2007年6月24日 星期日
About me and my English learing blog
Hi! My name is Christina. I am a student from NCU English Department. This blog: Christina—Stuff about English Learning is a record for what I did in a course called Online English Learning. I have made several labels for my work. In labs there are three lab activities we did this semester. They were all very interesting and you may try yourself, too. And in CALL Essentials I evaluated six websites that is related to different chapter in that book. The websites are pretty useful for ESL learners in different ways. I have visited them and wrote some of my opinions on it. In weblog are some discussions or Q&A about weblog and also three of my favorite ESL weblogs. As for My comment to peers you can take a look at the comments I gave to my classmates’ blogs and you could take a look at their work, too.
I guess the most special experiences in learning English is that I have been to the U.S. for a year during fifth grade. I think my English improved a lot in that year because I was thrown into a place where everybody speaks English. And since then I began to grew interest in English, SO, here I am in the English Department!! I believe that my whole life would be connected with English, and I will definitely learn life-long. Hope I can keep running this English blog after this semester. It is great to have a place online to put some useful stuff.
I guess the most special experiences in learning English is that I have been to the U.S. for a year during fifth grade. I think my English improved a lot in that year because I was thrown into a place where everybody speaks English. And since then I began to grew interest in English, SO, here I am in the English Department!! I believe that my whole life would be connected with English, and I will definitely learn life-long. Hope I can keep running this English blog after this semester. It is great to have a place online to put some useful stuff.
My three favorite ESL Blogs
Here are three of my favorite ESL blogs and brief introductions of them.
ESL-Learning English Culturally
In this blog it got many labels such as “useful expressions”, “Useful English Openers” or “Daily English” for learners to click in to read the article. You can learn some basic usage of English in different context. And you can get a general understanding about holidays around the world by reading the “Holidays” section. Also funny comic and pictures about blogging is provided for visitors to laugh while learning.
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day for Teaching ELL, EFL&ESL
Actually this is more suitable for teachers. The blog is so great because it provide so many materials. The categories contain almost every subject: Math, Geography, Science, etc. And also it has categories on basic English learning skills like listening, writing, grammar, etc. In the articles the blogger provides many more website that is useful for different subjects of teaching. Games and videos that can be encouraging to learners are provided, too. I guess I won’t introduce too much to you because I would like you to explore for yourself! I believe you will find it really useful!!
Inspiration Lane
Wow! This is the MOST special blog I have ever seen!! "Inspiration Lane" is an online, classroom magazine for all levels of ESOL, ESL and EFL classes. And it is really unique because it will change automatically every day. Created and edited by an ESOL certified teacher in Florida, USA. For teachers, this blog can be projected onto whiteboard every day after the lesson to share with the whole class. Students can visit it everyday to learn new stuff!! I just love the way it is!! It has new things to learn every day, such as “Quote of the day” or “The day in history” I think it is a really great ESL blog for both teachers and students.
ESL-Learning English Culturally
In this blog it got many labels such as “useful expressions”, “Useful English Openers” or “Daily English” for learners to click in to read the article. You can learn some basic usage of English in different context. And you can get a general understanding about holidays around the world by reading the “Holidays” section. Also funny comic and pictures about blogging is provided for visitors to laugh while learning.
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day for Teaching ELL, EFL&ESL
Actually this is more suitable for teachers. The blog is so great because it provide so many materials. The categories contain almost every subject: Math, Geography, Science, etc. And also it has categories on basic English learning skills like listening, writing, grammar, etc. In the articles the blogger provides many more website that is useful for different subjects of teaching. Games and videos that can be encouraging to learners are provided, too. I guess I won’t introduce too much to you because I would like you to explore for yourself! I believe you will find it really useful!!
Inspiration Lane
Wow! This is the MOST special blog I have ever seen!! "Inspiration Lane" is an online, classroom magazine for all levels of ESOL, ESL and EFL classes. And it is really unique because it will change automatically every day. Created and edited by an ESOL certified teacher in Florida, USA. For teachers, this blog can be projected onto whiteboard every day after the lesson to share with the whole class. Students can visit it everyday to learn new stuff!! I just love the way it is!! It has new things to learn every day, such as “Quote of the day” or “The day in history” I think it is a really great ESL blog for both teachers and students.
2007年6月19日 星期二
Blogging Experience
Blogging Experience
Technical problem is the biggest problem I encountered in my blog experience. When I finally got started to organize my blog, I did not know how to put on labels. No matter how many times I tried it just did not appear. Then I gave up and go ask Cherrie about it. Actually it was a pretty easy skill…, I guess I am just too stupid hah! BIG THANKS to Cherrie to help me with my label setting. Unfortunately I got another problem to solve later. I spent a lot of time organizing my posting because I couldn’t change anything when I paste onto blogspot. And I discovered that I could only correct things if I open blogspot with IE instead of bbs software when I had almost finished everything. I am a girl with bad luck!!
To make my blog more attractive to myself and visitors, I went to Yahoo Knowledge to search for things I can put into my blog. To my surprise there were so many things that can put into blog!!!! You can have a pet, a weather report, or even time…etc. Also many people formed blogs to teach people blog techniques. I placed a cute dog clock on my blog and I really love it!! I can understand why so many people are into this blog fashion. A blog can combine one’s favorite all together into one place. I can put on my favorite site links, my music, my video…just almost anything people could think of. And it offers chance for people to contact and share with each other despite of time and place limitations. Take my self for example; I really got some accomplishment by organizing a blog of my own.
I really like my blog. And I will try to keep using it as a place of my English Secret Garden.
Technical problem is the biggest problem I encountered in my blog experience. When I finally got started to organize my blog, I did not know how to put on labels. No matter how many times I tried it just did not appear. Then I gave up and go ask Cherrie about it. Actually it was a pretty easy skill…, I guess I am just too stupid hah! BIG THANKS to Cherrie to help me with my label setting. Unfortunately I got another problem to solve later. I spent a lot of time organizing my posting because I couldn’t change anything when I paste onto blogspot. And I discovered that I could only correct things if I open blogspot with IE instead of bbs software when I had almost finished everything. I am a girl with bad luck!!
To make my blog more attractive to myself and visitors, I went to Yahoo Knowledge to search for things I can put into my blog. To my surprise there were so many things that can put into blog!!!! You can have a pet, a weather report, or even time…etc. Also many people formed blogs to teach people blog techniques. I placed a cute dog clock on my blog and I really love it!! I can understand why so many people are into this blog fashion. A blog can combine one’s favorite all together into one place. I can put on my favorite site links, my music, my video…just almost anything people could think of. And it offers chance for people to contact and share with each other despite of time and place limitations. Take my self for example; I really got some accomplishment by organizing a blog of my own.
I really like my blog. And I will try to keep using it as a place of my English Secret Garden.
2007年6月15日 星期五
Chapter 6
Discovery Channel
This is the website site I visited for chapter 6: Inquiry and Problem-Solving.
