THINGLINK TUTORIAL

Check out How to Create Engaging Content With Thinglink by Rocio Luna on Snapguide.

Learners As Creators: A WWW Lesson Plan

Getting to end of the year, it's time we encouraged students to CREATE and apply everything they have learned! Here's a lesson plan in which students make use of a Web 2.0 website in order for them to come up with a final product. It follows the WWW lesson structure suggested by Dudeney and Hockly (2004). I hope you like it and please dare to adapt it to your own class. :) 

This lesson plan should take place into the ICT room since one computer for each student is needed apart from one projector connected to a computer so that the teacher can show how to use the Web 2.0 website. It is important to highlight that the whole task will be completed after two lessons. On the first lesson students will be doing research by exploring websites preselected by the teacher. They will also be drafting the information they have retrieved and selected to include in their prospect presentations and editing after receving feedback. (Click HERE to have a look at lesson plan #1)

On the second one students will be using a Web 2.0 website to create a INTERACTIVE PRESENTATION.

Topic: Animals description

Objective: Create a interactive presentation describing and classifying animals

WARMER

The teacher will divide the class into groups of 3-5 students. T will deliver several strips of paper for students to write on them as many names of animals as they can in 2 minutes. Once time is up, a representative of each group will come to the board to stick the strips of paper in an appropriate column, which the teacher has previously written on the board with different labels (they have already learned): CARNIVORES, ANPHIBIANS, OMNIVORES, MAMMALS, INVERTEBRATES, HERBIVORES.

WEB

Teacher will tell students that in order to carry out the following step they need to learn how to use THINGLINK. The teacher will provide students with the following TUTORIAL so that they are acquainted with the website before using it. T will explain that THINKLINK is a website that lets them create an interactive presentation. T will also emphasise that it allows them to include any type of media they like to their interactive presentations. She will provide them with this EXAMPLE in order to show that they can include text, audios, videos, gifs and other websites.

Instructions provided:

Go to https://www.thinglink.com and create your interactive poster include all the information you collected in your draft. Then share it onto our Edmodo wall so that students can visit it and learn from it.

WHAT NEXT
Teacher will ask students to explore their partners' presentations and to choose one that they have found really interesting in order to leave a comment on their posts.

Instruction provided: Choose one of your classmates’ presentation and comment on it saying what you have learned from it.

RATIONALE BEHIND USE OF WEB 2.0 WEBSITE

It is essential for teachers to be able to justify their choice of website in their lesson plans. Make sure you always have a purpose for making your learners use a certain website. In this lesson plan students are engaged in creating an interactive poster which seems imposible without using technology since it is not an ordinary poster on a cardboard. Its objective is to provide the rest of the students with 

According to Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, by using Thinglink students are constructing a new product as result of synthesizing past knowledge (what they have learned about animals and how to classify and describe thm on the previous classes). Therefore, it can be stated that students are at the the top of the pyramid suggested by Bloom, where the higher order skills. They will be ANALYSING and EVALUATING when drafting but during this lesson as they are mere creators they will be only CREATING.

Furthermore, the choice of Thinglink can be justified by relating the TIC, TAC and TEP terms.

First, TIC (Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación) refers to the technologies that facilitate the transmission and exchange of information. The aim of this task is to pass on knowledge as students will be creating an interactive poster containing what they have previously learned while doing research. Hence, the objective is that the rest of the students get benefited from each student's creation.
Second, TAC (Tecnologías del Aprendizaje y del Conocimiento), refers to the use of the TICs as teaching tools. When teachers choose to make use of the TICs, they also aim at moulding students as future users of the virtual community, in other words, they also seek to foster students digital citizenship. Using Thinglink will promote 21st century skills such as creativity and critical-thinking which students will require to succeed both inside and outside the classroom.
Thirdly, TEP (Tecnologías para el Empoderamiento y la Parcipación) emphasises the role of technology as a tool to foster the cyberdemocracy, that is to say, that users will take advantage of technologies to convey ideas and set tendencies. In other words, technology allow students to have 'a voice', which will result in the students' self-actualization. By creating an interactive poster about an animal they feel curious about by using Thinglink, students may feel empowered since they will be able to choose the content they want to share and they way they want.  In addition, the task in What's Next stage in which students have to explore their students work and comment on it also empowers students in the sense that they will be able to give their opinion on something. To sum up, technology allows them to raise their voices and be active participators on the Web. 

