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.

LINGT: Sharing Best Practice and Web 2.0 Tools!

Reading and Writing skills are often the easiest skills to put into practice. However, finding relevant, practical and interesting LISTENING and SPEAKING activities can be more challenging.

ISB’s ES world language teachers shared this wonderful web 2.0 tool for language teachers this semester.


LINGT is a great new tool supporting language teachers. It is so easy to use; you will be able to use it for your classes right away. Here is a DEMO VIDEO I found that can give you taste for what LINGT can do for your language classroom.



The video explains most of it, but here is what you can do with LINGT to create balanced language assignments (LISTENING/SPEAKING/READING/WRITING).

Teachers can use:
1) IMAGES: choose a photo from your gallery or from the credited sources.
2) VIDEO (from youtube only. You would have to post your personal videos on youtube to use it on Lingt).
3) TEXT: Type instructions or record your instructions in the Target Language.
4) VOICE: Record a voice message(s)/instructions /question(s).

Students can respond:
1) With TEXT: Typing their answer to the audio or written question/comment
2) With VOICE: Recording their answer orally. They can listen to their answer and decide if they want to keep it or re-do it.

Some cool features by LINGT:
-DUE DATE: assign a due date for an assignment. If students complete the assignment late, it will be indicated next to their name.
-FEEDBACK: You can give oral/written immediate feedback to students' work.

Some things LINGT does not do (YET?)
-You cannot delete recordings made by students?
-Accents: If you use PC computers, you need to type your text in a word document before posting it on the assignment.

Here is an example of an assignment I used with French B students this semester.

Voicethread for Oral Communication

In our current unit on school, French intro student had been learning the vocabulary for daily routine and their school environment. Over the past few months, we have learned everything we need to know about school: Our classroom environment, our classes and teachers; and lately, the activities that take place before, during and after school. Students learned basic action verbs (-Er verbs: étudier, parler, écouter, marcher, porter, regarder, etc) as well as expressing likes and dislikes (J'aime nager, je déteste étudier!).
My goal as a French teacher is always for students to have real communication (apply the content into relevant, contextual communication, using acquired vocabulary and grammar.)

TOOL: The project I chose to share for this class used VOICETHREAD as my web 2.0 tool. The Voicethread project pictured regular ISB students' routine around campus.

TASK: Using as much French as possible, French Intro students were required to comment on 1-2 pictures following specific instructions and requirements.
To add a little challenge to their descriptions, one instruction specified that no comment or information could be repeated on any 1 picture; requiring participants to listen carefully to their classmates’ comments.

PROJECT:


Here are a few things to consider in using VOICETHREAD

-GOAL: Set your goal.
My focus was for students to communicate ORALLY using the vocabulary and grammar. VOICETHREAD offers different options. Students can write comments, draw on the picture, or record a voice comment. I chose to ONLY USE THE VOICE RECORDING to promote for impromptu French oral communication. Of course students might/could prepared their “recorded comments” by writing them first, but this assignment invited them to practice SPEAKING French. At the end, everyone could listen to their own or their classmates' creation, accents, pronunciation; and hopefully feel proud of their accomplishments as first year French students.

-TIME:
Allow enough time for students to practice and learn how to use the tool!
I learned from one class that it was better to have students log into VOICETHREAD right at the beginning of class and follow along to practice recording their message with guided instructions, rather than explaining and/or demonstrating each step, leaving students as mere spectators without any practice time.

-PICTURES:
Because I did not want to use too much class time preparing the projected (my focus was on oral communication), I elected to take the pictures myself. I was able to take pictures of different students at different times, around school. It allowed me to target specific actions and therefore vocabulary.

However, if students were familiar with VOICETHREAD, another assessment could be for them to create their personal routine, using a VOICETHREAD presentation and their own photos + comments. It would require more time in class/at home: to take, download, upload, pictures. One would need to be specific about the quality (and source) of the images also?

-PERMISSION: There is one important information that my project advisor (Kim Cofino) recommended for me to think about: Consider asking students’ permission for taking and using their photo in an internet-based school project.

Un Pour Tous et Tous Pour Un*

*"One for all and all for one" is the famous motto from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
How do you ensure that students have completed the reading and are ready for class discussion?
In creating this wiki project, one of my goals is to guarantee that my students come prepared for class discussion, having read the literature and answered the questions. But just as importantly, my goal for this project is for students to learn to work collaboratively.

As they take turns playing the roles of writer, editor, and proofreader; students collaborate on a common product. Collaboration is essential as I believe that students learn from each other. It also forces students to communicate their needs and expectations with each other-in French. In French B, I really encourage students to understand that communicating in French isn’t one way (student-teacher) anymore, but they need to take on every opportunity to communicate in French with everyone in their immediate environment, including their classmates (student-student).

Collaboration also means helping each other become stronger French speakers and writers. Peer-editing both the content of the text and the language in the answers will hopefully reinforce the importance of proofreading. Too often, students turn in “completed” work without checking. It takes commitment to take the time to self-evaluate, but when they work on a public project, students tend to care more about the results because others will be reading and evaluating their French skills.

Maintenant, à l’attaque!

Photo: The Musketeer at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower by Matito

Peripherals In A Language Classroom

How do you manage the use of technology peripherals with students?
What are some things you've learned and hope to implement?

I usually have been the one handling the tools as I feel responsible for the material I have checked out from the library. Also, when it comes to projects involving cameras and video cameras, students usually have one at home that they can use or borrow.
Here are some basic peripherals used regularly in my French classroom:

-Video cameras (and tripod): record students dialogues and oral presentations.

-Digital Camera: to capture moments in the classroom or material created by students/teacher.


-smart board: To teach and for students presentations. When students are handling the smart board, I usually ask them to take turns and we may need to make a circle around the board to give enough space to watch and participate.

-Phone: We’ve used phone for a project where students had to call a restaurant (the teacher) to make a reservation. I’d like to be able to use their phone (or skype) to have live conversations (maybe 3 way conversations) in an authentic situation more often.
[I read a blog post from one of my classmate on the use of cellphones in the classroom. Our middle school policy prevents students from using their cellphones during the day. However, their cellphones never stay in their lockers. They are in their bag or in their pockets. MS students see the HS students using their phones everyday and all day. Why couldn't they? Students don’t go to the office to call home if they need to. They use their cell phone. Their parents call them in the middle of the day. Students play their music plays on them. They text their friends or even go on the internet. I agree that we may need to rethink our position "against" cellphones in the classroom. There could be many uses for them. Why not try to use them as a learning tool?]

Back to the tools currently used in my classroom. This year, the school has acquired new peripherals that I have used or plan to use more with students:

-Snow ball microphone: I discovered this new microphone in one of our COETAIL class earlier in the semester. Jeff used it to record a class discussion. This is very useful when recording dialogues in the classroom. The microphone from a regular camera or video camera are never strong enough to pick up the conversations clearly.
I usually record the students dialogues so that they can view/listen to themselves, and also to grade them. For grading purposes, I need to hear everyone’s voice, including those timid students. The snow ball microphone has been really helpful in recording the sound(s) at a higher quality. I haven't used the snow flake microphone, but plan on using them next semester to record an oral assessment (student & teacher).


-flip cameras: These new little video cameras make it easy to record a short video and then transfer the data into a computer. I plan to use it soon with students, giving them a chance to do their own recording and uploading. However, these cameras are in high demand, so I will wait until our department can have it's own stock to use them in my classroom.