marmara ELT

      TECHNOLOGY CHANGES PEDAGOGY

Hey teacher!!Stay where you are!!I will give you a secret !!Technology changes pedagogy!!You may improve your students' learning..

-Decide what kind of an outcome you are aiming 

-Decide what kind of a tool you need for your goal

-Calculate affordances and constraints of the tool

-Guide your students and see the miracle..

Today I will introduce you an enjoyable website

                                          makebeliefs comics website

MakeBeliefComix is a website that enables us to create our own comic.There are 51 human and animal characters each showing different emotions for a total of 204 choices in the site.It supports creativity because students put their own words in the talk/thought baloons of fun characters.Everybody loves comics and even if you don't have the ability to draw you can come up with a whole comic book.It is used by families and educators in morethan 180 countries.

                             

                            everybody loves comics

Using comics promotes positivity and self-expression.Expressing themselves is a strong necessity for todays children.Google and unesco selected makebeliefscomix as one of the world's most innovative web sites in fostering literacy and reading.

                         HOW TO USE THE WEBSİTE

                           

Choose a character and emotion.

Add thought and/or talk baloons and start your character talking.

Add other characters and more conversation.You can also add colored backgrounds.Add objects and panel prompts to keep your viewers interested.When you are done print or e-mail your comic.It can be considered as easy digital story telling .Story telling is the primary focus because this skill prepares students to work in any genre

     GREAT IDEAS TO USE THIS TOOL

                                 IN ELT    

  -Students can improve their writing skills while filling up  thought and talk baloons.Give your students empty templets and ask them to fill in them.Do not forget to give as much guidence as possible.You can print and hand out your empty templets in  classroom..

-Students can describe their feelings in unfinished comics or can view writing prompts to get started.To improve narrative skills prepare half finished straps and ask your students to finish them.What happens next questions improve speaking skills..

-Promote metacognitive learning..Give guided tasks and ask students to create their comics.İmprove their understanding to develope a story in a logical sequence..

-Tool is very suitable for colloborative work.Define a story.Make each student prepare three strips about this story..Link them together and create a comic strip book at the end of the semester.Print and publish your book as a class publish.Make your students sell their book or give as a gift to other classes.Make your work authentic..Weekly strips prepared by your students can also be published in school newspaper...

-Give 5 new vocabulary..Ask your students prepare comic strips using these 5 words.Leave character choices and color choices to them.Make them read their outcomes at class..Choose the funniest one and promote.

-Make your students write a letter to their parents using comics.Restrict their work in limited number of words.Make them e-mail their outcomes to their parents after reading at class.

-Great for building up schemata for pre-reading and pre-writing..Join your tool with other tasks..

-You can also teach literary terms by using your tool.

Although it consists of  small stripes, it has a main idea,a protagonist and a theme..

-Use your tool to teach allusion,satire,parody,climax

-Works great on childrenwho don't like reading as readers rely on pictures instead of long texts..

-Use to teach punctuation.Alot of punctuation is needed to create a speech baloon..

And create your own ideas as many as possible to open new horizons in your student's learning....

And I would like to finish my  writing by creating my own comic stirp and I would like to thank  to my teacher Ms.Gökçe Kurt who opens a new window in my teaching pedagogy....Your lesson was the most amazing journey that ı have ever had in ELT..And I feel more powerful in teaching English now..Thank you....

          my own comic strip creation

                    ONE STEP BEHİND 

CREATE YOUR MOVIE BY USING ZIMMER TWINS

Iwould like to introduce you another website today which I loved a lot..Zimmer twins..create your movie..Very easy to use but it is real fun..İf you are bored with one dimension comic strips go a step behind and create your movie with audio and movement..Real action..

                      a sceen from zimmer twins

In zimmer twins there are three characters :a boy ,a girl and a cat named thirteen:)Students can create movies by using these characters.Again it is another way of digital story telling which improves four skills .Site can not be embeded but shared.Also pre-prepared movies can be used.

                                What happens next

What happens next option is very suitable for creating tasks and  activating schemata.Teacher can use this tool to teach vocabulary.Teacher can ask students to write dialogues to improve their writing skills.Teacher can show a starter video and asks students to predict the end to improve their narrative skills.

             what about some authentic work

Teacher can ask students to prepare special movies for special days as in the example above:happy mother's day...and send their outcomes to the website..Their work becomes authentic and can be sent to their parents and can be watched during the lesson in the class..Authentic outcomes always motivate students...Let's finish our blog by saying :Teachers do not ignore the power of technology in ELT..You can find hundreds of tools to make your classes more effective..Just decide and google google google....see you on another post...byee..