Finally, the choice of website in this lesson plan can be justified by the SAMR model suggested by Puentedura. 

Using Thinglink to create an interactive presentation is a task that can be associated with the Transformation Steps shown in the picture below mainly with the Redefinition step as creating an interactive poster is only possible with the use of a website such as Thinglink. Therefore, the task is totally transformed and impossible to be carried out without this type of technology.  

CHECK OUT THIS TUTORIAL ON THE CHOSEN WEBSITE. 

IT IS THE ONE PROVIDED TO STUDENTS.

Check out How to Create Engaging Content With Thinglink by Rocio Luna on Snapguide.

Tutorial: How to Create Flashcards with CRAM

THIS IS A QUICK TUTORIAL TO USE CRAM

STEP 1: SIGN UP USING A FACEBOOK, GMAIL OR TWITTER ACCOUNT.

STEP 2: CLICK ON 'CREATE FLASHCARDS'

IT WILL ASK YOU TO PROVIDE A NAME AND A DESCRIPTION FOR YOUR SET OF FLASHCARDS.

NOTICE THAT YOU CAN UPLOAD A FILE FROM GDOCS.

STEP 3: NOW CUSTOMIZE YOUR FLASHCARDS. YOU CAN CHANGE THE SIZE AND UPLOAD PHOTOS. IF YOU UPGRADE YOUR MEMBERSHIP, IT OFFERS MORE TEXT PROCESSING OPTIONS SUCH AS CHANGING THE COLOUR OF THE FONT. 

STEP 4: ONCE IT'S DONE, USE THE 'SHARE' OPTION TO SEND IT BY EMAIL OR SIMPLY COPY THE LINK URL.

STEP 5: CLICK ON THE TABS TEST IN ORDER TO BUILD AN ACTIVITY. YOU CAN CHOOSE DIFFERENT OPTIONS SUCH AS MATCHING, TRUE OR FALSE AND MULTIPLE CHOICE.

STEP 6: HAVE SOME FUN PRACTISING VOCABULARY WITH YOUR OWN FLASHCARDS. YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO TRY THE 'GAMES' TAB ONCE YOU FINISH PRACTISING!

Enhancing a Lesson Plan with 2.0 Websites

In this post, I'll show you how you could improve your lesson plans by encouraging students BE CREATORS! How can you do this? Simply by using a 2.0 Website. Here's a lesson plan for a revision class on describing animals. In the previous lessons students carried out more restricted activities in which they put into practice descriptions of animals  by using the verb to be and have got, adjective and vocabulary on parts of animals' body. In this revision lesson plan they will apply everything they have learnt in a more creative way. At the end of this post you will find the rationale in order to justify my selection of the website by taking into account three different frameworks. You will also find a tutorial so that you get acquainted with the website. Hope you find it useful!

ENHANCED LESSON PLAN

Grade: 7th form

Time allotted: 80 minutes
Communicative Goal: describing animals

Grammar Focus: REVISION Verb to be, have got (affirmative, negative, interrogative) 

Vocabulary Focus: REVISION  Adjectives: fast, slow, big, small, beautiful, dangerous, thin, fat, funny,
friendly. Colours.

Recycled Language: animals: lion, tiger, giraffe, elephant, hippo,monkey, frog, parrot, penguin, snake,cat, dog, bird, turtle. Prepositions: opposite, next to, between. Grammar: can/can’t. Verbs: climb trees, swim, jump, fly, run, eat, walk.  

Classroom Routine: “Greeting song” and “Weather song” Students stick pictures about the date and weather on the board. 

Activation (5 min) 

T will stick 6 flashcards of animals on the board. T will divide the class in two teams and tell them they are going to play a guessing game.
T will read a description of one of the animals. Sts have to guess which one it is, go to the board and take the flashcards.
If their guess is correct, the team wins 3 points and the other team 1 point. If they choose the wrong animal, they win 1 point and the other
team has the chance to win 3 points.Before starting the game, T will give one student of each team a small paper flag. The sts with the flag
are the representatives of the teams. The representative will change in each round, T will select them. There will be three rounds. 

