WEEK 2- Reflection

Feeling as if I made progress from Breakthrough to Waystage Module ( A1 to A2) One module for each week: it makes proficiency in using technology, hopefully.

What I did this week:

The first thing my class mates and I did this week was the search discussion. It was great to discover http://www.noodletools.com/ on which we found a long list of search engines. We all looked at the list and tried a few of the search engines that we liked and searched for a topic that we chose. (My topic was Bologna Process) Beside noodletools, we were given some tips for the sake of a good search using search engines. We were provided "Technology Tip of the Month, June, 2009: Better Web Searching" by Deborah Healey. I read each tip very carefully as search is a big and important part of my life. This document taught me very simple but handy tips and I liked the idea of using some signs with the key words.

The second thing we did in Week 2 was our task, which was writing a learning objective using ABCD model. We were asked to describe one of our classes and share a learning objective for that class on Nicenet. The most interesting part of this task was that Donna told us that this objective would be something that we would share with our students as well. Of course it took me some time to get what exactly ABCD model was as it was the first time I had heard of it. I studied the purpose, function and types of learning objectives. Beside the reading document Donna provided us, I searched more on ABCD model and found a clear presentation of it on https://oct.sfsu.edu/design/outcomes/index.html

As well as ABCD model, I read the documents including information about Bloom's Taxonomy, which I already know, appreciate and strongly agree with.

As Donna commented on my ABCD objective writing task, I did it well and she appreciated the way I gave the background of my students and she found it useful. Thank you Donna, my dear encouraging teacher :)

Last but not least for this week, we my classmates ignited the wick for the final project, which is of great importance. The first step was not so hard but coming with an idea for the project is not easy at all. As my 3rd task this week I gave information on the following topics:

1. The population of the class
   


2. The setting of the classroom
   


3. The technology available
   


4. The goal of the project
   


5. The students' needs

These are what I have done so far this week. Now I realise Donna really makes us work hard :) , which is good. I really benefit from this course and I will tell about what I learned while doing all these in a minute.

What I learned this week:

Fulfilling all the assignments above was not so easy actually but they were all very formative. As I mentioned in the subtitle under the main title "WEEK 2- Reflection", I feel myself improved even it two weeks.

This week, not only the tasks by Donna but also the posts by my classmates taught me quite much. Here is the list of my acquisitions:

1.Out of search discussion:

• How you search is as important as where you search.


• Web is incredibly large, which is difficult to deal with and I still think that this is a kind of Data Pollution. Finding the correct data takes time but sharings by EFL teachers from different parts of the world (my dear experienced classmates) makes our hard work easier.

2. Out of ABCD Objective Writing:

• Writing objectives are almost as difficult as giving the lesson.



• ABCD Model for writing objectives is really handy, clear and to the point with a description of Audience, Behavior, Condition and Degree.



• We should write observable, measurable (by both quantitive and qualitative criteria) and unambiguous objectives which are clearly written and specific. Above all, what we write as a learning objective must be result-oriented with a degree.



• It is not easy to write the behavior part as it includes cognitive, psycho motor, affective and interpersonal domains.

3. Out of Bloom's Taxonomy:

Bloom's Taxonomy is worth spending a lot of time on it and there is much more to learn about it. The only thing I knew about Taxonomy was the Lower and Higher Order Thinking skills and the sub categories-remembering to creating- but now I see that in the Technology Domain there is a lot more to discover. However, I need more time to work on it so I won't write about mu acquisitions about the technology domain of Taxonomy.

4. Out of the first step of the final project:

• If I am thinking of running a project with a class, there are several things that I should take into account. These are written above in orange, so I won't repeat them. In my writing lessons, I always tell my students to leave a topic if they cannot come up with any ideas due to lack of world knowledge on it. I have detected a similarity between essay or paragraph outlining and project planning. If the requirements cannot be supplied, leave the project.

5. Out of Kamal's post about the project:

There lives a group of people called Dalits, also called out caste or untouchables and I felt really sorry for them. I respected Kamal more and more owing to the holy effort he pays in the Access program.

6. Out of Donna's approach.

I should be more patient and tolerant towards my students, just as Donna is towards us. I see it really works. She never discourages and makes me more enthusiastic. An ideal teacher. Thank you Donna.

How can I apply what I learned in my classes:

1. I can teach my students the tips I have learned and assign them a search homework, write it on their blogs and comment on each others'. We may also vote for the best search engine once a month and choose the best ten to use for the next search task.

2. Abcd model is primarily something for us, the teachers, but sharing it with students will make everything clearer in their view. We can start each day or lesson with a fun activity to share the objective with them. For example;
We can write one word of the objective on plastic plates. One plate for each word. Then we can jumble the words, I mean the plates. Each student gets a plate, they stand in a circle and try to make a meaningful sentence, which is actually the objective of the day. So that they understand what they are expected to achieve in the end very well as they spend time on the sentence.

That is all for Week 2. I hope we all do well with the next week's tasks.

Greetings,

Nehir