2 QRCODE activities ready for use

I've been trying out different QR CODE activities and would like to share two which I think worked really well.

Conversation Tic Tac Toe

1. Print one sheet for each pair of students.

2. Pair students up and ask them to use one notebook to draw a TIC TAC TOE grid (example below).

3. Students decide who is the cross and who is the nought. One person starts the game by choosing a number on the grid, scanning that specific code, reading the secret topic and speaking about it for 1 minute ( or 30 seconds for lower level students). The other student listening has the role of timing his partner. 

4. If the student can speak about the topic during 1 minute without stopping, he can leave his mark on the grid. Then, it's the other player's turn. 

5. To win the tic tac toe, you have to cross three numbers in a row (vertical, horizontal or diagonal).

http://www.scribd.com/doc/146095931/Conversation-QR-CODE

Conversation QR CODE by Ana Maria Menezes

HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN ACTIVITY

- Go to http://qrcode.kaywa.com/dashboard/ , click TEXT and type the topics you want your students to talk about.

- Open a word doc, insert a table (3 x 3) and copy and paste the QRcodes one by one. 

- Then your activity is ready for use.

Listening Dictation + Conversation

1. Print one sheet per pair of students.

2. Pair students up.

3. Students scan the codes together, listen to it and write it down.

4. Pairs ask each the questions they have written down.

For this specific activity, I prepared questions using the Present Perfect and the Present Perfect Continuous.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/146096130/Qr-Code-Listening-Dictation

Qr Code Listening Dictation by Ana Maria Menezes

HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN LISTENING DICTATION

- Go to http://qrvoice.net/?id=u8gLjf , type a question, click the BLUE BUTTON on the right to create the qr code which will take students to a voice reading your sentence.
- Copy the code and paste it on a word doc.
- Repeat the same procedure for the other questions.

Task Challenge #1 - Listening practice

According to a previous post , this is the result of the first task I proposed to my students.

It's pretty simple, students had to listen to a dictation I created on Voki about the topic we were discussing in class that week, had to transcribe it and then send the text to me via e-mail.

This is the VOKI message they listened to:



The texts I received via e-mail showed me students did a great job understanding the words. I noticed some minor spelling mistakes (Ex: reserch, then instead of them) but most students failed to use the right punctuation marks (full stops, commas, and inverted commas). As a post-activity, I'll be elicitng the right punctuation from my students in class.

When asked if they thought the task was easy, medium or difficult, most of them told me they found it easy, however they had to listen to it several times to get the words right. Isn't that what all teachers wish? Lots of listening practice and spelling awareness. Mission accomplished!

PROJECT: songs by the Beatles (Across the Universe)

I had an idea for a project to develop this semester with my Intermediate students.

I intend to use 5 songs by "The Beatles" from the film Across the Universe as a warmer activity every other week. The activities have been devised at http://lyricstraining.com and I'll use the IWB to ask different students to come to the keyboard to try to complete the gaps from the lyrics with everyone's help. This way students will have listening and spelling practise. After we're done, I'll play the whole song again for us to sing (pronunciation practice).

I'll save the song videos from YOutube  as favourites so that I can easily use the songs at the beginning of classes, as background for writing activities, to inspire brainstorming, and so on. Playing the same songs at different times, I believe they will memorize them.

During the semester, I expect some student will mention the songs come from the film "Across the Universe" and I believe they will naturally ask to watch the whole film in class. If my predictions don't come true, I'll tell them about the film and suggest we watch it. The film is not appropriate for younger students, therefore it's important to watch it to see if you find it acceptable for your group.

The Song Activities I plan to use:

• Because
• All you need is love 
• I want to hold your hand
• Strawberry Fields forever
• Let it be

 These are the controls which you need to use  in LYRICSTRAINING to repeat the lines, skip words, rewind and so on.

This is a TUTORIAL to show you how to make your own song activity.

Creating your own SONG ACTIVITY

LYRICS TRAINING is a wonderful site to practise listening and spelling. It has a wide variety of songs you can choose to complete the gaps from the lyrics. There are 3 levels; the higher the level the more gaps you have to complete.


The good news is that you can create your own song activity with a video clip you select from youtube, paste the lyrics and synchronize it with the video. It's quite simple really. This is an activity I've created for the song BECAUSE by "the Beatles" from the film "Across the Universe".


If you want to learn how to make your own SONG ACTIVITY to use with your students, watch the TUTORIAL below.

Practise LISTENING with Music

The first time I heard about LYRICS TRAINING was a few weeks ago via Roberta Righetto. I bookmarked it but didn't try it out until some days ago after watching Russell Stannard's fantastic tutorial.

