1ª Clase: Toma de contacto con el modelo pedagógico

Para comenzar esta nueva entrada, me gustaría resaltar que este modelo pedagógico me plantea numerosas dudas y recelos. No por tratarse de nuevas tecnologías, ya que se puede apreciar que soy un fan de estas, sino por los numerosos problemas que veo pueden surgir a la hora de su implementación en el aula de primaria. 

Por un lado, se encuentra la figura del maestro, el cual tiene que disponer de dos cosas fundamentales: Conocimientos acerca de su implementación y tiempo para el desarrollo y/o búsqueda de recursos validos. Por otro lado, están los alumnos/padres. Los alumnos, van ha necesitar unos materiales muchísimos más guiados y reforzados para poder comprender la teoría de manera tan autónoma. Además, los padres van ha tener que disponer de bastante más tiempo para poder ayudar/ vigilar a sus hijos, ademas de tener también algún que otro conocimiento de herramientas. 

Aunque, como digo, el pasado martes día 19 fue la primera clase del curso y por lo tanto mi primera toma de contacto con dicho modelo. Es por esto que espero ir aclarando esas posibles dudas que puedan llegar a surgir en relación al flipped classroom.

El curso parece que va ha ser intenso y productivo, así que espero que mañana pueda añadir más ideas, propuestas y posibles respuestas a todas esas incógnitas que me surgen acerca de la aplicación de este modelo en primaria. De momento os dejo el enlace al padlet donde se exponen alguna de las dudas (http://padlet.com/bernabe_martin/flipatocha). 

Un saludo y ya os iré contando más sobre este nuevo modelo pedagógico llamado Flipped Classroom.

Diario de Aprendizaje: Curso sobre Flipped Classroom

En este primer post relacionado con el curso de Flipped Classroom os dejo el enlace al audio que he subido a mi cuenta de Soundcloud.

https://soundcloud.com/alberto-zapata-mairlot/flipped-classroom/s-NsrOd


Próximamente comenzaremos con el diario de aprendizaje relacionado con el curso que hemos comenzado hoy, en el cual tratare de reflejar todo lo visto a lo largo de cada sesión.

My Reading Map

I must confess that I have never been a good reader. Probably because of my teachers never encouraged me to read for pleasure, therefore it was out of obligation. In spite of this, I divided my Reading Map into 4 different periods, trying to contextualize with different covers and drawings the most significant facts.

In the first place, when I was a child and before start the primary school, I didn't like to read books too much, because I preferred play football or ride my skateboard instead of stay at home reading. Actually the only book that I had read for pleasure before start the primary school was “The Fat book of Petete”, because it combined short stories with many different games such as mazes, drawings for coloring and so on.

Then, when I start the Primary School, I also start to read different kind of books, but no because I want it. However, my parents gave me a book for my 7^th birthday, called “The Mon Witch”. It was of the series of  Barco de Vapor and I love that book. I remember myself sitting on the couch reading the book and trying to imagine the story in my mind as if it were a movie. During the first two stages, I also started to take more interest in comics. My favorite were The Mutant Ninja Turtles because it were quite funny and also easy to draw. Nonetheless, reading still wasn’t one of my passions.

Thirdly, during my time in High School, I read many book and I remember books like “The Hive”, which was a terrible odyssey to read because, as far as I’m concerned, my teacher didn't know how to work with it in a correct way. Along this period I read without any motivation, just to pass the subject. The same happened with books written by Ortega y Gasset or Escohotado. That's why I tried to read by my own other genders, and I remember “The Hound of the Baskerville” as one of my favorite book at that time. Nevertheless, I was more focused on sports and teenager things.

Lastly, when I started to study electronic design at the age of 20, I also start to learn German and read many books in this language, which some of them were quite difficult to read and understand but it could be the first time that I was really interesting on read books without any kind of duty. Then I move to Berlin and I met the person who transmits me the habit and passion for read, she was a turning point. In fact the first present that she gave me was a book in English called “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”, this book was amazing and very touching. After that, I read different genres and also in different languages (German, English and Spanish).

