First of all I have to say that I really liked the course because I learned a lot of new things, activities and tools I didn’t know before. I liked about the course that it was very practical and beneficial because all the tools we learned about I can use as a teacher later on as well as a lot of activities for example  learning with the podcards.

The next positive point was the field trip to the Alfred-Wegener Schule in Kirchhain because there we were allowed to see how a real school is dealing with the topic of new media usage in school and I think this was a quite good example of new media at school!

Furthermore I really enjoyed working on this portfolio. At the beginning I was quite confused what we were supposed to write in here, about which topics and how to handle this at all because I had no experiences with blogging before. But after the first posts I really liked it and I liked that we could write about many different things and topics we are interested in because such interest supports learning as we have learned!

All in all the course and the requirements he had to fulfill were really beneficial to me and I learned a lot of new interesting things. At the end I want to close with something in order to show my learning progress and my positive opinion on new media with its great opportunities: For this I decided to create my own Wordle cloud  content of my blog entries. To create your own Wordle cloud go on the website Wordle.net and click on create your own. Then you can decide whether you want to paste in your individual text, enter the URL of a blog or website or if you want to enter a delicious user name. After that submit your text and easy like that there is your own cloud.You can design it individually with different options concerning colour, font, language and layout.  

My first entry was at the time when I wanted to find some good activities for a presentation on teaching the movie “About A Boy“. I really found some quite good ideas for example talking about the DVD cover of the movie or writing a film review. To work with the DVD cover I printed out some speech bubbles in different colours. Each colour belongs to a question connected to the cover the students had to answer. Afterwards we put all the different speech bubbles on the board, sorted by their colours, and discussed the answers.

Another activity which especially fits to the movie About A Boy was the activity of writing a voice-over comment to a particular chosen scene. A voice-over is a cinematic technique where an off-screen voice gives some necessary background information to the audience. When this voice is given by a first-person narrator like it is often done in About A Boy then it means that the character himself is giving information about his feelings and thoughts. For this you can give a short movie sequence to the students and stop at some point or give them a screenshot of a scene. Now let the students write voice-over comments for the characters seen in the scene after they know about what happened before.

Another activity is a bit more extensive. You can probably do it as a kind of project with your class. I found a pretty good WebQuest to the movie about a boy. It deals with the daily life of the characters and with the city of London. For this every students should pick his favourite character from the movie and imagine he or she is the character. Afterwards they should do some research on the things and activities the characters are interested in. For example if you choose Fiona the task is to do a short presentation in which you try to convince your audience that vegetarian lifestyle is the best and only way of living and eating. Your task when you pick Will is to find out about the hottest fashion for men at the moment. For these tasks the author of the WebQuest gives hints of websites where the students get information on the topics.

The different characters form groups and their main task is to do a presentation with Powerpoint or another suitable tool about ten to fifteen minutes. With this task the students also train their skills on presenting something which includes free talking and discussing. The author also gives information about evaluating the work of the students and a conclusion about what the students should have learned afterwards. If you are interested check on About A Boy WebQuest.

]]> http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/teaching-the-movie-about-a-boy/feed/ 0 franzik About A Boy DVD-Cover Questions Voice over comment http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/live-chat-mit-einem-experten-reinhard-donath/ http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/live-chat-mit-einem-experten-reinhard-donath/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:47:57 +0000 franzik http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/?p=175 ]]>

In der letzten Sitzung unseres Kurses vor den Semesterferien, welche am 09. Februar 2010 stattfand wurde in unserem Kurs eine Online-Sitzung mit einem Experten in Sachen Neue Medien Nutzung im Fremdsprachenunterricht durchgeführt. Reinhard Donath ist seit 1980 Lehrer für Englisch und Deutsch an einem Gymnasium in Aurich/ Ostfriesland. In der vorherigen Sitzung sollten wir uns Fragen überlegen, welche uns im Verlauf des Kurses beschäftigten oder interessierten und Frau Gallus hatte diese zu einem Fragenhandout zusammengefasst. In diesem Eintrag habe ich nun die interessantesten, gestellten Fragen heraus gesucht und zusammengefasst:

Was tun Sie um die Motivation bei E-Mail Projekten aufrecht zu erhalten?

