Week 5, an Inspecting Look

Dear Colleagues,

The magical word of this week is WebQuest. I enjoyed exploring the subject of Project-based Learning in depth. I read, along investigating several other web pages, Susan Gaer's paper, Less Teaching and More Learning, and what a journey it was. She unveils the secrets of two astonishing experiences in which PBL was employed. The first with Southeast Asians and the second with mixed group of learner who spoke English, Spanish and Vietnamese. Although she started as traditional teacher using grammar-based curriculum, this did not stop her from changing her methodologies for the sake of providing her students with more meaningful learning.

What I find amazing about her experience with different ethnicities is how she transformed the learners' needs into the most stimulating part of the whole language learning process. The Lao, Hmong Mien, and Lahu learners were keen on conserving their own cultures traits. Thus, Gaer turned this from a need to a deed. Working on folktales, the Southeast Asian learners found meaning and encouragement in what they were doing. The PBL was used intelligently to serve as means to language learning in the most possible exciting way. The resources were used to build new visual dimension to the folktales that were told in an oral-aural approach.

I love the stages and employments of the resources at hand to enrich learning in both of Gaer experiences told in her paper. The shift from the role of mere instructing to that of active facilitating frees the teacher and allows him to go for qualitative opportunities such as creatively designed WebQuests and Treasure Hunts that engage the leaner in the joyful adventure of language learning. I am inspired to create a WebQuest in which my young learners' needs are used to motivate, encourage, and stimulate. Thus, giving meaning to learning.

How about you?

Best wishes,
Amjad

Links:
Less Teaching and More Learning
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=385