Using The Using The InternetInternet and and MediaMedia in the in the

ClassroomClassroom

Using The Using The InternetInternet and and MediaMedia in the in the

ClassroomClassroomPart I – Internet SitesPart I – Internet Sites

Part II – Different Internet MediaPart II – Different Internet Media

Part 1Part 1IInternet Sitesnternet Sites

Part 1Part 1IInternet Sitesnternet Sites

Internet SitesA few Canadian websites with links:

• TESL Ontario: www.teslontario.ca – ( and Contact!)

• TESL Canada: www.tesl.ca

• Internet TESL Journal: http://iteslj.org/

• Durham College: http://www.dc-uoit.ca/EN/main/learnersupportcentre/external_resource_links.html#writing

4 Skill Categories• Listening Sites

• Reading Sites

• Speaking & Pronunciation Sites

• Writing & Dictionary Sites

Listening Listening SitesSites

Listening Listening SitesSites

CBC Archiveshttp://archives.cbc.ca/index.asp?IDLan=1

• Many Topics: People, Conflict & War, Life & Society, Arts & Entertainment, Politics & Economy, and more

• Topic Index, Clip Index, On this Day, Great Interviews Index

• Links & Additional clips -bottom on each page

Sample Listening:http://archives.cbc.ca/science_technology/natural_science/

topics/663/• Practical Application and Activity

Additional pages for Teachers:http://archives.cbc.ca/for_teachers

– divided by grade and “all grades” assignments

CBC Ottawahttp://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/esl/index.html

• 10 lessons – 3 levels• Pre-, Listening and Post exercises

CBC Manitoba – EALhttp://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/eal/about.html

• Weekly lessons• Pre-, listening, post exercises

Voice Print “Canada’s Broadcast Reading Service”

http://www.voiceprintcanada.com/Sample Listening:

• grocery specials

http://www.voiceprintcanada.com/content/view/147/147/

Historica Minuteshttp://www.histori.ca/minutes/section.do?className=ca.histori.minutes.entity.ClassicMinute

CBC Podcastinghttp://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/index.html?region#on

– The best of CBC’c national Radio One shows, CBC TV's The Hour, & regional podcast magazines+

– Information and broadcasts from across Canada, including Toronto This Week

– News casts can be• played once a week (they change)• saved on the computer(s) you are using

– These are longer listenings (times are listed)

• Pre-listen to set up questions• Students can take notes on them• Students can make up questions for each other• Leads to cultural awareness and good post-

listening discussionsVery interesting topics!

Vinyl Caféhttp://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/pastpodcasts.html?44#ref44

• Stuart McLean is one of Canada's most popular and acclaimed storytellers. As the host of The Vinyl Cafe—which is both a popular CBC radio show and a series of bestselling books—he has created a national institution.

• A radio show which can expose the students to a “clear” Canadian accent and to cultural aspects, including family issues, neighbours, growing old…

BBC• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/teac

hingenglish/index.shtml

ABC• http://abc.net.au/tv/btn/teachers/esl.htm

Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab

• http://www.esl-lab.com/index.htm– Levels: Easy, Medium, and Difficult– Many topics, cultural, every day conversations– Pre-listening, Listening, Vocabulary, idioms, multiple

choice, close and replay features as the students do the exercises, helpful cultural

tips, too

ReadingReading

SitesSitesReadingReading

SitesSites

Vinyl Café: Story Exchange:

http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe

Can be used as in-class or home readings.• Not in any specific order or topic, but

are interesting and very Canadian.• The archives started in January 2006

Sample Reading:

http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/story_exchange.php?vStoryID=41

“Away from Home” – Michelle Thompson

"Away From Home"by Michelle Thompson from Cobourg, ON

Sep 20, 08

I want to preface this letter by saying that I have been meaning to write it for a while. In fact, I’ve been thinking about writing it for over a year now. This letter is a story about a family, not unlike the one you read about every week on your show. This letter is about my family.

My name is Michelle Thompson, and I am 19 years old. I am going into my third year of studies in Engineering at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. My family lives on Rice Lake, about half an hour north of Cobourg, Ontario; about 2 hours away from the University.

Both of my older sisters went to Queen’s and my brother, in the 11th grade, is sure to follow. Now 2 hours doesn’t seem like much, but I am so busy with school work and sports that I don’t get to visit home very much. I miss my parents, but there always seems to be something in the way.