Application (30 min) 

Focus: reading and writing

Group scheme: in groups

Pre-description: sts will create and play a guessing game using CRAM

This activity will take place in the ICT room since a computer per group is needed and there should be a projector connected to
a computer so that the teacher can show how to use the website they are supposed to use.  The teacher will encourage students
to create their own guessing game and to compete in teams. Firstly, she will introduce the website with the students and offer them
a quick tutorial so that they are acquainted with the tool before using it. Teacher will ask them to divide in groups of three or four
students in order to foster collaborative work. She will also highlight that they will be able to print their own customized flashcards
at home for playing and practising at home. Finally, the Teacher will give the following instruction in the course’s Edmodo wall:

Get into teams of 3 or 4. Go to and if necessary consult with this TUTORIAL to learn how to register and create a set of vocabulary.
Choose 6 animals and create online flashcards with the tool in order to share them with another group and play a guessing game.
Make sure the front side of the card contains the name of the animal and a picture of them and that the back side of the card provides
clues such as their food preferences, their physical description and their abilities. You can make your animals talk and use the pronoun “I”.
Make it as fun as possible! Before sharing, ask your teacher for feedback and make any correction she suggests. Once ready, copy the link to your set of flashcards and share it onto our wall so that one team access to it. Choose a set of flashcards from a different team and play the guessing game by clicking on “TEST” tab. Compare your results with other teams. Who’s the winner?

Reflection (5 min) 

T will stick a poster on the board with several sentences. Sts have to identify the sentences describing animals and tick them.

• They’re green and brown.
• They are friendly.
• They’re opposite the penguins.
• They are fat and small.
• They are smaller than a hippo.
• They like water and insects. 
• They can swim but they can’t fly.

RATIONALE BEHIND CHOICE OF WEBSITE

Everytime teachers implement technology in their lesson plan, they should be aware of their choice and be able to provide a reason why they have made such decision. This section of the post seeks toaccount for implementation of CRAM in the lesson plan.
Firstly, we can rely on Bloom's Digital Taxonomy which classifies different levels of human cognitionin different "stages" which take different places in a pyramid. They take the following order from bottomto top: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. Different action verbs can be identifiedin each level:

CREATE: students design, invent and construct a new product, which shows what they are capable of as result of

synthesizing past knowledge, to put it simpler, learning.

EVALUATE: they critique, monitor and judge an outcome and they are able to justify a decision or a course of action

ANALYSE: they compare and organise data. They also establish relationships between them.

APPLY: students implement the knowledge they have learnt in new situations

UNDERSTAND: they interpret new concepts and attempt to explain, classify and exemplify them.

REMEMBER: students recall facts by listing, identifying, naming and locating.

Apart from this, Bloom's Digital Taxonomy also emphizes the importance of promoting 21st Century Skills such as

critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity.

By using CRAM, students will be mainly make use of the higher order human cognitive skills which include the first ones

in the list: CREATE, EVALUATE, ANALYSE. This is because students will be producing a new outcome (a set of flashcards) by

choosing critically what information about the animals include in order for the other team to gues. This involves analysing

their past knowledge they have acquired on previous lessons and select how to organise that data.. Moreover, as they will

be working collaboratively, their teammates will be monitoring and evaluating their teams' work.

which is one of the 21st century skills promoted by this model.


Secondly, we can justify this choice by using Puentedura's SAMR Model.

As shown in the picture, in the lower steps: Substitution and Augmentation, technology is used in a less sophisticated way. Namely, using word processors or e-readers to carry out activities that could also be done without technology (in the case of Substitution) or for activities that require a slight functional improvement (Augmentation) such as using a word processor's corrector or dictionary of synonym or listening to an e-book.
On the other hand, the higher steps: Modification and Redefinition seek to tranform a task through the use of technology. That is to say that task could not be performed without technology.
 We can say that using CRAM to customize flashcards and create a game with it to practise is something that in inconceivable without such website. Hence, using CRAM can be classified as a REDIFINITION of task.

Finally, the use of CRAM can be justified using PLANIED MODEL which aims at fostering 21st century skills such as creativity, collaboration, autonomy, problem solving, and communication. First of all, in the lesson plan students will be divided into team in order to create the flashcards, this will mean they will work collaboratively and use dialogue before coming to a decision. What's more, the task encourages students' to print the flashcards and play the game at home. This promotes autonomy since they will be able to perform the task at home every time they want to study.

Here's a TUTORIAL for you to use CRAM.

Internet Based Projects and Webquests.

Have you ever wanted to engage your students in a project but didn't know what to do? Then this post will be very useful for you!

