Post 304: What is the Intermediate level of Language Learning?

Post 304: What is the Intermediate level of Language Learning?

Listening and Speaking (Interpersonal Skills--How well does the LL understand and respond to target language questions?)

Students in the intermediate level can understand both native speakers of the target language and non native speakers of the target language. While novice language learners understand their teachers and their classmates, the intermediate level student can understand the teacher, fellow students and start to mingle with native speakers of the language and start to socialize with native speakers to immerse themselves as much as possible into the culture of the target language.

Reading (Interpretative Skills--How well can the LL comprehend main ideas of what he reads?)
Instead of just reading simple scripted text about the target language culture, intermediate students can start to read the actual newspapers, magazines and books of the target language without translation and without reading simplified French versions. However, really complex issues can still be taught in a sheltered version of the target language with some translation into the native language only when needed.

At the intermediate level, I recommend students read France 24 English version and then read France 24 French version of that same exact story to gain vocabulary and sentence structure. At the intermediate level, learners should understand the main idea and supporting points of an article in the target language. The more students read, the faster they will learn the target language.

Writing (Presentation Skills--How well can he present what he has learned?):
At this stage, students should be able to write a short 3 paragraph essay or if you are in France, you should be able to write a commentaire compose which is a literary analysis essay if you are a literature major in France.  At the intermediate level, students can write a short essay in the target language without need of translation into the native language. There will be some grammar mistakes along the way.  At this level, students can present a simple presentation or conduct debates with classmates in the target language.

Language Control: How accurate is the language learner language? The student will make a lot of mistakes in pronunciation like the beginner student especially with sounds that occur in the target language that do not occur in the student's native language. Students can understand topics beyond biographical topics. Students speak interlanguage--Interlanguage is the type of language or linguistic system used by second- and foreign-language learners who are in the process of learning a target language. The student will still make mistakes by transferring grammatical structures from their native language into the target language.

For instance, Spanish learners of English will write in English, Is a good day because in Spanish Es una buena dia is a complete sentence, but in English that is not a complete sentence as in English, the sentence is missing a subject. Intermediate language learners speak a language that is a mixture of their native language and the target language just like small children who are exposed to multiple languages.

Vocabulary: How extensive is his vocabulary?  Intermediate learners can learn about Francophone cultures in the target language, they can read about politics, work issues, controversial issues in the target language. American students start hanging out more and more with French native speakers as the French native speakers speak slowly while the intermediate learner tries to understand what the native speaker is saying.

Communication Strategies: How does he make meaning? Intermediate learners make meaning by talking to the native speaker face to face. Watching the native speaker's mouth, context of the conversation, and body gestures help the language learner understand what the native speaker is saying.  However, the intermediate learner may have trouble understanding the native speaker on the telephone because without body language and the native speaker talking too fast, the language learner may not understand the entire phone message.

Cultural Awareness: What is his knowledge of the target language culture?
The intermediate learner can read about the culture in the target language. He can immerse himself in the culture to understand cultural values and learn target language body gestures.  He can start making native speaker friends who will tell the language learner about life in the target culture. Increasingly, as the intermediate learner becomes immersed in the target culture, about a year or so, the intermediate learner becomes an advanced language learner.

Post 303: What is the Novice level of Language Learning?

Post 303: What is the Novice level of Language Learning?

Speaking and Listening: The Language Learner is taught basic action verbs and actions. He learns how to ask formulaic questions like, 'Where is the hotel?" He imitates the teacher. He knows how to end and maintain a short conversation. Basically, at the novice stage, he listens to  the teacher and is still absorbing new words to practice. The teacher's job at this level is to provide the learner with comprehensible imput though using visual props like pictures.

Reading and Writing: The Language Learner can write simple sentences. He can barely write a paragraph. His topics are biographical and familiar.  His main concerns is to express what he is doing or thinking to the native speaker. He just knows the simple tenses.  He mainly communicates in the present tense. He gets to know the simple past and the simple future.

His main interaction is with the teacher and it's the teacher who leads the class and encourages students to speak short sentences to each other as students learn the sentence structure or word order of the new language.  Students practice dialogue using scripted conversations written by language teachers.

In my beginning French classes online, beginning French students only write one sentence answers in French. I don't expect much more out of my beginning French students. They mainly listen to Rosetta Stone and do Rosetta Stone exercises.

I assign them vocabulary building and pronunciation exercises for them to do. For instance, I would say, "How are you? I'm fine. And you?" Students would repeat that question and answer and then add some more to the conversation as they practice pronunciation. I then give them linguistic feedback on how to form those sounds phonetically.

Language Control: How accurate is the language learner language? At the novice level, students know very little of the language. They can only respond and ask formulaic questions like, How are you? What is your name? My name is for American students learning French.

Vocabulary: How extensive is his vocabulary? Their vocabulary is limited to naming common objects and knowledge of simple action verbs like is, go, run, drink or walk.  Nancy walks to the store for instance. or Is Nancy at the store?

Communication Strategies: How does he make meaning? Novice students make meaning by looking at flashcards or pictures of the items and associating that item picture with the target language word. Students imitate what the professor says to learn pronunciation and target language sentence structure. Some really short translation into the native tongue may be necessary.

Cultural Awareness: What is his knowledge of the target language culture?
Students will study scripted conversations of the target language written by language educators in a simplified manner using only the vocabulary that the students have learned so far in their language lessons. The students main interaction is with other language learners and their teacher. They are not ready to interact with native speakers or listen to native speaker conversation. They learn about the culture of the target language by reading about the culture in their native language.

Post 302: Three Traits a Boss likes in an Online Teacher

Three Traits a Boss likes in an Online Teacher

I was taking a Faculty Training class and my boss posted in the Announcements of the class that for him, the three most sought after traits of a successful online teacher are Authenticity, Transparency, and Community. Having these traits means that the online teacher has successfully established her Social Presence, having an authentic persona, her Cognitive Presence, knowing what her students want and her students knowing what she wants, and her Teaching Presence, having a well-designed classroom that promotes collaborative and community learning with a teacher who guides her students in the learning process.

Authenticity--Be real and authentic to your student.  Have a welcoming online persona to create trust with students. Being authentic will not take away your authority as instructor. It takes courage to be yourself. When I teach a class, I try to project a welcoming teacher persona to my students. This is part of the Community of Inquiry Social Presence. When you have Social Presence, this means that the students know you beyond your role as a teacher. The students know you as a real person they can relate to. The more they can relate to the teacher, the faster the students will come to trust you. Part of the job of the online teacher is to be reachable and human, and not just a name on the computer screen.

Transparency--Adult students want to know exactly what to expect in a class. Tell students in advance what to expect in the class and what challenges lie ahead in the class. Be transparent and you will win their trust. Students have to buy into your lesson in order to own their education and construct their own knowledge. They can only do this if they trust you as the teacher. As a military general once said, "If you give our military students, the clear parameters of the mission, our students will rise up to the challenge." This means if the students know exactly how to do the assignments, tests and quizzes and know how to succeed in your class, then students will be motivated to learn and get good grades in your class. Being transparent means being extra clear in your instructions and in your teaching goals and learning outcomes. 

For Cognitive Presence in the Community of Inquiry, not only do the students know what to expect in the class, but the teacher should also know what the goals and aspirations of the students are for that class. Knowing your students' goals will help the teacher adapt her forum questions, her lessons, her announcements to what her students need and want from the class.

Community--Build a community of learners in your class. A strong community can give learners the voice they need to succeed in your class. Make sure each student learns to become interdependent on each other to give students a sense of belonging as each member of the group takes on a unique role in each other's learning. 

How you teach and how you build a community of learners in your class translate into the Teaching Presence aspect in the Community of Inquiry Paradigm. If you have a good working relationship with your students, you teach clearly, you have a welcoming persona, you are an expert in your field and you combine all that together in a well designed classroom that promotes student centered learning, then you can establish a true learning community and that is how you establish also an excellent teaching presence in the classroom.

Post 301: The Use of Clickbait Headlines to get Students to Read your Announcements /come to Live Chats

Post 301: The Use of Clickbait Headlines to Get Students To Read Your Announcements

Post 300: Why do we prep online classes 2 weeks before class start?

Post 300: Why do we prep online classes 2 weeks before class start?

Most schools require teachers to log into their online classrooms 2 weeks before class start in order to make sure of the following things:

1. Make sure all forums, assignments, and class lessons are cloned properly. You want to make sure you don't have extra forums, or assignments or class lessons are missing. I once had Forums Weeks 1-8 cloned twice!

2. Make sure all dates for forums, announcements, lectures, quizzes are correct. I once had all dates all saying 1999 when it was 2015!

3. Make sure all links work. You don't want students complaining about dead links and you having to replace links while the class is in session.

4. Personalize the classroom by adding your introduction, welcome message, your personal videos and announcements to the classroom.

5. Read through the curriculum so you know what you will be teaching from week to week and to know if you need extra class prep.

6. Prepare a calendar for the semester of what you will be doing from week to week so you know when will be your heavy weeks and when will be your light weeks for work/life balance.

7. Make sure there have been no changes or modifications to the class since the last time you taught it. Did the Course Lead change the readings? the lectures? the instructions?

8. Take the time to make extra videos, wrap ups, and other items you will need to teach the class.

9. Email the students a few days before class start to welcome them to the class and give them any tips you want them to take note of.

Ready, set and you are off to the races teaching your class!

What preps do you do 2 weeks before online class start at your school?

Post 299: Why I became interested in Ethnic Studies

Post 299: Why I became interested in Ethnic Studies

I became interested in Ethnic Studies because Ethnic Studies talks about the role minorities had in shaping American history. Most American history books are written from the European American point of view--the Eurocentric view where only white people play major roles in history and are the heroes of the story. I never got to see what people who look like me did to shape the events of American history.

When I was growing up, I never studied about the history of Asian Americans until I hit college. All I knew about Asian Americans were that the Chinese came during the Gold Rush and that the Chinese built the Intercontinental Railroad. 

When I grew up in an African American neighborhood, I remember studying about slavery and the heroism and bravery of Harriet Tubman, of how General Sherman marched his tanks across Atlanta. I even remember the gleam of victory and pleasure in my African American teacher's voice as she said, "The General then burned Atlanta." It was as if Atlanta was being punished for its sins of slavery.

Then when I moved to a Jewish neighborhood, we studied about the Holocaust and World War II. We read about the horrors of the Holocaust through books like The Diary of Anne Frank. 


When I went to college, I was finally able to study the history and influence of Asian Americans in classes that addressed Asian American history, Multicultural Education, Cultural Diversity classes, Ethnic Literature classes and Ethnic Studies class.

After I graduated college, the class I enjoyed teaching the most when I was with American Military University was the Asian American Literature class because I got to teach what it is like to be Asian and American to my non-Asian students.I loved teaching the differences between Eastern and Western cultures to my non-Asian students.

I love Ethnic Studies because it teaches ethnic kids the role of ethnic minorities in shaping American history and it empowered me knowing that my Chinese American ancestors were not simply just coolies, or railroad workers, but were regular people who overcame the odds to make it in America. I learned that European Americans are not the only heroes in American culture and that America is more like a salad of different ethnicities that all play a role in shaping this great country.

In future blog posts, I will talk about a book I am reading currently called Introduction to Ethnic Studies by Tim  Messer Kluse that talks about the role of racism in American history.

Post 298: Why Online Teaching suits Non-Traditional Students

Why Online Teaching suits Non-Traditional Students

Non-Traditional students are adult students with children to raise, marriages to maintain, bills to pay and a job to go to.  There are many kinds of non-traditional students such as single parents, full time workers, part time workers, mothers, fathers, and non-traditional students are of all ages from 30 to 75.

For Non-Traditional students who lead busy lives with many responsibilities, online college is the answer because online classes can happen at any time, students can take classes at home, and students don't have to commute to the classes on a traditional campus.

Online classes can happen at any time and are convenient. The flexibility of online classes meshes with an adult student's busy schedule. Some students do their homework during the week and skip the weekend, while other adult students only do their homework during the weekend.  Online classes are convenient and do have have set times where students have to show up.

Students don't have to worry about traffic, parking to rush to the traditional campus. Students can just sit at their computer in their pajamas, take online classes and spend more time with their family. By taking out the commute, students can concentrate and spend more time on their class work. Many students like to do their homework before their kids wake up in the early morning hours or at night after the kids go to sleep.

Traditional students like the traditional campus because they miss the social life, the growing up with peers, and the fun times they have where they create memories and bond with lifelong friends.

My non-traditional students are grateful for the internet for giving them the opportunity to get a college education they otherwise don't have time to fit into their schedules. And as an online teacher, I have to be available days and nights, weekdays and weekends.

I love to see my students succeed!

Which do you prefer, online or face to face college class? Are you a traditional or non-traditional student? Are you an online teacher or a face to face teacher?

Post 297: What is a flipped classroom?

Post 297: What is a flipped classroom?

A flipped classroom is a classroom where the teacher acts as a guide to student learning. Traditionally, most classrooms were teacher centered where the students listened to the teacher and the teacher gave the lecture while the students took notes.

A flipped classroom turns this paradigm around by focusing more on the students rather than the teacher. In a flipped classroom, students take control of their own learning. Another name for a flipped classroom is a 'student centered' classroom.

I love using the flipped classroom model because it gives students a chance to shine. Students get to show off what they have learned.

Flipped classrooms can be used in a face to face classroom or an online classroom. I started using flipped classrooms at my first job. I let my adolescent students present the day's lessons. For instance, when we were studying The Wizard of Oz, chapter by chapter, I would let different students present the different chapters of the novel. Instead of the teacher presenting each chapter or giving quizzes, I had the students present each chapter. Also, each presenter was also responsible for quizzing the other students on the content of his assigned chapter.

