Level: Community College/ Intensive English Program

1) Always try out every website just a day or two before you give the address to your students. Try it on all ISPs (internet service providers) available to your students, e.g. Internet Explorer and Netscape.

2) Students need to write their own descriptions of their home towns or cities. Tell them that this is a rough draft. They will add more information later and rewrite them.

3) If you are taking your class to a computer lab, go over the general directions and introduction BEFORE leaving the classroom. Students are used to listening in the classroom. They are automatically distracted in the computer lab.

You need one Internet accessible computer for each student (lab situation).

Level: Low Beginning and higher

Before having students use the computer, ask for clear instructions about how to get online. Usually one of your students knows and can practice giving directions. Repeat the directions 2-3 times. Students will need to know how to "click" on the mouse and how to move the cursor to the correct desktop icon.

"Today you will be getting on the computers in the lab to find out more information about your hometown from the internet."

"Who has been on a computer and on the internet before? At school? At home?"

"Who has never worked on a computer before?" (Pair students up with those students who have some experience so that they sit next to each other.)

Ask the students to list (depending on level) what items they could include in their descriptions. Write the list on the board. You may need to direct this a bit …include weather, entertainment, sightseeing places, etc. but don’t make the list too long. The lower the level, the shorter the list.

Write out the website address: www.encyclopedia.com on the board for them to copy. (You may need to write this again on the board in the lab…depending on the level.)

"Okay, let’s go to the lab."

1. Have each student sit at a computer.

2. Show students a mouse. Show how to hold the mouse and how to click the mouse.

3. Ask a student to give clear, slow directions on how to get online.

4. Model the instructions from a projected computer image (instructor’s computer) if possible. Repeat the procedure orally and visually 2-3 times.

5. Ask the students to type in the URL ---write it again on the board.

6. Then, the students type in their own hometown or city.

NB: If you have a Beginning level class, try having the whole class find out about the town where your school is located first. When they are comfortable, they can begin their own research.

7. Find out about the weather first. "When is it the best time of year to visit your hometown? What is the average temperature then?"

8. Students continue on their own. Teacher circulates. Students help each other. Teacher encourages cooperation and assistance.

9. Encourage students to take notes only.

10. Back in the classroom, students write out sentences using their notes. Then, they work on rewriting their descriptions.

11. Students are encouraged to add postcards and photos of their hometowns.

Students prepare their papers. Before handing them in, they exchange papers and look for simple errors (S/V agreement, spelling, capitalization, indentation, etc.) in their partner’s paper. They discuss and correct.

The teacher reviews the papers and asks all or some of the students to give short oral presentations of their papers.

The papers can be posted in the classroom or placed in a three-ring binder to pass around.

The next step would be to ask students to write another short paper using the same website (or similar site) to find information to expand their papers. New topic examples include native country, famous people, the strangest place in the world, the best location for a new Survivor TV show to be filmed at.