Development of Moral Competences with the Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion  shared by Gabriela Ducháčková, Czech Republic

School mediation shared by María Concepción Fernandes Andrés and Carmen Mesonero Bartolomé, Spain

Teaching Speaking skill shared by Zeynep Cabuk, Turkey

NLP i.e Neuro Linguistic Programming shared by Imelda Soós, Hungary

How to create wordclouds shared by Éva Pató Csabáné Szebényi , Hungary

Use wordle.net for creating a wordcloud. You need Java to use it. Advantage: the most frequent words are bigger. You can use it for language classes. Save it with snipping tool.
	tagul.com is for creating wordclouds too. You have to sign up first. Built in shapes. To download it use the snipping tool. To connect words use ~ sign.
The easiest way to create a wordcloud is tagxedo.com You add your words, choose a shape, change colours and fonts and save it to your computer. Funny shapes make learning easier.

"Getting students to talk" shared by Margarida Marques, English teacher at Agrupamento de Escolas Miguel Torga, Bragança, Portugal

"Getting students to talk" shared by Margarida Marques, English teacher at Agrupamento de Escolas Miguel Torga, Bragança, Portugal

“At the risk of stating the obvious, ‘Getting students to talk’ is the major and one of the most difficult tasks confronting any teacher of languages. But talk they must; not only because research into second language acquisition consistently advocates developing a context of spoken interaction in the classroom as the key variable in the quality and quantity of students language learning, but also because it is through cooperative talking that learners are enabled to simulate and thus prepare for the actuality of out-of-class communication.”

             Professor CN Candlin, General editor in Getting Students to Talk, by A     Golebebiowska, p.ix,1990 [Prentice Hall]

Knowing the importance of communication when learning a foreign language, being aware of all the difficulties when trying to make students speak and pursuing the aim of preparing students for life and for a global world of work, when I came across this course “Developing Oral Fluency in the secondary Classroom” I applied for a Comenius grant and in the first fortnight of March 2014 I attended it. It was held in IPC Exeter, UK, with the duration of 2 weeks. 

The course was predominantly based on how to lead students to talk, what kind of activities a teacher can use to achieve this goal and what’s the role of the teacher in a communicative activity.

The participants were presented with ready-made activities, in which they participated as students, and had to prepare one of their own to present the group and they should bear in mind that, first of all activities should be authentic; real life communication is stimulated by the fact that people know different things and have different opinions. Therefore, for a communicative activity to be successful it should contain either an information or an opinion gap.

-       Role plays contain an information gap – the information a student has is unknown to the others.

-       Simulations and discussions contain an opinion gap – students present arguments according to their beliefs and come to an agreement regarding an issue introduced.

Other examples of communicative activities:

-       Find someone who…

-       Ranking activities

-       Board games

-       Spot the similarities/differences

-       Mutual creative writing

-       Crosswords

-       Surveys

Then, they should be motivating; group work is an integral part of a communicative activity. It:

-       Generates more student talking time

-       Frees the teacher to teach more effectively

-       Is learner-centred, actively involving all students

-       Encourages students to be responsible for their own learning

-       Encourages social skills like teamwork.

Rules for communicative activities to work:

For the students:

1.    Not to show role-card to anyone

2.    Not to reveal all the information at once

3.    Speak English

For the teachers:

1.    Ask students to memorise their role-cards

2.    Establish and enforce rules to promote the use of English in a communicative way.

3.    Present materials in a professional way

4.    Give simple instructions to students

Example of a communicative activity:

Student A

You are ill and are going to the doctor’s surgery. Follow the prompts below:

1. Greet the doctor

3.      Explain why you are at the surgery

5.      Give all the information required

7.      Thank the doctor, say goodbye and leave the surgery

Student B

You are the doctor and have to advise the patient and prescribe medication. Follow the prompts below:

2. Respond and ask for the reason of the visit

4.               Ask questions about the condition (e.g. when/how…)

6.               Tell the patient what the condition/disease is and advise him and/or prescribe some medication.

Idea taken from Role Plays for Today, Jason Anderson, Delta Publishing

Energizers as a tool

NMSi Kinkplatz shared by Angelika Passet, Austria

Group formation and group bonding are the base for social interacting in a group. Therefore we consider it as a crucial part of school life.

It is scientifically proven that every group follows certain stages while forming and that every new group member changes group dynamics again.

