TEACHER: ROBINSON DURANGO ZULETA
LORENZA VILLEGAS DE SANTO HIGH SCHOOL
ADVISOR: DEYSA GOMEZ.
DATE OF PRESENTATION: DECEMBER THE SECOND 2010.
CONTEXT
Lorenza Villegas de Santos High school is located in San Calletano neighborhood in Medellin (Ant, Colombia). This is an all-girls school and it has three branches called, Esteban Jaramillo, Simona Duque and the main building Lorenza Villegas de Santos.
The principal of the high school is Maria Isabel Villa, and there are three coordinators, one for each section. It has 2220 students.
MISION
The Lorenza Villegas de Santos High School is an institution open to democracy and the commitment with the childhood and youth, as bases of the society, to be competent in the investigation and work. For that purpose we have an ethic and pedagogic human team.
VISION
In 2015, the High School will be recognized in its environment as leader in searching formation, for them to have the conditions to participate actively in the formation building of a fair human and productive society.
DRESS CODE
You can see in these pictures the everyday and the sport uniform.
There are morning shift (from 6:00 am to 12:30pm) and afternoon shift (from 12:40pm to 6:40pm)
The main branch has two blocks, in the A block we have a school restaurant, a big patio, for the brake and for practicing sports; two sets of bathrooms with seven toilets each one.
In the B block there is a theatre for 600 students called SANEY MADRID ZULUAGA, a parking lot, a big library called LUCELLY VILLEGAS DE SANTOS, the principal office, and the s secretary office
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The school has two computer rooms. In the English classroom there is a video beam, a computer (but it´s broken), a DVD player, a TV set , a tape recorder, and it also has internet but it is too slow and most of the times it doesn´t work.
The relationships among students in general terms are good but sometimes they fight , Especially for boys, Even tough they lack of many things the students have values and they respect their teachers and follow the rules.
Most of the students´ parents are watchmen, taxi drivers, bricklayers, messengers, street sellers, housekeepers, bus drivers, and most of them couldn´t study in a high school. Besides, many students do not have a father, due to the violence, they were killed or they left them when they were little children. The socio- economic stratum is low many of them are in strata 1,2 or 3 and they are in the SISBEN which is the health system supported by the government.
There is a good environment to study, but IT is important to mention that outside the high school, it means in the neighborhood (Aranjuez), there are bands of gangsters and criminals that are always looking for beautiful girls and some students like that kind of guys and that get them in troubles, and because of that sometimes they have to leave the school and the neighborhood. Most of the students’ interests are to finish their studies in the High School and begin to work to help their families.
The relation between teachers and the administration is good, there are respect and cordiality.
There are four English teachers, two in each shift (morning and afternoon) .
The school has assumed as pedagogical model, the developing model which has to do with learning the students to learn, developing investigation abilities in the students, this model is based on active pedagogies that say that student learn by doing activities that are interesting for them and related with their needs. The developing model has method called the meaningful learning and we are implementing this as a way to understand the students cognitive needs and that makes students understand their reality and improve interchange ideas.
We focus on developing the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) emphasizing one in each period, so we emphasize reading comprehension in the first period, listening in the second, speaking in the third and writing in the fourth. You can see the syllabus in a chart in another entry.
ENGLISH TEACHER
I studied English at the University of Antioquia and I have a B.A in languages (English and Spanish).I have 15 years of experience working as an English teacher and I have worked in different High Schools and Universities like Politecnico Jaime Isaza Cadavid, Esumer,and Universidad Pascual Bravo. I like to be updated in language teaching topics and I have been taking different courses that help me to improve my knowledge and put that in practice in the classroom. I think English teachers have to use technologies in the classroom to make classes more interesting and they have to prepare themselves to use it in an appropriate way in language teaching. I also studied law in the same University and I think I am going to work as a lawyer in the near future, of course without leaving my work as an English teacher.
