Smart Learning-Reading the news-Compulsory
When you live in a new country, one of the most important things is to understand what is happening around us. It is also very important to understand how this country sees the rest of the world. We can do it by reading the local and worlld news regularly. We will learn a lot about the culture of Australia and, at the same time, our English will improve.
Tips to read the news (newspapers or online news):
- Read the headlines
- Look at the pictures
- Read the topic sentences: the first sentece of each paragraph is the one with the news.
- Use skimming: to quickly run your eyes across the whole article to undersstand the general meaning ( to get the gist). We do this to get an idea of what the article is about. It also gives you an indication of the writer's point of view.
- Use scanning: to look for a specific piece of information in the article. It could be a name, a figure (amount), a date, an explanation of a technical term, an idea to support an opinion, etc. You scan an article to get specific information without having to read the whole text.
Activity 1
Go to the Sydney Morning Herald
Write a list of the different sections. Locate the World news & national news sections. Choose one piece of news that interest you. Write about it. Do not copy and paste. Skim, scan and summarise it in your own words.
Assessment: upload your answer or write it in your notes, blog, journal.
Activity 2
Find the opinion or commentary section. Read the letters to the editor. Choose one to respond to. Before writing your letter, research the item of news (read past Sydney Morning Herald articles of the same piece of news, read about the same piece of news in other newspapers, search the net).
Assessment: write a letter to the editor about a topic that intersts you which responds to someone else's letter
Activity 3
Understanding humour is one of the hardest things to do in a second language. The Sydney Morning Herald has Column 8 at the back of the paper. It contains humorous little passages about life in Sydney. To understand them you often need to have local knowledgeand cultural knowledge of Australia.
Choose one item from column 8. Email it to one of your classmates with a list of questions to try and understand its meaning and the humour in it.
You will have to help one of your classmates to understand his/her chosen item.
We can discuss column 8 items in our forum.
Assessmment: help each oother understand 1 item from column 8 and participate in the forum.
My Study Room-Optional Tasks
OPTIONAL TASKSDo two or more of these tasks
1.Learning Styles. Read the University of Hull learning styles survey to find out what type of learner you are.
Assessment: write a paragraph describing your results
2. Organizational skills: folder activity.
Assessment: upload your answer
3. Being a successful student: Read the document Being a successful student.
Do the exercise. Write a paragraph about the ideas from this exercise that are good or relevant for yourself.
Assessment: upload your answers
4. Self-evaluation: Read this worksheet and fill in the timetable: ESOL Self-evaluation Evaluation Worksheet
Assessment: upload your answers
5. Active learning:
Read about different ways of learning vocabulary: map mind, grouping or categorising words, using new words, etc
Assessment: choose one way of learning new vocabulary and upload your own worksheet
6. Active learning: classroom language
Assessment: complete the table an upload your answer
My Study Room- Compulsory Tasks
COMPULSORY TASKS1.This weeks forum: Tell us something about yourself: if you had to choose a colour which represents how you are feeling right now, which one is it and why? How do you feel about doing this module online? What are the advantages and disadvantages of learning online? Respond to other students’ comments.
You can also discuss what you think about making mistakes. Do you feel it’s OK to make mistakes when you are learning English? Are you embarrassed if you make a mistake and it is corrected in class? Read this article by Steve Kaufmann,
Why you should make mistakes, to help you think about the issue.
Assessment: participate
2. Learning Styles Survey:
It is said that language is best learned when we use as much of the brain as possible. For example when we learn through a combination of the ear (auditory), the eye (visual), and by movement (kinetic). However each person has different learning styles. To maximise our learning, we should know which type of learner we are. We should identify our learner style and apply our findings to our study.
Do this test on learning styles: Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire
Once you’ve finished, read your results and the Learning Style Descriptions. Find out what type of learner you are:
ACTIVE, REFLECTIVE, SENSING, INTUITIVE, VISUAL, VERBAL, SEQUENTIAL, or GLOBAL LEARNER?
Write down in your journal how you can help yourself to maximise your learning.
Assessment: complete the questionnaire and write down (in your notes) the results and your ideas on them.
3. Goal setting skills: We are doing CESOL II (level 4), which is the last level of ESOL offered by TAFE. We have to start thinking about our future plans. Do we want to continue studying? Do we need more English before we study a mainstream course (a regular course for anyone, not just for Speakers of Other Languages)?
It’s a good idea to make a short/long term learning plan. Read about different courses that may interest you, like English for Further Studies (EFS ).
You can use the internet to get more information. You can also visit the counsellors at the Counselling Unit in your college. They will help you think about what courses could be good for you.
This is a diagram of English for Speakers of Other Languages: Study pathways for ESOL students. Print it and highlight your own pathway.
Read this worksheet and fill it in. It will help you think about your career pathways: Personal Action Plan
Assessment: upload your answers
4. Time Management skills: Read these two pages on time management and fill the timetables.
a) An example of a study timetable and her reflexion on the activity (2005 EFS student): My study timetable.
b)Ideas on how to organise your time: Organising your time.
Assessment: upload your answer
5. Reflective skills: Learning Diary/Journal/blog
“Reflective skills in learning” means having the ability to stop and think about our learning. This enables students to understand our own learning processes. If you understand the way you learn, you can become more independent in your learning. One of the best ways of thinking about your learning is keeping a journal.
Read Activity 1, and Activity 2 before you do the assessment.
Activity 1
Your journal can be written in a notebook, a Microsoft word document, an online journal or a blog. Read the following article about keeping a journal: The Reflective Learner. Answer these questions in your notes (or email your answers):
1. Write a paragraph about what a reflective learner is
2. Why is it important?
3. What can you write in your journal?
Activity 2
One way of recording your thoughts about your learning is by creating your own blog (a blog is like a web based journal) or online journal.
Read about both systems and choose one.
E-MAIL ACCOUNT
Before you create a blog or online journal, you will probably need to have a web based e-mail account. Here are some instructions to help you:
How to set up a web-based e-mail account.
BLOG
You can learn how to create your own blog in several ways:
· Go to Blogger and try to do it (hands on learning) OR
· Print and read these instructions joining a blog instructions (uploaded file) OR
· Have a look at this online tutorial Blogger.com Tutorial
See an example in Patrick’s blog.
JOURNAL
You can create your own online journal by following these instructions:
· Chose one of these hosts: Online Journal Hosts,
· This will help you select one: Selecting an Online Journal Host
· If you want to add images, read this: How to add Images to your Journal.
Assessment: Write a journal in either a blog, online journal or the notes in this toolbox. Post a link to your teacher. Your teacher will help you with language issues.
Listening & Speaking practice on the Internet.
You can listen to English in many Internet websites and blogs. You can also speak and post voice messages on yoour blog.
Visit Teresa's d'Almeida class site. Her students had an audio conference with a teacher from the other side of the world. Some of her students posted their own messages, one even with video!
HFWE
