Gamification in the ELT classroom

Spin the wheel!

This game turn students answering questions in games. Whit this type of activity we can reinforce teamwork and different subjects that can be displayed at the chart to be guessed. This activity correspond to gamification method in which students learn through games.

We can use it to learn several topics as the one that is shown at the following activity; also, this tool is useful in order to rehearse the alphabet. This game can be use with all ages players but it will be probably more attractive to young learners.

The limitation that I identify is that it is not the greatest tool to acquire big quantities of topics.

You can play this game like that...

 An empty chart will be written at the board. The first sentence will be “Charles is Chinese, not French”, the second sentence will be “She´s Turkish or Russian. I´m not sure” and the last sentence will be “We´re German and they are Japanese”.

Depending on the student´s number, they will join into groups.

The first group will spin the wheel and the will play for the corresponding points. They will try to guess the first letter and if they assert the letter they will earn the corresponding points. (ex: If they are playing for 45 points, say “letter e” and the sentence has 3“e” they will earn 135 points.)

The group that collect more points win.

What is CPD? What is PLN?

What is CPD?

CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development. It refers to the process of tracking and documenting the skills, knowledge and experience that you gain both formally and informally as you work, beyond any initial training. It's a record of what you experience, learn and then apply. The term is generally used to mean a physical folder or portfolio documenting your development as a professional. Some organisations use it to mean a training or development plan, which I would argue is not strictly accurate. This article is about CPD as a process of recording and reflecting on learning and development.

The CPD process helps you manage your own development on an ongoing basis. It's function is to help you record, review and reflect on what you learn. It's not a tick-box document recording the training you have completed. It's broader than that.

What is PLN?

Imagine being able to walk into a room filled with the very best education professionals, selected by YOU, and having a conversation with them!

It can be as long or as short as you want, and as in-depth as you have time for. Perhaps you might discuss ways to teach various concepts, learn about resources that others are using, or maybe even have conversations that challenge the way you think about education and teaching.

This is exactly what a Personal Learning Network (PLN) can bring to you!”

References

"What is Continuing Professional Development (CPD)? - Careers Advice." Jobs.ac.uk. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 June 2017.

"What the heck is a PLN?" A Teacher's Journey. N.p., 02 Oct. 2013. Web. 25 June 2017.

I attach a video in which personal learning network is explained very clearly, enjoy it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6WVEFE-oZA

Using technology to learn and teach writing skills

Nowadays, the teaching process has become more difficult than before. One of the main reason for this situation is that students, especially teenagers, has become demanding in term of technology as they are using technology tools in daily activities, reason why we need to modify the traditional method in which most of teachers turn the class. One of the important thing about the use of different methods is why we, as prospective teachers, can use this situation in order to explore and support student´s abilities in relation to technology.

It is known that most students enjoy reading comics and graphic novels, this is also demonstrated because of the sales of this type of books , “Las ventas de comics (grapas y tomos) en 2015 ha aumentado un 8% respecto a 2014, lo que marca el quinto año consecutivo de crecimiento del sector” (IGVERNI, 2016). Thanks to the popularity of super heroes movies and anime series has become consumed this type of literature, reason why we should use this factor as a way to attract student attention in the class.

A great idea for second language learners can be practice them writing skills through comic creation. In this way, students can use this imagination and creativity. “El creador de comics puede ser usado tanto por diversión que como parte de una actividad de aprendizaje más estructurada: planear actividades escritas, actividades pre y post lectura y responder a libros” (Read write think, s.f.)

Readwritethink is a resource in which learners and student can create their own comics using certain characters and adding dialogs in different sceneries.  

As I mentioned before, this resource can be display as a way to practice English, use imagination and creativity turning the class focusing on students.

This tool can be used with learners of all ages, especially those one who enjoy with these activities but in general, we can use it with everybody.

Using this resource the only limitation that I identify is that we need access to internet and believe it or not, this situation still affect some schools and educational facilities.

You can visit the webpage readwritethink by clicking here!

REFERENCES.

IGVERNI. (28 de Noviembre de 2016). Obtenido de Starsmydestination: https://starsmydestination.wordpress.com/2016/01/14/las-ventas-de-comics-en-2015-suben-por-quinto-ano-consecutivo/

Read write think. (28 de Noviembre de 2016). Read write think. Obtenido de Comic creator: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/

Using technology to learn and teach speaking skills

Voki is a great learning tool to practice speaking, one of the most attractive issue of it is that you have to create a cartoon character and it can be applied for an entire school. You can try a free trial for the class and also you have a 15 days trial which you can use it as teacher, class or both. It can be useful for student-centered activities.   

       

This learning tool can help students is several areas as ELA (English language arts) with speaking and listening skills, main idea and supporting ideas, prediction, vocabulary and writing skills; Math with computation, reasoning, problem solving, critical thinking and modeling; Science withscientific method, classifying, gather and organize data and crosscutting concepts; Social Studies with gather, interpret and use evidence comparison and economics; and Foreign Language with its four abilities (reading, writing, speaking and listening). Every subject has different activities in which student can use their imagination to create.

When your cartoon character is created, you just need to start talking and the character will record and reproduce what you say in order to create presentations. It is specially designed for young learners who are attractive to this enjoyable tool.

The limitation that I identified is that it is more attractive to young students and for them will be a great experience. On the other, it will not be appealing for adults. 

You can visit the webpage in this link

Kahoot

Kahoot is a free learning platform for teachers which want to make a difference in the students learning proccess.

