Some reflections

Throughout the module 'Recursos didácticos para la enseñanza de la lengua y la literatura' I have learnt a lot of new ways to teach. There are a lot of materials and web applications that can be used in the classroom that I would have never thought and in this module I have been in touch with them. Because of this, one of the things I think that have developed my interest in the use of these new (for me) ICTs in my own teaching is that I have experienced as a student how interesting and motivating is to work with them instead of having a lot of theory to study.

As I have said, I think that through new technologies students are more motivated and therefore they are willing to learn due to they are having fun and this provides a good environment for their learning process.  Therefore, my duty now is to follow building up my knowledge in the use of ICTs. Moreover, I should continue exploring and being up-to-date with these materials because everything changes and develops very quickly.

Webquest

The use of webquest in the classroom is a good way to motivate students and to develop key competences in them. Through the development of a webquest it is expected to motivate students in their learning process, using innovative resources and materials. One of the key points is to show a significant learning in order to catch their attention.

Dealing with a webquest, a lot of habilities and skills are worked. Students have to look for information, they have to solve problems, work in groups, develop synthesis capacity, etc.

With the use of this task, teachers are not the centre of the lesson, here the most important are the students, who are the creators of their own language. The main objective of a webquest is to present the students a simulation of the real world.

Here, I show you a webquest that I have created in order to show students a different culture, and some important aspects that they would have to bear in mind when thinking in travelling abroad like flights, accommodation, places to visit, traditions and festivities...

https://sites.google.com/site/destinationunknownnoelia/home

Voki

Voki is a powerful teaching language tool. It lets users create their own avatars, adding them a voice. It is a very interesting tool to motivate students because it can be used by the teacher and also by themselves.


I have proposed a post-reading task with this application that tries to combine listening, writing and speaking skills. Therefore, in a 'reading lesson' all the skills will be worked together. The development of the activity is after reading the whole story, students will have to listen to the following vokis, they are disguised because students have to recognized which characters they are. After listening to them, the first part of the activity will be developed orally, they have to guess which character is each voki. The next part will be writing why these characters ran away and how they feel now.


This is one of the vokis:



Voki2


http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=6308671&height=267&width=200

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=6310595&height=267&width=200

Go Animate

Go animate is a web application which can be used to create videos. It is a powerful tool for teaching and learning. As a teacher, I consider this application very helpful becuase it provides a good platform to create specific listening materials for students depending on their needs. It can be chosen the setting, the characters and what is more important, it provides a lot of different accents.


I have created a short video in order to create a while-reading activity for the story 'Rabbit grows a crop of money'. First of all, students will have to read the story, but not completely. The extract that they are going to read is at the end of this page. After reading, they are going to watch the video, and the activity will be to think and express by writing and speaking what they think that would happen next. Also, it can be proposed to students to create their own go animate to continue the story.
Here you can watch the video:

Noelia's Animation by Noelia on GoAnimate

Make Movie








Reading text:



