Week 4: Developing reading and writing skills and creating a technology-enhanced lesson plan

I was away on a training course for most part of this week so my tasks were necessarily postponed. When I read “Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction,” I agreed with Jarek Krajka that especially in non-English speaking countries, such as Argentina where I am from, the web is an invaluable source of information for teachers of English to get classroom materials and, with the help of selected websites and other on-line techniques, writing instruction can be made much more interesting, appealing and motivating.

The lessons with the use of the Internet serve best the goal of my own Cultural Studies course which is to increase students' cultural awareness since they can enhance my intermediate-advanced college students’ writing skill by means of websites, serving students with information they need, to be later used in writing and web publishing.

In “Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books,” I learned about an online extensive reading lesson for intermediate and advanced students. I felt really interested in the objectives of this lesson, which are to guide students to read authentic e-texts outside the classroom and to improve their overall reading, writing and thinking skills by synthesizing and evaluating online materials with peers, because they fit into the syllabus of my Cultural Studies course.

So I created a technology enhanced lesson plan for that course, taking into account the need to develop students´ intercultural competence as an important aspect of language and improve their language skills in general.

My project goals are to motivate students to learn more outside the classroom, to reinforce their knowledge through a variety of online resources, to contribute to their independent learning and critical thinking skills, and to develop their collaborative skills and their computer skills by learning, for example, how to use class blogs.