Improving English Learning by using media tools in Eva Samano High School 1

Universidad de Quintana Roo

English Language Educational Technology Project: Improving English Learning by using media tools in Eva Samano High School

Isis Guadalupe Hernndez Colli Javier Alonzo Kau Grinda

May 15th, 2013.

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INDEX Introduction Objectives Justification Proposal Conclusions Evidence Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Appendix 4 References & Sources 10 11 12 14 9 3 3 4 5 7

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Introduction Nowadays, technology has become one of the most useful tools, especially for education. Since it first appeared a considerable time ago and was gradually improving to the point of becoming just necessary, we have been discovering that it can be utilized in so many ways and in a wide range in life, as well as in education. To illustrate, there are several online tools and applications destined to be used in classrooms that were made according to the learners needs. Hot Potatoes is one of them, it allows teachers to choose among a variety of exercises aimed to improve vocabulary and related skills (like spelling), and which is necessary to develop a good writing. Glogsteris an online tool for creativity oriented to teachers and even students to catch attention. In short, education has evidently changed towards the good and technologic, such is the case of Eva Smano High School but, despite the constant progress of technology and English learning, the second semester of Tcnico en Deportes needs to improve a little bit more in both areas. Objectives Our main goal is to create some activities that can support the program of English developed in this institution and improve students already acknowledge skills of writing and vocabulary. Regarding to the means we are going to work through and along with the students, they have been made on Hot Potato and Glogster which will be posted in a blog that was created specifically for this purpose. Also, we pretend to engage students to get used and explore new ways of utilize these kinds of media tools, which constitute just an implied result of our work, as well as establish a link between their writing skills and their speaking.

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Justification According to a personal interview with the English teacher at Eva Smano High School (see appendix 1), English learning has three levels, two semesters with an introductory level, two more with a basic level and the last two with a pre-intermediate level. Classes are based in the book Sequences English for Bachillerato Tecnolgico, which is used just as a guide because it was destined to English learners with a higher level (Oral Comunication, April 18th, 2013). The whole subject is a mere requirement for the specific degree of Tcnico en Deportes, so the content is focused on basic skills in reading, writing and listening for common situations and sports in a basic level. Also, he stated that this institution does not count with adequate facilities to work properly with technology. However, it has Internet access so that students can bring mobile devices such as lap tops and tablets to accomplish their activities. Thus, Internet access is not a problem despite the lacks. Regarding to classroom equipment, they has an isolated media room in which students download songs (Aguayo Rosales, H. Oral Communication, 2013). As a result of an objective observation during one class from Eva Smano High School, in which young students had been learning English since the curse started just about six months ago, we could notice they lack vocabulary in the specific area of Sports and ignore some basic rules of English writing. Also, we could see in the surveys we made to test them that most of them practice sports, so this is the main reason why we decided to run our activities focusing on sports. The instructional methods we chose are Games and Drill and Practice, the first one is for Hot Potatoes, as it works playing games and the other one because we want our group

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to demonstrate they have already gotten betterments once the practicing stage is done. The approach this institution is focused on is organicist (Moore, T.W., 1987). We could infer that because the students are free to analyze what is presented in class and explore and discover new issues within it. The teaching perspective is developmental. The teacher presents activities that engage his students to think and solve problems related to English learning, such as karaoke, songs in which they have to fill blanks while they are listening to them, among others. The reason why we decided to use Glogster and Hot Potatoes is because they provide a lot of options and tools to make a presentation dynamic and visually attractive without straying away from the topic presented. Another reason is because they will allow our target group to choose any visual content they consider allusive to illustrate their work. Hence, students will have the opportunity to have fun and learn at the same time. Most important, they will realize that these applications can be used not only for educational purposes but for entertainment and among a wide variety of tasks. Proposal We will develop a three-stage activity in which we are going to include a JCross activity (which consists in a series of crosswords) from Hot Potatoes, another one with Glogster and finally with a blog. Firstly, as the learning stage, we will make up the crosswords with terms and phrases that are frequently used in sport matters so that students can learn new vocabulary and its right spelling. One of them will gather names of sports that we considered they do not know. Another one with names of tools and objects used in practicing certain kind of sports and the last one with verbs related to the same topic. Once

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it is finished, the practicing stage starts with a writing we will ask for. It will be an advertisement in which they will include the new and corrected vocabulary because we aimed to evaluate writing based on basic rules for a persuasive essay, which is the essence of an advertisement. The skills we are going to be centered on are grammar and orthography and punctuation, and the rest will be the structure of the whole text since it is an essay-like writing. After having worked and objectively checked, each advertisement will be in an online poster using Glogster. At this point, students must have learnt how to create a poster including several visual elements that they consider allusive. As the closing up activity, which will be a little long, we are going to ask students to upload their work in a blog so that they can share, make comparison and discuss. According to the students indentified needs and abilities and improving activities, it is imperative to use more than one instructional method. In the first stage of our activities, we are going to be focused on Games. Baker (1999) says that the playful nature of this instructional method reduce the learners anxiety, retain their interest and makes the concept less intimidating which in turn promotes greater interaction. Our target group is mostly composed by students under the age of 17, so we considered they would be motivated if we present to them activities of this nature. So we finally decided to introduce new vocabulary of sports with Hot Potatoes. Tutorials and Drill and Practice will be working in the practicing stage inasmuch as we are going to briefly introduce our students to the applications and online tools we mentioned before as well as provide support whilst they are redacting the advertisements we will ask for. Now, we all know that drill and practice involves repetition in order for the students to practice and memorize skills previously learned and receive corrective feedback. The goal is mastery without error