By having students come up with the quiz, students competed with who could come up with the best quiz, the funniest quiz, or the hardest quiz. Sometimes, the student quizzes were much harder than the ones I would have made!  The student quizzes got the rest of the class to also read the different chapters of the novel that they were not assigned.

Having students do the presentations of their project increased their confidence and got them interested in literary analysis of each chapter since while presenting the chapter, they could not just give a summary, but had to do a literary analysis of the symbolism of the chapter thus, having students do the literary analysis allowed them to learn the critical thinking skills necessary for literary analysis.

In an online class, I had students become group leaders in the forum discussion and each student would be responsible for their own thread. If we were studying a novel, I gave each student a chapter they had to present in their discussion thread. In the subject title of their thread, they had to put the name of their chapter so students could visually see which chapter was being discussed.

Then I had each chapter presenter present their chapter using symbolism and literary analysis. Each presenter was then responsible for open ended questions he would ask others to make sure others had read the chapter.

Each student who posted to the forum was responsible for creating their own open ended question about that chapter to keep the conversation going.

In both the online and flipped classroom, I let the students take charge and they end up learning more than if I simply gave a literature lecture and had them take notes and memorize their notes for a test, which is what my high school literature teacher did to us.  I didn't encounter project based learning until I hit college where we would discuss our theories of literature with the professor.

How many of you have tried the flipped classroom model? What were your results?

Post 296: The Importance of Having a Teacher Mentor for Online Teaching

Post 296: The Importance of Having a Teacher Mentor for Online Teaching

When I taught online, I also had several remarkable mentors. My first mentor was my trainer. His name was Patrick. He guided me and taught me my first LMS and he was always available by email and by phone. Every time I emailed him, he responded right away. When he responded right away, I felt like he really cared about his students.  We had chemistry and taking his faculty training class and dealing with him for my first year at my first online school experience was a lot of fun.

At my first online school, I took all the Professional Development classes they offered. I met many teachers and found even more experienced mentors to tell me about the student population, how to grade online, how to give feedback online, how to transfer my face to face teaching skills to an online environment, and how to create engaging class material online.

I met even more teacher mentors in the teacher forums. Since I was new to online teaching, I got to meet teachers from all over the country of all ages and of all backgrounds. Some of these teachers are still my friends to this day and we daily let our hair down to talk about family, good times, and bad times. Just like my face to face teaching mentor, my online teaching mentors opened a whole new world of online teaching for me, and I am forever grateful that they are still my friends today.

When I started to teach at my second online school and started teaching my first full time online job, I had a mentor named Courtney. We became fast friends. We spent long hours on the phone. She was from the mid-west and I was from the East Coast. Like Patrick, she taught me about what the students at the university was like, she taught me the new LMS of that online university, she taught me all the teaching tricks of the trade just like my face to face teaching mentor did.

After 5 years on the job with her, she left online teaching to pursue another career. I am forever grateful that my online school had a mentor program in place since Courtney was assigned to me by the school. She was a blast to work with during our time together. She helped me get promoted from adjunct to full time.

Just like with my face to face job, it is important to have a teacher mentor you can get along with to teach you the tricks of the trade. It is important to form that trusting bond so you can not be afraid to let your hair down.  A good mentor looks after her mentee's back. She is willing to stick her neck out for you and be there for you when the chips are down. If I get sick, or have questions, or make a mistake, a good mentor is caring, understanding, nurturing and accepting no matter what. A good mentor knows how to solve newbie problems without making the newbie feel small or threatened with being fired.  A good mentor values friendship over everything else. When I get a good mentor like that, it is an honor to have her as my life long friend.

Post 295: The Importance of Having a Teacher Mentor for Face to Face Teaching

Post 295: The Importance of Having a Teacher Mentor (Face to Face Teaching)

When I was teaching face to face in the public high schools. every new teacher was assigned a senior teacher mentor. I was told that the reason each junior teacher had a mentor was to guide the junior teacher and prevent teacher burnout. I was also told that teacher attrition was high due to teacher burnout, low pay, low teacher morale and problems with classroom discipline.

Most young teachers leave teaching after teaching only 2 years. Having a teacher mentor helped increase the chances that young teachers would stay on the job.

I had a great teacher mentor. She helped me get acquainted with the school culture. She introduced me to her friends. She took me into her confidence. We became good friends. Whenever I had a problem with students, she knew exactly what to do to solve the problem. Students loved her too. She had taught in that same classroom in that same school for close to 40 years. She even taught the students' parents, and their children.

She told me that when she first started teaching, the principals at the school squarely supported the teacher because the teacher had a lot of power. Parents used to listen to the teacher and the principal would support whatever the teacher said. Then she said, sadly times have changed and now the principal now supports the parents more. She thinks this is one of the reasons why there is high teacher attrition.

She taught me how to make effective lesson plans. She taught me to write my lessons on all the boards before classes started so that as the day went on, I would just go from blackboard to blackboard with each new class period.

She taught me how to take attendance, do the administrative paperwork, properly fill out the grade book, how to talk to students, how to apportion my classroom periods with attendance, then a short review of yesterday's lesson, homework check, then short lesson of the day, or a test. She taught me how to handle difficult students, how to get students to respect my authority, how to create and enforce classroom rules and most importantly, how to win the student's hearts.

I learned from her that the students are more important than the lesson. When I was in college, it was all about creating the perfect lesson based on the most current teaching methodology, but the mentor taught me that if you can't win over the students' trust, it does not matter how perfect your lesson is because nobody will listen to you.  Let me tell you, she was very effective in winning over her students.

When she read out loud, The Little Prince, in French, she would cry over the sad parts and she would move the students so much, they cried with her. She wore her emotions on her sleeve. She would listen to every student problem. She really loved her students and her students learned to love her.

Mentors teach you what you do not learn in college. They provide you with real world knowledge and what it is really like to teach in the field. They provide you with their experience based on newbie mistakes they themselves had made.  To this day, my mentor is still my life long friend even though she has long retired from teaching.

Every time I have a classroom problem, I still call her and she still has a solution to every problem. Someday, when I grow up, I want to be as good a teacher as my mentor was. It is important to have a caring mentor to inspire students, and it is important to have a caring friend and mentor for junior teachers too.

When a school establishes a mentoring system, there is a lot less teacher attrition. You just have to get lucky you get a nice, effective, caring mentor to succeed. I lucked out when I got the best teacher mentor in the world who taught me that students are the most important element in teaching, not the lesson.

Post 294: Alignment of School, Program, Class, Lesson Objectives

Post 294: Alignment of School, Program, Class, Lesson Objectives

As you can see from this graph, you need to have an alignment of school objectives, program objectives, class objectives, lesson objectives and then the reading, forums, assessments all have to align in order to have a quality online class.  

School Objective could be "Students have good writing skills for the workplace." And then English Program objective could be "Students can do a research paper for literature classes." And then class objective would be, "Students learn how to write an academic research paper for all classes and fields." and then weekly objectives would be "How to brainstorm", "How to write a thesis statement", How to write an outline" and "How to write a rough draft." Students learn the Writing Process of Pre-Writing, Writing and Re-writing.  In this case, all the objectives from school to weekly lesson objectives all align and match.

