WORDLE / WORDSIFT

Wordle or Wordsift is a tool used to create word clouds - a visual representation of texts whereby the most frequent occurred word shows up the largest. The word clouds can be made up from one's own text or just by inserting the url of a website. The differences between Wordle and Wordsift are that one can choose from a variety of layout from Wordle, but not from Wordsift, and the presence of Thesaurus application and examples for the use of words in Wordsift.  Both the tools have its own advantages which depending on the needs of an individual. 

INTEGRATION OF WORD CLOUDS IN AN ESL CLASSROOM

Example 1: Predicting & Previewing  (Pre-reading Activity)

1. Teacher could use Wordle or Wordsift to create a word cloud for students to predict and preview the content of a reading text. 
2. Each of them will be given the word cloud created to guess the themes and topic of the reading text. Then teacher will hold a class discussion and activate students' schemata on the topic of the reading text.
3. After that, students will be given the text to skim and scan through it. Then they will have to complete the authentic tasks and discuss the answers with their partners. 
4. A second reading of the text will then be carried out. In this stage, some reading skills will be practiced unconsciously in order to get a good comprehension of the text. Then, the teacher could emphasized on the reading skills that have been practiced by the students while reading. 
5. Lastly, students will be given some comprehension questions to be completed in groups. 

Example 2: Scrambled Sentences (While-listening Activity)

1. An audio recording will be played in class. Students should listen to the content carefully without making any notes.
2. After having a rough idea on the content of the recording, students will be divided into groups of 4 to complete a while-listening activity.
3. This will be a sentence re-arrangement exercise which could be created with Wordle or Wordsift. The teacher could jumble-up a few sentences taken from the content of the listening text for students to be completed during the while-listening stage. This scaffolding process would then help students to have a better understanding on the listening text.
4. The teacher could then discuss the answer with the students and have a feedback session on the activity.  

P/S: This activity should be practiced on the upper-intermediate or advanced level of students. 

ADVANTAGES

• The presentation of vocabulary is interesting as there are a variety of layout to choose from Wordle. 
• It can be printed and saved in public gallery for others to view (Wordle).
• It works in many languages (Wordle).
• It can be embedded into a blog (Wordle).
• It takes examples of the word from other sources (Wordsift).
• It provides images that are related to the words (Wordsift).
• It can create a new work place and pull down the selected word (Wordsift).

LIMITATIONS

• It requires for the Java download application (Wordle).
• A very limited word cloud designs to choose from (Wordsift).
• It demands for an internet connection (Both).

Interesting?? Try them out then!!!

http://www.wordsift.com/

http://www.wordle.net/

EDMODO

Edmodo is a free virtual learning environment. It does not require any email to sign up, thus makes the introduction of this tool a lot quicker and easier. The interface is quite similar to Facebook, and could also be treated as a social network. This tool is good for collaboration work, which means the teacher and all the students should be encouraged to participate in it. In order to restrict people from participating in a group discussion, the teacher could actually create a private group which only allows access to students who have the group code. In addition, the teacher could also upload videos, create files, add links, create quizzes as well as create polls with this tool. Hence, it is a highly recommended virtual learning environment. 

WORKING WITH EDMODO IN AN ESL CLASSROOM

Example 1: Create A Quiz (Post-reading Activity)

1. Teacher could first activate students schemata on the topic related to the reading text.
2. Then, the teacher could hand out the reading text for the students to skim and scan through the text.
3. After that, they could discuss on the authentic tasks and students will have to read the text by applying some of the reading skills.
4. This will then be followed by a group work - write a summary of the reading text.
5. Lastly, students will have to complete a quiz based on the text on which has been created by the teacher in Edmodo. They would also get a score for the quiz done. This can only be carried out with a condition that all of the students in the class must have registered for an Edmodo account beforehand.

