GENIAL VERBS

Imagen de Rebecca Siegel en Flickr. Licencia CC

I liked the Genially task proposed by Mª Ángeles Pérez Salas in her blog English is Fun!. It consisted in a final revision before the 1st Term Exam. The final result was quite good and it was a source of inspiration for my last task in this course.

I thought about doing a final revision of verb tenses for my students at Intermediate B1. In fact, in the first unit of the course, a wide summary of all verb tenses is made, and, of course, at this level, all the students must show a good command of the main verb tenses in English.

The learning objectives were, then, to revvise for the main verb tenses in English and to check students' knowledge by doing interactive presentations in group.

For this reason, students were divided in groups of threes and I proposed a list of tenses so that they had to prepare a presentation that must include the form and use of these tenses, together with appropriate exemples and some addtional questions to test their classmates' understanding.

They could choose the format they were going to use in Genially ( interactive image, presentation, video presentation...) and during the first class they should prepare the materials they wanted to use (grammar explanations, examples, comprehension questions....). During the second and third sessions they  were preparing the Genially Project and finally, during the last session, the oral expositions were made.

I think this is a quite effective way to get students' attention and a motivating skill to revise the main points in a class. Obviously, the group members are reinforcing the specific grammatical point they had to work on and the listeners, are revising this same point. A double successful objective.

I upload the interactive image the group of students dealing with Present Perfect vs. Past Simple prepared.

GENIALLY. Happy Thanksgiving

Imagen de johnhain en Pixabay: Licencia Pixabay

Along the year, all the students have to prepare mini projects dealing with different issues. They had to expose these projects before the classmates and, for this reason, they have to prepare an oral exposition. They formed groups of three and they decided who they wanted to work with.

During the last week of November, a group of three students prepared the exposition about Thanksgiving. They used Genially and they eventually prepared a quiz with questions about this tradition which had to be answered in class. The three people in the group tried to help with the answers thanks to interactive skills in the quiz and other electronic supports such as videos or articles about this celebration.

As they had to do the exposition in November, they decided to do it about Thanksgiving; therefore, the idea was their own and I was helping them with the tool. They decided to make a quiz since it could be a more interactive instrument to promote their mates' participation and I must say that they reached it. They divided the rest of the class into small groups of three (the same existing groups for the different projects) and organized the exposition as a group competition where the ones who answered correctly, got a point. The activity was motivating, active and quite successful.

The most difficult part was not the tool Genially, but to get the questions they were going to forward to their mates. They had to look into the net for quite a long time, that they became a bit impatient and I had to help them to find the questions. I think that a bank of pages and Internet resources could have been more useful for them and it should be taken into account for future similar performances.

The preparation of the activity was quite exhaustive and they had to meet outside the class time to prepare the questions and once decided, they started to use Genially and they used the interactive elements to include any additional information they were going to provide to the class.

The three students were speaking and they took their turns to introduce the topics, to develop the questions and finally to comment on the answers by giving appropriate background.

They made use of the following additional material:

Video about Thanksgiving story:

This article about the true meaning of Thanksgiving and some addtional information:

https://www.almanac.com/content/when-thanksgiving-day 

A complete guide to celebrate Thanksgiving.

And different Thanksgiving traditions.

Finally, the use of Genially in form of a quiz, has been an excellent learning instrument to facilitate the introduction of new cultures, traditions to the students. Genially is a perfect and funny tool which has served as a vehicle in the oral exposition to get to know different ways of living, and after the quiz has finished, the students continued talking about how Americans celebrate this day and the most popular traditions related to this festivity.

This is the quiz.

PIXTON. How I met my soulmate

Imagen de mohamed-hassan en Pixabay. Licencia Pixabay

During the fist term of the course, my students have been working about the topic of "Relationships", friendship, love... and we have done different tasks related to these issues.

After writing a long text where they had to explain about the way their parents met, I classified them into groups of three, grouping them according to the story about their parents (students whose parents met in a similar circunstance). 

First they had to read these stories and talk about them. After that, I told them that they should now write a comic about a funny story where two people meet. 

First, I explained the tool, the different stages and how to change, scenary, characters, colours, positions,... and I showed them an example of a comic I had previously prepared.

Then, they had to write a short outline or script with a brief description of every scene and finally created the comic. 

This was the most difficult part of the task. They had to get an agreement about first, the place, that is not as easy as it may seem and about the story itself. Some students were too impatient to start creating the comic and they did not work enough time on the script, that is an essential element for the final success.