About this website:
Discovery is a TV channel that focuses on introducing interesting things on earth, from animal to planet, science to technology. It provides many multimedia. It got videos and games for young learners to visit. There is also news to read to gain knowledge of what is important going on earth. The website has a section called Explore by subject, which divided their information into clear parts such as Animal, Dinosaur, Global Warming, etc. The related videos, games, news and facts will be all combined in one page. Subscribers receive a video and article weekly.
My words:
Discovery channel is really good for teacher who would like to provide Inquiry and Problem solving. It has clear topics of things provided. To say, if the teacher designed an activity about dinosaurs, he/she can tell students to go to Discovery channel to gain general knowledge and also having fun. Also students can look at the TV Schedules to see whether there are programs that is useful for their activities.
This is the website site I visited for chapter 6: Inquiry and Problem-Solving.
About this website:
Discovery is a TV channel that focuses on introducing interesting things on earth, from animal to planet, science to technology. It provides many multimedia. It got videos and games for young learners to visit. There is also news to read to gain knowledge of what is important going on earth. The website has a section called Explore by subject, which divided their information into clear parts such as Animal, Dinosaur, Global Warming, etc. The related videos, games, news and facts will be all combined in one page. Subscribers receive a video and article weekly.
My words:
Discovery channel is really good for teacher who would like to provide Inquiry and Problem solving. It has clear topics of things provided. To say, if the teacher designed an activity about dinosaurs, he/she can tell students to go to Discovery channel to gain general knowledge and also having fun. Also students can look at the TV Schedules to see whether there are programs that is useful for their activities.
Class Discussion on Weblog
Discuss principles for designing English teaching and learning weblogs with team members
Our group thinks that the principles of an English learning weblog should be the use of “multimedia”, the “links” of wide range of information, a platform for posting and receiving “comments” from other participants, and a way to “evaluate” the effectiveness of their learning.Compared to the traditional classroom learning, English learning weblog has the characteristics of online learning, which provides more time and space for learners to think, offers hypertexts for learners to absorb more information if they want, works with multimedia contents to attract learners’ attention.Besides, using the form of weblog, learners can receive immediate articles from that English learning weblog through “RSS.”For example, when an English learner gets into a weblog, he/she will browse a lot of online articles with links and multimedia contents to learn English. Then, he/she is allowed to post his/her personal opinions there, he/she can even give the response to other postings, certainly, he/she can receive the feedback for other participants, so that the learning process involves a kind of interaction of knowledge, instead of just one-way input for a learner. Finally, after learning from the weblog, he/she can receive the updated information from that weblog immediately in their personal blogs.
Discuss criteria for evaluating ESL/EFL weblogs with team members.
**Multimedia : This is a very basic and important component for a weblog because students can find the most appropriate way of learning. That is, the weblog provide various media to facilitate students’ English learning. If there is no multimedia in a weblog, then, it just has a few differences between those traditional learning materials.
**Comments : To judge whether a weblog is good or not, we can take a careful look at the comments from the visitors. These feedback can provide more objective views of the weblog. In other words, we can also know the advantages and disadvantages of this weblog. Besides, comments can inspire the designer of the weblog to make his or her weblog better.
**Information links(hypertext) : The greatest difference between traditional learning materials is that hypertext can make student’s reading much more efficient. Students do not have to flip through many books to obtain knowledge. They just have to click on the links, than, they can explore as many as other websites or weblogs they want.
**Quizzes/ Tasks : It’s very important for an English learning weblog to have such criteria. In that way, students could have the opportunities to check what they have learned. Most importantly, by taking some quizzes or tasks, students can get to know what else they need to put more emphasis on.
Our group thinks that the principles of an English learning weblog should be the use of “multimedia”, the “links” of wide range of information, a platform for posting and receiving “comments” from other participants, and a way to “evaluate” the effectiveness of their learning.Compared to the traditional classroom learning, English learning weblog has the characteristics of online learning, which provides more time and space for learners to think, offers hypertexts for learners to absorb more information if they want, works with multimedia contents to attract learners’ attention.Besides, using the form of weblog, learners can receive immediate articles from that English learning weblog through “RSS.”For example, when an English learner gets into a weblog, he/she will browse a lot of online articles with links and multimedia contents to learn English. Then, he/she is allowed to post his/her personal opinions there, he/she can even give the response to other postings, certainly, he/she can receive the feedback for other participants, so that the learning process involves a kind of interaction of knowledge, instead of just one-way input for a learner. Finally, after learning from the weblog, he/she can receive the updated information from that weblog immediately in their personal blogs.
Discuss criteria for evaluating ESL/EFL weblogs with team members.
**Multimedia : This is a very basic and important component for a weblog because students can find the most appropriate way of learning. That is, the weblog provide various media to facilitate students’ English learning. If there is no multimedia in a weblog, then, it just has a few differences between those traditional learning materials.
**Comments : To judge whether a weblog is good or not, we can take a careful look at the comments from the visitors. These feedback can provide more objective views of the weblog. In other words, we can also know the advantages and disadvantages of this weblog. Besides, comments can inspire the designer of the weblog to make his or her weblog better.
**Information links(hypertext) : The greatest difference between traditional learning materials is that hypertext can make student’s reading much more efficient. Students do not have to flip through many books to obtain knowledge. They just have to click on the links, than, they can explore as many as other websites or weblogs they want.
**Quizzes/ Tasks : It’s very important for an English learning weblog to have such criteria. In that way, students could have the opportunities to check what they have learned. Most importantly, by taking some quizzes or tasks, students can get to know what else they need to put more emphasis on.
Get to know Weblog
Understand the weblog and its applications What is the weblog? What are some popular English learning weblogs?
Well, the meaning of weblog is not so easy to explain. I tried to find answers in the two following places.
– Yahoo Knowledge - Wikipedia
The word “blog” is the short term for weblog. The word “weblog” was invented around 1997 by a person named Jorn Barger. The meaning of it is to use web to create personal log with periodicity. Blogs provides commentary or news on different subjects, such as food, traveling, local news, etc. Another function of blog is that it is the personal diary. People write about everyday life in their own blogs to keep a record or let out their emotions. Blog contains not only text, but also images, link to other blogs, favorite web pages and other media. The special thing we should notice about blog is that it can create forum for others to interact with the owner of the blog and leave comments. Due to these special features blog can also be used as a place to provide class material online: related websites, medias, or articles can be put on to the blog for students to click for self learning. Also teacher and students can communicate through interactive format.
Here I listed some of the ESL weblogs.
English ESL Weblog from Using English.com
ESL- Learning English Culturally TOP THREE!!!
AFE-American Film English
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day For Teaching ESL& EFL TOP THREE !!!
Inspirational Lane TOP THREE !!!
Understand specific weblog features and functions. What can the weblog do compared to the traditional English learning website? What are RSS/ permalinks/ trackback?
For RSS/permalinks/trackback, I tried to find answers in two places as same as the last question.
