Video Podcast

Podcast Document

Video Podcast

Meeting friends from all over the world

“Getting to know you…”

Pilar Escalona Requena

1. - Description of intended students.

These series of video podcasts are for my future students. They are in Middle School. They are thirty students from ages between 12 and 13. They are native Spanish speakers and their level of English is basic. They were born in Chile and do not have a second language; in Chile they only need to speak Spanish. For them English is only a required subject to pass at school. They like to play video games, chat with their friends, listen to music and watch T.V. Considering that they are not really interested in learning English they need to know why is it important; how some people had to learn English in order to communicate with others; and how could they use it in their daily lives. They also need to advance from basic level into intermediate level.

2. - Description of language objectives and content objectives.

Series

Language objectives:

Getting to know you questions:

• What's your name?
• Where are you from?
• What's your favorite (country) food?
• What do you like to do? Do you have any hobbies?
• How long have you been studying English?
• Is it difficult to learn English? Why?
• How is your country like?
• What do you like about your country?
• What do you miss most about your country?
• Why are you living in USA?
• When did you came to USA?
• What countries have you visited?
• How many languages do you speak?
• What language do you speak in your country?
• What is your religion? Do you go to church?
• What kind of food do you like? Do you like American food?
• What do you like about American culture?
• Where do you live?
• Do you play any sports? Which sports do you like?
• Who do you live with?
• Where is your family?
• Do you any brothers or sisters?
• What are you going to do after high school?
• How is your country like?
• Are you going to go back to your country?
• What are the differences between USA and your country? Comparing and contrasting

Content objectives: Getting to know people from different parts of the world that are living in USA. Young students from different cultures, who have strong backgrounds and strong stories to tell. They will answer questions about themselves, about their culture and their country. They will tell us about their experience living in USA and learning English as a second language. Some of the students interviewed are from Africa, Russia, Japan, Korea, Egypt, Marshall Islands and Micronesia. Each podcast has two speakers from the same country. In the series they will be two podcasts from the same speakers, this is: Getting to know you 1 and Getting to know you 2. This continuation will permit the students to get to know more about the life of the students interviewed.

They will see that in USA there is a huge diversity of people. They will be able to hear a different accent and they will have the opportunity to meet students who live very far from Chile.

Individual podcast

Language objectives:

· Where are you from?

· What is your name?

· How old are you?

· How many languages do you speak?

· What do you want to do after high school?

· Why are you living in USA?

· Do you have any brothers or sisters?

Content objectives:

Getting to know you 1: In this first podcast the students will meet Raphael and Meshack. They are from Tanzania, Africa. They are between 15 and 16 years old, and they are studying in USA. The students will get to know the speakers while they answer the questions of the podcast. They will learn about their expectations for the future; some personal data; about their choice of coming to USA; about their families and hopes.

On the second podcast they will get to know Raphael and Meshack more deeply; about their country and culture; and their opinions about American culture.

Explanation of reasoning:

The series of podcasts Meeting friends from all over the world consist about getting to know people from different cultures. The people will answer basic questions about their lives.

The people that are interviewed in the podcasts are students from similar ages as my future students, they are teenagers. Therefore my future students will feel a connection with them. They will be able to see the struggle that some kids have in order to move to a country with more opportunities. They will see why some people leave their countries and move to a new one. They will be able to compare them with USA and Chile.

3. - Descriptions of the elements that make the podcast comprehensible

First, the students will be introduce with questions about getting to know people. What are the questions they will need to ask when you first meet someone; and what are the questions they need to ask in order to get more information about someone. They will learn English vocabulary and improve their conversation skills.

After, they will watch the video podcast and they will be able to see how these questions are answered with different people from different countries.

The first podcast has really basic questions such as, What is your name? How old are you? and Where are you from?. While watching the video they will listen and read the questions asked to the people. They can see who is answering them, and they will get to know each speaker every time they answer different questions. They will collect information about the people; their country and their culture. The podcast is welcoming, it has happy hip music, and young outgoing people which will keep the students motivated.

4. - Description of the strategies that we have covered that have informed the choices that you have made with the podcast and how you will use it with students

With these series of podcasts we can create multiple activities. The students will be motivated to watch them because it is quite different from the lecture kind of class that we have in Chile. They will be able to interact between each other and meet students from different parts of the world who are learning English as a second language. They will be able to compare and see the difference between ESL and EFL. They will be shown a different reality and a real use of the language. They can also relate to the people interviewed because they are students from similar ages.

Social interaction: The students will be asked to work in pairs while watching the video. Afterwards they will have to discuss what they saw and answer questions about the podcast: Where are Raphael and Meshack from?; How old is Meshack?; How many languages does Meshack speaks?; What does Meshack wants to do after high school?; Why is Meshack living in USA?; Do they have any brothers or sisters?. They will also have to work on a project about Africa, Tanzania.

Critical Thinking: After watching the video they will work on a project about the country the students interviewed came from. They must work on a paper and a presentation. They will work in pairs and research online or at the library. Some of the topics they will have to research about are: Official languages, culture, history, traditions, environment and geography.

