Effective Use of e-Resources

to Develop Students’ English Language Skills

e-Learning Series: Effective Use of e-Resources to Develop
Students’ English Language Skills at the Secondary Level

Dr Timothy Taylor, Senior Lecturer

Department of English Language Education
Education University of Hong Kong
29 - 30 June 2020
 Today’s Workshop Rundown

Part 1: Introduction and Initial Experience-sharing (http://eteachers.online)

Part 2: Principles and Practices of Using e-Resources Effectively in Teaching
Language Skills

Short Break (10 minutes)

Part 3: Extended Experience-sharing

Part 4: Q&A and Discussion
 Part 1 - Introduction

The Role of e-Resources in Developing

Language Skills and Values Education
Our Quote of the Day

“The future has already arrived.

It just isn’t evenly distributed.”
~ William Gibson
 Planning Goal: Choosing Core Apps for
Developing Students’ Language Skills

Language Skills for English Learners

● Listening
● Speaking
● Reading
● Writing

Language Knowledge for English Learners

● Grammar
● Vocabulary

Assessment Skills
● Study Skills
● Test-taking skills
● Recall
 Warm-up Activity

Watch a bit of the Pearl Report “Digital Divide” about a

range of approaches to e-learning used in in Hong Kong
schools.

1. How would you characterize your school’s use of

eResources?
2. What is the status of the hardware/software/wifi
resources?
3. What is the receptiveness of
admin/teachers/students/parents?
4. What is the preparedness of teachers regarding
experience and hands-on training?

Digital Divide: A Pearl Report on eLearning in Hong Kong (2012)

 Agenda:
Integrating eResources and English Objectives
With the expansion of technologies and multimodal learning content, teachers
must consider how to integrate traditional objectives with the continually
emerging newer elements of the English curriculum:

● Multimodal materials: apps, websites, online learning platforms

● New literacies: blogging, digital storytell, online multimedia expressions
● Effective strategies to enhance students’ proficiency in the language skills
● Effective use of technology to enhance teaching and learning approaches
The Role of e-Resources in the English Curriculum
Consider the Curriculum
Information Technology for Interactive Learning Effective use of information technology (IT) allows for greater
flexibility with respect to when and where to learn and who to learn with. It can support both classroom and
self-access language learning. The use of web-based or computer-assisted interactive learning tools to complement
direct face-to-face contact not only provides learners with powerful mechanisms for communication and
collaboration with the teacher and each other, but also promotes better understanding of their learning progress. For
example, teachers can:

● present the lesson in a motivating and engaging way by making use of multimedia presentation tools;
● provide opportunities for learners to take charge of their own learning through selective use of online
resources;
● encourage learners to become active users of English when they apply their IT skills for presentation,
critical thinking, information evaluation and knowledge management, using information on the Internet;
● engage learners in interactive and collaborative work through online discussions and sharing of ideas

English Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide (2007), p. 97

The Role of e-Resources in the English Curriculum
Consider Teachers and Technology
Initial Questions:

1. What technology do you know how to

use and prefer to use?
2. What technology must you use, if any?
3. What technology is user-friendly for
you and your students?
4. What teaching & learning skills does
the technology support / enhance /
extend? (Refer to graph for examples.)
 Part 2 - Principles and Practice

Using e-Resources to Facilitate the Development

of Students’ English Language Skills
Task-based Teaching and Learning 1
(Recommendation for Compulsory Part)

In the Compulsory Part, teachers are encouraged to adopt the task-based

approach and make use of the concepts of Modules, Units and Tasks in organising
learning and teaching. A module is an organising focus, and usually contains a
number of units which are thematically or conceptually related. These themes and
concepts are explored through tasks. Using 52 resources and authentic materials,
teachers may develop modules of their own to suit the interests, needs and
abilities of their particular group of learners.

English Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide (2007), p. 52

Task-based Teaching and Learning 2
(Overview)
Language learning should be experiential and should aim at developing learners’
communicative competence. The task-based approach to language learning
emphasises learning to communicate through purposeful interaction. Through the
use of tasks, learners are provided with purposeful contexts and engaged in
processes that require them to exercise critical thinking and creativity, explore
issues and solutions, and learn to use the language skills and functions, grammar
items and structures, vocabulary, and tone, style and register for meaningful
communication. The use of tasks also provides opportunities for the development
of language learning strategies, generic skills, learner independence, and positive
values and attitudes conducive to lifelong learning.

English Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide (2007), p. 73

Task-based Teaching and Learning 3
(Principles)
When designing tasks, teachers are encouraged to consider and apply what
follows:

● Learner-centred instruction
● Target-oriented English learning
● Integrative and creative language use
● Learning grammar in context

English Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide (2007), p. 74

Task-based Teaching and Learning 4
(Stages)
● pre-task stage, when particular language items or structures which learners
will need in performing the task are introduced and practised, often through
the teacher’s direct instruction;
● while-task stage, when practice exercises or activities are provided to
address any problems or difficulties that learners may be having with
particular language forms, which are preventing them from carrying out the
task successfully; and
● post-task stage, when further practice focussing on particular grammar items
or aspects of language which learners did not use effectively during the task
can be covered.

English Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide (2007), p. 74

Recommended Online Training Resource:
http://eTeachers.Online

by The Department of English Language Education, EdUHK

● Access to see “teacher sharing” across a
variety of elearning topics
● “Join” to be notified of new posts and
sharing by teachers
● “Enroll” to login to training videos on the
use of 11 apps organized around 5
different teaching topics
● View the training anytime and work at
your own pace, or take the self-guided
course for CPD (5-12 hours)
The Role of e-Resources in the English Curriculum
Consider the Levels of Student Activity

PICRAT is a useful
framework for planning, as
a way to balance the
considerations of learning
objectives and innovation.
The Role of e-Resources in the English Curriculum
Consider the Levels of Student Activity

PICRAT is a useful
framework for planning, as
a way to balance the
considerations of learning
objectives and innovation.
The Role of e-Resources in the English Curriculum
Consider the Balance of Essential Elements

TPACK is also useful for

planning, as a way to
balance the considerations
of technology, pedagogy
and content knowledge.
 Planning Goal: Choosing Core Apps for
Developing Students’ Language Skills

Language Skills for English Learners

● Listening
● Speaking
● Reading
● Writing

Language Knowledge for English Learners

● Grammar
● Vocabulary

Assessment Skills
● Study Skills
● Test-taking skills
● Recall
 4 “Core Apps”
Which one of these following apps would you like to know more about?

G-suite:
Padlet FLipGRID Pear deck Slides, sheets, docs, forms,
blogger, sites...

For student individual, pair or For activating classroom For teacher-led synchronized For the integration of a
group collaborative sharing, communities around speaking presentations, immediate variety of organization and
text discussion, response, and listening skills feedback, collaboration, etc. presentation tools that
rating, etc. interact smoothly.
 Padlet.com
What is it?
A collaborative platform for
teachers and students to easily
share and interact with each
others ideas, answers,
documents, replies and much
more.

Pros:
Feature-rich, with many settings
to adjust format of padlet, user
permissions, posting
preferences, rating options,
design and more.
User- friendly
Reliable for Mainland students.

Cons:
Limited to three padlet with free
version per username.
Unlock all features and
unlimited padlets with
subscription
Padlet.com
Sample Padlet:

In this padlet, I
invited a class of
BEd students to
introduce and
share e-Books
that they made on
Book Creator.

Members of each
group would read
and comment on
the features of
their group mates
e-Books.
 Our Padlet: Nothing gold can stay
Activity:
For our sharing
padlets, please
share your
response to the
Robert Frost poem
“Nothing Gold Can
Stay”.
Learn more…
Padlet.com

There are several

introductory videos on
Padlet’s website to get
you started.

