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.
Monday, April 7, 2014
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.
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