Toolbox

Between the Lines

2005-07-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

When you read the news, a magazine, watch TV, listen to the radio or read or catch advertisements............... read between the lines!

Activity 1

Read this item of news about Schapelle Corby, the Australin convicted to 20 years jail in Indonesia for drug trafficking.

DAILY TELEGRAPH
28 May 2005

Nation's FuryNation's FuryThis terrorist planned the murder of 88 Australians and got 2 years. Yesterday Schapelle Corby got 20. In a double standard that has outraged the Australian nation...Corby received ten times the sentence given to accused Bali terror mastermind Abu Bakir Bashir.- The Daily Telegraph, 28 May 2005.

How do you feel about Schapelle's conviction after reading this?
Do you feel it's OK for her to get 20 years jail?
Do you feel Abu Bakir Bashir got a light sentence?
Do you feel it's fair to give a young girl 20 years for smuggling some dope ?
Do you think it's fair to give 2 years to someone who organised the Bali Bombing, where 88 Australians got killed?
What do you really think about this issue after reading this?

Now read the transcript from Media Watch, an ABC TV program that looks at the way newspapers, radio and TV programs broadcast news:
MEDIA WATCH
First screened 30 May 2005 Presented by Liz Jackson
On ABC TV Mondays 9.15pm; Wednesdays 11.50pm On ABC2: Wed. 7:45pm, 10:00pm, 1:10am; Thu. 7:40pm, 9:55pm
It was the Telegraph's spin on the verdict itself, that was truly a disgrace.But there's a crucial difference here: it's the word 'accused'. Abu Bakar Bashir has not been convicted of masterminding the Bail bombing. Accused, yes, guilty maybe, but not convicted in a court.The three Indonesians who have been convicted are on death row - they face the firing squad. Nowhere does the Telegraph tell its readers this.We agree with the Telegraph that Schapelle's sentence is 'an abomination'. Twenty years is far too long but Schapelle has not been victimised. It's a standard sentence for drug trafficking in Indonesia.The Telegraph's misleading comparison with Abu Bakar Bashir is the kind of coverage that has characterised this case.Who can be surprised that some Australians are reportedly withdrawing their donations to the tsunami victims?The media who fed this undercurrent of xenophobia should hang their heads in shame.Until next week, good night.
________________________
Answer this questions:

What is the difference between "accused" and "convicted"?
Is it important to understand and be aware of this difference? Why?
Was the Telegraph version of the news honest?
Did they include all the facts?
What didn't they tell us?
How do you feel about the whole story now?

Assessment: Upload your answers and write a letter to the editor expressing your view.

Smart Learning-Reading the news-Compulsory

2005-06-30T06:36:00.000-07:00

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

2005-06-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

OPTIONAL TASKS

Do 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

2005-06-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

COMPULSORY TASKS

1.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.

2005-06-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

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

2005-06-22T03:03:00.000-07:00

Hi. Welcome to Approachesto Learning 4. My name is Li Chen. I’m from China.I have been in Australia for 2 years and I’m currently doing an ESOL Level 4 course at TAFE. I am doing some of the modules online. I will help you so that you can do it too.

Please read the files (introduction.doc & welcome to our vitual classroom.doc) to find out about the module and the requirements for you to to complete Approaches to Learning 4 successfully. Good luck with your learning!

Introduction to Approaches to Learning
Welcome to Our Virtual Classroom

Classroom: Working Together-Warm up

2005-05-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

The first day of class I was a bit shy. I didn't know anyone. The teacher gave us a questionnaire to get to know each other. After sharing the answers with the other students, we all felt much better about talking to everyone there.

Some of the questions were a bit unusual. For example:

Tell us one thing about yourself that you want to share with the class.
If you were an animal, which one would you choose? Why?
What do you expect from this class?

Choose one student you don't know very well, add onne question to the list and and e-mail these questions to her/him.

Answer questions about yourself from other students.

Women's Health (Smart learning)

2005-05-28T18:37:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a very informative session on breast examination, Pap smears and pelvic floor exercises. (Sorry to any male students, but this is very important. You can learn about it and tell your girlfriends and/or wives).

WOMEN'S
HEALTH IS OUR RIGHT and OUR
RESPONSIBILITY

YOUR body IS THE container of your MIND & SPIRIT.
DO NOT NEGLECT IT!

It wasn't easy to understand everything because of all the new medical words. Have a look at the leaflets the nurse gave us and visit these web sites:Breast

It was a coincidence that on the same evening we heard the news about Kylie Minogue's breast cancer.

Read the following articles, from three different sources:
Kylie has breast cancer (Sky Showbixz)
Kylie Battling Cancer (Rolling Stones)
Superstar Kylie Minogue diagnosed with Breast Cancer (Teen Music, About)
When you finish reading all three versions of the same story, write in your blog or notes about the differences and similarities between the three. Answer these questions to help you organise your thoughts:
1. Do they present the same content, the same information?
2. Do they use photos in an honest way? Or do they manipulate them to affect our feelings?
3. What is around the article? Are they trying to sell something? Are they adding useful information?
4. Do they give serious information or just anecdotes about the singer?
5. Which article is more believable and why?
6. Do you think it's ok to talk about a famous person's medical problems? Why?

