TOEFL iBT Class Project

Dear all,

I am proud to announce a new edition of our TOEFL iBT Class Project!

Following the iBT integrated skills format, the project consists of oral presentations on an academic topic that belongs to your own fields of study, complemented by written summaries that will be complied on our class wiki for future reference.

The TOEFL iBT Wiki is an ongoing construction that represents our shared body of knowledge, our interests and our learning paths.

This year the first presentation will be delivered by Mariana next Wednesday (before her trip to the USA) on In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).

Can't wait to get started!

Cheers, Carla

Class Project

What is the difference between a group of students and a community of learners?

"In a community of learners, teachers and students together construct a culture that values the strengths of all participants and respects their interests, abilities, languages, and dialects. Students and teachers shift among the roles of expert, researcher, learner, and teacher, supporting themselves and each other." Aída Walqui, West Ed, San Francisco, California

I think one of the strengths of our class is the possibility of learning form each other's knowledge and experience. Although this is exactly what we've been doing since the very first day, the aim of the present project is to create a collection of mini-lectures on specific academic topics related to your fields of study and close to your hearts. Topics that matter.

The start couldn't have been more powerful. Delivered with great clarity, passion and commitment, Maxi's presentation aroused great interest on a topic that is both too important and too painful to be forgotten.

Remember you can read a summary of his presentation on the wiki and you can also give your feedback or ask more questions there. Each presentation will then contribute to a kind of TOEFL iBT wikipedia we are building together.

I look forward to the rest of the presentations!

Welcome to Cyber TOEFL Prep

Nowadays, with such a wide array of online communication and collaboration tools available, there’s no excuse to stop learning, working and sharing during a long holiday week, right? So, here I am, ready to go beyond the walls of the classroom with you once again.

First, there’s a site called Exam English which has free online exercises for the most important ESL/EFL exams. Nik Peachey , a British learning technology consultant I met in Córdoba, has prepared a reading passage for the TOEFL iBT .
You can try it out here.

Wiki News
Vanina has sent us a link to a funny video, so I’ve added a new wiki page to share videos related to language learning or any other relevant topics. I’ve also made some changes in the Vocabulary Page. Each vocabulary item is a link to a new page, so in order to read the definitions you have to click on each word. In this way the vocabulary “home” page will feature a glossary of the available words and other relevant vocabulary resources such as concordancers and exercises.

As you can see, you have plenty of possibilties to work throughout the week. Choose your own TOEFL iBT adventure!

How do you feel about having a class wiki?

I'm sure all of you have heard about Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia anybody can edit.

A wiki is then a fully-editable user-generated website that allows a group of people to share and build knowledge collaboratively. For example, I'm sure each of you keeps a record of new vocabulary. What would happen if every student added a word to a common vocabulary page on a daily basis? We would soon have a huge resource of relevant vocabulary. The same would happen with writing tasks and extra reading resources.

Anyway, this is just a suggestion. You can visit our baby wiki at www.toeflibtprep.pbwiki.com . I just started it today, so I could only add a couple of pages. Once in the wiki, click on the sidebar on the right to see the pages. Also, the default home page features two videos: one on how to edit a wiki and the other on the use of wikis in education. Have a look!

I'll send you the password by mail just in case you want to give it a try.