VT & VXP

Tools that can be used in the classroom!

Nowadays teachers can take advantage of many tools; tools that can be found in the internet. Technology has become a really important source to help students to broad their knowledge and when teachers make a good use of all these sites, students can learn, share and interact with their classmates and with the teacher even from their homes.

Throughout this course I have been exposed to some of these sources, for instance, blogger, Voice thread and Voxopop, and now I want to share with you girls in which way I would use them in my classroom. First of all, Voice thread, to use this site I would ask my students to perform a case scenario and instead of presenting it in front of a class, student will be asked to record it and then upload it to Voice Thread. This would be a great way to give feedback to each student because they could even have peer correction by commenting their videos. It would be even greater for the performers because in that way they could realize which area of the language they need to enhance or in which area they need to work harder so that they can express their ideas in a better manner.

On the other hand, Voxopop is also an amazing web site where students can record their voices and videos as well. And to take advantage of this I would use it for helping students differentiate the ending sounds of the PAST VERBS. I would upload videos where I would be making the correct sounds of the verbs so that later I would ask them to record a two minute conversation where in pairs, they could use past verbs and at the same time emphasizing the ending of the verbs involve in that conversation. I think by doing this; students will remember and internalize the sounds they have more problems with because they will have the chance to listen to them as many times as they wish. These sources have many advantages and ways to be used. It is just a matter of the teachers´ creativity to use it in the way s/he wants.   

 

InsTech Talking about skill!!

The macro skills are abilities that each person has in the four different areas of a language; they are, LISTENING, READING, WRITING AND SPEAKING.  These skills are really important to be developed in an individual when learning any language and teachers must provide students with enough practice so that they can master the four of them.

After interviewing Maggie on which skill she had problem to develop, I can give my opinion about the things she did to improve in that area.

So, Maggie says, the skill that has been the hardest to develop is READING. And that she has gone to many problems because, whenever she took an exam she felt worry as she was not prepare to answer those kinds of tests. Moreover, she says that to comprehend a reading is not that easy as it involves concentration and to be able to figure things out.

 

Another important point, she considers; it is underlying when talking about reading is the level of interest the text has, she likes having appealing texts so that she can do it better. In this case, teachers have to make a diagnose before passing a reading to the students, in that way students can have the chance of suggesting what they want to actually read about.  Some activities she says have worked for her are: to practice as much as she can, to look for different ways in which she can know some techniques to improve her performance on the reading part.  

 

I agree with what Maggie says, I do think that the most difficult skill to be developed is READING! Because I am not someone who loves to read, so for me was very hard to get accustomed to read and then to answer something based on what I had read. I believe that reading requires you to know a lot of vocabulary; that is why, that one of the main key to improve our reading skill is actually by reading. Only when we start reading we will start to become someone skillful at reading.