Getting Students To Produce IWB Flipcharts

Like a lot of teachers, I've been worried about hogging the IWB a bit too much. The recent insett on getting students to create flipcharts was really helpful and interesting. It gave me the idea of getting students to produce 5-minute tasks based on module 5 of English File Upp-int. One of my worries was that it would take up too much time so that's why I called them 5-minute tasks. I thought up the tasks and divided them into 'revision' tasks i.e. on areas we'd already covered and 'teaching' tasks i.e. on areas which were due to come up over the next few weeks. We then spent an hour in the CALL room and I monitored closely and made suggestions as to activity type - a lot of the final products were mix and match activities e.g. one pair wrote up rules for using 'used to' with examples for each rule. The other students then had to match the example to the rule. Over the next few weeks the students presented their 5-minute activities. They proved great as fillers and both the presenters and their audience seemed really engaged. And the objective of making the classes more learner-centred was certainly achieved. My biggest worry had been that the hour in the CALL room would be laborious, and would challenge their computer rather than their language skills. However, I stressed that the project would only be successful if they did the preparation part in English and they reponded well to this. This was something of an experiment for me, as I suspect that my classes generally rate low on the 'learner-autonomy' scale, but it worked out really well.

55 ways to use an IWB in the classroom

Following the recent post on 55 ways to support writing in the classroom, here´s a presentation on 55 ways to use an IWB in the classroom

Getting students to use Spanish when they're working on online tasks

This is one I've been knocking my head against ever since I got interested in using ICT in my classes. The students get so engaged in what they're doing that they automatically switch back to their first language - and you as the teacher end up sounding like a record stuck in the same groove; reminding them to talk in English.

Here's an idea that I've tried out recently and which seems to have had positive results: get them to talk in Spanish.

Set a time limit of, say, 15 minutes and tell them to get on with the task and talk in Spanish, but to note down the phrases they use while they're working.

At the end of the 15 minutes get them to take turns writing their phrases on the IWB and getting other students to help them translate them into English. In this way they build up a really great bank of useful English which they can draw from.

I follow this up with a flipchart meter which I constantly update while students are working on the computers so that they're aware that I'm listening to and taking account of what they're saying.

If you want to do more work on computer vocabulary here's a site which provides basic vocabulary with images and quizzes.

Have fun!

Top tips for creating flipcharts

Some simple easy ideas - plus a video showing how to implement them - for creating attractive flipcharts from José Picardo's Box of Tricks. Enjoy!

ActivInspire - using a personal profile to save your settings on IWBs

Did you know that you create a personal profile with your favourite settings? This means that when you open up ActivInspire it will always show the same set of tools, the background colour of pages etc that you have decided on.

• With ActivInspire open (in the staffroom or classroom, it doesn't matter which), select Edit from the top menu and select Profiles...

 

•  Now you can set your flipchart page colour

 

• Choose what tools appear on the toolbar

 

• And decide how many colours appear in your palette

• You can also make sure that ActivInspires shared resources - images, sounds, backgrounds etc - load and are available for you to use (on some computers in the staffroom they haven't been loading)

• To do this, click on settings and uncheck Use default 'Shared Resources' path
• Click on .... next to Shared resources file

• And this window will open. On My Computer find the T:drive > Materials > ActivInspire Resources

• Now click on the little disk with the pencil (top right-hand corner) to save your profile

 

• Save it wherever you want to on your computer (perhaps the T.drive is best then it will be accessable from both staffroom and classroom)

 

• Now when you click on Shared Resources in the Resource Browser (if you can't see this on the right of your flipchart, select View > Browsers), all the resources should be available for you to use.

 

• If you need to load your profile in a classroom. Again, select Edit from the top menu and select Profiles and click on the folder symbol (top right-hand corner) and find it on your computer where you saved it.

Ideas for creating simple flipcharts

Good tips and ideas, with little prearation time, for ceating effecting flip charts.

Funky Flipcharts for the new year

Found this blog article with some really simple and good ideas for using flipcharts with your classes.