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Thursday, November 13, 2014
Tasks in Class : Treasure Hunt activity : Jackie Chan and Chinese New Year Drawing Contest
Monday, November 10, 2014
CALL Review III : "Storybird"
This is my third CALL Review III, and sadly this is my last CALL Review.
But it just means the end of official CALL Review. My mini Reviews will be posted continuously!!
Here is the link of "Storybird" website. http://www.storybird.com/
Briefly, Storybird can become writing tool and reading tool at the same time.
In this review I will especially focus on the writing part.
Anybody can create his or her own stories with this tool.
The most significant feature of this tool is that you can insert a great number of high quality illustrations in your stories.
This video will will give you an elaborate explaination of how to use Storybird.
Here I upload three pictures that show three types of reading tools of Storybird.
This is page for making "picture book". You can add many pages as you want, and each page has one artwork(an illustration). You can drag artwork then you can change the position of the text part of a page.
This is "Long Book" form. You can make one long story with many artworks. When you finished some chain stories, you can post it in the form of a series story like chapter1, chapter2, chapter3, and more like this way.
Lastly, this is poem making with word boxes on the page. You can freely drag words and can make your own poem. However, the limitation of word is its shortcoming. And if you click refresh button, all the words are changed. That means your poem which is being composed would be deleted clearly.
From now on, I will tell you why it is good tool for writing activity, and practical classroom activities designed with this tool.
First, making students' autobiographies can be good activity with Storybird. With "Long Book" form, you can make them write their own stories about themselves and their life from birth to now. This activity will be good for any level or grade of students, but especially I recommend you to use this activity for Low level or low grade students don't have to write complex or long stories but they can write just simple and short diary style story. Above all, their less writing competencies and less knowledge of words and structures of English can be compensated by using those artworks. Low level students don't have to feel intimidated by lack of writing skills. They can create high quality autographies filled with those illustrations instead of long and complex sentences.
Second, you can use this tool for collaborative writing. Look at the "picture book" form. Teacher create first page, any theme can be used, but I think it would be better to make one that can spur students' inspiration and imagination. Then each students are responsible to make next page of previous story that their friends created. Simply, they publish serially their stories. When every students finished their work, you can make real book to read together. This book can be shared with other class students, teachers, or their parents. This activity can also be used for low level or grade students, and the reason is same with above activity I explained.
CNN Postings : Detained Americans released from N. Korea
In september I posted one CNN clip about those captivated Americans by North Korea.
This is really good news for them and other people in the world who worried about them like me.
I wish they regain their happy daily life with their families as soon as possible.
Tasks in Class : My 8th Discussion Forum
1. Are you a top-down reader? Or bottom-up
reader? When you read novels do you read top-down or bottom-up? What
strategy do you use when you read new articles or 전공서적 (academic reference)
I think my reading style is closer to bottom-up rather than top-down. It is because, recently, almost of my reading activities were for academic purposes which is more related to bottom-up skills for remembering the contents. Almost reading activities in high school, also required me to be bottom-up reader, because precise comprehension of each phrases or words took an important role in solving problems in KSAT (수능) Those experiences lead to kind of habit formation that made me become bottom-up reader.
However, when I read novels, I usually become top-down reader because interesting contents make me read faster. But sometimes, I become bottom-up reader even in reading novels. There are a few parts that show grammatical complexity, or difficulty of comprehension. Those parts requires me to be bottom-up reader.
Then how it is different from intentive reading? We can find the differences by observing features of English classes in Korea. Reading materials selected regardless of students’ interests or reading level. And in many times, teachers let them read materials that is beyond their reading level. In this case, it doesn’t matter to search dictionary for unknown words. The length of text is also the difference. Only short texts are presented on the textbook because students can’t read the texts quickly due to the difficulty of it. But in extensive leading, long texts presented because students can read it rapidly with little difficulty.
I think my reading style is closer to bottom-up rather than top-down. It is because, recently, almost of my reading activities were for academic purposes which is more related to bottom-up skills for remembering the contents. Almost reading activities in high school, also required me to be bottom-up reader, because precise comprehension of each phrases or words took an important role in solving problems in KSAT (수능) Those experiences lead to kind of habit formation that made me become bottom-up reader.