OBJECTIVES
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
To implement a blog as a teaching tool to improve language skills among eleventh graders at Lorenza Villegas de Santos High School.
Specific objectives
- Using the blog as a communication tool between students and the teacher.
- Using the blog as a tool to develop writing skills.
- Having access to the lesson plan to review and check out what has been done in class.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This theoretical framework is based on articles and websites that talks about the use of technologies in the classroom.
I have to make clear that there are many technologies and devices you can use in the classroom. This is not something new.
Based on Monserrat Casanovas Catala ,Technologies have been used since 60’s. In the 60s the first Computer- Assisted Language Learning (CALL) was based on a behaviorism learning model. In this model the computer was a Mechanical Tutor that valued the repeated exercises systematically for the students (drills).
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The use of devices like TV sets, tape recorders, DVD players allowed a communicative perspective in learning English, developing the four language skills.
Internet is now is the tool that teachers must have to use in language teaching, but they have to be prepared in the use of that new technology and know how to make effective the use of that technology in the classroom.
Mark Warschawer and P. Fawn Whittaker give some guidelines to help teachers implement computer network-based activities and technologies into the second language classroom.
- Consider carefully your goals.
The first thing for teachers to do is clarify their goals. Once the aims are specified, appropriate tasks and activities can be designed.
- Think integration.
For best results, computer-based activities should be integrated into the course curriculum as a whole.
- Do not underestimate the complexity.
- Provide necessary support.
Although many students are quite knowledgeable about the computer, sufficient support should be provided to avoid problems of a technical nature.
- Involve students in decisions.
As much as possible, teachers should involve learners throughout the entire instructional process. Involving the students in deciding on the class direction is likely to create the kind of classroom atmosphere that promotes optimal learning.
Taking into a count these previous concepts, I thought of using internet in the classroom since in my High school I have a video beam, a computer and internet in the classroom, besides a TV set, a DVD player and a tape recorder.
Internet is an extreme big world and I think is better to begin using blogs as a tool in teaching and learning English.
First of all it´s important to make a definition of a blog, advantages and disadvantages, how does it work, and the educational uses of a blog.
We can find the answers in Pineda and Gomez’s blog.
The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Weblogs or blogs for short are simply Web based diaries. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger". Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries”. Often blogs focus on a particular area of interest. Blog systems are designed to be easy to set up and quick to use. If you can use e-mail, then you can use a blog. An important feature of blogs is that readers can add comments on each entry.
Advantages and disadvantages of blogs.
Advantages
• Students feel motivated to learn using technologies.
• Motivates independent learning.
• Although at the beginning classes with technology demand a lot of time investment, it can save time later.
• Using blogs and groups works as a bank of activities that remains there for further use.
• Lost of paper can be saved.
Disadvantages
• Problems with the Internet connection can be frustrating.
• There are still many places where there is not the necessary equipment.
• Some teachers and students are still reluctant to use technologies for learning purposes.
• Planning classes with technologies is time consuming.
How does it work?
You add an entry to a blog and that entry appears at the top on the Web page that the blog produces, previous entries move down the page.
Readers can add comments on each entry so that you will have a kind of conversation in your blog.
What are the educational uses of blogs?
* Use it as a class diary for a specific group of students, as notice-board for a whole cohort, and even as a space for students to write themselves.
* Write a summary of each lesson.
* Add links to Web pages with exercises, explanations, interactive quizzes or demonstrations.
* The blog can be used by students who were at the lesson as a reminder of the main themes (and homework) and as a guide to carefully chosen and relevant Web pages.
* Students who had to miss all or part of the lesson can find a summary, possibly with text-book readings and some links that will enable the student to get the gist of the lesson and be able to join in a little more next week.
* It allows students to communicate themselves outside the boundaries of the classroom and the institution.
http://bodmas.org/blog/ilt-ideas/blogs-in-education-podcast/
What are the advantages of having students writing in a blog format?