Stuart, you have to understand that we are a CBC family, through and through. In each of our cars, CBC Radio One is the first programmed station on our radios. In middle school, while other kids listened to the Top 40, I listened to As It Happens, and Quirks and Quarks. Every morning in high school that I had early band practice, my father would turn on Ontario Morning and I would find out what was going on in my province, and around the world.

In the glove boxes of each of our cars, my father has meticulously placed those little paper pamphlets you get from the CBC building in Toronto. The ones that have every CBC radio station across Canada listed by town and subdivided into provinces; just in case we found our selves unexpectedly lost in the forests of British Columbia or the barren tundra of Nunavut, we would still have the CBC.

Last summer, I drove back with my father from a family vacation in Newfoundland, and I couldn’t tell you the route we took or the roads we traveled on, but I could almost guarantee that I know the sequence of radio tunings it took us to get home. But most of all, Stuart, our family loves the Vinyl Café.

We go to church most Sundays a few minutes away from our home. After every service we would practically run to the car, garnering our share of strange looks from the Minister and the choir, just to be able to hear the start of your story about Dave and Morley. When we got home, we would often sit in the car with the radio going until there was a break in the story. My dad would run into the house, full speed, to turn on the radio in the kitchen, so as not to miss anything important. He would then walk down the hallway, turning on the radio in the living room and his bedroom, so that the entire first floor of our house was broadcasting the Vinyl Café loud and proud. My mother would start cooking lunch, and you could hear my father roaring with laughter pacing about his bedroom and undressing from his church clothes. My family has a special connection with the Vinyl Café. I think we all see a little bit of the characters, in ourselves.

When I moved to University, I lost touch with your show. I know you may be shocked to hear it, but CBC radio isn’t incredibly popular with the University crowd. I think its Vinyl Café’s timing more than anything, Stuart. You must remember that the typical University student is just entering REM sleep when your show airs on Sunday mornings.

I started to miss your show, and the connection it brought to my family. I finally found one of the greatest inventions in human history; the Podcast. Now I can listen to the Vinyl Café in between calculus and physics, and even during, if the lectures are dry enough. I have subscribed online, and wait in excitement as every week, a new file awaits me.

I have never told my parents I still listen intently. As a typical teenager, I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing they have had any impact on my life.

I am working in Kingston this summer for one of my professors. I don’t get home as often as a like, and am not used to being apart from them for this long. I know this may all seem a little tedious to you, but I was wondering if you could tell them something on your show, when I know they will be listening. If you could tell them that I miss them and that even when it feels like a million years away, I love them, and I will be home soon.

Sample Story Exercises"Away From Home"

by Michelle Thompson from Cobourg, ONSep 20, 08

http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/story_exchange.php?vStoryID=41Topic:• Family/ Leisure/ Student LifeTense:• Verb Tense Review – simple present and past tense, two-part verbs,

conditionals, modals• students identify the verb forms, time markers and explain why the tense was

used• students create and write questions to ask each other based on the storyPronunciation:• Regular past tense endings• Irregular past tense verbs• modal stressFollow-up:• locate the places on the map• look up/trip to library/home research/self-reflection:

– have students do presentations about family life in their countries, student life in their countries, leisure time activities

Classic Short Storieshttp://www.classicshorts.com/• These are as the title states, including such

stories as W.W. Jacob’s “The Monkey’s Paw,” Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and so on.

Sample Story: “The Monkey’s Paw” WW Jacobs http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/paw.html

Short Storieshttp://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/

– These are stories that are evaluated by: length, age and star rating

100 Free Short Stories for ESL Learners – Can be listened to– Includes: listening, grammar, comprehension,

dictation questions and answershttp://www.rong-chang.com/qa2/index.html

Short Stories to Increase Paraphrasing Skills

http://jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/97/may/short.html

– Interesting ideas and links to stories

Speaking & Speaking & Pronunciation Pronunciation

SitesSites

Speaking & Speaking & Pronunciation Pronunciation

SitesSites

The Internet TESL Journalhttp://iteslj.org/questions/

– A monthly journal with archives from 1995– Question lists from every topic/cultural point

imaginable– Used as:

• Warm ups, topic introductions, closers, writing topics

– Basic - lead through with the teacher– Intermediate – group leader assigns

questions– Advanced - left alone with the list of questions– Use as is, edit in a word document or add to

Sample Questions: “The Environment & Pollution”

Conversation Questions the Environment & Pollution

A Part of Conversation Questions for the ESL Classroom

.