Post 293: Why should you grade on time?

Post 293: Why should you post grades on time?

Imagine the following scenario. You have two college students. Sara just took a big test and is waiting for her scores online.  Jan just wrote a final paper and is also waiting for her scores to be posted online.

Sara's teacher promised she would have the test scores the next day. So on the next day after the test, Sara checks her phone to go online to her class and finds out she got a A on the test. She had been so worried she would flunk the test because she was sure she got many of the questions wrong. She even had changed a lot of the answers several times. Sara runs to her roommate and gives the good news that she passed the class! "Jan, I got my grade back! I got an A on the final test. That means I passed the class and I don't have to take it again. I saved my scholarship! I am so relieved!" Sara feels so happy that she has finally received her passing grade! She loves her teacher because she is so caring!

Jan, on the other hand, has been waiting days for her score for her final paper. She too has been having trouble passing her class. She checks on her phone or her laptop day by day, but no score ever appears. She emails her professor and no response. She is getting frantic because if she fails this test, she will lose her athletic scholarship and her chance to be the first one in her family to graduate from college. So much pressure on this one grade and no response.

She checks her phone several times a day. When she is eating breakfast, she checks her phone for her grade. When she is socializing with friends to relax, she checks her phone for her grade.  When she rides the bus to work and back from work, she checks her phone for her grade. When she is doing other classwork on her laptop, she stops to look at her inbox and always nothing.  She has developed several facial twitches due to her nervousness, anxiety and growing panic over her grade. Checking her phone has now become an addiction. She can't stop herself and she feels dejected each time she gets no answer and no grade. "Sara, I may have to drop out of college. My family does not have the money to pay for college, and my part time job does not pay enough. If I fail this class, and this test, I will disappoint my mother who sacrificed so much to get me this far. Why doesn't the teacher answer my email? Why doesn't the teacher tell us when she will get her grades in?"

Teachers may have many reasons for being late with grading. When I have a lot of papers to grade, I provide students with my grading schedule, so they know when to expect their grades. As long as students are made aware of your grading schedule, then they don't have to be an anxious nanny like the Jan I wrote in my story biting her nails, twitching and constantly checking her phone or laptop for a grade.  I would put in Monday, ENGL 101 Section 1 grades posted,  Tuesday, ENGL 102 Section 3 grades posted. In this way, my ENGL 101 class checks their grades on Monday while my ENGL 102 class checks for their grades on Tuesday and my students are happy campers. I love to see my students succeed!

Post 292: Why do Traditional College Students prefer face to face teaching over online teaching?

Post 292: Why do some college students prefer face to face teaching over online teaching?

As the COVID19 quarantine has caused many face to face universities to shut down, students who paid for a face to face spring semester want their money back. They don't believe an online education is as good as a face to face education. And parents want what they pay for--

I believe that many students prefer face to face education because A) They know very little about the benefits of online teaching. B) They want the immediate face to face interaction with both the professor and other students. C) They want to be able to do lab work directly with the professor and other students. D) They want the whole college experience of meeting other students, socializing, and living in dorms while getting away from the parents. E) If they have a question, they want to get an immediate response from the professor in real time.

Students want the immediate face to face interaction with both the professor and other students. If you have a question, the professor is right there to answer your question. You get to hear the professor's lecture live. They want to be able to ask questions of the professor and get a quick response.I remember when I was in college, we were studying Applied Linguistics. One graduate student asked, "How can we apply the theory we are learning to the classroom?" The professor then gave the student innovative ways to apply theory to the classroom.

Students want to be able to work directly with the professor and other students. When I was in college face to face, I was able to work directly with the teacher on one-on-one study projects. When I was the only student in the French Literature class on French Heroes, the French professor was able to discuss with me the traits of a hero. She taught me that anybody can be a hero.

Most of all, students like college because they get to socialize with each other. When I was in college during the first semester, we were all so happy to be away from our parents for the first time in our lives.We could go to bed when we wanted to, and we could stay up and party as long as we wanted to without curfew. As we socialized, we grew up together and formed lifelong friendships. We learned to our dismay that partying all the time resulted in poor grades, so after that first semester of partying, we did indeed understand the importance of studying!

Many students do not like online teaching because they do not know the benefits of online teaching. From an educational standpoint, a student can still interact with other students on a discussion forum to learn about the core concepts of a topic. A student can still interact with his/her professor on one on one projects and the student can still get individual attention from the professor if he needs help. If a student has a question, he can still ask the professor in real time using Zoom or Skype.

I think, frankly, many traditional students prefer the face to face college experience, not so much for the education, but for the partying, fun and social aspects of college. Online colleges replicate that social experience through social media and student clubs.

Which is better for college students in your opinion, online college education or face to face college education?

Post 291: Why should online faculty respond to student email right away?

Post 291: Why should you respond to student email right away?

Imagine a panicked student who cannot find his reading. The frantic student sends  his instructor an email in panic asking the instructor, "Where is the reading? I don't want to get a zero and I can 't find the reading!" Then as days go by, the student constantly checks his email several times a day waiting for the teacher to respond.

Each time he checks his inbox and gets no response, he is disappointed. Then, he checks again and again. It becomes addictive to keep checking the inbox hoping that magic email will pop up. Hours pass.  Days pass.The student feels disappointed. The student feels abandoned by  his teacher. He ultimately get a bad impression of the school because the teacher never bothers to respond to his email.

As time passes beyond the 36 to 48 hour mark, the student starts to feel angry at the teacher or at the school because nobody responds back to  his email. The student thinks that because he pays the school so much money he should be treated as a customer.

The student then complains to his advisor, then he complains to the teacher's boss, then he writes on social media that the school is a bust and that's when the school starts getting a bad reputation of absent teachers!

If I were this student not receiving her email, I would just drop out of that class and out of that school because not answering email is entirely bad taste and rude on the part of the teacher. It means the teacher does not care about the student. Students end up leaving the class and the school.

It is important for teachers to immediately answer student email, to constantly comfort student nerves and anxiously, show that faculty care by giving the student comforting words, send him a solution or if  the teacher does not know the solution to the response, then refer the student to somebody else who knows the answer to the question.

Nothing is worse than that constant anxiety of checking that inbox and nobody is there to answer his email  Always answer student email right away to prevent student anxiety. Teachers need to inform students if they will not be able to respond to email. Teachers can put a neutral announcement in the classroom stating he will be away from the classroom due to family problems, and then the teacher should have somebody else spell him so students have somebody else they can get answers from.

If I know I cannot be in my online classroom for a while, I tell students that I won't be able to immediately answer email because of an emergency. Students are usually very understanding if they know there is a reason for your delay in their email answer.  Also, I tell students that I may take longer to get back to them on weekends and I add that to my syllabus as a courtesy. I never leave my students in the dark because as a teacher, that is rude.

