PODcasting in the Classroom

For years now, I have been an avid user of the podcast, Learn French by Podcast. As a student and teacher of French, I have enjoyed using this site for practicing my own French and for integrating various podcasts into French lessons.

In the past, I have used podcasts from this site to teach students important grammar, vocabulary, or communication skills. Likewise, I have chosen a particular podcast to highlight the utility of this amazing site. With or without being a member (you can sign up for a free account), one can access lesson 159, an intermediate lesson, entitled, "Es-tu sur Twitter?", to mean, "Are you on Twitter?" This is a very practical lesson, introducing intermediate-level grammar and vocabulary for using the internet and for communicating with others.

In the high school classroom, I would present this podcast with a worksheet for students to follow along and fill in target grammar and vocabulary words that I previously chose to work on. This listening in particular focuses on question words, negations, and vocabulary words related to social media. The interlocuteurs speak several times, at times in English, and discuss this meaning of the phrases and words, which would be helpful for students to make meaning of the conversation.

As a follow up activity, I would ask students to use these new words and phrases in a group activity, and possibly in their own activity surrounding the idea of Twitter or social media.

Connecting Globally

What better way to experience a foreign language than to connect with a classroom in a foreign country? ePals is an online Global Community that allows you to do just that. Teachers and students have access to great resources, and to other teachers and students from around the world.

My favorite feature on this site is the "Find a Classroom" tab where you can search a global classroom by language, age, country/region, and any other specifications. While browsing this section, I noticed that many international teachers are looking for pen pals to email, write letters, or Skype with their students to help practice their target language.

I also found this site helpful because it offers teacher resources and a forum where teachers can share ideas and communicate.

This would be a fantastic resource for any foreign language or ESL classroom to get students practicing the TL and speaking or writing with students their own age in an authentic context!

Storytelling with Storybird

Looking for a great way for students to create, read and write narratives? Check out Storybird! This is an excellent site that allows students to choose from a variety of different drawings, create or read stories using the pictures that they choose, and then share their stories.

I love this web tool and I can see myself using it in the classroom because it encourages creativity and individuality, but also focuses on literacy skills- reading and writing. Students would be able to create a personalized story, designed around the picture that they choose, and then share their story with their classmates.

Check out my story about two French friends, Madeline and Sophie!


Madeline et Sophie Rattrapent

Awesome, Easy, Animoto!

After signing up for a free account at Animoto, a site for creating personal or business videos, I was able to very easily navigate through the site and create my very own video geared toward travel in Paris. I was surprised at just how easy and quick this was to use. First, after creating an account, you choose a theme for your presentation, then upload the photos that you want to include, followed by text and pre-selected music (or, you may choose to upload your own music).

Even though the videos only last for thirty seconds and their is a limit to the amount of content that can be uploaded, I feel that this type of digital storytelling would be extremely effective in the foreign language or ESL classroom. As a teacher, I could create photo stories with my own pictures from travels (as I did in this video of Paris), or any other type of video that is not readily available on the internet. And for classroom activities and projects, I think this would be engaging and fun for students to create their own videos to share with their classmates!


Copy of Faire un Sejour A Paris

Digital Storytelling: What is it and How can it be Used in the Classroom?

If you haven't already heard about digital storytelling, you need to check it out! In the article, “7 Things You Should Know About DigitalStory Telling,” it defines digital storytelling as “ The practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video to create a short movie typically with strong emotional content. Another site, Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling sates that “Digital storytelling at its most basic core is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories.” In addition, Daniel Meadows defined digital stories as “short, personal multimedia tales told from the heart.”

The benefits of using Digital Stories in the classroom appear to be limitless. “7 Things You Should Know About Digital Story Telling” highlights the effectiveness of using this technique in the classroom: “Digital stories can be instructional, persuasive, historical, or reflective… giving the storyteller enormous creative latitude.”  Through digital storytelling, students can experience critical and independent thinking, while expressing individuality and creativity. The article continues to explain that “Among the initiative’s stated goals are, for faculty, to facilitate various learning styles and connect to students’ interest in technology, and, for students, to develop evaluate and use online content and electronic tools as a means of personal expression.”

I believe that digital storytelling would be an effective way to integrate technology and instruction into any subject area. For example, in the foreign language classroom, this method of instruction holds endless academic potential. I would have my French students create digital stories around various subject matters, from travel to family, and ask them to narrate in French. This would serve as excellent language practice, while at the same time allowing students to be creative and have fun! 

Serious Games: Gardenscapes 2

Serious Gaming in the French Classroom:

In order to engage with the online gaming world and to see what benefits it would have for the FL classroom, I created an account with BigFish which allowed for a one hour free trial. This site also allowed me to change my language to French and access a bunch of games in French. I browsed for a game that would be applicable to a High School French classroom (i.e. easy grammar and vocabulary) with a purpose such as time management. I finally found a game that sparked my interest: Gardenscapes 2.  I fooled around on this game for the whole hour and found it very relevant to the French classroom.

