The levels or stages of learner autonomy and how they are assessed.

 The levels or stages of learner autonomy and how they are assessed.

 

        There are levels or stages of learner autonomy. I think that this type of learning suits all levels and stages according to the case of being intended or not intended. If it is not intended, it is suitable for students of earlier ages such as cycle 1 and cycle 2. The student can learn from the posters on the walls, the English corner, and the language center prepared by the teacher inside the class room. Doing manual projects helps much increase the experiences of the students so as to be recalled in similar situations. Many teachers realize that the students can learn indirectly, so some teachers prepare word walls for them in the class. Others ask the students to prepare a file for their flash cards and activities. In this stage the learner autonomy is limited. It lacks some of the strategies. The students in earlier ages can imitate, repeat, deduce, guess, and ask questions for clarifications. But they lack the ability take notes and have resources. But these can be provided by the teacher in an indirect way without telling the students that these resources have been put to help them work and learn autonomously. I myself put some games in the school yard for the students to learn from them.

        For higher levels and stages, this type of learning should be intended. The student himself wants to learn. He prepares his resources, references, books and websites that will be a start point to his learning process. The student assign his references according to his level and specialized learning. The students of prep and secondary schools can be active with this type of learning especially with the usage of technology as the students in this age are familiar with technology, internet and computer. The best one who can assign what suits his study life is the student of the university as he chooses materials that are suitable for his career of the future. Those who really work in specific jobs also can assign materials that are suitable for their jobs. Higher level students find it easy to find resources and the search engine play the best role here. They can imitate or even watch similar experiences in videos and websites. They can ask who know more about the topic. They have the ability to guess and deduce what's beyond what they really see. They can move through the metacognitive strategies. They can concentrate on general aspects of a task, pay attention to specific aspects of a task, check one's performance and reward oneself for success.


         The teacher can assess this type of learning according to many aspects: the traditional assessment, the alternative assessment and the continuous development evaluations. For the traditional assessment the teacher can provide the student with worksheets, questionnaires and report forms in which they have to express what they have learned and the teacher has to assess their development in accordance with the targeted development of the age, level and stage. For the alternative assessment, the teacher should help students build their rubrics which will be their guide through their autonomous learning process. These rubrics can help the students change their actions when they find that they are not on the right way. For the continuous development evaluations, the students can put notes, marks and points when they achieve a stage of their learning. The total of these marks and points can form the final assessment and the notes can provide a feedback for what was done during the learning process.


Mustafa

Learner autonomy

Learner autonomy

Hello David Bentz, Robert and everyone
First of all I would like to welcome David. I wish to learn from him.

I have read the article entitled what is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered? (Dimitrios Thanasoulas) . I liked the idea of learner autonomy. I felt that it's a completion to the previously discussed topic about PBL. The learner is still in the center but this time, he is not only responsible for his learning process but also he goes through it autonomously. He learns a set of skills in his self-directed learning. It is the situation in which learners study on their own. The learner here controls the direction of his learning process.


To be an autonomous learner, the students should enough courage and will to communicate in the target language at all costs. The learner should guess what's coming and this will help him to have a full knowledge of the form and the content of his learning items. The learner should also have choices which will allow him to feel that he has a control or ownership over his own learning. As a result of this control and ownership, the students develop a sense of responsibility and self-motivation. The role of the teachers in this task is to provide the students of those suitable choices to help them to be responsible and autonomous.

The autonomous learning process has many strategies to be achieved. We are going to deal with them according to the priority of each. The learner should prepared his resources, materials and references such as books, dictionaries, websites, CDs and any suitable materials for his task. Then he watches others, imitate them and at last do the same. In the language learning process, he imitates and then repeats what he noticed. If he finds anything significant, he should take notes. As a good guesser, he can deduce facts according to the available noted information. At last he has to apply all what he gained using the knowledge he acquired. According to the metacognitive Strategies, first the learner decides to concentrate on general aspects of a task. Then he/she pays attention to specific aspects of a task. After that, one checks one's performance. Hence, the learner evaluates his performance. At last he rewards himself for success.

To know how the students are going on their learning process, the teacher should know what strategies they are using and asks them to report what they are thinking while they are performing it.

When we try to apply technology in this type of education, we have much to say. Search engines are great providers of information of all types. The learner can download as much books and learning programs as he can. He can check, watch, imitate and do the same as others all over then world. His usage to technology will be enhanced with the passage of time.