However, when I read novels, I usually become top-down reader because interesting contents make me read faster. But sometimes, I become bottom-up reader even in reading novels. There are a few parts that show grammatical complexity, or difficulty of comprehension. Those parts requires me to be bottom-up reader.
On the other hand,
when I read new articles, I become both top-down and bottom-up reader. First I
read the new article fast with top-down skills for overview of texts and for
distinguishing between important parts and relatively unimportant parts. And then
I become bottom-up reader for comprehension of specific part that I think
important.
2. What is ER (extensive reading)? How is it
different from intentive reading which we have practiced in English classes in Korea?
Extensive reading is reading
as much as possible, for your own pleasure, at a difficulty level at which you
can read smoothly and quickly without searching meanings of words or
translating to Korean when you read. In other words, instead of spending long
time decoding a tiny part of one book, you read many simpler books that are at
or slightly below the level at which you read fluently.
Then how it is different from intentive reading? We can find the differences by observing features of English classes in Korea. Reading materials selected regardless of students’ interests or reading level. And in many times, teachers let them read materials that is beyond their reading level. In this case, it doesn’t matter to search dictionary for unknown words. The length of text is also the difference. Only short texts are presented on the textbook because students can’t read the texts quickly due to the difficulty of it. But in extensive leading, long texts presented because students can read it rapidly with little difficulty.
3. How does technology assist ER? Give me one example.
Selecting proper level of reading material having enormous significance in extensive reading. As I mentioned difficulty level is needed to be considered deliberately when you select proper texts for learners. Here, we can use concordancer for classifying texts into separated difficulty levels. If we have digital form of target texts, we can check its difficulty level through software like concordancer that can designate automatically divided levels for each materials. Then we can use appropriate material which fits well with each learner's reading level.
Selecting proper level of reading material having enormous significance in extensive reading. As I mentioned difficulty level is needed to be considered deliberately when you select proper texts for learners. Here, we can use concordancer for classifying texts into separated difficulty levels. If we have digital form of target texts, we can check its difficulty level through software like concordancer that can designate automatically divided levels for each materials. Then we can use appropriate material which fits well with each learner's reading level.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
CNN Postings : What is bipolar disorder?
This article is from "Wikipedia"
- If you need extra explaination about blue colored terminology, you can click and can use hyperlink to wikipedia page about the terminology.Bipolar disorder, also known as bipolar affective disorder (and originally called manic-depressive illness), is a mental disorder characterized by periods of elevated mood and periods of depression.[1][2] The elevated mood is significant and is known as mania or hypomania depending on the severity or whether there is psychosis. During mania an individual feels or acts abnormally happy, energetic, or irritable.[1] They often make poorly thought out decisions with little regard to the consequences. The need for sleep is usually reduced.[2] During periods of depression there may be crying, poor eye contact with others, and a negative outlook on life.[1] The risk of suicide among those with the disorder is high at greater than 6% over 20 years, while self harm occurs in 30–40%.[1] Other mental health issues such as anxiety disorder and drug misuse are commonly associated.[1]
The cause is not clearly understood, but both genetic and environmental factors play a role.[1] Many genes of small effect contribute to risk.[1][3] Environmental factors include long term stress and a history of childhood abuse.[1] It is divided into bipolar I disorder if there is at least one manic episode and bipolar II disorder if there are at least one hypomanic episode and one major depressive episode. In those with less severe symptoms of a prolonged duration the condition cyclothymic disorder may be present. If due to drugs or medical problems it is classified separately.[2] Other conditions that may present in a similar manner include: drug misuse, personality disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia as well as a number of medical conditions.[1]
Treatment commonly includes psychotherapy and medications such as mood stabilizers or antipsychotics. Examples of mood stabilizers that are commonly used include: lithium and anticonvulsants. Treatment in hospital against a person's wishes may be required at times as people may be at risk to themselves or others yet refuse treatment. Severe behavioural problems may be managed with short term benzodiazepines or antipsychotics. In periods of mania it is recommended that antidepressants be stopped. If antidepressants are used for periods of depression they should be used with a mood stabilizer. Electroconvulsive therapy may be helpful in those who do not respond to other treatments. If treatments is stopped it is recommended that this be done slowly. Most people have social, financial or work related problem due to the disorder. These difficulties occur a quarter to a third of the time on average. The risk of death from natural causes such as heart disease is twice that of the general population. This is due to poor lifestyle choices and the side effects from medications.[1]
About 3% of people in the United States have bipolar disorder at some point in their life.[4] Lower rates of around 1% are found in other countries. The most common age at which symptoms begin is 25.[1] Rates appear to be similar in males as females.[5] The economic costs of the disorder has been estimated at $45 billion for the United States in 1991.[6] A large proportion of this was related to a higher number of missed work days estimated at 50 per year.[6] People with bipolar disorder often face problems with social stigma.[1]
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Tasks in Class : My 7th Discussion Forum
