1. Introduction (8 min.)
-
Introduced students to WebQuest, and explained the final goal and steps towards it.
-
Went over 10 flash cards of Quizlet; then each student tried different study modes at his own pace for 10 minutes.
-
Students voted online to show their initial reaction, and discussed the reasons in pairs.
-
After a brief explanation, students read the article and answered questions on their own for 7 minutes. Then they discussed the answers in pairs before the teacher showed the correct answers with brief explanations.
-
Did the same as the previous reading activity.
- When I presented how Quizlet works, the class clapped and cheered. That shows how they love the interactivity of the web device. As I observed I found some students always find an easy way out, such as they cut and past when they have to re-type the word they failed to spell out. Other than that, they were very much engaged throughout the time. Voting online and seeing the results was another device that helped students have engaging discussion.
-
Instead of completely individualizing the process (which I did with an LMS), I set the time limit for each activity so that they could have time to help each other later. The advanced learners had a chance to explain their thoughts, and the struggling students understood the content better for the explanation. This made the lesson more dynamic. Online Stopwatch, I used to set the time limit, was also helpful.
I will finish this WebQuest next week and hope to have time to do the newly created WebQuest#2 which focuses more on listening.
Dear Sam,
ReplyDeleteI really admire your ability to be so enthusiasctic and quick in doing everything: preparing a Webquest, PPT, Rubistar, making the discussions and etc. You even find some time to help others in need and also to give some advice or find necessary links to share. I'm very thankful to you for being our classmate.
I see that you've expressed almost everything you did with your students. It's great that they liked it!
Yes, sure, counting the time for advanced students works in a right way as they have more general knowledge about everything and their IT skills are usually better than lower level students have. In my classes I can count the time only if I'm sure in student's abilities or simple tasks. Doing the project I plan one but at the end it looks like there are some changes to be done. They did quicker than I expected or slower. It's always a question for me, as there are some classes I teach wehere I have students with special needs and their tempo of working and using their skills is usually rather slow. Even if it is a teamwork. But the groups I chose don't have such children. Although there are students who are quite weak and all of them are still getting used to ways of practice work I use and they are trying to improve every skill they need to. They have to grow up.
Thank you also for giving the link of the Online Stopwatch. It's rteally very useful.
Best wishes,
Egle
Hi Egle,
DeleteI am very flattered to read your comments. I am just doing what I can, and I am very thankful to everyone for sharing this wonderful learning experience together.
Reading your comment, I have noticed that setting a time limit can mean many things. Like you said, the time pressure works for advanced students. I agree, and I use the timer for that purpose a lot. It may sound strange, but I used the timer in this particular lesson to help struggling learners. By setting a time limit, I could create a chance to make sure that everybody got the important points.
I have done completely individualize lessons using computers. (Yes, I have done the extreme.) I believed complete individualization to be a good thing because slow learners, especially, could take time to learn things at their own pace. However, what happened was that they did tasks without clearly understanding it. And they did not ask questions. As a result, they did not do much and they did not learn much.
It may sound obvious, but my point is that too much individualization does not work. The time limit and sharing time is one way to balance the benefits of individualized learning and cooperative learning. Hope it makes sense.
Sam