USING THE IPADS IN FRENCH CLASS IN THE LOWER SCHOOL
Teach less for the students to learn more: using the
ipads give students more opportunities to play, experiment, and practice with the language. Activities done on the
ipads take the students one step further in the language acquisition process.
I want to encourage the use of the ipads in the LS
French classes, by providing authentic examples of successful projects.
This is a reflection, and a
description of the use I made of Ipads in the Lower School
French class, in a “self-inflicted” pilot program during the 2014-2015 school
year.
I find the ipads teacher and
student friendly. The teaching material
is accessible and ready to use ! No more lost papers !
Students enjoy working on the
ipads because it is student centered.
Ipads are adapted to all
learning styles. It reduces stress for the slower/weaker students, they can
pace themselves, and they can redo the activity until they are satisfied. Repetition also helps anchor their learning. As
all the students are working independently it frees me up to work with students
in need.
The activities address the
ACTFL standards and promote the development of Interpersonal
(speaking and/or writing), Interpretive (listening and/or reading) and Presentational skills
(speaking and/or writing). They also promote 21St century skills: Communication,
Collaboration, Critical thinking, and Creativity.
The apps I used as described
below, also promote independent thinking, and encourage collaboration. I have
witnessed students taking initiative, helping, each other, solving problems, experimenting,
and learning with and from each other.
Apps such as Book Creator,
and Puppet Pal foster creativity, and allow students to show their
understanding through their own illustrations, pictures from the internet
(using the Safe Search App), texts,
audio recordings, and/or videos.
There is an extended purpose to
the activities, beyond completing the task itself. Students showcase, and share
their work with an audience: their French group, other classes, and/or their
parents. It gives the students a sense of ownership, and of accomplishment. It
makes the learning more engaging, more authentic, and more meaningful to them.
The results speak for themselves.
In addition, the projects are
great for assessment, feedback and for providing evidence of learning, and progress.
Students also could self assess, and give each other feedback. I started developing rubrics for each activity
describing the process and/or the content. Other rubrics are/ need to be
designed to provide feedback. In 5th grade for example three
documented activities done in December, March and June showed evidence of
progress.
The tasks done on the Ipads provide
the students with extra opportunities to play, create, and practice with the
language, and to demonstrate their understanding, The tasks foster the
language acquisition process, and help
improve the students’ overall performance. Unfortunately I did not document all
the activities, in particular the oral presentations.
The following are examples of successful ipad projects done
with my grade 2 Novice High, grade 3 Novice High, grade 4 Francophones, and grade
5 intermediate Low classes.
I have used the ipads to
design from simple to more sophisticated projects. For the simple example that
follows students had to practice a rap two by two, and to video-tape each
other.
As you can hear in this
example, students corrected one another.
BOOK CREATOR:
This is a versatile App that
I have used for reading comprehension, reading fluency, story retelling, story
extension, and creative writing. Using this app you can create a book that
includes pictures, text, drawings, audio, and video. You can then export it as
a PDF for printing, as anebook, or as a video clip.
Example 1:
L’histoire de Roule Galette - 2nd
grade Novice High
Mode of communication: Interpretive, presentational
Skills: reading
21st Centrury skills: Communication.
The students were familiar
with the story. We read it in class together, and in small groups. Students
first read the printed words, and then had to retell the story with only the
help of the pictures.
Behavior:
students were engaged in the activity. They listened several times to their
work, and re-recorded when they were not satisfied.
Students cooperated with each
other, which was fine with me. A couple
decided to sing and record the “Roule
Galette” song on the first page. They helped
one another when they could not read a word, or took turn reading. The
story was exported and shared with parents as a video.
Post production: I listened to each story, writing down mistakes. I then conferenced
with each student, and went over their mistakes. We then did a group
correction.
.
Example 2: L’histoire de la Ville d’YS: 5th grade Int. Low
End of unit 1
test
Mode of communication: Presentational
Skills: writing, speaking
21st Centruy Skills: Communication, Critical
thinking, and Creativity.
This is a more sophisticated
story retelling activity:
1) Students had to choose,
and impersonate a character from the story, and write and record in the first
person who they were, they relationship with the other characters in the story,
and the role they played in the story.
2) They had to read with
expression a poem about the story,
3) They had to record a
description of a painting, picturing a moment in the story: what’s going on,
what happened right before and what happened right after.
They shared their work orally
with an audience, using the SB. Their work was exported as a video and shared
with their parents.
Example 3: Diane et Actéon: 5th grade Int. Low
(
End of unit 2 test
Book Creator + Popplet
Mode of communication: interpretive, presentational
Skills: reading, speaking,
21st Century Skills: Collaboration, Communication, Critical
thinking, and Creativity.
Popplet (to
create mind maps):
Skills: reading, listening, writing, speaking
21st Centruy Skills: Collaboration, Communication, Critical
thinking, and Creativity.
We had read, and discussed the story in class. We had
used Popplet to talk about the characters in the story. One of the students did
the illustrations. Students had to retell the story without the help of the text.
Example
Example 4: Daphné et Apollon.
End of unit 3 test
Mode of
communication: Interpretive, Presentational
Skills: reading,
speaking
21st Century Skills: Communication, Critical
thinking
We read the story in class
once. They had to go over the story at home, and retell the story without the
written words.
I assessed the tasks using
this rubrique.
Example 5: Persée et Méduse 5th grade Int. Low
End of unit 4 test
Mode of Communication: Interpretive, Presentational
Skills: reading, writing, speaking
21st Century Skills: Collaboration, Communication, Critical
thinking, and Creativity.
