Week 4 Reading/Writing Skill-Building Websites

Reading/Writing Skill-Building Websites
Participants in this course (Audience), after reviewing at least two different reading and/or writing web sites in terms of use in their classes (Condition), will share comments about the sites, including the target audience, skill(s) enhanced, and an overall recommendation (Behavior) in at least two posts on Nicenet that include the URL for the web pages (Degree).

Students' background
There are about 35-40 students in a class. They are boys and girls of 16-17 years of age.and they  are students in Form 4 and Form 5, They are multiracial students, range from Malay, Chinese , Indians and others. Incidentally, English is not their mother tongue. They only listen, speak, read and write in English during a five 35minutes lesson in a week. Not all of our students can access to internet. Some students get to go online as teacher displays the information using a  laptop and a LCD projector provided by the school. one computer for the whole class. Theft cases and break ins in our local schools are on the rise. We had lost a few laptops, desktops.printers and LCD projectors.Most of them have personal mobile phone or their family members posses one. They all have account.in Facebook.

As for me, the purpose for the reading and writing task must be meaningful and it must go hand in hand. in our teaching of reading and writing skills in local Malaysia context. We always ask our students to read silently a passage of different genre; a story taken from magazine such as Reader's Digest, a local newspaper report or online newspaper, a personal blog from internet, an article, or letters to editor. Students then have to answer 5 wh-questions in complete sentences based on what they have read.The length of the passage is about 350 words.  In response to the the article, students must write a summary on what they read in their own words in about 350 words. A follow-up writing activity such as writing a report,writing a letter of complaint or
a letter of advice based on what they have read,

A suggested technology enhanced activity
Let my students read an article online. They have to go to online dictionary to check on the meanings and pronunciation. They write short answers regarding what they read online. they are required to write a summary based on what they read. Then they write a letter of advice or complaint to express their dissatisfaction over the issue and post in the facebook for everyone to see. It can be group work or individual work in regards to availability of internet access

There is a great need to set boundaries and limits for students and teachers.The teacher needs to monitor and remind them NOT to post anything which are sensitive , violence.unlawful and sexual on the net.They must not belittle or make fun of people online. They must be responsible to make positive remarks.