Mobile Activity: going to with Tellagami

Language focus: describing appearance and going to.

Device: Cell phones or tablets (one per person)

App: Tellagami

Interaction: student - student, student - device

Time frame: 15 mins.

Connection: offline

Some weeks ago, I presented a workshop at Cultura Inglesa Uberlândia on OFFLINE MOBILE ACTIVITIES. We focussed on some apps which allow students to work offline once the app has already been downloaded to the device.

We had great fun and brainstormed several activities we could develop with the apps TELLAGAMI and SIMPLE MIND. Both apps are available for IOS and androids.

A few days later, a very creative colleague of mine, Ana Cláudia, tagged me on a facebook post where she shared pictures of her students using Tellagami in class.

Then, I asked her to describe the steps she had followed.

1. Students created their avatars using the app. They could customize the hair, eyes and clothes.
2. Students interacted showing their avatars to other students and asked and answered questions about their appearance.
3. Students recorded the avatar saying what they would be doing the following day. Ex: I'm going to play tennis tomorrow.
4. Students exchanged devices, listened to the avatar speaking and repeated what they heard.

Another variation for step 4 would be for students to listen and write the sentence they hear, then they could keep exchanging devices and write other sentences they hear.

Mobile Activity: Pair Dictation

Language focus: any grammar topic or vocabulary.

Device: Cell Phone (1 per person)

App: notetaking app which comes with any cell phone.

Interaction: student - student

Time frame: 15 mins.

Connection: offline

Instructions

1. Teacher asks students to individually write 3 sentences using a target structure, vocabulary or topic on their cell phones. While students create their sentences, teacher can move around the class checking if students need help.

2. In pairs, students have to dictate, letter by letter (without pauses) one of their sentences to their partner. They use their cell phones to write the sentences dictated to them. Students keep on alternating until they have dictated all their sentences.

3. Students show the sentences they have written down to their partner and check if they understood them right. Teacher can also help.

4. For debriefing, teacher can elicit some of the sentences created by students by writing them on the board.

Tiny steps: flipping part of my class

There are several things I like about the FLIPPED CLASSROOM model:

- First, you save a lot of time for really practising the language if students have access to the theoretical part of the explanation beforehand (at home).
- Second, if a student is absent, he can always catch up.
- Third, if a student needs more explanation he can watch it as many times as he feels is necessary for his comprehension.
- Fourth, before tests, students can always watch the videos again to help refresh their memories. 

This is how I've been TRYING to flip part of my class.

I'm aware there are various ways people have been flipping their classes but it's always important to think of each reality. I work at a Language Institute in Brazil and have to follow a course book for my classes. A moment which I've been finding useful to flip is the grammar explanation part of the lesson during which I would probably deal with the grammar focus. There are various videos available online, however, I sometimes prefer the ones I make myself as I try to make them more personal and as short as possible.

My most successful "flips", in my opinion, have been recording screencasts of myself explaining the grammar focus with examples. In addition, I assign a quiz to my students using Edmodo after a few classes of practice.

The instructions

The Quiz

I normally create a multiple choice quiz with 10 questions. They have 5 mins to answer the quiz which is corrected by Edmodo automatically.





The following class after the quiz, we go over each question and answers as I have access to the question most students had problems with.

This week, I wanted to try something different so I started to look for different tools I could use to make flip videos. The result of my search is a board I've created at http://learni.st/category/featured

My board: Tools for Flipping Classes
http://learni.st/users/anamariacult/boards/35935-tools-for-flipping-classes

Then, it was time to try some of them out.

Oh, the first step was to create the video screencast I wanted to use. Therefore, I used the EDUCREATIONS app on my ipad.
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/past-and-present-habits/10063195/?ref=appemail

The first flipping tool I tried was https://grockit.com/answers. Nik Peachey has created a very helpful post about it http://quickshout.blogspot.com.br/2011/10/create-online-social-interaction-around.html

My trial: https://grockit.com/r/hu9

Then, I decided to try http://www.metta.io/create

I had watched one  of Tamas Szakal's metta videos and just loved it. Unfortunately, I had no idea I would find it so hard to figure out how it works. I tried to find a tutorial, but to no avail,  I had to rely on my trials and errors to manage to make this first trial video.

PROJECT: Drawings turned into quiz

I believe personalizing language is usually the best way to learn something. Having that in mind, last week, while teaching about Narrative Tenses, I decided to ask students to create their own sentences using different combinations of tenses.

My objective was to help students see the different possibilities of expressing past actions. Then, I asked each pair to draw an image which would represent the actions described in their sentence. It was nice to observe how students could only draw after they had understood the sequence of events they had tried to express with their sentences.

As a follow-up, students passed their pictures around the class and different pairs tried to guess the original sentence by looking at the drawing.

In the following class, for warm-up, I used a quiz created with PHOTOPEACH where I used their own drawings and sentences.

 HAVE A LOOK AT THE QUIZ
Quiz: Narrative Tenses on PhotoPeach

Would you like to learn how to create quizzes with PHOTOPEACH ?
HOW TO DO IT 

1. You create a slideshow.
2. Then click EDIT, edit captions +photos.
3. Click QUIZ, type questions and alternatives.
4. Click OK and your photo quiz w/ background music is ready.

