Teaching+with+YouTube+i

From: "Tech Mentor Network", Marian Thacher Saturday, October 24, 2009 3:48:44 PM Subject: YouTube in the Classroom

The CATESOL Community College list is currently discussing the use of YouTube in the classroom. Here is a list of ways various instructors are using YouTube. Do you have one to add?


 * I teach in an IEP situation. I frequently use Youtube in my classes: 3 or 4 times per week. I use it in a premeditated fashion as part of my lesson plan, but a often (even more often) use it on the spur of the moment.


 * I primarily used it in Listening/Speaking classes. I would look for clips that were related to topics in out texts. Students would watch and listen. They would either have questions they needed to answer or we would just use for group discussion. Also, I used it in my reading class. I would simply look for videos that were relevant to topics we were reading about. Primary purpose was to activate schema as a pre-reading activity.


 * Our librarian is making study guides for classes that focus on a theme/topic that teachers request. His idea is to build a bank of study guides so teachers can just pick and choose what works for them. The current one is on researching information about countries. He has a great You Tube tourism video of Mexico as the affective opener. He plans to incorporate them into all the guildes.


 * I use clips from YouTube as I introduce a new unit (e.g., longevity, ecotourism, philanthropy). Of course, I preview the clips beforehand.


 * I have used YouTube for years as an accessible way to cajole students into finding more resources. I have had students look for pronunciation tips, stress patterns, job interview advice, and informational interviews. I normally have students fill out a simple homework form, write a short one paragraph review, and share their findings with their classmates in small groups of four. As time goes on, more carefully filtered sites are emerging that many educators will feel more suitable for students. I still, however, believe asking students to go to a popular website for homework provides some educational advantages.


 * am planning on using You Tube for an upcoming mini-teaching presentation. I will be showing an example of a personal oral story and adapting the lesson with artifacts and storyboards. In this age of technology, in which most students are immersed in it and typically find the content engaging, it would be a shame not to add it to our repertoire of authentic teaching materials.


 * I use it to pull up songs for grammatical points I want to teach (even silly folk songs such as "She'll be coming round the mountain" for future progressive) or "I just called to say I love you" for infinitive of purpose. The great thing is that you no longer have to hunt for the CD or tape. It's all there. You can also find Sid Caesar clips (one which I used in a presentation on gerunds, infinitives, verbs of perception: I saw a man doing....).


 * I use You Tube, but certainly have to prescreen and sensor a bit. I prefer using short videos from websites like the NY Times. They provide great jumping off points for classroom discussions of timely issues.


 * I use You tube in typically lower-level listening and some reading classes. These classes are credit classes at a community college. I use it, essentially, to make a point or give examples. Recently, students had to do in-class presentations, and there are You Tube examples that show people giving poor ones in an exaggerated way. Students laughed and got the point. It relaxed them somewhat for their assignment. In reading class, we recently had an article on Gender and communication. You Tube has examples of interviews with children about men/women. It's funny and interesting to see they have such rigid ideas about gender at such early ages (5 and 6). Sometimes I use it just to break up the class a bit and insert something humorous and find it a useful adjunct to some class activities.


 * I use youtube, usually every other week in some capacity. I use it for film clips as well as interviews of authors I'm teaching. I teach in a Writing Studies Dept. at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Youtube is basically banned everywhere in the UAE except at my university. My students wouldn't have the opportunity to see these authentic sources outside the university.


 * For me, the YouTube videos always seem to lead to something larger--discussion, related articles or other reading, and, ultimately, writing. But I think they can also be quite useful for warmers or just to make students laugh (which is a kind of warmer in itself, isn't it?) or to make students think. I like using YouTube because it means that I can access a famous clip from a classic movie (think Brando's "I coulda been a contendah!") or topical events or different cultural perspectives. Yes, the quality varies, but the possibilities seem endless to me.


 * I never thought I would, but yes, I do. I do songs to illustrate grammar points (e.g. "I"m gonna wash that man right out of my hair" for future using "going to.") Also for current events like the Obama innaguration." It is usually spontaneous.


 * Today I used it while teaching an EL Civics Citizenship lesson on ournational anthem. We watched Whitney Houston sing "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl immediately following 9/11. Today's lesson also discussed the use of our flag during parades. We viewed clips of the Rose Parade on New Year's Day in Pasadena, close to California and discussed vocabulary and culture.


 * I show videos on tornados and hurricanes when teaching the weather. We also watch the northern lights in Alaska when reading about them.


 * On or near Martin Luther King Day we watch clips of his speeches and see historical videos of the bus boycott and Rosa Parks.


 * Another EL Civics lesson was on dealing with landlords and writing a letter to a landlord. I played Jerry Springer's "The Landlord" video and had the students take notes of the problems the tenant was having. We discussed rental laws and what was legal in the video and illegal. We practiced writing a letter of complaint to the landlord in the video about various problems the tenant was having.


 * Mr. Bean Makes a Sandwich is fun to show when teaching Adverbs of Sequence. The students watch, take notes, and then retell the sequence using the adverbs previously taught.


 * Last semester I recorded my ESL students' presentations and posted them on You Tube. This semester I've decided to post class presentation clips on a facebook account that gives the students more privacy.