Herr Donath berichtet, dass er bereits Ende der 80er Jahre die ersten E-Mail Projekte durchführte. Damals betrieb er dies mit seinen Klassen noch über eine Software. Jedoch mussten die SchülerInnen bei dieser Methode sehr viel Geduld aufbringen, da es sehr lange dauerte, bis eine Antwort zurück kam und dadurch ließ die Motivation der Schülerinnen und Schüler das Projekt durchzuführen schnell nach. Heutzutage empfiehlt er für die Durchführung eines E-Mail Projekts die Nutzung anderer Plattformen, wie beispielsweise Facebook. Dadurch kann ein schnellerer Austausch von Mails gewährleistet und so die Motivation der SchülerInnen erhalten werden. Er erwähnte noch eine andere Möglichkeit des Austauschs zwischen Schülern und zwar den so genannten „learning circle“. An diesem nehmen mehrere Klassen aus unterschiedlichen Ländern teil. Jede Klasse hat die Aufgabe Pakete für die jeweils anderen Klassen zu packen, mit landestypischen Dingen, Informationen zum Land und der Schule oder Dinge, die die SchülerInnen mögen. Diese Pakete werden dann an die anderen Klassen verschickt. Ich finde dies ist eine wirklich tolle Sache, da die Schüler so wirklich in Kontakt mit authentischem Material kommen und einiges über die unterschiedlichen Länder und Kulturen erfahren können. Jedoch betont Herr Donath, dass bei diesem Projekt eine gründliche Planung im Voraus sehr wichtig ist, um einen gelungen Verlauf zu gewährleisten.

Wie empfinden Sie das Engagement der LehrerInnen im Bezug auf  die Nutzung der Neuen Medien und die Bereitschaft zur (Fort)Bildung in diesem Bereich?

Herr Donath bemerkt dazu, dass es an den Lehrern liegt, den Schritt zu tun und sich mit der Nutzung der Neuen Medien und deren Handhabung auseinander zu setzten. Schließlich nutzt der Großteil der Lehrkräfte eine Vielzahl von Neuen Medien bereits in ihrem privaten Umfeld und könnten diese aufgrund dessen auch in ihr berufliches Umfeld, den Unterricht integrieren. Wenn die Bereitschaft dazu besteht, sollten die Lehrer bei den Fortbildungen dort abgeholt werden, wo sie sich mit ihrem Wissenstand bezüglich ihres Wissens die Neuen Medien betreffend befinden. Dabei sollte immer die Fragestellung im Mittelpunkt stehen, wie das Lernen durch den Einsatz von Neuen Medien bereichert und verbessert werden kann.

Glauben Sie das die alten/ traditionellen Medien irgendwann von den Neuen Medien abgelöst werden?

Herr Donath erklärt, dass er die Nutzung der Neuen Medien als eine große Bereicherung ansieht, da diese vielfältigere Möglichkeiten bieten, jedoch wie bereits erwähnt als Ergänzung zu den traditionellen Medien ansieht und keinesfalls als Ersatz. Zudem merkt er an, dass die Nutzung von neuen Medien immer didaktisch wohl überlegt sein und nicht weil sie eben vorhanden sind eingesetzt werden sollten. Die Basis bilden weiterhin die traditionellen Medien wie Lehrbücher oder Lektüren. Auch die kommunikativen/ sozialen Aspekte können nicht durch Neue Medien ersetzt werden. Man kann einiges auf Neue Medien auslagern, aber die Ergebnissicherung am Ende einer Lehreinheit sollte immer durch eine face-to-face Kommunikation erarbeitet und resümiert werden.

Wie schätzen Sie die Eignung bestimmter Fächer im Bereich der Nutzung Neuer Medien ein?

Fremdsprachliche Fächer hält Reinhard Donath für besonders geeignet aufgrund der Vielfalt an authentischen Quellen durch beispielsweise Podcasts oder Videos ( YouTube). Die naturwissenschaftlichen Fächer und Mathe sind nicht so sehr geegeignet wohingegen das Unterrichtsfach Musik auch tolle Möglichkeiten für die Nutzung Neuer Medien bereitstellt.

Wie kann kontrolliert werden, dass SchülerInnen auch wirklich in Computer-Räumen arbeiten?

