Informational Text as a teaching tool.

In the dynamic world we live in, content and technology exponentially grow and become more and more complex. To prepare our students to effectively function in the world and be efficient global citizens, educators re-evaluate their teaching instructions and come up with new educational strategies. 

Daily reading of current events and informational texts develop not only student language skills but prepare them to be informed, think critically, solve real world problems, and be able to communicate their ideas to others. In other words, students are learning to become active members of society.

Resources:

There are a great number of web sites where informational texts can be found. Some of them are pinned on a Pinterest Nonfiction Reading board. 

Check a Pinterest collection of News Sites 
and News Sites in Spanish.

Wordle.com

To continue our conversation about using tech tools in class I would like to feature this month Wordle.com. Jennifer Wagner (Tech&Learning) suggests quite a few ways to use Wordle in class (Wonder of Wordles):
"They are conversation starters, classroom reflections, visuals of students’ hopes and dreams, summaries, preparations, vocabulary builders, and spelling checkers. They are past, present and future, they are ways to review for a test, and ways for a teacher to check on pre-knowledge. They encourage thought, discernment, understanding, clarification, discussion, clarity, and challenges.They are much more than words just typed into a box and then click on GO".


Sr. Vahab uses Wordle as a vocabulary builder at her Spanish class and assigns her students to wordle a review of their class at home.

Web 2.0 tools in foreign language classes

Foreign Language Faculty in the Age of Web 2.0 (EDUCAUSE Quarterly, July-September 2008) highlights the importance of using Web 2.0 tools and advantages they provide to promote communication and sharing - the two essential aspects in teaching foreign languages in class.

The Internet provides access to authentic language in print and spoken forms. Teachers can make a collection of theme-based articles, news articles, and books.
By using blogs, wikis, podcasts, VoiceThread, and social networks they can bring the target culture to the classroom without traveling to the country.

VoiceThread
is a great tool for Foreing Language and ELL classes. It is an online media album that allows a group of people to make comments on images, videos, and documents, really simply. You can participate 5 different ways - using your voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam). It's easy to control who can access and comment on a VoiceThread, which makes it a secure place to talk about almost anything: business and academic presentations, travelogues, family history, art critiques, language study, tutorials, book clubs and digital storytelling. A VoiceThread allows an entire group conversation to be collected from anywhere in the world and then shared in one simple place. Try it, you'll like it!

Wikispaces: Now in French: Wikispaces is working on translations Wikispaces into many different languages. Their first language, French, is now available! So if "vous parlez français," you can change your language preference by visiting "My Account" and choosing French in the settings section. Learn more about this new option on their blog.

See a collection of links for French, Spanish, and Hebrew classes on Schoogle

Free Online Resources for Foreign Languages:
Livemocha - Language Learning: learn, practice, and share a variety of languages.
Mango Languages - free resource of learning languages online.
Wikibooks.com - the open content textbooks collection. You can save a book on the computer or print it.
FSI Language Course
Foreign Language House (Spanish, French, & ESL) - context-based, communicative language learning materials for all ages: *Situations, Stories, Non-Fiction Readings, Culture, or Content in Each Unit;
*Reproducibles Always Included; *Everyday Conversational Activities
Free Language Pods

Supplementary Links:
Blogs
Wikis
VoiceThread
How to type French accent marks
Le Notepad
Free Language Pods: French, Spanish, and other languages.

Articles:
Social Networks in Education: French Language
The Use of Web 2.0 tools to promote learners autonomy

Examples:Syllabus as a wiki
Blogs used in Foreign Language Classes - Spanish (Diane Vahab through Blackboard),
Podcast in Hebrew class - Nicole Chernick's class of Hebrew Beginners (requires AIS login)