The block round

Some of the interesting ICT things I did with my English classes during the block:
(1) while I was away sick, my English mentor got the kids started on making (hard-copy) posters about the themes present in the text we are studying. When I got back, I decided to have the students spend a lesson on reapplying and repeating those skills using Glogster. It was an interesting experiment, in a way, to see how the students responded to the different modes of creation. Many of the students who were reluctant to put together a hard-copy poster, and to fulfil the requirements of the task, were really excited to put together a Glog and were very happy to include quotes, images, examples and ideas. Certainly it was a more exciting task to my mind, and I would have responded as the students did, I think. Particularly for those of us who are not good at drawing etc., a program like a Glog is great as you can be creative, but by using and manipulating others' work.
(2) I have set an assessment task for the students to create a book trailer in response to the text we are reading. This is a quite a complex task, I think, in that it calls for students to collaborate, create, evaluate, and analyse. Hopefully though, the mode of presentation (and the fact that I have developed very clear criteria for the students) will encourage students to be excited and focused about this task. Looking forward to seeing the end results!