Not All Websites Are Created Equal
In an EV mini-workshop, George Chinnery of DLI Foreign Language Center shared a very detailed handout for critical website evaluation. The handout listed about two dozen questions to serve as evaluation criteria. He had participants check pairs of websites that deal with the same subject matter against some of those criteria in order to determine trust online. To many, the exercise was quite an eye opener. If we as teachers have trouble differentiating the real and the fake, how can we expect our students to do the same?
George's 20 pairs of website for evaluation are here at: http://sites.google.com/site/webeval4all/test-sites, but you should have your students scroll all the way down to the bottom to download his attached handout, which is a PDF file called "WebEval," first.
GOs Are Not Just for Pre-writing
Greg Rouault of Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan shared an excellent idea of using graphic organizers to practice critical reading beyond the micro word level. Greg's intermediate-level ESL students are required to turn in their graphic organizers as evidence of them having unpacked some meaning from their reading. Greg provides his students with blank or partially-filled graphic organizers, using such resources as:
- http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/
- http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1grorg.htm
- http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/index.jsp
- http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=2983
A Kiss Is Not a Kiss
Films in the classroom are not just for fun. Patreshia Tkach of Pamukkale University in Turkey demonstrated the role of the film in enhancing critical thinking. She stays away from such questions as "What do you think?" "What do you like about it?" and does more analytical questioning. An ideal teaching sequence with selective film use, in her opinion, runs something like this:
- discuss the theme
- read a related article
- do a minimum pre-viewing comprehension question discussion
- view the film
- do a deeper discussion
- view the movie again before assessing with open-ended essay questions
Patreshia would even let high-level students choose a film and devise questions. To further enhance critical literacy, Patreshia suggests having students study the director, too, and figure out why he or she made the film--Is it to entertain, to shock, to offer propaganda?
Patreshia is kind enough to allow me to share her handouts here.
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