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Week6, Reflection

At this week we discussed issues of student engagement and using Interactive approaches in teaching. These are important issues, because without student interest, the effect of our teaching would be minimized.
When I read the topic at the beginning of the week “Online assessment” http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/assessment/onlineassessment.html , it did not give me any ideas about real meaning of using assessment online. After watching several tutorials on Blackboard and Angel learning systems, I understood that they are powerful softwares where I can create quizzes for assessment and use technology online. For instance, “Blackboard's Assessment features provide instructors with tools for building online assessments using different question types. These assessments can provide students with immediate feedback, are automatically graded (with the exception of essay questions), and scores are logged into the online Grade Center.”http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/blackboardassessment.pdf.
I love the statement that introduce online assessment system such as student engagement into curriculum; more frequent assessment; a time-saver; practice with technology-based format; location and time independent; immediate feedback; and so on. Isn’t it a dream of a teacher to use it? I wish to use one of them for my teaching. I think that it cost a lot of money to buy such program? I am not sure. Now I have just a dream to use it)
By discussion about engagement of students and through the readings I have learned that there are as minimum two approaches such as use of technology and Interactive lecture that will help in activation of student interest to the themes that they cover in semester. Interactive lectures and use of technology are continuously linked to each other, because at the lecture teacher can use computers, portable computers and projectors, clickers, scan, printer, and so on. (http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/lecture/improveslides.html ). In a time of presentation, teacher can use Interactive segments such as brainstorming, predictions of demonstrations, collecting student response, interpretation of graphs, and so on (http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/bytype.html ).
It is a good practice to videotape lessons and to use it for students who were absent or for students who want just to listen to lecture again and write the questions for discussion. At the same time, teacher can reflect on the lecture and think how to improve it at the next time. Additionally, teacher can share with others by videotaped material and discuss it with the goal of professional development.
Teacher can encourage students’ interest to lecture by discussions at the class and out-of-class by online discussion. This strategy will provide for students an opportunity to introduce idea, and to reflect on ideas of other students. They will use argumentation with facts and evidence and introduce it by discussion in class or online. According to this, we have to teach students write messages, letters, and thoughts for discussion. They have to learn how to use arguments in speech and writing. Students will improve their critical thinking skills by asking questions and providing answers through discussion.
Even more, we discussed the issues of teaching a large class and the challenges that it has. My classmates shared that not many of us teach a large class, but there are some. Sometimes, I teach 60 students in a group of Discussion Club. Thus, this aspect is significant for learning as well. What was useful from reading that I could analyze the role of interactive lectures for a large class with different lectures format ,and understand that students have to be involved in the learning process. Teacher can use “think-pair-share” strategy; “a minute paper”, “ a Concept Test”,” Scripted Cooperative learning”, “Concept Maps”, and many others. Students have to have a time for individual thinking about the question, and then share it with others, because students in a large group can be shy and will escape to share ideas before the large group, but these strategies will let them think about idea and introduce it to the person who sit close to him/her. Teacher can use any methods that will attract attention of the students, such as a blind slide in PPT and to see the reaction of the students if they follow the lecture(from our reading).
