Lost in ESL/SPED World – Gabi’s Weblog

EFL 531
Pronuciation Websites

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html
http://www.fonetiks.org/
http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm
http://www.englishmedialab.com/pronunciation/vowelvideo.html http://evaeaston.com/pr/home.html 

http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/vowels/contents.htmlhttp://faculty.washington.edu/dillon/PhonResources/newstart.html
http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/IPA.html

http://www.tutorpal.com/slideshow/

This is an overview of the Lesson Plan and associated links from the presentation titled; “Using Technology to Teach Reading and Writing to ELL / SPED Students.”

LESSON PLAN – Part 2 – Writing

• Interactive vocabulary review with word blocks and video .   

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWlHYzKp2vsReview 

• Review Frosty story and take Quiz

Frostylyrics and video: http://www.links2love.com/christmas_songs_frosty_snowman.htm

Frosty Quiz:                                                    http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/quizview.php?title=snowman-quiz

•  Discussion of graphic organizers for students to use in writing

 http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

• Group write – Students work in small groups to write continuation of Frosty story on Google Docs. Each group will contribute at least one paragraph.  Students will utilize Text-to-Speech program to read story.

Example of group writing on Google Docs:  http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dfxv7z5z_18f8g6zdg8&hl=en

Jing on how to use Text-to-Voice software: http://efl537.com/blog/text-voice-jing-gabi  

•  Class sharing

•  Homework – Using Google Docs at home, students will write individual continuation stories with all students contributing one sentence at a time.

As part of the CALL course I’m currently enrolled in, we create a presentation in which we develop a computer based learning lesson and teach teachers (our classmates) how to teach it to their students. One of my peers and I have teamed up to work on our presentation of teaching reading and writing to ELL students with Learning Disabilities.  I was having a difficult time finding information on this topic developed for ELL / SPED students, so decided to focus on the SPED part and then modify it as needed to meet the needs of the ELL students.  Following is the outline for my part of the project:

Gabi’s Content Production Plan Outline
Jean and I are working on this CPP together and plan to present an intructional unity on using technology to teach reading and writing to students with learning disability. We will begin be providing a brief overview of reading and writing process. The instructional unit will include a short PowerPoint presentation posted on Slideshare and examples of teaching technology using Jing, Audicity and other online resources. The class will participate in the practice demonstrations that will be used for intermediate ESL special Ed students.

Resources for Review
• Teaching Expressive Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities
   By: Gersten Russell, Scott Baker, and Lana Edwards (1999)

• Using Assistive Technology to Support Writing
   By: Center for Implementing Technology in Education (2006)

• Assistive Technology Tools: Writing; Find out how to select assistive technology tools that                       address your child’s specific writing difficulties.
  By Kristin Stanberry and Marshall Raskind, Ph.D.

Related Resources

Misunderstood Minds – Writing —  This is an interesting site that is based on a special PBS series.  The writing section is split into 3 parts.  The first is Basics.  This section discusses what the steps in learning to write are and gives activities for the reader to try that actually simulate what it feels like to have a disability in a particular area.  The second section is Difficulties, or what can affect writing skills.  The third section is Responses, which talks about strategies that are helpful for writers with disabilites in certain areas.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/writingstrats.html

Teaching Expressive Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities – This article provides clear, easy to understand steps in teaching students how to organize their ideas and write them down.

http://www.ldonline.org/article/6201

Computer based EFL Materials

Teaching Environment: web based learning in the classroom

Target Learners: Intermediate ESL Special ED students – upper elementary level

Learning Objectives: SWBAT read the story individually by using the web.
SWBAT write a short story related to the reading.

Lesson Overview: A one hour webcast lesson involving vocabulary, reading aloud, and writing.
Step-By-Step Procedures:

Part 2: Writing Portion of Lesson:
1. Students will review vocabulary from Reading section of lesson utilizing a Hot Potatoes (or other similar quiz constructor) quiz.
2. Students will use letter blocks to spell out each vocabulary word one at a time and then check with model video.
3. Students will read and listen to a model of a story prediction based on the video from the reading section of the lesson using a Text-to-Voice program.
4. Students will write a story prediction based on the video, listen to it using the Text-to-Voice program and then record themselves reading their own story using Audacity.

Assessment: SWB assessed based on their Audacity read aloud.
SWB assessed based on their writing sample.