Phasen der Gruppenentwicklung nach Lipnack & Stamps 1998, S. 177

Quelle: https://arbeitsblaetter.stangl-taller.at/KOMMUNIKATION/Anfangsprobleme.shtml
© [werner stangl]s arbeitsblätter

Forming. The participants try to get to know each other. The behavior is rather formal. This phase is characterised by insecurity but also curiosity and pleasant anticipation. .

Storming.The exchange of opinions, expectations, suggestions can create conflicts, especially within groups of teenagers who are not sure about their role. To be able to enter the next phase it is crucial to deal with the issues and a very important part of the group leader.

Norming: Is the next step where the group finds its inner rules but also approaches, values and behavior required to be a part of this particular group. These agreements are controlled and sanctioned by the group. If a group is forced into rules and working together it might work but is more likely to develop difficulties because of the lack of personal commitment.

A group which had the chance to grow can now start to work because the members trust and help each other and agreed structures develop.

Adjourning: The tasks have been solved and the social relationships fade. In a successful group that may lead to grief.

Other groups just break up . A process that can also occur in earlier stages if the group dynamics does not work.
Quelle: https://arbeitsblaetter.stangl-taller.at/KOMMUNIKATION/Anfangsprobleme.shtml
© [werner stangl]s arbeitsblätter

Some teachers of our school took part in a training, coordinated by LIONS QUEST to support the students in general but also in group bonding.

A very interesting and rewarding part were the “energizers” which I would like to introduce.

Energizer can be established as a teaching method but also in other areas:

Ø  Getting to know each other

Ø  Group support

Ø  Pairwork and groupwork in class

Ø  Stress relaxation

Ø  Focussing

Ø  Teamwork

Ø  Boost of movement and coordination

We are looking forward to doing some energizers together :-)

Reading comprehension ideas shared by Agata Murzynska, Poland

True/false reading comprehension is very common and students do that type of exercise hundreds of times. One of the ways to make it more interesting is give them the statements first without the text, ask them to mark them true/false on the basis of their knowledge. They can discuss the answers in pairs or in groups. Then they get the text to find out. It is particularly interesting when we use texts about general knowledge, facts and myths, ‘did you know that …?’ texts. This can make our students more focused and interested in reading.

While I attended a course in Methodology and Language for Secondary teachers at Pilgrims school in Canterbury, my colleagues and I came up with the reading activity described below.

Fill in Rationale

Outcome

This is an activity where learners read a text co-operatively.

Level

Any (depending on the text)

Before class

• Select a text or a short poem suitable for the level of the class and create gaps.
• Make a list of the words you have taken out in random order.
• Make photocopies of the gap text and the word list for half the number of pupils.
• Make photo copies of the complete text for the other half of the students.

In class

1. Learners sit in 2 concentric circles, facing each other. (the outer ring facing inwards, the inner circle facings outwards – see illustration).
   
2. The teacher hands out the gap text and the word list, but only to the learners in the inner circle.
3. The learners on the outer ring have the complete text. They do NOT know where the gaps in the other version of the text are.
4. The inner circle learners try to fill in the gaps. The outer circle learners can give them clues to lead them to the correct answer, but they cannot give the answers themselves.
5. After every 1-2 minutes, the teacher gives a signal and the learners on the outer circle move one chair to the right. Learners continue the exercise with another partner.
6. This changing partners is repeated a couple of times, until most learners have completed the text.
7. The learners compare their answers to make sure they have the correct ones.

Variation

• To make this exercise more difficult, the teacher can limit the time the learners on the outer circle can study the text to 3 minutes. They then have to hand in the text and help the learners on the inner circle from memory.
• Another version is to give the pupils on the outer ring exactly the same information as those on the inner circle (the gap text and the word list), thus creating equality between the learners.

Comment

In the basic version of this exercise, the roles of the learners in the two circles is not the same. This way the teacher can differentiate between strong readers and those who have more difficulty reading.

Rationale

These two activities were developed during the course, but hopefully it is only the beginning of our attempts to put the newly learnt theories into practice.

The authors:

Iwona Grajner, Poland, Geert Groot Koerkamp, the Netherlands, Ruud Giesbers, Netherlands, Agata Murzynska, Poland, Caterina Sbrana, Italy, Alex Schonewille, the Netherlands.

How to memorise vocabulary better?  shared by Agata Murzynska, Poland

We all know that learning vocabulary is important and it should be stored in long-term memory so that it is remembered longer.
One of the ways to facilitate learning new words is using both hemispheres to work at the same time.
There are a couple of exercises and ideas how to do it.

