Reflection of week 5

Reflection of week 5:

Week 5 was really full of new kinds of learning opportunities and new tools for assessment like rubrics, project-based learning (PBL) and WebQuests.

I think we need to update ourselves with these modern tools in this 21st century if we want to progress and be a good guide to our students. Giving much time on internet means learning a lot. Previously I spent much of my time on unnecessary things which did not benefit me in any way but today whenever I be online, my mind is diverted to delicious.com where I have saved so many important links for future use.

Creating Rubrics:

Before creating Rubrics, I thought it was difficult but when I tried, I found it very simple and enjoyable because I only clicked some of the options and it did the rest itself.

Creating WebQuest on zunal.com:

When I did as suggested by Robert, I was very much excited and found it very interesting tool to use and a good platform to do quite a lot. But I was very much disappointed to know later through some of my webskills friends that one was allowed to create only one page free of cost. That's why, the page (my experience) which I created in the beginning, had to be changed into 'Interview' through edition. I really wanted to create some pages free of cost but I was not allowed.

Other problem with it was that none was able to visit the page after I modified it. I spent much time in trying to get it published to the public but it did not work.

Definition of webquest

Professor Bernie Dodge of San Diego State University defines a WebQuest as an inquiry-oriented activity that uses resources on the World Wide Web. WebQuests pull together the most effective instructional practices into one integrated student activity. These Web-based projects use World Wide Web sites to help students develop problem-solving and decision-making skills. WebQuests are interesting and motivating to teachers and students. An effective WebQuest develops critical thinking skills and often includes a cooperative learning component. Students learn as they search for information using the Web, following a prescribed format that focuses on problem solving and authentic assessment. A well-written WebQuest requires students to go beyond simple fact finding. It asks them to analyze a variety of resources and use their creativity and critical-thinking skills to solve a problem. WebQuests help students analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information. There are two kinds of WebQuests, short term and long term.

Project Based Learning (PBL):

It found PBL out as a very powerful tool for motivating students to meet a target in a group work, learning much from friends inside the group.

I have not used PBL before but I am going to use it very soon and see the development as well as improvement in the students to a big extent.

For rubrics: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

My Rubric ID: 2111267

For PBL: http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/alternative.htm

http://www.ncsall.net/?id=385

For webquest: http://www.zunal.com/

My zunal ID# is: 

http://www.zunal.com/publish.php?w=119651

Last but not the least, I learnt a lot from week 5 and the credit goes to all the webskills colleagues and of course to ROBERT.

zunal did not work

Hi everyone,

With much excitement I had created a page 'My experience' on zunal.com (WebQuest) but when I came to know that we are not allowed to create more than one page free of cost, I thought to modify the same page which was permissible.

After I modified the page 'My experience' into 'Interview', none was able to view it, it said:

I spent much time in reading the 'Help' page so that I could get some help to get it viewed but was in vain. I unpublished it and then again published; it congratulated me for publishing. It also confirmed that the page was published to public but again the same above-mentioned problem. 

I have decided to quit it now. It was very interesting and I had done much labour in creating the page. I spent about 5 hours but in vain. 

I'm feeling very bad.

The Public URL for this WebQuest:
www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=119651

TechSolu

For some class-problems I described last week, I think the employment of CALL and some other tools for assessment like rubrics, project-based learning (PBL) and WebQuests will definitely help them increase their interest in gaining knowledge for language acquisition in a quite systematic and modern way.

Showing the importance of PBL, I will engage with some new ideas.

PBL can also minimize the problems caused by absence of students. They can make up the left lessons and also learn the importance of being an important part of the project in a group.

Since the students of basic level lose their interest after a few weeks of learning language, I will expose them to the following links:

1. For Vocabulary: http://www.vocabulary.co.il/

2. For Conversational sentences: http://www.englishdaily626.com/cs.php

3. For Grammar Quizzes; Vocabulary Quizzes; Crossword Quizzes: http://a4esl.org/

4. For Practice: www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/marketing/sfesl/practicereading.html

5. For Video: http://www.real-english.com/reo/1/unit1.html

6. For Listening: http://www.esl-lab.com/learn/learnrd1.htm

7. For Web Learning Projects: http://susangaer.com/studentprojects/

8. For Pronunciation: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

I hope with the employment of CALL and other WebTools, many problems can be sorted out in a couple of days.

