Ruslana shamanska ukraine project report

American English Institute, University of Oregon

Name: Ruslana Shamanska

Country: Ukraine

June, 2010

Building Teaching Skills Project Report 2

Ruslana Shamanska: Wiki as a tool for the final exam preparation.
Project report. – American English University.
University of Oregon., 2010, 16 pages.

This technology-enhanced project report was created as a part of 10-
week online training course for English Language Teachers (ELTs)
“Building Teaching Skills through the Interactive Web”, which
was offered through the American English Institute at the University
of Oregon.

This publication can be used by English and Technology teachers, by
students of the pedagogical universities and by upper-intermediate or
advance learners of English.

Introduction

Today, most of the schools around the world have a computer lab or more,

©2010 E-Teacher Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web Project Report


access to the Internet and some have other equipments such as data projectors
and smart boards.
Modern kids cannot imagine their life without technology, they use it
everywhere. That’s why modern teachers have to use as much technologies at
their lessons as possible to make the school learning more effective and
productive.
Internet provides not only different teaching materials for printing and
using in the class, like worksheets, crosswords or tests, it also gives the
opportunity to use on-line exercises, listening activities etc.
One of the benefits of using Web-technologies for learning and teaching
English is a great opportunity to raise the level of motivation of the students,
during studying.
Blogs and wiki-pages are widely use by educators of the entire world for
improving reading and writing skills of the students. I tried to use wiki-page for
the final exam preparation of my 9th grade students.

ABCD -objectives of my project:
During the preparation to the English school exam (C) students of the
9th grade (A) will create wiki-page examskills.wikispaces.com and will
work with the exam cards (reading, grammar, writing and speaking)
with 100% accuracy.

I. Background

General background of the learners:

Ukrainian schools are not separated. Primary, secondary and high school -


it is one school in Ukraine. All kids from 6 to 17-18 study at the same
building during 11 years. And they began to learn English in their second grade
(7 years). It means that teachers of English start to work with them since early
childhood. For our project I've chosen my eldest students – 9th graders of the
Hadiach School #4. I have been taught their class for 8 years, since their second
grade. Now they are 14-15 years old. There are 32 students in their class, so
they are divided into two sub-groups for learning English, Math, Computer
Studies and Ukrainian language. I teach only one group of 16 students – 8 girls
and 8 boys.

Such as this 9th grade is specialized in Math, all students have a high level
of knowledge. I can't say that they read a lot, but they do their home tasks in
time (but sometimes they can be really lazy). From the other hand all kids are
really good in computer skills- typing, creating Power Point presentation, using
Internet for chatting, social networks or speaking over the Skype – is not a
problem for them.

14 my students have computers at home, but only three of them have the
Internet access at home, but almost everybody goes to the cyber café or Internet
–centre at the district public library. Besides we have three computer classes
with Internet in our school and one interactive-board with head-over projector at
the biology class. Unfortunately, there is no Internet access.

My students easily cooperate in pairs and groups. I can't say exactly what
type of learners are they, but I try to create tasks for all learners and visual
(flash-card, 'Spot the Difference' using pictures, big posters), and auditory
(Listening to songs, Information gap listening activities, storytelling) and
kinesthetic (role-play, drama techniques, making something).

Settings



We meet twice a week at my classroom and have 45- minutes lessons on
Monday and Wednesday. There are 12 desks and 24 chairs in my class. We use
usual blackboard and write with a chalk. I have one computer without Internet
access in my class and the type-recorder. Besides I have a great collection of
CDs and cassets for listening and watching.

We use the textbook by our Ukrainian author Oksana Karpiuk and its
really terrible, that' s why I use a lot of worksheets and print some pages from
the British textbooks.
Our textbook contains huge texts without pre- and after-reading activities, so I
have to create additional materials and tests. For developing of the listening
abilities, I use mainly videos from www.youtube.com or use the audio from the
British textbooks. Some grammar rules are in our class textbook, and besides I
print some activities from Internet.
Almost in every unit my students do some project works – for example- create
Power point Presentations, poster or publish the article to the school newspaper,
or perform the plays.

Course goals:

My school is secondary school, so we study general English. Our English
lessons take a functional and communicative approach to language learning.
Basically, I want to help my students to develop their ability to understand and
use English in a wide range of practical situations. We integrate speaking,
listening, reading and writing. So, the course goal is improving English
language skills of the students for general use.

Student needs:

Such as we have general English - so student needs are quite simple. They need



to develop their writing, reading, speaking and listening skills. Besides, after
finishing of the 9th grade - students have to pass an exam and I I would like to
help my students in preparation for it.

Describe anything else that is significant or relevant about the course that
related to your project

A few word about motivation – I try to keep my students motivated with
computer technologies, project works and interactive methods of teaching
The motivation of my students for learning English is different. Of course, a
couple of students are really low-motivated, such as, they are going to leave
school after the 9th grade and enter to the vocational school and became a cook
or a driver. Some other students complain about their difficult situation at
school, tell how busy they are and seldom do their home task. But generally, all
students understand the importance of studying foreign language; three of them
are going to become the teacher of English or interpreter. So, teaching in class
with different level of knowledge and motivation for learning is quite
challengeable, but using technology is a great hand of help for me.

