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As Prensky (2001) noted, our students are "digital natives," meaning that they were raised in the technology-driven society we find ourselves in today. They are familiar with the social aspects of the Internet and can become proficient at using apps due to their innate sense of curiosity and familiarity with the digital world. Therefore, integrating pedagogy with interactive tools and mobile devices will create more engaging lessons in which students have the opportunity to become their own teachers. Empowering students in their own learning has also been a goal of current ESL methodology. Allowing students the chance to demonstrate their skills with technology is very similar to allowing an ESL student the opportunity to speak about his or her own cultural experiences. As we design lessons with interactive tools, it is necessary that we give students the opportunity to demonstrate their 21st century skills as well as the freedom to experiment with the technology they are familiar with in order to share their own experiences.
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ESL Methods & Interactive Tools and Mobile Devices
As with collaborative authoring, interactive tools allow for interaction within ESL activities. However, the difference lies in the fact that students involved in creative authoring are working towards a final product while students using mobile devices interactively are engaged in "the moment." For example, quizzes being conducted with mobile devices while answers are polled and presented on an interactive whiteboard present a new kind of "hands-on" activity. Applications accessed on mobile devices replace scripts and illustrations meant for drafting, editing, and publication; moreover, the outcomes of the activity are instantly transmitted rather than part of a processes towards a final, group-designed publication.
Independently authored ESL projects include life murals and language experience activities (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005). Life murals involve the creation of pictures pertaining "to significant events, people, and places" in the life of a student and serve as a scaffold to writing personal narratives. The language experience approach (Dixon & Nessel, 1983; Tinajero & Calderon, 1988, as cited in Peregoy & Boyle, 2005) involves student-dictated stories that are subsequently reread by the student and often illustrated for display in the classroom. As students are authoring and publishing their works from personal experience, they gain a sense of ownership over the words they choose and pride in their work. This provides an excellent scaffold towards the writing process. These activities can also be accomplished with storyboard/comic strip applications (e.g., Storyboard That, Comic Life), virtual bulletin boards (e.g., Padlet) and also animated software that aids in digital storytelling (e.g., iMovie, PowToon, Animoto). These apps allow their stories to become three-dimensional, and also expand their audience beyond the classroom display wall.
(Watch this digital story by an ESL student. She enjoys talking about her family and home culture.)
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if the student playsstudent-plays are recorded
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site where theretheir peers can
(Watch this video on the "interaction" component of the SIOP Model. How can tools for creative authoring enhance a SIOP Lesson?)
Either individually or collaboratively, the scope of purpose and audience is expanded through the implementation of applications that allow for online publishing. Therefore, the creative aspect becomes closer to a process as described by Sir Robinson (Azzam, 2009). Consequently, effective scaffolding must be maintained, especially for ESL students. For instance, storyboarding and drafting can be done with paints and crayons before moving to the digital world. Technology can be a great resource for creativity and empowerment, but I believe the process should be taken in small steps so as not to frustrate young language learners.
ESL Methods & Tools for Research and Organization
Throughout my career as a graduate student in the field of TESOL, the importance of scaffolding with graphic organizers has consistently been impressed upon me. Typically, these worksheets are used as scaffolds towards a larger product (e.g., a Venn diagram is used to create a compare-and-contrast essay; a timeline is used as an outline for a social studies essay). Furthermore, they are often used as informal, formative assessments. ESL teachers rarely collect graphic organizers for grades and commonly glance at them to see where a student stands among his or her peers. With the emergence of technology that allows students to organize the same information in interactive ways (i.e., through embedding multimedia), students can be more proactive in their research while the scaffolding effect remains present. Moreover, teachers can assess not only the content, but also the actual use of the technology by evaluating the creative ways students integrate images, video, and sound into these applications. Through the use of technology for research and organization, English language learners (ELLs) are practicing language skills, delving into the academic content, and also becoming savvy with technology they previously only used for personal enjoyment.
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ESL teachers use various methods of scaffolding to meet the "strategies" component of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Method as proposed by Echevarría, Vogt, and Short (2013, pp. 115-42). However, the implementation of graphic organizers in an ESL classroom is not limited to organizing data. A prime goal for scaffolding is the explicit teaching of cognitive learning strategies, metacognitive learning strategies, and also basic language learning strategies (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short 2013, pp. 117-8). Therefore, students must be made to understand the purposes for which they are completing graphic organizers as well as strategies for completing them so that they can apply them in other areas and contexts. That being stated, I believe teachers must use class time to explain any digital tools for research and organization or make succinct tutorials for their implementation. The big advantage of using interactive graphic organizers is the ability to embed them with video and images making them more three-dimensional as opposed to pen-and-paper worksheets. However, ESL teacher must keep in mind the goal of fostering learning strategies that can be applied in other subject areas as they are learning this technology.