++

Last week I explained a problem:


I have my own private language institute where I teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL). I've chosen a basic level class where I teach 25 students in a class who are very weak.

Most of the time, I find the students of Basic Level with zero knowledge in English, willing to learn written English fast without doing much hard labour as if I have a magic wand to do so for them. The problem is that they are absent, do not give enough time at home, do not do assignments regularly, and after some time, they start losing their interest. They don't want to spend on extra materials for learning English.

Problem:
Since all the students do not have computers and those who have it, don't have internet connection, it's difficult to make them familiar with new technology. It's also difficult to make them computer literate in a short period (2 months) of time for Basic Level Course. That's why, when I take them to show some video clips, I generally have to explain everything in details with no cross-questions from them, as I expect, which sometimes makes me feel as if I teach to the objects which cannot interact. It also sometimes makes the situation frustrating.

Project Based Learning (PBL)

I also just finished reading the much-discussed article of Susan Gaer, “Less Teaching and More Learning.” I found how she motivated the learners for Project Based Learning. It is also informative for the initiation. She is right to opine that students learn more than a teacher teaches.

Project Based Learning (PBL):

Project-based learning is a component of an inquiry-based approach to learning. In this approach, students create knowledge and understanding through learning activities built around intellectual inquiry and a high degree of engagement with meaningful tasks. Within the context of this inquiry-based approach, projects take the role traditionally afforded to assessments such as tests and quizzes. Projects are designed to allow students with a variety of different learning styles to demonstrate their acquired knowledge.

4 basic elements of a classic project-based learning activity:

1) an extended time frame;

2) collaboration;

3) inquiry, investigation, and research; and finally,

4) the construction of an artifact or performance of a consequential task.

Rubrics:

I think there is very big role of rubrics in PBL for evaluating the sense of understanding of the students. It can simply help measure the understanding of the students. It also makes the students clear about the concepts of the project or activity they are involved in.

These days, students also want to do several activities of learning and developing their skills independently but within a limit. Article about rubrics also states "Providing separate scores for different dimensions of a student's writing or speaking performance does not give the teacher or the student a good assessment of the whole of a performance." Analytical Rubrics provide detailed information about the strengths and weaknesses of the students in their language proficiency.

Since the Project Based Learning deals with an extended time frame; collaboration; inquiry, investigation, and research; and the construction of an artifact or performance of a consequential task, the students can do much more than a teacher expects them to. PBL gives them confidence and encouragement with motivation to work in group to meet a target and show that they can also do.

PBL is an approach to teaching with a target and motivation where the learners work in group with the help of given instructions and resources, planning to come up with a solution. It is also a dynamic approach to teaching in which students explore real-world problems and challenges, simultaneously developing cross-curriculum skills while working in small collaborative groups. PBL could be incorporated as a powerful tool in the curriculum itself. It can be incorporated for almost all the subjects. 

My WebQuest: Interview

Hi everybody,

I was excited about doing a lot on zunal.com but my excitement came down when I came to know that we could create only one project there free of cost. But thanks to Robert for sharing other free sites:

http://www.aula21.net/Wqfacil/webeng.htm
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/

Being sad, I edited the previous one (http://www.zunal.com/publish.php?w=119651) and changed that (My experience) into About Interview. It took a long time to add everything and it's very boring to pause and then continue for every thing.

I've created this project for the students learning English Language in advance level. This advance level class consists of 8 students, 3 girls 5 boys, aged between 21-24.

I hope they will be benefited a lot.

My zunal ID# is:

http://www.zunal.com/publish.php?w=119651

Regards,

Deep, Nepal

Rubric about an interview

Hi Robert and everybody!

As everybody, I also enjoyed creating a rubric on Rubistar. It's really great assessment tool with simplicity and easiness.

