Ferran's Game

For our ICT last session I prepared a very simple game using Kahoot; a well known app that allows us to develop team (or single) games using the classroom screen, digital board, computers or tablet-type devices. So it is a very versatile app to work with. 

This Kahoot game is about some easy riddles to have fun in class and play a little bit with the language. The game can be listed in the Applying step on Bloom's Taxonomy; because will have all the students thinking and relating all their knowledge in order to answer all the questions correctly. 

The activity's target age is 10-11 years old. The riddles aren't difficult, but it is true that the students playing must have high reading skills. 

The objective of this activity is to practice fast reading and improving the reading comprehension.

Here you have some screenshots of the Kahoot created:

Then, I have selected a website that offers a wide variety of games for our students. It is called FunBrain and it is full of little games to have fun and learn (indirectly) specific vocabulary. 

This kind of websites are often left out by teachers for not being "serious" or academically relevant. But they are very powerful tools actually; allows the student to try lots of games and stay with those that makes him/her feel save and motivated.

I discovered this website in last years' practicum; the students showed to me... and I was amazed for the large archive of games it has. 

I was doubting about this website (or this kind of resources)... but if children love it, that means it is good. 

this is how the website looks

Ferran Rodríguez i Díaz

The White Board

On march 10th we did a whole ICT session about Digital Boards. The Digital Board is a kind of blackboard that works with electricity... so it's digital. It let us bring to the classroom a wider variety of activities and resources for theaching/learning.
The new possibilities that the Digital Board brings to the class are almost infinite, and you can use it for any subject or purpose; this tool is ready to bear anything!

As you can do with blackboards, you can write and draw in it as well as create interactive games, play music, surf the internet and save your notes from one class to the next one.
It really is a very powerful tool that is slowly coming into our classrooms. It is true that a lot of schools have this device, but it is also true that not all schools take a real advantage of this wonderful tool. Some teachers uses it as just a projector but others had found in this tool the perfect device to make lessons more motivating and easy to understand for pupils. 

In order to practice and try this new technology out, I have designed a very simple game to be done with a digital board. Taking into account the Blooms Taxonomy, this activity will fit into the Understanding step; this activity has been designed to check pupil's understanding and memory about a topic (The Space).

The target age for this activity/game is 7-8 years old and it would be played in Science Time (CLIL). Whit this activity you will be:

• Checking understanding about the Space topic
• Developing their thinking and relation skills
• Testing their memory capacity
• Practicing English and Science while having fun and using the Digital Board

This activity isn't something new. We all have done relation activity sheets (as students and as teachers) and we all know how they look like. However, redesigning this old (but great) activities into something more visual and new is something that needs to be done; as soon as possible and in the most innovative way possible. The Digital Board allows us to do this redesign process using all the tools that this device offers us. 

This classic activity, just "adding the ICT thing in it" turns to be a perfect TPR activity. It makes students stand up, come to the front and use their whole body to complete and relate all the aspects shown in screen. Once again, technology made of a simple activity something a little bit different and more motivating for everyone. 

But... how do you assess it? This activity was made with the purpose of having fun and review content, so you don't really need to assess it. But if you want to you will see it is really easy to do. If the students completes each screen with good rhythm and with not manny errors, that would mean that the pupil know. 

I struggled to upload or embed the activity in this entry... but you will find the file with the activity clicking here!

Ferran Rodríguez i Díaz