Low-Intermediate to Advanced

Reading, writing (primary focus); speaking (secondary focus)

Students will increase their reading and writing abilities through engagement with news articles and current events. Students will also practice speaking as they report their news stories in class.

• Teacher: whiteboard/chalkboard, markers or chalk, world map, a timing device, a small box/hat/container for drawing numbers randomly.
• Students: pencils or pens, notebooks or writing paper.

Preparation

One way to incorporate world affairs into classroom practice is through classroom games centered on world news and current events.

This week’s Teacher’s Corner is about fantasy politics.* In this game, students select countries to be on their team. Each week, students will need to check English language news websites or newspapers to find stories that feature their countries. Each time one of a student’s countries is featured in the news, he/she receives points. At the end of each week, students will report their scores to the class. The student with the most points wins!

1.     Read through all the materials carefully.

2.     Hang a map of the world in the classroom, or bring a map to class each time fantasy politics is played.

3.     This activity encourages students to pay attention to and read news stories. Prior to using the activity in class, it is recommended that you compile a list of possible sources to be used in the activity. For lower level students, the activity could be focused on a specific news website such as Voice of America’s Learning English.

4.     In the game, students will be creating lists of countries that they will follow on the news. Decide how many countries you would like to make available to students. Make sure the number of countries is divisible by the number of students. For example, in a class of 10 students, you can offer a list of 60 countries or 5 per student or per team and 10 countries that are kept in reserve. These reserve countries will allow students to remove countries from their list and add new countries at the end of each week. This option (to remove/add teams) adds and element of strategy to the game and can allow poorly performing teams to make changes to their list.

5.     For large classes, consider having students work in pairs or small groups. To encourage speaking and communication, having students work in pairs or small groups is recommended.

6.     Create small slips of papers with letters on them. There should be enough slips of paper for the total number of players or teams that will play. These slips of paper will be used for a random drawing.

7.     If possible, hang a large sheet of paper on the classroom wall. This sheet should list the students (or pairs/small groups) with their countries and the number of weeks in the game. For an example score sheet, see Appendix 1.

8.     To prevent teams from being imbalanced, such as one team having many nations from the same region, create different rules. For example: teams are not allowed to have more than two nations from: Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and must have at least one country from: Oceania (e.g. Australia, Fiji, New Zealand) and South America.

* The name fantasy politics comes from a popular hobby of sports fans in the United States. Each year, fans of American football will play fantasy football. At the beginning of the season (seasons are 15 weeks long), each player selects real American football players to be on their “fantasy team.” Then, fantasy football players watch the week’s football games and are awarded points based on how well their team members performed in real-life games. At the end of each week, players are allowed, and even encouraged, to make changes to their teams or trade with other fantasy football players to try and improve their team.

Part 1 – Pre-Draft Day

1.     Before draft day (the day the countries are selected), explain to students the idea of Fantasy Politics. This will provide them time to think about countries they may want to select.

2.     Explain the point structure of the game to the students. For points, there are two options; decide which version of the game is best for your students.

a.     Basic Game – In the basic game, each time a country is mentioned in the news players/teams are awarded two points.

• To get these points, students must document where and when their countries were in the news; this requires they write down the newspaper/website name, the date, and the title of the news story.

b.     Advanced Game – In the advanced game, players/teams are awarded three points each time their country is mentioned in a positive news story, such as a story about a scientific achievement or economic growth. If a player’s country is mentioned in a negative news story, such as involvement in conflict, they receive only one point.

c.     IMPORTANT – Inform students that news stories are only worth points if they occur during the current week of the game. Old news stories cannot be counted. For example, if the game begins January 1^st only news stories from January 1^st – 7^th are counted in the Week 1 scores. This ensures the students are reading current events.

3.     Allow students the chance to form teams or place them into teams. Give them time to work as a team and decide which countries they may want to select.

4.     Provide students with three or four days advanced notice so that they have time to begin checking news stories and thinking about which countries they would like on their team.

Part 2 – Draft Day

5.     Begin class looking at the world map and giving teams a few moments to consider the countries they may want to select.

6.     To make the country selection process fair, assign each team a letter and add that letter on a slip of paper to a random drawing. Mix the slips of papers well and then select the slips of paper from the drawing. The team whose letter is drawn first will choose first in the round. The team whose letter is selected last will choose a team last in this round. Each team selects one country per round. To keep the selection process from taking too long, set a timer so each team has a limited time to decide which country to select.

