This wordle is free by linking back to==> mrkirsch.edublogs.org <==   Digital Citizenship: Henry from Mr. Kirsch on Vimeo. Part #1 - Case Study ==> Read the scenario below:  "Paul spends a lot of time online illegally downloading (pirating) music, movies, and games. He then uploads the files and shares them with friends and even on peer-to-peer sharing websites. "I’m spreading the wealth," he says. One day his older sister finds out what he is doing and tells him, "It’s illegal, it’s stealing!" Paul says, "I don’t care. Why should I have to pay for something when I can get it for free? Besides, these artists and the record companies make tons of money." His sister then asks, "If you made a song or a movie, would you want people to just get it for free, and without giving you credit?" Part #2 - Apply New Knowledge (Answer these questions on your blog). 1. Why should Paul care about his behavior? 2. How does pirating affect creators? 3. What are honest ways Paul could obtain music and movies he wants? 4. How would this affect you if this was you? Part #3 - Complete this post by Friday, March 20, 2015 @5pm. 

What are some strategies for helping students with academic writing? Alice Savage, Effective Academic Writing co-author, will look at this topic in her upcoming webinar on December 10th. In this article, she presents a task to help build students’ confidence in their writing. When hikers plan an adventure, they agree to take on a challenge. They understand that it might be hard sometimes, but they also know that if they stick together and have faith in the process, they will make it to their destination. The same is true for writers, particularly writers learning to operate in an academic English context. In my webinar, we will examine the writing process and look at specific strategies and activities that can support English learners along the way. The following group task is one of several strategies in the webinar. Its aims of community-building and orienting students to process writing techniques can ensure that a class gets started on the right foot. Objective: To help students build community, confidence and an understanding of the writing process. Start by putting the students in groups of four and creating roles such as manager, note-taker, writer, dictionary-person, or editor. Tell them that they are going to do a writing task together that shows their combined experience and talent. Then set the following questions: How many languages does your group speak in total? How many years has your group been studying English in total? How many countries has your group traveled to in total? What kinds of writing has your group done in the past? What is a name that fits your group? Once they have shared information, instruct the writer to turn the answers and notes into a paragraph. Have them start by introducing their group’s name in a topic sentence. Then have them explain why they chose it. They can include answers to the questions or other ideas that come up while they were talking. The teacher can circulate and provide assistance as needed. When the writing section of the task is finished, the group can work together to edit. The editor, with help from peers, can check for complete sentences, grammar and spelling. As they work, they have an opportunity to see how their knowledge and skills fit with their classmates and to see how they can benefit from or help others later. To mirror the stages of writing, the task ends with publishing. The groups can post or circulate their finished texts and compare results. The class can identify which group speaks the most languages, has studied English the longest, or seen the most countries. This final stage, in addition to serving as an icebreaker, allows the class to experience one another’s writing as readers. This publishing stage can instill a habit of responding to content that will pay off later during peer feedback throughout the term. Finally, the teacher can build confidence in the process by leading a reflection on the stages that the groups went through. They can look at generating ideas and developing content, planning, revising, editing, and publishing. The teacher might then use the opportunity to highlight the activities and aims of each stage. For example, many teachers do not address grammar errors in the early revision stages because students are still shaping content and often cutting or changing sentences. Many students do not automatically anticipate these major revision tasks, so working through revision techniques in an explicit way in a practice activity can foster trust in the process. The discussion can end with the question, "What do you know now that you didn’t know when you started this assignment?" as a way to finish with a focus on writing as knowledge making. If all goes well, students see the advantages of the writing process and its ability to provide a sequence that allows them to focus at distinct stages. They know their classmates and the writing process better, and perhaps they feel better equipped for the adventure of a new task. To find out more about improving students’ writing skills, register for the webinar at either 12:00 or 15:00 GMT on December 10th.Filed under: Adults / Young Adults, Skills Tagged: Academic English, Academic writing, Adults, Alice Savage, EAP, Effective Academic Writing, English for Academic Purposes, Task-based language learning, Webinar, Writing process, Writing skills, Writing strategies

This wordle is free by linking back to==> mrkirsch.edublogs.org <==     Part #1 - Tackk The link here ==> Tackk takes you to the platform Tackk. This is the web tool we will be utlizing to create our Job Descriptions.  Part #2 - What is a job description mean? What does it include? Lesson 79- My job description - English Basic Communication. from Mr. Kirsch on Vimeo. Please click the ==> link  and read about different job descripiton duties. What it  is and what does it include when employers are looking for new employees for specific jobs. Part #3 - Job Descripition Examples Please click here to access some different examples of what job descriptions are and what they look like. There is also a guide for a "How To" write a job description as well. This will be your background information when you begin creating your job description on Tackk.   jdHowToWrite_printerFriendly   Job Description Template  Use the template ==> below when you begin creating your job descripiton on your favorite job utilizing @Tackk.       7th Grade Student Job Description Tackks ==> 2015

