[etni] More on PowerPoint
- From: "Arieh Sherris" <asherris@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2003 16:40:24 +0300
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Hi all,
I disagree with the polemic against PowerPoint(see Edward Tufte, Arts and
Letters Daily http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html ).
I have used PowerPoint to much success with middle school students whose
English language proficiency I would call "high beginner". It is not where
we start, as Jack has suggested. He is correct. Although, I doubt he and I
start in the same place.
With my high beginners, I start by showing them a digital camera. I give
them a hands-on lesson in how to hold it, use it, what buttons to push, etc.
They learn all about photography. They learn lots of vocabulary. They learn
ways to talk and reciprocal teach using the camera. They like this.
I punctuate my short talks with think-pair-share, even
think-write-pair-share. They also have vocabulary activities with each talk.
A role-play rounds out the lesson. They really enjoy my unit.
After we have taken digital photos of ourselves, we learn how to download
the photos onto the computer, file them, mail them as attachments, and use
them to write paragraphs. Sometimes we set up funny photos of ourselves. We
pose. We use props. These are fun to write about later.
I model all this, they practice in pairs and small groups. They also learn
about PowerPoint. How to bring photos up into a PowerPoint slide and in
pairs they brainstorm descriptive vocabulary for each picture. If they are
beginners, or high beginners this is not an easy task. I model it with a
different photo. They have to share this, teach this to each other in role
plays where they pretend they are new and haven't learned anything. Or they
pretend that they have a wicked teacher who screams and yells and surprises
them with tests they can not possibly pass. They like this devilish role
play a lot.
These lessons are very hands on--even though there is only one camera,
sometimes two (one from my house & one from the school). In some classes I
have two students at each computer, but I make sure that each student is in
the "driver's seat". Many years ago when I was a substitute inspector of
English in Israel for a very short time, I observed many computer classes in
many different schools where students were at the computers in pairs. I
noticed that gender rules where at play--the majority of mixed gender pairs
had the male in the driver's seat! Watch out for that! Keep track of time
and have them change places at intervals.
Anyway, with the powerpoint slide that has been designed for a title, 3
bullets and a photo I teach the academic paragraph. I'm sure you get my
drift: Topic sentence (with a controlling idea); and three supporting
details.
For example if the photo is of Rachel and Roni talking to each other. I do a
think aloud to model how I would write a main idea. This is what I come up
with: "Rachel and Roni are sharing information."
My supporting details that I share aloud are as follows:
They are looking at each other.
Rachel is talking.
Roni is listening.
I keep it simple. I have even used this with beginners who are not at the
sentence level. With either high beginners or beginners, once I have built
up their capacity to talk about the camera, use it with care, we get
permission to photograph students learning different subjects throughout our
school.
We project a map of the school layout on the wall with an overhead
projector. We make a huge map and label it. It is our school we learn the
names of each place, we write teacher's names, the names of any of our
friends, brothers and sisters, etc. throughout the school. In this way we
identify a social network, not just the names of places.
After an intensive week to week and a half beginning, this becomes a
yearlong project that we work on once a week, a team of two writes a letter
of request to another class that they want to photograph (I help, everyone
peer edits--very soon we come up with a standard form that becomes a model,
the details of which have to be changed and adapted by others throughout the
year. As the class proficiency improves, the letter becomes more
interesting. There are a variety of sentence types--not just simple
sentences, but compound and complex over time; we learn synonyms and
different ways of writing requests).
But to get back to my point: The photograph goes into PowerPoint and
students use the vocabulary that we develop to write short descriptions of
different subjects, different learning styles, science labs, gym class,
library research, note taking, lectures, group work. I try to be an
invisible hand (to steel a phrase from Adam Smith) and find out from other
teachers when it is interesting to visit the following week. Requests are
written, teams (pairs) go out. They enjoy this so much and they feel so
special that I have never had anything go wrong. I'm sure it could have, but
the great number of successes is a kind of immunization against future foul
play, no?
At the end of the school year, we had a pot-luck dinner and displayed
student work from portfolios. The PowerPoint was on continuous play on a
large screen for parents to see and read. It was a big hit.
Finally, just a note on the phrase, "dumbing down". I teach students to take
notes for key vocabulary and concepts. They practice this during student
presentations, short teacher talks, and when we have guest speakers. If they
have done this correctly, they have learned a strategy that will help them
become lifelong learners.
PowerPoint is just another architecture, another shell, another format to
fill with meaningful concepts, and key vocabulary that is contextualized and
thematically integrated. I call this thinking. I think this is good.
Moreover, when I make a presentation with PowerPoint, I usually begin every
other slide with a higher-level question (higher on Bloom's taxonomy). My
audience has a think-pair-share. They are debriefed by me and we move
forward through our topic. PowerPoint is not an essential ingredient, but it
is useful for language learning when used well.
Arieh Sherris
Washington, D.C.
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