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Tuesday, October 13, 2015

ASSIGNMENT 7:Introduction to Flipped Instruction or Turning the Traditional Classroom on its Head.

Dear EFL teachers, 
This week you are going to learn about one of the most cutting edge teaching approaches which use videos (and technology in general) to turn traditional classroom on its head and empowers students to become independent, autonomous and responsible learners. It goes wonderfully together with EFL blogs and might help you save a lot of time and accomplish much more in the classroom. We hope this teaching method will offer you various creative ideas for a different, fresh approach to teaching English as a foreign language. Enjoy experimenting with innovative 21st-century tools! 
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Task 1: Study the resources posted below and write your own definition for FLIPPED INSTRUCTION (in no less than 500 words). Post your definitions below, as a comment to this post.

Task 2: Various American schools and universities use flipped instruction to teach English. For example, Ohio State University created a separate YouTube ESL Flipped Channel where they post new videos for ESL students every week. What would be 4-5 benefits of the flipped classroom model for language teaching? Research the following resources and post your suggestions below, as a comment to this blog - please add  examples for each benefit if possible:




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Task 3: Analyse the flipped classroom lesson plans posted below, choose the one you liked and:
  • explain how this type of teaching is different from the traditional approaches most Moldova teachers use on a daily basis;
  • which online tools were used;
  • which language skills did the lesson you liked focus on and how did technology benefit the teacher?
  1. Memory: ESL interactive lesson
  2. End of semester final e-portfolio lesson
  3. Webquest project
  4. A Flipped Kindergarten Lesson: Three little pigs
  5. High School English Diagram-ing a Sentence Flipped Lesson
  6. Ohio Flipped ESL YouTube Channel
  7. Emotional branding
  8. Best Moldovan brands
Task 4: Create your own Flipped EFL lesson plan for one of the topics you will be teaching in November or December 2015, post it on your blog and share the link with us, as a comment for this assignment. 
  1. Use the sample lesson plan formats published on the Flipping the Classroom Blog.
  2. Integrate at least 3 new Web 2.0 platforms you learned about as a participant of our EFL Blogging School (Voicethread, Zeemaps, Movenote, Pinterest, Glogster, Visuwords, Thinglink, Padlet, Listly, Google Polls, Monkey Surveys, Google Hangouts on Air, Narrable, Voki, Animoto, Vocaroo, Blabberize). 
  3. Include at least 3 tasks targeting several language segments aiming to develop students' listening, writing, reading or speaking skills. Use the Checklist to validate Lesson Plans for the Flipped Classroom handout for extra ideas. 
  1. The lesson should require your students to create a final product using an online tool, for example: an audio presentation using Voki, Blabberize or Vocaroo, a video essay using Movenote, Voicethread or Narrable, a grammar journal or a vocabulary graphic organizer saved in Google Drive, or an online poster using Glogster or Thinglink.  
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ASSIGNMENT 5: Online video making tools for EFL students

Dear EFL teachers,

This week you are going to put your students to work! Svetlana will teach you how to use three online platforms which turn pictures into videos and can become valuable teaching gadgets: Animoto, Picovico, and Stupeflix. Enjoy our collection of online video making tools!
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Task 1: Watch two student projects involving digital storytelling. They both involved task-based and project-based approaches. Answer the questions below and post your reflections as a comment to this assignment:

1. Which multiple intelligences did each project focus on? (Read the short article published by American Institute for Learning.)
2. Which of Bloom's Taxonomy categories did the projects tap into? (Use Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel and Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Process Verbs documents for reference.)
3. If you had the opportunity to involve your students in a similar project, which theme connected to your curriculum would you choose? How would the project improve your students' higher order thinking skills, as well as language skills? 
"Moldovan Cuisine"

Project title: Next Vista for Learning
Age level: high school
Theme: food around the world
"My video CV"

Project title: Video resumes for Business Writing
Age level: college, 1st year
Theme: Business writing
Click to set custom HTML
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Task 2: Let us introduce your students to several online platforms for video projects. Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of these three platforms: Animoto, Picovico and Stupeflix, choose one and create a task for your students which would require them to create online movies and post the links to your blogs. Place the link to your task below, as a comment to this assignment. 

Animoto is a Web 2.0 tool that allows users to produce videos that blend photos, video clips, text, and music.
  • Learn as much as you can about Animoto before asking your students to use it. Browse through this resource: Web 2.0 Teaching Tools
  • Create a task for your students to put together a video using Animoto related o one of the themes you will be teaching in December (it could be related to grammar, vocabulary, American or British culture, etc). 
  • Before creating the movie, they should elaborate a storyboard: Example here
  • Share this tutorial with them: Youtube Animoto Tutorial
Animoto could be used for the following ideas:
  • At the beginning of the school year, students could use Animoto to introduce themselves or their classmates
  • Students can illustrate their own poetry using digital images they find on Internet or ones they take. 
  • Animoto can be used to present research information to the class. Students could illustrate step-by-step instructions for procedure writing.

Check out this sample Animoto videos:
Another great tool to experiment with when teaching English isPicovico. Using Picovico your students can make commercials, science fair previews and animated shorts in any content area. You can have your students create book talks or "ads" for a famous historic figure. You may have your students create "advertisements" for an organism or a literary character, a travel commercial for a country or cultural site in a world language course,  make an end of year presentation of class events or a beginning of the year. It is a web tool to create a video with your pictures. After signing up, you choose a video style, upload your pictures, add text, choose your music, add a few details and wait for your video to be rendered. When the video is ready nearly in two minutes, you can share your video via different social media tools or you can also download your video.
  • Browse through Picovico library
  • Create a task which would require your students to create a Picovico movie in English related to one of the topics you will be teaching in December and post it on your blog. 
  • Post the link to your task below, as a comment to Assignment 5. 

Here are a few ideas to use this tool in class:
- Students can create an advertisement of an object, film or a book that they have just read.
- If you go on a field trip, ask students to take pictures and create a video using those pictures later.
- Students can create a video of the things that they have done in holidays.
- The videos can be used for introducing school rules, families, what they like doing etc. 

When creating their short movies, ask your students to use this template: Story Map 
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Stupeflix is a tool that allows users to create video montages using their favorite images and audio clips. Stupeflix allows users to drag and drop their images into the desired sequence. You will want to upload your own audio clips as Stupeflix offers only one default soundtrack. But an advantage of Stupeflix is that it allows you to use more than one audio clip within the same video.
Sample projects to share with your students:
Ask your students to use one of the storyboards they can download from this website: Storyboard Depot 
                                             Additional digital storytelling Web 2.0 platforms

If Animoto, Picovico, and Stupeflix didn't grow on you, feel free to give a try to these platforms we encourage you to experiment with: Photopeach and Slidestory. Enjoy designing creative tasks for your students!
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ASSIGNMENT 4: Introduce your blog to your students (November 2nd - November 8)

Task 1: Create a special page for your student profiles

Dear EFL bloggers - it is time to introduce your blog to your students. Please create a separate page on your blog which will be dedicated to publishing student pictures, quotes, best online projects, feedback, etc. This page could be entitled "My students", "Student profiles" or "Blog readers" for example. Please publish your students names (or nicknames) and pictures (or avatars), just like we posted your profiles on the EFL Project blog. You could also upload group pictures with your students. You can ask each student to share with you a short description of themselves, plus 2-3 links, if available (in case your students had already created their own blogs or websites ). Post the link to your students page in the "Comments" section below. Examples:
Task 2: Ask your students to "pin" themselves on our project Zee Map

We would like to see how many students will work with you on your class blog.
  • Please embed the code below in the page created in Task 1, so that your students page has this interactive map embedded (like in this EXAMPLE);
<iframe frameborder=0 style='width:100%;height:500px' src='//www.zeemaps.com/pub?group=1691436&legend=1&topbar=1&geosearch=1&locate=1&list=1&add=1&x=28.858177&y=46.999928&z=11'> </iframe>
  • Ask your students to "pin" their location by clicking on the big round + sign in the upper right corner of the map;
  • They should add their picture and a short description, like in the example below. 






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ASSIGNMENT 3: Improve your teaching with blogging (October 26 - November 1st)

Task 1: Watch the video posted below and write 5 different tips on how blogging could be used in your classroom. For example: 

  • Students who are absent miss out on classroom discussions. We could tackle the absenteeism issue by using the blog as an archive for class notes. The students who missed a class could read the texts posted online, summarize them and then take notes as homework. The information they missed will be at their fingertips. 
  • Blogs could be used as student study guides - when a specific topic is taught in class, ask your students to prove the understanding of that specific topic in greater detail by posting their own examples through podcasts, slideshows with pictures and text, videos, digital posters, etc. These online activities will be saved online, on your blog, and so could be used later on, as study guides for other students. 

Task 2: Choose two lesson plans listed below you liked most. How does the teacher use blogs to develop student writing and speaking skills? How different is teaching using a blog from teaching using a textbook? 

Task 3: Now it is time to involve your students!

  • Last week you learned how to embed a YouTube video, a Scribd digital document and a photo gallery on your blog. Now you will create a lesson unit similar to the ones posted in Task 2 by clicking the NEW POST button on the lower right corner of your blog. 
  • ATTENTION - posts can be created on BLOG PAGES (see the image on the left side). They are used for Assignments or Our Projects type of pages which can be commented by your students.
  • STANDARD PAGES do not have posts. They are usually used for Home or Aboout our class type of pages. They do not need commenting, and serve just for sharing general information. 
  • Tutorial: HOW TO CREATE A BLOG POST ON WEEBLY.
  • Use a YouTube video or a Scribd PDF document related to one of the units from your textbook and put together 2-3 tasks for your students. Ask your students to post their homework on the blog, just like in the examples above. Post the link with student comments below, as a comment to this assignment. 
  • Get inspired from the blogs created last year, by the EFL Blogging School alumni:
"My teaching portfolio assignments"


Please watch the video recording of your virtual session posted below.