High Expectation: These podcasts will give them new knowledge and new points of view about English and about people from different backgrounds and cultures. They will be able to give opinions and talk about the differences between one another. The students will be expected to be responsible and respectful with his or her partner. They will be expected to learn in a meaningful way and not memorize. In every occasion I will be there to correct some mistakes; to clear doubts; to help them with some problems; and to support my students whenever they need it.

Reflection 6: A case of effective language teaching

The students were giving a book called The Giver. They must take it home and read one chapter per class.

Critical thinking: In class the students work in groups and debate about what they have red. Each day they discuss a new chapter; making questions, giving their personal opinions, debating and explaining; promoting critical thinking.

Social Interaction: The students have to work in groups in order to debate and share their opinions and believes. The students learn from each other, and they help their classmates understand some difficult points of each chapter.


Reading this book was effective for the students because they had to work in groups every day and talked about what they have red. They not only had to read it because the teacher told them to, but they also had to read it in order to share their ideas, to make questions and explain what they understood or didn't understand about the book. They not only had to be prepared for a final text after reading the book, but they also had to be prepared every class and debate. A long time process that makes the reading process easier and more comprehensible.
I think that working in groups and working in debates and helping each other are really good cases of effective teaching. Both social interaction and critical thinking lead to success.

Reflection 5: If only they knew…

..what high expectation is.

I think that some people do not believe that the ESL students of the school can make it in college. They think that the students are only working material. They do not see the students as excellent students with great expectations for the future, hence they do not help them to be great students now.
The reinforcement is only in speaking and listening. I think that reading and writing comprehension are the key to enter a higher level of education. The only focus I see is in the WASL, and how students can pass this test.

For what I have red and seen in different educational websites, teachers need to develop academic language and literacy. Teachers need to be committed to high expectations and high standards for all students. Teachers need to show students how to face change; life; difficulties; education; and how to face success. Provide them opportunities for real academic language. http://www.projectglad.com/

Everyday situation:
An old men enters the classroom everyday, distracting the students and taking time from learning, is a bad choice; and it demonstrates the students that what this men is offering is much more important than learning.
He offers jobs. He asks the students papers and identification to find them jobs: washing dishes and cleaning. What bothers me the most is that he looks for students who have lower language; lower English. Students which are thought to be low and slow learners. Students who need the money, and who need to help their families. Students who see college as a far opportunity.

What I think:
I think people need to focus in academic language. They need to believe in the ESL students; that the ESL students can be better; and that the ESL students can be brighter. Having high expectations. Developing writing and reading. Teaching them real English. Focusing in education not on money.

High Expectations:

"When I talk about expectations with my students, they need to know it's not about a battle with me or a score on a math test; it's about the rest of their lives. Every little piece is a stepping stone to where they are going. Where will that turn out to be? The reality is that their options tomorrow will be determined by what they can take from school today.
Like it or not, they are taking everything I can give them." http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/voices/1qtr2002/highexpect.shtml

"Schools that establish high expectations for all students--and provide the support necessary to achieve these expectations--have high rates of academic success"
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/atrisk/at6lk11.htm

"No one rises to low expectations,"...
http://blog.dispatch.com/edblog/2008/11/students_need_high_expections_and_tlc.shtml

Reflection 4: A topic in language education that I want to know more about

I would like to know more about Project GLAD.
After one week observing an ESL class; the different students; different cultures; different backgrounds; level of English; and different ages; I really think it is best to plan a class taking into account these differences. To include the students' culture and first language to a class can be very meaningful for them. Ask them where they come from or what they do in their country can be really motivating for them.
I also think that no matter where your students come from, you need to have high expectations. You need to believe that they can keep studying; that they can go to college and have a career; that they can do much more than just having a job at an hotel and cleaning or washing dishes. Include writing and reading as the most important topics of learning not only speaking and listening; and for a real purpose.

I am really interested in this project because I have seeing that some teachers do not take into account these differences and just teach a regular class, and the expectations that they have about their students are really low. That is why I want to know more about strategies for English language learners; cross-cultural environment; how to integrate the four skills; how to work together with other teachers, having a healthy relationship, and how to keep the students motivated and interested in learning English.

Link:

http://www.projectglad.com/

GLAD Video:



In Project GLAD website I was able to find the answers to my questions. It is in detail what GLAD is about; the strategies that I would need to use with English learners; the steps I would need to know to be trained as a GLAD teacher; and I also found some quotes about students that find GLAD a great project to learn a second language.

Reflection 3: Response to a question about English teaching

http://www.everythingesl.net/askjudie/?i=11062&n=0

Contacting Families of ESOL students

by Mandy on Oct 14 2008 2:17 PM

I am an education student at Florida Gulf Coast University. I have noticed throughout my classroom observations the difficulty teachers have communicating with parents - specifically ESOL student's parents.For example some parents do not have telephones and if they do, there willingness/ability to communicate seems limited. I am wondering if anyone has advice on effective ways to communicate with ESOL families.

