Welcome to this new blog!

I plan to use this blog to share new additions to my wiki with languages teachers (new apps, tools etc) and to provide suggestions for how to use them in languages lessons.

I welcome your input into this blog so that it meets your needs. Tell me what you would like to read about on these pages.

I’m hoping that this blog can be interactive – information sharing and collaboration should be a two way process. I welcome input from you by way of comments, suggestions, queries etc. Over to you!

2 great iPad apps for speaking

I have just added details of some great apps to my wiki that you can use to provide prompts or conversation starters for role plays.

Decide now is  one such app. It comes with a range of conversation categories included

Not all of the lists are suitable to use with languages classes. Click on the cog to edit them. You can modify or delete existing lists or click on the plus symbol to generate your own list. For example you could put together separate lists of hobbies, food and/or drink items, activities to do on the weekend, film genres etc.

As you make each new wheel you can choose a colour scheme. Pick from Rainbow, Colourful or hues of the same colour. Once you have selected the wheel to use, click on the circle to spin it and make a random selection.

decide-now

 wheels

I’ve just come across a great blog by Karen Whitehead (@kazWd) from the International Studies department of Stanwick Hall in the UK. The following ideas come directly from Karen’s post of 6 June. Check out her teaching ideas and resources for French, German and Spanish too!

Telepathy
: All students choose one of the vocab items, write it on a scrap of paper and stand behind their desk. Spin the wheel and any who have the same as the wheel remain standing. The students still standing choose again. Repeat the process until you have a winner.

Choose a card
: Create a set of flashcards to match the vocab on decide now and pin these around the room. Students choose which card to stand near and you spin the wheel. They are out if the word they have chosen appears.

Dictionary race
: To introduce new vocabulary, you could enter the new words on decide now!, spin the wheel and students have to race to find the meaning in the dictionary. The first to hold the meaning up on their whiteboard wins a point. The wheel may well land on a word that has already been checked, so the first to shout out/re-write the meaning wins a point – allowing for re-enforcement.

Pictionary
: Students compete to draw items fastest on their mini whiteboard. Decide now! could determine what they have to draw.

Talk for a minute: 
Thanks to Amanda Salt (@amandasalt) for this suggestion. Enter topic areas and students have to talk for a minute on the topic chosen.

Strip bingo:
 Students have 5 boxes in a line and fill each with an item of vocab. They have to tear off each box from the outside working inwards as the items get called. The winner is the person who gets their final box called first. This is more effective than normal bingo as it means the vocab has to be called more than once (a player might have a word on the outside and tear it off immediately but another player may not need the same word until their last square). Decide now! would be a good way to select the vocabulary.

Another great iPad app for turn taking is Tap Roulette. Use it to randomly select whose turn is next among small groups of students. They simply launch the app, place their finger on the screen and click on Pick Finger. The person whose finger lights up in red gets to have a turn.

roulette