: Week 6 project task: Begin the change

Empowering the disempowered

My institute, Regional Institute of English, South India, has been working for the cause of English language Education in South India since 1963. We provide short term and fairly long term training to teachers. Our mission is to empower teachers teaching English at primary (classes 1 to 5) and secondary level (classes 6 to 10) in the five Southern states of India. Hence my project is about empowering 40 teacher trainees deputed to my institute.

       

      These teacher trainees have intermediate to Upper intermediate level of English language competency. Most of them consider English language text book as the most important tool for teaching English. Their classes are basically teacher centered. Our training programme in the institute basically gives them training in enhancing their language profiency and teaching skills.

But curriculum demands them to be activity based, learner centered and interactive. Some of them have basic computer skills. Some of them have started using ICT for providing meaningful input and for enhancing the language profiency and skills of the learners.

   

   As part of my project I have set up a blog (http://eltatriesi.blogspot.com/) for my teacher trainees. I’m also thinking about setting up an E-file storage system. I have gone through the project template.

1)describe your class/group/context
2) define a problem or challenge
3) find a technological solution to that challenge
4) test that solution out
5) evaluate how effective it was
6) make changes and try it out again (if possible) or describe changes you need to make

     My teacher trainees need encouragement, resources and empowerment. In our Institute blog I have posted a few articles. My teacher trainees have started reading and responding to these articles. They have started writing reflective blogs.  Out of 45 teacher trainees, 40 have created their own blog and started writing reflective blogs. I think they need training in areas like pronunciation, grammar, listening and speaking, addressing learners' errors, alternative assessment etc.

  

         My main goal is to make them use reflective learning tools. If they post more reflective blog posts they get the points. Secondly I would like my teacher trainees share resources through an online storage web site. I'll use this website for storing and sharing text, audio, video, photo, and other files.  I have to set up a rubric for assessing their reflective blog posts. Another option is to enable them to assess each others, or do self assessment of their own blogs. As Robert commented in his feedback ‘getting my evaluation system set up is an important addition my project’. 

     Towards the end of the sixth week I am getting clearer ideas about my project. I think it is a small step. Though a small step, it has deeper and far reaching implications. My project is a small step for empowering the disempowered.

P.K.Jayaraj

My Reflections-6

Rise Brothers Rise

Sixth week of the E-Skills scholarship programme. Many thanks to Robert for giving the charge of the class to Jesse, our guest moderator. The topic for this week is very appropriate in Indian context. Large class is a reality and it is not likely to disappear in the near future. Even in my institute sometimes I have teach a batch of eighty teachers. How can we teach large class without lecturing? I think teachers can break the monotony of lecture classes by adding variety and making students do cooperative tasks. “To teach is to engage students in learning; thus teaching consists of getting students involved in the active construction of knowledge”. Teacher can also divide the large group into smaller groups and make them do a few tasks. Using technology is the best way to engage students and promote learning in a large class. Power point is the simplest tool to use in a large class. Teachers have to include a lot of visuals and audio inputs in the power point to make it interesting to the students.

    This week we had a wonderful discussion on teaching writing and assessing in large class. While teaching writing in large class ‘the entire class may not be’ in the process. What is the solution? As our moderator Jessie said, ‘Small groups’ is the only answer.  Techniques like Think-Pair-Share, Think-Pair-Square, Concepttest, Quick-thinks, and Concept Maps are really wonderful. All these techniques will promote cooperation and collaboration.

     I've created the first interative PowerPoint presentation in my life. I've already used PowerPoint presentations in my class but they've never had interactive tools.  It is for my trainee teachers. I would like to introduce them to blogging. After creating a blog they will be able to write about what they have done and what they learned in the teacher training programme. Creating a PowerPoint with interactive tools is tough work. But I like it.  I included hyperlinks and video files into my presentation. You can see it on our Wiki page.

  It is a great week. Only 20 days to complete the final project. Hard work and thinking ahead. I remember the lines of Sarojini Naidu, one of best Indian poets; “Rise brothers rise, the wakening skies pray to the morning light…”

P.K

Reflective Blog: Week 5

And miles to go before I sleep

                                            

Week 5 is very hard, but innovative. Perhaps I am going deeper into the various aspects of the E-skills course. Susan Gaer’s article on web based instruction is an article with difference. It has given me practical tips in implementing projects in my classroom. Project works really develop collaboration and language skills. In fact I have facilitated a few projects with the teacher trainees in my institute. I have learned a lot about assessment. Alternative assessment is really the need of the hour. Assessment with clearly specified rubrics will help teachers to make assessments objective and learner friendly. Learners can use these rubrics for self assessment and peer assessment.