Re: Contacting Families of ESOL students

by Pilar Escalona on Nov 17 2008 9:42 PM

Usually parents of ESOL students are afraid to experience new traditions and speak a new language leaving theirs behind. Moving to another country to have better opportunities for their families and themselves is a hard decision to make. Parents are usually in culture shock. They take longer time to get use to a new country and a new culture than their sons and daughters. Most of them don't speak English and refuse to learn a second language. I would recommend you to find someone who speaks the parents' first language: a translator; a paraprofessional; or another teacher. Have meetings with them using bilingual support; welcome them to school giving them a tour of the school, and meeting the school personnel. This welcoming process makes parents feel included and willing to participate at meetings and school's events. Help them find resources that they would need such as food; banks; health service; ESL adult classes. They will feel appreciated and comfortable talking with someone who cares. Write them letters and information sheets in their language using translators. If you can't find someone who speaks the language, you can find translators online. Keep them informed about their sons and daughters performance. Make them know that they can talk to you if they have any doubts and concerns; make them know that they can trust you. Keep them engage to school.
I hope this helps.
Greetings,
Pilar.

I believe that including parents into their sons and daughters activities is a good way to promote communication. Helping them to find resources about their daily lives and welcoming them to school are processes that the teacher must do in order to involve the parents with school. Make them feel comfortable and trustful about your actions and opinions creates an open relationship. Having experienced culture shock myself, I think that having the help of a native, especially a teacher, can help you feel more open and comfortable with the new culture and language.
I have seeing this open relationship when we have visited some schools here in Washington, and I think it is the best way to include the family to the education process of the students.
In Chile we don't have as many foreign students as here in USA but the process of including new parents and students to the school is the same. The main difference is that everybody speaks the same language.

Reflection 2: Podcasting my way to mastery of English

I have always liked videos about animals and nature; and I have watched NatGeo channel many times. I would use these videos to improve my listening and speaking comprehension. They are a great tool to learn about topics that are really interesting for me. I will be motivated to watch them because I am a visual learner. Watching interesting images about different cultures and people; about nature; recycling; animals; global warming; history; environment will make me think and research about what is happening around the world. I will be able to compare Chile with other parts of the world, other cultures and believes.

I will also use them with my future students to practice listening and in a fun way by watching videos. They could practice writing; they could work in groups or in pairs and promote social interaction. By working in groups they can practice speaking; they can acquire new language; give personal opinions.

NatGeo is an easy tool to look for videos. I just go online to the website and search on the many topics they have. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

On the same website there is an Education link where I can find educational videos and sites. This link will be useful for my future classes. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education/

There is also a website for kids that I would use to teach elementary students. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

I would use this website and watch NatGeo videos every weekend. I just have to go online, choose a topic, and it will only take me about five to ten minutes to watch the video I selected. These videos are a great tool for me to improve my second language. They do not take too much time to watch, and I really enjoy watching them. They also give me a future look to my teaching of English as a foreign language.

Reflection 1: Websites that may help students

We are working with a group of students who came from Africa. These students only arrived to United States last year, hence they do not understand English very well. They cannot communicate easily; they have pronunciation issues; and their writing skills are very basic.

They need to look for meanings of words that they do not understand. In classes they do not understand several words and they ask the teacher, but the teacher cannot explain every word they don't understand. Like in all classes some of the students are shy, so they don't ask for questions.
They have computers in the classroom, so I think it would be easy for them to get up, go to the website and look for meanings they don't know. They don't use dictionaries so I think that online dictionaries would be a great tool for them.

Links:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

http://wordreference.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://visual.merriam-webster.com/index.php

http://www.rong-chang.com/dict.htm

They also need to improve their listening. This skill will help them to know the differences between words, and also to have a better communication and pronunciation. They could see videos at NatGeo and NOVA; talk to ALICE and also practice writing; they could see ESL podcasts at BBC and learn about different topics; and they could go to real-english.com, and practice listening and writing, grammar, and listen to different accents and ways to greet. They could use these websites at school: in classes and at the library; and at home.

Links:

http://alicebot.blogspot.com/

http://www.npr.org/

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/

http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/re/

I would suggest students to use these websites and use them as a tool to improve their English.

The Classroom Story: Mail Call

What do you see in terms of strategies that we saw in class?

I can see:
High Expectations. The teacher believed in what they students could do. He believed in their opinions and points of view. He believed that together they could write a letter to make a difference, no matter what their level of English was, they still did it. They grew up together and they were challenged, but he saw things with positive eyes towards the situation and towards his students.

Social Interaction. The students worked together as a group in order to create ideas, they brainstorm and everyday they would write some new ideas on the board. They went from macro ideas into micro, and they chose the most important points they wanted the major to know. They chose three main points to write in the letter, but when one of the students suggested to add another point, everyone supported her and gave their own point of view about this new idea. The whole class agreed and they added a fourth point. They worked a lot to give meaning and understanding to the letter. The students went to the board and circle the main ideas and they also revised the draft. This was purely group work.

