Whew! This has been a crazy semester. While I have been using great collaboration tools such as Padlet to have students create and share, I have, for the first time in years, recycled some of my plans from last year. I haven't had much to blog about.
PBL Update
Just recently, we started my PBL for this year. This week students are posting questions on Edmodo for our buddies to answer over in France. The only thing that I did differently this year was a team contract. I felt that this was a great way to have students buy in to the project, so that they all realized that they were in important part of the team. I also gave each group a folder. In this folder they will keep their team contract, and other documents. This is always a fun, but crazy couple of weeks. We'll see where the journey takes us this year.
Google Forms
This semester I am taking a grad class that is teaching and encouraging collaboration in the classroom. For our final assignment of the course, I am faced with the task of creating a learning activity which involves collaboration with the use of technology. What better way to have students collaborate than with Google Docs. Our school this year went Google. Each student has a Google Drive, which makes collaboration with Google even easier. While this assignment would be fine without a school wide Google domain, it's not essential.
It's always a goal for students to use the target language in authentic situations, but that is often one of the greatest challenges of a WL class. How to get students to use the language outside of those four walls?
We created a Google Form! The idea was to poll students world-wide on their thoughts and habits regarding school. (Our unit was wrapped around school, school supplies, telling time, etc.) Here are the steps that we followed:
1. Students came to groups with one question about school/ school habits/ school opinions.
2. Students shared their question and the groups decided on one question that they would like to ask.
3. I created a Google Form, as a class we titled it and I added the first two questions in order to show them how to create a Google Form. (We started with What is your age? and Where do you live?)
4. Each group accessed the link to our Google Form (which I posted onto our class group of Edmodo). Then, added their question.
-I had the Form on my Smart board and as questions were being posted we could make sure that there weren't any repeats and we could look at and correct grammar errors.
5. I posted the link on my website and sent it to as many teacher friends as I could in hopes that they could get their students to answer. --This is why having a broad PLN is important. I have French teacher connections around the world, and I contacted everyone one of them.
-I had wanted to post it as a project on epals.com, but they aren't starting any new projects right now. (That's a bummer!)
Infographs
If you haven't noticed, Infographs are the THING right now. They are the preferred method of getting information out there. They allow data to easily be presented through images. I decided that an extension of our Google Form would be for students to look at the data from our survey and use that information to create an infograph.
This part of our project will be done later next week. But, students will use http://www.easel.ly/ to create an infograph that measures the responses to the survey. They will pick five areas to showcase.
Here's the plan:
1. Students will access the link to the responses of the Google Form through an link on Edmodo.
2. Working with partners, students will determine 5 areas of the survey that they want to represent.
3. Students will create graphs or use other images available to visually represent the findings of our survey.
4. To submit their final Infograph, students will post the link on or class Edmodo page.
I'm still in the process of creating the Scoring Guide for the infograph of this assignment, but I will post it when I finish it.
I think this assignment will be great in order to reinforce learning. Students are using learning in an authentic way, plus they must read and make inferences with the results of the survey. What a great way for students to take their learning to the next level. I'm excited to see how it turns out.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Sunday, September 28, 2014
The Tech Find of the Year!
Thanks to an Art teacher at my school, I have found a classroom changing application that I have to share: AirServer.
AirServer is a program that gets downloaded to your computer. Via AirPlay, which is on all IPads except 1st generation, the image on the screen of the IPad is projected onto the computer's monitor, which, in most classrooms, is projected on the Interactive White Board. Simply install AirServer, on the Apple device, turn on AirPlay. Find the computer that has AirServer registered, then select "Mirroring". Apple TV does this same thing, but Apple TV costs $99. AirServer costs $11.99 for the educator license. AirServer offers a 7 Day free trial. If you use iOS devices in your classroom, I suggest you try it out. You will be glad that you did.
Here is how I used AirServer this week:
If you have read any of my previous posts, you know that I love cooperative learning. Cooperative learning structures are a daily event in my classroom. I do not teach in a 1:1 school, but we use BYOD often and I regularly pull our school's IPad cart into my room. IPads are great for many reasons, but I am often looking for a way for students to "publish" what they create on these devices.
This week we were working on Pre-Writing strategies. My level 2 students are preparing for their first "timed-write" which is an AP style writing. For our first writing assessment, I like to give them a heads up on what they will be writing about in order to give them an opportunity to prepare. We base our writing on a silly picture or two. In groups, they create a list of words that would be used in a story about the image that I show them. Then, they create an introductory sentence for the paragraph. I like to have groups share out and usually I resort to having student write on the limited space on my classroom white boards, but the IPads offer much more of a interesting way to do this activity.
The IPad gets passed around the group and each student adds to the list, when the group is finished their list (which we just created on the Notepad App) gets projected on my Interactive Whiteboard via Airserver. If a previous group took one of their words, they then have to replace it with another word. We end up with a great word wall to help with their writing.
Then groups brain-stormed and came up with an opening sentence for a story about this picture. We added each group's sentence to Padlet and voted on our favorite. That sentence will be each person's first sentence in their timed write. In doing this each student at least has a starting point for their writing, where they go from their is up to them.
I am so excited about this program. I regularly use my IPad in my classroom. All of my documents are in my OneDrive account which now I can effortlessly project in my room. The possibilities are endless...
One caution that I would like to lay out there, students love the fact that they can simply project what is on their IPad onto the Interactive White Board. We did have to have a discussion with some of the less mature classes on proper etiquette. And, ANY student with an iOS device can project. In the settings you can lock it down so that a password is necessary to project, then you, as the teacher, can decide whether or not to release the password. It's easy to change the password, so that a different class period could have a different password.
If you use an Apple Device, try it out. There is so much that can be done with this program!
AirServer is a program that gets downloaded to your computer. Via AirPlay, which is on all IPads except 1st generation, the image on the screen of the IPad is projected onto the computer's monitor, which, in most classrooms, is projected on the Interactive White Board. Simply install AirServer, on the Apple device, turn on AirPlay. Find the computer that has AirServer registered, then select "Mirroring". Apple TV does this same thing, but Apple TV costs $99. AirServer costs $11.99 for the educator license. AirServer offers a 7 Day free trial. If you use iOS devices in your classroom, I suggest you try it out. You will be glad that you did.
Here is how I used AirServer this week:
If you have read any of my previous posts, you know that I love cooperative learning. Cooperative learning structures are a daily event in my classroom. I do not teach in a 1:1 school, but we use BYOD often and I regularly pull our school's IPad cart into my room. IPads are great for many reasons, but I am often looking for a way for students to "publish" what they create on these devices.
This week we were working on Pre-Writing strategies. My level 2 students are preparing for their first "timed-write" which is an AP style writing. For our first writing assessment, I like to give them a heads up on what they will be writing about in order to give them an opportunity to prepare. We base our writing on a silly picture or two. In groups, they create a list of words that would be used in a story about the image that I show them. Then, they create an introductory sentence for the paragraph. I like to have groups share out and usually I resort to having student write on the limited space on my classroom white boards, but the IPads offer much more of a interesting way to do this activity.
The IPad gets passed around the group and each student adds to the list, when the group is finished their list (which we just created on the Notepad App) gets projected on my Interactive Whiteboard via Airserver. If a previous group took one of their words, they then have to replace it with another word. We end up with a great word wall to help with their writing.
Then groups brain-stormed and came up with an opening sentence for a story about this picture. We added each group's sentence to Padlet and voted on our favorite. That sentence will be each person's first sentence in their timed write. In doing this each student at least has a starting point for their writing, where they go from their is up to them.
I am so excited about this program. I regularly use my IPad in my classroom. All of my documents are in my OneDrive account which now I can effortlessly project in my room. The possibilities are endless...
One caution that I would like to lay out there, students love the fact that they can simply project what is on their IPad onto the Interactive White Board. We did have to have a discussion with some of the less mature classes on proper etiquette. And, ANY student with an iOS device can project. In the settings you can lock it down so that a password is necessary to project, then you, as the teacher, can decide whether or not to release the password. It's easy to change the password, so that a different class period could have a different password.
If you use an Apple Device, try it out. There is so much that can be done with this program!
