Fellow world language teachers, welcome!
Not sure what digital task cards even mean? Never heard of Boom Learning? Seeking new ideas on how to implement these paperless cards in the world language classroom? Don't believe there are really TEN ways to incorporate them into a language setting? Then, you have come to the right place! We already shared 6 ways that these paperless task cards from Boom Learning can be EFFECTIVE and now we are going to share 10 ways you can actually use them in your lesson plans. Allons-y! 1. Use as introductory material before instruction What can students figure out by themselves? Let students have an opportunity to recall previous knowledge, deduce what they see in front of them and problem solve material that is new to them. They just might surprise themselves! 2. Independent work and practice Students can work individually, at their own pace, on each deck of these digital task cards. Students receive instant feedback after each card so you know students are receiving the correct answers instantly. Teachers don't need to wonder if students missed the question AND never discovered the correct answer. Everything is already set up for you and them! 3. Whole class interactive discussion and practice Go through the deck of cards together. For example, we have some reading and listening comprehension decks that would be perfect for this. Project the reading to the whole class and go through the learning process together. Underline and circle where necessary to help guide students. Or, listen to the conversation together and pause the recording to help point out key words. Ask students to pause the recording and explain how certain key words helped in their understanding. 4. Distance and remote learning The world has changed and "virtual" has entered our vocabulary like never before. In one capacity or another, you saw how teaching and learning adapted. These Boom Learning digital task cards are extremely compatible with learning at a distance because you share a link with students and they can practice on their devices. You can hold them accountable because you have the option to track their progress. Just like stated in #3, you can share your screen and do the cards together, too. 5. Work stations in the classroom There are just some lessons where stations work best. One of those lessons for me was with clothing and fabric vocabulary. If you like to incorporate stations, make a deck of the digital cards as a station for students to complete. 6. Homework and at-home practice Share the link with students and ask them to complete the deck at home for the first time and/or for review from the class period. Begin the next class going over the cards together. 7. Skill review and individual practice One class includes students with such a range of learning capabilities and levels of understanding. Modify and meet student needs with these paperless task cards. Assign different decks to different students. Check for understanding as students interact with the cards. Use this time as students complete the task to walk around and watch them engage. Stop and ask them questions. Help with incorrect answers. Monitor cards you need to address as a class. 8. Assessments Use a deck of Boom cards as a summative assessment. Track student performance on a deck that is new to them. They receive the instant feedback and you don't have to grade! 9. Fast Finishers What can those quick students do while they wait for the other students to complete the given task? Assign some task cards as review! Keep them engaged with previous material or challenge them with concepts they haven't learned yet! 10. Sub Plans Share the link with the sub or even just share the link with the students and send them practicing while you are away. Rest assured they are interacting with that vocabulary and grammar even while you aren't there! **Which option will you choose today to make your lesson planning less stressful and your students’ learning more engaging?
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What are some Google Drive Activities applicable to French Class?
We all strive to continually create activities and resources that meet the needs of our students, right?! As distance learning became alive and well, we began creating and modifying resources to be able to reach students in new ways. Hence, some resources with Google Drive were created. You will find some examples of various Google activities below and then the steps to implement. 1. Presentations We created a Preposition Presentation for our beginner French students. We recorded audio and inserted that into the presentation so that they could practice the vocabulary and hear the pronunciation. This resource helped in times of e-Learning and for a substitute teacher. Other topics of Google Slides presentations we created include: Winter Vocabulary Christmas Vocabulary Breakfast Vocabulary Object Pronouns (me te nous vous) Object Pronouns (le la les lui leur) 2. Worksheets Sometimes we just wanted students to annotate on a document: as notes, practice or homework. Therefore, we created worksheets in Google Docs relevant to the teaching topic. These resources were not self-grading. The focus was on practice and repetition. Profession Vocabulary Worksheet Breakfast Vocabulary Worksheet 3. Self-grading assessments There were also times when we needed to assess our students' knowledge of the vocabulary or grammar, so we created assessments...and a big perk of the assessment: AUTOMATIC GRADING! There are appropriate times when students need to write and explain answers to questions (and manually grade) and there are other times when an automatic grading form is appropriate (saves time!). Sometimes, we just use these resources as a checkpoint for individual student learning; an opportunity for students to see what they know/don't know without the pressure of a grade. Some of our resources include: Greetings (FREE) Greetings & Introductions Prepositions Professions 4. Puzzles Our students really enjoy putting puzzles together. In a traditional classroom setting (ie no masks or social distancing), students would form groups of 3-4 and put together a 4x4 paper jigsaw puzzle with the vocabulary or grammar on the pieces. For fun, we would give