Using Genially in Primary Education!

 Hello everyone!

In this post I am going to present the design of a mini-project using Genially. This task is designated to a group of students of 2^nd grade of Primary Education. Due to the current situation and the lack of time in this first term, the activity hasn’t been carried out in the class so I only can define the planning designed.

Now, it is necessary to explain the learning objectives; the stages planned for this project including groupings, timing and materials; an example of a Genially presentation; and a reflection about using this tool in Primary Education.

Firstly, the learning objectives of this task are:

§  To improve pupils’ speaking skill.

§  To encourage active listening.

§  To develop social abilities.

§  To improve students’ oral presentations.

§  To reinforce vocabulary related to animals.

§  To practise grammar, particularly the verb ‘To have got’.

Continuing with the stages, these are going to be presented including groupings, timing and materials used:

Stage 1-Pre-task. In this first stage, I choose the topic for the project. Due to the fact that we have worked on the animals along the last unit, I have chosen the animal world topic.

Stage 2-Pre-task. Then, I organise the groupings. The groups are set up by three pupils. To do this, I take into account pupils’ level, needs, capacities and social abilities in order to create heterogeneous groups.

Stage 3- Session 1 (1/2 hour). After that, I explain the project and its stages to the class. Firstly, I tell them that they have to create a mini-project about an animal which they have to present to the rest of the class in an oral way. Then, I put the students into the groups and each group have to select an animal from the unit seen.

Stage 4- Session 2 and 3 (2 hours). Each group starts working on its animal. To do this, I bring them a sheet in which they have to write the animal (for example: horse), and add a drawing in which they identify the parts of the animal (body, legs, nose, mouth, eyes, tail...).

Stage 5- Session 4 and 5 (2 hours). Once the groups have finish, we create the Genially video presentation all together due to the fact that they are in a low level.

Stage 6- Session 6 (1 hour). The members of the groups have to write the sentences of the presentation of their animal in a piece of paper. Then, they have to distribute the sentences for the presentation. Thus, every member participates orally.

Stage 7- Session 7 (1 hour). Once we have finished the online presentations, they have to prepare their speech. To do this, I guide this stage providing them with strategies such as body language or pronunciation.

Stage 8- Session 8 and 9 (2 hours) Each group present and describe its animal in an oral way using Genially. While the oral presentation is going on, the rest of the class have to complete an evaluation sheet I have designed. It is an easy sheet in which they have to mark the aspects their partners have mentioned (for example, the parts of the animal or the colours. Moreover, during the presentations, I take photos and record videos of them to analyse them afterwards.

Stage 9- Session 10 (1/2 hour). In this final stage, the class group discuss about the mini-project and tell me suggestions for next time.

Now, here you can see an example of one of the possible animals’ presentations in Genially:

Ending with the use of Genially in Primary Education, it is essential to affir that is an useful online tool in which pupils can practice all the linguistic skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing). At the same time, they are developing their digital competence and their social or presentation skills. Due to its characteristics, this tool is a resource that improves pupils’ learning experience and helps us to achieve the learning objectives proposed. To sum up, I recommend you to use Genially along the English classes because students will be motivated and engaged in their learning process.

Writing task using Pixton!

Hello everyone!

In this new post I am going to describe a writing activity using Pixton. The activity is designed for a group of 4th grade Primary Education. The topic of the comic is ‘My daily routines’ because in the last Unit students have learned about it using the Present Simple.

Due to the current situation and the lack of time, the activity hasn’t been carried out in the class so I only can define the planning designed.

Here you can see one possible comic in Pixton: https://share.pixton.com/qjqecbc 

 

Now, it is necessary to express how I have organised the activity and the sequence of tasks to get the final product; the learning objectives and the contribution of Pixton to achieve them; the role of pupils’ creativity and imagination in this activity; and possible reactions of students.

