Make a website for your students

When I was teaching in Spain, we divided the 6th grade class into small groups to create Power Point Presentations about English-speaking countries. To guide the students during their group work time in the computer lab, I made a website for each group to use as a "base of operations" in their research and work. Here's an example of what we did.

I created the website on Web Poster Wizard. I think this website could be a great tool for teachers. It's free to use and quite simple. You can easily create your own websites complete with links and pictures. Then students can upload their work to the website to share with you and the class.

This would work well as a guide for group or individual projects that need to be done outside of class time. For teachers working in schools where Blackboard or other web-based class communication systems are not available, this website is also a great way for teachers to make a list of web resources for practice and self-study available to students.

Making Movies

I found this movie-making website referenced on various blogs and teaching resource pages. Students can make an animated movie, choosing the characters, plot and, most importantly, supplying the dialogue.

I think this is a great way to get students motivated to use the language, as well as a nice group project idea. The fact that the characters in the "movies" have conversations gives students a nice chance to practice Q & A forms and conversational, authentic language, as opposed to more "presentational" oral expression. Students can think creatively, and the movie assignment can be as free or controlled as the teacher wishes. It would be great to incorporate movie-making as a homework assignment after spending the class brainstorming plot lines, or learning about expressions or vocabulary to use in writing your scripts. Script-writing could even be a multiple-step process, with the teacher proofreading a first draft and correcting or encouraging elaboration where needed.

I've used similar technology in classes with young learners, and they loved it. I think it would work extremely well for high school students, and could be adapted to any level. This website produces extremely professional looking short movies, much higher quality than other similar websites I've used.