RSS is a kind of XML format used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries or news headlines. That means you can use RSS to subscribe for news, blogs, or message boards. If there are new articles, news or messages being created, you will receive a notice, and you will not have to spend time looking for new postings, it will tell you automatically.
- Yahoo KNowledge
- Wikipedia
Permalinks (permanent link) is a URL that points to a specific blogging entry and remained unchanged. It avoids link rot. By providing this kind of links, the visitors would not click into a link and discover the content they wish to see are replaced by something else.
- Wikipedia
Trackback can be simply explained as to “cite”. When you see interesting articles in one’s blog and want to make comment or evaluate in your own blog, you can use this function. Just go the article you would like to discuss about and click “response”. You will then see a cited web address for the article. Edit your article as usual and paste the cited web address in to the column. The blog you are evaluating will receive a notification to know you have cited something from it. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles.
- Yahoo Knowledge -Wikipedia
After explaining about the three functions and features of weblog, we can clearly see the differences between traditional websites and weblogs. While traditional website can only display material they prepared and provides links to other related web resources, weblogs can do more. RSS enables teacher/student to receive new postings or other things from blogs they think are useful to them without spending time surfing. They can get new things immediately. Permalinks allows teacher/student to always visit their favorite websites or blogs without having to worry that next time the material would disappear or displaced. And trackback let teacher/student know who are visiting their weblogs and make record to decide what kind of materials should be provided.
Explore blog features and use them in your blog. How can team blog functions (e.g., comments, moderation, trackback, and pingback) support English reading and writing?
Those functions are used to send notification to the blog where the article being referred to. In this way the two authors would know that they have some common interests and would read each other’s ideas then keep giving feedbacks. In the exchanging, the ability of reading and writing are practiced. The functions enable people to get connect together and share thoughts through reading and writing online.
How can multimedia presentation (e.g., pictures, and videos, and audio) support English listening and speaking?
Listening and speaking require lots of practice. Often there are some students who are not confident enough to make a speech in class therefore lose the chances of practicing. Multimedia presentations provide practices that allow those to practice by themselves at any time. As for listening, we can never have someone talking every minute to train our listening ability. Designed exercises in multimedia trains our listening in different contexts and also let us practice anytime.
Well, the meaning of weblog is not so easy to explain. I tried to find answers in the two following places.
– Yahoo Knowledge - Wikipedia
The word “blog” is the short term for weblog. The word “weblog” was invented around 1997 by a person named Jorn Barger. The meaning of it is to use web to create personal log with periodicity. Blogs provides commentary or news on different subjects, such as food, traveling, local news, etc. Another function of blog is that it is the personal diary. People write about everyday life in their own blogs to keep a record or let out their emotions. Blog contains not only text, but also images, link to other blogs, favorite web pages and other media. The special thing we should notice about blog is that it can create forum for others to interact with the owner of the blog and leave comments. Due to these special features blog can also be used as a place to provide class material online: related websites, medias, or articles can be put on to the blog for students to click for self learning. Also teacher and students can communicate through interactive format.
Here I listed some of the ESL weblogs.
English ESL Weblog from Using English.com
ESL- Learning English Culturally TOP THREE!!!
AFE-American Film English
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day For Teaching ESL& EFL TOP THREE !!!
Inspirational Lane TOP THREE !!!
Understand specific weblog features and functions. What can the weblog do compared to the traditional English learning website? What are RSS/ permalinks/ trackback?
For RSS/permalinks/trackback, I tried to find answers in two places as same as the last question.
RSS is a kind of XML format used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries or news headlines. That means you can use RSS to subscribe for news, blogs, or message boards. If there are new articles, news or messages being created, you will receive a notice, and you will not have to spend time looking for new postings, it will tell you automatically.
- Yahoo KNowledge
- Wikipedia
Permalinks (permanent link) is a URL that points to a specific blogging entry and remained unchanged. It avoids link rot. By providing this kind of links, the visitors would not click into a link and discover the content they wish to see are replaced by something else.
- Wikipedia
Trackback can be simply explained as to “cite”. When you see interesting articles in one’s blog and want to make comment or evaluate in your own blog, you can use this function. Just go the article you would like to discuss about and click “response”. You will then see a cited web address for the article. Edit your article as usual and paste the cited web address in to the column. The blog you are evaluating will receive a notification to know you have cited something from it. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles.
- Yahoo Knowledge -Wikipedia
After explaining about the three functions and features of weblog, we can clearly see the differences between traditional websites and weblogs. While traditional website can only display material they prepared and provides links to other related web resources, weblogs can do more. RSS enables teacher/student to receive new postings or other things from blogs they think are useful to them without spending time surfing. They can get new things immediately. Permalinks allows teacher/student to always visit their favorite websites or blogs without having to worry that next time the material would disappear or displaced. And trackback let teacher/student know who are visiting their weblogs and make record to decide what kind of materials should be provided.
Explore blog features and use them in your blog. How can team blog functions (e.g., comments, moderation, trackback, and pingback) support English reading and writing?
Those functions are used to send notification to the blog where the article being referred to. In this way the two authors would know that they have some common interests and would read each other’s ideas then keep giving feedbacks. In the exchanging, the ability of reading and writing are practiced. The functions enable people to get connect together and share thoughts through reading and writing online.
How can multimedia presentation (e.g., pictures, and videos, and audio) support English listening and speaking?
Listening and speaking require lots of practice. Often there are some students who are not confident enough to make a speech in class therefore lose the chances of practicing. Multimedia presentations provide practices that allow those to practice by themselves at any time. As for listening, we can never have someone talking every minute to train our listening ability. Designed exercises in multimedia trains our listening in different contexts and also let us practice anytime.
Lab 3
Lab 3
We were given a really great task today. There were so many things to do. It was kind of experiencing a teacher’s role. Me and Cherrie worked together.
We spent a lot of time searching for great stories. At last we decided to do an article called “You don’t have to hate your first job” from USA Today website. It was an article about what attitude we should have when doing our first job. When we read it, Cherrie introduced me a really useful online dictionary—Cambridge Dictionary Online. It has easy explanations in English which is just the material we want to design our questions.
After reading the article, it was time to create an English teaching program on air, just like Studio Classroom. We were writing transcript in the first place, but then we decided to just quickly run over what we should say then get recording because there were little time left. Thanks to Cherrie for she always covers me when I forgot to say something. It was actually fun to pretend to be a teacher teaching on air. But I also recognized that it must take lots of effort and preparation before in order to give listeners a great and interesting lecture in English.
Next we started to design comprehension questions and wrote summary. Creating questions was not easy, too. We have to be in students’ shoes to guess what kind of problems they would encounter or confused of.
The greatest difficulty is definitely using Hot Potatoes. We did not have time to figure out how the software works, therefore, I spend the weekends watching the videos a Chinese elementary teacher created. I found out that Hot potatoes were actually not really hard to use, because the environment were basically the same. Me and Cherrie finally finished our test webpages, and we were soooo excited at the moment. If we had more time, I believe we could do better. I really appreciate teamwork, because we could complement each other, ask questions, and learn from each other. I also realized that a teacher has to prepare so much teaching materials
Here is our website!!!!! Go and take a look!!!
