Blogs as a tool for teaching

As a way to start, I must address what is a blog, a blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries, mostly known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. Until 2009, “blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. The blogs provide a valuable filtering function for their readers” (Blood, 2000). Blogs have evolved throughout the years becoming an essential part of the internet culture, “blog editors sometimes contextualize an article by juxtaposing it with an article on a related subject; each article, considered in the light of the other, may take on additional meaning, or even draw the reader to conclusions contrary to the implicit aim of each. It would be too much to call this type of weblog "independent media," but clearly their editors, engaged in seeking out and evaluating the "facts" that are presented to us each day” (Blood, 2000), one of the main aspects of the blog is how its subjected to the author’s ideas and opinions and changes to its requirements, in fact it is this same aspect that turns the blog into a useful teaching tool.

Now, how it can be used as such. For starters the students of today have a major connection towards technology, therefore applying the use of technology in the classroom can be proven as a way to make the class more relatable to the student, “when technology integration in the classroom is seamless and thoughtful, students not only become more engaged, they begin to take more control over their own learning, too. Effective tech integration changes classroom dynamics, encouraging student-centered project-based learning” (George Lucas Educational foundation, 2007). The use of technology can help the new generation of students to enter in an environment that can engage them and motivate them to learn. However there are certain details that do need to be addressed, “how we define "technology integration" depends on the kinds of technology available and how much access one has to technology. This definition also depends on who is using the technology. For instance, in a classroom with only an interactive whiteboard and one computer, learning will still remain teacher centered and integration will revolve around teacher needs, which are not necessarily student needs” (George Lucas Educational foundation, 2007), the use of the technology is limited by the tools available which, depending on the educational context, may interfere completely with the goals of the lesson. Although it is through this same reasoning that it can be concluded that the use of blogs for teaching are the best way to apply technology for the students. According to the data stipulated by “Educarchile”, most schools have computers in their possession, bringing the relation to ten students per computer, so it is agreeable that the students possess by default access to the internet.  As for the use of the blogs, the blog consists of a simple tool that can be altered to fit the necessities of the students, in some cases it can be used as a mean of stocking the information delivered during the classes, in other cases it can be given to the students as an individual or group tool for them to use as a mean to deliver their homework, stock information, express their opinions towards the subject at hand and many more.

We stated that the blog can be used as a mean of teaching, it can be applied to any area but I will focus on the area of language teaching. In the aspect of second language acquisition, the learning process can take place in many ways, depending on the type of input applied, and it is this versatility of teaching that relates it to the blogs. The blogs can be used in the learning process of an L2 by altering itself to the needs of the students, an example would be to encourage the students to use the blog as a platform for them to express their opinions on the classes, this way they can practice writing as well as improving their critical thinking skills.  Between the abilities that the blog can be used to improve more than others are reading and writing. Blogs mostly consists of posts, written entries, which regard a certain topic, the idea of the post is to be a written version of the author’s thoughts and for it to be read by an audience. By taking this into consideration it is understandable that the blog, may excel on working with those abilities.

Therefore, as to only select one, the ability that I shall work with will be writing which will be improved through the use of the blog. The main idea is for the students to every week, post an entry on their personal blogs, which shall be created previously, in regards of their experiences in the classroom, making of their second language, focusing on what did they learned, what they were unable to comprehend and how they would improve the class in general. The activity shall be applied from 10^th to 12^th grade students, considering that they require a minimum understanding of the use of the second language to be able to efficiently express themselves. The activity aims towards helping the student improve their writing capabilities and to create the space for them to handout their opinions freely. However, there are certain limitations regarding the activity that must be taken into consideration: first of all, the requirement for the student to not only possess a computer but also access to the internet, which if by chance they found themselves in a lack of it they will have no choice but to make use of the computer lab from the school in available hours, cutting their working time greatly; another issue is the need of a minimum understanding of English, certain students, even though their at this level in their schools, might not possess the required level of English to put the activity in motion, by simply being unable to express themselves correctly; and finally the fear of certain students to expressing themselves, teenagers tend to close themselves up from others in fear of hurting themselves or others, therefore having them express freely will be a difficult obstacle to overcome.

In conclusion, the use of the blog may prove to be a valuable learning tool for the student, considering that students today relate to technology more than before, as well as by being able to alter itself to fit the needs of the lesson, however the drawbacks may be difficult to overcome initially which in turn may create a lack of motivation to pursue the methodology, but the results might prove the value of risking to application of the activity.

References

Blood, R. (2000). weblogs: a history and perspective. Obtenido de rebecca's pocket: http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html

George Lucas Educational foundation. (2007). Edutopia. Obtenido de How to Integrate Technology: https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-implementation

Teaching activities 4: Listening activity "You've got a friend in me"

Song`s name	You`ve got a friend in me
Activity`s length	1 hour and 30 minutes
Procedure	On the internet, search for
First Part	‘lyricstrainig.com’ and the song
	‘you`ve got a friend in me’.
	Ask the student what they know
	about the song, or people who
	have sung it. Ask what they think
	the song might be about, and if
	they can predict any of the
	‘content’ words they think are
	likely to be in the song.
	Play the song and ask the
	students to listen and see if any of
	the words they predicted appear in
	the song. Give a prize for the
	person who predicted most words
	correctly.
	Display the lyrics for the students
	to see and get them to compare in
	pairs who has written the most
	words down correctly.
Second Part	Discussing the meaning of the song.
	Students will answer the following
	questions.
	Have you ever watched the movie
	Toy Story?
	Do you know what the movie is
	about?
	Which is the main topic of the
	song?
	Do you remember any toy that has
	special meaning to you?
	What do you think about
	friendship?

• How is listening to a song different from other types of listening?

It creates a certain atmosphere in the way the music blends to the lyrics. The rhythm of the music can also attract the attention of students or any who is listening to the song.

• What kinds of listening skills and strategies are students going to practice?

Due to the chosen song being widely known in Spanish because of the movie Toy Story, the students might realize that translation from Spanish to English, or vice versa, are not to be taken literally

• How easy was it to find the song and the lyrics?

Finding the song wasn’t much of an ordeal. We focused in songs that the students would be able to relate to and most possibly know beforehand.

• Would your students be able to do this type of activity on their own?

We are quite positive that students will be able to perform the task by their own. Considering that the material is already created and on the web for easy tracking .

Teaching activities 3: Speaking activitty

 Target audience: Senior year students who are in the area of tourism in a public school with a B1 level of English.

Activity: Students will have to answer some questions about their personal life and their families, this will be done using the platform called “present.me” in which they can create a video or an audio depending of the student’s needs or their likes in order to practice their speaking . In this platform they also can put written information like slides as a way to support their speaking in the case of videos for example, if the student is telling her/his name and personal information, this can be seen in the slides at the same time that the student is speaking. Some of the questions related to personal information and family that might help students to reach the goal of this activity are:

What is your full name?

Where and when were you born?

Who are/were your parents? (Know their names, occupations, personalities, etc.)

Where do you live now, and with whom? Describe the place and the person/people.

What is your occupation?

Write a full physical description of yourself. You might want to consider factors such as: height, weight, race, hair and eye color, style of dress, and any tattoos, scars, or distinguishing marks.

To which social class do you belong?

Do you have any allergies, diseases, or other physical weaknesses?

Are you right- or left-handed?

What words and/or phrases do you use very frequently?

Do you have any strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics?

Do you have any pets?

Are you generally introverted or extroverted?

Are you generally organized or messy?

 Name three things you consider yourself to be very good at, and three things you consider yourself to be very bad at.

How close are you to your family?

Tell me about your childhood home.

How did your family celebrate holidays when you were a child?

Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like?

What were the names of your brothers and sisters?

What was your mom like?

Was she affectionate with you? Did she have any nicknames for you?

What do you know about her background?

What about your Dad?

Were you close to him growing up?

What about his background?

What words do you most remember from your mom and dad?

So the student will have to choose as much as possible of the questions given, to create a video or record an audio, answering orally these questions. Once the students have made their videos or recorded their audios, they have to uploaded them in the “present.me” platform, they have to make sure that they used suitable vocabulary, an appropriate voice level, not too loud nor too soft, so when students have completed all these steps they will be ready with this activity in order to be evaluated.

How is using these tools different from other types of speaking activities (example: Face to face)?

These tools are different from regular activities because there is no need to be at the same place at the same time. Also students can feel more comfortable doing speaking exercises and tests at home or the computer room in school than speaking to the teacher in a classroom context. These tools are helpful too for students who get nervous when they are talking to the teacher face to face. Even though they have to finish and answer the test, there is a different level of pressure. Said style of activity may count as a type of limitation for the activity itself consiedring that by avoiding face to face activities, the students' ability to express themselves in public improves slowly.

Technologies for teaching 5: Padlet

Padlet is a software people use to make and share content with others.

Somewhere between a doc and a full-fledged website builder, Padlet empowers everyone to make the content they want, whether it's a quick bulletin board, a blog, or a portfolio.

In easier terms, Padlet consist of a platform used to create websites in order to share information with others.

