The Insider

This game is about the earthquake happened in Haiti and the purpose of inventing this game is to let people more or less see things from the inside of Haiti earthquake incident. In this game, I chose to be a victim because I really wanted to see what if I am the victim, what are the choices do I have and is there any activity that I can do to keep me survived in that kind of harsh environment.

After I played the game, I felt sympathy for them because after facing the earthquake, they still have to deal with many kind of problems. 

My Way To Conduct An Activity Using This Game.

First of all, I'll tell students to play the game. During the game, student are required to jot down which role are them taking (survivor, aid worker, journalist), what kind of situation are they facing and what decision did they made. After they had finished playing, students need to write a narrative essay about the game in not less than 80 words.

Integrating technology in ESL writing

Technology are so useful and it make human's life, including teachers and students, easier and more convenient. I couldn't agree more with the slides of my group presented. This is because using technology really do have the pros and benefits in teaching and learning nowadays.
As what we presented in our slides, it is convenient enough for teachers to have prepared their own teaching slides before class started. During class, teacher can just show them what are students going to learn on that day. This is good because not only teachers could saved the times from writing all the things she wanted to teach on the board. Besides that, students that are shy could post their comment and share their ideas or thoughts without having to stand up in front of the whole class. Teachers too can then immediately give response to what their students shared in their comments and also discuss the mistakes students have made so that students can do the corrections on the spot. To add in another point, after sharing out their thoughts so many times,shy students will be encouraged to give more opinions and ideas in front of other students more comfortably.Thirdly, integrating technology not only can help both students and teachers think out of the box and sharpen their creative skill., but it is also a way to make sure they are not left out from the latest issues of technology.
In conclusion, integrating technology in ESL writing is not a bad idea. We as future english teachers, should include new tools as they are easy to access free to use.

Responding To Student's Writing

~HONEYCOMB STORY~ 

After reading the essays for several times, I finally came out with some responses to this student's essay. For me, this essay is well constructed. Although still has some sentences are not that well written, but the flow of the story line was smooth and me as the reader could understand what was the essay about. The student was able to include the introduction, body paragraph and also the conclusion. This means that the student can construct an essay that is understandable.

However, this essay also contains some grammatical problem such as not alert in using the capital letters in most of the new sentences, not using the correct punctuation and very limited vocabulary, causing the student to use direct translation in his or her essay.

Overall, I think that this student has done a good job in producing this essay and of course there are still a lot to be improved by practicing more in writing an essay, just like the old saying : Practice makes Perfect.

For the record, I used some symbols when correcting this essay and the symbols are as follow : 

Higher Order Thinking Skills : That's So HOTS!

Well, to conduct an teaching activity and includes HOTS in it, for me, its not that easy. The activity should be interesting, creative and engaging. I tried and had produced one and it's based on the analyzing skill, here it goes :

Each student are given flyer containing information of a bakery class. They are required to analyze what is the flyer about and list down all the information given. Then, using the information they obtained, students should write a paragraph to introduce the bakery shop with  120 words.

Meaningful Movies & Songs

1. Tarzan

2. Cinderella

3. Aladdin

4. The Lion King

5. 101 Dalmatians

6. Toy Story

7. Lilo and Stitch

8. Real Steel

9. 3 Ninjas

10. The Robbinsons

11. Brother Bear

12. Despicable Me

13. Finding Nemo

14. Ice Age

15. Madagascar

SONGS      

1. Sister Sledge - We are Family

2. Boyz II Men - A Song for Mama

3. Luther Vandross - Dance with my Father

4. The Temptations - Lean On Me      

5. Journey - Don't Stop Believing

6. The O’Jays - Family Reunion

7. Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World

8. Michael Jackson - I’ll Be There

9. The Pretenders - I’ll Stand By You

10. Bill Withers - Lean On Me

11. Mariah Carey-Anytime You Need a Friend

12. Monica - For You I Will

13. Tarzan Movie - Two Worlds, You'll Be In My Heart

14. John Lennon - Imagine

15. Elton John - Friends

16. Kirk Franklin and Nu Nation – Lean on Me

17. Miley Cyrus - The Climb, True Friend

18. Bruno Mars – Count on Me

19. I'll Stand By You - The Pretenders

Adjectives ( Words to describe what you see )

EYES	Beady, bloodshot, boss-eyed, bug-eyed, clear, close-set, cross-eyed, dead, deep-set, doe-eyed, hazel, heavy, hollow, hooded, lidded, liquid, piggy, pop-eyed, rheumy, shuttered, sunken
NOSE	Sharp, hooked, up-turned, pinched, crinkled, crooked, curved, bulbous, flat, big, pointed, lopsided, tame, velvet, oblique
LIPS	Luscious, juicy, full, thin, pouting, pursed lip, rosy, glistening, chapped, porcelain, soft
FACE	Baby faced, handsome, good looking, hatchet-faced, chiseled, spotless, freckeld
COMPLEXION	Albino, brown, tanned, fair, dark, freckled, wrinkled, rosy, pale, spotless, silky, smooth, creamy, baby-soft, glowing, paper-thin, translucent, olive
HAND	scrawny, rough, law-like, thin, big-knuckled, blue-veined, plump, fat, chubby, jaundiced, pallid,  arthritic, soft, firm, shaky, calloused, clean, tattooed, large, small
CHEEK	Plump, smooth, round, tearful, curved, glowing,glorious, livid, rosy, chubby, hollow, dimpled, soft, pale, blushing
BODY	Fat, thin, lean, curvy, fit, skinny, slender, tattooed, well-built, feeble, flabby, frail, beefy, brawny, muscular, pear-shaped, stocky, statuesque, hourglass, herculean
CLOTHES/SHOES/ACCESSORIES	Elegant, glamorous, tidy, smart, strappy, formal, informal, messy, untidy, sloppy, comfortable, skimpy, casual, sophisticated, old-fashioned, unfashionable, punk, rock-star, trendy, worn out, simple, fit

DESCRIBE PLACES (MY HOSTEL ROOM)

See- comfy,relaxing place,bed personal stuff

Hear- Fan running

Smell- Fragrant of washed clothes.

Feel-Cold

Taste-

CAUSES OF MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS

-Impatient

-Drunk

-Sleepy

-Whet

-Speed

2.The causes of motor vehicles accidents are the driver's attitude, bad weather and poor

  road conditions.

3.First and foremost, one of the reason that cause motor vehicles accident is the driver's

  attitude itself. Drivers that have bad temper are impatient and take less consideration.

  Making lives of himself and other road user in risk.

4.Other than that, bad weather will also affect the driver's driving conditions. For example, heavy rain will causes the road to become slippery, causing accidents to occur easily.

5.Lastly, poor and lack of maintenance on the road is also one of the contributor to road accidents.

  

IMPOTRANCE OF PRESERVING OUR SEA

1.By preserving our sea, a better quality of marine food supply can be provided

2.Preservation of sea helps to lower the risk of contracting disease caused by polluted marine lives

3.The government can promote clean beaches to attract foreign tourists

REFLECTION AND VARIATION FOR THIS GAME

To play the game, we need to have a very good eyesight because need to find words that are spoken out by Ms Yoon from the newspaper in a very short time. I think that my group members have done a very good job because we managed to find most of the words. Thus , we had more words choices to construct three topic sentences. Although we had most of the words, but to construct three topic sentences was not that easy. In fact, it was very challenging too because we had to come out with very solid ideas in a short sentence.

Through this game, I felt that students not only will use the words to construct their sentences, with teacher’s assists and guides, they can use the words wisely and expend their ideas to form good topic sentences. This will definitely help them to improve and construct better topic sentences in essay writing.  

Integrating Social Networking Tools into ESL Writing Classroom : Strengths and Weakness

With the rapid development in technology, some people come up with idea to teach ESL via Social Networking  Services (SNSs). To gather data and opinions, this idea than brought into an online discussion which the participants are TESL  students  in state University in Malaysia. Based on the articles, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, Friendster, RenRen, CY and Orkut are widely used across the world. Thus, discussion are made to find the possibility of using SNSs and bring it into the education field. Teachers can use SNSs to get feedback from their students and students can also discuss some of the problem that they are facing even after  the school time. Through the written passages, teachers can correct the students’ mistakes, give some comments and of course give them praise when students come out with creative or excellent suggestions, phrases and sentences. This will make students feel their work are appreciated and become more interested in ESL writing. Other than that, students that are too shy or lack of confidence can write out their suggestions  with more comfort and less stress. Through teachers’ encouragement and the will to give out better phrases than the others, students tend to work harder to improve their English level. Even so, they are some disadvantages too in this teaching and learning method. Firstly, distractions are the main problem of online learning. Students are attracted by other sites and causes them to loose concentration, making them to mixed up what have they learned with the ‘entertainments of the day’. Secondly, students that are too used to write in short forms may use this informal writing in the real exam or formal writing without them realizing it. Lastly, automatic spelling correction in some SNSs will cause students to forget to spell some words correctly.