Last but not least, currently I’m quite hook with the books of “Game of Thrones” (in Spanish) written by George R.R. Martin. I’m reading the third volume called “the Storm of Swords” and I have the fourth waiting, and I must say that are incredibly addictive and dazzling. Besides, I have finished in English “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, and I will start as soon as I can “The Day of The Jackal” by Frederick Forsyth. Nevertheless, this is not the end of the story because to be continued…

Readers' Theatre, It's Showtime!!!!!

Hello again readers!!, this week I would like to dive in the exciting world of the theatre, but from a different perspective. During the last seminar with Raquel, we discovered an extraordinary resource called Readers' Theatre. Besides, we had the opportunity to work with different scripts designed to different cycles, and I must say that some of the voices of the classmates were hilariously funny. Moreover, this tool is completely feasible with the CLIL approach, because using it you are going to work:

• Communication, through the preparation of the performance.
• Culture, depending on your approach to the text.
• Cognition, because the students can develop themselves their scripts helping them to develop the learning to learn.
• Content, because you can use any text even if is a part of a book lesson.
• Language literacy, because children can adapt and rebuild the text eliciting their language comprehension.
• High Order Thinking, at the time of create the script of the texts.

But, what is it exactly?, it is a dramatic performance of whatever written text, in which the students reads aloud the text emphasizing the expressions, pace and articulation of the words rather than just act. To do that, they use a script as a guide or way to divide the text into the different students or characters. Besides, it is not necessary to have any costume, background stage and all the things that usually accompany the theatre plays.

Equally important is that, it is not based on memorize the text, because each student held their script. The real focus is on reading comprehension. Moreover, and in order to contextualize the text, the children should read the script with expressive voices and gestures. Furthermore, using the Readers’ Theatre scripts you are going to encourage the students to monitor and improve their reading fluency and also to foster the cooperative and collaborative work.

• Example of implementation in Science: "The types of Ecosystems"

Firstly you should provide them some guidelines and scaffolding, showing them examples of scripts and how they can do it in order to work as a model for them. Then, students should elaborate  in small groups the script following the textbook (depending on their age the teacher maybe have to provide them the script). After that, they should highlight the part of each one in order to follow better and underline the key words in which they are going to put more emphasis. Finally, they will perform the script taking into account for example the different animals related to each type of ecosystem and at the time that they read, they should imitate the sounds that the animals makes as well as using body language to move like them.

As a conclusion, I must say that as far as I’m concerned this could be the most suitable way to adapt the texts for your students enhancing the comprehension and promoting meaningful learning in a funny way. Apart of that, and as I said before, I believe that using the scripts we help the children to develop their fluency and their reading skills as well as improving their pronunciation and their pace at the time to speak. 

As a Christmas gift, I leave you some interesting links about this tool in which you will find lots of scripts to use in class and relevant information about how to use it, enjoy:

• Scripts:
• The Best Class.
• Readers' Theatre.
• Fiction Teachers.
• Aaron Shepard website.
• Additional Information:
• Education World. 
• Reading Online. (there are a great procedure for implementation)
• Aaron Shepard website. (good tips not only for scripting, but also for reading and stating)

See you soon Readers!!!!!!

Digital Storytelling Tools

Hello everyone, this week I would like to show you some digital resources to create stories and comics in class. There are several free tools that you can use with your students, but I would like to focus on just two, which are Storybird and DomoAnimate. Moreover, at the end of the post I will add a short list with other digital tools that I have been testing.

First of all, I would like to highlight that telling stories is a powerful way to communicate with others. Besides, if we combine this with a suitable digital tool the result is an amazing learning experience in which the student get involve with a higher degree of motivation. Furthermore, it has many benefits for the students such as:

• It Develops creativity, critical thinking and problem solving abilities.
• It encourages writing and emotional literacy at the time that they express their feelings.
• They are challenging to use High Order Thinking Skills in order to create their stories.
• It develops their decision-making and their communicative skills.
• It helps the student to reflect their acquisition of knowledge and promotes independent learning.

These are just some of the benefits of promoting this practice in the classroom. Besides, as I said before there are many free tools to create digital stories for educational purposes, for example:

•    Storybird:

It is a fantastic tool to foster the students to write not only stories, but also poetry. I discover this resource thanks to my teacher Raquel, and I was amazed since the first time that I visit the website. It consists on make up your own books, and includes a huge variety of illustrations that you can use. In fact, these draws can be perfect to contextualize you poems or stories, or even to find the inspiration to start your book. 