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Keys to making your flipped classroom a success!
By now most of us are back into the swing of things for the new school year. I love all of what a new year represents. I love the chance to start over!
I am starting my third full year as a teacher who uses the flipped method for instruction. Each year, I get better at this way of teaching. This year, I finally feel as if I have full command of what works best for me and my classroom. As I have started this school year, I have had near 100% of my students watching video lessons. I often hear of teachers who just decide to quit because they don't have "buy-in" from their students and they don't receive support from their parents. It takes patience for this culture change to occur, but stick it out! It's worth it.
Here are five things that account for a successful flipped classroom.
1. Involve parents from the beginning. On the first day of school, I send a letter home to parents to explain what a flipped classroom is, and why I choose to teach through videos at home instead of lectures in the classroom. I also post a video of me explaining this method (check my video out), so that parents can virtually "meet" me. When parents are intimidated about this learning method, I explain to them how I understand that it is vastly different than how we learned, but I assure them that this is a method that works because lessons are more accessible this way.
2. Teach kids how to watch a video for instruction. So often kids don't know how to take notes unless notes are given to them. But, when notes are given to them, they aren't really taking the notes. As I have said before, the KEY to kids learning better through flipped videos is Cornell Notes. Through the use of Cornell Notes, my students learn how to organize their notes, and how to figure out what is useful in their own notes. I always model video notes for them. We watch a video together in class, and I take notes as they take notes. Then, we compare. We talk about the point of taking notes. They look at what their partner has written and they look at what I wrote. We talk about different ways of organizing notes so that we can find the information that we need later on.
3. Give them time. When I first started to flip my classroom, I gave them two nights to get the notes done. Now, I give them at least four nights, often a week. By giving them this much time, I can remind them each day that they have notes due. I usually start with a quick reminder at the beginning of the class period, and I allude to the information that is presented in the upcoming notes. For example, if the grammar point is used in something that we read, I will explain to the students that they will get more information on that topic through the video. Or, I will plead, "You won't understand this topic until you see the video that is due. You really must take good notes on this topic before Thursday!!" Let's face it, students need to be reminded! Because I give them more time to complete the notes, I have few students who don't get the notes completed on time.
4. Use Social Media. You have to get the word out. Kids forget. We all forget things from time to time. We need to be reminded. I use three methods to remind students when videos are due. I send out a text via Remind (formerly Remind 101). Students and parents can sign up for this and it is super simple to use. I also send out a Tweet on Twitter (You can follow me: @mmeburton). Thirdly, I send out a reminder on Edmodo. All three messages are the same, and they all contain a link to the video hosted on Wistia or SchoolTube.
5. Stress the importance. We all want to be successful. We all want to get a handle on what we are learning. With every video, I stress how important it is that they view the video so that they will understand the concept. I stress to them that by not watching the video, they are choosing to be confused and lost in the class. I praise each and everyone of them for watching the videos and completing the notes and I have a discussion with each of those students who didn't watch the video. When we take our notes quiz, I write little notes on the quizzes of those students who didn't watch the video to remind them of the importance of watching the video. And, if someone forgets to take the notes, the next time a video is due, you better bet I am constantly nagging them to get it completed.
As the flipped classroom becomes more of a regular practice in classrooms across the globe, there is more support out there for those teachers who are beginning to get their feet wet. This summer a great book came out to further help teachers. If you are new to this, thinking about getting started or even a seasoned flipped teacher, I suggest that you spend some time with this book. And, I was fortunate enough to contribute one of my ideas to the book!
I am starting my third full year as a teacher who uses the flipped method for instruction. Each year, I get better at this way of teaching. This year, I finally feel as if I have full command of what works best for me and my classroom. As I have started this school year, I have had near 100% of my students watching video lessons. I often hear of teachers who just decide to quit because they don't have "buy-in" from their students and they don't receive support from their parents. It takes patience for this culture change to occur, but stick it out! It's worth it.
Here are five things that account for a successful flipped classroom.
1. Involve parents from the beginning. On the first day of school, I send a letter home to parents to explain what a flipped classroom is, and why I choose to teach through videos at home instead of lectures in the classroom. I also post a video of me explaining this method (check my video out), so that parents can virtually "meet" me. When parents are intimidated about this learning method, I explain to them how I understand that it is vastly different than how we learned, but I assure them that this is a method that works because lessons are more accessible this way.
2. Teach kids how to watch a video for instruction. So often kids don't know how to take notes unless notes are given to them. But, when notes are given to them, they aren't really taking the notes. As I have said before, the KEY to kids learning better through flipped videos is Cornell Notes. Through the use of Cornell Notes, my students learn how to organize their notes, and how to figure out what is useful in their own notes. I always model video notes for them. We watch a video together in class, and I take notes as they take notes. Then, we compare. We talk about the point of taking notes. They look at what their partner has written and they look at what I wrote. We talk about different ways of organizing notes so that we can find the information that we need later on.
3. Give them time. When I first started to flip my classroom, I gave them two nights to get the notes done. Now, I give them at least four nights, often a week. By giving them this much time, I can remind them each day that they have notes due. I usually start with a quick reminder at the beginning of the class period, and I allude to the information that is presented in the upcoming notes. For example, if the grammar point is used in something that we read, I will explain to the students that they will get more information on that topic through the video. Or, I will plead, "You won't understand this topic until you see the video that is due. You really must take good notes on this topic before Thursday!!" Let's face it, students need to be reminded! Because I give them more time to complete the notes, I have few students who don't get the notes completed on time.
4. Use Social Media. You have to get the word out. Kids forget. We all forget things from time to time. We need to be reminded. I use three methods to remind students when videos are due. I send out a text via Remind (formerly Remind 101). Students and parents can sign up for this and it is super simple to use. I also send out a Tweet on Twitter (You can follow me: @mmeburton). Thirdly, I send out a reminder on Edmodo. All three messages are the same, and they all contain a link to the video hosted on Wistia or SchoolTube.
5. Stress the importance. We all want to be successful. We all want to get a handle on what we are learning. With every video, I stress how important it is that they view the video so that they will understand the concept. I stress to them that by not watching the video, they are choosing to be confused and lost in the class. I praise each and everyone of them for watching the videos and completing the notes and I have a discussion with each of those students who didn't watch the video. When we take our notes quiz, I write little notes on the quizzes of those students who didn't watch the video to remind them of the importance of watching the video. And, if someone forgets to take the notes, the next time a video is due, you better bet I am constantly nagging them to get it completed.
As the flipped classroom becomes more of a regular practice in classrooms across the globe, there is more support out there for those teachers who are beginning to get their feet wet. This summer a great book came out to further help teachers. If you are new to this, thinking about getting started or even a seasoned flipped teacher, I suggest that you spend some time with this book. And, I was fortunate enough to contribute one of my ideas to the book!
Thursday, May 15, 2014
The Vocabulary Cundundrum
Every now and then, I come across something awesome from Twitter, Edmodo or some other social media site and I quickly adapt it to my classroom. I absolutely love when I can read about exciting things that other teachers are doing in their classroom and gain inspiration to do something similar. A few months ago, I came across a World Language teacher's goldmine. Amy Lenord's website is amazing; she has so many ready-to-use activities that I spent hours one Saturday morning reading her blog entries and adapting her Spanish activities for use in my French classroom. But what brought me to her website was a re-tweet about a post that had to do with teaching vocabulary in the World Language classroom.
Vocabulary Lists are Not the Way to Go
Yep, she said it, not me. Well, she said it in not so many words. She wrote a fantastic post on how to go "list-less". It really got me to thinking. I learned with vocabulary lists, I have always taught with vocabulary lists, so how do I introduce the necessary vocabulary without a vocabulary list. And...how do I do that in level 1, where the students have such limited knowledge. I have always given the English words that I wanted students to learn and I have had them use their textbook to find the French equivelants and complete the lists themselves. I have seen value in this, and students like the lists, right?
Pictures Speak Louder Than Words
I decided that I would try it. As I started a unit on clothing, I decided I would begin without The List. I started with a class discussion, which, honestly, made me nervous because as a flip-teacher, I am rarely "all eyes on me". My students aren't used to taking notes when I talk and I wasn't sure how engaged students would be with me in front of them.
