What I like about the WebQuest is that it is educational. It's good for the students as learners.
I also like the WebQuest that includes motivational elements as being detectives or reporters.
This element is what students watch in detective tvs and so they can be a part of the movies or shows as detectives.
This could also lead students to be better writers because they include introduction, task, information sources, process, guidance, and conclusion.
The skills I like about this WebQuest are the comparing, contrasting, classifying, inducing, deducing, analyzing, constructing, abstractions, and analyzing. With these skills, the learners can learn to be scientific and learn to be better critical thinkers.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Kuiggluk situation and needs analysis
Kuiggluk Language Program
The situation and needs analysis was done collaboratively with my boss, my workmate, and myself last week.
Language program focus:
Our focus is to preserve and teach our cultural activities to our students and to strengthen and preserve our cultural knowledge.
Language situation:
There is a language gap between each generation in this community.
There is a gap between the elders (roughly between ages 90-65) and the ones after them (roughly between ages 64-40), the elder’s children. Then the ones after them (roughly between ages 39-27) and then the young adults (roughly between the ages 26-18), and then there is a definite language gap between the two age groups of high school and the elementary school age groups. The high school and elementary students are all mostly English speakers, but they all understand well Yugtun.
Cultural situation:
We are losing our culture faster than we are losing our language. We know that our language will follow our cultural loss.
Need Analysis:
We want to document (audio/video) the cultural knowledge from elders before they pass away and the knowledge is lost.
We want to use these documents to create:
- Curriculum components – language activities (K-12) books, stories
- cultural activities (K-12)
- Documentary videos
- Other archive necessary to make books, histories of families
We would like to do all these to protect and extend the knowledge base.
Technology component: We would need the following equipment
1. digital audio recording devices (4 of them)
2. digital video recording devices
3. 2-3 CCD or equivalent
4. 4 single CCD or equivalent
5. Computers
a. 4- work stations – audio/video processing
b. Classroom kits (6 laptops each) for 4 labs, total.
6. Green Screen
7. Inexpensive digital video camera
8. Still digital camera
9. Color laser printer (11X17)
10. Paper
11. DVD duplicator
12. Audio CD duplicator
13. Jason Ohler’s Digital Storytelling Books
14. An analogue audio to digital converter
15. An analogue video to digital converter
We would also need the following expense components:
1. stipends to pay local experts (4 person – regular people)
2. a budget for purchasing material for cultural activities
3. money to pay Jason Ohler to come out to train students and staff in digital storytelling
4. chest freezer
The situation and needs analysis was done collaboratively with my boss, my workmate, and myself last week.
Language program focus:
Our focus is to preserve and teach our cultural activities to our students and to strengthen and preserve our cultural knowledge.
Language situation:
There is a language gap between each generation in this community.
There is a gap between the elders (roughly between ages 90-65) and the ones after them (roughly between ages 64-40), the elder’s children. Then the ones after them (roughly between ages 39-27) and then the young adults (roughly between the ages 26-18), and then there is a definite language gap between the two age groups of high school and the elementary school age groups. The high school and elementary students are all mostly English speakers, but they all understand well Yugtun.
Cultural situation:
We are losing our culture faster than we are losing our language. We know that our language will follow our cultural loss.
Need Analysis:
We want to document (audio/video) the cultural knowledge from elders before they pass away and the knowledge is lost.
We want to use these documents to create:
- Curriculum components – language activities (K-12) books, stories
- cultural activities (K-12)
- Documentary videos
- Other archive necessary to make books, histories of families
We would like to do all these to protect and extend the knowledge base.
Technology component: We would need the following equipment
1. digital audio recording devices (4 of them)
2. digital video recording devices
3. 2-3 CCD or equivalent
4. 4 single CCD or equivalent
5. Computers
a. 4- work stations – audio/video processing
b. Classroom kits (6 laptops each) for 4 labs, total.
6. Green Screen
7. Inexpensive digital video camera
8. Still digital camera
9. Color laser printer (11X17)
10. Paper
11. DVD duplicator
12. Audio CD duplicator
13. Jason Ohler’s Digital Storytelling Books
14. An analogue audio to digital converter
15. An analogue video to digital converter
We would also need the following expense components:
1. stipends to pay local experts (4 person – regular people)
2. a budget for purchasing material for cultural activities
3. money to pay Jason Ohler to come out to train students and staff in digital storytelling
4. chest freezer
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Words As Big As The Screen: Native American Languages and the Internet
The first two pages about the important date being written in Navajo language reminded me of the topic we once talked about in the Policy class this past summer of why some indigenous linguists do not want their language to be written. The reason came to me, probably because they don't want their language to be "influenced" or "changed" or "diluted" by other languages. "...as the oral tradition is what safeguards the truth." (McHenry, p. 2) This is one part of the issue with "safeguarding the truth." The other end would be? What about our children? If the language isn't written, how and who would pass on this knowledge? For this reason, I am glad that our language is written for everyone to learn about and so that our children would also learn the language and the oral history of it.
