achievable, relevant, manageable, purposeful, differentiated, etc?

A.       Distance interview: One student records questions that they want to ask their buddy (one at a time). The other student records and sends back the answers. Eg. What makes you feel out of place?

      30 second presentation: Once they have the answers, the student prepares and records a            30 second presentation about their mate. He/ She can invite this mate to participate (mime).

In my opinion, this is a rich activity; type B and C, because it involves personal experience combined with exploration and expression. Students are creating, using their knowledge in a purposeful way, getting to know their mates better and sharing feelings, what makes it relevant.

Moreover, it uses differentiated instruction and instructional strategies since students can adapt the questions and answers to their own level, and use movement while miming. 

I think it is an achievable activity but I would specify which apps students are supposed to use.
And in the case of a class with a large number of students it might become too noisy and time consuming.
B.       Illustrate a feeling: One student writes and sends the name of an emotion to his/ her buddy. The other student has to illustrate the emotion with a selfie.
Find the emoji: Afterwards, the student who took the selfie chooses an emoji and writes and sends the name of it to the other one. That student has to find in his/ her cel phone the correct emoji and send it back. The emoji should be the opposite of the feeling illustrated in the selfie. Share and discussion.

 In my opinion this is a funny achievable activity which involves students’ interests and includes instructional strategies since students have to mime emotions and are free to choose the ones they want to use. The differentiation is related to the level of vocabulary they will use and how they will share and discuss. It is a type A and B activity since students revise vocabulary and express themselves while miming.
However, I would specify the app they will have to use. And while the students are taking selfies I would ask them to sit apart to keep the suspense.

a-      Choose one of your groups of students. Remember the concept of HETEROGENEITY. Describe the group as regards number of people, interests in general, levels of English, etc.

·        4^th year at primary school:
Age: 9 - 10
30 students which are in general quite disruptive and noisy but eager to work.
Levels of English: There are a few students who have never had English classes before, many who have some basic knowledge and a few who have been studying English for some years already.
Interests they share: technology, cartoons, music, animals.
b-      Design a task for homework for the chosen group. It should be type B or C.
HOMEWORK PLANNING TEMPLATE

  TOPIC / TASK IN PROJECT:   | CARTOON CHARACTERS
 |  HOMEWORK TYPE:   | B - C
 |  PURPOSE:   | INVESTIGATE AND GIVE INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR FAVOURITE CARTOON CHARACTER
 |  DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH: (content/process/product/affect/learning environment)   | LEVELS OF VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR STRUCTURES USED CONTENT PRODUCT
 |  SKILL INVOLVED (reading, writing, listening, speaking) + literacy   | READING - SPEAKING
 |  INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES:   | GET MOVING – SHARE IDEAS AND OPINIONS – MONITOR PROGRESS
 |  MATERIAL:    | CEL PHONE - INTERNET

 c-      Differentiation: Design two alternative tasks differentiating through TASK, LEVEL, SUPPORT, MATERIAL, ETC.
DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH LEVEL
     Lower level: Students will give basic information such as name, age, nationality, profession
     Medium and high level: Students will enlarge the information as much as they can according to their level of English.

Develop one of these two options:

A - Escribir un apartado (dos párrafos) para el Proyecto Anual del presente ciclo lectivo, para presentar al Equipo Directivo de la escuela, que otorgue fundamentación teórica y práctica sobre la concepción de la tarea (homework) discutida y analizada durante este curso.

B - During these meetings you were asked to design tasks as homework considering the main concepts of this course. Reflect on your work and the reasons to design the tasks in the way you did.

 

B.

I solved the tasks trying to take into account and reflect on the topics we have dealt with during this workshop. When designing a homework task we should consider the purpose of giving it and the appropriate type for each student, considering the differentiated instruction and the instructional strategies suitable for each. All in all, doing my best to transform homework into pathwork.’

When giving feedback I tried to do it in a concrete, respectful, kind way which could nurture and improve others’ work.

Task 1:  Job interview. Students have to use webcamcompanion application to pretend they are having an online job interview. Then, with campstools application students have to create a conceptual map to show and graph vocabulary related to work/jobs. 

Task 2: After dealing with vocabulary about film and arts, students have to make a short film on a topic of their interest using audacity and quicktime apps for edition and music. 
 
