BEYOND YOUR SCHOOL WALLS - Authentic audiences for your classes
Gladys Baya ([email protected]; http://www.pageflakes.com/gladysbaya )
ABSTRACT: For decades, schools have remained cut off from the outside world. This sounds
paradoxical if we’re teaching EFL for communication... Should we "pull down" the walls around
our classrooms? How can you, a coordinator or DOS, contribute to this process? Get ready to
open your school doors to the world!
During the last week,
I’ve written to: … and I’ve talked with:
1. ____________ 6. ______________
2. ____________ 7. ______________
3. ____________ 8. ______________
4. ____________ 9. ______________
5. ____________ 10. ______________
Writing is a way to share your valuable ideas with the world, rather
than a way to be wrong (Jeff Anderson)
Who ha ve y our sch oo l s tu de nt s co mm unica te d w ith durin g th e
fir st half o f thi s s cho ol year?
Benefits of writing and speaking for authentic audiences: Can you decipher the code?
Students writing for real audiences have reported the following
outcomes:
• Students write about issues that have real M G for
them; developing ability to express F S.
• It M S students who would not normally
write or perform to improve their literacy skills.
• Students develop C N skills and
engage in accountable talk.
• The use of technology can broaden the scope of the students’
learning experiences outside of their L L community.
Teachers have also documented:
• increases in self-E M and self-confidence
• increased student A E
• increased performance on standardized language assessments
• a decline in D Y actions.
Perhaps the greatest reason for collaboration at the
computer is the simple human desire for social contact.
Ken Beatty
How to go about it: Cross out what’s wrong
• A good way to start is to encourage students to read
and comment on / edit what other people are
writing. By reading what others write, students
learn from noticing (assets as well!).
• Start little (but aim big!): have students exchange
writings with a peer of their choice; then try small
groups; once they’ve tried writing for their class as
a whole, think of what they might write for younger /
brighter learners at the school, peer groups, other
teachers. Then contact another school. Finally, have
them interact with native speakers, or FL learners
with a different mother tongue!
• Where can your students have their writing edited / published? Class book, class walls,
school board, printed booklet, email, CD-ROM, blog, website, wiki… you choose!
• Have them write for adults / professionals instead of / as well as students.
• Before launching / evaluating writing projects, ensure an audience for their work (e.g. you
can ask a couple of colleagues to comment on their work as soon as it is published!). If the
target audience is the other learners in the class, allot time during / after your lessons for
them to read and respond.
What tools can classes use for publishing? – Match
Blogger ®
• Your radio online (files can be downloaded to be listened to offline, at computers or
Bubbleshare® on MP3 players)
• Upload your slideshows, and even have the chance to add some audio to them.
Wetpaint®
• Publish your audio and video files, and embed them onto other sites or email them to
Podomatic® your contacts!
• Photo albums with captions and speech bubbles.
Slideshare®
• An online scrapbook
Springdoo®
• An online journal, mainly text-based (audio and video can be integrated)
Tumblr®
• A collaborative site, where all participants collaborate on everything!
What all collaborative tasks have in common is that one of the participants has
a goal that he or she would like to achieve and the other participant engages in
talk that helps the first to achieve that goal.
Wells and Chang-Wells; 1992 (quoted by Beatty:113)
Where to find audiences online:
A great way to start is by playing the role of the audience first. Once your classes feel ready to make
their voices heard, here are three great places to let the world know they’re ready to take off!
• Webheads in Action (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/) is an online
community where nearly 600 teachers share their experiments in technology integration into
their EFL-ESL lessons. Members regularly post about their classes’ writings and invite other
members to comment on the students’ work.
• IEARN (http://www.iearn.org) enables teachers and young people from over 120 countries
to use the Internet and other new technologies to collaborate on projects that both enhance
learning and make a difference in the world. Argentinean teachers can join for free!
• At Dekita.org – OPEN EFL/ESL (http://www.dekita.org), you can find EFL/ESL classes
for your learners to interact with, and “advertise” your own!
Time magazine's person of the year is "You." You now have the power to
publish, share, and interact with a global audience. Your students also
have this power... The decision of what to do with that power lies with you.
(Fryer 2006)
References:
Beatty, Ken (2003); Teaching and Researching Computer-assisted Language Learning;. Longman
Dieu, B, Campbell, A. and Ammann, R. (n.d.). About. In Dekita.org. Retrievdble from http://www.dekita.org/about .
Fico, Maria (2005); “Honoring Student's Voices”; In TechLearning News (e-zine); Issue: June 2005; available at:
www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=163105484
Fryer, Wesley (2006); “What are you going to do?”; In TechLearning Blog on December 29, 2007; available at:
http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2006/12/what_are_you_going_to_do.php
Solomon, Gwen (2007); “Editor's Note: Writing is Thinking”; In TechLearning News (e-zine emailed on April 17, 2007)
Utecht, Jeff (2007); “The Power of Content Creation”; In TechLearning Blog on April 12, 2007; available at:
http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2007/04/the_power_of_content_creation.php
All links last retrieved on June 06, 2008
“Nadie sabe tanto como para no poder aprender de los demás, ni tan poco como para no tener algo que
enseñar.” Daniel Reyes
You can make comments and watch the slide show for this presentation at: http://www.freewebs.com/gladysbaya.
Thanks for having joined me today!
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