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(Stewart, 2010). Thus, in view that the principal object of this is to acquire vocabulary composed in majority by one-word phrases and as you can see, these instructional methods especially the last one suit perfectly the approaches instilled in the whole project. In previous statements, we said that the current English class in which teacher Mario Humberto Aguayo Rosales develop the institutions English learning program is placed on the basis of Developmental teaching perspective. As a result, we decided to continue on taking basis on it so that our group can keep on the way without straying away. The reasons why developmental teaching perspective was identified were already explained and pointed out in the justification (see page 4). Conclusions Before we decided to work on vocabulary and writing skills, we noticed that these students cannot fully use their media room because their knowledge of technology has limitations as well as the institutions facilities. This is the reason why we decided to work with media tools and online applications in order to introduce the students to these kinds of resources and instill them to use technology as much as possible. Mainly, we deeply thought of using a blog since it is a space in which one can run several activities. Sharing files, advertisements, gather homework or academic projects are just some of the uses a blog allows. So, the final work we planned will be posted in a blog so that our group and so many more would see and understand how helpful media and technology can be.

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Working in this institution requires resources we cannot provide, but we still think they have a great potential. Anyway, we firmly believe that satisfaction will crown us with honor soon.

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References http://www.slideshare.net/CarrieStewart/drill-and-practice Saber Ingls (n.f.). Retrieved May 13, 2013 from http:// http://www.saberingles.com.ar/lists/sports.html Teaching Perspectives Inventory (n.f.). Retrieved May 15, 2013 from http://teachingperspectives.com/drupal/tpi/summary-five-perspectives English Language World (Catrejn J, 2010) Retrieved May 13, 2013 from http://www.englishlanguageworld.com/Intermediate_English_Lesson9/Intermediate _English_Lesson9_Vocabulary.html Quizlet (n.f.). Retrieved May 13, 2013 from http://quizlet.com/16592934/sportsvocabulary-equipment-verbs-etc-flash-cards/ Hernndez, Isis. (2013, May 13) Hot potatoes act. 1 Name of sports. Retrieved May 15, 2013 from http://tdsports1.blogspot.mx/2013/05/hot-potatoes-act-1-name-ofsports.html Hernndez, Isis. (2013, May 13) Hot Potatoes act. 2 Verbs related to sports. Retrieved May 15, 2013 from http://tdsports1.blogspot.mx/2013/05/hot-potatoesact-2-verbs-related-to.html Hernndez, Isis (2013, May 13) Hot Potatoes act. 3 Objects related to sports. Retrieved May 15, 2013 from http://tdsports1.blogspot.mx/2013/05/hot-potatoesact-3-objects-related-to.html

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Appendix 1. Interview with Mario Humberto Aguayo Rosales (Eva Smano High School Teacher) Entrevista a Mario Humberto Aguayo Rosales, profesor de Ingls de la escuela Eva Smano. I-Cul es el grupo que tiene ms estudiantes? M- El grupo de 2 semestre con un total de 21 alumnos. I-Qu nivel de ingls se imparte en esta institucin? M- Realmente me ha costado trabajo, he tenido que fragmentar a mi grupo para tenerlo por niveles. Desde un nivel elemental hasta un nivel bsico. Yo no les puedo exigir ms puesto que como tenemos alumnos de toda la geografa estatal hay algunos que ni siquiera han llevado la materia de ingls como curso previo en la secundaria. I-En las clases, a qu habilidad se enfoca ms? M- Sinceramente me enfoco muchsimo al writing. La cuestin o la habilidad del speaking la he dejado para precisamente quinto o sexto semestre. I-Qu libro es el que se utiliza para impartir la clase? M- Bueno, aqu se utiliza uno que se llama Sequences pero yo traigo otros por mi cuenta. Uno que se llama Celebrations y otro que se llama Friends. El Sequences es el que la institucin me da con el programa, pero siento que la verdad ni la misma academia de ingls de la escuela se ha tomado la molestia de revisar bien el libro y ver que primero, pide demasiado programa para el nmero de horas que es por clase; dos, el nivel de exigencia no lo tienen los alumnos. I-Cules son las actividades ms efectivas para cada actividad basada en su experiencia? M- Una actividad que me ha dejado o que me ha dado mucho resultado es la creacin de coreografas con canciones en ingls. Se aprenden las canciones, adquieren vocabulario y lo mejor del caso participan, pronuncian y sobre todo hay un trabajo colaborador.