Apart of that you can also share you creations and printed. It also includes the possibility for teacher to create a task or assignment online, and the students are able to finish it at home or wherever they are because the interface is compatible for tablets and smartphones. As far as I’m concerned, it is the most intuitive to use and also the results are simply amazing.

•    DomoAnimate:

It is not as artistic as the previous tool, but it provides students much more freedom and flexibility at the time to create their stories. Furthermore, It is has two options:

1. Create a slideshows, in which you can upload some random pictures related to something that you work in class and children should create the story from it. Another way to work with this option is to let the children freedom to invent a story and then helps them to find the pictures to illustrate it.
2. Domo Animation Studio, which in my opinion it is the more creative option. It has a library of backgrounds, characters, music and random animation effects to create your video story.

As I said at the beginning of the post, here you have the link of some of the digital tools for teacher that I like most:

• ZimmerTwins, similar to Domo Animate.

• Piclist, you choose a picture and create a sentence or a quote to accompany the image.

• Animoto, you can combine images, songs and text in a video, but the free version is only 30 second videos.

• Zooburst, to create 3D popup books (check the video in my post about technology).

• MakeBeliefsComix, to create stories out of comic strips. It is very easy to use in class.

• Comicmaster, it is a bit more complete than the previous one.

 If you want more information about digital tools, please do not hesitate to contact me.

See you in the next post!!!

Poetry in Class, Leaving Aside the Stereotypes.

Hello everyone, this week I would like to stand out this literary genre avoiding the stereotypes that are behind it. During the last middle group session, we have been working about poetry and how to change the perception of the student towards this genre. Besides, Raquel show as the point of view of some students about poetry and that is in what I would like to focus on.

First of all, we should think about what kinds of clichés are behind the poetry and the people that read it or write it. Usually, most of the people, and including the children, tend to think that it is a genre for women, which is not true because there are several well-known poets that are men and nothing is exclusively for men or women. Another cliché is that poetry has to use an unusual language. Which is also not true, because you do not have to use a specific language for a poem, you just have to transmit something through it. Moreover, related to the rime and the length of the verse, it is not necessary to write with a perfect punctuation or the most imaginative rhyming.

 

Accordingly, poetry is a way to explore your feeling, your concerns, your interests and also a way to show the world around you from your own perspective. Furthermore, if you promote this genre in class, the students will be able to leave aside all the stereotypes and clichés mentioned before, as well as to improve their confident to use the language to express themselves, even if it is in a second language. But, how can we work it in class?.

• A practical application:

As a first approach we can use the Haiku, which is a Japanese poetry. It is a style in which a poem should have 17 syllables maximum divided in 3 verses, and normally it is about nature. I consider it perfect to start to work this genre in class. For instance, before start you can make a brainstorming about the rainy weather, how it sounds, how you feel these days, and so on. After that, you will provide them some modelling, through which you are going to create one Haiku using words that came up with the brainstorming. You will also provide some literacy support, give them structures and key words to use in their Haiku. Then you can divide the class into tree homogeneous parts (A, B and C), the students in the “part A” are going to write one verse, each, with five syllables about the rainy weather. The “part B” is going to write one verse with seven, and the “part C” with five syllables. When they finished, you will create groups of tree with one member of each part in order to create their Haiku, and finally they will read it aloud in class.

Through this simple activity you can introduce the poetry into the class in a funny and easy way, leaving aside any kind of prejudices.

To conclude, just say that, as far as I’m concerned, it is extremely important to work this genre in a primary class because it is a great resource to work many aspects of the language literacy as well as the imagination playing with the words. I would like to finish the post with this poem called "A Poem is a Little Path"(take it from http://www.gigglepoetry.com):

                                      A poem is a little path
                                      That leads you through the trees.
                                      It takes you to the cliffs and shores,
                                      To anywhere you please.
                                      Follow it and trust your way
                                      With mind and heart as one,
                                      And when the journey's over,
                                      You'll find you've just begun.

                              See you in the next post!!