Therefore when I teach online, I always answer student email right away. As a matter of fact, I check my student inbox all the time several times a day and answer panicked students all the time. It gives me joy and pleasure to help students out and I really love to see my students succeed and would never want to leave my students in the dark about anything. It is my job as their teacher to be there for them.

Post 290: What is Structured English Immersion? Which is better, English Only? or Bilingual Ed?

What is Structured English Immersion?

The purpose of Structured English Immersion is to get ELL to learn English as quickly as possible so they can be mainstreamed into mainstream content areas by immersing ELL in a totally English environment. The English Immersion program is modeled after the French Immersion program in Canada where English speaking kids are totally immersed in French to learn the French language. Same token, ELL become immersed in English to learn English.

The advantage of Structured English Immersion is that students can learn English quickly and be mainstreamed fairly quickly into the main class.

Structured English Immersion is strongly influenced by Stephen Krashen's many language theories such as comprehensible input, communicative competence, acquisition vs learning.  Learning a second language according to Krashen is just like learning a first language, first the ELL has to listen to comprehensible input for a long time before speech occurs.

This comprehensible input comes in the form of using visuals, images, charts, blackboard, body gestures, Simon Says kind of games to get students to learn English without resorting to translation into the first language as much as possible so that students learn English directly. Students interact with this comprehensible input in English and gradually learn enough English to be able to speak English, read and write English.  In the meantime, students can go to certain mainstream classes that do not have much English spoken like gym, art or science lab.

When students learn English through translation, then students have to pause and think about what the proper word is in English based on the word in their NS.  With English Immersion, students learn English directly so when students think of the word in a conversation, they think directly in English just like NS of English.

Another advantage of the English Immersion program is that it is not as hard to find English speaking teachers. Also, if you have a classroom of many different languages like Farsi, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, Tagalog, etc...then one teacher would suffice. The disadvantage of Bilingual Education is that it may not be possible to find a bilingual teacher who speaks Tagalog or the 15 different other languages spoken in an ELL classroom. Having one ESL teacher saves the school money.

Some Bilingual Education advocates consider the Structured Immersion program racist because students learn only English and forget about their heritage language and their culture. Ovando thinks that the advantage of Bilingual Education is children can learn to maintain their heritage/culture while still learning English rather than lose their heritage language by immersing themselves in an English Only program. Ovando considers this total immersion into American culture as a stripping away of ELL culture like what the missionaries did with the Native Americans when Native American children went to school without learning any of their heritage language or culture.

There has been much debate as to the best way to teach ELL. Should schools use the Bilingual Education model where students keep speaking their L1, learn content areas in their L1, and stay in the bilingual class until they learn enough L2 to go into a mainstream classroom? With Bilingual Ed, advocates say, students learn two languages and learn content area in two languages. However, this process can take up to 3 to 4 years whereas with the English Immersion model, students transfer into mainstream classes in a year.

Which ESL/ELL program does your school use? Which do you think is the most effective way to teach ELL students? English Only? or Bilingual Ed?

Post 289: Why should faculty take Professional Development classes?

Post 289: Why should faculty take Professional Development classes?

Most faculty groan at the idea of the required hours or credits each year to take Professional Development classes. Some faculty are lucky and they get paid extra to take these classes. Other faculty (the ones who groan the loudest) have to take these classes and are not paid extra at all, but these classes are a required part of their annual contract.

I like taking Professional Development classes because these classes teach me new teaching skills, motivates me to teach better, keeps me aware of the latest trends in my field, encourages me to try new ways to teach students writing and literature, keeps me from getting 'bored' using the same old same old. And most of all, I like these classes because I get to network and connect with other online professionals.

I have taken teaching classes that have taught me how to be more engaging in forum discussions, how to give better student feedback on papers and forums, how to create rubrics that result in standardized reliable grading, how to have a more professional tone, how to better motivate students to learn by learning the latest cognitive trends, how to stay current in the ever changing world of technology by introducing me the newest Web.20 ways to create a graph, create images, and to also keep me current on what the young students are into etc.

I have taken both self-paced online professional development classes, online faculty directed professional development classes, one hour webinars, in service face to face faculty training and professional development classes at my local university to keep my teaching credential updated.

Self paced online classes were the easiest because I could rip through those classes at warp speed. If i can sit at my computer for several hours, I can easily finish the self-paced class right away. I used to like how all the self-paced classes at my last online university were all housed on the same web page making it very convenient for me to take classes 24/7 365 days of the year for free.

I also took one hour webinars off teaching websites like Faculty Focus, or you can take online professional teacher directed classes at places like QM (Quality Matters) or OLC Online Learning Consortium.  When I first started teaching at AMU, AMU used to pay for me to take one OLC class per year. I used to love taking my OLC class every year in January as was my yearly routine. If you are an online teacher, OLC gives great online training classes and they also offer a Online Teacher Certificate which looks good on your resume.

Post 288: The Importance of the Online Syllabus

Post 288: The Importance of the Online Syllabus

A syllabus is a roadmap for your class. The syllabus tells students what assignments to do, what tests to take, what pages to read, when everything is due, lists rubrics with expectations for those assignments and tests, tells students the university grading scale, lists the percentages of all assignments, readings and discussions and informs students about university policies on netiquette, research formatting, tutoring, late policy and plagiarism policy.

Usually, on the first day of class, the professor will spend the entire class period going over the syllabus so the class is aware of the expectations. I always advise students right away in my online classes to download their syllabus and read the syllabus as the first thing they do after they learn the class navigation of their online classroom.

The syllabus tells students the course description, what the course will be about, course objectives, what the objectives of the course will be, lesson objectives, what students will be doing, reading, writing from week to week and tells students what to prep for from week to week.

Some online classes have the class syllabus embedded into the website where you just click on links of each week to get the assignments. Then, you have the option to print out a paper copy of the syllabus.  Students have the choice of just looking at the class website embedded syllabus or printing out a paper copy. I prefer the paper copy just in case my computer crashes and I can't access the embedded class syllabus.

Whenever I take a professional development class online or face to face, the first thing I do is look at the syllabus. I then take note in my to do notebook what assignments and requirements are due for me that week. I make a calendar of when each assignment is due based on my class syllabus. I tell my students to do the same. Some LMS even have a calendar function into which the teacher can put in assignment due dates and activities.

I also tell students to keep their own calendars at home based on the syllabus due dates. I tell students to read ahead one week on the syllabus so that they have time to ask teacher questions about the assignment.

Therefore, your syllabus is a communication strategy for teachers and students because the syllabus gives a clear description of the class time frame and format and acts as a guideline for online class participation.

The average syllabus looks like this: Course Title, Course Name, Course Description, Course Objectives, Evaluation Plan, Grading, Required Readings, Recommended Readings, Course Outlines and school policies.  At my online school, we had one standard syllabus for all classes across all departments so that students would get used to reading one standard syllabus and reduce confusion.

