Communicative Skills for Secondary Teachers Volume3 by Marisela Checa

Communicative Skills for Secondary Teachers http://ced.cele.unam.mx/englishforteachers

Program developers Escuela Nacional Preparatoria No. 1 “Gabino Barreda. UNAM Ma. Elena Delgado Centro de Enseñanza de Lenguas Extranjeras. UNAM Leticia Martinek Karen Lusnia Eréndira Camarena Dulce Ma. Gilbón Online tutor Marisela Checa

TUTOR :

Checa

Téllez

Marisela

Mexico City

CONTRIBUTORS ALDANA ALMARAZ EMMA MA DE LOURDES

México City

ANTONIO ROMAN TANIA MARIA LUISA

Distrito federal

ARJONA ORTEGA ALEJANDRA

Distrito federal

CRUZ DIAZ MARIA EVA

Distrito federal

FLORES ORTIZ PATRICIA

Distrito federal

FONSECA GISELA

RODRÍGUEZ

MAYRA

GALVEZ ALFREDO

RENDON

JOSE

GAMAS MARIO

MÉNDEZ

CARLOS

GARCIA ABIGAIL

HERNANDEZ

PAOLA

Distrito federal Distrito federal Tabasco Distrito federal

GOMEZ LOPEZ MARIO

Distrito federal

GOMEZ ORTIZ JOSE ALFREDO

DistritoFederal

GONZALEZ GARCIA JOSEFINA

Distrito federal

GONZALEZ PELAGIO DORA LUZ

Distrito federal

LARA LUNA BLANCA

Distrito federal

LARA SALAZAR CYNTHIA

Distrito federal

MAYORGA BARRON ALEJANDRO

Distrito federal

MENDEZ ORTEGA ROSA LINE

Distrito federal

MOCTEZUMA CAROLINA

SARMIENTO

Distrito federal

MONTERO RODRIGUEZ CARLOS

Distrito federal

OLIVARES RAMIREZ RUBEN

Distrito federal

RUBIO HI MARIA GABRIELA

Distrito federal

SANDOVAL GUADARRAMA JENIFFER SUSANA

Distrito federal

Introduction A 120 hour online teacher development program was prepared for English language secondary school Mexican teachers. Free access sites were carefully chosen in order to facilitate their improvement of language skills and grammatical competence as well. Seven modules were designed to reach this objective.

Would that program be an appropriate response to that population’s needs? At the end of each module, teachers were asked to reflect on their own learning process in the different contents: learning to learn, the four linguistic skills, teaching strategies and the use of ICT.

As a final project of the afore mentioned diploma, the participants are required to write a report. This volume includes the reflections of the third group participants who share their enthusiasm, surprise, stress and even frustration struggling with new technologies during their learning process, but their willingness to face the challenge as well.

T UTOR ’ S PRESENTATION Having the opportunity to share time, comments and points of view on the different topics studied in this diploma course was an unforgettable enriching experience in which all the participants, Middle and High School English Teachers, did their best not only to accomplish the objectives, but to apply everything they learned in the websites they consulted. They combined their teaching knowledge and their English skills to adapt the activities for their students. Taking into account the different needs, resources, types of learners and the English level in their institutions, they shared their experiences with their peers and added important comments which contributed to deepen the analysis on the topics they were developing and to propose ways to introduce technology sources to an everyday class in Secondary Education. I appreciate all the effort and enthusiasm showed by all the participants in this course. Sincerely,

Marisela Checa Tellez

C ONTENTS

1. English language learning awareness 2. Cultural learning awareness 3. New teaching strategies discovered 4. Reading teaching strategies 5. Listening teaching strategies 6. Speaking teaching strategies 7. Writing teaching strategies 8. About ICT tools 9. Lesson planning

CONTRIBUTOR

PAGE

ALDANA ALMARAZ EMMA MA DE LOURDES

ANTONIO ROMAN TANIA MARIA LUISA

ARJONA ORTEGA ALEJANDRA

CRUZ DIAZ MARIA EVA

FLORES ORTIZ PATRICIA

FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ MAYRA GISELA

GALVEZ RENDON JOSE ALFREDO

GAMAS MÉNDEZ CARLOS MARIO

GARCIA HERNANDEZ PAOLA ABIGAIL

GOMEZ LOPEZ MARIO

GOMEZ ORTIZ JOSE ALFREDO

GONZALEZ GARCIA JOSEFINA

118

GONZALEZ PELAGIO DORA LUZ

135

LARA LUNA BLANCA

142

LARA SALAZAR CYNTHIA

151

MAYORGA BARRON ALEJANDRO

160

MENDEZ ORTEGA ROSA LINE

171

MOCTEZUMA SARMIENTO CAROLINA

180

MONTERO RODRIGUEZ CARLOS

186

OLIVARES RAMIREZ RUBEN

194

RUBIO HI MARIA GABRIELA

206

SANDOVAL GUADARRAMA JENIFFER SUSANA

212

My Learning Experience By: ALDANA ALMARAZ EMMA MA DE LOURDES Thanks to this Diploma course I have improved my speaking, writing, listening and reading skills. These skills are very important to communicate and learn in our life. A human being needs to express feelings, points of view, likes and dislikes.

English language learning awareness What I have learnt about learning a language? First of all, I discovered that there are a lot of tools and sites that my students and I can use in order to increase our knowledge of English. This could be very exciting because in the internet we have everything already done so in this way it is very easy to get information, and there are a lot of exercises that help us to practice and learn more. 1. - Grammar. At this moment, I can understand spoken and written messages. I practiced capitalization and punctuation. Now it’s easier for me to understand the whole idea of a text. I practiced pronouns, idioms about (clothing, body parts and animals). I think these sites will help my students to learn more about the English language.

2. - Vocabulary was an interesting site where I learnt some phrasal verbs, idioms and prepositions, through the quizzes, fill in exercises, etc.

3. - Reading was an important site to practice some strategies like:

Skimming is used to obtain the overall sense of a text (read the title, subtitles, look at the illustrations, read the first and last sentence of each paragraph, let the eyes skim over the text, think about the meaning of the text). Scanning can be used to look for specific information in a text for example: phone numbers, names, dates, etc. Summarizing is used for researching, gathering or presenting information. Prior knowledge consists on asking questions before, during and after reading because they connect new information to their existing knowledge base. They can clarify their own developing, understanding, and they can make connections, extend comprehension, analyze and evaluate ideas. I learnt about different text types: Instructive, descriptive, persuasive, informative and narrative. 4. Speaking is an important skill to develop because we need to communicate with people. In this site I learnt that intonation helps us to understand the feelings and attitudes from the people who is speaking. Tonic stress refers to the syllable which receives the most stress intonation unit. Emphatic stress refers to what you want to emphasize. Contrastive stress is used to point out the difference between one object and another.

New information stress is used when we asked a question; the requested information is naturally stressed up. Other important aspects to consider are pause and rhythm. Thought groups refer how we group words into thoughts. There are some keys to identifying them: 1. - Pay attention to punctuation and grammar. 2. Pausing between larger grammatical units, they create a natural rhythm and fluid speech. 3.-The speaker can’t break up short statements because they form a single idea. 6. Listening skill helps us to know the exactly information that we are looking for, this could be for pleasure, to take part in conversations, for information, for instructions, to get the gist of what is being said about listening. 7. Writing was one of my favorite sites and the funniest activity was to create my own comic strip. I think my students will enjoy it. It helps to imagine, to reflex, to invent, etc. The tutorials for writing were very interesting, because now I know that if I have to write something, there are some steps to follow. The activity “A Book of Poems” was a good way to create and think about vocabulary. It was very funny, too.

Cultural learning awareness. In my opinion, as a teacher I have to teach

some important cultural

aspects. First of all the students have to know that Mexican and American Cultures are only different. None of them is better than the other. It is important to make them get interested in knowing their culture first, and then to know about the other cultures. We can learn about other cultures reading different kind of books or magazines.

I believe that with the sites like “American Stories” ,

“Grammar

Composition”, Zozanga” , “Reading, listening, watching a video and vocabulary”, the students could be interested and they would like to practice their English. Almost all the sites where I practiced my English language were very interesting and funny. Some important cultural aspects were to know about the differences between

American and British English (George Bernard Shaw said that Britain

and Americas are two countries separated by the same language), The Golden Gate Bridge and C. N. Tower.

New teaching strategies discovered.

I have learnt Reading strategies, they are very useful to comprehend nonfiction texts for example: prior knowledge, ask questions: before, during and after reading, classify or categorize information, compare and contrast ideas, distinguish facts from opinions, identify and analyze text structure, identify Author’s purpose, identify main ideas and supporting details, make generalizations, make inferences and draw conclusions, summarize information and visualize images. During the different activities I did in this module, these reading strategies helped me activate relevant knowledge before, during and after reading. They helped me to realize the level of understanding, the chronological sequence, the

causes and effect relationships. I could make the difference between fact and opinion. Other strategies I learnt were:

Listening strategies are the key elements in our English pronunciation. There are four basic types or word stress: tonic stress, emphatic stress, contrastive stress and new information stress they lead to proper intonation in English. Intonation and rhythm are important in social interaction. We can know when to speak and when not. We can get the information and with our knowledge of intonation we can predict the parts of the discourse. They indicate importance, emotion, irony, sadness, etc.

Speaking strategies help us to develop our speaking skill. They make us pay attention to the way we can link the events, the aspects or our speech, like: fluency, coherence, precision, etc.

Writing strategies help us to create a written text. We have to review our grammar points, like: elements of a sentence, use of tenses, use of adjectives, the role of the words in sentences, etc. I am sure that if I started using all these strategies, I could approach to different levels in the four skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking. On the other hand, If I ask my students to work on the computer using the sites you provided us. I am sure they will be more interested in learning English and they will enjoy working in this way. Finally, teacher’s objective is to create life-long learners and continue getting experience and knowledge throughout their life.

Reading teaching strategies My favorite activity for reading was BBC Skimming and I tried quiz A. The text was: Frimsborough County Library, it gives information about CDS and Cassettes, videos and books. There is questionnaire asking about the information from the text so we have to answer it choosing only one option.

We have only 5 minutes for answering the questionnaire. When we finish the questionnaire they give us the score and explain why the answers are correct or incorrect. This is a good idea because we can reflect about the mistakes and analyze the answers. I think my students will be interested and they will develop their reading techniques doing this kind of exercises because this site is easy and funny and there are a lot of topics to read.

Reading technique:.

Skimming was the reading technique used in this quiz. This technique helps to read more quickly. We can decide if we need to read it in more detail. We can get the main ideas and the overall sense of a piece of text. How can we skim when reading? • • • • •

Read the title, subtitles and subheading to find out what the text is about. Look at the illustrations to have further information about the topic. Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph. Let your eyes skim over the text taking in key words. Think about the meaning of the text. The reading strategy used form the “Reading Strategies for the Journey North Teacher” I used in this exercise were:

Visualize Images from a Text helps to visualize or create a picture in our mind. It is used to develop images to support the comprehension of the text.

While I was answering the questionnaire some pictures came into my mind as I was reading the paragraph. I was watching the pictures the author used to help the readers to have the whole idea about the text. Adjust Reading Rate/Rereading strategy helps the readers to monitor their level of understanding as they read. They often reread parts of the text when they are unsure that they understand. When comprehension breaks down, they adjust their rate and reread. When I was answering the questionnaire I was thinking about my level of understanding. I sometimes needed to reread parts of the text when I was unsure about it. The strategies showed in the site (Reading Strategies for the Journey North Teacher) are very useful if we want to help our students to develop the reading skill

Listening teaching strategies. I chose in the “Listening section” module 4, unit 5, quiz B. It is about types of listening. The name of the listening is “Handover meeting in a care home”. It was difficult for me to understand what the woman was saying. I think that this activity could be easier if at the beginning of the exercise we can read the whole text, in order to have the main ideas about the topic they are talking about. They can show a list of the new words and idioms used in the text. These words and idioms can be showed with their meaning and finally, we can practice a fill in exercise with some missing words about the topic. The instructions could be: •

Read the text while you are listening.

•

Fill in the text with the missing words (choosing the right one), while you are listening.

•

Listen again the text and answer the questions.

•

Check your answers and copy your certificate

Speaking teaching strategies I can use the activity Telling a story with my students who are on third grade, because at this time they know different tenses like: present tense, present progressive, past tense and past progressive. This site is very easy because it teaches us how to start a story, how to tell the story, the sequencing words that shows the chronological sequence of events, linking words for linking the ideas for the listener, tenses and they suggest the most suitable vocabulary. Other activity I liked it a lot was when I had to “describe a situation or place” while I was listening to music. I think it is a very good exercise for the students because they will have to imagine the place, to think about the situations or events that are happening at this moment. This activity is really relaxing and enjoyable. “Someone important in my life” with this activity the students can remember the most important people in their lives and it makes them to appreciate the things that people had told and taught them,. These kind of activities make the students use their imagination, to analyze the grammar structures, to share their feelings, to feel relax and to develop their speech. They can organize and develop their written and speaking skills. Students can work on the computers at school, using the sites you provided us. They can work in team groups writing a story about the topic they like it. Finally, I think that the students would like to work with these sites because they like to use the technology.

Writing teaching strategies The main teaching strategies I used in order to develop my writing ability are: 1. - Grammar aspects. I have to be sure about the role of the word I need for writing, for example: if a need a noun, an adjective, a verb, and adverb, etc. 2. - I had to identify the parts of the speech: noun, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and exclamations. 3. - I could boost my imagination and creative process. For example, when I wrote the comic strip I have to think about what I was writing and the pictures I had to use. This activity was very funny and I enjoyed it a lot. 4. - I had to pay attention to punctuation, for example: capital letters, commas, semicolon, colon, full-stop, period, etc. 5. - Sequence of tenses are very important because they have to be according to the time of the story. In the site “Writing models”, I learnt how to write biography writing and its steps. I wrote a biography about Mahatma Gandhi and it was easy to do it, because there are examples showing the steps then I could follow them. Step 1

Biographical sketch (first draft and final draft).

Step 2

Brainstorming.

1. - Select a person you care about. 2. -Read an article about your subject (if available). 3. -Research your subject thoroughly. Check the bibliographies of the most recently published books about your subject. 4. - Research the historical time period in which your subject lived and did her/his work. 5. - Cross-reference materials. 6. - Keep general reference books available. 7. - Be objective about your subject. 8. - Be as accurate as possible.

9. - Write in a clear and convincing way. 10. - Tell a good story. Step 3

Write you own biography.

1. - Pick a subject. 2. -Ask questions about this person 3. -Find answers. The other activity I did was “Book Review model 1” I wrote about the book “Punisher” and in this site I learnt how to talk about a book. And its steps were: • • • • • • •

Attention grabber. Statement of author and title. Summary: Details about main character. Details about setting Details about plot Evaluation and reason Recommendation.

All these writing teaching strategies helped me to do all the written activities and at this moment I feel better. Now when I have to write about something, I start thinking and reflect on the grammar aspects. The sites you asked me to explore are very good and the instructions are very easy to follow.

About ICT tools I selected module 3 Reading and the tools I found useful for my learning and appropriate for my students are: 1. BBC Skimming is a site where we can find two reading strategies: Skimming and scanning. These strategies helped me to understand the purpose of reading the text. Then I answered the quiz A “Frimsborough County Library” it contains information about books, cds, cassettes, and video. When I finished the quiz I could check my answers and I think it is useful because at the end of the activity, they showed us the correct answers and I could think about the incorrect answers. Finally I could print my certificate.

For my students this kind of activities could be interesting and enjoyable. They make them reflect on the content of the text, to analyze the question before answering. So they can develop their reading skills and get a meaningful learning. The second tool was Listen and Read Along. I read about the story of “The Golden Gate”. It was very interesting because I was reading while I was listening to the text. This activity helped me to develop the reading and listening skills at the same time. On the other hand, this tool is useful because reading a variety of texts in another language can help us to know and learn about other cultures. The students can reflect upon our cultural differences and similarities. Text types and vocabulary learning site shows us the text types: instructive, descriptive, persuasive and informative. The purpose of this tool is to help us to identify the different kind of texts and their purposes. Each of them contains examples and it could be useful because my students can understand the content of the texts and their purposes.

Lesson planning I selected the “Critical Thinking (Bloom’s Taxonomy). I considered this model is appropriate for my context because, nowadays one of the most important features of the Basic Education Program is to make the students to participate effectively in life in and out of school. The objective of study in English language course is the “Social practices of language”. They have to develop the social participation skill. Teachers have to help the students to identify their competencies. Students have to construct meaning from their personal experiences and they need to adapt to the new situations following two processes: Accommodation

(new

information)

and

assimilation

(incorporating

new

information). So, I think this model can help my students to develop their competencies and it is similar to the one I use in my class.

My daily lesson plan starts with the objective. It is important for me because it helps me to plan my activities. I warm up the situation with some questions, games and activities that can make them to get in a good mood Setting the stage is important because the teacher can see if the students need more information. I am used to checking all the exercises and ask them at the end of the class some questions about the new topic. I show them some pictures, ask questions, etc. Discuss and groups help the students to use their previous knowledge in order to accommodate the new information. I explain the new topic and I use to ask them some questions to be sure that they understand the new topic. When they work in groups they can develop their social participation skill. Construct, groups and show help the students to comprehend the new information. At this moment of the class, they are participating effectively and constructing their knowledge sharing their points of view. Discuss, groups and journal help the students to analyze the new information, using their previous knowledge. They are assimilating (incorporating new information) and they acquire skills for the constructing of knowledge (learning how to learn) At this moment, I organize them in pairs or teams. They do some exercises like fill in the blanks, underline, match columns, answer questions, dialogues, etc. If we are working with a text, I lead them using the reading strategies. Then, they share their answers and points of view to the class and all the students help to correct them if they are wrong. Finally, Journal helps to evaluate how much the students have learned and the teacher can see if the students need more information. I use to check all the exercises and ask them at the end of the class some questions about the new topic.

I came to the conclusion that, if we have a daily lesson plan, the class will be easier and the teacher can reach the objective.

MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE BY ANTONIO ROMAN TANIA MARIA LUISA English language learning awareness At the beginning of this course I said my language level was Independent user, I needed more practice, because when we are in practice with students most of the time we forgot to talk or check our own weaknesses in different aspects. The first aspect I felt I became rusty was my listening, although I listen to music in English I felt I didn’t pay attention, so I misses words or meanings. Sometimes I try to practice my listening when I watch movies or programs.

Working in different links, I had the opportunity to learn new words in context as well as different types of readings, the one I enjoyed the most was reading while listening, it made me feel more confident and I understood better.

One aspect I found challenging was to record myself and listen to my mistakes. At the beginning I didn’t like my own voice and I felt I had a terrible stress; nevertheless I kept on practicing and at the end I improved my rhythm and pronunciation.

Most of the time due to the amount of work we have, it is almost impossible to practice English but in the classroom, now we have the chance to practice and we can use a lot of electronic tools and web pages to continue practicing not just at home but at school as well. C ULTURAL LEARNING AWARENESS I had certain knowledge about English speaking countries, but in these pages I have learned about new history facts, different points of view and the different stress they have when talking, most of the time I try to explain my students the cultural differences between Mexico and other countries, and they are very interested in the customs and habits.

Most of the time teachers are only focused in the United States, but it is not the only country who speaks English, we can talk about United Kingdom, Canada, Australia or Ireland, those are very interesting countries to talk about, and they have at the end the same Anglo Saxon root.

In class we can relate some historical events with our own history, such as Independence Day, or celebrations like Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day or Easter, and the way they celebrate those events. We can point out some coincidences and differences.

One aspects our students enjoy about English culture is music, through songs we can teach pop culture, new fashions, points of view, a lot of vocabulary and pronunciation. We can use as well videos and movies, about historical events, daily life, or just to have fun, like in the website. There are some much we can do to bring our students a glance of English culture.

New teaching strategies discovered In the third part I found some similarities with the eight habits text, such as “adapting”, I said that I could use for me and for my students new sites to improve our knowledge. Sometimes we teach exclusively with a board and markers, now we have technological tools, we need as teachers, to update ourselves, and we can relate the topic of “being visionary” and look at new ideas and take the best tools and the ones we can use better in our class. I relate some characteristics with the next idea. Sometimes our students know better than we do new technologies and social nets, we can take this as an advantage to facilitate our everyday practice. We can also learn from them and share ideas about how they would like to have their learning. As teachers we believe we have the key of learning, the one and only truth, but sometimes the way we teach doesn’t match with the times we are living. During this course I discovered different ways to work a same topic in attractive and interesting ways. We also must be very conscious that our students spend most of their time at school, so we have to teach them tools to be successful in their future life, for that, as teachers, we need to be leaders like the text said, because we, in some way, have their life in our hands. R EADING TEACHING STRATEGIES The activity I found most interesting was Activity 5.1. Reading and writing, I liked it because of the amount of links I could open while I was reading, and because of the subject; I like history facts, and I found the Amistad Incident Trial very interesting. Some strategies I used was to use my prior knowledge, because I have already watch the film, and I knew something about slavery, so I could use my own experience and give my point of view; other strategy is to use the amount of information the student have when we ask questions before, during and after reading, although the text is a little bit complicated for beginner, images or videos can help students to understand the overall idea; and it is possible to understand words they don’t know and to relate ideas. They can also discuss at the end with their classmates and the teacher about the text. It is easier to visualize what we are reading when we are supported with images or videos, and we can understand the author’s point of view or feelings. At the end of

the reading if they didn’t get some ideas they can reread those parts and make them clear. The effect I had on my learning was to understand that reading can be funnier than I thought, and not just to read but to listen while reading and support myself with different tools, such as sounds and videos. L ISTENING TEACHING STRATEGIES The activity I found the most difficult was Activity 5.1. Practicing dictation. I found it complicated because I have never done something similar, and because of the level. Although I didn’t have too much mistakes I felt it was challenging. Although I felt it was a tough activity, I enjoyed it and I feel I need to practice more this activity but in higher levels to test myself and progress in the listening section.

The text selection belong to complicated novels, but that was due to the level, the instructions were clear, the activity might be easier if the page could have somewhere to write, when I was doing my dictation it took some seconds to open a word page and star my writing. The text length was perfect for a dictation activity.

As a listener we could listen twice before we start to write but that would belong to a different level, we can do that with our students, and we can have longer stops, because students don’t write too fast. To use this activity with my students, I could give them a “fill in the blank” sheet with part of the text so they could write the missing words or give them options so they could choose the one they think is correct.

Speaking teaching strategies I have already used some of the activities we practice during this course, I enjoyed working with the Audacity program, although at the beginning was hard for me to

listen to myself, at the end of the Module I think I did it better. Fortunately at my school we can use headphones and microphones to record my student’s voice, so they can evaluate their progress and improve their recordings. One page I found totally useful was the eslgold page, I have practiced different topics and my students had the opportunity to listen and speak at the same time, I still have in mind the use of the Voicethread page. I could practice something similar before they start working with this page, for example, I could show them some images and they can make a brainstorm describing what they see, writing their ideas and at the end they could record what they did before. Young people is very sensitive with music, so I could work as well with audio files, and they can express what they feel or imagine while they listened to music, I could practice this with isolated adjectives, they can also have options and choose the ones they think will fit better with their emotions or thoughts.

Writing teaching strategies I think the main strategy is to be confident; occasionally we don’t dare to write because we are afraid to have mistakes, but we can correct and practice every time we write. We obviously need different tools like grammar and punctuation, and spelling as well. As teacher we can’t be square and think students have to write perfect compositions, we make mistakes as well, so we can give them space to be wrong and congratulate their accuracies. Other strategy is to have fun while we write, and I can say that because of my own experience, I get very stress when I have to write; now we have different options and web pages to practice this ability. We can encourage their creativity and imagination asking them to create tall tales using templates and comic strips, students just need to have certain amount of vocabulary to succeed in those activities. It is important to point out the importance of grammar, such as punctuation, adjectives, adverbs, to have the correct tense, etc.; we can practice at the “eslgold” page several times until we improve our skills. But most of all we need to practice continuously, and I personally need to do it and I hope I will become a fluent writer. Lesson planning Lesson planning helps teacher to identify aims and prevent possible problem, it isn’t a strict set of rules, but a guide to fulfill specific purposes. It is important to recognize different elements before we start planning, such as language level,

different learning styles, and cultural backgrounds. We also have to know the program contents and to program diagnostic test for our students. I chose Madeline Hunter’s (Seven Steps) because it’s the one I think it fits with the class requirements. •

Anticipatory Set (setting the stage)--attention-getter and focuser

This is the most important stage because if we can catch our students’ attention at the beginning of the lesson the rest would be easier. •

Statement of Objectives--tell students what they'll be able to do as a result of the lesson

In this stage we set the purpose of the lesson, the will know the point of the lesson. •

Instructional Input--lecture, but not necessarily lecture: demo, explanation, instructions

This stage is part of the lessons body, we give our students the contents of the class, explain the general idea. •

Modeling--demonstrate, show what you tell

We can work with examples, trough models students can understands better. •

Check for Understanding--watch faces, ask questions

The consolidation stage can start by asking questions so we will make sure if they understood. •

Guided Practice--help students start practicing new skills, applying new knowledge.

In this stage students can apply what they already learned, they can practice with their classmates to have interaction. •

Independent Practice--turn them loose to work on their own, homework assignment, etc.

For closure activities students can watch a video clip or search on the internet.

My learning experience BY: ARJONA ORTEGA ALEJANDRA

English language learning awareness I’ve been learning a lot of strategies and new ways to learn and teach the language. Working on these language contents on the web sites gives you an incredible opportunity to learn and practice wherever and whatever you want. Some of the sites where I had to do my activities are really good to increase my level of English because they are so well designed and complete that it gives you the chance to understand and practice with all the options. On some cases, the sites give you the opportunity to be evaluated; and that is really good because it allows you to see where you have to focus and study more. I know that I have certain problems with basic grammar, but as part of this diploma I had to go back to my books and check these subjects. Finally I cleared all my doubts and I believe I don’t have that kind of problems anymore. When I was starting module 5, that is about speaking, the first exercise worried me a lot because just thinking that I and everybody would hear my voice was terrible, so I had problems with starting that module because I was refused to do so, I even was considering to quit the diploma course because I didn’t think I could handle it, but after thinking and trying to calm down myself, I started doing the first exercise, I really hated how my voice sounded but by the time I understood that this is my voice and the only thing I can do better is speaking. During that module I had to work with my self confidence because I always thought that my voice is terrible and it got worse when I was speaking in English but I noticed that I don’t speak so bad in English and also I can make myself understood in other language. And this gave

me the strength to finish that module. But it was not just finish the module, I learnt that I have to open more my mouth because sometimes even when I did it, it sounded like I was not doing the correct intonation or I was not stressing correctly the words so I had to work with that during the module and on my classes. I think the last units on module 5 my speaking was better than at the beginning. That was something I understood and now I believe I can do well.

Cultural learning awareness In fact, the Internet gives the teacher all the parts to maintain students focus on the class. Because you can teach seeing a movie or listening to a fragment of a song. You can start your class with these kind of activities and continue working with these kind of exercises. During this diploma I discovered some web sites that I really enjoyed been there so I’ll visit these sites soon with my students. Students also will enjoy working on certain pages where these pages are more like playgames web sites than pages for studying but they will also learn with them. Even I as a teacher if I want to practice, I already know what kind of pages I can visit in order to increase and practice my level of English. Some other pages show the differences between Spanish and English grammar and these pages are really good because they give you the opportunity to compare and try to understand better a language that it is not your mother tongue. New teaching strategies discovered I think that just for the fact that we, as teachers, integrate Internet to our classes, we’re getting adapted to this new generation of students that work with computers and internet while others adults can’t. As long as we work with the net in our classes, we are adapting our lesson plans. We are also being visionaries because we are integrating one technological resource to our teaching. As we are working with people, we learn from them every day. The work between our students and the computers is a powerful match because sometimes we can learn how to use internet more from our students than we can teach them. The internet has lots of

excellent web sites to visit with our students because it gives you all the tools to have a class with them, you just need to bring a computer to your class and start working. It also makes classes more interesting and students learn more if they are focused on the activities that offers the net. We can work with a lot of web sites, for example the one of BBC which it is an excellent site because you can use it just for fun or to teach or complement a lesson. On this page you can practice listening and reading. You can check and learn vocabulary related to the topic, also you can practice this vocabulary repeating it after listening to the audio file. This kind of page is for all level students because you can work with some parts of the page or with all, it is up to the teacher and depends on the students’ level of English. Another web page that I consider that it is important to work with my students is the one about the quizzes, where there is a fact sheet, some exercises and it gives you the opportunity to take the quizzes and evaluate yourself. This is good because when you finish your quiz, it gives you the score, besides it also shows you where you were wrong, so you can check and notice where you had your mistake and correct it. Reading teaching strategies I chose the activity 3.2 that is called Vocabulary. The web page is the one of BBC, where you read a summary, then the complete report and the last part is the new vocabulary. It also gives you the option to hear the report and the vocabulary. I really love this page because it has everything a teacher could ask for a complete lesson; it gives you this part of reading, listening and the meaning of the vocabulary on the same page. You can give a complete class using this web page because you can use it as a complement of a class or just for fun but in both cases students will be in touch with the technology that is the internet and also they will have a different class learning English.

At the BBC web site you can also practice the different strategies for reading comprehension because as the class starts students can skim the summary and with the pictures they can have a general idea of the report. After doing this, the teacher asks for specific information about the report, students start reading the report and they will work with another strategy for reading comprehension that is scanning in order to find the answers for the questions. Also you can work with your students to find out what kind of texts are those. As soon as they start working with the article, they can answer if the text is descriptive, persuasive or informative and maybe they can give examples just to justify their choice. Despite the reading and the questions, students also hear the speech and this is very helpful not just because they hear another accent but because they can notice their progress on their level of English. This is very good because this gives them the confidence to continue working and doing a better job. Listening teaching strategies The most difficult activity for me on module 5 was the activity 7.1 on unit 7 and it was called Listening strategies. I can say that I really can understand a person when she speaks in English, but this exercise was very difficult for me because some people who were talking weren’t native speakers, and some others were native speakers but they don’t speak so well. I mean, I found difficult to understand people who are speaking English with another accent, like Chinese, British, Ukrainian or Japanese accent, because they try to speak well in English and they do it, but as much as they try to speak in another language they don’t lose their native accent. Maybe they do a good word stress but as part of their native language and pronunciation, they don’t do it well. They speak English as they could and this makes the listening a little bit difficult to hear the story clearly.