I prepared a notebook file ahead of time.
I introduced the topic with the words "Les Vêtements" and a picture of a bunch of clothes. I asked if anyone could figure out what we would be talking about next. I explained that we would be creating a list for the words that we would need for this unit, and suggested they they write things down as we continue.
First, we created a short list of words that we already knew that pertained to clothing. (We had learned tee-shirt, tennis shoes, etc--things needed for PE, in an earlier unit.)
Next, I had 5-7 pictures of clothing and words at the bottom on the notebook page. I gave students one minute with their partners to see if they could figure out which word went with each item of clothing. This part was great because I could hear awesome conversations going on. They were using prior knowledge, comparing words to English, and drawing some great conclusions. Then, I chose one pair to go to the Smart Board and move the words under the corresponding picture. When done, I would tell them how many they got correct, but not specifically which ones. Then I would have another pair come up and correct. I loved this because they were hearing the words from me immediately. Before they set out to work with their partners, I had them repeat the words, and after going over the information on the board, they would hear it again, several times. The students were absolutely engaged!! They loved seeing if they were correct or not.
I repeated this same routine several times. Each time, I used 5-7 words, until all of the words that the text was introducing were covered. We stopped after this, and continued with part 2 on the next day, which worked out great because I was able to review at the beginning of the next class period. This allowed the students to hear and see these words, again.
In our textbook, students are taught many expressions, and I always struggle with they best way to have students memorize these expressions. For this unit, I let the students decide the expressions to learn. In my Notebook file, I created the headings "Au Magasin", "Questions de la cliente", "Les Adjectifs". We walked through a shopping experience, where I had students tell me what would be necessary to say if shopping in a boutique in Paris. They would tell me the expression in English, and I would write the equivalent in French. I was able to stay in the target language, so that they were constantly hearing the words.
I was amazed at the level of engagement from the students. I was also amazed at how they were able to cover all of the expressions that I wanted them to learn. Because I want students to have a list of words that they "own", I had students create their own list which they kept in their binder. However, I gave them the choice, they could organize these new words into their own categories or they could label pictures.
While this took quite a bit longer then the traditional list, which I can usually send home for homework, the learning that took place was very meaningful. My kids know these words. I mean...they KNOW these words. And, they can correctly pronounce these words, which is a huge plus.
I have continued to use pictures to teach vocabulary with both level 1 and level 2, and I can see an improvement in vocabulary retention, but even more with pronunciation. Going "list-less" gets a huge HOORAY from me!
Vocabulary Lists are Not the Way to Go
Yep, she said it, not me. Well, she said it in not so many words. She wrote a fantastic post on how to go "list-less". It really got me to thinking. I learned with vocabulary lists, I have always taught with vocabulary lists, so how do I introduce the necessary vocabulary without a vocabulary list. And...how do I do that in level 1, where the students have such limited knowledge. I have always given the English words that I wanted students to learn and I have had them use their textbook to find the French equivelants and complete the lists themselves. I have seen value in this, and students like the lists, right?
Pictures Speak Louder Than Words
I decided that I would try it. As I started a unit on clothing, I decided I would begin without The List. I started with a class discussion, which, honestly, made me nervous because as a flip-teacher, I am rarely "all eyes on me". My students aren't used to taking notes when I talk and I wasn't sure how engaged students would be with me in front of them.
I prepared a notebook file ahead of time.
I introduced the topic with the words "Les Vêtements" and a picture of a bunch of clothes. I asked if anyone could figure out what we would be talking about next. I explained that we would be creating a list for the words that we would need for this unit, and suggested they they write things down as we continue.
First, we created a short list of words that we already knew that pertained to clothing. (We had learned tee-shirt, tennis shoes, etc--things needed for PE, in an earlier unit.)
Next, I had 5-7 pictures of clothing and words at the bottom on the notebook page. I gave students one minute with their partners to see if they could figure out which word went with each item of clothing. This part was great because I could hear awesome conversations going on. They were using prior knowledge, comparing words to English, and drawing some great conclusions. Then, I chose one pair to go to the Smart Board and move the words under the corresponding picture. When done, I would tell them how many they got correct, but not specifically which ones. Then I would have another pair come up and correct. I loved this because they were hearing the words from me immediately. Before they set out to work with their partners, I had them repeat the words, and after going over the information on the board, they would hear it again, several times. The students were absolutely engaged!! They loved seeing if they were correct or not.
I repeated this same routine several times. Each time, I used 5-7 words, until all of the words that the text was introducing were covered. We stopped after this, and continued with part 2 on the next day, which worked out great because I was able to review at the beginning of the next class period. This allowed the students to hear and see these words, again.
In our textbook, students are taught many expressions, and I always struggle with they best way to have students memorize these expressions. For this unit, I let the students decide the expressions to learn. In my Notebook file, I created the headings "Au Magasin", "Questions de la cliente", "Les Adjectifs". We walked through a shopping experience, where I had students tell me what would be necessary to say if shopping in a boutique in Paris. They would tell me the expression in English, and I would write the equivalent in French. I was able to stay in the target language, so that they were constantly hearing the words.
I was amazed at the level of engagement from the students. I was also amazed at how they were able to cover all of the expressions that I wanted them to learn. Because I want students to have a list of words that they "own", I had students create their own list which they kept in their binder. However, I gave them the choice, they could organize these new words into their own categories or they could label pictures.
While this took quite a bit longer then the traditional list, which I can usually send home for homework, the learning that took place was very meaningful. My kids know these words. I mean...they KNOW these words. And, they can correctly pronounce these words, which is a huge plus.
I have continued to use pictures to teach vocabulary with both level 1 and level 2, and I can see an improvement in vocabulary retention, but even more with pronunciation. Going "list-less" gets a huge HOORAY from me!
Monday, April 7, 2014
Cooperative Learning for....Learning??
So often as teachers we use the term "Cooperative Learning" to describe what is actually "Cooperative Practicing" or "Cooperative Reviewing", and while I am convinced that some learning does actually take place in those situations, they aren't often used to learn NEW information. I am here to tell you that new information can be learned through cooperative learning.
I don't know if it is the "flipped teacher" in me or if it is just how I am. I do not subscribe to the "Sage on the Stage" type of teaching. My students RARELY (almost never) sit and get from me. I feel like it doesn't mean anything to them if they are just taking notes while I am jabbering on. I want my students to really "get" the content, and I find that traditional classroom lectures just don't do that. Typically, my students learn information from videos that I create and that they watch at home. That way they can stop and rewind, they can watch where ever and when ever it works for them, and they don't have to deal with the interruptions that typically occur with students in a typical high school classroom.
Sometimes, though, I want students to actually learn the information with my presence. For example, today, my students were learning Interrogative Adjectives (the ways of saying "which"). We had already learned the demonstrative adjectives (they ways of saying "this/that/these/those"). I chose an engaging way for them to use deductive reasoning to figure out the usage rules for this grammar point.
Here goes:
Step 1: Students are in groups and each group gets a stack of little pieces of paper and a basket for the middle of the group. Each student takes several of the pieces of paper.
Step 2: I created a slideshow of the grammar point being used. For this grammar point, it was a story of a family at the mall shopping for Grandma's birthday. Each slide had a question and answer part of the conversation. For example, one slide might say "WHICH scarves would Grandma prefer? --I think she would like these scarves". I had the words that I wanted them to focus on in a different color.
Step 3: I went slide by slide and for each slide and had them write a comment about the word that I had in a different color. I coached them by saying it can be what comes to mind. What does this mean in English, how is it used, what do you notice about pronunciation? Each student (without talking) writes their comment on a piece of paper, then puts it in the basket.
Step 4: We did this for each page of the slide show.
Step 5: I had one person be the "authority". This person grabbed their textbook and turned to the page that explained the grammar point.
Step 6: When we finish with the slides. I have them mix up the papers. Then, students take turns reading one paper at a time. The "authority" decides if the statement on the paper was supported by the textbook or not and the students create two stacks of paper. One stack for the statements that agree with the book, another stack for those that do not.
