Within the ESL classroom when implemented wisely, technology can truly innovative students' learning experience and enhance their acquisition and practice of the English language. Different technological resources allow ELLs to discover the language to new extents as it exposes them to the aspects, usage, and lexicon of English through diverse approaches. I constructed my ESL technology-rich lesson plan to involve the elements of online research, virtual environments, and peer collaboration. I intend for this lesson to promote several fundamental learning criteria.
This lesson will grant my students the opportunity to learn how to operate the Google Maps web tool. They will become familiar with how to customize and navigate a Google map. The activity that the lesson is tied to requires the ELLs to explore New York City (mainly Manhattan) on Google Maps, in order to select three major sites of interest on which they will have to conduct a brief online research. Their online research will be limited to the specific information that is needed to satisfactorily answer five listed objective questions. Prior to the students initiating their virtual endeavor, I will first display the process of opening, managing, and sharing the Google Map on my personal laptop along with a projector and screen. I will demonstrate the steps to operating the controls (zooming, rotating, moving) and to setting landmarks with commentary by inserting push pins. Each group will be requested to confirm their three sites of interest, in order to avoid conflict.
The presentation of this lesson on the Google spreadsheet was organized according to the scale of emphasis I have placed on the skills and knowledge that will be acquired throughout the lesson. I began by introducing the component of student production. I consider this to be one of the chief aspects of the lesson since it challenges the the ELLs to apply their current English competence along with the new content they will learn through research (data of NYC touristic sites), in order to construct valid responses. They are to develop their responses in a genuine and concise manner, articulating through their own language proficiency (copy and paste shall be rejected), the variety of researched information corresponding to their selected sites. The research will be guided by the five objective questions that were designed to assure that relevant and sufficient information is obtained about each touristic site for it to be promoted.
The next component that is displayed is the area of evaluation. The ELLs will be evaluated based on the several facets of participation, effort , and production that the lesson will demand of them. The collective learning experience includes reflecting on which search engine and webpages to consult, reading various sources of data, and being exposed to new terms/uses of language related to New York City and the chosen sites of interest. As a responsive teacher, I will be aware of which students are actively participating in the assigned activity and those that are not. The third area of importance is communication. The lesson activity establishes the environment for the students to interact, exchange ideas, and work in unison to achieve a common goal. Each student will be working at his/her own computer (adjacent to each other). Therefore in the time that the class period provides, they should be able to complete the lesson task. In order to accomplish this however, the students must delegate the research and work so that each individual is concentrating on a different touristic site to complete. Nonetheless, since all the participation of this task revolves around the internet and the virtual setting of Google Maps, if any of the students do not complete the assignment before the end of class they can continue their work individually on their computer or the media center after school.
The following area of analysis concerns the underlying processing and distinguishing of legitimate information that the ELLs will have to do. From the multiple sources of data that the students will browse, they must be able to judge which information is accurate, relevant, and of reliable origin (Official NYC website versus independent publisher, blog). As previously mentioned, the students are not allowed to simply copy and paste the online information that addresses the objective question. Therefore, they must analyze how to restate the information in a effective and concise way, using their own words.
The last category shown in the spreadsheet is the factor of access to technology. Despite the fact that this is the last section on the spreadsheet, the presence of the technological resources that are utilized are without question the backbone this lesson. The element of technology is what practically allows this lesson to be carried out in the first place. Through access to the technological services and devices offered in the media center, the students are able to discover and apply the potential of technology toward their learning experience. The ELLs will learn to manage technology in a multi-fuctional manner that facilites their research process, writing endeavors, and acquisition of new language and academic content. As the instructor, my access to technology is also fundamental for me to demonstrate the lesson instructions and evaluate the students' work. The presence of tools such as my laptop, internet connection, plagiarism detection software, a Google account/Google maps, and the projector/screen all play a vital role in allowing this lesson to be imparted successfully.
In conclusion, I am confident that if this lesson plan were to be conducted it would effectively engage the students in a dynamic learning experience in which technology will transform the knowledge and skills that are required by the curriculum. By implementing these technology-based strategies and activities into my instruction, I hope it has the lasting effect of awakening my students' awareness and curiosity for the potential of technology for exploring the English language and achieving everyday endeavors.
The link to the Google spreadsheet is: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuwMUFKQz3bNdFZNVzJNUlFKdkdraUV5TWhzM0ZELUE
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