                The best thing I learned this week is how to prepare a WebQuest. WebQuests are really helpful for both students and teachers. I have developed a webquest titled ‘Practising prosodic features for better teacher talk’. My webquest URL link is: http//www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=108844

I think webquests are real resources for students. My trainee teachers can go through my webquest, do the tasks and follow the processes mentioned in it. In the title as well as the introduction part, I have put a few interesting resources such as audios and videos for practicing prosodic features. Hence I have learned how to create a technology enhanced webquest. This will be useful for me in my final project.

                It’s a very productive week with a lot of hard work. Though the assignments were tough, it is a fruitful week. I think I have to work hard. As Robert Frost said “And miles to go before I sleep”

P.K.Jayaraj

Week 4 - Learn and Make Others Learn

“The future depend on what we do in the present”

- Mahathma Gandhi

Oh! Fourth week of the E-skills scholarship programme. It has been a week of hard work. Like Robert, our online instructor we all have the ‘Tale of two classes’ with us. I know Robert conducts face to face classes and online classes. I think in face to face classes the feedback is prompt and quick. But in our case ie online course, there is delayed feedback. Most of us also have ‘Tale of two classes’ to tell. The story of our own classes and our experience in the online E-skills course. This makes the entire course unique and interesting.

 Fourth week is a fruitful week. The article by Jarek Krajka, lesson plan from University of Tennessee and exploration of Multiskill websites- all are interesting and resourceful. In her article ‘Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction’ she makes a few important observations. She makes it very clear that as Internet instruction is integration, teacher should think about how to integrate on-line activities into the syllabus rather than adding these on top of the rest of the classroom activities in a disconnected fashion. I fully agree with this observation. Teachers have to clarify course goals. It is an important step toward the successful use of the Internet in teaching.

The article "Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension" written by Andreea I. Constantinescu is also very interesting. The article highlights the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. But the activity I enjoyed the best is exploring Lauri’s ESL Website http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/. It is a repository of resources. The webpage ‘Make a story’ is really fantastic. My teacher trainees love it. I tried these webpage activities with them. They enjoyed it. Sometimes the activity generated a lot of fun.

 Presently there are 44 trainee teachers undergoing in-service teacher training programme in my institute. I have tried some of these activities with them. I would like to try some more Interactive Web techniques to help my Teacher trainees. I want them use technology integrated lesson plans for teaching English. My Institute also wants to tack them and to give support to them once they leave the campus and go back to schools. I think I will get enough experience, knowledge and skills for using Interactive web to help the teachers.

Director, and Members of the Faculty of RIESI with Joel Uzarski, RELO, US Embassy, New Delhi

Project work and exploring websites: My Week 3 Reflections

Exploring skill building websites is a very interesting experience. I explored four skill building websites this week.

    Randall's Cyber Listening Lab (http://www.esl-lab.com/)will definitely help ESL students and teachers who are interested in focusing their attention on listening and other skills. The second site Larry Ferlazzo's Websites (http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/03/17/the-best-sites-to-practice-speaking-english/ ) is very useful and resourceful. There are thousands of links on these pages. Most links have both audio and text. The third site which I explored- The Internet TESL Journal("http://iteslj.org/),  contains good articles on ESL and a lot of materials for ESL teachers such as online textbooks, language games and other activities.  The last website I explored is Dave’s ESL café (http://www.eslcafe.com/ideas/). It is also a very resourceful one. It is a massive repository of all things- ESL grammar activities, lesson plans and so on. I really enjoyed all these websites. Let me try to make use of them in my class rooms.

     The second important task I completed was to study a few projects assigned to me. The project report of Runganayagie Nalini Reddy, USAID Southern Africa, Pretoria, South Africa attracted me. Her project is titled ‘Project for distance E-support using technology to the TEACH South Africa Programme’. Ms Reddy’s main objective is to provide ongoing support to university freshers who are working in the under resourced schools in South Africa. She set up E-Support structures that would interactively offer the teachers a micro-system of distance support. She set up synchronous and asynchronous systems like E-mail, SMS, Skype, Nicenet’s ICA facility, Internet classroom, class website, Webquest, Internet diary and so on as part of E-support system.

