Refection 7 on TESOL, USFCA

I visited a few websites to get an idea of how other ESL teachers were using multi-media to teach ELL. My favorite find was through the University of Illinois at Chicago, ESL directory, http://www.uic.edu/depts/tie/coolsites.htm ,

which organizes several ESL websites into different categories of ELL focus. The categories are listening comprehension, reading, writing, speaking, grammar, vocabulary, test prep, culture, news, research study, and multi-purpose ESL sites. The are about 10 different websites listed under each category. I found a great link to a site called Englishlistening.com. I noticed it was a .com, so I was somewhat hesitant to spend time at that site. However, I really liked the site because it was built on Wordpress, so it is live, and it reminded me of how we are setting up our E-portfolios through Google Drive. There was a selection of listening comprehension-based sound-clips. They were from students of all different cultures. You choose a subject, I chose Vietnamese food tutorial, then took a quiz. I loved it because it seemed to be a project-based learning project for students. They emphasized culture and background of different students.  I think is the best way to teach in a diverse classroom. The website was very plain, and focused specifically on listening comprehension. I don’t know if I would recommend EnglishListening as a resource site for students, but I will in the future, have my student create a Project based learning project of making videos for a website similar toEnglishListening.com. It would give students a chance to create and educate eachother. I think learning is more fun and involved when students feel like they are contributing to others education I.E. talking about there experiences and culture,.

A more impressive multi-media website I found through the University of Illinois, Chicago, was http://www.youtube.com/user/Bookfill, a ESL youtube lesson jackpot. I found so many great videos on English Language activities. Each lesson is short and specific. There was a video on compound words. So there are a list of words and student decides which side the word goes on to create the correct compound word. For example, “down” connects to “downtown,” and “showdown,” or “line,” connects to “up” and “air” to create the words “lineup” and “airline.” I think that is pretty creative and explanatory. The only problem I found with this particular website is that it may note be interactive enough for student, especially if they are studying at home alone. There are so many more websites, with a so many great ideas.  I is really nice to have a forum to find ideas to incorporate into my web-based TESOL education.