At last we can say that this type of learning is a value that the teacher can plant inside his students. The students upgrade this value with their development in age and experiences. At that time, the learner will decide what to learn, how, where, what tools needed, who will help, what obstacle will face him and how he will plan to over come. So, it is a complete educational and learning process that affects both the student behaviour and his learning attitudes.

One Computer in the Classroom

One Computer in the Classroom

         First the teacher should decide where to put his computer. All students should see the computer. It is advisable that the computer can be moved and secured. Then the teacher should be sure that the computer contains the software needed for his work. The teacher may need all office software such as word, excel, access, PowerPoint and publisher. The teacher should install the clipart, the fonts and the templates which will be used later. He may need internet connection, web access to access search engines and email. To work offline the teacher may use software that helps him download pages on the computer to be run without the need of internet connection.


         Then the teacher comes to the management stage. The teacher should divide the class into small groups. He should also divide the project into small modules or small parts so students can work on different sections. To help groups work fast, they should work according to templates. For safety, each group should have a portfolio folder that contains their clipart, templates and folder to save works in.


         Now we can speak about what can be done on one classroom computer. The teacher can use the computer to assign the students attendance. He should have database of the students and their data. The teacher can make the worksheets, activities and tests on it. They can use the internet to send and receive messages to and from each other. They can also access useful websites and search engines. The search engines help the class provide the materials such as pictures, articles, sound and video files to be used in projects. The students can make projects such as PowerPoint presentations. The presentations, videos and projects of the class can be shown on the projector or even published on the class blog or website. The teacher's cam or mobile cam can play a role to record and document the projects and the learning process while going on.


         Many schools have materials in a form of CD or DVD. These autorun materials are very useful. The teacher himself can make such CDs using his one computer. The software of making autorun CDs has become available on the download sites. He can introduce the materials in interactive way. He can use software such as notebook to make interactive presentations that run from the HD.


         To publish what is going inside the classroom the teacher can make his publications go in two ways: one inside the school and the other in the World Wide Web. He can make a class magazine, weekly news letter and letters of involvement for the parents. He can inform the other teachers and colleagues in the school of what is going in his class through a brochure or through e mail. Then he can publish all the class actions on the class blog.

Thank you

Classes of one computer

Classes of one computer

          To speak about classes of one computer, it's important to compare between what was at the beginning of applying computer technologies in school and what is going on these days. In the past, there were no computers in classes. There were only computer labs. The teachers who were in charge weren't well qualified. They hardly knew anything about how to use computers. They were afraid lest these computers should have any problems. There were no internet connections, no LAN and no wifi. Students may visit these labs as they visit museums. They didn't have to touch anything. They had to look, watch and listen and nothing more.

          But the students nowadays are very fortunate. Labs are everywhere. Teachers are well qualified. For the class of one computer, there is much to be done on it. The computers are connected to the school internet connection. Some computers have wireless cards for wireless connection. There are also a data show and smart boards. The computers are connected to speakers and printers. Teachers use them to do the following:
1-   Using database of the students names for evaluations, development and personal information.
2-   Some teachers prepare presentations on PowerPoint or Notebook which is more useful for presentations of all types than PowerPoint.
3-   Teachers can make searches on the internet for pictures, clipart or topics related to their subject matter.
4-   Some teachers use videos, pictures and other materials for discussion.
5-   Previously prepared CDs or DVDs of the subjects can also be used.
6-   Songs and listening materials can also be applied using the one computer.
7-   All the language skills can be dealt with through smart boards when connected with computers in classes.
8-   Preparing worksheets can also be achieved through the one computer in the class.

Teach large classes techniques

Before this week I had the idea that teaching in large classes is a problem with no solution. After going through the sites available and the suggested ones, I found that the teacher can overcome these troubles and reach the top of his class working. For me, I don't teach large classes. Anyhow, through reading and discussion, I knew the challenges and the ways to exceed them. In my article now, I am going to speak about the challenges with the technology ot the techniques that can be used with them.


The large number of the class may make the teacher embarrassed. So, individual and face to face instruction may be useless in this case. The teacher has to minimize the number of his audience. Instead of speaking to 60 students, he can speak to 6 groups of 10 students. He speaks to them as a one unit. In the group, there should be a group name, logo and roles. Students who learn in collaborative settings both learn and retain 1.5 times as much as students who learn individually. The teacher may have the problem of not knowing the names of the students. This can be solved easily. He can ask each on in the group to write his name and put it in front of him in the group or on the wall beside him.