In this post I'm going to describe briefly what Internet-based projects and webquests are about.

Let's begin with INTERNET-BASED PROJECT WORK.

In theses type of projects learners are involved in research and analysis of data in order to achieve a final outcome. All the data collected will be retrieved from the Internet, critically preselected by the teacher.

In order to plan an internet project-based you have to follow these steps:

- CHOOSE A MOTIVATIN TOPIC FOR STUDENTS.

It must be suitable for their level of language and suitable for the course syllabus.

- WRITE A CLEAR TASK.

Make sure you are clear enough when you establish the of information they are expected to gather.

- FIND THE RESOURCES

Select and analyse the possible websites. In order to evaluate the websites, you should take the guidelines suggested by Dudeney and Hockley, which I'm going to deal with at the end of this post.

- DECIDE ON OUTCOME

Think of what the final purpose of the project will be. Ask to yourself: what are my students going to do with the information they collected?

Example: 

Lesson 1: learners brainstorm ideas about global warming using a chart with different categories.

Lesson 2: learners are assigned roles such as scientists, TV presenter, environmental campaigners, or audience. They have to do further research to defend their opinions in a debate. 

Lesson 3: learners are engaged in the actual debate. 

Let's continue with WEBQUESTS!

Dodge defines webquests as  "inquiry-oriented activities in wich some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from the Internet."  In simple words, they are projects that learners carry out individually via Internet.  The project is quite structured and it is planned by the teacher. Even though the teacher will not be present during the process, the teacher will develop and write the webquest in a friendly, clear and easy-reading way in order to keep students engaged. Most activities are research-related and again, all the sources are preselected by the teacher. 

There are short-term and long-term webquests. They differ in the complexity and the number of lessons they would take. As I said before, a webquest is strictly-structured so make sure you don't forget any of its part. 

Introduction: here you are going to specify the topic and some background information relatd, such as key concepts and key vocabulary. 

Task: you are going to provide learners with a clear and precise task. It has to be really motivating and relevant to their interests. Specify what is the final outcome. 

Process: here learners go step by step, completing the different activities suggested by the teachers. They should be organised in a logical way. Here you are going to include the websites they are supposed to interact with. Make sure you analyse all of them taking into account Dudeney and Hockley's guidelines (see below). All the activities will lead to the final product. 

Evaluation: learners are involved in self-evaluation. They are going to test their knowledge or reflect upon what they've learned. 

Conclusion: leave an encouraging message for your learners and summarise what they were expected to achieve.

Here is my own example of a webquest. 

Hope you find it useful! 

Last but not least,  it is a must you consider this
guideline in order to evaluate websites.

Accuracy

Are websites reliable? Check whether the content is created by experts on the area of knowledge

Currency

Are websites up-to-date? You always check at the bottom of the websites the date of updating so that  the content learners are going to interact with is not outdated. 

Content

You should make sure the websites you choose are suitable for your learners' age and level. Even if the content on the webpages are labelled by category and level, I suggest you take some time to consider this criteria by yourself.

Functionality

Check whether all the links lead to links that function. Avoid using websites which lead to deadlinks. 

Hope you find all this information useful for your own classes! 

Hockly, N., & Dudeney, G. (2007) Chapter 3 “Using websites”. In How to Teach English with Technology. Essex: Pearson.Hockly, N., & Dudeney, G. (2007) Chapter 4 “Internet-based project work”. In How to Teach English with Technology. Essex: Pearson.

Using Websites

Hi! This time I'm sharing with you two lesson plans following the WWW structure suggested by Dudeney & Hockly (2007) using some of the Web 1.0 websites I evaluated in this post.

These lesson plans were designed for 7th graders, round the age of 11 o 12 or elementary students. However, you are free to adapt them to your students' age and level.

Lesson #1

Topic: food & nutrition

Objective: classifying food and describing their nutritive value

Warmer

Teacher will ask students to write as much food vocabulary as they can in two minutes. When time is up, they will pair up in order to share and compare their words. Then, in pairs, they will put the food in different groups, taking into account the type of food. E.g. Apple and banana together in fruit group. To round off this part, the T will encourage students into a class debate to share how much they know about nutrition and food groups.

Web

Students will be divided in groups and they will be assigned a food group, as T will ask them to prepare a poster and a brief oral presentation about it. They will have to read further on food group in order to check whether their classifications were appropriate and also they will have to find out what their assigned food group offers to our body. Teacher will suggest they use the following websites: 

https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Food_group

https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/myplate.html?ref=search

What next

After oral presentations, the teacher will ask students to complete the following  matching exercise

.

