Reflection 4: From text to film and into the classroom

The act of reading is a mysterious one. It goes way beyond decoding words and symbols and attaching meaning to them. It is an act of creation where the individual´s background gets into action and plays a fundamental role while meaning is ascribed. Both the text and the reader become one and so meaning comes into existence.

The act of teaching and learning, in addition, is exactly the same: it happens everywhere and all the time and in different ways according to each person´s background. Therefore, a teacher has to learn to read his or her student´s needs so his or her class can be successful and, most important, productive; consequently, developing reading skills is a wonderful opportunity to achieve this.

This week´s class moves around the usage of technology as tool to enhance reading and writing skills which matched perfectly with what I am doing with my students in the pre-intermediate 3 Social Sciences class. We, as a group, are reading The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. This book moves around Charlie, a fifteen year old high school kid who is considered as a "wallflower" and who is very lonely and quiet. If you want to know more about this great book, please go here: Book Review


Mei-Ya Liang in his article "Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books" published in the internet journal explains three different ways on how to take a literary text (an ebook in this case) -- Read the article here: Liang´s Extensive Reading Activities . Miss Liang goes from how to choose a book for the class, and reading and sharing books to evaluating books. In our case, the selection of the book was done in a different and more direct way, basically based on the fact that I had already chosen the movie to be seen and analyzed in class. Then, one of the students said that she had just finished reading it and that it was a good book so by general consensus, the whole class agreed on reading the book first and then watching the movie to be ready for a graded oral presentation. Going back to Mei-Ya Liang´s article, she provides a link to how to create story maps, which definitely I am going to use.

So putting into practice what we have learned so far, I created this ABCD Objective for a class lesson based on both activities: (Condition) After reading the book and having watched the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower, (Audience) the students from ESP Pre-Intermediate 3 Social Sciences (Background)are going to deliver an oral report based on the field of study (law, psychology, Spanish philology, sociology, social work, and music)(Degree)from 5 to 8 minutes with 85-90 percent accuracy in pronunciation and subject-verb agreement as well as verb tense usage without reading from flashcards or notes.

Finally, in order to develop writing skills, the students are going to write a letter addressed to the rest of the members of the class as if they were Charlie, the main character from the book. To do this, I decided to create a page for that purpose by using Zunal WebQuest. There is no need to mention that I am very excited about this whole project.

Regards from paradise,

Reflection 3: Learning to listen... learning to live

This week´s journey has been very useful and exciting. We have been taken to a place full of waterfalls that are amazing resources which will feed and quench our thirst for knowledge and that will expand our horizons when teaching and planning. The more we travel into this path to knowledge, to more we see the great variety of places that conform the universe of learning.

There is something, however, that has become clearer each week and that is the fact that the educational process is a road that has to be built together, as group. Nobody can go anywhere or build anything by himself or herself. As we share web sites, programs, applications, or just ideas, we see how much we can do as a team.

Some of the places shared this week are really useful. They range from a wide a variety of skills such as reading, listening, and speaking and all of them can be used with different purposes in our classes. In addition, many of these web sites offer even plans for each class as well as the answers to the different activities. Do you want to see it with your own eyes? Well, just check this amazing multi resource web site: Listening,Speaking, and Pronunciation Tools

The learning process is never ending; it goes with us all along our life. All we have to do is just open our eyes and see the marvelous sights around us for they will become the founding rocks upon which knowledge is erected. Regards from paradise! Héctor.

Reflection 2: Learning to write objectives is like learning to plan one´s life!

Sometimes life is like a windy, rocky road that seems to lead nowhere. But that is because there is no planning and we are letting ourselves being taken away by the circumstances of life and not by our own decisions and plans. Sometimes the classes we teach are just like that for exactly the same reasons. The difference,though,lies in the fact that in the above situation it is our life what is at risk while in the second case, it is someone else´s destiny what is at risk. We, as educators, cannot play with the life and future of our pupils for they depend on us to open the doors and windows for a brighter life. It is in this sense that every single class or lesson taught needs a plan, an objective.

The A.B.C.D. method for writing objectives is a very simple and useful way of creating clear and precise classes. It includes four elements (audience, behavior condition, and degree) that produce a fine educational product that has as core element the student or participant. With the A.B.C.D. method for writing objectives, class planning has a very helpful tool that saves not only time in both planning and teaching, but also guarantees that the instructor will focus on what is really needed for the total success of the student´s learning process.

Many times in life,the road seems to be dark, cloudy and with no sense. What is needed, however, is organization; a plan that will lead the way to a brighter spot where fulfillment can be achieved.

Let´s remember how many classes we really loved when we were students because we learned and had fun at the same time. Why was it? Well, the answer my friends, to put it in Bob Dylan´s words,lies there with the creation of effective and simple objectives. It is our turn now to do the same for our students. Regards from Paradise!

Reflection 1: Each new step takes us to a different place

In life, each new step we take leads us to new experiences. Each time we walk, we learn and each time we learn, we grow as individuals. Therefore, the person I am today is very different to the one who was there before this little step was taken.

Every time we, as individuals and as society, embark on an intellectual journey we reach to a new destination that feeds our soul and that makes us better human beings. The path to knowledge is not an easy one; however, many are the roads that can take us there; all we need is to be ready and take the chances for the rewards will be with us for the rest of our lives.

In life, each new step we take leads us to new experiences and these experiences are what life is made of. So let´s embark on new journey, on a journey for knowledge!