We have also made a

short step-by-step
guide to getting
started.
 Peardeck.com
What is it?
A presentation plug-in used with
Google Slide or PowerPoint online to
allow teachers to direct slides and add
interactive questions for checking in,
Q&A, comprehension and feedback.

Pros:
Works with Google Slides.
Reliable feedback for presentation or
records.
Share slides with students.

Cons:
Limited collaborative features.
Access to all features requires
subscription.

Note:
Free Premium access during COVID-19
crisis. Go to:
Pear Deck Sharing:
Write a question you
have about today’s
workshop. Or you may
want to write a
comment… or a an IT
integration objective.
 Learn more…
Peardeck.com

There are several introductory

videos on the Pear Deck
website to get you started:

We have also made a short

step-by-step guide to getting
started:
Part 3 - Achieving Coherence:
Integrating I.T. with Skills and
Content
Life Writing
What is Life Writing?

Life Writing is a genre of writing

that includes a range of text types,
such as diary, memoir and
autobiography. Life writing
focuses on both the skills of
effective storytelling and the
process of meaningful reflection.
Many of the learning objectives
of Short Stories can be
addressed with Life Writing.
 Why ‘Life Writing’?
● Life writing is immediately relevant to all students; their experience,
choices and character are the content of their writing.
● Life writing is adaptable to all ability levels.
● Life writing engages students’ abilities in reflection, critical thinking,
value choices and imagination.
● Like graphic texts, life writing can appeal to the reluctant,
disengaged or struggling reader.
● There are abundant age- and language-appropriate texts for
inspiring themes and the modelling of life writing language.
● Life writing creates a more authentic learning community when
students share and reflect on lived experience.
 Input: Models and Inspiration
● Students can learn about the lives of others from traditional media
(books, articles), videos and online resources. These examples can
inspire thinking skills, observation skills and effective language
skills appropriate for life writing.
 Input: First-Person Narratives
“Humans of New York”
Text, visual and video references
provide students with models of effective
storytelling in 1st-person narratives.
“Humans of New York”, for example,
provides hundreds of examples of portrait
photos with one-paragraph, 1st-person
narratives of diverse people’s ideas and “I’m doing a review of last year. I’m looking at all the goals I set and whether I
managed to achieve them. A big one for me was that I finally managed to get my
driver’s license. It’s a little embarrassing because I’m well past that age, but I’ve
experiences. Students can write a always been terrified of driving. So I signed up for some lessons. I studied hard. I took
extremely meticulous notes. Then I went to the testing center with my driving
one-paragraph “autobiography” based on instructor. They assigned me a real hard faced guy from Eastern Europe. My
instructor told me: ‘This guy fails everyone.’ So I started off pretty nervous. I messed
this model and share it with classmates. up almost immediately and made a rolling stop. I’m pretty sure I stopped completely,
but apparently it was a rolling stop. The test seemed to go on forever. I couldn’t
charm the guy. I tried to make conversation but he was silent the entire time. Then
after we finished, he made me sit outside his office for an eternity. But finally he came
out and told me that I’d passed! It was such a relief! I haven’t driven since.”
 Input: Life is a story
“Drawing My Life”

For language modelling and input,

students can be introduced to the life
stories of famous and interesting people
through a variety of multimedia
resources that include visual, listening
and reading skills. “Drawing My Life”
is a genre of video-based life stories,
with many examples on Youtube.
Output: Writing Real and Imagined Diary Entries
● To practice writing from different perspectives and points-of-view, students
will write diary entries for different people in the first-person.
● For example, students read selected diary entries from The Diary of Anne
Frank
● Students write an entry in Anne’s diary for a later date, in her voice but with
imagined historical and personal experiences.
● Record your own diary entry from a recent memorable day.
 Output: Ten Turning Points Timeline
1. Teacher defines what a “turning point” is in a person’s life and gives several examples
(paradigm shift, critical decision, crisis or success), including some of his or her own.
The common feature is that after each of these events, something in the person’s life
has changed forever (though it may be a big or small change).
2. Look at the timelines of some well known heroes, celebrities, or artists. Decide if the
events in the biography qualify as turning points or not.
3. Students brainstorm a list of 10 experiences they have had from earliest memory until
now that qualify as ‘turning points’.
4. After listing ten turning points, students select and write a short paragraph on 3-4 of
them.
5. One of the turning points is developed into an essay through additional steps of
process writing.
Fan fiction / fanfiction / fanfic
What is Fan fiction?

