Learning French Vocabulary using Digital Story Telling

How does one make learning french vocabulary fun, engaging, interesting and effective? 

A group of Grade 8 boys used technology to assist them in learning their french vocabulary. The focus was on the process of learning and not the final product, the latter being a movie created using either movie maker or photostory.

The boys were divided into groups and were given a list of french words relating to the theme "My Daily Routine". 


The process involved a number of steps and check points. They first had to construct a number of french sentences using the words provided in the vocabulary list. 

Secondly these sentences had to be checked by their teacher for accuracy, construction and grammar and corrected where necessary.

The next step required their french teacher to narrate the sentences that each group had constructed, while being recorded by the boys using cellphones, or their laptops. This meant that when the boys themselves narrated and recorded their own sentences into their movies, their pronunciation was spot on.

The boys then went off to film themselves or to take photographs that would form the backdrop for their dialogue. The movies were then put together using windows movie maker or photostory. The boys were encouraged to be engaging and creative in the making of their movies so that they would not only appeal to their audience but would produce a product that could be used as a learning tool for other french students.


On reflection, the process itself went well but further fine-tuning would be necessary should this exercise be repeated in the future. The active engagement and the enjoyment of learning  was clearly evident among the boys.

Here are some of the activities that took place that facilitated and added value to the learning:

•  hands-on, active learning
•  being able to integrate multiple activities (writing, researching, computing, presenting)
•  collaborating and sharing
•  discussing and reflecting
•  being able to receive immediate support as and when required
•  accommodating multiple learning styles
•  being able to revisit a ‘lesson’
•  authentic learning – not just an assessment

A picture speaks a thousand words - the power of Infographics

Infographics are visual representations of ideas, concepts and data. Representing data in a visual way has the power of changing one's perspective. One can often get clarity or an answer to a simple question very quickly.

Infographics can be simple or complex, but it allows kids to demonstrate deeper meaning while teaching aspects of design thinking at the same time. It helps reinforce the idea that facts are fine, but placing them in context creates meaning and learning.

WHAT IS AN INFOGRAPHIC?


1. It's a visual explanation that helps you more easily understand, find or do something.
2. It's visual, and when necessary, integrates words and pictures in a fluid, dynamic way.
3. It stands alone and is completely self-explanatory.
4. It reveals information that was formerly hidden or submerged.
5. It makes possible faster, more consistent understanding.
6. It's universally understandable.


http://communicationnation.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-is-infographic.html

http://ivancash.com/

Learning, Visualized
By DIANA LAUFENBERG

"It feels like we’re all suffering from information overload or data glut. And the good news is there might be an easy solution to that, and that’s using our eyes more. So, visualizing information, so that we can see the patterns and connections that matter and then designing that information so it makes more sense, or it tells a story, or allows us to focus only on the information that’s important. Failing that, visualized information can just look really cool."

The Beauty of Data Visualisation

Watch this TD talk video by David McCandless on The Beauty of Data Visualisation

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/david-mccandless-the-beauty-of-data-visualization

10 Tips for designing Infographics by Randy Krum

http://digitalnewsgathering.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/10-tips-for-designing-infographics/

Afrikaans Poetry in Action

Afrikaans Poetry in Action

Many boys don’t get excited when they hear the word ‘poetry’.  The Afrikaans department has decided on putting students in groups to create their own visual experiences of poetry we have done in class.  This was used as a revision tool and helped the boys to see poetry from a different perspective.

Afrikaans Radio Stations & News Programs

Afrikaans Radio Stations & News Programs

A few teachers tried this as a class activity this year.  Students were put into groups to create their own 1) radio station or 2) news program.  The radio station demanded of students to create their own name, jingle, news reports, commercials and to find a cool Afrikaans song they liked to include.  The news program was based on the same principle.  Students had to video themselves and create their own news channel, news reports, weather reports, commercials etc.  This was an exciting assignment which tested student’s language, vocal and presenting capabilities.  

   

Using PhotoStory in Afrikaans classes

Afrikaans Photostory

This project entailed using Microsoft Photostory 3 and creating your own video album with short descriptions in Afrikaans.  Students could choose a theme or a specific event which took place.  They were encouraged to use their own photos on their laptops and Facebook to make engaging and relevant.  Students had to ensure that they used the STOMPI, Afrikaans sentence structure, as their guiding light for their descriptions and sentences.  

Bishops Boys pay it forward to the blind.

Afrikaans:  Bishops Boys pay it forward to the blind.

Charli Wiggill, one of the Partners in Learning Forum winners of 2012, started a WIKI for students to upload stories they have read in different languages for blind children.  A few Bishop Boys contributed their Afrikaans stories to the WIKI.

Please visit the site:  http://pay-it-forward-for-the-blind.wikispaces.com/%2A+MP3+SA+Languages.  

                   
 

Afrikaans: School of Rock

Afrikaans:  School of Rock (Music Videos)

Gustav Labon stated that an education system is of more importance to a country than its government.  The driving force behind our project is the need for proper and inspiring language education.  

Most educators will agree that the reason why many learners struggle with mathematical problems, history essay writing or long questions in general is because they do not understand the question or because they find it problematic to organize their thought process or express themselves using proper language.  

The grade 8’s had to create a music video by matching images to the lyrics of a song or they had the choice to translate a song and sing it themselves.  This was a perfect opportunity to be creative, improve their comprehension, vocabulary, computer literacy, visual literacy and be entertained while learning.  

