Teachers looking to use technology in the classroom can face difficulties, especially if your students don’t have regular access to a computer. However, as smartphones and tablets become more common, we can take advantage of them for classroom activities. This bring-your-own-device (BYOD) approach can help incorporate technology into our classroom practice without the need for every student to have a personal computer.

In this week’s Teacher’s Corner, we will explore a variety of Internet-based tools that can be used in the BYOD classroom. Each of these tools has their own strengths and weaknesses, so it is important to explore them thoroughly before using them in the classroom. The benefits of each can be hard to determine as it will depend on your classroom context, learning objectives, and student needs. However, Chapelle (2001) outlines six criteria for evaluating technology tools for the classroom. These six criteria can be an effective way of thinking about technology tools and whether or not you should use them in your classroom.

Chapelle’s (2001) criteria for evaluating technology for the language classroom are:

1. Language learning potential: Does the technology allow for my students to acquire language or use the language in practice?

2. Learner fit: Does the technology match my students’ needs and abilities? Will it be easy for them to use and understand?

3. Meaning focus: When using technology, the teacher must decide how to use the technology to teach specific language material. Be sure to ask yourself: how can I use this technology to deliver learning to my students? What do I want to teach with this technology?

4. Authenticity: Does the technology let my students use their language in creative ways? Do they get to see and use language in a specific context?

5. Positive Impact: Using technology in class should help our students become successful. Be sure to evaluate all technology on its ability to motivate and encourage students.

6. Practicality: Can I use this in my classroom? After positive impact, this is the most important criterion for technology in the classroom. Think about ways you may need to change approaches depending on your students and classroom. Not all students may have a smartphone they can use in classroom activities, so consider having students do the activities in pairs or small groups.

A wide variety of digital tools exists for increasing classroom participation for students. Each of the tools listed below take advantage of the BYOD approach to encourage all students to ask and answer questions. By interacting through their own phone, tablet, or computer, students can participate at the same time instead of one-by-one when they raise their hands to answer questions. The BYOD approach can also assist less confident students or shy students by giving them a chance to ask and answer questions without having to speak to the entire class.

It is important to consider how each of these tools can benefit the classroom as well as encourage students to be more active in class. To do this, think about how each type of tool may fit into your lesson plan or classroom objective. This requires we take our time by experimenting and exploring with a variety of these tools before using them in a class setting. Each of the specific tools listed below have excellent tutorials on their websites that can guide you through learning how to use them and implement them in class.

The tools are grouped based on the Before, During, and After approach to classroom instruction. In the Before stage, we want to draw students’ attention to the topic and activate their background knowledge on the topic. In the During stage, we want to teach the material of the day, for example grammatical forms or specific vocabulary. Finally, in the After stage, we want to evaluate our students’ understanding of the material presented in the During stage. 

Before - Polling Software

PollEverywhere – PollEverywhere provides teachers a platform to create questions to ask students during class. Teachers can create multiple-choice questions, open-ended questions, or ranking questions. Students answer using their own device with their responses displayed on the teacher’s screen. Ideal for large classrooms, this software can help students that are shy or quiet in class become more interactive by providing them a space to ask and answer questions.

Socrative – Socrative lets teachers ask questions to students and see their results instantly. As each student answers the question, the teacher’s screen gets updated, automatically allowing them to see how each student has understood the material.

Micropoll – Micropoll is a platform for creating questions that can be added to websites or an online course management system, such as Moodle or Blackboard. Students can then access the class online and answer the questions via a multiple-choice format.

During - Presentation Software

Delivering lectures or information in class can often be a passive experience for students. However, with new tools and software, students can become more active participants in your lectures. The following tools make classroom presentations more interactive and collaborative:

Google Slides – Similar to traditional PowerPoint slides, Google Slides allows many people to join a presentation and work on it together. In classrooms without a projector, or that use a television monitor, students can join the presentation through their phones and follow along making it easier to see the information being presented.

Prezi – Prezi is a story-focused presentation system. In Prezi, slides are created individually and then linked together to create presentations which are more story-like. Students can also join Prezi via their own device to follow along or even add slides or information.

