Direct link to the lesson plan
A very classic lesson (plan). Just wanted to test how it would work out in SL.
Voice issues
There were six students and one visitor. Two students could not hear me. I could help one to configure voice quickly. All the other other students could hear me but opted not to speak due to various reasons (technical issues, too much noise at home, too shy) 🙁 This meant a lot of typing for me.
The SpeakEasy HUD
Thanks God, I had prepared the long text (The story of Coca-Cola) for the SpeakEasy HuD, which is a tool that allows you to type up the text you want to “speak” in advance and displays it line by line by simply clicking on the tool.
What I did was was to tell the story in voice and at the same time show it bit by bit as text in local chat. This was good for the listeners, too. They could also read along if they wanted.
Analysing students’ language
Students’ sometimes not being able to use voice can be an advantage, too. They practise their writing skills (writing in chats is a real-life skill now) and I have a more complete chat log which I can analyse later. However, this course focuses primarily on speaking skills. Therefore, I am always happy when voice does function and students are able to speak. In order to have a record of what students have said, voice can be recorded, too. This would help with analysing their pronunciation and intonation.
After the listening and reading of the text, we did a quick review of the Past Tense and most students knew all about the form and use of it except one student. I gave some more examples and explained the concept briefly and also added links with information about it in the Moodle plus exercises for those who want or need practice.
The last stage went well and students came up with several inventors. Some used the Internet which was OK. What was not OK was that one simply pasted what he had found into local chat but appologised when I said he should use his own words.
The film will be watched as homework.
Homework
I asked students why they don’t do their homework whether it is time or they don’t like it. Those at the university said they were busy working on a project. In the feedback survey, all students say that homework is useful and fun.
Conclusion
Always except something unusual to happen. Be prepared. Have alternatives. Be strict with no IMs during lesson. People will know with time that when I set myself into busy mode, that I am really busy and do not reply. But I have to admit that I do not know what it looks like on somebody else’s computer/list of friends. Does it say Daffodil Fargis (busy)? You do not receive inventory items that are sent to you during busy mode. So, if you want your students to write a notecard and send it to you, you have to leave the busy mode.
The lesson worked well for the students and feedback is positive but personally it did not satisfy me. As I said, at the beginning, this was a simple transfer of a classic Real Life lesson to Second Life. This is not what I want my SL lessons to be. What I am thinking about for future lessons is how to make grammar come alive using SL’s unique potential.
Student Feedback
Right level of difficulty for everybody. They learned a lot of new English words. They didn’t practise speaking enough because of the reason I mentioned above. Best activity: Learning about Coca Cola (stated by several students). One students says: “I never thought that coca cola has a history.” (So, interesting content is very important to engage students).