Example 2: Create an Assignment (Writing Activity)

1. Teacher could either choose to carry out this writing activity  fully with Edmodo or integrate it with some classroom discussion. However, the example here mainly focus on the activity done with Edmodo only.
2. After setting up a group with the full participation of the students, the teacher could come out with a few questions which are related to the topic for the writing task to encourage comments and feedback from the students. The questions can be posted on the wall of the group. From here, students could have a written discussion instead of an oral ones.
3. After some interaction that has been done between the students and the teacher, the teacher could actually create an assignment for the group (related to the topic that has been discussed).
4. The date of submission can be set and students will be able to submit their assignment through Edmodo itself.  

Advantages:

• It is FREE.
• It provides teacher and students a secure place to connect, collaborate and share content.
• It decreases the hassle of travelling and meeting when classes are being carried out in a virtual environment.
• It is quite user-friendly as one does not need to have an email to sign up.
• It has iOS and Andriod apps available through the Apple apps store and Google Play. Thus, one could actually access to it even without a laptop or computer. 

Limitations:

• It demands for internet connection.
• A teacher cannot recover the information lost about a student.
• You cannot delete the account that has been set up yourself. Instead, you need to contact the administrator. 

Let's start to have fun with it!!!

http://www.edmodo.com/

BE CREATIVE WITH ZIMMER TWINS!!!

Zimmertwins.com is an innovated online tool for creating movies using the characters from the show "Zimmer Twins". Edgar and Eva - the 12 years old twins with psychic power and their cat - I3 are the characters that children can used to create an animated movie with this tool. One can either choose to create an ending to one of the story starters or create their own stories from scratch. Additionally, one could also watch a movie from those that have been shared in zimmertwins.com. Children could choose the characters, emotions, actions, themes as well as add in dialogues in creating the animations. The undo and redo actions are available while creating the movie, which could ease children in editing the movies to their satisfaction. A brief explanation on "How to Make a Movie" with zimmertwins.com can be seen from here http://www.zimmertwins.com/movie/howto.

                                                                                (adapted from iLearn Technology)

How to Integrate Zimmertwins.com in an ELT Classroom??

Example 1 (Post-Writing Activity):

1. Teacher gives the students a context or provide them with a few sentences of the starting point of a story.
2. Then, a discussion can be held in the class to activate the students' schemata about  themes that could be related to the story. Teacher should also ensure that the students are aware of  the group of audience for their writings. 
3. Students should be informed that the stories created will be made into a movie. This is to motivate them in creating a more interesting story as well as triggering their creativity skills.   
4. After that, students will be taught to use this tool and each of them will have to create a movie based on the content of their writings. 
5. Finally, students can share their movies with their friends by showing them in class. Then, a writing activity could be more acceptable especially in an ESL classroom. 

P/S: This would be a scaffolding activity for the students as they are being taught and guided in steps. 

Example 2 (Presentation stage in P-P-P):

1. Teacher will introduce the topic of "Language Functions" to the students. Before informing the students on what will be taught today, teacher could first show a movie created with Zimmertwins.com to the students.
2. Teacher could ask the students to guess the topic that will be taught from the content of the movie. 
3. After that, teacher could present the knowledge of language functions to the students. They will be divided into groups to complete a few exercises on "Language Functions".
4. Then, answers will be discussed and feedback will be provided.
5. Lastly, students will be assigned a task - create a movie using zimmertwins.com and send it to the teacher. Teacher could randomly choose the movies created by the students and use them on the following lesson to activate students schemata on the "Language Functions" that have been learnt.

Advantages:

• It could trigger students' creativity skills.
• Its background sound effect and animation would attract students' attention.
• Visual learning could take place. It could focus on students' multiple intelligence. 
• It prepares students to the outside world as they could visualize how the authentic conversation takes place.
• It's a FREE tool.
• Students could relate it to their lives because the animation are made up of their daily activities.

Limitations:

• Actions are quite limited to be chose from. 
• Internet connection is necessary.
• There are only 3 characters for the movie - boring.
• The movie cannot be embedded into a blog page. 

Now, let's have a go!!!

http://www.zimmertwins.com/movie/create