Dear teachers:
This week I had the chance to explore all different kind of websites to develop reading and writing skills.
I read a lot about the advantages of using web tools to enhance students' writing and reading competences and I could not agree more with most authors and teachers when we all came to an agreement that learners need to be in touch with authentic material, from different genres and different formats so as to meet the different learning styles we deal with in our classrooms.
Students are writing more than ever so we should take advantage of the blogging and posting on social networks mania to make them practice reading and writing skills in their own context. What is more meaninful than that?
Let me reccomend you 2 websites I have been using. I think they can be really helpful for all ages.
Mashpedia aggregates multiple web feeds (streams of content from different sources) into structured articles about specific, encyclopedic terms, historic events and popular individuals, groups, organizations, companies, etc.
Every article provides a basic definition of the term, along with the most relevant videos about it, a stream of current Twitter messages, latest news, images, blog posts and links. Mashpedia also offers semantic connections between the articles, in form of links
b.- http://www.penzu.com/
Penzu is a simple online tool for creating a personal journal. Entries are automatically
dated and students can add titles and text as well as images which appear in the margin of
the page. They need to register to save their entries but this is quick and simple and only
requires an email address. The journal entries can be shared by email or can be printed up
and brought into class.
Hello Evelin,
ReplyDeleteI have checked both links and I like the second one, Penzu, very much. It's easy to use it and it may be really useful both for us and our students.
Thanks for sharing!
Best wishes,
Nadina
Hi Evelin
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the links. I found both of them useful. The first site gives varieties of texts to read. Thus this is useful for developing reading skill.It is also useful for vocabulary development since the website gives definitions of different words.
The second site is very interesting and useful for writing. This site helps students keep journal.
Regards
Prem
Hi Eve,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with you that glogs and social networks would provide students with a meanigful learning experience and it would enhance their writing which is the area students find the most difficult. I will definetly start my next semester with inovative ideas to try with my students.
Thank you for sharing the two links with us. I found them interesting and useful and I will recommend them to my students and colleagues
Best
Maha
Excellent you all liked the links and found them useful!
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe my eyes when I surf the net and see there are so many webtools I did not know of and are just perfect for the learning aims I had for some classes!
what a waste!
I think we all should reccomend sites every week on our blogs so as to share our findings.
Thank you guys for reading me! It means a lot to me!
Big hugs from Sunny Venezuela!
Hi Eve
ReplyDeleteYour websites were very helpful. I believe we need to improve our technological skills to enhance our teaching and learning.
Regards
Juliet