Hot Potatoes by Cherrie and Christina
※News link:http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-05-28-oplede_N.htm?csp=34
※key words and their English definitions:▲Source: Cambridge Dictionary, Wikipedia
1.catamaran noun [C]a sailing boat that has two parallel hulls (= floating parts) held together by a single deck (= flat surface)
2.Costa Rica(literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica (Spanish: Costa Rica or República de Costa Rica, IPA: [re'puβlika ðe 'kosta 'rika]), is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the south-southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. Costa Rica was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army.
3.entrepreneur noun [C]someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves risks
4.gorgeous adjectivevery beautiful or pleasant
5.pinch yourself verb [R]You say that you have to pinch yourself if you cannot really believe something that has happened because it is so good or so strange
6.whine verb [I] to make a long, high, sad sound:
7.nostalgia noun [U]a feeling of pleasure and sometimes slight sadness at the same time as you think about things that happened in the past: nostalgic adjective
8.scurry verb [I usually + adverb or preposition] to move quickly, with small short steps:
9.obsess verb [I or T] If something or someone obsesses you, or if you obsess about something or someone, you think about them all the time:
10.font (LETTERS) noun [C]a set of letters and symbols in a particular design and size
※comprehension questions and answers
Q1: How old did Dustin Ashley Tester first pick up surfing?
Ans: 14
Q2: Why does Tester spend a lot of time “pinching herself”?
Ans: She thinks the life she is leading is too good to be true.
Q3: What may be the cause to send college graduates scurrying into grad
school to postpone the process of getting a job?
Ans: Well-meaning family members wax nostalgic about "paying their dues" at first jobs where they manned the office coffee pot.
Q4: What possible situation would we encounter when we find a job in Career fairs feature booths?
Ans: it’s hard for us to find the job that we’ve been dreaming of.
Q5: In the article, what is the attitude suggested toward getting a first job?
Ans: Try to find pleasure in the job. Change the attitude toward jobs from tiring works to self-fulfilling dreams.
※SummaryDustin Ashley Tester surfs everyday, but she is not on vacation, it is actually her job. Tester is one person who is lucky to find pleasure in work. But many other young college graduates are scurrying to grad school to postpone the process of getting a first job because a dream work seldom exists. The article tells us that we don’t have to hate our first jobs, we can even fall in love with them-if we ask our selves the two questions: What do I love so much I'd do it for free, and how can I get someone to pay me to do that? Find out answers to them, and you will never “work” again.
We were given a really great task today. There were so many things to do. It was kind of experiencing a teacher’s role. Me and Cherrie worked together.
We spent a lot of time searching for great stories. At last we decided to do an article called “You don’t have to hate your first job” from USA Today website. It was an article about what attitude we should have when doing our first job. When we read it, Cherrie introduced me a really useful online dictionary—Cambridge Dictionary Online. It has easy explanations in English which is just the material we want to design our questions.
After reading the article, it was time to create an English teaching program on air, just like Studio Classroom. We were writing transcript in the first place, but then we decided to just quickly run over what we should say then get recording because there were little time left. Thanks to Cherrie for she always covers me when I forgot to say something. It was actually fun to pretend to be a teacher teaching on air. But I also recognized that it must take lots of effort and preparation before in order to give listeners a great and interesting lecture in English.
Next we started to design comprehension questions and wrote summary. Creating questions was not easy, too. We have to be in students’ shoes to guess what kind of problems they would encounter or confused of.
The greatest difficulty is definitely using Hot Potatoes. We did not have time to figure out how the software works, therefore, I spend the weekends watching the videos a Chinese elementary teacher created. I found out that Hot potatoes were actually not really hard to use, because the environment were basically the same. Me and Cherrie finally finished our test webpages, and we were soooo excited at the moment. If we had more time, I believe we could do better. I really appreciate teamwork, because we could complement each other, ask questions, and learn from each other. I also realized that a teacher has to prepare so much teaching materials
Here is our website!!!!! Go and take a look!!!
Hot Potatoes by Cherrie and Christina
※News link:http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-05-28-oplede_N.htm?csp=34
※key words and their English definitions:▲Source: Cambridge Dictionary, Wikipedia
1.catamaran noun [C]a sailing boat that has two parallel hulls (= floating parts) held together by a single deck (= flat surface)
2.Costa Rica(literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica (Spanish: Costa Rica or República de Costa Rica, IPA: [re'puβlika ðe 'kosta 'rika]), is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the south-southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. Costa Rica was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army.
3.entrepreneur noun [C]someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves risks
4.gorgeous adjectivevery beautiful or pleasant
5.pinch yourself verb [R]You say that you have to pinch yourself if you cannot really believe something that has happened because it is so good or so strange
6.whine verb [I] to make a long, high, sad sound:
7.nostalgia noun [U]a feeling of pleasure and sometimes slight sadness at the same time as you think about things that happened in the past: nostalgic adjective
8.scurry verb [I usually + adverb or preposition] to move quickly, with small short steps:
9.obsess verb [I or T] If something or someone obsesses you, or if you obsess about something or someone, you think about them all the time:
10.font (LETTERS) noun [C]a set of letters and symbols in a particular design and size
※comprehension questions and answers
Q1: How old did Dustin Ashley Tester first pick up surfing?
Ans: 14
Q2: Why does Tester spend a lot of time “pinching herself”?
Ans: She thinks the life she is leading is too good to be true.
Q3: What may be the cause to send college graduates scurrying into grad
school to postpone the process of getting a job?
Ans: Well-meaning family members wax nostalgic about "paying their dues" at first jobs where they manned the office coffee pot.
Q4: What possible situation would we encounter when we find a job in Career fairs feature booths?
Ans: it’s hard for us to find the job that we’ve been dreaming of.
Q5: In the article, what is the attitude suggested toward getting a first job?
Ans: Try to find pleasure in the job. Change the attitude toward jobs from tiring works to self-fulfilling dreams.
※SummaryDustin Ashley Tester surfs everyday, but she is not on vacation, it is actually her job. Tester is one person who is lucky to find pleasure in work. But many other young college graduates are scurrying to grad school to postpone the process of getting a first job because a dream work seldom exists. The article tells us that we don’t have to hate our first jobs, we can even fall in love with them-if we ask our selves the two questions: What do I love so much I'd do it for free, and how can I get someone to pay me to do that? Find out answers to them, and you will never “work” again.
Lab 2
Lab 2 (Reflection)
schMooze University
This week we visited a website called “SchMooze University”. It is a text based environment for language learning. Visitors have to explore the campus by typing commands and reading descriptions of the different places and people. We are very excited in the first place, but soon we all felt exhausted because everything we did and everywhere we went would require an absolute command or the computer just ignores you. We encountered a foreigner in the campus, but he just soon ignores us, too, so sad!!!! I finished the activities someday after class. It is a really special way to learn English, but I guess students nowadays who are acquaint with multimedia and watch TV and play video games everyday may not find it very appealing.
