Yesterday, ten of my SSPP students engaged in a reasonably successful sortie with my Health and Nutrition page. I'm happy to say casualties were low. They had been forearmed with two previous 'face-to-face' lessons on Health and Nutrition - "Dietary Guidelines for Australians" and "How to Prevent excess Weight Gain". These lessons were based on the information published in the "Dietary Guidelines for Australians - A Guide to Healthy Eating" put out by the Australian Government.
After their foray, the students were debriefed. They were asked to give their impression of the two activities they had time to trial. The feedback was both verbal and in writing. [Individual student comments are attached to this posting] Nine out of the ten students managed to attempt two activities in the limited time frame. All ten students successfully completed activity one which was a reading comprehension exercise on "Enjoying a Wide Variety of Foods Every Day". Four of the remaining nine completed the Crossword. We had to return to base earlier than planned to allow others time on the battlefield. [A study tour group teacher asked me to give up part of my allotted computer room time so that her homesick students could contact friends and family. Owing to the fact that I felt it politic, at that particular juncture, to re-establish my reputation as a benevolent despot I acquiesced.]
We had some serious technical hiccups that clouded the trial. All of the students' computers are linked to the same server on the same line and therefore are abominably slow... and for some unaccountable reason they were even slower yesterday; much slower than the staff computers which aren't as fast as they could be either... the page took too long to download.
Because I am going to be using this teaching resource quite often at this particular (though unsatisfactory) location, I will have to forego some of the fancier elements like 'flash buttons' for basic hyperlinks in order to speed up access. Just as well I haven't loaded this page to my public website. I'd like to iron out a few more kinks before taking that particular plunge.
Also, some students tended to rush ahead without thoroughly reading the instructions which I feel is detrimental to the learning process. I am going to have to include a few more checks and balances on the way through. It's fine if there is a teacher present at all times but if for some reason this material was to be used in a 'distance education' capacity, i.e. most of the work being done online, this could cause unnecessary frustration on the part of the learner and be a demotivating factor in the learning process.
Interestingly some students felt the comprehension questions were easier than those they had done in class and perhaps they were. Because this was the first activity in the series and the whole concept of doing this type of work on the computer is so new to my students I didn't want to make their first attempt too daunting. I'll monitor this with future students and make any necessary adjustments when I have a little more feedback.
A couple of students had problems finding their place on the page when clicking through to answer the questions. Perhaps a split screen activity might be more workable or a few more sub-headings in the text.
I was relieved, though a little surprised, to find that all of the students who attempted the crossword enjoyed the process, despite the fact that they found it very difficult to do. Also, none of them pressed the solve button for the quick answer. Despite this pleasing outcome I think that I will rebuild the crosswords with some easier hints in them; probably some hyperlinks or pictures would be the best option because the object of the exercise is to build or reinforce vocabulary. I don't want them to be tempted to go the easy fix and just press the solve button in order to finish the exercise.
Watching the students work through the exercises I realized I needed to add a hyperlink to an online dictionary/thesaurus which I will now do.
8 comments:
Kensuke's Comment:
I think it was a little bit easy, so it may be better to make the questions a little bit difficult, but the articles were suitable for us.
At first I couldn't find the links in the homepage, so it s required to have it improved.
This crossword was very difficult, but I think it is not a problem because we can search for the words in the article, which also helps us to understand what the article says. So if I have much time, I can enjoy this crossword.
Jae Min's Comment:
It was easy to read. But I couldn't understand about the contents certainly. Maybe I need more practice to improve my reading skills.
I realized that skimming and scanning is important for reading. Also I can review my eating habit.
Crossword: Alhtough there was a lot of difficult vocabulary, I learn to presume the words.
Takashi's Comment:
It was a little bit easy to read compared to passage used in the classroom.
I did not know that the foods are separated by five kinds.
Crossword: The work was very hard for me. I could not complete almost. But, I think could learn a few things. Because it was just to answer the questions, I could refer to the site which is used section one.
Haruka's Comment:
It's not so hard to read and answer the questions but sometimes I didn't understand where I was on the page. The questions were a little bit easy. I could catch what the passages informs.
Crossword: It was pretty fun, but it was difficult. I could not image what the sentences explaine. If I had enough time and good prains (sic), I would enjoy more.
Tim's Comment:
It was easy to read. The link was work, but it was very slow. I learned some vegetables is good for healthy.
Crossword: The question was not difficult but the answer is difficult. I learned some vegetable names and their look.
Alex's Comment:
Yes, is easy to read, but I think the word is a little small. I need more time to read and find the asnwer.
The links is find, I can easy to read it. And can click it. Is good to see that.
Yes, I can learn something, unless I don't understand too much. I can learn the food of five group have what.
Tomoyo's Comment:
Reading comprehension was easy to read so I could understand. I found many things. For example I should have a every five types of food each days.
Some crossword questions were little bit difficult but I could fun. When I was doing it then I thought one thing. It was like if students couldn't find answer one hint. After student couldn't find answer next hint, like that.
Yuqi's Comment:
I really don't think is easy to read if there are so many words that I can't understand. Especially the words are verb. I will have to look it up on the dictionary. If there are only little words that I haven't seen it before, I'm sure I will enjoy my reading. Normally, I can learn something from new thing that I haven't read it before. Not only new words but also some new ideas. Sometimes, though I understand the words, I still can't understand the sentence, that might be funny. I mean English is my second language, some cultural things or ideas is not quite easy to understand it. I usually skim sentences quickly in order to catch the main idea first.
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