Genial.ly

 

The Project was explained taking into account the information from this genial.ly presentation:

https://view.genial.ly/637d19a01e3a490010cb39e2/interactive-content-speaking-a-revolutionary-invention

Students followed the following steps:

Step 1: Once I explained the project, students created the groups in the computer room.

Step 2: Each group had to choose one invention to be developed.

Step 3: Since they had to make a presentation, they started to look for information so this third step was related to the compilation of the information by means of different sources.

Step 4: When they finished the compilation of information, they had to look for images and/or videos so as to illustrate and reinforce the presentation.

Step 5: They started to create the presentation with all the information.

Step 6: Finally, they had to add transitions and animation to the different slides.

Step 7: After two lessons in the computer room (one for the information and the other for the creation of the presentation), it was the turn of the presentation to the rest of students. In this case, since there were 27 students, we spent 2 days to complete the presentations. Students were provided copies of Dodge’s Long-Term Project Planner to self-evaluate their own work. Here is a link of an example of one of the projects:

https://view.genial.ly/639df9669a40c90019f6087c/presentation-presentacion-television?authuser=0

The students were the ones who chose their group mates. The timing of the project was established by the teacher so as to allow the students to make the project calmly without interrupting the development of the syllabus.

Although there are many tools to make presentations, Genial.ly is one of the most popular among the students since it offers a great variety of options. Regarding the aims of this activity, to cooperate actively in the creation of the project and to use the English language in the creation and presentation were the most important ones.

Finally, from my point of view, finishing the term with presentations is a good way to relax the stress they have with the final tests and although I have to recognise that it was also a test, they focused it in a different way as they used videos and even kahoots to finish their projects (the kahoots were not included in the genial.ly presentations but by means of the applications). I would not change anything in the process of the project.

My disastrous day!!!

https://app-es.pixton.com/

 In this case, I have not organized the activity in groups. I have done the comic. But, if I had to organize the activity, I would organize the groups giving each member a task. Two people could write the dialogue while the others could choose the scenario and the characters in Pixton.

First, I chose the characters, I set the locations and the last step was to create the dialogue.

Objectives:

To be able to write a coherent dialogue.

To construct a story with the images and the dialogues.

To work in groups using the second language.

Since I had lots of options to choose with the application, I did not need to have a lot of imagination.

I loved doing this activity. I spent more time with the characters and the settings than with the story and I would like to have more time to plan the activity.

Next time I use this app, I would spend less time to choose the settings and the characters and spend more time creating the story. I have to recognise that I am short of time. If I had planned the activity, I would do in 3 or 4 sessions in the computer room.

I present the comic to the rest of students with different voices. It was really funny.

At the end, I will provide them a rubric to be completed.

 

Edpuzzle

https://edpuzzle.com/assignments/6470eceb7eeb68431748d4f0/watch 

I have chosen this video so as to open their minds to different cultural traditions in the world with real material from YouTube. The video has been edited as the end had many more irrelevant images which were not useful for the activity.

This is the way I worked with this video:

Pre-task

1.     I sent them the video by means of Google Classroom. Students had to see the video at home and look for some information about each festival. So, I encouraged their own autonomy (flipped classroom).

During task

2.     In the computer room, we saw the video again and later they had to answer some questions in groups.

3.     Once we answered and corrected the questions, they had to compile the information they had taken at home to create a presentation of one festival (they had one day to compile it and another day to create the presentation).

Post task

4.     After having finished the project, they had to present the project to the rest of classmates in an oral way. It was a way to lose their fear to speak in public.

5.     At the end, each group received an assessment from their classmates.

Students enjoyed so much learning different festivals and traditions of other parts of the world. Furthermore, working in groups was the best way to change the rhythm of the lesson, and, above all, in the computer room taking into account that teenagers love new technologies.

Next time, we use festivals and traditions in class, we will try to see festivals and traditions from our region, Andalusia to give importance to our roots.

John Lennon's timeline

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/2942338

Regarding the objectives, with this activity, students will value the importance of a celebrity. They will also reinforce their knowledge about events in the past and to use past tenses. Another objective is that this activity will help students promote cooperative learning encouraging them to read and understand the information from a text.

Taking into account the advantages of TimeToast, this tool was pretty helpful in the sense that with it, students will learn to scan the information from a text helping them order the events.

Bearing in mind the steps to do the activity, the first thing I did was to upload the text in Google Classroom. Once we were in the computer room and students had the text in front of them, they had to read it and look for essential events so as to order them in a timeline. When they had all the information, they had to open the tool and add the events taking into account that they had to write a tittle for each event, a brief summary of the event and the date in which it took place. Finally, they had to upload the timeline in the activity of Google Classroom. All the activities were carried out in pairs work cooperatively.

Considering the problems students had to face, they had to scan the order of the events although the text sometimes did not have dates. So, they needed to understand the whole text to be able to organize how the events took place. I didn’t have to do anything to help the students since they were able to comprehend the sequence of events.

When we finished the activity, they told me that they had enjoyed the tool in such a way that they wanted them to use it in other future activities.

From my point of view, since they found the activity easy, the next time I propose one activity like this I will use a longer text.

Finally, when students completed the activity, they started to value the importance John Lennon had in the society as some of them felt interest in his music. Besides, they started to know and respect the music from the past. Finally, the usage of this tool encouraged the cooperative learning as well as their habits of reading since they wanted me to provide them more information about singers and bands from the past.