On 10 March I had the chance to take part in an outstandingly magical, surprising, inspiring ELT event called Surpr@ise Day in Kosice organized by Vladimira Michalkova and Chuck Sandy.
Prezi on using Facebook in ELT:
2012. március 13., kedd
2012. március 8., csütörtök
Reflection
Exam training can be quite boring. Sometimes students just lose the motivation as they are really conscious about the mock test results. Also test-preparation materials can be pretty boring themselves. By asking your students to give a short reflection about a given task their learner autonomy can be awakened. Good to know why they do a certain exercise.
You can set up a poll in Facebook question:
What was this activity good for?
You can add answer options as well of the members can provide those.
Music
The simplest way of exploiting your learners passion for music is to ask them to share their favourite music videos. Then they can do a range of things with those favs.
They can easily find the lyrics and turn them into cloze-tests with the help of a cloze-maker http://l.georges.online.fr/tools/cloze.html
They can use the images of a video. They stop the video at a point, they note the time but keep it in secret. They describe the scene in a comment and the others have to find the given scene in the video and write the time point in a comment.
They may simply lip-sync the video like this:
They can easily find the lyrics and turn them into cloze-tests with the help of a cloze-maker http://l.georges.online.fr/tools/cloze.html
They can use the images of a video. They stop the video at a point, they note the time but keep it in secret. They describe the scene in a comment and the others have to find the given scene in the video and write the time point in a comment.
They may simply lip-sync the video like this:
You can just take phrases or words from the songs they submitted and play a quiz to find out which song it was from. Write a collaborative stories/letters using the phrases, words.
Translate grammar sentences
One of the low-fun activities for me is the translation of sentences from L1 to L2. Some exams still have this tasks and some students still choose exams that have it. Of course they are beneficial though. Khmmmm...
Suppose your students are to translate a couple of sentences that are examples of a certain grammar points. You can post these on Facebook, you can assign two or three sentences to one student. After having translated them peers can correct or comment on each other's sentences.
Variation:
Suppose your students are to translate a couple of sentences that are examples of a certain grammar points. You can post these on Facebook, you can assign two or three sentences to one student. After having translated them peers can correct or comment on each other's sentences.
Variation:
They will use Google Translate, it will give them sentences with errors. Why don't they correct them?
You can also give them google-translated sentences with errors, they would have to correct them and find out the original L1 sentence.Coursebook exercises with non-connected sentences
Coursebooks often have guided practice exercises where you find single sentences numbered, under each other, students are to use the appropriate word or the words in brackets in the right form.
I often find that students simply neglect the meaning they do the task automatically. They are simply too lazy to think and say one or another answer, not really wanting to get it right. It is funny but also a waste of time. When I see that my students are missing the point with tasks like these I try to make them imagine the situation depicted in the task.
An example:
Sentence from the exercise:
Billy has eaten/ate all the watermelon form the fridge.
Digital teens tend to quickly choose one of the options without too much thinking. Let’s colour it a bit:
How old is Billy?
What does he look like?
What was the last thing he ate?
On Facebook you can start a conversation about 'crucial' thing like Billy's hair, it may make the exercise a bit more memorable. If these comment threads are fun enough students might take up looking for the the meaning in these seemingly monotonous tasks.
I often find that students simply neglect the meaning they do the task automatically. They are simply too lazy to think and say one or another answer, not really wanting to get it right. It is funny but also a waste of time. When I see that my students are missing the point with tasks like these I try to make them imagine the situation depicted in the task.
An example:
Sentence from the exercise:
Billy has eaten/ate all the watermelon form the fridge.
Digital teens tend to quickly choose one of the options without too much thinking. Let’s colour it a bit:
How old is Billy?
What does he look like?
What was the last thing he ate?
On Facebook you can start a conversation about 'crucial' thing like Billy's hair, it may make the exercise a bit more memorable. If these comment threads are fun enough students might take up looking for the the meaning in these seemingly monotonous tasks.
Trollfaces
Do you know trollfaces?
Facebook teens are surely familiar with them.
They can create their own trollface comics to practice any kind of dialogue. To make it collaborative they can create a whole comic book and put it on issuu.com.
Facebook teens are surely familiar with them.
They can create their own trollface comics to practice any kind of dialogue. To make it collaborative they can create a whole comic book and put it on issuu.com.
Principles for designing Facebook activities
- collaborative
- allow for creativity, individuality
- cater for stalking and narcissism
- students should work more than the teacher
- bite-size activities
- relevant to life and language aims
- fun
- account for differences
- look like Facebook (Facebook genres)
Translate and translate ...
The other day one of my students asked me to help him with a test-prep project.
They were doing -ed/-ing adjectives.
They did the unit of a relevant grammar-in-use book.
Their teacher told them they were to be tested on the sentences in a couple of days. The test was translation from L1 to L2. This is very challenging as the subject of the test is not only -ed/-ing adjectives but a range of other points (other grammar, vocabulary, etc.)
On the other hand it was not just rote learning 10 sentences or so, there were about 70-80 sentences!!!
It was not a real option to write them each in two languages by one person to be studied later.
