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Using the Internet and its Resources Successfully
Kathleen S. Dwyer
EDCI 519-002
October 18, 2006
Overview
This website is packed with practical, useful information for teachers in a well organized, easy access format. The site is limited to Language Arts/English and covers many topics for the K-12 classroom. The four main components are well organized, indexed, and fully described. Each component offers an additional sort by grade band (K-12) and literacy strand allowing the teacher to narrow the search and focus on specific areas of interest. The best attribute of this website, besides content, is that every section, page, lesson plan, and activity is succinctly summarized, explained, and cross referenced.
The Lessons section is clearly indexed so the teacher can quickly determine which lesson will be most useful. Specific lesson plans contain an overview, objectives, instructional plan, handouts and activities, extensions, assessments and standards. The Standards section lists the 12 IRA/NCTE standards for Language Arts/English. The section on Web Resources contains a comprehensive list of additional websites and resources with a short description of their content and a hyperlink for easy access. The Student Materials section contains interactive activities which are cross referenced back to a specific lesson. These activities provide practice for the lesson, using reading, writing and listening and are easily accessible and understandable for students.
Usefulness in the Classroom
At first glance, this website would appear to be most useful for teachers. The lessons contain meaningful, authentic activities using a variety of strategies and approaches but the student material section also contains many interactive activities fully appropriate and useful for students. The interactive activities are fun, instructional and meaningful for students providing opportunities to practice and to show what they know. In addition, the lesson plans are so comprehensive that in an emergency, they could be printed out and left for a substitute to implement.
Limitations/Language Proficiency Appropriateness
This website does not cover all content areas; the sole focus is Language Arts/English although this could also be seen as a positive attribute of the web site. Lesson plans do not provide scaffolding for ELLS so the teacher would need to scaffold using techniques appropriate for the ELLs in the classroom. The lesson plans, however, are comprehensive, interesting and creative. Scaffolding could easily be implemented for all language proficiency levels.
Methods/Approaches
Teachers using several different methods and approaches will find this web site appealing. Since content is the major focus of this website and the lesson plans, teachers using the CALLA will find this site of particular interest. Many of the lessons are interactive with extensiveuse of English therefore, teachers using TPR and the Direct approach will also find this site attractive since there are many interactive activities, including listening activities.
Sample Pages
Genre Study
Overview
Enchanted learning is an all purpose website containing information on all content areas. The home page has a site index which allows the teacher or student to quickly find an appropriate subject and investigate the contents. It also contains a search box allowing the user to type in key words to locate a specific topic. Since the website claims to contain over 20,000 webpages, these features are necessary for navigating, narrowing down the topic, and finding the required information. The home page is filled with pictures and large, bold writing, making it attractive to younger students. Clicking on a picture leads to another page to further refine the search, many with a dictionary-like alphabet choice for more specific topics.
The website is very easy to navigate once the user has found the topic of interest. Each topic contains a wide variety of information and activities with multiple options for additional information. Many of the topics were appropriate for elementary level students, contained large font, pictures and, in general, appropriate level vocabulary. However, finding the appropriate web page would be a challenge for younger students and ELLs. Book marking a specific page is recommended for those students. There were also more advanced topics for upper level students, making this website valuable for students from grades K-12.
Usefulness in the Classroom
There is an enormous amount of information and activity pages including fill in the blank, cloze dialogs, manipulatives and many others. This website can be a tremendous resource for the teacher in the classroom providing a variety of ideas and activities to enhance learning. Many of these ideas/activities/worksheets would need to be downloaded and xeroxed for the classroom since there were no activities that were interactive. Students could easily conduct research on this website depending on age and level; however, they may need assistance finding the appropriate page.
Limitation/Language Proficiency Appropriateness
There was so much information on this site that it was very easy to get sidetracked investigating all of the interesting, exciting information. The seemingly unlimited options for students could be slightly distracting, and in order to ensure focus on the task assigned students would need to be closely monitored. The information available to non-subscribers was extensive but I found the advertisements distracting. The $20 subscription charge would be well worth it to obtain a banner-free version and for the ability to print out some of the activity pages available.
Methods/Approaches
Teachers using the CALLA approach would use this website since students will have the social communicative abilities and will be working on academic language. This is an excellent site for students to experience real and meaningful language use by performing research which focuses on content.
Sample Pages
Overview
The Quia website contains educational tools, templates, and activities for all age levels from preschool to University level. It contains over 100 categories and covers all four content areas. The homepage is divided into the instructor zone and the student zone. In the instructor zone teachers can choose ready made activities, testing templates, or develop their own. They can also review web-based quizzes and access reports to improve teacher understanding of student performance. Since assessment drives instruction, this can be a very valuable area for teachers.
For students, there are many opportunities for practice with 16 different types of interactive learning activities which provide immediate feedback for the student. The quizzes are also interactive with feedback including score, questions right/wrong and the correct answers. While interviewing a student who is currently using Quia, I learned that she would much rather study key terms and concepts in this way. Retention seemed to be high, and there was significant motivation for repeated trials and improving results.
Usefulness in the Classroom
This could be a very useful classroom tool for any grade level or language proficiency as well as one that could be used by the student at home. Games can be played in cooperative teams and since there are a wide variety of choices, they could be rotated periodically so students do not get bored. In addition, some of the games can be downloaded and copied allowing more students access to these tools if there are limited computers in the classroom. Printed manipulatives (matching game, concentration) could also be given to students who do not have computers at home.
