Podcasts in ESL learning

After looking through the links a podcast I enjoyed was English cafe 500. I enjoyed the podcast because it was humorous and the episode looked at a famous American Elizabeth Blackwell. The podcast also provides a list of any potentially new or difficult vocabulary words for the students to listen for.  The podcast speaker speaks slowly and clearly, he also gives a clear definition of any potentially confusing phrases. Another thing I liked about the podcast was his discussion of a confusing set of verbs in English, which was in response to listeners questions.

I could use this podcast or any podcast within his series. This could be done by having the students look at the topics discussed in each podcast and have them pick out one that interests them. The students then can respond to the podcast they choose to listen to and provide details from the podcast as well as discuss the famous American spoken of in the podcast.

Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.6: Students make and support inferences about information and ideas with reference to features in oral and written text.

 May Include - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.6.MI: Features such as vocabulary, format, facts, sequence, and relevance of details.                      

Using comicstrips to make a class more fun

Comics are source of media that is popular all over the world; many countries have their own unique ways of drawing them with many different styles. I think the use of comics, as a tool in the classroom might be a fun way to introduce students to creating their own stories. It does not require them to spend the time drawing the characters, because they can just pick out their favorite from the many choices on the website.

For my comic I found a character from a tv show from my childhood. I used the character to recreate a repeated scene on the show. I think a fun activity would be for the students to come up with stories they can share with the class. There is a variety of options for the lengths of the comics, which can allow the students more freedom in the creation of their story. If the students enjoy the assignment you can have their characters keep going on different adventures related to the weekly lesson. Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.4.1.1: Students use a variety of oral, print, and electronic forms of social communication and for writing to or for self, applying the conventions of social writing. The students responding to their favorite comics and helping to provide ideas for the next adventure can fulfill this this indicator. The students can even split the comic into multiple parts.

I think the idea of using comics in the classroom can be a fun exercise that the students can make funny or serious depending on their interests. I think it can be enjoyable for every student. I think if you want to use it in a flipped classroom situation, it could be used to introduce new material as well in a fun way for the students. For me the most important use of this tool might be to give the students a way to share their understanding of the material with the instructor.

Using Short clips in your lessons

The website Animoto is a new website for me, but the using software to turn video clips into short movies is not. I think I could integrate the use of this tool into the classroom with an activity involving sports or hobbies. Every student has a sport or hobby they are passionate about and each one has some verbs that are used in a specific context in reference to that hobby. My video looks at  verbs used in playing or watching basketball. I feel like this could be a fun way for students to share their personal interests with the class as well as allowing them to share the new vocab with their classmates.

I think this tool can be useful because it can create a new option for creating even a weekly or monthly journal. The students can take pics or videos from their lives and share them with the class. Then they can write about the experiences they shared in their videos or pick one of their favorite classmates videos and make a response. I think this tool can give them control for what they wish to expand their knowledge on, if they are interested in a topic or art they can look into it deeper and share this new knowledge with their classmates.

 Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.4.1.1: Students use a variety of oral, print, and electronic forms of social communication and for writing to or for self, applying the conventions of social writing. 
I think this can be assessed both in their way their share the journals and videos as well as with how they respond to their classmates

TEDEd for making lessons

TED talks are always interesting and many of them contain thoughtful discussions from people who have many years of experience in their field. Being able to take and turn these videos into lessons through the TEDEd website is something new I would have never thought someone would have created as an option. This wonderful option for lesson creation  I think students would really enjoy using because many young people watch TED talks on our own because of how interesting they are.

For my lesson I looked for a video that would have advice for students studying English as well as new ideas for me as a teacher. The Three Secrets You Need to Know About Spoken English by Judy Thompson for me was very informative and gave me more perspective on the number of people who speak English in the world.

My Objectives are:

1. Make sure they understand how the three things discussed can impact their learning of english
2. Students will be able to provide a thoughtful response to the question posed in the lesson
3. Have the students sum up how they believe understanding each of the three secrets can impact their learning of English natively. 

I think the best way of testing to see if the objectives are meet is first to have the students write a short response summing up the video and what the three secrets are, then to have a in class discussion about how they think the knowledge shared by the ESL teacher can impact their learning. I think having a guided discussion will allow the students to share the ideas with their classmates and with me. I believe their opinions on the video will be valuable as well because as language learners their view is different then mine as the instructor. 

Flipping your class

Flipping your class is turning the traditional method of teaching around and making homework into in class work. This method passes the responsibility to the student, the students not only have to take responsibility, but when they have access to the materials they can go back and review the lesson more then once to increase their comprehension. The ability for the students to watch the instructional videos more times allows them to review the material as opposed to relying on notes they took  in class.

