For this post I reviewed Lisa, Branden, and Kelsey's lesson regarding a Skype based classroom. My first impression was that this lesson is almost like a modern day pen pal without the letters. I see this activity as being very beneficial for second language learners. As someone who studied a second language, I feel that getting the students exposed to native speakers at an early stage helps expand their skills beyond the classroom. To me it seems that while learning a language a student tends to hit a point where they know a great deal of grammar and vocabulary, but until the students expand those skills past the classroom and into the real world, they can't truly express their skills in the language. I thought this lesson was a fantastic opportunity to bring the world to the students without traveling to another country.
Their approach to this lesson was also very thoughtful. At first I thought that it was weird that the students couldn't see who they were talking with, but after they explained why the visual part of Skype was removed, I thought it was a fantastic idea to not allow the students to see each other. Overall I felt that the group was trying to create the most comfortable environment possible for their students to allow them to succeed. We see the lesson trying to encourage a comfortable environment with the chat function of Skype only being used as a last resort for students who are struggling. From personal experience I know how stressful it can be to try and develop your speaking skills in a foreign language, especially if you're not confident, so I thought it was awesome that this group addressed that issue while planning.
Another aspect that I enjoyed about their approach was the timing of the lesson. I felt that 25 minutes was the perfect amount of time for the students to speak with their "pen pal." This amount of time allows for the students to talk and listen, but since the time with their pen pal is very limited, it will hopefully encourage the students to stay on task while they work. The lesson also gave adequate amount of time for prep (what kind of questions should we be asking, what will be the "norms" for this activity) plus enough time for debrief through formal and informal assessments. After reading this lesson plan I wish that I had this opportunity while studying Spanish!
During one of my Japanese classes we did something similar (although less structured than their lesson). At the time I thought is was fun and great practice. I'm only now realizing how amazing that opportunity. Your timing point is dead on. There's always that trick of figuring out how much time it takes to finish something while not leaving any room to fool around. This is especially difficult to judge in a language classroom when language learners take longer depending on their comfort with vocabulary, grammar, etc.
ReplyDeleteHolly, I also thought that this COD lesson plan would be really beneficial. However, I think I would disagree with taking the visual out of Skype for this lesson. This is more or less just a personal opinion, but I think there is value is actually seeing who you are speaking with. You do raise an interesting point that second language learners, especially in high school, are probably nervous to speak with other people in their non-native language, but in most language classes there is some type of oral assessment where students have to speak with their teacher face to face. I used to get nervous when doing these assessments, but speaking over Skype with others in the language could be good preparation for these assessments.
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