Blogs & Web Journals

2005-05-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

You can create your own blog and use it like a web journal where you write about your learning, your English class and your feelings about it.

There are many good examples by students of all ages. Explore them (Patrick's blog, The Write Weblog, The New Tanuki , The Image Englissh Class Weblog), and if you feel up to it, you can look at these instructions on how to start your own blog and start writing!

Our Classroom

2005-05-16T05:49:00.000-07:00

This is our classroom. We do a lot of work here. Most of it is done in groups or pair work. It is very important to participate, because for many of us this is the only chance we have of practising our English. At home we use our mother tongue. I always try to sit with a classmate from a different cultural background and language.

Have a look her at our first woork together: Warm Up Collaborative Activity

Yesterday we did pair work to practise conversations to ask for goods and services at TAFE. Go to Simulation Game and start working on it.

TAFE SERVICES Simulation Game

2005-05-16T04:49:00.000-07:00

Role Play & Pair work
Choose one of the following roles and let your teacher know which one you've chosen. You will have to do a bit of research before starting the game.
Your teacher will tell you which student you are working with. You can communicate with that student through the chat/ email facilities in this toolbox.

The final product will be a dialogue of a TAFE services transaction.

TAFE Bookshop

Role Play Cards: Goods and Services at the college.

STUDENT A You are the college bookshop manager. Answer the customer's enquiries about prices. Remember student association members have a 10% discount on some items (find out which ones). The customer wants to buy: Macquarie Pocket Dictionary (paperback) Plastic A4 2-ring binders (2 styles available) Floppy discs Pens & a birthday card Some items you don't stock	STUDENT B You are the customer at the college bookshop. You want to buy the following items: Macquarie Pocket Dictionary (paperback) Plastic A4 2-ring binders (2 styles available) Floppy discs Pens & a birthday card Plastic sleeves & a calculator
STUDENT C You are the counsellor Give career advice to an ESOL student who is about to finish his/her ESOL 4 class.	STUDENT D You are a student visiting the counsellor. You are about to finish ESOL 4 and are not sure of what to do next. You are thinking of doing some course at TAFE and maybe later on continue onto university.

Topic 1 My Study Room

2005-05-10T00:20:00.000-07:00

Introduction

By the end of this unit you will:
Do a 'Brainstorm' to open up your ideas of what learning means for an individual.
Find out what 'type of learner you are by taking a Learning Styles Survey
You will start thinking about getting organised to improve your time mangement skills.
You will think about your goals, what you want to achieve short term and long term.
You will think about your learning and write about it in your journal.
You will be able to practise different ways of learning vocabulary.
You will take part in a forum wit other students of this module and together you will create a bank of ideas about learning English.

I you are ready, you can go to my desk.
Make a folder. First electronically in your computer and also as a paper folder. Name it the 'Approaches to Learning' folder.
Collect anything at all from newspapers, magazines, your own notes or ideas - things you do in class, things you notice about learning. Save these things in your 'Approaches to Learning' folder.
For the Learning Outcomes addressed in this Week's work go to Learning Outcomes.

Welcome to our virtual classroom.

2005-05-09T23:55:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Li Chen. I’m from China. I have been in Australia for 2 years and I’m currently doing an ESOL Level 4 course at TAFE. I studied English in China, but it is really different to doing it here. I’ll tell you more about it later.

I have met some very nice people in my ESOL class. We sometimes go out together on Fridays (I’ve got Fridays off!). One of my best classmates is Ana. Here she is!

Hi there. My name’s Ana. I’m Li’s classmate. I’m from Argentina. I met Li at TAFE. She has been here a lot longer than I have. I only came two months ago. I studied English at university, so they put me in the last ESOL level, but I don’t think I understand as much as Li does.

In this class we are learning many things, reading, writing, listening and speaking. But we are also learning many other things, like Australian Systems and Culture, pronunciation, and many other things.
We are now learning a module called Approaches to Learning. We were given this quote as an introduction to Approaches to Learning:

“The most important learning of all- for both children and adults- is learning how to learn, the skills of self directed enquiry”
Knowles, M (1978) The Modern Practice of Adult Education” From Pedagogy to Andragogy. Chapter 4. ‘What is Andragogy?’. Prentice Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs. NJ.

This module is based on the TAFE curriculum for Certificate II in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). In it we are learning about how to study. I never thought that studying was different in different countries, but it can be.

Our teacher told us that learning is in part a personal experience. There are several ways in which a person learns: active learning, passive or receptive learning, reflective learning and critical learning. We can also do a lot of the learning individually, but we have to learn how to learn as part of a team. We also learn in a very specific environment (TAFE,so we have to become familiar with it to take advantage of everything it offers.

