Teacher
Resources
Now that we have the World Wide Web, how can we use it? These
are some ideas and links that I have found during my searches, as
well as activities to use with my travel links.
Suggested
Activities:
*These activities were adapted from the book New
Ways in English for Specific Purposes.
(copyright 1998 by Teachers of English to Speakers of Other
Languages, Inc.)
Paraphrasing
activity: to be used with my links to cultural essays and information.
Goals: Students will learn to paraphrase.
Students will learn to search for key concepts and information in
a text.
Students will practice using alternative word forms and
expressions.
Students will assist each other in the revision process.
- Select a passage from one of the web sites provided,
such as The
Cowman's Dominion.
- Instruct the students to read through the passage
once, looking for information to answer the
questions: Who or what? Where?
When? Why? How? Conclusions?
- Have the students write down their answers to those
questions, and bring them to class. In class, each
student will share their answers with the class. Go
over any new vocabulary with the students.
- After the vocabulary review, the students are to write
a one sentence summary of the passage using only their
notes. This is to be done in class, so they cannot
refer to the original passage. Then have them share
their sentence summaries, either in groups or as a class.
- For homework the students will be asked to reread the
passage, writing down the key words as they read.
This list of key words is to be brought to the next class
session.
- The class as a whole should make a collective list of
the key words and terms chosen by the students.
Discuss which words would be considered key terms, and
why.
- Have the students think of as many word forms and
synonyms for each key word as possible. This could
be done in class or assigned for homework.
- Break the text down into an outline form, and give
copies to the students. Instruct them to read the
text again, referring to this outline.
- In the following class, have the students write a
short summary of the passage, referring only to their one
sentence summary, the structure outline, and the list of
key words. Summaries should be one to two
paragraphs long. This activity is to be done
without reference to the original text, so be sure none
of the students refer to a printed version of the text.
- In groups, have the students share their paragraphs to
revise each others work, and offer suggestions for
improvement.
- Have students turn the finished product into you, for
use with the next activity.
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Identifying
plagiarism: to be used with the above paraphrasing
activity.
Goals: Students will learn to
recognize plagiarism.
Students will work in groups to identify plagiarized passages.
Students will rewrite plagiarized passages, making necessary
changes.
- From the student summaries, select some examples of
good paraphrasing and some examples of plagiarism.
The teacher could create the examples of plagiarism to
avoid discouraging any of the students. Number each
example. Print a copy of the article from the
Internet. On that copy, indicate the area of the
article that corresponds to each example.
- Divide the class into groups.
- Distribute the examples to the groups. Give each
group an example of paraphrasing and an example of
plagiarism, accompanied with the numbered copy of the
original text. It would be helpful to also give the
students a guide to paraphrasing. (One can be found
in the New Ways in English for Specific
Purposes text, p. 113 or in the MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers)
- Each group should read the examples together, and
decide which example demonstrates plagiarism and which
demonstrates paraphrasing.
- After each group has had time to read the examples,
and come to a collaborative decision about the content of
those examples, have each group present their findings to
the class for discussion.
- Now have the groups make a list of reasons, explaining
why one of the examples would be considered plagiarism,
and why the other is an example of paraphrasing.
They should refer to the handout you have given them.
- Have the students present their reasons to the
class. What features of the passages brought them
to their judgment as to whether it was plagiarized or
not.
- To expand on this activity, students could rewrite the
passages identified as plagiarism.
- Have the students share their own summaries created in
the paraphrasing activity, and decide if they are good
examples of paraphrasing.
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Travel Journal:
Goals: Students will keep a weekly
journal.
Students will utilize the World Wide Web to learn about places in
the United States.
- Have students keep a travel journal, adding an entry
each week. They could either write about their
excursions with the ELI or pay a virtual visit to a new
destination each week using my Traveler information
links. Entries could be sent to you via e-mail,
or their entries could be kept in a notebook which they
turn in periodically.
- Note: If the technology is available to the
students, an alternative activity would be to create a
web site devoted to a certain area. Check out this
site created by English students in Washington D.C. Wow!
Washington on the Web: A Guide for Students by
Students
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Travel
Brochure and Presentation: Exploring
the United States
Goals: Students will scan for information
on the Internet.
Students will write a one page article on an area of the U.S.
Students will work in teams to create a travel brochure.
Students will give an oral presentation of their brochure to the
class in teams.
- For this activity, I suggest that students sign up for
different areas of the United States, such as the South,
Pacific Northwest, Great Plains, etc. The class
could be divided into teams, each representing a
different region of the United States. Each team
member could research one to two states in that region.
- Once students have chosen an area to focus on, they
should search the Internet for information on that area
using the provided travel guides and information
links. Have them note facts about the area and
communities, things to do, sites to see, the average
climate, etc. It would probably be helpful to give
them a list of questions to consider as they research, to
serve as a guide. Students may need more than one
day to work on this part of the assignment.
- Bring some local travel brochures to class, to give
the students an example of what they will create.
Any AAA member can visit the local office and pick up
promotional material on any area of the U.S.
Another place to try would be the local Chamber of
Commerce.
- Discuss these brochures in class, focusing on the
advertising strategies that have been used. What
kind of photographs have been included on the
brochure? Talk about organization, headings and
language used. Is the brochure good advertisement
for the location being promoted? Does it get your
attention? How?
- After discussing these brochures in class, have
students get into their research groups, and decide what
kind of information to include on their own
brochures. They may want to focus on restaurants in
the area, theater, outdoor activities, etc. Assign
them the homework of narrowing their search, and
compiling the final information for the brochure.
If possible, have them print one or two pictures from the
Web to include on their brochure. Any photos could
be pasted onto the final draft.
