“Newspaper Days” – an internet project worth consideration

November 28, 2008 at 9:03 am (Course work)
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Short description of the project:

The project “Newspaper Day” started in 1991 in Great Britain among hundreds of English schools. Since then, it takes place almost every year.

THE AIM:

Students are supposed to produce a newspaper of current articles and topics of one day. They start to search for information either on the internet, in daily newspapers and magazines or other sources at 09:00 a.m. and are assumed to finish their production on the same day, since the newspaper has to be submitted on the day of issue. Besides the written articles, pupils have to do some research and compose their own articles on school events, local politics and other topics up-to-date.

Found on:

Donath Aurich, Reinhard: International Newspaper Days. 26 Nov. 2008. <http://www.englisch.schule.de/newspape.htm>.
chalkboard-and-newspaper

  1. In what way is the New Media used in this project?

    2. New Media is used as a research tool to provide information on local, national and sport news to create a newspaper within one day. Students can browse online newspapers such as “The Sunday Times”, “The Irish Times”, “The Guardian” search for articles on Reuters (a well-known online British news agency) or just watch out for news on BCC, CNN, TIME etc.

    The newspaper can either be printed or created online.

  2. How does the topic integrate with the curriculum?

    3. Though the project is presented as a “newsgathering tradition across the curriculum”, in my opinion it is possible to cover some of the aims which are prescribed by the syllabus. Since pupils will spend one day only to create this newspaper, it is possible to dispense with prewritten contents for the sake of one day.

  3. Which skills do the students need/ can they acquire besides the bare content?
    • Enhancement of social skills, since children are supposed to work collaboratively on one topic
    • Time management is trained
    • Students are given a real deadline which they have to be considerate of if they wish to participate in the contest
    • Improvement of writing skills
    • Students are supposed to write for a real audience which means that their articles have to be accurate and concise
    • Methodological skills like the command of web design and programming are improved due to the composition of an online newspaper
    • Motivation towards language learning is facilitated, since it is likely to assume that everybody will enjoy this activity
  4. What is the role of the teacher in the project?

    5. The teacher operates as the organizator of the project who convinces the school principle and other English teachers to join in the project, provides information on what is required to join it, ascertains whether the school has the required technical equipment for the participants, convinces his class to join in and register for this project, prepares and supplies his students with appropriate information tools online and finally supports them during the “Newpaper Day” itself and evaluates the opinions on whether the students liked this event.

  5. Does using the New Media have any advantages over traditional teaching in this project?

    6. The research tools on the internet make it possible to get and evaluate news of the day in a few minutes which is quite an advantage to common printed newspapers and magazines. Online information saves a lot of time and money, since on the internet students can get news for free without having to go to the supermarket (which also needs time!), to buy several newspapers, go back to school and start reading them. Thus information is offered to the whole class. Students can even read the same article all at once without having to wait for others having finished reading the article.

  6. How did the students like the project (or would probably like)? Would they be motivated?

    7. Here are some reports from teachers who already participated in this event:

    “I need to tell you that every single one of the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves today and I’m exhausted! All came dressed in their ‘office gear’; shirts & ties etc. Our attached advisor was extremely impressed when she visited today! But the biggest success of the day was seeing two of our reluctant writers hammering away at keyboards as if their lives depended on it! Thank you!”

    “I am proud of this class – they have not experienced news reporting before and have worked well as a team (which doesn’t happen normally).”

    “Another enjoyable, yet extremely tiring Newsday. All the things that could go wrong did, like children wiping over each other’s work and printer problems, but we coped! When is the next one?“

    Obviously, students who participated in this project before had a lot of fun with it!

  7. Would you personally like to try this project with students? Why or why not?

    8. I would like to try out this project, because I think that this is a great alternative to train methodological, social and language skills as well as to motivate students for authentic and creative writing!

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Internet and Communication

November 23, 2008 at 5:40 pm (Course work)
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blog-cartoon11

When we enter a teenage room, we will mostly find a child sitting in front of the computer, chatting with his/ her friends, playing online games or writing blog posts. Most parents worry about their children’s preference to spend their free time on browsing the net. However, since pupils like to join online communities and chatting with their friends, we as future teachers should utilize their “hobby” for the purpose of language learning.

There are some Do’s and Dont’s which a teacher should be aware of and pay attention to while planning a lesson.

DO’s:

  • Use communication tools only if they seem appropriate to enhance social and language skills
  • Keep record of students’ communication in order to reflect over it and correct the mistakes
  • Offer the possibility of online teacher consultation after class, when students have questions concerning their homework
  • Use the net to establish e-mail friendships betweens your own students and those of an English speaking country
  • Make your lessons more creative by the use of synchronic (Student/Expert Chat, Creative writing, Use of MOOs to enhance creativity and programming skills) and asynchronic methods (Writing E-Mails, browsing forums and leave comments, start online discussions on certain topics etc.)
  • Do not hesitate to contact teachers from other schools in order to exchange teaching experience
  • Set up joint projects with students from other classes or even other schools

⇒ Make use of intercultural communication and let students look beyond their noses

  • Keep the main target in mind, namely to enhance students’ language skills, so…
    1. Make your students aware of the existence of the “internet slang” which both includes acronyms and abbreviations which might be confusing at the first sightFor instance: BION = “Believe it or not”; AKA = “Also known as” etc.
    2. Remind your students of the netiquette which composes a set of rules on how to communicate on the internet properly.

DONT’s:dog

  • Let students post sth. anonymously from home

⇒ You will never be sure whether it really was your student who did the homework

  • Use online tools as often as possible

⇒ Avoid online communication if face-to-face assistance can be utilized

  • Make students get on with ambiguous contents on their own

⇒ Try to eliminate ambiguities which may arise through synchronous and asynchronous communication

⇒ Intervene if necessary by making use of your administration rights

  • Persist upon group work, even if you suggest that it will end up in total chaos

⇒ Think of an alternative approach which is more suitable to convey your message

  • Give unskilled students difficult tasks, in order to show them up in front of the class

⇒ Take care of those students who have little experience with the use of the internet and do not overcharge them with workload

⇒ Think about how you can improve their situation

  • Let students work with all information they find on the net

⇒ Be aware of information overflow and offer your students only a range of sites which they can use to solve their task

All in all, I believe that communication tools are worth considering to teaching English since (according to students’ free time activities) they anyway play a big role in adults’ lives. In my opinion, the integration of online communication into the English classroom will show students on how they can use the net for more reasonable purposes, such as language learning. However we should also be aware of the flaws on the net which might bring about some problems to our teaching. Chaotic group work or students’ insufficient knowledge on handling with online tools may lead to unforeseen difficulties which a teacher should be flexible about. Thus, we should not disclose traditional methods which are sometimes more efficient to our purpose.

MY ADVICE:
Include parents into the monitoring of homework in order to show them the positive effect of online tools to their children’s language progress.

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