Fan Fiction is a genre of

story-writing that is based on
characters from popular culture,
written by fans. Characters,
settings, and plot elements may be
borrowed from popular novels, films,
televisions shows, real-life musicians
and other celebrities, even video
games. Fans then write new scenes,
endings or entire stories based on
their imagined alternatives. Many of
the learning objectives of Popular
Culture can be addressed with
Fan fiction.
 Examples of Fan Fiction Scenarios
1. A familiar fairy tale, such as Sleeping Beauty or
Cinderella, needs a modern ending. Write a new
ending to the fairy tale that would be more interesting
to readers in 2018.
2. J.K. Rowling wants to write an eighth book in the Harry
Potter series but needs some ideas. Students write a
story proposal/outline with ideas for an eighth book.
(Voldemort is dead, so introduce a new villain.)
3. Students choose their favourite television series and
write a short description of one of the scenes they
enjoyed. They write a replacement dialogue between
two of the main characters and perform it in class.
4. Your students’ favourite musician/band is performing in
Hong Kong and they and a classmate/friend win
backstage passes to visit him/her/them after the
concert. Write a short-short story describing the
backstage meeting with the musician/band members.
 Why ‘Fan Fiction’?
● Fan Fiction begins with the student’s interest, so it is highly motivating
● Fan Fiction encourages students to become familiar with the source
material through careful reading, research and attention to detail
● Like graphic texts and life writing, fan fiction can appeal to the
reluctant, disengaged or struggling reader.
● There are abundant age and theme appropriate texts for inspiration
and modelling of language.
● Fan Fiction creates a natural audience, a community of readers who
can share, comment, edit or collaborate in creative writing.
Classroom Activity 1: Introducing Fanfiction

● Introduce the idea of fans and fandoms.

● Divide class into groups based on 4-5 types of fanfiction (books,
movies, music, television shows, games).
● Provide each group with a corresponding example of fanfiction.
● Ask each group to: 1) summarize the piece; 2) rate the piece
after a review of what to look for; 3) make suggestions for
improvement; 4) write a helpful review based on a book review.
 Classroom Activity 2: Reimagine the Story

● When reading a class novel or play, encourage critical reading and

multimedia literacy by asking students to re-imagine the story in a
different media. In other words, if it were not a traditional narrative
or play, how could the same story be told in different ways?
● For example, students might choose to tell the story through the
Facebook profiles and status updates of multiple characters;
Instagram posts incorporating text, photos, and video; a WhatsApp
text dialogue between two characters; or a Youtube vlog that permits
authors to speak directly to the audience - and the audience to
respond with comments.
Classroom Activity 3: Create Missing Scenes
● Missing scenes are basically any scene that is not a part of the original
story but would make sense in it (Gutierrez, 2012).
● If your students are reading a novel that leaves some area unexplored,
having students write missing scenes is a good way to help add more to
the story.
● Because of the popularity of missing scenes in other media (such as movie
scenes, television, etc.), this will hopefully be a fun and engaging activity
for your students.
● Take it a step further by getting your students to turn each other's written
missing scene into drama skits or videos to help the original writer
understand how their writing was perceived and understood by others in
the classroom.
Classroom Activity 4: Students as Beta Readers
● “Beta-reader” is the fanfiction term for a proofreader. Beta-readers are an integral part of the
online fanfiction community.
● As a classroom activity, students can become beta-readers for or with each other. Alternatively,
students can post a request for a reviewer for their own work and work with them online
throughout the process of their writing.
● Beta-reading helps writers improve their writing. It also provides an authentic opportunity for
students to learn about providing constructive feedback. This is an important skill in today's
collaboration-driven world.
● Provide students a model of positive and helpful feedback that is appropriate for their age and
ability.
● This Peer Review lesson from
peer feedback: 1) Compliments 2) Suggestions 3) Corrections. While designed for younger
students, the principles are appropriate for secondary students unfamiliar with peer editing.
 Classroom Activity 5: Publishing and Feedback

● Once students have been through the beta-reading process and feel their stories are ready for a
wider audience, they may post their stories in a location where they can be shared with
classmates, schoolmates and/or family and friends.
● Depending on your school's technological resources, classes might create their own internal
sharing on platforms such as a blog, website, e-portfolio or wiki. Feedback can be allowed on
some platforms to allow students to interact with their readers.
● Students can also post the story to a publicly available site like fanfiction.net, Figment, or
Wattpad.
● Once stories have been posted, be sure to keep watch of the feedback coming in from readers.
How much you interact with your readers is up to you, but many fanfiction authors find
discussions with readers can be constructive ways to learn to improve future stories. Some
even edit the posted story based on feedback received.

Note: Fanfiction classroom activities online resource and references.

Integrative Teaching Approaches for Creativity and the New Literacy

New Literacy Correspondence to

Integrating Activity Potential Platforms
Genres LA Electives
Write a fictional short story
● Traditional books
modeled on a short-short story
● Online resources
Writing Your Life ● Short Stories and based on an important
● Blog or Website
real-life experience. Blend with
● WebQuest
a digital platform.

Research a favourite celebrity

● Novels, Biographies,
and include him or her in a
Feature articles
Fan Fiction ● Popular Culture scene (or ending) from a story
● Youtube
such as Harry Potter or Hunger
● Edpuzzle
Games.

Use elements learned from ● Google Drive

graphic novels to create a ● Blog
Graphic Novels storyboard for a dramatic ● Adobe Spark Video
● Drama
performance. Record and edit ● Youtube
it. ● Edpuzzle
 Integrative Teaching Approaches for Language Skills:
Spotlight on eResources

Planning Objective Examples Platforms

● Review portfolio of prior learning to ● Google Drive
To increase students’ language practice,
extend topics; undertake new tasks ● Blog or Site
confidence and fluency:
● Create a final multimedia presentation of ● Edpuzzle
Design language skills activities which learned material ● Youtube
recycle prior learning ● Watch flipped class videos using prior ● Adobe Spark Video
content or language

● Read biography of hero, celebrity or ● Blog or Site

Design grammar-in-context activities
historical figures ● WebQuest/Online resource
with authentic, creative and digital texts
● Write biographical sketch ● Traditional book
● Write digital diary or fanfiction sketch

Design activities with both top-down ● Music video review ● Edpuzzle

and bottom-up language skills ● Movie trailer review ● Youtube
objectives

Design language activities with graphic, ● Read and write graphic novels ● Blog or Site
video, audio and text features ● Video and podcasting ● Adobe Spark Video

Design activities that include a balanced ● Reading autobiographical memoir ● WebQuest/Online resource
focus on language form, meaning and ● Writing personal memoir (e.g. paradigm ● Blog or Site
analysis shift) ● Traditional book
Experience Sharing and Discussion
Recommended References:
Balance with Blended Learning

by Catlin R. Tucker, Corwin Press (2020)

Going Google: Powerful Tools for 21st Century

Learning

by Jared Covili, Corwin Press (2016)

Recommended References:
Blended Learning in Action: a Practical Guide Toward
Sustainable Change

by Catlin R. Tucker, Corwin Press (2017)

The Teacher’s Guide to Media Literacy: Critical thinking in a

multimedia world

by Cindy Scheibe and Faith Robow, Corwin Press (2012)