I chose this rubric for the students learning English Language in advance level. This advance level class consists of 8 students, 3 girls 5 boys, aged between 21-24.

I am teaching them about interviews in English news letters; simply about why an interview is taken? What kind of persons are chosen? What are the things to be considered like pre-interview, while interview and post interview?

Pre-interview:

Preparation

Setting up the interview

Labeling

Checking the equipments like camera, recorder, mic, etc.

While-interview:

Politeness

Recording

Sound Quality

Photos

Note-taking

Follow-up Questions

Post-interview:

Knowledge Gained

Report writing

Interview publishing

I also ask them to visit Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/10questions and http://www.youtube.com/show/celebrityinterviews so that they have clear concept about questions to be asked with celebrities, leaders, etc.

The link for my rubric is: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=2111267&

My Rubric ID: 2111267

Regards,

Deep, Nepal

Bad Week 4

Review of busy Week 4:

I was very excited about learning some new things in week 4 but things did not go as planned because of my being too much busy in preparation for the celebration of Tihar (Dipawali) festival (http://www.onlinediwaligiftstore.com/diwali-celebrations-in-nepal.html), one of the greatest festivals of Hindu. I couldn’t spare time for writing, however I managed to read some of the texts suggested by friends of Nicenet.

I know this cannot be excused but the fact is the same as I said. If it’s not OK, I’m ready to quit. I am feeling guilty of myself. I was so busy in some works (like cleaning of my institute, making some plans for the school where I am exam co-ordinator, publishing my newsletters, teaching my English language students, etc.) which I couldn’t avoid at any cost. I tried my times to write on Nicenet but I left incomplete owing to busy schedule.

Where I spent a little of my time:

Multimedia Storytelling (Language Arts, Art, Film) by Tacy Trowbridge

It gives an opportunity to strengthen their communication and it also gives skills by exploring multimedia storytelling for grade level 6-12. With the objectives like telling a story through a combination of words, sounds, and images; using a storyboard to outline and plan; and performing before an audience.

He has also suggested to use these helpful iMovie resources to make movies:

(http://www.apple.com/education/dv/tips/index.html)

(http://www.atomiclearning.com/freeimovie.shtml)

I also read the text, 'How do I write an instructional objective?' which I think we had done a bit before.

I also knew about 'What is K-W-L?'

Know - Want to Know - Learned

K-W-L is an introductory strategy that provides a structure for recalling what students know about a topic, noting what students want to know, and finally listing what has been learned and is yet to be learned.

What is its purpose?

The K-W-L strategy allows students to take inventory of what they already know and what they want to know. Students can categorize information about the topic that they expect to use.

I read instructional methods also.

In short, I kept reading whenever I got a bit time and wondering from where to start in a proper way.

It was not a satisfactory week at all.

Diwali in Nepal

Diwali in Nepal

http://www.diwalifestival.org/diwali-in-nepal.html

Surrounded by majestic Himalayas, Nepal, is a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society and the only Hindu Kingdom of the world. Hindus in Nepal celebrate the Diwali festival with bright lights, gift exchanges, fireworks, and elaborate feasts to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of light and wealth. Various houses and shop front in Katmandu, Nepal, displays the bright lights typical of Hindu communities during Diwali. 



Diwali is celebrated here with the usual Hindu festivities and rituals. Diwali in Nepal is known as Tihar. Just like most places in India Diwali is celebrated here to honor the goddess of wealth and god of prosperity-Lakshmi and Ganesh respectively. The festival here continues for five days. Every day has its special significance. The first day is dedicated to cows as they cook rice and feed the cows believing that goddess Lakshmi comes on cows. The second day is for Dogs as the Vahana of Bhairava. Preparation of delicious food especially meant for the dog is a typical characteristic of the day. Lights and lamps are lit to illuminate the entire surrounding and some of the specialty items are prepared to mark the third day of the festival. Fireworks, Lamps and crackers are widely used. The fourth day is dedicated to Yama, the Hindu God of Death. He is prayed for long life. The fifth final day is Bhhaya Dooj dedicated for the brothers who are wished long life and prosperity by their sisters.