Also, we discussed the value of collaborative learning and cooperative learning in presenting Interactive lectures. From the definition: “Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_learning. “Cooperative learning is an approach to organizing classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences. Students must work in groups to complete tasks collectively.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_learning . By these styles of learning, students will have a chance for feedback from teacher and also from their peers. They will improve their work together and everyone would be responsible for the product that they have to create together in pairs or in groups. “Combining lecture with short, pair or small-group learning activities keeps students interested, motivated, and involved” (Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw). They will feel the value of lecture, because they will be engaged through different formats. They will develop critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, cooperative working skills, communication skills, computer skill, and so on. There are several examples that support ideas of interactive lectures. For instance, by watching video “Active Learning Classrooms: Everyone is engaged!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7xidmVt0uE&feature=related I could see that all students are engaged in the process. Students work in groups and all of them have access to Internet by laptops. The teacher stands in different parts of the classroom and observes the process. She can move easily to each group, in order to monitor their work and answer on some students’ questions. From the video “Introduction to Physics” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQra4baNwP8 , the teacher asks students to think individually and then share their ideas with pairs. The teacher introduces a topic by motivating question. Teacher presents the problem question to students, they think about correct answer and then they check it in a class. On the next step she introduces a lecture, but always includes students into discussion. Students love such strategies of teaching, because the teacher constantly thinks how to “maximize effect of learning to her students”. Teacher could present the lecture and expect from students their active discussion in a group, because positive environment allow them to participate actively. It’s also very important to receive a feedback from students that allow immediate response from teacher (Laura Guertin , Rebecca Teed). For this reason, teacher can ask students to raise their hands to count responses; to use “A, B, C, D” cards; use a finger signals; electronic classroom communication system. For written response can be used open-ended or complex response; one-minute paper, and so on. In oral response can be used student participation in discussion. Teacher has to provide feedback in time and it would be significant for students to know what they have to improve and think about it.
It was an interesting topic to discuss creating Power Point Presentation and using it in Interactive Way. I summarized for myself the rules for creating PPT. They are: use 18-36 pt for text writing; one idea per visual; keep visuals simple; do not distract audience by your slides; use graphics properly. From the article “Presenting with Power Point” I have learned that I have to think who is the audience, what students will do before, while, and after the presentation. What questions will I ask and what questions they might ask. I can support my PPT with handouts, but I have to think for what purpose I will use them.
Readings were useful, because by the article “Creating Interactive Presentations using Power Point”, I could learn for several strategies on creating PPT, but what was the most interesting that I looked through the tutorial that explains the differences between Power Point of 2003 and Power Point 2007( that I have) after that I could find several actions buttons that I could not find before in my PPT program.
It’s wonderful resource that I could watch by video clips. You tube Interactive Power Point Tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgPO-agnnMk it was not so successful, because it just stopped at the middle of show presentation ,but at the end of the week I could open it and view to the end (And it happens when I have already learned how to create Jeopardy Game myself- without this tutorial!, but it’s cool!). Another option is “Using PowerPoint to Make an Interactive Story” http://www.microsoft.com/education/story.mspx let me think about creating PT with Interactive story that I can use for my future project. As the result, I created 3 versions of PPT, one of them with Quiz (human biology), another with Jeopardy Game (zoology), and the third one for anatomy. I have learned to make transitions of slides and to create Quizzes myself. I like this activity, because I can share the process of creating Interactive PPT with my students and teachers. In addition it was important to understand the role of Interactive PPT as a tool that allow students to be active and “to do smth.” during PPT presentation.
By the way, I found the site http://www.brainpop.com/science/ that is nice to present to students, because there are animation video, activities, worksheets, vocabulary, and so on. I can use it with trial for 5 days, but I can find interesting ideas for teaching there.
In addition, at this week I could “review and polish” the Plan that I am going to implement in my teaching as a Project. This process requires me to think about the value of this Plan for the students. I think how can I engage them by the Project, what would be interesting to them and essential for studying the Human biology.

