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links about architecture, design and buildings

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WbM9nLGHR1qFV3868DN51UvF_mczom0kbquGql-dvbs/edit

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Ideas for digital technologies supporting CLiL

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https://kahoot.com

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Using HP Reveal (formerly Aurasma) in education

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We care about your students' privacy. CoSpaces Edu takes student privacy very seriously and is COPPA and FERPA-compliant.

We have several measures in place to make sure that the data that you and your students store in CoSpaces Edu is always kept safe.

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CoSpaces Edu for kid-friendly 3D creation and coding

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Boost your kids' learning experience by letting them invent, build and code their own creations. Runs on mobile, tablet and desktop, including Chromebooks.

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Ideas for digital technologies supporting CLiL

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Using HP Reveal (formerly Aurasma) in education

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Newsela.com

goSoapbox.com

https://www.commonlit.org/

Readworks.org

https://www.dogonews.com/

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Integrating Technology into the ELA Classroom: Tools to Support Reading and Writing

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Whether you have a 1:1 classroom or can only get your hands on a few devices, technology can be used to meet individual students' needs or to foster collaboration between students. Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed tools for reading actively online, language development, and focusing on the writing process rather than the product.

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Teaching languages with technology: tools that help students become fluent

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Advertisement feature: From Padlets to Popplets, languages consultant Joe Dale shares the tools modern foreign languages teachers are turning to in their classroom

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Here you can find a wide range of practical resources to use in your primary classroom.

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Interesting set of A to Z activities

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european centre for modern languages (ecml)

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centre européen pour les langues vivantes (celv)

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ECML/CELV > Resources > ECML.Publications

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European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML), Centre européen pour les langues vivantes (CELV)

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101 scaffolding techniques for language learning

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101 scaffolding techniques for language learning

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https://twitter.com/allsaintslingo

https://twitter.com/AlloaML

https://twitter.com/joedale

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Tweets by joedale

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In this section you can find useful articles, webinars, blog posts, publications and teaching tips to help you develop in the professional practice of 'Promoting 21st century skills'.

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In this section you can find useful articles, webinars, blog posts, publications and teaching tips to help you develop in the professional practice of 'Promoting 21st century skills'.

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If you're a teacher of English, a parent of a child at a bilingual school, or even a teacher called upon to teach your subject specialism in a second language, then you've more than likely heard of CLIL.

But what is it? And what makes it different from traditional language teaching?

Bilingualism and CLIL

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is an increasingly popular approach to bilingual education. Bilingualism itself is the norm in most parts of the word, the cognitive benefits of bilingualism are well-established, and bilingual education itself goes back a long way. Aristocratic Romans considered a bilingual Greek and Latin education essential for their sons, while clay tablets unearthed in Aleppo in the 1970s indicate that instruction was being given in two languages as far back as 3000BC ¹. In today's globalised world, governments and schools looking to the most effective ways to ensure they equip school-leavers with the second language skills necessary for success are increasing choosing CLIL as their preferred method.

In CLIL, content from subjects across the curriculum is taught, wholly or partly, through the medium of an additional language, which is often (but certainly not always) English. CLIL classes are content-driven, with a dual focus of teaching both the subject and the language together. The subject matter determines what language will be learned, and the language introduced serves to allow students to learn and communicate about the subject in question. This means that unlike more traditional English lessons, which tend to introduce language in a fairly standardised order of increasing grammatical complexity, CLIL lessons adopt a primarily lexical approach, with lessons becoming more challenging the deeper into the content they go.

However, CLIL is more than simply teaching a subject in another language, or including topic-based work in a language classroom, although it shares many features with integrated skills lessons in ELT. The objective of a CLIL course is to increase learners' knowledge and understanding of a specific curriculum area, and to develop their thinking and analytical skills more generally. CLIL lessons include a wide range of teaching methodologies, many if not all of which will be familiar to the EFL practitioner, including structured group work, inductive learning, task-based learning and integrated use of educational technologies.

In CLIL, acquisition of the language of instruction becomes a means to an end rather than an end in itself. This has been shown to improve learners' attitudes towards the language ². It also economises on lesson time in otherwise packed curricula. Many schools are under pressure from governments to ensure pupils have a certain amount of bilingual education, especially in English, before the graduate. For example, the European Council passed a resolution in 1995 stating that "...all EU citizens, by the time they leave compulsory schooling, should be able to speak two languages other than the mother tongue". CLIL helps them to achieve this.

