Enlightenment
As teachers, we want our lessons to be authentic and relevant to our students. What better way to do that than by providing real-world activities and assignments that teach course objectives AND promote students' mastery of technology! Even though many adult ESL learners aren't "digital natives", technology skills are essential in today's world.
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At the end of semester, many teachers, myself included, ask students to reflect on their learning. Since the end of the semester tends to be stressful for many students (and teachers), I developed this “fun” and engaging curation project which fosters reflection and writing.
Digital novel discussions are great additions to asynchronous classes or synchronous classes where you simply don't have enough time! Student partners are responsible for curating pertinent information from their assigned portions of the novel. Then, they share their presentation by creating a screencast; finally, they facilitate and monitor an online discussion of the novel.
“Hyperdocs” are technical tools which offer a deeper look into a novel. Oftentimes, these resources are filled with videos for activating background knowledge, links which allow students to explore topics in greater details, and opportunities for classroom discussion.
There are a plethora of free hyperdocuments for novel studies on the Internet. Here is one of my favorites.
Analysis of literature is a skill that is new for many ESL students, and it is one that is required in most higher education programs. With a few slight changes, the traditional analysis essay can become much more interactive and offer far more opportunities for advancement of skills.
Narrative Essays/Memoir projects
Do you assign the traditional narrative essay at the beginning of the semester to teach students about the writing process? Many ESL teachers do! Want some ideas for a lesson that is less bland and engages the students a bit more. Check out my take on the narrative essay, complete with technological components that basically make it a "live movie."
Additionally, this website has some great resources for memoir projects which can easily be adapted for adult ESL learners.
Additional multimodal assignments can be found on Leann's page.
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