Different Learners Require Different Techniques

I came across a really neat site that offers suggestions for how we can use different resources and different topics to teach English. For example, a student might struggle with English, but loves drama. There is an entire page dedicated to how a teacher might tailor an English assignment so that it centers on some aspect of drama.

This site includes everything from lesson plans to PowerPoint presentations to sample assignments.

It is actually developed by the Education Bureau of Hong Kong, so most of the grammar examples/lesson are geared toward learning English as a second language. However, the lessons themselves are easily tailored. I think this site is valuable for any teacher looking for ways to present material in a new, interesting way that will benefit and excite the students.

Writing Fix

I came across a great resource for English teachers. Often students struggle knowing what to write about. Teachers don´t necessarily want to dictate what to write about, but students often crave that guidance. WritingFix is a wonderful site that offers everything from daily writing prompts to full lesson plans based on commonly used literary works. It also provides writing resources concerning the different points in the writing process (pre-write, revision, etc.). This site is more geared toward teachers than students, but students could access it for writing prompt ideas.

My Personal Technology Project

For my personal technology project, I would like to explore PicLits. This site provides pictures and words and it allows one to drag and drop words to form poems or narratives. This would help students who struggle coming up with topics to write about. It requires more abstract thinking, and it could engage students who normally struggle with the typical approaches to writing. In my opinion, this way of writing would appeal to many different kinds of learners.

I also would like to learn more about WebQuest. I think that it will be good tool for researchingas well as creating. This seems like a wonderful way of assessing students' mastery of a specific content area. Making a WebQuest could possibly be a test assignment at the end of the unit. Or, a teacher could utilize this resource for group projects. Each group could perform one of the WebQuest tasks pertinent to the subject matter being covered in class. After they have completed it, each group would be responsible for presenting what they learned to the class. This way, a lot of information could be covered and all of the students are responsible for learning and teaching.

I would like to explore both of these resources in depth for this project. I'm not positive how I could use both of them for the same assignment yet. As I begin to learn both of them in greater depth, I will look for a way to combine these two resources.

Huckleberry Finn Book Report

One example of how a teacher could have his/her student use video technology would be to have them do Digital Book Reports. They have to pick out a theme of the book to present and relate to the audience as a whole. They should use pictures, narrations, and quotes from the book.

This book would most likely relate to high school students, but this project could work with any age level. One section of Utah's core curriculum is called "Comprehension of a Literary Text."
This assignment would help any grade focus on comprehending a literary text, but it would specifically help achieve 3a (identifying character, plot, etc.), 3b (analyzing characters and characterization), and 3c (identifying themes). These basic guidelines apply to grades seven through twelve.

I chose to do my video on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This is an example of what a student might do: