Luna's Dog- The Comic Strip

Here is an example of the use of the website Stripgenerator.com!  This site is so easy to use to create your own comic strip, which is exactly what I attempted to do.  It has generic shapes, people graphics, text bubbles, and objects to choose from as well as comic strip layouts.  I decided to create a comic strip to use with young English language learners of the beginner level.  I titled my comic strip Luna's Dog, which contains very simple one-sentence dialogue for learners to read and follow along.  The comic contains six boxes and centers around a girl named Luna and her dog who she lost.  The dog is "hiding" (or really just placed) in relation to different objects.  The dog says a sentence in each strip that contains a preposition as well as an adjective.  This comic strip can be used to have students practice reading English for information, such as where the dog is in relation to objects that provides students practice with learning and using prepositions.  A handout or worksheet can also be created in addition to using this comic strip in a classroom.

Two Nice Classroom VoiceThread Activities

I have come to find two very nice examples of possible uses the website VoiceThread has to offer in a language classroom.  The first VoiceThread activity was completed by Ge Xu and centers around the idea of how television shows may or may not facilitate language learning.  It shows four examples of popular television shows and simply asks a question to both native English speakers as well as non-native English speakers.  I thought it was a good use of VoiceThread to introduce a topic of the role tv shows playing while learning language.  It activates students' thoughts on TV shows they enjoy and connects them with thoughts on how watching TV effects their own language learning.

A second good example of a possible use of VoiceThread during a language classroom activity was an activity that centers around the idea of hobbies done by Kayla Douglas. This activity allowed students to comment on what their favorite hobby is and why.  It's a great way for students to get to know one another, and I like the use of a collage of pictures of items that are associated with hobbies.  The pictures enable VT users to use the pencil tool as well as the comment tool to record comments about which hobbies they enjoy.  This activity would enable students to use new vocabulary used and use phrases such as "I like" or "I enjoy".