At the end of the year students
in group of 3 or 4 were assigned one Roman
Myth to present to an audience (other French classes and parents) in any format they chose. One group used Book
Creator to present their story orally. They created the illustrations, and told
the story without notes. Two groups wanted to make a movie, however we ran out
of time. They presented their work as a play
Unfortunatey I did not
document this activity.
Story Extension: Creative writing
Example 1: “Comment se passe une journée d’école sur la
planète Frigorix?”
Mode of communication: Presentational, Interpersonal
Skills: writing, speaking, reading
21st Century Skills: Collaboration, Communication, Critical
thinking, and Creativity.
3rd grade
Novice High
This was related to the story
we were working on in class. Students,
divided into groups of 4 had to imagine, and write a story on a day in the life
of a student on an icy and strange planet.
We corrected the stories together. Then they each illustrated the story,
either with their own drawings, or with pictures from the internet. They then
recorded their story, as practice, and read them to another class, in small
groups.
I typed their stories, they
copied and pasted the text from Google Drive into their e book.
Example 2: write and talk about your holidays:
Mode of communication: Presentational, Interpersonal,
Skills: writing, speaking
21st Century Skills: Communication, Critical
thinking, and Creativity.
Students used book creator to
import their pictures, and wrote paragraphs related to their winter holidays.
They had to use the followingrubrique sheet for the writing part.
They also designed a collage, using the App Pic Collage (see below) about their holidays.
They presented their work on
the SB orally, and answered questions fueled by their classmates.
Embed “Book creator file, pic collage”
Puppet Pal HD
Puppet Pal App allows student to create and animate stick puppets that evolve in front of a
background, also created by the students. We used the App to illustrate songs,
and to re-create or invent dialogues.
Mode of communication: Presentational,
Skills: speaking
21st Century Skills: Collaboration, Communication, Critical
thinking, and Creativity.
Example 1:
Students had to illustrate, animate and record the song “Belle Lune”.
Example 2:
I have used PP at the end of
several mini units. For example students had to imagine a dialogue between two
characters of the story, and act it out.
I used the activity to check if they understood the story, and how much of the new vocab they could use. This informed me on what I had to reteach, or insist on. I did not keep any example of those.
I used the activity to check if they understood the story, and how much of the new vocab they could use. This informed me on what I had to reteach, or insist on. I did not keep any example of those.
Green Screen
I have used the Green Screen
App by Doink for students to perform and illustrate songs. The App is fairly
easy to use. You film the “actors” in front of a green screen, and project in the background drawings, videos,
and/or photos. The App could be used to
create any type of presentation (book reports, self-portait, newscast…).
Example 1: 3rd grade Novice High, and 4th
grade francophone in Monet’s gardens
Mode of communication: Presentational
Skills: speaking
21st Century Skills: Collaboration, Communication, Critical
thinking, and Creativity.
3rd grade: We do an integrated unit on the Ile de La Cité
(Paris). In French class students learned about the different monuments along
the seine river. The rap they are performing has been mostly written by me.
4th grade:
students had to perform a song related to Monet’s garden.
I did the pre and post production work.
I did the pre and post production work.
Example 2 5th grade Intermediate low
Mode of communication: Presentational, Interpersonal,
Interpretive
Skills: reading, speaking
21st Century Skills: Collaboration, Communication, Critical
thinking, and Creativity.
Students, in group of 4, had
to take pictures around campus to illustrate our French version of the song “Don’t worry be happy”, , and then to perform
the song in front of the green screen.
I did all the post production work. However 4th
and 5th grade students could very well do the production.
Important: when students take
pictures, they have to keep in mind that a section of the background pictures will be hidden by
the performers. Of course, no one should wear green, as the green will become
transparent.
To complete the project students had to understand and illustrate, and to memorize the song.
To complete the project students had to understand and illustrate, and to memorize the song.
Pic Collage
The students used Pic
Collage to design posters for oral presentations, and displays. You can easily manipulate and
arrange your own pictures, and add simple text to do a collage.
Mode of communication: Presentational
Mode of communication: Presentational
Skills: writing, speaking
21st Century Skills: Communication, Critical
thinking, and Creativity.
Example 1: talk about your
holidays
Example 2: Circus camp
Example 3: Voyage en Bretagne
Quizlet:
Mode of communication: Interpretive
Skills: reading, speaking
21st Century Skills: Collaboration, Communication.
I used Quizlet to generate vocabulary review flash cards. Face A displays
the vocabulary word, face B the definition. There are more functions on the
website. The students like this program to review the vocabulary. The work is
also accessible on Quizlet web site , with more functions than on the
ipad.
Tips before using the ipads with the children:
To avoid frustrations, there
are a few things you need to do THE DAY
BEFORE
Make sure ipads are charged.
Upload your files to Google
drive.
Check that each ipad is
connected to wifi on “aspstudents”
Download your files to each
ipad from your Google drive
(show your student how to
reconnect the ipad to the network)
Guided learning: this useful function allows you to lock all the
apps, except the one app students are supposed to work on.
Settings/general/accessibility/learning/guided
access
References:
FLTMAG: a magazine on technology integration in the world language
classroom.
“Applying iPad Apps in the Classroom:
Goal? Language Proficiency!’
http://fltmag.com/applying-ipad-apps/
Thz Guardian: Three ways to use Ipads in the Language
classroom
National Standards for Foreign Language
Education.” ACTFL https://www.actfl.org/advocacy/discover-languages/advocacy/discov
21st Century skillss
http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework
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