This website offers free online lessons for practicing grammar skills in several modules of instruction. The website also offers several resources for homeschooling, classroom teachers, and school districts. However, the instructional aspect comes in with the Free Online Grammar Lessons.
The following is the WBI Rubric with my scoring.
Instructional Aspects
- Objectives clearly stated: 5
- Objectives appropriately sequenced: 5
- Instructional strategies appropriate for the objectives: 5
- Instructional activities / process clearly described: 5
- Tasks adequate/significant for achieving objectives: 5
- Resources adequate/significant for achieving objectives: 4
- Learning achievement adequately evaluated: 4
- Evaluation criteria clearly expressed: 5
- Gaining and maintaining learners' attention: 3
- Relating to learners' interest and goals: 4
- Building on learners' prior knowledge and foreshadowing what lesson is about: 5
- Providing positive feedback and feeling of accomplishment: 2
- Motivational strategies serve for objectives: 3
- Navigation clear and easy to access: 3
- Authorship and date clearly stated: 5
- Text follows rules of grammar, spelling and literary composition: 5
- Using of multimedia visually appealing: 1
- Mechanical aspects: 5
- Web design appropriate for objectives: 3
- Web design appropriate for learner characteristics: 3
Personal Reflection
The lower scores on the rubric indicate the lack of visually appealing aspects. While the instructional aspects are well-conceived, there just is not very much in the way of motivating the learner or making the instructional modules appealing to look at. I do like the idea of the website, as I used to use it in my classroom as a whole-class review of grammar concepts. But, overall, it is not particularly exciting. The problem here lies in the fact that grammar, in itself, is generally a boring topic. So, creating instructional modules that do nothing to enhance the dull content really does not create interest.
While this is meant to be self-paced and self-correcting, I thought that perhaps more accountability in the evaluation might be helpful in achieving the objectives, as it is very easy to "cheat" your way through the modules and not necessarily learn anything. A student would have to be very self-motivated to really learn independently, which is why I used this as a whole-class lesson. The pretests and posttests are relevant, although, they do not climb the ladder of Bloom's taxonomy with application and evaluation. This website is overall helpful for general skill-building, with the support of an instructor.
In thinking about the application to my own web-based instructional design, I will make sure to add easy navigation and motivation appropriate to the learners. I will try to maintain a "clean" look so that the user is not distracted by unnecessary information and stimuli. While I will have an adult audience for my WBI project, I think the same principles apply. Even adults want to participate in something that is interesting and motivating, instead of boring and almost forgettable!
Yes, I agree with you they have good content; however, a bit dull for teaching a dull subject... I guess it will have to be used as a mandatory and whole-class activity to "motivate" students.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I found it not true that they said their lessons are ad-free. There are plenty of ads there, even can distract me as an adult... :-)
I have two students who are very low functioning in my class, who do not like to participate when do certain group work. They could utilize the site during the times they are not participating in the group work. Their IEPs call for 1 - 2 step instructions. This website is simple enough for them to understand, but I would need to monitor closely to see if learning is taking place.
DeleteThat's a good idea, June. I think that it may be very helpful for ESL learners or special education students. Since they can print the quiz results, that also would be a good way to document their progress. However, I would think there would need to be a follow-up assessment to see about the actual learning, as you said.
DeleteThe ads take up a large part of the screen. I worry about what ads might pop up while trying to share this resource with kids.I am going to look at it some more though. We just did a district-wide grammar pre-test and it is obvious we will need to reteach some basics before moving on the skills we are supposed to be teaching this year.
ReplyDeleteA grammar practice my students have enjoyed is http://www.madglibs.com/
It isn't fancy and it doesn't teach the terms. It is like Mad Libs. You can print the silly stories out or fill in the blanks using your computer (works on SMART Board too).
Also FunBrain.com has a simple Grammar Gorillas game. http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/
These are both free too, but not as complex as resource you provided.
This was a very timely suggestion for me. Thank you for bringing it to my attention!
I agree that there was little to motivate students on this site. It's not visually appealing and, as stated in previous comments, the ads are very distracting. In this age of gaming education sites like this probably won't last much longer.
ReplyDeleteOne site that I've used before is Grammar Ninja. http://www.kwarp.com/portfolio/grammarninja.html
It uses audio and visual elements to keep students' attention and keep them motivated.
I am going to check out the Grammar Ninja site...that sounds fun!
DeleteI feel that the website can serve a purposes, but the ads are totally ridiculous. For that reason alone, I would not be inclined to use the site.
DeleteAnother issue I had when I went back to the site is that the navigation isn't very intuitive. Anna, I noticed you rated the site a three for navigation and I agree. Even the most basic of navigation features that can be found on almost any website aren't included on this site, such as: once you navigate away from the home page the logo on the top left of the page isn't hyperlinked back to the home page. This is a big no-no. You always want that logo to take you home. I know that there's a link under the logo that says English Grammar 101 Home, but that logo should still take you back to the home page.
ReplyDeleteI probably did not rate the navigation elements low enough. I find that I have a difficult time finding the Next button or other features for getting to the next screen. Since I have never actually had students use this on their own, I was looking at it from more of a teacher's perspective. But students would certainly have a difficult time negotiating the site.
DeleteWhile I only looked at a handful of the lessons, the learning objectives are clearly stated in each. The ads are slightly intrusive, but I think most students have become desensitized to online advertizing and tend to pay little attention to it. If I were teaching English, I could see using this site to introduce grammar topics, provide examples, and for use in whole-group questioning via a SMART Board. The site's lessons could also be linked to a class web page to keep students and their families abreast to current and future grammar mini-lessons.
ReplyDeleteI also think the advertising is a bit distracting, but may not be a big deal to others. I think it is an interesting way to teach grammar, but I do have to agree with other commentors when they say that it does not really grab the user's attention. On a positive note, I do think that the objectives are clearly stated and the lessons build on each other well.
ReplyDeleteI did think the site was a bit dull as well. Even the color scheme didn't really pop. Very monotone and not a lot of incentive to complete the exercises.
ReplyDelete