Firstly, as for organisation, students are divided into groups of three members. The sequence of tasks and their organisation are the follow:

1. The whole class investigate about the structure of a comic and their characteristics.

2. Students get into groups of three. The teacher gives to them a blank comic in which they have to write their first draft. Before doing this, they have to discuss the content of their comic and the pictures they are going to do.

3. Once they have finished, the teacher shows them a tutorial about Pixton. Then, each group uses a laptop or computer in which they have to move their draft into Pixton. In that way, they have to create the scene, characters and dialogues using balloons and onomatopoeias.

4. Then, the teacher look for mistakes with the group and they correct them.

5. Finally, the groups present orally their productions to the rest of the class. The teacher can project their productions in the Interactive WhiteBoard. At the same time, the rest of the groups has a rubric in which they have to evaluate partners’ productions. In that way, they carry out a co-evaluation.

6. Pupils’ productions can also upload into the class blog. Thus, students can share them with family members or friends.

If the Covid-19 situation continues, this activity has to be developed individually.

Regarding the learning objectives, these are as follows:

§  To improve pupils’ writing skill.

§  To develop students’ creative writing.

§  To reinforce vocabulary about daily routines and Present Simple grammar structure.

§  To develop social skills and cooperative learning.

§  To improve pupils’ digital competence.

As for the contribution of Pixton, it is an useful online tool which provide students the opportunity to create a comic developing their creative writing. In that way, Pixton helps to achieve all the learning objectives since pupils have to write the dialogues in the comic improving their writing skill; students use their creativity and imagination while they are creating the comics; it reinforces the vocabulary and grammar because pupils have to use it in the dialogues; students develop their social skills and digital competence because they are working online in a cooperative way.

In relation to the role of pupils’ creativity and imagination, I think that along this activity students develop them since they have to create their own productions. Moreover, they have to design the comic including the scene, characters and dialogues. All of these processes help students’ imagination because they don’t have to copy a model, the tasks are all done by them.

Finally, as for possible reactions, I believe that students will be motivated and interested along the activity because they like technologies. Also, they have to write about their own life so it is familiar and meaningful for them.

 

EdPuzzle in English lessons!

 Hello everyone!

Along this post, I am going to describe the activity I have designed using EdPuzzle. First, this listening task has been created for a group in the 2nd grade of Primary School. Due to the current situation and the lack of time, the activity hasn’t been carried out in the class so I only can define the planning designed.

Here is the link of the video in EdPuzzle: https://edpuzzle.com/media/5fe8781d22eb434253e2a000

Now, it is necessary to express the reason why I have chosen this video; the learning objectives I want to achieve with the group of students; the sequence of the listening activity; possible reactions of my students; and possible problems and future improvements.

Firstly, I have chosen this video because pupils like Pink Panther episodes so it will be really motivated and familiar for them. Moreover, the video is related to Christmas which is the festivity we are in now. Furthermore, it is easy to relate the vocabulary or expressions we have seen along the classes with this video.

Regarding objectives, these are the following:

§  To improve comprehension listening skill

§  To reinforce basic contents (colours, numbers, weather)

§  To work on Christmas festivity

§  To motivate students

As for the sequence of the listening activity, it is possible to divide it in pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening. First, in pre-listening, students are going to read the title of the video ‘A very pink Christmas’ and predict what it is going to happen (top-down activity). Then, in while-listening, pupils have to watch the video and answer the questions that appear in EdPuzzle. Finally, in post-listening, students will create a comic in which they have to reflect aspects of the video including the colours, numbers or Christmas words seen. If they want, they can watch the video again and complete the questions at home.

In relation to pupils’ reaction, I think it could be positive and active. They would be interested and motivated because they like this type of cartoons. Also, they are familiar with the contents asked in the questions along the videos.

Regarding possible problems, I think that the more relevant one is the lack of Internet connexion or digital infrastructure in the school for the students. As for improvements, it is interesting to plan the activity in detail to provide pupils with the correct resources.

TimeToast as an useful online resource for kids!

 Hello everyone!