A typical CLIL lesson still includes elements of all four language skills. L istening and reading texts serves as key sources of input. In speaking, fluency is prioritised over accuracy, while in writing the key aim is to use topic-related vocabulary with range of grammatical structure to consolidate and demonstrate understanding of the content of the lesson.

It can be challenging for teachers who are not necessarily language teachers, or even not fully proficient in the second language, to teach using CLIL, especially as learners may have similar levels of background knowledge as regards the content but very different levels of language ability. Fortunately, there are many excellent resources that offer the CLIL teacher structured materials for teaching everything from science to to arts and crafts. Pearson has developed a range of that bring together the best in CLIL methodology with engaging classroom materials for learners and helpful support materials for teachers.

CLIL is not the same as immersion education. Some schools may only teach on subject through the second language, others may only teach certain sections of a particular subject curriculum. Others may be more wide-ranging. And of course, CLIL doesn't mean that the learner's first language should not be taken into account, or that learners should be penalised for using it in class. Indeed, 'trans-languaging' and 'code-switching' - the systematic and dynamic use of two languages to achieve a variety of communicative goals - is the norm in the many parts of the world where bilingualism and multilingualism are widespread, and can easily form part of a CLIL approach. However, as with any aspect of the teaching and learning process, it needs to be incorporated into lessons in a guided, structured way.

Bilingualism and CLIL are becoming ever more important in education around the world. Why not bring some of their benefits into your own classroom? You can find out out more about , more about bilingualism and its benefits , and more about our CLIL resources here.

Don't forget to sign up to our ELT blog. You'll find lots of great stuff to read here!

More info at Pearson ELT Spain & Portugal
1. Ofelia Garcia, Bilingual education in the 21st century: a global perspective. 2009 ch.8 2. CLIL: An interview with Professor David Marsh International House Journal of Education and Development.

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Education in two languages: bilingualism and CLIL

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If you're a teacher of English, a parent of a child at a bilingual school, or even a teacher called upon to teach your subject specialism in a second language, then you've more than likely heard of CLIL. But what is it? And what makes it different from traditional language teaching?

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Understanding Language Free Online Course - FutureLearn

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Learn the key concepts in the effective teaching and learning of languages. Free online course created by the University of Southampton and the British Council.

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Lesson framework: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/clil-a-lesson-framework

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In ELT, forms of CLIL have previously been known as ' Content-based instruction', 'English across the curriculum' and 'Bilingual education'.

Why is CLIL important?
With the expansion of the European Union, diversity of language and the need for communication are seen as central issues.

Even with English as the main language, other languages are unlikely to disappear. Some countries have strong views regarding the use of other languages within their borders.

With increased contact between countries, there will be an increase in the need for communicative skills in a second or third language.

Knowledge of the language becomes the means of learning content

Language is integrated into the broad curriculum

Introduce the wider cultural context

Prepare for internationalisation

Access International Certification and enhance the school profile

Improve overall and specific language competence

Prepare for future studies and / or working life

Noticing of the language by the learners

Focus on lexis rather than grammar

Opposition to language teaching by subject teachers may come from language teachers themselves. Subject teachers may be unwilling to take on the responsibility.

Most current CLIL programmes are experimental. There are few sound research-based empirical studies, while CLIL-type bilingual programmes are mainly seen to be marketable products in the private sector.

In the UK the incentive comes from the Content and Language Integration Project (CLIP) hosted by CILT, (the National Centre for Languages) which is the UK government's centre of expertise on languages. CILT monitors a number of projects covering the 7-16 age range and involving innovations in language teaching such as the integration of French into the primary curriculum. Other research is based at the University of Nottingham, while teacher training and development courses in CLIL are available through NILE (the Norwich Institute for Language Education).

CLIL is based on language acquisition, but in monolingual situations, a good deal of conscious learning is involved, demanding skills from the subject teacher.
The BBC and British Council are not responsible for the content of external web sites, neither do we endorse them. These are the recommendations of the writer.
The lack of CLIL teacher-training programmes suggests that the majority of teachers working on bilingual programmes may be ill-equipped to do the job adequately.

There is little evidence to suggest that understanding of content is not reduced by lack of language competence. Current opinion seems to be that language ability can only be increased by content-based learning after a certain stage.

Some aspects of CLIL are unnatural; such as the appreciation of the literature and culture of the learner's own country through a second language.