I think that, next time, I will provide students with exaples of funny situations, so that they can find an easier inspiration for the task.

They enjoyed a lot the use of PIXTON, it is quite intuitive and it allows different possibilities and the result is quite motivating and visual and they worked together quite well and very fast indeed.

The learning objectives from this activity were:

• Using an appropriate vocabulary to describe people. The decisions about the physical description and gestures of the characters were in English so that a real practice was made in a specific context.
• Appropriate use of narrative tenses, in the brief outline, they had to write the story that later, they incorporated to the comic strip. 
• Adequate use of connectors in telling a story. These linking words, had to appear in the outline.
• The presence of anecdotes as an integral part of a story. It is the anecdote what they should reflect in the comic.

I think that the use of imagination is a powerful tool when learning a language. I always try to contextualize the tasks I propose my students, and I always insist on the fact that what they tell doesn't have to be true, that imagination will allow them to make use of a wider vocabulary and adopt the story to their knowledge. If they want to use a specific structure or certain expressions, they can make up  a story where they sound quite natural, whereas if they simply tell something that is true, maybe this text, or speech does not make it easy to integrate these words or structures that they want and know.

Once they finished their comics, I printed them and pubkished them in the forum of the unit, where everybody could read and comment them.

As for evaluating the process, I wanted there was not a final assessement, so I made them share the outline of the story with their classmates, So, each group received one script and they provided useful comments about the use of verbs, vocabulary and the presence of appropriate connectors in the story. A second version of the outlines was elaborated by each group taking the classmates' comments into account.

This is one of the comics.

This is the link for the comic:
https://Pixton.com/es/:k9di1m55

Edpuzzle.BRITISH MANNERS

Imagen de Vernon Barfold School en Flickr. Licencia CC

We have been working with a unit which dealt with manners in general along this month. that's the reason why I have chosen some videos related to these issues.
I divided the class into groups so that they worked with different videos.
The learning objectives to reach with this activity are:

• to reflect upon other cultures,
• to contrast British manners with Spanish etiquette
• to learn how to express obligation, lack of obligation, necessity, lack of necessity...

For this reason, we had some practice with modal verbs (obligation, advice, necessity...) in class and dealt with appropriate vocabulary.

I decided to carry out flipped learning to give students a greater autonomy and to focus on the activities in class due to the fact that there are many students in my virtual classroom. Therefore, they had to watch the corresponding video at home and I gave them a short list of vocabulary that they should know when watching the video.
In the case of the video I upload here, the list of words were:

1. be punctual
2. turn up late
3. jump the queue
4. push ahead in a line
5. reserved for
6. tipping
7. personal space
8. frowned upon

They should search for a synonym to explain them later to their classmates.

During the second stage, the while listening activities, each group watched the video and did the corresponding proposed activities (open questions and multiple choice quizzes) and, at the same time, they answered the questions in the voice notes.

After that, students made a short review of their videos to the rest of the class and they compared what they had heard. In the same way, new vocabulary was explained using the synonyms they had searched at home.

As a final activity, I asked them to record a video where they had to contrast British manners with Spanish ones and give appropriate examples they had seen in the videos.

In general, I think that working with videos is quite more motivating than with audios and, of course, they enjoyed a lot with the British examples referred to queing, for example. Apart form working on modal verbs, they have learn about respect for other cultures and I think they consider this topic as useful for them, since it helps them in a possible trip to the United Kingdom, for example.

Although flipped learning is a good idea, it is true that there are students who don't prepare the task at home and, consequently, they feel a bit lost during the activity, maybe next time I should look for a more efficient way of checking work home.

This is my video:

Time Toast. INSPIRING FEMALE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS

Imagen de Johnhain en Pixabay. Licencia Pixabay

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November, 25th, I decided to prepare a special activity with my students.
They had to create a timeline with Time Toast about the most inspiring female characters in literature.
These are the learning objectives I wanted to reach:

• I wanted students to familiarize and get to manage a new tool which can help them in their learning process.
• To be familiar with important literary works throughout history.
• Improving reading skills.
• Promoting collaborative work.
• Practice the new language activity of Mediation.
• Integrating different language activities (Comprenhension of Writing Texts, Mediation and Oral Text Production) into a single task.

I think that using tools like this in the classroom is quite motivating. It is a quite intuitive and easy to use device. Most of my students are used to handling technological instruments, and they show an open mind to know new ones. For this reason, they quickly became aware of the possibilities Time Toast could offer. It is also a quite visual instrument whose results are quicly appreciated.