7.     Rounds will continue until a specific number of countries have been selected.

a.     For example, if 5 teams are playing and each is allowed to select 5 countries, there will be five rounds of country selection for a total of 25 countries.

8.     To make selection fair, the game uses a serpentine selection. In serpentine selection, the team that goes last in a round selects first the next round.

a.     For example, in a random drawing, the teams are selected in the order of: B, D, A, C, E.

b.     In round one, the order of selection is in that order of: B, D, A, C, E.

c.     In round two, the order is reversed and teams select in the order of: E, C, A, D, B.

Part 3 – The Following Weeks

9.     Over the weeks that fantasy politics is played, teams are responsible for keeping up on the news that features the countries on their team.

10.  Allocate time in class to review the points the teams earn each week. This should be done at the end of the week or as early as possible the following week so teams can make changes to their teams.

11.  Student teams are encouraged to make trades with one another and change their countries if they wish. This adds an element of strategy to the game. If one team has a country frequently in the news, they could accept offers from other teams to trade. Other teams may need to be willing to trade more than one of their countries to get a country they really want!

12.  One suggested option for the game is to keep a reserve of countries by having more countries than teams are allowed to initially select. For example, in a game of fantasy politics with 5 student teams who are allowed to select 5 countries (for a total of 25), it would be best to have at least 35 countries available. This way, if teams have countries on their list that are not in the news, they can drop that country and pick another from the reserve list. Be sure to warn students that just because a country is not in the news this week doesn’t mean it won’t be in the news the following week, so they must choose carefully!

Online learning takes many forms, and perhaps one of the most accessible and easiest to incorporate into classroom practice is blended learning. Blended learning can be the best of both worlds as it allows face-to-face interaction and access to online resources to help students understand material presented in class.

Fully online classes can suffer from students feeling isolated and unmotivated by a lack of a community of learners. Blended learning helps to reduce this issue by giving the students classroom time with a teacher and learner whether physical or through synchronous online video sessions. This helps to create what Garrison and Kanuka (2004) call a community of inquiry. A community of inquiry gives students the structure they need to process the enormous amount of content they can find online. In these communities students are able to reflect on material they find online and incorporate what they learn from these materials into classroom materials, providing a form of scaffolding. The goal of blended learning is to encourage students to link life experiences to what they have learned, ask questions, and develop self-motivation to become independent learners.
 

Creating a blended classroom takes planning and preparation, but with the right tools, opportunities for student inquiry are plentiful. The tools listed below are great ways to add a blended learning component to your class. After each set of tools, suggestions are made for how to use these tools in a specific activity.  These activities are just a few suggestions, so be sure to share your ideas with us on the new American English for Educators Facebook page!

Online Storage Tools:

Google Drive – Google Drive allows for the online storing of a variety of documents and media. Unlike the other storage options listed below, Google Drive allows files to be opened by multiple users simultaneously. This allows for opportunities to engage in collaborative writing exercises by working on the same document from separate computers.

Dropbox – Dropbox is an online file hosting service. You can create a folder with the name of a specific class and share the folder with students of that particular class. Your students can then add homework and assignments to the folder, which are automatically updated as changes are made.

Box – Box has much the same functionality as Dropbox but has more limited features. Folders can be created and shared, allowing students to upload class materials to a shared space. While Box does support individual user accounts, its primary focus is large organizations, so much of its services are focused on universities or businesses.

Activities Using Online Storage Tools

Grammar Grab

The goal of this activity is to get students aware of the language and grammar used in the world around them while providing in-class support to understand its use. Using the cameras on their cell phones, students take pictures of signs, posters, or advertisements that feature English. Students can then upload these images to your preferred online storage tool. Then before class, you can then look through the images and choose the most interesting ones to discuss in class. As a warm-up at the beginning of class, show an image, and with the class investigate the grammar and how it is being used. More advanced students can look for signs, posters, or advertisements in the community that feature incorrect or misused English.