Zunächst sollten man sich in dem Raum bewegen und herumgehen anstatt nur an seinem Schreibtisch zu kleben. Jüngeren Schülern gibt Herr Donath die Aufgabe ihre Ergebnisse und Arbeitsschritte in einem Stundenprotokoll in Form einer Word-Datei festzuhalten. Ältere Schüler sollen ihre Ergebnisse in ihrem eigenen Blog protokollieren. Wenn er wirklich bemerkt, dass Schüler sich auf verbotenen Webseiten befinden, hat er auch schonmal den Stecker des jeweiligen Monitors gezogen Die Erfahrung zeigt jedoch, dass es sich hierbei um kein wirkliches Problem handelt!

Was tun Sie, wenn SchülerInnen keine Lust auf die Arbeit mit Neuen Medien haben?

Dies ist nur sehr selten der Fall, berichtet Herr Donath. Von etwa 35 SchülerInnen hat vielleicht einer keine Lust. Er versucht einen lustlosen Schüler/ eine Schülerin zu überzeugen, indem er ihn/ sie mit deren Zukunft konfrontiert. Denn die Nutzung von Neuen Medien ist sowohl in der Arbeitswelt als auch bei einem Studium nicht mehr wegzudenken und zu einer normalen Arbeitsform geworden. Im Falle von Hausaufgaben lässt er das Argument “Ich konnte nicht, weil ich keinen Internetzugang habe” nicht durchgehen, weil es in der Schule genügend Angebote und Möglichkeiten gibt das Internet zu nutzen.

Welche kritischen Aspekte sehen Sie im Bezug auf die Neuen Medien?

Er steht den sozialen Plattformen wie Facebook oder StudiVZ eher kritisch gegenüber, da SchülerInnen dort oft Gefahr laufen, mehr von sich preiszugeben als für sie gut ist und dessen sie sich überhaupt bewusst sind. Auch sind diese Plattformen zum Einsatz in der Schule ungeeignet. Als geeigneter empfindet er die Lernplattform Moodle. Dort kann man Klassengruppen erschaffen, Dateien hochladen etc. Sogar eine Notenfunktion ist dort eingerichtet, sodass man theoretisch überhaupt keine Präsenssitzungen abhalten müsste. Jedoch empfindet er diese sozialen Plattformen als Ersatz von Unterrichsgesprächen eher problematisch, da die soziale und kommunikative Kommponente dabei komplett fehlt. Seiner Meinung nach kann Moodle genutzt werden, wenn einige Aspekte ausgelagert werden und die sozialen und kommunikativen Unterichstgespräche erhalten bleiben.

The problem is that movies are quite long and it takes a lot of time to work out a whole movie with all the possible activities. The alternative is to just show a movie after you dealt with the related book without dealing with the movie itself properly. But I think this is not the best choice to make!

For these reasons I thought it is a really great alternative to work with situation comedy (sitcoms) instead of a whole movie. These sitcoms are much shorter (about 20 to 25 minutes each episode) and I made the experience that the students really like them. After the idea came to my mind I looked around a bit on the web and found out about some pretty good ideas and thoughts on how to teach sitcoms in the English classroom.

Good reasons to use them is that everybody likes to laugh and that many students watch at least a bit of television every day! Another is that students tend to be more interested into television and watching movies at a cinema than reading a book nowadays. So why shouldn’t teachers use this interest of students to support and enrich their learning process?!

Additionally, it is important to mention that there are a lot of commonalities between television and printed literature. Though each have their own ways of telling their story to the watcher/reader the main structure of the story is quite the same. In a story something occurs or happens and lead to further effects or happenings.

Another similarity between these two types of storytelling are the activities a teacher can deal with in his lessons. For example you can work on characterizations, the plot development, the setting or the mood that is produced.

But as well the additional features of sitcoms in contrast to literature, where usually only words are available to describe something, can be picked out as a central theme. These could be topics like the camera angles and their effects, body language of the actors or different moods created by music.

Along with that the students can improve their listening skills and work on their vocabulary. They also get in contact with authentic material and different varieties of the English language, for example with typical slang, locutions and sayings. And in the special situation of teaching comedy students get in contact with humorous utterances and expressions. All these features can improve the student’s understanding for the English language in a very natural and authentic way.

