Class Notes - September 5, 2007

Audio as an Instructional Media (presentation)

- Firevox – plug-in from Firefox that allows students to have text read to them (ELL)
- Materials streamed online
- “Voice of America” News in diff. languages. http://www.voanews.com/english/portal.cfm
- Library of Congress: archived audio material
- Radio Diaries (ELL) http://www.radiodiaries.org/
- Youth Speaks (LA) http://www.youthspeaks.org/
- Youth Radio http://www.youthradio.org/indexx.shtml
- Podcasting – increases students’ awareness of tone, intonation, speed of delivery, and expression
*helps students focus on content and delivery
*provides “virtual window” into schoolroom
*creative outlet
For ELL:
- Listening skills used twice as often as speaking in classroom
- Listening is the first skill used in a new language, then speaking follows
- http://www.esl-lab.com/
- http://shiporsheep.com/
- http://www.elllo.org/
- http://www.rong-chang.com/qa2/
- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
- 50% of school day is spent listening
- Hearing: sounds coming into brain. Listening: receiving sound, processing it and finding meaning.

I'm teaching an ESL class this year and I've been looking at different websites that provide listening exercises. This group just made my life much easier. I'm excited to look at these websites and see how well they work.

• Note: I've found that using the Youth Radio, Youth Speaks and Radio Diaries are a great hit with my students. We've done a few listening practices and used these sites. I'm hoping to start podcasting soon. That will help the students hear how they pronounce English and work on improving their issues.
• Dec. 3, 2007

Teacher Lecture

- According to Smith & Ragan:

Instruction, training, and teaching initially seemed to mean the same thing. However, they do have slight differences. Instruction is more focused on educational experiences. For example, I took an online literature class. The focus was on Romantic Literature, and we were very focused on that particular subgroup. Training hones in on a specific skill, like sewing or tiling, something that can be applied almost immediately. Finally, teaching generally refers to an experience facilitated by a human. This made me think of how I learned to make tapa cloth. My grandma taught me step-by-step. I watched her, she helped me practice, and I did it on my own.

• Instruction: focused educational experiences
• Training: experiences focused on v. specific skills that are normally applied almost immediately
• Teaching: learning experiences that are facilitated by a human being

3 Questions to Answer in Instructional Design

* Where do we need to go? (Analysis)
* How will we get there? (Development)
* How will we know when we’ve arrived? (Evaluation)

This refers back to ADDIE, and classroom teaching practice. What's my core content? What are my objectives? How am I going to teach the class and get them to meet the objectives?


*Guard against the bias…not everything is an instructional problem!!


When designing instruction, it's vital to know what your needs are. Needs could include, but definitely are not limited to: learner needs, client needs, material needs, time needs, and so on. Figure out what your needs are before designing instruction. It's also important to evaluate what types of needs your dealing with.

Types of Needs

· Normative Needs: compared to a national standard
· Comparative Needs: compared to another group (SAT’s, ACT, etc)
· Felt Needs: expressed desire to improve performance
· Expressed Needs: action to improve performance
· Anticipated/Future Needs: Identified future changes
· Critical Incident Needs: rare but significant incidents that may occur**

Clarify Instructional Goals

-Which things can be solved by instruction? Which can’t?
- Somewhere along the line you’re going to have to have a goal. Create a standard.
- Be aware of Means vs. Ends
-Goal statement: what is the learner going to be able to do?
* Watch your verbs….verb determines how you’re going to measure learning
*ASK QUESTIONS!!!! Don’t take a goal statement at face value.
* Goals should be more specific than general, although not as specific as objectives

*** Learning Goals: statements of the purpose or intention, what learners should be able to do at the conclusion of instruction