From my own experience, it’s really hard to not getting yourself distracted by so many things and latest news from the internet. Students may think that they can control themselves but in the end, they end up rushing their assignments and passed up homeworks that are completed half-heartedly. Even some will take the easy way, that is copying other people’s work from the websites, do some changes and throw some last minutes ideas, making them to feel like they had done their ‘own work’.

From my point of view, using SNSs in ESL writing is not a good idea, and it’s not that realistic at all. The advantages showed above---letting students that are too shy or lack of confident to shout out their opinions with more comfort and less stress does not seem right to me, and it does not help the students in building their character. Yes, it will be less stress but when will the students can really overcome their social  problem and lack of confident issues? If they continuously using only SNSs to communicate with other people, self-confidence won’t build up in them, and they might turn into the opposite way---no confidence to speak out in front of others at all. Thus, causing them to decrease their social circle, direct interaction with other human being wouldn’t come out in their list. For me, Instead of letting students  giving out opinions in a small chatting room, teachers can help and encourage students to jump out of their comfort zone, let them speak out what they think in front of their friends. Through this real life learning, students can boost their confidence to a higher level and  become more comfortable when they are throwing out suggestions in a crowd. After all writing, reading and speaking are all what human do to let themselves have a better communications and understanding towards each other.   

A Letter To Myself

Dear Ivy,

Hey,so how was it so far? You're still in your hometown ,so it should be a no problem for you to adapt yourself in this learning environment.Even if you're studying in west Malaysia,you should have already fit in with the environment. So,had you make many friends? How about your assignments? I hope you hand in your assignments in time,don't even dare to try last minute work,you know how it exactly feels like(hello,from the form6 projects' experience?).Sometimes(or all the time),you just need to remind yourself it's better to sacrifice a little time to enjoy and having fun rather than sacrificing your CGPA that can affect your life.I mean,be smart! Which would you choose? To enjoy university life without putting any effort to have a good grade but having a hard time to get job after you graduate OR play hard(not so hard,haha) and study smart?

You know too,right? This is the place where you have the chance to get a better life in the future,and repay your parents. It;s not like in primary and secondary school when you can't get a good result in UPSR,you still can make it up in PMR,SPM or STPM. But in Uni? Come on,you know you don't have the chance.So don't be laaazzzy,don't make your life miserable.Plaease,I really mean it.

By the way,how's your social life? I know you're kind of a shy person,more introvert...but seriously,I think you have had improve a lot since Form 6.Not to compliment you purposely or what but really,you had become more fowardly to other person and not too nervous when you're in a crowd. I'm really happy for you,but you still have to improve,so keep it up,I know you can do it.

Oh,and stay active.Get yourself into various type of activities.Every experiences and lessons are precious,money can't buy it for sure. Through this,I hope you can become more mature,and look things from different points of view. Lastly, I need you to answer these questions honestly,sincerely and proudly.(Don't lie to yourself Ivy!)

1.Do you really enjoy your Uni life?
   Yes!(3)          Kinda(2)         No(1)
2.Did you hand in your assignments in time?
  Yes!(3)          Sometimes(2)         Hardly(1)
3.Did you work hard to get an A?
   Yes!(3)          Kinda(2)         I'm too busy having fun(1)
4.Did you pay attention in every lecture?
   Yes!(3)          Sometimes(2)        No(1)
5.Are you a responsible student?
   Yes!(3)          I think so(2)         No(1)
6.Did you stay active in club and activities?
   Yes!(3)          Kinda(2)         No(1)
7.Are you always helping people out?
   Yes!(3)          Sometimes(2)        No(1)
8.Did you get along with you coursemates and lecturer?
   Yes!(3)          Kinda(2)         No(1)
9.Had you become more sociable?
   Yes!(3)          I think so(2)         No(1)
10.Had you become more independent?
     Yes!(3)        I think so(2)         No(1)
11.Had you become more fit/loose weights?
     Yes!(3)          Kinda(2)         No(1)
12.Did you complain a lot?
     No(3)          Sometimes(2)        Yes(1)
13.Did you spend time with your God?
     Yes!(3)          Sometimes(2)        No(1)
14.Had you become more confident?
     Yes!(3)        I think so(2)         No(1)
15.Have you find yourself a boy...erhem,I mean boyfriend (wink*wink*)
     Yes!(3)        Only crushes(2)         ... ...(1)
Hope you can get 35/45 =)


Take care.God Bless


Ivy