Using Moodle to Teach Writing Skills and ESL Teacher Training Content Public Class

About the Class

Using Moodle to Teach Writing Skills and ESL Teacher Training Content and in the Same Course with Dr. Christel Broady

Many graduate students enter their programs with mediocre academic writing skills. Further, they are often unable to correctly comprehend instructions and rubrics that are provided to them to guide them in their work. As a matter of fact, many graduate students have trouble following written instructions and using APA style. In online environments the lack of language skill can have grave consequences for the progress of enrolled students.

This is particularly troubling if observed in those candidates who are seeking to teach proper academic English to ESL (students with home languages other than English in their homes) students in the United States. However, even with low writing skills, the rigor of content preparation makes it impossible to require additional graduate coursework in writing development. Thus, writing MUST be part of any teacher preparation course taught face to face or online.


In this presentation, participants will learn how writing skills can successfully be scaffolded and built into an existing content ESL content course without compromising the integrity of content delivery. The presenter will share one model of a three credit hour ESL course, ESL Assessment, in which writing has been built into every weekly activity so that the final paper/project will be generated with much higher quality than in courses where writing is not guided throughout the course. The writing process and feedback to students will be presented along with student evaluations and feedback about how they felt about the process.

Language of instruction: English

Keywords: moodle, mmvc11, language learning