Week 6

This week we were asked to choose at least five of the speaking/writing tools and write about them in our blogs. So, I've chosen the following tools that seem rather interesting to use in the classroom:

1) Debating. Debates are a hot issue in Tet classes now.  I see students really want to practice in debating and to be chosen to participate in the national competition. Debates allow students to become more proficient in speaking, researching, reading, and writing skills, and they promote reasoning as well as communication skills. In addition, debates are a vehicle for students to express their opinions assertively in a respectful manner on a relevant issue or topic. Classroom debates enable students to work cooperatively, brainstorm ideas, develop vocabulary and read to support an opinion. 

If we want to give our students an opportunity to practice their writing skills, it's a good idea to give them the websites that promote debating. Another option is to provide them with a database of top 100 debates. Here they can browse debates by theme, click on the topic they like, see points for and against, vote, and what is no less important - read the articles from the bibliography list beneath each topic to improve their content knowledge and literacy abilities. How could I use this in the classroom. First, I would choose an interesting topic to get my students engaged. Then I would divide them into two teams - one of which will argue for their chosen topic and the other, against it. Following a debate, other student will select a winning team by assigning points based on a checklist I'll provide. Criteria could include relevance, politeness, strength of argument, enthusiasm, and interest.

2) Spelling City is another teaching resource for this week that helps children learn new vocabulary. One of the possible uses is that teachers are able to upload their spelling lists for their students to access and study either in school lessons or at home. Once students have their lists they can either learn the words through “Teach Me” by listening to an audio track say the word, spell the word, and use it in a sentence, play games through “Play a Game” to further study each word in the list, or be tested on the words “Test Me”. The “Test Me” function allows students to be tested on their spelling words just as they would in class by hearing the word and the word used in a sentence. I think this video gives a better idea of how to use this wonderful tool:

3) WiseMapping is a great way to help either yourself or your students gather their thoughts. It is a graphical representation of the relationship among terms. Mapping gives students an opportunity to: think about the connections between the terms being learned, organize their thoughts and visualize the relationships between key concepts, and reflect on their understanding. I think it is a great tool to use during debating classes. We can also use this tool to create family trees, ask students to organize concepts they study, to map out a plotline or a story, a historical event or a step-by-step process.

4) Twitter can make a surprisingly useful educational tool, giving students and teachers an easy way to communicate that goes beyond office hours and classrooms. It's instant and to the point. We can use a unique classroom hashtag, thus creating our little virtual online classroom. Students and teachers can share ideas and information any time they want, regardless of location. It is also a good way to keep the conversation going long after the class is over. As a teacher, I can share homework and assignments, interesting articles, websites or someone worth following on Twitter with my students. Twitter could be used for brainstorming (debating!), writing book or movie reviews, writing a story and so on. Students, on their side, can give us a feedback and write what they like/dislike about our lessons, what changes they would want to make, what books they prefer to read, or what activities they would prefer more.

5) StoryJumper - I was deeply impressed by this resource. Some time ago I wrote a curriculum on Sherlock Holmes mystery stories. The goal was to develop students' critical thinking skills, so that at the close of the course they would know how to write their own detective story. StoryJumper could be incredibly useful here in creating their own mystery story. Students can add text and images to each page as they write their stories. They may prefer to either write all of the text or create all of their images first. It's worth noting that they have a detailed guidance on the site. Students can share their books online with their parents, for example. Making a long story short, StoryJumper helps students write and illustrate stories and then share them online. The resource could be used for writing a reflective journal where students write about what they did and learned after completing a school project or field trip and add pictures. With this story-writing platform, students can enrich and develop their writing skills more efficiently.