Week 15 - Giving Feedback using Technological Tools

Rate: 4 of 5 🞲🞲🞲🞲

The article of this week share us important information about how can teacher provides feedback to students through technological devices. In my opinion the use of technological devices as videos, recordings  using computer and Internet it helpful for teachers and students too because teacher might be specific clarifying the words that students have bad  when he is giving feedback besides nowadays exits interesting forms to provide feedback for example Screen Capture in which students send to the teacher their Microsoft Word document and teacher might the corrections recording a video that students watch with the things that they have bad and how can they correct them and the grade that the teacher give them.  However, I think that this types of feedback are good because helps to students to identify, rectify and learn from their mistakes, but it is a hard work for teachers because sometimes they do not have a lot of time to pass on the computer  and create many videos for all the students that they have in a class also they need to be careful with the technological tools that they use because no all of then are free to use. Something that I learned from the article was that the App SNAGIT  has a cost on the Internet, fortunately for teachers that could not pay exits the JING and ScreenR which are free. 

To conclude, it could be for teachers complicated provides those type of feedback to students because it is a little bit difficult use their computer and start to making a video, underlining words and ask the things that they noticed  good or bad  at the same time in students’ works also i have in this course the opportunity of receive feedback and it was interesting how my teacher provided me feedback that help me to improve the way that i write.

Here is the example of my Instruction Technology teacher provided me feedback using technological tools: 

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https://drive.google.com/a/udb.edu.sv/file/d/1QRq1HAjE__DtPM4I9YoCoIEAGCmysXAm/view?usp=drive_web

Week 14 - Interactive Classes in ELL students

Rate: 4 of 5 🞳🞳🞳🞳

The articles from this week share us interesting way on how teachers may include students’ participation, students’ interaction, and discussion strategies in classes.  First, the students’ participation in classes is important because it helps to catch students’ attention. It can be asking to students interesting questions that get them to think also motivate them in content. Besides, when students are developing their skill is important that the teacher provides them feedback in order that students improve their learning and give them the chance to practice using different vocabulary.  
Second, students’ interaction using Think-Pair-Shares and Circle Chats activities help to ELL student  in their learning process because students have the opportunity to offer their ideas it is important that they feel comfortable no matter if the make grammatical errors. Moreover, some benefits that those activities offer are that create an interactive classroom environment in order that students have opportunities to practice language skill to become successful students achieve them interaction and use of the second language. Something that caught my attention from the article discussion strategies was the activities that teachers might do in classes for example Gallery walk that is a useful oral activity in which students make small groups performing some kind of task like informative poster.  Another activity that caught my attention was the Hot Seat because it increases students’ participation at the moment that students sit in front of the rest of the class and start to answer questions. To conclude, teachers also might use interactive PowerPoint to include in classes students participation, students’ interaction because it is part of discussion strategy and it is easy create games that catch students attention in PowerPoint tool.

 Here is my example of a game in PowerPoint 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Oo5V_dtKUL5GBjTp69UPjdehEAgCRCQvp4Msz80Wpzs/edit?usp=sharing

ELL - English Language Learner - Students whose first language is not English and who are in the process of learning English.

Students may play the Hot Seat in this way:

Week 10 - Critical Thinking in Students Second Language

Rate: 3 of 5 🞱🞱🞱

I like the article of this week because share us important information about how teachers might help students to think critically. A belief of mine that was confirmed that the critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. In other words, critical thinking helps us to perfect specific abstract reasoning skills in which teachers should teach them the logic of disciplines to students to teach them to acquire knowledge and how we can do that as teachers let them read a text in an active and analytical way and think the same way instead of arriving at the classroom and start dictating the class. Because, to learn is to acquire new knowledge, to reason and to analyze, that means if students have the capacity to write their own conclusions based on what they have read.  In that way, teachers give the opportunity to their students to share with their classmates their own ideas and their own opinions about the reading that they had read. This will allow students to show more interest and have more motivation to acquire new knowledge in the classroom. Also, it is important that teachers show to students an interest to know what they learned during the class because that increases their students’ motivation.

 Finally, the technology plays an important part of students’ life because might help to students the ability to think critically and creatively. Teachers may use computers’ tool to catch students’ attention as visual representation that is a good tool in students learning process.