When I finally found native speakers on that web site I found other problems. They don’t open their mouth as they should. They make a correct intonation but I couldn’t notice that because they speak so fast that you can’t even notice when they do it. I noticed that English native speakers don’t open their mouth and sometimes this makes the conversation flat, and you can get bored because you don’t find the conversation interesting, and it just because of the rhythm and the correct intonation. Also the people here speak in a normal speed, they don't make a huge difference when they finish a sentence or a tag question, and they also don't exaggerate lapses of time at the thought groups. When I didn't understand something from both kinds of speakers, the native and non-native, I tried to catch a word that I knew and tried to focus on what it is related to that word. I found this activity the most difficult but also the most interesting and enriched because this web page puts you in touch with real and natural speeches. It doesn’t matter if the people here are native or non native speakers. The true benefit of this activity is that you can hear different types of accents and you can teach you ears to hear and understand all kind of accents in English to prepare yourself for the real world. Speaking teaching strategies Now, that I already did module 5, I checked the activities that I did and I think that it was very easy, but I really suffered a lot doing module 5 because I had to speak and it got worse when I had to record my voice. This module was a little bit stressing but I did it and I learnt a lot of things doing this module. The most important point that is very important for me is that I recovered my self confidence about speaking English to someone who understands it. I noticed also that my

voice doesn’t sound so horrible and I also have to open more my mouth because sometimes my speech doesn’t sound properly and understandable. I really loved doing activity 3. It was an activity with the web page called Voicethread. This site is excellent because you can use it in your classes or as homework. If you use it in your classes you can check more than two skills and this is very important because one of the most difficult skill to practice is speaking and if you assign an activity to our students, as the one we did, they can write or speak, and check and correct it many times. This site also gives you the opportunity to hear and see the comments of your partners. In some cases, this is good because students can hear themselves and this allows them to think about what they are going to write or speak but this also can’t be positive because they can repeat comments and all can copy the comments. But we, as a teachers, can design some pictures and assign different pictures to our students. This activity is also funny because despite the fact that they have to work with a computer and be on the internet and work with it, they also can have fun recording and hearing their voices because sometimes when we hear our comments, we check what to say or not and maybe correct the comment and recording it again. This module was important for me, not just for the activities I had to do but for all the things I learnt about myself and my self confidence. Writing teaching strategies I want to say that it was a little bit difficult to do this module but I really enjoyed it because I had to think and use my imagination to write the stories or descriptions for the activities. I receive good comments by my tutor about the activities called “My visual story” like: Re: A VISUAL STORY by Checa Téllez Marisela - domingo, 11 octubre 2009, 12:08

“wow Ale, I loved those pictures, I read your story about your trip to Las vegas but these are just wonderful pictures. Thank you for sharing them with us”. I also have a comment from: Re: A VISUAL STORY by MONTERO RODRIGUEZ CARLOS - miércoles, 14 octubre 2009, 11:38, and says: “Nice trip,i wish i could go there some day” I also received good comments from the activity called “A book of poems” from my tutor: Re: FORUM MY FIRST POEMS by Checa Téllez Marisela - jueves, 1 octubre 2009, 12:17 “Hello Ale, the poem that I liked most was the one called sweet dream! You show a lot of emotions and your love for dogs is evident!” Nobody wrote more comments about my activities but I want to say that I really enjoyed doing all these activities specially “My first book review” because I wrote about a book that I really enjoyed reading, so that is why I decided to write about it. I like to say that I received one vote from Mayra Gisela Fonseca Rodriguez about my book review.

I think that you can start writing without feeling insecure about what you are writing. It doesn’t matter if you are not good in grammar or you just don’t know the correct vocabulary, you just have to start writing no matter what you write. Maybe your writings can be just thoughts or letters to your friends or partner but the worst part is to lose the fear of do it perfect, because it is going to take years to achieve a perfect text.

It is also important to enrich your vocabulary in order to know and use more words when you are writing, it’s just like Spanish, you have to know the grammar, the ways of writing, the punctuation, the order of the words, etc, because each language has its own rules. To increase your vocabulary you can start reading some books of your interest, it doesn’t matter what type of books are or about the genders, it is just start reading because reading helps to enrich and learn new vocabulary that you can use in further writings. Reading also gives you more information about certain subjects and it can help you in your writings when you have to use your imagination and tell stories.

About ICT Tools I chose module 4: Listening, I checked unit by unit and one interesting activity was the one of the web page: http://australianetwork.com/englishbites/ep003.htm. The English Bites that you can read on this page are very useful, because you can practice your reading and also you learn different parts of grammar. The stories are also by episodes so you can follow them and continue learning different topics about grammar. Also, some chapters give you the option to watch a video clip. You can play it as many times as you want to understand it better and with the images you can understand better the article because you already have an idea about the article’s topic. Another web page that I found very important is http://www.dictationsonline.com/. This web page is about dictation. It gives you a complete list of different titles of each level of English, and each level is different by length and speed. At the beginning, you have to hear the dictation and start writing, you can hear the audio twice in low speed and one with normal speed, and at the end, you can check and see how many mistakes you had and corrected them. This page is really good to work with your students. They can start a dictation in the basic level because it’s going to be shorter and better according with their level of English and check it later.

The web site http://video.nytimes.com/ offers you incredible ways to learn and teach, because it shows you videos from specific topics and then you have the article to complete the information showed in the video clip. This is a good web page to use with your students because they can hear, see, read and with your help, they can write about the article, maybe they can write a report or summary about the article they chose. Also, the teacher can use this page as homework, the students can choose the article they want and make a written report about it.

Lesson Planning

I chose the Madeline Hunter’s lesson plan model because it is quite similar to what I do with my students. At the beginning of the class if we haven’t seen the vocabulary related to the topic yet, I write it and ask them to investigate the meaning of each word. I believe that if they are looking for each word it is going to be easier for them to learn the vocabulary. The next class after the introductory vocabulary, I explain what we are going to do with this vocabulary and the purpose to study it in the class and the course. After doing this, I write the title of the lesson and I explain that with the previous vocabulary and this lesson, they should be able to say, write and understand something. I explain the topic in English, sometimes I have to do it in Spanish after explain it in English for better understanding. I usually explain the topic giving examples and showing students how to use grammar. As I am doing this I correct and supervise which students already understand the topic and sometimes I use them as a model to follow with the other students. Now, that all the students understand the lesson, I start doing exercises that vary from the easiest to the most difficult depending on the students’ level of English and understanding. I sometimes work with the students’ book or with exercises of

my own. If we don’t have enough time, they have to finish the exercises at home and we check it next class. When we check homework, I do it on the board. I give my students the freedom to choose if they want to participate or not, but at the end when I check notebook I make myself sure that everybody wrote the lesson and the exercises. To reinforce knowledge at the end of each unit, I make a review of the topic seen in class and students have to do certain activities or exercises.

Lesson plan appropriate in my context

I think that we need a lesson plan for our classes for many reasons. The most important reason it is because we have to plan what we are going to teach according to their level of language. For long term goals, lesson plans help you to know if your students learn all the topics for the year and to be prepared for the next course. As a teacher, lesson plans help you to know if you achieve the entire grade’s purposes. Following a lesson plan also allows you to know what topics you’ll teach during the course; also to establish the vocabulary and the exercises needed for your classes. It helps you to be organized and to be focused on the topics you have to teach. Having a lesson plan allows you to make better classes because you can see which exercises are good for your students and which don’t, so you can take those exercises off and include other ones to future lesson plans. M Y L EARNING E XPERIENCE

by: CRUZ DIAZ MARIA EVA Introduction FIRST OF ALL I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT I ENJOYED THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE OF BEING ENROLLED IN THIS DIPLOMA. IT IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE AN ONLINE LEARNING COURSE. IT HAS CONSIDERABLY EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS, PARTICULARLY BECAUSE OF ITS PRACTICALITY AND RELEVANCE TO MY TEACHING DUTIES AT SECONDARY SCHOOL. TO APPROACH INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

(ICT) IN THE WAY WE HAVE DONE IN THIS COURSE SPECIALLY FOCUSING ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION (ITE) HAS BEEN A HAPPY DISCOVERY WHICH I ALREADY STARTED EXPLOITING WITHIN MY EVERY DAY CLASS ACTIVITIES WITH CHILDREN.

I GAINED SOON AFTER STARTING THE COURSE A COMPELLING INTEREST TOWARDS DEVELOPING MY TECHNICAL ABILITIES REGARDING COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES. I CAN HONESTLY SAY THEY HAVE IMPROVED QUITE SIGNIFICANTLY OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS. THE BENEFITS OF BEING PART OF THIS COURSE DO NOT LIMIT TO IMPROVING DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF MY COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND MY USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES. THEY WILL SOON REACH MY STUDENTS AT THE CLASSROOM MAKING THEIR LEARNING MORE FUN AND EXCITING.

Cultural learning awareness BEING ACQUAINTED WITH FOREIGN CULTURE IS IMPORTANT WHEN VISITING OR LIVING IN ANOTHER COUNTRY. THERE ARE, OF COURSE, PLENTY OF DIFFERENCES IN VALUES, ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS.

FOR EVERY CULTURE, EVEN OUR OWN, MANY ASSUMPTIONS AND PERCEPTIONS ABOUT LIFE AND SOCIETY ARE LEARNT EARLY ON IN OUR LIFE. THEY ARE EXPRESSED IN THE WAY WE BEHAVE AND INTERACT WITH OTHERS. SINCE THESE DIFFERENCES CAN BE SOMETIMES PROFOUND AND NOT INTUITIVE THEY CAN LEAD TO MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND CONFRONTATIONS THAT MUST BE AVOIDED AT ALL RATE. THIS CAN BE DONE IF WE DEVELOP A GOOD AND SOUND UNDERSTANDING OF THESE CULTURAL DIFFERENCES, AND OVERALL, IF WE VALUE THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND RESPECT TRADITIONS AND BELIEFS FROM OTHERS.

I KEEP DEEPENING MY OWN UNDERSTANDING OF ENGLISH CULTURE WHICH I HAD ALREADY OBTAINED THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE OF LIVING AND WORKING IN

ENGLAND SOME YEARS AGO. I KNOW MY

STUDENTS WILL BE MOST LIKELY EXPOSED TO AMERICAN CULTURE AND LANGUAGE, THEREFORE I KEEP

LEARNING ABOUT THIS COUNTRY AND ALSO ABOUT SOME OTHERS LIKE CANADA, AUSTRALIA AS WELL AS MEMBERS OF THE COMMONWEALTH.

I LOVE TALKING TO MY PUPILS ABOUT ENGLISH SPEAKING COMMUNITIES AND SHARING WITH THEM MY OWN EXPERIENCES WHEN LIVING IN

ENGLAND. I TALK TO THEM ABOUT ENGLISH TRADITIONS AND

IDIOSYNCRASY, ABOUT THEIR SOCIETY AND HISTORY AND EVEN ABOUT THE WEATHER, ONE OF THE TOP SMALL TALK SUBJECTS THEY WOULD VERY LIKELY FACE IF THEY MEET AN ENGLISH PERSON. I TRY TO PROMOTE UNDERSTANDING AND RESPECT FOR DIFFERENCES AND POINT OUT AT POLITENESS AND HOW IT IS IMPORTANT TO ACHIEVE AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION. THEY USUALLY LISTEN CLOSELY TO WHAT I EXPLAIN TO THEM SHOWING INTEREST AND CURIOSITY.

new teaching strategies discovered IT IS IMPORTANT TO REALIZE THAT WE HAVE TO APPLY APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGIES TO INSTRUCTIONAL TASKS IN ORDER TO ENRICH THE LEARNING OF TECHNOLOGY BASED SKILLS. IT IS CLEAR TO ME WE HAVE TO ADAPT THESE TECHNOLOGIES TO OUR OWN NEEDS WITH A VISIONARY AND COLLABORATIVE ATTITUDE, USING MULTIMEDIA TOOLS TO SUPPORT LEARNING OF OUR STUDENTS. WE, AS TEACHERS, MUST FACE THE ACQUISITION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES WITH COURAGE AND NOT HESITATE TO INCLUDE THEM IN EVERY DAY CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES. WE HAVE TO BE PRACTITIONERS OF WHAT WE ADVOCATE.

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES SUPPORT AND POTENTIATE GIVING AND RECEIVING FEEDBACK BEYOND TRADITIONAL METHODS. FOR EXAMPLE, ALLOWING STUDENTS TO REVISE THEIR WORK PROGRESSIVELY.

DIGITAL TOOLS EXPAND THE WALLS OF THE CLASSROOM AND ENABLE THE INTEGRATION OF RESOURCES, SCIENTIFIC DATA, LIBRARY COLLECTIONS, VIDEOS, FILMS AN SO ON FROM AROUND THE WORLD. THESE PICTURES OF THE REAL WORLD CONTEXT COMING FROM OTHER CULTURES GIVE STUDENTS A BROADER UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR OWN ENVIRONMENT AND MOTIVATE THEM TO FURTHER DEVELOP THEIR OWN SKILLS AND EDUCATION.

on exposing students to new information technologies like the internet care must be taken through, because children need guidance on exploring and exploiting interactive sites such as facebook, flickr, la mansion del ingles, bookr, etc.

i have already put into practice several activities from these websites, my students displayed a keen interest and enjoyed using the computer to practice their english. to be able to use interactive content from the websites cited above, it is required to make several adaptations in order to focus students on the main learning objectives according to the curriculum.

reading teaching strategies READING IS CHALLENGING FOR STUDENTS AT EARLY LEVELS. ESPECIALLY IF THEY EXPERIENCE, AS MANY OF MINE DO, A LACK OF INTEREST AND FIND IT HARD BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT USED TO READ, NOT EVEN IN OUR MOTHER TONGUE. THIS STATE OF AFFAIRS UNDOUBTEDLY REPRESENTS A BIG CHALLENGE FOR TEACHERS. NONETHELESS, READING STRATEGIES LEARNT IN THIS MODULE CAN BE OF REAL HELP. FIRSTLY, I WILL CONSIDER INCLUDING IMAGES ILLUSTRATING THE MAIN ASPECTS OF A TEXT. THEY CAN GIVE HINTS ABOUT HOW TO INTERPRET THE TEXT THEY ARE READING. MY OWN EXPERIENCE ON ONE OF THE WEBSITES ACTIVITIES WAS INDEED FUN, AND EFFECTIVE. THE USE OF INTERACTIVE WORD GAMES, I WOULD THINK, CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE ALLOWING ME TO GRAB THEIR ATTENTION AND FOR THEM TO ENJOY THE PROCESS OF LEARNING. I THINK WORD GAMES ARE NEUTRAL AND SHOULD APPEAL EQUALLY TO GIRLS AND BOYS. I STILL KEEP SOME RESERVATIONS ABOUT MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS, BUT I THINK THEY MIGHT JUST BE ONE OF MANY EVALUATION INSTRUMENTS. WHAT I LIKED A LOT ABOUT THE ACTIVITIES IN ONE OF THE WEBSITES IS THAT THEY GET IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK WHEN ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS, SO THEY CAN REVISE OR ANALYZE WHAT THEY’VE DONE WRONG PROMPTLY. IT WILL ALSO ALLOW THEM TO QUESTION THEMSELVES ABOUT THEIR OWN LEARNING. HOPEFULLY ACCOMPANIED WITH A BIT OF ENCOURAGEMENT THEY WILL BE MORE PROACTIVE AND ENGAGE IN THE ACTIVITY DEMANDING DEEPER EXPLANATIONS.

listening teaching strategies AMONG ALL ACTIVITIES I HAVE APPLIED IN THE CLASSROOM, LISTENING AND PRODUCING LYRICS FROM POPULAR SONGS SEEM TO BE EFFECTIVE AND FUN FOR CHILDREN. I HAVE HAD THE CHANCE TO ORGANIZE KARAOKE CONTESTS AND CHILDREN TAKE IT VERY SERIOUSLY. MAKING THEM PART OF THE LOGISTICS AND LETTING THEM TO TAKE ACTIVE PART ON DECISIONS PAYS WELL TO THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WHAT THEY LEARN,

THEY

CAN

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

SEE

IMMEDIATE

USE

THE

LANGUAGE

AND

APPRECIATE

THEIR

OWN

. AS FOR MY OWN EXPERIENCE WITHIN THIS COURSE, LISTENING TEACHING

STRATEGIES WERE AS CHALLENGING AS INTERESTING. I SPENT A LOT OF TIME DEVELOPING ALL THE ASSIGNMENTS. THEY HELPED ME TO IMPROVE MY ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AND PROCESS WHAT I LISTENED TO. HAVE HAD USE REAL MATERIALS SUCH AS RADIO AND T.V PROGRAMS MADE THIS TASK MORE APPEALING TO ME.

ALSO I HAVE WIDELY PROFITED FROM ALL THESE RECORDINGS REGARDING

MINIMAL PAIRS, WORD STRESS, INTONATION, PAUSES AND RHYTHM AS WELL AS TAG QUESTIONS, I WILL DEFINITELY EXPLOIT THEM WITH MY STUDENTS TOGETHER WITH THE READING ALONG STORIES SO THEY WILL BE COMPLETELY INVOLVED IN LISTENING ACTIVITIES AND TASKS IN ORDER TO DEVELOP THEIR LISTENING SKILLS, BUT BEING HONEST, THEY WILL FIND A HARD TIME TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF THIS RECORDINGS AS THEY HAVEN'T HAD THE LEVEL TO CLOSELY FOLLOW A REAL CONVERSATION OR THE RHYTHM OF TV AND RADIO PROGRAMS.

speaking teaching strategies THE SPEAKING TEACHING STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP ORAL SKILLS WERE VERY PRACTICAL AND USEFUL FOR ME. THE ENGAGEMENT INTO AUTHENTIC AND RELEVANT ACTIVITIES HELPED ME TO BECOME MORE AUTONOMOUS AND SELF DIRECTED. I HAD TO PLAN AND PRACTICE A LOT WITH AUDACITY SOFTWARE BEFORE I SENT MY RECORDING ASSIGNMENTS TO THE SITE. I DID LOTS OF READING AND DRAFTS TO DO THE VOICE THREAT RECORDINGS AND TO GET READY FOR THE CHAT SESSIONS USING MSN TO DISCUSS DIFFERENT TOPICS WITH OTHER PEERS. THE MOST REMARKABLE ACTIVITY WAS LEARNING HOW TO WRITE A STORY AND THE USE OF THE “SELF ASSESSMENT” RUBRIC TO SEE HOW I WAS IMPROVING.

I HAVE FOUND AUDACITY SOFTWARE ESPECIALLY VERY USEFUL TO IMPROVE MY OWN ENGLISH SKILLS AND WHEN TEACHING AS WELL. THIS VERSATILE PROGRAM CAN BE USED TO RECORD AND EDIT AUDIO, CONVERT OLD TAPES AND RECORDS INTO DIGITAL RECORDINGS OR CDS, AND EXPORT AUDIO FILES INTO MP3. WITH AUDACITY, STUDENTS CAN CUT, COPY, SPLIT, AND MIX SOUNDS TOGETHER, CHANGE THE SPEED OR PITCH OF A RECORDING, AND APPLY OTHER EFFECTS SUCH AS NOISE REMOVAL AND SOUND AMPLIFICATION. THESE FEATURES ALLOW US TO CREATE HIGH QUALITY AUDIO FILES WHICH CAN BE USED TO PRACTICE SKILLS SUCH AS LISTENING, SPEAKING, AND PRONUNCIATION. I ALREADY HAVE USED THIS SOFTWARE IN THE CLASSROOM AND MY STUDENTS LOVED TO LEARN HOW TO USE THIS SOFTWARE AND THEY WERE OVERLY EXCITED ABOUT HEARING THEIR OWN VOICES AND THOSE OF THEIR PEERS. HOPEFULLY IN THE FUTURE THEY WILL BE MOTIVATED ENOUGH TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE GREAT ARRAY OF FEATURES THIS PROGRAM OFFERS.

writing teaching strategies I HAVE SEEN MY WRITING IMPROVED BY STUDYING ALL PARTS OF SPEECH, SENTENCE STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION. IT IS WELL RECOGNIZED THAT WRITING IMPROVES WHEN READING AND WE DID A FAIR AMOUNT OF READINGS DURING THIS COURSE. THE EXERCISES AND TESTS FROM THE WEBSITES CONTRIBUTED TOO.

USEFUL AND MOTIVATING ACTIVITIES AND TOOLS THAT HELPED ME IMPROVE MY ABILITY TO WRITE WERE THOSE RELATED TO WRITE TALL TALES. THE USE OF TEMPLATES CAN GREATLY SUPPORT FIRST INCURSIONS ON WRITING. I PLAN TO USE THIS SITE AND EXPLOIT THE USE OF WRITING TEMPLATES TO ASSIST DEVELOPMENT OF MY STUDENT’S SKILLS. I AM CONSIDERING DESIGNING ACTIVITIES LIKE WRITING POEMS AND MAKING A BOOK OF POEMS USING BOOKR, .MAKING A COMIC STRIP FILE USING MAKEBELIEFS AND CREATING A VISUAL STORY WITH PICTURES USING PHOTO PEACH.

THE ARTICLE “HOW TO WRITE SHORT FICTION” FROM A REMARKABLE SITE CALLED “SCHOLASTIC” BECAME A REFERENCE GUIDE I PUT IT INTO PRACTICE TO DO MY OWN WRITING. IT SHOWED ME HOW TO GET IDEAS TO WRITE A SHORT FICTIONAL STORY, HOW TO GET THESE IDEAS DOWN ON PAPER, HOW TO REVIEW MY WORK AND GET SOME FEEDBACK FROM OTHER PEOPLE AND HOW TO EDIT AND CHECK MY WRITING. SHARING AND PUBLISHING MY FINAL WORK IN THE FORUM TO BE READ FOR THE PARTICIPANTS AND GET FEEDBACK FROM MY TUTOR TURNED OUT TO BE AN EXCITING AND MOTIVATING EXPERIENCE.

about ict tools THE USE OF ICT TOOLS FOR COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH SKILLS IS CURRENTLY THE FOCUS OF MUCH INTEREST AND DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS. MANY INTERESTING NEW TOOLS ARE APPEARING WHICH MAKE ONLINE COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS A REALISTIC OPTION FOR LEARNING. THE INTERNET CAN BE USED FOR MANY COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITIES SUCH AS HOLDING MEETINGS, ONGOING DISCUSSIONS, WORKING ON SPECIFIC TOPICS, SHARING INFORMATION AND A RANGE OF OTHER TASKS.

I ENJOYED USING THE FOLLOWING TOOLS THROUGH THE COURSE. VOICE CHAT, ENABLED US TO SPEAK WITH OTHER PARTNERS. TEXT CHAT WAS USED FOR HAVING A TOPIC-DISCUSSION. TELECONFERENCE WAS NOT POSSIBLE FOR MORE THAN TWO PEOPLE, I THINK, A DIFFERENT SOFTWARE MAY BE NEEDED FOR A REAL TELECONFERENCE. WE WERE SUCCESSFUL THOUGH, AT HAVING A VIDEO CALL WITH A PARTNER.

I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT ICT TOOLS HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT WHEN LOOKING FOR DEVELOPING DIFFERENT LANGUAGE SKILLS. APART FROM THOSE MENTIONED ABOVE WE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE AUDACITY SOFTWARE, VOICETHREAT, BOOKR, MAKEBELIEFS AND PHOTOPEACH WHICH WERE NOT ONLY FUN BUT VERY EFFECTIVE WHEN TARGETING SECONDARY LEVEL STUDENTS. I’VE DONE ALREADY SOME PILOT LESSONS WITH MY PUPILS, WHICH SHOW TO BE VERY INTERESTED AND GRATEFUL OF BEING EXPERIENCING NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CLASSROOM.

we should not forget though that technology is only a means and not to rely blindly on it to cover all aspects of children's learning, old fashion methods still apply, so we should combine them to enhance them either way.

lesson planning LESSON PLANS ARE ESSENTIAL GUIDES FOR OUR LESSONS. THEY CONTAIN DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS REGARDING STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES, INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES, THE REQUIRED MATERIALS, AND SOME WRITTEN DESCRIPTIONS OF HOW THE STUDENTS WILL BE EVALUATED. ACQUIRING THE SKILL OF CREATING OUR OWN LESSON PLANS IS FAR MORE VALUABLE THAN BEING ABLE TO USE LESSON PLANS DEVELOPED BY OTHERS. MOST OF THE TIME WE DON'T NEED TO DISCOVER THE WHEEL, AND IT IS GOOD ENOUGH JUST TO ADAPT THOSE ALREADY PROVIDED BY EXPERTS. BUT CRITICAL THINKING SHOULD ALWAYS BE PART OF THIS PROCESS, AND WE MUST MAKE THE MOST OF THEM BY CONSIDERING THE BACKGROUND OF THE CHILDREN, THEIR ENVIRONMENT, NEEDS, EXPECTATIONS AND OVER ALL TRYING TO MAKE THEM PART OF THEIR OWN LEARNING.

IT TAKES THINKING AND PRACTICE TO DEVELOP THIS SKILL AND IT WILL PROBABLY BE A LONG PROCESS. BUT TAKING THE TIME TO ADAPT LESSON PLANS IS A WISE DECISION AND MAKE US BETTER AND MORE PROFESSIONAL

TEACHERS.

CLASS

DYNAMICS

WILL

MOVE

DRASTICALLY

AND

PROMPTLY

TOWARDS

TECHNOLOGY BASED LEARNING. USING IT RESOURCES IS SOON TO BECOME THE STATUS QUO WITHIN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN MEXICO. THEREFORE, WE SHOULD BE UP TO THE CHALLENGE TO MEET THE NEW STANDARDS EXPECTED FROM SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS.

conclusion INTERNET AND COMPUTERS ARE BECOMING POWERFUL TOOLS FOR TEACHERS TO ASSIST STUDENTS LEARNING. THERE ARE PLENTY OF RESOURCES THERE TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN AUTHENTIC AND

RELEVANT ACTIVITIES FOR THEM. THEY BECOME MORE AUTONOMOUS AND SELF-DIRECTED IN THEIR LEARNING, LEADING THEM TOWARDS ACCURACY AND FLUENCY IN MEANINGFUL CONTEXTS, AS WELL AS, DEVELOPING THE FOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS: LISTENING, SPEAKING, READING AND WRITING. THEY ALSO DEVELOP THEIR SKILLS IN THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL MAKE THEM MORE COMPETITIVE TO FACE GLOBALISATION AND INTERDEPENDENT ECONOMIES.

FINALLY I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT I HAVE DEVELOP MY TECHNICAL ABILITIES REGARDING COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY AND I AM WORKING HARDER TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO USE ALL THESE SKILLS IN THE CLASSROOM.

I WAS FULLY MOTIVATED THROUGH THE ENTIRE COURSE AND I DID MOST OF THE ACTIVITIES PATIENTLY AND ENTHUSIASTICALLY EVEN IF SOMETIMES I WAS RUSHING A BIT TO MEET THE DEADLINES. I CERTAINLY WILL CONTINUE EXPLOITING ALL THESE ONLINE RESOURCES AND TAKING ACTIONS IN ORDER TO IMPROVE MY TEACHING SKILLS, INTRODUCING NEW TECHNOLOGIES INTO THE CLASSROOM AND CARRYING ON ADAPTING LESSONS PLANS TO CONGRUENTLY SYNTHESIZE CLASS ACTIVITIES THAT ARE ATTRACTIVE FOR STUDENTS, RELEVANT TO THEIR LEARNING OBJECTIVES, SUITABLE FOR THEIR CULTURAL AWARENESS AND LET THEM PRACTICE COMPUTER LITERACY.

My Learning Experience By Patricia Flores Ortíz

It’s been such a pleasure having worked with my tutor and course mates, in an environment of tolerance and courtesy. I want to thank all of them for

their

collaborative assistance.

The experience of this Diploma course,

has been hugely enriching, not only

because of the English language knowledge acquired, but also, because of the improvement of my cultural awareness and the handling of ICT tools as well. Through module 1, I got in touch with many resources of information and communication

learn

through

the

web

(chat,

forums,

web

sites,

videoconferences, searchers, etc). Now that I’ve worked with them, I know the important role they play in our practice, if we want to become a 21st century teacher. English language learning awareness

Listening I listened again some of the recordings you provided. I found that I was able to understand them better. Now, I’m aware of some language aspects, for example, thought groups ( the “Welcome To Wherever You Are” videoclip by Bon Jovi, is great to work with them), the intonation of sentences, phrasal verbs, ( I require to work harder in this matter and get more practice concerning minimal pairs as well; the Manythings and Shiporsheep sites are very helpful and fun, too), etc. shiporsheep . com Minimal

Pair:

ship/sheep

Speaking

Improving my listening as I explained above, I improved my speaking as well, by imitating the native speaker’s way of talking. Writing I thought I had no problem in writing texts about personal experiences, a book review or a plot of a film. I was wrong. Now I know how to write them in a correct way, following models. They give your writing, the proper sequence and all the elements that need to be included. Creating our visual story using Photopeach, was great. In my opinion, this activity let students express feelings and emotions, besides, it is so fascinating to do it! Vocabulary I’ve incorporated many new words to my vocabulary. I remember, for instance, one of them taken from a newspaper article about Michael Jackson’s doctor, (MANSLAUGHTER ). This word is easy to remember, because I learned it, in a contextualized manner. Reading Working with the skimming and scanning strategies at the Skillswise site, (Portham Village Primary School prospectus), provided a very clear idea of what these two techniques intend the reader to achieve. Activate prior knowledge, ask questions before, during and after reading and make inferences, are very helpful strategies. I’m very interested in the ones that make us reflect and go beyond the text, like identifying the author’s purpose or point of view. I’ll introduce them to my classes in the near future, hopefully. Finally, I’ll say that I’ve checked again the diagnostic survey you provided at the beginning of each module, and found that I’ve indeed, improved some aspects of my English knowledge. Cultural learning awareness

I’ll start saying that we have to be aware of our own cultural heritage, so when learning about culture from English speaking communities, we can appreciate and respect cultural diversity in different contexts. The

“Amistad Incident” reading, at the Awesomestories site, on Module 3,

provides many data (photos, maps, murals, original documents and videos), about slavery in the United States. I think this kind of readings, help teachers to talk about values; they can reflect about slavery and decide whether it was right or wrong and why, and finally, they could take a look at our own history, make comparisons, and get to conclusions. The “Welcome To Wherever You Are” song by Bon Jovi, has an interesting content, which could be used as an encouraging activity in our practice. Students can realize that not only Mexican people (teens) have tough times in life. Welcome to wherever you are This is your life, you made it this far Welcome,

you

gotta

believe

That right here right now, you're exactly where you're supposed to be Welcome, to wherever you are

The “British Adults fear youngsters” reading, shows that Britons socialize less with their children in the evenings, than Spaniards and Italians. I think the situation here in Mexico, is turning something similar; many parents work all day long and have less time to spend with their children. I could discuss this topic with parents, so they are aware of it, and decide if the need to do something about it. There’s a video at the voicethread site, where a woman talks about her five children and her husband.The opinion of some other members of this family can be listened as well. You can see the kind of clothes they used to wear and the type of houses they lived in. (I think this picture might be taken by the fifties).

Watching this video, students not only can practice listening, but they can be aware of the points I mentioned above. New teaching strategies discovered English Language Learning and Teaching As an English language learner and teacher, I am now even more aware, of the importance of being empathetic with our students, the significance of knowing the kind of learners they are, the huge internet possibilities we can use for both, our own learning and our teaching process. The Centre for Education & and Training site, for instance, provide many ways of learning grammar, idioms, etymology and some idiosyncrasies of English. The New Zeland Interface site, also provides many ways to learn English and have fun at the same time; I tried the "I Was Wondering" resource, at the games section (Astrocope). It’s a fun way to know about space stuff. Dictionaries are great. The graphical way of showing words at The “Visuwords “ on line dictionary, for example, will encourage my students to find different ways of searching. I think when using this tool, we have to be very careful in giving precise instructions, otherwise, they can get distracted from the task assigned, as a lot of information is shown.

Reading I regularly apply the skimming, scanning, prior knowledge, ask questions after, during and before reading, identify main ideas, make inferences, and some other reading techniques in my practice, but it was a very illustrative way, working with them myself, as a manner of keeping in mind, that we always have to be prepared to solve any possible problem our students may face. I’d also like to point out once again, that the strategies that make students think beyond the text, are very interesting to work with (identifying the author’s purpose or point of view, for instance).

Listening I ‘ve remembered how important it is to know rules ( students ask and want to know rules or reasons), distinguishing minimal pairs, practicing phrasal verbs, working with different types of listening, etc. I think it’s also important to highlight, that when listening, strategies not only help students understand what a person is saying, but they can be aware of what he or she might be feeling, what will the end of a story be, decide whether they like the topic or not and give reasons, etc. Improving listening, students can improve speaking as well. Speaking

I’ve experienced, through all the web sites provided, what I already knew: the more you practice speaking, the better. The Voicethread site, helped me describe a person at my own pace. Listening to one’s own voice allows self evaluation.