Teaching through content. The students were really motivated and interested in what they were doing. It was a real situation. Not only this was a real letter that the teacher was going to send, but it was also writing for a purpose: a traffic light. The students had a concern and the teacher took this opportunity to teach them grammar and writing. They also study salutation, body and closing of a letter.

What will I want to know about my students

What you will want to know about your future students?

I would like to know about their background.
I would like to know what their interests are. What their likes and dislikes are.
I would like to know what their families are like; what their traditions and occupations are.
How do they feel about learning a second language, and what their thoughts about English are.
What their plans for the future are, and why they think that learning English will be helpful for their lives.
I would like to know a lot about my students. Their personal believes and concerns. Their interests and their talents.

Run-ons

In a class we can have students whose families live in a car and others who live on a three story house with four cars and more, and we can also have people from Asia, South America or Canada, so introducing this kind of activity can be a way to break the walls students have. Remember the movie that we saw last week "Freedom Writers" and the techniques the teacher used to get the group closer and closer.

In a class we can have students whose families live in a car and others who live on a three story house, with four cars and more. We can also have people from Asia, South America or Canada. Introducing this kind of activity can be a way to break the walls students have. Remember the movie that we saw last week "Freedom Writers" and the techniques the teacher used to get the group closer and closer.

Students can deliver as much as you ask them to do, if you create high expectations and you expect them to deliver they will feel confident and will learn to trust themselves and believe that they can do it.

Students can deliver as much as you ask them to do. If you create high expectations and you expect them to deliver, they will feel confident and will learn to trust themselves. They will believe that they can do it.

The demos are very visual so the students do not get bored and also the listening is very clear you can save your answers of each demo and send it to your teacher if you need more explanations, but the demos are made so that you get immediate feedback and understanding.

The demos are very visual so the students do not get bored. The listening is very clear, you can save your answers of each demo and send it to your teacher if you need more explanations. The demos are made so that you get immediate feedback and understanding.

MSN is a great tool for practicing the four abilities because with it you can use webcams, microphones, headphones, you can share pictures and games so you can really communicate with someone in real context.

MSN is a great tool for practicing the four abilities. With it you can use webcams, microphones, headphones. You can share pictures and games. You can really communicate with someone in real context.

Some think that technology is more motivating but others prefer the lecture kind of class, we have to remember that our classes are big and we can find different personalities and intelligences so we have to try to reach everyone of our students.

Some think that technology is more motivating, but others prefer the lecture kind of class. We have to remember that our classes are big. We can find different personalities and intelligences, so we have to try to reach everyone of our students.

On this website you can create articles, practice reading and writing, edit existing articles, choose the language you want to practice and you can be a member of the community.

On this website you can create articles. Practice reading and writing. Edit existing articles, and choose the language you want to practice. You can be a member of the community.

High Expectations

I think teachers should have high expectations about their students.
Students can deliver as much as you ask them to do, if you create high expectations and you expect them to deliver they will feel confident and will learn to trust themselves and believe that they can do it. I have seen students whose teachers don't believe in them and they are not confident and think that they can not do a satisfactory job. I have also had teachers myself who do not think we can do a good job and it shows.
Having high expectations helps the teacher and help the students. You can have a better communication and a better relationship.
You can do it! it is a great phrase.

Social Interaction

It is a way to have interaction on a classroom. Working in groups or pair group can help the students to have better communication between each other and to get to know one another a little bit better. It can break the barrier that some students have specially to people that come from different backgrounds talking about social and cultural differences.
In a class we can have students whose families live in a car and others who live on a three story house with four cars and more, and we can also have people from Asia, South America or Canada, so introducing this kind of activity can be a way to break the walls students have. Remember the movie that we saw last week "Freedom Writers" and the techniques the teacher used to get the group closer and closer.
On the other hand I think that some people work better by themselves and working in groups can be a bad experience for them. It also depends of the approach that the teacher use and the activities that the teacher creates for the students keeping in mind the students themselves.

Teaching through content

I really liked the activity that you created for us. Teaching grammar and language through a song, by listening and/or watching a video it is much more interesting for the students, specially if it is a popular song which I think most of the students would know.
It motivated me and I think it motivated the rest of my classmates to work in groups, to know the types of ironies that existed and also to find out the types of ironies that were writing on the lyric.
Instead of the typical boring lecture type of class which we are just to, interaction and motivation through Internet, CDs, radio, DVDs and TV are much better.

MILK

MILK English
http://milkenglish.net/

Explore everyday life; expose to nature; experience and learn.

While having fun, being natural, creative, and imaginative, children can learn through their own experience – not by being imposed upon. For young children, school is a fun place, where they can meet peers that have the similar interests, where they can fulfill their wonder and curiosity about the world, and where they can be allowed to be themselves.

MILK English program provides the opportunity for children to experience the world while being exposed to an English speaking environment. They will Move, Imagine, and Laugh with other Kids while developing their creativity, building the confidence, and growing through communication with others.