Step 7: Using Padlet I have each group post something from their "Good Stack". Padlet allows the class to see sentences on the SmartBoard, so as students are writing, I would say No Repeats, so that they would have to come up with a list of usage rules.
Step 8: Students wrote down what showed up on the board onto notes. I had them discuss with their groups what would be good things to write down.
Step 9: As a final step, I had the "Authority" read through the information from the book and make sure that everyone covered all of what was important about this topic.
I had one class that had a little extra time, so I as an additional step, I had them post an example sentence that wasn't from the textbook or from my examples, to show that they could use the grammar point.
This is a great way to put students in charge of their own learning.
I don't know if it is the "flipped teacher" in me or if it is just how I am. I do not subscribe to the "Sage on the Stage" type of teaching. My students RARELY (almost never) sit and get from me. I feel like it doesn't mean anything to them if they are just taking notes while I am jabbering on. I want my students to really "get" the content, and I find that traditional classroom lectures just don't do that. Typically, my students learn information from videos that I create and that they watch at home. That way they can stop and rewind, they can watch where ever and when ever it works for them, and they don't have to deal with the interruptions that typically occur with students in a typical high school classroom.
Sometimes, though, I want students to actually learn the information with my presence. For example, today, my students were learning Interrogative Adjectives (the ways of saying "which"). We had already learned the demonstrative adjectives (they ways of saying "this/that/these/those"). I chose an engaging way for them to use deductive reasoning to figure out the usage rules for this grammar point.
Here goes:
Step 1: Students are in groups and each group gets a stack of little pieces of paper and a basket for the middle of the group. Each student takes several of the pieces of paper.
Step 2: I created a slideshow of the grammar point being used. For this grammar point, it was a story of a family at the mall shopping for Grandma's birthday. Each slide had a question and answer part of the conversation. For example, one slide might say "WHICH scarves would Grandma prefer? --I think she would like these scarves". I had the words that I wanted them to focus on in a different color.
Step 3: I went slide by slide and for each slide and had them write a comment about the word that I had in a different color. I coached them by saying it can be what comes to mind. What does this mean in English, how is it used, what do you notice about pronunciation? Each student (without talking) writes their comment on a piece of paper, then puts it in the basket.
Step 4: We did this for each page of the slide show.
Step 5: I had one person be the "authority". This person grabbed their textbook and turned to the page that explained the grammar point.
Step 6: When we finish with the slides. I have them mix up the papers. Then, students take turns reading one paper at a time. The "authority" decides if the statement on the paper was supported by the textbook or not and the students create two stacks of paper. One stack for the statements that agree with the book, another stack for those that do not.
Step 7: Using Padlet I have each group post something from their "Good Stack". Padlet allows the class to see sentences on the SmartBoard, so as students are writing, I would say No Repeats, so that they would have to come up with a list of usage rules.
Step 8: Students wrote down what showed up on the board onto notes. I had them discuss with their groups what would be good things to write down.
Step 9: As a final step, I had the "Authority" read through the information from the book and make sure that everyone covered all of what was important about this topic.
I had one class that had a little extra time, so I as an additional step, I had them post an example sentence that wasn't from the textbook or from my examples, to show that they could use the grammar point.
This is a great way to put students in charge of their own learning.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Presentations with a Purpose
I run a very project-based classroom. In World Language classes, we want our students to use the language, and what better way to do that than by having them create a narrated slideshow. There are oodles of programs that can serve this purpose from PowerPoint to IMovie. I have used many different programs, and I often am teaching the technology as I am teaching the project. I feel that it is important to expose high school students to different technology. As they continue in their educational careers, they will be expected to do many different presentations and I want them to be comfortable with using more than just Power Point.
That being said, my Level 2 students always do a project to practice the two different past tenses (passé composé and imparfait). I have them pick three photographs from their childhood and tell a story about that photograph. When telling the story, they must know the proper situation for which each tense is used. The kids enjoy re-telling about their past and showing off how cute they were when they were kids, and I enjoy getting to know them a little better.
Because I have so many students and so little time, in-class presentations are out of the question. This means that I need a program on which students can narrate over a still image. I have used PhotoStory, and for the past two years, I have used a program called Yodio. This year, however, I couldn't decide which program to have them use, so I did something crazy, I gave them a choice.
I created a How-To Document that included directions and a tutorial for four different programs, and I let them choose the program that they preferred. I gave them three days in front of computers (I must also mention that they have a simultaneous vocabulary practice assignment at the same time, and some students chose to use the computers to do the online versions of that assignment, and to do the narrated slideshow at home.) My four suggested programs: PowerPoint, PhotoStory, IMovie and Yodio. I can't believe that I forgot to include Windows Movie Maker, so when I do this again, I will add that program to the list.
This was incredibly successful this year. I had so few technical problems. I was amazed. We do a lot of "pre-work" on the writing process of the presentations over the course of two chapters, so students did a great job. For example, when we first learned the imparfait, I had them submit the three photos either using Google Docs or OneDrive. Along with each photo they used the imparfait to write three sentences about the picture. I used this as a time to teach the usage rules for the imparfait. Then as we progressed, I had them elaborate more on the photographs, and tell a story about the photograph. In this step, they incorporated the passé composé. By submitting electronically, I could easily edit or help to edit their work in progress. Then, when it came time to "tell" the story, most of the work had been done. All that they needed to do before recording was add transition words and make corrections. They recorded using their favorite program...and DONE! As my daughter's kindergarten teacher would say, "Easy Peasy Lemon Squeasy!"
That being said, my Level 2 students always do a project to practice the two different past tenses (passé composé and imparfait). I have them pick three photographs from their childhood and tell a story about that photograph. When telling the story, they must know the proper situation for which each tense is used. The kids enjoy re-telling about their past and showing off how cute they were when they were kids, and I enjoy getting to know them a little better.
Because I have so many students and so little time, in-class presentations are out of the question. This means that I need a program on which students can narrate over a still image. I have used PhotoStory, and for the past two years, I have used a program called Yodio. This year, however, I couldn't decide which program to have them use, so I did something crazy, I gave them a choice.
I created a How-To Document that included directions and a tutorial for four different programs, and I let them choose the program that they preferred. I gave them three days in front of computers (I must also mention that they have a simultaneous vocabulary practice assignment at the same time, and some students chose to use the computers to do the online versions of that assignment, and to do the narrated slideshow at home.) My four suggested programs: PowerPoint, PhotoStory, IMovie and Yodio. I can't believe that I forgot to include Windows Movie Maker, so when I do this again, I will add that program to the list.
This was incredibly successful this year. I had so few technical problems. I was amazed. We do a lot of "pre-work" on the writing process of the presentations over the course of two chapters, so students did a great job. For example, when we first learned the imparfait, I had them submit the three photos either using Google Docs or OneDrive. Along with each photo they used the imparfait to write three sentences about the picture. I used this as a time to teach the usage rules for the imparfait. Then as we progressed, I had them elaborate more on the photographs, and tell a story about the photograph. In this step, they incorporated the passé composé. By submitting electronically, I could easily edit or help to edit their work in progress. Then, when it came time to "tell" the story, most of the work had been done. All that they needed to do before recording was add transition words and make corrections. They recorded using their favorite program...and DONE! As my daughter's kindergarten teacher would say, "Easy Peasy Lemon Squeasy!"
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Teach with Student-Created Videos, what?
A few weeks ago we came back from Spring Break, and I wanted to take a few days to stop and review. Second semester of French 1 is very verb heavy, so before we learned more irregular verbs, I thought it would be good for everyone if we took some time to review what we had already learned. I have always been a big fan of jig-saws, where I put different groups in-charge of different topics, they research, write down some notes, then I send one person from each group to another group to share what their group came up with, and I continue mixing up groups until all groups have been exposed to at least one person from each group. But, this year I wanted to somehow involve technology to review verbs, and I came up with, what I think, is an awesome use for IPads. Why not use the IPads to create videos to teach each other?
To start off, I divided students into their cooperative learning groups that they would have for the quarter. (If you've read any of my posts before, I strongly believe that there are benefits in cooperative learning, and I always have students work in the same group, that I strategically create, for the length of a unit.) Since these were new groups, I spent some time doing a team building exercise to help them decide on their group name, but I will have to save that for another post. I handed all students a packet that had verb charts for all of the categories of verbs that we had learned, and all of the irregular verbs that we had learned so far this year. Along with each verb chart was space for three sentences that use that verb. I assigned each group a section of the packet.
