Week 2 – POTCERT

Hello fellow pot-heads!

I have completed my beginner’s questionnaire…  did many of you find it hard to pick just one answer for each topic?  I sure did!  I kept wanting to change my answers because I incorporate so many of each answer in all of my teaching.

I ended up scoring a “8” which makes me a teacher that tends to have students work in small groups.  I do some “teacher-centered” grammar lessons, but mainly I want my students to produce langauge.  I think I will have to set up a lot of wikis and partner meet ups in my online Spanish class.  I think students will appreciate this because often times, they feel so “alone” in an online class.

On the “Getting Started Chart” I decided I will need a bit of help but I do have a lot of ideas that I will need to organize in a “easy to understand” format.

I like the idea of a weekly button in Blackboard.  I envision students clicking on “Week 1” and a list of links comes up to guide them in their learning journey.  Links would include;

1. Start here: an overview of the week with learning objectives.

2. Vocabulary: videos using content vocabulary.

3. Grammar lesson: videos on grammar lesson.

4. Written practice: vocabulary & grammar exercises in a written format.

5. Reading practice: short articles (depending on level) with questions to check comprehension.

6. Listening pratice: listening to MP3s and/or videos with questions to check comprehension.

7. Oral practice: sign up sheet to meet virtually with a partner or small group to practice structures and vocabulary, turn in a recorded MP3 to me.

8. Assessment: some sort of short assessment that gives student an idea as to whether or not they are meeting the objectives.

How does that sound pot heads? 🙂  Sounds really exciting to me…  and a whole lotta work! 

Look forward to reading your ideas and incorportaing them into mine.  Best of luck to everyone this week!

Un Saludo,

Donna

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7 Responses to Week 2 – POTCERT

  1. Bonnie K says:

    What a lot of thinking to share with the rest of us. Gives me something more to think about,
    Thanks Donna

  2. Hi Donna,
    I like this idea. This is what I’ve been thinking about doing (in Moodle) for my own online teaching. It seems as though organizing the class in terms of units or weeks is a great way of organizing content. I’m not too crazy about the way that Blackboard tends to default to grouping content in terms of type, rather than lesson. It’s confusing for students to have to click on “assignments,” “readings,” and a whole host of other buttons, just to gather all of the materials for any given week.

    I never really thought about using Blackboard to organize content in terms of units/weeks, but after reflecting on that a bit, it seems like it would be pretty easy to do.

    Sounds great to me!

  3. I got as far as reading it (again) and coming up with closest approximation numbers… It’s never the same twice and even with basic preferences, changes depending on what you are teaching, level, and that mysterious creature, the class gestalt.

    I’ll be interested in following what you are doing with Spanish because I have blog based self-paced ESL study group.

  4. Hocke says:

    It sounds really good 🙂 And a lot of work… But, there are no resources online you can use and rebuild, mix with your own material? I mean, that would save a lot of time 😉 Is it spanish you teach?

  5. Ted Major says:

    Hi Donna–

    Those look like good ideas. One refinement you might add (and may well have thought of already) is pairing students up according to what times they are available. I’ve found that it can be a real burden for my f2f students to try and work together outside class because their schedules conflict so.

  6. Pilar says:

    Hi Donna,
    I post a simple google doc that students can edit called “meet-up sign up sheet”. They enter their name next to a time and day they are available and then they pair themselves up with someone with a similar schedule. I’ll show it to you if you want. It’s really easy to do and I don’t have to be the one trying to manage all of the students’ schedules.

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