Gina´s social and psychological distance to Spanish language, culture and speakers

Social Distance:

1) Social dominance: Whose social group is more dominant?
As a native-English speaker in the US is a little bit hard to learn Spanish especially if you live in the Spokane area. Although Spanish is US second language you would have to became friends with native-Spanish speakers like Mexicans. One thing that you have in favor are 15 Chilean students that will be here until December. Good practice.
2)Integration pattern. How much do learners integrate, or do they do most things apart from the mainstream?
You are integrated when you have classes with us. You have received a great deal of culture from us and have heard us talk. A positive thing here in EWU, there are many Mexican workers that you could talk to, and maybe visit some towns where most of the people talks Spanish, like Bridgeport. Maybe you are a little bit away but you can try to reach for someone from a Spanish speaking country.
3) Enclosure. To what extent does learner's group have their own resources for interaction, such as church, publications, clubs?
We have seen many places where Mexican people work. We know that there are radio stations where the main language is Spanish, the Mexican group in EWU is a good group where you could practice your English so you have a lot of possibilities to interact.
4) Size. How large is the group?
It is a huge group of native-English speakers in the US considering that English is the main language. Although there are many native-Spanish speakers living here too. In Spokane especially Cheney we do not see a huge variety of Latin cultures, the main one being Mexico.
5) Cohesiveness. How much does the group stick together?
I think that you stick with your group all day long, here in the US there isn't enough choice, but you can reach Latin American people if you have the time. Remember us.
6) Cultural congruence. How are the cultural patterns and customs of the home culture and the target culture alike or different?
They are very different, even though you have to consider that Spanish speaking countries are very different between each other also. But speaking from experience and being a Chilean myself there are a lot of differences: food, music, dance, greetings, attitudes, and more.
7) Attitude. what attitudes do the home and target cultural groups have toward one another?
In my personal experience in the US and for what I heard Spanish speaking people do not have a very good attitude towards Americans and vice versa.
8) Intended length of residence. How long does the learner intend to stay in the new country?
Well you are living in the US, you work here and your family is here, your whole live is here so I would say you will stay here forever. Maybe a trip to Chile would be good for you, you should try.

Psychological Distance
1) Motivation. Does the learner want to learn the new language?
Yes she does, you have asked us many times to help you with your Spanish, so there is a positive motivation to do so.
2) Attitude. How does the learner feel toward the target-culture group?
I think you have a very positive attitude towards our culture and other Spanish speaking countries, you are very excited to learn our language and also very interested in our traditions.
3) Culture shock. Is the learner suffering culture shock?
No because you are still living in your country, you use English to communicate every day, you are living your daily life routine.

School visit: Bridgeport and Brewster

We visited two schools that have an 81% of Spanish speakers students. Most of the students were from Mexico or were born in USA but their parents are from Mexico. Most of the students spoke English very well, even better than us. My impression of the schools was very positive, there is a huge difference with the schools of Chile. For example the classes that we saw were very small only 5 or 10 students versus the classes of Chile were we can have up to 44 students.
One of the things that I really liked was that the teacher has his or her own classroom that he or she can adapt according to their students and the class given. We can see a very positive support from the principal in both schools and a real concern for the students' needs and one wonderful thing that I liked was the parents work, how can they also learn English and keep up with their sons and daughters.
There was a lot of discipline and respect. The schools were very clean and welcoming, there were positive signs, the classes were very quite and the students worked on their assignments, something surprising to us, just because of the same issue: class size.
The school at Bridgeport had better academic results that the one in Brewster and I think that it has to do with a more personalized class, a closer teacher-student relationship, the classes at this school were a little bit smaller so that is a big help.
One thing that I found strange was that in the schools especially in Brewster there weren't any Spanish speaker teachers or a native speaker teacher from a Latin country. I found it strange because when you have a school with 81% students from Mexico it is a necessity to have at least one teacher that speaks the language for multiple reasons that are very obvious.
In my opinion the trip was very helpful for us, we now can see the difference from schools in USA and in Chile and what it is being done here in terms of second language learning.

Trip to Seattle

Our trip to Seattle was great but too short.
What I loved most about the city were the similarities with Valparaiso and Vina. Living on a big city all of my life I was very happy and excited of just walking through the city and finding out what it had to offer.
We found a lot of interesting shops and places to go especially during the night. We went to the aquarium, to the market and to Chinatown a very interesting place.
We took a lot of pictures but I felt that the trip was to short, we walked a lot and sometimes we got lost but that is what is exciting when you are trying to know a place for the first time.
I would love to go a second time, Seattle is more exciting than Cheney for sure and I would like to know it a little bit more.

WHAT TEACHERS BELIEVE

1. What role do you think technology does take/can take in learning?

Technology is proven to be a very effective teaching tool. The appropiate use of technology can save time, be more interesting, be entertaing, and meaningful for the students we are teaching nowadays.

2. What role should the learner take in the classroom?

The role of the learner depends on the learning theory you are using, for example, if you use conductism, the role of the learner is very limited, on the other hand, if you use constructivism, the role of the learner is very active.

