Grammar can be great fun!

I developed this activity with my PreIntermediate students who are learning present and past passive form. The activity was done in two parts;firstly, students played nought & crosses forming questions from the prompts they had on the board which I had previously prepared focusing the passive. After that, I asked them to asnwer the questions they had done using their smartphones. The winner group was the one who answered their questions correctly first. Tools: Interactive board and smartphones Time: 15 minutes

Using Thinglink

Since I came across Thinglink I've tried it with my groups and what I like best is that is so user-friendly. You can prepare an online board quite fast.
The first time I used it was to work with vocabulary. I just selected a picture from google and added some links connected with the target vocabulary, later I shared it in edmodo and facebook.

Popplet - a tool with possibilities

I came across with Popplet some time ago but I haven't explored it for a while. There are several possibilities for this mind mapping tool and yesterday I tested it with a group of mine.
This group  of mine is learning about past modals and I this is what I did with popplet:
- I created some "cards" on popplet;
- Selected the presentation mode;
- Presentation on intecative board;
- Asked students to react to each situation using: must/may/might/can't/should have (past deduction)

My popplet


My impressions:
1- Students participated well;
2- Students asked more time on the cards;
3- Students managed to use the structure;
4- Students also mentioned real examples that had happened to them.

Project: Dilemma

Last week I invited my Upper 2 group to solve some problems...
This group has been studying conditionals and I felt they needed to use it for real, so I presented several dilemmas in class and each pair chose one. I asked them to create a comic story using the conditionals and solve their dilemma.

They could use toondoo or bitstrips to create their comics, I opened my account on both sites and let them work.

Some comics:

Neto&Marcel

Andre & Carlos



Ariane & Luiza

Once they finished their work, they shared it in their edmodo group.

Project: Expressing Your Opinion

This term I have a lively group of teenagers, so we will be developing a project with some online tools.
The aim of this project is to give them the oportunity to expand what they learn in class. We will share every single task on our edmodo group, and these tasks will deal with SPEAKING, READING, WRITING  and LISTENING.
For the first task I selected linoit, so that the students could work with writing.

Feel free to express yourself as well.

Mother`s Day!

I asked my kids group to create a card for their moms, but I wanted an e-card. So I opened my imagechef account and let them choose a model and write their messages. Most of them wanted the same model, but it was great! I sent them to their mother`s emails or shared in their facebook wall.
What I liked about it:
 Very little time consuming(20 minutes for 13 kids!)
  No paper waste;
  Highly motivating.
  I`m waiting for the mothers`reactions now!
Tools:
  imagechef
  mother`s emails or facebook
  glogster to show some models.

Lino it

Lino it is quite similar to stixy.com and Wallwisher, but it seemed easier to me.

WordClouds

I attended a webinar session entitled `Words in a Cloud` last Saturday. During the session Ana Maria Menezes presented several word clouds generators tools and also ways of using them in class. I used Tagul to create the word cloud bellow in order to share the other generators shown at the webinar.

Another culturaedtech member, Roseli Serra, shared with us an interesting link about word clouds as well, it is entitled How to make Word Clouds in the classroom.

Mobile Phones

Kids 1

Kids 1

                                                                                                          

Last week I asked my students from Kids course to bring their mobile phones so that they could ask each other their own phone numbers. The activity was really nice because they were really engaged in it. They practiced numbers, the questions: "What`s your name/surname?  and What`t your phone number?". 

                    

Wigflip tools

Some weeks ago I accidentally came across wigflip.com.
I liked it because you can enliven your blogs, your lessons and also use it as a writing tool.

Week 4- Speaking tools (10 tools)

1-Audioboo
2- Voxopop
3- Voki      click here for my sample
4-Fotobabble  my sample
5- Tube it!
6- Sketchcast
7- Blabberize
8- Showbeyond   my sample
9- Intervue.me      my question  
10- Knovio 

Week 4- Speaking tools (Blabblerize)

It`s my first attempt with Blabblerize.com 
 What I liked most:

1. It is funny;
2. Students might not feel embarrassed, as it is a talking picture.

Week 4 - Speaking tools (Intervue)

Intervue.me is great speaking tool.

Considerations:

1. It can be used with any level;
2. It is friendly-user;
3. You can create several questions;
4. Creating the questionnaire is simple.

My sample

Week 4 - Speaking tools

Recordr.tv is a great tool, at first students might get embarrassed but when they see they can record as many time as they need, they like it.

Week 4 - Speaking tools recorded by robertarighetto

Considerations:

1. Students can answer questions;
2. Students can describe friends and places;
3. Students can talk about preferences;
4. Students can talk about themselves;
5. Teachers can send any message to any group.

Week 2

Week 2 - Task 4 PhotoPeach

I`ve already used PhotoPeach for quizzes, but not for stories. Here is my sample: Tangara da Serra on PhotoPeach

Week 2 - Task 3

I`ve been exploring some tools for collaborative writing  this week.
Here is the list:
Blubbl.us
Entri
Google Docs
Livetyping
Mixedink
Novlet
Thinkfree
Typewith.me
Writeboard
Writer.zoho

Here is my sample using Bubbl.us
But you need to send invitations by email in order to have people collaboration.

Week 2 - Task 2

Five Card Stories is an interesting writing tool because the learner can create a visual story.

Are you ready to play Five Card flickr? via kwout

Click here to see my first attempt

Considerations:
1- It can be used with any level
2- It is an easy tool to deal with
3- The stories can be shared in a class blog, wiki or edmodo
4- Students can edit their stories as much as they wish or need
5- Different stories can be created with the same cards

Week 2 - Creative Writing

Task 1: Creative Writing: Character, Setting, and Plot a. Let's start the week with some creative writing! To get started, select one of the four Characters in Column 1, one of the four Settings in Column 2 and one of the four Plots in Column 3. (Your choices will probably not be in the same row).
 b. Once you have selected your three pictures (one character, one setting, one plot) write a 50-word story-starter (introduction to a story) based on the pictures. Include as much or as little information as you need to stay within the 50-word limit.

  Here is my sample:
(1D,2D,3C) As dog-lovers know, dogs are really skillful criatures. Since from a very early age, Bob was able to swim as he had always lived by sea on an isolated island.What nobody expected was that huge dog would also learn how to operate a washing machine.

Week 1 - Lesson Plan

Instead of a normal lesson plan, I used spiderscribe.net to show how I have been using edmodo with my groups. Special thanks to Lizzie Paredes for sharing spiderscribe.net (new for me)