The Incorporation of ICTs into Task-Based Language Learning

SUGGESTED BEST PRACTICES:

WEB TASK –BASED LESSON PLAN

Subject: Reading

Grade: 9th year

Context:

Students have just finished reading “Of Mice and Men” by

John Steinbeck in their Reading class. During the reading

process, the teacher has been working, chapter by chapter,

with vocabulary, plot, main ideas, character analysis etc. She

has been using several technological resources as support:

audio recording, movie and students´ blog ( Expression) where they have

posted the answers to different mandatory and optional questions derived from

the analysis and feelings towards the novel.

Task presentation:

OF MICE AND MEN… AND OF SCHOOL LIFE

Students in groups of three will be asked to choose one of the themes ideas in

John Steinbeck´s Of Mice and Men and design posters promoting a school

awareness campaign to make students reflect upon those ideas taken to school

context.

Pre-task phase:

Students are given a worksheet where they have to supply eight theme ideas in

John Steinbeck´s book, “Of Mice and Men”.

o a supporting example;

o a supporting quote w/page number and;

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o an explanation; (appendix 1)

Students complete the pre-task activity working in groups of three.

Task phase:

1. Students are asked to choose one of the theme ideas they feel identified

with and form groups of three with other classmates who have made the

same choice.

2. The teacher presents the task and tells students to have a 15 minutes´

discussion and come up with a paper draft of how their poster might look

like. They should include not only the theme idea, but also how it can be

related to school or to a teenagers’ life.

3. Students go to the computer lab and design their final version of the poster

in GLOGSTER, a website that allows designing posters online, inserting

photos, images, text, videos, music and whichever resource they find useful

for their campaign.

4. Students print the posters and stick them in different places of school inviting

students to leave comments in a blog created for that purpose, where the

different posters can also be seen.

Post-task phase:

Students discuss the steps to be followed when designing an awareness

campaign.

Teacher guides a discussion on the effectiveness of different persuasive

poster writing characteristics, techniques as compared to the ones used by

students.

Teacher can supply some teaching materials on the topic if necessary.

Evaluation:

After a period of two weeks, students read the blog comments, and self-

evaluate both: the whole process of designing an awareness campaign and the

final product –the posters- criticizing how successful their campaigns have

been.2

Students use persuasive poster evaluation rubrics to help them go through the

process of evaluation. (Appendix 2)

SUGGESTED BEST PRACTICES:

PHOTO-BLOG EXCHANGE PROJECT

o Conceptual Framework

Though officially the word blog refers to a Web-log, or online journal

where people make chronological comments about events related to an

experience; lately, they are being also commonly thought of as a means of

expressing opinions and reflections upon general issues, such as politics,

ethics, education.

In this area precisely, blogs are the web 2.0 tools which has proved to be

more widely accepted by teachers which are an attractive addition to their new

technologies toolbox. Firstly it is a constructivist tool for learning since the

content is being created by teachers and students while the blog develops;

secondly they are a way of expanding the walls of the classroom as Richardson

(2010) describes, providing the possibility of connecting students with others

outside the classroom, their town, their country in a relatively cheap accessible

manner.

It is also important to add that blogs archives allow teachers and students

to revisit their learning experiences with a reflective sight over a wide variety of

features that range from: students´ own productions, views, opinions providing a

fertile land for cultural awareness and understanding.

o Description of the project

o The key element of this proposal is to engage groups of students

from different countries and origins in making guesses, research, discuss and

comment on others culture and experience world just out of a set of pictures put

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together. Communication conventions varies from culture to culture and this is a

concept our students will have the opportunity to experience comparing and

contrasting texts.

o The teachers in charge of the project will create a blog in which

students from the different classes will alternatively publish a collage of photos

related to a topic. This topic will be previously agreed by teachers who will take

into account not only students’ world of interest; but also the most relevant

global awareness issues, such as environment, health etc.

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Once the collage has been posted the group of students from the other

country will make comments of the photos, trying to make inferences and

negotiating with their partner as regards the meaning beyond the image.

