DEBATE: Renewable energies should replace fossil fuels.

Pre-requisites: My students in the 1st-year class of Lyceum of Applied Sciences have already learnt how to use talking tactics during the semester on miscellaneous topics. They have experience with the debate structure, but they have only debated in Italian. I shared with them some videos to watch before coming to the lesson to refresh their minds.

1ST LESSON (55')

I shared a Hyperdoc with my students on Classroom to investigate the following issue “Renewable energies should replace fossil fuels”.

ENGAGE: I showed them some pictures and applied the MLTV thinking routine “See - Think - Wonder”.

EXPLORE: We watched a video on the issue. Then, I divided the class into four groups of 5 students to discuss the issue and gather ideas and opinions about the resources shared on the Hyperdoc. I left the talking tactics on their desks for them to use. 

EXPLAIN: After the discussion and a round of sharing ideas, I established the Proposition and Opposition teams and gave them instructions for their homework: prepare a two-minute debate speech for every speaker in the team.

2ND LESSON (60')

APPLY: I uploaded a guide about "How to Write a Speech" and the "Presentation Checklist" in Classroom. Scaffolding: students wrote their drafts and showed them to me. They practised their speeches at school and at home. I checked all of them and gave feedback before the debate lessons.

3RD LESSON (55')

SHARE: First Debate (two teams, judges + audience)

REFLECT: Feedback, self-assessment and peer assessment (I shared evaluation rubrics in the Hyperdoc).

4TH LESSON (55')

SHARE: Second Debate (two teams, judges + audience)

REFLECT: Feedback, self-assessment and peer assessment (I shared evaluation rubrics in the Hyperdoc).

It has not been easy for them as a first debate topic, but they had real fun and felt more confident about their speaking skills.

For privacy reasons, I blurred the faces in the video. Unfortunately, I can only share one picture at a time on Padlet so I made a pic collage.

SECOND ACTIVITY: a 3rd class of Itis Meccatronici was divided in groups of 3-4 students. Each of them chose a piece of news selected from recent innovations in the STEAM field. Each student in the group developed one aspect of the news and they chose a picture to represent what they were going to talk about; at the end the groups of 3-4 students reported the news in front of an audience of peers. It took 4 lessons to complete the activity and some work done at home.

Technically the second activity was structured and conceived as follows:

-activating previous knowledge: by letting the students think back about Present Simple, Present Continuous, Present Perfect, Past Simple and the way they are used to report the news;

-introducing the new knowledge: by pointing out that it was going to be technical language that they would use, by retrieving vocabulary and structures that they already knew and becoming familiar with new vocabulary;

-evaluation method: I informed the students that I would consider the contents and the way they would deliver it, by pointing out the 4 aspects of the Oracy Framework;

-according to Bloom's taxonomy, the activity helped the students get as close as possible to the following objectives:

1, REMEMBER, 4, ANALYZE, 6, CREATE

-conclusion of the activity: the students share considerations and impressions; they can give advice on how to improve their performance; the teacher will point out strengths more than weaknesses before wrapping up the activity.

The summer reader Macbeth -Blackcat offers a graphic novel with 8 pictures where the students can put in balloons some words to show what the characters are thinking or saying. Organised in group of 3, students had to write down the dialogues and then they wrote a short summary of the plot.

2^nd activity: expanding ideas

In order to expand ideas and develop critical thinking, the students in group of 3 examined the story from another point of view. Each group chose a character or even an object (a group chose the dagger) and prepared an interview following the story from another viewpoint

3^rd step: padlet (this is only 1 example of the students’ work)

4^th step: Oral speaking

Round of sharing ideas with an interview: students discuss about the reasons of their choices- feedback with peer assessment considering also the oracy framework – the video shows the students who are considered to be the best by the class.

PADLET:

Students' interview with Banquo.

HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN YOU MET THE WITCHES FOR THE FIRST TIME?

I was astonished! I couldn't believe what I was seeing! those weird figures foresaw our future with prophecies and cryptic riddles.

WHAT DID THEY TELL YOU?

The three witches told me some strange predictions. The first witch told me that I would have been less than Macbeth but more than him. 

Instead, the second one warned me that I would have been less lucky than Macbeth, but luckier than him. 

Finally the older one whispered me that my lineage would have inherited the kingdom.

WERE YOU SOSPICIOUS WHEN YOU RECEIVED MACBETH'S INVITATION TO HIS FEAST?

Yes, I was very suspicious, especially since Macbeth was trying so hard persuading me to come to his feast. In fact, it turned out I was right!

HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN THE SOLDIERS AMBUSHED YOU?

Even though I didn't trust Macbeth anymore, I felt betrayed. Since the soldiers were going to kill me first, my only concern was to make sure that Fleance could escape and survive.

WHEN THE WITCHES SUMMONED YOUR SPIRIT, DID YOU FEEL SATISFIED BY SHOWING MACBETH HIS SUCCESSORS?

After tormenting Macbeth during the day of my death, I ended my revenge by showing him my successors' fate. I felt very accomplished when I saw the despair on his face

The student can use tenses for storytelling.