As for the different moments in the development of the activities, I scheduled the activity for a week, so that we could see and comment the final result on November 25th, to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
First, I introduced Time Toast to the students providing some brief and specific hints to use it. The students were divided into groups of three and they were given a link where they could find information about a relevant literary female character. Therefore, they read the article (Written text comprehension)
The first thing they should do is preparing a good summary of the given article. In this way, they practiced Mediation, a new language activity which has been introduced in the Official School of Languages new curriculum. After this, they had to prepare an outline for the oral activity: they record a video (Oral Text Production) where they speak about the female character they were assigned.

The hardest part of the task was deciding the roles within the groups, especially the person who was going to do the oral activity. Some groups eventually decided that the three members in the group were going to speak.
The students were quite satisfied with the final product and they are eager to use this tool in any other moment, since they didn't find a special difficulty in managing it.
For this reason, I think that next time I use it, I'll give them more freedom to choose the topic and organize the time line themselves; they could search for the information on the net, find appropriate visual material to reinforce the different events and even organize how to do the task themselves.

Finally, my reflection about the use of Time Toast is quite positive. It is an effective way of integrating different language activities in one activity, and it allows to grade the task in different stages which coincide with the skills the students develop along the whole activity.
It has helped me to reinforce a collaborative work among students and they have learnt to share opinions and include different and valuable insights  to enhance their performance.
Finally, it has allowed me to arise students' curiosity for fictional characters who have a decisive role in literary works which are now closer to their interests and probably some of them will decide to read the novels we have mentioned in class.

Here you have my timeline:
https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/2147753

MY NEVERENDING STORY

Narrative

Imagen de Comfreak en Pixabay. Licencia Pixabay

Reading is my never ending story; it is, in fact, a story that started I can't remember how many years ago, and that it is still with me, by my side. And, as all the real stories, with its ups and downs.

After getting a glimpse of the images, what came into my mind was "love of reading". The people in the library, with their posture and attitude in such a great place, everyone in silence, ignoring anything else around them... The grandma with her grandchild, trying to transmit all her love for books to him. And what about the old lady with her tablet? Is it not a symbol of how an eager reader is able to adapt to new times so as not to abandon what she really loves? In fact, this image has brought my own 85-year-old-mother to my memory, sitting on her sofa every afternoon with her open e-book reader in her hands. In the same way, the students reading in the classroom, maybe, some of them may get a bit bored, maybe it is not their dream situation, but, hopefully, reading is quite a better activity than solving a quite complicate problem and will allow them to travel to an imaginary and wonderful place. Such an inconceivable and  incredible place like a stool in the middle of any street that is where we find the man in the fifth photograph, with a book in his hands, of course.

As I see it, the people in these photos are reading what they have probably decided. Perhaps, the students in the classroom have not had the opportunity to choose, but, I am sure the teacher has made up his mind taking into account the kind of stories their pupils enjoy the most. Or, in an ideal but perfectly possible situation, they have been able to vote for his favourite book among a given list. In the case of the second image, both, the grandma and the little boy have decided together the story they are reading and it has become their favourite indeed.

I can see myself in some of the photos; When I started to read English books at university, we were in class and we used to analyse the classic plays in groups, and this helped me to understand the lives and reactions of those characters who became close friends of mine. Otherwise, my literature lessons during my second year at the high school are still a vivid memory for me -I wanted my parents to buy me the last book my teacher had  talked about.

As you can imagine, that was the consequence of what I had lived so far at home. I have to name  my father as the person who instilled in me the reading habit, he was responsible of my love for reading, I was an eager reader, yes, but he never refused to provide me with everything that he considered worth reading or to buy me any book that I requested. I read all Agatha Christie's novels at a ver early age and I was able to answer all the questions my mother's friends (some of them teachers themselves) asked me about the plot, setting,  murderers...

Now, things have changed, I keep on reading as much as I can, but, I have to admit that, since I have started to use the tablet or the ebook reader, I am not so demanding as a reader, I do not discriminate any more, and some works that I read may have a dubious quality. This is due to the fact that you have access to a great amount of books easily and fast.
My reading taste is the same in English or Spanish. I read novels, basically those who some people (my sister, my mother or some friends) recommend or those written by my favourite authors or those whose review I have read or heard about in the radio.

Maybe our lives, our habits and times have evolved; however, be it as it may, reading goes along with us.