Saturday, November 5, 2011

Week-6:Project task -4 reflections

I had only two classes before my university went on a long vacation from November 2, 2011, for the holy 'Eid-ul-azha',the happiest and biggest sacrificing day for the Muslims. The courses are ENG 105: Business English and ENG 101:English reading and composition. As most of the technological changes I suggested so far are for Business English, I've also implemented one change in the last Business English class. As I mentioned earlier, I gave my students a topic 'importance of brand, logo and color in business: special focus on mineral water in Bangladesh' for presentation. I have prepared a rubric for this with the help of rubistar.com. I told students to visit "http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=2111550" and get clear-cut ideas about the presentation to obtain maximum points. Secondly, I told them to send at least two problem questions through emails regarding the preparation of their paper and poster presentation during the vacation, which they already have started to do. Thirdly, I told them to mention the links of websites that they found useful to prepare their presentation in the reference section of their project paper. Finally, I've given them two deadlines for submitting their project paper (For hard copy - November 26 & for soft copy - November 30, 2011). Many of my students liked the idea of sending soft copies through emails as this will save their paper and printing cost and also their time to meet me personally. This time I think they are going to meet the deadline, otherwise they will lose points (-0.5 points per day late). I look forward to seeing their seriousness this time.

In my 2nd class of ENG 101, I've used the interactive powerpoint slide show that I've added in the 'powerpoints' section in the course wiki. The topics are most common ones but they are presented through interesting passages that you can collect from anywhere and give the students in the class. That means the slides give clear vision about what the learners need to do and there is nothing to be dependent on them. They were given handouts with passages and exercises. Students liked this class very much as they saw the instructions on the slides with animation and performed the activities sometimes individually and sometimes in pairs and groups. This was a class where learners had complete concentration on what they did for long 80 minutes. Do not forget that all these learners' level of language proficiency varies from secondary to intermediate.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Zia
    Nice job implementing several technology changes across your classes. It is fun to read how easily this can be done and become a part of the routine.
    Robert

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  2. Hi Robert:
    You are right. But I still think that to make technology become a part of the routine for my students might take a bit longer period in my teaching context. However, if tried regularly by many of the teachers, it will be a usual practice for both the teachers and students.

    Thanks for your comments.

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