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ASSIGNMENT 2: Blogging is Learning!


Task 1: 
  • Watch the "Blogging is Learning" video below and write a short narrative (150-250 words) on how blogging can turn into a powerful teaching tool. 
  • Your narrative should follow the "hamburger" structure (see the Reading Rockets handout for details).
  • Example 1 and Example 2 (Paragraph Song) could give you a helping hand. Post your narrative below, in the "Comments" section. 



TASK 2

A very important blogging tool is the ”EMBED” option, which allows you to place a picture, a YouTube video, a picture slideshow, a digital book, a poster or a widget on your blog. 

On the blog that you created last week, please embed three items:

1) A You Tube video related to a topic you will teach this month (Example).
2) A picture gallery with your students or with your students work (Example).
3) A PDF document from SCRIBD digital library (Example).

To do this, you will need to follow three simple steps:

- find the embed code of the other online tool or document
- drag the EMBED option from the left side toolbar of your Weebly blog
- copy paste the embed code on your blog and save/publish

See more tutorials below: 

For example, to post the power point presentations on our project blog, I use Scribd, one of the biggest online libraries on the web. Your students can find free online books there, such as A Christmas Carol, The Gift of the Magi or Alice in Wonderland for example. You can find ESL/EFL teaching materials, such as ESL Pairwork Games or Grammar in Use books. I uploaded my presentation on Scribd, found the ”EMBED” option, copied the embedding code on Weebly, after dragging the ”EMBED CODE”  box from the tool box on the left side of the page.  


TASK 3

Place the links of your blog pages where you embedded the You Tube video, the picture slideshow and the Scribd document below, in the ”Comments” section. Enjoy exploring the EMBED option!
TASK 4

On Saturday, October 24, at 10.00 am, we are going to organize an online video meeting using Google Hangouts to discuss all your questions - the session will be recorded, so if you can't make it, you will receive the YouTube link with the recorded version. In the meantime, please:

  • Learn about what Google Hangouts is - watch THIS VIDEO;
  • See how Google Hangouts works for educators - watch THIS VIDEO;
On Saturday morning you will receive a link - once you click it, you will be redirected to our group online chat, so you don't need to do anything else! Good luck with another exciting blogging week!







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ASSIGNMENT 1: Create your first blog!



Dear EFL teachers,


This month I will be guiding you along as an online trainer - you will receive weekly updates with instructions which will help you get acquainted with the exciting world of blogs as teaching tools. Should you have any questions regarding these assignments, please do not hesitate to get in touch by email. I am wishing you the best of luck and hope that this month will be equally entertaining and productive for all of us. 

Deadline for completing the first assignment - October 19. 


Assignment 1

Task 1: Explore the blogs posted below and choose 2 which you liked best. How are these blogs used as teaching tools? What useful tips could we borrow from the blog authors? Post your answers below, as blog comments. 



Task 2: What kind of blog would you like to create as part of the EFL Blogging School Project (teacher blog, class blog, school blog or project blog)? How many sections would your blog include and how would you name them? (my lesson plans, my articles, my videos, my students, my CV, my best projects, my school profile, my colleagues, etc). What would be the purpose of your blog? For example: to post students homework and share it with the entire class, to publish students’ best work, to post lesson plans online, to share interesting online resources with students, to create an online portfolio for school administration, to encourage students to use certain online tools to learn English, to defend one's master (MA) or doctoral (PhD) degree, to participate in the “Teacher of the Year” contest, to present the blog for the 1st didactic degree defense, to involve students in a class or school project, to share lesson plans and useful resources with colleagues, etc. Post your reply below as a blog comment. 

o   Personal blog (Teacher Portfolio). 

Examples: 
http://corinaceban.wordpress.com/ http://ashleystoutsteachingportfolio.blogspot.com/ 
http://www2.yk.psu.edu/sites/scs15/my-teaching-portfolio/ 
Recommended readings:
a) http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-portfolios/ 
b) http://langwitches.org/blog/2009/07/17/digital-teaching-portfolios/
c) http://blog.benmcmurry.com/p/online-teaching-portfolios.html 

o   Class blog

Examples: 
http://krebs.edublogs.org/ 
http://www.pointviewschoolroom3.blogspot.com/ 
http://tlcteach.edublogs.org/ 
o   School blog

Examles:
http://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/ http://wonecks.net/
http://berkshirecountryday.org/category/mybcd-blogs/ 

o   Project blog (dedicated to one educational project)

Examples:
http://iearnmoldova.wordpress.com/projects/
http://youdochangetheworld.wordpress.com/

Task 3: Explore the resources posted below and create a free blog using Weebly (You have received an official invitation by email). Post your blog link below as a blog comment. 


Enjoy your very first assignment and ”see” you all online! 
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