Milly’s Del.icio.us

This is my URL of Del.icio.us. It’s a social bookmarking and very useful. We can add the websites into our own lists to help us collect information well and save time to find resources. I am happy to share it with you.

 http://del.icio.us/millyhsu

Group 7: Summary of ICT

Information Communication Technology

– Hot Potatoes — UWiLL — Podcast — Webquest –

＊ Summary of ICT

I have add some links about podcasts on my blog. If you’re interested, you can visit those websites. Have fun!

An Encounter with Lishan Junior High School

    We Group A observed an EGRC, English Gifted Resource Class, in Lishan Junior High School. It is a special class which anticipates nurturing students to conform to EGRC students with enthusiastic, gifted, reflective, and creative. The class pays much attention to diverse wisdom and English teaching. There is a motivated poster on the classroom’s wall and it says:
“Good, Better, Best
 Never let it rest,
 Till Good is Better,
 Better is Best.”

    The teacher, Ms. Hsu, started the class with a brief review. She asked students some questions by using four graphic pictures on the blackboard. Then, Ms. Hsu played the CD of new reading part and students repeated what they heard. After that, the teacher wrote down key points on the blackboard such as “besides=in addition,” “nothing=not anything,” and so forth. All of the students took note hardly. Ms. Hsu explained the content by paraphrasing and explaining the usage of new vocabulary. Before continuing, the teacher asked students to close the books and asked some questions as review the story which had taught before.

    After the class observation, it seemd that I found the teaching process of the teacher:
1. Introduce the story without read the textbook in advance
2. Listen to the CD
3. Ask students to open the textbook
4. Listen again and repeat after the CD
5. Vocabulary teaching
6. Students practice the conversation (role-playing)
7. Answer questions or do exercises on the textbook
8. Give assigment
Ms. Hsu had a good sense of time control and gave clear instruction in every activity. Because of few student, only six students, in the class, Ms. Hsu and the students could have good interaction often.

    For me, it is a very special experience to observe the EGRC class which is too perfect even beyond my imagination. The teacher and students are excellent!
To teach this kind of class, the teacher doubtless has to prepare himself/herself very well or it might be a challenge. As teachers we can’t choose students to teach, so we all have to equip ourselves well and do our best to help students learn. For the reason that learning itself is full of suffering and pressure, and the process of learning is unhappy; the result of learning is happy. 

Tune In

OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Jack C. Richards

Learning English Through Listening
Tune In
. A three level listening series
. Goal: teach students the two important aspects of listening:
  .Understanding what people say
  .Understanding how people say it
. Teaching students to understand what people say focuses on listening as   comprehension.
Students are better engaged with material that is more intrinsically, interesting, and motivating.

More information links to www.professorjackrichards.com  

Writing Presentation

Group Six (Hyde, Vincent and Daniel) gave us a special show. Their presentation was full of surprise and happiness. When they presented the role play about the movie, Star Wars, they provided suitable background music and stage properties creating a good atmosphere to make the show impressive, motivating, and interesting. After the role-playing, we could know the story even though we hadn’t seen the movie before. For me, the topic seemed too difficult for high school students, so teachers should simplify the material for them. In addition, sentence structure is important for high school students, for example, how to use transition words, and that is teacher’s responsibility to teach them. During their process of teaching writing, students had little time to practice. Furthermore, in the part of summary sharing, it was a kind of repitition, and it was good to learn from each other. However, after the sharing of summary, teachers have to give an example of summary as a guide writing to students. The final stage is asking students to produce something. Teachers should give students enough resources and supports for them to produce. Finally, language part is something that we have to take care. 

Teacher Interview

After interviewing the teacher, Zhen Xiu-wen, did enlightened me on the way of being an English teacher. I got some significant thoughts from the sharing of her valuable experience.

＊Teacher Interview Report

Reading Presentation

Group Five (Tiffany, Stephanie and Howard) demonstrated a clear structure of the lesson. We all knew what we were going to do in this class. Using pictures as the warm-up activity really could motivate students to have class participation. Then, in the vocabulary part, the speed to introduce new words seemd too fast. I think that way might suit for review. Next, they used a special way that let students point to the other to read the whole passage to help students  get the gist. Teaching strategy depends on learners’ level so we should think carefully before using.  In the main body, teacher explain predominated over the most part. It was teacher-led so it couldn’t catch students’ attention on lecture for a long time. I think the worksheet with questions from the teacher could be used in this part. Afterwards they prepared the 4R Game (Read, Remember, Run and Retell) for us to play. Even though they played music to control the time it was still very time consuming. I enjoyed the game but I couldn’t remember the whole long sentences. In the end, they summarize what we did in the class to make sure students get something and left assignment.

