Week 7 : Developing teacher & learner Autonomy !!

Dear All

Like the past 6 weeks, this too has been a hectic week. We were exposed to 2 new concpets – learner autonomy and one computer classroom. The notion of learner autonomy is extremely relevant for English language teaching. It has acquired greater significance in recent times as the focus of the classroom has shifted from the teacher to the learner. In the Indian context where we are used to teacher-fronted traditions, striving for learner independence is a big challenge. I have been fortunate in this regard as I have been part of a Project to Teach English Communicatively. Its run by our department to train college lecturers of Rajasthan. This program was a collaborative venture between the state government and RELO(Regional English Language Office), New Delhi.

Trainings under this program introduced me to task based teaching focusing on activities, pair and group work. Now in this Webskills course, apart from the technological aspects and interventions, I have read a lot of material on themes and concepts which are important to the language learning set up. I am following all the discussion posts closely and have gained a lot of insight into learner autonomy. I have realized that learner empowerment and autonomy are closely interlinked with teacher autonomy. This awareness has made me realize my role and responsibility in empowering my students.

Preparing a lesson for a one computer class was not a difficult task this time as I had already made an interactive presentation last week. Moreover, we are used to just one computer classroom in a majority of our teaching sessions. I elaborated on that theme and developed a workshop on the use of advertisements for pedagogical purposes.

Reading, writing and commenting on blogs is always an enjoyable experience. Now I’ll have to work hard to polish my Project that has to be submitted for peer review. There’s only a few days left before I exchange the Project with Nizara, my partner for peer review. And I'm exhausted.....nonetheless as Natasa and Luisa while commenting on Helen's blog have remarked I don't want 'to miss a thing'. So there's still no resoite for us. We have to work even harder till we submit our final Projects.

Shaila

Engaging Learners...the interactive way !!

Dear Friends

We are on the threshold of week-7 and this Webskills course has become really absorbing. Those of us who are teaching have started implementing the tech-related changes in their classes. And others like me, who are off-teaching at the moment are trying to refine their Projects. Following Robert’s advice I have narrowed my focus in the Project. Now I plan to deal mainly with structuring discussion and debate units using some resources like Idea Portal.

In our enthusiasm we sometimes strive to attempt far too much at one go and don’t realize that as a result we fail to achieve the desired effect. Robert’s suggestion has helped me appreciate the importance of focusing our projects around one or two key areas which in turn ensure effective results.

I must say the Webskills course has kept me engrossed. How to engage my students and how to make my classes interactive are questions which kept returning to me repeatedly ever since I was initiated into the Learner-Centered approach a few years ago. The reading materials, Nicenet and blog postings during this week have been replete with ideas which can greatly help me to involve my students in the language learning process more easily. I wish I were teaching at present so I could try these ideas to check their efficacy and relevance for my students. The materials and the theme of Engaging students are bound to inspire teachers to try out innovations to make their classes interactive and infinitely interesting.

Some of the readings that I found brimming with practical tips are ‘How to Give Interactive Lectures, Interactive Lecture Techniques, Servicing Learning, Interactive Lectures: Summaries of 36 Formats which I believe can easily be customized and applied to both small and large classes.

I’ve used PPT in my trainings several times and usually try to make my classes interactive but I’ve never made an interactive PPT. Making one was a real challenge. It took me a while but after some effort and hit and trial experiments I finally managed to create one and hope to use it in my future training sessions.

We also had to look for a partner for our Project and I was wondering whom to approach. I got a request from Nizara which I happily accepted. As she too belongs to India, I think the collaboration would be fruitful and mutually beneficial.

Shaila

Polishing Project !!

Dear Friends

In consonance with Robert’s advice I’ve decided to restrict the broad scope of my Project. I’ll now be focusing primarily on improving pronunciation and discussion/debating skills of my students.

For Pronunciation- I plan to use websites like http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/phonetics.htm
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#
http://ell.phil.tuchemnitz.de/phon/reference/lexSetsFrames2.html

Under my scheme, special effort will be made to take advantage of graphics and the audio resources available from these sites.

For Discussion & Debating skills, I plan to organize small group chats and deliberations over real-world-sometimes provocative topics- such as Child Performers or Changing Sexual Mores in society. I’ll also use Idea Portal to get relevant resources for students to build on their information base on various interesting topics that cater to their taste and competence levels.

I also plan to use this site (http://www.englishclub.com/speaking/agreeing-disagreeing-expressions.htm) extensively to familiarize students with refined ways of expressing dissent and/or agreement.

I hope to refine my Project further before the Peer review.

Shaila

5th Week....Mid- course crisis !!

Dear Friends,

We have now reached the mid-way of the webskills journey. Because of some urgent personal compulsions, I couldn’t devote time to this course for a couple of days. As a result there’s so much still to be done and I am racing against time !!

I have been introduced to several new notions this week : Web quests , rubrics, alternative assessment, self-evaluation. The reading material, discussion posts and other remarks of my fellow participants have not only made these concepts a lot easier to follow but also helped to deepen our understanding of these crucial concepts.

Still there’s so much to read, so much to reflect and so much to prepare and eventually put all this into practice that at times I feel a bit bewildered on how to cope up with all these novel ideas that I’m being initiated into. It’s difficult to keep pace with the rest of the class, many of whom seem quite well-grounded in all these innovative methods. I’m thankful to all of you for the knowledge and insights that you are so generously sharing with us and especially Robert and Courtney for their invaluable contribution and pragmatic suggestions that I may be able to adopt in my own classes. I’ve gained theoretical knowledge about PBL, alternative assessment , rubrics etc. but I still need to work on the rubric assignment which I feel is quite a formidable task.

It took me a while to decide on the topic of my technology enhanced lesson plan. Robert ( as usual )was most helpful with his incisive comments. I’ve made a sketchy plan but I think to begin with it might suffice. Fortunately, I have some workshops coming up where I’ll be working with college students. I’ll try to test this plan and see how it works.

I do want to try and design a WebQuest but will I be able to accomplish that feat with finesse is as they say, the million dollar question !!

best regards

Shaila

Fourth Week !!.....Getting tech-savvy

Friends,

Unlike the previous three weeks, the fourth one has been relatively easy. Taking part and posting in the discussions was not much of a problem. Going through the reading material and browsing the websites- specifically the ones focused on reading/ writing instruction provided many insights and ideas which can be customized to fit diverse needs and tastes.

I have started making an inventory of ideas which I found striking and which could well work effectively for my students. The use of technology, I believe will add variety and spice to my classes. It can break the monotone of routine learning.

The second and third assignments led to thinking of issues and lesson planning. A well planned lesson can work wonders. I’m convinced that by integrating technology a lesson plan can be enhanced but what we need to learn is when and how many web resources should be incorporated for optimum results.

Moreover, I have to synthesize the art of using technology so that it is an integration and not an imposition. In the past achieving this balance has often been an elusive task. So the greatest lesson, I feel I have learnt this week is to look for, search and probe for problems and see if and how far they can be resolved through technology.

Technology enhanced lesson Planning has clearly been a new chapter in my book of teaching experience. The sample lesson plans along with my fellow participants plans have helped me somehow structure my lessons. Time alone will prove how successful it has been, but nonetheless I’m pretty excited about this journey that promises to make me a tech- savvy teacher and trainer.

-Shaila