Exercise

This exercise is very easy and it can be done at the beginning of the lesson or at home. To make both hemispheres work at the same time students can draw something with their left hand if they are right-handed and the other way round. When they finish, they can ask the student next to them what their drawing presents. Another option is also writing down 10 or 20 numbers backwards (20,19, …) also using the opposite hand.

It is also advisable to use colours to highlight and underline words or some letters, write some letters in bold or capital letters and to write them down in syllables:

suCCeSS

aCCoMModation

en-DANGER-ed

I have also noticed that to remember the spelling of a word better, especially with difficult spelling, students can associate the order of certain letters with the alphabetical order:

spontanEOUs

I always emphasize associations, IMHO the simpler, the better, eg. my students often mix prize and price,
so I tell them to associate price with cena because both the Polish and English equivalents include the letter c.

ICT ideas shared by Éva Pató Csabáné Szebényi, Hungary

Have you ever thought about to download a Youtube video but didn't know how? 

Or you wanted to download a song but you found it on the Youtube only 

and you didn't know how to convert it into mp3 file? 
Here it is the solution: peggo.co

What to do?

1. Find your video on Youtube and copy the link of that video. (Ctrl+C)

2. Go to www.peggo.co and paste the link. (Ctrl+V)

    The page find your video immediately and
    you can choose if you want to download it as a video file 

    or as a sound file (mp3). You can choose even the quality of the video file.      

So feel free and start now!

Why? You can use these videos during your lessons even without internet connection.

ICT ideas designed and shared by Éva Pató Csabáné Szebényi, Hungary

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to use Google forms.

1. What is it?

Google Forms is a tool that allows collecting information 

from users via a personalized survey or quiz. 

The information is then collected and automatically connected 

to a spreadsheet with the same name. 

The spreadsheet is populated with the survey and quiz responses.

2. What is it used for (in education)?

There are a wide range of ideas you can use google form for.

- Good for tests, ex: checking grammar.

- Good for a survey around different topics, if you are interested 
   in your students habits for example reading, travelling, learning styles and so on.

- Good for improving vocabulary. (Finding synonyms to words.)

- Good for self-evaluation (what have you learnt so far?)

There are no limits of ideas.

3. What age groups can I use it for?

It is suitable especially for teenagers or young adults but even adults like it.

What's more that it is not only to fil in the form but creating your own survey or test.

I would recomend to use it for the 5th class in the primary 

to get information and from the 7th class to create an own test and survey.

4. How to get started (basic steps for using it)

Enter your gmail account and find google drive in the menu. Click on it. 

If you entered your drive click on button. 

Choose the option: Form 

Give a title for your questionnaire and choose a theme for it. (You have to decide in advance what kind of questionnaire, test or survey you would like to create.) 

When you already have a title the first question appears and you can write your question. 

For the question you can add answers (just like in multiple choice tests). Choose the buttonQuestion type and choose the most appropriate form for yourself.

Add answers by clicking in the option boxesand you can add the so called "other" option as well.

After pressing the button  your questions will be saved on drive automatically.

For the next question press the button Insert from the menu above and add the next question. Repeat the steps as long as you want.

To view the created format press view life form.

From life form you can go back to the edit page and make some changes if you need. 

When your students have already submited the questionnaire you might want to know the results of them.

To get and check the results you click onResponses and choose Summary of responses.

And you get to the following page: here you can have the statistic of your questionnaire.

If you want to have the individual answers/resposes too, just click on View responses.

5. Where can I get more tutorial / information?

If you still have questions how to do it just watch this video. 

6. How can I exploit it in my context?  

The easiest way to use it for test and check grammar, vocabulary etc. knowledge of the students.

But you can use it in your own mothertongue and you can create a survey about the learning habits,

freetime activities, where students go in the summer, what they do during summer holiday.

If you are a form teacher you can get to know your students easily and they will enjoy this task more than

simple paperwork.

7. How to share with others

There are two option how to share it with others.

1. Either you send it to the ones you want to ask to fill in. 

Click on file and then choose send form...you can sent it to several emails.

Or you can allow others to work on it.

It is called add collaborators. 

Be aware of the following fact!!! 

You want to send the created form (life form) and not the edited version!!!

So follow these steps! 

1. Go to life form.

2. Copy url. 

3. Paste url in "link to share" part and click embed. (Of course you can make a tiny url if you would like to.)(See how to usetinyurl.com)

4. Add emails, groups or invite people and then

press the button .