Writing What a gorgeous way of boosting our imagination and practicing writing, by creating a comic strip and working with the Photopeach site! Students will love to do these activities. I also discovered that it’s a lot more easier to write different types of information, following a model (Eyewitness Account, Book Review, Autobiographical Incident, etc.). It’s very important to guide our students step by step, when practicing writing, and this is exactly what models offer. Finally, I would like to add that, as a 21st century teachers, as Andrew Churches states, in his “Eight habits of highly effective 21st century teachers” article, we’ve got to have a vision of what we want, what the technology can achieve, identify goals and facilitate the learning. In other words, I would say that if we plan our classes and adapt them when necessary, if we include the use of ICT tools in our classes, practice every skill as much as possible, and also model the behavior we expect from our students, we can get to our goals more easily, and we will captivate our students in the English language learning.

R EADING TEACHING STRATEGIES Amistad Incident The story develops in 1839, when Sengbe and some other fellows are captured from the country of Sierra Leone, located in Africa, by some slave hunters. Being transferred to Connecticut, after a long and difficult journey, from Mendi territory, a first trial is carried out, (which of course the Africans lose) because Spain wants the slavers back and punished. President Van Buren, president of the United States at that time, authorizes a Navy ship to take the Africans back to Cuba, before they have a chance to appeal their loss. At this point, some abolitionists, John Quincy Adams among others, agree to help. It is his final speech, based on the eternal law of nature, wherein every person is free, which gives no choice to the Supreme Court, but to do the right thing. On November 23, 1841, Segnbe and thirty four captives, after nearly three years, finally go home.

The reading provides all kind of tools to maintain the interest and continue reading. The photos, murals, maps, original documents, newspapers and the impacting videos, invite you to keep on searching for information about the topic. You get to know the way the different characters used to live, the kind of clothes they used to wear, the type of constructions there were, you can even take a look at the Mendi language (cultural awareness). You also can reflect on several values and even about political matters! To write the summary of the story above, I used the skimming technique, to get the gist of the text again, I mean, to remember it again; the scanning one, by looking for the chapters at the table of contents; the sequence events strategy, by identifying the order of incidents; vocabulary inference, to recognize main ideas; and visualize images. I also worked with the identify author’s purpose strategy, by making the questions:Why did the author wrote the article?To persuade readers to think about the issue and to take action? L ISTENING TEACHING STRATEGIES Authentic Listening was the most difficult activity for me. I watched a video, in which a family spends a weekend in a farm, where they could do farm activities.

I found some problems: First, I didn’t know anything about that topic, then, it was kind of difficult for me to understand what was it all about, because in México doesn’t exist such places, (I think). Finally, there were several persons, speaking at normal speed, with different pronunciation, using colloquial expressions and some words I’ve never heard before. Many things help me understand the activity: The title of the video, it provided face to face contact (I could see gestures, body language, the images helped a lot). I leaned on intonation and thought groups, (they are very much related). Something good about videos, is that you can watch them as many times as necessary. It would’ve been easier for me to understand the listening, if I’d had prior knowledge of the topic and vocabulary. S PEAKING TEACHING STRATEGIES People of influence Unfortunately, every year at schools, lack of values is observed. Many times, teachers are the most consistent part in students’ life. The activity of preparing a presentation about a person who has been important in their lives, offers the opportunity to work with values. They have the chance to express feelings and emotions that otherwise, they could hardly express. It also provides information, which could be helpful for the teacher to understand even

more students’ behavior. Recording the activity using Audiacity software, would encourage them to talk, particularly, the ones that are afraid of speaking in English.

Finally, I’ll say that it’s fun and helpful to record and listen to your own voice, and compare it with other ones. W RITING TEACHING STRATEGIES I want to thank my tutor and all my course mates for the comments I‘ve received during not only this module, but through all of them. They encourage me to keep on working hard. It reminds me, how important it is to continue cheering up our students every time they complete any activity. I’ve developed my writing skills very importantly, through all the activities we’ve done. For instance, I’ve learned how to write different types of texts, following a model; t he “Eyewitness account”, “Autobiographical incident”, “Book review”, “Speechwriting” ones, were excellent practice. The “Correcting a piece of writing” exercise, was a good reminder of the mistakes our students may face. As I said before, we need to practice as much as possible every English skill, and during this module, we’ve had plenty of it. Now, we have many more options, where to look for the appropriate exercises, according to our needs.

I’d like to add, that doing the sentences, adjectives, getting the right tense, punctuation, etc. activities, was a very good way to check our own strengths and weaknesses in these areas. And finally, working with authentic material (videos, photos, etc.), will make our students feel that studying English is useful, because they can use it, in real situations of their lives.

'Getting the right tense' game

Tenses 'Treasure hunt!' If you can get the right tense in the right place, you'll get rich uncovering treasure.

This game has soun d. Turn on your speak ers, or put your headp hones on.

My Learning Experience By: GALVEZ RENDON JOSE ALFREDO

When I received the mail giving me details of this course; I felt really excited because I thought it was a great opportunity to improve my English although I took a course abroad I wanted to study more and more because my students have to be update. I wanted to improve all the skills in English, Listening, writing, speaking, and reading, that´s why I sent my name and all my information to identify my weaknesses and strengths in my teaching. I kept practicing all the course writing all the electronic addresses and all the strategies showed in each one of the modules. All the effective learning and the activities in each module were incredible and appropriate for me an all my partners. All of them were well structured and organized. I commented with my colleagues about all the process of the course, the tutor and the organizations that took part in it and they showed enthusiasm but nothing else happened because they don’t want to acquire more knowledge of their own. I loved the course because it had all the aspects a teacher needs to be better. Before this course I had many dilemmas, v.gr. I asked myself; Should I use English 100% of the time in class?, What can I do with students who cheat?, How can I motivate uninterested students? How can I measure my effectiveness as a teacher? What do I do to incorporate technology in the class and make those to contribute to my teaching? I couldn’t imagine all the sites in internet that had information to improve my English where I can find compositions, debates, interviews, commercials, discussions, drama, simulation of the real life, etc., Now I know that there are thousands of Web-sites for ESL learners, I can find listening resources, videos, songs, custom Karaoke, listening ringtones, free English software, Articles, games, lesson plans, techniques, jokes, things for teacher activities, etc..,

Now I know that I have to be more organized, polished communicators, and fair disciplinarians, we have to be servant leaders, who instruct, guide facilitate, listen, challenge, be friend, and a model. What matters is that you and I realize that as a teachers, we are leaders and change agents. With this course and all the cultural aspects, I thought that as teachers we should ask to ourselves these questions very often:

1.- Am I teaching to my students how they expect to learn? 2.- Are my students leaving with more than they had? 3.- Am I really teaching in a good way? 4.- Do they accept me? 5.- Do they have fun in my class? 6.- Am I really helping them? 7.- What more could I do for them? 8.- Am I more than just a teacher? 9.- Am I a counselor a friend for them? 10.- Am I applying technology in my classes? Writing teaching assignments were also good, I learned how to English language learning awareness When I began studying this course I was excited because I wanted to go until the final having more knowledge of all the activities and everything was like I thought. I increased my vocabulary, I Know how to apply technology in the classroom using the internet, my pronunciation is better, the intonation of my voice, the tone my facial expressions and the way I teach has been coming better everyday.

I can say that I have progressed a lot in cross cultural situations in my listening behavior and in all the activities that know I can implement in my classes. I know that can teach being more creative providing my students grammar activities as well as conventional grammar exercises. I can provide them activities and explanation concerning the effective use of grammar in writing, at the discourse level as well as at the sentence level, I can follow up study of target structures with appropriate discourse-level writing assignments designed to elicit those structures, I can alert them to grammatical errors in their writing, particularly recurring errors. I can teach them how to write poems using my book of poems rearranging words to have a composition of their own discovering their capacity to create and experiment new ways of writing. During these six modules I experimented frustration because sometimes I had problems with the internet when I wanted to have a videoconference with my colleagues but I did what I could do and I got what I wanted to do, we have a nice conversation with Ruben and Alejandra talking about recycling and our politicians. All the conversation resulted great because we learned that as a teachers we must study and practice with all the tools that internet offers to teach our students the best way of using it. Photopeach site is an interesting tool to practice all the structures in grammar using their own photos or choosing photos from everywhere, Actually my students are using this site to present present and past continuous. C ULT U RAL LEAR N I NG AWARENESS I learned that listening activities result good when we inform students about the purpose of the activity, when we draw on students’ background knowledge and give them opportunity to predict and set up expectations linked to the task, when we allow students time to become familiar with vocabulary items. I learned that while listening we as a teachers should emphasize the importance of concentration, advise students to make mental pictures to assist comprehension, give students the opportunity to listen unclear parts as many times as necessary and allow for thinking time. I also learned about general topics and how to find ways of helping students to be good, developing the four skills we want to teach: (Writing, Speaking, Reading, and Listening). Now I know that I must motivate them not only with the class, I must make additional efforts to teach them the way that native speakers talk. For example; we have to find the way to teach them in an environment where the

native speakers live, speak with them in order to learn the spoken language, using more slang or nonstandard grammar and vocabulary because the written language tends to be far more formal and conservative in usage. N EW TEAC H I NG STRATEG I ES D ISCOVERE D I noticed that I have to enjoy my job, I discovered that I have to investigate, to enroll in courses like this where a lot of strategies are thought, to have complete English classes using the target language, to motivate them to use English and enjoy working together getting better and better everyday. With all the information I read in this course I knew that I have to speak to my students with clarity asking them some questions, for example; -

Could you give me an illustration? Could you give me an example? Could you express that point in another way? Could you repeat the question please? Could you give me more details? Could you be more specific?

My students have to know that learning English is not difficult when we enjoy the activities I put in each class. Now I have several tools to facilitate the way they learn. I like to teach them in a funny way. The main purpose of my teaching is giving them the keys to open the door of a second language. The students learning has to be involved with people in everyday situations that’s why I have to be open-minded and adaptable to change my teaching in a different group because not all the groups work at the same way. R EAD I NG TEAC H I NG STRATEG I ES I learned that is very interesting to develop the skill of reading, analyzing different stories and topics, checking the details of the story and finding the purpose of the author. The scanning and skimming strategy is good when we want to know a fast information or if we want to find the murder of a crime we have to read different situations that lead us to find him or her. All the quizzes and activities to improve my readings were incredible because I learned some strategies to teach them such as reading with fluency, reading with an specific time, reading maps, reading menus, schedules, transportation tables, advertisements, commercials, personal invitations, directories (e.g., telephone, yellow pages) comic strips, cartoons, etc.

Listening teaching strategies When I was working in this module I found that when listening to a second language, students often forget to apply the strategies they unconsciously use as listeners in their first language, that’s why I was worried about how to make the students more conscious of these strategies but I felt better when I found some items to teach reading as well as listening. -

Activating prier knowledge.

Using context to assist comprehension

Determining setting, interpersonal relationships, and mood

Listening for the main idea.

Recognizing paralinguistic signals including voice quality.

Recognizing focus words.

Hypothesizing, guessing, predicting, inference.

Linking ideas.

I knew that my main aim of teaching Listening comprehension is how to understand English as it is normally spoken by native English speakers, so the students must hear pronunciation of North American people as much as they can because if don’t, they won’t be able to understand

or establish a fluency

conversation even if they travel to the United States. For example when I read in this module how to teach them to understand different pronunciations writing on the board I started to teach them with the following examples: Ya _ you

whaddaya - What do you, What are you…..

Wanna - want to

gonna - goint to

Donno - don’t know Gotta -

got to

ta - to hafta - have to

Hasta - has to

yer - your, you’re

Cha - /t/ - you

cher - your, you’re

‘em - them

im - him

etc…,

From now on I have to adapt my listening materials. Now I inform students about the purpose of the activity, I draw on student’s background knowledge and give them opportunity to predict and set up expectations linked to the task, I emphasize the importance of concentrations, I advise them to make mental pictures to assist comprehension, I give them the main idea of the text, recognizing focus words, using context to determine meaning, listening for repetitions and thought groups. After listening I learned that I have to assist my students in correcting errors, or misunderstanding, I have to assist them in understanding why they have made mistakes, I have to teach them how to find out what have learned and how it fits into what they already knew, Now I permit them to use what they have learned in role plays, dialogues, and monologues, let them to learn “ to real life “ listening situations. Speaking teaching strategies This module was really great because I had the opportunity to speak with my colleagues about different topics, I was afraid because of my pronunciation but they gave me confidence and as long as the time passed we were having a fluency conversation, Here I knew that my pronunciation is not bad, I used what I’ve learned from Native speakers. I understood that in the past the teacher was the director of the class, the “boss” who allows what can be done. Nowadays. Communicative language teaching needs a conductor, a teacher who sets the directions of the activities that situate the students in a good learning environment. We are in an orchestra, and we are conducting the orchestra, however, it will not work in the players do not enjoy the music they are performing. Teachers have planned. So they know what and how to conduct the class. But how should teachers give the instructions to the class? Do

we have to do it in the target language? And if so, Is it difficult for our students or teachers? This is a problem in our classes when we are playing this role. We have a class of English, but it would be great if we had a class in English. Most of the teachers in Mexico do not speak English in the class because either they do not speak the language or it is easier to set the instructions in Spanish. If we want to raise the lever in our schools, we have to improve our English. It is the responsibility of the teacher to create a classroom where English is the language in which the students and teachers can express or ask for their feelings and needs. W R I T I NG TEAC H I NG STRATEG I ES In this module I learned to understand issues and concepts in pedagogical research that are related to teaching writing, I appreciate some of the difficulties to write effectively, I analyzed types of written language and classroom writing performance, Now I know how to apply principles of designing writing techniques to my lessons, I recognize some basic principles and formats for evaluating and assessing writing, I know how to identify the type of text, how to initiate a brainstorm or ideas, how to design a project,

how to use topic sentences,

grammar structures, punctuation and spellin. Writing is a passion for me is exciting the same as speaking, I love the way a student can have a conversation by mail or by phone, It is satisfactory when you listen that your student gets this step. I appreciate when they write a letter, an article for a newsletter, a paper for a course, a mail giving you thanks for everything transforming their ideas down on a paper to express thoughts and feelings into words with the correct structure and a coherent organization. I also know that with this course my students will receive more ideas to write a perfect final product, they will experiment a certain level of anxiety building their own writings having the security that they will write better everyday.

A BOU T I C T TOOLS I LEARNED THAT APPLY TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM IS RELEVANT FOR THE PROGRESS OF OUR STUDENTS AND THE PROGRESS OF THE HUMANITY .

When I began this course I thought that technology was only the computer and the internet. But technology covers everything from audiotapes to video, to computers of course. The personal computer is a salvation for English teachers but is not all the material you can use, of course it is an educational system and is perfect for practicing English, French, Portuguese, Etc..,,, Our students love computers, that’s why teachers who have a Diploma course are in advance related to others. There is a phrase I like for teachers that study this type or courses “There is a special place in Heaven for English teachers”

Lesson planning Plan your lessons should be for teachers a priority The role of the teacher is the manager, the person who has everything under control. Just imagine yourself as a coach for a soccer team. You want to lead your team to the final match and win, but you don’t have nothing in mind and on paper, what would happen, obviously you won’t get the award. But when you have everything prepared you and your team know that it was the result of group work. This is the way a teacher should be in the classroom. It is not an easy job. You have to set goals. To motivate, to train, to evaluate, to be the leader and, of course, five them feedback, to polish their play. On the other hand, as regarding the team, you must be very careful and make the most of the abilities of your students, give them freedom to work in the position in which they are good. This is our role, and we have to play it in order to succeed in our class. I learned that I have to plan my classes in order to set many different free activities like: role plays, games, reports, compositions, debates, interviews, commercials, discussions, drama, simulation of the real life etc. because it is very important to

state explicitly what you want students to gain from the lesson, we need to be sure what you want to accomplish, what you want to evaluate at the end of the lesson. I learned that the objectives of the class should be clear in terms that students will do the activities, we have to avoid unverifiable statements like these: -

Student will learn about the present continuous. Students will practice some writing exercises. Students will have an informal conversation.

We as teachers are forced to rely on performance that demonstrates or confirms correct comprehension; in other words I have to infer in the acquisition of those objectives. We should be able to identify the purpose of the class period with terminal objectives an enabling objectives, Terminal (I am responsible for assessing), Enabling (I am leading to a terminal objective. Thank you very much Marisela I appreciate your help. Alfredo Gálvez.

REVIEWING THE REPORT OF MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE. By: GAMAS MÉNDEZ CARLOS MARIO

ENGLISH LEARNING AWARENESS I would like to start by saying that I needed to know everything related to what the internet has to offer as a communication media and I learned it in the first module, from what an e- mail is to the chats room, and all the language needed for its use, it was very helpful for me in order to understand everything related to this course.

In the second module, I became aware in a deeper way about learning through internet tools. I familiarized myself with these all new tools and some sites, and improved my way of learning on line. I was taught to move the mouse and all its functions. I was able to organize the time I was going to spend working in a computer. In the third module, I learnt from what the meaning of reading is to different strategies to do, like skimming and scanning, and I really enjoyed the exercises with both techniques. I also learned the different types classified according to the purpose of each one. I read very interesting stories such “ La Amistad” and I really improved my reading and comprehension with the short stories and the exercises we did and all the terms, but above all the strategies to read that we were given by the Journey North, which I need to apply to have a better reading. The fourth module is one of my favorites because I learnt things I knew before but I didn’t know how to call them, such the rising and falling intonation, which by the way, it was so easy to understand with the teacher in the videos; the minimal pairs were difficult yes but very important as well as how to identify a stress word. Reading exercises were fun to do and along really it was fun to do and as I said before, module 4 is my favorite. In the fifth module, I had the chance to chat with some of my classmates, and that was very important to me to set me standards. I found out that they are all excellent teachers. I had never heard my voice in English, and at the beginning I didn’t like it, but as the module went along I got used to it, and I enjoyed at the end of it. Finally I could not enjoy the sixth module because of the lack of time as I wish I had, but there were some interesting exercises such as writing our own book, that was awesome!, or the comic stripe that was fun too . The questions about the movies or the review of a novel we read were not that fun, but all made me write more and more often.

All the modules had a purpose, and I think they were very handy for my personal growing. CULTURAL LEARNING AWARENESS Before this course, I knew something about some English speaking countries like the U.S., Canada, England and Australia’s history. As I visited new sites I

learnt

Finally, we read and gave opinions about some stories and books; I read from different people around the world and tried to understand the way of thinking in different topics. I enriched my knowledge studying the culture of the principal English speaking countries.

3.1 21st CENTURY TEACHERS.

As I reviewed at the beginning of this course, we, as teachers, must draw our student’s attention to a new ways of thinking. We can’t remain teaching as we did when we started working as teachers. May be we keep teaching the old fashion due to we learned that way, and we thought it was ok, and maybe we picked strategies from more experimented teachers we’ve worked with, who were really successful, or even from our own teachers to whom we understood properly, but we can’t teach that way any longer with all the new resources we have nowdays. I know, from my own experience, there are many teachers who resist acquiring new strategies that involve new technologies, like computers, and all these have something to offer to the teaching-learning process. Some teachers refuse to use technology because they are afraid to learn something their students already know, and wouldn’t resist to be corrected by them; to my understanding is a kind of physiological issue they have to deal with and it. With all new resources, we must adapt our selves to the every minute changing world, so we must be creative and imaginative. We have to remember when we were kids and played to invent situations to have fun. We must apply this imagination while teaching, create strategies with these tools every day, and take a good look to the possible inventions in our near and far future. We must not only encourage to our mates to use these technologies. If we have the chance and they have the disposition, we must teach them as well. At the beginning there will be mistakes, I can assure there will, but if we don’t take chances, will be stuck in a changing world and we’re going to be doomed.

We must keep our learning, in the same level our students will, and we must be updated for every innovation and designed strategies to fit them in our classroom. Finally we must be available for our students as much as possible, because, even though they will be learning by themselves, they will still need us to clarify doubts, lead them, moderate them, stimulate them and encourage them to learn.

READING TEACHING STRATEGIES When I began this course, I didn’t have a clue of how it was going to be, neither what I was going to learn. But as the units went by, I discovered the lack of strategies I had. I was surprised of the way they were taught because they were very easy and very comprehensible, even if you weren’t a formal English student. I used to read a whole text for every purpose, but when I read the definition of skimming and scanning and I applied them when I was reading, it became easier for me to read and to look for any specific part in a text, it was great. There were some sites that I enjoyed visiting, like “manythings.org” where I learned about the American English history and its differences with British English it was very interesting. I think these kinds of sites give the students the opportunity to improve their vocabulary through out interesting notes or news or anything they might find interesting. As we know in every language if you want to improve, not only your vocabulary, but your grammar you need to read a lot and very often. In the site “Adult Learning Activities” we visited in unit 3, I think, I read some very interesting articles in a large variety of topics such as nature, school , health and services, beside helping me with my reading I learned a lot for my personal knowledge and how to be a better citizen. LISTENING TEACHING STRATEGIES I think the second unit (English Bites) of the fourth module was not very difficult but complicated due to all the steps you had to follow, that’s why I thought it was the most difficult to accomplish. I considered the tasks very easy because I handled almost all the vocabulary needed to have them done. The text selections were not a problem because I was able to choose them and I think it was excellent to do that, and not working in a text that maybe I would not like. They were not too long, so they were easy to work with, and I tried to make them as clear as possible.

I think that some of our students don’t have the necessary tools to accomplish these tasks, because they belong to low income class and it’s complicated for them to carry out this sort of assignments. Some of them do have computers, but these computers do not the capability to download some of the programs needed to work. I think that this might be a problem, if we want to work with them with these kinds of strategies. If I want apply them at school, I’d face the problem with the dynamics of my school, because the computer lab it’s to small and not every computer has internet, besides not all of them have the capability to run certain programs. I think these are the main problems, but not everything is all that bad, I found excellent sites where the lack of programs would not be a problem and I can work with my students just fine. SPEAKING TEACHING STRATEGIES These sorts of tools are very helpful in the classroom because they are kind of new for the students and they might like them, if they are properly planned. I’d use the voicethread for second graders in the first unit for describing people and animals and tell their habits and make a review of what their classmates said. It works for exams too; I can evaluate them with an exercise where they have to describe the person they chose. For first graders I can use it to tell the personal information about someone they chose at the end of the second unit, or I can make them describe actions in progress for the third unit. There are too many things the students can do with this site, but we have to lead them step by step in order to reduce the time to do it and accomplish the goals.

There other tools they can use to improve their pronunciation, like the recorder where they’d have the chance to speak and being listened by them only at first, this can be useful in order to gain confidence in themselves, and later on send their recordings to me by e-mail for evaluation and try to correct them in time.

All we learnt here and the way we learnt it can be perfectly apply it in a junior high class.

WRITING TEACHING STRATEGIES. I had the chance in this module to improve my writing skills. First of all realizing the most important grammar aspects is the function of each word in sentences, for instance where to write a noun, verb or an adjective. To write something I have to visualize a concept, then I have to check my vocabulary and finally to carry out my idea. It’s a process where I have to begin with small projects; I also have to use my imagination to create more than I could think in a first glance. I need to read more in order to improve my grammar and punctuation. Both are very important to make myself clear every time I want to express myself in a written form. I also have to keep a logical sequence when I’m writing in order to be understandable and clear. I have to define an own writing style which will help me to keep a specific model every time I chose a topic. I have to establish differences among the styles there are in order to identify writing. This module was very difficult for me due to the lack of time and the technical problems I faced, but I was able to accomplish it and I had the chance to learn more about this skill.

ICT TOOLS CHOSEN

I chose these ICT tools because I think they are the most functional and the most suitable for my class, and besides they are very interesting and I consider that my students would like a lot to work with them.

The Audacity program is a great tool for my student’s speaking skill, because they can listen themselves without being listened by others. I’ve seen that students who are beginning to study English are afraid to make mistakes while they are talking in front of others, but with this program they can gain confidence to do it, because the can record whatever, until they consider to get it right and they can edit their presentation. The Voicethread program is also very handy. I can, as a teacher, leave groups assignments and evaluate them one by one or by group. The student can speak more freely and not be ashamed. They are even able to choose the topic, which means they even like it more, because they can express themselves in a better way about something the like very much. Finally, with the Bookr program, I can check the progress of my students assigning stories about any topic, using any tense and using their imagination with pictures. At the end, these three ICT tools might be the beginning to a funnier way to teach and I’m sure the students would love them, and make their best effort to learn English. LESSON PLANNING Without any doubt, lesson planning is one of the most difficult tasks we have as teachers, because we have to adapt the class programs with the needs of each group, it is like making a plan, no just for every grade but for every group, depending on the way of working.

I read the different lesson planning proposed in The Teachers Planet site, and I think the Bloom’s Taxonomy and Critical Thinking is the most suitable for my needs, because it takes all the necessary to plan a good lesson. All the steps shown in this proposal are needed to accomplish a good learning.

First you have to show the students a text to get them involve with the topic, then they express what the knew before they read or listen to the text, after that they give their personal opinions and discuss among them their different points of view and reasons to be, and finally they can make a final reflection about it. You can evaluate them either orally or by writing. It is very important to know before doing it, the student’s interests, their needs and most of all make sure that all the students participate and not let the exercise become a monologue; I mean not let the outstanding students take over the exercise. I’ve done this and I had to be very careful to carry it on. It’s very difficult if you do not plan it first, and you have to make such changes as the lessons evolve, depending on the group.

MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE By GARCIA HERNANDEZ PAOLA ABIGAIL

English Language Learning Awareness I learned new words through dictation exercises, how to design a reading plan after I read a meaningful example of one. I realized that my intonation, thought groups and pronunciation can get better if I follow good models. In order to improve my English level, it is necessary to make a great effort and be in touch with the language. I am sure conversation lessons are one of the greatest options, such as reading books in English, watching movies, listening to music and working on internet sites. Those options offer a variety of ways to enrich my vocabulary which is one of my weaknesses. It is a great idea to establish a schedule and continue working on the activities of the tutorial. Another activity that can help me to improve my pronunciation is reading while listening texts, apart

from being relaxing it is very useful. After four months, I am getting used to spend time on searching for information on web sites at least four times a week, that is a good beginning to continue learning and using resources from the internet to prepare more meaningful lessons. Finally, I will record some of my classes to check my intonation, thought groups and the way I give instructions.

Cultural Awareness For sure, teaching a language is teaching culture. A good way to focus students’ attention to English language is to present them a map in which they can look at the countries where English is spoken and read interesting information about it.

Watching movies and reading is an excellent way of teaching geography, history and culture about English and non-English speaking countries. Reading short texts is a good way for learning the mentioned aspects. I learned some interesting facts about San Francisco Bridge.

I read interesting information and saw pictures about a moving story (Amistad Incident), it could be a good option to my students. Another relevant aspect is differences between British and American English and reasons of those differences. I learnt that spelling differences in American English are due to they wanted to make writing easier and to have a sound for each letter. I think every class is a good opportunity to teach culture, I take advantage of questions my students sometimes ask in order to mention cultural aspects and I ask them to search for and share information about holidays celebrated in other countries, most of them look for information on web sites. They manage ICT tools better than teachers, but they need to be guided to use those tools with more learning purposes. New teaching strategies discovered One of the most useful strategies from the diploma course was recording my self using audacity program. It was new and kind of difficult at the beginning but talking about important people in my life and childhood memories made it easier and more meaningful. This strategy is related to leading in which students manage ICT even better than teachers. Listening to music evokes memories, feelings, emotions and imagination, which is mentioned in being visionary: The visionary teacher can look at others’ ideas. It could also deal with learning, we must learn and adapt as the horizons and landscapes change. Using web resources such as the English pronouncing dictionary with instant sound free on line is wonderful I sometimes use it in order to learn new vocabulary. I am sure it will be very useful to my students. A simple task for them could be to practice pronunciation when I present them new vocabulary or when they prepare short talks and do not remember how some words should be pronounced. Finally, solving reading comprehension exercises at web sites was a motivating strategy, I learned about how dangerous alcohol could be when driving while I

improved my reading. These activities can involve teachers and students in a lifelong learning process. Reading teaching strategies I think the most interesting activity for my reading practice that can also be for my students’ is “Sara went shopping”, it is a very short and easy story which presents many structures (past continuous, present perfect, simple past and simple present) but most of the exercises (Yes/No questions, Wh questions and Ask questions) are in simple past tense. The activity also includes dictation and some quantities that make the text easy to understand. It is possible to listen to the text while reading it and before doing the dictation listening is practiced, too. After reading the story, I solved different exercises that provided clues and the correct answers that is why I said it could be a useful activity for my students. As an after-reading activity I was asked to mention at least one cultural element. In my opinion the exercises presented during module 3 are meaningful for adults; it would be great if we could find or design some exercises which present the same structure but different topics. (According to secondary students age) Otherwise we could use the texts and some of the activities, the best for students’ level or the ones related to the units of the programme. There is software which presents activities like the ones in module 3, it is another good option in which internet is not used but students have the opportunity to work in the computer room. Listening teaching strategies The most difficult activity for me during module 4 was 7.2 authentic listening. It is not an activity based on a grammatical structure and it was not prepared to teach English. The speakers may not be native and they do not take care of their pronunciation, thought groups nor intonation. I had to listen to activity 7.2 many times maybe 10. At the end I did not understand every each word so when I wrote the summary I omitted some information that I wanted to add. I had a general idea

in order to write the summary, but I wish I had understood every word. That happens to me sometimes when I watch the news, movies or programs in English. The format was okay and it was a short listening which called my attention because it was about a lovely story. In my opinion some other topics could be more difficult to me. I believe that the activity could be easier if I had the transcript in order to look for the unknown vocabulary but I know it is not always possible. That is why it is very important to be exposed to native and no native speakers and to authentic materials. I think all the strategies are meaningful and could be very useful but it is sometimes difficult to find the best ones according to students’ interests and likes Speaking teaching strategies I found very useful all the activities during module 5. They evoke imagination, memories and practice. I enjoyed the videoconference a lot. Although we had some problems in order to establish communication it was really nice to talk to Carlos who lives in Tabasco. In my opinion that is what we need as English teachers. Videoconferences could encourage speaking among us. Listening to music instead of listening to songs is an excellent option to encourage speaking but I think (as it was suggested) it is a more useful activity when learners are in intermediate to advanced English levels. “Someone important in my life” could be one of the most appropriate activities to use with my students. According to their vocabulary and English level I am sure they could do this activity successfully and it would let me know more important information about their families, background, interests and environment. Students could be asked to do this activity in third grade after finishing unit 1 (Memories) because at this point they can describe people, express likes and dislikes and talk about past events. Finally, the voice thread is my favorite activity to use in my classes; it could be applied from first grade after some units in order to evaluate students, for example

at the end of unit 2: Actions in progress, I would ask my students to describe what a person is wearing and doing and express his/her likes, etc. Writing Teaching Strategies Although writing is one of my weaknesses I enjoyed Module 6. We wrote from the beginning and it was meaningful all the time. It was nice to start with comix which is a very useful tool in order to present and create short conversations. I think my students will like this activity too much but the most important thing is that step by step I am going to use ICT tools in my classes. I really wanted to do it but in a different way from other teachers who ask students to copy information from web pages. Creating an album with Photo Peach is another great activity which my students could do successfully. I also can use this activity to present or review vocabulary. Writing by following models is easier but if I want to use this activity with my students I should adapt the models because some of them could be complicated. Finally, my favorite unit from this module was movies and grammar. I tried to use movies but most of them are too long in order to watch them in my classes but movie extracts are a better idea and the ones in the web site are recent and attractive movies. About ICT tools I would like to mention tools from different modules because in each of them there are a lot of useful tools but as I was asked to choose one I selected module 6 about writing. It is appropriate to my students too because strategies like: creating tales, using photopeach and watching movies may be interesting and fun activities for them. In my opinion, creating tales is a tool which can be done successfully by my students from first grade because they may start writing very short tales or conversation which could be part of their evaluation. Another meaningful point

could be to publish their tales in the school blog or on wall charts in order to share their work. PhotoPeach is another wonderful tool. Students have the opportunity to use their favorite photographs or drawings to write about interesting topics: likes and dislikes, actions doing at the time of speaking, daily routines, habits, places they have been to or they would like to go to, ability in the present and in the past, buildings, memories, future plans, etc. as I mentioned this tool could be fun and useful at almost any time during the school year. Watching movie extracts is an excellent option in which students are exposed to authentic listening and to different accents not only native speakers. They suggested suitable exercises but in some cases more than one function could be practiced and a lot of cultural aspects could be shown. Lesson Planning I worked in Azcapotzalco, Mexico City. There are about 25 students in my classes. Some of them studied English at Elementary school, some others didn’t but the foreign language is not too difficult for them and few of my students (two or three per group) have serious difficulties to learn English; they need to be supported at home but they aren’t. I always plan my classes; I couldn’t stand in front of my students without a lesson planning. I try to include attractive materials, assignments, games and several exercises. I think the most appropriate model for my context is Bloom’s taxonomy because the elements it presents (Knowledge, Comprehension, Analysis, Application, Synthesis and Evaluation) are involved with Model of Experiential Learning which integrates Concrete experience, Reflective observation, Abstract conceptualisation and Active Experimentation and “seeks to develop individuals who are competent, who have initiative, sensitivity to others and awareness of practical realities, as well as sufficient confidence, insight, skill and flexibility to act affectively in a changing world, thus promoting personal growth”. That sounds very ambitious but as English teachers we have to make our best effort in order to contribute meaningfully to achieve it. At the end, the most important thing is that (as I have already mentioned) we have to plan our lessons and the activities included in all lesson planning presented in the web site are kind of different according to an approach but they could help to enrich the one I am using now. In my opinion the forums are one the best tools

because there we can find very interesting ideas about how to use or adapt strategies. My learning experience By GOMEZ LOPEZ MARIO

English Language Awareness

As the sessions went by, English Language Awareness was becoming more and more interesting. I could realize the importance to master a second language is a gigantic task. As teachers we are capable to understand we are working with human beings in their first stages of personal grown. So the responsibility is bigger. Mexican teenager students, from a public school, in my opinion have had some disadvantages in the English learning process. They have little access to the TIC ´S, in spite of the current resources the government have done recently to cover the national demands in schools. The lack of vision they have had about English in their daily life. It is something that is hard for us, teachers, when we try to change our students´ minds. I work in a secondary school near Pantitlán area, and it is sad to say many students have a poor vision about their future. I have asked them. What do you think about the English language? Will it be useful for you in the future? They have replied, “No Ticher, pa que estudio si nunca voy a ir a gabacholandia. Y a mi no sirve el inglés” Then I started to talk about the good things people can have, if they know a second language. I have worked the movie “Dead Poets Society” to encourage them to become better persons, not only for

the class but for their entire life. To contrast the Spanish and American- British way of life, not to say which is better, only to mark the differences between them is something basic and very important in my class. But my job is not so pessimistic at all. There are many students who have another way of thinking. They want to learn and my duty is to pave the way for them. Using some sites that the diploma course showed us has been so valuable in my class. They have improved their skills in listening for example, being in touch with real English. They are capable to listen with more detail than before. The movie activities from module six have been a complete success. Students have done the same grammar exercises which they were used to doing before in an unmotivated way, now they are doing them with some kind of fun. I have expressed my Principal the need we have to equip a digital classroom for the English Academy, a place where my students could practice their English.

LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES

One of the most important facts in English teaching process is, teachers will be capable to develop in students the listening skill. The diploma course gave us the opportunity to listen different kind of original speeches with different accent. The way some links showed the stories and tales was very useful for the students and for us too. I remember to put in practice the reading – listening exercise about “Driving”. The text gave us some advices and recommendations how to improve our attention avoiding traffic accidents. When I introduced this activity in my secondary third grade students, I asked who was able to drive a car or a motorcycle. I found myself very impress realizing the high number of students who can drive a vehicle, but anyway. That was better for my purpose. We listened first the video twice and it was a little hard for them to catch the main idea at the

beginning. Then we read the text and it was easier for them to understand it. The quiz at the end of the activity from the site was so fun for them. Some of them print it as a souvenir. As I result of these activities they made some posters about how to drive in a safe way. They stuck them all over the classroom. I remained them focus in ideas not words. Another important aspect was that I learnt that almost every single thing in English is useful for educational purpose, poems, photos, comic strips and movies. Note: A student took photos for the posters but He deleted them for his phone. NEW TEACHING STRATEGIES

As a teacher I need to get the real level my students’ want. And as a learner these tasks become more important, it’s a hard duty for a higher English level. In Globalization times there are very important priorities in the teacher role, we have to be modernized in all the educational aspects in order to offer a good education to our students. The technology can help us to increase this important aspect in education our society demands. Being an educator, I must be able to teach and work with collaborative tools to enhance and captivate our learners, because in many cases they are more advance with these kind of technological tools (web sites, blogs, e-mails, forums, etc.). Students should know troubles are the same here in our country that somewhere else, so if we have the right tools and the right approach, it’s possible to get a good sense in the students mind. And may be our job will begin to work fine. I agree with the idea of Teachers being capable to develop the students imagination as possible as it can in order to the students skills. Games and interactive learning is our principal goal if we want survives as teachers working with these 21st century kids. What can we teach them if they are more capable than us in technology? The SEP current study program in my opinion it is taking some risks working with projects at the end of every bimester. Students have to show their language skills

being communicative competent in order they give and receive information in any situation they have. Sometimes it is very useful students do

an useful extra

activity, relate to the topics we have seen in class (Scale model, Puppet, interview, video). For example in first bimester they make a Family Photo Album. Students describe some relative members, adding information like; Name, Age, Occupation, Address, Phone number, etc. READING STRATEGIES

I took some exercises from the diploma course to review and consolidate the reading strategies we were practicing in class with my FES students. I am working with students from first level and I thought about the scanning and skimming section. Students told me it was easy and fun for them the way the text was presented. We read the text about “Golden Gate Bridge”. The previous and later page, leaving at the center of the three pages; the main part of the text which the student is reading is very useful. Because they have the whole information all the time right in front of their eyes I think is good strategy. Students can see the whole text in a complete context. The quiz seemed to them very enjoyable because the site always gave them a clear explanation of their failures and accuracy. Using audio and video devices are very important to develop the pronunciation correctly. Adding extra and authentic realia to the students it is a motivation and modern tool we have in our hands. Another important fact about developing students reading skills is we must be capable to use original and real material. A great variety of magazines, documents, instructive or similar ones were shown in order students would be closer to the target language. We must keep in mind a group of people are our responsibility, They want to learn a foreigner language and we have to reinforce their communicative skills.

if we work and develop the correct strategies ( reading by inference, identify cognates, scanning and skimming, etc) we will set in our students the habits they need to improve their reading skills not only in the target language but in the mother tongue too. We will contribute in forming analytic and independent students. LISTENING STRATEGIES

I consider Minimal Pairs is a topic with a lot of activities we can deal with. Some things we should practice more are; We have to differentiate similar sounds words. (hot-hat, meat-meet)

all of these to avoid confused in the spelling and follow the

correct patterns. Some actions we should consider in our daily classes will be the idea to give more and more relevance to the Phonemic symbols it is useful to learn them because they make it easier to analyze the pronunciation of words. . Students should know the symbols and read words in the phonetic alphabet. A good ear will open the gate to new learning aspects. The pronunciation patterns might be easier to students and they gain confidence to produce more in English. Also it is so important to cover another main topic in an English course, in my opinion I know it seems obvious but rhythm and intonation help the students fluency. The more contact students have with original resources like radio and television recordings, videos, movies, songs they will be able to get better English skills. I often use the songs as an useful resource to improve listening abilities. It’s fun, enjoyable, and very educational, because they notice and listen themselves in the target language. We can expand the topic if we are able to make some association with the song.

There is a song in the Beatles catalog “´til there was

you”. I can make a review of there was/ there were. Also we can talk about feelings as love, friendship; we can talk about animals and the way of living too.

THE SPEAKING STRATEGIES.

The activity I liked the most was “voice thread “people description. The way we can describe the series of photos was so funny for me. I consider being in front others, giving them the chance of listening us,

gave the task an additional effort

for us as a students. In my daily classes I plan, as an ending activity, the next one. My students from second grade always perform a role play, using the topics we saw in the period and they can bring materials, clothes and objects related to their topic. Some examples of the role plays are; Shopping, My hero, a day in the life, going to the restaurant. I use to record those activities and give the tape to my students as a living proof of their learning process. I think students enjoy these activities because they showed an unusual interest taking a very enthusiastic attitude with their classmates. Listening to music instead of listening songs is a very good strategy, because music remains them moments and feelings that they might have forgotten. Students canalizes their memories in order to speak in a very fluency way. Although I couldn´t do the videoconference activity, because some technical problems, I think using the videoconference it is a basic and important tool we can use as in the classroom. With this resource, we can be closer to our students, friends or tutors like in this diploma course.

WRITING STRATEGIES

First I would like to say that I really appreciate this module a lot because the writing process is the most difficult part of any language. This module gave us the chance to be poets and artist for a while. To create a short story from the site Comic strip was fantastic. In three strips we were able to create a whole story arc. I think some of my mates from the diploma course were too deep in their tales; They were very explicit and truly touching. Then another enjoyable activity where I could describe my feelings to my little daughter was The Visual Story. In fact I adapted this activity for my FES students. They made a power point presentation adding their comments to the photos. We had a very sensible class those days. They read or talk about some their photos with a passion and feeling that is hard to express with words. The hardest activity for me, in this part of the diploma course was the “Instant Poetry”. Some parts of the speech we can make poems, sometimes they were very funny. sometimes very serious and too deep. Finally for my first book review activity I had some problems because I made a big mistake. I wanted to be beyond my own capabilities and wrote about some topics of my personal thoughts. Those emotions I wrote on paper were true and real because were inspired on people who I love. When the time and topics comes properly, I promise. I´m going to work and practice a lot these strategies as much as I can.

ICT TOOLS STRATEGIES

First I would like to say, The Audacity program is excellent to record our own voice. We seldom have the chance to listen ourselves and it’s a hard way to learn by our own mistakes. The activity called “Someone important in my life” put me in a great dilemma, because I had to choose only one person who is important in my life. Also we have the opportunity to organize a class recording some speeches from television, radio or internet itself. I used to command my students recordings in old tape recorders (I know its old fashion, because thank God we have IPods and Mp3 or Mp4). In second place the Photo peach program is awesome. Besides we can work the writing and the speaking skill we are adding an artistic aspect in our students. I made a similar activity with Power Point program. Students created a Photo Album with some of the most relevant family photos they wanted to share with us. In order to describe relationships, characteristics, habits or jobs or any topic according to the English level we were working with. But this ITC tool now is bigger in possibilities, because students can share it literally with the whole world. I wonder if there is the possibility to add sound and music to that program. Finally the reading module has an interesting site in which we can read and listen a story simultaneously.

The complementary activities are too useful for the

students because we are working the reading comprehension with most of their main characteristics. Students can also practice and make grammar or spelling exercises.

In Mexico it is a shame that not all Mexican secondary Teachers have this technology available in school yet because we can make great things with our students. LESSSON PLANNING STRATEGIES I chose the Bloom´s Taxonomy and Critical Thinking model to do my comments. I think with the new RES curriculum changes the SEP has applied and modified the program contents for the secondary official schools.

These two models have

similar characteristics in essence. We have to develop the students’ abilities in order they can be capable to work with “competences”. In my opinion I consider this model fits with this new idea for Mexican educators. The previous knowledge is basic to understand the topic and the learning environment is something teacher should work in class efficiently. (knowledge stage) Teacher should be involved in the correct selection of material. This has to be meaningful and communicative. A lot of resources can be chosen, magazines, posters, photos, songs, books, internet, etc. (Comprehension stage) Students will be capable to produce – communicate in the target language first with a series of control exercises where they monitor themselves in grammar. (Application stage) Students have to participate in social practices of the language in order to communicate, produce and do a proper interpretation of texts in oral and written form. (Analysis stage) The role of the teacher is always as a guide in the students learning process. He marks the weaknesses and strengths where they need more practicing or more exercising. (Evaluate stage)

MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE By GOMEZ ORTIZ JOSE ALFREDO

Introduction

The following document has

personal reflections and comments of the activites

carry out in this e-learning Diploma course organized by the UNAM and convoke by national SEP authorities with the purposes to rise the command of the English language and to develop communicative skills for teaching and learning Enlgish, by the use of the ICT tools, aim to Mexican secondary English teachers in service. It has comments and reflections about aspects involved in the teaching-learning process of a language, for example cultural aspects, strategies to improve communicative skills with the use of ICT tools, lesson plans models , just to mention some. My aspects of language learning along this program In module 3 Reading, I learned more and clarified my understanding of the two main reading strategies: skimming and scanning. Skimming is to get the overall meaning of a text quickly. After skimming you might decide if the text is useful or relevant for you and continue reading slowly and in more detail. Scanning is used for obtaining specific information on a piece of text. I also learnt twenty thinking strategies readers use to comprehend nonfiction texts (Journey North Reading Strategies). For example: activate prior knowledge, ask questions, before, during and after reading; distinguish facts and opinions; analyze text structure; identify author´s point of view; identify main ideas and supporting

details, make inferences

and draw conclusions; summarize information; use

context clues to decipher unfamiliar words and visualize images from the text. During the different quizzes and readings in this module, I started considering and using the strategies mentioned above and I realized that by using these reading strategies, I can approach to different levels. The lowest one is to get general information from a text and the highest one is to paraphrase and give an opinion of the article. For me the most difficult strategies when reading a text are to organize sequence of events and make generalizations. In module 4 listening, I learned the relevance of stress, intonation (raising and falling), rhythm, content word, tag questions and though groups to understand better a conversation. To improve my listening skills, I listened carefully the tasks on this unit and considered all the previous strategies mentioned. My weak area in listening is to recognize fully the pronunciation of different English speakers, for example people from Australia and eventually British people. Module 5 Speaking, I learned the following aspects to consider at the moment of speaking: fluency, flexibility, topic development, coherence, precision, pragmatic awareness, vocabulary richness, grammar correctness and phonologic knowledge (stress and rhythms, clear voice and variations). I also learned to organize better my speech according to my audience purpose. I could reach a better level of oral communication by doing the different recordings on the Audacity software, considering the aspects already mentioned.

To be honest, I consider that I have to work more on vocabulary richness, grammar correctness and coherence.

Finally in module 6 Writing, I learned to include an organization on texts, the main parts of any written texts must be an opening part or introduction, main body with supporting details and a final note for conclusions. It is also important to consider the purpose of your text and your readers to do an appropriate selection of language in order to communicate your ideas clearly. Another aspect to review on any texts is an appropriate punctuation and grammar correctness. By doing all the different tasks on this unit and considering the written models to write, I have achieved a higher level of my written skill. However, there are some aspects which I still need to practice and improve such as punctuation, spelling, correct lexical selection and grammar. Cultural learning awareness Cultural aspects which include history, beliefs, customs, music, art, literature and movies are very important to understand any language and communicate effectively, so these are my reflections on this theme. In module 3 Reading, I had the opportunity to learn more about American history through the readings “A horseman in the sky”, “Amistad incident” and “An occurrence at owl Creek Bridge”. I also learnt more about North American holidays (“Eggs and a bunny”), social problems and American legislation (“Cell phone safety” and “Foster children”). One quotidian cultural aspect which I learnt on this module was the use of bus schedules when doing a quiz at the BBC site. This activity would be challenging for my students and provide a useful cultural hint when traveling abroad. Another relevant cultural aspect which I learned was the reason of the difference in spelling between American and British English.

I think reading exposure provides a rich opportunity to know more about the culture and the way of living of native English speakers and non-native speakers around the world. To attract my students’ attention with written material, I would select meaningful readings for them such as “Saturday´s top fantasy performer´s” (The Times) or “Love Hurts” (100 free short English stories for ESL learners) In the listening module, I had a wide exposure of different kinds of accents (Australian, British, American, Asian and Indian). While listening to the different conversations or watching videos, I learned styles of life and relevant social aspects (a couple in Australia that runs a fitness center, the death of Ted Kennedy and American troops overseas).I also listened to songs and watched their videos which taught me cultural popular aspects. My teenager students would find attractive listening to interviews of famous singers or movie stars as well as watching their favorite music. From these activities students can learn, practice and review vocabulary, grammar aspects or written production. In module 5 Speaking, I learned the importance of music as a universal cultural heritage which can be used as meaningful tool to help students to speak as the music has the magic to evoke emotions and images easily. In the activity “people of influence”, I discovered another important modern cultural aspect, famous people who has made somehow contributions in the world and who are cultural references. Definitely, I would use the Audacity program to encourage my students to speak in English and the topics to speak would be “how to describe people” by using personal pictures of friends and family and “someone important in my life”. Finally in module 6 Writing, I learnt that comics reflect popular culture, what happens to people in their daily life but in a funny or sarcastic form.

The activity “movie segments” is a powerful form to spread and learn cultural aspects in a meaningful way. By watching movie segments, my pupils will learn plenty of different cultural aspects such as life in different places, customs, historical moments and many more cultural points. The activities which I would use in class without doubt: •

Comic strip with one of these possible themes: “A day at my school or in my English classroom” and “My worst and favorite class”.

•

Movie segments are useful for vocabulary and every day expressions, introduction to a new grammar point or grammar review. They can be used to write a comment or answer some questions based on the movie segment. While doing any of these possible tasks, the students would have a real listening exposure.

•

Tall tales, first I would encourage students by showing my funniest creation “ A Modern Cinderella”, then I would give one story in common for all the class, we would review and share the stories and later they would pick their own story.

•

“My first book of poems”, it is also a relevant activity students will enjoy a lot since they are at the age when we are more sensitive to write poetry. It is important first to grab their interest in the activity by showing them the complete product and immediately encourage them by starting with just one or two poems.

Attached material

Source

BBC Site

New teaching strategies discovered Human beings most of the time live and act in their daily life according to different models, patterns or habits that they have incorporated aware or unaware of them. The point is that some of these habits are not any more suitable to live in a fast changing world, so it is important to reflect and make some changes in our habits in order to be more effective in our personal and professional life, for example teachers must reflect on what are their regular practice in the classroom and try to look for different and innovating ideas.

The text “Eight habits of highly effective 21st century teachers”, mentioned the following characteristic for an effective 21st century teacher: •

Adapting

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Being visionary

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Collaborating

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Taking risks

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Learning

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Communicating

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Modeling behavior

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Leading

During this Diploma course, I have observed and practiced some of the above characteristics, for example, I have adapted myself to the use of different software and hardware (Audacity software, headphones, Messenger, the photo peach site and many more different technological challenges across this Diploma course). I have taken the risk to overcome my fear of a new form of learning, I mean this Diploma course. Definitely, I have learnt a lot about the 21st form of learning: the net and all its potential for education. Of course, while learning about this new proposal for education, I have improved my English languages skills.

However, I still need to incorporate, adapt, communicate model student´s behavior in a positive form all the knowledge and experience gained so far in this Diploma course, in order to lead my students and become a positive leader in the classroom. On the other hand, it is always important to be realist, that doesn´t mean you have to give up your goals. I am referring that to start changes; you have to begin by analyzing your real contexts of action and start a plan to get to your educational target. From this perspective, I can say that one restriction is that at this point my school does not have the complete technological resources (lack of computers and internet confection) and perhaps a good number of my students do not have access at home to a computer or internet.

However, this quick analysis of technological environment does not mean that I cannot start innovating and improving my teaching strategies. For example, I can start right away by teaching and practicing with them all the reading strategies learnt (skimming, scanning and at least twenty more), collecting meaningful articles from the net (using for example the 100 readings) For developing their listening ability, I just need my regular c.d. player and to look for real listening tasks where they develop the ability and understanding of the importance of stress, intonation, content, words, though groups. I can provide a wide rich exposure to different accents by presenting videos, songs interviews and commercials from the net.

Regarding to the development of the speaking activity, I can use the Audacity program to record my student´s oral production or use their own gadgets to record their voice. As the same time, that I teach them the relevant aspects to focus at the moment of speaking (general rubric to evaluate oral performance) Finally, about writing I think that some suitable tasks for my students are to create a book of poems, the comic strip and the photo peach activity where they have to edit personal pictures. Of course, teach students different models to write and the main parts of a written text according to its gender. The most interesting activity in the third module, reading I have to mention that it was a little hard to decide the most interesting activity in the third module, since I liked and enjoyed all the activities from this unit. However, I selected the quiz level C focus on skimming skill of the BBC Skills wise page, “An extract from, the path that led nowhere”. I picked up this activity due to different points to consider, for example the level of difficulty, the fact that you have to answer ten questions based on the article in

three minutes, this means that you really need to apply different strategies to get the correct answer in the time given. Another point is that you will receive feedback that includes your score and the explanation of every correct or incorrect answer. As I just mentioned, the task is to read an extract of a book which has 6 paragraphs with a descriptive picture of the main idea of the text on the top and answer ten questions in just three minutes. It has challenging vocabulary, for example: grind, grazing, meadow, hustle and bustle, misty and clay pigeon. As a consequence I needed to overcome the lack of the knowledge of the words mentioned and infer the possible meaning or the closest one according to the context provided (reading strategy) Then to answer correctly and on time you have to apply certain strategies. For example, skimming strategies like the title, the picture on the top and a quick reading for the main idea at one glance. And very important, keep on mind the relevant information like dates, places and this reading distances and recreational activities offered. Then read quickly and answer each question, find references on the text that supports the answers in case you are not completely sure about the answer. I mean find key words on the reading that lead you to the correct response. To resolve this reading task, I also draw conclusions (question “by the end of this piece of text, Harry has found his way out of the forest: true/false), make generalizations, summarize and organize information (question, decide the correct order of the events in the story) and make an overall sense of the different descriptive paragraphs in the story.

The most difficult listening activity from module fourth.

From my experience as an English teacher and language learner, I can declare that listening skill is the first or second most difficult one to achieve for a nonnative English speaker. My most difficult task on the fourth module was the activity 5.2 news, practicing listening. The activity consisted of listening and watching a video of about two minutes length and then answer ten questions based on the information from the video. This task is on the BBC Skillswise page. This activity was hard for me because I could not understand all the information and could not remember and recognize key information when answering the quiz. The strategies that I used were listening for content words, pay attention to the stress and rhythm of the speakers, observe the images at the moment of speaking to match with the oral information. When doing the quiz, I used my knowledge of the world to try to figure it out the correct answer. I did not get a good result in this quiz, I fail four answers. I think it was hard for me because the speaker mentioned a lot of information in a short time, so I didn’t have enough time to keep on mind all the data. Also the quality of the sound was not so good and the speaker voice wasn’t so clear for me (British accent) Perhaps, it would be easier with a better sound and a clear voice of the speaker. Also, I think that the reporter did not use variations in his pitch of voice, so I heard all flat, without any stress hint of relevant information. There was not any previous warm up for the activity in terms of vocabulary that will be important or used in the quiz, neither cultural background to understand better the listening context.

The most useful speaking activities

All the activities of this module were useful and taught me different aspects about improving my speaking ability; however these are the most useful speaking tasks for me: •

•

The music tracks to generate oral production, with the topic describing a "place or situation”, This activity consisted in listening to a part of a music track and describe what images and feelings evoke the music, using the Audacity program to record my description. "Someone important in my life " was the topic for this activity, I had to speak about one person or people relevant in my life, following these points: flexibility, fluency, topic development , coherence precision, vocabulary richness, grammar correctness, pragmatic awareness and phonologic knowledge (general rubrics to evaluate oral production).To record my oral production, I used the Audacity program. "People of influence", another topic to develop oral production. Using the Voice thread program, I recorded my comment about the current president of Argentina, observing the general rubrics mentioned above. "Describing people", the title of this activity using the Voice thread program. This activity is particularly relevant because in the official program of Sep, first grade unit two students have to describe people, then I experience again this activity and realize of the challenges of this activity among my students. The video conference with a classmate was another useful task since I had the opportunity to interact orally in real time. The selection of a hot topic (new taxes) encourages and helps us to develop the conversation with fluency and interest.

All of these activities were useful for me because they provided me interesting topics to speak about and allowed me hear myself and correct my oral production. On the other hand, I learnt to record my voice using two different programs and these are very useful tools to improve the speaking skill.

Speaking activities to use in a secondary school classroom

To develop speaking skills you need to consider these points: A good topic to encourage students to speak, visual and audio material and to give or remember in every speaking activity the aspects to consider at the moment of speaking (general rubrics for oral production). Students will learn them better if they get used to evaluating themselves and their peers. Finally, technological resources available to develop oral performance To record and improve my students’ oral production, I will use the Audacity and Voice thread programs. I also can use other gadgets as cellular phones or video cameras to have digital files and evidence of my student´s oral performance. I will use music (no songs) to evoke descriptions, first I would bring my c.d. player to the class with six previous tracks according to this topic “Every day actions in the life a famous personality”. I will start by remembering or give vocabulary related to this topic (verbs for every day actions) so they will have the minimum lexical to do the activity. Then, I will guide the oral production with this written and oral instruction: according to the different music tracks imagine a typical day in the life of a famous personality. Every different track will be for each of these following parts example: 1. John Cena lives in Tepito. This is one typical day in his life. 2. First, he wakes up very early and… 3. Then, he… 4. Next, he… 5. After that, he… 6. Lastly, he…

After, I will play the music tracks and let the music evoke ideas in my student´s colorful imagination. Next, they will listen again and write a draft of their oral production. After that, they will listen again to add more information and if necessary, listen to the tracks one more time. The next thing is to review their oral draft and students can ask questions to me. Once students are ready to speak, they will tell their oral production in front of the class. It is important that all the students participate; it will take two hours to accomplish this. Finally, according to the technological resources your can record some of the oral productions. _________________________________________________________________ Another activity for the class will be “Describing someone important in my life”, for this activity students must bring to class a picture of someone important in their life, and start the physical and psychological description. The activity starts with the written description of a picture and then turns into a speaking task with the purpose to develop students’ phonologic knowledge (pronunciation, stress and adequate rhythm). I will decide to record or not student´s oral performance according to the time and need of students to hear their voice and correct their pronunciation, I mean, if students have done more than three recording practice, I will think about if it is convening to do it or not.

Comments about the forums in the writing module

In this forum we had the opportunity to share personal experiences and books that are important for us, then I learnt about my classmates and it is funny to know that not just me have seen an UFO. The only person that read my texts was Marisela, she liked them. I have to say that I missed to read some book reviews but the ones that I read, were interesting , for example one that is the story of a couple who decided to leave their current life and start a new one in a complete different country.

Main teaching strategies to develop writing skill To develop any kind of physical or intellectual ability, it is important to have the minimum technical knowledge of what you want to develop, follow a program and to practice as much as possible or until you want to reach your ability. In the case of writing skills, you need to consider the following aspects: grammar correctness, punctuation, content and organization of the text (introduction, main body with supporting details and a final note or conclusion) according to its gender (quotidian, academic and literary); the intention and audience of the text. It is advisable to read a lot in order to have certain models or styles of writing in mind until you have your own, a good writer is usually a good reader. It is also important to follow certain steps to write, first to have a topic development for example, you can write about your favorite vacations, a weird incident in my life, a book review, etc. Once you have your topic, you write your first draft and you can ask someone to read it and make some corrections and give his or her opinion about the style and if it is understandable or not. Then, you do the necessary corrections and give it back to the same reader or perhaps a different one and repeat the procedure until you are satisfied with your written production in terms of content and style. Finally, you can edit your work.

By writing frequently, following the aspects mentioned in the second paragraph and reviewing your written work, any literate person will be able to develop the art of writing. On the other hand, it is a useful strategy to use templates as the “Tall tales” to help you learn expressions, vocabulary and develop your imagination and creative process. Comments about ICT tools According to the meaning of ICT tools, information and communication technologies on English language learning, it refers to the possibility of sending and sharing different kind of data (text, sound and image) and establishing a synchronic or asynchrony communication with one person or more; with the purpose of learning English; by using different tools like the e-mail, chats, forums and groups or personal video conferences. These tools or technological resources are also used for commercial and social purposes, but specially for learning English. It means great opportunities to improve and learn in an affordable and accessible form. For example you can have a personal video conference with a person from Australia or the U.K or chatting about any topic in English and ask for corrections of your written lines right away, so the use of ITC tools are really very useful for any English language learner, and hopefully in the near future we will have more progress on them. Since the beginning of this Diploma course, I have experienced and foreseen the potential of these ICT tools as an English teacher and language learner. For example in the speaking module, I had a video conference with a classmate and in the writing module, I participated on chat sessions. Luckily, I have accessed to these ICT (in Mexico 9 out of 100 have access to internet, source Daily global, 29/10/09). ICT

TOOLS TO USE WITH SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS TO

DEVELOP COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS

The first ICT tool which I selected, it is the use of the e-mail, linked to one activity from module six writing (comic strip). I chose this ICT tool because it is free, accessible to any people or public cyber café, very useful for everyday purposes. You can store and manage a big amount of information according to the account supplier; also I have seen that not all my students are familiar with the use of an email account or even worst they have never opened one. I picked up the activity “comic strip “due to its characteristics which will attract and encourage my students to write and express in English. It is an excellent way to start writing in English. On the other hand, this site is easy to open and use it. Students have to create a comic line by using the “Comic strip” site. On this page they can select different characters for their story ranging from people to funny animals (a cat, a dog, and an alligator). Students can make them appear to speak each other and write what they are speaking or thinking in bubble speech. They can also change facial expressions of their characters so it matches with the words and they can even color the background of each square. Finally, teenagers have the option to print or share their comic with friends or teachers. Here students will use one ICT tool (e-mail) with the purpose to write in English. While doing this activity, I realized that it encourages the writing process because you start thinking in funny stories and teenagers have a colorful imagination, then they will love it. Other reasons of the selection of this activity are that since they have to write short sentences or even words, students can focus more in what they write in terms of grammar correctness, spelling and punctuation; and for teachers it is easier to review and give a real feedback of their written production. I think that by using this activity from the beginning, until they share it by using an ICT tool, students will start engaging in a pleasant form to the written and technological culture. Setting basic tracks as grammar correctness punctuation and

spelling to future formal written practices and of course a new tendency in formal education; here is the challenge, for becoming 21st century teachers by using this century tools. The second ICT tool is the use of a chat with the topic “Describing someone” (speaking module and Sep program). This is also one accessible ICT tool, this one will lead students to develop the ability to have and keep a written colloquial conversation with more than one participant. The organization of this task is in the classroom between two schools (already agree to do the activity) or two different groups from the same school; students will participate in groups of five and ask questions about personal information, physical description of the classroom or school, for about ten to 15 minutes, until all the group participate in teams of five. (Note: for this activity you need internet access and a previous arrangement with another group to have the chat session at the same time) The use of a video conference (messenger) is the third ICT to explode with educational purposes. This activity demands more hardware and software, and good internet connection. This ICT tool allows practicing two main skills at the same time, as in real life: listening and speaking. The topic could be “sharing my favorite photos”. First, one student will present two or three or his/her favorite pictures using the webcam for two or three minutes. Then, the class will prepare two or three questions related to the pictures, each question will be asked to a different student. At this point the ICT tool will allow the synchronic communication and encourage students to speak. After that, the communication will stop for a while to see the pictures described, these pictures are already edited on the Photopeach site (module 6 writing) and

sent by mail (ICT) previously. I selected the Photopeach site because students would love to write and edit their favorite photos. And also because it is a good starting point to write the captions of the pictures. COMMENTS ABOUT LESSON PLANS The intention of the following document is to analyze the different lessons plans suggested and decide which ones will be the most suitable for our real daily teaching-learning contexts. I would like to mentioned them: 1. Madeline Hunter´s Seven Steps 2. Bloom´s Taxonomy and critical Thinking 3. Multiple Intelligences (Howard Gardner´s 7 ways of Knowing) 4. Instructional Scaffolding (Jerome Bruner;Langer and Applebee) 5. Discovery lesson 6. Group Work (Cooperative learning) 7. MiniCycles

On the site teaching models, one example for the models 1,2,3 and 4 is provided, these examples have exactly the same content, “Anatomy of a lesson plan”(see text at the end of this document), however, what it changes are the different approaches and conceptual ideas of the teahcing-learning process. For example,Model two (Bloom´s taxonomy), emphasizes more in developing a criticial thinking, starting with previous knowledge of students and ending with an evaluation; it is more a traditional teaching style, this does not mean that it is not useful. The model based on multiple intellegences has the main aim to develop all the possible intelligences, this model example does not have an evaluation part; the

knowledge of the different intelligences is very useful to uderstand what are the learning channels students have and as a consequence consider activities that estimulate these forms of learning. The scaffolding model, focuses its attention on two main aspects of the learning process, the help provided by advanced learners and the internal construction of knowledge to keep learning ( Vygoskic) The model of Madeline Hunter´s (seven steps), has the basic methodological steps for a successful English class and it includes aspects of the others models already mentioned; this is the secuence or organization of an English lesson plan: •

Anticipatory set (warm up)

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Statement of objectives

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Instructional input to introduce language items,functions or carry out activities to develop communicative skills (multipe intelligences)

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There is a time to model what students are expected to do with the language

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It is vital to review if the students are understanding the explanations and every activity to carry out

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Guided or controlled practiced is relevant, this is the time to the internalization process of language learning,here it is important the collaborative learning (model fourth, Brunner), it is the moment to develop communicative skills in the practice,”Experiential learning model” (Sep,English program 2006,page 10)

•

Independence practice, it is the consolitation of a cyclic learning process (Sep,English program 2006,page 10); it is included homework assigments and it could have an evaluation part.