For example:        

noeatingsmokinggassign.png

                               ©Wikimedia Commons

In this sign items are banned and students may expect modals of prohibition such as “You must not smoke here”. However, the signs use gerunds. The students can then work together to hypothesize why it is correct to use a gerund in this situation. The goal of this activity is for students to work as a community of inquiry and notice grammar and how it is used in everyday life. By bringing in images the students have taken, you can get students to develop an awareness of how English is used in daily life and empower them to be active participants in their own learning.

Online Peer Review

Having students read and peer edit or review each other’s writing helps both writer and reader. However, students can often be reluctant to provide feedback that they consider critical in a face-to-face classroom setting. Classroom peer review sessions can be moved online to give students more anonymity when doing peer editing and review activities.

Have students complete class-writing assignments and upload them to an online storage tool.  You can then make copies of the students writing assignment. In these copies, remove the student’s names and other personal information. Then, assign each student a new paper to review and edit.

Engagement Tools/Polling Software

Nearpod – Nearpod allows you to create PowerPoint-style presentations that can be shared to each student’s own device. Students visit the webpage and input a unique code you provide and can then watch your presentation. A great benefit of this software is that, by using their own devices, students are able to interact with your presentation through a variety of activities such as exploring maps, answering questions, or watching videos.

Poll Everywhere – Poll Everywhere enables you to create polls that students can answer via the Poll Everywhere website or by text message. As students respond, their answers are displayed in real time via a central screen such as the classroom projection screen. Poll Everywhere has recently added a PowerPoint add-on that allows for polls to be inserted into any PowerPoint presentation.

Plickers – Plickers works through the use of printed QR codes that you give to students. During class, you can ask multiple-choice questions which students answer by holding up the cards with the correct symbol. You can then scan the classroom via a smartphone app. The app reads the QR code each student is holding to determine each student’s answer and then reports the results.

Kahoot – Kahoot takes the multiple-choice test and turns it into a classroom activity. Teachers create multiple-choice questions prior to class. In class, students can use a computer or smartphone to log into the game. On their screens, students see four answer choices, and they choose the best answer to the question that is displayed on the teacher’s screen.. After each question, the teacher’s screen will display the results including the number of correct and incorrect answers.

Activities Using Engagement Software/Polling Tools

Engagement tools and polling software can be a great alternative to paper-based quizzes to gauge student understanding of material. With these tools, you can pose questions to your class. Students can then answer as a class, in small groups/pairs, or individually. A benefit of using these types of online tools is that they allow students to determine their own understanding of the material instead of comparing themselves with the rest of the class. Students are able to track their own answer to each question. After each question, the answer is displayed on the screen for all the students to see. The ratio of student answers to each possible question is also displayed, allowing the class to see the correct answer and which answer was most commonly selected. When using this type of software, be sure to allocate time to analyze the students’ answers as a whole class exercise. This can provide both you and the students insight into which material they are finding the most challenging or which material they have mastered.

Multiple Choice Tests

Multiple-choice tests are used for assessment of individual students but can also be used as a collaborative activity and allow for more immediate feedback on results. Using one of the tools above, try giving students a multiple-choice test. After each question, take time to evaluate the students’ answers. If most of the class got the question wrong, stop and review the material by engaging in class discussions or small activities around that specific question. This gives students the opportunity to understand what mistakes they made and why. For the teacher, it provides an overview of how many students understand the material, what material is understood, and where more practice needs to be focused.

Class Question Bank

Polling software can be used in class to let students ask questions anonymously. Stopping for individual questions in large classes can be time consuming. Also, weaker students may be reluctant to ask questions on material they do not understand. Polling software can be used to allow students to ask questions as they occur, but the questions are recorded and saved to a question bank. At the end of the class or at the start of the next class, the questions that have been posted to the question bank can be reviewed and answered.

Reference

Garrison, D. R., & Kanuka, H. (2004). Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education. The internet and higher education, 7(2), 95-105.

To start this month’s Teacher’s Corner we will investigate the opportunities and pitfalls of online learning. By reviewing the literature on online learning, we can better understand how to implement it in our own teaching contexts. This week we will define terms common in the field of online learning and investigate the pros and cons of using online learning as part of our classroom practice.

The discussion around online learning is troubled by a lack of a clear definition of online learning. Learning through Internet-based tools can take a variety of forms and it has at different times been referred to as Internet learning, distance learning, Web-based learning, and distributed learning. Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia and Jones (2009) define online learning as “learning that takes place partially or entirely over the Internet” (p. 9), a broad definition which highlights one of the challenges of online teaching and learning: it can take many forms. This broad definition provides teachers the flexibility to customize online learning to almost any pedagogical approach they would like to take.

Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia and Jones’ (2009) definition makes no difference between learning that occurs entirely online versus partially online. However, researchers have begun to separate online learning into two broad categories: online learning and blended learning. In online learning (sometimes called distance learning), all of the course activity takes place online with little direct interaction between the teacher and students. It is often considered a form of self-study and massively open online courses (MOOCs) are a great example of this approach. Students will visit a website to watch videos, take quizzes, and engage in discussion boards with minimal teacher interaction. In blended learning, students will often have a classroom component that is supported by Internet-based materials. These materials will often be selected for their ability to expand upon the material covered in class and clarify the ideas presented by the teacher.

Both online and blended learning can occur synchronously or asynchronously. In synchronous online learning, the teacher and students meet at arranged times and learn in real time, often communicating through live video or chat applications. In an asynchronous online environment, no real-time communication occurs. However the teacher and students communicate through emails, online discussion boards, or blog postings.

The best approach for your teaching context should be determined by your student population. Small class sizes with a localized population can make effective use of synchronous online material, while teachers with larger classes or classes with students in different time zones should consider building a course designed for asynchronous communication.

Over the last decade, much of the research interest in online learning has been centered on MOOCs. These courses initially showed the promise of delivering wide-spread education to tens thousands of learners around the world all sharing the same learning space. However, the power of MOOCs has diminished in recent years, and new research suggests they are troubled by low engagement and completion rates. Stein (2013) reports that course completion rates for MOOCs average 4%, and only half of all students who register complete the first assignment. These large MOOC-style courses appear to work well for highly motivated, self-directed learners, but for many students these courses appear to lack the social component of the face-to-face classroom.

Therefore, when developing materials for online learning, it is important to design materials that allow students opportunities for communication and collaboration similar to what they receive in the classroom. Flesvig Bruland (2013) states that “learners who receive instruction in an environment with reduced opportunities for interaction, such as the online environment, do not exhibit proficiency levels as high as those who receive instruction in a face-to-face environment” (p.141).  Flesvig Bruland suggests that this lower proficiency level was the result of students disconnecting from the online class materials which lack a social and communicative component. Online learning should be designed to maximize student interaction with others and avoid more worksheet style activities such as fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice activities. As Canole (2013) argues, engaging online materials should:

• Encourage reflection
• Enable dialogue
• Foster collaboration
• Apply theory learnt to practice
• Create a community of peers
• Enable creativity
• Motivate the learners

How does a teacher develop engaging online materials that fulfill the above criteria? This month’s Teacher’s Corner will offer suggestions to make the most of online learning for your classroom. Each week of this month’s Teacher’s Corner we will examine the background of the three most common ways to bring online learning into your classroom: fully online, blended learning, and a flipped classroom. We’ll also introduce digital tools that you can use to make your online learning space engaging and motivating for your students.

References

Conole, G. (2013). Designing for learning in an open world. New York, N.Y.: Springer.

Flesvig Bruland, N. (2013).  Examining the relationship between interaction and linguistic outcomes: Is the online learning environment a viable alternative to traditional classroom instruction for beginning language learners? (Doctoral dissertation).

Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., & Jones, K. (2009). Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. US Department of Education.

Stein, K. (Dec. 5, 2013). Few Active Users, With Only a Few Persisting to Course End.

http://www.gse.upenn.edu/pressroom/press-releases/2013/12/penn-gse-study-shows-moocs-have-relatively-few-active-users-only-few-persisti

Students learning English can have differing reading abilities. Strong readers are more likely to enjoy reading in class, but those who find reading more difficult may not enjoy it as much or may even dread it. Planning activities that incorporate peer support and interactive tasks, and that can be adjusted for different reading levels, can help make reading enjoyable for all learners in your English classes. This week in the Teacher’s Corner, we will explore activities that can help make reading fun for all of your students.

Activity: Reading Relay

In this activity, teams of students will race to read a text and answer a set of questions about it. The first team to complete the questions correctly wins!

Level

Beginner and above

Goal

To improve students’ reading skills by having them answer comprehension questions and refer back to
the text.

