Reflection about ICT

The use of new technologies as a resource, as a primary English teacher, is a powerful tool that fosters FL acquisition in the classroom. One of the main reasons is because ICT cater for different learning styles and so, children can develop different competences and strategies. Beside that using ICT is fun and motivating, ICT add variety to the range of learning situations and also a new dimension to the foreign language teaching and truly enhance the learning process. Another important reason for using ICT is that teachers are able to create their own material and thus have more control over the resources used in the classroom.

But, we must not forget that the use of ICT in the classroom is considered as a support resource in the learning process, it isn’t the main objective of our classes and children should know it. So we need to be responsible and critical when using ICT and be aware about the dangers. Also, is important to structure and plan activities in a timely manner in order not to improvise and lose the control of the tasks.

CLIL Didactic Unit

Subject: Science                                                              Teacher: Nuria Cases

Title of the Unit: Healthy Eating Habits                         Course / Level: 4^th of Primary Education

1. Learning outcomes / Evaluation criteria	- To know the vocabulary related with food. - To distinguish between healthy and unhealthy food and give some examples. - To identify the food categories and give 1-2 examples of each category. - To classify food according to the five food groups. - To encourage healthy eating habits.
2. Subject Content	- Healthy and unhealthy food - Food Groups - Nutrients
	3. Language Content / Communication
Vocabulary	Food (vegetables, rice, fruit, bread, meat, fish, cereals, cheese, milk, water, snacks, chocolate, drinks), carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, vitamins, breakfast, lunch, dinner, calories, diet, dish, meal,  fats, junk food, low-fat, healthy, unhealthy, nutrients, weight.
Structures	- Verb To Be - Verb Have Got - Classifying: carbohydrates are… - Comparing and contrasting: eating vegetables is healthier than eating snacks… - Asking each other questions: What do you usually have for breakfast? ...
Discourse type	Descriptive, Exposure, Looking for information on the internet
Language skills	Read, Listen, Write, Debate, Analyze
4. Contextual (cultural) element	- To know the typical food of your own country and other countries. - Become aware of the importance of a healthy diet.
5. Cognitive (thinking) processes	- Understanding the key concepts and applying them in different contexts. - Identifying different words related to food. - Comparing different meals. - Vocabulary building, learning and using. - Arouse learner curiosity – creative use of language learner questions.
6. (a) Task(s)	- Create a food pyramid in Glogster.
6. (b) Activities	Introduction activity 1. Hot Potatoes Activity Match the names of the food with the pictures: file:///C:/Users/nuria/Desktop/UA/ICT/Unit%207/Hot%20Potatoes/Jmatch/Jmatch.htm          Development activity 2. Speaking – Debate. Create to lists distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy food and then write it down. 3. ESL Video  Watch the following video about the food groups and after that answer the questions in it: http://www.eslvideo.com/esl_video_quiz_low_intermediate.php?id=22397 4. See this Glogster to clarify ideas:     http://nuriacch.edu.glogster.com/food           Assessment activity 5. Webquest Watch this Webquest of the main food groups and play the online games attached: https://magic.piktochart.com/output/4010739-healthy-eating-habits 6. Compare different diets. Research and collect information about the food of the Mediterranean diet and the British one, compare. Which one do you think is healthier?
	7. Methodology
Organization and class distribution / timing	Activity 1: individually / 15minutes Activity 2: in two big groups/ 1hour Activity 3: individually / 30 minutes Activity 4: individually / 15 minutes Activity 5: in pairs / 1hour Activity 6: in pairs / 1 lesson
Resources / Materials	- Notebook and paper - Blackboard - Computer
Key Competences	Linguistic, Social, Digital, Cultural, Autonomy, Learn to Learn
8. Evaluation (criteria and instruments)	1. Formative assessment: Oral review (asking questions to the whole class). - Distinguish between healthy and unhealthy food. - Identify the main food groups and classify food into them. - Learn the functions of each food group and what they provide the body with. - Write simple sentences about the unit. - Understand the meaning and pronounce correctly the key vocabulary of the unit. 2. Peer assessment: Pair activity focused on brief revision of the unit. Performed at the end of the unit: students will be asked to work in pairs, we establish the first turn (“who starts”), this student will ask questions, the other one will answer “True” or “False”. They are encouraged to use all the resources during this activity. After a limited time (1-2 minutes), they change their turns. This kind of assessment minimizes aspects of competition and encourages trust among children.