There are many techniques that should be used to benefit from the group work. The size of the group is an important factor in this process. The increase in group size leads to an increase in complexity. This is because larger groups have more non-participants than smaller groups, group size affects levels of cooperation and Group members tend to be less satisfied with groups of ten
or more. To achieve that, the teacher should assign students to groups rather than allowing them to self-select. He/should teach students how to work in groups. For more details, you can access this link http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/groups.pdf .There are many activities that can be used with the small groups: think-pair-share, think-pair-square, conceptest, quick-thinks re-order the steps, paraphrase the idea and support a statement .



Collaborative learning of small groups that work together is a fruitful way. In such a way, each group member's success is dependent on the group's success. Students who engage in cooperative learning learn more, and develop better critical-thinking skills than students in traditional lecture classes. By the passing of the time the students may get bored. But they enjoy cooperative learning more than traditional lecture classes. The Collaborative learning can be used either in small exercise or even a big project according to the students' levels or grades and in online classes.


The number of the student is a great challenge in the field of classroom management. I remember a saying which I can say that it's the best solution to any classroom management problems in small or large classes: "keep them always busy." The teacher should lecture the class. By the passing of the time the students may get bored and other students feel afraid to participate. Techniques like lecturing won't be fruitful if it isn't enhanced. The use of technology such as computer projections, PowerPoint presentations laptops and projections are a great enhancement to the teachers' lecture.


Therefore, now I am going to speak about PowerPoint presentations and how they can be used interactively. I read many articles about making interactive PowerPoint. Most of them are listed here: http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/powerpoint/powerpoint.html I also viewed Roberts's presentation. I learned much from them. I learned that many techniques can be used to make interactive such as the following: the blank slide, the think-pair-share techniques and the think-pair-square technique. The presentation should be varied in materials to match all the types of the students. They should contain pictures, videos, flash items and hyperlinks. The text font, the text size, the colour , the background. To engage the class, the lecturer should provide printed handouts for those who don't write notes while lecturing. The teacher should comment and do not just read the presentation. There should good use of time. Giving the class a rest through the blank slide, using many types of media, and hiding the pointer are helpful techniques to make the presentation more interactive.

Mustafa

The Interactive lessons

Interactive lessons

Interactive classes lead the teachers to ask about the best ways to make interactive lessons or lectures. After viewing http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/howto.html , I found an answer to the question : How to give Interactive Lectures. There are many Steps for creating an interactive lecture.
Interactive activities begin with planning the objectives, content and classroom atmosphere. Then the instructor should care about capturing the students' attention. He start some engagement triggers thought-provoking question or things that have visual appeal or are of common interest to students. Instructors might try cartoons, photographs, evocative textual passages, news clips and clips from movies or television shows. To create an interactive lecture segment that meets the desired learning goals, instructors must select an appropriate activity from the many possible techniques available. Several possibilities are shown here and categorized as basic, intermediate and advanced based on preparation and class time required. The basic are as follows: think-pair-share, one-minute write and the question of the day? The intermediate ones are demonstrations, concepTest , role playing and skeleton notes. Simulation and experiments are the advanced.


The fourth step to providing an interactive lecture is to determine how to structure and manage the interactive class period. There are as many ways to structure an interactive class session as there are interactive techniques. The instructor create a classroom atmosphere conducive to interactive learning. He should be be an effective classroom manager. Finally, instructors must determine how to end an interactive activity, gather student responses and provide, when appropriate, a synthesizing discussion or follow-up assignment. The student responses also provide useful feedback about what students have learned.

Courses can pose a unique set of challenges and the instructor will want to consider additional managerial strategies to meet these challenges. With careful planning, even classes with hundreds of students can have interactive lecture segments with significant student engagement. Additional energy must be devoted to strategies to encourage student participation as well. Fortunately, for large enrollment teachers, advances in pedagogical technologies have offered the potential for more engaging large enrollment class periods.

