How Digital Tools can support Sentence Builders!

I love technology!  Not just for the sake of it but because I believe (based on my own experience) that it can enhance the teaching and most important, the learning experience of my students. 

I love blended learning and I think that digital resources can be crucial in retrieval practice, which is key for languages! If students are not continuously exposed to the language (our Sentence Builders), they will simple forget them! Similarly, digital tools help, along with cultural input, to make lessons memorable!  These are just some of my favourite platforms!

TaskMagic- Textivate

I have written extensively how these can be used at all different stages of the teaching/learning process according to the MARS EARS model: especially in the Model/ Awareness and Structured Production stages. Please see previous posts to see how I introduce/drill language using these tools.

Quizlet and Memrise

These are essential in making students independent and help them learn our SBs! Most students are used to using technology on their mobiles and, although the Repeating, Covering, Testing traditional learning method still has a place for many students, creating courses online linked to my Sentence Builders have proved to be a huge success!  I use Memrise for KS3, they love the competition points system, and Quizlet for KS4.

These are my Quizlet courses linked to my Sentence Builders (downdable from the Resources Page on this blog). 

All courses are shared with students via Firefly, our school digital platform and via Onenote. Students complete the courses for homework (learning tasks) and they get tested on them in lessons, formally or as a whole lesson activity. I think it is vital we give students learning tasks as homework! Let's face it, if we do not explicitly say they have to learn the vocab, most learners would not do it!

Wheel of names 

I love this simple app!  You can create roulette type of exercises for retrieval practice, again, based on our Sentence Builders.  Its use is ideal in the first two stages of learning but it can also be used in the last stage (Spontaneous stage) where students create a sentence from a given prompt. This technique, can be used up to KS5, very successfully. 

This is an example of a Wheel of names activity based on SB from the topic of Technology (Y10)  The activity can be done orally (testing after the Quizlet learning task) or in written with mini whiteboards. Able classes can be asked to extend the sentences with something that makes sense or/and using a different tense!  I can spend a whole lesson doing just Wheel of names activities! If you add and element of game (points system) you have a winner! 

Most nicely, you can have two or even three wheels opened on your screen! which means you can practise very long sentences! It would look like this: (Wheel 1 is about Sentences with IR and wheel 2 about reasons why)

Flippity

Fantastic app which I discovered thanks to Joe Dale. Similar use to Wheel of names but many more uses! Vincent Everett has many examples of how he uses the Randomizer tool with Sentence Builders, like the above example, without having to split your screen! Mike Elliott also has a great example of how to use the Randomizer in conjunction with Flipgrid! Below is Mike's video on how to do this to practise pronunciation with students on a given set of SBs. Once you create your activity, you just share the link with your students!

LearningApps

This must be my absolutely favourite app! which I have used for a few years now and has proved so handy during lock-down. It allows you to create many exercises based on the Sentence Builders that you are working on during lesson time. 

It also develops independence in learners and just adds a fun element to a conventional worksheet! It helps to make your lessons Memorable!

I particularly like the Freetext input activities, which allows me to create translation activities but also listening and dictation! Great for modelling the language! Example below: 

As in the case of Flippity, once you have your activity you just share it with your students! I do this via our class Onenote. 

Genially

This is the coolest app I discovered during lock-down thanks to Carmen Quirós. It is a presentation app but very engaging and interactive! I love the templates it provides to create info-graphics, board games and escape rooms!  You can get very creative with these Escape Rooms! 

Marie Allirot and Julia Morris have shared many impressive escape rooms using Genially, check them here.  However, using the templates as they are, is also highly innovative and engaging.  

I have created my own escape rooms, again, to practise in a different way those precious SBs so they are great for the structure production stage of learning. What I love about Genially, is that you can embed activities from LearningApps (or any other app) into your slides, making these activities part of the challenges to escape the room! This is Retrieval Practice and Gamification on the use of SBs at their best! 

Example of a Genially Escape Room for SBs practice

Example of a Genially Escape Room for oral spontaneous practice

Another cool use of Genially, is their board games templates!  These are just ace and students love them to practise their Sentence Builders or discussing KS5 topics!

Example of a Genially Boardgame

Mentimeter

Mentimeter allows you to create interactive presentations by letting your audience (your students) interact with you! I used it to test SBs too (2nd stage of learning) but also to get spontaneous responses from the students from a prompt. The teacher carries out the presentation with questions and students will get a code which they introduce in their own devices. Students answer those questions using their devices.  

All answers will appear on the screen! Great for collaboration, sharing good answers among students and quick feedback for the teacher (how many mistakes are there?/ checking for understanding). This tool proved great during lock-down too! See example below:

Padlet

This app is great to practise oral and writing collaborative work. I use it in the last stage of the learning process (spontaneous, extensive production) although it can also be used for Controlled Production. I love it because it is a collaborative space for students and they can learn from each other. It is eye-catching and again, it makes the learning more memorable than just using a classic worksheet!  

Another use for a Padlet is to share videos that students make! and for collaboration with partner schools.  This is our Erasmus journey, using Padlet, below.  I also use Padlet for revision schedules for my Y11 students. They love it!  This is an example. 

Flipgrid

This is a great app for oral practice. I create a group for each of my classes and then threads on whatever I want them to give a presentation on. I use this at the last stage of the learning cycle: Spontaneity and free output from students!

Whiteboard.fi

This app presents a great solution to the current climate. It offers a digital mini whiteboard. You just need to create a class and share a code with your students. Pupils from their own device will join your class with a board which will be displayed in the big screen, that way you can see each other answers, to say translations, verbs etc.. and everyone can see each other answers too on the the big screen/projector. Great to check for understanding, pinpoint areas of weaknesses, establish grammar discussions etc.. you name it! The big screen will look something like this:

Quizizz

This is a Quiz app but with a twist! It allows you to create different quizzes in different formats. Also, as part of your quiz input you can include listening (up to 10 seconds) which it makes it perfect for testing our SBs from a listening point of view! My favourite Quiz: Open-ended! so I can include dictations, translations, oral questions, you name it! Again, something very similar to Flippity, LearningApps but on a different formal so it is not boring from the students' point of view! The way I use it is not so much as a testing device but as Solo Practice mode. This way, I promote independence in my students.

Jane Basnett offers a fantastic overview on how Quizizz can be used for retrieval practice here.

 

Other digital resource I love with ready to use activities are:

The language gym extremely good for SBs practice and VERB TRAINER!!! the students love the competition element!  This is Gianfranco Conti's app! 

This is language great for listening videos! Again, my students can be come addicted to this.

Languagenut this offers listening, reading online activities

Lyric Gaps  to practise languages with pop songs.

Exampro AQA past paper questions to be created on specific themes, papers etc..

Linguascope good for younger learners 

To get a better flavour of these tools and others check my webinar below. As always, many thanks to TILT for conducting these free webinars!

For more TILT Webinar videos, which offer an amazing FREE CPD, check Joe Dale's Youtube channel here.