Focus on language related to the subject. Level and grading are unimportant

Pre-, while- and post-reading tasks are as appropriate in the subject context as in the language context.

Develop multilingual interests and attitudes

Diversify methods & forms of classroom teaching and learning

Increase learner motivation.

Learning is improved through increased motivation and the study of natural language seen in context. When learners are interested in a topic they are motivated to acquire language to communicate

CLIL is based on language acquisition rather than enforced learning

Language is seen in real-life situations in which students can acquire the language. This is natural language development which builds on other forms of learning

CLIL is long-term learning. Students become academically proficient in English after 5-7 years in a good bilingual programme

Fluency is more important than accuracy and errors are a natural part of language learning. Learners develop fluency in English by using English to communicate for a variety of purposes

Reading is the essential skill.

Languages will play a key role in curricula across Europe. Attention needs to be given to the training of teachers and the development of frameworks and methods which will improve the quality of language education

The European Commission has been looking into the state of bilingualism and language education since the 1990s, and has a clear vision of a multilingual Europe in which people can function in two or three languages.

How does CLIL work?
The basis of CLIL is that content subjects are taught and learnt in a language which is not the mother tongue of the learners.

CLIL helps to:

CLIL in the classroom
CLIL assumes that subject teachers are able to exploit opportunities for language learning. The best and most common opportunities arise through reading texts. CLIL draws on the lexical approach, encouraging learners to notice language while reading. Here is a paragraph from a text on fashion:

The miniskirt is a skirt whose hemline is high above the knees (generally 200-300 mm above knee-level). Its existence is generally credited to the fashion designer Mary Quant, who was inspired by the Mini Cooper automobile, although André Courrèges is also often cited as its inventor, and there is disagreement as to who invented it first.

The language to be looked at in a passage like this falls into three categories - subject specific, academic and other lexis including fixed expressions and collocations:

The treatment of this lexis has the following features:

The future of CLIL
There is no doubt that learning a language and learning through a language are concurrent processes, but implementing CLIL requires a rethink of the traditional concepts of the language classroom and the language teacher. The immediate obstacles seem to be:

Until CLIL training for teachers and materials issues are resolved, the immediate future remains with parallel rather than integrated content and language learning. However, the need for language teaching reform in the face of Europeanisation may make CLIL a common feature of many European education systems in the future.

Where is CLIL happening?
CLIL has precedents in immersion programmes (North America) and education through a minority or a national language (Spain, Wales, France), and many variations on education through a 'foreign' language. Euro-funded projects show that CLIL or similar systems are being applied in some countries, but are not part of teacher-training programmes. There has been an increase in the number of schools offering 'alternative' bilingual curricula, and some research into training and methodology. Several major European organisations specialising in CLIL projects have emerged, including UNICOM, EuroCLIC and TIE-CLIL (see web references for details).

Further reading
Translanguage in Europe www.tieclil.org
Centre for Information on Language, Teaching and Research www.cilt.org.uk
Forum for Across the Curriculum Teaching www.factworld.info

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Content and Language Integrated Learning

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In ELT, forms of CLIL have previously been known as ' Content-based instruction', 'English across the curriculum' and 'Bilingual education'. Why is CLIL important? With the expansion of the European Union, diversity of language and the need for communication are seen as central issues.

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Interview: http://ihjournal.com/content-and-language-integrated-learning
About David Marsh

http://clil-cd.ecml.at/Team/Teammember4/tabid/941/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

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David Marsh - Author, Speaker, Advisor on Education, Creativity & Innovation. Officie Website.

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Creative ideas for using technology in the foreign language classroom

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Creative ideas for using technology in the foreign language classroom

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Just sent this book for publishing on iBooks. It’s a short little number giving you ideas for using technology in the languages classroom. There is 1 idea per skill area. 😊#mfltwitterati #EveryoneCanCreate #ADE2018 #AppleEduChat

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Just sent this book for publishing on iBooks. It’s a short little number giving you ideas for using technology in the languages classroom. There is 1 idea per skill area. 😊#mfltwitterati #EveryoneCanCreate #ADE2018 #AppleEduChat https://t.co/OmeyKFDbq7

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Just sent this book for publishing on iBooks. It’s a short little number giving you ideas for using technology in the languages classroom. There is 1 idea per skill area. 😊#mfltwitterati #EveryoneCanCreate #ADE2018 #AppleEduChat pic.twitter.com/OmeyKFDbq7
— Rachel Smith (@lancslassrach) August 24, 2018