Materials

• Containers (a paper bag or shoebox) for each team
• Pencils and writing paper for students
• Text (previously studied or not)
• Questions about the text

Preparation

1. Choose a text that you want students to use for the activity. This can be something they have been studying (such as a novel or part of a textbook) or a completely new passage.
2. Prepare the questions you will ask students about the text. Keep in mind that students need to be able to answer all of the questions in the time available to play the game. You can write questions similar to those in the Listen and Buzz! activity from Week 1 of this month’s Teacher’s Corner. Depending on the level of your students, the answers to the questions can be things the students can locate within the text, or more challenging ones that require them to draw conclusions or use context clues.
3. Once you have determined all of the questions you want students to answer, create one set of all of the questions for each team. For example, if your class will have ten teams, you need to create ten sets of all the questions. Cut out each of the questions and fold them up individually. Place each set of questions into a separate container for each team to use during the activity.
4. If you have a lot of variation in reading levels in your classroom, group students into teams ahead of time. This way you can ensure that students who struggle can be on teams with strong readers. Teams with five or fewer members are best for this activity.

Procedure

1. Introduce the activity to students by saying, “You are about to take part in a reading relay race. During the relay, you will have to read a text and work with your teammates to answer questions about the text. You will need to write the answers down on a piece of paper for your group.” At this point, you can put students into their teams and distribute paper and pencils if needed. Have each team choose a name or assign each team a number.
2. Continue giving students instructions by showing the containers with the questions and saying, “All of the questions you need to answer for the race are in this box/bag. Each team has its own container. Only one person from your team can take a question at a time. They can take only one question. They must return to the group, read the question aloud, and you all must work together to find the answer and write it down. When you finish writing, another group member may come get a new question.”
3. Place the containers in a central location, such as a table in the front of the room or your desk. It is helpful to put each team’s name or number on the containers to avoid confusion during the race.
4. Tell students, “The first team to write down the correct answers to each of the questions is the winner. If you believe you have done this, send one person from your team to me with your written work. I will check it and announce when a team has won the race.”
5. Answer any questions students may have about the relay activity. Be sure that they know which member of their team will go get a question first and what order will follow after that. If you prefer, you can tell students to go alphabetically by first name, by height, or by birthdate.
6. Once the students are ready, yell “Go!” Monitor the teams as they complete the activity to be sure all members participate and that everyone takes only one question at a time.
7. When a team has finished and you have checked their work, you can announce the winner. To wrap up, the whole class can review the answers to the questions as well as where they found them in the text.

Variations

This activity can be adapted for students with different reading abilities or levels of English proficiency. Instead of dispersing strong readers and struggling readers, you can create homogenous (unmixed) groups by placing strong readers/advanced students on one team, intermediate students on another, and struggling readers/lower level students together. The tasks can be adjusted according to the needs of each group. Keep in mind that since the activity is a race, you will need to create tasks that will take groups about the same amount of time to complete. Ideas for differentiation include:

• Beginner students:
• Create a cloze passage for the text and cut it up instead of using questions in the grab bag. Students must locate the corresponding section of the text and work together to fill in the blanks in the cloze.
• Give students tasks to complete such as locating text features (headings, titles, captions, charts, etc.), finding dates or names, or counting how many times a specific vocabulary word is used in the text.
• If students are just learning how to read, you can place words with a specific spelling pattern or sound that you want them to practice in the grab bag for their team. Instead of a text, give them a set of pictures. Then they can take one word at a time from the bag, work together to decode it and match it to the correct picture. This can also be done with vocabulary words or simple sentences and a set of corresponding pictures.
• Intermediate students:
• You can modify the relay for intermediate students by making the questions multiple-choice instead of open-ended. To make questions more accessible, make them multiple-choice or provide only two options for answer choices.
• Cloze passages can also be used with intermediate students. Eliminating more words or using longer sections of the text can make them more challenging.
• Advanced students:
• Ask students to provide expanded responses to questions. For instance, if they are reading a persuasive essay, ask them to restate the author’s position and the three reasons used as justification. If they read a fictional text, ask for multiple examples of a specific literary element such as foreshadowing, symbolism, or metaphors.
• Create questions that challenge students to use information in the text to make inferences or draw conclusions about things that are not directly stated by the author.
• Have students use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar or difficult words from the text.