d. Developing Your Own Knowledge of the Resources

Having made decisions about using some of the resources and opportunities in tandem, it is important for the teacher in the case study to get to know the resources well enough to feel confident about using them in the classroom. It is also important that the pupils will feel comfortable about using the resources.

We can focus on this with an exercise that requires that you get to know a bit more about searching and retrieving material from a CD-ROM or the web. First, try the following two search methods using the web:

www.yahoo.de

www.yahoo.co.uk

  • Go to the Yahoo German search engine, and type in only the phrase "Deutschen Grammatik". Take a note of how many hits you get from the search, and look at them to see how relevant they are.
  • Then, go to the Yahoo UK search engine and repeat the search, this time typing in "German Grammar". Note again the number of hits and their level of relevance.

Take a look at the results of your search, and visit as many of the sites as you like. Make a note of the good and bad point of the sites, and consider how they may help the learners.

Then answer the following questions - just to give you some focus to begin with:

  1. When you went on the German site, what happened to your search results?
  2. What was the difference when you went on the British search engine?
  3. How would you describe the sites you discovered during the second search?
  4. Do you know how to copy segments from the web or the CD for insertion in your own worksheets and resources? If you do, are you aware of the copyright laws governing this action?

When you have looked at the web in the light of these questions, and perhaps written some worksheets of your own to go with web, you should discuss with your mentor what you want to do with the resource in the classroom. This can be done in a mentor visit, over the telephone or by e-mail, and should serve merely to satisfy you that you are on the right track with your use of the materials.

e. Planning the Work of Learners