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Content Type: 1
Title: Two Multimedia Activity Creation Tools: H5P and Adobe Spark
Body:
From http://fltmag.com/
Shannon Spasova reviews H5P, a software applications that allows the creation of interactive activities, and specifically the interactive video activity type, at http://fltmag.com/h5p-create-interactive-language-activities/
Heide Trude reviews Adobe Spark, a web-based tool for creating graphics, stories, and videos, for world language classroom use at http://fltmag.com/spark-their-learning/
Source: FLTMAG
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Title: Penpal Program with Newcomers
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From http://fltmag.com/penpals-with-purpose/
Leigh Sapp describes how she resolved her quest for a meaningful penpal program for her Spanish students. She had her AP and Spanish 4 students correspond with Spanish-speaking students at a newcomer center (for students who have recently arrived in the United States) in her district. She writes, “As a World Languages staff, we work laboriously to align our curriculum, at all levels of instruction, to AP standards. The AP Spanish Language Exam has an interpersonal email component which is practiced at the lower levels as a structured email. For the upper levels, I was yearning and searching for a way to create an authentic communication exchange with native speakers to provide our students with comprehensible input that would also be meaningful. Furthermore we encourage our students to draw comparisons between their culture(s) and others on a variety of themes. One of these themes is immigration. We strive to educate them in regards to the humanity and reality- the faces and stories- of immigration regardless of legal status.”
Read the full article at http://fltmag.com/penpals-with-purpose/
Source: FLTMAG
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Content Type: 1
Title: Two Active Games
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From https://deskfree.wordpress.com
Here are two very active games that can be used either as brain breaks or as interpersonal tasks in your classes: https://deskfree.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/2-games-in-the-target-language/
Source: Desk-Free
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Content Type: 1
Title: Four Strategies to Maximize Language Curriculum Time
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From https://gianfrancoconti.wordpress.com
As we focus on making learning spaces meaningful, relevant, and tied to learners’ needs in this month’s InterCom series, we’re excited with the timing of a recent post by Gianfranco Conti on making the most out of language instruction time. Dr. Conti addresses curriculum design and maximizing exposure to L2; read his post at https://gianfrancoconti.wordpress.com/2017/07/29/tempus-fugit-irreparabile-four-strategies-to-maximise-your-curriculum-time/
Source: The Language Gym
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Title: Video Annotation Tools
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An LLTI listserv user recently asked colleagues for suggestions for video annotation tools that can be used asynchronously and have questions embedded. Read the thread at http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind1707D&L=LLTI&P=R1505&1=LLTI&9=A&J=on&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&z=4. Click on “Next” by “By Topic” to see the recommendations.
Source: LLTI
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Title: Resources for Deskless Classrooms
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Many teachers are choosing to have deskless classrooms; students sit in chairs and write on clipboards as needed. For recent suggestions for resources for deskless teachers, see this FLTEACH discussion thread: https://listserv.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1707&L=FLTEACH&P=R8037&I=-3&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches. Click on “Next” by “By Topic” for suggestions.
Source: FLTEACH
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Content Type: 1
Title: Making Transitions Work for Students and Teachers
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From https://www.edutopia.org/blog/making-transitions-work-students-teachers-kristin-stuart-valdes
Our August InterCom series focuses on creating learning spaces that are meaningful, relevant, and tied to learners’ needs. This Edutopia article about transitions is an excellent, thought-provoking discussion of student needs, teacher needs, and respecting and strengthening learner autonomy during transitions: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/making-transitions-work-students-teachers-kristin-stuart-valdes
Source: Edutopia
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Title: Beginning of the Year Activities
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In this twist to typical first-day-of-school activities, Carissa Peck describes how she has her students infer information about her based on things they see in the classroom. Read a description of this well-scaffolded activity at http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2017/07/have-your-students-introduce-you-to.html
In this post, Megan Smith shows us the slides she uses to talk about herself in Spanish so that her beginning students can begin to learn how to comprehend their new target language: http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/first-days-first-impressions/
Source: Various
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Content Type: 4
Title: Icebreakers
Body:
Title: Icebreakers
Focus: Time on Task and Experiential Learning
Overview: Using gratitude as a frame, this activity aims to maximize student time on task by allowing students to choose between 3 experiential learning activities. Students are free to choose the activity that is most tuned to their interests and perceived learning needs. It also serves to illustrate for students how interpersonal communication is often mediated by material objects (like worksheets).