#3 Class Issue

Hi everybody,

I have my own private language institute where I teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL). I've chosen a basic level class where I teach 25 students in a class who are very weak.

Most of the time, I find the students of Basic Level with zero knowledge in English, willing to learn written English fast without doing much hard labour as if I have a magic wand to do so for them. The problem is that they are absent, do not give enough time at home, do not do assignments regularly, and after some time, they start losing their interest. They don't want to spend on extra materials for learning English.

Problem:

Since all the students do not have computers and those who have it, don't have internet connection, it's difficult to make them familiar with new technology. It's also difficult to make them computer literate in a short period (2 months) of time for Basic Level Course. That's why, when I take them to show some video clips, I generally have to explain everything in details with no cross-questions from them, as I expect, which sometimes makes me feel as if I teach to the objects which cannot interact. It also sometimes makes the situation frustrating.

TechSolu:

I agree with the fact that with the help of CALL, their interest can be raised, they can be motivated and they will be able to learn much as well. Teaching them using the materials from internet can work magic for them if they work hard on that with the help of language instructors.

I have decided to make them follow http://englishforeveryone.org/ so as to decrease their lack of interest. It's a good site where they will find different things to study and enjoy playing Crossword Puzzles, etc.

Funny event:

One of the funny events was in a basic level of EFL class when I was playing a video clip of Language in Use from Cambridge. I made them clear many things with repeated playing. After the class was over after an hour, one of the students asked me whether or not I was going to teach them new vocabulary, sentence patterns, or some grammatical items. He had taken the video clip as a time pass I was doing with them, however I had made them clear about what I was going to do. I mean to say, some students, especially in language class, take listening, reading, and watching visual as 'time-pass'.

Reflection of Week 3:

Reflection of Week 3:

Week 3 was really full of learning various things via Delicious.com; Oral Aural Skill Building and so many useful links for all of us. I was very much ready to learn almost all the things very well but the things did not go as I had planned because of time problem. But I am happy that I have 'Delicious.com' where I have saved all the URLs from where I can start any time I am free from any part of the globe.

Many experienced and talented friends shared so many things from whom I have learnt a lot of things. People truly say 'Learning is a life-long process.' I think there are still so many things to learn in life and be a good guide for the students who can quench their thirst of their lives from what we keep learning. Time is a good teacher and it's teaching me so many things these days. I am glad that I have got so many nice friends from the international community who may be in touch from time to time to share the international feelings on a forum through internet.

I also enjoyed reading the article “Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials” by Lindsay Miller. It’s really so simple and informative. The new thing I came to know though her article is: ‘More than forty percent of our daily communication time is spent on listening, thirty-five percent on speaking, sixteen percent on reading, and only nine percent on writing (Burely-Allen 1995).’

The focus on three different stages: pre-listening, while-listing and post-listening really helps a teacher to help the learners understand much more than done in some other way.

The first website I visited was: http://www.cambridge.org/elt/resources/skills/interactive/pron_animations/index.htm

I found some animations for pronunciation especially for small kids. Any learners beginning to learn phonetics or sounds can take help from this site

The other one I visited was: http://video.about.com/esl/ESL--Question-Words-in-English.htm

There I found ESL Conversation about How to Ask Questions in English with Ellen Duish.

Transcript of ESL Conversation about How to Ask Questions in English is also available there which can help any level of students have better listening skills.

I thank all my friends for sharing links of so many useful sites.

http://www.real-english.com/reo/1/unit1.html

http://esl.about.com/u/sty/conversationlessonplans/users_conversation_lessons/Childhood-memories-Bucket-List.htm

www.eslflow.com

http://www.esl-lab.com/health/healrd1.htm

http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/speaking/teaching-ideas/

http://www.eslgold.com/speaking.html

http://www.elllo.org/video/1101/V1124-Party.htm

http://www.ted.com/

http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/content/62/2/209.extract

I've saved so many useful sites on: http://www.delicious.com/dear_deep/ anyone can visit me and take the treasure of ELT from there.