Please click on the following LINK to access and download the content (Exercise1-MatchFoodGroup)

Lesson #2

Topic: food & nutrition

Objective: creating healthy recipes for everyday meals

Warmer

Students will pair up in order to ask and answer about what they had for breakfast, lunch and dinner the previous day. They will categorise each meal as a main source of  fruit, vegetables and legumes, protein, dairy or grains. 

Web

Teacher will ask students to divide in groups and each one will be assigned one of the following meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Teatime, Dinner & Dessert. They will have to create a healthy recipe for each meal and share it with the class, explaining what each plate offers for our body. The teacher will ask them to take ideas from the following websites, which have lots of recipes classified in different categories: 

https://foodhero.org/recipes/categories/33

https://foodhero.org/recipes/categories/35

What next

Teacher will ask students to complete the following activity in which they have to match the meals with their source of nutrients. Please click on the following LINK to access and download the content (Exercise2-Meals&Nutrients)

Reference:

Hockly, N., & Dudeney, G. (2007) Chapter 3 “Using websites”. In How to Teach English with Technology. Essex: Pearson.

https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Food_group

https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/myplate.html?ref=search

https://foodhero.org/recipes/categories/33

https://foodhero.org/recipes/categories/35

Web 1.0 Websites Evaluation

In this post I'll be analysing Web 1.0 Websites you may conside useful for your EFL classes.

What are Web 1.0 Websites?

First of all you should know the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. The first one, started developing in the 90s. Users can only access information in websites such as encyclopedias, online libraries, news articles, podcasts, videos and printable worksheets. So the role of the user was to retrieve, read and interpret data. In the 2000s, the user began to interact with the web by adding comments, creating, uploading own material, and sharing. Before plunging into research, you should bear in mind the topic you would like to teach using the web 1.0 websites and the level of the group of students. Supposing we want to deal with food with 7th graders, I found very interesting webpages for them. Here's a list of different types of websites:

Encyclopedias:

• Kids Britannica
   https://kids.britannica.com

• Wiki Kidz Search https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/ 

Articles Library:

• Kids Health https://kidshealth.org
  

Video Library

• Food Hero
  https://foodhero.org/kids-section

• Healthy Active Kidshttp://www.healthyactivekids.com.au/other-resources/online-videos 

• Mes English http://tv.mes-english.com/ 

Book Libraries

• Reading A-Z
  https://www.readinga-z.com/book.php?id=297 

Games and Printable Worksheets

• Healthy Active Kids
  https://www.healthyactivekids.com.au/

• Fun English Games
    http://www.funenglishgames.com/worksheets.html 

• Learning English Kids - British Council
  https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/

• Vocabulary Practice
   https://www.vocabulary.cl

WEBSITES EVALUATION

I recommend you choose the websites taking into account the guidelines suggested by Dudeney & Hockly (2007) How to Teach English with Technology (p.34). Let's do it with the websites above!

Accuracy

All websites are reliable in the sense that most of them are created by people expert on the field such as teachers (as in Mes English and FunEnglishGames) In fact, in the case of Kids Britannica they clarify that " [their] content is gathered from great intellects across the globe - including leading educators, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Nobel laurents."  In the case of Kids Health, it a page develop by Nemours, a nonprofit children's health system founded by Neil Izenberg (a physician). 

Currency

All websites are up-to-date. At the bottom of each website we can see that it has been updated this year (2019)

Content

In many cases the sources are labelled in group age of students and their level, so it shows that there was some analysis and trial before uploading them onto the web for the public. What is more, as the screenshots show, most of them are visual-attractive for young learners and self-explanatory that's to say their format make it easy to navigate them. Most of the content is free, except for Kids Britannica in which you have to subscribe and pay a membership in order to get full or further sources. 

Functionality

None of the hyperlinks lead to dead links. All of them are active. In the case of websites containing games, they require the user to enable or download Adobe Flash Player.


References:
Hockly, N., & Dudeney, G. (2007) Chapter 3 “Using websites”. In How to Teach English with Technology. Essex: Pearson.

INSPIRE. INFORM. EDUCATE. (n.d.). Retrieved July 2, 2019, from https://kids.britannica.com/about