MOOrrey's Bar
Bar (MOOrrey's)
Iona is the bartender’s name, we can order drinks from her and ask her questions, but most of them she could not answer.
---------------
The bar is long and high. It is made of stainless steel at one end and tranforms seamlessly into polished oak at the other, traveling through marble and stone on its way there. Iona, the bartender, stands behind the bar, idly throwing a cocktail shaker from one hand to the other while she waits for you to decide what to order. She specialises in cocktails and can make almost any in existence (as well as few of her own devising).
The bartender prepares a drink...and hands it over to bear [Guest].
Iona looks at you and smiles, "Hmm, job. Well now, that's a very interesting question. I'm glad you asked me that. I should really find an answer... Maybe you should post it to the administration by typing SUGGEST now?
POD Garden
In this garden we can take a walk, experiencing the four seasons or take a look at the great variety of flowers.
Welcome to the Percy Owen Danforth Memorial Garden. This is a constantly growing garden thanks to the contributions of the members and guests of Schmooze.
To see how to add a plant or go for a walk, type HELP HERE.
To experience the seasons here, type SPRING or SUMMER or FALL or
WINTER.
<==The campus clock tower reads 9:27 a.m. EST==>
You see PODplaque, others, pond, and compost bin here.
Obvious exits: North Mall
You step into the beautiful POD Garden and take a slow, deep breath to savor the delicious scents of the various kinds of plants.
The snow falls gently and silently...the frozen pond in front of you is full of happy skaters. You can hear their laughter and the sounds of their blades carving the ice..
The snow is resting on the branches of a small group of pine trees...
As you look up the flakes fall on your face. You pull your muffler over your head and decide to skate.
To try it out, type SKATE.
Text is courtesy of Snapdragon from EdenMOO.
This garden has a wide variety of plants and always has room for more. You may add your own plant to the garden, if you wish to. Please do. The best way to see the garden is go for a walk by typing WALK.
Library
In the library we can create poems by taking out public books from Stacks or we can read Haiku to read a kind of Japanese poem.
Library Lobby
-------------
This brightly lit lobby ends at either end in a hallway. The walls are white, and are covered with many pictures. In the center of the wall opposite the massive glass doors hangs a large sign. It reads
West Wing <== ==> East Wing
- Periodical Room - Reference Room
- Resource Room - Haiku
- Stacks
Beneath the sign is the Help Desk. It is currently unstaffed.
West Wing Hallway
-----------------
You hear the rustle of electronic pages from the Periodical Room down the hall, and from the Resource Room comes the distinctive sound of file cabinets opening and sliding shut. The stacks hold the tomes beloved by schMOOze U.students.
Obvious exits: Lobby, Periodical Room, Resource Room, and Stacks
Haiku
-----
In this room you can have the chance to read some haiku, a Japanese verse form of three lines, with 5-7-5 syllables in each line respectively.
POKE HAIKU, our resident computer poet, to see a few verses.
You poke Haiku.
Haiku says, "All white in the disk,"
Haiku says, "I eat small balls in the lamp,"
Haiku says, "Pow!, the glass has crept."
Go to the cafeteria in Student Union and talk to the waiter.
Cafeteria
---------
You see a large cafeteria that can seat up to 50 people. One large table goes down the middle of the room, where you see people eating. Ed, the cook, is serving food.
You see a pile of trays, a menu, and Ed here.
Obvious exits: out
You say, "ed, hello""
Ed [to bear [Guest]]: Long time no see.
You see a menu showing what you can order to eat. In bold letters across the top of the right hand page it says 'Troubled? Try HELP HERE'
Cafeteria (#305):
----
Feeling a little hungry? Thirsty? Well, you've come to the right place.
Welcome to the University's Cafeteria! Here to assist you is Ed, the cafeteria guy.
You say, "ed, I would like chocolate cake""
Ed [to bear [Guest]]: Okay...let's see what we got here. Here you go, chocolate cake.
You sit down at the table.
You indulge in the chocolate cake.
Almost all of it is left.
You take a teeny-weeny-tiny portion of chocolate cake
With a full belly and happy heart, you leave the cafeteria.
Find Tunnel Maze in Administration and answer questions.Tunnel Maze
In the maze one has to answer many grammar questions to get out of it.
Tunnel Maze - Beginning
-----------------------
This room is almost pitch dark. To the south there is a glimmer of
light, but clearly this is the direction you just came from. The exit to the
north looks like a much better bet.
There appears to be an exit to the north.
I wish I'd left school at 16 instead of 18.
Is this sentence correct English? [Enter 'yes' or 'no']
A loud voice booms, "Correct. Keep going and you'll get out of this
place yet."
Tunnel Maze - End
-----------------
You stand at the exit point of the maze. You look backward to the maze. An old doorway stands to the north, disguised, it seems.
There appears to be an exit to the north.
Tunnel Exit
-----------
------ ----
The light here seems much brighter than before. This must be the end
of the tunnel. In front of you, there is a door.
Obvious exits: Basement
Look at the Public Book in the library and add a poem in it.
Hah I created a really silly one line poem.
poem by bear-a chinese student has been added to Public Book
bear [Guest] is looking at the poem by bear-a chinese student in the
Public Book.
Polar bear, very rare, we should take good care, to reserve its heir.
EndHope that you enjoyed looking at Public Book.
schMooze University
This week we visited a website called “SchMooze University”. It is a text based environment for language learning. Visitors have to explore the campus by typing commands and reading descriptions of the different places and people. We are very excited in the first place, but soon we all felt exhausted because everything we did and everywhere we went would require an absolute command or the computer just ignores you. We encountered a foreigner in the campus, but he just soon ignores us, too, so sad!!!! I finished the activities someday after class. It is a really special way to learn English, but I guess students nowadays who are acquaint with multimedia and watch TV and play video games everyday may not find it very appealing.
MOOrrey's Bar
Bar (MOOrrey's)
Iona is the bartender’s name, we can order drinks from her and ask her questions, but most of them she could not answer.
---------------
The bar is long and high. It is made of stainless steel at one end and tranforms seamlessly into polished oak at the other, traveling through marble and stone on its way there. Iona, the bartender, stands behind the bar, idly throwing a cocktail shaker from one hand to the other while she waits for you to decide what to order. She specialises in cocktails and can make almost any in existence (as well as few of her own devising).
The bartender prepares a drink...and hands it over to bear [Guest].
Iona looks at you and smiles, "Hmm, job. Well now, that's a very interesting question. I'm glad you asked me that. I should really find an answer... Maybe you should post it to the administration by typing SUGGEST now?
POD Garden
In this garden we can take a walk, experiencing the four seasons or take a look at the great variety of flowers.
Welcome to the Percy Owen Danforth Memorial Garden. This is a constantly growing garden thanks to the contributions of the members and guests of Schmooze.