 Body language

There are so many different opportunities and topics within sitcoms that you can work on with your students like working on their vocabulary by watching a scene and let them pick several vocab they don’t know and then discuss the vocabulary according to the meaning in general and in the context of the sitcom sequence. Another possibility is to pick scenes with humorous utterances, locutions or sayings. Let them find out the expressions and sentences they don’t understand and discuss these with your students by translating them and evaluate their meaning in the connection to the situation in the sitcom. You can as well show scenes about for example a specific holiday or other typical features of a particular country and teach aspects of culture like family issues, religion, race and ethnicity, gender issues, social issues, politics and numerous others to your students.

 American holiday

All in all I think the usage of sitcoms in the English lessons would be fun and motivating for the students. It is a nice alternative in contrast to the usually used printed literature and fits more to the interests of most of the students. You just have to pick the sitcoms and particular scenes with care concerning the topic you want to work on because of possible topics like sexual allusions or swearwords which can appear to be inappropriate.

For further ideas and information check the following websites:

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Chiu-Sitcom.html

http://www.englishaustralia.com.au/index.cgi?E=hcatfuncs&PT=sl&X=getdoc&Lev1=pub_c06_07&Lev2=c05_brandt

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/building-a-lesson-around-a-sitcom

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/sitcoms-a-tool-elt

]]> http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/sitcoms-in-the-english-lessons/feed/ 0 franzik King of Queens http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/questionnaire-the-usage-of-media-in-the-english-classroom/ http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/questionnaire-the-usage-of-media-in-the-english-classroom/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:42:16 +0000 franzik http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/?p=151 ]]> I took a course on Foreign Language Education in the last semester. One requirement to complete the course was to do a project connected to the topic. For this I had to do a survey on a chosen topic. It took me a while to consider what I wanted to do a questionnaire on but at least I decided to do one connected to the topic of new media usage at school.

I really liked the new media course and after we visited the Alfred-Wegener Schule in Kirchhain I was curious if other schools are as well equipped and if they use the new media opportunities as well as the teachers at the school in Kirchhain do.

Here I want to present the results of my questionnaire to you:

I designed two questionnaires, one for students and one for teachers, and went to two schools, asked two different classes (6^th grade and 9^th grade) and handed the questionnaire to several teachers of English. All in all I got results from 53 students and 6 teachers. In my questionnaire I posed questions concerning the equipment of the school of different media, the frequency of the usage of the different media and how they like the media and if they think the media is effective and supports learning a foreign language, in this case learning English.

When it comes to the usage it gets clear, that the teachers favour the media that is easily available just like the black board, the overhead projector or posters. Media like video projector or working with computers would involve more organisation like booking the computer-lab or the video-projector and bring it to class. But in spite of the organisation circumstances the schools seems to be well equipped and the teachers are satisfied with the media that is available at their schools.



Additionally, all teachers are sure that the usage of media motivates their students and that media does improve the lessons in a positive way. For this they named several reasons like taking into account the interests of the students, the improvement of their media competences, getting the opportunity to get in contact with authentic material or that students learn more effective if they are interested and learn with fun.

A critical point which most of the teachers raised was that media is only supportive for lessons and the learning process of the students when the teachers use media in an appropriate and useful way and not just use it because it is available and the students like it!

The students really like the usage of media as well. All students said that they like the support of media in the English lessons and that media motivate them to learn English. Almost all students agreed to the question that the usage of media improves their learning. Their reasons were that it is more interesting and more fun and that the support of media helps them to learn for tests. When it comes to the self-controled learning of English almost all students said that they don’t use media to learn English on their own. In fact only 13,3% said they do so with for example listening to audio books, learning software or they read authentic texts on the internet. This is not a suprising result to me, because I think that students are really glad that their lessons get a bit more interesting and fun with the support of media but in their free time most of them can think of more interesting thinks than learning English or for any other school subject either with or without media support. But I think the few that do so do it probably because there are fun opportunities to learn English with new media.

According to the equipment the students only ticked the media which is used by their teachers but the comparison to the other class shows that the school is quite well equipped.