Regards,

Deep,

Nepal

Technology Tip of the Month

Social Bookmarking - Saving and Sharing Links

http://pages.uoregon.edu/dhealey/techtips/sept2009.html

enjoy bookmarking!!!

Deep

Review of Aleyda's Project Work

Hi everybody,

When I had a glance at all the files in PDF format, I jumped with joy thinking that I had a great chance of learning from all but I was disappointed because I didn’t have time to go them through properly. The pressure of time limit also made me read a little and that’s why, I chose to read the project of Aleyda Linares from National Pedagogical University, Honduras describing about Plan and Conduct action research related to technology use in the class room.

In the project, Linares has chosen a class of 16 undergraduate students age from 19-30 enrolled in the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) program at the National Pedagogical University of Honduras. The collaborative class enjoys working in groups, pairs, or practical oriented activities, however their written skills are lower than their oral skills (spoken) and they also have poor knowledge of hi-tech.

I find some of controversial things in the project, on the one hand he says, his learners have poor knowledge of technology, on the other I found “Most of the students have access to a computer at home…” on a point “Describe anything else……”

What I liked is the thing that he has mentioned a problem which is very common almost everywhere ‘speaking native language outside the class.’ (His learners speak Spanish language as a native language).

What I didn’t like is that he has stated problems everywhere even while describing the ‘Initial solution and expected response.’

All he has described in the project is the focus on grammatical aspect. The resources mentioned in the project do not seem to be exploited in a better way.

Regards,

Deep,

Nepal

Useful resources described in this project:

o

http://www.uoregon.edu/~dhealey/techtips/june2009.html

o

http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html

o

anson%20--%20blogs%20in%20education.pdf

http://www.rug.nl/talencentrum/informatie/deelnemers_studiedag/Ruben%20Comadina%20Gr

o

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

o

http://www.examenglish.com/

o

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones/spelling.htm

o

http://www.esl-lab.com/videoclips.htm

o

http://voicethread.com/#q.b1191.i13695

o

html

http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topics/songs/michael-jackson/you-are-not-alone-gapfill.

o

http://www.eduplace.com/tales/o

o

https://www.wordpress.com

o

http://www.eflnet.com/grammar/verbtense_index.php

o

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html

o

http://www.rong-chang.com/ex/easy_grammar_exercises.htm

o

http://www.britishcouncil.org/professionals-grammar-movies.htm

o

http://perso.wanadoo.es/autoenglish/freeexercises.htm#TENSES

o

http://a4esl.org/q/h/grammar.html

o

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/phrasal-verbs/

o

http://www.chompchomp.com/irregular05/irregular05.htm

o

http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/index.htmlo http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/http://www.how-to-draw-funny-cartoons.com/index.html

Delicious.com

Hi everybody,

As a Week 3 task, I visited www.delicious.com with excitement to explore something new thinking that I could be among some lucky to visit the site first but I was surprised to note that I visited very late. I also regretted for not having used such useful site for so long and suffered a lot from the loss of very important addresses of internet sites. O God why so late?

I am also one of the victims who lost the important links saved on my computer. I also got so many problems regarding the addresses of my favorite websites when I used more than one computers. Very often I myself forget what file name I use to save my important links in .doc format. Previously, I bookmared my pages with ctrl+d but when my computer was formatted, everything (the saving of months' URLs) was lost in a moment.
But thanks to 'delicious.com' and other such top 5 social bookmarking services:

http://www.pandia.com/sew/327-social-bookmarking.html

Furl

Netvouz

Del.icio.us

Ma.gnolia

Bluedot

I really enjoyed creating my own page in a very simple way;
http://www.delicious.com/dear_deep/

But someone please help me when they again shift as Robert said because I don't want to lose my links now.


Deep,
Nepal


What Robert suggested Roza on Nicenet,


Delicious just went through a restructuring period. They used to be owned by Yahoo, but were sold about a year ago. The old accounts were to remain intact, but a few months ago everything was shifted to the new company and their servers.

Unfortunately, there was only a short period of time for users to make the shift and move over their bookmarks. So some people with existing accounts lost their compiled bookmarks and had to start over. I am one of those.