Limitations/Language Proficiency Appropriateness
Some of the games and quizzes have a high language load and may require scaffolding. Creating cooperative teams or groups provides scaffolding and adds competition to keep interest and motivation high. The quizzes could be completed cooperatively in strategic pairs if an ELL is paired with a native speaker. Questions and answerscould be explained by the native English speaker as needed providing the ELL access to the material, test taking practice and skills, a low affective filter, and the opportunity for social interaction so crucial to the development of L2 skills.
Methods/Approaches
Teachers using the CALLA approach would use this site since the student is learning skills and strategies both in content and language acquisition. The Cognitive Code Method would recognize that this site provides meaningful learning which is essential to language acquisition. Since the teacher is passive as the students work on activities and quizzes, and the students are responsible for each other, teachers using the CommunityLanguage Learning approach will also find this site attractive. Finally, teachers using TPR could also use this site since learners are not forced to speak.
Sample Pages
Overview
This is a companion website to the FCPS 5th grade Social Studies textbook. I had high hopes for this site especially since the textbook is written at the 6th grade reading level and I was looking for activities and information which would clarify the text. The home page gives the user the option of entering the site in English or Spanish, a definite benefit in our multicultural classroom. I was, however, disappointed in the content of the site. There are choices to move on to Current Events, Atlas, This Day in History, Meet the People and Social Studies Activities. The first five choices send the user to Fact Monster, a good website filled with interesting information, but not always relevant to the content of the textbook. The sixth choice allows the user to choose from several textbooks, one of which is the book we use.
I was disappointed again to find limited activities. There are 23 chapters in the book, divided into 8 units. The website only provided one activity per unit, the activity was very shallow, and the additional information provided presented a very heavy reading requirement. Unfortunately, the Spanish entry into the site was equally as disappointing and our text was not included in the Social Studies Activities section.
Usefulness in the classroom
I would not recommend this website. The activities may be interesting to suggest to the students during indoor recess on a rainy day but I do not feel that the activities and additional information would hold the students’ interest. All eight activities could be completed in 15-20 minutes but I do not feel that there is significant added value in them. There are plenty of other interesting, interactive, thought provoking, and valuable web sites available with greater benefits than this one.
For native Spanish speakers, I would book mark the specific sites which could provide them with background information on the Atlas, Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Almanac, and Current Events. These sites can be accessed directly, without going through
Limitations/Language Proficiency Appropriateness
The main limitation of this site is the heavy reading requirement for additional information as well as limited activities, some of which were difficult to figure out. English Language Learners would become discouraged with the reading requirement and their time could be better spent elsewhere.
Methods/Approaches
If a teacher were to decide to use this web site it would be a teacher who follows the Grammar-Translation method. With little or no interactive or oral skills found on the site, ELLs would need to resort to plowing through the written language. ELLs would definitely need a vocabulary list and extensive assistance with translation.
Sample Pages
Overview
This is an exciting web site for social studies/geography students of any age. For the full effect of the web site, the user needs to execute a free download of various files. This is an easy task for even the inexperienced and well worth the time and effort.
This site allows the user to “fly” any where in the world by entering key words (EiffelTower, Coliseum, Madrid, Spain, Springfield, VA). As the user watches, the globe slowly turns and there is a sense of movement as oceans, continents, rivers, landforms, country borders, state borders, and major cities pass below the observer. This is a completely visual and authentic image of the earth seen from space. Although the images are not in real time, they are updated frequently; the current images are dated 2006.
An additional feature of the site is that the user can zoom from thousands of feet up, where the entire continent of Africa can be seen on the screen, to several hundred feet up where the user can see details of houses or the land. The site is easy to navigate and is just as good as watching National Geographic.
Usefulness in the Classroom
This would be a captivating site for social studies or geography classes of any age. Primary grade students can actually view the earth from space to identify oceans and continents, as well as observe mountain ranges, plains and other landforms. Fourth grade students studying Virginia and Virginia History can see the four regions of the state, important rivers, and Jamestown. With a clear view of the terrain, students gain a better understanding of the challenges faced by settlers arriving in Jamestown. Fifth grade students can travel to Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent to see the Tigris and Euphrates and easily observe the fertile fields around the rivers. Seventh grade students can view the entire United States with state boundaries and capitals clearly labeled making their study of the US more authentic. Teachers in a multicultural classroom can take the class to the various countries of their students to enhance cultural awareness and the sense of community in the classroom.
Limitations/Language Proficiency Appropriateness
This activity would probably be best used as a total class activity rather than an individual activity. Other limitations of this site lie only in the limits of the teacher’s imagination. This site can be useful in Social Studies and Geography, Science, Cultural Studies, and even to determine distances in Math. In addition, even the newest English Language Learner could appreciate this site since it is completely visual and there are no spoken words other than those delivered by the teacher or classroom discussion.
Methods/Approaches
Several methods and approaches come to mind after reviewing this website. Teachers using the Direct Method would see their students listening in large quantities with natural acquisition by immersion. Teachers using the Cognitive Code Method and Calla could ensure that content is a major focus and that language learning is meaningful. Finally, expansion of listening comprehension and vocabulary, characteristics of the Natural Approach will naturally occur as the teacher discusses the various sights and academic concepts during the” tour” around the world.
Sample Pages (Download required to actually experience google earth.)