Ms Sun creates and uploads all her teaching and learning resources to the moodle. She taps on a wide range of modules offered in the platform to facilitate different learning activities. The write-up highlights three of the modules (resource, discussion forum and Wiki) that have been employed in to enhance language learning.


Resources

One of the means to liven the lesson is to go beyond the prescribed text and bring the world into the classroom.

With this in mind, Ms Sun used the moodle as a one-point access to a wide range of resources pertaining to the reading text. Pupils not only found learning to be more interesting and meaningful, they appreciated the lessons better, too.

Figure 1. A screen capture show the resources pertaining to reading text

Discussion Forum… beyond chat and discussion

Recognising that the discussion forum provides a convenient platform to facilitate mass discussion and to capture ideas in an organised manner, Ms Sun used it to facilitate pre-writing activities such as brainstorming.

During a composition writing lesson in which pupils wrote to promote a place of interest that illustrates the multicultural element in Singapore, Ms Sun started a discussion in the discussion forum by inviting pupils to describe places of interest that they know of, and to elicit their prior knowledge of places of interest in the country. By reading through contributions by peers, pupils learnt useful adjectives that they can use when writing their compositions as well as information about the various places of interest. This collective contribution also raised pupils’ awareness of places that they had little knowledge of. From the list generated by pupils, Ms Sun next prompted pupils to draw out the distinct characteristics that they would look out for a place that brings out the multicultural features of Singapore. With this end in mind, pupils worked in groups to carry out research on the assigned place and share their findings in the discussion forum. Armed with more information and a richer vocabulary, pupils started their composition writing.

Figure 2. A screen capture of the discussion forum

Apart for composition writing, Ms Sun also used the discussion forum to engage pupils to think about and discuss current issues among the peers. It provided them with an avenue to air their views, to hear and respect the perspectives of others.

Wiki… for collective and collaborative learning

Wiki, an open tool that allows simultaneous multiple editing is incorporated into the moodle to facilitate collective and collaborative learning.

Tapping on the flexibility of Wiki, Ms Sun used cooperative learning to introduce new passages. Deviating from the usual way of reading through a passage and picking out new phrases or words for learning, Ms Sun got pupils to take charge of what they want to learn. Pupils, in groups, were assigned to look into selected paragraphs of a passage. They were tasked to identify words and idioms that they were unfamiliar with, find out the pronunciation and the meaning of the words. To demonstrate their understanding, they made a sentence to illustrate the meaning of the words/idioms and summarised the paragraphs assigned.

Figure 3. A screen capture of the passage

On completion, pupils went through the entire passage to get a full picture of the story.

Pupils, in their respective groups, were encouraged to post questions to find out more or seek clarifications. This provided the groups with opportunities to engage in more in-depth discussions.

By observing the interaction and exchange of information among the pupils, Ms Sun assessed if pupils had understood the text and intervened when necessary.

Besides using Wiki for passage learning, Ms Sun also used the platform to engage pupils in collaborative writing. Given the topic, pupils took turns to develop a story. Pupils were given the autonomy to decide on the storyline. They then built on the paragraphs composed by their peers by editing these paragraphs and developing the story. In the process, pupils also had the opportunity to evaluate and refine the work of their peers.

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