The use and implementation of this model in our daily classes will give students the opportunity to develop communicative English skills, by practicing in organized learning sequences.

CONCLUSIONS •

I can say that the internet is the new tendency to learn and improve English language skills.

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English teachers have in the ICT tools and English learning sites a form to master the English language as well as a source of authentic material to teach English.

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English teachers must start using the ICT tools and English learning sites with their students.

My Learning Experience

By GONZALEZ GARCIA JOSEFINA

I thought too much before sending the mail accepting to be in this course, I was so nervous, I was thinking on many different things. It would be my first on line course, I was insecure, but finally I decided to take it. “Elementos de la educación a distancia y práctica de los elementos esenciales de la plataforma virtual” was the first module. It was a self evaluation module and the main topics we studied were: • • • •

What is internet? Learning activities where we can use the internet (organizing a chat, writing diaries, etc). Main means of communication through the internet in a long distance education (chat, e-mail, videoconference, etc.). Means of information (web sites, virtual libraries, electronic magazines, etc.).

The second module “Learning to learn English through internet tools and resources” was a good way to teach us how to work in a long distance course. I learned how to use the internet tools in education and I also learned some new vocabulary related to long distance education. It was an easy module that helped me to feel more confident. The next four modules were very important because they helped me to develop the four basic abilities of the language (reading, listening, speaking and writing), practicing with different activities through the internet sites. All of them were useful. I learned to learn and I learned a new teaching way, with the use of information and communication technologies. It does not finish here, now I know my strengths and weaknesses, and I am conscious that I need to continue studying in order to reach the best English level and to be a better teacher. The last module, “Teaching strategies”, was very important too because I had the opportunity to make a review of all the modules I worked and write about them.

This module helped me to remember all the activities I did and to have them in mind to plan my classes. I’m grateful to my tutor, Marisela Checa, because she was always disposed to guide our work, she gave us her knowledge and she always had positive comments to the work I did. She made me feel confident and it encouraged me to get to the end. Thank you very much Marisela Checa. English language awareness This is the first time I’m taking a course on line and I discovered that we can find all kind of exercises to improve our English level. Along this course, I was working in the different suggested sites. First, we did some activities related to the use of computers where I learned new vocabulary like drag and drop and the difference between boxes and radio buttons, I practiced phrasal verbs and conditionals, both of them have always been a little difficult to me, but now I learned more about them and I can continue practicing with the different kinds of activities that the internet sites have.

To practice pronunciation with “minimal pairs” is an activity that I practiced many years ago with a book and a tape recorder, but now to find this activity in internet is excellent because it is a good way to learn the pronunciation of different words. I

just go to the site and I can start practicing pronunciation at the same time I’m checking the spelling of words. I enjoyed it and it helped me to make a review of my pronunciation.

I had the opportunity to learn more about the different reading comprehension strategies and the different kinds of texts (informative, descriptive, instructive and persuasive). As an English teacher, I have worked some of them with my students; but now I know more about those topics especially about text types. I learned how to work different activities in the internet sites that are always more attractive for young students. I also learned the difference between British and American spelling in the ending of words and why it is different.

I had the opportunity to practice listening at Randall`s ESL Cyber Listening Lab and I really enjoyed it because I could listen to native speakers in different levels (easy, medium and difficult) and in general the listening module helped me to improve my listening ability.

The speaking and writing modules had important activities. I learned how to record my voice and listening to my recordings let me check which points I needed to improve in order to have a better intonation. The writing exercises were interesting. I learned how to write stories in an easy way, and I also learned how useful some simple images can be to develop our writing ability.

Cultural learning awareness It is very important to learn about culture in other parts of the World in order to understand different ways of life, but especially when we are learning a new language, that’s why English Teachers must focus their students’ attention in the cultural aspects from different countries.

In the second module I read about the history of American English, and I think it is an interesting topic for people learning English, this kind of information could help us to understand more about spelling or to learn about the origin of some words.

We can introduce cultural aspects in our class with written texts, images and quizzes; in the Adult Learning Activities site we can find a lot of texts where we can

identify different life styles as we did in the reading “Foster children”. In that site we can find different topics to work with our students, for example: working, law and government, family, school, science and technology etc.

The activities consist on written text and a video. The first step is to read the story and then listen to the story and watch the video. At this point the students have learned something about other cultures, after that they can practice on the activities related to the text, like learning new words, spelling a word, matching game, picking an answer and writing an answer. When the activities are completed students can get their own scores. Creating a visual story is almost a good activity to learn about other countries. Students can look for the main information and pictures from the country they like, and then they will be able to create their story. It is not necessary to visit a country to know about it.

These are just examples of what we can do in our classes; there are different sites and activities that we can use with this purpose. strategies discovered.New teaching

These are some of the most useful teaching strategies that I can adapt to my context: - Reading comprehension strategies - Recording stories or dialogues - Creating stories - Describing pictures - Writing after listening to music - Describing people, places and thinks - Writing poems - Creating a visual story - Grammar activities - Written texts - Quizzes

All of these teaching strategies are related to the text “eight habits of highly effective 21st century teachers”. I’m sure that if we apply these kinds of strategies, our classes will become more attractive and more useful to our students. Students do not like to write ten or twenty times a word to learn it. They need to learn in a different way, according to the time they are living, and internet is offering us the opportunity to do it. Working on these teaching strategies would be possible to adapt software and hardware into tools and as a consequence to enhance and captivate learners

Nowadays most of the students are related to the use of new technologies; they are familiarized to Wiki spaces, my space, MSN, etc., so teachers must contribute to do a good use of them working with activities that help them to improve their Knowledge in different ways (reading, writing, learning about history, etc).

If it is possible to work in teams, students with a previous Knowledge about the use of computers could help their classmates. If we add to our plans the use of technology, we could also have a better communication with our students. If we can communicate with them by e mails or hi 5, it could help us to know them in a different environment, and it would be easier to understand their attitude. First of all, teachers must start setting goals and objectives, and then choose the best teaching strategies according to their students and their context. The text we read is about 21st century teachers. We are 21st century teachers and we must act as 21st century teachers. Reading teaching strategies

I liked the third module, and I enjoyed many of the activities I did, but the one I liked most was from unit 4 activity 4.2, British adults “fear youngsters”. The text doesn’t have images but it has big letters and some of them are in bold, some other words are in a different colour. This article is about teenagers’ behaviour, it talks about the increased risk of youth crime. It says that British adults don’t like to socialise with children in the evenings and that only 34% of British adults are willing to intervene if they see a group of young boys vandalising. The Institute of Public Police Research suggests structured activities for teenagers like sport clubs.

First you have to read the article, after that there are some statements and you have to choose if they are true or false, then there is a list of the words in bold and the activity consists on writing the meaning of each word or a synonym. I think this activity help us to activate our mind, but if you prefer it gives you the opportunity to use a dictionary and look for the meanings or synonyms. At the end you can check your right answers and your mistakes. I also liked it because I learned something about British Culture.

There were some other activities I liked, but I chose this one because I feel it made me activate my mind. Listening teaching strategies 5.1 The most difficult activity from the reading module was the one related to “thought groups, English punctuation”, because the videos are from the You Tube’s site and when I was working, the video stopped so many times and it was not easy to understand the whole idea about Jenifer’s classes. When I finally listen to the video it was a nice experience because in that site we can easily practice and learn about thought groups, intonation, word stress, rhythm etc.

After that I had another technical problem with “listening lounge” in unit 7. I tried to do the activity many times and I couldn’t, so I tried some days later and finally it was possible to listen to it; I liked this activity because I had the opportunity to listen to people with different accent; I listened American, Japanese and Ukrainian accent. If we and our students practice this kind of activities frequently it will be easier to understand any people that speak English. It is very important for teachers to have two or three extra activities ready because if one of them is not working well, we could choose another one. Module four had a lot of work, activities were not difficult, instructions were clear for each unit and the access to the links was easy.

Before starting to work with listening activities, it is necessary to check that the hardware works correctly. At the beginning of this module I had some problems with my speakers, but I solved them and worked with listening activities.

Speaking teaching strategies In the Speaking module, there were many useful activities.

The activity People of influence was good because we had the opportunity to talk about people who have gotten the acknowledgment from many people around the world. All of those people have done an important work or they have had a big influence in their country or in the world. It was nice because we gave an opinion and we could listen to others’ opinion too and if we apply the activity to our students, they could learn more about “people of influence” and teachers could choose people from history, singers, writers, presidents etc.

Another useful activity that I liked was listening to music and telling a story. I liked it because I found it very interesting how we can remember and describe a moment or a scene we lived, finding out the most important events It is interesting how music or smell can take us to a specific time of our life, and in this case, we could express something about our memories at the same time we were developing our speaking ability.

Voice thread activity is very interesting; this kind of activities allows you to develop many topics from the curricula. From the first grade to the third grade, you can adapt the activity to these topics: introducing oneself and other people, describing what people are wearing, making comparisons, making predictions about the future, etc. You can practice these activities for you or with your students, and it is an attractive way for learning. Writing teaching strategies Sometimes writing turns out to be a difficult subject and the sixth module gave us the opportunity to practice it. We wrote interesting stories like tall tales and a book of poems where I learned and easy and funny way to write. We could share our stories with other course mates, and it was an excellent way to know more about each other, to know about beautiful places we have visited and how we have spent holidays. We could see how important is the family for Mexican people, and how nice are Mexican traditions. I consider all the strategies were useful, and they helped me to improve my writing ability; in my opinion, some of the most important activities were: o Grammar structures, punctuation and spelling, which must be the base for any person who desires to write in any language.

o Writing with writers. In that site we could check some types of writings, this site help us to develop our writing ability because we can participate in the workshops that were designed to develop our skills.

o My first book review was another important task because it made me think in English before writing. I had never done this kind of activity before now.

This was one of the most difficult modules because of the work we had to do, we had to work in longer sessions, but it had excellent activities. Writing a book of poems and creating a visual story are two activities that I enjoyed a lot.

At the end of this module, I learned that the internet has an unimaginable number of sites with many different activities, and we can use them not only as a personal resource, we can also take our students to this magnificent world; I’m sure they would like to work there.

About ICT tools. Along this course we have been working with many Tools that are useful to learn and to improve our English language. Teachers must be conscious that taking to our classes the use of Information and Communication Technologies will enhance

our students and it will be possible to have best results at the end of the school year. Teachers can not continue working in a traditional way; we have to change the teaching and learning process. We have to use the Information and Communication Technology to improve learning processes; we could encourage students to consider the use of internet as an important tool along their life.

I found many useful tools for my students and for me. In my opinion the web sites are the most important because we can find different kind of exercises that go from an easy to a difficult level combining the develop of the four basic abilities of the language (speaking, reading, writing and listening). There are some other important tools I have considered like: Audacity program: students can record and listen to their voice in class, and it would help them to practice dialogues, telling stories etc. checking intonation and word stress for example.

Video conference or chatting: students like the chat; this is an important tool that we can use asking students to do it in English, to practice English. If they practice chatting with a classmate or with the teacher, they will start thinking in English and they could feel more confident.

If the internet is not available at school we can use CD rooms that have some funny and interesting activities.

Lesson planning

I think Multiple Intelligences lesson plan is the most appropriated to work in my school because there has been applied a questionnaire to the students about Multiple Intelligences and we found out which kind of students we have.

This is the first time we are going to work according to Multiple Intelligences of students and to share this lesson plan with my colleges at school will be helpful, this is a good moment to work with it.

Students are always waiting for new strategies and this could help us to take more appropriate activities to them.

This type of lesson plan can be adapted successfully to English classes, teacher should be a guide and motivate students with activities they enjoy and help them to learn better.

There are a lot of strategies for teaching English and we can adapt them to our students’ necessities.

Fortunately in an English class we can have a different kind of activities like reading and working with a variety of written texts, applying the different reading strategies, we can practice with dialogues, according to different situations related to the quotidian life. We can listen to music and sing in class, work with lyrics and write or talk after listening to music; we can also work with printed material like pictures, pamphlets, postcards, magazines, posters, etc.

It is also possible to do some activities after watching videos or movies and of course we can work in internet sites, and we will be covering students’ necessities according to multiple intelligences so that our students find attractive ways for learning. They could also share their Knowledge with their classmates and they would start to develop values in the classroom.

MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE BY GONZALEZ PELAGIO DORA LUZ

Since in each secondary school there is only one or perhaps two English Teachers without a specific course for the subject, most of us feel alone and neglected by the System; do not have the opportunity to share experiences, get feedback or check doubts. This Diploma Course serves these needs and during the work I improved my elemental use of the ICT tools. It does not make sense to worry about the result because I have just gotten the most important: knowledge to improve my practice; keep my students’ respect and a very positive emotional feedback about my capabilities after twenty years as an English teacher. I am eager for develop some activities with my students and I would really like to keep in touch with some of you to share the results and listen to your own experiences. I am very grateful with both tutors (Rebeca and Marisela) for their support and patient and such as a chain I got the commitment to return the same good attitude to my own students. ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AWARENESS Main aspects about language content I have learned: I looked up at certain dictionaries where I found new words (huge, template, features, tall tale); idioms (go to pieces, get out, panic seized) when I needed to understand instructions word by word and express feelings or emotions. In Module 6, I learned Funky Phrasals (to get ahead, to get on, to get over, to cool down). I visited the BBC Learning English where I listened to conversations and tried the quizzes about them. I got a new perspective about reading strategies such as asking questions during the reading, not only before or after, I distinguished facts from opinions and identified expressions that indicate if I am reading a fact or an opinion. I identified the author’s purpose, viewpointed and paraphrased to get it. I read the article related to “Content Area Reading Strategies” very carefully, then I made a correlation between it and the factsheet “The Language of fact and Opinion” from the BBC web site. I watched Jennifer’s videos on YouTube, heard Bon Jovi song (Welcome to wherever you are) many times and did the dictation, from the BBC in the section

Words in the News, using slashes to separate thought groups; at the end I got though groups as a technique to improve my listening and pronunciation by means of looking at the writer’s punctuation and the grammatical units carefully, I analyzed how to keep together short statements and single ideas. About the points for further work I must take dictation for a beginning level because I discovered that I hear in a linear way and as a logical consequence my speaking ability is so insecure.

CULTURAL LEARNING AWARENESS Since my teenage students are eager for immediate solutions, answers and grades, I am going to show them the next digital tools: 



The almost magic templates to “make appear” poems and tall tales from the Wacky Web Tales and Instant Poetry Forms because it is easy to create text without the panic caused by an empty sheet of paper while learning functions of words. American Stories to discover the pleasure (like me) of reading and listening to a native speaker, besides they know some features of American History and daily life such as: Civic War and the strong relation between a father and his son. The useful frameworks from Model Bank Home to write different kind of texts that support inexperienced writers to express their feelings: Eyewitness Account and Autobiographical Incident, or carry out school formal requirements: Book Review, Essays and Persuasive Letter. Graded dictations from Dictationsonline.com as a way to practice listening native speaker in context and to get in touch with fine aspects of English like arrange of phone numbers and proper nouns. Maybe we will have a look to some readings (Baby Centre, Foster Children) and their quizzes on Calif0rnia Distance Learning Project to show my

students that American people can trust on their institutions to support them at hard situations. In conclusion I am surprised by the wide range of options to get samples of culture and to learn English language. NEW TEACHING STRATEGIES DISCOVERED Through the work I realized that the activities are flexible enough to adapt to different kind of learners for example extended the time for Module 5 for a week to wait for the slower ones. Being visionary to serve our needs since I received instructions in Spanish to work with Audacity when I have just admitted my defeat; that’s why I could upload the speaking activities, in addition it is the evidence that my tutor kept in touch with me to facilitate and stimulate my work. The last two modules let us collaborate and share our own experiences with some peers; as a result I could feel more accompanied. The most relevant for me is that you have shown us the way to become and prepare autonomous “life-long learners” as well as model behaviors like tolerance, support and a positive quick feedback. It is bound to realize that tutors must trust in all learners because they assigned a grade according to our own self-assessment by means of rubrics and certificates from BBC Learning web site. Finally the most incredible for me, after twenty years as a teacher, is the fact that we could take the risk of looking for efficient answers among our students, like on the topic “Giving instructions” to record a conversation on Module 5, where some of them recorded a short dialog using their cell phones. READING TEACHING STRATEGIES I really enjoyed all the reading activities but I am going to write about “Adult Learning Activities” because they use authentic material and work three skills. It starts with a text from TV news or a newspaper (Cell Phone Safety, Foster Children and Baby Centre) into versions, basic and full, that you can listen and sometimes there is a video of the original TV news; after that comes the first exercise called “Learn New Words”, where you can see and heard words that were used in the story one by one.

The second section “Spell a Word”: there you hear a word, type it into a designated box, then check your answer and when you have spelled all of them you will see your score. The third section “Matching Game” is a memory game to match words and their meaning. The fourth section “Pick an Answer” works with ten multiple choice questions that measure how well you remember and understand the story. You check each answer and get a score when you have done all of them. In the fifth section, “Write an answer”, there is only one open question which asks you to think and type the answer that is saved. Finally there is a list of links of related web sites; about your records they can be printed or mailed. I am aware that these readings have been designed for adults but if I have the enough sensibility, I will choose an adequate interesting text from my context.

LISTENING TEACHING STRATEGIES Due to the fact I am aware of listening is not my strongest skill I found dictation very hard by the task in itself and by the web site (Dictationsonline.com) instructions. To make this activity easier I could modify the following features: Start with Beginning Level as a warm-up to the target task. Add some images or diagrams related to the topic of the dictation. Add an answer box where I can type while I hear, with this modification avoid some technical problems like a lost or close word document by error. Maybe with these changes, the task still has the requirements to pay attention on word stress, intonation, pause and rhythm that is its main goal.   

Recording Software Audacity deserves a special mention as its technical difficulty to upload activities (How to describe a place, Someone important in my life and Short story) not to record them. However it has a huge pedagogical value because it let the learners listen to themselves immediately with all the details, so they get a prompt feedback to improve or correct mistakes. To make easier the use of this software (besides the support that was given to me), maybe you should start to work with it from Modules three and four as an auxiliary tool for reading and listening.

SPEAKING TEACHING STRATEGIES According to my experience the following activities are useful for my students: The Voicethread web site can be used to describe people, what they are wearing or doing (first grade) with the advantage of hearing and recording themselves as many times as they need, and listen to their peers. Boost students’ imagination. They can describe a place that they would like to visit (unit 4 third grade) after listening to a short piece of classical music. Besides the new program points out some “transversal themes” the Spanish subject could be useful to deal with the article “How to Prepare a Short Talk” from Splendid Speaking, then as a way to know students’ daily life out of the school environment they can prepare a short talk about an important person in their life that can be evaluated for both teachers. Recording with the Software Audacity opens for me a wide range of possibilities to join the other skills with speaking: since the activities with movie segments ask students to talk in pair, they can arrive to conclusions about the topic and record them. Students could complete the process with graded dictation from Dictationsonline.com until they correct themselves and when they do that, record the small text and compare their own voice with the native speaker model. Once again, I am aware that speaking is my weakest point, so I need to work hard in the preparation of these activities before I face my groups. WRITING TEACHING STRATEGIES According to my own development, the strategies used to elicit writing productions were: First of all be aware of formal aspects of language such as grammar: functions of words (noun, verb, adjective, and adverb) at the web site “Wacky Web Tales”. The correct use of punctuation marks; the emphatic use of adjectives to describe people, places and things; the sequence of tenses; these ones with the factseheets and quizzes from BBC Words. The integral task “Movie Segments to asses grammar goals” where I could practice listening, writing and reading along with learning grammatical points like use of modal verbs, conditional, tag questions and so on. Then I wrote short ideas and stories by means of the templates from “Instant Poetry” forms that asked for specific statements, not only words; after that “Makebeliefscomix” gave me the opportunity to express briefly some emotional

reactions. At photopeach I could know some features of my peers’ personality and my own pictures were the hook to let the words flow. Finally I was ready to face a blank paper with the support of a model to follow (Model Bank) and keeping in mind a real audience to share and enrich my thoughts in Book Review, A Weird Incident and Eyewitness Account Model. My final reflexion is that the students’ heart is better to make words appear than the brain because it is “easy” to write when I really want to share attitudes, values emotions and feelings. ABOUT ICT TOOLS It is difficult to select just three tools, because all of them had a different degree of influence on me as a learner and as a teacher. The following tools come from Module 6 Writing: 1) BBC Words shows a large quantity of topics (punctuation, adjectives, sequence of tenses) by means of four stages: first, factsheets with some examples, hints and tips in a basic level language that can be print. Second, some games to practice what you have studied, some of them have audio. Third, graded quizzes for answering ten multiple choice questions, where you get an explanation for your correct or wrong selection; from this part you get a certificate as a sign of your development. Finally there are some printable worksheets for further work. This tool helps students to become a self-taught, breaks the routine, gives a quick feedback and let them go as slow or fast as they need. 2) Instant Poetry Forms. In this site, there is a list of attractive tittles (5W, Who am I, Yes, That’s me); when you select one of them, by clicking on, a template is opened where you must write short ideas according to the request on each box. At the end of the template there is an example of the poem, so you can imagine your own one and make some changes before you generate it. However I am not crazy for poems, neither in Spanish nor English, I am aware that teenagers really like them, so with this tool they write ideas, increase their vocabulary and review some grammatical points without realizing what’s going on. 3) Movie Segments to Asses Grammar Goals: here you watch and hear a segment from a well-known movie that is classified according to the language level and group of age. There are activities to develop before and after you see it, for example discuss questions with a partner, match conditions and consequences, fill

in the blanks and rewrite sentences. At the end there is an answer key for self assessment. This tool integrates the four skills, let the students hear authentic material, break the monotony and make some difficult topics easy. LESSON PLANNING From my point of view each teacher should design a personal format according to his/her Social/School context (size and number of groups, material resources, and administrative requirements), learning objectives, time of experience, available time to plan. Just try to develop the essential elements that Dr. Stephen D: Holtrop mentions: Objectives Standards Procedures Assessment Modifications

    

Nevertheless I could put “Seven Elements of a Lesson Plan (Hunter)” to use because it has very specific features and fit well with the approach of the new program (experiential learning), where the teacher “is conceptualized as a more experienced language user”; as a result he must be able to guide the students who have a concrete knowledge of a text to create their own ones. I did the following relation between the Lesson Plan and the organization of content from secondary program: • • • • • • •

Anticipatory Set – Exposing students to a text Statement of Objectives – Social Practice of Language Instructional Input – Sample Productions Modeling – Reflection on Language Check for Understanding – Continuous assessment Guided Practice – Strategic Competence Independent Practice – Performance evidence

In short, planning lessons is the best way to make our subjective work easy, because if we bring time, vocabulary and materials, we can keep students working and avoid an inadequate behavior, we can also make them interested in getting something new.

MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE By LARA LUNA BLANCA As requested, this report is to assess my learning experience through this Diploma Course and how my language skills have improved with the different activities and tools used in the modules. THE COURSE USED A GREAT VARIETY OF TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS THAT I PRACTICED TO RAISE MY LANGUAGE LEVEL AND TO REFLECT ON HOW THESE RESOURCES WILL HELP MY STUDENTS TO LEARN ENGLISH. I THINK, THIS TOOLS WILL BE PERFECT FOR MY STUDENTS BECAUSE ONE OF THE AIMS OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL IS TO INTEGRATE THE USE OF TIC´S IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSES.

1. English Language Learning Awareness Through this diploma course, I realized that my vocabulary has improved a lot with all the unfamiliar words I have read and listened during the practice of exercises in the web sites.

My listening ability is better thanks to the falling and rising intonation, stress and thought groups. I can understand real-life speeches of native speakers easier than before. Also, I learned to pause in my speech and to breath correctly. In this way my speaking is more fluent. Now, I can communicate without hesitations about familiar items , give opinions and discuss points of view .

At this point, I can communicate familiar items in English with fluency and understand native speakers, after I´ve heard them for a while and got used to the accent.

What is more, I need to practice the skills that are not very familiar to me like the author´s point of view, facts and opinions, compare and constrast ideas.

Nevertheless, to raise my language level I need to continue practicing and studying English and the web resources represent a great opportunity to monitor my progress and correct my mistakes. For example, I need to work on pronunciation and intonation patterns in order to improve my speech. 2. Cultural Learning Awareness During this diploma course,

I discovered

new aspects of the English

speaking community. I learned about health, society,

environment, political

problems , celebrations, history and cultural funny facts.

I think that learning a language is not just grammar rules and phonetic patterns. It

is also the culture

around the English speaking countries that

involved traditions, ways of life, music, politics, costumes and ideas. In this way, our students can understand better the use of the language. For example, I liked to focus my students attention to traditional celebrations as Halloween, Thanksgiving ,X-Mas and Easter.

I used worksheets and songs

including this celebrations to explore the culture and to practice language we had previously studied as vocabulary, simple and progressive tenses, giving suggestions and making invitations, use of future to express goals…… and also developed skills like reading, writing and listening. With the web tools I have learned in the diploma course, I can plan and design more interesting tasks using films, and writing models. 3. New Teaching Strategies Discovered The teaching strategies I observed in this diploma course are greatly related to the 8 habits of a 21st century teacher. In my classes, I had noticed that our

students use lots of

technological sources for communication like twitter, my

space, you tube, …etc. so, they are a step in front of us. We can´t continue teaching as we had before with an academic, centered, book curriculum. We, as teachers, must adapt and design our teaching in order to use these tools to make our job more interesting and significant for the students. The use of different web sites through this course makes me think about the necessity to cope with this resources and to absorb new experiences and knowledge as well.

We must dare to take the risk and use the help of students who we know are digital natives. So, why don´t we as teachers use this advantage to integrate and manipulate these technologies as potential tools to serve our needs? In this millennium, with the new programs of SEP that pretend to introduce the use of the –Tic´s for education in all subjects, we should begin with some activities we had practiced in the diploma course for example: the BBC learning English site is excellent for correcting and feedback. Also we can use the projector to show videos related to cultural topics like the MSM news . What is more, we can design tasks in the digital classrooms ----if we have one in our schools------ so students can use the language in meaningful contexts and keep their jobs in a virtual portfolio. To sum up, our students need more useful and attractive classes that gives them the opportunity to develop and support their learning. For some of us it can be scary, and

we don´t dare to use these tools, but the risk is worthy if we

consider ourselves 21st century teachers. 4. R EADING TEACHING STRATEGIES I particulary enjoyed module 3, I love reading and all the activities we practiced were very interesting. I

tried

the listen and read along activities,

because these are very effective ways to practice pronunciation and vocabulary.

For example The Listen and Read Along site which is part of Interesting Things for ESL Students, presents a text that is divided into small chunks ; here I listened and read the stories through three columns that provide the pronunciation and

the structure of the reading. In this site, I

pronunciation the number of times I

could listen and practice my

needed. In Addition, I can practice the

puntuation and intonation required in a text. These kind of tasks helped me to

visualize and create a picture in my

mind that activated all my senses and made my comprehension of the texts easier.

With this strategies I have improved my reading comprehension, and

increased my vocabulary with exercises that include, word recognition, sentence completion, matching columns and reading comprehension questions. Other site that was very helpful was that the site 100 short English Stories which provides not only the previous teaching strategies but the use of images and vocabulary inference as well. What is more, I increased my cultural knowledge with the site of Awesome stories, here with the support provided I could read more complex texts and grasp the main ideas in order to write a summary or a report of the story. In Conclusion, with these activities, I activated my prior knowledge before reading, and asked questions before, during and after the reading. These sites made the reading attractive because facts that almost nobody knows are added. It gave me the opportunity to read a great variety of texts with lots of topics and be aware of cultural differences and similarities in beliefs and attitudes. 5. Listening Teaching Strategies I found all the activities of the listening module very useful and touching Nevertheless, one of the most difficult activities for me was the Activity 1.2. about Minimal pairs.

Minimal pairs are a serious problem to me, because I made lots of errors that lead me to believe that I understand the different words

when in fact I was

mistaken, so I had to listen to the them several times until I identified the sounds. for example: /I/

ship

and

/I:/ Sheep

/a/

act

and

/ä/ father

/ou/ cow

and /oo/ book

I think, that is why I did not understand clearly native speakers, and couldn ´t grasp the main idea of the listening activities quickly. In my point of view, this activity could have been easier if we ´d had some previous practice of the phonetic sounds, at least we need to list all the minimal pairs in a chart using the English Phonetic Alphabet as a model and practicing it with some pronunciation exercises. In addition, I believe that a review of the spelling of some words, vowels and sounds in English is important to cope with this kind of listening tasks. So we can recognize and practice the minimal pairs that cause us trouble. In this way, the minimal pairs listening comprehension may help to improve recognition and pronunciation of similar English sounds and the tasks wouldn´t be so difficult. However, the practice of Minimal pairs is something that needs to be seen as a problem to be dealt with over a longer period. 6. Speaking Teaching Strategies

THE ACTIVITY 6.1, HOW TO PRESENT A SHORT TALK FROM THE UNIT 5 OF THE SPEAKING MODULE, WAS THE MOST USEFUL TO ME,

BECAUSE

THE OBJECTIVE IN THIS TASK WAS TO PREPARE A

SHORT PRESENTATION ABOUT SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN IMPORTANT IN OUR LIFE USING EXPRESSIONS SUGGESTED OR

“CHUNKS” TO IMPROVE OUR FLUENCY IN THE SPEECH,

LIKE:

“ I WAS

WONDERING, BY THE WAY, I MEAN, AS I WAS SAYING, LET´S SEE….” .

THESE CHUNKS OF VOCABULARY ARE OFTEN

USED IN SPOKEN ENGLISH TO LINK WHAT HAS

COME BEFORE TO WHAT COMES NEXT. AFTER WE HAD FINISHED PLANNING OUR PRESENTATION WE RECORDED IT USING THE AUDACITY PROGRAM. THEN,

WE HAD TO LISTEN OUR WORK IN ORDER TO

CORRECT MISTAKES OF RHYTHM AND INTONATION UNTIL WE WERE PLEASED WITH THE RESULT, AND SENT IT TO THE SITE, SO OTHER PEERS COULD LISTEN TO IT AND SHARED THEIR COMMENTS AND IDEAS ABOUT IT.