First, you choose the language you want to practise (Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, German) then you select the song, the level (easy, medium and expert)and finally start completing the gaps as you listen to the song. The idea is pretty simple, however it's great fun listening, watching  the video clip and trying to understand the missing word. An additional feature is the way you can control the song, if you type the wrong word it doesn't accept and the song stops, to listen to that part of the song again all you have to do is clik ENTER. You listen again and again until you get the word right and the song continues.

Let me tell you a secret: I had SO MUCH FUN, I ended up trying 3 or 4 songs just for the fun of it.

Wonderful  LISTENING and SPELLING practice. Students can try it out at home,or you can use it in class as warmer on an IWB by showing it to the whole class and asking different students to use the keyboard to complete the gaps.

This is a little tutorial I've created to show to students.

Webtools to enhance LISTENING

This afternoon, I presented a session about sites to help students improve their listening skills to a group of teachers.
These are the sites I selected for the talk.

Webtools to Enhance Listening

• http://www.visualthesaurus.com/bee/play
• http://www.manythings.org/listen/
• http://www.audiopuzzler.com/index.html
• http://www.listen-and-write.com/
• http://michel.barbot.pagesperso-orange.fr/hotpot/movies.htm
• http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/
• http://www.eslvideo.com/
• http://www.manythings.org/voa/stories/
• http://www.voki.com/
• http://www.meegenius.com/
• http://www.listenaminute.com/         

AUDIO Puzzler - practise Listening

Audio Puzzler - How To Play via kwout

Interesting site to practise listening.

1. Click on an audio bubble to listen to a snippet.
2. Type the text as you hear the audio.
3. Drag and drop to assemble the pieces of the audio puzzle.

AND IT'S FUN! Try it out.

Myna - recording yourself

I had already heard about Myna but hadn't tried it out. I normally use audacity for my recordings but today it was time to give it a go. First, I read a post written by José Picardo some time ago, watched the demo which is below and tried it myself.

Watch the demo


I wanted to see how easy or how hard it was to mix your voice with background music and to my surprise it's not that hard. I had a look at the library tracks, chose some of them, recorded myself saying some collocations you normally find in books teaching EFL at basic levels and mixed it up.

Don't expect a masterpiece, it was just a first (lousy) trial.

After you save it, you can embed the recording as below, or grab the URL http://aviary.com/artists/anamariacult/creations/collocations_basic_1

collocations basic 1.egg on Aviary.

If the recording doesn't play, CLICK HERE.

What I like about it:

• It's free.
• There's no need to download anything.
• You can upload a pre-recorded file or record yourself straight in the site.
• There's a library of background music you can use to make your mix.
• It's not complicated.
• It offers an embed code for your mix.

How can we use MYNA w/ students?

• record tracks with vocabulary you want students to memorize.
• record your students repeating vocabulary or collocations and then mix it up w/ music and play it for them.
• make a different kind of dictation w/ background music.
• simply use the site to record your students reading a text or dialogue.
• ask your students to create a mix with a list of words they have to memorize.

Any other ideas? Use the comment area to collaborate w/ more ideas.

Read and listen to classics - LOUDLIT

This is an interesting site to recommend to intermediate or advanced EFL learners. LOUDLIT.org has a collection of novels , short stories, poems and children stories you can both read and listen to. Besides enjoying the story you can also learn the pronunciation of words.

1. Select the story
2. Then look for the Read & Listen button

3. You'll be taken to a browser where you can Read the page and listen to the story being read.

Fantastic VIRTUAL SOUND experience

Ready for an interesting virtual sound experience? For that, you need a pair of headphones and close your eyes. click on the presentation below and DO CLOSE YOUR EYES. It´s unbelievable how true the sounds seem to be.

Ready for a VIRTUAL HAIRCUT?

Fantastic 3D Sound Experience - Virtual Haircut - Free videos are just a click away

Found the link via Polyana Vida, a colleague of mine.

Readthewords - audio files

Discovered this site via Tony Watt. Readthewords.com converts any text, blog, document or RSS into an audio file you can download to your i-pod to listen to. You can select the reading speed and the voice/avatar which is going to read it (male or female).

Check how it works:




How can we use this with sts?

• Students could convert texts to audio files to help them study.
• Students can use it to see the pronunciation of a given set of words.
• This would be an indefinite source of listening material which could be personalised.
• The teacher could use it to convert a text into an audio file and use it in class for dictation. 
• Or send the audio file to sts at home, have them listen, write down and hand in the dictation.
  

This is a text about a Brazilian composer called Heitor Villa Lobos which I converted into an audio file.



After creating the audio file you can download it to your computer, grab the embed code to post it in a blog , get the mp3 file link or even send it to someone by e-mail.

