Connecting Globally

What better way to experience a foreign language than to connect with a classroom in a foreign country? ePals is an online Global Community that allows you to do just that. Teachers and students have access to great resources, and to other teachers and students from around the world.

My favorite feature on this site is the "Find a Classroom" tab where you can search a global classroom by language, age, country/region, and any other specifications. While browsing this section, I noticed that many international teachers are looking for pen pals to email, write letters, or Skype with their students to help practice their target language.

I also found this site helpful because it offers teacher resources and a forum where teachers can share ideas and communicate.

This would be a fantastic resource for any foreign language or ESL classroom to get students practicing the TL and speaking or writing with students their own age in an authentic context!

Awesome, Easy, Animoto!

After signing up for a free account at Animoto, a site for creating personal or business videos, I was able to very easily navigate through the site and create my very own video geared toward travel in Paris. I was surprised at just how easy and quick this was to use. First, after creating an account, you choose a theme for your presentation, then upload the photos that you want to include, followed by text and pre-selected music (or, you may choose to upload your own music).

Even though the videos only last for thirty seconds and their is a limit to the amount of content that can be uploaded, I feel that this type of digital storytelling would be extremely effective in the foreign language or ESL classroom. As a teacher, I could create photo stories with my own pictures from travels (as I did in this video of Paris), or any other type of video that is not readily available on the internet. And for classroom activities and projects, I think this would be engaging and fun for students to create their own videos to share with their classmates!


Copy of Faire un Sejour A Paris

Serious Games: Gardenscapes 2

Serious Gaming in the French Classroom:

In order to engage with the online gaming world and to see what benefits it would have for the FL classroom, I created an account with BigFish which allowed for a one hour free trial. This site also allowed me to change my language to French and access a bunch of games in French. I browsed for a game that would be applicable to a High School French classroom (i.e. easy grammar and vocabulary) with a purpose such as time management. I finally found a game that sparked my interest: Gardenscapes 2.  I fooled around on this game for the whole hour and found it very relevant to the French classroom.

Language Learning Objectives:

This game presents very advanced grammar and vocabulary so I would expect to use it in a level 3 class or above. By using this game in the French classroom, students will be able to:

• Read and respond to vocabulary pertaining to everyday household items, people, places, etc.
•   Read and respond to communicative French (imperatives,  interrogatives, etc)
•  Read and understand different forms of French grammar
• Read and understand different French language tenses

Role of Teacher:

I would use this computer game as a lesson on grammar, language tense, or vocabulary and scaffold my students along the way. I would not expect my students to understand ALL of the language that is presented in the game, but instead to use it as a language tool to learn new vocabulary and grammar. Because the game only presents written language, I would like to read the dialogue out loud to the students where it is possible and walk them through the directions to ensure that they are clear.  This would allow for students to receive language input in both written and spoken forms. After reading and explain the directions in French, I would pause so that the students could attempt the level.

Role of the Student:

The Students would be actively involved in this game by following the French prompts on the screen: They must match French vocabulary with the correct picture in order to receive tokens/money for the garden. This motivation alone will inspire them to reach the correct answers.

Assessing Student Progress:

One way to assess student progress is to walk around and check the computer monitors to ensure that the students are making the right choices. Also, to check that students are meeting the language objectives, I would informally assess their understanding of the language that is used in the game by either monitoring their progress when a prompt is given, or by verbally repeating the same question or statement to see if they are able to comprehend it. 

DIIGO vs. Scoop.it!

After signing up for two separate 'social bookmarking' or 'curating' sites, Scoop.it! and DIIGO, and then playing around with their various features, I was seriously blown away! I have always been that person the bookmarks EVERYTHING, and then when it comes time to reference a bookmark, I am either away from my computer or I've forgotten what I filed it under in the first place. Thankfully, these two sites will make life much easier for me!

So, to compare these two sites, I want to start with the basics. First, both sites were quick to create an account and easily navigable, although I prefer the layout of Scoop.it! because it is more eye catching that DIIGO.  Both sites walked me through the set-up process, step-by-step, so that I understood exactly how to post, save, and comment on articles.

Both Scoop,it! and DIIGO have some of the same features, however as far as unique or special features, the sites differ in their ability to preform certain tasks. For example, DIIGO allows the user to search for topics related to a certain subject area of interest and then pulls up related sites and articles from the web, and Scoop.it! requires the user to locate articles/websites on their own externally (on the web or search though different users or groups) and then save them to the user account library. Both sites allow users to create 'lists' or 'topics' that categorize the saved articles or websites, make comments and add multiple tags to the articles, and network with other users to share materials, ideas, and comments. On the other hand, DIIGO gives its users the opportunity to be more interactive with texts by annotating: adding sticky notes and highlighting. Scoop.it allows for communication with other users by commenting on the article or by sharing on social media networks.

I found that using both Scoop.it! and DIIGO has advantages and disadvantages for bookmarking or curating information from the web. As a teacher, or someone who comes across educational information often, I would use a site like DIIGO where I could easily click a button on my tool bar and save it to my account for later reading and use in the classroom. However, if I am searching for a certain topic, for example SmartBoard activities for the classroom, I would use Scoop.it! because it filters through these topics on the internet and other users' pages and pulls up any and all information related to my topic.