I COULD

USE THIS ACTIVITY WITH MY STUDENTS WITH SOME CHANGES. FOR EXAMPLE THE

STUDENTS MUST PRESENT A SHORT TALK OR LIKE;

AND PREPARE A

PRESENTATION

OF SOMEONE THEY ADMIRE

I MEAN, INSTEAD OF SOMEONE IMPORTANT IN THEIR LIFES, THEY CAN SEARCH INFORMATION

ABOUT THEIR FAVOURITE SPORTS STAR, SINGER, ARTIST, FOOTBALLERS….ETC. COULD FIND THE ACTIVITY USEFUL FOR THEM BECAUSE THEY

IN THIS WAY, THEY

TALK ABOUT THEIR INTERESTS AND

FEELINGS.

TO SET UP THE ACTIVITY, FIRST AS AN MARKERS

TO LINK IDEAS

INTRODUCTION

SUCH AS: WELL, ACTUALLY,

I WILL PRESENT

SOME DISCOURSE

NOW , SO, BY THE WAY, I MEAN.

USING

PHOTOGRAPHS ABOUT FAMOUS ARTISTS THEREFORE, STUDENTS WILL LEARN AND USE THIS EXPRESSIONS THAT WILL HELP THEM TO IMPROVE THEIR ENGLISH FLUENCY SKILLS.

THEN, I WILL SHOW

STUDENTS AN EXAMPLE

MODEL TO FOLLOW -UP IN THEIR PRESENTATIONS, THIS

MODEL SHOULD INCLUDE ALL THE PREVIOUS LANGUAGE THEY HAD STUDIED DEPENDING ON THE GRADE WE WERE TEACHING LIKE, THIRD PERSON PRESENTATION, LIKES AND DISLIKES, INFORMATION ABOUT HIS OR HER LIFE, MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS, OPINIONS…..ETC.

AS WE CAN´T USE THE COMPUTERS TO RECORD THEIR PRESENTATIONS THE STUDENTS CAN PRESENT ORALLY THEIR WORK

IN SMALL GROUPS,

AND LISTEN TO THEIR CLASSMATES COMMENTS AND

LATER ON THEY WILL PRESENT IT IN FRONT OF THE GROUP SO STUDENTS CAN LISTEN TO DIFFERENT SPEECHS AND EVALUATE THEIR PROGRESS.

7. Writing Teaching Strategies I considered the writing module as the most difficult to me. I don´t usually write for specific purposes so I found the exercises quite challenging and interesting . I had some technical problems that hopefully I solved . Nevertheless, I spend more than 2 hours in each task but the result was worthy because I achieved the required goals and I finished all the exercises with success.

The First activity, I found very useful was the activity 1 “Writing a Tall –Tale” with this tasks I practiced and recalled the parts of speech I have already forgotten. I remembered the adjectives, adverbs, some singular and plural nouns. These elements helped me to use grammar accurately in order to write a coherence text in which I released my imagination. This teaching strategy encouraged me to review some grammar aspects and vocabulary so, I could dare to write meaningful compositions to share with my colleagues. Other Activity was “Correcting a piece of writing”. This activity made me think about the way I used to correct my students compositions and I realized that I only considered grammar mistakes. With the exercise of correcting a composition I discovered different elements I was ignoring and that were very important in the writing process like punctuation, spelling and coherence. Finally, the project based approach used in the Activity 2.1 “Writing Ideas. A book of poems was a teaching strategy that greatly improved my writing skills. In this task , I followed a project step by step in order to create a piece of writing using models and pictures to boost my imagination and reinforced my ideas.

8. ITC TOOLS IN MY OPINION, THE MOST USEFUL TOOLS WERE THOSE I PRACTICED IN THE READING MODULE. I THINK, THIS TOOLS WILL BE PERFECT FOR MY STUDENTS BECAUSE ONE OF THE AIMS OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL IS TO DEVELOP READING STRATEGIES TO OBTAIN INFORMATION AND TO NOTICE THE USE OF THE LANGUAGE IN CONTEXT.

FIRST , THE SKIMMING AND SCANNING STRATEGIES IN THE ACTIVITY 1. 1 REMEMBER

AND

REFLECT

HOW I READ , BECAUSE I

READ ALL KIND OF TEXTS WITHOUT NOTICING

THE STRATEGIES I USED TO UNDERSTAND THE INFORMATION AND SCANNING FOUND AT THE WEB SITES

HELPED ME TO

BBC SKIMMING AND

THE EXERCISES FROM SKIMMING AND

BBC SCANNING

RESOURCES TO ANALYZE HOW I READ AND USE THIS STRATEGIES WHILE READING.

WERE USEFUL

THESE TOOLS CAN BE

APPROPRIATE FOR MY STUDENTS TO INTRODUCE THEM TO READ IN A SECOND LANGUAGE AND TO GET THE MAIN IDEA OF A TEXT .

SECONDLY, THE READING ALONG ACTIVITIES

OF THE WEB SITES AMERICAN STORIES AND

THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE AND AMERICAN AND BRITISH ENGLISH READINGS ALLOWED ME TO PRACTICE MY LISTENING WHILE I WAS READING. I FOUND THESE EXERCISES RELAXING AND FUN. I THINK, THESE EXERCISES ARE GREATLY APPROPRIATE FOR MY STUDENTS BECAUSE THESE TOOLS GIVE THEM THE OPPORTUNITY

TO PRACTICE THEIR PRONUNCIATION AND LISTENING SKILLS.

SELECT EASIER EXAMPLES AND EXERCISES TO USE IN MY

HOWEVER, I NEED TO

LESSONS .

MOREOVER, IN THE READING, LISTENING, AND WATCHING A VIDEO ACTIVITIES I PRACTICED THE READING STRATEGY OF INTENSE READING AND VOCABULARY INFERENCE, THESE TOOLS ACTIVATED ALL MY SENSES AND CATCHED MY ATTENTION SO, BROADEN MY VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE A LOT.

I IMPROVED MY READING COMPREHENSION AND

WITH THESE TOOLS I CAN DEVELOPED

VOCABULARY

AND TEACH THEM TO AVOID TRANSLATING IN SPANISH TO UNDERSTAND

STRATEGIES IN MY STUDENTS

THE WORDS THEY DON´T KNOW IN A TEXT.

9. L ESSON PLANNING I selected the Bloom´s Taxonomy and Critical Thinking •

Knowledge - recall

•

Comprehension - understand

•

Application - use, practice

•

Analysis - dissect, generalize

•

Synthesis - create, combine

•

Evaluation - appraise, value This lesson plan model considered all the aspects that the new approach of

teaching and learning English

at Secondary Schools states. This lesson plan

model organize the learning environment and uses the students prior knowledge to connect and recall what students know . Then the lesson plan uses a stage of comprehension in which the teacher explains the use of the language in context using meaningful

materials like texts,

photographs, videos, songs….. here the students focus on

specific language

areas and reflect and try to make sense of how language works. The next stage allows students to use and practice the grammar they had previously learn with

controlled exercises where the students

can correct

themselves using the guide of the teacher. Finally, the stages of Analysis and Synthesis conduct the students to make generalizations about the language and move from control to freedom tasks. Here

examples of the productions created by students are expected. Also, in these steps of the lesson plan the students socialize and share their products with their peers. At the end of the class, the Evaluation step is proposed as a feedback for students to value their learning and for the teacher to consider difficult

and

problem areas to focus on in future lessons. In conclusion, all the activities and the teaching strategies I learned during the course made me think about the necessity to cope with this resources and to absorb new experiences and knowledge as well. and design our classes in order as potential tools

We must dare to take the risk

to integrate and manipulate these technologies

for learning and practicing the language . Moreover,

our

students need more useful and attractive classes that gives them the opportunity to develop and support their learning. For some of us it can be scary and we don´t dare to use these tools, but the risk is worthy if we want to make our job more significant for the students.

My Learning Experience By LARA SALAZAR CYNTHIA

This Diploma Course has represented a great opportunity to improve my knowledge of the English language as an English teacher and as a person. “Learning to learn English through Internet tools and resources” can show how important the web sites are in the world of teaching as well as in the personal development.

In the web site “Study Guides and Strategies” are found many

different ways to be organized and to reduce stress. The Bloom´s Taxonomy showed in the web site can be very useful for planning a class. The used of the verbs in the appropriate way is essential in the lesson plan. Another topic mentioned is the development of the multiple intelligences.

I would recommend to take advantage of the Free English Study website because is a good way to practice for free the different activities it offers. The language acquisition and performance has been transcendental in the development of this course. Competences and language skills can be performed at any moment too. My vocabulary and writing skills increased along the hours studied. Also my reading strategies were clarified and it was easy to distinguish between a fact and an opinion; I realized the stress in words was important to identify how the sense of the words changed in some expressions. New vocabulary was learned and the parts of the speech could be recognized in an easy way and were used in compositions which were written in an accurate way.

Imagination

was used to create different and fantastic pieces of written art.

During the Diploma Course, my listening and speaking skills improved because of the technique “listen to myself” in which oral mistakes are identified to improve the way the speaker is talking, but more than that this technique can make the speaker feel confident to speak with different people and to talk about different topics. The speaker can express opinions, agreements, disagreements, comments in a natural way. The practiced of listening is a great opportunity to get in touch and understand different kinds of listening situations, different kinds of intonation, a different speed when people talk, and different native and non native accents. At this point, twenty different reading strategies were provided, as well as the site where 100 short English stories were found. The use of internet for educational purposes can be a great opportunity to change how the language can be taught. At this point of the course you can understand better a listening without repeating many times and written texts could be better. I have improved my grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes, I can think in English and organize my ideas when I am writing. To improve my language level, I will speak and write without fear, I will record my voice in order to improve my pronunciation, I will check my rhythm and intonation, I will use many different resources and listen to native speaker as much as possible, I will watch English language films and TV channels, I will listen to English music and I will practice the exercises and tests as much as possible.

So I am going to do all the necessary things in order to improve my English and the most important is to take advantage of the internet web sites because we have students from the 21st century and our students need 21st century teachers.

Cultural Learning Awareness It refers to the way I could focus my student´s attention to English is through cultural aspects. I think this is an essential part of the class because when you encourage your students providing cultural awareness, they can be transported to different parts of the world and students can recognize that we are all shaped by our cultural background, which influences how we interpret the world around us, how we perceive ourselves and how we can relate ourselves to other people from different parts of the world. In addition, students are interested in other countries and how their cultures are. Students may get in touch with their values, behavior, beliefs and basic assumptions. I learnt that having contact with other people could be a very enriching experience. During this Diploma course I have learned how to help my students to understand many cultural aspects such as music, fashion, expressions that are used for the same idea in the United States and in the United Kingdom, different reading texts about the history of interesting places like The Golden Gate Bridge, and interesting stories about Canada and the United States. Something that has caught my attention was an article named “Foster Children” because it marks the differences between those cultures. Another interesting thing of this cultural awareness aspect is to identity the differences in the pronunciation of a native speaker and a no- native speaker.

New Teaching Strategies Discovered As a teacher, I discovered that we have many resources at internet to use with students in the classroom (being visionary) . According to the eight habits of highly effective 21st century teachers we have to adapt these resources to the age of the group and their abilities (adapting). There are a lot of reading comprehension exercises which help us understand the texts, and at the same time we can teach those values and behaviors we should expect from our students (learning). We have a lot of material about listening. We have exams, quizzes, readings, games, etc. with this kind of material we can facilitate, stimulate and control their language learning (modeling behavior), and finally we have different activities that motivate students to improve their English (communicating).

For all of this we also have to use our imagination and take into consideration the students’ needs of the group. We have to have a vision of what we want. We need to identify the goals and facilitate their learning. As teachers, we always must be able to share, contribute, and adapt everything with learning purposes, (leading). And as a language learner and a teacher, I discovered that there are thousands of activities that we can use in a classroom, some of them difficult to manage because of many circumstances like the lack of material or resources, but some very easy to prepare, and related to the oral production.

READING TEACHING STRATEGIES

The most interesting activity for me was the one related to Reading, listening, watching a video, and vocabulary. I found it in the web site called Adult Learning Activities; the story was “FOSTER CHIILDREN”. The topic is interesting because everywhere, in any place of the world, the problem exists. People unfortunately abuse of children, but the difference is that here in Mexico we don´t have foster homes for those children. In the basic story, I got a general idea of the text from an image. Here, I found the first strategy. Then, I read the full story and I used information from text to decipher unfamiliar words. After that, I watched the video and more images helped me to understand. I also distinguished between facts and opinions, when the report was presented (facts), and also a girl talked about the topic. For learning more vocabulary, there were spelling words that were clue in the text so, the activities and exercises presented help me to understand the meaning of those words, the matching game with words from the text was an excellent opportunity to guess the meanings to pick and write answers, but more than that the exercises were meaningful in the learning process.

As a teacher I can use this text with my students but in a different way; for example, first, I could introduce the reading with some questions about what they know, about children who are damaged (Pre-reading), and then I could go with them to learn new words and spell them, I could give them just a clue word for the vocabulary that they could remember during the reading.. After that, I tell my students to listen and read at the same time ( While Reading) then, I could ask them some comprehension questions about the reading, in order to help them to have a clear idea of what foster children are (Revisit), then, I could guide my students to watch the video. And finally, students could write their answers for the activities (Reflect).

Listening Teaching Strategies Before anything let me tell you that listening is for me the most difficult skill, so I need to concentrate a lot in each listening. The most difficult activity in my listening practice was Activity 7.2. Authentic listening because it is different when you listen to a native speaker and when you listen to a foreign one: the intonation, the speed, the stress, the authenticity, etc. are not the same. I also found it difficult because the videos are very long, they use many idioms, phrasal verbs, and some vocabulary that was difficult for me to understand. This activity would be easier if we could use some strategies to try to understand it previously, for example as a teachers we can make some questions about the topic before listening, we can check the vocabulary as a pre-activity, while we are listening we can answer some question that the teacher has been providing, and

after the video we can check the understanding of the students and finally try to make a conclusion about the video. I think this could be better instead of only watching the video. Also, I think it is important to listen to real English because this can help us to be better listeners.

Speaking Teaching Strategies The most useful speaking activities for me as an English teacher and as a learner were: •

First of all and I think the most interesting activity was Giving opinions with the voicethread site. This activity was interesting for students and for me too because it was different and the use of internet is something that motivate students to work, as a teacher I can focus them to a specific learning according to what are they learning in the classroom.

•

How to present a short talk about someone important in our life. This activity was the most difficult for me because it evoked me a lot of emotions, it made me cry and it was hard to record the file. I wanted to do the same activity with my students and try to evoke the same reactions as mine. I know that everybody has different feelings and sometimes we have to take out all what we feel.

•

How to express agreement and disagreement in a videoconference. I really liked this activity because we have to prepare a script, but we have to be able to answer what other people may ask. I

selected this activity for my students as an oral exam, I gave them a topic and they had to prepare it. Then, in the classroom (because in the school we don´t have web-cams) they had to speak about the topic for some minutes with another student. It was good.

•

How to describe a situation or a place with the music clips. This activity was nice and easy for my students. In my case when I listened to the music, I got relaxed and my imagination could fly. For my students this activity was a little bit different. With a tape recorder, in the classroom I told my students to close their eyes, listen to the music and get relax. After the music had ended, they opened their eyes and they had to draw the place they have imagined, finally they explained their drawings in front of the class. It is fantastic how they use their imagination and how they can travel to different and unknown places just listening to a melody.

As a conclusion, all of the activities are useful. It is a good way to improve “my and my students´ fluency and pronunciation” and of course, all of the activities gave ideas on how to work with my students. I think, the more I can learn the more I can teach.

Writing Teaching Strategies During this module I have found many writing strategies to use with my students and to myself. For my students: I liked how to create tall tales. This activity is nice for them, besides they practice nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and interjections in a funny way they can use their imagination and that is fantastic for them, because they can be more interested in the class. It is very easy for them to create tall tales and to read them in the class is an enjoyable activity. Nowadays it is easier to create a funny tall tale with all the tools provided in the web sites. Another activity I liked for my students was to create stories using comic strips; but in the web, because I used to work with them but with a piece cardboard and they drew their story. I t was fantastic when I found the site. This activity is very useful as well as a teacher and as a student. For the students, it is really interesting the way they create a story because they use their imagination, the teacher only gives

the topic or the idea according to what topic they should relate and they have to create their own story. A book of poems was an excellent idea to create my own poems. It was like if I were a writer, besides that I can connect the poems with the topics seen in class. The video clips are an excellent activity to incorporate students with grammar and writing and to have lots of fun. With these activities we motivate students to learn in a different way, movies are good for everybody and catch their attention. Students can practice listening, writing, grammar, parts of speech, grammatical structures, etc., and for teachers it is a good opportunity to use this kind of materials with them because we have all the activities done. In my personal experience, I have learned a lot writing compositions because I have to use my imagination, my experience and of course my Oxford Dictionary, that is like my Bible. I had to check grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, etc. With this activity, I definitely improved my writing skills. I loved how to create my own poem book, it was very special to watch something created BY ME…. and how to tell a story using pictures and music. I really enjoyed these activities because they were easy and funny to do, also I had to check again grammar, punctuation, different tenses, vocabulary, etc. I´m sure these activities are going to be interesting for my students too. As a conclusion, the writing module was the best for me. It was a different experience and I learned how to write in an accurate way and how to use this technology. In my school I have to check a lot of compositions but now I am convinced that if I guide my students they could create beautiful compositions and if I involve them in the writing process it could be easier for me to check, but more than that, I can make them to be more interested in writing.

ABOUT ICT TOOLS

It is very difficult to choose one of the modules because all of them were useful for my learning and appropriate for my students, but I will try to select only one of them. The most useful for me and my students was module 6, because this module is attractive and different, and also it motivates and encourages them to write about different topics. Movie segments to assess grammar goals are an excellent tool because with these kinds of activities we motivate students to do something they like and at the same time they are learning. With these activities, they practice functions, listening, and writing skills. Another tool that I have found interesting was the photopeach; this activity motivates students to express their own ideas, their feelings and it helps them to use their imagination. About grammar, with this activity they can apply what they have previously known, they learn how to find errors and they can improve their writing and as a teacher we can use this material with any kind of skills. The writing exercises we had in unit 5, 6 and 7; are amazing because with these activities we let students think about themselves and to use their imagination again and in that way, they have to express their feelings, how they are and how they see the life. Also they learn grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, etc. In conclusion, ICT tools are so important nowadays. The world is changing, the technology is changing and we have to change too. The other day I attended to a conference that was called “For the 21 st

century children, 21 st

century

teachers” and I think we should act as 21st century people.

Lesson Planning I selected the lesson plan of Hunter, “Seven elements of a lesson plan” because I consider it is the most appropriate for my context. In my personal experience, I always plan my lessons because they compel me to think through my aims and objectives and the various steps in the lesson. If I don

´t plan, I don´t have basis for lesson evaluation. For this reason, I consider that I teach in a similar way as the lesson plan of Hunter. Anticipatory set. This is the previous knowledge of students about a topic. English teachers know this like warm-up. Objectives. It is important to tell students the specific purpose of each and every activity they do. Instructional input. The best way to ensure the instructions are clear is to be direct, short and simple. Sometimes I have to ask questions to check understanding, before they begin the exercise. Modeling. During this part, I explain students with examples the purpose of the class, according to what I want to teach. Guided practice. The process consists in having students use language through tasks that move from control to freedom. Independent practice. Establishing and maintaining social contacts by exchanging information, views, feelings and personal wishes, amongst others. Checking for comprehension: During each activity, I have to check if they have understood and after that, I must evaluate them to identify what they have learnt over the class, and what they need to work on. The purpose of teaching language in basic education is that students gain ownership of diverse social practices of the language and participate effectively in their life and out of school. As teachers we have to have in mind that students are individuals who are competent, who have initiative so I think students should learn in this way. Besides that it is the model I should follow in my school.

MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE MAYORGA BARRON ALEJANDRO

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AWARENESS

To start with my report, I would like to say that I’m glad participating in this diploma. There are so many things I’ve learnt in this course from the very beginning until now, that is a little difficult to mention them in a few words. This entire course has been incredibly useful, I’m sure all the participants are better teachers now. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity! This is a summary of the most important aspects I learnt throughout the modules: Module 2. “Learning to Learn English through Internet tools and resources”. I discovered the advantages of learning English using internet sites because it is more attractive and funnier. First, I asked my students to check as much as possible “The English Pronunciation Dictionary”, where they can listen to the pronunciation of the words they are looking for and they liked it a lot. Then, I learnt new aspects about “Key Competences for Lifelong Learning” as well as multiple intelligences according to the European Reference Framework which enriched my knowledge about it. Finally, I could identify my grammar strengths and weaknesses with different exercises which refreshed and improved my knowledge about sentence structures, tenses, passive voice, conditionals, etc. The “Free English Study” site is now an important part of my lesson planning. Module 3. Reading I refreshed what I knew about reading comprehension strategies and discovered new ones (which will be mentioned on the activities required in the next units). I identified the different kind of texts as well as their different purposes. I learnt new vocabulary from the sites; especially “BBC Learning English” this site provides some ideas to help our students learn not only new vocabulary, but also for practicing grammar and pronunciation because they are listening the information from native speakers. (Listening and reading the text at the same time is an extraordinary exercise) Module 4. Listening

I improved my pronunciation when we worked with minimal pairs. I liked the site “ESL Cyber Listening Lab”. It is going to be useful in the future; you can get new ideas about pre-listening, listening and post listening exercises to work with our students. I talked to my students about the importance of a good pronunciation and the way to get it. You need to work on stressing the right syllables and the right words, as well as a good intonation and rhythm. All these sites were excellent, with all the elements you need for English Language Learning and Teaching. I learnt a lot by reading the concepts about pitch, rhythm, intonation, etc. Now, I am aware about the importance of these elements to communicate in English. Module 5. Speaking It was one of my favorite modules. I discovered new tools like the audacity program which can help our students to record short paragraphs according to their level of English as well as the topic we will work in that time. I improved my speaking ability and learnt to speak more fluently by applying the previous concepts of rhythm and intonation from module 4 and I also consolidated my knowledge about the using of sequencing and linking words when we made the activity of giving directions; that was a great experience with my students. Module 6. Writing I think we all learnt to produce writings in a fun way by creating, illustrating and publishing them through using some tutorials and templates. This is a very attractive way to encourage our students to write funny tales, comics or poems. Writing is an excellent opportunity to develop our students’ creativity. In unit 8 “Movies and Grammar”, I learnt to watch movies with “different eyes” and discovered how much our students can learn from activities like these. Everybody loves movies, so we just have to adapt these films with grammar exercises and enjoy our lessons. I tried this with my students from first grade and it was a complete success. (We watched “Kung Fu Panda”

CULTURAL LEARNING AW ARENESS One of the purposes of teaching English in secondary education is that students participate in certain social practices of language (oral and written) in their own or in a foreign country; so it is important to be in contact with products or materials from native speakers. In other words, through newspapers, magazines or books online; materials can play a significant role in our lessons and this diploma showed lots of authentic readings, videos and texts, which will be very important for further work. Along the diploma, we have worked with several websites that can help our students to recognize, respect and compare different ways of living in the English spoken community. I learnt more about science, history, geography and nature from these sites which I consider the most important ones for my cultural learning: “CET-ESL Activities on line”. To know some aspects about Canada such as history, economy, territories and religion. Exploring this site may encourage some students to study there in the future.(If they like their lifestyle) “New Zealand Interface Magazine” It is a very important site for teachers if we want to learn more about ITC. This technology magazine may help our students to enrich their knowledge about science, economy, new technologies even games throughout the web. In “Reading in English for ESL students” I learnt new American slangs and idioms as well as some differences between American and British English. It was interesting to my students from the third grade when I commented about Webster’s dictionary; they were surprised with the story. And of course I had to include “English Page” where you can choose newspapers, magazines, books and many others materials on line from several countries around the world. They are extremely important in order to acquire new vocabulary and a different point of view about their daily life.

NEW TEACHING STRATEGIES DISCOVERED

Before participating in this diploma course, I used to work only with my tape recorder, video cassette recorder and my TV as technological resources, because in my previous school, we didn’t have a media room, our computers were used only for teaching computing. Now, I am working in a different school with better and more resources to carry out some of the activities we worked throughout this diploma. Here I found new teaching strategies related to internet tools, so they’re all attractive and interesting. But if I have to select the most suitable for my teaching context, I would say that reading a text and listening to the story at the same time will be attractive to my students. We just have to adapt the materials required for the activity as well as the exercises to complete it; that way we’ll be integrating the four abilities and developing several competences. With the audacity program, we can plan a great variety of activities; it is an excellent tool for both teachers and students. You can create dialogues for every single topic, short stories, descriptions of people and places, etc. Our imagination should be the limit! About writing, we have also excellent strategies, such as: creating comic strips, writing poems and funny tales. Activities like these will motivate our students in order to produce writings in a very effective way as well as developing a variety of competences. Finally, one of the most important strategies to me was movies and grammar, What a wonderful combination! I discovered the importance of working this way. We just have to select attractive movie segments and complete them with grammar exercises in imaginative ways. If we want to be successful teachers we have to adapt new teaching strategies and technologies and being visionary teachers. Let’s take the risks! We are 21st century teachers, aren’t we?

READING TEACHING STRATEGIES

All the activities worked on this module were important and attractive, listening and Reading the texts at the same time is an excellent strategy for Reading comprehension. If I have to select the most interesting activity, I would mention the ones we practiced in United 6. In united 6, we were provided with 20 strategies

for reading comprehension

interrelated with each other; we can use them according to the reader’s purpose or the difficulty of the text, etc. The activity 6.2 “Reading, watching a video and vocabulary” was the most attractive to me. If we want to improve our English Language level we have

ingrate the four abilities (Reading, Listening, Speaking and writing) into the same activity.” Foster children” is an example of that. First, we read a short story, but you can listen to it at the same time. Then, you read the full story listening to it again. After that, you watch the video of the story and finally, you practice several exercises as a complement. Activities like these will help our students to learn new vocabulary as well as their pronunciation; they are improving their spelling while they’re answering the different quizzes or matching games. Obviously, it is difficult to work with these activities directly from the site because of the technical problems we have in our schools; most of times we don’t have enough computers, internet services, etc. However we can get some ideas to adapt this activity in our context. There are some magazines for English Language learners which contain some interviews with famous people and short videos about specific topics. We can prepare these materials for reading strategies such as: activate prior Knowledge, ask questions and make predictions, reread for text details, summarize main ideas and details, make inferences and draw conclusions.

LISTENING TEACHING STRATEGIES

Listening Module was extremely important to me. We had the opportunity of learning and refreshing new concepts related to pronunciation such as: word stress, intonation, rhythm, tone, pitch, thought groups, etc. All the activities provided valuable information; we worked hard in this module.

Phrasal verbs in unit 6 were the most complicated to me. I am aware that phrasal verbs are frequently used in English, you find them in all kinds of conversations, formal and informal; so if you want to sound more natural when you speak English, you have to know them as much as possible.

The activities given in “Funky phrasals” were the most complicated ones, because I worked with phrasal verbs I didn’t know, and the way the information was organized in the site was a little confusing, because the activity was divided into two parts. It was needed more information to make the activity clearer, even the quizzes were confusing with the options provided for each question or sentence. My suggestions to make this activity easier are the following:

• • • • •

To add some pre-listening activities, such as some questions and definitions of the phrasal verbs. Do not divide the activity into two parts; that way is more confusing. Be more specific with the options to each question or sentence. It would be better if we can add a short video about the reading. It would be more attractive if we include some games too. I suggest a matching game with phrasal verbs and definitions.

SPEAKING TEACHING STRATEGIES As I mentioned in the previous activities, speaking was one of my favorite modules. The audacity program is an excellent tool to make our own recordings; it is useful not only for teachers but also for students. I really enjoyed every single activity, but

concentrating on my students I have to say that “telling a story” is the most important activity, because we can adapt the students’ stories according to the topic we are going to work in that moment as well as the complexity level if you are working with students from the first, second or third grade. There is a good support in the site “English at home” where it is explained the activity “telling a story”; we just have to follow the suggestions given there to start a story, enrich them with our own ideas and explain the activity to our students. For further work, once our students feel more confident with recordings, we can introduce other tasks like describing a situation, a place or famous people; just think about the great opportunity they will have in order to develop their creativity and imagination. I think it is an extraordinary vehicle to share feelings and emotions. (Do you remember what we all felt when we were recording “People of influence”?) If you have a Media room in your school it will be easier, but if you do not have one, just ask your students to record their stories at home or at an internet cafe. They can save their stories in USB or CD’s. Finally, share them in class and talk about the experiences they had.

WRITING TEACHING STRATEGIES

This was one of the most important modules throughout the diploma and one of the most difficult too. We had to work hard, but at the end we learnt a lot about our writing ability. We discovered very attractive teaching strategies in order to improve this ability. Despite of having a lot of technical problems with the “bookr” site, writing poems is an excellent way to start writing with confidence (“ETTC´s new and improved poetry”) because we can express our feelings and emotions by using templates. If we work with “bookr” we can illustrate that poems and the result is a wonderful book of poems. By creating a comic strip story not only improves our writing ability but also our creativity and imagination; this activity will be great for our students. (At this stage of their lives they enjoy this kind of activities) If we adapt what we did on “photopeach” (using pictures to tell a story) into our classrooms, I am sure this activity will encourage our students to share their photos and tell their own stories. I think “book review” was excellent for all participants; we had to do our best to make good comments about a book Finally, the best and the most interesting strategy to me, was “movies and grammar” this is an extraordinary activity that we as English Language Teachers must apply, because we can use attractive movie segments and combine them with many different grammar activities.

I had the opportunity to carry out an activity like this with my students from the first grade and they liked it a lot. You have to work hard, but you get extraordinary results.

ABOUT ITC TOOLS

We as 21st century teachers must be able to integrate Information and Communication Technologies into our English language teaching. By using these technologies, all the possible effects are positive; they provide enormous advantages not only on English Language Learning, but also for many other aspects related to learning and teaching. Throughout this diploma course, we discovered helpful internet sites with very attractive and interesting activities; every single module had an excellent contribution for us in order to be better teachers. For that reason, I think it is unfair to select only one of the modules as the most significative one. About the three more useful tools, I think that activities like “Reading, watching a video and vocabulary” will be one of the most appropriate for our students, because it is very interesting reading a text while you are listening to the story. Later, they can watch the video about it and finally answer all the exercises given. The Audacity program is an excellent tool for recording our own dialogues, descriptions of places and people, poems, etc; everything what you want through your imagination. I am sure that listening to themselves will be motivating for our students. Photopeach was another important tool for speaking because we can use our own images or look for them on internet in order to tell a short story describing our vacation, pastimes, favorite places or special moments with our friends and family, just think about the emotion our students may feel if they write about special moments in their lives.

Finally, working with movie segments will be great because you can adapt them for a variety of topics no matter if we are working with students from first, second or third grade. This Kind of activity will be meaningful for our students because they are learning and enjoying English at the same time.

LESSON PLANNING

Lesson Planning is extremely important. It is necessary to have an organization of what we want our students learn and how they are going to do it. When we are writing our lesson plans we must be aware of essential elements: objectives, materials, resources, procedures, time and assessment. In the site “Common lesson plan models” we had the opportunity of reviewing some models in order to select the most appropriate for our context, but I think it is difficult to choose only one as the most suitable. Lesson plans must be flexible, because sometimes it is necessary to make some changes and adapt them to the time needed, etc. However, I think Madeleine Hunter´s Seven steps are the most appropriate for our context. • • • • • • •

Anticipatory Set (setting the stage): Where we have to prepare the materials required for the activity (posters, pictures, videos, etc). Statement of Objectives: Where we tell our students what they will be able to do as a result of the lesson. Instructional Input: Discussing and constructing through lectures, explanations and instructions. Modeling: where you demonstrate and show what you tell. Check for Understanding: Through asking questions. Guided Practice: where you help students start practicing new skills and applying new knowledge. Independent Practice: where you can evaluate how much the students have learnt.

With a good planning everything will be easier not only for teachers, but for students. At the beginning of the school year we always have to evaluate our students’ knowledge, attitudes, etc, in order to have a better understanding about their needs and the best way to cover them. For that reason our daily lessons must be carefully planned by taking into account learning styles, multiple intelligences, etc.

MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Participating in this diploma has been the best learning experience I ever had. I was a little nervous at the beginning because I had never taken a course on line, but I like computers and internet, so I felt better in a couple of days. After several months of working hard we could improve our Knowledge about the English Language Learning and teaching. We learnt to learn English through incredible internet sites and tools, now we are all aware of the importance of this kind of resources to make our lessons more attractive for our students. If they have fun they will have meaningful learning. Through internet sites our students have the opportunity to be in contact with different cultures, in this case with countries where English is the mother tongue. In this way our students can compare different customs, traditions and lifestyles in order to appreciate the richness of their own culture. We discovered new excellent teaching strategies for reading, listening, speaking and writing. Throughout this course we have joined a great variety of activities from different websites which should be part of our favorites. We must be glad of having this wonderful opportunity we are not paying for this diploma and the results were excellent. I think we have a compromise with ourselves; that is to continue improving and updating our Knowledge, teaching strategies, lesson plans and many other aspects to be better teachers. This diploma made me feel good; I want to take more courses like this. I feel happy because I am proud of being a teacher, especially for being a teacher of English.

Finally, I just want to thank our dear tutor Marisela Checa. Thank you for all your comments, patience and advice. Stay as nice as you are! My Learning Experience By MENDEZ ORTEGA ROSA LINE

The general purpose of studying this course was to improve the four English language skills. Listening, reading, speaking and writing abilities are extremely important to achieve an effective learning and communication. English language learning awareness contributes to identify weaknesses and strengthens in a teaching-learning process as it helps to focus on topics where learners need to keep on working and practicing. In these modules it was really interesting how information took place to improve teaching strategies and increase a collaborative work. Knowledge is the basis for an effective learning; in this case the activities that were handled through the six modules were very well structured, organized and appropriate to generate the results that were expected from the teachers. Cultural learning awareness was another successful topic where geographical distances got shorter with the Internet. As a result of this helpful tool it was possible to work with different interactive web sites, interesting readings and challenging listenings related to different topics about other cultures and other countries. Reflection was also useful especially to understand and share information with other people, about other traditions or customs from all around the world that made possible a positive comparison of how different topics can be conceived from others points of view. In addition, culture was a good example of how English community works around the world trying day by day new ways to make learning easier and better with interesting and actual information that can be shared among people. Reading teaching strategies module was hold perfectly, the objectives were clear and its content was excellent. Get knowledge from a written text gives most of the time more certainty and truthfulness of the information, besides it is the most common technique to verify learning and applications. Furthermore, Listening teaching strategies module was developed with very interactive activities that made it attractive too.

In the Speaking teaching strategies module, it was observed little difficulties to carry on the activities because of many reasons that every teacher can explain individually. Nevertheless it was quite long, hard and sometimes complicated achievements were uploaded successfully. Writing teaching strategies module represented a big challenge, especially when thoughts and feelings had to be written, it was helpful to have templates and models from different types of writings and oral texts to develop stories, comic strip files, essays and others. About ICT tools it has been exposed that they fulfill an important role in education system because they represent a modern way to educate and transmit real and actual information that can be transformed into knowledge and learning. English language learning awareness My purpose of studying this course was mainly to improve my language level and at this point I can say that it has progressed a lot. Working on different activities through these six modules has helped me to increase my vocabulary and design better strategies to learn and teach. At the beginning of the course, after I answered the diagnostic evaluation it was frustrating to see my grade because even though it wasn’t a bad grade many questions came to me, for instance: What was wrong? Why was it wrong? Was the correct answer in the other three options? Was the computer system functioning properly? Of course after that evaluation my first thought was to quit from this course but later on I realized that the best way to learn is by taking risks and making mistakes and then learn from them. During these six modules I have improved the four abilities English language requires. The variety of topics and activities each unit covered helped me a lot especially in those weaknesses that I had. In addition, I learnt how to use and apply different tools such as the internet; the email and the websites that made me create new ways to make English learning easier and funnier. It was very useful for me trying with so many attractive activities that let me share experiences with other classmates. In general, I can say, every module was a

challenge and a great opportunity, to identify my weaknesses and strengthens in order to work on them. Talking about weaknesses I think intonation patterns and writing were the most difficult for me, but after I worked with the activities and material related to those topics, my listening, speaking and communication improved quite a lot, my students have noticed a change in the class and now they have gotten more interested in the class. C ULTURAL LEARNING AWARENESS The importance to be exposed to this content as an English teacher makes me reflect on how necessary is to keep on studying in order to find out new ways to get closer to real and actual information. In addition, taking this course has given me the opportunity to work on different interactive web sites, interesting readings and challenging listenings related to different topics about other cultures. I think that the best way to focus students’ attention to English language is to offer them original and useful tools that can make them feel interested in their real world. For example, it’s a good option to let them practice with a great variety of: -

Oral and written texts according to their interests and ages.

Songs with different types of intonation and accent.

Create a personal product such as: Advertisements, articles, magazines, comics and catalogues.

These are only few ideas of how English learning can become easier and meaningful. I consider it is also important to generate curiosity in ourselves and also in our students. This course approaches cultural topics that make you reflect on how effective could be to share information about other traditions or customs from all around the world. Knowledge can be gotten from books, newspapers, magazines or other kind of material but exchanging experiences and points of view with other people let you compare how things can be conceived in a different way.

N EW TEACHING STRATEGIES DISCOVERED As a language learner and teacher I have been able to develop different kind of strategies that have helped me to motivate my students in order to get interested in the English language. In my personal experience, the eight habits that are published in that text are the ost common and they are related with my teaching because I take into account the students’ requirements, so I can prepare my lesson plan according to the objectives I have previously established to reach. The information that a student receives is the reflection of the products you expect to get from them and sometimes letting them make mistakes can be risky but at the same time creates self knowledge and learning. One of the best options is to make them get in touch and share different tools and experiences, which make learning easier. Including ICT’s gives the opportunity to offer great resources to captivate students and work especially in all those topics, where they show interest in a collaborative way. The teacher’s image is essential in the teaching-learning process and it is crucial that students expect from his or her teacher to be a person of influence for them. Undoubtedly as a language teacher I feel responsible of my students’ goals, especially when they feel satisfied with what they do, trying most of the time to motivate them to keep on working. Having a project of what I expect from my students makes me easier to plan particular strategies according to the group’s level. R EADING TEACHING STRATEGIES In the third module, the most interesting activity was scanning, which is a fast reading technique, to find out specific information. I practiced a reading exercise with a game called “Who killed Angela Spelling?” Before doing the reading I worked with the factsheet that explained everything about scanning including in its content very precise information with clear and concise words. Next, I read and took some notes from the worksheet paper, which was quite long but easy as there were images and chronological questions, that helped me to imagine the scene of a crime and made my predictions about the story, after that I

started with the game, trying to find out in different places from the previous information all the clues that guided me to catch the murder of that crime. Finally I analyzed my predictions and the real facts to find out who was the author that committed that terrible murder. After finishing that game I started with the quizzes, the first one was about a furniture catalogue with images from the different models, prices and material of a suite, futons, footstools, armchairs and others. In this quiz the most useful were the images and the brief descriptions of the items. The second quiz was a bus timetable with two schedule charts which were helpful to find specific information, this activity made me concentrate much more than in the previous one. The third quiz was related to Botox, a popular cosmetic treatment, there were no images that could help but instead of them the text was structured in small paragraphs with topic sentences that helped me to go directly to what it was asked, at the end I discovered details that made me read it again, not only for finding out information. This was the most interesting of the three quizzes. L ISTENING TEACHING STRATEGIES I found that the most difficult activity in the fourth module was in unit 4 related to thought groups because I couldn’t identify at the beginning the equivalent pattern in Spanish, so it was necessary for me to check out the tutorial. After I listened to it, I could practice with the examples and exercises that were proposed. After I worked with other helpful examples, thought groups were clearer for me so I felt confident to do the activity. Talking about the activity, the instructions were clear and they weren’t too long, but the fact of breaking ideas by using slashes was kind of confusing because I think every person has a different way to speak and express their own ideas, so it is weird to be forced to make pauses where you wouldn’t do them.

The purpose of working in this module and the activities, I supposed, it was to reflect on our own techniques, on how we speak and communicate with other people, and it was okay but it could have been better trying with meaningful activities instead of listening just a piece of text that didn’t have a relation with a topic of interest. A good option could have been an interview with real characters where you could identify the pauses and the reasons of why they are done in that way or an advertisement when it is offered a product, specially if it is promoted on television or in a radio station where the purpose is to catch people’s attention with brief information. S PEAKING TEACHING STRATEGIES In the fifth module, the most useful activity was “Giving instructions”. Talking about how to give instructions, it might sound weird to mention it as a teacher, but it is important to remember that the fact of saying or explaining something to someone, that doesn’t mean that the information you are transmitting, it is being received or understood properly, as most of the time happens with students. I had the opportunity to do an exercise with my students, at the beginning instructions for me were clear, but for some of them not at all, so it was necessary to exemplify and support instructions a little bit more. During the activity where I recorded my students’ voices most of them participated, they were interested and excited and the others felt ashamed but as the class was going on those students felt motivated and did the activity. It was useful for me, as teacher, to revise the different expressions and phrases that are used to ask and give instructions because they helped me to structure much better the activities that are developed in my classes. Some examples of these activities are preparing recipes, designing catalogues, constructing first aid kits, activities where it is required to follow certain steps and exactly there is where instructions are important in order to get the results I expect from my students.

I have started practicing with my students the way I give instructions following the pattern of sequencing: starting out, continuing and finishing and fortunately the results have been wonderful, they have done great jobs such as expositions and compositions with very successful results. W RITING TEACHING STRATEGIES Writing was one of my weaknesses and now it is much better than at the beginning of the course, I think each module gave me the opportunity to feel confident and do my best effort to make myself understood with my classmates and tutor. During the forums my classmates were kind and made very honest rubrics about my writings. Talking about strategies, I consider that the best ones were to create a comic strip file, write a book review and design a story with photopeach because there was freedom to imagine and share personal experiences that made them meaningful activities. Strategies to create any type of writing are important and through these modules I have learned to: 1. Identify the type of text. This aspect is essential, as there are a variety of texts such as: letters, essays, news article, folktales, comics and poems, etc. and depending on that selection is the type of vocabulary you will use. 2. Brainstorm of ideas. In this stage all the ideas related to the topic have to be written and compared between each other. 3. Design a project. This refers to the structure you want to give to your topic: Introduction, development and conclusions. 4. Use topic sentences.

These types of sentences are extremely useful as they guide the sequence you are going to follow and avoid distractions. 5. Grammar structures. Any writing has its proper characteristics but it is always vital to be aware of the tenses that are used, conjugation of verbs, pronouns, adjectives and in general those aspects that refer to parts of speech. 6. Punctuation and Spelling. This is related to the use of commas, full stops, semi colons, question marks, exclamation marks that makes the text more agile for the readers. A BOUT ICT TOOLS Information and Communication Technologies cover all technical means for processing and communicating information. They offer great advantages on English Language learning,

as I could experience through the six previous

modules, where my four English skills really improved. Writing module was the most useful for me, even for my students, because the tools that were given to us through the different activities were combined perfectly, for instance “Movies and grammar” was a great chance to use at least three of your five human senses and concentration were necessary to remind details about what you have observed or have listened to in the videos. Another helpful tool was using Photopeach to create your own videos with images and music, because while students are designing it, other skills are also developed, such as being brief and concise with few ideas, especially if they feel afraid to write their ideas or opinions. This exercise will make them feel a little bit more confident.

Another important tool was using templates in order to write a folktale, where imagination had no limits to create so unbelievable stories that can be enjoyed by

any type of audience that reads them. For my students, it will be great to work using the computer and some programs like word, paintbrush or powerpoint to write the dialogs, construct their characters and the scenery of their stories. In my opinion, integrating ICT tools to our teaching techniques increases the possibility of having students more conscious about their ways of learning and aware of the importance of motivating self knowledge and self learning, taking advantage of the tools that the technology offers. Lesson planning The most similar lesson plan model I consider appropriate for my context is Bloom’s Taxonomy and Critical Thinking. Even though it is not exactly the same, it is the closest and the best that approaches to the Lesson Plan I often use. When I start my lesson planning, I like to revise the background information students have about the topic on which we are going to work, so I often start with a warm up that it can be a game, a tongue twister or a riddle in order to make my students get in the appropriate mood. Then I ask some oral questions to identify the general knowledge of the group about the topic, after that, brainstorm of ideas comes when students start to express their opinions and the way they understand that information. Later on if I work with a reading text, it is important to practice with a true or false exercise before starting with the reading of the text. Next, I give them the reading and they skim for general information then for specific information to compare their previous answers. After they do those reading techniques, I organize them in pairs or teams to make them work in a collaborative way and analyze the content of the reading, sharing and exchanging points of view. Then I try with a free drill, that it might be a performance of some dialogs or improvising new ones, but without losing the objective of the topic we are studying. Finally, I try to promote peer- correction and self evaluation after the performance in order to evaluate what the students have really learned.

Lesson planning is extremely necessary and important; it works like a guide that needs to be followed and sometimes flexible to make or accept some changes.

MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE By MOCTEZUMA SARMIENTO CAROLINA

1. English language learning awareness. I do not know how to begin this work, but In this course I have learned some vocabulary that I did not know. When I was doing the exercises, I began to remember some basic words that were hard to remember until I used the dictionary to know their meaning; but this is an excellent activity to keep my mind working on English. We have to be prepared because we as teachers must manage the four skills like writing, listening, speaking and reading because these are the skills we are trying to develop in our students to help them to express their emotions, feelings and needs. In the section 5, I remember that it was hard to recognize the two abilities that I have learned on my own , and I needed to develop the other two because I lacked of them. But now I can tell you that I need all the strategies to develop all the abilities, not only two; because all of them are important and I need to be conscious of my learning process, so along this course I got

better in some

aspects besides I feel more confident about my teaching. In one of the activities Marisela recommended me to use the on-line dictionaries which made it faster to find words when I had to listen to songs, or watch movies. It is a big advantage to manage internet tools to help our students to learn the language in an easy and attractive way.

2. Cultural learning awareness. As I wrote before in this module, I knew about some places where English is the native tongue, so it was interesting since I teach English. I do not know about those countries and this is a good way to let us know

the customs and habits of them. The section I think showed more about culture was reading strategies, because It was more productive I knew the process to make a nest, I practiced my reading strategies, I REINFORCED AND KNEW MORE VOCABULARY AND THORUGH THE TEXTS I

COULD SE THE

CULTURAL ASPECTS FROM A COUNTRY. In the module 4 act. 7, we have an interesting example. If you visit this website, you can choose a topic, and they give you the biography of the person. You could listen to their speech about food, activities they did, likes and customs with people from different parts of the world, not only English speaking countries showing their cultural aspects. In other activities, I noticed the different pronunciation and intonation of the same word and this is cultural too. This is just an example of all the activities we did in the sites we were asked to visit. 3. New teaching strategies discovered. During this course I knew many and different strategies that will help me in my teaching; for example, in the reading comprehension I got surprised with all the pages where you as a teacher can use in the class to develop and reinforce the reading strategies. You can consult real material from other countries so this could be a way to travel and know about the customs, habits and cultural aspects from other places that maybe in the real life neither you nor I will ever visit. Other activity where I took the risk was the last reading which says that we as a teacher must be visionary. I wanted to practice future and present, so I asked my students to solve the quizzes from the module 6. They did not do it. Most of them sent it, but some others did not have the chance because they do not have PC so I let them hand it printed and written by them. Let me tell you they also sent the first project by e-mail because as I told you before I wanted to present an exposition at the end of the Course to see their progress in English, and I ´m taking the risk using technology to facilitate and stimulate them, besides I am trying to get their attention in the language. 4. Reading teaching strategies. In this module I learned that reading can be used for different purposes. I read many of the texts suggested and I practice some reading strategies because I teach them, but I do not practice difficult ones. If I do

it, it is with easy readings and for beginners. Despite these readings were a little bit difficult, I understood them using skimming and scanning, also I checked the images to predict and

inferred vocabulary.

If you know synonyms, and the

meaning of others words that helps you to know what the text is about , the main idea and the most relevant information. In one report I wrote that I have not taught these strategies like that, but when I or my students put in practice some of them; for example, wh- questions,

visualize the information, after that they can draw and later write a short paragraph using their own words, and finally they show it and read it to the class. I tell them that we have been using these strategies since we were children because we used the same way to learn a text in our mother tongue. Two weeks ago I did it. I was giving them instructions to follow the strategies, and they understood the text that was in the book easily and better. At the end they could answer and complete a map accurately. That made me feel happy. . The same module mentioned 20 strategies. I am thinking of putting them into practice. Now my students participate a little more I will be a liar if I tell you that they changed, I think that it is a process. First for me and then for them, so we are learning, practicing and improving little by little. 5. Listening teaching strategies. This was one of the two most difficult module, because I was not accustomed to paying attention on words stress, intonation, pause and rhythm. I remember that once upon a time I learned and practiced, but the time passes, and If you don´t practice you will easily forget, so I had forgotten some of the words. I used to speak without considering these strategies into account. I had some difficulties understanding the songs and since I checked these activities I kept them in mind. When I work with a listening for my students I try to repeat after them in order to improve my pronunciation. Now I consider it important .I wrote an activity for the Christmas festival. My students of 3° A will sing a Christmas carol. This activity will give them the opportunity to enjoy, sing, dance and over all practice their

pronunciation, but I promise you I ´ll do with all my students and almost every period, beside let me tell you that I like to sing and I would like to learn as many songs as possible and I think that my pupils will like it too. These strategies will make listening and speaking easier and funny. We could use some spelling games and pronunciation competences. 6. Speaking teaching strategies. This is the second most difficult module. It is not because of the speaking, it is for the difficulties I had and continue having in record my speaking. I recognized I ´m unable to use this technology to record. I asked for help to some friends. I bought the microphone and installed it but it did not work. It was hard that is why I didn’t send the exercises on time. A

colleague

brought the PC, the microphone and with a special program he helped me to record. I do not why it was so difficult to do it by myself. As I have a lot of trouble with these new techniques, I prefer to do it as I did it before with my students. I used

to record in a tape recorder with a microphone and a cassette and it was

easier, later we listened and checked errors, and repeated the exercise to make it better. They did not like to listen to their voice. The same happened to me, but so I will try to practice how to connect and install this technology. 7. Writing teaching strategies. in this module I felt like a fish in the water , I really like to express my feelings and emotions by writing so is was easy and I made use of more vocabulary , in this module I took into account that I have some mistakes in spelling. When I write I did not pay attention to the text and sent it to Marisela. Later, when I checked the feedback, I was ashamed because of the errors. Some of them were for mistyping a word. As I did not check, I sent the errors. Now that I ´m writing, I ´m being more careful although I spend more time, so in this section I could remember some tenses that are not very common to use in the secondary level where I work, and they were kept in my mind until I began this course, which has been interesting, funny and helpful to improve my learning as a student of the language and as a teacher, to use all I have learnt with my students, to make more attractive learning English as a second language.

8. About ICT tools.

The new program for secondary school stresses

the

importance of using and beginning the new lesson with a text, and at the end of the lesson they have to deliver a product. It is called a project . In this project, the students should show what they have learned in that period. This should be a writing text, that is why module 6 was very important anduseful. I think it will be attractive for my groups. Last week, they wrote a story. For this, they reviewed the tense quizzes and I suppose these tasks were an innovation of my teaching and for them it was different from the others we have had. The second project I have is mind is to work with books of poems. They will be asked to participate in a contest, later we will make a gallery of the works to see them, but before this, they will learn how to use this website. And the last but not less important is to create a comic. They are imaginative and funny so they will have many ideas about giving suggestions, warnings and prohibitions, and this will be exposed to all the groups. I will ask them to send them in a file to use them in the final exposition that the school organizes every year for the parents to know their son´s progress in all the subjects. I really hope this will be a good idea. It will give many satisfactions, and why not go to other school to show our works. I feel excited to do it. 9. Lesson planning .Nowadays in the school we have different kinds of students. I mean they are similar in age , likes , music, clothes and they live in the same context buy their historical learning and process is totally different. It is important for the teachers to know about the multiples intelligences. This knowledge about how every person learns something it does not matter the subject will give us the opportunity to involucrate all the students and make them to participate and get involved in the English language. The difficulty that I have found is we have no time to plan using and developing all intelligence, that is why I chose the MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES SEVEN WAYS OF KNOWING ( GARDNER) because it includes an activity for every intelligence. In the same text they put activities for verbal, mathematical, introspective, interpersonal, kinesthetic and musical learners .I will use more activities to plan. I have already kept the site which is really relevant for

me. I saw the others but I think this will be more practical, useful and specific for my groups. As a conclusion, I want to tell that this course have

taught me many things. First

as a learner of the language, I remembered some vocabulary, grammar, phonetics, stress. I reviewed some reading strategies. Speaking made me reflect on my fluency and pronunciation. I learned about more vocabulary, cultural aspects and customs. it made me remember that every student is important, so I need to observe them and prepare a lesson plan that involves them all. I need to observe them and know more about them too. As a teacher, this course really surprised me because I wanted to prove a new and attractive way to teach, but I did not think the hundreds of possibilities that we have with the technological tools nowadays. Now I just need to know how to use them and put in practice all what we learned to improve our teaching. This knowledge will help us to reach the objectives that we have in our subject. Although some times they were difficult, we always had the teacher who helped us to finish this course.

REVIEWING MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE. BY MONTERO RODRIGUEZ CARLOS ENGLISH LEARNING AWARENESS I would like to start by saying that I needed to know everything related to what the internet has to offer as a communication media and I learned it in the first module, from what an e- mail is to the chats room, and all the language needed for its use, it was very helpful for me in order to understand everything related to this course. In the second module, I became aware in a deeper way about learning through internet tools. I familiarized myself with these all new tools and some sites, and

improved my way of learning on line. I was taught to move the mouse and all its functions. I was able to organize the time I was going to spend working in a computer. In the third module, I learnt from what the meaning of reading is to different strategies to do, like skimming and scanning, and I really enjoyed the exercises with both techniques. I also learned the different types of texts classified according to the purpose of each one. I read very interesting stories such “ La Amistad” and I really improved my reading and comprehension with the short stories and the exercises we did and all the terms, but above all the strategies to read that we were given by the Journey North, which I need to apply to have a better reading. The fourth module is one of my favorites because I learnt things I knew before but I didn’t know how to call them, such the rising and falling intonation, which by the way, it was so easy to understand with the teacher in the videos; the minimal pairs were difficult yes but very important as well as how to identify a stress word. Reading exercises were fun to do and along really it was fun to do and as I said before, module 4 is my favorite. In the fifth module, I had the chance to chat with some of my classmates, and that was very important to me to set me standards. I found out that they are all excellent teachers. I had never heard my voice in English, and at the beginning I didn’t like it, but as the module went along I got used to it, and I enjoyed at the end of it. Finally I could not enjoy the sixth module because of the lack of time as I wish I had, but there were some interesting exercises such as writing our own book, that was awesome!, or the comic stripe that was fun too . The questions about the movies or the review of a novel we read were not that fun, but all made me write more and more often. All the modules had a purpose, and I think they were very handy for my personal growing.

CULTURAL LEARNING AWARENESS Before this course, I knew something about some English speaking countries like the U.S., Canada, England and Australia’s history. As I visited new sites I

learnt

a lot about their life style. It was interesting to know about them. I also learnt about the techniques they use to learn or study their own language and how to do it faster without losing focus. I also learnt about some stories about the constructions of some representative icons in American history such as the golden gate bridge, and the difference between American and British English. That was very interesting and very important to know if our students ask about them, and to avoid to get shut because we don’t know the answers. I learnt about some animal habits and how they live. The mate in some cases build their nest, about kangaroos despite being a national symbol, it’s considered a plague in some parts of Australia because they compete with the sheep for food. Some of the most interesting activities I did were to identify how to say the same thing with different expressions according to the costume from the country. We discussed about taxes, first aid and procedures in case of an accident. Finally, we read and gave opinions about some stories and books; I read from different people around the world and tried to understand the way of thinking in different topics. I enriched my knowledge studying the culture of the principal English speaking countries. 3.1 21st CENTURY TEACHERS. As I reviewed at the beginning of this course, we, as teachers, must draw our students attention to a new ways of thinking. We can’t remain teaching as we did when we started working as teachers. May be we keep teaching the old fashion due to we learned that way, and we thought it was ok, and maybe we picked strategies from more experimented teachers we’ve worked with, who were really successful, or even from our own teachers to whom we understood properly, but

we can’t teach that way any longer with all the new resources we have nowadays. I know, from my own experience, there are many teachers who resist acquiring new strategies that involve new technologies, like computers, and all these have something to offer to the teaching-learning process. Some teachers refuse to use technology because they are afraid to learn something their students already know, and wouldn’t resist to be corrected by them; to my understanding is a kind of physiological issue they have to deal with and it. With all new resources, we must adapt our selves to the every minute changing world, so we must be creative and imaginative. We have to remember when we were kids and played to invent situations to have fun. We must apply this imagination while teaching, create strategies with these tools every day, and take a good look to the possible inventions in our near and far future. We must not only encourage to our mates to use these technologies. If we have the chance and they have the disposition, we must teach them as well. At the beginning there will be mistakes, I can assure there will, but if we don’t take chances, will be stuck in a changing world and we’re going to be doomed. We must keep our learning, in the same level our students will, and we must be updated for every innovation and designed strategies to fit them in our classroom. Finally we must be available for our students as much as possible, because, even though they will be learning by themselves, they will still need us to clarify doubts, lead them, moderate them, stimulate them and encourage them to learn. READING TEACHING STRATEGIES When I began this course, I didn’t have a clue of how it was going to be, neither what I was going to learn. But as the units went by, I discovered the lack of strategies I had. I was surprised of the way they were taught because they were very easy and very comprehensible, even if you weren’t a formal English student.

I used to read a whole text for every purpose, but when I read the definition of skimming and scanning and I applied them when I was reading, it became easier for me to read and to look for any specific part in a text, it was great. There were some sites that I enjoyed visiting, like “manythings.org” where I learned about the American English history and its differences with British English it was very interesting. I think these kinds of sites give the students the opportunity to improve their vocabulary through out interesting notes or news or anything they might find interesting. As we know in every language if you want to improve, not only your vocabulary, but your grammar you need to read a lot and very often. In the site “Adult Learning Activities” we visited in unit 3, I think, I read some very interesting articles in a large variety of topics such as nature, school , health and services, beside helping me with my reading I learned a lot for my personal knowledge and how to be a better citizen. LISTENING TEACHING STRATEGIES I think the second unit (English Bites) of the fourth module was not very difficult but complicated due to all the steps you had to follow, that’s why I thought it was the most difficult to accomplish. I considered the tasks very easy because I handled almost all the vocabulary needed to have them done. The text selections were not a problem because I was able to choose them and I think it was excellent to do that, and not working in a text that maybe I would not like. They were not too long, so they were easy to work with, and I tried to make them as clear as possible. I think that some of our students don’t have the necessary tools to accomplish these tasks, because they belong to low income class and it’s complicated for them to carry out this sort of assignments. Some of them do have computers, but these computers do not the capability to download some of the programs needed to work. I think that this might be a problem, if we want to work with them with these kinds of strategies. If I want apply them at school, I’d face the problem with the dynamics of my school, because the computer lab it’s to small and not every computer has internet, besides not all of them have the capability to run certain

programs. I think these are the main problems, but not everything is all that bad, I found excellent sites where the lack of programs would not be a problem and I can work with my students just fine.

SPEAKING TEACHING STRATEGIES These sorts of tools are very helpful in the classroom because they are kind of new for the students and they might like them, if they are properly planned. I’d use the voicethread for second graders in the first unit for describing people and animals and tell their habits and make a review of what their classmates said. It works for exams too; I can evaluate them with an exercise where they have to describe the person they chose. For first graders I can use it to tell the personal information about someone they chose at the end of the second unit, or I can make them describe actions in progress for the third unit. There are too many things the students can do with this site, but we have to lead them step by step in order to reduce the time to do it and accomplish the goals. There other tools they can use to improve their pronunciation, like the recorder where they’d have the chance to speak and being listened by them only at first, this can be useful in order to gain confidence in themselves, and later on send their recordings to me by e-mail for evaluation and try to correct them in time. All we learnt here and the way we learnt it can be perfectly apply it in a junior high class. WRITING TEACHING STRATEGIES. I had the chance in this module to improve my writing skills. First of all realizing the most important grammar aspects is the function of each word in sentences, for instance where to write a noun, verb or an adjective.

To write something I have to visualize a concept, then I have to check my vocabulary and finally to carry out my idea. It’s a process where I have to begin with small projects; I also have to use my imagination to create more than I could think in a first glance.

I need to read more in order to improve my grammar and punctuation. Both are very important to make myself clear every time I want to express myself in a written form. I also have to keep a logical sequence when I’m writing in order to be understandable and clear. I have to define an own writing style which will help me to keep a specific model every time I chose a topic. I have to establish differences among the styles there are in order to identify writing. This module was very difficult for me due to the lack of time and the technical problems I faced, but I was able to accomplish it and I had the chance to learn more about this skill. ICT TOOLS CHOSEN I chose these ICT tools because I think they are the most functional and the most suitable for my class, and besides they are very interesting and I consider that my students would like a lot to work with them. The Audacity program is a great tool for my student’s speaking skill, because they can listen themselves without being listened by others. I’ve seen that students who are beginning to study English are afraid to make mistakes while they are talking in front of others, but with this program they can gain confidence to do it, because the can record whatever, until they consider to get it right and they can edit their presentation. The Voicethread program is also very handy. I can, as a teacher, leave groups assignments and evaluate them one by one or by group. The student can speak more freely and not be ashamed. They are even able to choose the topic, which

means they even like it more, because they can express themselves in a better way about something the like very much. Finally, with the Bookr program, I can check the progress of my students assigning stories about any topic, using any tense and using their imagination with pictures. At the end, these three ICT tools might be the beginning to a funnier way to teach and I’m sure the students would love them, and make their best effort to learn English. LESSON PLANNING Without any doubt, lesson planning is one of the most difficult tasks we have as teachers, because we have to adapt the class programs with the needs of each group, It is like making a plan, no just for every grade but for every group, depending on the way of working. I read the different lesson planning proposed in The Teachers Planet site, and I think the Bloom’s Taxonomy and Critical Thinking is the most suitable for my needs, because it takes all the necessary to plan a good lesson. All the steps shown in this proposal are needed to accomplish a good learning. First, you have to show the students a text to get them involved with the topic, then they express what the knew before they read or listen to the text, after that they give their personal opinions and discuss among them their different points of view and reasons to be, and finally they can make a final reflection about it. You can evaluate them either orally or by writing. It is very important to know before doing it, the student’s interests, their needs and most of all make sure that all the students participate and not let the exercise become a monologue; I mean not let the outstanding students take over the exercise.

I’ve done this and I had to be very careful to carry it on. It’s very difficult if you do not plan it first, and you have to make such changes as the lessons evolve, depending on the group. MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE By OLIVARES RAMIREZ RUBEN

1. - English language learning awareness Now, after checking my final reflections in each module I can say the next: First, during this course I have developed different skills, talking about the English language; because during the “diploma course” I have learned a lot of strategies to understand it in a better way. For example, at this moment I have learned the difference between skimming and scanning. Another strategy consists on using music inside the classroom; and the last one that I want to mention is related to paying attention to the intonation patterns during the conversations. Also, I have learned new vocabulary; because of the different texts I have read in the different parts of this course, an example of this could be the different words in American English vs British English. Now, talking about intonation patterns, for me, it was so incredible, because with all the different activities about it, I could understand better the next modules of this course. Then, I would like to tell you that with the module about listening, I could discover new different strategies applied to learning and teaching English… for example, the different news that I could find in the internet. According to me, they are useful for our Learning process. Finally and according to your instructions, let me give you some examples about my learning process. Talking about writing, I enjoyed a lot the activity about the book review;

another one was “Important People in my Life”. Now talking about speaking, as you know, it was the best module for me, and of course I liked all the activities, but the best activities for me were recording a short presentation and how to describe a situation, because with this activity through music I was able to describe an imaginary place, and of course another important activity was the Chat that we had with one of our partners, with that activity I learnt more about my partners and of course I had the opportunity to practice my Fluency… That’s why, I just can tell you… Thank you very much again!!! ¨ 2. - Cultural learning awareness First of all I would like to involve all my students in the American or British environment, in order to get their attention, using probably different photos or using internet so that I can show them the most important cities, different kind of people and different dishes.