When I used to create a syllabus for my classes at my last school, I had to follow the school template. Most schools have a syllabus template for you to follow and some schools even give you the previous teacher's syllabus for that class for you to follow. I had one boss tell me, "Just follow the last teacher's syllabus and style for this class, and you'll do fine." So, I tweaked the last teacher's syllabus a little bit and taught the class.

After I had taught the class several times, I changed the required reading, the textbook, and some of the grading percentage requirement, I changed/modified the assignments to reflect a more student centered approach and gave more multimedia choices for assignment choices, but otherwise kept the format of the syllabus the same.  I always visualize the syllabus in my head before I create a class.

For me, the syllabus serves as the outline for the entire class. Without a syllabus, your class is dead in the water.

Does your school have a syllabus template? Do you spend the first day of class going over the syllabus? How do you create a class? Do you visualize the syllabus in your head like I do?

Post 287: The Importance of Weekly Wrap Up Posts

Post 287: The Importance of Weekly Wrap Up Posts

At the end of each week, it is important to create a end of the week post that wraps up and/or summarizes the weekly lesson. The wrap up post creates a closing discussion that sums up key ideas or take away lessons for the week. These wrap up posts help students with overall course review.

Faculty can create an infograph or a chart of core concepts for the class. Wrap up forum posts are a good way for students to study for the final exam by reading the wrap up posts every week. Faculty can also use the core concepts in the wrap up posts to use as questions for the final exam especially if the final exam is cumulative.

In the wrap up posts, you can also integrate comments or observations made by students on the core concepts. Include the students' names in these wrap up posts to thank these students for their active participation in the class and encourage these students to post even more in the future. The teacher can comment on an insight, challenge, relationship, pattern that the student has uncovered or mastered as they engaged in the lesson of the week.

Say for example, 'Charles, you made a great comment on....or John, I like the way you.....Mary, you made very insightful statements about....Juan, thanks for your participation when you.....Draw out the good students and thank them for being such active participants in their own learning. Perhaps these students can act as group leaders or mini-teachers for the next forum topic.

You can also use the wrap up post as a preview for the next week's lesson and to tie together what you did that week to what you will do for next week, so students can see the logical continuity of the class as you move forward and to alert students on what to expect in future assignments or tests.

Wrap up posts helps students visualize the coherence of the entire class and of the syllabus. You can also repeat elements of the wrap up posts in your announcements to help students reinforce core concepts. The more you integrate core concepts throughout your teaching, the more students will be able to eventually integrate core concepts into their own personal knowledge base.

I always wait until the very end of the week after the last student has posted his/her last post so that it is easy for students to find the wrap up post. It is also easy for your evaluator/boss to find your wrap up post so he/she can make sure you have done your job of putting a wrap up post to your weekly forum posts.

What do your wrap up posts look like? Does your online school require you to make online posts at the end of each week?

Post 286: Teaching Components of a good Lesson Objective and the Cognitive Learning Model

Post 286: Teaching Components of a good Lesson Objective and the Cognitive Learning Model

Elements of a Good Teaching Lesson

Presentation--where the teacher introduces new knowledge through readings, class lesson, videos, or audio clips and/or Powerpoint presentations.  When a teacher first presents the lesson/concept, students have to learn new vocabulary, master new ways of thinking and understand the topic. This level of learning is known in Bloom's Taxonomy as the lowest level of cognitive skills to be understanding/knowledge where students are memorizing, reading and mastering material for the first time. When students are first exposed to the material, the most traditional way to assess how much a student has memorized/learned the material, is through online quizzes/tests/midterm or for students to write a Definition paper/expository essay.

Activities--Activities reinforce ideas students have mastered at the Presentation/Understanding/Knowledge level of Bloom's Taxonomy. The activities need to align with the class and lesson objective.  For instance, if you are teaching a unit on how to write a thesis statement, then your class lecture will be on how to write a thesis statement, then your forum discussion will be on how to write a thesis statement. Other activities include problem solving scenarios, role play, projects, and papers so students start to apply what they learn to their lives. This is equal to the Analysis, Application stage of the Bloom's Taxonomy which is a medium cognitive level of thinking.

Assessment and Feedback--Teachers need to find authentic methods of assessment to find out how much students have encoded, synthesized and applied what they have learned to the real world. Students can reflect or evaluate what they have learned in the class and be asked how they personally will apply the core concepts of the class to their lives. When students reflect on what they have learned, they are engaging in the highest level of cognitive thinking. As long as your class design prompts students to do higher order thinking, then you have a cognitively sound class lesson design. The presentation stage represents concrete thinking (lowest), then the middle part of your class involves getting students involved in activities to reinforce (application) what they have learned and finally, in the assessment/feedback stage, students reflect (synthesis) and apply what they have learned to their lives.

Post 285: Learner Centered Online Class Design

Learner Centered Online Class Design

When you design a learner centered classroom, you want to give learners plenty of opportunities to interact with each other and you want to design an interactive classroom where students not only interact with each other, but they interact with the class material.

This model of teaching and learning requires students to be active participants in the learning process. Students are no longer just empty vessels to be filled with information like in a teacher-centered classroom.

Students become active in the online classroom through engaging forum discussions where students are free to express their opinions on a topic, free to debate with each other the pros and cons of a topic, free to research further on an aspect of the topic that interests them, free to answer teacher questions that further the conversation on the topic and makes students want to learn more about the topic. As students interact with each other in the forum, they bond and learn to trust each other, thus forming a community of learners working together to master the core concepts in the class.

Teachers maintain three kinds of presence in the classroom. Social presence where teachers project a friendly persona inviting students to want to learn and ask questions. Teachers can achieve social presence during the first week of class when she introduces herself to the students and presents herself in a warm approachable manner.

Cognitive Presence is established when the teacher gets to know the students through constant email, constant interaction in the forums, constant feedback on assignments, and constantly asking students what their goals are for taking the class.

Teaching Presence happens when teachers design a learner-centered classroom and asks as a guide to student learning as the students interact with the material through projects, conversations, debates, problem solving scenarios, role play and case studies.

The teacher brings real world knowledge to the classroom and provides authentic resources that reflect real world scenarios and current events so students can relate what they learn in the classroom to their lives. Authenticity is important. Work is made more meaningful when it mirrors authentic activities students do in the real world.

To create a learner-centered classroom, the teacher needs to provide class lessons that include video, audio, text-based materials, e-books, graphics, charts, images, to appeal to students of all modalities. Teacher lectures are kept to a minimum no more than 5 minutes per video.  Easy self assessment based on the 5 minute video boost student confidence in learning and encourages students to want to tackle the next mini-skill in the next 3 to 5 minute video.

The traditional 1 hour face to face teacher lecture does not work in an online environment as students tire of being in front of a computer screen, so that is why it is important to keep the lecture to 3 to 5 minutes.

As long as the teacher designs activities that are interactive, assessments that are authentic and project based, online interactive quizzes, have a variety of different kinds of resources, that gets students to be active participants of learning, then you have a learner-centered classroom online class design.