All in all, doing this survey was very interesting and quit informative though it is far away from being representative! Afterwards I thought it would have been better to ask two or more classes who are tought by the same English teacher. So the frequency and quality of media support could be evaluated in a better way!

In our previous in-class session we learned that the school got a prize as „Medienschule des Monats Januar 2009“, so I was really curious about the changes that have took place after I had left the school as a student in 2006. After we arrived at school Mr Schouler, a teacher of English, Sports and computer sciences welcomed us and gave a short general introduction to the school and then started to show us the different facilities of new media in the school.

Computer pool:

We went into the first computer room which was a classroom for arts when I was a student. It was a usual computer room which was furnished with about 20 to 30 computer places where students can work on. Mr Schouler told us that this room was only used within the lessons. The teachers usually use this room with their students during the lessons when they want to work on topics that need support of the internet or new media tools, like learning software. On these computers the students don’t need to login. This is problematic when it comes to the storage of files the students worked on. For this reason, the teachers recommend the students to send their files to themselves via e-mail and additionally are about to work on a login-system for these computers

Library 1 (Lernwerkstatt):

The second place we went to was a building where a mensa and a library with integrated computer place are located. This building was quite new and I was really impressed about this concept of an integrated learning place where on the one hand teachers can go with their students within the lessons and on the other hand the students can go to learn for themselves or to do homework for which they need certain information from the internet. The building was very modern and the open and bright atmosphere seems to be motivating for the learning process of the students. Beside the computer area you can find a library with lendable books and three rooms for group work as well.

Library 2 (Oberstufenarbeitsbibliothek):

The third facility for the use of new media is the so-called „Oberstufenarbeitsbibliothek“ which is located in the building for the senior year students. Within this room you find again a library with books the students can work with and computer places which are arranged in a circle. This arrangement which was common for the room should support the communication between the students and thus affect the learning situation in a positive way. In my time as a student on the AWS Kirchhain I liked this library and enjoyed to learn within this special environment. All in all I think the trip to the AWS was great because we got to know three different concepts on how to integrate new media in the daily life of school and how to facilitate an access to the internet for every student. Additionally we got some practical experiences on the usage and the made experiences of new media!

I came across with, to my mind, a really good method to train their vocabulary with so-called word searches. A word search is something like a crossword but in this case you have to find certain words in a jumbled mess of letters. I found some word search worksheets on the web but these were not suitable for the vocabulary I was working on with my learning group. I continued to search for an alternative and found a word search generator. This is a tool with which you can create word search worksheets yourself. On the page atozteacherstuff.com you can generate a word search with only a few steps.

For this you first have to give your puzzle a title (1) and make a list on the vocabulary you want to include into your word search and then fill them into a field separated by commas or put only one vocabulary per line (2). After choosing your words you have a few options to organize your words search. You can change the font size and style and choose between showing the letters in uppercase or lowercase (3). You can decide what the shape of your word search should look at all for example like a star or a square (4). Another option to choose is in what directions your words should appear within the randomized letters. They can run up and down, forward and backwards and diagonal (5). After you have designed your word search you can save the settings in case you want to use the puzzle again (6)!

I designed a word search myself for the last lesson before the Christmas holidays for my learning group at school. For this reason the word search includes words that are connected with winter, Christmas and New Years Eve! Additionally I put a line to each word that should be found within the letters. The students are supposed to translate the words after they have found them!

It should be mentioned that it is important to check on word searches before you hand them to students in case that inappropriate words creep in the randomized letters!

I really like to use word searches to improve the students vocabulary. Sure, vocabulary learning can not only be done with this method but it is a nice option to work on vocabulary in a more entertaining way and I experienced that the students really like these word searches and are more motivated to learn something!

To ensure that all these information are accessible for further usage we decided in a group of four to put the aspects we think are most important on our group blogs or e-portfolios to make them available for all of us.

Our important points are:

• How to set up a lesson plan with instruments/tools of new media?
• What is an e-mail project? how to organize one with your class.
• Software Analysis – Why do we need it?
• What is a WebQuest? How to creat your own WebQuest for your students?

Everyone of us deals with one of the topics mentioned above and I am going to link the entries of the other group members within this post as well! I am going to deal with the last topic concerning WebQuests:

What is a WebQuest?