In my point of view, the role of the learner depends on the learning activity and moment of the class. For example, if you are motivating the students in the introduction of the class, your students take a receptive role and in the core of the lesson, they take a more active role.

3. What role should the teacher take in the classroom?

It also depends on the learnning theory. If your classes are teacher´s centered, the role is more active, however if your classes are student´s centered, the teacher has to provide the tools to the studentes and they have to create using elementes studied and teachers monitor and assess learning.

Questions 2 and 3 depend on the approach you are using, but in Chile in some there are still teacher´s centered classrooms and few teachers know, practice and use learning theories and teaching approaches.

4. What does good teaching look like?

I think a well-documented approach, according to student´s needs and lacks. Classes very weel planned, using as many different inputs as posible.

A good teaching needs a motivated teacher in every way.

Listening comprehension activity

I created a blog for my future class. I posted a video from Nat Geo about children recollecting sneakers for recycle. This would be our class first activity.

Go to:

http://englishforeignlanguage.blogspot.com/

DELICIOUS

Chileteach delicious website: Social bookmarking will help us to find links about education, technology, ESL and more in one easy step. I liked it because I can add links that I find useful for the group and I can also see what the other members are adding.

http://delicious.com

Geobeats: Overview - Valparaiso, Chile

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations: Chat with Alice Cooper

Nat Geo: Bigfoot Hoax

Nat Geo: London's Haunted House

Nat Geo: Gray Whale Migration

I'M ONLY TRYING TO HELP: A ROLE FOR INTERVENTIONS IN TEACHING LISTENING

http://llt.msu.edu/vol11num1/pdf/rost.pdf

Michael Rost is a teacher trainer and a author who has traveled all over the world and has met different teachers with different resources and backgrounds. One of the refrains that he always hears is that teachers fell that they lack of technological resources to teach effectively and that students do not take advantage of the extra learning opportunities that are given to them. That is why he titled I'M ONLY TRYING TO HELP to this comment because teachers feel underappreciated for their efforts.

According to Norman (2004) technology should help us teach better than we already do. If
it doesn’t, we simply shouldn’t use it. In addition, Norman says, for any new technology to be widely adopted, it must appeal to the emotions as well as to reason. If people don’t enjoy using a particular technology, no matter how logically useful it may be, they will tend to shun it.

Rost present three articles that provide frameworks for evaluating technology in the teaching of listening:
1.- Help options and multimedia listening refers to the importance of interaction and the amount of input teachers should give their students. Interaction promotes language acquisition, that is, if interaction, specifically repair-motivated interaction, promotes comprehension, and if comprehension promotes acquisition, then interaction promotes acquisition.
2.- Are They Watching? provides a study of listener behavior in video-based test taking situations. The author talks about the importance of videos on listening comprehension and that the students focus more on images than on audio, and even if they are not watching they can still listen, but also if they are not watching they can still listen especially in monologues. It is important to give more than one choice when teaching listening that is why it is important for the author to present activities with video and audio.
3.- Using Digital Stories to Improve Listening Comprehension with Spanish Young Learners of English the article refers to a new technology online where students and teachers can be more interactive, students take an active role in the listening comprehension and require teachers to take a more active role in teaching listening.

Rost takes the most important aspects of each article and suggest types of interventions that can help learners develop listening. These tables are designed to show which listener's goals, or goal-driven processes, (in Column 1) may be focused upon through types of interventions, or instructional plans (in Column 2). Instructional design tools (in Column 3) are learning concepts that may be useful in planning interventions.
Tables 1-3. Component Processes, Goals, and Interventions for Teaching L2 Listening
Table 1. Component Process: Decoding

Goals	Interventions	Instructional design tools
• Create an adequate phonological, grammatical, and lexical map of incoming speech • Recognize a critical mass of lexical items • Retain unknown lexical items in short-term memory for possible processing later	• Give user control over input speed, pausing and replay functions • Make lexical pushdowns available; allow for "pronounce and compare" options • Supply elaborated and amplified input options • Provide subtitling options: key word, stress group, full text	• 3-D technology to view animated speech production (see Massaro, Cohen, Tabain, Beskow, & Clark, 2005) • Speech recognition tools and graphics (see http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/; Chun, 2002) • Input Processing tasks (vanPatten, 2004) • Lexical pushdown options; hyperlinked annotations to target words (e.g. Al-Seghayer, 2001) • Online cues for noticing grammar patterns (Chapelle, 2003; 2005) • Automated parsers and translators (e.g. Othero, 2006; Somers and Sugita, 2003)

Table 2. Component Process: Comprehension

Goals	Interventions	Instructional design tool
• Identify salient propositions in discourse to anchor mental representations • Build internal model of developing discourse • Test hypotheses about meaning	• Use guided online summarizing tasks • Provide graded questions, based on listener response • Furnish pop-up feedback loops on listener responses	• Pop-up explanations and cues to aid inferencing; feedback loops and "instant replays" for incorrect responses (Rost, 2003) • Chatterbots to simulate discussion with learner about what the learner has nderstood and misunderstood. (e.g., http://www.Jabberwacky.com, see Fryer and Carpenter, 2006)