This platform is relevant to language learning as it is fucused into caught students attention, This is why is so atractive in terms of colors, it is very colorful, the music that sound while playing is so attractive and the design of the page is also well-organised. This is a student-center as the participation of the students will produce the success of the activity. Thanks tto the good design of the platform I consider that it is easy to make the students participate in the activities with this technology.

Considering that Kahoot is an incredible tool for all people I will definitevely uses it for learning a foster language, the target audience will be any people which want to learn a new language.

The limitations that I consider that can interrupt the use of thos technology is that it is neccesary that all the students must use a computer so it is neccesary to take acount that I need facilities where we can use computers for each person, loudspeakers, access to wifi, a projector,for students basic knowledge in the use of computer, for the teacher a high level in the use of technolpgical tools. Also can be uses it with smarthphones and maybe not all students can have one.

For more information, you can visit the web site.

Using technology to learn and teach Reading skills

Hello everybody!

After all these weeks I have been analizing different tools to teach and learn English, and I have found a source for practicing reading. This time I have examine critically a webpage which is newsinlevels. This webpage is specially designed for students who are studying English. The particularity of this page is that you sign up and you make a fast vocabulary test in which you have to choose the right word for each image, at the end on the test (which are around 30 words) the webpage email you the results, and with it you can categorize yourself to select the level in which you will use the activities on the webpage. The webpage includes several types of news categorized in nature, funny, information, sport, interesting and so on and are presented in the levels; level 1, level 2 and level 3. Another relevant aspect is that you have access to the audio version of the news that are presented.

You can use this technology in order to learn new vocabulary. In addition to that, the difficult words are shown and defined in the news in its 3 different levels so it could be easy to work with any kind of audience.

The limitations of this source is that the format is almost the same for all the activities. It is probably that the constant use of the webpage will be monotonous so I recommend the visitors to use this tool as a way to complement other activities. 

Using lyrics and music

Using music for acquiring new languages is an excellent idea, principally because music is inspirational for most of us. In addition to that, there are a vary of types of music for all likes, as alternative, blues, rock, classical, country, dance, electronic, hip hop, among others.

According to Zeromskaite, an increasing number of studies have put forward the possible benefits of music training on non-musical learning domains such as verbal intelligence, executive function, creativity, arithmetic processing and linguistic abilities (Gibson, Folley, & Park, 2009; Hoch & Tillman, 2012; Moreno et al., 2009, 2011; Zeromskaite, 2014). That is why music can be considered a an extraordinary tool to work with, especially with teenagers, which day by day they are getting more involved and represented by it.

References:

Zeromskaite, I., (2014). The Potential Role of Music in Second Language Learning: A Review Article. Journal of European Psychology Students. 5(3), pp.78–88.

Following, you will find an activity that was named You`ve got a friend in me, in relation to the song which is part of the movie Toy Story.

Activity`s length: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Procedure:

First Part:

 -On the internet, search for ‘lyricstrainig.com’ and the song ‘you`ve got a friend in me’.

-Ask the student what they know about the song, or people who have sung it.

-Ask what they think the song might be about, and if they can predict any of the ‘content’ words they think are likely to be in the song.

-Play the song and ask the students to listen and see if any of the words they predicted appear in the song. Give a prize for the person who predicted most words correctly.

-Display the lyrics for the students to see and get them to compare in pairs who has written the most words down correctly.

Second Part:

Discussing the meaning of the song.

Students will answer the following questions.

- Have you ever watched the movie Toy Story?

-Do you know what is the movie about?

-Which is the main topic of the song?

- Do you remember any toy that has special meaning to you?

-What do you think about friendship?

This activity was created to highschool students, which can analise the activity with critical thinking.

Using technology to learn and teach listening skills

Technology has been use in several ways to improve people lives. In that context, internet has been use as a tool to find and spread useful information. 

One of the most beneficial aspect of technology is that it is seems to be easy acquiring a new language, because you can find lots of programs that will help you to succeed. A part from been challenging, the decision of learn a new language; we should consider that we are living in a century where communication has been essential for us. Languages are the way of communicate ideas, knowledge, opinions, experiences and principally to learn about different cultures, and this is essentially why learning languages  has been crucial, the more you learn, the more you will share with different cultures.

Focusing on listening skills of the process of acquiring a new language, one of the most useful tool has been using TEDtalks, in order to practice my listening and reading skills. It is constructive as you can add captions to each talk in the language that you prefer, in that manner it will help you to make connections among what you are listening and what you are reading to finally understand what is has been communicated. In addition to that, this technology can be used for both, practicing a language and learning about several topics which are presented in the talks. TEDtalks are shown in a way that is difficult to distract as there are presented in summarized performances where orators develop their themes of investigations to an audience that have similar interests.

I do not think there is a specific limitation, apart from that you should share likes in the topics presented.

The following presentention is a TEDtalk, which is related to languages, principally to English. 

Don´t insiste on English!

More than words

As prospective teachers it is crucial to being aware about the changes that are currently affecting classrooms in relation to technology and language acquisition.
There are several learning tools at the service of educators. One of the tools for learning vocabulary is Quizlet, in which students can learn vocabulary in different activities, as using flashcards.

There are several ways to learn vocabulary and one of its is through flachcards. Through the tool Quizlet we can create our own flashcards and activities that can be use to teach and learn. The use of this technology is easier to produce material for learning, specially to flascards methodology.

It is attractive for young learners learn through this type of methodology, as using images visuals for presenting, training and teaching languages have been considered a useful tool for teachers. also, this methodology can be use with people that poccess spatial intelligence, without age limit.

In language learning can be limited by the technological problems that are part of some places, as some schools do not have access to internet, computers or technological devices to present the material.