Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Task 3: WWW Lesson Plan

Level: Form 4 (Advanced)

Time: 8.20a.m.-9.40a.m.

Aims and learning outcomes:

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Extract the main ideas from a news report video.
2. Be familiar with the wh-questions functionality.

Technical requirements:

1. One computer for each pair or trio (depending on the class size)
2. Headphones for each computer
3. Internet connection
4. LCD projector

Preparation:

1. Teacher needs to choose the latest suitable news video clip from http://eduwebtv.com and analyze its' particulars.
2. Prepare a worksheet based on the article by extracting the main ideas from the news based on the wh-questions such as who, what, when and etc. to be given to the students.
3. Prepare a sample answer for the worksheet.

EDUWEBTV webpage:



Worksheet:



Procedure:

Set induction (5 minutes):

1. Teacher asks students to sit in pairs or trio (according to the class size) and turn on the computers.
2. Teacher asks students what are the current issues in Malaysia that they know.
3. Teacher asks students where they get the news from.
4. Teachers asks them to mention any source that they can get the latest news from and makes sure that EDUWEBTV is included among the sources.
5. Teacher instructs them to open the internet browser and go to EDUWEBTV homepage by typing the address in the address bar or search for it via search engines such as Google or Yahoo search.

Step 1 (40 minutes)

1. Teacher asks students to look for news videos from the News tab on the webpage and look for the latest news about education and in English language as what he has prepared for earlier.
2. Teacher distributes the worksheets to the students and asks them to watch and listen carefully to the news and create questions based on the wh- questions with the answers according to the video. The questions need to be about the important ideas of the video.
3. Students are asked to complete the task in less than 40 minutes.
4. Teacher moves around the class and assists students who face any problem.


Step 2 (20 minutes)

1. Teacher chooses one pair randomly to present their work.
2. Teacher discusses the answers presented with the class and asks other students if they have other answers to be discussed.
3. Teacher shows the sample answer using the LCD projector and asks students to correct their answers if they have wrong answer and add the new answer if they do not have it yet.
4. Teacher refers to the sample answer prepared earlier as guidance to assist with the discussion during the process.


Conclusion (10 minutes)

1. Teacher concludes the lesson by summarizing about the functions of wh- questions.
2. Teacher explains about what they have learnt from the activity.
3. Teacher inculcates moral values of the lesson.


Follow-up activity (5 minutes)

Teacher asks students to write a reflection of what they have learnt from the lesson in their exercise book at home as their homework.


source:http://eduwebtv.com

Thursday, March 4, 2010

ARTICLE REVIEW

Weblogging as a Multimedia Literacy Event: Analyzing the Discourse Space of a Student Bloggers’ Speech Community

Malaysian Journal of ELT research. Vol. 5, 2009

Author: Azni Mohamed Zain ( Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) and Koo Yew Lie ( Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)

Summary of the article

The main objective of the study was to analyze the interactional patterns occurring within the speech community of a tertiary level student; the blog writer. The study looked at three particular aspects of interaction within the context of interaction and these are:

1) Turn-taking

2) Politeness strategies

3) Code switching

The Hymes’ SPEAKING mnemonics was used to identify the language patterns occurring via blog. These patterns developed the sense of camaraderie between the blog writer and his audience of readers. The basic procedure for analysis was to fit the grid into the definition of a literacy event. By connecting the framework of Hymes to the occurrence of interactions within the realm of blogosphere, this study attempted to shed light on what the meaning making procedures signify in the context of literary event. The subject of the study were the blog writer and his audience, made up of a community who were studying at tertiary level, pursuing degrees in medical studies from different universities both locally and abroad. The blog writer is from a tertiary level student group, where all members engage in blogging practices as observers who discussed various topics and happenings surrounding their lives as students. Their age was 18-25, and most of the readers were also bloggers who had their own blogs. The findings of the study were the main aspects of turn-taking, politeness strategies and code switching were identified as playing a significant role in the type of communication occurring within this multimedia literacy event.

My reaction

The research did catch my interest because the topic was fresh and up-to-date. It discussed about the current trend among youngsters which was blogging. Personally, I think the research was well conducted by the researcher. However, there are still rooms for improvements. The study only focused at a person’s blog and its’ interactional pattern so in my point of view, the scope of study was quite narrow. Besides, the subject of the study seemed to be an obvious limitation to the study. The subject or the owner of the blog was a medical student at tertiary level so the findings might differ if another subject from another background was used. As a response to that, the researcher should have various samples from some other bloggers to get a more accurate data or findings. It is simply because the more subjects used in this study, the more accurate and reliable the data will be. From the findings of the study, we can say that the use of blogs can be an effective tool in teaching and learning in Malaysian schools because apart from it is a motivating way of getting the students to write or express their feelings, students can also learn on how to socialize with people and how to communicate within this multimedia literacy event or to be specific, blogging. Blogs can also be used as personal online journal for students and this will encourage them to write at the same time, indirectly, they can improve their language proficiency level.

Source: http://www.melta.org.my/modules/tinycontent/Dos/Azni_MOhd_Zain_2009.pdf

Thursday, January 21, 2010

blog?

Assalamualaikum and hello there..

a new chapter has just begun
and i don't know where to begin
maybe this post is just for fun
before i start the real thing