Page 3: I agree with Dick Littlebear: "We must quit endlessly lamenting and continuously cataloguing the causes of language death; instead, we must now deal with these issues by learning from successful language preservation efforts" (1996, p. xv.).
The reason is because our language is disappearing at such a fast rate, there is no time to ponder why we are losing our language. Instead, we should deal with it the best way we can and move on to teach our next generation the language before all our elders are gone.
There is discussion about different language maintenance and preservation efforts in LKSD. I like what we are doing in this area. Although it is not enough, we can continue to do what we are doing and we can pass the word on to community members that our language is disappearing and that we, educators, need their help too. If the efforts to keep our language strong and going, we need to spread the word to "start speaking more Yugtun to all the community members.
If we used the computer technology to teach and use the Yugtun language, it would be good for our children because they are so much into using the computers and the internet. By creating websites and recording stories and recreating them through technology, then they would be forced to hear, read, write, and speak the language. This is a good tool to get the students to learn the language. Once a website or stories are created, then these could be used by the younger children as "aids" in teaching the language as well as computer-skills.
Page 3: I agree with Dick Littlebear: "We must quit endlessly lamenting and continuously cataloguing the causes of language death; instead, we must now deal with these issues by learning from successful language preservation efforts" (1996, p. xv.).
The reason is because our language is disappearing at such a fast rate, there is no time to ponder why we are losing our language. Instead, we should deal with it the best way we can and move on to teach our next generation the language before all our elders are gone.
There is discussion about different language maintenance and preservation efforts in LKSD. I like what we are doing in this area. Although it is not enough, we can continue to do what we are doing and we can pass the word on to community members that our language is disappearing and that we, educators, need their help too. If the efforts to keep our language strong and going, we need to spread the word to "start speaking more Yugtun to all the community members.
If we used the computer technology to teach and use the Yugtun language, it would be good for our children because they are so much into using the computers and the internet. By creating websites and recording stories and recreating them through technology, then they would be forced to hear, read, write, and speak the language. This is a good tool to get the students to learn the language. Once a website or stories are created, then these could be used by the younger children as "aids" in teaching the language as well as computer-skills.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Sally Samson's Synthesis & Application
I really enjoyed reading Sally's paper.
Sound like, from her paper, she had a wonderful time putting the power point together for her students as well as her parents. It's easy to read and applicable for first time power point creators.
As I read the "Jeaopardy" game part, I thought that I could create a game for my students using the high frequency words as the questions and the words for the answer. Or does it go the other way around? This would be good for my students since they are older than the kindergarten students that Sally made for. This would be good for my students too for common Yugtun words that they need to know or should already know, but need more practice on.
She goes on to explain in detail the pros and cons of power points and their useful/non-useful features. The important thing to remember when making a power point presentation is to "engage" the students in what they will be interested in learning and what is useful for them. If the presentation is not engaging, just like in classroom lessons, the learners may become passive learners. That is one thing to be conscious about making these computer lessons for the language learners.
Computer technology can be a valuable tool to teach second language learners, if we make them engaging and fun for the students. This could be helpful for reading, writing, listening, and speaking for our second language learners in addition to human resources. These lessons, what we develop using the computer could be useful in many ways.
For example, if I made more computer task activities for our language learners, this could be helpful for a center activity.
It could also be useful as a positive reward activity. Since we have never used the computer in class, the students who are doing well in class, I could have them do an activity as a reward for speaking the language, for working extra hard, etc.
I could also use the computer to make more lessons for our Upingaurluta units, for speaking, reading, writing, and listening activities. If I learned more features on the computer, the lessons I make could be invaluable for our language program. This is exciting for our program. The more I learn using the computer as a tool for our program, the ideas multiply and the lessons will be fun and exciting for our technologically-inclined students.
Although our Yugtun language is oral, using technology to teach the language will be beneficial to our students because now a days, the students know more about technology than ever before. We could record our elders, record and present traditional stories and make them into shows and or interactive lessons using cds, etc. The possibilities become endless as we learn more and more about technology in the classroom.
Sound like, from her paper, she had a wonderful time putting the power point together for her students as well as her parents. It's easy to read and applicable for first time power point creators.
As I read the "Jeaopardy" game part, I thought that I could create a game for my students using the high frequency words as the questions and the words for the answer. Or does it go the other way around? This would be good for my students since they are older than the kindergarten students that Sally made for. This would be good for my students too for common Yugtun words that they need to know or should already know, but need more practice on.
