- The End -

We're done people! The end of the exam this morning also signifies the end of our journey in the CALL course. Owh, so sad... I guess most of the blogs will be dormant from now on. Regardless; thanks everyone for the wonderful memories \(^o^)/

;-)

WWW Lesson Plan

LEVEL: Form 2 (Intermediate and above)
TIME: 2 Periods (1 Hour 10 Minutes)
TOPIC: Planets of the Universe
THEME: Science & Technology
LANGUAGE CONTENT: Grammar - Simple Future Tense

EDUCATIONAL EMPHASES: ICT Skills, Learning How to Learn Skills, Multiple Intelligences

PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE:

1) Students have learnt how to obtain information from the World Wide Web.

2) Students have learnt how to write using the simple future tense.

AIMS:

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1) Apply their informational skills by obtaining relevant information from the World Wide Web and transferring it into the worksheet given.

2) Apply their writing skills by constructing a short paragraph in the simple future tense based on the information they have attained.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

· One computer for 2 students.

· Internet connection

· Web Browser

PREPARATION:

1) Locate the “Which Planet Do You Come From” quiz from the Quizilla website

2) Browse through the quiz/website to make sure the content is suitable for the students and matches the topic of the lesson

3) Prepare a worksheet based on the information available in the website

WEBSITE:

http://www.quizilla.com/quizzes/1073623/which-planet-do-you-come-from

PROCEDURE:

Set Induction: (5 Minutes)

1) Teacher recaps the previous lessons on obtaining information from the Internet and also on the simple future tense.

2) Teacher introduces the topic of the day.

Step 2: (15 Minutes)

1) Teacher asks students to be in pairs. Each pair will work on a single computer.

2) Teacher instructs students to surf this specified website: http://www.quizilla.com/quizzes/1073623/which-planet-do-you-come-from

3) Teacher asks students to complete the quiz in 15 minutes.

4) Teacher offers assistance to students if necessary.

Step 3: (25 Minutes)

1) Teacher distributes worksheets to students.

2) Teacher instructs students to fill the worksheets based on the results of the quiz “Which Planet Do You Come From?”.

3) Teacher asks students to draw a picture of their ‘alien form’.

4) Teacher asks students to imagine being aliens. Teacher also have them answer these questions:

· You have a UFO. Which of the other planets would you visit?

· Why do you choose that planet?

· What would you do if you encounter the planet’s natural inhabitant?

5) Teacher asks the students to write their answers to the questions in the form of a short paragraph. Their answers must be in simple future tense.

6) Teacher offers assistance to students if necessary

Step 4: (10 Minutes)

1) Teacher selects a few students to present their work to the class.

2) Teacher corrects students’ mistakes if necessary.

Conclusion: (5 Minutes)

1) Teacher asks a student to recapitulate the day’s lesson.

2) Teacher inculcates moral values.

Follow-up Activity:

Teacher asks students to do the task in Step 2 again at home. However, it must be done on their own. Their answers to the questions must also be longer and more creative. Their end-product must be submitted to teacher via e-mail.

EXAMPLE:

TASK 1 (In Step 2)

TASK 2 (In Step 3)
Worksheet

Podcast

This is from the previous class on podcasts. Mine won't play (dunno why), so cedits to Za8 for sharing his beautiful, lovely, heavenly voice to be put on my blog.

But of course, the compliments are sheer fantasy. They aren't real (^o^)



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Article Review

STUDENT-INITIATED ATTENTION TO FORM IN WIKI-BASED COLLABORATIVE WRITING

Language Learning & Technology, February 2009, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 79-95

http://llt.msu.edu/vol13num1/kessler.pdf

Greg Kessler is an assistant professor of CALL an interim director of the Language Resource Center at Ohio University. His research interests include CALL teacher preparation, CALL use in innovative pedagogical contexts and student and teacher autonomy in CALL contexts. He can be reached via his email: kessler@ohio.edu

