BLOGS AS LANGUAGE PORTFOLIO

As the end of the year approaches, I would like to take some time to reflect on one new web 2.0 tool I decided to adopt this school year.
At the beginning of the year, I created 3 different blogs for each French class:

FRENCH INTRO

FRENCH A

FRENCH B

My main goal for creating a class blog was to communicate with students, parents, and the bigger community. Sharing class activities, projects, ideas, accomplishments. Looking back through the different posts, I know there are lots of piece missing that I never got a chance to post (videos, photos, projects, etc!). It feels as though I have not used it consistently enough for students and/or parents to feel that it is a valuable resource.

Linked on my main page(s), you can also access students' personal blogs. On their blogs, we created a FRENCH category. The goal and expectation was for students to post their projects, journals as an online portfolio. Before this school year, we had been keeping "paper" portfolios for students but were looking for the better tool. Ultimately, this portfolio will follow them through the years, demonstrating their progress in French.
To better understand how to use Blogs as a portfolio, read this post by Jeff Utecht.

I just looked through some of my student's portfolios. Here are some observations:

1) Some are well kept with all projects posted. Others have only 1 or 2 French posts. This is a good reminder than I need to allow (class)time for students to upgrade their French portfolio.

2) In the future, I could invite students to reflect on their learning for French class on their blog. It might give the outside reader some insights on the various posts on their blog. It would also be good writing practice.

In the next few weeks before school is out for the summer, I will encourage students to update their portfolios so they can continue to use them next year in the following level of French.
If they leave Thailand, they could use their French portfolio to demonstrate some of their French skills in order to place in the appropriate language class.

VIRTUAL SCHOOL

What to do when/if we need to close school (campus) for unforeseen circumstances; yet you do not want to close school (learning)?


On April 8 and 9, 2010, after the state of emergency was declared in Bangkok, ISB made the decision to close campus. However, teachers were asked to keep their classes open, virtually.
Our school has implemented plenty of web 2.0 tools over the past 2-3 years to keep the classes alive and going: Panthernet, class blogs, Google accounts, Wikis, etc.
However, without any warnings of the closure, we had little preparation for how to proceed. Our school has since April 9th been developing a Virtual School Guideline.

How do we ensure that students who think they just got a free snow day actually check for assignments and complete them?
On that day, my two French INTRO classes had an old school paper test assigned. Students had been reviewing the days before and were ready. The next day, was the start of a week long Holiday. I decided to post the test on Panthernet, have students complete it at home and submit their test ALL ONLINE.
Wouldn’t they use their notes? To ensure that the test was done in a “proper” testing environment, I wrote specific instructions on the Panthernet assignment and I e-mailed those to the parents. Students had to allot themselves 1 hour to complete the test.

For my other classes, we had no major assignments due. Instructions were posted on Panthernet, but the actual assignments were posted on their class BLOGS. Again, to make sure that students completed their work, I e-mailed their personal e-mail as well as parents. Students had a week to complete the assignment. I invited them to e-mail me if they had questions.

I would consider my virtual school day to be fairly successful. Most students completed their work. The only students who did not were given a chance to make the work up. After all this was our first Virtual school day!

Image @JulyYu

Voulez-Vous WIKI Avec Moi?

As presented in a previous blog post for this course, I had elected to work on a Wetpaint WIKI for this COETAIL course. Because the unit based on using this WIKI was planned for later in the semester, I chose a different project (voicethread) instead. However, I have starting to use that WIKI project in my French B class this week.

What are my goals for WIKI page: DESTINATION FRANCE?

1) CLASS DISCUSSION: Ensuring that students have read the chapters

Students read a short French novel in French (DESTINATION FRANCE) over their Song Kran holiday.
This month in French class, we are using the WIKI to prepare for class discussion: Students answer text based/comprehension questions as homework. We then use these responses to discuss the story in class.

*If time permits before class discussion, we could use a few minutes at the beginning of class to read the answers posted by other groups.*

2) COLLABORATION:
Students take turns in their roles: Architecte = Writer, Décorateur = editor, Nettoyeur = proofreader.

Students use different text color to show their work. Black = Architecte, Blue = décorateur, red=nettoyeur.

What does each participant have to do?
-L'Architecte answers the main question(s) as best as possible, focusing on the content but without worrying (too much) about the details of language structure.

-Le Décorateur comes second and adds on to the response of the architecte. The décorateur can give opinion about the architect’s answer or add on to missing information. The décorateur does not focus on the language structure either.

-Le Nettoyeur comes last, reading his/her classmates’ answers. He/she does not have to add any content to the response/text. The only responsibility of the Nettoyeur is the structure of the text. He/she needs to looks for spelling, grammar, accents, and sentence structure.

Students in one group have different responsibilities and are co-dependent on each other. They must have to communicate, read each others’ work and help one another.

3) STUDY NOTES: Working collaboratively on all the questions for all chapters, students are building their review notes. They can later use the notes to study for the test based on the reading and class discussion.


4) PARTICIPATION: Not having to take notes in class (they are all on the WIKI) allows students to be attentive and active in class discussion.

Things to consider when using WIKI (or things I learned the hard way!)
-Becoming members: Make your WIKI page PUBLIC (see settings) for a few minutes during class time, and have students JOIN the WIKI right away. This is easier than inviting each member through an e-mail.

-Accents: I encourage students to work and save their work first on a word document instead of directly on the WIKI Page. It allows them to check for spelling and accents. It also avoids accidental deleting of their work.

-Internet Connection: If several students are trying to work on 1 page of the wiki simultaneously, it will not save their work and/or might delete everything they or someone else did.

-Responsibility/flexibility: One great advice I received from Kim Cofino for this year’s use of the wiki, was to allow students to choose/decide/share responsibilities for their role. Knowing they had to alternate Architecte, Décorateur, Nettoyeur, students would sign up as a team. It allowed them more flexibility for in case they had a busy day and it took a lot of work off my hands.

-Grading: students are held accountable for completion of their task and quality of their participation on the WIKI. I check their work every day and leave comments on the pages for the groups who need to review their responses (content or form).

-Worth It factor?:
Last year, Using the WIKI for the first time was very time consuming in organizing and creating the pages. This year, however, having the pages already set up has made it easier to manage the page.
Most students in French B class this year had already used WIKI pages in another class and were familiar with the set up of the tool. So far, students have been doing their homework, answering the questions on the WIKI, leaving us a whole class for discussion and oral communication on the novel. In the context of studying/analyzing literature, they apply/practice the French they have learned this year.


-Feedback: I would like to have students give their opinion of the WIKI at the end of the unit. I hope they will have found it useful/helpful.