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April 1, 1999
A Monster E-Mail Exchange Project
by Karen Eini
I teach English as a foreign language in Israel to students in Grades 6 through 9. I'm always looking for new and exciting ways to enable my students to use the English they're learning in the classroom. Fortunately, I recently found the Monster E-Mail Exchange, a collaborative Internet project, to help my seventh-grade students participate in an authentic language activity.
The Monster Project's goal is to develop children's' writing skills so that they can communicate what a drawing of a student-created monster looks like. In other words, they use only words-that is, a detailed written description. Students from cooperating schools read the descriptions they receive by e-mail and work to duplicate the original drawing. All students who participate in the project get to experience both roles: to be the creator of an original monster drawing and description, and to be the re-creator of the monster from a partner's written description. At the end of the project, both the original and duplicate drawings are digitized and published on the web in the Mind's Eye Monster Galleries so that participants can see the drawings that were produced from the descriptions and compare and evaluate their work.
The monster project has an element of cooperation and success in its design.. Each student in the project wants his or her partner to draw the monster so that it matches the original as much as possible. Thus, each writer is motivated to write an accurate description to help the reader "see" or envision the monster. The descriptions expose students who speak English as a foreign language (EFL) to vocabulary that they have mostly learned through formal textbook work and in the classroom. The project demands that they use this learned vocabulary and produce a drawing that reflects their understanding. The actual reading of the descriptions and redrawing of the monsters is thus an authentic form of assessment of vocabulary and reading comprehension. The fact that the students play two roles-producer of the information to re-create the monster and receiver of information-enables them to exercise and reflect upon their knowledge and understanding.
The site designed for this project is user-friendly and well designed, and it has plenty of explanations and timetables that help participants plan accordingly. For equipment, participants need either a scanner or digital camera; they must have an Internet connection. Even with only one such connection, an overhead projector can show the original and re-created monsters side by side. Partners are encouraged to write introductory letters to one another, and it is helpful if the teachers involved specify their students' levels of English proficiency so that native speakers in the project will be more sensitive to their readers' level. Classroom preparation before the actual exchange of monster descriptions might include reading monster stories, monster dictation drawings, review of body parts and adjectives, as well as building a classroom monster dictionary that could include such words as scars, horns, fangs, fur, and claws. With proper preparation, careful planning, good communication between partner teachers, and efficient time management, this project is an excellent experience for the EFL language learner and teacher.
To see how our students did, please check our monster gallery.
E-mail: Karen Eini
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