     Inducting teachers for low-performing schools requires intensive, ongoing support. In the five Southern States in India there are a number of low-performing and under-resourced schools. Teachers working in these schools need a lot of support and mentoring. The project of Ms Reddy is a good example of a micro-system of distance support to teachers working in poorly -resourced schools. I think that as an ESL teacher trainer, I have to effectively make use of technology for face to face and distance mode teacher training. After this E-Teacher scholarship programme, I’ll certainly chalk out a programme to empower the teachers working in low-performing and under-resourced schools. I am optimistic that the E-Teacher Scholarship programme will give me a lot of confidence to take up such kind of projects.

 I think I have learned a lot. By going through these projects in general and the project of Ms Reddy in particular, I have learnt the different steps and the processes of doing a project. Now I am confident and optimistic. I will do a project work on a distance mode technology supported E-support system for providing ongoing support to teachers working in tribal schools- the most underprivileged schools in South India.

This is a great week. I have learned a lot. Thanks to E- teacher programme. Thanks to RELO New Delhi.

P.K.Jayaraj, RIESI, Bangalore.

Week 3 - Reflective Blog

The third week of E-teacher scholarship programme is a very hectic one for me. I have been busy with a number of programmes in my Institute. Still I found time to go through two important articles- "Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials" by Lindsay Miller and "New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation" by Maria Grazia Busa. Listening and Pronunciation skills are often neglected in our classrooms. This is true in the case of English class rooms in India. Some of the States in India have revised their curriculum, syllabi and text books based on activity based, communicative language teaching methodology. In these text books there are slots for addressing the listening skills of the ESL students. The course books contain listening texts and CD ROMS. But unfortunately teachers are not given sufficient training to teach listening. I think I have to incorporate more slots in teaching listening and pronunciation in my teacher training modules.

   I think technology can be used as an effective tool for improving the listening and speaking skills of trainee teachers and students. While listening and watching videos, film clippings and T.V programmes students can develop their listening skills and voice modulation and body language (gestures, eye contact, posture etc). I have used songs effectively for giving listening input to teacher trainers. I have used the songs of Michael Jackson, Gloria Gaynor, Beyoncé etc for listening. My students really enjoyed the song “If I were a girl….” sung by Beyoncé. They also enjoyed the song, “Those school days of telling tales and biting nails are gone…” sung by Lulu in “To Sir, With Love”. They really love most of the songs of Michael Jackson. My students have listened to those great singers and have done interesting activities including cloze tasks.

     I think pronunciation is also one of the neglected skills in our class rooms. Often the speech of Indian students is unintelligible to others due to improper stress, pause and tone. In my Institute we give pronunciation practice to our teachers through our language lab. In our language lab each trainee teacher uses a computer with intranet and Internet connection, CD ROMs and DVD reader, and headset for listening and recording. The student can listen a number of times to stories, dialogues, reports etc and record their sound. Students record their voice and listen to the original. We have seen that our students have improved their stress, pause and intonation.

Is it necessary for E S L learners to imitate the accent of native speakers? I think it is not. However, they need to be intelligible and then only they can become effective communicators. Hence I feel that prosodic features (stress, pause, intonation, pitch variation) are more important than segmental features. I need more help from my friends for teaching pronunciation. The two articles- "New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation" by Maria Grazia Busa and "Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials" by Lindsay Miller are very thought provoking. Thanks to Robert and the E-Skills programme.

P.K.Jayaraj

Midweek-2 Blogpost

Now I am entering the second week. What did I learn? I have learned a lot. Reflecting about one’s on experience is a great thing. I have really learnt the limitless possibilities of interactivity of web space. I really learnt how to create a blog. Why blog, one might ask? I am occupying a small corner in the web space. But it is a journey. A journey for extending help to my trainee teachers. Training teachers is a tough work. But it is a noble work. Only good teachers produce good students.

Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can share with students. Reflecting on and keeping a record of development as a teacher can be useful in a number of ways.

• I really developed a lot of skills and knowledge during one week
• My blog really helped me reflect about my own teaching
• I realized the importance of ground rules for genuine interaction

I realized that Google is not the only search engine. ‘Noodletools' really open up immense possibilities. I have started using ‘flickr’ and Yahoo Video in my classroom.

I have completed my week-2 task describing one of the classes I teach. I have learnt how to write objectives in ABCD style.  

Oh, my project work. I’ve begun that work. My students are teachers. They are trainee teachers. An exciting midweek.

P.K.Jayaraj