A WebQuest is a student-centered internet research project which is guided and organized by a teacher. For this students get tasks concerning a certain topic and are asked to solve these task with (primarily) the help of information from the web. A WebQuest is mostly designed as a group activity and can be structured as a short or long-term WebQuest. A short-term WebQuest is designed for 1 to 3 lessons and it mainly asks the students to collect information to a certain topic. The long-term WebQuest is kind of project which can last between a week and a month and focuses on reconstructing information and uses these to create something new based on the new knowledge. In both types of WebQuests the results should be presented in the end either in class or via the web. As a teacher it is your task to prepare the WebQuest properly and to lead your students to useful sources they can use for collecting information and material in order to solve their tasks. To get a first impression how a WebQuest can look like here is an example of a WebQuest which is very well done: Searching for China WebQuest.

How to create a WebQuest yourself?

There are quite a few internet pages where you can design a WebQuest on your own and for this reason programming knowledge on HTML is no longer necessary. One option is to use a blog for creating your own WebQuest. Another option is to use a webpage which offers an editor with which you can set up your individual WebQuest. One example for such a page is called aula21. To my point of view, this page is very nice and as well easy for creating your own WebQuest. To make your WebQuest accessible for your students you need web space. You can get web space through many free webpages, for example through e-mail services like gmx.de or web.de. University homepages do offer web space for their students and staff as well. Another possibility is to put your WebQuest on a blog.

What to include into a WebQuest?

Before I introduce the important elements that should be included into a WebQuest, it is important to mention that the topic and the organization of a WebQuest should always be adapted to the age of your learning group and their knowledge and experiences with WebQuests so far.

The pages you should include into your WebQuest are:

Introduction: The introduction should introduce the topic of the WebQuest with its main questions and should additionally attract the attention of the students to the topic they should deal with. After reading the introduction the students should be motivated to work on the WebQuest!

Task: To design the tasks is the most important part of creating a WebQuest yourself. You should assign tasks which require thinking and creating which means set up questions and tasks which requires high level thinking and which are problem-oriented, explorative and self-organized. In other words, your students should be asked to do more than just read through webpages and collect and copy a “summary“ of the information available there.

Process description: this page instructs the students to the different steps in order to fulfill a particular task of the WebQuest. These assignments should be very precise and in small steps that your learners  know exactly what to do! It is also important to make them aware of the possible tools they can use, for example online or offline tools or software on the computer. Additionally, this page contains links to webpages you have offered to your students for working on the topic.

Evaluation: On the evaluation page you make your expectations concerning the working process and the results of the WebQuest visible and transparent for your students. The evaluation should be arranged in a table and should include very detailed information about the content and the grading process to make it as clear as possible for your students. With this measure your students know how they will be graded and how much each task counts towards the grade at the end.

Conclusion: This pages concludes on the learning process of the students after they have done the WebQuest. This conclusion includes learned facts about the particular topic, ways to find information, new skills and opinions. The students are asked to reflect on their new knowledge, their experiences while working in a group and the webpages they have visited and used in a critical way.

Teacher page: The teachers page functions as an information page for other teachers who would like to use your WebQuest with their own class. It should include all information and facts the other teacher should know and be aware of before he uses the WebQuest himself!

After summarizing the main facts about what a WebQuest is and how to create one yourself I am going to link the other summaries to my E-Portfolio:

• Tools for using new media in class (http://gloeportfolio.wordpress.com/)
• Software Analysis – Why do we need it? (http://herbious.wordpress.com/)
• E-Mail Project

]]> http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/what-is-worth-keeping-in-mind-for-the-future/feed/ 0 franzik WQ http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/niks-daily-english-activities/ http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/niks-daily-english-activities/#comments Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:29:14 +0000 franzik http://franziskaknabeschuh.wordpress.com/?p=45 ]]> I just take a closer look at some pages and blogs concerning the topic of new media and the possibilities of usage and came up with a very interesting blog by Nik Peachey who is a freelance learning technology consulter, a writer and a teacher trainer. He runs several websites with the topic of new technologies in the English classroom that features tips, resources and learning material for EFL and ESL teachers.

