Category: Blog

About the lesson

Based on the competence aim “use different digital resources, and other aids in language learning, text creation and interaction”, we chose to use the app “Stop Motion” to make the students create a Stop Motion animation video. The concrete lesson goals was to “make a stop motion movie about “Earth under pressure” including both pictures and audio”. We also included the criteria to use three words from a given list to further enhance the lesson goal. (Word sheet is listed down below). Another focus was oral communication, therefore the students had to communicate in English during the lesson, as well as using English when they narrated their story. By making the students write down their story beforehand, physically make figures out of playdough, communicate while making and recording a voiceover they were exposed to oral and written communication, listening, and the use of digital tools. The use of the “Stop Motion” app provided a huge benefit timewise. If we were to use traditional methods to complete the same lesson, it would take up too much time. Having a designated app was beneficial. 

Evaluation

We were a bit concerned about the learning outcomes of this lesson beforehand. A potential pitfall could be that the students got distracted by making cool figures using the playdough instead of using the English language and creating and narrating the film. We were also worried that none of the groups were able to finish the task because of the short amount of time they were given. 

As we expected, the time limit was an issue. The students got forty-five minutes to complete all the tasks. If we would have had an extra hour, the time would not be an issue. Some of the students did not get the opportunity to record their voiceover, while others did not get done recording the video. Some of the voiceovers were a bit low and suffered from some background noise. A possible improvement in the recording process could be to use a microphone, more space between the groups, or separate the groups into different rooms.

Because of the many opportunities, this app contains, it can also be used in different subjects or as a tool in a cross-curricular lesson. It can be a fun and creative way to learn English less traditionally, but a significant criterion is that the schools have enough iPads with this program. Whether the app’s function on other digital tools than the Ipad and its function there must be investigated.

However, the lesson was successful overall. Most of the students enjoyed their stay at UiA’s undervisningsverksted, while they also seemed engaged at the task at hand. Almost all the groups managed to complete the tasks given based on the presentations at the end of the lesson. Until next time, we will wait to put forward Ipads and playdoughs as this created some inconsistency among some students and give students more time to complete the task. Otherwise, we are very happy with the lesson.

Words:

Sustainable – bærekraftig
Endangered – utrydningstruet
Carbon footprint – karbonfotavtrykk
Recycle – resirkulere
Climate change – klimaendringer
Waste – søppel
Habitation – leveområdet
Hurricane – orkan
Heat wave – hetebølge
Droughts – tørke
Deforestation – avskoging
Species – arter
Agenda – agenda
Pollution – forurensing
The greenhouse effect – drivhuseffekten

Using the teaching workshop, we have created a lesson about the topic “Earth Under Pressure” for 10th graders. In the lesson the pupils made podcasts, discussing questions related to the topic. We made them make a podcast, because it can be interesting for the pupils and a creative way to start off the conversations in the class. Unfortunately, we just had one podcast station with microphones and headsets, which caused only one group to be able to use this because of the time frame. As a second option, the other pupils had to use Creaza on an iPad. Most of the pupils succeeded using Creaza, but two of the groups had some technical issues, which caused them to not be able to finish their podcasts.

Our lesson targeted the pupils’ speech and vocabulary. They also had to practice having a conversation with others, and come up with follow up questions in english. Podcasts give the learner the opportunity to practice both speech and pronunciation. By having conversations on different subjects on a podcast will the students become quite aware of their language. Also the possibility for acquiring new words and mastering their speech level opens as they spend time reflecting on what they have been saying.

After this lesson we expected the pupils to be able to reflect on questions we gave them related to climate, and communicate with each other in english. Related to the learning outcomes, podcasts were a useful tool in the terms that the pupils might get motivated to speak because they knew they were being recorded. As a teacher you also have the ability to listen to the pupils’ work when using a podcast, compared to the traditional teaching.

There were many pupils in our lesson, but luckily we had many rooms they could use, which were beneficial when making podcasts. As mentioned earlier, some of the pupils experienced a technical issue during our session. Different recordings overlapped one another after being paused in Creaza, which resulted in disturbing noises and a small amount of content. Because we did not know the pupils from before, we did not know if they had used Creaza AudioEditor before.

The lesson plan worked well, but it could have been better if we had a longer lesson, where the pupils could do their own research before recording a podcast. It would also give us time to explain the program Creaza AudioEditor, which would have helped us with the technical issues we experienced. We would have liked for everyone to be able to try out the podcast station at the teaching workshop, as it makes it more authentic and interesting for the pupils. This lesson can be used in the classrooms outside the teaching workshop if the schools have the acquired equipment such as iPad, Chromebooks or a podcast station with microphones. Using podcasts in the classroom will hopefully make the lessons more interesting for the pupils, and gives you multiple benefits as a teacher. When the pupils are making podcasts, you are able to hear what they have recorded and how they pronounce their words.