The lesson is, always have backups. It is a lesson I never stop learning.

Robert

Reflection of Week 2

Review of Week2:

We didn't have even a short break and week2 started. I was worried about how I did week1. I mean if I made some mistakes in accomplishing the tasks.

The first task I did was Discussion: Search

Robert helped us in this way:

You can also look at the link to Web Searching Tech Tip for ideas about techniques for searching. Try some of the search engines or portals to see which ones work best for academic searches and for information for your class.

Try something that is NOT Google, then post a comment in the appropriate discussion on Nicenet about:

§         which search site you used

§         what you searched for, and

§         whether or not you would recommend this search site.

-----

My Post on Nicenet:

I was really confused from where to start but when I read everyone's discussion, I was energized to start myself. I am very happy to note that there are really many nice search engines beside Google. 

Which search sites I tried:

The ones I tried were: searchedu, freefind, parabara, philb, iseek, etc.

What I searched for:

I searched for 'teaching method, online training, etc.'

Whether or not I would recommend any:

I tried many but the one I really liked and enjoyed is 'www.philb.com' and I recommend this site. I think it's superb.

What I tried on www.philb.com
a) Internet search: (mouse pointer on the menu)
b) Which engine when? (mouse pointer)
c) Miscellaneous engines (click)

There I found 'Spellings & Words'

I clicked on 'Abbreviation' which was on the first 

The rest one will know when they try, it's very nice.

Thanks friends for such healthy discussion.

-----

The second task I did was: ABCD Learning Objective

In the beginning, I thought it was difficult but when I read the links given, I found it easy and much useful. I really had not thought that way. I really enjoyed creating as well as learning myself about ABCD learning objective.

My Post:

My abcd objective:

Teaching the students of grade 10 in my country from age 15 to 17 how to differentiate between adjective and noun by making them clear that it is noun that comes after adjective like hot (adj.) coffee (n.); beautiful (adj.) scene (n.); white (adj.) coat (n.), etc., they will be able to identify the exact words without memorizing the rules in depth and they will also be able to either tell the class or underline the words (adj./noun) 80% in the paper, copy or the text book.

Felipe Rodriguez's comment on my post:

Hello, Dipendra.
Teaching the location of adjectives is not very common in tenth grade in my country. This topic corresponds to the sixth or seventh grade, but when there is some doubt is important to solve the student's questions. Your adjective is good but it can be better. When you say: They will be able to identify the exact words without memorizing the rules in depth and the ....... it sounds a bit vague. It can be referring to nouns too; it could be like this: They will be able to underline the adjectives from a list..... Or they will be able to differentiate the adjectives from others words. On You Tube we can find a variety list of videos about it.
I am glad if you have a nice day!
Felipe Rodriguez.

My reply:

Hi Felipe, thanks for your suggestion on teaching of adjectives.

Yes, even in my country students are taught about adjectives and nouns from grade 4 & 5 but the problem is that when you ask the students of grade 11 or 12 to identify adjectives or nouns, they fail to respond you, it's only because they know the definition of the rules only for examination point of view but they cannot apply them while problem-solving practically.

Yes, I agree with you that 'They will be able to underline the adjectives or nouns from a list or a box.' But since the students of grade ten are much familiar, they can be asked to do some difficult things.

Dipendra

-----

The third task I did was: FINAL PROJECT - Step 1, Describe a Class

Because I am involved in many educational institutions, I was confused which one's class to describe. I finally decided to describe my own language institute.

My Post:

SUBJECT: Describing a Class I teach

I have my own private language institute where I teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL). I've chosen a basic level class where I teach 25 students in a class who are very weak.

Setting:

A private English language institute (Popular English Language Institute) situated in a city called Birgunj, Parsa (Nepal). I have a bit well-equipped class-room where 25 students study in a batch for an hour everyday from Monday to Friday. It's well-lit and airy. It has a tape recorder (cassette player). The students practice listening as well as record their voice on a blank cassette when they get to the level to understand foreign accent and communicate in English a bit. There's also a desktop computer-set equipped with multimedia and internet facility. They watch video-clips and other language materials on it off and on.