She goes on to explain in detail the pros and cons of power points and their useful/non-useful features. The important thing to remember when making a power point presentation is to "engage" the students in what they will be interested in learning and what is useful for them. If the presentation is not engaging, just like in classroom lessons, the learners may become passive learners. That is one thing to be conscious about making these computer lessons for the language learners.
Computer technology can be a valuable tool to teach second language learners, if we make them engaging and fun for the students. This could be helpful for reading, writing, listening, and speaking for our second language learners in addition to human resources. These lessons, what we develop using the computer could be useful in many ways.
For example, if I made more computer task activities for our language learners, this could be helpful for a center activity.
It could also be useful as a positive reward activity. Since we have never used the computer in class, the students who are doing well in class, I could have them do an activity as a reward for speaking the language, for working extra hard, etc.
I could also use the computer to make more lessons for our Upingaurluta units, for speaking, reading, writing, and listening activities. If I learned more features on the computer, the lessons I make could be invaluable for our language program. This is exciting for our program. The more I learn using the computer as a tool for our program, the ideas multiply and the lessons will be fun and exciting for our technologically-inclined students.
Although our Yugtun language is oral, using technology to teach the language will be beneficial to our students because now a days, the students know more about technology than ever before. We could record our elders, record and present traditional stories and make them into shows and or interactive lessons using cds, etc. The possibilities become endless as we learn more and more about technology in the classroom.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Chapter 8: The role and design of instructional materials
Chapter 8: The role and design of instructional materials
This chapter covered different types of material used in the classroom.
It is all up to me, as a classroom educator, to use, adapt material for my language learners. I don’t use textbooks. What I usually do is adapt the material to my students’ needs. I translate material and seek material that would fit the students’ needs for my Yugtun language learners.
Most of the materials we use in the classroom are written in English. Teachers, district office personnel, or we have to translate the material we choose to use in teaching to our language learners.
When I translate material, I usually ask local “Yugtun” speakers, when I can’t find the correct translation word. The Yup’ik Dictionary usually helps. My aid is younger than I am. When I’m translating material, I usually ask her for the “correct” Yup’ik word. At least half the time, she does not know the exact translation Yup’ik word, so I usually go around (in the school) and ask other Yup’ik speakers for their help.
After eight years of teaching Yugtun, you’d think that I would become an expert in Yugtun translations. Wrong! I’m always learning. There’s no end to learning new Yugtun words. It’s a never-ending process of learning Yugtun, even at my adult age. So, when we teach Yugtun to our children, they will most likely be in the same boat as myself – it’s a never-ending language learning process. The cycle will keep on going. With the cycle that will keep on going, the materials development will be the same. The materials development will keep on going, even after we’ve all retired. This is what I just realized as I was typing about “my experience” as a Yugtun teacher.
This chapter covered different types of material used in the classroom.
It is all up to me, as a classroom educator, to use, adapt material for my language learners. I don’t use textbooks. What I usually do is adapt the material to my students’ needs. I translate material and seek material that would fit the students’ needs for my Yugtun language learners.
Most of the materials we use in the classroom are written in English. Teachers, district office personnel, or we have to translate the material we choose to use in teaching to our language learners.
When I translate material, I usually ask local “Yugtun” speakers, when I can’t find the correct translation word. The Yup’ik Dictionary usually helps. My aid is younger than I am. When I’m translating material, I usually ask her for the “correct” Yup’ik word. At least half the time, she does not know the exact translation Yup’ik word, so I usually go around (in the school) and ask other Yup’ik speakers for their help.
After eight years of teaching Yugtun, you’d think that I would become an expert in Yugtun translations. Wrong! I’m always learning. There’s no end to learning new Yugtun words. It’s a never-ending process of learning Yugtun, even at my adult age. So, when we teach Yugtun to our children, they will most likely be in the same boat as myself – it’s a never-ending language learning process. The cycle will keep on going. With the cycle that will keep on going, the materials development will be the same. The materials development will keep on going, even after we’ve all retired. This is what I just realized as I was typing about “my experience” as a Yugtun teacher.
Chapter Nine: Approaches to evaluation
Chapter Nine: Evaluation
1. Last year in November. There were eight community members in the meeting. The meeting took place in the community hall. This meeting was an official ASB meeting with three ASB members present and five community members, four of which were school staff members and one elder.
All members attending the meeting discussed Yugtun/English language use within the community. The ASB chairperson extensively discussed the fear of losing our Yugtun language. He strongly supported the Yugtun Immersion program in our community. Following his strong Yugtun Immersion support, other members agreed with him, including the school staff.
There was no change for the language program.
2. Formative evaluation works well for our program. We are constantly changing and adding teaching material for teaching in our language program. I think it is the administrator’s call as well, to do formative evaluations on our language program teaching style. The parents would agree with what we do in the school with their children. They usually put their full trust to us educators for the best education for their children. They usually leave their trust to us educators to teach their children to the best of our ability. The same is for to community members. They trust the educators to teach the children to the best of our ability. Whatever the parents, administrator, and the community members suggest to change in education of the children, we, educators, usually follow through with their suggestions, but it is very rare.