- Each student will pretend that they own some kind of
tourist facility in the area they have chosen. They
must write a one page promotional article for their
company, stating the services that they offer. They
should bring two copies of this article to class, one to
turn in, and one to use with their group.
- Have the groups cut and paste sections of their
articles to use for their collaborative brochure,
including any pictures they have found. Once the
brochure is complete, have them make copies to distribute
to the class. They must present this information to
the class, imagining that their classmates are
prospective clients.
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Skimming Activity: to be
used with media resources
and culture in the U.S.
Goals: Students will skim
newspaper or journal articles for current events and local
attractions in a specified region of the
United States.
Students will take notes on the information found on the
Internet.
Based on the information gleaned from the readings,
students will write a persuasive essay indicating the best time
of
the year for tourism in that area.
- This activity may be used to supplement the travel
brochure exercise.
- Have the students search local newspapers, travel
journals and cultural links for the region researched for
their brochure.
- The students must skim ten different web sites for the
region they have chosen, and must provide the URL
addresses of those web sites. Have them take notes
on any activities of interest and current events in that
area.
- Based on their findings, students are to decide when
travelers would be most interested in visiting that
location. For example, if they have had bad weather
recently, perhaps a tourist would like to visit at a
later date. If the area features a yearly local
arts festival, tourists would probably like to visit at
that time.
- Instruct students to write a one page persuasive
essay, indicating the best time of the year for tourism
in the area, and explaining why that time of year would
be best.
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- Here is a cloze exercise that
I created. If you would like to know how to create
these exercises, as well as 5 other types of activity,
visit the Half-baked
software site featuring freeware for
teachers.
Related
Web sites for U.S. Culture course:
- My home page, as well as the following sites, have
been developed for use in conjunction with a U.S. Culture
through Media reading and writing course. The ESL Travel
Center could be used for further research on
topics addressed on these sites as well.
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Internet Resources:
- Dave
Sperling's ESL Cafe This is a
useful site for teachers and students alike. For
teachers there is a web guide, a job center and lots of
ideas.
- Comenius
English Learning Center Another
site devoted to teachers and students of English.
Not as extensive as Dave's ESL Cafe, but includes
interactive exercises and an e-mail connection to other
students of English.
- The English Page
Useful tips on how to use the Internet for writing
activities, including instructions on how to reference
Internet resources.
- ERIC A
clearinghouse of reading, English, and communication
materials, brought to us by the Department of Education,
in conjunction with Indiana University. Useful
features at this site include Research Summaries,
Bibliographies and Web Resources, Lesson Plans, and other
Eric Clearinghouses.
- ESL
Resources for Teachers Lots
of useful links for ESL teachers using the WWW.
- Files
for Computer based English Classes
If you are new to using the computer, these files will be
helpful whether you are a student or a teacher.
Brought to us by the English
Teacher's Web Site.
- Internet
TESL Journal Provides lesson
plans, ideas, articles and its own search engine
specifically for sites related to the teaching of
English. For students, they have included
informative readings on various topics. Each
reading is followed by an activity to test reading
comprehension. Also included are various language
puzzles and games.
- One World One People
A web page devoted to ESL and cultural
education. Includes ESL lesson plans, activities,
and essays addressing cultural differences.
- Technology
and English Studies Western
Kentucky University's instructional page for faculty
using the Internet. Features include introductory
guides to using the World Wide Web and research
resources.
- Tman's
TESOL Page
An extensive
collection of links to ESL and educational web
sites. Tman also includes an instructional guide on
creating a web site using html language.
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Related Articles (from ERIC):
- Asking
the Right Questions: Reading Assignments That Work for
Writing Tips for teachers,
prepared by Douglas Haneline and Nola Kortner Aiex.
- Computer
Assisted Writing Instruction
The benefits of computers over
pencil and paper, prepared by Marjorie Simic.
- The
Computer Networked Writing Lab
The benefits of the computer
writing class, prepared by P.M. Puccio.
- Effective
Use of Student Journal Writing
Thoughts on the benefits of
journals, prepared by Gary Cobine.
- Electronic
Discourse: Evolving Conventions in Online Academic
Environments An article
addressing the new writing medium of e-mail, prepared by
Mardziah Hayati Abdullah.
- Evaluating
Students Writing Tips on writing assessment, by Nancy B.
Hyslop.
- Guidelines
for Computer Assisted Reading
Useful advice for using the
computer effectively, prepared by Marjorie R. Simic.
- Guidelines
for Evaluating Web Sites A checklist for teachers utilizing the World
Wide Web, prepared by Mardziah Hayati Abdullah.
- Literature
as Lessons on the Diversity of Culture
Ideas on how to use literature
classes to teach U.S. culture, by Nola Kortner Aiex.
- Metacognition
and Reading to Learn The importance of teaching effective reading
strategies, prepared by Norma Decker Collins.
- Revision
in the Writing Process Changing attitudes about revision, prepared
by Fran Lehr.
- Studying
with the Computer Possible benefits and outcomes of online
courses, prepared by Gary R. Cobine.
- Teaching
Expressive Writing Discusses the benefit of using journals for
writing instruction, prepared by Gary R. Cobine.
- Using
newspapers as effective teaching tools
Useful ways to use the newspaper in the
classroom, by Nola Kortner Aiex.
- Vocabulary
Instruction and Reading Comprehension
Focuses on the importance of vocabulary
instruction in all subject areas, prepared by Carl B.
Smith.
- Whole
Language and Adult Education
Issues in adult education, prepared by
Warren Lewis.
- Writing
Assessment at the College Level
A look at how some colleges in the
U.S. assess writing assignments, prepared by Alice G.
Brand.
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