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Website
of Sharon Kirby |
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Website Review of ¡Ven
Conmigo! |
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Computers in the Classroom Judy Arzt, Ph.D., Saint Joseph College, CT
Website
Evaluation Form
Website Title: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston Producer of the Website: Sam Dudgeon, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston Internet Address and Phone Number: http://go.hrw.com/gopages/wl-sp.html (512) 721-7000 Grade Levels: Grades 6-12 Subject Areas: World Languages (Spanish, French, and German) Reviewed by: Sharon Kirby, Spanish Teacher
The website was created by the publisher Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. The main purpose of this website is to be an ancillary to the textbook series used at my school. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston publish a variety of textbook series for German, French, and Spanish. Within each language option, there are different textbooks and levels for students to chose from. The website can be used by anyone; however, it will only be useful to those students who use the textbook in their school. I will focus my review only on the textbook used at my school, ¡Ven Conmigo! Once a student selects the textbook and a level, the website will offer students the opportunity to practice the vocabulary and grammatical components of all the chapters from the textbook. The textbook series ¡Ven Conmigo! also has a country of study for every other chapter in order to incorporate a cultural aspect to students’ learning. The countries that are covered in the website come from the textbook. Once a country link has been chosen, there are hyperlinks to other websites to further the knowledge of the country being studied. A student can learn a variety of cultural information about the country such as history, arts, current event articles, and authentic realia materials. Each chapter includes an activity for students to complete and can practice the material. Students have the options of working on the expressions, vocabulary, or grammar components from the chapter. When practicing with each activity, the website will correct students’ work as they complete each activity. The students can also take a self-test as a review for a final assessment of each chapter.
All the information in the activities that are available for students in the website are accurate. The directions for the activities in the website are in English, which would allow students who are weak in the Spanish language to complete the activities without misunderstanding the directions. In the country links, the students will find that some of the hyperlinks are to Spanish-language-only websites. The Spanish-only sites would be very difficult for students with limited Spanish language skills to read and would not be helpful for them. Students who are in lower Spanish language levels would most likely be overwhelmed with the articles provided because they would be too advanced. The hyperlinked websites are accurate in the information they provide students about the country being studied.
The organization of the website is very direct. The website is organized by chapter and country order that is followed in the textbook. The country hyperlinks are not always working because the website does not seem to be updated on a regular basis. Therefore, many of the websites have been removed from the Internet, creating uncertainty about whether or not the hyperlink will work. The overall layout of the website, however, is simple and easy to use. Each chapter uses the same colors and labels from the textbooks. The various sections of information are labeled consistently on the website and in the textbook. The website allows the material from the textbook to be accessible anywhere, allowing the student the opportunity to interact with the material from the textbook. A technical problem I observed within the website is that once the user advance within a particular chapter review, there is no access to the main page where all the other chapters are located. The website makes it difficult to maneuver within the different links.
The activities within each chapter are limited due to technology. The activities are mostly multiple choice and do not challenge the students to create authentic language. Once a student completes an activity in the self-test, a summary printout can be requested from the website. The printout shares the number of correct answers, but it does not give feedback on the wrong answers which would be helpful. In the cultural component, the website does provide multimedia. The hyperlinks will allow students to go into websites that are for native Spanish speakers and provide authentic Spanish language material. The hyperlinks do not bring students to websites that were created for educational purposes. The websites are not interactive and only allow students to view further information about the culture they are studying.
I believe that the website is constraining. The limited choices within each activity to produce authentic language are not constructive. The students are able to choose which activities to complete. However, the activities are not as challenging as the textbook assessments. In my opinion, the activities do not prepare students well for assessments and/or creating an authentic product in the Spanish language. The activities are very straightforward and mostly ask students to fill in the blank with provided vocabulary or conjugated verbs. The cultural component of the website for each textbook level does provide more multimedia. The multimedia could be used to do further research on a particular country. The hyperlinks can bring students to authentic realia material for them to interact with.
The teacher can have a limited role in the use of this website with students, if students are only using the chapter review activities. In an independent classroom setting, students would need no help in order to complete the activities provided by the website. The students would need to be monitored throughout the activity time because it would be very easy for students to use the Internet rather than staying on task. I do not believe that the website would need more than a half hour for each chapter review. The cultural component of the website would need more involvement from the teacher because it is a lot of information and students would need to be focused on a particular topic. The best way to use the cultural component of the website would be to create a web-quest, a guiding website worksheet, for students. The web-quest would allow students to chose the specific questions from the worksheet they could answer creating more flexibility for them. Also, the web-quest would be an opportune time for the teacher to check all the hyperlinks because some do not work.
The website can be used as a review method for students prior to any assessment. The website would be more useful for students as an individual activity rather than in a group setting. The website would better benefit students if they worked independently at their own computer stations. The website is limited in the number of reviews provided for students. However, the website can be a great tool for students to explore the cultural aspect of the different countries that are covered within each textbook. The information about the different countries could be used as a springboard for a project. The students would be able to focus on a particular cultural aspect from a particular country and present to the class. It could be a formative assessment for students to demonstrate understanding of the culture being studied
The website overall is helpful
for students to have a basic understanding about what each chapter deals with.
It allows students to practice learned material from the classroom at home in
an interactive format where the student is being corrected in their mistakes.
The website provides limited graphics and options and would not be helpful for
students in the higher levels. The website is comprehensive, but the activities are not as
interactive as I would like them to be. Foreign language is based on four
language strategies: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The website
only utilizes
The website is a satisfactory tool for students who are utilizing the Holt, Rinehart, and Winston textbook series. It provides easy-to-access ancillaries to the material for each chapter, but at somewhat too easy for students. The website gives students the opportunity to view further information about the countries that are focused on in the textbook, but many of the hyperlinks do not function properly. Students can explore more about the cultures through their history, music, arts, and daily lifestyles. The usability of the website is foremost for those students who have the particular textbook. The variety of activities for students to practice the material is limited for each chapter and only the grammatical and vocabulary components are the foci for each chapter review.
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©
S. Kirby | Last reviewed April 23, 2008 |
e-mail: skirby@sjc.edu |
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