Environmental English #9-English Attack/E-Mail English Classes
You just don’t have to Kill Trees to get your point across.
First thing to do…. is immediately forward this e-mail to your personal e-mail. It seems in their infinite wisdom… the IT department has decided to block all blogs, wikis, videos, audio and a whole host of other educational material from the school Internet connection. Well, some can be accessed after 5pm so I guess the only option is for you to stay past 5pm to get a look at the material. I’m sure they have their reasons.
Remember…. Environmental English can also be seen in a blog form at www.environmentalenglish.blogspot.com
What’s on the Agenda for this week?
· English Attack
· E-Mail English Classes
· Communicative Language Teaching Lesson
· How much do you really teach?
· Noodler’s Delight
· Free 10 Day Online Workshop
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English Attack
I know you are wondering, “Gee Thelma Liz. What’s all this English Attack about?”
Check it out: http://www.english-attack.com/eng
This is a great website for the students. What makes this site so great is the creator/owner of the site came from the Gaming Industry to create the site. What does this mean to the students and teacher? It means that it’s going to be a lot cooler and more visually pleasing than most sites. Plus, he takes a different approach to learning.
You do have to join the site to participate but once you do get on the site, it is really cool to surf around and see what’s there. If you’re expecting 2500 downloads of Grammar exercises that you can print out for your students 20 at a time, well, you will be severely disappointed.
Stuff like Video Boosters, Games and Photo Vocabs should keep students busy for a long time to come.
There is a great interview with the co-founder, Frédéric Tibout on a great site, Edukwest
http://www.edukwest.com/frederic-tibout-of-english-attack-com/
English Attack is a French site (in English). Edikwest comes out of Germany and it has lots more interesting interviews with different people to go along with this one. It’s a site well worth a visit.
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E-Mail English Classes
Here is a site that offers FREE E-Mail English classes. It offers a lot of other stuff but we will get to that a little later.
Think if you could get all your student’s e-mails and send out a bi-weekly English class. They could do the lesson or view the material at home. Well, here is a site that offers just that. The link is at the top of the page and says, “Start your FREE email English course now!” Sign up for the e-mail course and see what they have to offer. Obviously, it is not for lower level students who struggle just to bring their books to class.
Now for the other cool stuff on this site. Of course these cost about $9.95 each. “Oh No…. I have to spend money. You mean everybody doesn’t work for free. Geeze Louise. I thought everybody liked to eat noodles.”
· TOEFL Test Package-220 different tests
· English Test Package-2031 Tests
· Listening exercises
· Grammar through Stories
· More than you could use in a year or so
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Communicative Approach
Everyone thinks they know what the Communicative Approach is all about. Do we really? Most people think (with a Cheech and Chong accent),”Cool Man. We just kind of like you know sit around and rap about stuff, Man.”
I remember our Leader saying at the end of the first meeting that he favored the Communicative Teaching Approach. That’s what The Man wants and that’s what The Man should get. Ask and you shall receive, You’re driving the bus, It’s your gig, You’re the Head Dude In Charge (HDIC) and all the other clichés I can’t come up with at the moment.
You are either working for The Man or you are working against The Man. If you are working for The Man, Great. If you are working against The Man, well, that’s just not nice. When we were little and playing in the Sand Box we were told to play nice with the other kids. If you don’t play nice with the other kids it goes from being a Sand Box to being a Cat Box. I really don’t want to play in a Cat Box. Do you? Speaking of Boxes, enough of the Soap Box and let’s get on to a Communicative Approach lesson plan.
Here is a lesson plan outline from this Doctor Mora from San Diego State University. She can’t put stitches on a cut but she is a Doctor all the same.
A LESSON OUTLINE FOR THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
Jill Kerper Mora, Ed.D.
San Diego State University
These are the steps to follow in planning a lesson using the communicative or natural approach to second-language teaching:
1. Presentation of a situation or context through a brief dialogue or several mini-dialogues, preceded by a motivational activity relating the dialogue to learners’ experiences and interest. This includes a discussion of the function and situation: People, roles, setting, topic and the level of formality or informality the function and situation demand.
2. Brainstorming or discussion to establish the vocabulary and expressions to be used to accomplish the communicative intent. Includes a framework or means of structuring a conversation or exchange to achieve the purpose of the speakers.
3. Questions and answers based on the dialogue topic and situation: Inverted, wh- questions, yes/no, either/or and open-ended questions.
4. Study of the basic communicative expressions in the dialogue or one of the structures that exemplifies the function, using pictures, real objects, or dramatization to clarify the meaning.
5. Learner discovery of generalizations or rules underlying the functional expression or structure, with model examples on the chalkboard, underlining the important features, using arrows or referents where feasible.
6. Oral recognition and interpretative activities including oral production proceeding from guided to freer communication activities.
7. Reading and/or copying of the dialogues with variations for reading/writing practice.
8. Oral evaluation of learning with guided use of language and questions/answers, e.g. "How would you ask your friend to ________________? And how would you ask me to _______________?"
9. Homework and extension activities such as learners’ creation of new dialogues around the same situation.
10. To complete the lesson cycle, provide opportunities to apply the language learned the day before in novel situations for the same or a related purpose.
There you have it. In a nutshell…. Do we do this with our lessons as requested? We can try to follow this example. I’m sure it’s much easier if your students are at least motivated enough to even bring their books to class.
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How much do we really teach?
How long is our teaching day? I feel it is from the time we get out of our car or off the bus until we get back in our car or back on the bus. “Blootty Ale!” Students want to speak English with you. They are begging (longing) for every opportunity to do so. We are in a position to give them practice in authentic language usage, which goes a long way toward their overall improvement. That is why we are here, isn’t it? This extra oomph can only help. Some students will do nothing in class but open up outside the class. This does not mean you corner them and tell them, “Be my friend and I will teach you English.” You just can’t chase students around the campus and do grammar exercises with them when they have run out of breath. But, it IS Ok to talk to the students. There is no need to tell them, “Don’t talk to me outside of class. This is MY time.” That’s not why they come to the School.
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Noodler’s Delight
Sausage Noodle One-Dish Meal Recipe
Sausage Noodle One-Dish Meal is a delicious side dish recipe that you would love to prepare on every party. Try this sausage dish; I am sure you will have a huge fan following for this Sausage Noodle One-Dish Meal recipe!
1 pound bulk beef sausage
1 cup (or more) milk
1 pound American cheese, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
16 ounces egg noodles, cooked, drained
How to make Sausage Noodle One-Dish Meal
Brown the sausage in a skillet, stirring until crumbly; drain.
Return the sausage to the skillet over low heat.
Add the milk and American cheese and heat until cheese melts, stirring frequently.
Stir in the salt, pepper and noodles.
Yummy yummy yummy.
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Free Online Training from WikiEducator
From eL4C38
Open Education Resources (OER) is becoming much more pervasive in tertiary education. Developing content which can be shared within one institution, or across continents represents a powerful paradigm shift in the distribution methods of learning content and courseware from traditional publishing models to those which are open and collaborative in nature. Major initiatives from leading institutions to provide open courseware further support the growth of this segment of online learning.
WE extend an open invitation to all educators around the world to join us on WikiEducator
http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/Online_schedule/eL4C38/Register
to receive a free basic Wiki editing skills online training in exchange for one Open Education Resource (free lesson plan, student guide, teacher handout or other lesson) developed on the Wiki.
Join the upcoming L4C38 free 10-day online workshop scheduled to begin on May 26, 2010.
Thank you.
You don’t have to kill the trees to see the Forest.
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