DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES: layered reading comprehension

 

Here is a simple strategy that can be used to differentiate instructions, both in individual learning space - home - and in class. 

What you need is a text and Thinglink, a free tool.

Basically, what Thinglink allows you to do is to choose a picture and make it interactive. 

Here is an example of what you can do.

click on the image to be redirected to the activity

I took a picture of a page from a book – which, by the way, is Goodnight Stories from Rebel Girls 2 –, I uploaded it on Thinglink and just added some links.

The learning goal for this activity was practising reading comprehension and writing skills.

In our Esl mixed ability classes we have students at very different levels and making them work on the same tasks is never the best option.

Starting from the same text, it is possible to meet the students’ different needs by differentiating both the process and the outcome, the final product.

If you roll over the image some icons will pop up. As you can see they have different colours and each colour corresponds to a certain degree of difficulty.

Let’s take the green icons: they are the easiest tasks. Basically it is comprehension questions but they are placed exactly where the answers can be found. Moreover, some hints are given to the students, to help them with grammar or vocabulary.

The blue icons are sort of half-way level and what students have to do is to answer questions but there’s no scaffolding here.

And finally the orange icons. That is the expert level. Here students are asked to analyze  and reflect on some aspects of the story/biography and there are also extension activities for them to go deeper into the content.

This interactive image can be used in many different ways, it just depends on the learning goal, so it could be done as a class activity, or it could be assigned  for homework.

It works as an assessment strategy as well, both formative and summative. In this last case students know that if they work on survival level the maximum score they can get is 7 out of ten, if they choose half-way level the maximum score is 9 or for the expert level the maximum grade is 10.     

Last thing, if you click on the speaker icon in the bottom right-hand corner, you are redirected to the audio version of the biography, read by the teacher, and this can help auditory learners or dyslexic students.

Here is a video with feedback from the students. They seem to appreciate this way of working on reading comprehension. 

 

Click here to open the activity and feel free to use it with our students.

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY: a doodle video

This is a doodle video made by my middle school students ( third year ).
First we chose the song and then we asked for the art teacher's collaboration. Each students got a song line  and had to draw something representing the words.
Next step was to take photos of the images ( we used the ipad ) and then pictures and music were put together in a video.
The same technique could also be used to visualize poems.
Here you can find a detailed explanation of the whole process.

PRIMA"E" - VERBS

Click here for larger version

     

PRIMA "A" - VERBS

Click here for larger version

     

Past Simple : irregular verbs games

Click here for larger version

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY: diary writing and paper blogging

Classtools is a fabulous site, with great resources to use with students.

These are the steps my class and I went through when dealing with diary writing.

1) Choosing a fictional, historical, cartoon or legendary character.


2) Creating Fakebook profiles and writing diary entries.


Some of them didn't use the web tool and drew their own profiles on paper.

Here are some samples from students' works.

Click here to view fullscreen.

Click here to view fullscreen

Click here to view fullscreen

3) Editing the writing and getting feedback from the teacher

4) Printing the profiles

5) "Visiting" each other's profiles and commenting on them using post-it notes.


Students, in their character's shoes, could leave a public message on the wall, that everyone could read and comment, or write a private "message" ( a folded post-it ) that only the owner of the profile could open and read.

 This activity, which took us 3 class hours , let the students  have a lot of practice at asking questions, reading and writing. And I especially liked the fact that both technology and paper proved to be effective tools and worked together to reach the teaching aim.

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY: speaking postcards for present continuous

Riddle of the day:

"What does a keen on blogging English teacher on a second honeymoon in Istanbul do?"

She posts cards. :)


I'd like to share a lovely idea a friend of mine, Daniela Becchio, had to teach her students the Present  Continuous tense.
While on holiday in Istanbul she took the time to write a postcard to each student, describing what she was doing at the moment.


Postcards from Istanbul on PhotoPeach



Then it was their turn.

They created speaking postcards using Vocaroo .

Here is an example.

Digital version

Paper version

Thanks for sharing, Daniela. ...wish you were here :) 

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY : a "LEARNIEing" unit

At the beginning there was ....an orange envelope. One for each student.
On the blackboard they brainstormed ideas about the possible content.



(mistake "a homework" left intentionally, as this is a photo
of what the students produced without any interference)

 Then they were asked to open the letter.

Inside there was a short story.

You can read it here.

After reading the story, they wrote their first impressions on the blackboard.

A class discussion followed on the meaning of the story.


Next task was to unscramble the word CHREATE.

After some guesses, they finally got it.


LiveTyping.com

The identification of Learnie with the figure of the student-learner was the next obvious step.
And the moral of the story

" ...I can take you to the spring but I can't make you drink if you don't want to.."

 was summarized in one word:


 

How much is attitude? How worth is it?

They were quite surprised to discover that

if
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is equal to
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

then

A       1
T      20
T      20
I         9
T      20
U      21
D        4
E        5
         __


         100%


One student explored the concept a little further and she found out other small truths on the web which she published on her wiki page http://villanovaschoolenglish.pbworks.com/w/page/21155049/Attitude


The class agreed on the closing sentence




In the following lessons the students wrote new versions of the story with different points of view.
The narrators were other characters in the story such as Learnie itself, Chreate, some animals in the farm, a plant, a boy, dragons, and so on...