Week5, Reflections

At this week I have a chance to learn more about alternative assessment, autonomous learning, and project-based learning process. If teacher wants to work creatively and provide new ways of teaching in the classroom, he/she has to think about cooperation with students on the problem-based methods. At my school, we have the grading system from 5 to 1 that is not flexible and do not provide any feedback to students. I pointed out in discussion that in case of using rubrics I have to modify scores to our system and for that goal I have to reconsider the syllabus for grading. However, assessment has to be an active part of learning process that encourages students in their educational process for class and out-of class activities. Teacher has to give to student a freedom in discussing the process of learning. Teacher and students have to collaborate in all activities and all steps in class activities and out.
Through readings we considered different tools of alternative assessment such as checklist and rubrics, their structure and functions in learning process. They are the tools that help motivate students to study, because they exactly know the requirements for accomplishing tasks. They are useful to assess any task: presentation, essay, test with multiple-choice questions, and so on. We discussed and analyzed the differences and similarities between different types of rubrics, such as holistic and analytical, primary trait and multi trait rubrics. From my experience, I can tell that I used rubric for evaluation of student progress, but it was not systematically. After reading articles on the value of them, I would like to work on redesigning lesson plans with rubrics for evaluation. They are productive tool that show to the students the strength of their work and help to analyze weaknesses. Teachers provide feedback to their students by rubric during the process and at the end. Jo-Ellen Tannenbaum in the article “Practical Ideas On Alternative Assessment For ESL Students” writes that “In contrast to traditional testing, "students are evaluated on what they integrate and produce rather than on what they are able to recall and reproduce" (Huerta- Macias, 1995, p. 9).”It improves the objectivity of assessment. Teacher cannot pay attention only to the best students and tell them the result of their best work, but will make individual approach to each student in the class. Jo-Ellen Tannenbaum mentions that “Focus is on documenting individual student growth over time, rather than comparing students with one another.”
Students have to be involved in the process of creating rubric for special task, for agreement on each point of the task and escaping the conflict situation on assessing student work. Students can evaluate themselves and learn how to evaluate their peers. Jo-Ellen Tannenbaum points out that “Whatever methods teachers choose, they should reflect with students on their work, to develop students' ability to critique their own progress.”This is also the part of learning process, because they have to explain the strength and weaknesses of students work and it can be if they fully understand the content of the topic and can identify other aspects according to criteria of the task. Rubric can be created by different sites that provide templates with criteria for task or made by teacher. In order to make a rubric, I used sites http://www.rubrics4teachers.com/ and Rubi Star, and found that there are many templates to create rubrics for all disciplines. When the teacher use rubric in the classroom, it will not require more time for assessing students result. In the article “Alternative Assessment” on the site http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/alternative.htm, authors write that “In classrooms where traditional forms of assessment are required, this gives the instructor multiple ways of measuring progress without increasing the time students spend taking traditional tests.” It makes clear the process of assessment for teacher and for students.
We read and discussed issues about Problem-based learning method and projects that can be created on the basis of this method. I made a conclusion that Problem-based learning process is integral part of academic process. Students have to learn to work in teams, find solutions, and solve problems. Students with different learning styles will be involved in the process. Students who like read, write, speak, calculate, move, touch, see, observe, and so on, will find interesting activity to do in a group by PBL process. We discussed with my classmate Celeste influence of PBL method on “shy” students in her class and we concluded that this method will encourage this group of students in order to be active in any approaches for solving problems and working collaboratively with students in the group on preparing the task in the project. Project has to be interesting to students and to be valuable for community ( Susan Gaer ). In this case, students will love to work under PBL method. Teacher’s role is very important in this process, because he/she has to think over the steps of PBL method realization, to create the plan and help students to design their project, to show the steps in realization of it, to teach how to monitor and evaluate the project. In addition teacher has to monitor and evaluate the result of student work. Checklist and rubrics can be useful for this goal. Through the PBL, students will learn to write projects, brainstorm ideas, research information on the problem and find solutions. These skills would be useful for educational process and for real-life situations, because it improves critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, creativity, and cooperative work.
Many examples of PBL method were provided through the course. They demonstrate the role of PBL method for students’ individuality. For instance, Yan Guo in the article “Project-based ESL Education: Promoting Language and Content Learning” writes that the project was organized in China and “Professors believed that project- based learning may “enhance students’ motivation” and “develop students’ ability to learn more independently and autonomously.” It tells that because of participating in PBL project, student will be more independent and learn to work individually without “requirements” of the teacher, but with facilitation by cooperation.
At this week, I get to know about Web Quests. Readings and Tutorials in Internet helped me to understand better that this is a part of PBL method that can be designed through zunal.com site and shown at Internet for learners and public. I was interested in creating the lesson on Web Quest that contains attached files, video on You Tube, and additional resources. I proposed lesson by different parts, such as Introduction, Task, Process, Evaluation, and a Conclusion. By following these steps I could consider all of the parts of the lesson and could include their new resources. It was difficult for the first time to design the lesson on Web Quest and publish it. I had several attempts, before I found information through Internet on publishing Web Quest and then completed the task.
I search and search again and learn so many new tools for teaching. It makes me feel more confident in my computer skills and so on… I added more useful URL from sites to my delicious page. Nonetheless, when I opened site http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/archives/techlp.shtml , I understood that I still know nothing ( and I have to plan it for future studying!