un bonbon to the first team who correctly completed puzzle. So, how do we still incorporate puzzles via distance learning? We made the puzzle digital! That means students can manipulate the puzzles on their screen to form a puzzle. The perk of digital jigsaw puzzles is that the puzzles can be modified. We could change the puzzle size to a 2x2 or 3x2. We could also provide a puzzle to a student where the puzzle pieces would never be rotated OR make the pieces all mixed up with a need to rotate them. We created digital jigsaw puzzles with the following topics: Object Pronouns (le la les lui leur) Christmas Winter Vocabulary (FREE) Thanksgiving Breakfast 5. Drag & Drop Activity We like to do this matching activity with Christmas vocabulary during the holiday season. The students match French words to corresponding pictures. With some of our students virtual, we created a Google Drive Activity where students needed to drag the French word to the matching picture and drop it in the picture's box. This is a FREE activity we wanted to share with colleagues. How do I implement the Google activities with my students? 1. Copy the activity Click the link we provide to download the activity to your Google Drive. It will ask you to make a copy of the activity. Please read all the directions before clicking on the link. 2. Edit the activity (if desired) You can add your own questions/slides or delete any you do not want to use. In the Google Forms, you can change the answer type if desired (short answer, multiple choice, etc) 3. Google Forms: Automatic Grading Settings (This only applies to the assessment resources) We create our forms to be set as a Google Quiz so that it will be graded automatically! The current settings are to release grades immediately and students will be able to see the point values and correct answers. These settings can easily be changed by clicking on Settings, then on Quizzes. You can change it to allow students to see the results after you’ve manually reviewed them and can also select if you want them to see the correct answers or not. 4. Share with students Click the SEND button at the top of the form to assign the activity. You can enter student email addresses or get the link to share with students. Please note that this link will be different from the link given to receive a copy of the resource. 5. View Responses Students complete the digital activity and hit submit. You can see their answers by clicking on “RESPONSES” at the top of your Google form. Which Google activities have you tried with your French students? We'd love to hear what worked for you and your students...maybe we could implement in our classroom, too! We, French with the Hobbs, create and implement many decks of Boom Learning Digital Task Cards to use with our in-class and distance learning students. As we create a deck of the digital cards, we are always thinking of how to make our cards most effective for the students. We want to create cards that move from lower order to higher order thinking skills: cards that will challenge all learners and build their understanding and comprehension of the subject at hand. For example, take a look at the learning pyramid below. We strive to make cards that include BOTH the lower order thinking such as identifying, remembering and recalling AS WELL AS higher order thinking cards that require analyzing and evaluating. A challenge, indeed! (Check out our Webinar: Tools for Teaching World Languages at a Distance for further discussion). HOW CAN BOOM CARDS BE EFFECTIVE WITH STUDENTS?
Ok, but now that the cards are ready to implement with students, how can they be EFFECTIVE in implementation and execution? Here are some ways you can make Boom Learning Digital Task Cards effective for in-class and distance learning students. 1. Practice with the cards BEFORE teaching Before presenting the material, assign the deck link to students. Let them discover what they can figure out and the strength of their background knowledge. Discuss with the students what they already knew, what they could figure out and what questions they still might have after competing the cards. Begin instructing the students on the given material. Then, ask students to go back to that same deck and see how much they have improved. 2. Practice with the cards AFTER teaching After presenting the given material, assign the link to students. For the first time going through the cards, maybe it would be best for some students to be in pairs. Other students might thrive better individually. This is where the advantage of personal pacing really comes into play! Students can go at their own pace without feeling rushed or even defeated by their classmates. 3. Go through the cards TOGETHER Go through the cards as a whole class (either on a interactive board in the classroom or share your screen via distant learning). Ask students to explain WHY the answer is what it is for the cards. Hearing peers explain the concept can be beneficial. 4. Break-out rooms For distance learners, students could be assigned to break-out rooms where they go through the cards together via screen sharing. Students could take turns completing the cards or do them together. This provides the opportunity for discussion and explanations. 5. Students share the challenging cards As students go through the cards, ask them to note which cards are more challenging or cards they don't understand (note on paper, take screen shots, etc). Share with the class; there is a good chance s/he isn't the only one who stumbled on that particular card! 6. Students share cards where they feel confident On the flip side, ask students to note on which cards they felt really confident. Again, they can note on paper or perhaps as a screen shot. Share with the class. This can be a great opportunity for peer-to-peer instruction and opportunity for deeper understanding and clarification. What are other ways you have found Boom Cards to be effective with in-class and/or distant learning students? Do you have another idea to share? Comment below or email us! At the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, did you notice regression in your French students because of COVID-19? Did they seem more timid to speak? Less confident with their French skills?