Image courtesy of lynnwallenstein via Flickr Matt Steele, a specialist digital publishing consultant, looks at the use of Android tablets in the classroom and gives his tips on what to look for when purchasing devices. There are now Android apps available that add real value to any ELT classroom, from pronunciation apps (English File) to dictionaries (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary), game-based vocabulary apps (Headway Phrase-a-Day), Graded Readers (Bookworms), and last but not least, complete coursebooks and Readers as e-books via the Oxord Learner’s Bookshelf app. See all of Oxford’s ELT apps and e-books here. Many of these offer a distinct edge over paper-based options by virtue of their interactivity, and in particular their use of video and audio. But which device do you buy? This post concerns itself with Android devices - what to look out for, and what to avoid. Introduction: What it means to use tablets in the classroom I’m going to make some assumptions about you based on the fact that you are reading this post: You’re prepared at least to entertain the idea of using a tablet device in your classroom You’ve done a bit of research into methodology and some of the apps available to you You’re aware that the tablet software market is divided roughly into three main competitors: Android, Apple’s iOS, and Microsoft Windows You’re thinking of buying an Android tablet What you may still be in two minds about is who will use the tablet device in the classroom. Will it be you, the teacher, presenting content on the tablet, using the tablet as a lookup device, finding pictures, videos, or collocations to illustrate certain parts of the lesson? A lot of the discussion around tablet usage in an educational setting assumes the possibility of the teacher and the teacher alone using the device. But why would you do that? Why wouldn’t you simply use a computer connected to a projector and/or an interactive whiteboard? So, if we can assume that when we are talking about using tablets in the classroom we are talking about everybody in the classroom using tablet devices, then we are forced to the conclusion that, unless we work for a particularly wealthy school or college that can afford to purchase at least one classroom’s worth of devices, then the only realistic scenario for using tablet devices is BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device. The idea behind BYOD is, broadly speaking, that the student brings their device along to the lecture and uses it to take notes, to view material, online or offline, that the lecturer provides. They might even do interactive exercises or tests that the lecturer might assess via his/her own device during or after the class. This means that a student might turn up with their Android / Windows / Apple smartphone, tablet, or even ‘phablet’ (a phone that is almost tablet sized). What should your policy be in that case? Should you allow, and support, any mobile device at all, with any operating system? In my view, unless you will be relying solely on Apple technologies for classroom management and monitoring purposes, then you should be all-inclusive in your approach. The only thing that you might insist on would be that your students bring along a device that is practical for reading and writing with, which for me would mean a screen no smaller than 7 inches in width, with a resolution of at least 1024 x 768 pixels. Overview of the Android tablet market Android is the single most popular Operating System for smartphones and tablets. The reason for this is twofold: firstly, Android has the backing of almost every hardware manufacturer in the world other than Apple, most notably Samsung; and secondly, it’s owned by Google. In that sense the Android tablet market is like cable TV: lots of choice but also lots of things to avoid. The Samsung connection is an important one for educational customers. The Samsung hub is an ever increasing set of educational content and services that is set to rival Apple’s iTunesU. While Android is owned by Google, it is still open source, so the code is constantly added to by developers not necessarily in Google’s employ. The upshot of this is that any given piece of hardware can run its own version of Android, and its own set of software applications. This means that there is a lot of variety available - some better than others. Things to think about when thinking about buying an Android device Android tablet checklist Here are a few things you should bear in mind when selecting which Android tablet to choose: How much should you expect to spend? Android is a free operating system, so the money you spend on an Android tablet is determined by its build quality (especially its screen), the quality of its components (especially its processor), its size (7", 9", 10"), and any additional software that the manufacturer includes. For me, the screen size is only of importance with regard to its resolution and how it affects the price of the tablet: bigger screen size means higher price. Because you are either connecting it directly to a projector or mirroring it through the laptop that is itself connected to the projector, the size of the screen is of little importance. The resolution of the screen is important, however, for two reasons: A higher screen resolution means more detail and a more attractive interface. Many reasonably priced tablets now come with full HD displays. Many websites now check what your screen resolution is when you land on them. Often anything below 1024 x 768 will mean that the website will be shown as a ‘mobile’ site compatible with smartphones, rather than the ‘desktop’ version with more information. For me, this alone was the reason I dropped my Nexus 7 for a tablet with a higher resolution. An important point to bear in mind is whether or not Google Play is available on the model you want to buy. Many of the cheaper tablets won’t give you access to Google’s app store, because Google require that they pay them for its distribution, which will condemn you to buy apps from no-name app stores with no guarantee of quality. For a school setting it seems to make sense to focus on the build quality first and foremost. Prices vary enormously, from around £70 for a ‘white box’ tablet (manufactured in huge numbers in China), to the superlative Asus Transformer Pad Infinity currently retailing at £600. For our purposes, however, expect to pay anything from around £120 to £370. Can you test one out? If you buy in store, yes. Obviously this would mean you couldn’t purchase online, which is where you will find cheaper examples of the same high street product. Like so many things it’s a trade-off between cost and peace of mind. Do you want to restrict what students can do / download on the tablet device? How can you know that your students are doing what they are supposed to be doing when they are bent over their tablet devices? Well, there are ways. It means installing software on students’ machines called Mobile Device Management (MDM). There are a number of MDM software vendors about. Most, if not all, support Android. There is a good comparison site here. Device Support This is very important. A lot of the very cheap models will provide you with no resource to upgrade the Android operating system. This will seriously inhibit your tablet’s shelf life, which in turn will mean you have to spend money on new hardware sooner. Some models worth thinking about: For around £100 Asus Memo Pad HD 7 This 7" pad has an HD resolution of 1280 x 800 px, which isn’t bad. It has a micro SD slot, and a very useful standard USB port. For around £100 it’s a decent budget tablet. Lenovo IdeaTab A2107A-H Again, this is a 7" model. Lenovo is the Russian hardware manufacturer who bought the licence to build IBM’s ThinkPad laptop. The build quality of the IdeaTab is every bit as solid. It has two cameras, which is unusual for a tablet costing just over £100. For around £200 Google Nexus 7 (2) This is the second generation Nexus 7. It’s a 7" tablet that compares favourably to the iPad mini. It has a huge screen resolution at 1920 x 1200 px. It also sports an extra camera. Drawbacks, though, are its lack of an HDMI port and an SD card slot, so memory can’t be expanded. Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 This has a 10.1" screen and is the descendant of the hugely popular Samsung Galaxy Tab 10. For around £300 Acer Iconia Tab A200 This is a 10.1" tablet, with 12.5 GB of internal memory, and a micro SD card slot should you want more.Filed under: Multimedia & Digital Tagged: Android tablets, Apps, Bring Your Own Device, BYOD, Comparison of Android devices, E-books, EdTech, Matt Steele, mlearning, Mobile Device Management, Mobile learning, Tablet devices, Technology, Technology in education

This wordle is free by linking back to==> mrkirsch.edublogs.org <==   Ezine Introduction Applying Technology Skills Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making 8.ET.RL.2 Students determine the reliability and relevancy of information. Students will review online magazines and evaluate them using a provided rubric.   Step #1: Watch the video below ==> What is an Ezine?? Ezine from Mr. Kirsch on Vimeo. Step #2: Ezine Review: Students you will review online magazines and evaluate them using the provided rubric. Step #3:  Click the link here ==> websites to access the websites for the evaluation assignment. Students you may choose any website for the evaluation. Use the following essential questions for evaluating your chosen websites ==> 1. What were the effective techniques and presentations? 2. What made the Ezine appealing to the audience? 3. Was the Ezine user-friendly, and how did that either help or interfere with the presentation? 4. Based on your reviews, how will this impact your articles and the production of our class Ezine? What will you avoid, include, or be aware of?  