One more time to Introduction

Presentation1. kyrgyzstanppt (4)

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Issue or problem to be addressed that technology can help with

The main issues are:
Student’ skills in pronunciation, speaking, writing, and presentation;
Team work of students, their collaboration and communication;
Learning new term in anatomy on English;
Student’ motivation in learning;
Student creativity;
Research in science;
Evaluation/ assessment of student progress;
Enrichment the syllabus for teaching human anatomy

Reflection, Week 4

At this week, we discussed readings and explored web-sites with the procedure and mechanism of reading and writing and their role for the learning process. There are many approaches to teach by reading and writing exercises and some of them were discussed throughout the articles.
I have learned that teachers can use e-mail in educational purpose. Chao-chih Liao in the article “E-mailing to Improve EFL Learners' Reading and Writing Abilities: Taiwan Experience” writes about emailing project experience of EFL students in Taiwan to contact key pals from other cultures to improve reading and writing skills. The students wrote to their key pals and through communication they could have “an access” to authentic text. Both “partners” in this case improved mechanical skills, English language skills, and cross-cultural knowledge. Through this practice, I understood that I can use an e-mail at the lesson and after, to arrange communication between the classmates and also conduct a project for communication of students of my school and some other schools.
Another experience I have learned through the article “Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books” that was written by Mei-Ya Liang. The author proposes extensive reading lesson focus on intermediate and advanced ESL/EFL students. The students at the lesson have to choose books by their interest, read them and analyze with the following discussion and sharing the ideas. Students discuss the problem in a book, main characters, interesting ideas and facts. The teachers provide to the students study guide with the questions that help to concentrate on the key points. Students learn to evaluate readings, construct arguments for their oral discussion and presentation. The teacher provides to the students the rubric for evaluation of their work. “Both sides” understand what to do, what the requirements are, and what the expectations are. I like this practice and definitely can use it in my school practice. In each topic of biology, I can suggest several options for students to read and organize the lesson that will include the same steps for developing reading skills.
In my school practice, I verified that students after learning new terms, reading the text, and analyzing it, can discuss the text with supported arguments. The article by Andreea I. Constantinescu “Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension” supports my observations from the school practice. The author writes about the role of vocabulary in reading comprehension and bilateral benefit of that. When student learn new terms, they will better read and understand text and opposite when they read, they learn new vocabulary. Different multimedia programs provide dictionaries that assist learner in studying and author mentions the role of them in learning vocabulary. Thus, studying new vocabulary influences on reading comprehension. I will continue to use this experience in my classes.
A brilliant source of techniques for writing and varieties of them proposes by Jarek Krajka in the article “Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction”. The author explains how to write different writing genres such as “a letter to a friend, a formal letter, a biography, a description of a person, a for-and-against essay, a notice and an advertisement, a description of a festival/ceremony, a description of a book/film/play, a newspaper report, an opinion essay and a description of a place” by using Internet. Jarek Krajka suggests using Internet as a resource for learning these genres. Web-sites on writing cards, learning biographies, writing argumentative essays and so on encourage students to do complete these tasks. Moreover, students increase their writing skills. The author points out the role of a teacher in the classroom for punctual organization of each detail in studying through the Internet. I can read this article several times and learn the steps of the writing process through different genres. I am sure that I can use all of these writing genres in my teaching.
Additionally, different web-sites allowed me to find excellent information with well-prepared topics for teaching. That information contains many exercises on reading, listening, speaking, writing, TOEFL practicing, and so on. Many of them I can adjust and modify for my school practice. Some of web-sites are “The Breaking News English”, “ESL Independent Study Lab”, “Lauri’s ESL website”, “Activities for ESL students”. At the same time, I found several sites that I can use for teaching my biology classes, because of the task to write an enhanced technology lesson. I applied my new knowledge about constructing the lesson with using Internet on the topic “The skeletal system”. The lesson plan that was designed at this week, without doubt will be used for students of 9grade. I love the way of keeping information about the web-sites on the “delicious” page and I believe that I will not lose it.
At this week I could think about the concerns and issues of teaching and learning. My thoughts were proposed by the second part of the plan that will be implemented when the school starts. I have learned through this process how to think in details about the problems and analyze them. Discussion board motivates me to think critically about the teaching process and enriching syllabus for biology. Discussion in a positive way encourages me to create, design, and to implement my ideas into the real life. Thanks to Donna and to my Web-mates!