To see how to add a plant or go for a walk, type HELP HERE.
To experience the seasons here, type SPRING or SUMMER or FALL or
WINTER.
<==The campus clock tower reads 9:27 a.m. EST==>
You see PODplaque, others, pond, and compost bin here.
Obvious exits: North Mall
You step into the beautiful POD Garden and take a slow, deep breath to savor the delicious scents of the various kinds of plants.
The snow falls gently and silently...the frozen pond in front of you is full of happy skaters. You can hear their laughter and the sounds of their blades carving the ice..
The snow is resting on the branches of a small group of pine trees...
As you look up the flakes fall on your face. You pull your muffler over your head and decide to skate.
To try it out, type SKATE.
Text is courtesy of Snapdragon from EdenMOO.
This garden has a wide variety of plants and always has room for more. You may add your own plant to the garden, if you wish to. Please do. The best way to see the garden is go for a walk by typing WALK.
Library
In the library we can create poems by taking out public books from Stacks or we can read Haiku to read a kind of Japanese poem.
Library Lobby
-------------
This brightly lit lobby ends at either end in a hallway. The walls are white, and are covered with many pictures. In the center of the wall opposite the massive glass doors hangs a large sign. It reads
West Wing <== ==> East Wing
- Periodical Room - Reference Room
- Resource Room - Haiku
- Stacks
Beneath the sign is the Help Desk. It is currently unstaffed.
West Wing Hallway
-----------------
You hear the rustle of electronic pages from the Periodical Room down the hall, and from the Resource Room comes the distinctive sound of file cabinets opening and sliding shut. The stacks hold the tomes beloved by schMOOze U.students.
Obvious exits: Lobby, Periodical Room, Resource Room, and Stacks
Haiku
-----
In this room you can have the chance to read some haiku, a Japanese verse form of three lines, with 5-7-5 syllables in each line respectively.
POKE HAIKU, our resident computer poet, to see a few verses.
You poke Haiku.
Haiku says, "All white in the disk,"
Haiku says, "I eat small balls in the lamp,"
Haiku says, "Pow!, the glass has crept."
Go to the cafeteria in Student Union and talk to the waiter.
Cafeteria
---------
You see a large cafeteria that can seat up to 50 people. One large table goes down the middle of the room, where you see people eating. Ed, the cook, is serving food.
You see a pile of trays, a menu, and Ed here.
Obvious exits: out
You say, "ed, hello""
Ed [to bear [Guest]]: Long time no see.
You see a menu showing what you can order to eat. In bold letters across the top of the right hand page it says 'Troubled? Try HELP HERE'
Cafeteria (#305):
----
Feeling a little hungry? Thirsty? Well, you've come to the right place.
Welcome to the University's Cafeteria! Here to assist you is Ed, the cafeteria guy.
You say, "ed, I would like chocolate cake""
Ed [to bear [Guest]]: Okay...let's see what we got here. Here you go, chocolate cake.
You sit down at the table.
You indulge in the chocolate cake.
Almost all of it is left.
You take a teeny-weeny-tiny portion of chocolate cake
With a full belly and happy heart, you leave the cafeteria.
Find Tunnel Maze in Administration and answer questions.Tunnel Maze
In the maze one has to answer many grammar questions to get out of it.
Tunnel Maze - Beginning
-----------------------
This room is almost pitch dark. To the south there is a glimmer of
light, but clearly this is the direction you just came from. The exit to the
north looks like a much better bet.
There appears to be an exit to the north.
I wish I'd left school at 16 instead of 18.
Is this sentence correct English? [Enter 'yes' or 'no']
A loud voice booms, "Correct. Keep going and you'll get out of this
place yet."
Tunnel Maze - End
-----------------
You stand at the exit point of the maze. You look backward to the maze. An old doorway stands to the north, disguised, it seems.
There appears to be an exit to the north.
Tunnel Exit
-----------
------ ----
The light here seems much brighter than before. This must be the end
of the tunnel. In front of you, there is a door.
Obvious exits: Basement
Look at the Public Book in the library and add a poem in it.
Hah I created a really silly one line poem.
poem by bear-a chinese student has been added to Public Book
bear [Guest] is looking at the poem by bear-a chinese student in the
Public Book.
Polar bear, very rare, we should take good care, to reserve its heir.
EndHope that you enjoyed looking at Public Book.
Lab 1
Lab 1 (Reflection)
This is the first time we have a class in lab! And we were all kind of excited in the beginning because we didn't know what we're going to do. First we were asked to reply to other classmates' postings on Blackboard system. I thought many of the opinions had really good points. I tried to reply as many as I can, but time flies fast, twenty minutes are so short!!
The second thing we did is to build our own blog and also visit others'. Blogspot has many functions to design the blog. User can change the background color, add favorite pictures or add links to friends' blogs. I guess I will spend some time to create the blog to my own style, it will definitely be purple everywhere!!! We visited each others’ blogs and left silly short messages to let them we had been there. It was kind of fun!!!
Last week we had drawn some charts for the discussing questions. And this week the teacher asked us to work in groups to turn them into electrical files. We divided into two smaller groups to finish this task. Me, Cherrie, and Abby were lucky to do easier ones, while Vercy is struggling to try out many software to draw her chart and post to the class blog. Thank god she finally succeeded, we really appreciate her effort!!
Tapped In is the website we visited that day. It is a website that has lots of chat rooms created by teachers. We create our accounts and our rooms, and then the teacher asked us to use Tapped In to discuss what we will do for the final project. First everybody in the class had no clear idea how do the groups joined in one room, so in our room we had other classmates kept going in and out for many times. It is kind of a chaos!! After everybody settled down, we began to talk about the final project. My group members really typed really fast!! I usually only have time to agree or disagree on something. We talked a little bit silly sometimes and make some loud laugh. But in the end we still had came up with a rough idea of the final project. So it was great that we both had fun and done our job for the lab class!!
I wonder what we will do in the next lab class. I hope it will be fun!!
This is the first time we have a class in lab! And we were all kind of excited in the beginning because we didn't know what we're going to do. First we were asked to reply to other classmates' postings on Blackboard system. I thought many of the opinions had really good points. I tried to reply as many as I can, but time flies fast, twenty minutes are so short!!
The second thing we did is to build our own blog and also visit others'. Blogspot has many functions to design the blog. User can change the background color, add favorite pictures or add links to friends' blogs. I guess I will spend some time to create the blog to my own style, it will definitely be purple everywhere!!! We visited each others’ blogs and left silly short messages to let them we had been there. It was kind of fun!!!
Last week we had drawn some charts for the discussing questions. And this week the teacher asked us to work in groups to turn them into electrical files. We divided into two smaller groups to finish this task. Me, Cherrie, and Abby were lucky to do easier ones, while Vercy is struggling to try out many software to draw her chart and post to the class blog. Thank god she finally succeeded, we really appreciate her effort!!
