Week 15--In Class Activity

Taichi and I have checked Mixxer site and we have created an account. Sine both of us know a little bit of Japanese, we found a friend who is a native Japanese speaker and said "good afternoon" in Japanese to the person. It will be a good website for language learners to make friends of native speakers of the language they want to learn. Also, it can help language learners to improve their writing proficiency by chatting with native speakers of target language.

Week 13 Reflection--Computer-Based Language Testing

     We have discused how we can use computer in teaching language. Computers are widely used in testing language these days. For example, TOEFL Ibt is a computer-based test, testers has to complete their tests in the conputer lab. The advantage of using computer in testing language are that it is easier to grade the test. The organizations donot need to worry about using people to grade the tests. For listening and reading part, they can use computer to grade, and paople will only grade on the speaking and writing parts, this can definitely save a lot of time. Also, it is convenient for the testers because typing is usually faster than writing.
      There are also disadvantages as well. For example, the computer may stop working sometimes, that is inconvenient to the testers and also the organizations that provide the test. Some test takers may not familiar with computer skills, so the typing speed will directly effect the grade on the test.
      Though there are advantages and disadvantages, it is a good idea to use technology in testing along with the social progress and human development.
    

Week 12 Activity

Chinese culture and language reading and writing class

Cynthia Ahlers, Taichi Hardiman, Hongbo Zhu

• PURPOSE: 
• Chinese culture and language reading and writing class
• Spring Festival, Celebration, Family, Traditions, and Expectations
• Email pen pals (Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication - ACMC) that will include Chinese language characters and Chinese culture

• LEVEL OF STUDENTS:
• High-intermediate level Chinese as a Second Language
• American 11-13-year-olds

• END PRODUCT: 
• The students will get more out of the culture

• ACCOUNTABILITY:
• Write down the answers to all of the questions in Chinese, then e-mail it to the teacher for credit

Ask Chinese partner:

SPRING FESTIVAL AND CELEBRATIONS

How do you celebrate Spring Festival?

What clothes do you wear to celebrate?

What kind of music is played to enhance the festivities?

How do you decorate your room during this time of year?

What kind of food do you eat when you celebrate?

FAMILY AND TRADITIONS

How many people are in your family?

Do you have aunts, uncles, and grandparents?

How do you celebrate your birthday?

Could you send an attachment photo of your family?

Do you look like your father or your mother?

What was your favorite gift you got for your birthday last year?

EXPECTATIONS

When did you start learning a second language?

What is your second language?

What activities do you do on your spare time?

Do you play a musical instrument?

Do you play sports?

Do you want to go to university?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Week 12 Reflection-----Teaching Culture Through CALL

     It is important to teach the culture behind the language as language teachers. Teachers can use a lot of tools to help them achieve their yeaching goals. When I taught Chinese, I will refer my students to certain website to learn certain Chinese traditional festivals and cultures.
     For example, when I taught the Spring Festival, I will ask my students to go online to find answers for the following questions:
1. When is the Spring Festival?
2. What color do people wear?
3. What kind of clothes do people wear?
4. What food do people eat?
5. What kind of special things do people do?
By checking online and answering all the questions by themselves, students will have a deep memory of the Spring Festivsl. After this, I will ask them to post their answers to their blogs in Chinese, in thia way, I can make sure that they really understand the culture.

Week 11--Reflection Writing and Grammar

     There are some online tools that can be used in teaching writing. Socu as purdue website, writing teachers can guide students to go to this website to check MLA or APA format. Blogs and BBlearn are also good tools to ues in teaching writing. Students can post their writing assignment or paragraphs, other students and the teacher can give feedback through these tools. MicroWord can also be used to provide students feedback by teachers. All these tools are really simple and easy to use.
      As for teaching grammar, studnts can check COCA website, fron this website, students can check information of words combination as which word go with certain prepositions, which word modifies another word.
      As language teachers, it will be effective to cooperate these usefuls teaching tools into teaching.

Material Development 2

A Lesson Plan for Program of Intensive English,

Level 2 reading and writing

Book used: Northstar 2

Written by: Hongbo Zhu

 

Course Objectives this lesson will address:

1.      Read passages from different media (website, newspaper column, magazine article, etc.) independently both in class and out of class.

2.      Recognize and understand main idea in reading.

3.      Distinguish between a main idea and detail.

4.      Develop targeted vocabulary (arts, business, fashion, family, friendship).

5.      Write simple sentences and compound sentences.

6.      Read paragraphs fluently by increasing speed, recognizing sight words, and pacing.

 

Pre-lesson Inventory

Ø  Things to bring to class:    

Ø  Equipment:

Ø  Things to tell students:

1.      Free reading time

Ø  Write objectives/agenda/HW on board:

1.      Key

 

Activity 1: Extensive Reading/Free Writing                                 (20 min.)

Purpose:  To introduce student’s to the daily practice of extensive reading and free writing.