We are going to cover all these different ways of learning in three units or topics:

Topic 1: My Study Room (Personal Learning). (6 hours recommended) (it includes Critical Learning)
Topic 2: TAFE: classroom, library, ASC, counsellor’s unit (Learning in Context) (4 hours recommended)
Topic 3: Group work (Collaborative Learning) (4 hours recommended)

Topic 4: Smart learning (Critical thinking) ( 4 hours recommended)

This is the Assessment Grid (making the hidden curriculum explicit:LOS with assess tasks)

Learning Activity 1
Click on Skills Assessment for Computer Based Learning. Have a play around. You will learn many things about computers.
Learning Activity 2
Do this exercise on computer language: Weblang

Assessment task: After doing Activities 1 & 2, you can open this survey on computer knowledge: User profile doc. Copy it (save as) and fill it in. Then upload it or send it as an attachment. It will help your teachers know how much you know about computers. Then they will be able to help you better.

INTRODUCTION

2005-05-09T23:36:00.000-07:00

Technical Requirements
What hardware and software do you require?
The minimum requirements are:

Hardware	Software	Download
Pentium class 100 Mhz	Internet Explorer 5.5 +	http://www.microsoft.com
	Flash Player plugin 6.0	http://www.macromedia.com

Module Content
What's this module about?
The purpose of this module is to help you learn about the way you learn, to apply individual and group learning strategies, to learn about the college and the classroom in which you study and to learn in a critical reflective way.
The module has 4 topics. These are:

Topic 1: My Study room. This unit is about personal learning. You will learn about time management, goal setting, learning styles and how to reflect about your learning.

Topic 2: College. We do not learn in isolation (by ourselves).We learn in a context. Our learning is done in a TAFE college, so you have to use the facilities your college provides to help your learning.

Topic 3: My Classroom. Learning is also a collaborative effort. Here you will think about the importance of learning as part of a group.

Topic 4: Smart Learning. Learning helps us become better thinkers. Here you will learn about critical thinking.

Timetable
Approaches to Learning is a module that you will be learning not only online, but also in class. The online part of it has been designed to be completed in 9 weeks, working 2 hours a week on it. However, different students will take different time to complete this module.
This table gives an indication of how much time to dedicate to each topic:

Topic	Learning Field	Recommended hours	No Weeks
1. My Study Room	Personal Learning	6	3
2. College	Learning in Context	4	2
3. My Classroom	Collaborative Learning	4	2
4. Smart Learning	Critical Learning	4	2

Learning Outcomes & Assessment Guidelines

To have a better idea of what you are going to learn in this module, you can read the Approaches to Learning 4 Learning Outcomes.

To have an overall idea of what you are learning in CESOL II, you can read the Assessment Guidelines .

Assessment grid: You will see what activities assess different Learning Outcomes.

You can print these three documents and file them in your folder. Once you finish reading them, tick the task icon (right hand corner)
Tasks
Each topic has several learning activities and assessment tasks. You should do all the learning activities. Some of the assessment tasks are compulsory (this means: you have to do them). Other assessment tasks are optional. You will be given a list of optional assessment tasks from which to choose the ones you feel more comfortable with, or you feel will teach you something new. You will be told how many optional tasks to complete for each topic.

Welcome
You can start working right now. Click here: Welcome to Our Virtual Classroom and enjoy your learning.

My Desk

2005-04-07T23:44:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Welcome to my study. This is where I do my homework for my English class. It is important to have a quiet private space to be able to study without distractions and interruptions.

My desk

I was a bit nervous today. It was my first English class. I haven’t been a student for so long…. Anyway, it was easy. We did a lot of work on how to study, how to organise ourselves, what we are going to do this semester, what our goals were, etc.

You can help me with my homework. Come on! You’ll learn something too and it’s always better to do things with someone else (we’ll be using our English at least!)

Today our teacher asked us to think about what learning means. This is what I thought:

PERSONAL LEARNING: Learning is in part a personal experience. There are several ways in which a person learns: active learning, passive or receptive learning, reflective learning and critical learning

What do you think? Write down a few ideas about learning in your notes. This exercise is called brainstorming.

I found a good quote on learning:

Learning is an internal process controlled by the learners and engaging their whole being, including intellectual, emotional, and physiological functions. Learning is described psychologically as a process of need-meeting and goal striving by the learners……Adults have a deep psychological need to be generally self-directing”
Knowles, M (1978) The Modern Practice of Adult Education” From Pedagogy to Andragogy. Chapter 4. ‘What is Andragogy?’. Prentice Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs. NJ.

It is a bit hard to understand at first, but if you look up a couple of hard words, like engaging, and striving, and then try to get the general meaning of the sentences, it gets easier. I think this means that learning is something personal that we do when we want to get something at the end (achieve a goal). Maybe we want to get a qualification (certificate, diploma, degree) to get a better job. Maybe we simply want to be able to learn how to make our own furniture or clothes. Anyway, this is my understanding of the quote. What do you think? Do you agree?

You can tell me in our forum or chat room.

When you finish reading this, please go to Topic 1-Learning & Assesment (Compulsory Tasks)