The teacher in the video involved here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQra4baNwP8 , tries to introduce solution to problems and to develop some thinking skills. The teacher stated the lecture by asking a question. Then she decided that everyone has to ash the person beside him. The teacher poses the question to the class and asks everybody to have some type of discussion with the person beside him. Some of the students decided that one of the answers (from a,b,c, or d) is the right answer. The lecturer decided that the students should be highly engaged in the learning process. She decides that in physics students should be asked continually, so that the teacher could consider what they have understood. The students learn much when they talk to each other. It is significant to know what the students know and try to enrich their knowledge.

Teaching Large Classes

Teaching Large Classes

        Large classes are wide apread because of the lack of money, teachers, materials, classes in many countries. They are taught in the lecture mode where there are fewer discussions, lack of interaction, lack of structure, lack of testing or graded assignments, and there is a distance between the professors and students where professors do not know their students and the students feel little sense of responsibility. Moreover, lecture mode classes are ineffective in higher-level thinking, attitude change, and motivation for further learning.

        I liked the Chinese proverb; "Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand". To engage students in learning, a teacher requires not only knowledge of subject matter but also knowledge of how students learn. The aim of teaching is not only to transmit information but also to transform students from passive recipients into active constructors of their own and other's knowledge.

         Enhancing lecture classes can be achieved many aspects. Professors enhance Lecture-style classes to promote student engagement. Professors can show pictures, photos, slides or other visual aids, changing topics to attain variety. Professors can also include stories, examples, and current events from the news to make the lecture more interesting. To increase the students' motivation, Professors can make their classes feel more personal by coming to class early enough to talk personally to students, and staying after class to answer questions. Setting up routines, speaking style, eye contact with one's audience and variation of voice and tone can be used to promote student engagement. Adding cooperative and collaborative learning experiences is essential to students' ability to learn new concepts, skills, and understandings. Collaboration helps with student motivation, and student engagement.

There are some small-group informal learning activities:

- Think-Pair-Share: Teacher lectures, poses a question or issue for students to consider. The student shares their responses with another person.
- Think-Pair-Square: Pairs of students share information within teams of 4 rather than withthe class.
- Concept Test : Teacher poses a multiple-choice question that requires conceptual understanding. Students write their answers on a sheet. Then they work in pairs, attempting to convince others of their answers.
Quick-thinks Re-order the steps : Students must correctly order a set of randomly sequenced steps.
Minute paper : students answer two questions in one to three minutes.

Teaching Large Classes is not a challenge as there are many alternatives to solve it. While reading many technological solutions came to my mind. Not all of them can be available in all classes, but some can be found. They are as follows:1-   Facebook , Google + and twitter can be used to sent commands, comments , questions and discussion topics
2-   Conferences inside labs using network can also help.
3-   Webinars through the web helps to deal with online conferences.
4-   Software like paltalk in which students can speak and give opinions.
The large classes force the teacher to use different activities, and methodologies that to engage everyone in the learning process. He has to be active all the time. Sitting class rules is a must. The classification of the group according to the hobbies, skills and the intelligences is a great enhancement to promote student engagement.

With best wishes

Mustafa

Rubrics and alternative assessment

Rubrics and alternative assessment

          An effective assessment program uses multiple strategies to demonstrate growth and performance, and should be closely correlated to your stated goals. Projects in which students create multimedia presentations, Web pages, artwork or songs may be evaluated differently than traditional written, typed, or even word-processed papers. Assessment strategies can include performance tasks, teacher observations, personal communications, standardized testing, and student and teacher developed evaluation rubrics, and others.

          Before beginning a project, it is always necessary to ask:
- How will you know if your project was successful?
- How will you measure what students learn?
What is the function of assessment in PBL?
- Assessment helps teachers develop more complex relationships with their students...
- Assessment helps students answer the questions "Am I getting it?" and "How am I doing?"...
- Assessment can help make content connections clear...
- Assessment engages students directly in the evaluation of their own work...
- Assessment helps teachers plan their next steps...
- Assessment helps students plan their projects...

          The most common assessment and evaluation tools used for collaborative learning are web-based rubrics. Most generate printable versions of the rubric. Some have a rubric calculator, allowing the teacher to select appropriate performance indicators and have a grade generated. Developing meaningful rubrics can be a challenge. Involving students in the development of rubrics helps them with their thinking and clarifies expectations all around.

         A rubric simply lists a set of criteria which define and describe the important components of the work being planned or evaluated. A given criterion is then stated in several different levels of completion or competence, with a weighted score assigned to each level (0 being the lowest level) .