The number of learners in his group is 16. If they create a flash card set collaboratively, quizlet.com for example. 5 sentences (L1, L2) per person is quite manageable. So each student writes 5 virtual flashcards in collaboratively created virtual flashcard set (they may peer-correct it and the teacher can have a say too).
Now there’s nothing else to do but have a flashcard contest. The scores can be posted on Facebook, the winner may win a ..... something.
Fails and rules
Fails
Kids' behaviour on Facebook is sometimes offensive, certain images and comments may evoke considerable concern. Certain comments may be disturbing. There is also a tendency of stalking (sort of spying on each other's Facebook walls) which is definitely a waste of time. Unfortunately girls tend to upload sexually explicit pictures of themselves, they are just not aware of the possible results of their actions.
You can educate students about that by simply discussing what these pictures suggest.
That is an area teens need our guidance.
After discussing these issues you may give your learners tasks with a language aim.
Ask one student (or more) to draw a picture of a typical fail profile picture.
The person depicted will be serve as a fictional character for these activities.
Students may write letters to a Facebook misuser suggesting that they should change their behaviour. (Alternative to coursebooks’ agony aunt type of tasks to practise giving advice.)
They can also write (collaborative) stories that may be the results of a Facebook fail. Pictures and fails (memes spreading on the Internet) might be story prompts.
E.g.
Anna (14) uploaded this picture on Facebook one day.
Stalking
You can educate students about that by simply discussing what these pictures suggest.
That is an area teens need our guidance.
After discussing these issues you may give your learners tasks with a language aim.
Ask one student (or more) to draw a picture of a typical fail profile picture.
The person depicted will be serve as a fictional character for these activities.
Students may write letters to a Facebook misuser suggesting that they should change their behaviour. (Alternative to coursebooks’ agony aunt type of tasks to practise giving advice.)
They can also write (collaborative) stories that may be the results of a Facebook fail. Pictures and fails (memes spreading on the Internet) might be story prompts.
E.g.
Anna (14) uploaded this picture on Facebook one day.
Stalking
Explain or discuss why Facebook stalking is a bad thing. (In L1 if necessary.)
Students may compile instructional materials to explain why it is a waste of time. (Do’s an don’ts, info-graphics, etc.)
They can as well create instructional shareables other than written things:
videos, sound, slides, talking pictures, etc.
Everyday situation role plays
It is quite trivial, simple, handy but highly Facebook friendly: get your students video record everyday roleplays.
You can use your coursebook situations as models that are just to be copied by students or they can write their own scripts. Knowing that the video will be uploaded on Facebook they will surely pay more attention and practice more. You can follow the steps of a usual video project.
Talent pageant for grammar exercises
Sometimes out of some mysterious reason you might want your students to practise a specific grammar point. The Facebook way:
Suppose your grammar point is Present Perfect vs. Past Simple.
post this link on your group wall:
http://www.agendaweb.org/verbs/present_perfect-exercises.html
(Agendaweb is a great resource for all kinds of web-based exercises, basically a multitude of links categorised, for grammar I go there first.)
Ask the members of the group to find 3 links that are relevant to your point. (I clicked 10 times to find 3 relevant links.) This stage helps raise the awareness of what exactly these structures are and increases learner autonomy.
They are to post their threesomes of links in comments.
Semi-final:
After having done the exercises they choose one favourite.
You post an update ?FAVOURITES? for example, they post their favourites in the comments section.
Final:
Now they have to vote for the absolutely favourites. For that everyone has to do all the favourite exercises (one per group member) and vote in a poll (Facebook question).
Now the three best exercises are the winners.
Then create a group document and tell everyone to copy in there a certain number of items from the exercises per person, depending on the size of the group. You might need about ten items.
Now this may serve as a test. Or if you want to take it more seriously you just make slight changes in the sentences and alter the order.
Through this procedure you make your students aware of the given grammar structure, you hopefully give them ample amount of practice (many sets of different types of exercises disguised as a talent pageant for exercises :D:D) and even more autonomy as they can have a say about the test.
They may get acquainted with a number of free online exercises that are corrected automatically, they can choose sites that are suitable for them for further self-study.
After having done the exercises they choose one favourite.
You post an update ?FAVOURITES? for example, they post their favourites in the comments section.
Final:
Now they have to vote for the absolutely favourites. For that everyone has to do all the favourite exercises (one per group member) and vote in a poll (Facebook question).
Now the three best exercises are the winners.
Then create a group document and tell everyone to copy in there a certain number of items from the exercises per person, depending on the size of the group. You might need about ten items.
Now this may serve as a test. Or if you want to take it more seriously you just make slight changes in the sentences and alter the order.
Through this procedure you make your students aware of the given grammar structure, you hopefully give them ample amount of practice (many sets of different types of exercises disguised as a talent pageant for exercises :D:D) and even more autonomy as they can have a say about the test.
They may get acquainted with a number of free online exercises that are corrected automatically, they can choose sites that are suitable for them for further self-study.
Motivationals, demotivationals
A popular genre to share in Facebook is "motivationals"(image in a b/w frame with a caption).
They are sometimes quite nasty, sometimes pathetic.
Many times wise quotes are shared in this manner.
To deepen the experience of reading a book (graded readers as well) ask your students to pick sentences from the book they are reading and create a motivational poster with it and share their posters on Facebook. Commenting is mandatory :)
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