Using PowerPoint to Deliver Content Instruction or Practice

A very engaging way to introduce or practice vocabulary or grammar content is to use a series of images in a PowerPoint presentation. View the PowerPoint presentation below to see the way several ESL topics could be introduced or practiced. The presentation is just a sampler, with one or two slides demonstrating each type of activity. In practice, each topic would have anywhere from 10 to 20 slides to provide sufficient material for introduction or practice.

View the sampler presentation

Using Video Clips as Prompts for Conversation and Making Predictions

I was recently reminded of the importance of reading stories as a classroom exercise in terms of giving students the opportunity to make predictions about what will happen in the next part of the story to be read. The same can be done with video clips. The following three clips come from a car commercial. I play them in order for the whole class. The students work in groups. Each group has to make a prediction about what will happen next. I write the predictions on the board before showing the next clip. Try it yourself by watching the clips in order and making your own predictions.

Watch the first clip



What do you think will happen next? (Write your prediction down!)


Watch the second clip



Was your prediction accurate?
What do you think will happen next? (Write your prediction down!)


Watch the final clip



Was your prediction accurate?

Try it with your students! If your students are anything like my students you will have great discussions and they will enjoy the surprise endings, especially after the second second clip!

Authentic Easy-to-Read Stories Online at the Toronto Star

I was recently introduced to the "Acts of Kindness" series published weekly by the Toronto Star by a multilevel instructor who teaches in Canada. She noted that these true stories, submitted by readers of the newspaper, are very suitable for multilevel classes since they are short and often written in "easy" English. She has the students work in cross-ability groups with the stories in a variety of ways. For example, students may be assigned to explain a story to a student at a different ability level, or rewrite the story in their own words. After a quick search, I found that the more than 2000(!) stories are archived at the Toronto Star online edition at http://www.thestar.com/topic/ActsofKindness and they are not only suitable for multilevel ESL situations, they are a wonderful resource for any ESL class.

The stories cover a wide variety of topics and everyday situations, so there are many opportunities to work with vocabulary and associate stories with topics being covered in class already. For example, I saw several stories related to getting stuck without money and someone helping, others related to losing things on buses and recovering them, and still others related to being helped by a stranger when a crime is about to occur. Most newer ESL textbooks have chapters related to finances, public transportation, and public safety. It would be very easy to choose selections from the stories and introduce them as supplemental activities to particular units during the semester.

There is also a link to submit one's own story! Students at all levels could work in groups or individually to submit an "act of kindness" story and see it published online!

More from CLEAR-Use Viewpoint to easily create short videos

A second free application from the Rich Internet Applications suite of programs from the Center for Language Education And Research of Michigan State University is called Viewpoint. Viewpoint allows you to create simple videos (using your own webcam and microphone) completely from within your web browser. The completed video is saved in your CLEAR account and accessible via a URL or is associated with an "embed code" that you can place on your website, blog or wiki. You can also upload an existing video from YouTube, TeacherTube or from your own computer and it will be converted to a format that can be posted on a website.

There doesn't seem to be any editing capabilities once the video is made so have a good idea of what you want to say before you start recording! If you make a mistake, start the recording over.

Here's an example!



Click here for a quick video message that I posted on my class web page for the students to view when they get back to class.
If you already have an account at CLEAR or the Rich Internet Applications website, you don't need to create a new account.

Whoopee! Big Success With Student Downloads!

It finally happened! A student with a Nokia phone with mp3 capability asked how he could save the mp3 files of me reading one of the stories to his phone so he could listen to them outside of the classroom! Here he is downloading the mp3 files from the class wiki to his phone!

Finding out about edZone

The Spring issue of DataBus, a periodical of the California Educational Technology Professionals Association had an article by Alan Phillips of the Imperial County Office of Education about the California K12 High Speed Network that indicated that this California project would try to "encourage educators to utilize the latest web technology and tools, while simultaneously addressing concerns about appropriate content and providing access with risks minimized." They would accomplish this by providing platforms for blogs, wikis, podcasting and other web 2.0 tools and then only allowing access to those "verified as a member of California's K-12 educational system." Seemed like a great idea but why not adult educators too?

I sent off an email to John Fleischman, Director of Technology Services for the Sacramento County Office of Education and Executive Director of OTAN (Outreach and Technical Assistance Network) figuring he'd know the full story and inquired about adult educator access. He assured me that adult educators ARE already included in the group of eligible educators, and that adult education is one of the categories for all of the different products available. For example, if you want to find images or blogs posted or created by adult educators, you can search "adult education" to find them.

I spent about an hour exploring the various options available at the present time and while I don't yet have a complete handle on all of them, I can say that they are relatively easy to figure out and could function especially well for teachers who work in districts where more mainstream web 2.0 tools are blocked.

You can find more information at http://www.k12hsn.org/edzone/ My new blog there is at http://www.k12hsn.org/edzone/blogs.php/barrybakin/2008/05/19/trying-out-a-new-tool/
If you click on "adult education" in the list of "channels" on the right, you'll see some of my other attempts at using the tools listed. Click on the "My edZone" link to get to the California K12 High Speed Network homepage to log in to an existing account or create a new one.