Shaun Wilden, a freelance teacher trainer and materials writer for OUP, considers how tablets and apps can help you encourage the less confident students in your class. As a teacher trainer, I’ve often been asked how to deal with mixed ability classes. The asking teacher is generally of the opinion that mixed ability is something unusual. To me, it’s always seemed the norm, perhaps best summed up by this near twenty-year old quote. We do not teach a group but (up to) thirty separate people. Because of this the problem of mixed abilities in the same room seems absolutely natural, and the idea of teaching a unitary lesson - that seems odd." Rinvolucri 1986, quoted in Podromou: Mixed Ability Classes Mixed ability classes bring with them a whole manner of challenges for teachers to overcome. Students who perceive themselves as weak are often the ones that go unnoticed, the ones that are too shy to ask, the ones that don’t ask for the listening exercise to be played again and the ones who feel the pace of the lesson is too fast for them. Of course, should a teacher try and slow it down then those who are more confident complain the pace is too slow. Teachers have always been creative in finding ways to overcome the mixed ability issue. Be it through adjustment of course materials by subtle adaptations and grading or imaginative regroupings during exercises. If, like me, you spend a large amount of your time reading about and using tablets in education, you’re bound to have run across the idea that tablets are the saviour to all things mixed ability. This, of course, is not true. However, perhaps tablets do offer some genuine alternatives for a teacher and their class. While we’re still a long way from most schools having class sets of devices, over the last couple of years we have seen a slow move towards tablet-based course materials. While some view this negatively, there are immediate advantages for the mixed ability class. Take for example, a listening lesson. Typically, such a lesson is more akin to a listening test. The teacher establishes context, does a variety of pre-listening exercises and then presses play. Playing a few times but generally working with the class as a whole. Here’s where the mixed ability student falls behind: not getting all the answers and not asking for it to be played again. A tablet-based coursebook and set of headphones are a step towards overcoming this. Since every student has a copy of the listening, control can be handed over to them and they can listen as much as they like (and no one will know how much they needed to listen). In this example from English File Pre-Intermediate you can see how the student is able to control the listening themselves. Staying on the topic of listening, adding audio to reading texts is another way to help some students. In a class you’ll have students who enjoy reading, some who enjoy listening and some who have difficulty with one or both. A tablet-based coursebook gives them the chance to do both, giving the students a choice they wouldn’t necessarily have. Having the choice makes such a task more amenable to a mixed ability class. In this example from Solutions Pre-Intermediate, you can see how a student is able to listen and read at the same time. A tablet-based coursebook also gives every student a voice. Not literally, of course, but a voice when it comes to working with, for example, pronunciation. As a digital book can do more than simply have the printed word, the students at appropriate times can record themselves and listen to their own pronunciation when compared to a model. In a large class, it is difficult for a teacher to be able to hear and react to everyone. Recording also builds the student’s confidence as it acts as rehearsal time, so if they are then asked to say something in front of the class they feel more able to speak. As you can see in this example from English File Pre-Intermediate, a student is able to record and play back their pronunciation. All these tools allow for self-pacing. The ability to work at one’s own pace is a key element of differentiated learning. However to be able to measure and then tailor learning, the teacher needs to be able to get feedback on how a student is doing. A tablet combined with cloud storage can add a digital equivalent to material adaptation; for example, a teacher can use a word processor to create individualised questions for a reading comprehension. Saving a copy of the questions for each student to access them, do the text and re-save via a cloud link on their tablet. There are a number of apps that can be used on a tablet to achieve this. For example, Socrative, a student response system, is an app that allows a teacher to create exercises, quizzes and games that they can then get each student to do on their device. As they do it, Socrative gives feedback on each student and how they are doing. It provides the digital equivalent of ‘Do you understand?’. However, unlike when asking the question to the whole class, feedback is telling you exactly how each student is doing. Or to put it another way, the shy struggling student is not put on the spot in front of everyone. In a similar vein, an app such as Nearpod allows a teacher to create presentations that cater for a mixed ability classroom, creating lessons that include listening, video and presentations. The presentation is sent to the students’ device and while they are working the teacher can get instant feedback on how the student is doing. Once a teacher has this feedback, they know who needs what help and where. They perhaps then can use a tablet’s screen recording ability to produce personalised instruction. By this point you might be thinking that using the tablet in this way is turning the classroom from a place of communication into one where the students sit silently staring at tablet screens. However, that is assuming I am advocating these things are done for the whole lesson, which is not the case. In the listening, the individualised listening is a small portion of a larger lesson. With perhaps the pre- and post-listening tasks taking place as they usually would. Using the student response app is only done selectively, perhaps taking up only a few minutes of lesson time. Furthermore, such assumptions overlook a third way tablets can help address mixed ability: project work. Project-based learning (PBL) is coming back into fashion as a result of what a tablet and its apps can do. In most books on the subject of projects you’ll find reference to mixed ability: …they allow learners with different levels of competence to co-operate on an equal basis in the completion of the tasks the project requires. This goes some way to solving the problems of mixed-ability classes." Projects with young learners: Phillips, Burwood and Dunford, p7. Project work leads to personalisation - another factor known to help confidence in mixed ability classes. All tablets can record sound, take pictures, and record video, giving the students tools that were previously difficult to get either in or out of the classroom. Collaborative projects involving things such as podcasting, film making, and digital stories need more than language skills to be successful. They involve good direction, a steady hand with the camera and an eye for design, so those that lack confidence in language can gain it by bringing those skills to the project. An article in the Times educational supplement lists three categories of differentiation to help deal with mixed ability: differentiation by task, which involves setting different tasks for pupils of different abilities differentiation by support, which means giving more help to certain pupils within the group differentiation by outcome, which involves setting open-ended tasks and allowing pupil response at different levels. While teachers have been finding ways to do these things in the language classroom for years, using tablets can perhaps do this to levels previously never considered. Used effectively, and at the right moments in a lesson, they can help overcome what many teachers see as the difficulty of teaching mixed ability students.Filed under: Adults / Young Adults, Multimedia & Digital, Teenagers Tagged: Android tablets, Apps, E-books, EdTech, Mixed-ability, mlearning, Mobile learning, Oxford Learner's Bookshelf, Project work, Project-based Learning, Shaun Wilden, Tablet devices, Technology in education

8th Grade Students in Mr. Kirsch’s ICT are creating E-zines aka Electronic Magazines. The goal was for students to demonstrate their ability to write, edit, and publish content on multiple platforms. What you see below is the embed content the students created; however we used educlipper as our platform to curate the students content. More editions will be coming soon. Stay tuned!  Period 2 Class Ezine - 1st Edition   Period 5 -Class Ezine - 1st Edition Period 5 - Class Ezine - 2nd Edition Period 2 - Class Ezine - 2nd Edition   Period 2 - Class Ezine - 3rd Edition (2015)   Period 5 - Class Ezine - 3rd Edition  Period 2 - Class Ezine - 4th Edition Period 5 - Class Ezine - 4th Edition Period 2 - Class Ezine - 5th Edition (Travel Brochures) Period 5 - Class Ezine - 5th Edition (Travel Brochures)