Nearpod – Nearpod is similar to a traditional PowerPoint but adds a layer of interactivity. In the presentation, teachers can add quizzes which can be scored in real time. Students can follow the presentation using their phones and answer the quiz questions as well. Videos, interactive pictures, and audio can also be added to the presentations to make them more interactive.

After - Quizzing Software

Kahoot – Kahoot takes classroom quizzes and turns them into a game. Questions are presented on the teacher’s screen and students can answer via their cell phones. Once the question has been answered, students get feedback on their screen and the teacher can see how many students got each question correct or incorrect.

Quizlet – Quizlet allows teachers to create quizzes and tests that students can then access and complete on their own device. As students complete the quiz, it is graded automatically and the results are delivered to the teacher.

Google Forms – Google Forms can be used to create quizzes and tests that students can access via their devices. Once students complete the form, teachers can see graphs and charts that students answer including percentages of correct and incorrect answers.

Plickers – Plickers allows teachers to create multiple choice questions which students can answer using QR codes. These QR codes are images that can be read by the teacher’s smartphone to get students’ answers instantly.

All the tools listed above use a freemium approach. Freemium tools are free to use for the basic version of the software. If the user wants added features, they can pay a monthly subscription fee and gain access to more advanced features. Each of the tools highlighted this month can be used with a basic account.

Reference

Chapelle, C. (2001). Computer applications in second language acquisition: Foundations for

teaching, testing, and research. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

One of the largest trends in education worldwide is the recognition that education needs to serve an increasingly digital world. Classrooms that exist as ‘technology free zones’ are increasingly falling behind in preparing students for the jobs of the future. As a result, schools are changing focus from traditional teaching, with its focus on facts and information, to teaching the 21^st Century Skills, with an emphasis on digital literacy. These 21^st Century Skills have a focus on problem-solving, creativity, and communication. In the classroom of the future, students will need to know how to find, evaluate, and process information from a wide variety of sources.  This week, we will explore the 21^st Century Skills and find ways to incorporate them in our classrooms.

This focus on digital skills should play a strong role in the 21^st century English language classroom as well. Although it is hard to estimate accurately, around 50% of all the material on the Internet is in English (Pimienta, Prado, & Blanco, 2009). As English teachers, we can help our students access and understand this digital world. To better help our students prepare for the digital world and the digital jobs of the future, we should also consider how to make our classrooms 21^st century classrooms.

21st Century Themes

The 21^st century themes are not subjects for direct classroom instruction. Instead, they are ideas that teachers can integrate into their classroom instruction. These ideas include:

Global Awareness: Teachers should use classroom activities to promote global understanding in students. This can include classroom organization, such as having students from different cultures and backgrounds work together on class projects to promote cultural understanding and awareness, or, for monolingual/monocultural classrooms, having students read English language materials that are focused on non-English speaking areas of the world. An example of this is creating classroom activities around Google’s Beyond the Map project, which gives viewers an interactive tour of Rio de Janeiro, or using the international news stories and radio broadcasts of Voice of America in the classroom. For more ideas on using global affairs in your classroom, check out the March 2016 Teacher’s Corner or the American English Webinar Series.

Creativity and Innovation: The 21^st Century Skills have a strong focus on students creating and innovating with the information they have in the classroom. This requires teachers to move from more traditional assessments, such as quizzes and tests, to more open-ended assessment approaches, such as student portfolios. The goal in using portfolios is to encourage students to use the target language in context, rather than by testing knowledge of just grammar or vocabulary. This can include asking students to create videos, write journals, create podcasts, or stage classroom plays in English for classroom assignments. For more on using portfolios in the classroom, check out the January 2004 issue of English Teaching Forum magazine.

