Part IV. Teaching Materials
Teaching Artifact #2: “Using Blogging and Microblogging in the English Language Classroom: A Theory-to-Practice Paper”
Teaching Artifact #2: “Using Blogging and Microblogging in the English Language Classroom: A Theory-to-Practice Paper”
This paper with lesson plans were created to express my understanding of the theoretical concepts learned in AL 6740, Research and Issues in Computer-Assisted Language Learning, and highlight my ability to implement these concepts in teaching practice. I chose to write about blogging and microblogging since I believe it is a good way to help students build a community in the classroom and help improve their writing skills.
The two different web sites I chose for the lesson plans were Google’s Blogger.com and Twitter. Since many students are aware of Twitter and are already using it, I consider this a motivational tool to encourage students to write and continue to work on classroom community. The short teaching unit consists of five lesson plans to get students acquainted with how the blogging and microblogging sites will be used in the classroom, see different ways that these mediums can be used, and continue working on writing skills. In the introductory section before I present the lesson plans, the paper highlights the theory and research behind the use of these tools in an ELL classroom.
Some of the main concepts focused on in the literature review section of the paper include how blogging and microblogging can help improve students’ writing and help build a sense of community in the classrooms as well as highlight the importance of authentic audience and tasks. In the planned lessons, students create blogs and Twitter accounts to communicate with their peers and teacher inside and outside of the classroom, thus building a class community. Students also focused on their writing by creating multiple posts to each medium, focusing on different topics and demonstrating their abilities with different types of writing styles. The activities incorporate different themes and ideas from the students’ background knowledge, other courses, and personal lives, so that the students would be interested in completing tasks as well as being successful in their attempts.
I believe that my knowledge of the technology used in AL 6740 is demonstrated in my creation of the different activities throughout each lesson. I had written a paper in a previous term about the language features of Twitter postings, so I felt that I had acquired a good base of knowledge about the medium. With this teaching unit, I was able to apply that knowledge into teaching—i.e., theory into practices.
While editing the lesson plans after receiving feedback from my instructor, I was able to see areas of my lesson plans that need work: the outcomes, goals, and assessment of the lesson plans for the students. I was able to go back and make changes for the draft included in my portfolio, but I am aware this is an area of my lesson plans that I will need to monitor closely for future teaching.
In short, while these lesson plans took a very long time to create and write, the knowledge I learned about implementing this type of technology in the classroom is one I will remember for a long time. The full paper can be found here. The lesson plans and all supplementary materials can be found directly here.
The two different web sites I chose for the lesson plans were Google’s Blogger.com and Twitter. Since many students are aware of Twitter and are already using it, I consider this a motivational tool to encourage students to write and continue to work on classroom community. The short teaching unit consists of five lesson plans to get students acquainted with how the blogging and microblogging sites will be used in the classroom, see different ways that these mediums can be used, and continue working on writing skills. In the introductory section before I present the lesson plans, the paper highlights the theory and research behind the use of these tools in an ELL classroom.
Some of the main concepts focused on in the literature review section of the paper include how blogging and microblogging can help improve students’ writing and help build a sense of community in the classrooms as well as highlight the importance of authentic audience and tasks. In the planned lessons, students create blogs and Twitter accounts to communicate with their peers and teacher inside and outside of the classroom, thus building a class community. Students also focused on their writing by creating multiple posts to each medium, focusing on different topics and demonstrating their abilities with different types of writing styles. The activities incorporate different themes and ideas from the students’ background knowledge, other courses, and personal lives, so that the students would be interested in completing tasks as well as being successful in their attempts.
I believe that my knowledge of the technology used in AL 6740 is demonstrated in my creation of the different activities throughout each lesson. I had written a paper in a previous term about the language features of Twitter postings, so I felt that I had acquired a good base of knowledge about the medium. With this teaching unit, I was able to apply that knowledge into teaching—i.e., theory into practices.
While editing the lesson plans after receiving feedback from my instructor, I was able to see areas of my lesson plans that need work: the outcomes, goals, and assessment of the lesson plans for the students. I was able to go back and make changes for the draft included in my portfolio, but I am aware this is an area of my lesson plans that I will need to monitor closely for future teaching.
In short, while these lesson plans took a very long time to create and write, the knowledge I learned about implementing this type of technology in the classroom is one I will remember for a long time. The full paper can be found here. The lesson plans and all supplementary materials can be found directly here.