GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD: A REFLECTION ON CURRENT ISSUES IN TEACHING COURSE

 #Reflection #Current Issues in Teaching #Instructional Technologies and Material Design

Well, the fall semester ended! It feels quite strange how the time passed so quickly! Current Issues in Teaching course came also to an end and in this supposedly last post, I will share my reflections on the course with you all!

First of all, the major weakness of the course, for me, was the misalignment of the course title with the content of the course. Last year, the course content and the title ‘Instructional Technologies & Material Design’ were congruous and as it was my first time experiencing the usage of various technological tools, the course felt like an oasis in the Chomskyian desert. However, this year ‘Current Issues in Teaching’ felt like an extension to ‘Instructional Technologies & Material Design’ and maybe it wasn’t really needed.

In addition, another aspect of the course which I found difficult was groupwork. Indeed, the groupworks are done at some point prior to the deadline but I think it shouldn’t be the last minute. As I am a disciplined person, I prefer completing my assignment on time and study individually. Furthermore, I didn’t find the peer feedback sufficient.

In my opinion, there are two roads that could be taken regarding the trajectory of the course. First, the course could be aligned with its title and focus on the shortcomings of the education system in Turkey. Actually, the problems in our national education are quite abundant so this would provide a nice focal point to the class. Second, the students in the department could be divided into four groups and whether the assignment will be individual or group work could be optional. If we are talking about student-centred education, the students must have the right to decide on what to do in their learning journey.

There are lots to say but there is a word limit! Fare-thee-well!

CREATING AI-INTEGRATED LESSON PLAN: HOW IT ALL WENT?

 #Artificial Intelligence #AI #Lesson Plan #Canva #ChatGPT     

Lately, we’ve been assigned to create an AI-integrated lesson plan as a group. Our topic was ‘Unit 20: Shopping’ from the high school preparatory class coursebook. We designed a writing activity in which students should write about their prefererences in shopping, whether they enjoy online shopping or shopping in-person. Students will get their feedback by asking questions (given by the teacher) to ChatGPT. In the last activity, students will write their reflections on the feedback provided by ChatGPT.

I enjoyed doing this assignment and prepared the pre-task part. I’ve met with AI in university but my students will meet much earlier than me. So, integrating AI to the English class in some creative ways could foster their English language skills.

Here you can find the worksheet and the lesson plan respectively:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGbtRJXF0Q/mPSD9J0sB2Wbcd1WmuVfrw/edit?utm_content=DAGbtRJXF0Q&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wnKUaWrgqJiXJ-c6iO91CrnY-hDKZydcJDLinWjNqyg/edit?usp=sharing

Take care!

AUGMENTED REALITY: MAYBE BETTER THAN THE REAL?

#Current Issues in Teaching #Instructional Technology #Canva #Happy New Year

The last post of this year! We wave goodbye to the last year and welcome a brand new year, so I feel pretty good about it. I hope finishing all my final assignments before entering to the new year and get some fresh air. Especially having a farewell to my 5000-word essay on the Bosnian War could be amazing. Having a nightmare which Ratko Mladic is your cellmate is not funny, after all. It gives me the creeps…

So reality is harsh sometimes, but what about the augmented reality (AR)? I think, it’s even better than what happens in real life and an amazing way to show your students the idealistic version of life. Currently, we’ve been assigned to create an AR-integrated teaching material which we prompted the students to explore a city abroad. Well, it was a state in our case which is Arizona, USA and we introduced the landmarks of Arizona such as Grand Canyon National Park and Meteor Crater. Furthermore, we introduced the Tucson Museum of Art and some outdoor activities which could be done in Arizona. I have dealt with the outdoor activities part as it was something which I was quite interested in. Hopefully, I found a video named “Outdoor Adventure Guide to Arizona | Ask A Local” from the channel “Visit the USA”. After finding this video, I created a mini listening activity for the students in the worksheet we created. I also came up with the idea for the project and prepared both of these parts in our worksheet on Canva.

AR is a nice way of integrating the technology into English language classes and making the unreachable things reachable. I would like to use it in my future English classes as an ancillary source.

Here you could find the link for the worksheet and the lesson plan:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGZ1KJ5qv8/2zPglKIU-i3YGL72fk5GLw/edit?utm_content=DAGZ1KJ5qv8&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DHXtGC1E09RjI0uoAx3UGuOvatyMGxjb9dwwpr8xPdQ/edit?usp=sharing 

See you soon!

MY WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN: FLIPPED CLASS AND SUCH

You didn’t see it wrong: My world turned upside down. Because I have learned about “flipped class” and I also want you too learn this unconventional teaching approach. A flipped class inverts the typical cycle of content acquisition and application (The University of Texas at Austin, 2024). Hence, what has normally done in class is handled via computer mediation and what has been traditionally homework becomes the class practice. Key advantages of flipped class are increasing the depth of knowledge, making the learners more active and interactive and getting more feedback and error correction (The University of Texas at Austin, 2024) . However, these advantages could be gained if your students have connection to internet at their homes and are willing to watch the computer-mediated online lecture videos.

                                       Difference between classical lecture setting and the flipped classroom
                                                  

In my flipped teaching video assignment which I prepared with two of my classmates, we prepared a vocabulary teaching video to the fifth graders on the topic ‘My Daily Routine’. We divided the daily activities to three phases: The morning, the afternoon and the evening. I took the evening part as it is my favourite phase of the day. Each of us taught five chunks with example sentences. While preparing our video, we made use of Zoom and Canva. As I was accustomed to use both of these programs, I didn’t live a problem. In addition, we prepared a quiz gameshow via Wordwall. It was a website which I’ve heard a lot before but never had the chance to visit. Preparing the quiz only took a couple minutes thanks to the ready-made templates at the website. I recommend all ELT teachers to use Wordwall to colour their English language classes. And also give a shot to the flipped class…

Here you can find the link for the flipped teaching video, quiz and the lesson plan:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGYcQPUMk0/enxWawk04isReZR9qEbXkA/watch?utm_content=DAGYcQPUMk0&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor

https://wordwall.net/resource/83550252

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I_hi4m4pS8KkNMomjD8unyZGfHV4-0oxZzbt1LsvhoQ/edit?usp=sharing 

Take care!

