Session 6 and 7: Integration of the work with iPads in the class

Dear classmates,

During this term in the ICT classes we have learnt a lot of resources and different programs and apps that can be really interesting for the English classroom. But today, in the following lines and regarding our session 6 and 7 (Integration of the work with iPads in the class). One of the apps that I’ve enjoyed the most during this term is Puppet Pals, and I’ve used it with my kids.

Session 7

Hello again digital teachers,

I’m Amaranta and today I will explain to you the things that we learnt during Session 7 with Maribel. The last session was about Ipads, the new trendy thing in relation with education nowadays. The amount of applications and resources that Ipad offers us is amazingly growing. Currently, either teachers and students can access to and endless ways of learning and teaching by using ICT in the classroom. However, how can teachers and students chose the right application that they want to use?

Choose the right one!

In this session, Maribel showed us a useful tool where different applications are organized by the skills that students are developing or by what the teacher want them to focus on such as photo editing, recording, interactive writing, creating a game...etc. If you are looking for an specific app this website might be useful for you!

Here you have some other websites (examples, reviews..) where applications are well organized and will save you a lot of time when looking for the good one! Hope you find them all worth it.

• AppEd Review
• Educapp
• Top educational apps
• My first app
  
  
  
  
  

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In addition, if you feel that it is too difficult to assess Ipad work, here you will find some resources to do it such as rubrics and grids that will make it easier and faster: Ipads4TEACHING

Quizz response games

Related with the assessment, during the session we also learnt different apps or programs that you can use it as a way of assessment or if you prefer as a quizz response games that children need to answer faster. In this way, children use technology in a more motivating way that help them to review the content while using Ipads, computers, smartphones...Personally, I will absolutely recommend all teachers Kahoot and Nearpod. If you want to know more about Kahoot you can read my last post and you will find further information. As for the Nearpod, I have discovered recently and I’m amazed about all the possible things it can offers. Nearpod allows you to work in groups, write with a purpose, express your knowledge by drawing, develop your critical thinking...etc. In short, take part in a quizz where all the learning styles are taken into account.

The rest of the class we focused on StoryTelling. However, we didn't spend time reading books but we learnt lots of websites to create our own story! In this sense, children are the authors of their literacy creations and develop the four skills in a contextualized way. You can ask them to create whatever they want after exploring all the resources or let them read for a while. Here you will find good apps to do it! Want to know more about them? Scan this QR code:

	Price and Platforms	Skills	Purpose
Shadow Puppets	Free/ Ipod, Iphone, Ipad...	Communication Collaboration Creativity	Create and design Creating high-quality, versatile presentations is really easy. Students can use their own images or pull images from several impressive online resources

Puppet Pals

Free/ Ipod, Iphone, Ipad...

Communication Collaboration Creativity

Kids can learn how each part of the creative process works to form a story as they make decisions about which backgrounds and characters to use in each scene, how to size them and move them around, and which audio to record.

Toontastic

Free/ Ipod, Iphone, Ipad...

Communication Collaboration Creativity

A fantastic digital storytelling tool that empowers kids to organize ideas, transforming them into entertaining animated cartoons

Some photos of our projects and presentations:

Puppet Pals!

Puppet pals

Name: Laura Carrillo

Level: 4th grade, groups of 4

Curriculum: English 

Topic: creating a fairy tale

Vocab related to fairy tales: princess, prince, dragon, gobblin, fairies, witch, wand, castle, village, cottage…

Previous knowledge: picture book app

Aims: 

• To familiarise with puppet pals.
• To be able to create an interactive story with different characters
• To develop the oral skills: listening and speaking
• To acquire vocabulary related to a fairy tale
• To be able to understand a story 
• To break down stereotypes (from the traditional stories).

Skills: speaking, listening, pronunciation

Receptive skills: Listening when the others are recording or reading the plot and reading (reading the story)

Productive skills: writing the fairy tale and speaking (recording it)

Classroom management: Groups of 4. Establish different roles.

Type of activity: Task based activity, learn by doing, ICT

Material: Ipads

I have worked with the app puppet pals. It is very interesting and useful to create a story with the kids. It is an interdisciplinary task because kids need to invent a story so they are working on language, they have to choose different characters (from the app or they can even draw their own!) so they are also working on art and when they finish the story they need to record themselves. 

It is a good oportunity to work on pronunciation, rythm, pause…etc As it is done in groups, one records the other so they become aware of their mistakes because the others can tell them what they can improve or what they have done really good.  It is a kind of group assesment during the process of it.

First kids need to structure their story: characters, placement, what happens…etc then they choose or create the characters.

Once they’ve done that, they start writing the script. The teacher revises it and corrects or suggests improvements and they can start recording. It is a very motivating activity because they are very excited with the results.

According to Bloom’s taxonomy : Higher order thinking skills. Creating their own version of the story following the characteristics of a fairy tale and then, they will have the opportunity to share the results!

Competences:

Linguistic and audio-visual, because pupils have to invent a fairy tale.

Management of information and digital interaction, in order to do the task, students have to use and interact with the app puppet pals.

Knowledge and interaction with the world, by using fairy tales we can develop the imagination of our students

Social and civic, we are going to work in groups promoting the cooperative work and stablishing roles.

Learning to learn They will have to solve problems, different opinions and become to an agreement. Thus they will have to manage their time effectively and regulate their own learning.

Assessment:

Every group will carry out their own assesment, it is a good way so that everyone becomes aware of how was their team working and also their individual contribution. Whilst the process, the teacher will move around observing each group. At the end, each group will show the rest their fairy tale and the teacher will take into account whether it follows the structure and characteristics of a fairy tale worked previously in class before using puppet pals.

The results were great and we could show to the parents how much we worked and how amazing our fairy tales were!

Hope you can use it in your classrooms! Your students will love it! ;)