         A rubric should give clear guidelines to a reviewer on how to evaluate or "grade" a project presentation. This means that different reviewers can arrive at similar conclusions when comparing a given project to each of the graduated criteria on a rubric.

        As a guide for planning, a rubric gives students clear targets of proficiency to aim for. With a rubric in hand, they know what constitutes a "good" project presentation.

         While the the students are making their project, a rubric can be a handy tool to help keep students on target: they can compare their progress with where they want to be on the rubric's proficiency scale, and refer to it in order to remind themselves of their goal. Finally, as an assessment tool, teachers can use it to assess projects, student groups, or individual students; students can use the same rubric for self-assessment as individuals, in groups, and for peer assessment; and parents can answer for themselves their questions about their child's performance.

        While some ready-made rubrics may help to accomplish these different purposes, they become even more powerful when students help develop the rubric they will be using. Students must actively focus on and discuss the characteristics of effective and interesting media projects, giving them depths of understanding and insight not likely achieved from using a ready-made rubric.

         There are many websites which help us make our rubrics. I liked the rubistar very much. I can recommend another site http://www.teachnology.com/web_tools/rubrics/general/ . This website helps the teacher to generate a rubric for his students project.

Mustafa Ahmed Ali

My experience of PBL , rubrics and technology

My experience of PBL , rubrics and technology

          I would like to tell the teachers all over the world about an experience that gathered the majority of our week's topics of discussion; the PBL, the rubrics or the alternative assessment and the use of technology. I have experienced some types of PBL in my classroom.

         Last month we had an English day. My role was to introduce a play in English. I discussed the topic in my class. I gave them worksheet of the story of the play. The students discussed it with each other. I assigned some rubrics for those who will be chosen such as self confidence, accurate and fluent speaking. This helped me choose my play team. We worked for a week. I gave instructions, listen to their suggestions, let them evaluate each others. Two days before the play, they changed their roles according to their own opinions. They suggested using music at the beginning and the end.

        For the rubrics and the alternative assessment, I would like to refer to two experiences. The first was that I was asked to be an evaluator in an English competition. It was concerned with the 4 language skills. I sit with the other colleagues to decide the criteria through which we will assess the students. We made some thing similar but not the same as what we learned in this course about rubrics. We decided that each one got a sheet for assessment, and assess the skill individually, and then we collect the marks and take the average. The second alternative assessment experience is the continuing assessment. I use it in my class. The students are assessed continually all around the year according to their action, behavior, projects or reports. They got a monthly feedback of the achieved objectives in a report of the objectives and their grades; good, very good and excellent.

Project Based Learning , altenative assessment and technology

Project Based Learning , altenative assessment and technology

"One of the major advantages of project work is that it makes school more like real life. It's an in-depth investigation of a real-world topic worthy of children's attention and effort."-Education researcher Sylvia Chard

Project Based Learning is a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning essential knowledge and life-enhancing skills through an extended, student-influenced inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks.

Important considerations found in the definition:

1- Project Based Learning is an instructional approach built upon authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation. These activities are designed to answer a question or solve a problem and generally reflect the types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the classroom.

2- Project Based Learning is synonymous with learning in depth. A well-designed project provokes students to encounter (and struggle with) the central concepts and principles of a discipline.

3- Project Based Learning teaches students 21 st century skills as well as content. These skills include communication and presentation skills, organization and time management skills, research and inquiry skills, self-assessment and reflection skills, and group participation and leadership skills.

4- Project Based Learning is generally done by groups of students working together toward a common goal. Performance is assessed on an individual basis, and takes into account the quality of the product produced, the depth of content understanding demonstrated, and the contributions made to the ongoing process of project realization.

5- Finally, Project Based Learning allows students to reflect upon their own ideas and opinions, exercise voice and choice, and make decisions that affect project outcomes and the learning process in general.

Teacher role in project-based learning:
Teachers support students by giving sufficient guidance and feedback. The teacher must thoroughly explain all tasks that are to be completed, provide detailed directions for how to develop the project, and circulate within the classroom in order to answer questions and encourage student motivation. completion. The inclusion of a reflective writing component provides for self-evaluation of student learning.