In this new post, I am going to describe an activity that my students of 4th grade of Primary Education have done during our English classes. It consists on an activity in which they have used a tool named TimeToast.

Along Unit 2, they have been learning vocabulary related to daily routines, the time and Present Simple to express them. In that way, I thought that a good idea was creating their timelines about this topic.

Here you can see one of the timelines they have created in TimeToast:

Now, it is time to reflect about the activity. First, I am going to describe the learning objectives of the activity and the steps we had followed. Then, the advantages of using Timetoast for this activity and its help to achieve the objectives described. After that, it is necessary to deal with the possible problems along the activity and students’ reaction. Finally, I am going to expose changes or improvements for next time.

Firstly, the learning objectives are:

a) To reinforce the vocabulary about routines.

b) To practise present simple tenses and the time.

c) To express themselves using an online tool.

d) To improve their digital competence using the TimeToast online tool.

Regarding the steps, we have followed these ones:

1. Write in a piece of paper their routines, using the vocabulary and the grammar.

2. Look for pictures according to these daily routines.

3. Complete their time line using the TimeToast tool.

4. Present orally their production to the rest of the class.

 Once we have used this online tool, some of its advantages are that it is an exciting resource to practise vocabulary and grammar; it improves pupils’ digital competence; it is a tool of expressing their daily routines in a visual way; and it engages students in the learning process. All of its characteristics help us to achieve the objectives expressed before.

However, some problems can be found when using this tool: a bad Internet connexion, pupils’ low capacities when using this type of resource or the lack of digital infrastructure in the school. Another problem is the fact that they have to use concrete dates in their time line and they need to use the time to express daily routines. To solve this, they added each daily routine in different days. Regarding students’ reaction, they are so motivated and interested along the activity because they love technologies and visual resources.

Finally, in relation to improvements, I think that it is possible to watch a video tutorial before using TimeToast tool or to prepare enough laptops and tablets for individual use. Moreover, it will be better to use another topic in which they use different dates along the history. In that way, pupils won’t be bored while they are waiting for their turn and they will be prepared to use the tool.

Reflecting on reading habits

 In this new post, we’re going to deal with reading habits in our own life and also in the school context.

Firstly, here we have some images of people reading:

They are reading at different places such as a library, streets, home... Also, they are reading a variety of reading like books, newspapers or eBooks. As we can notice, these photos are taken along the years since some of them show us ways of reading that nowadays are difficult to find.

Perhaps, people at the library or at home have chosen the texts they’re reading but, probably, students are reading a book chosen by the teacher. In that way, I think that these students might be less interested in this reading than the others. At school, readings are often selected by teachers or editorials and, as consequence, children couldn't be excited with the kind of book, the story line or drawings, among others. Therefore, I think that teachers have to take into account students' linguistic level, needs, interests or backgrounds in order to select the appropriate lecture for them.

Regarding my own experience and focusing on these photos, I identify my children hood with two of the pictures. First, the photo of the old woman telling the story to the girl reminds me when my mum told us stories in my bed. At that time I was growing up, I continued reading at home. However, when I started higher studies, I focused myself on the subjects and my reading habits were related to them. That’s why I also identify my reading process with the picture taken at the school.

Nowadays, due to the fact that we’re working at schools and studying at the same time it’s difficult for me to find moments for reading. I hope I can change this stressful everyday life and continue with my reading habits. I think that they are a way of feeling free,  helping us with our problems of real life and getting  into new stories or facts that are interesting for us . I don’t care about reading on my mother tongue (Spanish) or English because I think that both bring us opportunities to develop our minds. However,  sometimes, when I want to take a break I prefer reading in Spanish because as an English teacher, I’m always dealing with English and my brain needs to disconnect. About the format, I always prefer to read physical texts than digital ones because of their sense of touch, smell and beauty.

Finally, it is interesting to reflect on how reading habits have changed along the history. I believe that Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) are an essential part of this change since children are growing up under a technological society, where they get bored so quickly and this fact difficults our teaching role within developing reading habits.