 According to what she had done my feedback will be the following one; both task are achievable for primary and secondary courses since it is not a must to use certain vocabulary, they can use their own but related to the topic. Moreover, these activities will motivate them since there is a common one and most of students enjoy watching or listening to other’s opinions. Not only is motivated but also is purposeful.  They are also purposeful for the fact that they are dealing with every day topics, such as; how to do an interview for getting a job and preparing a film plot or giving feedback towards one. To my mind, dealing with every day topics makes children work better since they are doing something relevant for their near or far future, something they will surely apply in their own lives in different ways.
   If we think on differentiation, we can mention the fact that every student will do this task in their own way, I would allow them to do these activities in a written or orally way, they would do it in pairs (not only with classmates but also with friends or family members) or just individually, they would add their feelings while doing these tasks. As a whole I would say that Tati’s production is a great one to be used. However, I would like children to give an end to those tasks. For example; I would add this:
 *After watching your classmate production write in a paper a suggestion, recommendation or an opinion on his/her performance.
 
 2)
 A) I chose a group that I had during my practices in the TTC. It was a fantastic group! It was a 5^th year at Escuela normal, there were sixteen students, and most of them were girls. I really liked it because their levels were very similar; most of them had an elementary level. However, there were five of them that were beginners (I have to admit that was hard for them to do the “final task” but finally they could). According to interests it was an ideal idea to do a survey after planning the classes. They have the possibility to choose between several topics and based on that the teacher should plan the 8 classes for them. As a consequence, most of them were really engaged with the idea of that project.
 
B)
 

 

 | TOPIC / TASK IN PROJECT:   | MOVIES
 |  HOMEWORK TYPE:   | “C”
 |  PURPOSE:   | Choose a movie and presents its trailer and do a power point based on that film which includes the following:  the main important features of a certain film. For instance; describe the plot, its characters, actors/actresses, title, the script, the main problem of the movie, etc. Also, give your personal opinion and recommendations. Students must be able to manage the knowledge they have acquired and apply it to describe the main characteristics of their favourite film and also to make recommendations to their classmates.
 |  DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH: (content/process/product/affect/learning environment)   | Students were given the possibility to read and show, to explain while showing or just to give the final task to the teacher. The content must be the same one but they can choose the type of the film and the structures of their production. According to the learning environment all of them had received the teachers help during the previous class after the presentation of this “final task”. The teacher had presented one example (the power point and a trailer of a movie) and explained step by step how to do it. Students will have to do the same job, as the one presented, and work on that while they are in class. Some students need more personal attention than others since some of them decide to do it individually.
 |  SKILL INVOLVED (reading, writing, listening, speaking) + literacy   | Literacy and searching (They have to read the information presented and read while searching for the film information), read and write (according to what they found they have to write the correct information of the film), speaking (those students which are able to develop an oral presentation could give an oral speech on his/her “final task”) and speaking (in the previous class in which they have to interact with the teacher or his/her classmates to prepare the task).
|  INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES:   | TEAMWORK;the possibility to learn from each other, ADAPTATION; adapt realia to use in class and do challenging activities, simple and more challenging, SHARE IDEAS; make recommendations and give help.
 |  MATERIAL:    | For doing this task students need: computers or mobile phones (for searching information in class) power point, internet, magazines and papers (in case they do not have the access to the internet or technology), grammar structures seen during the previous classes and a pen drive or CD.
 |  TASK:          |   Decide if you want to work in pairs or individually, after that choose a movie with your group or your favourite one. Presents its trailer (no more than 3 minutes), then do a power point based on that film which should include the following features: 
 the plot, its characters, actors/actresses, title, the script, the main problem of the movie, etc. Also, give your personal opinion and make recommendations for your classmates (write them in the power point)                

 

c) Two different tasks:

1^ST OPTION: After listening a short story that the teacher has told you write a short paragraph telling what is the main body and how it ends, then change the end into a tragic one or give to it an open ending.
 
 

2^ND OPTION: After listening a short story that the teacher has told you write 5 topics that you can connect this story with, then perform the real ending of it and one the one you have to create.
3) Based on what I have seen in these three classes I leant how to plan homework and how to think or see the different perspectives. Considering that we will have students with different intelligences we must plan different types of homework. It is a great idea to have different activities and to learn a bit from all of them. That is to say that if you give simple and not difficult homework you will have two or more benefits, such as; not frustration and more challenging learning for everyone!!! I have chosen tasks in which they can apply their interests and in which I would be able to give students feedback since I strongly believe that a good feedback is one of the greatest tool for learning.