1. What is wiki? Why is wiki good for collaborative writing?
Wiki is an online tool that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content. Wiki supports hyperlinks and crosslinks between internal pages. Also, Wiki is a kind of group communication. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site, it encourages democratic use of the web page and promotes content composition by nontechnical users. Then how wiki can facilitate collaborative writing? As I mentioned contents in wiki made by various users, not by one writer. If few writers engage in the writing, wiki lose its distinctiveness. In addition, every users writing can be valued equally in wiki. In traditional writing activities, some students would probably worry about their lack of writing skills or quality of contents. But in wiki world, nobody worry about those things because their weaknesses can be compensated by other more superior writers. This is how wiki promotes collaborative writing.
2. Explain on your own words how the author used wiki for his class.
The author planned to use wiki as a classroom writing activity. The planned wiki was consisted of 6 categories, and divided 6 groups take one topic of each categories. The 6 categories were all about students’ school life, and they were “special rooms and facilities”, “the school as a big family”, “interest clubs/extra-curricular activities”, “lunchtime and recess”, “the secondary one curriculum”, “adapting to secondary school life”. He applied process writing approach in this activity. Firstly, 10 days were given for making first drafts. They could log in the wiki system whenever they want, wherever they are. During the process, they were encouraged to read other groups’ uncompleted works. Then for 5 days, a lesson for revising their first drafts was given, and in the lesson they learn some strategies to organize ideas into coherent paragraphs, and to write topic sentence. Next, for 4 days, a lesson for proofreading was given. This lesson was made for giving them opportunity to correct grammatical and lexical errors of their works. The last stage is publishing. Their completed wiki announced to all teachers, students, and parents.
Wiki is an online tool that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content. Wiki supports hyperlinks and crosslinks between internal pages. Also, Wiki is a kind of group communication. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site, it encourages democratic use of the web page and promotes content composition by nontechnical users. Then how wiki can facilitate collaborative writing? As I mentioned contents in wiki made by various users, not by one writer. If few writers engage in the writing, wiki lose its distinctiveness. In addition, every users writing can be valued equally in wiki. In traditional writing activities, some students would probably worry about their lack of writing skills or quality of contents. But in wiki world, nobody worry about those things because their weaknesses can be compensated by other more superior writers. This is how wiki promotes collaborative writing.
2. Explain on your own words how the author used wiki for his class.
The author planned to use wiki as a classroom writing activity. The planned wiki was consisted of 6 categories, and divided 6 groups take one topic of each categories. The 6 categories were all about students’ school life, and they were “special rooms and facilities”, “the school as a big family”, “interest clubs/extra-curricular activities”, “lunchtime and recess”, “the secondary one curriculum”, “adapting to secondary school life”. He applied process writing approach in this activity. Firstly, 10 days were given for making first drafts. They could log in the wiki system whenever they want, wherever they are. During the process, they were encouraged to read other groups’ uncompleted works. Then for 5 days, a lesson for revising their first drafts was given, and in the lesson they learn some strategies to organize ideas into coherent paragraphs, and to write topic sentence. Next, for 4 days, a lesson for proofreading was given. This lesson was made for giving them opportunity to correct grammatical and lexical errors of their works. The last stage is publishing. Their completed wiki announced to all teachers, students, and parents.
