Presentation of a task

 As I got inspired by the Genially presentation in Going Bananas, I decided to prepare something similar for my students. In this case we worked on a writing task with the help of this presentation. Writing is one of the most difficult skills for my students, so I consider that doing it in a guided manner is very helpful for them, and this presentation serves that purpose.

   

Doing it genially!

A proposal to use Genially in the classroom

Destination speaking B2

Stage 1

I have done myself a presentation with Genially based on the game Snakes and Ladders to revise some important aspects when delivering a monologue in B2 certification exams at Official Languages Schools in Andalucia so that students can practise and get familiar with them while they get to know the app.

Stage 2

Students are invited to join in groups of three to think of a possible presentation to help them with the speaking exam; it can be related to the preparation of dialogues and oral mediation or strategies to overcome  anxiety in speaking exams.

Stage 3

Groups decide on the contents and the kind of modality they prefer.

Stage 4

The teacher gives students some links to get inspired where they can find material for them to decide which ones to use. The teacher provides the rubric for assessment.

Stage 5

Students start working on their own outside the classroom and a deadline of 2 weeks is established to produce a first draft.

Stage 6

In class students present their draft to the teacher, who monitors and assissts in possilble problems that may arise.

Stage 7

Each group presents their activity in front of the class and actually do it with the rest of students.

Stage 8

Once all the activities have been presented, students comment on the difficulties and challenges they have had to overcome and the aspects that have turned out to be more helpful. Finally they vote for the most helpful for them.

Stage 8

Sharing of all activities onto the Moodle Platform so that everybody can enjoy and use them for revising before exams.

Due to time limitations for this year I cannot implement states from 2 to 8 in the classroom, but I would expect to find that this kind of activity is engaging and enriching, since it provides an opportunity to analyse the aspects of speaking exams and assimilate that it is possible to train for them. Group work is also important, as well as speaking in front of the class with some visual support. And last but not least, the fact of uploading their material onto the platform boosts both confidence and motivation, I reckon.

Pixton for comics

As we are working on crime and punishment and the use of the passive voice, mainly the "causative have" and impersonal passives. I think this tool could be interesting for students to translate into a scene some of the common sentences that we have studied in class. This way they would assimilate the meaning of the structures and understand when to use them, becuase they do not translate well from and into Spanish.  They would have to introduce different characters to show who "suffers" the action and who "acts". The learning objective would be how to use the passive and in which situations this is suitable.

I would give them this sentences and let them get organized so that every 3 students decide on a sentence and how to produce a scene where this is suitable:

I had my car vandalized yesterday night.

John was arrested for speeding.

Our neighbour is rumoured to have been burgled.

My brother has had his bicycle stolen twice.

Secondly, students would have to decide on the characters they are going to include, the setting, the dialogues or speech bubbles. 

Next they would have to enter the app and work in groups of three in class for about 1 hour until they finish their comic. Probably this activity would encourage their imagination and it is a good opportunity for them to take the lead of the activity and play an active role in the learning process.

Once they are ready they will have to share their comics onto the Moodle platform and in the following class we will see  and analyse them with the whole class, voting for the most original one. 

Moped crimes in London

 

We are discussing the topic of crime and punishment in class and a reviewing some vocabulary to do with the unit in through a questionnaire and a listening activity. For homework students had to revise some vocabulary and watch the foolowing interactive video I got from BBC news. I consider this is a good option, first because it is unabridged  material from real news, with adequate duration and secondly, because it refers to a kind of crime they may have suffered themselves or witnessed in their lives and, therefore, can comment on it later on in class.

The learning objective is that they understand real news, get familiar with a common crime which is not normally taught in the lessons, they can work at their own pace and anticipate the grammar point of the passive voice we are going to see in the classroom next day.

Moped crimes in London

I flipped this part of the lesson so that next day I asked them about the video, elicit some vocabulary and grammar structures to introduce the topic of the passive voice. I think this is a different way of introducing grammar, as they have to answer certain questions where passive voice is used and recognize the structure they should already know.

This video was the basic for working the grammar points and and a later discussion on the most common crimes inour city, and whether they (or someone they know) had ever witnessed a crime, what happened, or if they knew someone who had had their mobile stolen, etc. They got engaged in the activity and they found it rewarding that they could actually understand the news and talk about their experiences.

I uploaded onto my Moodle platform through a link, but I didn´t manage to assign it to the class and I couldn´t see my students answers. Although I followed the instructions EdPuzzle gave me, I couldn´t do it properly. I need to look into it.

Timeline:100 years of Britain's Royal Family

In this activity students will have to study the story of the British Royal Family over the last century, work in groups of three and produce a timeline with the most important landmarks. The information they are going to take into account comes from two articles about the British Royal Family. They will have to put into practice their reading and listening comprehension as well as speaking and writing skills. The whole process entails discussion and reaching agreements.

TimeToast will help them get familiar with the Winsor dinasty and the role of the monarchy in British history and society. They will have to agree and decide on which landmarks they consider to be important since the beginning of last century. By using this tool they can produce an attractive presentation after working collaboratively so that the three of them will have their share and contribute equally. Besides,  this will involve more motivation and engagement in understanding the course of events in recent British monarchy. It goes without saying that it will eventually result in higher self-confidence.

First, I will ask students to form groups of three on their own. If they do not agree on how to do it, it will be the teacher who will radomly decide the pairs. 

Probably they will feel a bit reluctant at first, but once you explain the procedure and show them some published examples to them, they will come to terms with it, as they normally accept the teacher´s suggestions.

I won´t be able to implement this exercise this year, but my expectations are that this tool is simple and effective, they can insert visuals and mainly reinforces interaction among students: discussion, agreeing and disagreeing, discarding contents, defending their points of view, an many other functional language use that is required for this task.

Moreover, they can get to improve their digital literacy, which they need as adults, and understant learning not only as a result, but also as a process.

Related articles:

100 years of British Royal family 

The House of Windsor

The Windsors

 

My reading habits

Although my reading habits have changed over the years and varied in frequency, format or situations, books and their alternatives have always accompanied me one way or another.

I started with my dad telling and reading out stories for me when I was a little child, as in the second picture. I remember this experience with tenderness and gratitude for that first contact with letters and new worlds.

Later, my teachers told me what to read at school and secondary school or university, which I liked and disliked, depending on the piece and task I had to complete. This gave me the chance to get to know Universal Literature and some of the masterpieces and discuss different cultures, approaches to life and general mankind worries, not to mention the acquisition of foreign languages.

Now it is me who suggest reading in class and sometimes, not always, offer alternatives for students to choose their own piece.

I have always associated reading with pleasure, learning and relax, my favourites being novels, online news and blogs. I have to admit that I read more in English than in Spanish and I normally use online text during the acedemic year and paper books in the summertime.

No matter the situation or place (on the bus, at home, by the seaside...) I can find reading enriching and enjoyable.

Welcome on board! This course aims at preparing students for official B2 examinations at Languages Schools.

Here you may find some useful resources so that you can prepare for the exams at your own pace. Let me begin with this link to previous test in the past:

MODELOS DE CONVOCATORIAS ANTERIORES