Reflection on ePals

After exploring the website, I find that the purpose of the website is to connect global learners. There are two interesting and typical project.

       One is called Class in Vermont, USA seeks cultural exchange for the way we are powerpoint project  , they are a class at Mount Abraham Union Middle School in Bristol, Vermont, U.S.A. The students are between 12 and 13 years old. They are currently studying culture, focusing on ancient India, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. Therefore, the purpose of the project is to let students communicate with students in other cultures. With the project, students can learn modern cultures by themselves and gain first- hand knowledge.

       The other project is Class in Missouri, USA seeks French-language partners for video project , Level 2 French students will be investigating the differences between a high school in a French speaking area and an American high school.  Students are encouraged to have an email contact with that they can discuss the difference between the schools. Level 2 students can ask questions directly to students in target schools in order to know what they want to rather than gain information on internet.

       When I want my students to explore the difference between Chinese education and American education, I could establish a project on ePals. Then they can contact with each other via email and find difference through chatting.

Story telling video

I have created a photo stories called My daily routine in junior high school with Animoto. I will use the video as an example. Students should watch the video and imitate to make their own video. In the video, I have shown my daily routine in junior high school. In addition, I have used simple past in the text. Thus, Students are required to use simple past tense to describe their daily routine in the past. They can use their own photos to make the video then write caption below the photos.

My comic story

In My comic story, the scene is on kitchen. There are two persons, Sam and Penny. The topic is about making tea. And the knowledge point is usage of modal “can”. I will use the comic story to English beginners. In class, at first, I will show the video to students. And they are required to write every line of dialogue down. They can listen to the video for two times. And then students are grouped into pairs to pick out sentences with modal “can”. Next, I will explain the meaning and use of “can”. Then, several students are called to read out the sentences. Finally, students can make up their own dialogue with “can”.

Digital storytelling

After reading some articles about digital storytelling, I found that digital storytelling is a very useful tool for my future teaching. Then I will introduce the useful tool to you.

                According to 7 things you should know about storytelling , digital storytelling is the practice of combination narrative with digital content, including images, sound and video to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component. Sophisticated digital stories can be interactive movies that include highly produced audio and visual effects, but a set of slides with corresponding narration or music constitutes a basic digital stories can be instructional, persuasive historical and reflective.

                Usually story telling are applies like this. Students have to choose their own topic and then they  have to write a script about the topic. Next, small group are formed. In small groups , students can do the story circle. During the process, students would learn how to respect other’s advice and how to give suggestions.

                According to The educational uses of storytelling , Digital storytelling can be used as an instructional tool for teachers and also a learning tool for students. For teachers, digital storytelling can facilitate discussion about the topics in classroom and make the abstract content more understandable. For students, they can first choose a topic and then choose a particular point of view and tell stories of their own. During the process of telling story, students can improve their communication skills such as organizing ideas, ask questions and express opinions. In addition, when the story telling is uploaded on the website, students can give suggestions to each other can learn how to  critique.

                I think digital storytelling is a very useful tool for language teaching.