The article Flipping Your EL Classroom: A primer gives a basic introduction into the concept of flipping the class, the article focuses on how to find or create your own videos for the class. It gives examples of sources for videos including youtube, teacher tube, and ted-ed. This articles focus on the videos highlights the most important aspect of flipping the class, the material that introduces the topic for the lesson plan. Without the teacher directly interacting with the students while they are learning the initial lesson. It makes it important that you find the dest possible video for the students to watch and make sure it covers everything necessary in the lesson but also contains away to assure the students viewed it. One thing mentioned was adding a quiz to viewing the video as part of the lesson to assure the students watch it.

The second article is Three Reasons to Flip Your Classroom it first looks at the three steps of a flipped class lesson plan, they are the instructional video, in class collaboration and observation feedback assessment stage. The article highlights 3 very important results of the flipped classroom the first one being the increased comprehension. The second one being increased integration with teacher and student, the students who are struggling with comprehension have the most to gain from this new system. With the extra time in class devoted to using the new knowledge for purposes of interaction  and practice. The third reason being the greater use of critical thinking. As a result of the time spent outside of the classroom on understanding and remembering, the students have more time in class to focus on higher level thinking allowing for more time to work on comprehension.

I think flipping your classroom has potential to be used in the ESL environment, I do enjoy the idea of being able to spend more time focusing on making sure the students understand the material. By giving the teacher more time with the students to intervene when there is an issue with comprehension the students will be able to progress at the best possible rate.

Difficult games addressing serious issues

          Serious games can be used to address serious social issues facing a country or the world. I choose to play Third World Farmer  it was a fun game that looked at the challenges facing people with farms in third world countries, the challenge was how to keep a family alive and growing in the face of the many challenges. I played the game 7 or 8 times, it took me a few games to get the hang of it. The first 3 times i played the game my whole family died because i didn't know that every year the health of your family drops. Some of the many challenges the family faced was drought, crop failure, civil war, guerrillas, poachers and fire. Some of these issues affect farmers in first world countries as well but the ones related to political instability were the hardest to overcome in the game because of the way it impacted the farm.

 This game can serve as a fun but also interesting way of exploring the struggles facing people in third world countries and the impact the instability has on their lives. After playing the game the students can write about the experiences of the farmers that they played. They can discuss the struggles the family face and if they were able to make decision to overcome the adversity they face. Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.12: Students convey information and ideas through spoken and written language, using conventions and features of American English appropriate to audience and purpose. Playing the game itself won't fulfill the performance indicator but  a writing task discussing the game can help to fulfill it. The writing task can allow them to fully develop their thoughts on the subject and share them with the teacher. Some the students in an ESL class might be refuges who faced similar situations in their lives and may as a result be able to relate to the game more then other students. The students can discuss their opinions of the game, as well as if they were able to be successful and complete all the objectives. 

          This activity could also be completed as a group activity in class where the students are able to discuss the choices they make and how the outcome of the random events can affect the families. Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.13: Students engage in collaborative activities through a variety of student groupings to read, gather, share, discuss, interpret, organize, analyze, and present information. The students discussion about their choices and the outcomes will allow them to use english to both discuss the activity as well. 

         With a couple of attempts I think every student can figure out how to play this game effectively and complete all the objectives of the game. This was a fun game and i think it could make for a fun in class activity that allows the students to start a serious discussion. 

Polleke’s Blue Room and interactive games

I tried Polleke’s Blue Room it was my first time really trying room escape games. I played the game 3 times the first time I tried it with out using the walkthrough at all. I made little progress with figureing  out what I needed to accomplish in order to escape the room. The second time I played I used the walkthrough and made much more progress and accomplished the goal. The game to me seemed very difficult without the walkthrough because of how small many of the details were for the hidden objects.


I think this game could be useful for ESL students because the students can try the game at first without the walkthrough and see how far they can get. After the first attempt they can follow it up with trying it with the walkthrough and have the students race each other because the game has a timer. The Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.3: Students select information appropriate to the purpose of the investigation, relate ideas from one written or spoken source to another, and exclude nonessential information. This applies to this activity because of the use of the walkthrough and how they can apply it to completing the task.

In this activity the teacher can play a supporting role if the students get confused by the walkthrough and are unable to get past a certain point. The students can get excited by the prospect of playing a game and competing against their classmates. The students can also serve in a supporting role by helping any student who is unable to finish. I would asses the completion of my objects based on how well they can follow the walkthrough and apply it to the game. Following the completion of the game have the students then write what they did in the game in order to get out of the room.