Tapped In is the website we visited that day. It is a website that has lots of chat rooms created by teachers. We create our accounts and our rooms, and then the teacher asked us to use Tapped In to discuss what we will do for the final project. First everybody in the class had no clear idea how do the groups joined in one room, so in our room we had other classmates kept going in and out for many times. It is kind of a chaos!! After everybody settled down, we began to talk about the final project. My group members really typed really fast!! I usually only have time to agree or disagree on something. We talked a little bit silly sometimes and make some loud laugh. But in the end we still had came up with a rough idea of the final project. So it was great that we both had fun and done our job for the lab class!!
I wonder what we will do in the next lab class. I hope it will be fun!!
2007年6月14日 星期四
Chapter Seven
National Geographic
This is the website I would like to introduce in Chapter 7: Content-based Instruction.
What is this website about?
This website provides an abundant of information about things over our planet. Animals, plants, geography, the environment, etc. can be found in it. Visitors are kind of taking tours online to know about Earth. It is a very useful website for the content area geography and social science. And it is recommended to people of all ages!!! Click into the site index to see for the links National Geographic sorted for different visitors.
Special Features:
It has a section for younger visitors called National Geographic Kids. A colorfully designed website just for kids! The sections are divided clearly so that young ones can surf easily. Word choices are considered to fit their vocabulary ability. Kids can learn through interesting Activities and Games. Fun Stories and Videos about things on our planet also attract kids’ attention. Kids can also create a list of favorite stuff in the website by using a function called My Page. Click to the Animal to find out all about the animal: videos, facts, pictures, etc.
As for more advanced students, click on to any topics provided on homepage. Read Daily News of stories and photos, History, or People & Places around the world. Watch videos to get prove of things in textbooks. There are many things to read and watch!
It also provided materials for educators. The website has designed Lesson Plans for different grade levels. It is really useful for teacher in content-based language instruction. Maps and photos are also presented on the web. Teachers can download what they need. Professional Development section has detailed information on teaching geography or social studies. National Geography also has products to support teachers.
My Words:
It is a well built website with a lot of knowledge for different ages of people to explore!! When I first entered it, I have a feeling that I will go back again to read those interesting articles and watch those great videos!! It is a website for life-long learning.
This is the website I would like to introduce in Chapter 7: Content-based Instruction.
What is this website about?
This website provides an abundant of information about things over our planet. Animals, plants, geography, the environment, etc. can be found in it. Visitors are kind of taking tours online to know about Earth. It is a very useful website for the content area geography and social science. And it is recommended to people of all ages!!! Click into the site index to see for the links National Geographic sorted for different visitors.
Special Features:
It has a section for younger visitors called National Geographic Kids. A colorfully designed website just for kids! The sections are divided clearly so that young ones can surf easily. Word choices are considered to fit their vocabulary ability. Kids can learn through interesting Activities and Games. Fun Stories and Videos about things on our planet also attract kids’ attention. Kids can also create a list of favorite stuff in the website by using a function called My Page. Click to the Animal to find out all about the animal: videos, facts, pictures, etc.
As for more advanced students, click on to any topics provided on homepage. Read Daily News of stories and photos, History, or People & Places around the world. Watch videos to get prove of things in textbooks. There are many things to read and watch!
It also provided materials for educators. The website has designed Lesson Plans for different grade levels. It is really useful for teacher in content-based language instruction. Maps and photos are also presented on the web. Teachers can download what they need. Professional Development section has detailed information on teaching geography or social studies. National Geography also has products to support teachers.
My Words:
It is a well built website with a lot of knowledge for different ages of people to explore!! When I first entered it, I have a feeling that I will go back again to read those interesting articles and watch those great videos!! It is a website for life-long learning.
Chapter Five
Hot Potatoes
Hot Potatoes Version 6 is the website I visited for Chapter 5: Creativity and Production.
What is Hot Potatoes about?
It is software that allows users to create five kinds of quizzes: JCloze, JMatch, JCross JQuiz, and JMix for the World Wide Web.
What is so special about Hot Potatoes?
Hot potatoes can be used both by teachers and students. Teachers create quiz WebPages to test on how much the students have absorbed. As for students, creating quiz WebPages can be contained into the project they are doing. In order to design the five type of quizzes: Interactive multiple-choice, short answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-filling exercises, students need to have a clear understanding about their topic or project first, which is a kind of training, too.
My Words:
This software is really convenient for creating quizzes but not so convenient to create a quiz website online. The software itself is actually pretty easy to use, because the manipulate environment are basically the same. But here comes a problem: the quizzes are being created into separate pages, even they can be set to connect to each other, the users still have to use another software to create a homepage for them, which means users have to know how to use other software such as Frontpage or Dreamweaver.
Hot Potatoes Version 6 is the website I visited for Chapter 5: Creativity and Production.
What is Hot Potatoes about?
It is software that allows users to create five kinds of quizzes: JCloze, JMatch, JCross JQuiz, and JMix for the World Wide Web.
What is so special about Hot Potatoes?
Hot potatoes can be used both by teachers and students. Teachers create quiz WebPages to test on how much the students have absorbed. As for students, creating quiz WebPages can be contained into the project they are doing. In order to design the five type of quizzes: Interactive multiple-choice, short answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-filling exercises, students need to have a clear understanding about their topic or project first, which is a kind of training, too.
My Words:
This software is really convenient for creating quizzes but not so convenient to create a quiz website online. The software itself is actually pretty easy to use, because the manipulate environment are basically the same. But here comes a problem: the quizzes are being created into separate pages, even they can be set to connect to each other, the users still have to use another software to create a homepage for them, which means users have to know how to use other software such as Frontpage or Dreamweaver.
Chapter Four
Dave's ESL Cafe
This is an example of a Web site for student to listen and speak around the computer.
About the Website: It is mainly divided into four parts.
Jobs: To help teachers who are interested in teaching overseas but don’t know where to start. The website not only offers ESL/EFL job links of countries like Korean, China, etc, but also allows teachers to post resumes on board.
Stuff for Teachers: This is a great place for teachers. It provides an idea cookbook that contains many sources for different courses. For example, it has ideas for food, math, grammar, and reading, etc. Also it builds forums for teachers to discuss issues of jobs or teacher training.
Stuff for Students: It is described below.
Stuff for Everyone. There are book store, ESL links, and also things about Dave-his photo gallery and a clip of interview.
Goals: The Internet' s meeting place for ESL+EFL student from around the world.
Presentation: Students can click into Idioms, Phrase verbs, Pronunciation Power and Slangs to learn. You can choose from random learning from collection, a complete list or alphabetical lists of meaning and examples. Also students can go to Help Center to post questions or participate in different topic of the Student Forum. Quizzes are created to test how much you learned.
Appropriateness: The Website is pretty easy to explore. Students can click whatever they like to learn and take a quiz to test immediately. Sharing what one’s ideas with others through Student Forum is a great way to learn English, because after reading others’ postings one can learn more.
Outcomes: Quiz-like outcomes.
