In this first entry, I am going to talk about an ICT tool that I really like to use in the classroom with students. The name of the tool is "Kahoot", and I guess that a lot of teachers know it. This ICT tool is a free student-response tool that gives a lot of facilities for creating quizzes, discussions and collecting survey data.
Moreoever, the questions are projected on a shared screen, while players answer the questions with their smartphone, tablet, or computer; creating a social, fun and game-like environment. Kahoot allows for the design of multiple-choice quizzes as well as polls and surveys that populate on-the-spot data; the quiz questions and polls stimulate quick instructional decisions as well as whole-class discussion.
It is clear that it is not very new in comparison with other tools, but I think that a correct use of it could lead the students to a well-rounded learning process and an improvement of their English linguistic skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening).
In this case, we are going to work on their reading and the pronunciation with an oral activity that I have designed called "Pablo Picasso". (Video
about Pablo Picasso: https://bit.ly/47oMbRZ).
First of all, the aim of this activity is for the children in the class
to work on listening comprehension and on articulation and pronunciation. To
reach our objective, we are going to use an audio about Pablo Picasso’s life.
It is a video, but we are going to use only the audio, to work about listening,
because the images are not necessary to get well the narration. The audio is a
summary of Pablo Picasso’s life and some curious information about him. I have
chosen this famous painter because it is an inspiring story about an artist
that reach his goal of becoming one of the most famous painters in the world.
Regarding language, the audio is clear and easy to understand. Moreover, the
person who reads is a kid that makes it more easily for children. The
vocabulary is not very difficult, so the kids are going to understanding it.
Also, the story has music too, which does not affect to the understood of the
story. In our case, we are not going to use the images of the video because the
script does not rely that much on the images and the children will imagine it
while listening to the audio.
Firstly, we are going to do a multiple-choice exercise in order to
expose students to two outputs: the same word written and spoken. This will
help to do the last activity, which is about pronunciation. That is because
they are going to be exposed to the word in two different ways, helping them
with the pronunciation of the word.
We are working with a fourth grade in primary group, which has 20
students who have been together for almost like two or three years, so they
know each other and have a good relationship. The class is arranged forming a
three-sided square with the desks, so the pupils can easily see each other. In
front of this three-side square, we have the projector. In the case of the
teacher’s desk, it is located in the right side of the classroom, in order to
not interfere with the projector and the information display on the whiteboard.
Length
We are going to spend one 50 minutes session to these two activities.
Materials
Computer, speakers, projector, photocopies with question for activity
one and four whiteboard markers.
Introduction
to the task and warm up 10 minutes
We are going to star the class with the usual routine, writing the date
together on the whiteboard and talking about the weather and our today
feelings. Then we will ask the children if they know what a painter is. Then we
will talk about the labour of a painter, some painter examples and if someone
of their family, friends or people they know is a painter. After that, we are
going to continue saying that today we are going to listen a story about a
painter who fulfils his dream of becoming one of the most famous painters in
history: Pablo Picasso.
First
activity: listening comprehension 20 minutes
We are going to create a multiple-choice exercise with Kahoot in which children are
going to choose the correct answer out of the four options given. Before the
first listening, we conduct a pre-listening task, so we are going to read the
questions all together in order to clarify all the expressions and words given.
Moreover, this will help students to be aware of the information they have to
look for in the listening. The questions are easy and accurately reproduce what
the audio says, therefore most of the answers should be answered without too
much hassle. After that, students should be prepared enough for the second
activity. The audio is going to be played twice, so the students have time to
check their answers and complete the ones that may still be missing after the
first listening.
Questions for
the multiple-choice exercise:
1.
One
of the world’s greatest artists in the 20th century is
💓) Pablo Picasso
💙) Joan Miró
💛) Joaquín Sorolla
💚) Pablo Hernández
2.
In
which sunny city of Spain lived Pablo?
💓) Almería
💙) Cádiz
💛) Málaga
💚) Mallorca
3.
Pablo
could _____ before he even learned to talk.
💓) sing
💙) draw
💛) paint
💚) dance
4.
His
first word was…
💓) lapislázuli
💙) lapis
💛) lapa
💚) lapeloli
5.
He
was just _____ when he completed his first painting.
💓) eleven
💙) nine
💛) ten
💚) eight
6.
Spanish
masters like _____ or ________.
💓) Goya or Vega
💙) Goncha or
Velázquez
💛) Goya or
Velázquez
💚)Goncho y Bernardo
7
He
attended a well-known art school in _______.
💓) Badalona
💙) Barcelona
💛) Bárcena mayor
💚) Basauri
8
Pablo’s
first exhibition was held in a café called __ _____ ____.
💓) The four cows
💙) The four cats
💛) The fourth cat
💚) The four fantastic
9
For
a long time, Pablo would only use the colour _____ in paintings.
💓) black
💙) blue
💛) red
💚) white
10
It was the most moving anti-war
painting the world had ever seen.
💓) Guerrilla
💙) Gernika
💛) Guepardo
💚) Guinea
In order to clear things up, I have to say that I have chosen these heart emojis to illustrate the color or the four options given in the Kahoot app.
What is more, the answers are going to be checked as a class with the participation of
the kids and the teacher who acts like a guide, instead of individually as it
would be too time consuming.
Second
activity: pronunciation 20 minutes
For this second activity our aim is that kids work on their
pronunciation. For this purpose, we are going to combine running dictation and
Chinese whispers. We will divide the class into five teams; therefore, each
time are going to have four members. We are going to play four rounds. For each
round, the team will form a line and, starting with the last student in the
line, the teacher will whisper the same sentences to all the teams.
Each team member will have to whisper the sentence to the student who is
in front of him until the fist one, who will have to go to the whiteboard and
write the sentence whispered. We will repeat this four times, so that by the
end of the activity each team will have written four sentences. Also, each
student will have whispered four sentences and wrote one.
Students will have to make an effort to collect the teacher’s output,
the whisper and also, to transfer it onto the next student. They know that the
outcome of the whole team also depends on their individual performance, so this
is going to make them want to be as focused as possible in order to achieve the
goal. This aspect gives them a main role to the students in leading the
activity. We are going to correct the mistakes together and the team which has
the most correct answers are going to choose a game to bring outside for the
playground time.
This second activity allows us to see what pronunciation aspects of our
students are weaker and what we must stress when speaking, so their English
improves when it comes to fluency and pronunciation. Some sentences may reach
the whiteboard unaltered and others may suffer more changes, depending on the
level of difficulty of each sentence. The sentences will be taken directly from
the video, so students are going to been exposed to them twice (first with the
video and then with the teacher’s whisper) and in some cases three times
(video, activity 1 and whisper).
Sentences to
be used
His father took him to Madrid to visit its most famous musem: El Prado
The world was not ready for his style
The result was as playful as a little kid’s drawing
It was the most moving anti-war painting the world had ever seen
Finally, I would like to add that I have tried to combine traditional material with ICT Tools by using the whiteboard and the app "Kahoot". I consider this a key factor because traditional materials are commonly substituted with ICT, so it is necessary to work with it too.
This feature could be dangerous,
too, because it can change the view of traditional materials. Nowadays,
children who are in schools and are “native digital” are born with technology,
so it will be difficult to use traditional ways of learning and get them
motivated and implicated.
References
Wang et al. (2013). Kahoot! Extract from: Kahoot
Riko’s Reading Room. (15
April, 2022). 👦🏻 Pablo Picasso | Little People, BIG DREAMS.
[Video]. Extract from: Pablo Picasso
Trust et al. (2016). Online Tools for Teaching & Learning. Extract from: Online Tools