The groups had some time to research their assigned verb(s) to correctly complete the verb chart and to write their example sentences. During this work time, I stressed their group rolls. The time keeper needed to be letting the group know how much time there was left, researcher was looking up informaton, the secretary was writing their groups information on white boards, and the "patron", was organizing everything. I was walking around checking for errors, and asking about pronunciation.
After groups had finished with their research, it was time to teach! Each group grabbed an IPad and taught the information that they had written on their white boards. I had told the students that they could use up to five white boards (because that is all I had), and someone held the IPad and recorded while someone else explained the information on a white board that someone else was holding. They were so engaged!! I had them use the camera on the IPad to record and just kept the footage in the camera roll. Since multiple classes were doing this, I had another class use IMovie to produce the video-lesson. Originally, I had wanted to use the app Educreations, but the app wasn't on the IPads, yet.
The next day, the students returned to their groups and I handed each group a different group's IPad. They set the IPad up in their group, pressed play and took notes as they watched all of the other group's videos. They passed around the IPads until they were able to complete the entire verb packet, which they keep in their binder for the entire quarter so that they can use it as a reference.
As in all cooperative learning, there are problems that occur. Inevitably, groups made mistakes that I didn't catch before the groups created their video. There are always a few bright students who will catch those mistakes, and let me know. In those cases, I kept a running list of mistakes on the board and we addressed them after everyone had completed their packet. With some videos, as I was handing a group another IPad that had a video with a mistake, I would tell them, "There is a mistake with this one, let me know if you can figure out what it is", and I would help the group out as they were watching the video. Also, there were some groups that didn't finish creating their entire video, in that case, when groups watched the incomplete video, as a group they would have to work together to come up with the missed-information.
I loved this activity. It moved fast because I kept everything to a time limit and I had a count-down timer on the Smartboard, as they were working. The end result was valuable, now students have a great resource in their binder. The students ended up learning so well from each other and I am amazed at how well they know their verbs. Since I have at least four "authorities" for each verb that we learned, when I ask the class, what a certain verb means, at least four people know and can help the others out. Best of all, they had so much fun creating the videos. I was thrilled to walk around and watch the creativity as they were writing these silly sentences to show their verbs and deciding on the best way to record their information. Yep, this activity is a keeper!
To start off, I divided students into their cooperative learning groups that they would have for the quarter. (If you've read any of my posts before, I strongly believe that there are benefits in cooperative learning, and I always have students work in the same group, that I strategically create, for the length of a unit.) Since these were new groups, I spent some time doing a team building exercise to help them decide on their group name, but I will have to save that for another post. I handed all students a packet that had verb charts for all of the categories of verbs that we had learned, and all of the irregular verbs that we had learned so far this year. Along with each verb chart was space for three sentences that use that verb. I assigned each group a section of the packet.
The groups had some time to research their assigned verb(s) to correctly complete the verb chart and to write their example sentences. During this work time, I stressed their group rolls. The time keeper needed to be letting the group know how much time there was left, researcher was looking up informaton, the secretary was writing their groups information on white boards, and the "patron", was organizing everything. I was walking around checking for errors, and asking about pronunciation.
After groups had finished with their research, it was time to teach! Each group grabbed an IPad and taught the information that they had written on their white boards. I had told the students that they could use up to five white boards (because that is all I had), and someone held the IPad and recorded while someone else explained the information on a white board that someone else was holding. They were so engaged!! I had them use the camera on the IPad to record and just kept the footage in the camera roll. Since multiple classes were doing this, I had another class use IMovie to produce the video-lesson. Originally, I had wanted to use the app Educreations, but the app wasn't on the IPads, yet.
The next day, the students returned to their groups and I handed each group a different group's IPad. They set the IPad up in their group, pressed play and took notes as they watched all of the other group's videos. They passed around the IPads until they were able to complete the entire verb packet, which they keep in their binder for the entire quarter so that they can use it as a reference.
As in all cooperative learning, there are problems that occur. Inevitably, groups made mistakes that I didn't catch before the groups created their video. There are always a few bright students who will catch those mistakes, and let me know. In those cases, I kept a running list of mistakes on the board and we addressed them after everyone had completed their packet. With some videos, as I was handing a group another IPad that had a video with a mistake, I would tell them, "There is a mistake with this one, let me know if you can figure out what it is", and I would help the group out as they were watching the video. Also, there were some groups that didn't finish creating their entire video, in that case, when groups watched the incomplete video, as a group they would have to work together to come up with the missed-information.
I loved this activity. It moved fast because I kept everything to a time limit and I had a count-down timer on the Smartboard, as they were working. The end result was valuable, now students have a great resource in their binder. The students ended up learning so well from each other and I am amazed at how well they know their verbs. Since I have at least four "authorities" for each verb that we learned, when I ask the class, what a certain verb means, at least four people know and can help the others out. Best of all, they had so much fun creating the videos. I was thrilled to walk around and watch the creativity as they were writing these silly sentences to show their verbs and deciding on the best way to record their information. Yep, this activity is a keeper!
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Rave Review
I don't know if all teachers are like this, but test review days stress me out. Because my unit exams cover reading, writing, listening, as well as cloze passages, I feel like I have to really "get it right" during test reviews in order to cover everything. And, I feel like students are always less engaged on these days because I am doing so much talking.
Before Spring Break we were taking our unit test, and due to losing so much class time to snow days, I felt like my students weren't as prepared as they could be for our test. In order to cover a lot of missed practice and to keep students engaged. I combined two of my favorite activities that I have blogged about before. I created a Review Stations Day AND I combined it with my Superlative/Comparative practice (the "Food, Fun and Foolishness" that I posted about previously).
For this review, I created seven stations (because I have seven groups of four in each of my level 2 classes), and the students had 6 minutes in each class. I had the stations set up before they came in. It looked so fun!
Here is how I broke down the stations:
Listening Review: Using a CD player, students listened to a short listening passage from the textbook and answered questions. The questions were a. or b. and they scored their answers on a bubblesheet and scanned it with a computer that I had set up to scan on Mastery Connect. Some students used their "BubbleSheet" app. This way students knew right away how many they got correct. I encouraged them to stop the recording and talk about what they heard. The conversations were awesome.
Reading Review: I am working with my students to prepare them for AP style reading assessment. For this station, students read a passage then answered six questions that were modeled after the AP type reading questions. Again, they bubbled their answers from the six multiple-choice questions onto a bubblesheet and scanned on a different computer or used their app, in order to immediately see their results. Again, it was great to hear them talking about the passages and pointing out sentences that supported their opinions to why a certain question was a certain answer.
Writing Practice: This was my favorite!! Our grammar topic for this unit is passé composé v. imparfait. For this station, I had an Ipad cued up and students watched a hilarious video that a dad had taken of students slipping on ice. (This video went viral, you may have seen it.) Then, they filled out a chart to write down as much as they could about the video in either the passé composé or the imparfait. The chart had two columns (one for each tense) and reviewed with them the circumstances when each tense would be used, and gave them space to write sentences.
Vocabulary Practice: I call this the Vocab-Match game, and we play it each chapter. I gave students puzzle pieces with vocab in either French or English on each of the four sides of a rectangle. The task is to match the French word with the English word to complete the puzzle. For the stations, I had the pieces already cut out, they had to match them and glue them.
Superlative/Comparative Practice: Sort of like a "Word Wall", I had a bunch of little words in boxes. The students had to use the words available to create superlative or comparative sentences and glue them down on paper. They had fun with it because they could create silly sentences like "Mme B is smarter than a cat", but it really helped them with sentence word order.
Superlative Practice: (This is taken from my previous blog) I had student bring in snacks: crackers, chips, cookies, etc) On a paper, they had to write superlative sentences about the snacks that were there. I started them with the formula for a superlative sentence, then they had to write as many as they could.
Comparative Practice: This was exactly like the Superlative Practice however, it was with drinks. I had them bring in lots of drinks: different types of soda, milk, fruit punch, etc. Again, I started them with the formula and had them write as many comparative sentences as they could.
