Karen's Website 3-11-2007
Clearly you have a carefully worked-out plan to help your learners to learn more about art and history from your website. Your product is very successful and you give lots of interesting visual inputs (music, video, songs, pictures, dramas, and graphics) to motivate your learners to learn English. Your instructions are very clear and easy to follow. The materials are well-selected and your activities are highly-focused on your topic.
However, you didn’t mention your learner’s background, for example, EFL? ESL context or native speakers? As an EFL/ESL learner, I think some contents are too hard for me, let alone the year 8 to 10 students. Your learners should have a very high English proficiency such as reading skills, listening skills and some knowledge about art and paintings. Otherwise, they can’t achieve your goals. Art itself is abstract and it’s not easy to understand. I think your target audience are senior high students or young adults. They are interested in reading visual art or abstract things.
Regarding activities, you put a famous song about Van Gogh on your cloze exercise, it’s a comprehensible input for your learners and they can learn with fun. I think Year 8 to 10 students maybe like pop songs or popular culture things rather than classical songs. I played piano for years however I liked the pop music.
Just one more point, please check the wikipedia link (someimes it does work and sometimes it can't). Match 1 and 2 repeat.
Overall, you have done a good job! And I think you spent much time on creating such lovely product with varies and communicative exercises. However, from my point of view, you overestimate your learners’ abilities and their patience. I think some of your learners are finding your tasks very difficult, e.g. crossword and jumble exercise.
I love your ideas and I enjoy reading your website.
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2 comments:
Hi Maggie
Thanks for your comprehensive comments.
About the wikipedia page, it may take a little time to load depending on your operating system. I don't seem to have a problem.
Also I am not sure what you mean about Match 1 and 2 repeating, I looked and they are different, perhaps you just accidentally clicked on the same one.
About the song: I take your point about young students liking pop music but this is not classical music, it is popular folk. In Australia, Don McLean has been popular for decades.
About the level of the learners. As I said the module goes with the Web Quest, so the learners are already determined by that. I have designed it based on what my current students could do. So maybe where I work, intermediate is quite a high level. Most of my students will go onto to EAP in the next session.
thank you for taking the time to post your comments. My email is k.cosgrove@student.qut.edu.au if you would like to email me and have lunch. Are you finished your MEd? or do you still have 1 unit to go?
-karen-
Hi Maggie
I think I have fixed the problem of my "unstable" website. I appreciate you letting me know about it. You must be exhausted after doing 4 units. I just wanted to explain. I think I see where the confusion about the age of the learners for my Web Quest and Hot Potatoes project.
My web quest and project was designed for for Intermediate or above ESL learners in my college here at QUT, all of whom are young adults or university age. It just mentioned that it could also be done by mainstream students in Yrs 8-10 who are studying art etc. That is Australian students who are native English speakers so naturally, they would be at able the same level at the young adults or university students I teach.
I put this in because I was thinking that a mainstream teacher might come across the website and want to use it.
I hope that clears up the confusion. Perhaps it didn't seem clear enough. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
-karen-
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