Discussion
· Homework and tasks – here can the pupils find homework and tasks that they have to do. It would of course also be given to them in school. But it can be a good thing if someone is sick and wants to know what the homework is for next lesson.
· Lessons – here I would post a lesson planning so that the pupils can see what we are going to do at next English lesson.
· News – perhaps I am sick one day, to inform my pupils I can write this on the blog.
· Questions and concerns – if the pupils have any question or concern about something. It could be questions about a test or something like that.
· Timetable – what time the lesson starts and in which room the lesson is in can be find here.
Considerations
One thing to have in consideration is that you can´t count on the pupils to always keep themselves updated by looking at the blog. I think that there will always be one group who will definitely use the blog to communicate with other pupils and the teacher and also keep themselves updated but there will also be one group who will not bother to check the blog for updates about lessons and homework. Therefore the teacher cannot rely on just the blog; practical information will also need to be given by the teacher when meeting the pupils IRL.
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Learning English through a blog
The internet is full of sources of learning English through ICT and the selection of places to participate in activities and games are great. In school we have to have a purpose with the selection and we have to think how the information is being shown for the students on the site and who it is who want to send a message through the site.
I have been going through a website that supposedly is designed for students to learn and practice English as a foreign language in Japan, but the site also encourage young native speakers (English) to play the games and learn from the activities. I do not want to criticize the website, because I am sure that many children can learn something from it, but I would not use these kinds of websites in my English teaching classroom. The reasons are first of all that the games ask you to complete different quizzes and will off course only provide you with right or wrong answer and no explanation. If you happen to answer wrong you get minus points, leading to that this could be a very negative experience for the student if he/she can not complete one question, and looses all the points he/she already made.
I also question why we need to use a computer to play games like “Hangman” or “Matching pairs”, when those are perfect examples of activities for children to communicate around in pairs or groups. Along with “Hangman” the board game “Guess who?” is a fantastic way to communicate, describe and be comfortable while learning. “Guess who?” can also be transformed and the pictures can be changed with different themes and why not play the game live with the students being the “bricks”?
(foto by:unloveablesteve, flickr.com)
(picture posted according to copyrights)
I would want my students to communicate to learn English. I want them to talk, write and explore how to use the language in a creative way and that is why I would use a blog in the English education. For the students to have their own blog would give them the opportunity to write in the blog about matters that they believe is important and to use the English language for something that they are interested in. The blog posts will also be up for discussion with the class and social, global and multimedia ethics would be thought. Many schools and classes write articles and make newspapers, to use the blog we would enter a more environment friendly zone and also gives the parents the opportunities to have a direct access to the children’s development and work.
I am also very keen on the idea to have the blog on the class website (where information, forms, homework and week letters and planning would be posted) so that is will be a natural part of what they already would be used to. To create a website like that you can very easy use weebly.com ( http://education.weebly.com). Smart, environment friendly and easy for most of the families today, who use email and internet in work and in private everyday. For those families who do not have the opportunities to enter the website at work or at home will off course be provided with a paper copy of the news and the weekly letter, so no obligations, no pressure for families.
In short the resource would be a blog created at either weebly.com or blogger.com or any other free blog network. The blog will work as forum to post text, poems, news, work and information about other activities that happened in the English classroom. The students know that there is a receiver for their work, and will therefore make a bigger effort when creating. The students will always have the opportunities to publish their work and that will make them proud. To make this work we need a computer with internet access and the above mentioned blog account (and possibly a digital camera to post pictures on the blog to make it visually come alive)
For me as a teacher I will have access to all the texts written by each student in one place, giving me the opening to easy evaluate and to see progress in the work. The blog would be a tool for helping the students to see their own progress, with will help me as a teacher to motivate them. Me, as the teacher also has the responsibility to make sure that no pictures of the children (without parental approval) are being posted and that all text is correct and representative is the blog.
The students will write and publish real information, example a post about last week’s fieldtrip, give grades on the food in the cafeteria, tell about something they find important and discuss world news etc. the students will know that they always have a receiver and will be published and that their job is important and will not just end up in a pile or draw of old texts (like too many texts do now unfortunately). Education and knowledge about layout, fonts and esthetics will also be a part of the blog. How do we attract readers? How can we make the post look as good as possible? The students will feel important and the work they do will always feel meaningful.
POSTED BY: THERESE BOLIN
I have been going through a website that supposedly is designed for students to learn and practice English as a foreign language in Japan, but the site also encourage young native speakers (English) to play the games and learn from the activities. I do not want to criticize the website, because I am sure that many children can learn something from it, but I would not use these kinds of websites in my English teaching classroom. The reasons are first of all that the games ask you to complete different quizzes and will off course only provide you with right or wrong answer and no explanation. If you happen to answer wrong you get minus points, leading to that this could be a very negative experience for the student if he/she can not complete one question, and looses all the points he/she already made.
I also question why we need to use a computer to play games like “Hangman” or “Matching pairs”, when those are perfect examples of activities for children to communicate around in pairs or groups. Along with “Hangman” the board game “Guess who?” is a fantastic way to communicate, describe and be comfortable while learning. “Guess who?” can also be transformed and the pictures can be changed with different themes and why not play the game live with the students being the “bricks”?
(foto by:unloveablesteve, flickr.com)
(picture posted according to copyrights)
I would want my students to communicate to learn English. I want them to talk, write and explore how to use the language in a creative way and that is why I would use a blog in the English education. For the students to have their own blog would give them the opportunity to write in the blog about matters that they believe is important and to use the English language for something that they are interested in. The blog posts will also be up for discussion with the class and social, global and multimedia ethics would be thought. Many schools and classes write articles and make newspapers, to use the blog we would enter a more environment friendly zone and also gives the parents the opportunities to have a direct access to the children’s development and work.
I am also very keen on the idea to have the blog on the class website (where information, forms, homework and week letters and planning would be posted) so that is will be a natural part of what they already would be used to. To create a website like that you can very easy use weebly.com ( http://education.weebly.com). Smart, environment friendly and easy for most of the families today, who use email and internet in work and in private everyday. For those families who do not have the opportunities to enter the website at work or at home will off course be provided with a paper copy of the news and the weekly letter, so no obligations, no pressure for families.
In short the resource would be a blog created at either weebly.com or blogger.com or any other free blog network. The blog will work as forum to post text, poems, news, work and information about other activities that happened in the English classroom. The students know that there is a receiver for their work, and will therefore make a bigger effort when creating. The students will always have the opportunities to publish their work and that will make them proud. To make this work we need a computer with internet access and the above mentioned blog account (and possibly a digital camera to post pictures on the blog to make it visually come alive)
For me as a teacher I will have access to all the texts written by each student in one place, giving me the opening to easy evaluate and to see progress in the work. The blog would be a tool for helping the students to see their own progress, with will help me as a teacher to motivate them. Me, as the teacher also has the responsibility to make sure that no pictures of the children (without parental approval) are being posted and that all text is correct and representative is the blog.
The students will write and publish real information, example a post about last week’s fieldtrip, give grades on the food in the cafeteria, tell about something they find important and discuss world news etc. the students will know that they always have a receiver and will be published and that their job is important and will not just end up in a pile or draw of old texts (like too many texts do now unfortunately). Education and knowledge about layout, fonts and esthetics will also be a part of the blog. How do we attract readers? How can we make the post look as good as possible? The students will feel important and the work they do will always feel meaningful.
POSTED BY: THERESE BOLIN
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