Table 3. Component Process: Interpretation

Goals	Interventions	Instructional design tools
• Work out relevance of discourse • Get necessary clarification of ideas • Experience validation of your role as a listener	• Allow for direct or simulated interactions with speaker • Create collaborative application and response tasks • Provide links for follow-up learner presentations	• Participation in global cybercommunities working on common projects (e.g. Belz, 2002) • Involvement in video-mediated collaborations (Anderson, 2006) • Chatterbots to simulate conversation about texts using speech recognition (http:// www.alicebot.org, see Anderson, 2006)

We can teach listening with, video, audio, internet, we have many possibilities but what is important is to know your students and to figure out what works best for them in order to help them. With technology we can offer our students different kind of input that will suit them better depending on their intelligences and personalities.

Podcasts

For my future students:

I found this website and called Learn a song Podcast-Audio for ESL/EFL that has songs and lyrics to listen and sing. I find it entertaining for students because it is a little more fun than just listen to the someone talking like in the news, this ones have rhythm.

http://www.manythings.org/songs/

On the same website I also found some jokes with the lyrics that are also fun, different and entertaining for the students.

http://www.manythings.org/jokes/

You can also download the mp3s that you liked on this website.

http://www.manythings.org/

And this one a little bit more clear/slower especially for ESL to improve students' listening comprehension:

http://www.eslpod.com/website/#

For myself:

I found this website with podcasts for free. You can listen and watch videos online. There are a lot of topics on the website with many different episodes. You can also become a member of Digg if you want.

http://digg.com/podcasts

Also I can go to this website and listen more advanced English from the New York Times for free.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/multimedia/podcasts.html

I really liked these ones too. Lots of possibilities, lots to choose from.

http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Listening/Podcasts/

http://www.commoncraft.com/podcasting

http://www.myngle.com/

For Gina:

This website has podcast for Spanish learners. The podcasts are first spoken in English and later they are spoken in Spanish. It is a bilingual podcast website.

http://www.edufone.com/podcasts.php

It is really funny because most of the podcasts that I found have music and it is really entertaining and fun.

I really liked this one too because the creator has videos of himself speaking in Spanish with subtitles below that are really helpful for beginners.

http://www.spanishnyc.com/videos.php

Hope you liked them.

Create+Ideas:

I would create podcasts for English learners with videos and listening activities with subtitles and/or scripts mostly about the target culture, music and topics that would motivate my future students.

Muelle Baron, Valparaiso

Drill and Practise

I did not actually choose one in particular because it depends on what you are trying to teach. But there are a lot of good examples of this activity created by teachers especially maths. I found it very useful and again this activities can be given to the students even if they are sick because they are online, students can also print them out and give it to the teacher to see and correct.

These are some of the websites with activities that I found which I liked:

http://www.saskschools.ca/curr_content/onlineteach/instructionalstrategies/directinstruction/drillpractice.htm

http://www.horton.com/portfolio/drillandpractice/SemaphoreTeacher.htm

http://www.littlefishsw.co.uk/card/functionmachine.html

EXPERT AND NOVICE TEACHERS TALKING TECHNOLOGY: PRECEPTS, CONCEPTS, AND MISCONCEPTS

http://llt.msu.edu/vol6num3/meskill/


This article was written by four authors Carla Meskill, Jonathan Mossop, Stephen DiAngelo, and Rosalie K. from PasqualeUniversity at Albany, State University of New York.

The authors talk about the differences on the use of computers between novices and experts teachers, and one transitional expert and what they think on do with this technology.

It was very unusual for me to find out that novice teachers can not really work with computers in classes. It is unusual for me because this category is the closest to me being a student of english pedagogy.

Interviews to eight teachers: two expert who were long-time teaching professionals (8-10 years) who had successfully integrated a technologies component into the everyday stream of their language and literacy instruction. Five novice who were pre-service teachers in a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) masters program leading to a permanent New York State teaching certificate. Through a local district's efforts, a small implementation grant had been acquired to support a newly conceived after school program for elementary school children who are English Language Learners (ELLs). Through collaboration with the University's masters program, the five were hired as instructors on the grant. All five had clinic class experiences with adult learners of English as a second language and one of the five had classroom teaching experience but at the college, not elementary level. Apart from having undertaken two or three observational visits to ESOL classrooms in the community, four of the five had neither worked in nor spent an extended period in an elementary school. One had completed a 10-week student teaching practicum in the same district as the after school program and knew several of the participating children. All five had completed the bulk of their coursework which included a 3-credit, semester-long course in using instructional technologies for language teaching. And one transitional expert who is an ESOL teacher with 27 years of classroom experience. The interviews served to illustrate the differences about technology that these teachers adapted in their classes and what did they think about it. Several of them wrote journals and the interviews were taped so we can see what they really thought about teaching with this type of tool.