Image courtesy of TBR Mohamed El-Ashiry takes a look at ways of using Google Forms in the classroom. I am one of Google Forms‘ biggest fans! I have many reasons to love the service, and I use it in many different ways. While there have been many other advantages, the biggest advantage of using Google Forms in my classroom is being able to give students immediate feedback. I often connect my tablet to the projector, and hide the column displaying the names of students submitting their responses (whether they are responding to a test, or self-assessment or peer-assessment, etc.). The students like to see the spreadsheet being populated by all their submissions. We use this as an evaluation and feedback exercise after a test or quiz, for example: we look at each question and together agree on the most accurate and well-written responses. This is also a very useful literacy-building exercise because we look at the way the best answers are structured. In my classroom, students have had tablets (iPads) for two years now. I started using Google Forms about 18 months ago, and I keep finding new ways of using it all the time. Here are ten ways I use Google Forms in my tablet classroom (including hyperlinks to examples of each): 1. Student self-assessment Student self-assessment is a very powerful tool in any classroom. Tablets have also made that easier, since students can ask a classmate to record a video of them presenting something. After the presentation, the students watch themselves on video and then fill in a simple self-assessment checklist that I’ve prepared on Google Forms. In this situation, the biggest advantage of Google Forms is being able to see a summary of responses in a visual format (bar graphs). This gives me an indication of which specific skills I may need to focus on a bit more in the following classes. Sharing that visual summary of responses with the students also shows the things they may have in common in terms of which skills/techniques they need to develop further or improve upon. 2. Peer assessment Peer-assessment also plays a critical role in any classroom. Students watch their assigned peer’s presentation while using a peer-assessment checklist that I’ve prepared on Google Forms. The visual ‘summary of responses’ can also be very useful in these situations. Students then conference with each other to share their feedback. Sometimes, I ask the students to take screenshots of the peer assessment checklist before they submit it, and email that screenshot to their peer. 3. Rubrics In my classes, whenever I assign the students a major assessment task, I show them them the rubric that will be used to assess their work. I use Google Forms to create these rubrics, and while I am marking/grading the students’ work, I just tick the relevant boxes on the rubric. All student grades would then be compiled by Google Forms in a spreadsheet. A great idea I got from my PLN is to print the whole spreadsheet and cut it into strips, then just give each student the strip that shows their marks/grades. 4. Classroom management logs Google Forms has been a great way of documenting student merit points and rewards for positive behaviour. At the beginning of the year, I created a ‘merit points log’ and a ‘behavior management log’ on Google Forms. Then I QR-coded the links to both forms, and stuck them right next to my teacher’s desk. At the end of every lesson, I quickly scan the code and input the merit points given to the students who earned them (I write them on a chart on the board during the lesson). Additionally, if there were any discipline issues, I use the behavior management log to record the type of behavior and how I responded to it. I can also share each spreadsheet with the relevant year-level coordinators as a way of keeping records of discipline issues inside my class. 5. Documenting PD Teachers are required to maintain evidence of any professional development they undertake. Sometimes, this can be a hectic task. I started this year to collect all my PD on a Google Spreadsheet. Once a PD event was finished, I would scan the QR code to access the PD log I created on Google Forms. I would write the title of the activity, a brief description of it, a brief reflection on it, and the teaching standards it satisfies. All my PD is now compiled in that one spreadsheet. 6. Student reflection I have created several reflection forms for students to use in my classroom. Since Google Forms introduced the feature that allows inserting images into a form, I have been taking screenshots of handouts that include reflection starters or reflection prompts, and inserting them into the form. I can also sometimes insert images to be used as prompts for reflective writing, or even short videos from YouTube (a great feature Google Forms introduced recently). 7. Quizzes and tests Google Forms can definitely be used to create tests and quizzes, some of them can even be self-grading! I have often used the ‘Flubaroo’ script to self-grade a quiz assigned to the students on Google Forms. This script works with multiple-choice and true/false questions. The script also allows for automatically sending the students an e-mail with their results. This has saved me a lot of time with my formative assessments. In my History classes, students are often required to analyse historical sources. Again, having the ability to insert an image in a Google Form has made it easier to assign source analysis tests on Google Forms. After all students submit their responses, I connect the tablet to the projector and we review their answers and evaluate/select the best ones. This allows me to give timely feedback to the students, which later saves marking/grading time. 8. Lesson planning I have a Google Form where I input my lesson’s ‘learning objectives’, ‘learning activities’, ‘assessment/s’ and ‘resources/materials required’. This helps me document all my lessons in one spreadsheet. I can later add a column in the spreadsheet where I document my reflections on what worked and what may need to be adjusted for the next teaching cycle. 9. Data collection I have used Google Forms many times just to simply collect data from the students. For example, at the beginning of the year, I often use a Google Form to collect their email addresses, which compiles all their emails in one spreadsheet. When students create digital portfolios, I usd a Google Form to collect the URLs to their portfolios as well. 10. Surveys Some teachers use Google Forms to survey students about their interests, as a getting-to-know-you exercise. I have also used Google Forms several times to collect feedback from the students on my teaching and on my lessons. This is a great reflection exercise as I can easily display the responses in a visual format (bar graphs and pie charts), and that highlights certain areas of my lesson delivery that might need improvement. There are many other resources on the web showing multiple ways of using Google Forms in the classroom, like this blogpost for example: "80 Interesting Ways To Use Google Forms In The Classroom". Of course, these ideas are non-exclusive and non-exhaustive, and please feel free to share more of your ideas by leaving a comment below.Filed under: Multimedia & Digital, Professional Development Tagged: Bring Your Own Device, BYOD, Classroom, EdTech, Google Forms, Google in Education, ipadedu, mlearning, Mohamed El-Ashiry, Professional Development, Tablet devices

7.NC.4.1 - Apply the universal nature of the design process to different situations. This wordle is free by linking back to==> mrkirsch.edublogs.org <== What is the design process? The design process is a set of steps that one should follow when trying to problem solve.  We use the design process every time we create a project in ICT.  Follow the links on this website to learn more about the DESIGN PROCESS ==> Below. ** DO NOT SKIP AROUND IN THE VIDEO! WATCH IT ALL, PLEASE.** Answer the questions (for each) below after you have finished ==> this will be your blog post! 1.  ANALYZE  Go to the following link and watch the video on the right hand side.  It is an example of how a game show host is helping the contestants identify (or ANALYZE) the problem. Question #1 -  What is the problem? Answer this question in your blog post. http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/workshop/process_id.html 2.  BRAINSTORM   Go to the following link and watch the video on the right hand side.  It is an example of the teams brainstorming ideas of how to complete their challenge. Question #2 - What kind of brainstorming did the groups do? Answer this in your blog post. http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/workshop/process_brainstorm.html 3.  DESIGN Go to the following link and watch the video on the right hand side.  It is an example of the team in the design section of the project. Question #3 - What kinds of DESIGNING did the groups do? Answer this in your blog post. http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/workshop/process_design.html 4.  EVALUATE  and REVISE Go to the following link and watch the video on the right hand side.  It will give you examples of the EVALUATE and the REVISE portion of the design process. Question #4 - What examples do you see for EVALUATE and REVISE? Why are these important? Please answer this question on your blog.    http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/workshop/process_build.html 5. PRODUCTION  Go to the following link and watch the video on the right hand side.  It will show you  how the teams review and reflect on the project.  This is also the time where the teams would decide what kind of production (if any) needed to be completed. Question #5 - What examples did you see about reviewing, reflecting, or production? http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/workshop/process_share.html  