The research is conducted with the purpose of investigating student behavior within a long-term interactive task that is done independently. The main aim is to identify students’ ability to learn a language autonomously, with emphasis given to grammatical accuracy throughout the task. The secondary aim of the study is to identify the degree as to which the respondents are able to correct their own and others’ grammar mistakes in a collaborative task that is done continuously. To collect the necessary data, the study was conducted in a period of 16 weeks, within an online content-based course for pre-service English teachers whom are non-native speakers of the language. The course was attended by 40 students aged between 21-23 years old. All of them were final year students of a BA program in an English Language Teaching in Mexico and their proficiency in English are of the intermediate level. During course instruction, students were obliged to attend class sessions at least three times a week in which they were required to complete tasks like weekly discussions, reviewing web-based contents, exchange forum posts, and finally collaborate on a wiki. Wiki is a program that allows the easy creation and editing of any interlinked Web pages, usually widely available in the internet. An example of a wiki is the infamous Wikipedia. In the study, the students were told to use one official wiki for the course to collectively define the term ‘culture’. The task was done continuously within the 16-weeks long semester of the course without the assistance of the instructor at all. The instructor instead just remained passive as he observed the students’ grammar and the corrections they offer to their own or their friend’s English. In the observation, heavier emphasis was given to the students’ word choice, subject/verb agreement, part of speech, punctuation, spelling, fragments, articles, coordination and run on sentence. At the end of the study, the researcher discovered that the students were very motivated to engage in the activity. The numbers of correcting that occurred were very high, suggesting the students’ willingness to express their views and critic their peers. However, the researcher also found that the students did not really pay much attention to grammar errors. It would seem that as long as they can understand the message of their peers’ writing, they would not provide further corrections. This shows that they were more aware of grammar when they were focusing on writing, not correcting. The reason behind the students’ lack of attention to the correct forms of grammar could probably be caused by the informal context of the task’s environment and the perceived low-impact nature of the errors themselves.

I think the research is very interesting as I find it very relevant to our Malaysian ESL context. This is so because during my practicum, I noticed that my students also show similar traits to that of the study’s participants. They were always eager to do collaborative writing tasks like peer-editing and proofreading, but would dismiss the importance of grammar accuracy most of the times. The errors in which the participants of the study commit were also significantly similar to the errors my students would usually make in writing tasks. The research also captured my interest as it was conducted in a very comprehensive and critical manner. This shows the commitment that the researcher had in order to ensure the study’s reliability and credibility. My only recommendation is that maybe the researcher should use other programs that can clearly record and show the changes made by the students to the wiki. This would enable him to probably see a clearer pattern of students’ tendencies in correcting their peers’ works, which could also be a great help in understanding reasons for their dismissal of grammar accuracy. In conclusion, I think this research could be a positive implication towards the teaching and learning of ESL in the general and Malaysian contexts. The methods used in the study could be employed by other teachers in ESL classrooms to find out more about their students’ weaknesses in writing. The study also proves how effective CALL or Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC, as coined by Levy and Stockwell, 2006) and collaborative writing activities can be to language learning, as suggested by Louth, McAllister and McAllister (1993).

(710 words)

Hypertext

NELSON MANDELA

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.

After the banning of the ANC in 1960, Nelson Mandela argued for the setting up of a military wing within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive considered his proposal on the use of violent tactics and agreed that those members who wished to involve themselves in Mandela's campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the ANC. This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment with hard labour. In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. His statement from the dock received considerable international publicity. On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town; thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland.

During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.


Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.

In Class Assignment

Maiden entry

Hola! My full name is Abdul Fattah bin Abd. Ghani, but I usually use Fattah Ghani for internet purposes. Prior to this blog, I had another one at Xanga.com but since that one's a private blog, I'd rather not have everyone view it, heheh ;-P

In terms of computer skills and knowledge, I think I belong to the 'mildly educated' group. I don't really know much about computers, just enough to differentiate between good models and the lame ones. But then again, there might more to my computer knowledge than what I expected. I tend to be very ignorant with what I know about computers. I'm very proficient in operating the usual softwares, such as MS Word, Powerpoint, Publisher, etc. Other softwares include Sound Forge, GuitarPro, Finale, Sibelius, Solfege, various video/audio converters and the list goes on. When it comes to computer hardware, I do have some knowledge about them. I know what is a motherboard, RAM, etc and I also know their functions. But again, only enough to ridicule the bad computers.

I am frequently engaged in the normal Internet activities like emailing, downloading songs via Ares, uploading videos (YouTube), searching for info on things (Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia), keeping up with friends (Facebook, Friendster, etc) and so on. Sometimes I just surf the Net for no apparent reasons at all. Just wondering around the cyberspace, I guess.

During my practicum, I had a few opportunities to use the computer in my teaching. But out of the few attempts, I only managed to successfully conduct 2 effective lessons. The others weren't really effective as there were a lot of technical problems i.e computer breakdown, software failures and so on. Not that I didn't try to avoid those sorts of problems, it's just that they keep on popping here and there to make your life miserable. Part & parcel of dealing with computers, I think 8-o

Apart from using the Net for fun, I do use it for educational purposes. I get a lot of info on stuff and it really helps in finishing assignments. The Internet can also help to better myself in a lot of other disciplines like music and so on, which is possible through e-books and other interactive things you can download. I guess that's it for now. Had to go, so see ya later.