Information and Media Literacy: The world has shifted from an industrial economy to an information age economy. The old industrial economy focused on the building and making of products. The information age economy is focused on creating and accessing information through computers.  In the information age economy, it is important for students to understand how to access information and evaluate that information. The 21^st Century Skills educational model encourages the use of transmedia literacy. Transmedia literacy is the ability to understand information from a variety of sources and make connections between them. For example, in the English classroom, students can read an English-language news story, then watch a video on the same subject matter. Teachers can then quiz the students on not only the content of each story but also the differences and similarities between each story. This encourages students to think across different types of media and understand the strengths and weaknesses of each. For more on media literacy, check out our Massive Open Online Course on English for Media Literacy.

The 21^st Century Skills model fits well inside the English language classroom as this approach encourages students to engage with a globalized world. We can help our students prepare for this globalized world by incorporating more interactive activities into our classrooms. Activities that require students to make videos, audio journals, or web-based writing not only allow them to practice their language, but also to learn technology skills along the way.

Want to learn more? Check out these resources:

21^st Century Skills – Resources for Educators

Communicative Curriculum Design for the 21st Century

Digital Stories: A 21st-Century Communication Tool for the English Language Classroom

References

Pimienta, D., Prado, D., & Blanco, Á. (2009). Twelve years of measuring linguistic diversity in the Internet: balance and perspectives. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

As teachers, we put many demands on our students when it comes to finalizing papers and proofreading. We assume that they are both able to identify and fix their own mistakes. However, many language learners struggle to identify lower-order concerns such as spelling and subject-verb agreement. Lower-order concerns are addressed in later drafts of writing and include issues related to spelling, punctuation, grammar, and citations. Higher-order concerns are issues that we examine early in the drafting process and affect an essay’s overall structure and design. These include issues related to thesis and content development, organization, and structure. Learners struggle to identify both higher and lower-order concerns, but lower-order concerns are particularly difficult, to recognize and edit. It is not because learners do not have the knowledge, but, at the end of the writing process they are like all writers—tiredly scanning their paper without taking time to pick up on the hidden mistakes. We can help our students recognize these small errors before they submit their final versions while giving them the tools to catch such mistakes in the future.

In this week’s Teacher’s Corner, we share a simple activity that students lead and conduct in the final days before submitting an essay.

Advanced

Writing

During this activity, students will be able to:

• Recognize what common errors are included on a proofreading checklist.
• Work individually and in pairs using the checklist as a guide to finalize their essays.

• Copy of Proofreading Checklist (see Appendix A)
• Essays/writing tasks
• Paper/pencils

• Prepare enough copies of the Proofreading Checklist for each student
• Remind students to bring copies of their essays/writing to class

1.     Begin class by putting students into pairs. Give each student a number and students with the same numbers are partners. If there are 30 students in your class, give each student a number from 1 to 15, so that you have two of each number.

2.     Once in pairs, give them a copy of the Proofreading Checklist.

3.     Tell them to review and define each item on the list.

4.     Bring the class back together as a large group. Review the list as a group, asking students to share an example of each item on the list.

5.     Once the list has been explained and reviewed, tell students to trade essays. On the checklist, tell students to write their name next to reviewer on the checklist and write the name of the writer next to writer on the list.

6.     Recommend that students read the paper fully, one sentence at a time, and then go through the checklist. This ensures that they don’t speed through the essay and skip small, easily-missed errors. Give students time to review their partner’s papers.

a.            As they review their partners’ papers, have students correct one of each type of error that is given on the checklist. From then on, ask students to simply circle each error as they occur.

Once students finish, have them return the essays and checklists to their partners. Give all students in the class time to review the mistakes in their own paper and ask questions of their reviewers.

7.     Students then begin to make corrections referring to their own checklists and ask their partners and the teacher for help and advice.

8.     Remind students that they will submit their final version with the corrected draft and the checklist. Explain that this helps you assess how well the learner used the Proofreading Checklist.

An alternative to this activity is to give the learners the Proofreading Checklist to use outside of class. If the activity is given for students to check their own work, suggest they do one of the following to aid in careful reading:

• Read the paper one sentence at a time.
• Read the paper slowly out loud so that listening and reading skills are working together to identify mistakes.
• Read the paper from the end to the beginning one sentence at a time. By starting with the last sentence, students can’t rush through reading and will not skip glaring errors.