3. Formative evaluation: we are constantly changing our material for the best teaching to our children in the program. We constantly assess the material and teaching style and if there needs to be adjustments, we make them accordingly. Or, we make additional material to supplement the teaching material. For example, we make supplemental material by translating material in addition to what material we already have.
In addition to formative evaluation, we also do Illuminative evaluation. The same as formative, we do what needs to be done in the teaching and make adjustments accordingly. The main materials we rarely use are textbooks.
Advantages are that we, educators, know where the students are as far as their academic and language use abilities are. We make adjustments according to the students’ needs academically and language-use wise.
Limitations are that we have limited materials. We have limited access to materials and we make up material as we go in each unit in Upingaurluta.
1. Last year in November. There were eight community members in the meeting. The meeting took place in the community hall. This meeting was an official ASB meeting with three ASB members present and five community members, four of which were school staff members and one elder.
All members attending the meeting discussed Yugtun/English language use within the community. The ASB chairperson extensively discussed the fear of losing our Yugtun language. He strongly supported the Yugtun Immersion program in our community. Following his strong Yugtun Immersion support, other members agreed with him, including the school staff.
There was no change for the language program.
2. Formative evaluation works well for our program. We are constantly changing and adding teaching material for teaching in our language program. I think it is the administrator’s call as well, to do formative evaluations on our language program teaching style. The parents would agree with what we do in the school with their children. They usually put their full trust to us educators for the best education for their children. They usually leave their trust to us educators to teach their children to the best of our ability. The same is for to community members. They trust the educators to teach the children to the best of our ability. Whatever the parents, administrator, and the community members suggest to change in education of the children, we, educators, usually follow through with their suggestions, but it is very rare.
3. Formative evaluation: we are constantly changing our material for the best teaching to our children in the program. We constantly assess the material and teaching style and if there needs to be adjustments, we make them accordingly. Or, we make additional material to supplement the teaching material. For example, we make supplemental material by translating material in addition to what material we already have.
In addition to formative evaluation, we also do Illuminative evaluation. The same as formative, we do what needs to be done in the teaching and make adjustments accordingly. The main materials we rarely use are textbooks.
Advantages are that we, educators, know where the students are as far as their academic and language use abilities are. We make adjustments according to the students’ needs academically and language-use wise.
Limitations are that we have limited materials. We have limited access to materials and we make up material as we go in each unit in Upingaurluta.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Chapter Six: Course Planning and Syllabus Design
This chapter is the planning stages of a language program.
The ten different syllabuses offer ideas for teachers in the language program.
I could not identify with some of the syllabuses listed because they are aimed at teaching in the university and high school levels. In the Text-Based syllabus, the material follows or uses the textbooks as guides and/or sole material. I cannot see myself teaching using only a textbook. My class might seem so dry. I remember some of the classes I took in the past when we used only the textbooks. That class, I dreaded the most because it was so dry. There were no other “fun” activities involved in them. The other syllabus I couldn’t understand is the Integrated Syllabus. There were only two paragraphs describing the syllabus.
The one syllabus I liked was the competency-based syllabus. This syllabus would be helpful for language learners in Yugtun. It’s practical and not so dry. The activities would not be so dry and there would be a variety of activities that would help my students to learn the Yugtun Language. Also, the Task-Based syllabus would be really good for our language learners because there are a lot of hands-on activities for the students. Hands-on activities help learners to learn the most because they learn by doing. Yup’ik people are a hands-on culture. We learn by doing things. This syllabus would work best of our Yup’ik Language learners.
The ten different syllabuses offer ideas for teachers in the language program.
I could not identify with some of the syllabuses listed because they are aimed at teaching in the university and high school levels. In the Text-Based syllabus, the material follows or uses the textbooks as guides and/or sole material. I cannot see myself teaching using only a textbook. My class might seem so dry. I remember some of the classes I took in the past when we used only the textbooks. That class, I dreaded the most because it was so dry. There were no other “fun” activities involved in them. The other syllabus I couldn’t understand is the Integrated Syllabus. There were only two paragraphs describing the syllabus.
The one syllabus I liked was the competency-based syllabus. This syllabus would be helpful for language learners in Yugtun. It’s practical and not so dry. The activities would not be so dry and there would be a variety of activities that would help my students to learn the Yugtun Language. Also, the Task-Based syllabus would be really good for our language learners because there are a lot of hands-on activities for the students. Hands-on activities help learners to learn the most because they learn by doing. Yup’ik people are a hands-on culture. We learn by doing things. This syllabus would work best of our Yup’ik Language learners.
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