Procedure:

1.      Greet Ss and take attendance.

2.      Tell students to take out their books and read silently for ten minutes.

3.      Remind students who are late that they will not receive credit for their reading.

4.      Check to see which students have their books and mark grades accordingly.

5.      Have students read for ten minutes.

6.      After ten minutes, pass out response prompt for today’s reading and give students ten minutes to complete it.

Transition: So before we get back to our textbooks, I want to talk a little bit about how to write a paragraph.

 

Parts of a Paragraph                                                                                                             (30 min.)

Purpose: For Ss to understand how to synthesize information into a paragraph.

Procedure:  Present new information, practice, comprehension check

1.      Organize Ss into 5 different groups.

2.      Pass out a sentence on a strip of paper to each group (MAKE ONE FOR DEMONSTRATION AND TWO MORE FOR PRACTICE).  These sentences go together to form a paragraph. 

3.      Explain to Ss that they will work together to put the sentences in the right order so that they form a paragraph.  Model this by pretending to be in one of the groups and asking to hear what another group has as a sentence.  Then pretend to make a decision about whether your sentence should go before or after that sentence.  It will be important for Ss to understand that they need to find the first sentence and work from there.  Perhaps you should go to the group with that first sentence and model that you assume that that is the first sentence of the paragraph.

4.      Give Ss 10 minutes to cooperate and create the class paragraph.

5.      Get the paragraph in order from Ss and compare their paragraph to the original paragraph (display this on the TV for Ss to see)

 

Transition: Now, let's take just a couple of minutes and look at the reading, then we’ll look at vocabulary. Turn to page 6. Here is a reading about "The Friendship Page."

 

 

Activity 2: Focus on Reading (NS pg. 5) (10 min)

Purpose: To help build strategies for more fluent reading by Ss.   

Procedure: Activating Background knowledge, presentation of new information, practice.

 

Have Ss turn to page 5

1.      Go over the top half of the page to help Ss look for clues about “Friendship Page”

2.      Read directions for exercise 1 on page 5 aloud and have students complete the exercise.

3.      Go over your own process of prediction to model how you predict as a pre-reading strategy and to start students off in the right direction.

 

After 10 minutes’ break

 

Transition: Now, getting back to our textbook: part of learning about any subject is learning how to talk about that subject using correct vocabulary.  This will help to build a more meaningful vocabulary for Ss.  Before our break, we will use prediction again to help us understand the reading we will do after break.

 

Activity 1:  Background and Vocabulary                                                 (20 min.) 

Purpose:  To learn target vocabulary in context.

Procedure: Presentation of new information, practice, comprehension check.

 

1.      Have Ss turn to p.3 and ask Ss to read the sentences paying attention to the boldfaced words. 

2.      Then using context, have them choose the best definition for each boldfaced word. 

3.      Model the first exercise or two to make sure Ss understand the directions.  Circulate to offer assistance if necessary.  Ss can use print dictionaries. (Also write all bold words on the board for next activity)

4.      Go over the answers as a class. 

5.      Take the opportunity to show Ss how to use context clues in the sentences to understand the meaning of the vocabulary item. 

 

For example, for item 1(Bronwyn wants to help her community in Melbourne.  She wants to help people in other countries, too.), the word too indicates the second sentence is another example of something appearing earlier.  Wants to help appears in both sentences.  Students can deduce community and people in other countries are referring to each other.  Then looking at the examples, students can choose the best answer from the choices given.  Also, Ss can replace the boldfaced word with the choices given; only one makes sense.

 

Transition: You can see that when you are reading, there are clues in the sentence for what each word means.  This skill of using surrounding words in a sentence to find the meaning of a word will help you to become a better reader.

 

 

Activity 4: Reading for Main Ideas (NS pg. 7) (10 min)

Purpose: Students will be able to read the text in given time and get the gist of the text.

Procedure: Presentation of new information, practice, comprehension check

•         Give students 3 min to go over the text and find out the main idea. (individual work)

•         Make sure they circle two answers for the question #1 and #2

•         Ask students how they came up with the answers and let them underline the part of the text where the answers came from. (Students can work in pairs to compare the underlined parts.)

•         Go through the answers together, relating with the key words like "friendly," "peace," "friendship," "meet," "safe," "volunteers," "personal" etc.

 

 

Transition:  Okay, now let’s look at the writing you guys did for me yesterday.

 

Short Writing Task 1 Feedback (15 minutes):

Purpose: to improve students writing with targeted, specific feedback.

Procedure:

1.      Before Class starts:

a.       Share a Google document with students and ask them to post their Short Writing 1 to the document so we can review and share their writings all together by using the computer and TA through Google doc.

b.      Select three of the tasks at random and read carefully.

c.       Identify two to three common language/grammar mistakes in the three samples.

d.      Go through all of the student’s writings and correct those mistakes.

e.       Underline where the mistakes are on Google document.