Photo courtesy of Tomás Fano via Flickr Alastair Lane is co-author of International Express Elementary and Intermediate levels, the all-new, five-level course for adult professionals, publishing in January 2014. International Express includes plenty of coverage of the hotel and travel industry. Here, Alastair shows how you can bring the subject alive with a real-life writing task. "To whom it may concern. I am extremely unhappy with the service I received at your hotel during the week of 1 September to 7 September 2013." Those were the days. When customers received bad service, the typewriter would be out in a flash and our disgruntled customer would be bashing the keys in fury. However, today the idea of a letter of complaint is so old-fashioned that we might as well be teaching our students how to write a telegram. Things are different now. If you go to a hotel or a youth hostel and the service is bad, when you get home you have a chance to complain to the whole world. You might put a negative review on Trip Advisor. Alternatively, if you booked it through a website like Booking.com, you will be invited to place your review on the site. This is the kind of task people are doing in real life, and it’s the kind of writing task that we should be using in the classroom. We can ask the class to write a review of a hotel that they have stayed at, a fictional hotel, or a review of a hotel that they can see online. Students immediately see the purpose of the task because it replicates something they would naturally do in L1. Writing a hotel review can work at any level from Elementary upwards, because online reviews can be as short as a single sentence. Students can go straight to the Internet to find real-life model texts. Sites like Booking.com are particularly good for this. Firstly, they provide an automatic model for writing because users are asked to complete two sections: one for good points and one for bad points. That helps lower-level students organize their texts. Secondly, users can filter the results to read reviews from people like themselves. If you have an older class, you can look at reviews posted by ‘families with older children’ or younger students can look at reviews by ‘groups of friends’. When writing an online hotel review, students can write a fifty-word text and it still looks as real as any other entry on the sites. Students don’t have the sense that the task has been artificially simplified to match their language level. A writing task of this nature also allows you to practice reading skills. Students can exchange their reviews, without the number of stars. The next student or pair has to decide whether the review is a one-star or five-star one. After all, we also want to practice praising the hotel in addition to the language of complaint. With higher level students, you can ask them to write the review as if they are a particular group of travellers e.g. ‘mature couple’, ‘solo traveller’, ‘business traveller’. They then have to pass their text to the next student or pair. Once again, the next students have to guess which type of traveller wrote the review. This is a particularly good way of reviewing the language of facilities, as a business traveller will have very different needs to a 21 year-old travelling alone. The short nature of writing online and the fact that users tend to write for an international audience in English provides a huge number of opportunities for the classroom. So let’s forget artificial tasks like the letter of complaint and start replicating what students are actually doing out in the real world. Alastair Lane has over seventeen years’ experience in English language teaching. Currently based in Barcelona, he has also taught in Finland, Germany, Switzerland and the UK. Alastair is co-author of International Express Elementary and Intermediate levels, part of the five-level course publishing in January 2014.Filed under: Adults / Young Adults, Business & English for Specific Purposes, Skills Tagged: Adult professionals, Alastair Lane, Authentic texts, EFL, English for Specific Purposes, International Express, Online reviews, Reading skills, Writing skills, Writing tasks

This wordle is free by linking back to==> mrkirsch.edublogs.org <== The following are examples of my 7th grade student’s Video projects. The objective for the students was for them to create a video describing how "Technology Has Impacted their Lives" in either a positive or negative manner. The students were put in groups in order for them to film and describe their content. I really wanted the students to focus on how technology has become an integral part of everyday life; however can this become bad?? In essence, I wanted students to focus on the content people put on the internet and/or share information they should ==> Privacy. These videos were created by 7th grade students. The following videos depicting students do have permission from parents/guardians to be shown on the blog. Student(s) created music video on "How Technology Has Impacted their lives." Original Music/Lyrics by Green Day.   ICt 2 video project 2015 from Mr. Kirsch on Vimeo.

This wordle is free by linking back to ==> mrkirsch.edublogs.org <== 10 Reasons Why Teachers Should Blog - Tech

Christmas is nearly upon us, so we thought we’d share some of our classroom resources for you to use with your students. The below resources are primarily intended for Primary and Secondary levels. All activities are photocopiable for you to use in your classroom. Christmas Activity Booklet Christmas Activities 2013, including: Decorate your Christmas Tree Christmas Decorations Christmas Quiz Christmas Word Search Where is Santa’s Sack? Teacher’s notes for the above Christmas Worksheets Christmas Poster and Worksheets, including: Christmas Classroom Poster Let’s Sing! Jingle Bells Advent Wreath Christmas Card Christmas Crossword Pin the Nose on Rudolph Teacher’s notes for the above Extensive Reading Activities A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (reading text) - Chapter 1, Stage 3 Bookworms Christmas (reading text) - Chapter 7 from Seasons and Celebrations, Stage 2 Bookworms Christmas in Prague by Joyce Hannam (reading text + activity) - Chapter 1, Stage 1 Bookworms More Resources There is a huge bank of free worksheets on the Christmas Corner area on Oxford University Press Spain’s website. Everything from Pre-Primary to Upper Secondary levels. All in English and all available for download. Happy Holidays!Filed under: Grammar & Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Teenagers, Young Learners Tagged: Christmas, Christmas activities, Classroom activities, EFL, Primary, Secondary, Teaching Resources, Upper Primary, Worksheets, Young Learners

This wordle is free by linking back to==> mrkirsch.edublogs.org <== //s3.amazonaws.com/userscontent2.emaze.com/thumbnails/p2220843.jpeg?201504291430048021 Source: app.emaze.com Student created presentation on the possibility of moving to the moon!!