One of his blogs which I especially like is designed for autonomous ESL and EFL learners. It is called„ Nik’s Daily English Activities“ and gives ideas for simple activities and exercises which the learner can do on a daily basis. These activities can improve your English skills like pronunciation, listening comprehension or memorizing vocabulary just to mention a few. Beside this the learner get in contact with new technologies and new media in connection with learning the English language.

I really like the different activities because they are almost like little WebQuests because Nik uses websites with different tool or activities and designs his own tasks around these sites. I will give you an example how his activities work out by describing an activity that I like:

• Read and Write Very Short Stories: This one is an exercise where the learners are asked to write a short story based on five images. You can find these images on a site called Five Card Stories. Before starting to write their own stories the task for the learners is to read through several other stories on the website and then they are supposed to vote how good the story is according to their opinion. Through this they probably get some inspiration for their own writings and learn to give and receive feedback for written works.The next step is to write their own story to images or rewrite a story they have read using the same images. For writing the learner just need to fill in the title of the story, their nickname and their own version of the short story into a blank. After this they have to write two security words and then they can save their own version of a short story to the site. The learner can come back and see how other users like the story and voted for it! Additionally it is possible to create your own story by choosing images yourself. Go to the gallery of Five Card Stories and pick some pictures you like or find interesting. Then you can write your own story the same way already described before!

I really like this activity because on the one hand it is great for your students to improve their vocabulary and writing skills in a creative way and on the other hand this exercise does not necessarily need to be done on the internet. You can transfer these tasks easily to your classroom by just bringing different images and everyone can pick five of them according to one’s own interest and fantasy. After writing their stories they can put them somewhere in class and the other students can comment on their stories orally or through short comments on paper!

This is just one of the many different activities that the host of this blog offers for learners. As already mentioned most of the exercises are good hints and material for teachers as well and can be easily used in class. I really like this page and just can recommend it to you!

I really like the idea to teach a movie in class. When I was at school we watched movies as well but only as a kind of gift after dealing with a certain book. I think you can do a lot more than that! I am a big fan of movies and I like the idea to use trailers or movies within the English classroom.

I am going to hold a presentation on teaching the movie About A Boy. For this reason I was looking for some interesting approaches and techniques on how to teach a movie in an appropriate and entertaining way concerning new media. I came up with an interesting spot on YouTube concerning this topic.

Here it is: 

According to the speaker of the spot, especially trailers are very effective in usage because most of the students like movies and a trailer comprises the plot of a movie in a little amount of time without giving the whole story away. He presents some simple but very effective exercises for using a movie trailer in class:

1. Choose a movie trailer: There is a huge variety of trailers available on the internet. By choosing one it is important to pick a trailer that has the right level and content for your learning group!
2. Pre-teach the keywords: Before you watch the trailer with your students make sure that they know all the words that are used in it. For this select the words your students might not know and teach the unknown vocabulary to them. Another possible pre-watching task could be to ask your students to summarize their ideas about the possible plot of the movie. These can be thoughts about the name of the movie and its possible connection to the story. When you do not tell the students if their thoughts are right or wrong another exercise to the trailer can be to compare the thoughts they had with the actual content of the trailer and work out the differences!
3. Show the trailer: The speaker had the idea to show the trailer the first time without sound, just watching the pictures of the trailer. After this, the students can tell their ideas about the characters, the plot, what might happen and other things that might be important. I really like this idea because I think this gives much space for discussions and the students are encouraged to talk. Then watch the trailer a second time with your students, this time including the sound.
4. Discussion/Writing/Screenplay/Ideas: After watching the trailer there are various different options to work out the whole plot with your class. Additionally there are many possibilities for creative activities concerning the trailer. You can let your students do a roleplay, they can work out a particular scene of the trailer more fully or can write a possible end for the movie.

I really like the idea to teach movie trailer because there are many opportunities for entertaining exercises students will like and you can plan the exercises specifically to the needs of your class. Additionally it is very effective because this approach is connected with multichannel learning and the students improve their listening and reading skills (subtitles) and they can practice talking in a free and authentic way!

With the ideas of this spot I will plan the exercises for my presentation of teaching the movie: About a Boy. I will put the finished outline of the presentation with my ideas concerning the topic in my e-portfolio soon!

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