What will benefit Aga Khan school? Ideas about the future project.

The Aga Khan School in Osh, Kyrgyz Republic, opened the door in September 2002. The building built to withstand powerful earthquakes. The design itself reflects local and Central Asian architectural themes and is destined to become a landmark construction for this area. The building has 20 regular classrooms and 10 special purpose ones including:
• home economic and technology workshops; art and music room;
• science labs for physics, chemistry and biology;
• a computer lab with 25 computers;
• a Learning resource centre or LRC with two floors of its own;
• a cafeteria capable of seating 200 persons;
• a gymnasium with International standard courts for basketball and volleyball.
A modern network links all the computers in the school and, as a result, staff, students and administration can access curriculum information, the Internet and the library catalogue from their respective work stations.
The school offers all the courses required by the Ministry of Education of the Kyrgyz Republic, some of which are enriched with components of curricula from other jurisdictions in Central Asia and North America. Essentially, this curriculum focuses on making each student an independent, life-long learner who will graduate from the school with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to proceed successfully to post-secondary education in Central Asia and farther afield. At school there are three medium instructions: Russian, English, and German.
The majority of the teaching staff has a minimum 5 year’s classroom experience in their own subject. The principal and the teachers were recruited following and in-depth process. Teachers were selected based on the criteria:
• Competence and experience in their subject area;
• Understanding of modern teaching methods;
• Commitment to student-centered teaching;
• Openness to change.
During the school year, teachers participate in professional development activities organized by trainers of professional development. Teacher evaluations take place throughout the school year and staff contract renewals are based upon successful evaluations.
Students are recruited from local schools throughout the city of Osh. Recruitment is open to all and based solely on merit. Entrance exams are based on competencies in Russian language and literature, Math, and general knowledge. Also the test assesses each student’s level of proficiency in English and Kyrgyz.
Different projects were realized for students, teachers, and community by professional development trainers. One of the project will be planned throughout the online course “Web skills design” for the implementation at AKS.
Who are the learners?
The class of 9- grade biology students with 16 students, 4 girls and 12 boys enrolled in English medium instruction. I taught this class during one academic year and they have learned zoology. Their ages are 13-14 years old. Their native language is Kyrgyz, their second language is Russian, and English is a “third” one. Al of them are from well-income families. Girls and boys always argue with each other and there is dis-balance in gender. In terms of language, they have better speaking, than reading and writing skills. They have difficulties in writing essay and keeping notes. Students prefer to use computer for studying than textbook, and they want to search sites by Internet rather write essays. Many students do not have enough knowledge in e-mail conversation, blogging, creating PPT, writing essays.
What is the setting?
We often study at computer lab with 27 computers in connection. There is an Internet access. In the room we have a white board, and one projector.
Another room contains tables and chairs to work in different arrangements of the room. We can easily organize the work individually, in pair, and in a group. The table is not heavy to move them. In the class we have a white board and place for posters.
The third place at school where I can provide lesson is Learning Resource centre. We have there literature on English for science and students can make a research at the lesson and after. There are 5 computers with access to Internet. We have there TV set for watching video , DVD, and science programs on English.
What are the course goals?
• Reconsider science syllabus for 9-grade students;
• To develop student knowledge and skills in science;
• To introduce knew knowledge about human anatomy;
• Discuss the issues of structure and functions of the body systems, and health issues.
• Develop student proficiency in English;
• Develop student competency to work with computer through different programs (Microsoft Word, Power Point Presentations, Internet)
• Team building in the class
II. Issue or problem to be addressed that technology can help with
I would like to present “human biology” for students by effective use of visual aids (maps, atlases, PPT, video clips and etc.), lectures (through advanced notes, worksheets,), and science experiments (through PPT, video cassettes,). Students have difficulties in working in a team, so I believe that technology can help me to build a good team of classmates. Another issue is that students have problems in writing comments to each other and writing essays. At the same time, I would like to pay attention to learning English through science and so, I want to improve student skills in listening, reading, writing, and speaking.
Another project that I would like to implement is “Toastmaster club”. The main goal is to teach students how to present information. Moreover, when they prepare for presentations, they have to read information, search, write it themselves as an own speech, and listen others when they present their speeches. I have participated in Toastmaster club in USA and won the first place at MSU club, the second place in area and region. At the same time, I practiced there my responsibility as a Vice President of the club at MSU. Thus, I have an experience and wish to implement this project with the students and (probably teachers) from different schools, I think 13 schools. For the club I have to have a computer for PPT presentations, audio cassettes, computers with access to the Internet, and the classroom where I can organize such activity.
The main problem is that students do not have well-developed presentation skills. In order to develop them, we have typo practice all other skills.
The language in the club would be English. It will allow students to improve their English language skills.
Dear Web-mates, what do you think about the ideas for my future project? Thank you ahead for the comments! Natalia