Post 284: Engaging Digital Content

Post 284: Engaging Digital Content

Post 283: Interpersonal vs Intrapersonal Learner

Post 283: Interpersonal vs Intrapersonal Learner

When I was teaching World Literature, the final project involved group projects that took the whole semester to do.

I broke up students into groups of 5 and each group was responsible for doing a Powerpoint project together.  I loved reading their Powerpoint presentations. They did projects titled, "How Dragons are viewed in Chinese (Eastern) culture vs American (Western culture). Each group had a group leader who was responsible for everyone turning in their slides on time and handing the final project to the assignment portal.

I would say most of my students enjoyed working on these group projects because most of my students like interacting with each other and learning from each other.

However, I had a few students these intrapersonal learners, who preferred working alone and they would tell me that they would prefer putting together their own Powerpoint final project rather than having to deal with group members who may not do their share of work, and they felt more comfortable working alone. These were my introverted students, so I allowed these students to turn in individual projects.

Post 282: Teaching Components

Post 282: Teaching Components

Post 281 What is good Visual Design for an Online Classroom?

Post 281: What is good Visual Design for an Online Classroom?

Good visual design involves simplicity, clarity and organization. Just like when you create a Powerpoint presentation, you want to have a unified theme for your slides, the same goes for a unified theme and look for your online classroom.

Visual learners are confused and put off by confusing design.  When you design your classroom, keep in mind, you want to have these following characteristics for a clear design:

*Lots of white space between paragraphs.

*Keep paragraphs short. Unlike written text on paper, online text represents 'speech' so you can have one or two sentence paragraphs.  White space gives the reader's eyes rest as the reader's eyes get more tired reading online text than printed text.

*Have a variety of resources to appeal to different student modalities. You should have audio clips, videos, powerpoint presentations, interactive quizzes, animated characters and stories, charts, posters, and infographics to appeal to students of different modalities.

*Use chunking. Keep your videos to no more than 3 to 5 minutes. Do not create an hour long lecture. Hour long lectures may work for face to face class, but online students get tired faster so keep it short. Chunk your video sections for one short skill at a time.

*Have frequent self-assessment quizzes that are easy and based on the last 3 to 5 minutes skill that the student just learned from your video.

*Your layout should be uncluttered. Do not put too many images, videos or audio clips at the same time. Space them out logically based on what you are teaching. For each unit, use the same routine to give your design a unified theme.

*Use the same color scheme, same style headings and subheadings, the same font throughout to give your classroom a unified theme.

*Use sans serif fonts like Arial or Verdana. When I was at AMU, I used Verdana throughout my online classroom.

Post 280: What is a Wiki?

Post 280: What is a Wiki?

A wiki is a shared space in which the teacher and the student are able to post and edit content in order to create a collaborative information resource.

A wiki is a place where students can edit, add and structure content in one place.  Google documents has a wiki where you can all work together on one project.

When I was at AMU, we all used the Google documents wiki to create French 100 and 101. The Course Lead would all give us a document to edit and we would all give our 2 cents and fix and edit the document at different times. We were able to edit the document whenever it was convenient for us. A wiki allows people in different time zones to edit a document together and work together on a project.

I had students in my World Literature class work on Powerpoint projects using wikis. Each student could add, edit, change, embed different slides of a Powerpoint for their group final project. If students lived in different time zones, then each student could edit the project at their convenience.

You can also have a class wiki where students can work on the same project together. If students want to create a class glossary of all new words they learned from their reading, the class could do just that and write out their new words on the class wiki.

Creating a class glossary is a great way for Freshman English Composition students to learn new vocabulary, a great way for ESL students to learn more English words, and a great way for American students learning French to learn more French words.  Let's say in French, we are doing a unit on being in the restaurant.  I can have each student post 5 new restaurant words to the wiki. They cannot post the same words as a previous student and before long, you have a class glossary of French restaurant words.

Poar 279: What is the difference between Traditional College students and Non-Traditional College Students?

What is the difference between Traditional College students and Non-Traditional College Students?

Traditional students

*Just finished high school.

* Between 18-24 years old.

*Dependent on parents.

* Enroll full time

*Live in dorms

*Have time to party.

*Have time to play sports.

*Date and meet their future spouse in college.

*Goes on Spring Break to socialize and have fun.

*Mostly single

*Do not work during school year

When I was a college student, I was a traditional college student. I went to college right after high school when I was 18 years old.  I enrolled full time, and I lived in dorms while I was an undergraduate. I could not party all the time since I needed to study for my exams. However, I had friends who had photographic memories and only had to look at the textbook one time, and they were able to remember everything, so they were able to party and still get good grades. I was single during my college years and I worked part time in a library. I considered myself the traditional college student.  

Non-Traditional Students

*Working full time.

*Older than 30.

*Delayed enrollment to college after decades of not attending school.

*Married with children or Single parent with children.

*Have a part time job.

*Have several jobs to make a full time job (gig economy)

*Have bills to pay like a mortgage and health insurance

*Going to college for career advancement or switch to a new career.

*Wants to be role model for his kids.

However, when I started teaching online, I was teaching primarily non-traditional students. When I went to the University of Phoenix graduation, most of the undergraduates had grey hair. The valedictorian was a single mother of three children. I remember I had an entire family going to college. The parents were in UOP and so were their college age children. They would all compete to see who had the highest grade. It was the father who ended up with the highest grade in my class!

When I taught at AMU, most of my students were also non-traditional military students stationed around the world in multiple time zones. It was a pleasure teaching these students because they had great professional tone. I learned about their travels, and I learned about their different interests. I had no student with no arm because he had been injured in battle, but he now participated in Special Olympics. 

Post 278 :Live Online Meetings

Live Online Meetings

Many online courses have incorporated the use of live online meetings for office hours, group project meetings, one-on-one tutoring sessions with students who need extra help, student group meetings, special guest live lectures and student presentations.

I have used live online meetings as a way to get to know my students in real time similar to my live chat room meetings.

Sometimes in a live online meeting, I would lecture on the topic of that week and reinforce what we discussed in the forums, discuss an upcoming assignment, or help prepare students for an upcoming midterm of final exam.

I also use live online meetings as a place where students can ask me questions about anything related to the class. If a student does not understand something about the reading, I can expand on that part of the reading for him.

If students need clarification on mistakes he/she made in his/her essay, I would walk through all the errors that student made/and or I would walk through the errors the entire class made on their essays so students learn the common errors the class had made.

I could have some students volunteer to upload their papers and we would peer edit each other's rough drafts in real time rather than wait days for peer response on forums, we can get peer review results in minutes so students can go back to their drafts right away to fix their rough drafts.

Sometimes students just want to get to know each other better. The stronger students would help out the weaker students on certain difficult topics and I let students talk about class related topics to reinforce what they learned in class.

I can ask students how they are doing, how I can better explain that week's topics or last week's topic or any other questions they may have.  Students enjoy online live meetings.

Usually I get the same students who come. I usually do not get the whole class to attend since students are busy with full time jobs, family responsibilities etc.