Language Learning Objectives:

This game presents very advanced grammar and vocabulary so I would expect to use it in a level 3 class or above. By using this game in the French classroom, students will be able to:

• Read and respond to vocabulary pertaining to everyday household items, people, places, etc.
•   Read and respond to communicative French (imperatives,  interrogatives, etc)
•  Read and understand different forms of French grammar
• Read and understand different French language tenses

Role of Teacher:

I would use this computer game as a lesson on grammar, language tense, or vocabulary and scaffold my students along the way. I would not expect my students to understand ALL of the language that is presented in the game, but instead to use it as a language tool to learn new vocabulary and grammar. Because the game only presents written language, I would like to read the dialogue out loud to the students where it is possible and walk them through the directions to ensure that they are clear.  This would allow for students to receive language input in both written and spoken forms. After reading and explain the directions in French, I would pause so that the students could attempt the level.

Role of the Student:

The Students would be actively involved in this game by following the French prompts on the screen: They must match French vocabulary with the correct picture in order to receive tokens/money for the garden. This motivation alone will inspire them to reach the correct answers.

Assessing Student Progress:

One way to assess student progress is to walk around and check the computer monitors to ensure that the students are making the right choices. Also, to check that students are meeting the language objectives, I would informally assess their understanding of the language that is used in the game by either monitoring their progress when a prompt is given, or by verbally repeating the same question or statement to see if they are able to comprehend it. 

Benefits of Escape the Room Games in the FL/ESL Education

What is Gamificaion?

According to the article, “Things You Should Know About…Gamification,” gamification is the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior.”

Why Use Games in Language Learning?

Author Stephen Franciosi of the article “A Comparison ofComputer Game and Language-Learning Task Design Using Flow Theory,” states that using games in the foreign language classroom can offer students concrete goals, meaningful feedback and varied skill and difficulty levels. Franciosi states the benefits of using computer games in the classroom, and how games provide students with clear goals: “Successful computer games tend to have concrete goals in the form of quantifiable scores, payoffs and/or accomplishments that express outcomes which are explicit and objective” (p16).  Next, Franciosi describes the meaningful and immediate feedback that is given through games: “In well-designed computer games, feedback is usually immediate and unambiguous, provided through the use of audio/visual cues such as timers, score boards, collapsing or exploding foes, spatial movement and the like (referred to collectively as "output" by Rollings & Adams (2003, p. 183))”(p. 17). Lastly, students can experience a balance between skill and difficulty level: “The intention of such architecture is, of course, to facilitate an environment where the level of difficulty increases gradually and concurrently with player skill level. Second, computer-mediated games are able to respond in real time based on player feedback, and so are ideal for supporting adaptive learning (Torrente, Moreno-Ger, & Fernandez-Manjon, 2008)” (p 18).

Using Gaming in the Classroom:

In order to engage with the online gaming world and to see what benefits it would have for the FL/ESL classroom, I attempted to play an escape the room game called The Great Kitchen Escape. This type of game challenges students to think critically and strategically, using English vocabulary to 'escape' the kitchen and exit into the next room.

I played this game for about a half hour and needed to use the 'walkthrough' tool in order to help me progress to the next level and finish the game. I believe that this game would yeild multiple benefits for beginner ESL students and even foreign language students, if the teacher is able and willing to translate the lesson, pre-teach vocabulary and scaffold.

Language Learning Objectives:

This game has the ability to present basic-advanced English/Foreign language grammar (depending on the dialogue of the teacher); however the vocabulary is very basic. Students would be able to: 

• Read and respond to vocabulary pertaining to everyday household items.
•   Read and respond to communicative English/FL (imperatives,  interrogatives, etc)
•  Read and understand different forms of French grammar
• Read and understand different French language tenses

Role of Teacher:

I would use this computer program as a lesson on basic vocabulary and grammar, and scaffold my students along the way. It would be used as a language tool to learn and practice new vocabulary and grammar. Because the game only presents written language, I would like to read the dialogue out loud to the students where it is possible and walk them through the directions to ensure that they are clear.  This would allow for students to receive language input in both written and spoken forms. After reading and explaining the directions in English/French, I would pause so that the students could attempt the level.

Role of the Student:

The Students would be actively involved in this game by following the language prompts on the screen: They must select the correct picture with the vocabulary word, and in turn they will be granted access into the next room. This motivation alone will inspire them to reach the correct answers.

Assessing Student Progress:

One way to assess student progress is to walk around and check the computer monitors to ensure that the students are making the right choices. Also, to check that students are meeting the language objectives, I would informally assess their understanding of the language that is used in the game by either monitoring their progress when a prompt is given, or by verbally repeating the same question or statement to see if they are able to comprehend it.