2.      In class

a.       Share students’ writing through Google document with underlined problem areas.

b.      Go through sample sentences from students essays on board to show student mistakes.

c.       Have students try to correct their own essays.

 

 

 

 

        

Back up activity (variable-time activity): free reading

      

Procedure(s): (sequence as needed for activity)

•          Key vocabulary

•          Building/Activating Background Knowledge

•          Presentation of New Information

•          Practice

•          Apply

•          Comprehension check

 

Technologies used:

1.      TV (Paragraph combination)

2.      Google document

 

Paragraph Exercise:

I think that the PIE should have uniforms. 

This is because the students at PIE have bad clothes. 

They wear loose pants and t-shirts everyday. 

These clothes are not scholarly and look bad. 

If the PIE has uniforms, students will get better grades.

 

             I think that the PIE should have uniforms.  This is because the students at PIE have bad clothes.  They wear loose pants and t-shirts everyday.  These clothes are not scholarly and look bad.  If the PIE has uniforms, students will get better grades.

Reading Material:

 

 

Welcome to The Friendship Page- the website about friendship.

When I was 16 years old, I wanted to help my community. People laughed! They said, “You can’t help. You are too young!” But I didn’t listen to them.

I was sure that friendship is important to everyone. So, in 1996, I started The Friendship Page.

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The Friendship Page has two goals. One goal is to make the internet friendlier. The other goal is to bring more peace to the world. The Friendship Page is really about “peace through friendship.”

Today, 20 volunteers help me with The Friendship Page. We all work hard, but we have a lot of fun. We think our work is very important.

The Friendship Page is very popular. More than 13,000 people in 190 countries visit every day. That’s 4,700,000 people every year.

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The Friendship Page is friendly, free, fun, and easy to use. You can make new friends. You can get advice about friendship. There are interesting pages with songs, poems, quotes, jokes and more. You can also meet new and old friends in the chat room.

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People from 8 to 88 years old visit The Friendship Page. Post people are 13-34 years old. Young people and old people can be friends. They can help each other and learn a lot. Fifty-five percent are female, and 45 percent are male.

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The Friendship Page is very safe. The volunteers watch the website carefully. They want it to be safe for everyone, especially for young people. We talk to the Australian police about Internet safety, too. On The Friendship Page, we do not use our real names. There are also no personal e-mail addresses, no phone numbers, and no personal pictures. Also, when you delete information from The Friendship Page, no one can see it again. The information does not stay on the Internet. This is not true of other websites like MySpace and Facebook.

If you are interested in friendship please visit The Friendship Page at www.friendhship.com.au

Response Outline for Extensive Reading:

Name:  ______________________

 

Outline for Free Writing

The book I read today is called (Title of book)________ by (Author of the book)_______. The book is about (Topic of the book)__________. I like this book because (Reason 1)________ and (Reason 2)________. This book reminds me of (Something from your life)________. I do not like this book because (Reason 1)________ .I (would/would not) recommend this book to my friends—I think they should (not) read it. 

 

Example

The book I read today is called Bangkok 8 by John Burdett. The book is about a police man in Bangkok. I like this book because there is a lot of action and it is exciting. This book reminds me of the time I traveled in Cambodia. I do not like this book because sometimes there is too much blood. I would recommend this book to my friends.

 

The book I read today is called ______________________ by _____________________.  The book is about _______________________.  I like this book because ______________________ and ________________________.  This book makes me think about __________________________. I do not like this book because _____________________  .I (would/would not) recommend this book to my friends.

Short Writing Task 1 Feedback:

I.                    The basic sentence structure in English is: SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT

                                                              i.      EXAMPLE: I want a sandwich.

II.                  Sometimes, we want to right a sentence with TWO VERBS. One way to write this sentence is using an INFINTIVE:

a.      An Infinitive: SUBJECT + VERB + to +VERB +OBJECT

III.                You must memorize which verbs are infinitives:

a.      Some infinitive verbs are:

                                                              i.      Agree

                                                            ii.      Hope

                                                          iii.      Know how

                                                           iv.      Need

                                                             v.      Like

                                                           vi.      Promise

                                                         vii.      Want

                                                       viii.      Would like

IV.                DIRECTIONS: Use infinitive form of the word to complete each sentence

                                                              i.      EXAMPLE:

1.      I______________watch moves. (like)

2.      I  like to watch movies

 

b.      He __________________go to the bank after class. (need)

c.       I __________________help her with her homework. (want)

d.      The teacher _________________teach the speaking class. (know how)

e.      We________________go to Mexico this weekend. (hope)

f.        My mother__________________send me pictures of my family. (like)

g.      I_____________________go to the University after this semester. (would like)

1.  Now he live in Flagstaff.
2.  He likes to talk English, and cook and clean.
3.  He like to all movies.
4.  He from Saudi Arabia.
5.  He likes to swimming.
6.  He like to take rest.
7.  He like to read and music and sport.