Tasks in Class : My 6th Discussion Forum (2)
1. From communicative language teaching (CLT) perspective, writing practice should be interactive. Discuss how English teachers can provide interactive English writing experience for students.
If we are designing writing activities from CLT perspective, we have to check that whether they are promoting authentic and interactive use of language. It means there should be real and specific audiences which is not felt contrived. Like speaking activity, authentic writing needs real audience who can react. “Specification of an audience and purpose of a text by making the situation real” is the good way for achieving the authenticity as I mentioned. Exchanging e-mail or messages with friends or teacher, sharing acquired information, producing a class newspaper to be read by family or other classes’ friends all are good examples for the specification of an audience and purpose.
2. When we write for authentic purposes, there are always audience (except secret diaries or self-notes). Discuss types of writing activities for different audiences. First, students can write for their teacher.
Teachers are good at checking student’s writing errors because they are expert in learner language. They also have excellent grammatical knowledge. So, writing to the teacher is going to be a good chance for the student to get appropriate feedback of their own writing. But, this can be challenging on the part of the teacher, because it is very burdensome to read and check all student’s writings. It takes lots of time and effort. Here is another disadvantage. Students will not write everything freely and openly what they really want to express because of the fear of the all-knowing teacher who can reveal their imperfect writing skills and spelling errors. Second, students can write for their peers or classmates. In this case students will feel much less fear. They are friendlier and are not in superior position. But, there writing can be full of joking and kidding.
3. How does technology help task-based writing? Discuss and write your ideas.
Self-correcting of spelling or grammatical error was not easy until automatic correcting software was developed. Now, you can check and correct our errors in writing by ourselves without experts help. If you make a mistake, Word Processor will display red line under the mistake. Then just with one click, you can realize what was problem and correct it immediately. Also, you can write letters or messages easily with technology. You don’t have to prepare sheets of paper or pencils. You just need an e-mail address and a keyboard. SNSs like Facebook provide you numerous opportunities to have real audiences in the distant countries that we’ve never been. They can become friend and your real audience. They will respond to your message or comments. This is really good chance can’t be given without technology.
If we are designing writing activities from CLT perspective, we have to check that whether they are promoting authentic and interactive use of language. It means there should be real and specific audiences which is not felt contrived. Like speaking activity, authentic writing needs real audience who can react. “Specification of an audience and purpose of a text by making the situation real” is the good way for achieving the authenticity as I mentioned. Exchanging e-mail or messages with friends or teacher, sharing acquired information, producing a class newspaper to be read by family or other classes’ friends all are good examples for the specification of an audience and purpose.
2. When we write for authentic purposes, there are always audience (except secret diaries or self-notes). Discuss types of writing activities for different audiences. First, students can write for their teacher.
Teachers are good at checking student’s writing errors because they are expert in learner language. They also have excellent grammatical knowledge. So, writing to the teacher is going to be a good chance for the student to get appropriate feedback of their own writing. But, this can be challenging on the part of the teacher, because it is very burdensome to read and check all student’s writings. It takes lots of time and effort. Here is another disadvantage. Students will not write everything freely and openly what they really want to express because of the fear of the all-knowing teacher who can reveal their imperfect writing skills and spelling errors. Second, students can write for their peers or classmates. In this case students will feel much less fear. They are friendlier and are not in superior position. But, there writing can be full of joking and kidding.
3. How does technology help task-based writing? Discuss and write your ideas.
Self-correcting of spelling or grammatical error was not easy until automatic correcting software was developed. Now, you can check and correct our errors in writing by ourselves without experts help. If you make a mistake, Word Processor will display red line under the mistake. Then just with one click, you can realize what was problem and correct it immediately. Also, you can write letters or messages easily with technology. You don’t have to prepare sheets of paper or pencils. You just need an e-mail address and a keyboard. SNSs like Facebook provide you numerous opportunities to have real audiences in the distant countries that we’ve never been. They can become friend and your real audience. They will respond to your message or comments. This is really good chance can’t be given without technology.
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