The Moodle LMS site I have created is designed for Grade 5 students learning French as a Second Language. This is their first experience with French and will be using the LMS to support their classroom learning. The course site will be projected for all students to see using the SmartBoard in my classroom. Additionally, students will have access to iPads to explore the site and complete activities individually and collaboratively. I have chosen to use asynchronous and synchronous communication in this course site. I have detailed one activity demonstrating each of these two communication models below.
Asynchronous Activity: Creative Works Wiki
One of the Prescribed Learning Outcomes for B.C. Core French 5 is to respond to creative works from the Francophone world. For this project, students will be able to select creative works from both French Canada and France (as France is deemed to be a leader in the world of art, fashion, film and literature). This activity will be a collaborative task for students, meaning that they will need to work together to complete this assignment.
The objectives of this task are for students to:
- Locate at least one creative piece from the Francophone world using web based search tools, our school library collection or links provided
- Together, create a wiki organizing these works into categories (songs, literature (including poems, cartoons, novels and short stories), visual arts, film or television etc.
- Review each piece so they have a short description accompanying them
- Explore other students submissions and post responses/additions to the accompanying explanation
Rationale
Meeting Instructional Goals:
My instructional goal for this activity was to immerse the students in numerous creative works from the Francophone world. I wanted to give students choice (as to which genre they investigated) so they could research topics of interest to them, however I also wanted them to be exposed to other areas as well. By making this a collaborative project through the use of a wiki, my goal is have students “create something bigger than just what the individual can create” as well as having the students “accept (and learn from) the knowledge of others” (Bromley, 2010).
Process:
Since this will be students first time working on a collaborative document, as well as their first time using a wiki, detailed whole class learning activities will need to precede this assignment. I plan on facilitating these sessions on the Smartboard and including examples of wiki’s created by other elementary school aged students. One such example is the “SharpeTang Project” where groups of B.C. elementary school students created collaborative stories using Wikispaces Classrooms. Additionally, students will need to have time to understand the nature of collaboration, whereby their work may end up being altered by other students within our class. Discussions of the notion of shared authoring will need to be had before embarking on this project.
Available Tools
I plan on using Wikispaces Classroom to set up this project. I have chosen this tool as this platform is already set up for use in the classroom. It has built in affordances that will assist me in assessing and tracking student contributions and does so within a safe social network (I can control who I grant access to the site and when). The space is also organized in a clean, straightforward and user-friendly manner which will help ease my students in to wiki use and allow them to familiarize themselves with the platform quickly and easily. An additional benefit to using this tool is that I am already personally familiar with the mechanisms of this online space. I have seen other projects executed using this platform, as well as worked in the space first hand, therefore I will feel confident explaining and demonstrating it to my students.
Synchronous Activity: Virtual Pen Pals!
In addition to the asynchronous activity described above and the ongoing asynchronous communication via discussion boards on the course site, I have also designed a synchronous activity to go along with our French learning.
The objectives of this task are for students to:
- Practice communicating with others in French
- Become more comfortable and confident asking and responding to questions in French
- Connect with other students learning French as a second language
- Share their understandings of Francophone culture in various parts of Canada with others
Rationale
Meeting Instructional Goals:
Cogswell and Kristmanson (2007) state that the “main purpose of learning a language is communication – meaningful and authentic communication.” Therefore, Core French students must be provided a variety of activities and tasks through which they can practice their oral communication skills. My instructional goal for this activity is to do just that by increasing students’ opportunities to speak French to others and connecting students to others beginning their second language learning journey. Through the use of virtual pen-pals, students will be less apprehensive to practice speaking the language as they do not have to see these people in other situations throughout the day (perhaps increasing their comfort and allowing them to take more risks). Additionally, they will be able to share what they are doing to learn the language in their classroom and in return, be exposed to what their pen-pal is doing in theirs. This cooperative learning strategy will aim to maximize student engagement and participation since it will be conducted individually (for stronger students) or in partners or small groups (for less confident students). It will also provide opportunities for “authentic communicative interaction among students” (Hadley, 2001).
Process:
In order to begin this project, I will first need to make contact with another Core French (preferably grade 5) teacher in another geographical area. This teacher should be in the same (or similar) time zone to us as we will need to set up a time for our students to meet within the constraints of the school day. Once contact has been made, both of us will need to group our students according to their ability and/or confidence level. This is a necessary step to ensure that students are comfortable communicating orally. I expect students comfort levels to be increased if they are paired with another student at a similar level to themselves. Once this has been complete, I will need to demonstrate how to use the synchronous communication tool and allow students time to practice logging on. Students can practice logging on and chatting with other students in our own classroom first, before attempting to do so with their virtual pen-pal.
Available Tools
I have chosen to use two social network platforms to connect with other teachers. I am already a member of Edmodo, where there are numerous channels for me to find other Core French teachers in a similar time zone to myself. I will also use Facebook to ask my acquaintances who teach in other locations around B.C. and Alberta whether they know of anyone who would be interested. In order to facilitate the synchronous communication between the students, I have chosen to use Google Hangouts. I have chosen this tool based on my own personal comfort level using it, as well as the fact that students can not only use it to connect during their synchronous meeting times, but also to set up informal Google+ connections with each other should they choose to do so. However, there is one foreseeable issue with using this tool and that is that all students would need to create Gmail accounts (or another compatible email account) in order to use this platform. Even if we had students create “school only” accounts (ex/ MsSarbitStudent1@gmail.com) this still opens up the possibility for students to use this email account to communicate with others without constant supervision.
References:
Bromley, L. (2010). Wikis and Collaborative Learning: Is It an Option for Elementary School Teachers?. Access To Knowledge: A Course Journal, 2(1). Retrieved from http://ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.php/a2k/article/view/423
Cogswell, F. & Kristmanson, P. (2007). French Is a Life Skill: A Summary of Research, Theories and Practices. Toronto: Thomson Nelson
Hadley, A. O. (2001). Teaching language in context (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
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