Foundations Newsletter

On November 5 I gave a presentation entitled “Foundations Level 2: Weebly Websites. What’s new?” The presentation introduced the four Weebly sites I have created during the past twelve months, websites which are designed for in-class use:

(1) http://allthingsgrammar.weebly.com/

(2) http://mywritingclass.weebly.com/

(3) http://mylisteningclass.weebly.com/

(4) http://myreadingvocabclass.weebly.com/

The navigation bars at the left of each homepage contain most of site material which I have developed myself, or adapted from the work done by our Level 2 team. The material was specifically designed to meet the learning outcomes for Foundations English Level 2 students.

Each homepage directs visitors to the latest developments with a “What’s New?” graphic (a finger pointing to a page link). For example, “My Reading and Vocab Class” introduces a new section of non-linear reading texts. So far, there are six non-linear texts, all of which I had previously uploaded to my other two (non-college based) commercial sites: http://www.allthingsgrammar.com/ and http://esltopics.com/; the multiple choice questions, however, were written with our course and students in mind. My goal is to create a total of 15 to 20 such exercises. Teachers might find the following site helpful in creating their own similar (on-line) multiple choice questions: http://www.quiz.biz/

Most recently, I have begun using Weebly as a kind of teaching blog, or class delivery platform. My students simply enter a simple password I provided, and they can access all the day’s materials (complete with links, graphics, on-line multiple choice question exercises, audio, and more). When they are absent, they can easily refer to the material they missed with the navigation bar at left (eg. 30 November / Sunday, etc.). This site greatly facilitates my teaching, as students seldom have to leave the site page, even if they jump from vocabulary practice to, say, listening practice.

All the sites are still works in progress (and will probably always be works in progress) as they constantly respond to and adapt to the evolving needs of our program. If you have any questions, I’d love to hear from you!
rdobie@hct.ac.ae