Jason noticed right away that his French students were exhibiting such behaviors. As we reflected the reasons behind their speaking reluctance and low confidence, we landed on potential reasons. First, for some of the students, they didn’t get a strong foundation at the beginning of their French career. Then, all students missed a huge chunk of their class time in the spring of 2020 due to eLearning. But that was not an epiphany; we could see that coming as we scrambled to figure out how to effectively teach our students from a distance in the spring due to the pandemic. (We created a webinar for language teachers if you’re interested in learning some tools for teaching languages at a distance). So, how do we combat the regression, timidness and low confidence? We came up with the following solutions: 1. Encourage them and build them up 2. Meet them where they are and show them where they can go 3. Don’t give up on them To further explain…
2. We meet them where they are. a. Jason felt like there weren’t many strong language speaker leaders in his French class, so no one knew where they could go with French. They didn’t have upperclassmen who had experience with immersion and who could carry on complete French conversations. Those who would inspire, lead and motivate the rest of the class were not there. b. So, Jason decided to meet them where they are…he started at the beginning with some pronunciation instruction to get them back to speaking French. This slowly started getting their minds and mouths used to the French sounds once again. c. Next, he had some audio recordings from last year’s advanced students. He took a recording from a previous student and shared it with his current students. This student was not the best or strongest in the class, but “average.” Jason wanted to show them where they could go if they were willing to trust his teaching and put in the effort to learn and speak the language. For some, it helped motivate. For others, it was discouraging…but what a great way to open honest and vulnerable dialogue in the classroom. One girl told him honestly that ‘there was no way’ she could ever speak like that and it was so intimidating to hear. That was the open-door Jason needed to reassure her that the student she listened to used to be in her seat, with her SAME language abilities. But by trusting him and attempting to learn, that student progressed to that recording by the end of the year. And she can, too! They all can. They need to believe in themselves and they need to believe their teachers believe in them, too. d. In light of masks and video conferencing, it is important to recognize and acknowledge that these two realities can hinder communication. There is value in stopping and acknowledging these difficulties. Giving suggestions and encouragement to be able to communicate well is beneficial to all. Being patient with one another, speaking more loudly, and understanding that we have lost a communication piece by covering our mouths are good reminders for teachers and students. It may seem obvious, but our students don’t necessarily recognize the hindrances of masks and screens, and sometimes, as teachers, we forget, too. 3. We don’t give up on them. a. Plain and simple. We don’t give up on them. They don’t know l'imparfait like they should? Instead of sighing and stressing, go back to the basics of l'imparfait and raise them up to the knowledge they need to move forward successfully. Sure, they may have had a tough introductory French year OR regressed during quarantine and the summer OR gave up on what they can attain in the French language. But we CANNOT give up on them. b. Believe in them. Believe in ourselves. Believe and hope in the good that is to come. This school year is full of learning for BOTH teachers and students. It is never too late to help our students grow and learn despite their circumstances. As hard as it might be, persevere and don’t give up as teachers, too. Don’t grow weary in doing good, for there will be fruit eventually in your French students. Bonne chance et courage, nos chers collègues! Have you ever heard of Kate's Math Lessons? What a wonderful resource for math learners and teachers. Sarah, the mastermind behind it all, has created a plethora of FREE math videos and resources at her website. Students learn from her and teachers gain ideas and resources from her. For math teachers, she creates digital task card decks, printables, study guides, and assessments, all covering a wide range of math skills and levels. What does Kath's Math Lessons have to do with French with the Hobbs? Bonne question! We have teamed up to broaden her math resources to French speakers! Now, French speaking teachers in Québec, for example, will be able to use her decks of task cards with their math students. We, French with the Hobbs, have the honor to translate decks for her and her audience! C'est vraiment fantastique pour tous! Below you will find two of her math decks in French that we translated. Check them out! Know any math students or teachers who could benefit from Kate's Math Lessons' fantastic website or store? Share with them, they won't be disappointed. We presented a webinar, "Tools for Teaching World Languages at a Distance," via Boom Learning on effective resources for teaching world languages via distance learning. You can watch the webinar HERE. We presented the following tools:
Reading and Writing instruction with Boom Cards and Kami Listening and Speaking practice with Boom Cards and Flipgrid Here are some other helpful resources for distance learning: Quizlet
La Musique Always a fun way to incorporate listening into French! Don't forget les comptines...even with the older students. There are so many ways you could incorporate sound into your digital task cards at Boom Learning. In order to use the sound feature, you will need an Ultimate Membership. Boom is offering that free for through June 2020. We have come up with the following ideas to get students listening to French. We have explained how to create each of the 10 audio Boom cards below in our webinar titled, "Tools for Teaching World Languages at a Distance." You can watch the complete webinar HERE. There are so many other ways besides what is on this list, but this can get you started. We are always cognizant of lower order and higher order thinking. Lower and higher order thinking doesn’t just pertain to age and grade level. Lower elementary students are capable of doing higher order thinking and it is good for their brains! Vice versa for older students. Therefore, our ideas below incorporate lower to higher order thinking (identifying to evaluating). There is also an option to watch a video clip in Boom cards. That could be another idea.
*If you need directions on how to create any of these cards with sound, please email us at [email protected] and we will be glad to teach you! Below you will find a few other examples of audio cards in our current decks. Object Pronouns: me te nous vous Compare adjectives using farm vocabulary Colors We already have a blog on Boom Learning and their amazing digital task cards. Now, we’re going to go a little deeper into how writing and listening play into language learning. Or, you can tune in to our webinar, Tools for Teaching World Languages at a Distance and watch us explain the process. First up: Writing. Language learning = accents, right? How do students type in accents in their answers?
Here, you will decide color, font, and size of the writing. Click ok. The answer is ready but the accents are not. Let’s look at how to get the accents. You will want to go to Details at the top. Click on that. Click Subject. Find Online Keyboard in the middle of the menu. Drop down to French (or German or Spanish). Now go back to your cards and let’s preview what it looks like. This works the same for complete sentences, too.
Now, your cards are ready to go! Kami is your digital pen and paper! This classroom app helps students engage and interact with their reading and writing material. Plus, it’s free. There’s an upgrade option for a cost, but the free option has enough great features. First, you create an account. You decide the format of your account: I originally chose “Open from computer” and uploaded a PDF from my computer as a trial. But then I found opening from Google Drive was easier to organize and use/share documents with students. However, whether you use the Google option or not, both set-ups are easy to navigate and use with students. For students, they need to go to www.kamiapp.com and click “Sign In.” They will be given a choice like the blue boxes above. They can type in their email address. Then, they go back to Google Drive and find the document that needs to be opened. Click on the assigned document. Click on the three dots in upper right hand corner and click “open in new window.” A new screen will pop up. Now, choose to “Open with” and from drop down box, choose “Annotate with Kami.” NOTE: If students don't have Google accounts, they still open an account with their school email. In whatever fashion they receive the documents from you, they would just open the document from their computer via Kami. A new window with Kami’s tools will appear. It will look like this: You can see all the tools available on the left side. The images with a yellow lock are not available with free option. However, you can see plenty of tools available with the free account. Students will be able to highlight, comment, write, and draw on this reading assignment. Super! For this reading assignment, we might ask students to yellow highlight three drink vocabulary words, green highlight three dessert vocabulary words, etc. Next, we might ask students to write their opinions about three of the meals. Perhaps we will ask them to comment on a food item that looks appealing or new to them. Important! Make sure the document is saved during and after the assignment is completed. Now, it is loaded to the Google Drive. For students, they will need to return to Google Drive. There is a box that says “Turn In,” so upload the assignment there. In the drive, they should see this reading assignment as a recent document.
We gave this example with a reading strategy, but this could work with a worksheet that simply asks students to write and/or draw answers. Also, if you have a document you will be teaching from, students can open it and take notes on it as you teach. In review, why would you want to use Kami?
NOTE: We mentioned Kami in our webinar, "Tools for Teaching World Languages at Distance." |
Who are the Hobbs?Originally, we are from the Midwest and the East; however, our paths took us to Angers, France where we met and fell in love. Archives
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