You can see a more detailed tutorial w/ pictures  at Sue Waters blog.

Wordle + VoiceThread + Ipad

After reading Jose Picardo's post about having used only one iPad in class, I decided to give it a go. I've recently got an iPad as a gift and wanted to see what I could do with it in class.

Well, this afternoon I took my iPad to class as I wanted to record students reading their own sentences to a voice thread created by a colleague (AureaStela). Stela had the brilliant idea to create a wordcloud with verbs which take GERUND and INFINITIVE and then asked her students to record sentences using the given verbs.

This is what I proposed to my students today:

1. First, I opened her voice thread on the IWB and played the recordings for them.
2. Then, I assigned a different verb to each student and asked them to make a sentence using Gerund or Infinitive. I monitored helping them out with their sentences.
3. I gave them a hand-out with a grammar exercise on the same topic and asked students to complete the exercise in class. Meanwhile, I would use my iPad to move round the class to record each student reading their own sentences ( I used the voicethread app for recording) . To make it faster, all students used my voice thread account.
4. After I had saved all recordings, I played their recordings on the IWB for everyone to listen to.

   Impressions? I would definitely do this again. Students were involved and seemed to have enjoyed listening to all the sentences in class.

The Flipped Classroom - Would it work in Brazil?

In my previous post, I talked about a concept which I first heard about in Khan's lecture at TED "flipping the classroom". The idea of recording videos of lectures and devoting classroom time for practice activities seems to be VERY INTERESTING.


Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

Then, I thought, how could we flip our English classes? In my context, in language institutes, we normally start our classes presenting a new topic (vocabulary or grammar) and then move on to exercises (written and oral) to help students consolidate knowlegde by using it.

I guess a way of flipping our classrooms would be to record mini lessons presenting the topic beforehand and then practice, practice, practice in class.

My question is: would students watch the video at home?

I've just talked to 3 Brazilian teenagers at home (my son and 2 cousins) and I made them the same question:


If you had to watch a video for homework, would you watch it?
Boys- Maybe not.


But if your teacher told you to watch a video in order to be able to do some exercises the following class, would you watch the video?
Boys - We would, we would be afraid of not being able to do the exercises the following class but many of our classmates wouldn't. They would ask the teacher to explain again.

And if you had access to lots of video lectures before tests, do you think it would help you study?
Boys- Sure, if we had problems we would be able to watch the video lecture again and again.

Well, I think the idea is fantastic, however, I don't know how well Brazilian learners would adapt to it. The problem is that our students have been accustomed to the traditional format for too long and end up having a passive attitude to learning.

Is it worth a try? I truly think so. If I'm brave enough, maybe next semester, I'll post about a flipped experience in an English Class.


This is a video from Students who have tried the Flipped Classroom

GRAMMAR VIDEO LESSONS

Inspired by Salman Khan's presentation at TED, I thought of how to help my students get ready for their final English tests and I humbly created some GRAMMAR VIDEO LESSONS.

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education | Video on TED.com via kwout

Although our main focus is not grammar, something my EFL students  always complain about is UNDERSTANDING how to use grammar. Many of them only have a chance to listen to an explanation once in class and others who have missed that specific class feel totally lost. This is the reason behind these videos. I tried to make the explanations simple / short and give them examples.

PASSIVE VOICE


REPORTED SPEECH


RELATIVE CLAUSES


The idea Khan presented of maybe flipping the things around in the classroom made me think.
What if we offered grammar explanations via video and used the time in class to learn how to use it in practice? Well, let's see if they find it helpful.

Oh, to create the slides, two programs were used: Powerpoint or ActivInspire. Then, I used http://screencast-o-matic.com/ to record my voice while explaining the topic.

SCREENCASTS + Grammar explanations

I've recently discovered I could create screencasts to offer grammar explanation recordings to my students. After sharing the idea  in a workshop, a colleague of mine (Angela Gonçalves), has made some really good recordings I wish to share with other teachers. The first three were created by Angela and the last one is mine.

• Making Deductions (must , can't , might)

• Obligations (have to , must, don't have to)

• First and Second Conditional

• Narrative Tenses (S. Past , Past Cont., Past Perfect)

Helping a student understand how to express the Past

I feel thrilled when my students use our Edmodo group to ask me questions about content. It's proof they've accepted it as  a powerful communication tool. Yesterday, a student of mine sent me his doubts about S.Past, Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous. He sent me his questions in Portuguese, nevertheless, I liked the fact he called for help.

So, how can I help him? If I don't want to wait until next class and talk to him face to face (and I believe he doesn't either) I need to answer him as quickly as I can. Traditionally, I would type in a written explanation which would be quite long, I imagine. So which tool could I use? I thought of sending him a video message where he could see me and hear me but then I wouldn't have the written sentences to show him the different tenses. I then remembered SKETCHCAST , a great tool I've posted previously.