II. Issue or problem that started your project

Speaking about issue in my class, I would like to begin from description of
the final exam, which all Ukrainian students have to pass after their 9th grade.
We have a book with 100 cards, 20 cards of them will be presented at the exam,



so every lesson we try to read, write and speak according to the exam card.
There are 4 tasks in the exam card.
1- Reading with after-reading task (true/false or choosing the headings,
or matching, or multiply choice)
2- Grammar task (filling gaps, choosing the correct form of the verb or
pronoun)
3- Writing task (write 35-45 word on different topics as an e-mail or message
or post –card – task contains the information which should me in included)
4- Speaking on various topic (task contains the information which should be
included)
Exam defines not only the level of knowledge of the students after 8 years
of learning English, but it also shows the level of teaching of the educators.
Teachers try to do their best, but sometimes students don’t care. They don’t do
their exam preparation at home; they think that school lessons will be enough
for passing exam quite successfully.
Besides, another great problem in Ukrainian schools is cheating. There are
books with the correct answers for all exams, even English, so everybody hope
to bring this small book to the examination room and try to copy the correct
answers!!!
But even if they do it, they could copy only answers for reading tasks and
grammar activities, but what about creative writing and speaking? Students’
writing skills are not perfect, they know how to spell words, but sometimes
have mistakes in structure of the sentence and with sequence of tenses. So, they
have to practice as much as possible.
The next issue is speaking. Students will have only three minutes to think
about their speaking task, so they should already have a plan of their answer in
the head. That’s why I am sure they have at least to know tasks in all exam
cards, moreover they have the opportunity to do it beforehand.



So, let’s summarize:
1) My students will show the level of their knowledge and my teaching
effectiveness at the final exam in two weeks

2) Students don’t prepare to exam at home

3) Students hope to cheat at the exam

4) Students have poor writing skills

III. Initial solution and expected response
The most popular method for developing writing skills of the
students using technology - is blogging. At the beginning I thought about it.
Last year during my special course of English I have already use blogs in my
class, and we have to try something new for us, that we've never done before.
During fifth week I exchanged some messages with our coursemate Nadina
from Romania and she told me about her experience of using wiki, besides
Prem from Nepal also told about his experience, so I decided to try. I decided
to create WIKI-PAGE for my students “Exam skills”
- http://examskills.wikispaces.com/

My plan is very simple, I want to create a wiki-space where students can
prepare to their exam. Of course, they can buy book with answers, but there are
only short answers for test. For example- the first task of exam is reading,
students have to read a text and do some activities - true/false or filling gaps or
multiple choice. Answer book provide students only with answers like this: 1.
b) 2. c) or 1. F, 2. T. Very often these answers are not correct, that's why we
decide to create our own on-line Answer BOOK.

As I wrote before, we have a book with 100 variants of the examination's
card. Teachers of our school have chosen 20 cards for exam, so now we are
working with these 20 cards. That's why I created 20 pages in our wiki - one



page for each exam card.

My general idea is:

1) copy all tasks from the exam book
2) write the translation of the texts for reading and do the after-reading
activities
3) Insert video from www.youtube.com, which explains some grammar
questions
4) Do all grammar activities
5) Copy the tasks for free writing and translate them (as usally it a card or
short message or e-mail to friend, it should consist of 35-45 words)
6) Provide students with the ready answers
7) Copy tasks for speaking and translate them
8) Write the plan or full answer for the speaking task, including a list of new
vocabulary.

I created wiki-page on the 13th of May. In fact I didn’t remember this date, but
wiki has the option to see the recent changes and who did them. And really, I
saw that the first changes were made by me on the 13th of May. Such as I
chosen the PUBLIC wiki permission – it gives the opportunity to everyone,
including anonymous visitors, view and edit pages, but I cannot understand who
of my students made any changes, it only says: “Changes were made by guest”.

On Monday , 17th of May, we had the lesson in the computer class, and I
presented to my students the wiki-page http://examskills.wikispaces.com. At
the beginning we were speaking about future exam, about preparation to it.
Unfortunately, only three of my students told that they have read some texts and
do the grammar tasks. Again and again I repeated my students about importance
of self-preparation.



Then I told students about my new creation, new wiki-page as a part of my
course project work. As I told before, using wiki is absolutely new for me and
my students. Feeling of one community, understanding of that fact, that we have
the common site, where everybody is able to add something own, brings us a
great pleasure. I explained my students in two words the difference between
blog and wiki and then we divided into pairs, such as there are only 10
computers in the lab and I have 16 students in my group. Some students were
working in pairs and some were alone.