The article follows a novice-expert continua that emerged from the talk and writing of these three groups that was used to frame, present, and point to practical training application of the contrasts between each other.

The Continua:

Locus: Machine/Learners
(Locus: A center or focus of great activity or intense concentration)

On this point novice teachers felt that the computer was a little bit unuseful when they did not what to do with it, for example Novice 2 commented that:

One of the computers refused to indent, then two more refused to let the students type!

Instead of doing something about it, they frooze and blame it to the computer for not carrying on with their plans, they also thought to much about themselves instead of the students:

I let them spend the remaining time on the Arthur1 program It was not like they are just playing games, they still learn using this software. (Novice 4)

Once I felt their attention begin to waiver, I placed them on the computer, which they were happy to do. (Novice 3)

They are not thinkig about the students, they think about the commands that they give to the students and what they are telling them to do, they are not thinking about students' autonomy.

The experts' comments and thoughts were different. They though about the learners not the computer, the experts think that the computer is only a tool for learning and think about what the student learns and how can they work all together:

We did a lot with [emphasis added] the computer with making posters and writing thank you notes and that type of thing. (Expert 2)

Where they can select, they can take a risk. . .It was almost as if that arrow moved from left to right, the words would come right out. (Expert 1)

It's a wonderful tool. (Transitional Expert)


Focus: Self/Student Learning

On this point it is importanta to differentiate novice teachers who typically focus on themselves as teachers and experte teachers who focus on student learning.

Novices:

I began the lesson…I had them read their work again…I allowed one student to print out her work…I went to the computer…I printed out the sentences…I let them play with the Arthur software. (Novice 5)

I began using Microsoft Power Point. I used it to create story prompts. I would choose a picture… (Novice 4)

Experts:


He would be using the visual cue and another time perhaps I could take it a step further and cover up the animation and have him just look at the sentence from those phrases he chooses. (Expert 1)

I can click on multiplication or division and it's a fun way for him to actually do that math and let me see what he can do rather than just giving him a test. (Expert 2)

There is a huge difference between the novice and experts that I think it will be coming closer when the time passes, when novice think about their students instead of themselves and know what to do when the computer is not working correctly, only time can help or maybe to participate on an expert class and see the differences between each other.

Practice: Managing/Empowering

Really time is of great help when managing a class. For the new teachers it can be overwhelming and I can really rely on this beacuse I get really nervous when thinking on the work that I will be doing in 2 years more, giving a class it is a big deal.
When using a computer in class can be really distracting for some of the students, novice think that:

I really cannot leave them at the computers alone for a second because they begin erasing programs, banging the keyboard or pounding on the mouse. (Novice 1)
I had to constantly be watching them. Turning away from them for only a moment normally prompted them to start "playing" with the computer, attempting to drag programs off the desktop or even delete them into the Trash. (Novice 5)

This happens beacuse novice teachers have the whole class plan and they do not have a backup plan in case something goes wrong. Experience teachers know what to do when plan A does not work. The transitional expert, who has worked with student teachers in her classroom for many years, put it nicely:

[New teachers] will prepare a lesson, whether it be for using the computers, using whatever, if it doesn't work they kind of fall apart over it. Experienced teachers will go, well OK, and this happens to me all the time, the computers don't work for some reason, well I have lots of other activities I can pull out just like that [snaps fingers], to do with the kids. Why? Because I've done it 27 years. I just know what every book contains in the room. I just know what the material is and I know what works and what doesn't.

A recent study reported in Education Week indicates that where experienced teachers carefully integrate technologies to complement and enhance existing curricula, novice teachers use computers as a means of reward and punishment.

Novice use computers as a punisher and a rewarder device instead experienced teachers see it as an additional opportunity to teach, rather than to punish.


Emphasis: Product/Process

For the novices, what appears to matter most when learners use computers is what gets done -- some product is anticipated. For the expert teachers, what counts most, what gets emphasized in tasks and their management, is the learning that gets engaged in -- the learning process.

For novices the most important thing is that students produce. Students sitting in front of a computer is enough for them. The three groups do think that this technology is very motivating for students but for experts the teacher also plays an important role.

Part and parcel of an emphasis on process is an educator's ability to notice what is important in the learning processes and to act on it in ways that support and enhance the learning (Berliner, 1988). Where novice teachers appeared more occupied by the machine, their own teaching, class management, and products, the experts were highly attuned to what it was learners were doing and were proactive in responding to teachable moments as they continually arose:

That was amazing to see the conversation that took place between the kids you know…once we got the right formula...and they really, really worked. (Transitional Expert)

We can see that experts know what to do with a computer in class, because for them it is only a tool and they see themselves as guides to their students instead of just leaving them to produce things in front of a computer. For novice it is more difficult to process the idea of having a computer in class, they are also dealing with the nervousness of being new teachers and not having the expertise of dictating a class, managing students and incorporating new technology on the curriculum. Experts trust more on the students than novice do and they can manage their students a lot more confident that begginers do.
Computers are motivating but teachers should know how to incorporate them on the learning/teaching process of their classes.