Then by some readings, I would introduce my students to different cultural aspects so that they can know and then, they could understand the American or British Culture. Finally, I would like to use the different resources you have shown us, so that my students can practice with them, for example, I would like to use the books in internet with the objective my students could do their own books, and then I would like to use the “CHATS” so that my students could write, listen and talk with their partners. So as you can see, during this course you have show us different useful tools in internet that we as teachers have in our hands and now the task is to use all of them… Thank you very much Marisela.!!! 

3. - New teaching strategies discovered After reading the text I would like to share the next: First let me tell you Congratulations, because with this kind of readings, we as teachers must learn every day, and with this essay, today I could have the opportunity to remember many important things in our daily labor. Now, talking about the different strategies I observed during the module, I could say that in all the module I could notice that you as our teacher used all the eight habits, for example according to “Adapting”, you adapted different tools in internet and also you adapted many different dynamics. For example we were working individually and of course when we had the opportunity to share our homework with our partners, I think it was the best, because with this kind of dynamics I could learn more about my classmates. Talking about “Being Visionary”, you used different resources in internet and you used different hardware, for example microphones and video cameras in order to let us practice different skills with our partners. Now, I consider, It is time to apply all of these resources inside of our classroom in order to give the opportunity to our students to learn according to this proposal. Collaborating was another important aspect that I could notice you used so that, we could build different activities. For instance, I can say that during the entire course we knew perfectly that if we had some questions about the different tasks, we had the opportunity to ask you and the best; it is that we received a positive answer from you. And finally “Leading”, according to me, I am sure that it was the most important part, because in the entire course you were our leader and if you let me tell you…

Let me tell you… Congratulations because in all the moments, you knew perfectly how to motivate us, and particularly in my case, you knew how to encourage me, that’s why now I am here and I guess that’s the reason our group continued working with you… Thank you very Much Marisela for being our Teacher and specially our leader… Congratulations for you!!! ¸ 4. - Reading teaching strategies Well Teacher, after checking the third module, I can say that the most interesting activity for my reading practice was “The Intensive Reading” , because with that activity I could practice different skills, for example: With that activity at the beginning I read the basic story then I had the opportunity to read the full story, after that I could watch a video and with it, I got a better idea about the topic (Cell phone Safety) and at the end of the activity, I found an excellent exercise in order to practice and to understand the vocabulary that they show in the activity, so as you can see that activity is very complete, that’s why I consider that activity was the best for me.

Also, I can say at this moment that another important activity was to read Real News in Internet, I remember that I selected an article about “Influenza”, because I guess, this is an important topic and I believe that our students know about it, that’s why, I consider that this is an important resource that we as teachers can exploit with our students and of course in our case as teachers we should remember that internet is very helpful in our class with all our pupils, and of course, it is another way to teach and to learn…  Thank you very much for reminding me these activities… 

5. - Listening teaching strategies Well after checking the fourth module, I can say that the most difficult activities for me were Minimal Pairs and the Topic about Phrasal Verbs, according to me, I guess those

activities were difficult for me because I haven’t practiced them a lot, so at the beginning of the activities I felt them kind of long. Another important aspect that I consider about those activities, it is that sometimes in our context (especially in my case) I have not had a lot opportunities to practice with them, because as you know most of the time in our case (as Latin people), we don’t use them a lot, and in my case I speak using different vocabulary in order to express my ideas, however today I learnt another important aspect that I need to check in order to improve my English level, that´s why I felt them a little difficult. Although I faced difficulties as I explained you before, the exercises were ok. Now, if you do not mind, I would like to express how the activity could have been easier. I would like to divide it in more sessions, because as I told you before, I felt the topics kind of long, and for me those topics are a little complicated, that’s why I would like to check them slowly. Thank you very much for letting me tell you my point of view. 

6. - Speaking teaching strategies Well talking about the fifth module, first let me tell you that this course was the best for me, because I liked it a lot. All the different activities were very funny for me. Now, if you ask me about the most useful for me, they were the next activities: “How to tell a story”, then “Using music in order to describe a situation or place”, another important was “Someone important in my life” and finally the activity “Speaking evaluation”. With this activity, I remembered my story about the police man on Central Avenue (ji ji ji J)...

Also I consider that another important and very meaningful activity was the Chat, where I had the opportunity to exchange and to know more about Alfredo Galvez, believe me it was so cool for me.

Finally, about the possible way that I could use this type of activities with my students, I believe that all of the activities are very useful for them, and also I guess they like this kind of activities, because as you know, we work with teenagers and they like to talk, and of course they like to chat too. Another important aspect for them, it is that they like to use technology inside of the class, that’s why I am sure they would like to work using these activities. A possible way could be working in teams with them, in order to exchange their points of view, using the computers in the school, another possibility could be using the software that you showed us so that they could record their voice, and then they could record a short story about their family or their favorite singer. But the most important here for me, it is that they are going to have the possibility to use new resources in the class… Thank you very much again for teaching us new different ways to teach and to learn. 7. - Writing teaching strategies According to this module “Writing Module”, I can say the next: First, it was another important module that I enjoyed a lot, because of the different activities that you showed us during our course. Especially I would like to tell you that the most important strategies that I liked were presented in, “Comics Strip File”, because with this activity we as teachers can

start the learning process of the English Language with our students in a funny way. Another important strategy was “Visual Story”, with this activity we can explode all the opportunities that a photo can have in our students, so that they can write whatever they want using pictures, also with two, three, or more pictures they can make a little and interesting story in the same way as we did it during the module.

After that, another important strategy for me was “My first book review”, because with that activity I could develop my skills about writing, because I felt as if I had the freedom to write the most important parts of the book, so I liked the activity because of that, and also because with the activity I learnt the different parts we need to consider when we want to make a review of a book. And finally, the best and the most interesting strategy was “Movies and grammar”, because I believe, it is the most complete activity. With this activity I could apply different skills (Listening, Grammar and Reading) that’s why at this moment I can say that for me, this kind of activities help us a lot in our learning process of the English Language, and imagine, with a little part of a movie I could enjoy the moment and also I could learn, and increase my knowledge, so as I told you before, this activity was so amazing for me…. Thank you very much!!!... 

8. - About ICT tools

Reflecting about the effects of Information and Communication Technologies on English Language Learning undoubtedly I choose the module about speaking, according to me it was the best and most useful module for me, maybe it was because I like to talk a lot  (ji ji ji).

Besides that in that module, I found different attractive tools for our learning process even for our students, for example, the most useful tool was the software which we used to record our voice. With it, I could record my stories. Another important tool was “music” I remember that through it, we could describe a specific situation, then we could describe a possible place, imagine, we as teacher could do this activity, now if we let our students to this activity I guess we can explode the potential in our pupils and of course we can find a lot of surprises, because they have the ability to imagine many things using music, furthermore, we need to remember that in the age of our students (teenagers) they like listening to all kind of music, so we could take advantage of this. Other important resource I could find inside of the module about speaking was the use of the pictures or the photos, just remember, most of our students are visual learners, so if we use this kind of tools in our classrooms we could motivate or encourage our students to talk or to develop their skills using this material in their class. But the most important resource that I found was the Chat. Sometimes we can think that “Chats” are not a resource, but if we plan, and we prepare our class using this important tool I guess, It could let us develop the motivation in our learners, even in our case as teachers, because according to me, with this tool (Chat) I could practice what I already knew in a funny way, and the most important part was that I enjoyed the activity, that’s why I am sure, we can apply it in the same way with our students inside of the school…

9. - Lesson planning

Well, after checking the different models that you showed us in the site, I would like to tell you that according to me, all of them are appropriate for us, however in my case and considering my context I select the Bloom’s Taxonomy. Talking about the other models I guess all of them are useful, the most important part for me, it is to consider the objective of our class, and after considering the topic, we could select one of the different models, so, for me the most important it is the objective and the likes or dislikes of our students, because we can’t use the same model forever, because we have to consider that in our class we have different kind of students, that’s why we need to pay attention to this… Another important aspect, it is to be flexible, we don’t have to follow just a specific way to teach, the most important part in our case as teacher, it is to take the best of the different models we know, in other words try to be eclectic , it is to take the best of the different models in order to teach in a different way…. Finally, as I told you before, I selected Bloom’s Taxonomy, because I guess that this model considers many important aspects inside of the classroom, for example, “Recall” with this step we can make a review of the previous Knowledge of our students, then with the “Comprehension” we as teacher can see if our students are understanding correctly, after that we have the “application”, with this part we can check if our students are applying in the correct way the knowledge, because remember the most important, it is to apply the knowledge that we learn inside of the classroom in the real life, for me, this is most important part (talking about Teaching), when my students have the opportunity to see that the different knowledge that they have learnt in the school are useful for them in their life, they want to

continue learning, and this is our task as teachers, we need to teach them something useful in order to have their attention. Finally if we have the opportunity to see that our students are able to make a synthesis of the class with the different activities or even they are able to create new knowledge, we can say that we are doing our activity in the correct way (as Teachers). So the most important part for me, it is to consider our objective and of course the kind of students we have inside of our classroom. Thank You Very Much!!!...  Reviewing the report of my learning experience First of all, I would like to star this report saying “Thank you very much” for this amazing opportunity, believe me, it has been a great experience for me, because with this “Diploma Course” I have learnt a lot of important information in order to be a better Teacher, but the most important thing, it has been the fact to meet new people and to have the chance to share our experience during the course. Of course, as you know another important reason to take this course, it was to be more prepared for the new generations that we have on our hands, because if we want to continue teaching, we need to be updated every day, and let me tell that this Diploma was the perfect way to do it. On the other hand, I want to say again “Thank you Marisela” for the time that you spent during the Diploma Course to read and to check our homework, I could notice perfectly that you love you job, and believe me after this course you are an example an important person in my life. As you know, it is very difficult to find people who enjoy their profession and you are one of them, that’s why let tell you Congratulations again.

Now, talking about the most important aspects that I could learn during this “Diploma Course” let me tell you the next: For me the most important aspect was “Reflection”, because during the whole course it was an important activity that you ask us, in fact at the beginning of the course it was not very easy, but with your help and with all the different activities, this task was successful done. Also, in my case, I think that the most important process talking about learning, it is when the student can interiorize the new knowledge, because when it happens, we as teacher can be sure that the knowledge will be on the mind of our student for long time, and with this course you gave me the opportunity to do it in all the different tasks that you ask me. Another important aspect, it was to think about our weaknesses and strengthens at the end of the different units, it helps me to pay attention on the different topics that I needed to continue working, in order to improve my English level. Now, at the end of this Diploma with all the different reflections that I did, I can notice how my level has changed and what are the areas that I need to practice more. Talking about Cultural learning awareness, for me, it was another important activity in my learning process, because with this, I had the chance to think and to know more about different communities (especially American and British), for example with the different readings, I could learn more about their history, grammar, and of course with internet I could travel to different places to learn more about of them. Besides that, with internet I could have the opportunity to save a lot of time and the most important was that the time that I spent for this Course in all the different moments, it was an “inversion”, because thanks to this important tool, I could discover excellent sites that we have now, in order to teach our students in a different and funny way.

In conjunction with this, I would like to tell you that the way that you divided the course was excellent, because we had the space to learn and to practice with the four skills (Listening, Writing, Speaking and Reading). According to these four skills, I believe that in our case as teachers, we need to continue working every day with this kind of courses and with these kinds of activities in order to continue learning new different ways to teach in our classes. In addition, this course was perfect to share and to exchange our different points of view, and of course with the different activities that we did during the Diploma, we could learn more about our different partners and to discover different strategies we have in order to continue learning in our process of teaching. Talking about ICT, it was an excellent module, so that we as teacher could discover and to understand that with this tool, we have an amazing resource in our schools, now the task, it is to use all of the different strategies that we could learn during this course in our class. Finally, I just can tell you again…. Thank you very much for this opportunity in my life and I appreciate as usual, your time and your advice…

Ruben Olivares Ramirez.

MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE RUBIO HI MARIA GABRIELA

Since the beginning, I felt so happy that SEP gave us this tremendous opportunity to get a diploma in my subject and better because this diploma comes from CELE/ UNAM, which, as all we know, is one of the most important universities in the world, so respected by me. Once I was one of its students. I studied philosophy but I dismissed. Through these 7 modules I’ve learnt a lot of useful things and in my opinion should be million of things more to learn that we miss in this diploma, but honestly it was enough for me by now. Nevertheless I feel so lucky to be part of this project because all the things I learnt are priceless, not only I learnt academic things I also learnt about me, I mean, the learning process was richer than I though in the very beginning. To realize all the resources we have as English teachers, was one of the most important experience of all, ‘cause now I know that I have a huge variety of web pages where I can find activities, programs, resources, etc., to improve my teaching work and give me and my students the chance to have a sort of visions of learning English. As well to create a language and cultural awareness in my students have been one of my goals since the first day I went through this marvelous journey which is teaching English. Nowadays it is easier to teach English with all this kind of materials and resources that may be interesting for the students. Teaching English always had been easy because we have more resources than any other subject such as sing, dance, watch movies, etc., Thanks God, they are getting better everyday and we only have is to look for them in the internet, to research, to learn and to apply which is the tough part of the job, because a lot of teachers, including myself, are too tight to old practices and change them is the hardest part. There are important reasons: one is the lack of knowledge to use a computer and the other would be how to apply in the daily work in a classroom.

I´m positive sure that we do not need nor one diploma, we need a lot of them in order to learn, to reinforce, to practice and to apply. My personal experience had been totally unexpected, because I noticed about some issues of me. Now I know that I need to learn a lot; for me this is only the beginning; so many times I found myself reluctant to learn, because this process implied to lose my comfort zone, my old thoughts, and old practices, and the other is confront me with myself in order to improve and be a TEACHER, one thing is teach English, an other be a TEACHER, now I notice that I’m teaching English but I want to become a TEACHER and this will be my commitment from now. I’m very grateful to have the chance to have participated in this diploma which thought me how to improve my English teaching but it was an intense personal journey to my inside, to know what I really want and what I really need, and what I have to do to produce better students. Marisela thank you very much for your time, your patience, and your warmness. You are an amazing person; you’ve always been there no matter what, despite your personal sorrow and grief, I want you to know you are a great teacher. English Language Learning Awareness

Making a reflection about the previous modules, I believe that this diploma course has helped me to learn a lot of things, speaking about grammar, structures and so on. I remembered very important things about speaking English, because there are a lot of structures that I may know because I’ve heard them but I haven’t learnt them in an appropriate way. Sometimes, I feel like those Latin people who arrived to the U.S to work with no knowledge of the language, and the need to speak to communicate make them speak English with no formal courses. They don’t know anything about structures and rules, but they speak as they heard it, and this is my case because , I always watch T.V with no subtitles and I try to understand what the people are talking and that’s the way I have learnt some things.

Now that I have studied this course, I’m aware of these structures, the grammar rules, the intonation, the rhythm and so on, and everything is clearer and I understand better the conversations between people in the T.V. In the other hand I can reproduce this things in my class, I have to admit that I had to study by myself before the course, when I didn’t understand some structures that I had to explain to my students, but other structures are clearer now. There were some activities that I think were useful, like quizzes, grammar checking and vocabulary, I know I need a urgent English classes, because the diploma wasn’t enough for my missing learning nevertheless was so useful.

Cultural Learning Awareness Cultural aspects are very important because to know about the culture of other countries we can emphasize our own culture, I mean, there is a myth that there is no a richer culture than our Mexican culture, and It is partly true because through the course, I got to know other rich cultures. I read a lot of texts about American culture that I haven’t known. They are amazing, interesting and with

a lot of

cultural diversity. I know the American civilization is younger than our civilization, but it is very important. This has been documented in history. There are other subjects such as art, music, and reading. In poetry for example, we made our book of poems, but to do it I read some poetry about outstanding writers, and that made me know more about the culture through the web pages you suggested to read. But I think, It could be more interesting if SEP could do something, I mean, an English text book, which I think It would be the ideal place to write culture bits of American culture or English culture which make students get interested in these topics and they want to research by themselves more. Sometimes this could be difficult because some students don’t have these habits and they don’t care about their own culture. New Teaching Strategies discovered

This text should be read by every single teacher on Earth because the information that portrait is very useful. Some teachers are in the former century and still practicing old strategies and sometimes we, the teachers ask: why my students seem too bored in my class? Well the answer is I have read in that article and it is so educative. I have to admit that I do not know some ICT tools mentioned in the text, for example, twitter. How can we ask our students to use these things if we don´t know them? We need as teachers to take courses that improve our knowledge about ICT, and something so simple: to use a computer and programs, and other of million things about teaching, I believe that if we have current information about all this technology, we will be able to have better classes and better students, at least more interested in English class. Other thing would be a great help for us is that somebody, maybe SEP creates a web pages with information useful for our daily work, such as web pages where we can find current information about ICT, about authentic material that we can use in our classes, and so on. Listening Teaching Strategies I enjoyed this module very much, because I really like to listen, speak English, and I make my best effort to understand what I’m listening. I can´t understand all the conversations and all the people, there are people who speak with a lot of abbreviations, slangs and local way of the cities they live, and that is difficult for me, but I really enjoy listening because it makes me understand better day by day, that’s the reason I didn’t find difficulty in this module. I wish I ´d had more activities to improve my listening. There’s nothing I can suggest to make them easier, I think harder the activity better we learn. There were units where we have to listen people from other countries, but anyway I tried to understand what they were talking about, but I think If we can catch the main idea maybe we can understand better, not word by word the full idea.

As I told you before the unit where we have to listen people from other countries was so funny, for example the man from India, barely I understand what he was talking at the beginning of his speech, but later in the next paragraph it was easier because I understood some words and that gave a main idea about he was talking, as well with the Croatian woman but I think she talked better that the Indian man. That is the importance to listen to everybody but if they are English or American it would be better. That is the importance to listen to everybody but if they are English or American it would be better anyway listen people from other countries make me listen better

Speaking Teaching Strategies This module was the most difficult one because I don't have the chance to practice as much as I want, and that situation creates a lot of shame on me. I don´t feel confidence when I speak. I always feel that I'm making a lot of mistakes, and I speak so slowly for the same reason. I felt very frustrated because I noticed my little knowledge about computers, I couldn't handle the situation a lot times, however I found wonderful partners that helped me a lot and made me continue but sometimes I wanted to quit. The programs were amazing, Audacity shocked me because I never imagine such thing could exist.

As I told you before, I

considered myself more mother than teacher, and love being a teacher, but all my free time is for my kids, that's the main reason I have not had the opportunity to improve in all the professional areas that I know I need. As I told you before, this module represent a breaking point because if I don't dare to speak, how

will you correct my mistakes and errors? Indeed I know that

this particular skill requires that I work so hard in order to improve all the skills. Now I understand my students and the lack of confidence when they have to speak in class. Maybe I have to pass for this inconvenience, in order to understand what they feel.

Writing Strategies The writing strategies that you suggested us to use were fantastic, since the tall tales to create a comic strip, were a great found in my life, because they are easy for me and I think for students as well. A lot of students have facility to write, maybe not in English for the lack of confidence. They think they will fail if they write in English, but I found they can write letters, dairies, notebook with their thoughts and concerns. I’ve read some things that my students have written and it is nice to know they write notes, letter with clear ideas of what they want to say or express. When I went to this web pages, I found a treasure because I know a lot of students will be pleased to create a comic, for example; to the girls wanted to write their love poems in bookr and to publish them in internet where everybody can read them I think they will be very interested in this strategies. Some others students will find that they have the ability to write even though they’ve never done it before, and I bet they will be more interested in English classes, to know and access this web pages are music to my ears.

About ICT tools This topic is such important because now our students are so familiar with these subjects, they know them better than me, and we have the obligation of studying and at least knowing about ICT. I found myself so ignorant about it, but this diploma has helped me a lot to know programs, tools and other things about computers. I think I can use Audacity. It is amazing to make my students listen themselves and find their own mistakes and maybe lose the panic to speak in front of their partners.

Creating a comic strip, is such a wonderful way they can use to write and to create at the same time, secondary students have a fabulous creativity and I am totally sure they’ll enjoy creating a comics strip, because they like to read them. And finally voicethreat could be very useful to increase their vocabulary, and they can describe a lot of things, not only people, but places, animals, situations and so many more things. But honestly I think there are tons of tools they can use and they love to use, because they want to learn about ICT. Unfortunately our schools don’t count with the proper equipment for the students, and there is a challenge they have to deal because it is important for us, the teachers to know all the ICT resources, but it is more important that the students can learn them and practice. Lesson Planning I consider that Group work lesson plan is more convenient because with the RES, the lesson plan that they create is so alike to this Group lesson plan and I have used this since then and is very useful, because it is complete. 1. Set the stage- what grade, what unit, what subject. 2. State objectives- what is the social practice 3. Give instructions- what to do, how to do 4. Check for understanding- examples 5. Group work- S-S. pairs, three people, etc. 6. Guide practice- from control activity to free activity 7. Discussion- debate, brain storm, 8. Regrouping 9. Summary- conclusion

10 Assessment- homework. This is like the plan I use to do and for me is very complete, and works As we know lesson planning is the most important fact in a class, because if we plan our class we can switch or improve if we have an emergency, I mean, if I have plan to use a tape recorder and lights went out, maybe I can use another thing. Also we can plan a most interesting class for our students, on the contrary we can't improvise activities from last minute with out a previous planning, and somehow students will notice that we are not preparing to give a class

MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE SANDOVAL GUADARRAMA JENIFFER SUSANA

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AWARENESS As I have said in my reflections, my goal when I finish this diploma course is to take a course for my certification. All the practice I have had during this time has helped me to improve in my level of English. I’m aware about some difficulties I have for example, in listening which is the most difficult skill for me to develop. Another thing that has improved in my case is the vocabulary and it was like if I were a younger student because sometimes I had to look up a word in the dictionary in order to understand the text. I think what I needed was confidence and practice. I remember, and I told you about my worry for speaking and it was so nice that my partners gave me some advice and comments about my speaking or writing because I could trust myself that I can do a good job and even I still have some trouble, I think my use of the language have improved a lot. In general during the diploma course, I have learnt a lot of things starting with the use of the computer because I use it for basic works like doing my evaluations and maybe some presentations. The internet was just for checking my mail and sometimes chatting but now, I’m amazed of the world I can have through the net. Then, it was a little bit easy because I just had to write about the activities but when

it was the time for using a different program or tool to do the activities, Oh my God!!!! I experienced panic and through the practice I finally enjoy doing the activities, jeje. I loved Audacity program, doing my comic and stories, the tips for movies, the teacher in youtube. After I have worked the four skills, I can say that the most difficult one, and in which I need more practice is listening. I’m going to apply more activities in the sites of the module and also in the other but I must focus specially in this ability. Thanks, for the opportunity to learn!!!!!! CULTURAL AWARENESS At first, it was hard to be conscious of the cultural topic because even when I’m an English teacher, I don’t know a lot about the roots of its origins. I mean the education, customs, celebrations, way of life, regulations, economy, etc. For example in the module of listening, I learnt about foster children, the use of mobile when they are driving, the status of life they want to have, and sometimes for me is amazing how societies behave in other countries. Law is one of the things that can amaze me because in USA is respected and here in Mexico not at all. For instance, the use of the mobile while driving or the use of the seatbelt is like established but it doesn’t matter if you don’t respect the law because you can give a bribe and nothing happens then. The same happens with the traffic light regulations, the transportation, etc. I think Mexicans need to be more conscious because finally what we do today tomorrow is going to take us by surprise. We’re suffering a lack of values, and we have to do something. On the other hand, we Mexicans are more expressive in our feelings because we are friendlier, more welcoming, nicer, and more effusive; we make a party for everything and enjoy all the time.

You know, I do love make the contrast by myself having the opportunity of going abroad and live the reality in other country. Beside it’s a good opportunity of practicing the language, it is also the opportunity of living a new experience and I’m sure one day I’m going to do it. Meanwhile, internet is a good tool for knowing more about cultural aspects in other countries. Through the diploma course we had the chance of this approach because it was well prepared and all the activities were about other countries not mine. NEW TEACHING STRATEGIES DISCOVERED This part for me was always the reminder as a teacher because I’m conscious that this job is not easy and it needs time, preparation and compromise, also the enhancement of our competences as teachers. I’m proud because not all teachers had the opportunity of taking this diploma course and for me, it is an excellent way of becoming a 21st century teacher because I’m learning about new strategies, topics, the language itself, and all this help me to be a better teacher for my students. As the article explains, we have to develop those eight habits if we don’t want to lose credibility and confidence in our practice at school. I agree on the abilities and competences we have to apply in the performance in class. We can enrich the contents by using new strategies, TIC’s, materials and activities. As a learner, I have known and applied some strategies such as looking for the main idea, listening for details, writing using models and some others; I have also taught them to my students, but there were some others that were new for me, for example the programs I had to use to do the activities. The risk I’m taking is this diploma course because there is always something new to learn and this process never ends so if I can be a better teacher for my students, I’m going to take the challenge and try to do my best. In this way I’m getting more confident myself and I would show this confident to my students in order to create a good atmosphere in the classroom.

And the question is… What do you prefer? RENEWING OR DYING? P.S. Thanks tutor for all this time sharing your knowledge and experience with me!!!  READING TEACHING STRATEGIES The reading that I liked most was activity 6.2 because I think it is a complete way for teaching reading. I enjoyed for example that while I was reading I could listen to the story and my comprehension was better and I also practiced my pronunciation and intonation. I do not know if it is my computer or it is the page on the internet but it has the meaning of the words so I did not have to look up a word in a dictionary because it has this tool and is so helpful. Then, I could watch a video about the topic that was “Foster Children”. After that, there was another section in which key words appeared one by one, they were about the reading, I practiced the pronunciation and checked spelling. Then, I listened to words and I had to write them correctly. After, there was a matching section where I had to match a concept with its definition and they were also about important words to remember from the reading. Finally, there was an exercise in which I had to choose a word that completed the sentence correctly. I think the comprehension of the reading was total because there were different exercises in which I had to practice the abilities of the language and I understood better the message of the reading.

The only thing that I would add to the exercises is to include more images because they are important for the ones that are visual learners but I enjoyed a lot this exercise and by the way, it was one of the readings where I learnt about culture.

LISTENING TEACHING STRATEGIES Well, in my case most of the activities were so difficult because listening is what I have to develop and practice more. This module was stressful for me and even when I really enjoyed doing one or two activities I thanked God when I completed them. I would not to talk about only one activity because I learned from all of them. Sometimes, the length of the conversations or narrations made me lose the attention or when I felt it was hard, I changed the activity or left it for later. However I realized that I had to do it so I talked to myself to be conscious about my weaknesses and I had no choice. The other hard thing was to listen to non native speakers for example, Japanese people and also the older people because they speak in a different way and to catch the main points was difficult. To identify the thought groups was not that easy and I remember I had 3 mistakes in the exercise, jeje. Intonation, rhythm and word stress were also difficult but well finally I know all this is about practice, and the more practice the better, so I’m trying to reinforce the strategies I learned in this module and go on. SPEAKING TEACHING STRATEGIES I enjoyed the strategy that was about using music of different rhythms, I mean when the teacher selects a song and the students have to make connections with

moments in their lives. I liked this activity because I think is meaningful and maybe the suggestopedia can help our students to use their imagination. Another interesting activity was the “voicethread” site because through an image, I could give my opinion or invent facts about the person I was watching, jeje. The activity for giving instructions was so useful in class because I have to be aware of my students understanding. When the instructions are clear and short, they get the idea easier. Preparing a short talk is also a good idea because in this activity students can feel more confident than when I ask them something that they do not know. The topic for the presentation can be according to their interests. Expressing agreement and disagreement is a little bit difficult because the person has to manage a range of vocabulary and sometimes student get blocked, and they can not express what they really want to. All the activities were useful, and most of them can be applied in secondary schools. I think the important thing here is that the student feels confident when he is speaking because when his classmates start laughing at what he says or make gestures about his person is very difficult that the student speaks with fluency and accuracy. What I use in my classes is the info gap to work in pairs and short oral assignments and they have accepted that very well. WRITING TEACHING STRATEGIES It is true that writing is a hard process but I have to find a way that my students can enjoy writing. I did loved the activities in this module because writing is my favorite skill and even when I sometimes have mistakes I like writing.

Talking about the strategies, well I could write different type of texts, for example poems, a biography, short stories, a comic, reports, movies and obviously grammar exercises because a writer must know how language is written, jeje I know that when you are writing you have to make a draft and check it several times to get the product. Writing is hard because our students do not reflect on language and that is why they make mistakes when writing. They do not know what is the difference between an adjective and an adverb neither what it is its function in a sentence. It is hard because English is not the same as when we write in Spanish and they have to think in a bit different way from Spanish. Following the order of ideas, I had to create a code for correcting mistakes in my students writing so I have to share this with them and ask for reflection on language in order to understand what the mistake is in their writings. Technology gives us the opportunity to visit different sites and present more options making the writing process more interesting to the students. As they like using the computer and being in the web they are able to apply the activities of this diploma course. I hardly ever use technology in the classroom but I use visuals in order to activate students’ imagination and give them models for the writing I want them to produce. They feel guided and do not feel frustrated because their writings are short and interesting for them. Thanks for all the materials you have share with us, they are really useful for us.

ABOUT

ICT TOOLS

FIRST USEFUL TOOL I fall in love with Audacity program, jeje. I think it is excellent because if I asked them for a speech they can use this program and record his speaking until they think it is ok. Also for teachers is fascinating because we can create what we need for our students. We can create dialogues or short stories, like when the soap operas were transmitted on the radio or something like that, jeje. SECOND USEFUL TOOL The comic stripe because it is short, free about the topic, they have the support of images and it is a fun activity, I think some of them would like to make a comic in their lives. They have always something to tell and share with other people so it is a good idea for maybe narrating what happened during the week at school. THIRD USEFUL TOOL The page of reading in which they can read and listen to the story, and then they have different activities for working the comprehension of the reading, they can make grammar and spelling exercises. For me it is a very complete activity for students to apply their skills.

In general all the promoted activities in the Diplomado are good but some of them are not the right ones for the level of our students. Maybe they would like to have a teacher on line and we would call Teacher Joe, now I remembered his name. I think the use of ICT is not just because I have to do it, I really take into consideration the level and the needs of my students in order to make the class meaningful for them and easy too. LESSON PLANNING

In all cases it is the same distribution and just the names change. I would like to see different proposals for the same class. The concepts can be in different moments of the class and it seems a little mixed. You know, one of my teachers at “Escuela Normal Superior de México” told me once, “A lesson plan must be clear because any teacher would be able to understand its content and give the class for you”. I think planning is the most important thing in a class because you know what you have to do and even sometimes modifications are necessary at the moment, you still have a guide. Any of the lesson plans are according to what we have to give in official secondary schools because we are working with experiential learning and this is about concrete

experience,

reflective

observation,

abstract

conceptualization and active experimentation, this is a cycle and I do not know why writers try to get us confused and more confused about the approaches and methods. But if I have to choose one, I think Bloom’s Taxonomy and Critical thinking for me is the best since it shows something like the steps for the process of knowledge. Multiple intelligences are also important but I think you can take them into consideration for the materials or exercises in the class so in this way you can have an inclusive class for the students. Planning needs time because it is the support of the class and the important thing here is that teachers have to be aware of the moments in which the learning process take part, and in that way the class will be meaningful for students.