At this point digital media were introduced.

A new character came out: that was Lalla, Learnie's "girlfriend".

She spoke to the students and asked for their help.

Listen to the Blabberize.








The new task was helping Lalla find Learnie.

At this stage a glogster was created to introduce students to digital storytelling , to help them understand the meaning of "digital explanation" and to explore some of the tools available online.


Click here to open the glogster.







They wrote the texts, drew the pictures and showed great creativity and imagination.

Finally, they gave voice to their characters using Blabberize.


Here are some of their digital answers.

















These were our first steps on the path of digital storytelling.

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY: embedding songs titles in a text

Lesson 1

Teacher: - Open your diary and write down homework for our next lesson -

 Teenagers grumbling.

Teacher: - Homework: look at your Ipod and make a playlist of your ten favourite songs in English -

Surprised teenagers grumbling.

Lesson  2

All the class have their homework.

Teacher: - Ok, now work in groups of three and, after looking at your classmates' titles, make a new playlist of ten songs. Then, write a text , something like "My day yesterday" , using the simple past and embedding the titles in the text in such a way that it sounds natural and meaningful. -

Smiling teenagers on task for one hour.

Lesson 3

Martino, aged 13 ( 21st century teenager  interested in music, arts and internet ) comes to lesson
with a memory stick .
- Teacher, have a look at this. I thought I could record my voice and let the music play in the gaps with the exact songs words. It took me all Sunday afternoon, but I did it! -

Martino's work displayed on IWB.
 

1) Playlist



Music Playlist at MixPod.com



2) Audio text ( Martino's voice and musical gaps )







3) Text

A Horrible Day - by Musical Martino


Teenagers clapping hands.

Who says teaching teenagers is hard? :)

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY: "Strange Animals" class project

We've just finished a class project which involved 12-year-old Middle School students.

( II E from Istituto Comprensivo Villanova Mondovì. ).

Here is, step by step, how it developed.

"STRANGE ANIMALS"

 

Step 1: Eliciting already known vocabulary

Teaching aim: revising animals words

Web2 tools used : AnswerGarden, Wordle.

We started with an online poll . Students were asked to answer a very simple question: "What's your favourite animal?"

What's your favourite animal?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Then we created a Wordle using their answers. That was the starting point for further work on vocabulary.

  
We also recycled common words introducing emoticons.
Students were shown smileys and  had to guess the animals they represented.
Some new words were introduced using emoticons.
Here is a link to a site where you can find a lot of them







Step 2: Introducing  new vocabulary

Teaching aim: learning new words related to animals and animal world
Web2 tools used: Tagxedo



A list of words was turned into a dog-shaped cloud, as dogs seemed to be their favourite pets.
It worked great on the IWB: students in turn came to the board and moused over the words, which were highlighted.



We also practiced vocabulary using this site.

Then, as homework task, students had to create new emoticons representing other animals. A couple of them even added their creations to the site. Here is an example.





Answers : )

Step 3: Creating a new animal

Teaching aim: drawing an imaginary animal ( cross-curricular Art )

Web2 tools used: PhotoPeach

At this stage the students used a powerful tool : imagination.
The idea came from "Imagine That"- Helbling Languages - Arnold, Puchta, Rinvolucri, pag.64, "Elesnakes and Zebradiles". The students were asked to imagine a dog, then to visualize the dog whose front part becomes a cat. The students kept changing animals in their minds ( back of one animal and front of a different one ), and they created a lot of them. At the end they chose the one they liked best and they gave it a name.

The Art Teacher, Alessia Gazzolo, helped them draw and paint the animals. She also suggested suitable backgrounds for their pictures.

Here is a Photopeach displaying all of them.

Strange Animals from 2 E on PhotoPeach





Strange Animals from 2 E on PhotoPeach



 
 
Step 4: Bringing the animals to life

Teaching aim: writing about daily routines and descriptions and practicing the Present Simple Tense.

The students wrote essays about their animal's life,habitat,  family, habits and dreams. They recycled vocabulary and grammar structures.

Step 5: Giving voice to their creations

Teaching aim: practicing speaking and questions formation
Web2 tools used: Blabberize, Bubblesnaps

The class worked really hard to digitalize their "pets".

Some of them used Blabberize.




Others tried Bubblesnaps.





We thought we could let people comment on our creatures and we made a Voicethread.
Feel free to add comments if you wish. 





Steps 6 : Wrapping things up

Teaching aims: making students reflect on the meaning of words such as "diversity", "imagination" and "creativity"
Web2 tools used: Animoto

A class discussion was led to fully understand the meaning of creativity and the incredible power of imagination. As a final consideration they came up with these simple words:

Close your eyes

Imagine

If you can think about it

It exists

In your mind

anything can live 

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.





Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.




Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.




 

A PERSONALIZED GRAMMAR BOOK

This is Anna's Grammar Book. She took notes in class, during the English lessons and then, at home, she created very personal pages for each topic, to make grammar points more memorable.

THE MAD TEA PARTY

From III D

Click here to see all the photos and to read the dialogues written and acted out by the students.

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

POEMS FROM III A

Inspired by "Love is" - Adrian Henri, students from III A wrote their poems.

poems BY iii a by themachine | Make Your Own At www.toondoo.com