Evaluation: When students submit their quiz answers, the evaluation appear immediately to provide the correct answers and the scores.
Notes: The drawback of the Website is that the Pronunciation Power icon is led to another website that is not for free!!! Students have to purchase for it to use the product for practicing pronunciation. Therefore this English learning Website is actually lacking of the training of listening and speaking.
Chapter Three
Welcome to Adam Rado's English Learning Fun Site
Adam Rado's English Learning Fun Site
This is the Website I explored for chapter 3: Developing and Practicing Listening and Speaking Skills.
Goals: Through many activities basic, intermediate and advanced levels students get to practice the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Presentation: There are mainly three parts to click in: Guest, Toefl Helpful, and Members. In the guest area it helps students to learn grammar, idiom, slang, vocabulary, pronunciation, conversation, accent reduction, listening, reading, and writing through many topics such as sounds, cartoons, jokes, printout exercises and student input with correction, etc. Students can also interact with others by sending their comments on several activities to forums and view others’ opinions or making e-mail pals with foreign students.
BUILD A STORY
PICTURE THIS
HUMOR ME
READ ME
INTERACT
SAY WHAT?
MOUTH WORKOUT
TOEFL © HELPFUL
MOVIE TALK
TOON IN to IDIOMS
Register for free membership student can get more practice in each activity. The Toefl Helpful focused on preparing for the test.
Appropriateness: The sections are clearly created, students can easily choose what they want to explore. It should be noted that the website is for basic, intermediate and advanced levels students.
Outcomes: Quiz-like outcomes.
Evaluation: When students submit their answers, recorded voice of “try again” or “good job” speaks out immediately.
Notes: This website uses interesting topics to encourage students to learn. For examples everyone watch movies, so it provides a section on movies to create all kinds of activities. Multimedia materials make learning English more fun and interesting. It also covers communication and collaboration, which is an important notion in learning. It is indeed a website that covers much and really can attract students to visit again and again!
Adam Rado's English Learning Fun Site
This is the Website I explored for chapter 3: Developing and Practicing Listening and Speaking Skills.
Goals: Through many activities basic, intermediate and advanced levels students get to practice the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Presentation: There are mainly three parts to click in: Guest, Toefl Helpful, and Members. In the guest area it helps students to learn grammar, idiom, slang, vocabulary, pronunciation, conversation, accent reduction, listening, reading, and writing through many topics such as sounds, cartoons, jokes, printout exercises and student input with correction, etc. Students can also interact with others by sending their comments on several activities to forums and view others’ opinions or making e-mail pals with foreign students.
BUILD A STORY
PICTURE THIS
HUMOR ME
READ ME
INTERACT
SAY WHAT?
MOUTH WORKOUT
TOEFL © HELPFUL
MOVIE TALK
TOON IN to IDIOMS
Register for free membership student can get more practice in each activity. The Toefl Helpful focused on preparing for the test.
Appropriateness: The sections are clearly created, students can easily choose what they want to explore. It should be noted that the website is for basic, intermediate and advanced levels students.
Outcomes: Quiz-like outcomes.
Evaluation: When students submit their answers, recorded voice of “try again” or “good job” speaks out immediately.
Notes: This website uses interesting topics to encourage students to learn. For examples everyone watch movies, so it provides a section on movies to create all kinds of activities. Multimedia materials make learning English more fun and interesting. It also covers communication and collaboration, which is an important notion in learning. It is indeed a website that covers much and really can attract students to visit again and again!
Chapter Two
P I Z ZA Z !... People Interested in Zippy and ZAny Zcribbling
An Online Resource since 1995 forScribblers and Teachers of English as a Second Languageby Leslie Opp-Beckman
PIZZAZ: People Interested in Zippy and Zany Zcribbling (Opp-Beckman, 2003)
PIZZAZ
Goal:
PIZZAZ! is dedicated to providing simple creative writing and oral storytelling activities with copyable (yes, copyable!) handouts for use with students of all ages.
Presentation:
It is divided into five sections: Poetry, Fiction, Bag of Tricks, More Publishing Opportunities, and Other Teacher Resources. Each of them provides many links that has clear descriptions. And when one decides to click in, complete instruction and handouts are provided. Some even have related links of information for the activities.
Appropriateness:
The ESL Student Level for each activity was stated clearly at the top, the teacher would easily find what kind and what level of activities they want. As for students, most of the resources in the website are not for students, but the instructions are really clear, and the word choices are not difficult. It is really useful for all levels and ages.
Outcomes:
The website provides links that can publish something on the webpage.
Evaluation:
This website did not provide any evaluation for students. The evaluation depends on the instructor of the activity.
Notes:
Every activity has great instructions and handouts for students. It is very useful for ESL teachers when they need some ideas.
An Online Resource since 1995 forScribblers and Teachers of English as a Second Languageby Leslie Opp-Beckman
PIZZAZ: People Interested in Zippy and Zany Zcribbling (Opp-Beckman, 2003)
PIZZAZ
Goal:
PIZZAZ! is dedicated to providing simple creative writing and oral storytelling activities with copyable (yes, copyable!) handouts for use with students of all ages.
Presentation:
It is divided into five sections: Poetry, Fiction, Bag of Tricks, More Publishing Opportunities, and Other Teacher Resources. Each of them provides many links that has clear descriptions. And when one decides to click in, complete instruction and handouts are provided. Some even have related links of information for the activities.
Appropriateness:
The ESL Student Level for each activity was stated clearly at the top, the teacher would easily find what kind and what level of activities they want. As for students, most of the resources in the website are not for students, but the instructions are really clear, and the word choices are not difficult. It is really useful for all levels and ages.
Outcomes:
The website provides links that can publish something on the webpage.
Evaluation:
This website did not provide any evaluation for students. The evaluation depends on the instructor of the activity.
Notes:
Every activity has great instructions and handouts for students. It is very useful for ESL teachers when they need some ideas.
About Me
Hello! My name is Christina. I was born in February 4, 1986. I am an Aquarius. I have two sisters and a brother, and I am the oldest. Recently a new family member came, she is a black dog who is only three or four months old, and her name is Hailey. She is kind of my third sister!! Wow, what a big family!!! I am a girl who loves to read. Reading in leisure is the best thing in the world!! Also I am good at running; I had won many medals in elementary school and had been in the track and field team in high school. Oh!! I got second place in the cross-country race in NCU. But tell you a little secret, actually I hate running!! I never practice beside the race day. Haha! I love to try many sports, I went to NCU Hotdance for two years and now I am playing volleyball. Talking about my favorite color, it is definitely purple!!! I always unconsciously dresses myself in purple, and I told people to call me 阿紫. I guess I am crazy about it!!!!! I am pretty emotional and therefore I cry a lot. And I am really free about things. I do not know it is good or bad, maybe both. At last, why I had this blog? Well, I am a student major in English Department and it is a requirement from a class called Online English Learning. Hope I can provide something useful to people who visit my blog and learn something myself.
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