Category Archives: technology integration

Collective Diary through Photography

In this post, I will share how I turned a unit on history, which most of my students -unfortunately- lack interest in, into a lesson that engages students actively in the learning process.

We use “Contemporary Topics 1” in B1 classes to improve the listening skills of the students through the listening practices it provides.

Unit 12 offers an opportunity for learners to expand their world knowledge by learning about Shakelton and the Endurance Expedition.

To engage students in the content of the lesson and give them a purpose to learn as much as they can about the topic, I designed an online collaborative writing homework by using the photos taken by Frank Hurley, who accompanied Shackleton on the Trans-Antarctic Expedition to record events.

In the warm-up, students explored the relevant vocabulary in the table below and made predictions about the topic of the lesson. The vocabulary below guided them to guess some of the details they were likely to learn in the lesson.

Students were shown some photos from the expedition and asked to describe them by using the words in the table.

Scrubbing out “The Ritz” Seen here from left to right: James M. Wordie (Geologist), Alfred Cheetham (Third Officer), and Dr. Alexander H. Macklin, Surgeon
Trapped in the Weddell Sea, desperate efforts were made to free the ship, these were of no avail, because the ice froze together as quickly as it could be cut away 14th February 1915
Trapped in the Weddell Sea, desperate efforts were made to free the ship, these were of no avail, because the ice froze together as quickly as it could be cut away 14th February 1915

Then, students shared their opinions about the crew on the expedition, and their occupations. Following that, they were asked to answer the question “What qualities would those people need for a successful trip?” guided through the photo below.

The crew of the Endurance following some severe haircuts
The crew of the Endurance following some severe haircuts

After that, students were ready enough to listen to the lecture video and do the listening practices in the book.

Completing the listening task in the lesson, students were assigned to complete the collaborative diary of the crew of the Endurance on the Trans-Antarctic Expedition on the google site. You can find the guidelines on the link.

In this follow up activity, their notes on the diary demonstrate that they could show some level of empathy with the crew locked in by ice.

 

Blackout Poem Maker

In one my previous posts, I mentioned how I integrate literary arts in the form of erasure poem in my both English and Turkish classrooms. Now that we have an idea of found poetry, erasure and blackout poems, I will introduce you to a new online tool “Blackout Poetry Maker“.

3 sample texts are available on the website to work on. We can also paste the text of our own choice on the box given. After that, we select the words that we want to keep. Then, click “black out.” We can save our poem as an image with a click on “Render Square”.

Text Source: Pride and Prejudice

We can ask our students to create their black out poems to practice the target language by considering some grammar objectives. We can ask them to have some specific structures learned in class such as Relative Clauses, Noun Clauses and Passive Voice. This activity also gives them the chance to practice vocabulary (word formation, collacations, adjectives and adverbs etc.) in a creative way.

Let me remind you the steps we follow while creating our blackout poems:

“In the end, creativity isn’t just the things we chose to put in, it is the things we chose to leave out.” -Kleon

Austin Kleon Blackout Poems

 

Mindmeister

Mindmeister is an alternative mind mapping tool for us to organize ideas and concepts visually. Because it allows real time collaboration, students can brainstorm and put the input together on the map, and simplify complex structures collaboratively.

Even if the free plan offers very limited features, we can design modern visual maps through the basic functions.

You can also check out the tutorial to create your first mind map!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mindomo

MINDOMO is a simple-to-use mind mapping tool we can use to visualize thoughts and concepts.

We can use Mindomo

  • to illustrate the steps of a project with details on Mindmodo and simply share it through the link or email with our students.
  • to create mind maps for brainstorming, essay planning, summarizing main ideas in a text etc.
  • to encourage collaboration. Students can work on the same map simultaneously, and discuss in the chat section on the map. We can also provide them with instant feedback.
  • for individual or group assignments for students to build mind maps. It provides templates, realtime feedback, revision history and grading mechanism.

 

PrintWhatYouLike

When we like a content on the internet and want to turn it into a teaching material, PrintWhatYouLike is a great tool that helps us create a PDF or HTML (and print outs) by removing parts of the page we don’t want such as images, background and the ads.

It doesn’t require a log in. We simply copy/paste the link of the website and start working on the website snapshot and customize the new look of the page through the given edit tools.

Stinto

Stinto is a tool for us to create instant chats. When we create our chat room, we invite our students by sharing the link. I personally don’t use whatsapp groups, but Stinto is a good alternative for instant messaging when needed.

It is very user-friendly and serves the purpose. What I also like about it is that the content of the conversation will be deleted automatically after a while.

 

Twiducate

What about using Twitter for educational purposes?

We can can create a controlled social platform to enhance students learning by integrating Twiducate into our classes. What we should do is to sign up and get a class code to share with our students. Once they are on the class network, we can hold brainstorming sessions, ask students to share their opinions and reflections on a follow-up question etc.