Many LMS has their own Live session room where students can use webcams and see each other and hear each other. The teacher can let students share their screens so we can discuss their papers or their works.

I like live online meetings because I get to hear my students' voices, see their faces, see their reactions as I lecture to see if they understand what I am saying just like in a face to face class.

Of course, with COVID19, I have used Zoom for class meetings besides Skype and Google Hangouts. However, most schools want their Live Sessions inside their classroom environment for student record purposes.

When I was teaching at AMU, I used Adobe Connect to talk with students one-on-one and I enjoyed interacting with students in real time because they get to see me as flesh and bone, and not just a name on the computer screen.  The more I interact with students, the better we got to know each other, the more motivated students were to succeed in my classes.

Do you hold online live meetings at your online class? 

Post 277: How have Writing Assessments changed through the decades?

How have Writing Assessments changed through the decades?

From 1950-1970, Writing Composition tests consisted of a multiple choice grammar test. The Grammar Translation method of teaching was in vogue at the time, so to show you are good at writing, you had to show you could use proper grammar and punctuation.

From 1970-1986, Writing Placement tests were essay tests that students would write in one session. This test measured how well a student could write an essay. Did the student have proper essay structure? Does he/she have a thesis statement? Does he have body paragraphs that matched the thesis? The focus was on writing as a finished product.

When I went to SUNY at Stony Brook, I was given a Writing Placement test to see if I needed to take the Freshman English Composition class. I was given 90 minutes to write an essay on an assigned topic. American students (Native speakers of English) took the test in one room, and ESL students (International Students) were to take their English Composition test in another room. The teachers graded our tests holistically.  You wrote one paper and you got graded on that one paper. My paper was a finished product showcasing how well I could write.

From 1986-Present

Now, writing tests are given based on Writing Portfolios so that teachers can measure how well a student has progressed through time. This kind of assessment emphasizes Writing as a Process. Each draft of the paper gets better and better as students learn to fix their mistakes with each draft. There is a focus of assessment to assess the writer's progress.

Universities use a more process-oriented approach to writing assessment these days. I have seen a mixture of all three approaches, an essay exam, a grammar test, and writing portfolios are all used as writing assessments. It is important that writing assessments be authentic, meaningful, and have a real life context to measure students' progress.

Post 276: Different Modalities of Student Learning

Post 276: Different Modalities of Student Learning

Every student has a unique learning pattern. Some students are visual learners, others are audio learners and still others are hands on learners.

Other modalities of learning include: Visual (spatial), Aural (Audio-Musical), Verbal (Linguistic), Physical (Kinesthetic),  Logical (Math), Social (Interpersonal), and Solitary (Intrapersonal).

Visual and Audio learners like to watch videos and listen to audio to learn new material. Instead of explaining how to navigate a classroom or how to use a new piece of software, visual/audio learners watch a video on how to do something. For purely visual learners, infographics, charts, helps these learners visualize what they are learning.

Verbal learners like to interact with the class and interact with the professor to discuss the class topic to reinforce what they are learning. In an online class, this would mean verbal learners learn best during the class' weekly live session meetings where students and faculty discuss topics in real time.

Physical (Hands-on Learners) learn when they can physically interact with the new class topic such as in doing a web project or writing a research paper. Hands-on learners learn best when they collaborate on a project with others and they learn by doing.

Social (Interpersonal) learners like Physical learners like to interact with others on a project or interact with others in a discussion like Verbal Learners to learn the new topic.

Logical (Math) learners like analysis, so logical learners like to take an idea apart to examine all its parts to see if how logical the parts make up the whole. For Logical learners, projects or papers that have analysis is how these learners learn best. Also, if the teacher asks questions in the forums that has students doing analysis then Logical learners learn best with analytical questions.

The teacher needs to integrate her curriculum based on the different modalities of her students. In an online class, it is always good to have a variety of materials for students such as videos, texts, audio, charts, infographics, projects and papers to suit the different modalities of her students.

If students want to find out if they are a visual, audio, or hands-on learner, they can fill out this VARK questionnaire to find out!

https://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/

Once students find out what kind of learner they are, the teacher can tell students to group themselves with learners who are not like themselves and discuss with those learning what kind of learners they are. For instance, a student who finds out he/she is a visual learner would join a group of Physical learners to discuss what their learning modalities are and how they are different. They can also learn from each other. Physical learners can learn to be more like visual learners and vice versa. Students love learning what their learning modalities are so that they can better adapt their learning style and study habits to that modality.

If a student finds out he is a visual learner, then that student can watch more videos to learn new material. If a student finds out he is a audio learner, he can listen to more audio tapes.  It is always fun for teachers to make the time in their class to have students take the VARK questionnaire so students can find out how best they learn!

Post 275: Why it is important to have multicultural cartoons for children--Watch Molly of Denali!

Post 275: Why it is important to have multicultural cartoons for children

Recently, I happened by accident to turn on my PBS (Public Broadcasting Station) at 4PM in the afternoon. To my surprise, I came upon a delightful multicultural cartoon called Molly of Denali.

Molly of Denali is a cartoon that depicts a group of Alaskan children as they play together. What's fun about this cartoon is that it does not depict Alaskans as all living in igloos without running water and electricity. Instead, Molly, an Alaskan Eskimo, lives in a modern house and she loves to talk to her other Alaskan cousins on her computer. 

Molly of Denali breaks the stereotypes that people have about Alaskan culture. The writers provide children an authentic look into Alaskan culture, and just having kids watch this cartoon, kids are exposed to how Alaskans really live. The writers are also Alaskan, and the person doing the voice of Molly is also Alaskan.

The show offers a diverse cast with an African American child from Texas which shows to children that Alaska is a place of diversity just like the rest of the United States.

Being Asian American myself, it is refreshing to see other Asians on TV as Alaskan Eskimos like American Indians are of Asian ancestry when Asians worked across the continental bridge from Asia many centuries ago to North America. Yes, American Indians and Alaskan Eskimos do look Asian because they have Asian blood. So I always like seeing cartoons or TV shows that represent Asians on TV since there is so few Asian representation on American TV.

Usually when Asians are depicted on TV, they are usually comic relief, the sidekick, the person who never gets the girl, the geek, the nerd, or the villain. It is refreshing to see Asians portrayed as ordinary people in a three dimensional manner. It is also fun to see Asian children portrayed in such a positive fun way that all children can relate.

Another fun element I like about this cartoon is that they also depict older Asians on TV. It is very rare to see older people on TV. This cartoon shows how the Alaskan kids respect their elders and ask their elders for advice when they have a problem. This respect for elders is an important part of Asian culture that Alaskan culture has. It is very important for children to be exposed to many cultures, so they don't buy into the negative stereotypes about Asians usually on TV.

I highly recommend for parents and children to watch this delightful cartoon together and explore aspects of Alaskan Eskimo culture together. The cartoon also offers authentic Eskimo costume, clothes, dialect and games. Fun to watch and very entertaining even for adults!