We had a Teaching workshop with a 10^th grade class, at Undervisningsverkstedet.

The focus in this teaching session was communication between the students using the English language. We wanted to do this, using tasks that were both fun and structured, to catch the students’ interests and make them motivated to work. One of the tasks focused on writing a news article using Book Creator, where they got guidelines which helped them with the structure of the article. The other one was a game called “Keep talking”, which focused on communication to disarm a bomb. This game is a great tool to express themselves fluently and varied, in context of a specific situation. In their curriculum, this is part of a competence aim. 

There were 20 students in this teaching session. We had 45 minutes to work, containing an introduction, the main session, and an evaluation at the end. The students were divided into groups of 3 or 4, which was a fitting amount for this session. The class was totally new to us, and we did not have clear expectations on how familiar they were with using only English in the classroom, or how well they worked together in groups. The students were already familiar with Book Creator, which led to them not needing any instructions on how to use the program. They managed to start working early, and only a few questions appeared in the beginning. The “Keep talking game” was a big help with the students’ motivation. They focused on solving the task they were supposed to, by talking to each other and giving clear instructions. It was a great tool to rehearse their language, since they had to find new words explaining how to disarm the bomb. This method forced the students to speak more English than traditional teaching, since they had a time limit before the bomb exploded. 

There was a lack of computers to play the game, and therefore we had to improvise and divide the pupils into bigger groups than we originally planned. To make the most out of the teaching session, we switched computers instead of moving the students to new stations. This made the session more efficient. An exception was the computer game, where they switched places. Apart from this, the groups worked well together, all of them managed to get through both stations and they communicated better than we expected. A lot of them were able to defuse the bomb, while some were not. They thought it was a difficult, but fun exercise. We wanted to help them when they needed it, so that they could stay motivated. This way they kept talking and working, instead of losing their interest in the activities. 

These activities can be used in an ordinary classroom if you have the licence to the game. Book Creator can be used by everyone, and it is quite normal to use in a lot of schools. If another teacher were to use this, they must make groups that can work well together. It can also be used as a form of assessment in the teaching. To sum up, this was a successful teaching session, and the students learned that communication is important.

We planned a 45-minute lesson for 10th grade class, using Book creator as our main learning tool. We chose this tool because it allows the pupils to present the content not just in text, but also in ways that may motivate more pupils to be active in class. Book creator is used to make interactive / digital books that can include text, pictures, video, audio and more. The different presentation methods train the pupils in multiple basic skills including oral, writing, reading and digital skills.

Our language focus was correct spelling and expanding vocabulary, and we assessed this by reading and guiding the students during the lesson. We also encouraged them to use a dictionary to check spelling, and one of the requirements was to include at least three-word explanations of new, relevant words, in the book.

Our lesson plan worked relatively well. We chose to divide the class into seven groups of three. The pupils` teacher made the groups ahead of the lesson, and the groups worked well. Undervisningsverkstedet only had seven iPads, which limited other possible group divisions. We had 45 minutes at our disposal, and we were able to get through everything we planned. However, we could with advantage have had some more time because we were not able to show any examples of the pupils’ work in plural. The lesson was from 09:00 to 09:45 which usually means the students are not fully awake yet. The classroom had many small tables making it possible for the groups to sit around in the classroom without disturbing other groups. The pupils were calm through the whole lesson which meant they were focused when working in groups, but it also meant they had a lack of oral activity in plural. 

These competence aims from Fagfornyelsen are related to the lesson:

• Use various digital resources and other aids in language learning, text creation and interaction.
• Follow rules for spelling, word inflection, sentence structure and text structure.
• Read, discuss, and disclose content from different types of texts, including self-chosen texts.
• Use sources in a critical and verifiable manner.
• Write formal and informal texts, including complex ones, with structure and coherence that describe, tell, and reflect adapted purpose, recipient, and situation

These learning aims from the student’s English book, are related to the lesson:

• Discuss present-day issues
• Write texts that describe, explain, and investigate
• Find, evaluate, and list sources

Book creator has already been used in ordinary classrooms, we know this from our own schooling and the students we taught told us they had used it a lot in school. There is a starting cost of 100 kr for 1000 books, and a lot of schools choose to invest in this because it’s such a versatile tool. Book creator can be used on almost any digital device and most schools either have iPads or computers for the students.