Student role in project-based learning
Students generally work in small, collaborative groups in the project-based learning model. They find sources, conduct research, and hold each other responsible for learning and the completion of tasks. Essentially, students must be "self-managers" in this approach to instruction.6

The benefits of PBL are as follows:

1- PBL and Technology Use Bring a New Relevance to the Learning at Hand
By bringing real-life context and technology to the curriculum through a PBL approach, students are encouraged to become independent workers, critical thinkers, and lifelong learners. Teachers can communicate with administrators, exchange ideas with other teachers and subject-area experts, and communicate with parents, all the while breaking down invisible barriers such as isolation of the classroom, fear of embarking on an unfamiliar process, and lack of assurances of success.
PBL is not just a way of learning; it's a way of working together. If students learn to take responsibility for their own learning, they will form the basis for the way they will work with others in their adult lives.


2- PBL Lends Itself to Authentic Assessment
Authentic assessment and evaluation allow us to document a child's progress and development. PBL encourages this by doing the following:
•   It lets the teacher have multiple assessment opportunities.
•   It allows a child to demonstrate his or her capabilities while working independently.
•   It shows the child's ability to apply desired skills such as doing research.
•   It develops the child's ability to work with his or her peers, building teamwork and group skills.
•   It allows the teacher to learn more about the child as a person.
•   It helps the teacher communicate in progressive and meaningful ways with the child or a group of children on a range of issues.

3- PBL Promotes Lifelong Learning
PBL promotes lifelong learning because
•   PBL and the use of technology enable students, teachers, and administrators to reach out beyond the school building.
•   Students become engaged builders of a new knowledge base and become active, lifelong learners.
•   PBL teaches children to take control of their learning, the first step as lifelong learners.

4- PBL Accommodates Students with Varying Learning Styles and Differences
It is known that children have various learning styles. They build their knowledge on varying backgrounds and experiences. It is also recognized that children have a broader range of capabilities than they have been permitted to show in regular classrooms with the traditional text-based focus. PBL addresses these differences, because students must use all modalities in the process of researching and solving a problem, then communicating the solutions. When children are interested in what they.

Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction

Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction


        There are three activities that are designed to help students choose books that meet their interests and reading levels.

          Firstly, Choosing Books; in which the students got the opportunity of selecting books. The teacher emails the class a list of 10 e-books, then the students skim and scan some pages of each book, and answer questions about the title, type and the main character. The class votes for the books.

         Secondly, Reading and Sharing Books, in which the students read the three e-books that get the most votes. Each group discusses these three books dealing with the title, setting, and characters. Each member takes turns telling the story. Each group types a summary report of the three books. They have to answer questions about the characters, the place, and the time. To share their stories they have to answer questions about what the main characters like, what affects them, the problem in the story and the lesson in it.

         Thirdly, Evaluating Books, in which the students evaluate information from the online texts and resources. Each group evaluates the three books and ranks these three books in first, second and third. Each group types a final report. The students have to answer questions based on traditional criteria to evaluate story elements. To write the final report, the students have to use the following format: introduction, argument and conclusion.

          I applied two reading programs that are similar to the previously mentioned reading activities. The first is Rigby Star for grade 1,2 and three http://www.rigbystories.co.uk/grade-selection.asp?regionId=1 . The Rigby star site publishes the stories of each grade in a flash form. Students listen, read, discuss, and do the involved activities. The students are still too young to evaluate and write reports. This will be achieved in the second applied program; GRP which stands for Guide Reading Program http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/guidedreading/ . The program is intended for students from KG to grade 6. It consists of reading books classified according the students levels. The students reads, argue in groups, answer simple questions, give reports, evaluate the stories and evaluate each other. You can read about GRP, in this article http://www.readingprograms.info/guidedreading.html .

My ABCD for one of the stories which is "The Sky Bird by Laura O'Reilly, from New Zealand http://www.cyberkids.com/cw/sto/fo/oreilly/oreilly1.html in the Adventure of Sydney http://www.cyberkids.com/cw/mul/sydney/" is as follow:

Cognitive (comprehension level) -"C: Given one of the stories taken from the sites mentioned, A: the student B: will be able to accurately summarize the story giving the title, the characters, the colours mentioned, the hero's problem and how it was solved. D: in a paragraph of 15 lines using the present simple tense."

          I have tried some of the websites mentioned in the article. I found some out of work. The best of them is the adventure of Sydney. The second is Walks the Red Dog ; http://www.backyardnature.net/r/reddog00.htm in which there are many stories for reading which are suitable for students in grade 3 to 6. I also accessed the Lauri's ESL website; http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/ which can be considered a huge store of links for all ESL skills and activities such as grammar, quizzes , reading activities, listening activities and websites suitable for ESL students. There is also another site (children's story book); http://www.magickeys.com/books/ . The site is full of stories suitable for all levels. There is also audio included so as to help listeners and readers to listen while reading and watching the pictures.

