Emily Saavedra
This method gives students the chance to set up their own personalized online magazine using ZITE. First students choose topics of interest and are asked to select an article that they enjoyed or found interesting. They then record a brief summary or commentary on the article using SOUNDNOTE, and share their recordings with each other.
Name of Method: | Exploiting Language Skills through Creating an Online Magazine |
Author: | Emily Saavedra DWC - English Faculty |
Apps / Tools used: | Zite and SoundNote |
Difficulty of Use (1-5): | 1 |
Subject: | English/ESL |
Level: | Foudations, Level 4 |
21st Century Literacies: | Basic Literacy, Critical Literacy, Digital Literacy, Media Literacy and Global Literacy |
Blooms Understandings: | Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, Creating |
Gardiners Multiple Intelligences: | Linguistic Intelligence, Interpersonal Intelligence |
T&L Methods Used: | Peer-to-Peer learning, Group Based Learning, Flipped Classroom |
Activity Time: | 2 Hours |
Short Description: | This method gives students the chance to set up their own personalized online magazine using ZITE. First students choose topics of interest and are asked to select an article that they enjoyed or found interesting. They then record a brief summary or commentary on the article using SOUNDNOTE, and share their recordings with each other. |
Lesson Plan: | Following is a brief lesson plan: Part I 1. Instructor walks students through setting up their own personalized magazine using ZITE (or a similar app). 2. Instructor asks students to select a minimum of 5 topics of personal interest to start with and students set up their magazine. 3. Instructor reviews skimming and scanning techniques, and then student scan for topics of interest. 4. The instructor allocates 20 minutes for individual silent reading time of the topics. 5. Instructor asks students to be able to choose 2 articles of interest at the end of this time and there is a class discussion about the topics they chose. Part II 6. The instructor demonstrates the use of the recording function in SoundNote. 7. The instructor asks students to choose one article. 8. Students open SoundNote and type the title of the article in (or they can copy and paste). 9. Students record a brief description, ±2 mins, of what they remember from the article and their personal opinion about it (they should be discouraged from writing a script to read from). Students should focus on fluency and content. 10. Students may record, listen and re-record if necessary until they are happy with their recording. Part III 11. Students choose a partner they trust and physically exchange iPads. 12. The partner should listen to the recording, pausing when necessary, and try to type what they hear. 13. The partner can use the pen function to annotate, any areas for improvement, discussion, questions, fluency, syntax, text construction, and connectors. 14. iPads are returned followed by pair discussions of articles, annotations, and conversation practice. |
Other Notes: | Students complete this lesson in 2 separate parts/lessons (part one first followed by parts two and three combined), combined into a double class, or flipped (part two done at home). Students choose their own content and so are more likely to engage with it. Students often choose topics that I might have traditionally shied away from and I find they experiment more with a variety of topics. This means when we come back together as a group to report on each others choices they are very animated in what they can teach each other. Referring to the questions below regarding 21st Century digital literacy skills I think most, if not all, can be relevant depending on the commentaries made and the topics chosen. |
Resources: | Zite App Store Link: https://itunes.apple.com/ae/app/zite/id419752338?mt=8 SoundNote App Store Link: |