IV. Response and reflection

My students were very enthusiastic about working with wiki. One boy
from my class agreed to scan all tasks from the exam book. Now my students
work with translations of the texts and tasks. I have 16 students in my sub-
group, so we divided our 20 cards among the students and everybody was
writing answer for his card. We were working at the computer lab only two
lessons, such as we had two last weeks at school. My students were happy to
work with computers and I felt myself pleased about it. I walked around the
classroom from one computer to another and helped my students to manage
with a program, answered their questions. My role was not a teacher - tutor, I
was an advisor, the facilitator. But, I was a little disappointed - the speed of
typing of my students is not very high and we only do the fifth part of the task
during one lesson. The worst thing is that we finish school on the 27th of May
and we don't go to school on Monday 24th of May, such it is a religious holiday
of Trinity – nobody works. And it’s mean that we don’t have English lesson any



more this year. So I hope only for that fact that our project is important for them
not for me only and will keep on their work at home. Anyway, on the 10th of
June, before the exam we will have the consultation and I hope we spend some
hours more at the computer lab.

TIMELINE OF THE PROJECT:

13th of May – 19th of May – End of May – beginning
creation of the second lesson at of June- students’ work
wiki-page the computer lab with wiki at home

11th of JUNE-
English exam

17th of May – first 24of May – sending
10th of June-
introducing of the invitation to join to wiki
Consultation
wiki-page to all Ukrainian alumni of
before exam
US programs.

V. Changes made

After two lessons at the computer lab my students were very interested in
further developing of our wiki-page. I say - OUR - because common work with
wiki made my students and me one strong team, which share all victories and
loses together. Of course, I cannot say what result will have my project of a
creation wiki-page for the final exam preparation, because result will show the
exam, which marks will get my students at the final exam of English.

But I hope, wiki-page, which was created by all of the students, will help
them to develop their learner’s autonomy, open them new opportunities of using
Internet.

Exam in such format as I describe above Ukrainian 9th-grade students will
have at the first time. So teachers and students of the 9th grade are really
worried about examination. As our Ministry of education says we will have the



same exam book for the next year also. That's why I am going to continue the
developing of "Examskills" wiki-space with my 8th grade students. We also
will have two lessons a week. I think we begin to implement our project into
real life since September 2010 and spend one lesson at the computer lab every
two weeks. So at the end of the year, before their final exam in English we’ll do
other 20 cards.

VI. Conclusion

Using wiki and using technologies in general is a great way to encourage
students, to raise their motivation for learning. Enthusiastic and motivated
students at the lesson make the profession of teacher more simple and
enjoyable.

As an experiment, I've shared the web address of my wikispace among my
friends, my colleagues, other students of the 9th grade. I also asked for help
Iryna Myroshnychenko our Ukrainian Program Officer of International
Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), she is a coordinator of the alumni
network of IREX and US Embassy in Ukraine. She has sent my link to all
teachers of English, which took part in different programs sponsored by US
government. Some of them has already sent me thanks-letters and wished to
join to our project.

I hope my project will help my students to pass their exam successful and
develop their general skills in English and using WEB technologies.



VII. Resources

• http://examskills.wikispaces.com/
• http://www.wikispaces.com/
• www.youtube.com
• Using Wikis (Vocabulary and More) by Diana Booth - http://pjgalien.wordpress.com/
2009/02/27/using-wikis-vocabulary-and-more-by-diana-booth/
• Forum "Using wikis in the ESL/EFL classroom" -
http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/using-wikis-in-the-eslefl

• Wiki as a teaching tool- ijklo.org/Volume3/IJKLOv3p057-072Parker284.pdf
• Wikis in teaching and learning - video lecture - http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=m1-8OOrBi0o
• Blogs vs. Wikis - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFU3sAlPx4&feature=related
• Teaching with WIKI - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdOKUeT0O-
o&feature=related
• Wikispaces Tutorial- http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=df2rC2QfvFc&feature=related
• Tips for Using Wikis for Teaching and Learning -
http://teachingtechnology.suite101.com/article.cfm/tips_for_using_wikis_for_teachin
g_and_learning



Content

INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………….. 3
I. Background
• Who are the learners? ……………………………………………………………….. 4
• What is the setting? ………………………………………………………………….. 5
• What are the course goals? ………………………………………………………….. 5
• What are the student needs? …………………………………………………………. 6
II. Issue or problem that started your project ………………………………………… 7
III. Initial solution and expected response …………………………………………….. 8
IV. Response and reflection ……………………………………………………………. 11
V. Changes made ………………………………………………………………………. 12
VI. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………... 13
VII. Resources …………………………………………………………………………… 14



Ruslana Shamanska – English language
teacher from Ukraine. She has been
working at the secondary school since
2001. Teacher of the year- 2009 in the
category “English language teacher”, the
head of the district union of English
language teacher, the head of the district
scientific union of Small Academy of
Sciences of Ukraine.
In fall 2008 Ruslana Shamanska became the
finalist of TEA-program, sponsored by US
government and spent 6-weeks in the
Alabama University in Huntsville. During
10 days in April 2009 she hosted the
American teacher of English language Kate
English from Colchester middle school,
Connecticut.
Teacher took part in different seminars and
training, conduct some of them by herself.
Ruslana Shamanska is an author of some
articles related on methodology of teaching
English through the communicative
approach.
Works on the problem: “The peculiarities
of the motivation of the secondary student
to the learning English”
http://shruslana.blogspot.com


Ruslana shamanska ukraine project report

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