PGI410188-41010064DO/ME (20202) - Tecnologias em Ensino e Aprendizagem

As in the other chapters. I really enjoyed the activities proposed by Stanley.

One of the activities I liked the most was the one about skimming and scanning (6.4), in which the students will have to scan QR codes and search for the correct match of pictures and phrases. As you probably have noticed, I really like activities in which students have to stand up and do something. I think it motivates the students because they are not sitting and listening to the teacher, but actively doing something by themselves. Also because activities such as this one provide group work which I believe is very helpful in the learning process.

Perhaps I would change the activity to something in which the groups would have to search for pieces of a specific text. For example, let's say each group has a text and they only have the title and a summary of this text, then they have to scan the QR codes that are in the classroom with parts of the texts and find the ones that are related to their own text. The activity finishes when they have ordered all the parts of their text. 

João, Thaisy and I have already done a "treasure hunt" using QR codes and it worked very well. Unfortunately, I only helped in the preparation of this class because I could not be present on the day it happened, but the students liked it very much! 

Hello, again! 

Overall, I liked the activities on reading proposed by Stanley (2013). I do think we could improve some of the ideas by making them more learner-centered. For instance, the activity word-cloud warmer would be more engaging if learners could create their word clouds using their background knowledge. Also, the teacher could provide a selection of texts that learners could choose. Working in pairs, students could choose one text and prepare a word cloud with the first paragraph of that text for another couple of students to read. We could use the same procedure in the video pre-reading warmer. I loved the idea of the quick-response reading race, coded message trail, and interactive fiction! As I have mentioned before, I enjoy using games in the classroom. I believe students become more motivated and learn better.

Hello!

The reading unit activities are very interesting, as in the previous units, especially when students work in pairs or groups.  As mentioned in our class today, reading is usually an individual task. Therefore, it is important to find alternative ways to make it more integrative during L2 classes in order to explore other skills while developing the activities. Moreover, the author provides ideas for practicing the different reading sub-skills (e.g., skimming, scanning, and inferencing), which does not seem to be a constant concern in L2 classes. Thus, the chapter also helps raise our awareness of the need to help learners improve all the skills for reading ability.

Another point for engaging learners in reading activities is to consider their own interests. We are all likely to be more willing to finish a text we enjoy rather than one we do not. In this sense, activity 6.14 (Fan Fiction) seems quite involving as one can find fanfics from various entertainment productions, such as movies, books, cartoons, anime, manga, etc. However, in my opinion, the discussion in class would be more profitable if all the learners knew about the stories. Therefore, it may be better to choose only one story, for example, a movie for everyone to watch first (students can choose the movie). After watching it, students could find and read the fanfiction texts for later comparisons between the stories and the authors' intentions.

Hi there, everyone!

I agree with Tatiana when she says that some activities should be more learner-centered. However, the author brings some interesting ideas regarding reading strategies, mainly scanning (6.4 and 6.9) and skimming (6.4). These strategies are extremely useful while taking proficiency exams but also in our everyday life, looking for things online. Another creative activity is "Ask the Internet" (6.10). As Janaina has mentioned, the fact that you can work in pairs can promote interaction, which is very beneficial.

Many were the activities I like proposed by Stanley (2013) in his book "Language Learning with Technology". I found some of them quite engaging, not only motivating students to perform them in pairs or in groups, but also having the chance to perform them in or outside the classroom. Some of these activities are activity 6.9 Coded message trail, which involves students moving around school reading clues from QR codes following a trail to reach a final destination, and also activity 6.3 Quick-response reading race, which also involves QR code reading where students are supposed to connect pictures with their descriptions. Some of the other activities I really enjoyed were 6.1 Word-cloud warmer, which would be great as a warm-up activity where students are supposed to draw conclusions from a word-cloud trying to guess what a specif text is about, and also activity 6.14 Interactive fiction, which involves learners using an "interactive fiction" website to create a story where each decision might affect the characters' fate. The activity related to skimming and scanning (6.4) was quite interesting as well, as already mentioned by William. If I worked with groups, I thought about changing activity 6.3 a little bit asking students to use the QR codes writing a short description of themselves to match with their pictures. That would be a great activity for new groups where they do not know each other that well. 

I really liked the activity 6.15 Fan fiction, especially to work with teenagers. As Janaina mentioned, there are fanfictions about any type of narrative and media, such as films, books, tv shows and cartoons, etc, so there is a great range to explore with the students. I think I would adapt this activity to be a reading+writing activity so that they could go deeper in the texts. Students should choose one film/show/book they like and read one fanfiction about it, and then create their own fanfiction, or one chapter of a fanfiction. If students are really interest in the activity, the texts created by them could be posted in one of these websites or in one blog created by them for this purpose. 

Hi, 

As I said in the previous forum, in Stanley’s book, we can reflect and put into practice different activities due to their straightforward pedagogical framework. In the reading part, the suggested activities are easy to adapt to different contexts and different learning goals, such as 6.1 Word-cloud warmer; 6.11 Identifying text-types, 6.15 Fan Fiction. I believe this skill is most highly suitable for online learning because there is a wealth of authentic reading materials from a variety of electronic media.

I would use the “Pre-reading presentation” activity because as a student I always felt more prepared to read and that I could understand better a text after I had a pre-reading activity. I think this type of activity prepares the learner to think about which words may appear, arguments, and so on. To improve this activity I think I would use videos to introduce the topic. 

The activities proposed by Stanley are really good! Like I presented with Fernanda in our class about writing and reading, I would definitely use the activity 6.3 Quick Response Reading Race with students, as it seems a fun activity to train reading. Another activity that got my attention as well was 6.9 Coded Message Trail. I have already done something similar with students in my practicum, it was sort of a treasure hunt. 3 groups of students were on a race to find a treasure. Each of the three groups was separated into two subgroups: the intelligence and the explorers. The intelligence had to solve puzzles inside the class, and the explorers had to find clues that led to other places throughout the school. Part of the clues for the explorers was only made available after the intelligence solved the puzzles, and they communicated through WhatsApp. There were a lot of different clues and puzzles available, from QR codes, to riddles, and a twitter account. I think that this was some sort of adaptation (even though unconscious) of Stanley’s activity that students really enjoyed!

The activities presented last class were really nice. I especially liked the one I developed “ Ask the Internet”  because this is something that our students are used to do, but in a “copy and paste” format. I think the activity proposed by Stanley is very didactic, providing room for critical selection of information. The students select the information, but they have to explain their choices, mentioning why the presented information is relevant for the audience.

There was another activity that called my attention. The activity is “Developing a story” which deals with writing and was presented by Daniele. She suggested the site “imagineforest.com”. I’ve checked the writing ideas on this site and I guess it is an excellent option to provide creative writing classes.  For sure, I will use it with my students.

After watching many interesting presentations, with lots of ideas, Professor Celso pinpointed that the activities presented are meant to develop reading and writing skills, however, nowadays, the integration of the four skills may be present in all the tasks. Thus, teachers can offer engaging and realistic language classes.

The activity I liked the most was 6.3 Quick-response reading race. I really enjoy activities in which students have to move around because from my experience, learning to read can be come a very lonely endeavor, so having students move around while reading at the same time can turn it into something fun and appealing to them. I don't think I would change the way the activity has been proposed by Stanley, but I might have students get together in small groups after scanning the QR codes to discuss their ideas so as to provide them with opportunities for speaking and negotiating meaning.