2. Curriculum use This learning module / suite of learning activities will be used as part of an ESOL reading class. (A) This particular learning module will either introduce or reinforce the concept of making “marginal notes” as the student reads academic reading materials, particularly textbooks, which are often organized by various subheadings. Many proponents of “active reading”, particularly in the context of the college classroom often advocate a ‘scan/preview, form questions, find answers’ strategy when reading. The wiki format of this particular lesson will help students practice, model, and improve upon their reading and note-taking skills, particularly with regard to the reading strategy proposed above. This somewhat ambitious lesson plan will also (b) promote students’ use of internet research to be able to find outside references for their writings. (It is assumed that the teacher will have already introduced concepts related to citation and referencing before this lesson is taught.) Students will use the social bookmarking service Delicious to organize their findings and, through posting a tag cloud on the wiki, to help other students find other popular internet references. Ultimately, the student will be expected to (c) produce a blog entry summarizing the students’ understanding of (1) the main text used within this lesson (which will be posted on the wiki) and (2) related concepts from online research and the Delicious tag clouds.
3. Student learning goal(s) Again, students will be expected to (a) demonstrate “active reading skills” through their contribution to the wiki. They will need to submit only one preliminary entry, which will include a question formed about the section of the reading they which to investigate. A day later, they will need to include a few extra details answering the questions they and other students have proposed. Then, students will need to (b) form a tag cloud of search terms using a Delicious tag cloud to assist others with their research. Students will need to conduct some internet research to do this. Finally, students will need to (c) create a summary of what they’ve learned to post and share on their Blogger sites.
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5. Step B: Insert your Delicious Tag Cloud (After Setting up your Delicious Account and Adding your Bookmarks. The student may need to create a special account just for this project)
6. Role of technology, including how many tools used The webtools used for this lesson will include (a) Google Sites, (b) Delicious and (c) Blogger (to allow students to share their summaries with each other easily). The teacher will probably need to spend some time beforehand explaining how to use each of these webtools.
7. Active learning I feel use of these three tools used in conjunction with each other will promote active, constructivist learning in my reading classroom. Students actively engage in the provided text, model and interact with other students’ notetaking, help other students with research, and model other students’ use of summarizing.
8. Teacher's role The teacher’s role will be to construct the wiki, demonstrate use of webtools and assess students with regard to (a) use of marginal notes, (b) internet research skills (c) summarizing skills and (d) use of technology.