The goal at each station is to get as many things correctly completed as possible. I did take an in-class grade for this. In order to grade them, I added up the number of correct items for each group. I averaged the class. Each group got a 5-point grade based on the average. Groups that got more than the average got more than 5 points, groups that got less than the average got less than 5 points.
The kids loved this day. It kept them moving and they really enjoyed themselves. What I always love are the meaningful conversations that take place during cooperative learning activities. It really helped them to feel more confidant with what I would be assessing them on.
Before Spring Break we were taking our unit test, and due to losing so much class time to snow days, I felt like my students weren't as prepared as they could be for our test. In order to cover a lot of missed practice and to keep students engaged. I combined two of my favorite activities that I have blogged about before. I created a Review Stations Day AND I combined it with my Superlative/Comparative practice (the "Food, Fun and Foolishness" that I posted about previously).
For this review, I created seven stations (because I have seven groups of four in each of my level 2 classes), and the students had 6 minutes in each class. I had the stations set up before they came in. It looked so fun!
Here is how I broke down the stations:
Listening Review: Using a CD player, students listened to a short listening passage from the textbook and answered questions. The questions were a. or b. and they scored their answers on a bubblesheet and scanned it with a computer that I had set up to scan on Mastery Connect. Some students used their "BubbleSheet" app. This way students knew right away how many they got correct. I encouraged them to stop the recording and talk about what they heard. The conversations were awesome.
Reading Review: I am working with my students to prepare them for AP style reading assessment. For this station, students read a passage then answered six questions that were modeled after the AP type reading questions. Again, they bubbled their answers from the six multiple-choice questions onto a bubblesheet and scanned on a different computer or used their app, in order to immediately see their results. Again, it was great to hear them talking about the passages and pointing out sentences that supported their opinions to why a certain question was a certain answer.
Writing Practice: This was my favorite!! Our grammar topic for this unit is passé composé v. imparfait. For this station, I had an Ipad cued up and students watched a hilarious video that a dad had taken of students slipping on ice. (This video went viral, you may have seen it.) Then, they filled out a chart to write down as much as they could about the video in either the passé composé or the imparfait. The chart had two columns (one for each tense) and reviewed with them the circumstances when each tense would be used, and gave them space to write sentences.
Vocabulary Practice: I call this the Vocab-Match game, and we play it each chapter. I gave students puzzle pieces with vocab in either French or English on each of the four sides of a rectangle. The task is to match the French word with the English word to complete the puzzle. For the stations, I had the pieces already cut out, they had to match them and glue them.
Superlative/Comparative Practice: Sort of like a "Word Wall", I had a bunch of little words in boxes. The students had to use the words available to create superlative or comparative sentences and glue them down on paper. They had fun with it because they could create silly sentences like "Mme B is smarter than a cat", but it really helped them with sentence word order.
Superlative Practice: (This is taken from my previous blog) I had student bring in snacks: crackers, chips, cookies, etc) On a paper, they had to write superlative sentences about the snacks that were there. I started them with the formula for a superlative sentence, then they had to write as many as they could.
Comparative Practice: This was exactly like the Superlative Practice however, it was with drinks. I had them bring in lots of drinks: different types of soda, milk, fruit punch, etc. Again, I started them with the formula and had them write as many comparative sentences as they could.
The goal at each station is to get as many things correctly completed as possible. I did take an in-class grade for this. In order to grade them, I added up the number of correct items for each group. I averaged the class. Each group got a 5-point grade based on the average. Groups that got more than the average got more than 5 points, groups that got less than the average got less than 5 points.
The kids loved this day. It kept them moving and they really enjoyed themselves. What I always love are the meaningful conversations that take place during cooperative learning activities. It really helped them to feel more confidant with what I would be assessing them on.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
And the winner is....
The effectiveness of games in the classroom is a topic that I wish I had more time to study. I love playing games with my students, but the challenge is always how to keep every student engaged, while providing for effective learning experiences. I feel as if a well-designed game is much more beneficial to most students than a worksheet. I have been in this teaching game for a while now, and one thing that has really changed, in my experience, is the willingness for the average student to do homework. Most of my Level 1 kids just don't do work at home. With that being said, in order for my students to practice the material, I need to be creative in the classroom. There are some awesome classroom games that help with this issue.
One of my new favorites that I have used lately is great at engaging all students. I call it "Tuez la Tortue" (Kill the Turtle). My colleagues all have different names for the game. It might sound a bit sadistic, but the kids love this game and it provides awesome practice for the material.
Set up:
Students work in groups (I always have pre-determined groups of about 4 students who work together over the course of a unit. In these groups, each student is assigned a number) Each student needs a white board, marker, eraser. Before the game, I create a series of questions/practice sentences with my SMART notebook software. On the game, I have a dice.
How it is played:
1. I show the students a question/practice sentence.
2. Students have a certain amount of time (15-30 seconds depending on the difficulty of the question) to write their answer on their own white board, without consulting their group-mates. During this time, I stress that everyone is quiet, so that they can come up with their own individual answer.
3. After I call time, each person shows what they wrote. They have 15-20 seconds to consult each other about the correct answer. --This is when awesome discussions take place because they have to support their answers to the rest of the group. I love this part!
4. I give a 5 second warning, and each student should be writing what their group agreed to as the correct answer on his/her board.
5. I have them put down their markers, and I roll the dice.
6. The student with that number (since I only have four member groups: 5 is wild, 6 is a re-roll) holds up his or her board.
7. This is the fun part!! The groups with the correct answer get to go to the board to draw a part of a turtle. Turtles consist of five parts: a head, a body, two legs and a tail.
8. Once a group completes their turtle, they become "Turtle Killers". When they get correct answers, they may choose one part from another group's turtle to erase.
They are so engaged in this game! Since everyone must write something, each student is forced to practice. And, they get so creative with their turtles. It is a blast to watch!
One of my new favorites that I have used lately is great at engaging all students. I call it "Tuez la Tortue" (Kill the Turtle). My colleagues all have different names for the game. It might sound a bit sadistic, but the kids love this game and it provides awesome practice for the material.
Set up:
Students work in groups (I always have pre-determined groups of about 4 students who work together over the course of a unit. In these groups, each student is assigned a number) Each student needs a white board, marker, eraser. Before the game, I create a series of questions/practice sentences with my SMART notebook software. On the game, I have a dice.
How it is played:
1. I show the students a question/practice sentence.
2. Students have a certain amount of time (15-30 seconds depending on the difficulty of the question) to write their answer on their own white board, without consulting their group-mates. During this time, I stress that everyone is quiet, so that they can come up with their own individual answer.
3. After I call time, each person shows what they wrote. They have 15-20 seconds to consult each other about the correct answer. --This is when awesome discussions take place because they have to support their answers to the rest of the group. I love this part!
4. I give a 5 second warning, and each student should be writing what their group agreed to as the correct answer on his/her board.
5. I have them put down their markers, and I roll the dice.
6. The student with that number (since I only have four member groups: 5 is wild, 6 is a re-roll) holds up his or her board.
7. This is the fun part!! The groups with the correct answer get to go to the board to draw a part of a turtle. Turtles consist of five parts: a head, a body, two legs and a tail.
8. Once a group completes their turtle, they become "Turtle Killers". When they get correct answers, they may choose one part from another group's turtle to erase.
They are so engaged in this game! Since everyone must write something, each student is forced to practice. And, they get so creative with their turtles. It is a blast to watch!
Friday, February 14, 2014
Three Things to Think About with PBL
Just this week, I was fortunate to attend METC (Missouri's Educational Tech Conference). It is always so inspiring to learn from other professionals and to see what amazing things that other teachers are doing with their students. I have such a passion for Project Based Learning, and I was excited to attend a session presented by Josh Stumpenhorst, a middle school Social Studies teacher. Josh shattered some of my PBL habits, which made me think of some changes that I might make with my PBL project that I do with my level 2 students. Here are three of my take-aways:
1. Groups - I have typically created my groups based on varying ability, randomness or student choice. But, what if I created groups by similar abilities? Put all the kids who "get it" together, and put all the kids who struggle to get it together. With this grouping, the "get it" kids can take it an go, and in a big way. The "don't-get-it" kids are all together so that I can spend more time with them to help re-teach and motivate.
