Settlement Language Training PD

I can easily see using a "choice" activity as an assessment of a reading for comprehension.  In the Health and Safety unit of the LINC 3 activities, I generally discuss nutrition and where the most nutritious food is found in the supermarket.  After discussing the departments of a grocery store one could write a small document with an example of someone shopping and what they bought, then using the "choice" option an instructor could ask questions like "In what section did Matt buy his bread" A= B=C=D=  etc.  I look forward to using this!

I will use Choice to facilitate listening comprehension. The students will listen to an audio or video file at home. Multiple choice questions create a visual support and help students process the information.

At the end of term, I added a section called 'End of Term'. This included a poll to see how happy the students were with their language improvements this term. It gave them a chance to reflect on their learning - including with edulinc and a chance to see how their classmates felt. it was a very "professional" and satisfying end to using this program and an appreciation for all the hard work they had done through the term. I recommend this to all users.

After having Elections Manitoba talk to my class, I will put youtube clips of the 3 main party leaders giving speeches to persuade. The students can then evaluate each speaker's ability to "speak for impact" with a checklist. With that and the content of their messages, they can then vote for who they think should be Prime Minister of Canada, through "adding a choice".

Using a choice activity, learners can be given a choice of three possible topics for the next session, along with pictures and a very brief description of each. They can indicate their preferences by making a first, second and third choice.

I have attended a workshop presented in TESL PHE spring conference last week about using blogs in the classroom . The presenter shared with us her success story using a class blog as part of her blended teaching/learning technique. Can't wait to have my class blog once I have a regular class. 

     Students often take photos of the board after a lesson with their smartphones. To make all of these photos accessible, they can be uploaded to the Edulinc site under private files or even in the news forum. Students can add photo notes themselves under messages or even in the news or discussion forums. Teachers can create a block with an appropriate title such as "Photo Notes" on the site and encourage students to upload photos to it. 

One way I intend to continue using edulinc is to have a daily 'lesson-to-go' using pre-existent materials for my levels (just make them visible) so that students ill or otherwise engaged can keep up with some aspects of our class while being absent. While this lesson cannot possibly cover all that is covered in class, materials can be uploaded into the appropriate 'visible' sections. Examples of uploaded files could be our vocabulary, relevant grammar, or even speaking assignments they are missing out on, but can at least be aware of before returning to class.

As a teacher you can gives students a written summary of both classroom and school rules, for example, fire drill rules, and then have a test to measure the students understanding. The test results provide an indication where students need more help around the rules.

A fun way to introduce wikis is to get the students to write a collaborative story. The teacher could start the story using the current topic in the classroom. Each student takes a turn writing 3-4 sentences. You can contribute as well if you need to liven up the story. At they end you could pick out a few of the most common grammar points to work on. This could lead into doing written or verbal story telling in the classroom once they are more comfortable with the idea or visa versa.

Here is a link to some ideas for writing prompts with photos. Scroll down to the middle of this page...

http://www.eslideas.com/writing-essay-endings.html

This video shows a fun way of introducing the idea in the classroom. I would try this in pairs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is5CPTqiYso