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Just sent this book for publishing on iBooks. It’s a short little number giving you ideas for using technology in the languages classroom. There is 1 idea per skill area. 😊#mfltwitterati #EveryoneCanCreate #ADE2018 #AppleEduChat https://t.co/OmeyKFDbq7

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Just sent this book for publishing on iBooks. It’s a short little number giving you ideas for using technology in the languages classroom. There is 1 idea per skill area. 😊#mfltwitterati #EveryoneCanCreate #ADE2018 #AppleEduChat https://t.co/OmeyKFDbq7

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Just sent this book for publishing on iBooks. It’s a short little number giving you ideas for using technology in the languages classroom. There is 1 idea per skill area. 😊#mfltwitterati #EveryoneCanCreate #ADE2018 #AppleEduChat

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https://www.researched.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/delightful-downloads/2017/04/Dale-rEDLang.pdf
https://clil-ren.org/category/publications

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Independent languages consultant

The purposeful use of technology in language learning TPACK, SAMR, 21st century skills, BYOD and PLNs

Publishing pupils' multimedia work to a potentially worldwide audience can motivate children, raise standards in their work, promote creativity and give them a real purpose for their language learning. It can also facilitate assessment for learning opportunities, distance learning, forge international links, and celebrate pupil voice.

However, the plethora of web tools and apps currently available to teachers is overwhelming. So which ones are the most effective for enhancing language learning? One powerful solution to this question is drawing on a personal learning network and crowd sourcing ideas. This is exactly what is happening on a daily basis with the #MFLtwitterati, a trailblazing community from the UK interested in exploring the power of technology in the languages classroom in a positive and collaborative way. This presentation will highlight the importance of having a growth mindset when approaching the use of technology and how we should use it only when it leads to enhancement or transformation in learning not as a bolt on or substitute for traditional pedagogy.

Download the slides

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Independent languages consultant The purposeful use of technology in language learning TPACK, SAMR, 21st century skills, BYOD and PLNs Publishing pupils' multimedia work to a potentially worldwide audience can motivate children, raise standards in their work, promote creativity and give them a real purpose for their language learning.

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Use Aurasma and Green screen by DoInk to create an interactive video 

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Use Aurasma and Green screen by DoInk to create an interactive video 

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We’ve now finished the next ReadWritePerform.com teaching pack aimed at KS1 - The Picture Postcard Pack. Students will write and perform their own interactive video postcard using Greenscreen and...

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Story retelling using Puppet Pals HD Directors Pass or Shadow Puppets Edu

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Story retelling using Puppet Pals HD Directors Pass or Shadow Puppets Edu

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Examples: https://www.facebook.com/davyhulmeprimary/videos/1104087643060991/?t=19

https://www.facebook.com/davyhulmeprimary/videos/1129033200566435/?t=1

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Use Seesaw (crossplatform learning journal) with Adobe Spark video to record learning about places

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Use Seesaw (crossplatform learning journal) with Adobe Spark video to record learning about places

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Shadow Puppets Edu:Minibeasts video stories

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Shadow Puppets Edu:Minibeasts video stories

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Over the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of working in Year 1. Their topic for this half term has been mini beasts and so I wanted to share with you some of the work we have been doing through technology.

First, you may have seen the Hungry Caterpillar video we made, you can read about how we created this here.

The children have also been learning about different mini beasts, researching facts and information and then creating these videos using the app - Shadow Puppets Edu:

Last week, students were writing their own mini beast poems, focusing on the use of alliteration. To add an element of performance, the pupils recorded themselves sharing their writing using the app ChatterPix Kids. Here are some of their examples:

These are just a couple of example of how I try to promote the use of technology in the primary classroom. It is about children creating content through these creative apps. Each of these ideas can easily be adapted to any topic you are doing with your pupils.

Make sure you follow on Mr P on:

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Enhancing our Mini Beast topic with technology

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Over the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of working in Year 1. Their topic for this half term has been mini beasts and so I wanted to share with you some of the work we have been doing through technology.

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Making interactive AR storycubes on a topic e.g. The water cycle, animal life cycles, bringing historical characters to live, a journey cube. 

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Making interactive AR storycubes on a topic e.g. The water cycle, animal life cycles, bringing historical characters to live, a journey cube. 