One of my main aims was to break away from those things that they were use to in language classes.  Students had to find a song the liked.  Thereafter they had to interpret and understand the lyrics.  They had to understand the words and the meaning of the song.  This was followed by matching the proper images to the lyrics and being creative or translating an English song to Afrikaans.  

Throughout the process they were using technology to learn Afrikaans, enjoy Afrikaans and to be resourceful in Afrikaans.  The words and pictures were embedded in their minds and the project addressed their experience world every step of the way.  Suddenly their second language became relevant to them because they were having fun and using technology at the same time.  

Afrikaans Movies

Our grade 9’s must create their own movies at the end of the year based on a fairy tale.  This year students were also allowed to base their movies on other movies they have watched.  Students must bring their own interpretation to the table.  Students work in groups with different characters, props and settings.  This project requires group work, delegation and creativity.  

   

Afrikaans Magazines

Afrikaans Magazines

Magazines are all around us and play an important role in young people’s lives.  Students were asked to compile their own short electronic magazine with a proper front page, a well written article, news alerts, cross word puzzles, advertisements etc.  They were encouraged to be creative and think out of the box.  Many boys chose sport magazines but there were also very interesting compilations, from Pokemon to camping magazines. 

	





Creating comics in Afrikaans

Afrikaans Cartoon Strips

The grade 9’s read ‘Harlekyn’ as their prescribed book and were asked to create their own cartoon strips based on a circus theme.  The aim was to create flowing comic strips with interesting dialogue and storylines.  They were asked to work in pairs and to also include voice recordings for each character. 

   

Google Sketchup for Design Technology

Our Design Technology teacher's take on Sketchup.

"SketchUp is wonderful and the boys love it. Bishops afforded me the opportunity to attend a course at the BHC School of Design (situated at the old biscuit mill in Woodstock) last year which really kick-started it all. A number of architects whom I met at the course were very impressed at how quick and easy it was to create 3D drawings. SketchUp also allowed them to import CAD files – they would typically import a plan for a house, by way of example, and then use the push/pull function to pull up the walls and then change/render the drawing etc...

We purchased the Sandbox licences for all the grade 9 boys in June which has enabled us to work with terrain too.    

There are a number of self-paced tutorials in Trimble which are freely available."

A extract from an email received from one of our parents in response to her son's Sketchup lessons.

"I am not sure how you have taught your boys sketchup but I must say I am completely amazed at what my son, produced for me this week.

As an architect in private practise I was moaning I did not have the skill or ability to quickly produce some 3D images for a client and that it would cost me R15 K to get someone to do it.

My son said he was happy to do it which I largely dismissed. This is a child who has not EVER done a single day of studying architecture. Anyway he seemed unfazed by the challenge and so I handed him a full set of plans, sections and elevations of my design.

To my complete amazement , he produced an extraordinary 3D presentation working out all angles, details and roof intersections with little more than a few questions.

We are all completely shocked in the office. There is no way I could produce this, as an architect for 20 years and someone who taught Autocad at UCT. My son said he has only done about half of the detail that he could do but I only gave him 4 days to do it in and as he was busy, as always with AV, this is the best he could do in a few days!!

Really quite extraordinary. How on earth did you teach these boys to be some knowledgeable."

 

Learning French in fun new ways

Contrary to many critics, comics can be beneficial to learning in the classroom and not a fun art-enrichment activity. Comics provide narrative experiences for students learning a new language such as French. Students follow story beginnings and endings, plot, characters, time and setting, sequencing without needing sophisticated word decoding skills. Images support the test and give students good contextual clues to word meaning. Comics act as a scaffold to student understanding.

Stephen Cary, a second language learning specialist says "Comics provide authentic language learning opportuinites for all students....The dramatically reduced text of many comics make them manageable and language profitable for students".

A trial version of Comic Life is a freely available, but licensed versions do come at a price.

Our French Grade 8 class used this application to create their own comics describing their daily routines and the key benefits of engaging through creating, thinking, comprehension were all evident during the process.

Here is one example of what the boys created using Comic Life.

Learning Meiosis hands-on!

Cell division in Life Sciences is best learnt by getting students to 'recreate' the stages of the process in a practical, hands-on way.

Using playdough, each stage of meiosis can be modelled, annotated and then photographed. These images can then be imported into Photostory or Movie Maker and then edited. Narration, effects and music can be added to complete the digital story and the project saved as a movie file. Editing the timing of each digital image can create an animated sequence representing the stages of this type of cell division.

This type of activity supports visual learners and can be a wonderful way in which to reinforce concepts and enhance understanding. It also means that the completed movie can be shared, uploaded to a blog and used for revision purposes in the future. Collaboration, creativity, organisation and critical thinking are all 21st Century Skills that can be effectively implemented in this excercise.

The videos below are examples of the movies that were created in this way.

Using Digital Storytelling to learn Xhosa Vocabulary

Learning Xhosa vocabulary in a linear fashion may not be the most inspiring or effective way of teaching a second language so we decided to put a different spin on the theme of Churches and Ceremonies for the Grade 10 Xhosa class.

The boys were asked to take photographs of various items in the school chapel using whatever technology they had available and to source other pictures from the internet that supported the theme.

Using these downloaded resources, and PhotoStory 3, the boys created a narrated picture story in Xhosa and saved the final product as a movie.

Photostory works by organising a series of digital images into a sequential order. One can then add various effects to each of the images, insert text, music and even record your own voice. It is a Microsoft tool and freely available for download off the web. Photostory projects can easily be uploaded into Classroom blogs without having to going through YouTube.

This made their learning experience more visual, fun, creative and contextual and also supported an active learning environment.

Here is an example of one of the movies created by the boys.