Creating with ACAPELA. tv

I was reminded of this site by Bob Palmer's post in his blog. He suggests giving dictations with the videos you create. It's a text-to-speech application, or better the character speaks whatever you type in.

GOOD POINTS: it's very cute, easy to use and you can type in various languages.
BAD POINT: you can't publish all your creations ( found no embed code for some) but you can grab a link. :(


This is a dictation I've created:



Another cute card As this one does not provide the embed code for publishing, I used screenr to record it.



How can you use this with students?

• as suggested by Bob Palmer, create dictations for your students.
• create vocabulary dictations with words from previous lessons.
• Create a listening comprehension activity where sts listen to a character introducing himself and answer questions.
• Have sts create their own speaking character using language they've studied.
  

Paul E. Glott can tell you how to say lots of things in many languages. Try it out! You type in the sentence, choose the language and Paul helps you out. Cute!

Exploring Larry Ferlazzo´s suggested sites for intermediate sts

This is the original article written by Larry Ferlazzo.

I found the AUDIO SLIDESHOW GALLERY a wonderful site to practise listening. It´s a different way of listening with the help of images. The slideshows summarize key news events. Thinking of Brazilian EFL Learners I would advise this activity to high-intermediate + advanced learners.

Audio Slideshow Gallery | Reuters via kwout

Next trial was an online Karaoke SINGSNAP.COM. I had so much fun. So, bear with my voice. I decided to sing "The Scientist" by Coldplay.

First, you run the setup wizard which is very straightforward, then, you select the song you´d like to sing and finally just gather up your courage and let your voice out. It takes some time while the site sends your recording.

Making sts sing and record their voices isn´t easy but if you teach a song to a group, find one or two who are more keen on singing and have them hold the microphone in class while the whole class sings with them, this way, I think it could be done. Yes, it´s great pronunciation practice and much fun.

The next site is great for reading + listening practice. These are simplified news stories with listenings or video plus a recording with the pronunciation of new words, a memory game with new words + definitions, and more exercises. REALLY GOOD!

Adult Learning Activities | California Distance Learning Project via kwout

The everyday life project is FANTASTIC. It´s great for listening and reading practice. By solving everyday problems, interacting with the lesson, and making your choices, you end up learning a lot. There are good lessons for people teaching topics such as FOOD, MONEY, COMPUTERS and WORK.

Free Online Learning at GCFLearnFree.org via kwout

Listening dictations

While having a look at Bob Palmer´s blog ELTportal and exploring his links, I found out this site which is perfect for listening.

Listen and Write - Dictation via kwout

It´s called Listen and Write and has various authentic listenings in different levels. Students listen to it and try to rewrite the sentences spoken.

Another wonderful place for listening is THIS ONE where you listen to specific lines from movies and have to unscramble the words given at the bottom. It´s great fun!
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/michel.barbot/hotpot/movies.htm

Dead Poets' Society (1) dps1.mp3 via kwout

Anglesonline is another great source for listening practise but this time with images. You watch scenes and answer comprehension questions. CLICK on the icon CINEMA and you´ll be able to see activities for different levels.

English Online France - offers various listening dictations I`d like to mention here.

English Online France - Movie Trailers: Free EFL / ESL Listening exercises via kwout

English Online France - TV Commercials: Free ESL/EFL listening exercises via kwout

You can find

• Beginner dictations
• Telephone expression dictations
• student´s introductions
• TV commercials
• Fairy tales dictations
  
• and so on

And finally, elllo.org (elllo , yes three Ls). At elllo you can find mixers (6 different speakers talk about the same topic), interviews, listening games, talking points ...
Enough listening for a life time. If you have an interactive board try one of the listening games in class, students love it.

Chat Robots

After reading about it in Larry´s blog I decided to try the chat robots and see how my students would feel if they tried it. It´s quite interesting and fun. You just start typing a question and the girl interacts with you. You can see the words and hear the girl speaking as well. Try it out here http://cartoonenglish.tv/Chat.html

You can find a list of other chat bots at this list taken from EFL classroom 2.0

Reading and listening about MYTHS

I found this site in Larry Ferlazzo´s blog. It tells the story of 25 myths from different parts of the world. Choose a region and learn about the Incas, the Celtics, the Navaros, the Chinese, The Hindis, the Aztecs and others. After you choose a region you watch an animation with sound and text with explains the origin of these people.

How can we use this with students? One would be to choose one region related to something you´re teaching and ask all your sts to watch the same story and answer comprehension questions afterwards. Another would be letting sts pick different regions, have them watch the animations and then each students would tell the class or write about the different people. Any other ideas?

It´s definitely worth MANY VISITS!!!!!!! Not only can you learn English but also Culture. FANTASTIC!

http://mythicjourneys.org/bigmyth/2_eng_myths.htm