(Watch this video on the "strategies" component of the SIOP Model. How can tools for research and organization enhance a SIOP Lesson?)
References
Echevarría, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. J. (2013). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP Model. A. M. Ramos (Ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
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(2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.natives, digital immigrants. On the
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(Watch this video on the "lesson delivery" component of the SIOP Model. How can interactive tools and mobile devices enhance a SIOP Lesson?)
Interactive Tools & Mobile Devices in an ESL Setting
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important for ELLsEnglish language learners (ELLs) as confident
Nearpod: Technology like PowerPoint presentations is often used as a supplement to teacher-centered lectures. Nearpod places these presentations in the hands of the students as they are accessing them on mobile devices. Consequently, teacher-centered lectures can be transformed into round-table discussion, thus increasing engagement through interaction. Moreover, this application allows individual students to manipulate the material being presented in order to exchange ideas. ELLs can benefit from this type of interactive discussion as it allows for more student-talk time and more comprehensible input from their peers.
Padlet: I previously mentioned Padlet as a tool for research and organization; however, it also provides an interaction among students using mobile devices. For example, a teacher could use this application to present a topic and then ask students to populate the bulletin board with links, images, videos, and other multimedia in a way that the whole class is offering their own background information. In an ESL setting, ELLs can learn from each other as they are sharing their individual knowledge of the world. In this way, schema can be greatly expanded and a larger activity can be front-loaded.
(Watch this video on the "lesson delivery" component of the SIOP Model. How can interactive tools and mobile devices enhance a SIOP Lesson?)
Interactive Tools & Mobile Devices in an ESL Setting
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the list. Similarly,On the other hand, less confident
Nearpod: Technology like PowerPoint presentations is often used as a supplement to teacher-centered lectures. Nearpod places these presentations in the hands of the students as they are accessing them on mobile devices. Consequently, teacher-centered lectures can be transformed into round-table discussion, thus increasing engagement through interaction. Moreover, this application allows individual students to manipulate the material being presented in order to exchange ideas. ELLs can benefit from this type of interactive discussion as it allows for more student-talk time and more comprehensible input from their peers.
Padlet: I previously mentioned Padlet as a tool for research and organization; however, it also provides an interaction among students using mobile devices. For example, a teacher could use this application to present a topic and then ask students to populate the bulletin board with links, images, videos, and other multimedia in a way that the whole class is offering their own background information. In an ESL setting, ELLs can learn from each other as they are sharing their individual knowledge of the world. In this way, schema can be greatly expanded and a larger activity can be front-loaded.
necessary scaffolds atfor building skills
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While I consider myself a proficient researcher, I came of age when my teachers and professors were extremely wary of sources found on the Internet. In addition, it was much easier to differentiate credible sites from unreliable ones. ESL teachers must guide their students through the quagmire of information found on the internet and help students become successful data gatherers. While the information is still in the hands of the students as they plug it into apps for research and organization, I think it will become much clearer for teachers to recognize what is appropriate and what is not as opposed to viewing it on pen-and-paper graphic organizers. As research skills are greatly important at the college level, preparing students to do research with these tools is invaluable for their academic careers.
research much earlierearlier, there is
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While I consider myself a proficient researcher, I came of age when my teachers and professors were extremely wary of sources found on the Internet. In addition, it was much easier to differentiate credible sites from unreliable ones. ESL teachers must guide their students through the quagmire of information found on the internet and help students become successful data gatherers. While the information is still in the hands of the students as they plug it into apps for research and organization, I think it will become much clearer for teachers to recognize what is appropriate and what is not as opposed to viewing it on pen-and-paper graphic organizers. As research skills are greatly important at the college level, preparing students to do research with these tools is invaluable for their academic careers.
Supplemental Links
Technology for the ESL Classroom - This site includes an index of applications and tools for various uses in an ESL classroom setting.
Dr. James Cummin'sCummins' home page
CAL - Center for Applied Linguistics - The site provides information on linguistic and cultural diversity.
References