This is the answer I sent him today. The tool is incredibly easy to use, no downloads, all you need is your microphone and internet connection. Then you can send your explanation via e-mail or grab the embed for publishing.





Learn more about SKETCHCAST with Russell Stannard's tutorial.

Interactive GRAMMAR games

A colleague of mine, Claudia Melo, shared a great link with our group CULTURA EDTECH yesterday. I had already seen the site, but had completely forgotten about.

The site ESL Fun Grammar Games offers a variety of flash games to practise GRAMMAR TOPICS

Types of games:

• Hangman
• Snakes and Ladders
• Fling the teacher
• Spelling
• Catching
• Sequencing
• Walk the plank
• Jeopardy
• Spin the wheel

They also offer VOCABULARY and PRONUNCIATION games.

Video Activity: Reported speech

Let me share a nice activity a colleague of mine (Eloísa Paula) and a participant of Cultura EDtech course has posted in her course portfolio.

THe focus of the class was Reported Speech. A student of hers showed her a video in which a little kid gets stuck behind the couch. Then, what she did was, the moment the student showed them the video, she elicited some sentences said by the little boy  and asked the students to REPORT what the little kid said.

This is the video:
\

This is the hand-out:
Reported Speech Activity Based

Grammar VIDEOS

This is a selection of links to videos I've been exploring to teach GRAMMAR.

Teachers explain several grammar topics.





From the British Council page, fantastic grammar movies w/ explanations.







Several videos and lesson plans.




A wiki with several Grammar Videos

Grammar sites - a diigo slideshow

I´d like to share some sites I´ve been bookmarking at http://diigo.com under the tag GRAMMAR. In order to share them, I´ve saved them under a list called GRAMMAR , clicked on view webslide and got the widget which is just below. This is a nice way of sharing sites with colleagues or even with your students.

Video Activity: Reported Speech

This is a video activity created /adapted by a colleague of mine, Luciana Paula. The scene is from the film "Just like heaven". The restaurant scene starts at 2:42 (2 minutes 42 sec)The hand-out is below.



Ib Nef 6a Reported Speech Film Act

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Essays & Theses School Work video grammar

Grammar Activity - GOING TO (predictions)

You can use this activity as a warmer after having taught Future verb tenses.

- Watch the video beforehand in order to select the best moments to pause it.
- Then, in class, whenever you pause the video, ask sts "What´s HE going to do next?" to elicit sentences with GOING TO.
- Show the part and see who guessed the right action.
- Do the same thing, at various moments of the video.

The video-activity is short, fun and interesting.

Grammar Activity - Past tenses

I used this activity last week to revise Past tenses: Past Simple, Past Continuous and Past Perfect.

• I cut the hand-out into slips and gave to each st. Then, students watched the video and had to complete the sentences using one of the Past tenses mentioned. I then revised the usages of each tense.

IA 1b Grammar Activity Simpsons

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work grammar past

Grammar Activity - USED TO

Inspired by Claudio Azevedo´s blog. I decided to share some simple activities I use with my students w/ videos from Youtube. Advantage: videos from youtube are accessible to almost everyone w/ internet in class and videos are short.

I used this video w/ a group after having taught the usage of USED TO (past habits)

WHILE watching: ask sts to make sentences w/ used to about the video
Ex: The man used to ......
The boy used to .........
AFTER watching: Write down some sentences sts have created.
Pairs make sentences about their past habits.

Grammar Activities w/ Movie Segments

I´d like to recommend a very good blog written by Claudio Azevedo from Brazil. He designs grammar activities to be used with film snippets. You can find a list of grammar topics and the links to the appropriate activity in the sidebar. He also provides the right scenes to anyone interested in using it. Claudio, thank you so much for sharing your wonderful ideas with us.

Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals via kwout

http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.com/

Classtools

I´ve just found out about this amazing site which helps you create online activities based on content you want to reinforce. There are various templates available and below you can see my first trial where I used vocabulary we´ve covered with Inter B students recently. What do you think? Try it out http://www.classtools.net/



Click on the link to see the full screen version and click on PLAY.

Game about Irregular verbs
http://classtools.net/my/quiz42960.htm

Game testing vocabulary about SHOPPING
http://classtools.net/my/quiz17157.htm

Nice sites for EFL learners

I found these sites in Larry Ferlazzo's list of favourites.
TEXT-TO-SPEECH
Great tool for learners! You type the word or sentence you want, choose the accent and listen to the pronunciation. Fantastic! CLICK HERE and try it.

DOCH LISTS this site brings a list of words which when selected you can hear in a sentence (the voices are very cute)

SIGHT WORDS has various activities for beginner students. Very Good!



STARFALL very good for reading practice.
Try the CALENDAR story





ENGLISH INTERACTIVE
You won't believe your eyes! An amazing site for learners for vocabulary and grammar practice.





PROFESSOR GARFIELD
very interesting. Try the different levels.

E-GLOSSARY

click on a word, hear how it's pronounced, see and hear the word in a sentence, see a picture and read an explanation.

WEB-EDUCASTUR

vocabulary activities for kids

REALL LANGUAGES various soundspell games (memory game to be played by two people, very good!)