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Session 3: A Closer Look at Technologies and Their Uses for FL
For Session Three:
-Go to and save on your drive as a bookmark C.B. Putnam FL Teaching Using Internet Resources Home Page. We will use this site throughout this session.
Goal 1: to examine the range of Uses for Interactive technologies, such as e-mail and Bulletin Boards
a.EMAIL projects:
-Read Introduction and discuss the Rationale for this site.
Click on back icon to return to Putnam Home Page.
-Read General FL Resources and devote a block of time to list the types of individual and group email projects mentioned here.
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Brainstorm then jot down ideas for using email (within the school and with others) with classes at all levels (individually and in a group) in your teaching place. Return to Putnam Home Page.
-Click on Resources for French Classes then on French Language Pen Pals and On-Line Forums for the most extensive selection.
-Read through the list quickly then select and read Schools Online Modern Languages Home Page, clicking on Teachers' Area.
-Begin by reading Schools OnLine: Some issues to be considered. Then read Ideas for learning activities and use as a model its clearly stated identification of skills and appropriate activities organized by proficiency levels.
-read other topics in the Teachers' Area as a preliminary step to subsequent lesson plans. Discuss findings with your group.
-Read other sites on the Putnam French Pen Pals Page, dividing up list among participants. Report findings and reactions to group.
-From these sites, list a few open-ended ideas and class projects. Connect these in writing with the National Standards and with your classes, by age and ACTFL proficiency and grade level.
-discuss with group, then adapt those the group finds most interesting, suggesting variations appropriate for Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced levels and for FLES and MS.
-Scroll down Pen pal Page to Global Schoolnet Network Projects Registry. Click on visit the projects registry to select a few sites to analyse then share the following information with your group: the clearly defined length; the contact people; backround information about those participating; specific outcomes and rationale; steps explaining the project's activities. Discuss the format of a selected number of on-line projects at this site and in your group, write up the specifics of a format for use with your future projects. Explain how these fit with the goals of your class then adapt one or two for use with diferent FL levels.
La Chanson du Québec et Ses Cousines. This is THE site for artists from France, Québec and the francophone world. A wonderful project including an interactive component is to assign each student or pair one artist: students are to pull up a biography of an artist available on this site then select two or three of their artist's songs to print up, research as poetry and to record as a mix in order to teach to classmates. Students may post questions and seek music information on the site's babillard. A fabulous project: students enjoy critiquing and hearing the music; the content has its own value and the reference biographies are excellent for the past tenses and other linguistic givens.
-Return to Pen Pals page and visit other sites. Assess the clarity of each, according to your guidelines then offer improvements to make each more effective.
b.Bulletin Boards: Projects and Activities
I update this section constantly and for now will suggest activities using French-speaking sources. For teachers of other FL, click on the French pen pal page then later on (Your FL) Resources for useful links.
-Go to Accroche-toi and then to Escale Discussion groups to find the most popular topics.
-Note topics such as jokes, ghost stories and riddles that allow kids to edit L1 offerings to share with email pals. Think about the kind of jokes in English that reflect a universal sense of surprise and play on words.
Share jokes with your Fl email pals. Share puns (include lexique/answers in another part of your mail) and other predetermined kinds of jokes (elephant jokes, oops! silly me jokes). Be cautious searching jokes on the Internet since much online humor is often not appropriate for school exchanges.
-List other useful topics that your classes might like to build into a FL email exchange then share with your teaching group.
Create an online interactive genre for both groups to write together. Write up a series of ghost story opening paragraphs to send to other group for their additions. Specify the numbers of parts for each serial group-write; define the scope of the project with the exchange teachers and write up what works!
- List a variety of online projects then choose three to adapt. Plan how to use each one for all levels, Beginning to Advanced.
-Create an online Debate and draw up a broad list of topics to suggest for your classes. Identify which ones might work for each age level and share with your group.
-Since Bulletin boards are relay or non-simultaneous, discuss how else you might build them into your ongoing exchange plans.
Goal Two: Examine range of Uses for On-line databases
a. In-class simulations:
-Read Putnam's Teaching activities using newspapers and headlines for ideas on how to create a class FL newsroom with world and regional headline news and weather for any season.
-Identify online editions of your local press for use with your exchange partners. If not yet online, include in your exchange a regular section in English or (in the FL) with headlines of the top local and regional news (from page one) of your local newspaper. Write up one paragraph giving backround information (why this in the news).
-Track local news sources for one week, listing specific references to the FL country. Ask your exchange class to do the same then compare with penpals.
To do:
Break Putnam's suggested newspaper teaching activities into manageageable steps, noting scope and sequence. Specify adaptations needed for your class use. Share with group, then alter each idea based on group suggestions.
-Request travel information from your exchange pals. Go to Teaching Activities Using Simulated Trips and plan a year-long focus for each class you teach. Divide the focal areas into semester units for creating lesson plans that we will work on, in upcoming Online sessions. Explain to your email pals and let them contribute in particular ways. In turn, focus on your world: what can your students contribute to bring a full view of their reality to light for their partners? Discuss with your teaching group "getting beyond stereotypes" and ways to weave this into an exchange.
-select Putnam's Detailed Lesson Plans for specific ways to use the Internet in a class unit "A Simulated Trip".
b. Plan a Class Web Page as part of an Exchange with others:
-go to Putnam's FL Food, Art and Literature Projects for ideas on using existing databases. Select a food project and create a comfort food class web site and ask others from around the world to contribute. Brainstorm projects and add follow-up activities to make them authentic and of high interest.
-go to Putnam's Magazine site then also to Projects for Food, Art, Literature and develop projects and Units for Content Teaching in the FL: history projects; math games; social studies units; language safari (grammar/ verb tense searches/ adjective searches); science; music projects.
-Focus on one specific project site per participant; jot down topics of interest to share with your group. Be careful to select units that reflect your curriculum and goals.
-Begin to plan out a scope and sequence for the group's favorites.
Read Session Four for Plans in Detail.
End of Session Three