An additional variation includes assigning students to items on the checklists according to their abilities. Then students are put in groups with each group including an expert for each item on the checklist. The expert is responsible for checking that one item on each paper presented in their small group.

Extend this activity by asking students to develop the Proofreading Checklist as a group. Rather than give students a preset checklist, they can identify common errors and create a list that they will use to do the activity outlined above.

Proofreading Checklist

These are recommended guidelines, but you can adapt any of them to fit your own assignment guidelines.

1.     ____________    All subjects agree with their verbs.

2.     ____________    All words are spelled correctly.

3.     ____________All words are used correctly, e.g. to vs. too.

4.     ____________    All sentences begin with a capital letter.

5.     ____________    All proper nouns are capitalized.

6.     ____________    All sentences end with a period, and all questions end with a question mark.

7.     ____________    All compound sentences are connected using a coordinating conjunction.

8.     ____________    All complex sentences are connected using the appropriate coordinating/subordinating conjunction.

9.     ____________    All quotations are written within quotation marks: “ ”

10.  ____________    All quotation marks are above the text, not below, such as “example”

11.  ____________    The font is the same throughout the whole text. It does not change size or style.

12.  ____________    The essay is double-spaced or meets the spacing guidelines you have required.

13.  ____________    The margins are the correct size.

14.  ____________    Each paragraph is indented at its beginning.

15.  ____________    The writer’s last name is in the top right or left corner of each page.

16.  ____________   The paper has page numbers at the top or bottom of each page.

17.  ____________    The title is centered at the top of the page.

18.  ____________    All outside sources that are paraphrased and summarized are cited in the text according to assignment guidelines.

19.  ____________    All outside sources that are quoted are cited and formatted in the text according to assignment guidelines.

In the United States, students typically write multiple drafts before turning in an assignment. This is called “process writing.” In process writing, students begin with brainstorming and pre-writing activities. Next, they move on to drafting and revising a piece of writing. Finally, they finish with editing and proofreading tasks. The nature of the writing process is multi-layered and involves collaboration and cooperation among students and teachers. Each step in the writing process is revisited and repeated as students learn to reflect, assess, and edit their own writing as well as their classmates’. At the same time, teachers offer much-needed feedback and guidance as they oversee and manage students throughout the writing process. Throughout this process, the student writer must constantly remember who the audience is and what the audience needs in order to understand the writer’s ideas. Continuous feedback from as many potential audience members as possible is a critical part of the writing process. In the English language classroom, the audience consists of fellow students and the teacher(s). Much has been written about peer evaluations and feedback among students, but conducting teacher-student consultations during the writing process can be valuable to student writers in understanding their own strengths and weaknesses.

In this week’s Teachers Corner, we offer a template for conducting a successful teacher-student writing consultation. The time and work involved in consultations might seem overwhelming, but the value students take from the individual, focused feedback can carry over into the rest of their continued writing development.

Any level within academic writing

Writing

During this activity, students will be able to:

• Identify areas of writing that need improvement based on topics as targeted by the teacher and assignment.
• Receive feedback on writing issues unique to their own progress and writing development.
• Create an action plan for revision outlining what specific changes they will make during the next revision.

• Pen/pencil
• Copy of students’ writing to be discussed
• Space to meet
• Time (typically 15-20 minutes for each student)

• Collect students’ drafts 1 to 2 days in advance of conferences
• Schedule individual conferences with each student (block out 15 to 20 minutes of time for each student)
• Read each draft in advance noting comments, issues, and any suggestions according to your own rubric and specific assignment demands. The feedback you give will depend on the assignment demands, which draft is under review, and the focus of your teaching. Feedback should be focused, clear, and include achievable tasks for writers throughout editing and revisions. For specific ideas on how to give feedback during the writing process, check out the article “Error Correction and Feedback in the EFL Writing Classroom: Comparing Instructor and Student Preferences” from English Teaching Forum. It is also good to estimate what grade or mark the assignment would receive as it is in this draft.
• Ask students to prepare and bring the following information to the conference (see optional handout in Appendix A):

o   3 questions that they have about their paper and/or the assignment

o   2 things they did well in their draft

o   2 things that need improvement in their draft

1.     Begin the consultation by inviting the student to sit down. Then, have the student take out the handout (Appendix A), and explain how the consultation will proceed.