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Apps: Chatterkids Pix, Apple Clips, Foldify, HP Reveal

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Before I start discussing what we did, it is only right to share where the original idea for this project came from. This blog post by the brilliant @Joe_Moretti gave me the inspiration for this project - AR STORYCUBES PROJECT

I have been using my iPad with my children to support them with their reading journal homework for a while now. My boys struggle with their handwriting and find it very onerous to write even though they have some great ideas.

As discussed by @MrTullock at the Animate2Educate conference last week, technology should be used to enable children to show their knowledge and understanding even if they struggle with an element such as decoding or handwriting or spelling. I loved a quote he shared, and I have linked it in a poster to the story @CarolJAllen shared around the latest BGT winner.

I want to use technology so my children and pupils can create content to express themselves, their knowledge and their understanding.

Making our own Interactive Avengers Story Cube was the perfect example of this. My children are obsessed with Avengers at the minute, so I bought them the origin storybooks. These are great books as they tell the origin story of each superhero as a story rather than comic. If you click the picture below, you can buy the books yourself.

We generated three questions to ask each superhero:

Who is your alter ego?

How did you become a superhero?

What are your superpowers?

Using the app, ChatterKids Pix, the children recorded videos as the characters answering those questions using what they had learned about the superhero from reading the book. They linked the three videos together using the app Apple Clips, where they could add titles and music.

Their finished videos looked something like this:

They made a similar video for each superhero. Then used the app Foldify to create their own cube:

Once they finished the design and printed it out. I would recommend before cutting and sticking it together, to use app HP reveal to link the videos to each face of the cube. For a detailed guide for how to use the app HP Reveal - click here. The app uses Augmented Reality to link your video content through a trigger image. Once this has been completed they can cut out the cube, fold along the dotted lines and glue the flaps to create their own cube!

Using the app HP Reveal, they can scan each side and the app should load the digital content linked meaning you can watch and learn all about that superhero.

Once finished, my children wanted to share what they have created and more importantly share how to do it so others can make their own so created this YouTube tutorial video:

As stated in Joe's original post at the top, there are lots of different ways in which this idea can be used:

The water cycle

The life cycle of the frog

Breaking down a maths problem into six parts or six different maths videos... watch an equation come to life ...

A science experiment

Bringing history to life (can you imagine six sides with a head on each side coming to life using Morpho Booth so that the heads come to life and speak!)

A Geography cube of the globe where a map comes to life with a video created in Explain Everything. ( A journey cube?)

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Making our own Interactive Avengers Story Cubes

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Before I start discussing what we did, it is only right to share where the original idea for this project came from. This blog post by the brilliant @Joe_Moretti gave me the inspiration for this project - AR STORYCUBES PROJECT I have been using my iPad with my children to support them with their reading journal homework for a while now.

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Adobe Spark Video: create a book of invented proverbs

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Adobe Spark Video: create a book of invented proverbs

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One of the best things about teaching is what children say that just astounds you. Sometimes the discussion and conversations you have with children can just completely blow you away. Don't get me wrong they often make you chuckle and laugh but when faced with a more serious conversation, I am always amazed at the depth some children show.

Today I had an amazing morning with Year 2 looking at proverbs.

I introduced the idea of a proverb as - A proverb is a simple and concrete saying, popularly known and repeated, that expresses a truth based on common sense or experience. They are often metaphorical.
We also discussed a couple of examples, including:

Don't count your chickens before they have hatched.

We discussed the meaning behind this beyond the literal and examples - England fans who think we will win the World Cup because we won our opening game.

I then shared this document which had examples of famous proverbs but only the first part to them. You can download this here:

The children were then given the opportunity to complete the proverb with their own ideas. The children were aware of some but the challenge was to make sure the saying then had a message. I was blown away by some of their ideas but more their meanings. Take for example:

Take for example the first one in the top picture:

Beauty is in the eye of death.

Now, this might seem dark, but when I questioned the student, she explained that when someone dies we tend to only remember the beautiful things about them.

Once the children had created their proverbs, they were challenged to create a video on Adobe Spark Video where they could orally explain the meaning behind their proverbs.

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One of the best things about teaching is what children say that just astounds you. Sometimes the discussion and conversations you have with children can just completely blow you away. Don't get me wrong they often make you chuckle and laugh but when faced with a more serious conversation, I am always amazed at the depth some children show.

