Final Task

I must admit I haven't had all the time I would have liked to devote to this course (I began a little bit later) and since I'm running out of time, I had to take a quick view at my colleagues' blogs. All the activities look really nice and I enjoyed watching the TimeToast activities (I think they have been my favourite ones because they are very visual and attract everyone's attention from the ver beginning. As I said before, I'm running out of time both with my school courses and with this one so the activity I have chosen for the final task is from the Blog English4esoabdbachillerato by María Antonia Caballero Martín, an activity using Edpuzzle and dealing with the passive voice. The main reason to chose this activity was because the learning contents matched my students' own learning contents. It was a pity that she couldn't include the link to the activity so I had to look for a video myself.

The video I chose was a little bit longer than 4 minutes but I tought it didn't matter. As opposed to María Antonia, we had already studied or presented the main aspects of the passive voice in the classroom so I just wanted my students to have a different point of view ( especially for those who didn't fully understand the explanations given and also because I thought it would be anothet way of reinforcing concepts). 

As I watching the video, I thought it was very easy to understand and I told my students to copy the different sentences they heard /read in Spanish as well as their translations.

https://edpuzzle.com/media/5cc04a9d5c566140c5c598c4/edit

TIMETOAST

We have been working with several biographies these days and oone of them was dealing with the writer Charles Dickens.
 https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/2011872

We divided the students (4ºESO) into several groups of three people and they were first asked to read the text (in this case, a biography). In this unit we are revising the past tenses and the passive voice. A biography seemed to be a very clear example of the use of these tenses and again, the importance of this author in modern society is questionless. Apart from therevision of the grammatical aspect, I wanted my students to considerate the life of an important British writer and also to think about the most important aspects  and the most important books by this writer in order to include them in the TimeToast project.
The text came with several comprehension questions that we answered after reading it.
Afterwards, I told the students what TimetToast was about and showed them an example of the final result from one of my colleagues' blog. Since it was very visual, they immediatle liked it. As usual, they had to decide who was going to do what. They decided that they could include more information and one of the searched on the internet in order to provide more biographical facts.
I believe that this tool was of great help because at the beginning the students wanted to include all the information, and even provide a picture for all the events and so it took them a lot of time but then they came to the conclusion that less is more and had to debate the most important aspects to be considered. Another aspect I liked is the fact that the students wanted to do their best and so they read different sources (which reinforced the reading activity) and I think that the result, that is, having created their own timeline has helped them become aware of the importance of Charles Dickens, an author they thought they didn't know but, on the contrary, was very familiar to them all.

EDPUZZLE

https://edpuzzle.com/media/5cbded913b10cd40a1102a6b/edit

I chose this text because we have dealt with a biography of Abraham Lincoln in our class and I have always liked (and I think the students too) this topic. We have also draw a kind of "Timetoast" working with the biography of the American President and so we could reinforce the contents learnt.
First, we read and answered the questions related to the comprehension of Lincoln's life and then we watched the video. I asked the students to bring some information and do some homework. Finally, they darw the most important dated in Lincoln's life.
The students worked in pairs to decide whether the dates and facts that they listened or read belonged to Lincoln's personal life or political life.
I think that the main use of this video was to reinforce contents, as I have already stated. We watched the video three times and so they were able to take notes and share them with their partners and collaborate. It was a different activity to do at school and a visual aid too.
I believe that next time, they will work with the video at home first.

STORYJUMPER

Today I bring an example of the tales we created for Halloween back in October. The students were asked to create a short story for a contest we made at school and so we have used those stories to create our sStoryjumper books.
 First, the students organized their own groups (from three to four or five pupils) since we have kids who live in small villages and it is difficult for them to go to other houses outside their own village. Then, they had to create the story, which was supposed to be original. One of the requirements was that they had to use the Simple Past. They had to revise this tense using irregular verbs, regular verbs, and the different forms (negative, interrogative and affirmative). They were asked to revise the story in order to correct possible mistakes.
Since we already had the stories, it was easier to give them a "book". They had to look up for photographs, different backgrounds and , what seems more difficult, agree, which means they are cooperating and learning in a funny way.
I must say that the students have really enjoyed working with Storyjumper because at the beginning they only had a text and, after all the work, they had a book: something visual, something they could see. It has really make a difference.
 https://www.storyjumper.com/book/index/68523195/5cbcb9b12a4ea

Genially

I decided to work with Genially with my group of FP, which is a very small group of only six students so we only have two projects. All the students are boys so it was easy for them to decide the topic. The one you can see here is related to the famous Michael Jordan, the other group's choice had to do with cars. Activities done with computers can be donde here since we have more computers that students.
First step was to choose the projects and then to decide the modality. Here I had to allow them to become familiar with the page in order to choose the best project for each group and it took them a little bit. Once they already knew, the divided the work: a student was looking for significant information to include, another one was working with Genially and the third one was looking for pictures and visual information.
I think that this project has help my students in different ways:
1. They didn't know the page itself and they have liked it a lot.
2. To become more organized, divide the work and becoming responsible since they all had something to do and a deadline.
3. Using the language.

https://view.genial.ly/5cb05809ae19600f3ad567c3/imagen-interactiva

GENIALLY PROJECT

https://view.genial.ly/5cb05809ae19600f3ad567c3/imagen-interactiva

I decided to work with Genially with my group of FP, which is a very small group of only six students so we only have two projects. All the students are boys so it was easy for them to decide the topic. The one you can see here is related to the famous Michael Jordan, the other group's choice had to do with cars. Activities done with computers can be donde here since we have more computers that students.
First step was to choose the projects and then to decide the modality. Here I had to allow them to become familiar with the page in order to choose the best project for each group and it took them a little bit. Once they already knew, the divided the work: a student was looking for significant information to include, another one was working with Genially and the third one was looking for pictures and visual information.
I think that this project has help my students in different ways:
1. They didn't know the page itself and they have liked it a lot.
2. To become more organized, divide the work and becoming responsible since they all had something to do and a deadline.
3. Using the language.

WHAT DO WE READ?

What do we read? Obviously the answer depends on the kind of person you are. Have our reading habits changed? I do believe so.
Reading is an activity which must enlighten our lives and not a cumbersome duty coming from external source. It is mainly for this reason that our students hate the books we force them to read. Twenty years ago, I used to read short stories, mainly dealing with  mysteries, now I prefer novels, whether they are written in Spanish, English or French. It is here that I notice that at least my reading habits have changed. The topics have changed but also the form too. However it is true that when I am reading poetry, I prefer reading Spanish writers, and poetry written in Spanish in general since I find it easier to understand what the writers were trying to convey with those poems.
Nonetheless, there is still something that hasn't changed: I used to read books, some paper I could touch, see, smell, underline, and I continue with that preference: I love books and, if possible, I want them to be mine.