• First, explain that you have read their paper and have some feedback for them.
• Next, address their questions and then discuss their own ideas about their paper.
• Then, explain that you will share your feedback and suggestions with the student duringwhich time the student should be taking notes and asking questions.
• Once the feedback portion is over, spend time developing an action plan for how to proceed in the revision.

2.     After explaining the procedure, ask the student what grade he/she would assign the writing if it were to be submitted at this time. Make a note of this grade on the handout.

3.     Then, have the student ask the first question on his or her list. Offer your feedback and response. Repeat this for each question the student prepared.

4.     Next, ask the student to share what she/he wrote on the handout about strengths and weaknesses. Acknowledge what the student says and reinforce the strengths. This can help build students’ confidence in their skills and abilities as writers.

5.     Once the student has reviewed what he/she prepared for the conference, take out the copy of the writing you reviewed. Tell the student what specific elements of writing you examined for this draft. In early drafts, give attention to structure, organization, and content development. These are called high-order concerns. In later drafts, offer feedback on sentence structure, transitions between ideas, and grammatical features that affect comprehension. We refer to these issues as low-order concerns.

• As you review your findings, give students time to respond, ask questions, make notes, and offer suggestions for changes.

6.     When you finish reviewing the draft with your comments, explain the grade or mark you would assign to the draft as it is today. This can help students see how much work they need to do as they move forward with the assignment.

7.     Finally, look at the handout together and complete the section with the action plan that the student will use in moving forward with the assignment. This handout can serve as a checklist for both you and the student as you check, revise, and ultimately grade future drafts.

8.     When all of these steps have been completed, ask the student what additional questions or concerns he/she has before leaving. Thank the student for coming and remind each student that even if he/she has work to do on this paper he/she has made a good start.

If you are a teacher with limited time available to meet with students individually, consider conducting small-group conferences. Small-group conferences can also support the individual feedback and attention that learners need. Put students of similar writing abilities into groups 3 to 4 and schedule a conference time with each group. With 3 to 4 students, it is better to allot a little more time, such as 30 minutes for each conference. Again, collect and mark the essays in advance of the conference, but instead of focusing on individual needs, focus on shared needs among the group. For example, each essay can be marked to address individual concerns, but look for issues that all group members need addressed such as thesis statements. Identify 3 to 5 issues that are prevalent across the group and prepare a mini-lesson that addresses the issues and gives participants a chance to work as a group to develop plans.

An additional option if time is limited is to read the draft during each conference. This will likely result in less written feedback and mirror more of a conversation about the essay. Still, students can prepare as they would for the conference outlined above and develop an action plan with you.

Teacher-Student Conference Handout

What grade/mark would you give your current essay?  __________________________________________

What are three questions you have about your essay?

1.     ________________________________________________________________________________

 

2.     ________________________________________________________________________________

 

3.     ________________________________________________________________________________

 

Write two things that you do well in your essay.

1.     ________________________________________________________________________________

 

2.     ________________________________________________________________________________

 

Write two things that need improvement in your essay.

1.     ________________________________________________________________________________

 

2.     ________________________________________________________________________________

 

Notes from Conference

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

Action Plan for Revision

What are 5 changes you will make to your draft?

1.     ________________________________________________________________________________

How will you make this change?

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

2.     ________________________________________________________________________________

How will you make this change?

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

3.     ________________________________________________________________________________

How will you make this change?

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

4.     ________________________________________________________________________________

How will you make this change?

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

5.     ________________________________________________________________________________

How will you make this change?

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

What grade/mark do you want to get on this paper? ___________________________________________

What else will you do in your revision to achieve your desired grade/mark?

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

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