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Augmented Reality: turn the classroom into a zoo using Leo AR Camera and use the app Clips to make recordings of interactions with animals and use Clips to make recordings of interactions with animals

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Augmented Reality: turn the classroom into a zoo using Leo AR Camera and use the app Clips to make recordings of interactions with animals and use Clips to make recordings of interactions with animals

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How to: http://mrparkinsonict.blogspot.com/2018/07/our-classroom-zoo.html

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People have said our classrooms can sometimes be like a zoo! Well today, our Reception class actually turned into a zoo! Using Augmented Reality, we put different animals into our class and shared...

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Young people have grown up with the web. They are confident users of technology who love to collaborate, create and consume online content as part of their everyday lives. The challenge for MFL teachers all over the world is to harness this intrinsic enthusiasm and make language learning as relevant, purposeful and accessible as possible in and out if the classroom. Publishing pupils' multimedia work to a real audience on a blog or a wiki can motivate children, raise standards in their work and promote creativity. It can also facilitate assessment for learning opportunities, distance learning, forge authentic international links and celebrate pupil voice at primary and secondary level.

Completing interactive exercises independently using tools such as Quizlet and Socrative allows students to work at their own pace, receive immediate feedback and have their results monitored and tracked individually. They can also compete with their peers and have their scores appear on a leaderboard encouraging them to gain as many points as possible by mastering vocabulary and improving spelling through stealth learning and having fun.

Recording and editing audio using Audacity or Voice Record Pro can improve pronunciation, boost confidence in speaking and deepen understanding. Some MFL departments encourage students to use free teleprompters such as Cue Prompter or Visioprompt so they can read their scripts while recording their voice. This technique can be particularly effective when practising texts for controlled assessment purposes. Textivate and Triptico have also proved popular for CA revision.

Incorporating video into the MFL classroom is invaluable for promoting intercultural understanding and giving learners access to authentic language. Students can also produce their own short clips by storyboarding ideas, shooting footage and editing together the results. They can make their own animations and screencasts too and build them into an e-portfolio over time.

The MFL department at Wildern School in Hampshire is experimenting with 'flipping the classroom'. They prepare videos featuring content they would traditionally introduce in class and expect students to watch them as a homework task. This then frees up time in class for more activities and encouraging learner to achieve higher order thinking skills. Check out their dedicated blog to find out more.

For those language teachers who are less confident in the effective use of technology, I would suggest the following:

- ask for advice from a colleague in your department and share ideas

- try out some recommended tools or apps you feel comfortable with to begin with

- join an online community such as TES MFL Forum, MFLresources and the #MFLtwitterati and ask for some practical suggestions.

- set using technology as a performance management target

- sign up to a subject association such as ALL which has many techno savvy members who can support you

Having to master new technologies for time poor teachers is challenging, but for those who haven't known life before the internet it is essential that we do make this effort in order to make language learning more relevant, engaging and accessible for the web generation.

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LANGUAGE TOOLS FOR THE WEB GENERATION - BY JOE DALE

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Young people have grown up with the web. They are confident users of technology who love to collaborate, create and consume online content as part of their everyday lives. The challenge for MFL teachers all over the world is to harness this intrinsic enthusiasm and make language learning as relevant, purposeful and accessible as possible in and out if the classroom.

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Virtual reality: create VR travelogues using PPTVR.in

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Virtual reality: create VR travelogues using PPTVR.in

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How to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkQWZ3xKO5k

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PPTVR is a web-based VR content creation platform. An immersive and interactive VR content can be created on PPTVR by just a few clicks and no coding.

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Green screen weather or sports reporters, or retelling a story using the masking tool in Green Screen by Doink

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Green screen weather or sports reporters, or retelling a story using the masking tool in Green Screen by Doink

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Who doesn't love this book?

With Year 1 doing their Minibeast topic, I had to make a link and explore the book. We had read it through and used some of the brilliant Talk4Writing techniques to help us retell the story. To engage the children further, we decided to create our own version of the story starring Year 1.

To do this we used the masking tool with the brilliant Doink Greenscreen app. This short video demonstrates the process:

Once all the children had created their video on Doink Greenscreen. We put it all together in Apple Clips where pupils could also add emojis for all the food. This was their finished video:

I can't wait to use this idea with other areas of the curriculum!