Padlet opens to the user many possibilities for learning, thanks to its versatility. It can cover any type of information, in our case it will focus on language learning.

The tool can be used by students who have acces to a computer and internet, therefore it presents that limitation, by requiring by default the use of external tools, it segrregates those lacking said tools.

Teaching activities 2: Task based writing activity

Goals

·         General:

• Develop self-critical capacity

• Planning written activities

• Effective development with peers through group work

·         Specific:

• Application of knowledge of English (simple present - continuous; if clauses will use)

• Ability to develop written activities

• Demonstrates ability to solve obstacles in a creative and different way

·         Materials to use

• Use of the computer room

• One or two students per computer

• Creators of comics granted by the teacher: Comics master - Read write think

(Http://www.comicmaster.org.uk/) - (http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/)

• Use of projector (if available at school)

Duration of activity	2 - 4 periods (45 minutes each)
Type of methodology	Quantitative
Development of the activity	·         10 minutes: transfer of students to the school's computer room  ·         10 - 20 minutes: to inform the students about the activity with promotional video (if not previously done) ·         10 minutes: deliver or present material to students ·         40 minutes: development of the comic with free themes for students ·         10 minutes: sharing stories with peers (In case of having 4 periods of work we will continue as follows) ·         20 - 30 minutes: explanation of activity II and arrangement of objectives to be achieved (division of students into groups) ·         30 - 40 minutes: elaboration of the activity ·         20 minutes: presentation of student work

·         How is using these tools different from other types of writing activities (example: PPP projects)?

The relevance of using this tool is that students are able to introduce their personal interests as the topic. Take into account that we are going to work with the task based methodology, which focuses on providing a tangible objective for the students to fulfill. Also, unlike traditional methodologies, task based activities are more close to student centered topics.

·         What kinds of Writing skills and strategies are students going to practice?

-          Narrative tenses (simple past, continuous and use of if clauses)

-          Structure of sentences

-          Planning, brainstorming

·         Would your students be able to do this type of activity on their own?

The materials needed to perform the activity are available to anyone with an internet connection, therefore most students will be able to practice it at their own houses. 

Teaching activities 1: “HOLIDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS” A kahoot activity

Summary

Creation of activity for students of 8° grade at English class with a level of English of B2 at a public school through the use of the web page kahoot 

Aims:

·         The aims will focused on the “understanding” concept of bloom’s taxonomy, more specifically in the areas of recognizing, classifying and identifying.

·         Students will make use of  the platform kahoot (a web page used to create mini quizzes) to complete fun quizzes regarding holidays in a competitive fashion

·         Identify and associate images with concepts

Length: the activity will take up to two school hours (45 minutes each)

Materials:

·         Computer lab (property of the school)

·         Projector

Rationale:

The topic of the class is based upon the one presented from the student’s textbook “travelers” for 8° grade which is the approved book regarding the current curriculum  by the ministry of education. The activity on itself is based on the idea that interactive activities, being games and such, can prove to be more effective at the time of learning for the student as it is being presented in a more interesting manner for him/her which creates an improve in the motivation of the student. In this case kahoot is the tool selected for the task, as it was stated in the researches of Gardner and Lambert (1959) that there is a relevant connection between second language acquisition and the motivation of the learner. Finally having the previous point into consideration, the use of activities whose format are more similar to games can produce an increase in the motivation for the class, considering that at this point the students are going through a phase in which standard activities are of no interest to them. The use of the topic “holidays and celebrations” has been selected with the idea of a subject that can feel related to and, in case of foreigner students, it gives the chance to showcase celebrations that they do not know about, creating an environment of multiculturalism.

Description of procedure:

Activity’s length

1 hour and 30 minutes

Procedure

·         Students take their seats in the classroom and given time to stay calm (10 minutes) ·         Students will be explained of the activity (10 minutes) ·         The students are taken to the computer lab (15 minutes) ·         The activity takes place with every student using a computer of their own (or in pairs depending on the amount of computers available) (25 minutes) ·         A students is declared winner of the activity and answers are compared  (15 minutes) ·         Students give their feedback of the activity (15 minutes)

Possible limitations

·         Lack of interest in certain students: we as teachers cannot expect every student to be able to feel motivated about our activities, therefore we need to put most of our efforts to grasp their attention.

·         Lack of material: every school is different, sometimes the school may not be able to provide the necessary materials to perform the class getting in a position to alter the activity.

·         Disapproval of the establishment: in certain cases the school may decline the idea of the activity in its entirety, making it impossible to put it on action.

Link to activity: Kahoot activity