Week 9 - Mobile Phone in ESL Classroom

Rate: 4 of 5 🞳🞳🞳🞳

Nowadays, the mobile is an important device in students’ life because the majority of younger learners have a mobile. Something that caught my attention from this article was the many ideas that ESL teachers might use with their students and also the social tools that mobiles offer to us. Besides, the use of mobile phones inside or outside the classroom is that they give students control over their own learning. Some activities that the article show us are: Use the voice memo recorder feature to record conversations outside the classroom in which students can record and make interviews or conversations from their own or to other students that help them to use the language that they are learning . Another thing that teachers can do with the mobile is use the Mobile phone for social networking as Facebook in which teachers may create a group to post general information about the subject that the teacher is giving also teacher can organize online activities. 
However, teacher need to take into account if all the students have a mobile device because maybe some of them do not have and this make them lack of motivation in students, but teachers need to be ready for those kind of thing and teacher should make pairs or groups in order that involve all the students in the activity. 
To conclude, it is important that teachers are updated every day in the area of technology to be able to use these resources in favor of the students.

Week 8 - Authentic Material in ESL

Rate: 4 of 5 🞲🞲🞲🞲

My initial impression of this article was surprise how authentic material might help to students in their learning process. Nowadays, the Internet bring us many helpful ESL resources that teacher might use in classroom teaching because on the web exits a lot of tools online. Something that I learned from this article was how to make a lab session and how to apply authentic material in classroom. It is important that in lab sessions teachers take into account that is not just to students play on the computer or pass the time in front a computer because the  purpose is that students learn and practice a second language through authentic material as TV show, Radio, news broadcasts, documentaries, movies, and phone messages that reinforce the listening skill. 

Another type of authentic materials are photographs, art works, signs with symbols, postcards and picture book that reinforce the visual part of a lab session in classroom. Moreover, printed material as restaurant menus, sales catalogues, travel brochures, blogs, movie posters, and food labels helps in foreign classes.

Something i want to remember from the article is that authentic material plays an important part of students’ life and it is important that teachers introduce common things that happen in their real life for example if the vocabulary that the teacher is going to introduce is food he/she can be use food from their own country because this help to students to get a better idea of what the class is about. 

To conclude, incorporate authentic material in ESL classroom help in the process learning of students.

Week 7 - Acquiring Online Vocabulary

Rate: 4 of 5 🞳🞳🞳🞳

The articles of this week caught my attention because show us how the technology can help to increase the vocabulary and reading comprehension of the students outside the classroom. Besides, technology can provides teachers a lot of tools to improve them their reading and comprehension and increase their vocabulary boost too. Students has many opportunities to practice their reading comprehension online because on the Internet they can find many articles to read and topics that catch their attention that is something good for them. Moreover, students should find any meaning of words on the Internet because they can download or use an online dictionaries. 
Something that I learned from the article Online English-English Learner was that on dictionaries as Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDCE) www.ldoceonline.com students might notice that this dictionary include corpus – based that describe how languages is actually used, word frequency that mean if the word is high frequency or low frequency used, collocations is the combinations word that normally go together, authentic  examples that illustrate the use of words in context, and finally topical vocabulary that means how the words relate semantically to different categories.
On the other hand, the article Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary mentioned that the better students’ vocabulary knowledge is, the better they perform with reading comprehension tasks because if students read using appropriate skills their vocabulary increase.
To conclude, that article help me to comprehend  how important it is to look for the meaning of words that we do not understand when we are reading a book or an article because only in that way can we understand what we read.

Week 6 - What important are writing and reading skills?

Rate: 4 of 5 🞳🞳🞳🞳

The articles for this week share important information about writing and reading skills. Something that caught my attention in these articles was the many benefits that technology can provide to ESL. There are many websites in which students can practice and develop their skills also teachers can use the Internet in the classroom to enhance learning and achieve some teaching goals. Moreover, the readings implementation in English classes outside and inside the classroom helps students to increase their vocabulary, and acquire new vocabulary also their reading comprehension. For example the article from Literature mentioned that Children's Digital Library is a useful site that teachers in kindergartens can use because they can get a lot of stories that catch students' attention also the stories are be creative in order that kids may understand by pictures too.

Something i want to remember from the article Writing Instruction is how the Internet can be used to motivate students in their efforts to acquire English Proficiency Skills. Besides, Writing Instruction should be enriched with the Internet component, in order to provide students with choice, variety, and authenticity to given them a real purpose for writing, to allow them to experience the authentic written interaction with other people. Also, It is important that students can feel motivate using computer and the Web. This article mentioned as an example that E-mailing improve EFL learners' Reading and Writing abilities because is occupied with more technical aspects in the classroom. In addition, it is necessary that every day teachers and students should be aware of the possibilities give to them by the e-mail software. 

To conclude, the writing and reading skills are very important in students' life for that reason it is important  the  development of these skills through the Internet, which is easier and helps the students to acquire new knowledge.