Speaking Presentation

Group Four (Harry and Billy) demonstrated a short role play as a warm-up introduction to let us have a big map about the lesson. Then they showed us the MULTI learning website made by Tamkang University. I like the special website very much and the website caught my heart when I first saw it. During the class, at first,  they broadcasted the real-situation animations without subtitle on the website, and then showed the subtitle later. We learned the vocabulary and sentence patterns from the dialogue. Afterward they gave us the script and a handout for us to prepare for our own role-playing. Through this activity we can experience the real situation and apply what we have acquired from their presentation. In the class, they played soft music and used pictures of resturents to creat the atmosphere and the situation closed to real life. I enjoy the authentic learning environment and I admire Harry’s speaking ability very much.

Listening Presentation

In Group Three’s (Yoko, Kate and Michelle) demonstration, they used different kind of stickers on the worksheets to divide students into groups in an effective way. In this listening class, they used the movie “Stuart Little” as the matter for teaching. I think I was  interested in the movie, but it seemd too difficult for beginers because the speed of the movie was a little bite fast even for us to catch up. Moreover, there were too many blanks on the worksheet. Students might feel nervous to complete the worksheet like me so they might pay great attention to the worksheet rather than the movie. Maybe we can think about to let students see the movie first then to give the worksheet. Futhermore, Group Three didn’t have the introduction in the begining. Giving students a big map is very important. In this class, all the activities like flashcard, sentence-making practice, role play were repeating the topic we learned today. They created a lot reinforcement, but there comes the question to think about whether students get bored or not.

The Chance to Visit Lishan High School

It’s a precious opportunity to visit LiShan High School, which is the most special academic high school unlike the generals I have ever seen on March 28. Thank the teachers and students there for giving us the chance to observe the classes. I really learned a lot from the experience of class observation.

The First Class Observation— 207, Ms. Liu

The lesson objective of the whole class was review Lesson Four. First, Ms. Liu started the lesson by asking questions about the content  for about two minutes. I think this kind of activity is a good opening to catch students’ attention. Second, listening to the text in the CD and teacher would request students to answer the questions in their own words. After students answered the questions, teacher gave them feedback. Third, going to the listening part, teacher let students listen thrice. The first time, after listening to the part, teacher called students to answer the questions on the textbook. The second time, teacher stopped the CD to help students catch the correct answer. The third time, teacher gave the script of the listening part and did the vocabulary teaching. Above the activities are all teacher-led interaction. Finally, teacher asked students to use some  vocabulary making sentences, this was the individual work. Before the bell rang, five volunteers tried to write their sentences on the blackboard. Then teacher helped them to check the sentences. Ms. Liu told the students that she will explain the differences between “worth” and “worthy of” next class as a closure.

The Second Class Observation— 308, Ms. Yuan

The class began on the topic “Handling Stress.” First, Ms. Yuan gave students the first worksheet to write down their own trouble in the life, using the sentence patterns they had practiced before. During the individual work period, teacher helped students to solve the problems on the handout. Second, teacher asked students to pass their own worksheet to turn to someone you can rely on for help to give you suggestions. The pair/group work required students to find out two or three consultants and also be the counselor for others. After the activity, theacher found some students to read out the whole content they wrote to share with classmates, and teacher would collect all the worksheets to give responces after class. Third, teacher gave the second and third handouts, Dialogue Poems, and asked students to find a partner using different view point to complete their own  dialogue poem within the same topic. Finally, teacher chose two groups to demonstrate their poem and then the bell rang. For the third graders, learning by activities should be meaningful, because they will encounter the entrance exam some monthes later. Pair interaction will improve their cohesive force rather than just be a selfish individual to prepare for the exam. After all, subject accomplishment is more important than the skill of examination.

Through visiting two classes, I saw different teaching styles, well-organized procedure, and good time management. Ms. Liu and Ms. Yuan’s teaching all build an all-English learning environment and their teaching process was very smooth. They are the good models for me to learn. During the disscussion meeting, teacher Lai’s words actually impressed me a lot. She said, “The success of the student is also the success of a teacher. However, the success of the teacher may not the success of a student.” The zeal for a teacher is very important. Be a teacher is not just an occupation. On the other hand, teaching and learning mature together. To be a teacher, we should be myself and learn forever.