Seasons

Hypermedia Presentation

for English Language Learners

Michele Ackerman

GeorgeMasonUniversity

EDCI 519: Dr. Haley

Midterm – Option B

Discovering Seasons using Hypermedia

Student Population: This hypermedia project, entitled Seasons,was designed for middle schoolEnglish Language Learners (ELLs) to provide an interactive approach for content-based language learning. This student population is a diverse group of learners from various cultures and backgrounds who need meaningfulreal-world learning activities to which they can make personal connections. They also need a variety of activities that reflect the multiple learning styles and intelligences of a diverse group of learnerswithdifferent language proficiency levels.

Content Areas: English language and American culture (holiday traditions, seasonal sports and activities, etc.);Earth science(Virginia/ Northeast climateand weather)

Project Overview:

This hypermedia project was designed to provide ELLs with a fun, alternative, and multimediaapproach to using English to communicate and achieve academically in content areas related to science, nature, and American culture and traditions. Either collectively as a class, interactively in groups, or individually, students can explore various slides and Internet hyperlinks related to the following aspects of each season: calendar months, weather, activities, and holidays. The hypermedia presentationis full of visual images to complement English words, phrases, and sentences to help make input comprehensible and to help students make personal connections. It also provides opportunities and potential for a variety of extension activities, which would allow for differentiated instruction of ELLs with different levels of English language proficiency.

The hypermedia allowsthe students to take a self-guided tour of the PowerPoint presentation. They are able to direct their own learning by selecting which slides and Internet hyperlinks they want to visit. It was designed to be visually and aurally stimulating and also provide students with additional Internet resources for gathering more information on related topicson the World Wide Web. Starting with a site map listing the four seasons, students can click on each season name to explore various slides with information and images related to that season. Students can then click on available hyperlinks within each slide, which will either take them to a website, display a word or phrase related to a particular image, or play a sound or song related to a particular image. Finally, the design of this hypermedia would enable teachers to continually add additional hyperlinks and/ or slides to this presentation to provide more web-based learning opportunities for students and other various multimedia inputs.

Multiple Intelligences: This hypermedia presentation attempts to accommodate visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners through activities that are geared towards the different multiple intelligences (Gardner):

  • Intrapersonal/ Introspective: Students can explore hypermediaindependently.
  • Interpersonal/ Social: Hypermedia can be explored as a class or in pairs/ groups. Students can share their personal connections with topics in the hypermedia, such as their own holiday traditions, what the weather and seasons are like in their home countries, etc.
  • Logical/ Mathematical: Hypermedia follows a parallel model for each of the 4 seasons.
  • Verbal/ Linguistic:vocabulary and sentence construction; written text in web hyperlinks
  • Bodily/ Kinesthetic:mouse clicking (if hypermedia is independently controlled by students)
  • Visual/ Spatial:large variety of photographic images and clip art in the hypermedia
  • Musical/ Rhythmic:sounds incorporated into the hypermedia
  • Naturalist:hypermedia content related to weather and the seasons

TESOL National Standards: The learning activities surrounding this hypermedia presentation address the following Standards at the National level.

Goal 1: Standards 1, 2, 3

Goal 2: Standards 1, 2,3

Guide to Hypermedia Exploration

Note: This written guide is intended for instructor use only. If students are navigating the hypermedia themselves, the instructor should provide oral instructions whileactually demonstratinghow to use it. Students with an advanced level of English language proficiency may be able to use the printed guide as well.

Follow the stepsbelow to exploreSeasons!

  1. Launch the hypermedia file by double-clicking on the file name, which ends in .ppt. (Note: The exact name and location of the file will be provided).
  2. Once the file has launched in Microsoft PowerPoint, press the F5 key to begin viewing the slide show.
  3. This is a hypermedia presentation. That means you now have control to go anywhere you want! Use the mouse to navigate throughout the entire presentation. Do not use the keypad! Using the keypad does not allow you to navigate where you want to go.
  4. Some slides in the hypermedia contain one or morehyperlinks to a website on the Internet that you can access for additional information on a topic and/ or related activities. (NOTE: You must have an existing connection to the Internet to access a hyperlink!)
  5. You can tell if a word or image on the slide contains a hyperlink by hovering your mouse over the image. If there is a hyperlink, the cursor will turn into a hand with a pointing finger. If the hyperlink is for a web site on the Internet, the URL (address) of the website should also appear when hovering over the image. If no URL appears, the hyperlink will either take you to a different slide in the presentation or cause an action to occur within that slide (e.g. see #7).
  6. If the hyperlink is for an Internet site, clicking on the word/ image that contains the hyperlink (single left click) will cause the web page to automatically appear in a new window. However, the hypermedia presentation will remain open.
  7. Use a single left click on the mouse to move past the title slide.
  8. When you reach the second slide, you will find a Site Map of the four seasons. You can click on any of the Seasons listed to explore additional slides about that season. As you navigate through the hypermedia, you will always be able to get back to where you started by clicking on the icons located in the upper left-hand corner of each slide.
  9. If the icon looks like a small house, clicking on it will take you back to the main Site Map where you can choose which season you want to explore.
  10. If the icon looks like a U-turn arrow, clicking on it will take you back to the previous page in the hypermedia.
  11. Clicking on images (single left click) within a slide may cause vocabulary words to appear (or disappear) or sounds to play. Explore!
  12. Once you have finished, you can exit the slide show by pressing the Escape (Esc) key.

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