Patrick Jackson, author of the popular Potato Pals series, questions the assumption that there’s an app for everything - especially where young learners are concerned. My son Kai went for a sleepover with his best friend Aedan last night. As we were packing his bag, he asked if he could take his iPad with him. We said he couldn’t. "You’re going to play with Aedan. You don’t need an iPad". Shock! Horror! As far as Kai is concerned, we are totally wrong about this and have done him a great injustice. He reckons that it’s just another toy and playing with an iPad with Aedan is just like playing with Lego or running around in the garden. I think not. I even rang Aedan’s mum and asked if Aedan was going to be using his iPad. I was delighted to hear that he had already been banned for a week for some unspeakable and unnamed crime earlier in the day. I didn’t ask what. I tell you - digital parenting in suburban Dublin is a mine field! Thank goodness technology has not yet managed to replace most of what happens in old-style play. Where it replicates it we have a poor cousin to the real thing. There are apps that you ‘run’ on and apps that you ‘paint’ on but unless you are stuck on a long car journey, neither will be as fun or valuable as the real thing. There are well-understood reasons why kids need to play ‘naturally’. They need to socialise. They need to move. They need to be creative. They need fresh air. They need to communicate in the wonderful way that kids do when they are playing and they need to get dirty. They need to be dancing to their own wild inner drums and until the unlikely day that technology catches up with the ‘real’ world, Kai’s iPad is staying on my desk (where I can play with it) for most of the day and particularly when his friends are around. Apps are all around though and aren’t going anywhere soon. Parents, teachers and educational administrators are dealing with these issues all over the world. In our home, we deal with it with a sophisticated and continually negotiated system of time limits, rewards, checks and balances. We hardly even understand the system ourselves. To make it more confusing, we distinguish between educational apps and those that we consider to be a pretty good waste of time or ‘just fun’. There are many that are virtually impossible to distinguish. We are totally aware that we could be wrong about many of the calls we make. We may indeed be denying our son a future in a world where a key skill will be catapulting different types of birds at distant pigs. Anyway, our current rules allow Kai a 30-minute iPad session in the morning before school during which he is allowed to do creative or educational things. Then he gets 30 minutes of free iPad time after his homework when he can do whatever he wants. The only things we forbid completely are games that show graphic violence. Incredibly, that is not the case for all of his classmates. For language educators, apps are a hugely valuable resource. They will increasingly become part of how languages are learned. We are now just at the beginning of the mobile age in ELT and, for better or worse, it’s only going to become a larger part of what we do. Being able to sort out the digital chaff from the grain is going to be a key skill for the language educator. Knowing when to say "No. We can do this activity better in the real world" will be important. The danger is that educational systems will err by replacing real world activities with cheaper, cleaner, more addictive tech alternatives. The irony is that in many cases in the ‘developed’ world, giving a classroom of children more time on tablets will save the system the time, money and the trouble of organising and cleaning up after real play while creating the illusion that this is preparing them better for the 21st Century. We need to be able to recognise when an app can do the job better and in a more compelling way, and when it can’t. Some apps definitely enrich and support learning in a valid way. Some are really just addictive eye-candy or one-offs without any real lasting depth. So what questions should we be asking when we look at an app? What should app authors and developers be aiming for as they work on the latest educational apps? What should teachers and administrators be asking as they make these important decisions? I’ve found myself asking a few questions while working on an app for young learners that’s just arrived at the big party going on over on the App Store. Does this app allow students to interact with the target language in a way that would be difficult or impossible to replicate in traditional ways? Does the app offer students opportunities to communicate with friends and family beyond the classroom using the target language; opportunities that would not exist otherwise? Can the app deliver authentic language in a more efficient way than by traditional methods? Can students use this app to create personalised learning that puts them at the centre of the target language and helps them to tell the story of their own lives? Is the app going to support home study and take-home sharing, building a bridge between the classroom and the home? Will this app develop student autonomy; helping them to take responsibility for their own learning? Does this app deliver existing materials in a more efficient or more compelling way and does it supplement and enrich those materials? Is the target language delivered through the app in an integrated and linked way? Does the app use a good variety of skills and engage those skills meaningfully? It’s great fun at the app party now but it’s wrong to believe there’s an app for everything. As parents and educators we need to be able to think clearly; know when to be party poopers and know when to jump in and join the fun. Patrick Jackson is an ELT author and teacher. He is author of the popular Potato Pals series, which has just been released as an app for iPad. You can download one story for free from the Apple App Store, with the option to purchase 6 more stories from within the app.Filed under: Multimedia & Digital, Pre-school Children, Young Learners Tagged: 21st Century skills, Apps, Children, Digital, EdTech, ELT, Language learning, Patrick Jackson, Potato Pals, Pre-school children, Primary, Stories, Tablet devices, Young Learners

We’re helping to solve your EFL teaching problems by answering your questions every two weeks. This week’s blog is in response to Mark Armstrong’s blog comment regarding the challenge of helping students to self-correct their own writing. Verissimo Toste from the Professional Development Team discusses how to encourage self-correction. I don’t know if this is my greatest challenge but I would like to see my children self-correct more when they are writing. It’s a shame to see the same kind of errors popping up again and again. Sometimes it’s L1 interference, sometimes it’s just children being children. I do for a fact, though, know that they know better. I don’t want to cover their written work with red markings but I don’t want them to continue repeating errors either. Any ideas?" Mark brings up an interesting problem: students correcting their own writing. Or rather, not correcting their own writing. Although I will focus my ideas for younger learners, I think many of them can be adapted for older students. Mistakes are natural First, let me focus on an important point - mistakes are natural, they are part of learning. They are an important part of learning. Get this message across to your students. I usually ask my students to talk to their parents about the "mistakes" they made when they were young and learning their first language. This generates a fun discussion in class, usually leading to difficulties in learning to ride a bike or learning to swim. The important point in the end is that learning involves making mistakes. If they aren’t making mistakes, then maybe they are not really learning anything new. Mistakes are part of learning Having established an environment in the classroom where mistakes are natural, it is now important for the teachers to consider what mistakes they expect their students to be able to correct. My first consideration is, "If a student were to look at the mistake again, would they notice it?" Then, I consider, "If other students were to look at the mistake, would they notice it?" It’s important to understand what students are expected to correct. For this, I have my students practice. I give them a text or a selection of sentences with mistakes made by students in other classes, maybe even previous years. I tell them how many mistakes there are and give them time to find them. They indicate the mistakes by underlining them. I walk around, look at their work, and tell them how many actual mistakes they have found. Then, I put students into pairs or small groups of no more than 4. I ask them to compare their work with one another. At this point, students come up with a list of the mistakes they all have found. This may add up to 10, but it usually doesn’t. Together they look for the mistakes they have missed. They discuss these as a group and come to a consensus as a group. They must agree on a list of 10 mistakes. Once again, I walk around and tell them the number of mistakes they have found. This activity, which I may do once a month if necessary, helps my students notice the language, since the mistakes I choose are related to the language they have learnt or are learning. The activity also helps to make mistakes part of learning, reinforcing the discussion we had previously. More importantly, however, the activity creates a need for the teacher to help. The next time I do the activity, I underline where the mistakes are and ask them to correct them. I follow the same steps, going from working individually to small groups. This type of activity helps students develop their language noticing skills. Students not only learn to become aware of their mistakes, they also begin to learn how to avoid them. Mistakes are there to be corrected At this point students are ready to begin correcting their own work. However, why should they do this? Why correct? If students are writing, then I suggest that their writing be "published", displayed, shared with others. This could be a simple poster displayed in the classroom or a text on a school blog. If they are writing a story or a poem, these can be made into a book. The important point is that others will see their work. This will give them a reason to correct. It will also help them to accept the teacher’s role as a facilitator, helping them to improve their work. The next step in this process is for students to understand the idea of writing a first draft; that what they write the first time is not final. Equally important, they need to accept that it is not the teacher’s job to correct what they themselves can avoid. Students write their first draft in class and then take it home to check for mistakes. It is important for them to write their texts first in class and then to look at them again at home. Students may not notice mistakes immediately after writing them. This becomes clearer when they look at their texts again after some time has passed. For classes that are reluctant to do this, I collect their first draft and give it back to them two days later for homework. Having looked at their own texts, I ask them to share these texts with other students in the class. At this point students work in pairs or small groups, suggesting possible mistakes to each other.  Taking the suggestions into consideration, they write the second draft of their texts. These they give to me. Depending on how confident my students are, I correct only those mistakes I feel the student will not be able to. The others I simply indicate it is a mistake by underlining it. At this point, students should be able to write their final draft, which they will share with others in the class. In closing… One final thought on this process. In some classes, and with parental permission, I have asked my students to write their work on Word and then to send it to me via email. I do this for a few reasons. One, they slowly learn to use the spellchecker and to react to that information. Two, they are more accepting of correcting mistakes as they don’t need to write all of the text again. Three, not needing to write all of the text helps them to focus on correcting the mistakes and avoiding them later. Finally, it makes use of their computer for classwork, a skill they will need later in their academic life. Invitation to share your ideas We are interested in hearing your ideas about getting young learners involved, so please comment on this post and take part in our live Facebook chat on Friday 20 December at 12pm GMT. Please keep your challenges coming. The best way to let us know is by leaving a comment below or on the EFLproblems blog post. We will respond to your challenges in a blog every two weeks. Each blog will be followed by a live Facebook chat to discuss the challenge answered in the blog. Be sure to Like our Facebook page to be reminded about the upcoming live chats. Here are the topics for our next blog posts: 08 January 2014 - Teaching monolingual vs multi-lingual classes 22 January 2014 -  Teaching students over 50 years old Related articles #EFLproblems - Cell phones in the adult classroom: interruption or resource? (oupeltglobalblog.com) #EFLproblems - Motivating Young Learners (oupeltglobalblog.com) #EFLproblems - Learning English Beyond the Exams (oupeltglobalblog.com) Filed under: Professional Development, Teenagers, Young Learners Tagged: #EFLproblems, EFL, Error correction, Professional Development, Self-correction, Teenagers, Verissimo Toste, Writing skills, Young Learners