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Creatively Retelling The Very Hungry Caterpillar

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Who doesn't love this book? With Year 1 doing their Minibeast topic, I had to make a link and explore the book. We had read it through and used some of the brilliant Talk4Writing techniques to help us retell the story. To engage the children further, we decided to create our own version of the story starring Year 1.

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Socrative: making and swapping geography quizzes

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Socrative: making and swapping geography quizzes

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Other teachers have been encouraging me to use Socrative for awhile now, but until recently I just didn't care to try it out. I'm not against using tech in the classroom; it can make things a lot easier. I just didn't want to have to learn yet another educational technology.

And Socrative is intimidating. Students use their own smartphones to navigate the program, so that's a lot of small screens to pay attention to. There are teacher accounts and student accounts. There are a few different ways to do things, but that means more decisions you have to make. In short, it has the appearance of that kind of tech that isn't worth the time to learn. That was my first impression of it.

But I was wrong. Socrative is easy, useful, and even fun.

I'd heard its name floating around conference halls and coming from the mouths of teachers I worked with, always spoken with a warm tone. But the classes I was teaching were fine. I didn't need anything new.

Until I taught grammar last fall.

We used a textbook that has great grammar charts and tons of useful exercises, but that's a little dry. I did my best to supplement the stuff from the textbook with YouTube videos, speaking activities, and games, but all that quickly became exhausting. If I had too much to plan and grade that week, my students were getting textbook stuff only.

They complained. They whined. It didn't help that this was one of the most energetic classes I've had, middle school students included.

I limped through the semester with the textbook as my crutch. When I was the same class grammar class again this semester, but at 8 a.m., the hour of zombie students, I knew something had to change.

I had success with using warm up discussion questions at the beginning of my listening and speaking classes, but I wanted something else for my grammar class. Something that students could do at their own pace for 5-10 minutes as people are waking up/showing up late to class. Something engaging, but also useful.

I picked Socrative, and it's worked out great.
The following section is a description of how I set up and use Socrative. It's pretty intuitive, so if you're good at figuring tech out by yourself, skip this section and just play with it on your own. If you want even more details than I'm providing here, Socrative has an excellent user guide.
Go to socrative.com and click Get Account

Fill out your information to get your account. I've only used the Free version for Higher Ed/Corporate since I teach adult ESL learners.

Once your account is set up, click the Rooms tab. Try to create a room name that is easily identifiable and easy for your students to type in. This is where the Pro version helps - in the Free version, you can only create one room. Since I'm only using Socrative in one class, one room is plenty for me.

Once you've picked a room name, click on the Quizzes tab. This is where you manage all the quizzes you use in your "Room." Every quiz you create is saved there. So click +ADD QUIZ in the top right. Socrative lets you create multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions. You can also write an explanation and add an image. Make sure you select the correct answer too (I've accidentally picked the wrong correct answer before - confusing).

Once you have a quiz you're ready to use, click the Launch tab. I've only used the Quiz feature, but you can also choose:

Space Race creates a race among individuals or groups to answer questions

Exit Ticket has students answer 3 questions about their comprehension of the day's material

Quick Question lets students submit their answers to just one question that you ask them in class.

Like I mentioned in the introduction, your students will need their smartphone. If a few students do not have a smartphone, they can be paired up with those who do.

Tell students to go to socrative.com (write it on the board or show on the projector so that they spell it correctly).

Then, have them find the three horizontal lines in the top right corner of the screen. Tap that, then tap Student Login.

Here is the beauty of Socrative: they don't need to create an account. They just have to enter your room name and then their name (if you request it in the Launch section. I recommend it).

I'm very fortunate to have a doc cam in my classroom, so I show my students these steps with the camera zoomed in on and projecting my own phone. Meanwhile, I had logged into my teacher account on the classroom computer (I'm lucky enough to have this connected to the projector as well).

Once that's all set up, launch your quiz.

Choose the quiz you want, then choose your delivery method.:

Instant feedback tells the student if they got the question correct right away

Open navigation lets them choose questions and work on them at their own pace

Teacher paced means that the teacher controls when students can move onto the next question

Because I like to talk about each question before revealing the answers, I usually do open navigation. When I introduced Socrative to my class for the first time, I used the teacher paced mode because it's a little easier (no numbered boxes and navigation arrows at the bottom).

From there, you just let the students choose or write their answers. When you're finished, you can see what percentage of the class got questions correct, and you can even download an Excel spreadsheet of the results.

So that's the technical stuff. Below are three ways you can incorporate it into your classes.