Activity 1: Hot Potatoes

Click on the Hot Potatoes link in the top right of the page!

Activity 2: Speaking Debate

The aim is to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy food.

Half of the class will think about words or expressions related to healthy food and the other half will do the same with unhealthy food. After the time limit, the teacher will ask a student of each group to write down their lists on the board. Each student will have to write down the list of words in his/her own notebook.

Activity 3: ESL Video

- See more at: http://www.eslvideo.com/esl_video_quiz_low_intermediate.php?id=22397#sthash.YTqMreMg.dpuf

Activity 4: Glogster

Activity 5: WebQuest on Healthy Eating Habits

WebQuest | Piktochart Infographic Editor

Activity 6: Compare different diets

Research and collect information about the food of the Mediterranean diet and the British one, compare.

Which one do you think is healthier? 

Newsletters

Newsletters are a resource for all. I have subscribed to one about Elementary Teacher Resources. I have found it very attractive for teachers because there are many topics related to the professor day to day (how to motivate our students, how to praise them or how modify their behaviour). I strongly recommend it because here we find the opinion of a colleague, a teacher who spends most of the day in class facing the same challenges and problem that us.

http://www.elementary-teacher-resources.com/free-teaching-newsletter.html

Here I attached also one refreshing publication: ‘Talking in the Classroom’

Fascinating Apps!

Duolingo

Duolingo is an attractive app to learn different languages. You can have a profile where your progress will be saved. Also, you can do a level exam to know your level and then you don’t have to start from the beginning. Children can work by their own, in class and at home, being that it is very easy to use. We can use this app at the end of units for checking our knowledge.

Lesson Plans

In this page we can find appropiate lesson plans. These detail all the activities and the time we have to spend. I will implement it in the classroom for explaining the verb Can for ability.

Lesson Plans for Whiteboards

In this page we can find a lot of colourful and interesting lesson plan for whiteboards.

I will take the one explaining healthy habits. In my opinion it has the perfect elements to create a motivating atmosphere in the class. First of all, we will see the food pyramid with all the nutrients and then to assimilate contents we will play in the whiteboard the games that this lesson plan offers.

E-Books

This link offers a huge amount of reading resources and activities.

Once in a trimester children can download an e-book and read it by their own at home. At the end of the trimester each student will share the impression of the book to all the class. They will be able to share opinions and may recommend the books among them.

Lino

In this link you can find many apps to use in class!

http://linoit.com/users/nuriacch1990/canvases/apps%27

Visual and Practical Differences among Websites

Having seen all the websites of schools I must say that some of them seem that are under construction, other lacks elements. As well, most of them are very simple or have many distracting elements.

I have chosen the link of IES Cavanilles because it looks to be very orderly and clear. All the elements follow the same theme and there is nothing that stand out more than another. Nevertheless, what has struck me and that other webpages do not have are the icons that each sections include. These icons help us to find what we want without having to read all the sections. For instance, if you want to know where the school is located, next to the name there is an icon related to that. This feature is the main reason why I chose IES Cavanilles.

Joomla

Before describing Joomla, we must know what content management system is. CMS is software that keeps track of all the content in our web; it doesn’t matter if it is a text, a photo, a video, music…

Knowing that, Joomla is a well known content management system (CMS) that enable us to create, organize, manage and publish content for Websites in an easy way. You don’t need to be an expert in ICT considering that it requires almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage.

Another point to highlight is that Joomla is free, open and available to everyone. Some features to call attention to are that it is multilingual (offers more than 64 languages), has more than 8.000 extensions available, keeps our information up to date, and it allows us to manage the users of our site.

Searching different extensions, I have found this one that I consider very practical to use in class. This extension allows us to introduce a calendar in our website, displaying our events.

Hope you find it useful!

http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension/calendars-a-events/events/jevents