GROUP ACTIVITY... RADIO BROADCAST

GRADE: 8 GRADE ELEMENTARY (IN CHILE)

The idea of this activity is to create something for the students using radio broadcast.
The idea is a radio show in which students have to give the schudele for the week, and they can choose a topic for developing, specially related to braaking news and things that can be interesting for everyone. It is not marked, because each group has to present one a week (monday), and is has to be presented for the class, not for the school (students could feel ashamed)

LABOR DAY... GENERAL IDEAS AND ACTIVITIES FOR DOING NEXT MONDAY

Here you have some activities for doing next Monday, and texts about what labor day is.

LABOR DAY

1.- Which kind of activities do people do during the labor day?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day
http://labor-day-weekend.com/
http://www.ehow.com/how_2082085_celebrate-labor-day-family.html


2.- In what LABOR DAY consists on?

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=316&display_order=1&mini_id=1060
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day
http://www.kidsturncentral.com/holidays/laborday.htm

3.- How labor day is celebrated in different states of USA

http://www.123greetings.com/events/labor_day/info/labor_day_celebrations.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?Labor-Day-Celebrations-In-Different-States&id=682603

4.-Activities
Labor Day coloring pages:

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/labor-day/index.html

Composition medium comparability in a direct writing assessment of non-native English speakers

llt.msu.edu/vol8num1/pdf/wolfe.pdf

This text is about the assessment of writing in TOEFL, and the different reasons about why some people choose to do writing tests by word processor and others by hand, pen an paper.
There are groups that do not have the same possibilities to get a computer and probably this is one of the influences. Besides, some people do not feel comfortable using computers, and specifically people that do not have access to computers tend to be more anxious when the can use one, and this can modify the results.
For researching this, researchers evaluated the complete test (listening, writing, reading and structure), and the results gave many answers about the kind of people and how they reacted in front of the writing test.
For example, the use of keyboards in people that do not know how to use it, interferes in their process of writing.
Besides, in writing test was evaluated ability, generation of English, organization of ideas and development.
One of the problems of this research was that the kind of writing (keyboard or paper based) was optional (54% preferred keyboard, and 46% preferred handwriting).
The investigation show that there are little differences between people who chose handwrite and word processing software, and the differences between gender, geographic region, age, etc. do not mark to much difference in the final scores.
But social conditions marked some differences in the final scores, because of the access to computers
People with low levels of English, tend to use keyboard writing.
This study is for knowing which kind of test could be better for testing the level of English… which one is better or assess the level of English better? Essay created by hand writing or essay created by word processing software?

This is a scheme made by myself about what I think I learn about techonology and how to use it in my classes in the future.

I travelled with my classmates for 18 hours from Chile, and here in the EWU have taken a workshop about how to use the different resources related to techonolgy, and how can they couldeful if we use them in our classes for teaching English as a second language.

Now I consider that it is necessary to create different opinions and facts about the language we teach, and the different issues that students are interested in. We can create an enviroment of debate, information and knowledge about the language, but also about the everyday life. Definitely technology is the way for teaching now. It is up to you how to use this several tools.

www.english-4u.de

This webpage is very useful for practicing exercises of grammar and use of English. Besides, there are some text in which you can fill the gaps, and comprehend the ideas.

Interaction: No interaction, because it is related to exervides of grammar, vocabulary, etc. It is not chat available (It does not have)

Authentic audience: No, because this webpage is for individual work.

Meaningful activities: Several meaningful activities. We can find exercises related to any kind of grammar (modal verbs, irregular verbs, vocabulary, etc)

Right amount of time / feedback: In this terms, this page gives good feedback, because it corrects the mistakes, and you can spend a lot of time doing exercises.

Appropiate to personalities, styles, intelligences: In general it is appropiate to several personalities and styles. Very simple activities and exercises.

Motivation: I think it is up to the students. I consider that this webpage provides several tools for learning.

Student's focused: There are activitis for general public, not necessarily to students and teachers. Everybody can practice here.

Autonomy: People can work alone, because this page gives explanations about the contents. Algo gives examples.

Comfortable enviroment: It is very easy to understand the contens, but it is always necessary that someone explain the different topics and uses of English.

Integrate skills: Use of English, grammas and vocabulary can be found. Speaking is not included in this page.

Clear objectives: The objective of this page is to teach and show different exercises for learning grammar and vocabulary in English. We can not see examples of listening, writing or speaking activities. Also, this webpage is focused on teaching English to ANY person that wants to learn English.

One week in United States

We have been in the United States for one week, and at the moment it has been a nice experience. It is strange to share my bedroom with a classmate, but it is very interesting to live in the same floor with my friends. I did not imagine that this was going to happen, but here we are for trying to do our best.
One of the things that I do not like here is food. It is very different to the things that I eat in Chile, considering that I live with my parents and my mom cooks very well, and we have lunch together every day, from monday to sunday.
What I really love here in the US is the variety of thing for buying... It is amazing!! I want a laptop but I still do not decide which one I want, because I am confused! There are a lot of things that I want, but I hope this week finally I choose one computed. I really need it. Also I am thinking in buying a camera, they are very cheap.
In this moments we show our habits, and the tolerance we have for living in group; I hope this will be a great experience, at the moment it has been very good, so probably it will continue being like this.