2. Choice - What if I gave them a "menu" of projects that they could choose from. This would require lots more work on my part, but different students have different strengths and in the end wouldn't I get more impressive projects if the kids got to create in a way that they like to create?
3. Publish - Make the world their audience. Have them publish to YouTube. Put their videos on my YouTube channel. "Likes" are like badges, and are a meaningful feedback for these guys. We need to quit making the Internet this "bad" place and get examples of good student work out there.
At this conference, I presented my own PBL. Here is a link to my project outline (almost entirely in French): French 2 Lycée PBL
Would you like to watch my presentation?
Live-Stream of my presentation: April Burton - Planning for PBL
1. Groups - I have typically created my groups based on varying ability, randomness or student choice. But, what if I created groups by similar abilities? Put all the kids who "get it" together, and put all the kids who struggle to get it together. With this grouping, the "get it" kids can take it an go, and in a big way. The "don't-get-it" kids are all together so that I can spend more time with them to help re-teach and motivate.
2. Choice - What if I gave them a "menu" of projects that they could choose from. This would require lots more work on my part, but different students have different strengths and in the end wouldn't I get more impressive projects if the kids got to create in a way that they like to create?
3. Publish - Make the world their audience. Have them publish to YouTube. Put their videos on my YouTube channel. "Likes" are like badges, and are a meaningful feedback for these guys. We need to quit making the Internet this "bad" place and get examples of good student work out there.
At this conference, I presented my own PBL. Here is a link to my project outline (almost entirely in French): French 2 Lycée PBL
Would you like to watch my presentation?
Live-Stream of my presentation: April Burton - Planning for PBL
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Speed Learning
This winter has been filled with snow days for us, in the mid-west. With the extra free time on my hands, I have been logging a lot of Pinterest time. Pinterest is a wonderland for educators; there are so many wonderful ideas and tools ready for use in the classroom. Currently, in Level 1, we are studying weather, seasons, etc. I kept coming across awesome ideas for practicing this in the classroom, but with so many missed days, I wasn't sure how I could find the time to implement them into the classroom. Then....LIGHT BULB!!! I decided I would do a "Stations Day". Stations work great in the elementary school, but I had never seen it in the high school. So, I decided to give it a go.
Since I already have my students divided into groups, I knew that I would need seven stations. I also wanted to use this opportunity to have students practice all skills: listening, reading, writing and reading. Also, due to lost time, we had run out of time to learn a grammar concept, so I needed to have a station where they could take notes and learn the concept. Here is what I landed on for stations:
Station #1: Students read a French article (which I had re-written to be level 1 appropriate) which described the weather climate in different regions in France. Their task was to glue weather icons to the appropriate region onto a map of France.
Station #2: They had to watch a weather video on meteofrance.com and write, in English, a sentence about the weather. Each person was to write one sentence then pass the paper to the next person. (It was cool, because most groups actually ended up writing in French)
Station #3: (This was their favorite) Using an Ipad app called AudioBoo, the students had to look at a local 5-day weather forecast that I had pulled up on another Ipad, and each person had to record a statement, in French, about the weather. We live in St. Louis, a 5-day forecast for us, in January, usually includes rain, snow, cold weather and nice weather, so there is a variety of vocabulary practice available. The groups spent a minute looking at the weather forecast, then each person said a statement, then passed the Ipad. No one could repeat another person's statement, and the goal was to say as many statements as possible.
Station #4: Students used local weather forecasts from local weather stations that they looked up on an Ipad or their phones, then filled out a survey about the weather. The survey had a thermometer in Celsius for them to complete, as well as conditions about the highs and lows for today and tomorrow.
Station #5: Students looked at a screen shot of a 5 day forecast on a phone for the city of Rouen. They had to write sentences about the weather for these days. Each person had to write a French sentence, then pass the paper to the next person. The goal was to get as many sentences written as possible without repeating anyone's sentence.
Station #6: In this unit, we are learning "avoir expressions". There are a list of 7 expressions that students need to know. For this station students had a textbook and each student received a copy of Cornell notes. They had to read the textbook, then take notes. They also were given an activity to practice the idea with images which they had to write sentences using the newly learned expressions. The goal was to get as many of these sentences completed, correctly.
Station #7: For this station, students were practicing the verb "aller" which they had learned in this chapter. They were given a handout with pictures of activities. They had to write sentences to tell what activity a person was "going" to do and add the place where they would do this activity.
Set up for the stations took some time and organization. I had the desks arranged into groups when the students came in. There was a table tent card at each "quad" with numbers in different colors. Since, the students had already been arranged in color groups, they were instructed, when they walked in, to sit with their colors. Also, on each "quad" I had a laminated sheet of instructions for that station, and any other supplies that they might need: glue, handouts for the activity, textbook and Ipads when necessary. I took the first few minutes of class to do a quick explanation of each station.
Then, I set the time for 6 minutes, instructed someone to read the instructions sheet to the group and they set off to work. I could walk around to check answers, answer their questions or re-focus less focused students. Because the timer was counting down on the SmartBoard, a sense of urgency kept everyone (for the most part) on-task. After six minutes, the time buzzed, a designated member brought me the paper that their group had completed for that station (if they had completed a paper) and they moved to the next number. I set the time again, instructed someone from each group to read the instructions and they set off to work on a new task.
The goal was for each group to get as much down as possible in each group. The group with the most completed answers at the end, will when a prize. Each group will be graded based on the class average of completed tasks overall. If the average completed sentences is 10, groups above 10 will get extra credit, below ten will lose points.
It took a lot of prep time to get seven stations together, but in the end, it was a great activity. The constant change and variation of activities kept student engaged and helped them to work together to practice and reinforce the curriculum. My mind is already racing as I am trying to think of other ways that I could use stations in the classroom.
Since I already have my students divided into groups, I knew that I would need seven stations. I also wanted to use this opportunity to have students practice all skills: listening, reading, writing and reading. Also, due to lost time, we had run out of time to learn a grammar concept, so I needed to have a station where they could take notes and learn the concept. Here is what I landed on for stations:
Station #1: Students read a French article (which I had re-written to be level 1 appropriate) which described the weather climate in different regions in France. Their task was to glue weather icons to the appropriate region onto a map of France.
Station #2: They had to watch a weather video on meteofrance.com and write, in English, a sentence about the weather. Each person was to write one sentence then pass the paper to the next person. (It was cool, because most groups actually ended up writing in French)
Station #3: (This was their favorite) Using an Ipad app called AudioBoo, the students had to look at a local 5-day weather forecast that I had pulled up on another Ipad, and each person had to record a statement, in French, about the weather. We live in St. Louis, a 5-day forecast for us, in January, usually includes rain, snow, cold weather and nice weather, so there is a variety of vocabulary practice available. The groups spent a minute looking at the weather forecast, then each person said a statement, then passed the Ipad. No one could repeat another person's statement, and the goal was to say as many statements as possible.
Station #4: Students used local weather forecasts from local weather stations that they looked up on an Ipad or their phones, then filled out a survey about the weather. The survey had a thermometer in Celsius for them to complete, as well as conditions about the highs and lows for today and tomorrow.
Station #5: Students looked at a screen shot of a 5 day forecast on a phone for the city of Rouen. They had to write sentences about the weather for these days. Each person had to write a French sentence, then pass the paper to the next person. The goal was to get as many sentences written as possible without repeating anyone's sentence.
Station #6: In this unit, we are learning "avoir expressions". There are a list of 7 expressions that students need to know. For this station students had a textbook and each student received a copy of Cornell notes. They had to read the textbook, then take notes. They also were given an activity to practice the idea with images which they had to write sentences using the newly learned expressions. The goal was to get as many of these sentences completed, correctly.
Station #7: For this station, students were practicing the verb "aller" which they had learned in this chapter. They were given a handout with pictures of activities. They had to write sentences to tell what activity a person was "going" to do and add the place where they would do this activity.
