Storyboard: creating and learning

Students are usually keen on comics and cartoons. That's why storyboard is a fantastic tool to engage them in using certain vocabulary, language functions or anything one wants to teach. I designed this comic for my Adol 5 students, in order to work with expressions for inviting, suggesting and refusing. I will send the storyboard by e-mail and they will read and act out the story in class. Later we will classify the expressions into the three functions mentioned above, and add some more to each category. I will explain how to create a storyboard on my computer, and at home, they will have to put the expressions into practice by producing their own cartoons and share them with the rest of the class.
Made with Storyboard That

Padlet: a conventional activity, an unconventional tool

Another way to improve speaking and writing skills. Once again, the third part of the PET speaking exam is the focus of this activity. In this case students will be able to work from home, to practise how to describe a picture and to learn from their classmates. I made emphasis on vocabulary as I see that they still have a lack of vocabulary when they have to perform the activity. So, this task will be done from home, and we will see their contributions in class, using my computer. As it has been suggested, more photos will be embeded in order to avoid repetition of ideas or vocabulary.

Learning grammar through stories

Voicethread provides teachers a great resource to develop many kinds of activities, involving audiovisual aids. I chose it to present a grammar point: the third conditional. Many students hear the word "grammar" and think of a fixed set of word forms and rules of usage. I have found that, when I teach a grammar point by presenting the forms and the rules, it results in bored students who can produce correct forms on exercises and tests, but make errors when they try to use the language in context. I designed this activity to work with my FCE students. In class, they watched and listened to the story I had prepared. As it is about part of my life, they felt interested in knowing more details about it, so I gave them the chance to ask me anything they would like to know (and I would like to share!) about it. I stopped it before showing the last image where the third conditional is finally presented. In that moment we analysed how to talk about consequences in the past due to actions in the past. Later, I showed them how to form a third conditional sentence and explained we can also use it to express regrets. Fianlly, they were asked to think of some moments of their own lives and use the third conditional to talk about "what would have happened if....". They said they wanted to create their own voicethreads, but we haven't seen any of their productions yet.

Story time!

Storybird is a great tool which gives us the possibility to create stories for our students, or to teach students how to produce their own stories. The story I created for my 7-year-old students was thought to practise descriptions, action verbs, and to encourage them to create characters with different features. This group is particularly restless but they listened to the story really quietly and were eager to draw and describe fantastic creatures or animals by themselves. I presented the story on my laptop, and that, made the difference!

My story on Storybird: Lily has got an idea!

Using Voki in the classroom

This funny looking character was thought to encourage my 7-year-old students to listen to stories and answer some short questions which can be asked using Voki. I've seen that they find it exciting talking to somebody (or something) that appears on a screen. It's like magic for them and in this way, they lose the inhibitions they usually have when they are asked to speak in English to a real person. I used it as the introduction of the story I created on storybird. Jimmy the Koala

Google Slides: Appearance and Personality

This great technological tool gives us the possibility to develop speaking, reading, writing and listening skills. Nowadays it's almost unthinkable to work without images and sound, but with google slides we can also let students think, and work interactively. The aim of this task is to revise and introduce vocabulary related to appearance and personality. This activity was thought for students who are preparing for the First Certificate Exam. It will enable them to: work on word formation, talk about themselves, talk about other characters or people, learn idioms, and of course, have some fun too! As students don't have their own computers in class, I presented the google slides on my laptop and they worked in pairs, discussing the answers and writing down the new vocabulary and idioms on their notebooks, or some of them, on their mobile phones. Then, the answers and comments were shared with the whole class. Afterwards I sent them the presentation by e-mail. The activity took an hour aproximately.

Creating stories with google drawings

Students are sometimes reluctant to create stories. Visual aids presented in a google drawing can be the solution to trigger many different ideas and situations which will help them find the way to tell an interesting story. The activity designed in this google drawing was intended to give students some common elements which had to be present in their different stories. As the task was thought for teenagers, the images and items which appear on it represent usual situations, activities and items this age group often experience and posses. I created this activity to help my 5 Adol students create stories and also work collaboratively. They received this drawing by e-mail and looked at it on their mobile phones in class. They worked in pairs exchanging ideas and creating the plot of the story. They were asked to write the story, individually, at home, and send it to me by e-mail.

Assessing grammar on a Google form

Multiple choice questionnaires have always been included in textbooks, tests, exams, etc. It would not be a novel strategy to evaluate students' knowledge if it was not presented in the form of a techonological tool that students will find really appealing and can use either in the classroom or at home. This activity was designed so that teachers have the possibility to asses a grammar point (at least in this case) and provide promt feedback for the students. My Adol 5 students received the form by e-mail and completed it at home. The correct answers were discussed in class.

Working collaboratively on a Google document

The activity created on this Google document was thought to motivate students to work collaboratively, in order to improve and expand the vocabulary they might use in the third part of the Preliminary English Test. By doing this task, not only they can communicate their ideas in the same document, but also they'll be able to do it from home, at their own pace, allowing those who are shy to work without being exposed. And what's more, students will feel interested and engaged in using technology, so the process of learning will surely be more enjoyable. I have already used this activity with my 5 Adol class and they were able to express a lot of ideas, and learn vocabulary from their own classmates. I gave them a deadline for the completion of the task (one week), and they did parts a-e at home. Then, they discussed parts f and g in class. Although two of them couln't insert the audio file, they learnt from the other classmates how to to it and did it later. They also dealt with language functions they need to practise (agreeging, disagreeing, speculating).