Today’s question for the Q: Skills for Success authors: Why are the four skills normally divided into listening & speaking and reading & writing? Ann Snow responds. Do you have a question about teaching English to adults that you’d like to ask our Q author team? Comment below or email your question to qskills@oup.com. Related articles What do I do when I ask the class a question and no-one is speaking? (oupeltglobalblog.com) Should you give homework to students who only meet with the teacher once a week? (oupeltglobalblog.com) Filed under: Adults / Young Adults, Skills Tagged: Adult Learners, Ann Snow, Business English, English Language, listening skills, Q Skills for Success, Questions for Q authors, Reading skills, Speaking skills, Writing skills

To wonder what ails American education is to open a Pandora’s box of wicked problems … but the problem is definitely not a lack of computers. Source: www.theatlantic.com

Marie Delaney is a teacher, trainer, educational psychotherapist, and author of ‘Teaching the Unteachable’ (Worth). Following her first article on dyslexia, where she looked at what dyslexia really is, she now returns with strategies for teaching dyslexic learners. In my previous article I looked at the problems learners with dyslexia might face in the English classroom. In this blog, I will share some teaching strategies which can help these learners in the key areas of sound/letter recognition, working memory and confidence. Problems with recognition of sounds and letters 1. Think in colour Learners with dyslexia have problems matching the sounds of English to the written word. Use different colours to show the patterns of words, to break down the sounds into manageable chunks. For example, boat, coat, moat. Some learners will benefit from writing or reading in certain colours, or using certain colours of paper, or certain types of colour transparent overlays which can be put over the reading page. Encourage the learner to experiment to find a colour that works for them. 2. Hear it, see it, feel it Multi-sensory teaching helps learners to consolidate sound and letter recognition. For example: 3D letter shapes can be used to practise keywords; letters can be traced in sand or clay; words can be made physical by making letters from the body. Understanding time is a problem. It can help to get learners to stand in different places on a timeline to illustrate tenses and aspect. 3. Visualise Teach learners how to visualise words. Learners with dyslexia need to develop their own internal visual dictionary. Encourage the learner to imagine the word up high, visualising it rather than sounding it out. They hold the word as a photo in their mind. Write new words on the learner’s right of your board, up high. This encourages learners to access their visual memory. Problems with working memory Working memory is the part of the brain which allows us to hold information recently given to us and to act upon it. Learners with dyslexia have problems with their working memory, they often say that words quite literally fall out of their heads. 1. Instructions, instructions, instructions Remembering instructions is very difficult for some learners. We need to work on giving instructions in all senses, using visual cues and gestures. Check understanding of instructions by giving an example and getting an example back from learners. 2. Teach reading strategies Learners with dyslexia find reading comprehension difficult because they quickly forget the paragraph they just read. Show them how to recognise topic sentences, how to use colour to highlight keywords, encourage them to stop regularly and ask themselves "What have I just read?". 3. It can be fun Use memory games to develop working memory. For example, put words on the board, rub one word out, ask learners what word has been rubbed out. 4. Draw it Use mind maps - they give learners with dyslexia the big picture and help them to condense information in a meaningful way. Problems with confidence and self-esteem Despite our best teaching efforts, learners with dyslexia often lose confidence about learning. They can feel stupid and frustrated when their progress is slow. We can work on this in class in different ways: Teach learners how to access positive states for learning, e.g. remembering a time when they felt confident, keeping the confident feeling as they try their reading Let the learners explain to the rest of the class what it is like to have dyslexia Work with their strengths, for example, use activities where learners have to create new solutions to problems Use audio recordings, encourage learners to record their answers Mark work for content, not always for spelling Don’t label their slow progress as being lazy Praise skills other than literacy, for example, give a reward for the most creative learner Use drama activities to help learners express their thoughts and show their creative ability Above all, encourage your learners to view their dyslexia as a learning style rather than a learning handicap. Celebrate difference! Related articles Dyslexia - A Problem or a Gift? (oupeltglobalblog.com) Filed under: Professional Development, Teenagers, Young Learners Tagged: Dyslexia, Inclusive learning, Learning Disabilities, Marie Delaney, Multi-sensory approach, Primary and Secondary methodology, SEN, Special education, Special Educational Needs, Teaching strategies, Teaching techniques