The student can make hypotheses through modals.

The student can express opinions, agreement/disagreement.).

HOPED- FOR OUTCOME: Achievement/development of the above-stated skills.

Increase in motivation and interest in language learning.

LESSON PLAN:

The teacher introduced the topic, i.e. a speaking activity based on a short video advertisement.

The teacher asked the students to work on a vocabulary activity in groups of three.

The teacher anticipated that they would need words related to the house in order to carry out the speaking activity.

Each group typed their own list of words and posted it on Padlet.

The teacher told the students to compare the lists and see whose list was the most thorough.

The students were then ready for the main task.

Student A and B were arranged so that Student As could watch the screen, whereas Student B sat facing his/her partner with his/her back to the screen.

Student A explained the first half of the video to Student B while watching it.

The teacher stopped the video, and the two students could discuss and make hypotheses about the advertised product.

The students swapped positions so that the Student B could describe the second half of the video to Student A.

At the end of the video, the two students tried to guess what the commercial was about.

After the discussion, the teacher asked the students to write down a short composition related to the video (“What would you do, if you were a superhero?”).

The teacher encouraged them to use at least 5 words from the Padlet activity.

After the deadline, students were allowed to read each other’s work. They decided which one they liked the most and explained why.

MY REFLECTIONS ON THE ACTIVITY

The activity proposed to my students was greeted with great enthusiasm. Some students are definitely into technology, some are really motivated and willing to learn, while some others are a bit weak and slow with technological tools but enthusiastic to tackle a new challenge. This contributed to create, since the very beginning, a varied background to the activity, in which a sense of cooperation and sharing was clearly perceptible, especially when those students, who are good at technology, tried to help their peers with Padlet, giving tips and details. In doing this, they implicitly conveyed a deep feeling of excitement and cooperation that was greatly helpful to involve students in the activity.

During the main part of the lesson, centered on a short video watching, learners worked well, with a surprising engagement and without any particular problems or difficulties. Probably, this is because they brainstormed during the first activity, therefore they started feeling quite comfortable about the vocabulary they needed to describe the short video and this was surely something very positive.

What resulted to be a bit more complicated was the last part, the “consolidation” activity.  Debating about such a topic (being a superhero) was both involving and challenging for them because they had ideas, but exploring them more in depth and writing down their points/reasons in a short composition was a bit demanding.  In the end, they did really good compositions, proving to have learnt vocabulary and structures. The general perception of my students about the whole activity was positive and students felt very engaged and motivated!

Erica Santoni

Liceo Leopardi Macerata

Step 1 – Students learn/review vocabulary related to crime and investigation through brainstorming and textbook.

Step 2 – Students are asked to create an original crime video. They work in groups of 4-5 and discuss the plot of their video, applying discussion guidelines, until they all agree.

Step 3 – Students write script for  their videos and submit them to teachers for revision.

Step 4 – Students create videos.

Step 5 – Videos are shown in class.  Student and teacher feedback is given. “Oscars” awarded in different categories.

Reflection: This project was developed over 3 weeks. During group discussions, students made sure to give every member their voice in planning the videos, even the shyer ones. Students put a considerable amount of work into this assignment. It took them hours of filming to make a video that lasted just a few minutes. They were original and creative. This activity helped students improve their confidence, fluency and pronunciation, in most cases. Students were very motivated and gave positive feedback.

The video was too heavy to upload to Padlet. If you'd like to see it just email me and I'll share it. paola.ammazzalorso@liceotco.edu.it

IIS da Vinci

These videos were filmed by 3rd year students.

During the second semester we worked on literature presentations, students chose their topic and  produced 1 minute speeches weekly at the beginnning of each lesson two or three students were randomly asked to present their speeches.

At the beginning of the semester students had been given the Framework for Presentations and were given immediate feedback by the class after their speeches.

During the second semester I proposed some of the activities we practiced during our course as well, for these videos, students chose from the speech topics provided during the Oracy Course, practiced at home and were filmed in class. At the end of all the presentations we critiqued them.

NB

sadly I don't seem to be able to load the student's videos (my bad). I will gladly share them with anyone who's interested i watching them. Next course definitely an IT one.

2nd year secondary school. I did their lettorato with them, so this was probably meeting number 4 and 5 (every meeting is creative like this to be honest).

I told them to invent a film during one lesson (in groups of no more than 4) and to present it the following week. The presentation could be in different ways - from just explaining the plot and why the film will be a blockbuster, to posters, props from the film, key scenes, dialogues to even short films/trailers.

My idea was not to give them too many boundaries, as it will limit their imagination. I just asked to be age-appropriate (obviously they are only 13/14).

I think it has been successful and I will definitely continue doing this in the future, as the children were really very happy with it.

If I have the time, maybe I would extend it to another day, so I can prepare them with the public speaking part too, but I am usually limited to only 6 to 8 weeks of lettorato and many teachers want specific things covered (Cambridge exam prep as I am an examiner, etc.).