Week 3, Reflection

Dear web-mates and colleagues!
On this week we could have a chance to discuss issue of aural/oral skills that so essential in learning English. Our Professor suggested reading that was interesting for analysis with the following discussion with my classmates. We discussed issues of pronunciation, especially for foreign students and effectiveness of using BBC news, TV, radio, and CD-ROMs in the classroom. For instance, Lindsay Miller writes in her article “Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials” that students have to be free of stress in practice of pronunciation and I agree that students have to be motivated and encouraged by teachers and other students for learning. It can create only the positive atmosphere in the classroom and proper strategies of learning that will improve all student skills such as pronunciation, speaking, listening, writing and reading. Author mentions that practicing of listening skills and pronunciation reduced in last years. For example, in schools of Kyrgyzstan and Moldova (as Ion wrote) we do not have enough cassettes, audio and video materials for teaching. The last exam at school might contain multiply choice questions and teachers have to prepare students in order to pass it. At this exam, they do not have chance to demonstrate their speaking, listening, writing, reading skills, skills of presentation and communication. Nonetheless, students have to pass TOEFL exam when they go to the prestigious University. This test includes several parts for listening, writing, reading, and, and the test with multiply choice questions. Thus, we can conclude that there are absence of connection between the school and University and students themselves have to “catch “missing knowledge, which is unreal in short time.
I could open the sites and look through them with concentrating on pronunciation, speaking, listening. These sites can be successfully used for the students, because they include several activities, lesson plans with well-prepared worksheets, cards with colourful pictures, and games.
At the same time, I could find sites that I can use for my Biology lesson that I teach on English in medium Instruction level at Aga Khan School. At this week I knew a wonderful social bookmarking tool that will keep all of my sites that I am interested in and let me open them quickly. I can't memorise all the sites that I am looking for studying and preparing for teaching, but the work with the page (http://www.delicious.com/deryabki) inspires me to maintain it.
By the additional resources, I knew that there are other social bookmarking services that store many bookmarks online. I assume that I can insert my files that would be kept for several years in delicious page.
The project that has to be written to the end of the course is on the step 2. At this week I could read the samples of the project that were proposed by different authors. The project that I chose for deep analysis was written by Camelia Pagila, from Romania. She introduces the idea to work with the students according to their learning style and multiply intelligence through different activities that were included into the blog. That blog integrated many points from classroom task to International collaboration by messages with friends around the world. The questions and answers that structures the project allow me think about my future project deeply.
At this week I experienced the crash of my Flash USB drive with all the documents that I kept there for 3 years. Thus, knowledge about “back up keeping” information is valuable for me as never before. We have to learn for practice and use our skills into the real life. Isn't it a main goal of education?

Thanks a lot for all of the comments that were given by Nicenet discussion and comments into the blog! Our communication is the way of encouraging each other in studying at the course that we enjoy through activities, research, and 'authentic' learning from the literature, Internet, web-sites, and articles.
I believe that through the communication and sharing our thoughts we will achieve the great result in the course. With the best,Natalia.