This is rather an uncomfortable question, isn’t it? Many don’t really like to think about it. However, it is definitely something to think about. Your blog could be a personal blog, a business blog or a collection of movie review. Whatever the case, it is necessary that the blog has a personality for it to be interesting - for after all it is a person that is associated with it.   Imagine attending a seminar. You are able to see who is addressing you and connect with them easily because he or she is right in front of you. Their body language, the way they speak, sense of humor, air of confidence or the lack of it - everything affects how you connect with them. Bottomline: Your personality is as important as the subject you are talking about and has an impact on your audience. It is more or less the same thing when you go online. In fact more so, because your reader is not able to see you when you are saying the things you want to say. They won’t be able to know that you raise your voice when you are talking about something you are passionate about - they can’t see how your gestures enhance your messages. All they see is a screen with your words and perhaps some images. So here, the need to define your blog’s personality is more than it is when you are speaking to someone in person. Are you funny? Do you have a wit? Do you take on the role of an "adviser" on your posts? Or do you rant and complain often? Are you "the expert"? Or are you Mr. Cool? If you successfully identify with your blog posts, you can say that your posts reflect your personality. It is important to evaluate this because blogs with a personality are more likely to spur some interest than those without one. It is not like a Law book where everything takes an objective, third person’s tone. A blog is a place to network, express your views and engage with your audience. And so, it is important that it reflects your personality. Do you agree? What is your blog’s personality? Let us know by commenting below.

Today’s question for the Q: Skills for Success authors: When should L1 be used in class? Nigel Caplan responds. Do you have a question about teaching English to adults that you’d like to ask our Q author team? Comment below or email your question to qskills@oup.com. N.B. We’re taking a break for the winter holidays, but the Q authors will be back to answer more of your questions early next year. Thanks to everyone who submitted a question! Related articles #qskills - Why are the four skills normally divided into listening & speaking and reading & writing? (oupeltglobalblog.com) What do I do when I ask the class a question and no-one is speaking? (oupeltglobalblog.com) Should you give homework to students who only meet with the teacher once a week? (oupeltglobalblog.com) Filed under: Adults / Young Adults, Skills Tagged: Adult Learners, Business English, English Language, First language, L1, Nigel Caplan, Q Skills for Success, Questions for Q authors, Speaking in class

Aiding the visually challenged with education A lot of us underestimate health and fitness. We don’t really appreciate seemingly simple things such as the ability to see, hear, walk, and talk until that ability is taken away from us. It’s always like that - you don’t realize the value of something until you don’t have it anymore. Even in this case, those who know the value of fitness are people who lack it - the physically challenged. There are a lot of things being done to help these people - be it in the form of funds from the government, non-profit organizations and so on. In addition to this, there are also efforts taken to empower them. Some of those include education, employment and the like. Among these efforts is Braille Book publishing. As you may already know, the Braille system, devised by the French man Louis Braille, is meant for the blind and the visually impaired. It is a system in which the "letters" are written on embossed papers. They are referred to as "swell papers" and printing on these is called tactile printing. "Tactile" refers to anything that relates to the sense of touch. There are projections or raised dots which the reader touches and feels in order understand what’s been written. In this digital age when we are talking about e-Learning and digital publishing, we cannot leave behind the visually challenged in the race. While there are many organizations that offer regular book publishing services, those that provide Braille book publishing services are very few. At Exemplarr, we have realized this and started a separate wing in our publishing department that undertakes Braille book publishing projects. The Exemplarr Edge We are very familiar with the Dedicon standards of Braille book publishing, which is followed in Netherlands. Our Braille experts, graphic designers and subject matter experts work together on the publishing projects. Some projects require us to only publish the essence the content in question. This needs experts to tell us what should be taken and what can be left out. Most agencies may not have this facility but at Exemplarr we are equipped to assist you here as well. We are a one-stop destination for Braille book publishing needs. On an average, we are equipped to produce one textbook in a week’s time. This includes everything from receiving the project details to design and delivery. The volume of work decides the time required, but we assure our clients our quickest and best efforts. If you are looking for experts to help you with Braille book publishing needs, please get in touch with us. We are all set to assist the visually challenged with their learning needs!

In October and November 2013 we asked teachers of teenagers to vote on their top speaking challenge.  Over 500 teachers took our survey and the results are now in. With 20% of the vote, the most popular speaking challenge was: ‘In group or pair speaking activities, my students chat in their mother tongue’.  Most of the teachers who took the survey seem to agree that group and pair work is a valuable activity, but one that can be difficult to manage in the classroom. Albina in the Czech Republic said: "I’m sure that doing speaking activities in pairs or in small groups of peers is a great way to practice what the students have just learned. However, as long as my students know that I’m not listening to their pair, after saying a few words in English, most of them immediately start speaking in their mother tongue to avoid difficulties with finding words to express themselves. So the activity doesn’t work in the proper way. I really want a break through." Dusican in Serbia faces a similar challenge: "Most of my classes are quite big - even up to 40 students, so group or pair work is absolutely a must-have. However, most of the students scribble a few notes down and proceed chatting in Serbian. To be fair, they often talk enthusiastically about the given topic! I feel that they think it’s only learning if they talk directly to a teacher, or at least it only counts." We will be tackling this challenge in January and February so look out for further blog posts in the next few weeks with ideas to motivate your students to speak more in English during group and pair work. The second most popular challenge with 15% of the vote was: ‘My students say the absolute minimum’.  Rachel in Switzerland articulated how frustrating this can be:  "I just want them to naturally speak as much English as possible in the classroom without me hissing ‘in English’ every 2 minutes!" Martina in Czech Republic could also relate to this challenge: "When I want my students to speak in pairs, they just say basic things and are not willing to add details. Even when I ask them, they just answer it and that’s it." Another teacher in the Czech Republic expressed how demotivating this can be in class: "I feel exhausted when I explain the activity several times for everybody to understand the task perfectly and the only reply is one or two word answers." We will be tackling this challenge in March and April 2014. The final challenge that made it into our top 3 with 14.5% of the vote was: ‘it’s so hard getting the weaker students to join in.’ Jana from Czech Republic explains: "Weaker students are too shy to speak in front of the class and when I ask them to discuss things in pairs or small groups, the stronger students dominate the conversation." Plamen from Bulgaria adds: "In mixed-ability classes students that learn faster, or that have a prior knowledge, tend to be more active in the speaking activities and, answering correctly, further discourage the weaker students, who don’t want to make mistakes in front of the class and the teacher. This trend deepens with the progress of the school year." In May and June 2014 we will be asking our Oxford Teacher Trainers for some ideas and hints on how we can get our weaker students to contribute more in English. Do you agree with the top three speaking challenges?  What would you have voted for?Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: ELT, New Solutions, Solutions second edition, Speaking, Speaking in class, Speaking in English