References

The University of Texas at Austin. (2024, December 9). Flipped Classroom. https://ctl.utexas.edu/instructional-strategies/flipped-classroom

CORPUS-BASED MATERIAL DESIGN: A LONG AND WINDING ROAD

 #Canva #Crime #Detective Stories #ASSURE model #Worksheet Design # Lesson Plan

Recently, we have been assigned to create a corpus-based teaching material and lesson plan. For the ones who don’t know the meaning of it, ‘corpus’ means ‘a collection of written or spoken material stored on a computer and used to find out how language is used’ (Cambridge Dictionary, 2024). As its definition suggests, we also prepared materials for in-class use by using the corpus and observing how the language is used. For this assignment, we worked in groups of three. We chose the teaching unit ‘Unit 12-Detective Stories’ from the coursebook for preparatory classes in Turkey which is distributed by The Ministry of Education in Turkey. Our focus was on ‘Vocabulary related to crime types’. According to principles for corpus-based learning and teaching materials, we prepared activities which test student-knowledge, require hands-on corpus searches and inductive discovery by students and output exercises. Moreover, we designed a course plan according to the steps of the ASSURE model.

We created our worksheet with Canva. I created the first two activities which aims to test student-knowledge prior to corpus use. Designing the worksheet was easy and fun as there were many graphics related to our theme of crime. If our material is implemented in a real class environment, in my opinion, there won’t be any major problem which will affect the efficacy of the course unless there is an issue regarding the technological facilities. All of the activities are designed according to the language level of the students and are not cognitively complex. However, some introvert students could feel uncomfortable with the group discussion activities. If the class consists of learners with intrapersonal intelligence, these students could reflect their ideas in an alternative way, for instance, with talking to the teacher in private.

You can check out our worksheet and lesson plan from the links below:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGXTg1c5L8/oYxuA0iiRscPsyohFcmrRg/edit?utm_content=DAGXTg1c5L8&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V5wGN1Q8-XwZdpbobKUIv515_Qn0-8PS1Q41O5VTwKs/edit?usp=sharing

See you soon and take care!

References

Cambridge Dictionary. (n.d.). Corpus. In Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved November 27, 2024, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/corpus

COMING UP: CURRENT ISSUES IN TEACHING

#ELT #Current Issues In Teaching #Technology Integration #Assignments #About Me

     Long time no see! How are you all? For the ones who views this blog for the first time I’m Azra and you could find out about me in the “About Me” part. But let’s make some updates! I’m not a sophomore anymore, I’m a junior in the English Language Teaching department of Marmara University. Our campus’ location is changed. I was really pissed off in the beginning but now I’m used to the daily drag of commuting with 4 public transports (Sad but true!). On the road, I listen dozens of rock songs and try to stay sane. Though I sound pathetic, I enjoy road and listen to some Queen and Mannfred Mann albums. And sometimes ‘Puppy Love’ by Donny Osmond (one of my guilty pleasures).

       As you know, last term I created this blog for my Instructional Technologies & Material Design course. As part of this course, I created some materials with diverse technological tools. Immersing myself to these creative activities gained me technological proficiency and practicality. Likewise, this term we will create some materials for direct use in the classroom for Current Issues in Teaching course. This time the blogs I will be posting will be more about lesson-oriented materials and how to create technology-enhanced lesson plans.

Stay in touch with me and don’t forget to share and comment to my posts!

I’m coming up😎

Paul McCartney-Coming Up

IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: A REFLECTION ON INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND MATERIAL DESIGN IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING COURSE

#ELT #Instructional Technology #Technology Integration #Assignments

It has been more than 2 months since I’ve written my first blog and I guess it is time to write a reflection on Instructional Technologies course as it came to an end. Instructional Technologies course was a unique course when it is compared to other courses in the ELT Department. Probably, it was the only course which we didn’t talk about Chomsky, and I am grateful for that (Sorry Chomsky!). During the high school I was almost like a 21^st century Luddite as I thought technology makes people dumb and technological developments will result in further dumbness (actually I still think same to some extent). However, when technology is used as an ancillary force in your knowledge quest, it is undeniably helpful.

Before taking this course, last year we took another course named Informational Technologies which we have learned some online platforms like Canva or Padlet, but we didn’t have the opportunity to use these apps. However, thanks to the Instructional Technologies design course, I have been able to understand how I can integrate technology to ELT. Spending some time on understanding the apps and watching my creative energy burst out were important highlights of this course to me.

During this course, I learned how to create an infographic, podcast, public service announcement, write a collaborative film review and make an AI-integrated interview. From every assignment, I learned new things and gaining technological literacy gave me confidence. I can sincerely say that I enjoyed every task. It was a perfect course and I thank my teacher, Asst. Prof. Mustafa Polat, for being so understanding and caring to all of the students throughout the semester.

And final words… Until this time, no one commented to my blog, so I feel a bit heartbroken about it. But I know there are 110 views of this blog so that means there are other people visiting this blog except me (if 100 views are not viewed by me). If you’d like me to discover any other app for educational purposes, I ‘d gladly do in the future. Until that time, goodbye!