Finally, the group who has posted the images, will give feedback to their

partner class, as regards their inferences, correcting the once that are wrong

and enlarging and giving more support on the correct ones.

During the evaluation period, both teachers and students will post

comments assessing their experience, focusing both on the positive aspects of

the experience as well as on the aspects that might need revision for future

replication of the project.

o Objectives

Students will negotiate meaning and use language purposefully.

Students will use technology in socially and cross-cultural appropriate

and ethical ways.

Students will make research about other cultures and contexts so as to

make meaningful contributions in their blog.

o Teachers in Charge

Ms Erin.Conley, teacher of English Language and Arts in 9th Year

Ms Michelle Williams, teacher of English Language and Arts in 10th Year

Ms Adriana Castagnino, teacher of English as FL in 9th, 10th year.

Ms Aurelia Garcia, teacher of English as FL in 7th , 8th and 9th year.

o Participants

English Language and Arts class from Montgomery Blair High School,

Montgomery County, Maryland, USA.

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English as a Foreign Language class from COLUNLPam in Santa Rosa,

La Pampa, Argentina.

o Suggested Topics

Typical Food

Favorite artists

Town & cities

Houses

School culture

Free time activities

o Timeline

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AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER

Weeks 1-2

Presentation of the

blog: objectives and

possible contents

areas

exchange of photo

collage on a

proposed topic by

teacher in USA.

Comment and

feedback.

Exchange of photo

collage on proposed

topic by teacher in

Argentina.

Comment and

feedback.

Exchange of photo

collage on topic

suggested by

students. Comment

and feedback.

Weeks 3-4

Exchange of photo

collage on different

topics. Comment

and feedback.

Exchange of photo

collage on proposed

topic by teacher in

Argentina.

Comment and

feedback.

Exchange of photo

collage on proposed

topic by teacher in

USA. Comment and

feedback.

Students and

teachers evaluation

of experience.

Publication of

experience

o Evaluation

Teachers will design instruments to evaluate the experience before, during

and after it has finished. These instruments will focus on both: students’

performance and commitment all through the experience on the one hand (rubric

table 1); and blog efficiency as a learning tool on the other (rubric table 2).

Rubric table 1: assessing writing in a collaborative tool: blog

CATEGORY 4 3 2 1

Content of

contributions

Student accessed

site and made

meaningful

contributions.

Student accessed

site and made

sometimes

meaningful

contributions.

Student accessed

site but made

poor

contributions.

Student was

erratic in

accessing site and

made

meaningless

contributions.

Spelling,

punctuation,

grammar and

vocabulary

There are no

errors in spelling,

punctuation,

grammar and

vocabulary.

There are minimal

errors in spelling,

punctuation,

grammar and

vocabulary.

There are some

errors in spelling,

punctuation,

grammar and

vocabulary.

There several

errors in spelling,

punctuation,

grammar and

vocabulary.

Cooperative

work

Student always

shows respect for

others' ideas, and

shows a

commitment to

quality work.

Student almost

always shows

respect for others

ideas and commit

to quality work.

Student shows

little evidence of

a commitment

toward quality

work.

Student argues or

is disrespectful of

others' idea.

Criticism is not

constructive.

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Rubric table 2: assessing blog as a collaborative writing tool

o CRITERIA ACHIEVEMENTS SUGGESTIONS

Navigability:

Is this blog easy to navigate? Does it take too long to

load? Are links working correctly? Do titles show

contents clearly? Is the URL easy to remember? Are

contents of the blog easy to identify?

Design:

Are colors and template adequate? Can it be read

easily? Are colors distractive? Is font size and style

suitable?

Content:

Do titles of posts express content? Are there grammar

or spelling mistakes? Are contents clearly related to

class activities? Is the blog free? Can anyone have

access to it; is this an advantage or a disadvantage? Are

there multimedia resource?

Other considerations:

What kind of learning is the blog fostering? (Individual?

Group? Collaborative? A combination?)Analyze

comments made by students: are they all relevant to

the task? How frequently do students post a comment?

