Week 8: Writing (Padlet)






Padlet is an application to create an online bulletin board that you can use to display information for any topic. Easily create an account and build a new board. You can add images, links, videos, and more.

This application can be used to work with mostly  high school students, since they are expected to have their critical thinking already developed, but the teacher must always monitoring their students in order to guide them and help them in whatever they need. 


The following is a lesson plan made to work with Padlet. 

Unit 3: Outstanding persons

Context: Class of 22 students from a second year of high school in a private school in  Valparaiso.

Methodology: Task-Based and ITC

Objective:
    Students will identify ideas from a video in order to develop an outline and essay employing ICT tools with the objective of practicing for the IELTS test.

      Students will write an essay in order to express what are the characteristics of an outstanding person

Materials:


Pre-activity:
The teacher will introduce the topic about outstanding people by asking the following  question in order to help students to recall some language that may be useful for the task:
  • What is an outstanding person? 
  • What do you think it matters most in life?



The teacher will present a video called What matters most in life? This video talks about  how values and feelings play an important role in people’s lives influencing their decision-making and it is going to be a guide for the task. The video will be played twice if necessary. It is recommendable to take notes and spend time preparing for the task.

The teacher will give students clear instructions for the writing task (write in a formal style,  give reasons for your answer and include examples from your own knowledge or experience, write at least 250 words) and shows an example of the final version of the essay they will have to do (attached 1). Moreover, the writing process will be explained through an image made in padlet (attached 2)


While-activity:
After watching and annotating, the students will have to gather in couples to start devising a map, using either Popplet, MindMeister or Padlet. The teacher will show students how to use the website and also an example of a mapping, as a sort of aid to guide them in their map planning. After the teacher makes sure everyone is ready with their map, checking and clarifying any doubts or mistakes from the mapping, students will start their planning for the last part, which is the essay. For the draft, the teacher will provide support with the essay model previously displayed in the pre-activity; explaining the general structure of it and what it has to contain in each one of the components (attached 3) in order to clear up any doubts. When the draft is finished, the couples will have to share their work through Google Drive to another couple as peer feedback. Later on, students will proceed to write their final version of the essay.

Post-activity:
Once students have finished their written task in Google Drive, they will send it to the teacher’s institutional mail for appropriate feedback. Then, next class when feedback is ready, students will have to read it and analyze it to discuss with their partner what were their mistakes and how they can prevent them next written task.

To wrap up, the teacher will congratulate students for their work and effort.

Attached 1.
WRITING TASK 2 – Model Answer from Takeielts.britishcouncil.org

Given the power and influence of the super-rich, it might seem as if social status and material possessions are the new symbols of personal worth, but in everyday life, I do not think this is true.

It is apparent that most celebrities today are admired or envied solely for their material wealth or position in various social hierarchies. Many of these people are known to turn their backs on friends, cheat on their spouses or spend their evenings overindulging in alcohol and/or drugs. Things like owning a mansion, driving an expensive car and getting into A-list parties are exalted above old-fashioned values. Ultimately, though, it is the many readers of gossip magazines and celebrity blogs who reinforce these ideas.

Nevertheless, I do believe that in their day-to-day lives most people still believe in values such as honor, kindness, and trust. In some way, most of us want to form loving families, raise our children to be good citizens, stand up for the downtrodden and protect our communities from harm. We still form friendships, romances and business partnerships based on old-fashioned criteria. When our trust is abused or we are unfairly treated, we see that as a major violation of our relationship and we judge the wrongdoer accordingly.

In conclusion, I believe there is some truth to the notion that status and possessions have superseded old-fashioned values as a measure of a person’s worth. Looking beyond the tabloids, however, it is apparent that most ordinary people have still preserved an old-fashioned conscience. 


Attached 2.
Example of the writing process in padlet.




Attached 3.
Example of the structure of an essay in padlet






Comentarios

Publicar un comentario

Entradas populares de este blog

Week 2: Blog

Imagen
A useful technological tool to make students participate in their classes is the blog. The Blog is a web page that can be used as a journal or a diary and teachers can work with it since, blogs are an ideal resource for the teaching of writing because they: are easy to create and maintain; encourage students to be more prolific writers; make writing easier to share; support group work, feedback, and collaboration; provide opportunities to write outside of class; can link to related texts and multimedia; provide students with a sense of authorship; and can be used in various ways by the instructor Blogs are easy to use, they can be updated anytime and their users do not need to have a vast knowledge about programs and computers to design and maintain it. Any student with a computer and access to the internet can manage to create and work on it. However there is an important limitation, since there must be a motivation to use it, on the contrary the blog will be b...
Leer más

Week 5: Lyrics Training

Imagen
Lyrics Training 1) Why is this particular tool or technology relevant to language learning? What approaches to language learning or research underpin the use of this technology? Nowadays, teachers must face different kind of problems related to this contemporary era. Students do not feel motivated to participate on classes and focus their attention to their cellphones and computers, therefore, this page (Lyricstraining) is really useful in order to catch student’s attention. We just have to search for songs that are interesting to our students. It creates a close attitude toward the teaching learning process, since motivation seems to be hardest aim in the classroom. 2) How might you use it to foster language learning? Think about your target audience. First, seems to be a good idea to create a song list from which students can pick up the one they like. Then, it would increase the chance that students continued using this page on their own, encouraged by the w...
Leer más

Week 7: Speaking (Whatsapp)

Imagen
Whatsapp is a free application used to send messages, videos, audios and videos. All you need is a smartphone and internet to use it. This application is really useful when it comes to engage students into the practice of English. Whatsapp can be used to record and film activities, something that students like to do. But is necessary to create interesting works, so students will participate actively and they will practice and improve their speaking skills, and not only that, since by recording themselves, students will practice a variety of soft skills such as standing and speaking in front of a small audience, reinforcing body language and self-confidence attitudes. An obvious limitation of this tool is that students get easily  distracted, therefore, we must monitoring the class to check if they are using their cellphone for the activity or doing something else that is not related with the class.    The following is a lesson plan made to use Whatsapp:...
Leer más