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I-En la clase de ingls, cuentan con algn aula de cmputo para realizar las actividades que se requieran? M- No. Cada alumno generalmente o afortunadamente la mayora te puedo decir de un 90 % cuenta con una laptop, entonces yo lo nico que les doy son pginas de trabajo. No tenemos un taller de cmputo como tal pero la academia de ingls la ha pedido en la Eva Smano. I-Con qu tipo de tecnologa cuenta la institucin para llevar a cabo las actividades de ingls? M-Bueno, lo nico que si tenemos es un aula de medios. El aula de medios yo la utilizo para traer canciones de momento para proyectarlas subtituladas en ingls.

Appendix 2. Hot Potatoes exercises based on Sports

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Appendix 3. Surveys

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Appendix 4. Rubrics

Rubrics for Vocabulary (Hot Potatoes)

Teacher name: Isis Hernndez / Alonzo Kau Student name: ___________________________________________

Poor

Fair

Good

Excellent

Score

The student could The student could The student could The student Comprehension not understand not understand 5 not understand 2 understood all /15 more than half or more or 3 definitions. the definitions in definitions. definitions. the exercise. Knowledge gained All students in Students in group Some students in Most students in group could could not easily group could group could easily and and correctly easily and easily and correctly define define most correctly define correctly define all words used in words used in the all words used in all words used in the puzzle puzzle the puzzle the puzzle

/40

Words completed

The student The student The student The student filled /30 missed in filling missed in filling 3 missed in filling a all the blanks. most of the or 4 blanks. blank. blanks.

Hints used correctly

Came up with less Came up with 12- Came up with 15 than 12 accurate 14 accurate hints accurate hints hints

Came up with more than 15 accurate hints

/15

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Rubrics for writing skills Ensayo Persuasivo : Escribir bien es fcil

Nombre del maestro/a: Alonzo Kau / Isis Hernndez Nombre del estudiante: _____________________________ CATEGORY Excelente Buen trabajo Bien
La idea principal esquematiza algunos o todos los puntos a discutir, pero no menciona el tema. Incluye 2 elementos de evidencia (hechos, estadsticas, ejemplos, experiencias de la vida real) que apoyan la opinin del autor.

Nada mal
La idea principal no menciona el tema y ni los puntos a discutir.

Score
/10

Enfoque o La idea principal La idea principal Idea principal nombra el tema del nombra el tema del ensayo y esquematiza ensayo. los puntos principales a discutir.

Apoyo a la opinin

Secuencia

Incluye 3 o ms elementos de evidencia (hechos, estadsticas, ejemplos, experiencias de la vida real) que apoyan la opinin del autor. El escritor anticipa las preocupaciones, prejuicios o argumentos del lector y ofrece, por lo menos, un contaargumento. Los argumentos e ideas secundarias estn presentadas en un orden lgico que hace las ideas del autor sean fciles e interesantes a seguir.

Incluye 3 o ms elementos de evidencia (hechos, estadsticas, ejemplos, experiencias de la vida real) que apoyan la opinin del autor.

Incluye 1 elemento de evidencia (hechos, estadsticas, ejemplos, experiencias de la vida real) que apoya la opinin del autor.

/10

Los argumentos e ideas secundarias estn presentadas en un orden ms o menos lgico que hace razonablemente fcil seguir las ideas del autor.

Conclusin

Estructura de las oraciones

La conclusin es fuerte y dej al lector con una idea absolutamente clara de la posicin del autor. Un parafraseo efectivo de la idea principal empieza la conclusin. Todas las oraciones estn bien estructuradas y hay

La conclusin es evidente. La posicin del autor es parafraseada en las primeras dos oraciones de la conclusin.

Algunas de las ideas secundarias o argumentos no estn presentados en el orden lgico esperado, lo que distrae al lector y hace que el ensayo sea confuso. La posicin del autor es parafraseada en la conclusin, pero no al principio de la misma.

Muchas de las ideas secundarias o argumentos no estn en el orden lgico esperado lo que distrae al lector y hace que el ensayo sea muy confuso. No hay conclusin. El trabajo simplemente termina.

/10

/10

La mayora de las oraciones est bien estructurada. Hay

La mayora de las oraciones est bien

Muchas de las oraciones no estn bien

/20

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variedad. estructurada, pero no hay variedad. El autor no comete El autor comete 1 El autor comete errores de gramtica 2 errores 3 4 errores ni de ortografa que gramaticales u gramaticales u distraen al lector del ortogrficos que ortogrficos contenido del ensayo. distraen al lector que distraen al del contenido del lector del ensayo. contenido del ensayo. variedad. estructuradas y no son variadas. /20

Gramtica y ortografa

Uso de maysculas y puntuacin

El autor comete ms de 4 errores gramaticales u ortogrficos que distraen al lector del contenido del ensayo. El autor no comete El autor comete 1 El autor comete El autor comete errores con las 2 errores con las varios errores varios errores maysculas o con la maysculas o con la con las con el uso de las puntuacin lo que puntuacin, pero el maysculas y/o maysculas y/o hace que el ensayo ensayo es todava con la con la sea excepcionalmente fcil de leer. puntuacin que puntuacin que fcil de leer. son obvios y son obvios y que distraen al distraen al lector. lector.

/20