Inspired by CATESOL 2008

I always try to implement at least one idea that I've seen at a conference within the first week after my return to the classroom. Sometimes it's more! The idea that I'm trying out came to me after attending the session on using PowerPoint presented by Beth Bogage and Jim Brice of San Diego Community College. Their workshop focused on having students prepare PowerPoint presentations enhanced by their own narration. Now I've been having students make PowerPoint presentations for several years, but they've usually involved preparing slides to accompany oral presentation of research they've carried out in class. Inspired by Beth and Jim, I've decided to have the students make two versions of their PowerPoint presentations from now on: one without narration to accompany their "in-front-of-class" presentations, and one with narration that can "stand alone" so anybody viewing the presentation will see the slides and hear the students explaining their research. Beth and Jim also suggested that students be encouraged to speak extemporaneously (as opposed to reading) and I've instructed the students to do that as much as possible. So far, the idea seems to have been well-received, and I'm getting my first student projects with narration to check. You can see the first one by clicking here, and the second one that was completed by clicking here.


Thank you Beth and Jim for your presentation!

Hello from TESOL 2008 in NYC

I'm pleased to report that my Pre-Conference Institute was well attended and well-received and that I've already been introduced to a new website that might be of interest to ESL teachers who like using Internet resources with their students. This website allows one to link to a YouTube or Google video and create a multiple choice quiz based on that video. It has promise, but of course, the major drawback is that most of the video sites are blocked by most school districts now including my own! It should work with TeacherTube but I haven't had a chance to test it yet. It's called ESLvideo and is at http://www.eslvideo.com if you want to experiment with it. Like I said, it has promise but will not be completely workable for many settings and contexts.

Trying out VoiceThread

VoiceThread is a new site that allows you to connect your voice to images to make presentations. Obviously there are a lot of implications for language teaching. I have started to experiment of course. Here is my first presentation. Unfortunately, not a single microphone appears to be working correctly where I am doing this so at this point it's only text accompanying the photos. I'll try again when I'm "back at the office!" See it at http://voicethread.com/view.php?b=8547

What did we do in class today? Watch a video and find out!

I've started a new experiment using short videos to tell absent students what the rest of us did in class on any given day. I now have a webcam and I've been making very short video clips announcing the assignments. I upload the video file to my wikipage and then put a link to the wikipage on my class pageflakes home page. I'm not sure that's the most efficient way to do this yet, but it seems to be workable. I'm going to introduce the class pageflakes page to my new group of students tomorrow. I'll keep you posted about their feedback. In the meantime, feel free to check out the first two video clips. You'll find the link in the left column under the calendar "flake."

Congratulations to Larry Ferlazzo!

Larry Ferlazzo just won a nice award for his work with using technology in the classroom and for the benefit of the community. He has been awarded the grand prize for 2007 in the International Reading Association's Presidential Award for Reading and Technology. Information on the award is here http://www.reading.org/association/awards/teachers_presidential.html I visit his blog most often. When I visit Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day for teaching ELL, ESL & EFL, I never fail to find something that could be put to use in the classroom. Today, for me, it's the Community Walk website which overlays a walk that you create onto a google map (I think the new term is "mashup"). The nifty feature is that you can add and save your own landmarks and descriptions (including photos) as you create your walk. Many beginning and intermediate level classes and textbooks feature lessons on giving directions. With Community Walk you can assign students to create a map with photos and descriptions of the neighborhood. As an example, here's a map I created in a few minutes using photos I already had on my computer: http://www.communitywalk.com/pacoima/ca/visiting_pacoima/map/153149, and here's a map I chose at random http://www.communitywalk.com/walking_westford.

By creating their own maps, students practice writing skills. By looking at maps other people have created, they practice reading skills. By giving the students a task, they can practice oral skills as they discuss a walk that they are viewing. (Give them a worksheet and ask questions about the locations on the map, e.g. When was the new library in Pacoima dedicated and who spoke at the ceremony? or have them describe their own walk to their classmates in an oral presentation accompanied by the map projected behind them.) More adventurous teachers (and students) could probably link their walk to a podcast so viewers of the map could listen to a description of each stop along the way...

For a wealth of good ideas, it never hurts to visit Larry's Websites of the Day...

Steve Gwynne's VESLCLASS podcast at podomatic

I'd like to recommend that readers of my Tech4ESL blog check out Steve Gwynne's VESL CLASS podcast at http://veslclass.podomatic.com/ as an example of creative ways to tie in podcasting and classroom practice in ESL instruction. Steve basically uses his blog as a way for students to access original audio materials that he's created, and then ties each podcast to some type of quiz or activity that can be completed or checked online. One really nice feature of Steve's podcast activities is that he has both colleagues and students record parts of the podcast. Besides providing variety in the listening selection, it must be very motivating for the students to hear their own voices as part of the assignments.