• Are there litter laws where you live? If so, what is the penalty for littering?

• Do you think cars should be banned from city centers? • Do you think people should recycle newspapers? Why or why

not? • Do you think there are lessons to learn from nature? • How has the world changed since you were a child?

(technology, values, environment, health) • How often is garbage collected in your neighborhood? • If humans are really intelligent and not simply manipulated by

their genes like any other animal, why can't they do anything about overpopulation? …

Train Your Accenthttp://www.trainyouraccent.com/symbols.htm

• Listening while reading a transcript with a specific sounds of everyday speech highlighted (actual and reduced speech transcripts):

Sample Accent Training:http://www.trainyouraccent.com/a-rent-apartment.htm

ESL Goldhttp://www.eslgold.com/speaking.html• 5 levels to choose: beginning (2), intermediate

(2) and advanced (1)• Many different topics to read and listen

to

Sample Listening:http://www.eslgold.com/speaking/introducing_others.html

A:Paul, this is John. John, this is Paul. Have you met Paul? Have you two met each other? Have you two met each other?

B:No, I haven't. No, we haven'tYes, we have.

A:Paul, this is John.

John, this is Paul.

Writing SitesWriting SitesWriting SitesWriting Sites

From basic to advanced:• http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/• http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/sensen/

For higher levels:• http://www.writing.ku.edu/instructors/docs/

conferencing2.shtml• http://www.sportsci.org/jour/9901/

wghstyle.html• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

Dictionaries:• http://www.m-w.com/netdict.htm• http://www.ldoceonline.com/

Part 2Part 2UsingUsing Different Different

Sites Sites in the Classin the Class

Part 2Part 2UsingUsing Different Different

Sites Sites in the Classin the Class

2 Categories

• Using Newspapers - online

• Watching the news – online

Using Using Newspapers Newspapers

OnlineOnline

Using Using Newspapers Newspapers

OnlineOnline

There are various paper media. Online is clean & environmental

Print only what you choose, more choice & control of topics

1. The COMICS basic – advanced• Basic describe the pictures:

– what are they saying?– what is the occasion?– what is the meaning?

• Intermediate is it funny? why?– verb tense – past + subordinate (noun) clause

formation• Advanced relationships between animals

– what is the history of that vegetable?

Sample Comic

http://www3.thestar.com/cgi-bin/star_static.cgi?section=comics&page=/Third_Party/comics/mutts.html

There is also a two-week archive for each comic

2. Daily columns basic – advanced

• Choose from a variety of topics, new & old, based on what is being taught

• Short Basic – Intermediate• choose topics, read, discuss,

agree/disagree, write own response or question related to given article

Sample Reading: Dear Elliehttp://www.thestar.com/printArticle/266733

Using the News Using the News Online Online

Using the News Using the News Online Online

CBC News on the Internet:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/

Faster & easier to plan with:– can search for recent media files– repeat at the student’s leisure– topic can be chosen instead of

waiting for the “perfect” news story.

Sample home page - short clips

• Video clips at the side of the screen with the latest news

• 5 pages (screens) with 3 stories/page• Times are indicated• Lesson Ideas:

– Watch muted & guess topic by screen clues and cues, if possible

– Each student chooses a “topic,” listens, and reports back to class

– Pairs of students listen, compare notes and report back to class

Sample Photo Gallery

CBC http://www.cbc.ca/photogallery/news/756/

• “The week in pictures”– Shows a number of photos with short descriptions

Basic describe the photo

Intermediate read the caption for key words

Advanced look and read caption rephrase/describe to class and they guess what the

picture isDescribe to a partner who “draws” the picture

CBC media and recent media– More recent past than CBC archives

http://www.cbc.ca/news/media/

• CBC Media Recent Media, Consumer Life, Science and Tech, Health, Money, Other recent Stories

Sample Story: Polar Ice Caps Melting 4:23 http://www.cbc.ca/video/popup.html?http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/news/features/arcticicemelt2-intvu-070820.wmv

The EndThe End

Thank you for Thank you for coming!coming!

The EndThe End

Thank you for Thank you for coming!coming!