Assignment 1: Website Review

This summer I'll be teaching a new class in our Premium English program. There is no course description or fixed aims for the course but the general idea, as explained to me, is that we are providing motivated students the opportunity to hone their skills through writing and debate on controversial issues… whatever that means.

So one thing that will definitely be necessary for the course is a place for students to find content. One of the links on the resources page, the California Distance Learning Project's Adult Learning Activities site, looks like it may be quite a good place for this to happen.

The site is organized by category on the first page and each category contains a large number of articles on each topic. I may assign topics for students to research so this alone would be useful but there is more to the site than that--there are also built in vocabulary and comprehension checking activities for the students to use.

Of course we will be doing some research as a class and I will be checking students' work as they go along but this site could allow the students to do additional independent research. Now, much of the vocabulary may be familiar to the students and the comprehension check activities may not always be challenging for students of their level but it will still provide them with plenty of model structures that they will be able to emulate in their writing and speaking.

I've used number of news sites designed both for learners and native speakers in the past and many are great for certain things but this site's value comes from its ability to help students research on their own. I most definitely plan to use it this summer.