1. Warm-up

This is how I've been using Socrative and it's been great. Students know the drill now. They come in, log into our room, type in their name, and start answering questions. Since I do open navigation, it's all at their own pace.

I usually include one fun question ("Are you tired this morning?" "What's your favorite restaurant?" etc. - just be sure you don't count these as incorrect and take points away.) And then of course I include four or five questions that review a topic we've been working on. I try to make these hard. This is a good opportunity to work on those topics that they're having trouble with.

Once everyone is done, we review the answers together as a class. Students like to see what their classmates answered and how well they did.

Then I tell everyone to put their phones away for the rest of class. Paradoxically, Socrative is also helpful for this. If everyone uses their phone at the same time and then everyone puts their phone away at the same time, you're less likely to get those students who are sneakily texting or playing, trying to get around the cellphone ban.

2. Review

The pre-class warmup can be a quick form of review, but you could do a more expanded version as well. I've written about ways to review before, but I think Socrative might factor into my review planning now. There's a few good reasons I think it would work well:

Multi-modal: A smartphone might be easier to use than a worksheet if a student is constantly consulting a textbook for review. Because of the limited area on most desks, students look at the worksheet, then lifting it up and look at the textbook, then write part of an answer, then pick up the paper again to look at the textbook, then put the paper back down to write on it again. A smartphone can be used in one hand while flipping through pages with the other. It's a very tiny consideration, and some students will inevitably prefer paper, but it's a good alternative.

Engaging: Again, Socrative can be fun. Tapping a screen is more engaging than writing on paper for most people. If you're doing an especially dry review, Socrative can spice things up.

Feedback on progress: This is where Socrative can really help with review. Remember how Socrative shows you results in easy to read, downloadable charts? Those will probably help you get a feel for what students still need to review.

3. Student-created

I heard about this idea from one of my colleagues and I still have yet to try it. But the concept is wonderful.

Anyone can sign up for a teacher account on Socrative, which means that anyone can have a "room", create quizzes, and launch them.

So have your students sign up as a teacher (this is a little bit more involved than the student login, but not impossible). Then teach them how to create quizzes and have them go at it.

You should probably be the first "student" to go into their room and see their quiz, just to make sure that their questions and answers are all correct (and that the distractors are also incorrect). But then students can take each others' quizzes by getting their room codes.

There are a lot of benefits to having students create their own quizzes. First of all, it saves work for the teacher by creating a lot of material for other students to review with. But more importantly, it makes students think critically. They have to make both correct and incorrect answers, which means they have to know the material well enough to distinguish between the two. It's also fun for them to play teacher for at least a little while.

The above quote is from Socrates himself (so Google tells me...). It's apt for the app that's taken and twisted his name: like all classroom tech, Socrative might be a pleasure, but it also has its price. If it doesn't work in your class, don't use it. But don't be afraid to try it out. The pleasure might be worth the price.

Thanks for reading.

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Other teachers have been encouraging me to use Socrative for awhile now, but until recently I just didn't care to try it out. I'm not against using tech in the classroom; it can make things a lot easier. I just didn't want to have to learn yet another educational technology.

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Scratch: coding a vocabulary learning quiz or game

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Scratch: coding a vocabulary learning quiz or game

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https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/86869334/

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/217875/

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/175445736

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/38734278/

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You'll need space bar, right arrow, and up

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Piktochart: record a presentation about an environmental issue

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Piktochart: record a presentation about an environmental issue

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Environmental Project | Piktochart Visual Editor

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Twitter chats: converse in the role of a historical character 

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Twitter chats: converse in the role of a historical character 

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Ideal for character study or reading response, this template allows students to enter a Twitter comment for a character in one of 14 sections, as well as providing a brief bio and other similar information. There are three versions of the form: an edit...

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Powtoon: make animated scientific explanations with voiceovers

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Powtoon: make animated scientific explanations with voiceovers

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iMovie:Create voice overs for Pixar films

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iMovie:Create voice overs for Pixar films

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5 Pixar Short Films to Use in Secondary ELA — Bespoke ELA: Essay Writing Tips + Lesson Plans

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Pixar short films are a great way to target essential literary elements and techniques from characterization to theme to conflict to symbolism. These Pixar short films inspire class discussion and analysis, and students can then in turn write essays based upon these films. They are an excellent to

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http://www.newburyparkschool.net/langofmonth/