Are there links to other sites? What are these sites

about?

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SUGGESTED BEST PRACTICES:

EMBEDDED TEACHERS TRAINING

Conceptual framework

Teachers who have earlier engaged in computer-assisted and technology-

enhanced language learning have multiple roles. (Peters, M. et.al. 2007). Apart

from developing materials and integrating technologies in our own practices, our

new findings and demonstrations should serve as inspiring models for current

and future teachers. Our projects, experiences, products and research should

definitely help other colleagues and advanced students to initiate their own way

to teaching practice transformation.

Although there are many ways in which teachers can become expertise in

embedded Task-Based Teaching, we have to admit that these changes can be

challenging and frightening for some teachers. With this teachers training

proposal, I am trying not only to introduce teachers to new Web 2.0 tools and

resources, but also to provide a supportive online professional development

network that can foster mutual collaboration between trainer and trainees

throughout the training process and beyond.

Objectives: teachers will…

Become aware of web2.0 technologies and analyze their impact in

education and their teaching practices.

Design and implement embedded lesson plans with the

incorporation of suitable web2.0 tools.

Evaluate this new embedded approach to language teaching.

Calendar plan

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The workshop will be implemented in four traditional classroom setting sessions

of six hours each. Three of them will be delivered in subsequent Saturdays,

while the last evaluative session will be delivered within a month from the last

meeting. During all this time teachers will receive online support through a wiki

platform, where they will also be able to share concerns, classroom experiences

and lesson plans with other teachers in the group.

Description of the Resources and Activities:

First session:

1- Through a cooperative learning technique called jigsaw, teachers work in

groups of four with four different papers related to web 2.0 technologies and

their impact in education. They will complete a Google doc spreadsheet to

be shared by the whole group later.

2- Teachers will be introduced to one of the key technological resources in this

teachers´ training proposal: wiki. They will navigate through different

students, class, institutional and professional development wikis, completing

a checklist with the particular tools and differences they find among them, so

as to evaluate all the possibilities a wiki offers to educators. They will be

introduced to this course wiki and allowed to “play” and practise inserting

pages, videos, images, widgets, discussion threads as well as editing and

contributing to somebody´s work.

Second session:

1- Through a jigsaw technique teaches´ work in groups with different papers

related to Task-Based Teaching methodology (TBL) and its application in

different educational contexts. They will complete presentation using one of

the following tools according to their preference: Glogster, Mind Map, Prezi

to be shared by the whole group later.

2- Some web 2.0 foundational concepts such as RSS, Third-party site –

YouTube, SlideShare, Scribbd, Flickr will be developed and teachers will

have the opportunity of experimenting with them.

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3- Teachers will be introduced to another technological highlight in this

teachers´ training proposal: blog. They will navigate through different

students, class and institutional and professional development blogs, so as

to evaluate all the possibilities a blog offers to educators as well as compare

it with wiki as an educational aid. They will be creating a blog for one of their

classes and practise inserting text, videos, images, widgets as well as

making comments in somebody´s else´s posts.

Third session:

1- Teachers will be introduced to more sophisticated technological innovations

in this teachers´ training proposal: video and podcasting. They become

familiar with different podcasting alternatives and evaluate how these could

become part of their embedded lesson plans.

2- Teachers will finally be introduced to the concept of social networking as a

valuable pedagogical incorporation looking into different tools, such as

Google groups and Grouply.

Forth session: evaluation

During this session teachers are going to be carrying out their evaluation of the

course, their productions and their students reactions though different

methodologies and techniques.

1- Peer observation: teachers will assess a partner’s blog or wiki, following a

given rubric and will provide useful feedback to him/her.

2- Self-evaluations: through an online survey teachers will evaluate their

performance, involvement and productions throughout the teachers training

workshop.

3- Workshop assessment: Teachers in groups of four will discuss certain

aspects of the teachers training workshop and share their opinions with the

rest of the groups in a final round table providing a graphic organizer or mind

map which summarizes. These impressions will become a meaningful and

constructive input for future implementations of the workshop.

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