Let's talk about sports! edpuzzle tool

Hello everyone!

This is my reflection about EDPUZZLE tool to develop listening activities.

Preparing activities based on authentic materials is a complex task in Primary Education, because children are in a starting point of the language knowledge. Therefore, the first step is choosing the appropriate input, which will be related to their interests and hobbies, also bearing in mind the vocabulary and grammar which appear in the video.

Pre- listening task will be linked to this type of contents (vocabulary and grammar), then we’ve got some multiple-choice questions during the listening, and finally post- listening task will help us to consolidate contents in relation to other language skills, for instance writing or speaking.

               EDPUZZLE tool can help us to prepare motivating listening activities and will provide us an extraordinary opportunity to start “flipping” our classroom.

               As we stated before, the most difficult part is finding an appropriate video, in this way, I’ve chosen a video according to the unit we are working on in 3^rd grade: Sports (we will learn about favourite sports and abilities). The video language level is not difficult, so children will understand most of the words and expressions, so they will feel more confident in the listening task.

               Objectives:

- Listen and understand personal opinions related to the main topic.

- Express orally our personal opinions and interests in relation to the main topic.

- Create a brief text, using models, to express our personal interests in a written way.

Sequence of activities:

1.      Pre-listening tasks: introduce the topic using flash cards and warm up activities with the key vocabulary.

a.      The fastest rabbit: set the flash cards on the whiteboard, choose two children and they have to listen to the word that I say and point the correct picture. The first one to point the correct flash card wins.

b.      Listen and say: draw and name some doodles doing different sports in the whiteboard; we work in pairs. One child asks: What’s (name)’s favourite sport? And the partner has to answer: (names)’s favourite sport is…..

2.      Listening task: this task can be developed using the flipped classroom learning, so children can do this activity at home, using EDPUZZLE tool and then we will obtain the results. If we use the tool in our classroom, we have to prepare some computers to work in pairs, they watch the video and answer the multiple-choice questions. Moreover, we can use this video working with all the students at the same time. We reproduce the video in the digital board and then we answer the questions in our notebooks.

3.      Post-listening task:

a.      Writing task: using a model, students write about their favourite sports, giving some reasons why. “My favourite sport is……., because I love……”

b.      Speaking task: using the same model, students can tell the class about their favourite sports.

Working with students at this level, before speaking or writing about this topic, we have to set up, using a brainstorming activity, how to express opinions and reasons, giving some examples.

EDPUZZLE is a good option to customize videos and adapt them to our reality and needs, using authentic materials, ICTs, and motivating activities. On the other hand, we can find difficulties regarding connectivity or technical support. Furthermore, if we use this activity in a “flipped” way, we can find complications with some parents’ attitude. In my opinion, if we show this type of activities to our children and we give some information about them to their parents, we can improve listening skills in an interesting way.

See you!

Teacher Carmen María