Learning Objectives:
1. Students will be able to collect and record information about themselves and/or their classmates.
2. Students will be able to discuss their preferences and opinions with their peers.
3. Students will be able to explain the way the affordances (AKA worksheets) facilitated their interaction with each other.
4. Students will be able to describe how their choices shaped their experience.
Modes: Integrated Skills, Interpersonal Communication
Language Level: Novice-Mid and up
Materials Needed: Handouts -
1. Gratitude Alphabet - Language Function: provide an account of your opinion or experience.
2. Passing Notes - Language Function: paying compliments and expressing thoughts and opinions.
3. Gratitude Survey - Language Function: requesting information.
Time: Activity 30 mins - Not including (optional) extensions.
Procedure:
1. Provide an overview of the topic and activity.
Instructor says: “The point of this activity is for you to choose among 3 options and execute the task that you think you will find most interesting and engaging. Each of the three tasks is designed to help you complete a task related to the topic of gratitude. It is important that you choose the one you’re most interested in working on, because true gratitude can’t be faked and it isn’t something we experience just going through the motions.”
2. Display (and explain) worksheet options.
Share each of the three activity stems (younger learners will need a more comprehensive explanation, older learners should be able to interpret the instructions without assistance).
3. Students choose a worksheet.
Allow students to choose one of the 3 material affordances (worksheets) to structure and guide their activity.
4. The idea is that this should be as enjoyable as possible. How can you get them own it?
Provide a reminder that students are invited to enjoy the experience and are encouraged to make the most out of this self-guided and self-selected activity. Do anything else that seems appropriate to get your students in the mindset to take ownership of the experience.
5. Execute the activity.
Allow students approximately 30 minutes to work through their chosen task. Notice the language related aspects of the activity students find easy as well as those they find difficult.
6. Discussion
A. Today’s activity is called “Icebreakers." What do you think an icebreaker is? Teacher discuss with students if they know the term “icebreaker”. (Icebreakers are activities that people use to get people talking, usually in situations where they are interacting with people they’ve never met or don’t know very well.)
B. How did these worksheets function as icebreakers?
C. Clarify any issues students had with comprehension or output. Provide corrective feedback on any lexical and/or formal elements that caused them particular difficulty. Also, point out things you noticed that went well.
D. How did the activity you choose shape your experience? Why did you choose the activity you did? Can you explain your thought process? Did the activity unfold the way you had expected? What is one interaction you would not have had if you (or somebody else) had chosen a different activity? Will your experience in the future be any different because we did this activity together today?
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Content Type: 3
Title: Time: Doing the Hard Work
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By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director
In his 2008 interpretation of research on what makes high achievers (Gladwell, 2008), Malcolm Gladwell posits “the 10,000 hour rule” or that with 10,000 hours of engaged practice, one can become great. While there are certainly exceptions and complexities associated with the idea (i.e., one is born with natural talent), the premise that practice can lead to expertise is especially applicable to language learning. Whether you consider uptake a fundamental cognitive process stemming from interaction and negotiation of meaning or occurring as a result of various levels of social mediation, time is critical. This month, we examine the idea of time, and more specifically, time-on-task.
Time on task is fundamental. For time on task to occur, learners need a learning space that is meaningful, relevant, and tied to their needs.
Meeting learner needs and engaging them in L2 activity can happen in a variety of ways. Throughout the month we will be exploring behaviors and contexts which can facilitate time on task – out-of-classroom affordances and tools, study abroad contexts, learning spaces, and place-based learning – as examples. This week’s Activity of the Week serves as one approach to facilitating additional time on task for learners while building skills and attitudes for learners to engage in language activity. Utilizing journaling, reflection, and activities previously unfamiliar to them, the icebreaker activity encourages learners to begin exploring language in their environment though the notion of gratitude, while reflecting on ways the process itself further engages them with their L2. In doing so, the aim is to increase time on task while encouraging exploration and connection, ideally resulting in further study down the road.
Much of what teachers do in the classroom is designed to get learners working with the L2. As we continue to explore time on task, ideas for motivating learners to continue the hard work of L2 learning are always expanding and changing. Take, for example, recent attention to digital games and simulation as well as project-based language learning, as approaches to L2 teaching and learning. We look forward to exploring more ideas and contexts throughout the month.
Reference
Gladwell, Malcolm (2008). Outliers. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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