* Students may care more about their work, knowing that it will be read by others.
* Students will belong to a larger community than their class, a community where they can share and develop ideas. They may enjoy having readers submit questions and comments to their blogs.
* Students will learn real-world technical skills.
Most of the theory indicates that it is not worth using technology per se, it is necessary to go beyond and explore its pedagogical possibilities. The teacher has to know how to deal with that to make a good use of it.
The idea with the use of blogs and technology in the classroom is to integrate the language skills (oral and writing comprehension and oral and writing comprehension and oral and writing expression)and offers an appropriate educational environment to improve the learning of a foreign language.
Starting point
This project is going to be developed in eleventh grade and I started making some question to have an idea of what are the students interests and needs.
Students consider the best way to learn English is by working in groups after the teachers´ explanation. That means that the teacher has to think in activities that deal with cooperative learning.
Talking about the topics they want to learn, and taking in to a count that the students are all girls they would like to know about fashion and that could be an interesting topic to make a project in which students can work on the four skills and of course make English classes more interesting and motivating for them.
They also would like to use computers as little English labs in the classroom and reinforced and practice not only writing but listening and reading comprehension. Of course that is not up to the teacher but to the principal and I am trying to convince her that it is cheaper to buy ten or fifteen lap tops than think of building an English lab.
Based on the student’s needs and interests I think I can apply this project in eleven grades and see what happen especially during the first semester, and after that evaluate it and depending on that go on.
Unit plan
Date Objective Action Expected result
Class 1
Introduction of the topic and the blog Make an agreement with the students about the topic to study and present the blog as a tool to support the project.
Class 2 Determine what the goals we´re are going to achieve. Make groups of three students and talk about the objectives we´re
going to achieve. (To propose the students to create their own blogs).
Class 3
Develop the research Develop the objectives, reading analyzing information related to the chosen topic.
Class 4
To evaluate the project. To present and evaluate the project. The best project could be registered in ThinkQuest international competition.
The activities mentioned in the chart are going to be developed in one period, depending of the schedule programmed by the High School, which means ten weeks per period, so I have two weeks per activity.
The first activity is based on the survey I did with the students, they mentioned that the topic they wanted to work on was FASHION, so I am going to make a presentation of subjects related to fashions in my blog and in the video beam, it could be an article with audio, and a video or pictures that has to do with the topic, as a worming up to motivate students to present their works projects using the blogs.
Making groups with students that have similar interest that could be by asking the students to find someone who likes wearing piercings find someone who likes tattoos find someone who likes wearing accessories, find someone who likes make up.
That activity can help the girls to make groups with partners who have the same interest, and make work easier.
After that students have to focus on writing the objectives of their projects, at this point the teacher can make short meetings with each group in order to clarify the objectives they are going to develop in their project, and suggest them readings and some websites they can consult for looking and analyzing the information. It`s necessary of course to remind them what are the steps they have to follow to make a project and it can take a class for discussing with them. All this suggestions can be shown in the teachers blogs and if they want they can open their own blogs (one for group), to send their information and advances to the teacher.
Finally students have to make the presentation of the project, using blogs if they want or another tool,they have to do it orally and the best project could be registered in ThinkQuest , which is an online learning platform that includes a project environment that supports collaborative learning and they can win an award from them. Of course it is going to take one section or two for explaining students about ThinkQuest.
As I mentioned before this project is going to be implemented in eleventh grade and I am going to share it with my partners, the others three English teachers and I hope it really works and motivate students to learn English more.
REFERENCES
Internet en la didactica de las lenguas extrangeras: un paso adelante , Monserrat Casanovas Catala.
Metodology in Language teaching. ( The Internet for english teaching: guidelines for teachers by Mark Waeschawer and P. Whittaker.
Video in the ELT Classroom: The role of the teacher. Susan Stempleski.
http://www.nus.edu.sg/celc/publications/RETL62/01to20blackstone.pdf
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/blogging-elt
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