Lesson/Review 4: Creating Online Exercises - Hot Potatoes, Puzzlemaker and other exercise makers

Lesson for students: Countable and uncountable nouns

You recently learned that countable nouns are individual objects, people, places, etc. which can be counted.
Examples: books, tables, pictures, men, stations, etc.
A countable noun can be both singular - a friend, a house, etc., or plural - a few apples, lots of trees, etc.
Uncountable nouns are concepts, material, or information which are not objects and cannot be counted.
Examples: information, water, understanding, wood, cheese, etc.
Uncountable nouns are always singular. Use the singular form of the verb with uncountable nouns.
Examples: There is some water in the pitcher
That is the equipment we use for the project.
This is an activity where you will need to work online and determine the proper noun countable or uncountable and choose the best answer from the choices provided.
Click on the link below and press 'start' to begin the exercise. Note that you will have the option of sound:
http://a4esl.org/q/f/x/xz37mpk.htm



If you have new words you need to look up, press the link below to find a dictionary. Type the word and it will give you the defnition:


http://www.merriam-webster.com/






Students: Adult students who are Hispanic and Asian in intermediate English level class.

Lesson: 30 minutes in the computer lab

Classroom environment: This activity will be done in our computer lab as an exercise in order to practice our lesson on countable and uncountable nouns.



How will I use this resource to meet the needs of my instuctional purposes?

This activity is an excellent practice on what they already learned in the previous lesson about countable and uncountable nouns. This online activity is directly related to the inroduced lesson which can demonstrate their understanding of the newly introduced concepts.



Why is this topic, information or concept appropriate for the leson you plan to create (e.g. level of authenticity, relevance to target language, register, interest level, and motiation)?

I believe that this activity is directly related to the new concept of counable and uncountable nouns. It is an alternative approach of practice compared to the traditional worksheets handed to the students in the classroom. In addition, this online exercise will provide my student with the results of their choices immediately and it definetely require less preparation for me except for the hand outs I will provide to them.



What handouts or directions will you provide students to focus learning and adapt this resource for you instructional purposes?

I will provide them with some handouts that will include the steps to start and navigate within this online activity. I will also provide them with a handout of the exercise questions to take home as well as a list of some potential unkown words.



What are the potential problems, either language based or technical, that you may need to troubleshoot or prepare for?

I always want to anticipate the potential problems, so as far as the technical aspect of the exercise I will provide them with a handout to navigate through the activity and I will demonstrate how to do so.

I also think they might have difficulty with some of the words in the exercise so the handout will have some of the possible uknown words and their definitions. In addition, I will create a link to the blog of a dictionary which they can go to in order to find any new words they might have.