The number of girls (8) is less than that of the boys (17). The students, age group from 18 to 30, come to learn English of different levels. The learners are generally from college level to professional groups.

Study Program: English as Foreign Language

i. Basic Level

ii. Intermediate Level

iii. Advance Level

Mission: To enable the learners to write correctly and speak fluently.

Learners of Basic Level:

– learn the patterns of various sentences like simple, complex as well as joint sentences (no specific grammatical items except the use of articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, etc.)

– learn ready-made sentences so that they make similar sentences of their own.

– learn new vocabularies and their use with correct pronunciation

– learn how to make new sentences with Grammar Translation method

– learn how to introduce themselves in front of the class (with mic in their hands).

Allocation of students:

– Entrance test is given them to measure their skills in English and thus, similar types of students are kept in a batch.

Teaching Strategies:

– Lectures

– Asking vocabularies, checking their homework

– Demos

– Audio-visual

– Grammar Translation (esp. to weak groups)

– Homework

Assessment:

– Assignments

– Class Test

– Aptitude Test

– Weekly Test

– Monthly (final) Test

What learners want?

– They want to learn many things in English especially the grammatical items they don't know. Many of them want to develop their writing skills much more than speaking because they simply want to pass their academic (college) exams. However, they show eagerness for spoken (conversation) classes.

– Professionals come to make their spoken strong to communicate with their seniors, colleagues fluently. They also show interest in professional writing like formal letter-writing, report writing, job application writing, preparing for job interviews, corresponding emails, etc.

Problem:

Since all the students do not have computers and those who have it, don't have internet connection, it's difficult to make them familiar with technology. It's also difficult to make them computer literate in a short period (2 months) of time for Basic Level Course. That's why, I generally have to explain everything in details with no cross-questions from them which sometimes makes me feel as if I teach to the objects which cannot interact. It also sometimes makes the situation frustrating.

Dipendra,
Nepal

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The fourth task I did was: sharing my reflections

I took out some time to remember minutely about what I did all the previous days being very cool-minded and then I have written everything over here.

Learning Objectives for Week 2:

Week 2 officially opened on 3rd of October. This week and in all future weeks we will be responsible for:

1) readings

2) a discussion thread

3) a weekly task

4) a project step or task and

5) reflective blog posts.

Below is a brief sketch of this week.

– Discussion Thread:
Minimum of one post due Wednesday, and a minimum second post due Sunday
We should make at least two posts to the discussion thread (in Nicenet) each week, one by mid-week and one more by week's end. The discussion thread is based on the readings/materials. This week's topic is Web Searching.

– Weekly Task:
Due Sunday at end of week
We have a web task to complete and post about (in Nicenet) each week. This week's task is about Creating Learning Objectives. 

– Project Steps or Tasks:
Due Sunday at end of week
Every week we will try to make small steps in our final project by completing a project step or task. We will begin with the first project step this week by describing a class (in Nicenet) we might want to use for our final project. 

– Reflective Blog Posts:
Due Sunday at end of week
We should add at least one post every week to the blog we have set up as week 1 task. We should also add at least one comment to another blog. There is a blog roll (or a convenient list of all our blogs) located on the class wiki. 

–-

Week 2: The ABCD Learning Objectives Framework and Effective Web Searches

Learning Objectives (Readings/Materials) for This Week:

§         Discussion - web searching: After reviewing different search engines, participants in this course will analyze the search engines in terms of use in their own classes and share their advantages and disadvantages in at least two posts on Nicenet that include the web page (with URL), the search term, and their recommendation about the search engine.

§         Task - ABCD model for behavioral objectives: After reading about the ABCD model, participants will share a behavioral objective for a class they teach, using the ABCD model, in at least one post on Nicenet.

§         Blog - Participants in the course (Audience) will share their reflections on what they did and what they learned this week and comment on another person's post (Behavior) in at least one post on their own blog and one comment (Degree). This is an objective each week.

Project Task 1 - Participants in this course (Audience) will analyze the students in one course (Condition) and describe them (Behavior) in at least one post on Nicenet (Degree).