Set up for the stations took some time and organization. I had the desks arranged into groups when the students came in. There was a table tent card at each "quad" with numbers in different colors. Since, the students had already been arranged in color groups, they were instructed, when they walked in, to sit with their colors. Also, on each "quad" I had a laminated sheet of instructions for that station, and any other supplies that they might need: glue, handouts for the activity, textbook and Ipads when necessary. I took the first few minutes of class to do a quick explanation of each station.
Then, I set the time for 6 minutes, instructed someone to read the instructions sheet to the group and they set off to work. I could walk around to check answers, answer their questions or re-focus less focused students. Because the timer was counting down on the SmartBoard, a sense of urgency kept everyone (for the most part) on-task. After six minutes, the time buzzed, a designated member brought me the paper that their group had completed for that station (if they had completed a paper) and they moved to the next number. I set the time again, instructed someone from each group to read the instructions and they set off to work on a new task.
The goal was for each group to get as much down as possible in each group. The group with the most completed answers at the end, will when a prize. Each group will be graded based on the class average of completed tasks overall. If the average completed sentences is 10, groups above 10 will get extra credit, below ten will lose points.
It took a lot of prep time to get seven stations together, but in the end, it was a great activity. The constant change and variation of activities kept student engaged and helped them to work together to practice and reinforce the curriculum. My mind is already racing as I am trying to think of other ways that I could use stations in the classroom.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Who will work with whom?
In my classroom, collaboration is key. If students are going to speak French, they need someone with whom they can speak. Small groups and partner work is essential in getting students to use the language. Plus, when working with a small group or with a partner, students have a low-risk environment to speak up and contribute. In previous posts, I have mentioned the importance of creating activities where everyone in the group has a responsibility and is contributing to the end means in some way. I want everyone to feel needed and I want everyone to know that they are, in some way, responsible for getting the job done. I do everything that I can avoid the "bogs and logs" mentality.
But, how to divide the students into those very important groups?? I subscribe to the thought process that the students need to work with the same groups for at least six weeks. I usually keep them together for an entire unit. New unit = new groups. At the beginning of the school year, I took great time in sculpting my groups. I would often put strong students with weak students in order to have students with varying abilities in groups. As the year has progressed, I wanted to get a little more creative in my grouping. When we came back for second semester, I decided to randomly choose groups. But, to make it more exciting (and to get kids up and moving--which is the key to an active class) I had students write a sentence/word on a piece of paper. In level 1, they had to write the French word for one of their favorite gifts or something that they bought over the break. In level 2, they had to write a sentence about a gift that they gave to someone. It worked out to be a great review, especially in level 2. As students were writing, I walked around and talked to them about it, so that I knew at least one thing about each student. Then, I had them line themselves up alphabetically by the gift that they received or gave. I loved this part because they had to get up and, like it or not, talk to their classmates. Then, I walked through the line and gave each student a crayon, alternating the colors between the number of groups I wanted. (I used ROY G BIV). This REALLY helped to review colors with my level 1 students. Then, the students found their like colors and formed their groups. Immediately, this gave the group something in common because I could name them the color that they had. (I like to have a name for each group.) Before the activity started, I have them a few minutes to discuss what they had written on their paper. Kids love to talk about themselves, and this gave them a chance to get to know each other which helps to create a necessary bond between group members.
It sounds like a very lengthy method to divide kids up, but it works. It's creative and different, and the students like that. It gave them a chance to use their individual experiences and to talk about them. The entire process didn't take more than 8 minutes, and that's because 5 minutes was used to write the sentence.
Partner work is something else that I love to do. Typically, I assign partners which are seated near each other. But, during those long winter months, I like to mix things up a bit. For a continuous writing assignment (where students write a little bit of a story based on a picture or goofy photograph as we learn more grammar in the chapter)I wanted random partners. (And,I wanted them to get up and walk around.) I had each student write a sentence on a small piece of paper. We were learning daily routine vocab, so I had them write a sentence to describe what they do to get ready in the morning. Again, I walked around as they were writing to help with grammar and sentence structure. Then, I collected each nameless paper in a box and had students choose papers from the box. They had to then, get up and find the person who either had their paper, or the person who wrote on the paper that they had chosen. Whoever they found first, was their partner. They grabbed the activity and sat down and got to work. As students were pairing up and sitting down, there always happens to be students who can't find their matches, so i just paired them up and they got to work. Again, a crazy chaotic method, but it got kids up and moving, and speaking French because they had to read the paper aloud to find their match.
Another random way of finding a partner, is to put two corresponding vocabulary words on a card, cut them apart and have students find their match. For example, I put the action on one side of the card, and a noun that would complete the action on the other side. I cut them apart (sort of like a puzzle), then the students had to walk around to find the matching pieces. Once they found the other half of their card, they could sit down and get to work. It's a great way to review! If time allowed, I could have each group share with the group the words on their cards and have the rest of the class say the English, as if they were flashcards.
There are hundreds of creative ways to get kids up and moving to find a partner or group. The important element, is to keep them guessing. I love that my students never know what to expect. We rarely do the same thing twice which keeps them interested.
But, how to divide the students into those very important groups?? I subscribe to the thought process that the students need to work with the same groups for at least six weeks. I usually keep them together for an entire unit. New unit = new groups. At the beginning of the school year, I took great time in sculpting my groups. I would often put strong students with weak students in order to have students with varying abilities in groups. As the year has progressed, I wanted to get a little more creative in my grouping. When we came back for second semester, I decided to randomly choose groups. But, to make it more exciting (and to get kids up and moving--which is the key to an active class) I had students write a sentence/word on a piece of paper. In level 1, they had to write the French word for one of their favorite gifts or something that they bought over the break. In level 2, they had to write a sentence about a gift that they gave to someone. It worked out to be a great review, especially in level 2. As students were writing, I walked around and talked to them about it, so that I knew at least one thing about each student. Then, I had them line themselves up alphabetically by the gift that they received or gave. I loved this part because they had to get up and, like it or not, talk to their classmates. Then, I walked through the line and gave each student a crayon, alternating the colors between the number of groups I wanted. (I used ROY G BIV). This REALLY helped to review colors with my level 1 students. Then, the students found their like colors and formed their groups. Immediately, this gave the group something in common because I could name them the color that they had. (I like to have a name for each group.) Before the activity started, I have them a few minutes to discuss what they had written on their paper. Kids love to talk about themselves, and this gave them a chance to get to know each other which helps to create a necessary bond between group members.
It sounds like a very lengthy method to divide kids up, but it works. It's creative and different, and the students like that. It gave them a chance to use their individual experiences and to talk about them. The entire process didn't take more than 8 minutes, and that's because 5 minutes was used to write the sentence.
Partner work is something else that I love to do. Typically, I assign partners which are seated near each other. But, during those long winter months, I like to mix things up a bit. For a continuous writing assignment (where students write a little bit of a story based on a picture or goofy photograph as we learn more grammar in the chapter)I wanted random partners. (And,I wanted them to get up and walk around.) I had each student write a sentence on a small piece of paper. We were learning daily routine vocab, so I had them write a sentence to describe what they do to get ready in the morning. Again, I walked around as they were writing to help with grammar and sentence structure. Then, I collected each nameless paper in a box and had students choose papers from the box. They had to then, get up and find the person who either had their paper, or the person who wrote on the paper that they had chosen. Whoever they found first, was their partner. They grabbed the activity and sat down and got to work. As students were pairing up and sitting down, there always happens to be students who can't find their matches, so i just paired them up and they got to work. Again, a crazy chaotic method, but it got kids up and moving, and speaking French because they had to read the paper aloud to find their match.
Another random way of finding a partner, is to put two corresponding vocabulary words on a card, cut them apart and have students find their match. For example, I put the action on one side of the card, and a noun that would complete the action on the other side. I cut them apart (sort of like a puzzle), then the students had to walk around to find the matching pieces. Once they found the other half of their card, they could sit down and get to work. It's a great way to review! If time allowed, I could have each group share with the group the words on their cards and have the rest of the class say the English, as if they were flashcards.
There are hundreds of creative ways to get kids up and moving to find a partner or group. The important element, is to keep them guessing. I love that my students never know what to expect. We rarely do the same thing twice which keeps them interested.
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