Happy to share this with you all. After recently plugging the #MFLTwitteratiPodcast from Joe Dale and Noah Geisel, here's another one I've come across: Language Latte from Becky Morales. The topics have an American bias to them, but UK teachers should get lots of ideas from the wide range of topics covered. Each episode of around 30 minutes has a theme and an interview with a teacher. The podcasts are accompanied by quite detailed show notes with references for further follow-up.
Recent episodes have looked at: using video for creating lessons with lots of comprehensible input, using photos and video in class, classroom management tips and strategies, the role of reading, recommendations and tips on using tech. Some topics have a distinctly American flavour, with references not all UK teachers will be aware of.
I had a listen to the Episode 19 about creating your own videos for CI (sponsored by Quizlet, by the way - sounds weird having a teacher doing a commercial at the start of the broadcast!). Becky begins by talking about James Asher's TPR (Total Physical Response) and the importance of listening. Video can be a great source of listening, especially because of the visual clues it includes to help create meaning and the enjoyment it can provide. She gives advice about what videos to choose, then mentions 10 tools to help teachers to adapt online videos, sources of video and tools for creating your own clips. For example, she describes ways of slowing down aural text (Windows Media Player, a Chrome extension and YouTube).
She goes on to how videos can be used within the flipped learning model. For example, she refers to Fluent Key (in beta form) (fluentkey.com) which hosts videos and exercises in many languages and can, apparebntly, create exercises for you. Could be worth checking out.
Becky then refers to tools which allow teachers to make their own videos: Adobe Spark Video for making animated videos with audio content; Edpuzzle which allows you to add your own voice and text to existing videos (Becky gives a Spanish example in her show notes); Vizia, which among other things allows you to add quizzes to videos; Clips, an app which allows you to make and edit videos (the show notes give an example) and Voki, which has been around for quite a while.
One paid programme she describes is Videoscribe, the one where you see your text being written on to a wall with a pencil. You may have seen examples of this. That one costs about $75 a year. Voicethread costs roughly the same and allows you to add audio to PowerPoints, for example.
Becky goes on to interview Angie Torre, a Spanish and French teacher who has made videos for the classroom. She began with puppets, and has made 31 videos, endeavouring to "shelter" (American English for scaffold) the language to make it comprehensible. The videos are stories containing lots of targeted language and vocab repetition, with the main focus on enjoyment and comprehensible input. Here is Angie's YouTube channel.
Overall I found this episode very clear and quite enjoyable once I'd got beyond the commercial! Becky shares her knowledge and enthusiasm, as does her guest. You could learn a lot from episodes like this. The detailed show notes are an important added bonus.
Comments
Post a Comment