When the rainy season began and the chief was arranging the gardening program, he called the animals and asked what each would sow. One chose maize and another millet. One promised to grow kassava and another rice. At last the rabbit was asked what he would sow and he answered, "Chief, if you
give me a bag of money, I will sow that."
"Whoever heard of sowing money?" asked the chief.
"Then I will show you how to do it," answered Kalulu.
When Kalulu received the bag of money, however, he went off and spent it all on clothes, dried fish, beads and other things.
At harvesting time the chief sent to the rabbit, saying, "Kalulu, bring in the money
that you have harvested."
"The money grows very slowly. It is just in the blade," said Kalulu.
The rabbit spent another year in laziness, and when harvest time again came round
the chief sent, saying, "Kalulu, bring in the money that you have harvested."
"The money grows very very slowly. It is just in flower," answered Kalulu.
Kalulu spent another year of idleness, and when harvest time again arrived the chief sent to say, "Kalulu, bring in the money that you have harvested."
"The money grows very slowly," said the rabbit. "It is just in the ear."
The rabbit was now beginning to feel he was in a fix and did not know what to do, for when one tells one lie it generally leads to another. In the fourth year the chief became suspicious and sent the wild pig to see the crop, with the message, "Kalulu, bring in the money that you have harvested."
Kalulu knew now that he must do something, but he did not know what to do. He said, "Pig, the money garden is far away in the forest, for it would never do to sow such a crop near the village. Everyone would want to steal it."
"Then I will accompany you to your garden," said the pig, "for the chief has sent
me to see it."
Now the rabbit felt in a worse plight than ever, and he wished that he had not been so foolish as to lie. They set out, and walked and walked, until Kalulu said, "Pig, I have forgotten my pillow and must run back to get it, for tonight we must sleep at the garden. It is now too far to get back in one day." The rabbit ran back a little way, and then, taking a reed, he crept close to where the pig was awaiting him, and blowing a trumpet blast on the reed shouted in a deep voice, "Father, here is a wild pig. Come quickly and let us kill him." The pig thought that the hunters were upon his track and ran for his life. Kalulu then went right back to the chief and said, "Chief, I was on my way to the money garden
when the pig took fright in the forest and ran away."
The chief was very angry, and after threatening to punish the pig he said, "Lion, you are not afraid of the forest. Go with Kalulu, that he may show you his money garden."
Now She rabbit felt in a worse plight than ever, and he wished that he had not been so foolish as to lie. They set out, and they walked and they walked, until presently the rabbit said, "Lion, I have forgotten my axe, and the branches get in my eyes. Just wait till I run home for the axe."
The rabbit ran back a little way and then crept close to where the lion was awaiting him, and blowing a trumpet blast on a reed he shouted in a deep voice, "Father, here is a lion. Bring your arrows and let us shoot him." The lion was so frightened when he thought that the hunters were upon his track that he ran for his life. Kalulu then went straight to the chief and said, "Chief, I was taking the lion to see the beautiful crop of money that I have grown for you, but he took fright in the forest and ran away."
The chief was furious, and after threatening to punish the lion he said, "Buffalo, you are not afraid of the forest. Go with Kalulu, that he may show you his money garden."
Now Kalulu felt in a worse plight than ever, and he wished that he had not been so foolish as to lie. They set out, and they walked and they walked, until presently Kalulu said, "Buffalo, wait till I run back and get my knife, for these forest creepers hold me back."
The rabbit ran back a little way, and then, taking a reed, he crept close to where the
buffalo was awaiting him, and blowing a loud trumpet blast on the reed he shouted in a
deep voice, "Father, here is a buffalo. Bring your spears and let us kill him."
The buffalo thought that the hunters were upon him and ran for his life. Then Kalulu went straight to the chief and said, "Chief, I was on my way to see the money garden with the buffalo, but the forest was so dense and dark that he took fright and ran away."
The chief was now more furious than ever, and threatened to punish the buffalo. "Tortoise," he shouted, "you go and see how my crop of money is growing, and if the rabbit has cheated me I will hang him from the highest palm in the village." Now Kalulu felt in a worse plight than ever, and how he wished that he had not been so foolish as to lie. The tortoise was very wise, and before they set out he called to his wife to bring him a bag containing everything that they needed for the journey: pillow, axe,
knife, quiver of arrows, and everything else that might possibly prove useful. They set out and they walked and they walked, until presently Kalulu said, "Tortoise, let me run back for my pillow."
"It's all right," said the tortoise. "You can use mine."
They went on and on, until Kalulu said, "Tortoise, let me run back for my axe."
"Don't worry," said the tortoise. "I have mine here."
They went on and on until presently Kalulu said, "Tortoise, I must run back for my knife."
"It does not matter," said the tortoise. "I have mine here."
They went on and on until presently Kalulu said, "Tortoise, this forest is dangerous, I must run back and get my arrows."
"It's all right," said the tortoise. "I have my arrows here."
The rabbit now felt in a worse plight than ever. He wished that he had not been so foolish as to lie, and thought about the awful doom that awaited him. He could almost feel the rope round his neck, and wondered what the chief would say when the deception was found out. Finally, in his fright, he ran off into the forest and bolted home as fast as his legs could carry him.
"Quick, wife!" he shouted. "We have not a moment to lose. You must pretend that I am your baby. Pull all my fur out, and rub me over with red clay. Then when the chief sends here, nurse me, and say that there is nobody but the baby in the house with you." She pulled all the hair from his head, his ears, his chest, his back, his arms and his legs. Oh, how it hurt! Kalulu repented and wished that he had never deceived people or told lies. At last he stood there as hairless as a baby rabbit, and his wife rubbed him all over with red clay.

Wordle

Wordle is a tool for generating 'word clouds' from texts that you provide. Using it I have proposed a pre-reading activity for the tale ' Rabbit grows a crop of money'.

In this word cloud it is presented an extract from the text that is constantly repeated. The purpose of this activity is that students have to put in order the words, so they will obtain this: Now the rabbit felt in a worse plight than ever, and he wished that he had not been so foolish as to lie. Once they are able to read the whole sentence students are going to be encouraged to write what they think that rabbit have done to feel in a worse plight than ever. This activity tries to make students think about what they are going to read in order to motivate them to read the whole story because they want to know what will happen.

Glogster

Glogster is a 2.0 web tool that allows to create digital interactive posters. One of the key points of glogster is that it engages students' attention, motivating them with the use of videos, pictures and attractive materials.

This is the glogster I have created for the story 'The landlady' by Roald Dahl, used mainly as post reading task.

http://www.glogster.com/noelia1martinez/the-landlady-glogster/g-6lhoaoac0ab0bngppio9ha0

As it can be seen, students are focused on the ending of the story. On the one hand,  it is shown the written version by Roald Dahl. On the other hand, they can watch another ending by Alfred Hitchcock. The purpose of this glogster is to show students different versions of the same stories and to make them think about similarities and differences between them. Moreover they are encouraged to make an intensive reading in order to create a list with some key points of the story. Finally they are motivated to write their own personal ending.

Edmodo

Since I discovered some years ago social networks like Facebook, I realised they were very powerful tools, not only for social but also for teaching purposes. I think that virtual networks offer a great variety of opportunities to work with students. Consequently, I've been very interested in adding one of these networks in my teaching activity but I have always changed my mind due to it was not possible to work with secondary education students within these social networks because it is illegal for them to have an account because they are minors. 

Fortunately, Edmodo was shown to me in the module 'Recursos didácticos para la enseñanza de la lengua y la literatura'. Edmodo provides teachers and students a secure place to connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications, and access homework, grades, class discussions and notifications. During the course we have combined lessons with this educational network and it is a good way to foster interaction between students, sharing their own knowledge and learning process.

I propose to use Edmodo for homework, it is very helpful for students to consolidate what they have been doing in their lessons. Therefore, I think that it is important to motivate students if we want them to work in home, so it is a good way to reach their motivation.

For example, we have done a post-reading task using Edmodo. Students had to upload a picture showing one of their favourite extract from the tale 'Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's coat' by Roald Dahl. Eg.

The scene that I like the most is when Mrs Bixby is on the train and she thinks: 'Well, I've lost one thing, but gained another.' This scene makes me laugh, it shows how materialist and selfish Mrs. Bixby can be.