Sites mentioned in the article:

Rigby star :        http://www.rigbystories.co.uk/grade-selection.asp?regionId=1
Guided Reading :    http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/guidedreading/
Guided reading :    http://www.readingprograms.info/guidedreading.html
The Sky Bird :      http://www.cyberkids.com/cw/sto/fo/oreilly/oreilly1.html
The Adventure of Sydney : http://www.cyberkids.com/cw/mul/sydney/
Walks the Red Dog:    http://www.backyardnature.net/r/reddog00.htm
Lauri's ESL website :    http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/
Children's story book: http://www.magickeys.com/books/

Reading skill and how to be enhanced by technology.

 Reading skill and how to be enhanced by technology.

  There are three activities that are designed to help students choose books that meet their interests and reading levels.

Firstly, Choosing Books; in which the students got the opportunity of selecting books. The teacher emails the class a list of 10 e-books, then the students skim and scan some pages of each book, and answer questions about the title, type and the main character. The class votes for the books.

Secondly, Reading and Sharing Books, in which the students read the three e-books that get the most votes. Each group discusses these three books dealing with the title, setting, and characters. Each member takes turns telling the story. Each group types a summary report of the three books. They have to answer questions about the characters, the place, and the time. To share their stories they have to answer questions about what the main characters like, what affects them, the problem in the story and the lesson in it.

Thirdly, Evaluating Books, in which the students evaluate information from the online texts and resources. Each group evaluates the three books and ranks these three books in first, second and third. Each group types a final report. The students have to answer questions based on traditional criteria to evaluate story elements. To write the final report, the students have to use the following format: introduction, argument and conclusion.

I applied two reading programs that are similar to the previously mentioned reading activities. The first is Rigby Star for grade 1,2 and three http://www.rigbystories.co.uk/grade-selection.asp?regionId=1 . The Rigby star site publishes the stories of each grade in a flash form. Students listen, read, discuss, and do the involved activities. The students are still too young to evaluate and write reports. This will be achieved in the second applied program; GRP which stands for Guide Reading Program http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/guidedreading/ . The program is intended for students from KG to grade 6. It consists of reading books classified according the students levels. The students reads, argue in groups, answer simple questions, give reports, evaluate the stories and evaluate each other. You can read about GRP, in this article http://www.readingprograms.info/guidedreading.html .

My ABCD for one of the stories which is "The Sky Bird by Laura O'Reilly, from New Zealand http://www.cyberkids.com/cw/sto/fo/oreilly/oreilly1.html in the Adventure of Sydney http://www.cyberkids.com/cw/mul/sydney/" is as follow:

Cognitive (comprehension level) -"C: Given one of the stories taken from the sites mentioned, A: the student B: will be able to accurately summarize the story giving the title, the characters, the colours mentioned, the hero's problem and how it was solved. D: in a paragraph of 15 lines using the present simple tense."

I have tried some of the websites mentioned in the article. I found some out of work. The best of them is the adventure of Sydney. The second is Walks the Red Dog ; http://www.backyardnature.net/r/reddog00.htm in which there are many stories for reading which are suitable for students in grade 3 to 6. I also accessed the Lauri's ESL website; http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/ which can be considered a huge store of links for all ESL skills and activities such as grammar, quizzes , reading activities, listening activities and websites suitable for ESL students. There is also another site (children's story book); http://www.magickeys.com/books/ . The site is full of stories suitable for all levels. There is also audio included so as to help listeners and readers to listen while reading and watching the pictures.

Sites mentioned in the article:

Rigby star :        http://www.rigbystories.co.uk/grade-selection.asp?regionId=1
Guided Reading :    http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/guidedreading/
Guided reading :    http://www.readingprograms.info/guidedreading.html
The Sky Bird :      http://www.cyberkids.com/cw/sto/fo/oreilly/oreilly1.html
The Adventure of Sydney : http://www.cyberkids.com/cw/mul/sydney/
Walks the Red Dog:    http://www.backyardnature.net/r/reddog00.htm
Lauri's ESL website :    http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/
Children's story book: http://www.magickeys.com/books/