END OF TERM PROJECT WITH GENIALLY

 

MY FAVOURITE CELEBRITY

I have carried out this project with my students at the 1^st year of CSE. It has been a written project they have presented orally in class about a famous celebrity they admire.  To support their presentations, they have made use of a fantastic tool: Genially.

As the aim was the students produced individual written projects to practice what they had learnt along the first term and their later oral defense, they have followed precise instructions and steps.

At a first stage they have been given a template with the contents they have to include in their projects. The ideas will be developed through three short paragraphs:

1^st paragraph- it will include information about the biography of the celebrity: at least his/her full name, date and place of birth and profession.

2^nd paragraph – these lines will provide a physical description of that person.

3^rd paragraph – it will contain personal details, curiosities or relevant information of their celebrities which awake their admiration.

There is a former brainstorming to revise the vocabulary and the structures seen in the units and that are relevant for their projects. Then, they are given key information about a famous Spanish singer and they work in pairs to produce a written text following the structure and paragraphs in the template. At the end of the lesson they are provided with a model project of the artist they have been working about. They are encouraged to think about their favorite celebrity and to look for information at home. They will bring their notes to class.

In a second session they work individually in their own projects. Using the information they have chosen and prepared at home, they write a draft and hand it at the end of the lesson. After an adequate correction, the drafts are returned and the students write and hand the final version. Now they will be ready to prepare their oral defenses.

In a third session students are taken to the computer technology room. They work in pairs with Genially: following the teacher’s guidance they register and explore different tools and features to create presentations.  At the end of the lesson, they are shown and explained the rubric the teacher will use to assess their presentations.

The students prepare their presentations at home and they are carried out in class the last week before Christmas holidays. They have enjoyed their works a lot. They have loved the diversity not only of celebrities, styles and categories but also their creativity of their Genially displays and their oral skills.

I would like to share Carlos’ project, one of my students at the 1^st of ESO, and an audio with his presentation.

CARLOS' PROJECT

 

 

EDPUZZLE: MAKING FRIENDS

 Hi again!

I would like to share with you an activity from a mate's blog using Edpuzzle, a great tool to improve and practice listening comprehension with visual support. The centre of interest is appealing and motivating for our students. We all know how important social relations and friends are for them! In this You Tube video our students will meet a couple sharing how they met each other. 

The video is fun, entertaining and twinkly. I'm sure they will enjoy it a lot! 

HOW DID WE MEET?

REAL LIFE SUPERHEROES

CREATING A COMIC WITH PIXTON

 The activity has been worked at the 3rd year of CSE. The students were organized in pairs to facilitate their collaborative work in the computer technology classroom. The activity has been approached through three sessions:

- Session 1: the students discuss in class about a text on real life heroes they have read and worked at home. Then, they sit in pairs and make up a story for their comics, writing the speech bubbles and comments.

- Session 2: the students work with Pixton, creating the settings and the different scenes for their stories.

- Session 3: the students present their comics in class. Their classmates asses their peers' works using the rubric given by the teacher. After the session, all the comics are printed and displayed on the English corner in the classroom, having the best three ones a highlighted post on the wall.

The main goal, the students provided a final written product including the contents learnt in the unit has been highly achieved. From the very beginning, the idea of writing a comic instead of a text (as they are used to do) awoke their curiosity and interest. They had to take a step forward on imagination. Later, working with Pixton meant a outburst of creativity. In some ocassions, I had to encourage them to focus on their task and forget about so many details. 

They definitely loved this activity. What would I change? Of course, more time!We will be using Pixton for our end of term projects on March.

COMIC: REAL LIFE SUPERHEROES

STAN LEE WITH EDPUZZLE

My students at the 3rd year of CSE have been working on unit 3 about superheroes. Along with this centre of interest, I have considered paramount for them to know a short biography of the man who is thought to be the father of the comic books: Stan Lee.

The topic is really appealing and significant for teenagers, as superheroes are part of their childhood and their daily life (video clips, films, merchandising, etc). Concerning the goals, the main aims are that students work with authentic material, learn about a relevant character in the world of superheroes, work autonomously at home using ICT tools and prepare a list of pros and cons about reading superheroes comics or watching superheroes films for a debate in class.

There is a brief pre-stage  to explain the students they are going to work with Edpuzzle through Classroom and they are going to watch a short You Tube video about Stan Lee to answer some questions while watching. They are also told to write a list with three pros and cons of reading comics or watching superheroes films. They will bring their lists to discuss the following day in class. After this post- task, there will be a final show of hands to decide whether comics or films are the best choice.

The students have loved working with Edpuzzle, although they find difficult the high level of the girl talking (so they have to rewatch several times) and they also miss the possibility of watching the whole video without stops before starting to answer the questions. The next I will also provide them with a link from You Tube with the original video in the Classroom task. I think the final debate would have been much more productive if they had been able to work in small groups, but pandemic restrictions come first. In contrast I must say students are now more aware of respecting turn taking and different ideas.

Edpuzzle is a great tool for our students to practice listening with authentic material .I hope you enjoy the activity and find the idea useful for your clasS.

EDPUZZLE: THE LEGACY OF STAN LEE

 

 CHARLES DICKENS

The last two lessons before Christmas holidays we have been working on a biographical text about Charles Dickens in class. My 3^rd ESO students have learned about one of the most relevant English writers, they have read about his childhood, his life and his prolific literary work. The main goal was to make them aware of the author of Christmas Carol, his time and some of his most famous titles. The final task was the creation of a time line to sum up all the facts they had learnt using the tool TimeToast.

First lesson was devoted to present the author and his time, reading the text aloud and answering some comprehension questions. Then, they were asked to individually make a time-line draft on paper using information from the text. During the second lesson they worked in pairs. They compared, improved and drew a definite version of their time lines and provided a digital version with TimeToast. They loved working online, looking for pictures to illustrate their concepts and synthesizing ideas. They found TimeToast a very easy and intuitive tool to work with. After this task, my students are able to point Charles Dickens’ times, to mention two or three facts of his life and remember the name of at least one more title besides Christmas Carol. TimeToast is definitely a great ally when you want your students to organize and remember data which follows a chronological order.

Here you are some examples of my students' work:

Charles Dickens 1 

Charles Dickens 2 

 Charles Dickens 3

Charles Dickens 4 

 

 

 

Curiosity did not kill the cat

I have always had memories of myself reading. I was barely six years old and I can still clearly see my father with a comic under his arm when he came home from work.  It was without a doubt the best of gifts. I remember reading and re-reading it many times, without losing any of my enthusiasm or excitement. Then a few books came and went through the same process, until finally my feet entered a public library. What a paradise that was! I could not describe how grateful I felt to be able to borrow books and read them for free.  I could not afford it, yet the world was now at my feet.

And so my teenage years passed and I got to university. My reading habits were torn between the Spanish novels of my free time and the articles and texts in English that my studies demanded. One of my best allies at that time was the college librarian, it could not have been any other way. It was awesome of him to let me in and choose the books by myself. Me, high, overcrowded shelves and a notebook and pen as my only weapons. There were no photocopies, just a huge willingness  to learn and to find the right information.

Later the internet and new technologies  turned up, but deep down I will always be a paper geek. I have never read a book unless it is on paper. For me a book is a treasure, and I love to treasure books on my shelves, in a nostalgic evocation of my feelings inside a public library. And although nowadays my pace of life does not allow me to read  as many novels as I would like, I am still the curious cat, eager to learn and I do not pass up the opportunity to inquire information on any subject I hear or see that sparks in my mind. The Internet is now my personal "paradise", but I will never stop expanding my traditional library.

 Hi there!

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