PGI410188-41010064DO/ME (20202) - Tecnologias em Ensino e Aprendizagem

Hello!!

The activities proposed are very interesting and different from the practices I have in my own experience as a teacher. In all of them, the students will have an active role in the learning process and the materials are not so hard for teachers to prepare. To be honest, I was particularly impressed with the number of tools available! And the activities I liked the most are the ones in which students need to move to perform (such as the Scavenger Hunt). I will certainly try to use these practices in my own classes.

The activities are very well detailed and the author even gives us other options for the same activity. Also, he proposed different activities to different levels, which helps teachers even more.

In order to improve the Scavenger Hunt activity, we would have to think about a better way to show all the pictures to the students because I think it is important that all of them see their colleagues' pictures. One idea is to ask them to send it by email to the teacher, and then the teacher organizes these pictures (and the "podium" to the winners") in a PowerPoint (or any other tool) presentation to show to the students in the next class.

Hello, again! 

Regarding the activities suggested in the chapter, I believe they foster students’ active engagement with their own learning. My favorite is 'digital camera scavenger hunt’ because it can promote high engagement and motivation. I love games and interacting with students in a fun environment. I think the digital camera scavenger hunt can be done by teams outside the classroom. The teacher can tell students to choose words based on what they see in the places they visit every day and challenge the other team to find them. In class, the teacher could have teams mix up and check their work together.

Stanley's activities for vocabulary are awesome, but I think working with vocabulary is easier than, for example, working with grammar or pronunciation. Although I have checked some of his suggestions, one of them got my attention: Memory Posters.

This activity is great for all levels and allows students to review different topics of vocabulary, such as furniture, food, and so on. Using this activity with basic level students may be a great opportunity for them to keep in touch with this vocabulary if teachers make their posters available, for example, on the classroom walls. The idea is good and as we return to face-to-face classes, I will use it with my basic groups! 

Hello!

As I mentioned in the previous forum, the activities are very interesting, and I would try to adapt and use almost the entire set of ideas. However, the one that seems really fun for me is the "digital camera scavenger hunt" as well. I used to prepare a similar game for my younger learners, in which they would receive a list of objectives with adjectives (e.g., colorful vase, cute stuffed toy, etc.), and they would go around the school and check the items they encountered. There were also some made-up items that they would not find at school, so it was obligatory to identify the target objects before checking them off.

However, the author's activity involves less preparation, and the use of cameras makes it even more attractive. Also, considering that most students have a cellphone nowadays, it would be very feasible. The author mentions that students could take photos in different places as homework, which would certainly be an excellent way to introduce new vocabulary. Additionally, students could use their photos to produce a set of flashcards to be used in games during the following classes.

Hi there, everyone!

As I wrote in the other forum post, I think the activities are really interesting especially the ones that aim at promoting students' autonomy. This is the aspect I am reflecting the most on my own practices right now, mainly for planning asynchronous activities. Some of the suggested tools I already use (such as the online dictionary or Quizlet). However, I had some further ideas regarding their usage (e.g. students creating their own set on Quizlet).

I will try to use the "Alien Vocabulary" and the "Noticing collocations" in one of my online classes pretty soon. In addition, I have already started using the website "https://visuwords.com/" that Janaina presented during our last class. Very interesting!

For better results of the proposed activities, I would try to integrate other skills into them. Actually, I would say that for all the other units. Vocabulary and Grammar can be easily integrated into the other 4 skills and sub-skills, so it would not be a major issue.

Overall, I found Stanley’s proposed activities to be engaging and worth to be experimented in a real classroom. I have seen/used some of them, while others were new to me or, at least, presented in a more technological way (e.g.: digital scavenger hunt).

As a Scrabble fan, I find both the board and online game fantastic. I played online Scrabble with students during the pandemic last year, and it was a fun and engaging way to keep them connected with me while we were not able to meet in person. Also, it was rewarding to see their effort to elaborate words and keep up with the game!

I like the idea of “memory posters”, to help students refresh and reinforce vocabulary with the use of images. I would be more likely to use this activity with young learners and teenagers. However, as I mainly work with adults and would not be able to provide one computer per person, I would prefer to adapt this activity to a kind of “guess the word” game using the vocabulary I aim to review. Students could make their selection of 10 words in each category (as proposed by Stanley) and give definitions for the other students/teams to guess. As each word is guessed, I could type it on Google images to create another visual representation of the word. It would require less preparation and fewer technical requirements.

Digital technology can enhance learners’ vocabulary as they offer visual, audio and written resources that help to consolidate new words.

The presented activities are very interesting. I’ve already used some of them in my classes, such as quizzes, memory posters; others, I am looking forward to testing them with my students!! All the activities proposed by Stanley are easy to prepare and adaptable to our students’ needs. As many colleagues pointed out, the digital camera scavenger hunt seems interesting and cool, I’ll try to adapt it to adult learners and see the result!! Also, I will try the Aliens vocabulary ( I’ve already tried at home), I guess my students will enjoy it!    

Another thing that called my attention is that we can use many of the presented resources to develop other skills as well, such as writing and reading. For sure, with digital technology resources, classes will not be boring!!

I think the activities proposed are very good and provide students with opportunities to be the center of learning. I would use "making word-games" in my classes because I really like to work with games to practice and review vocabulary. I would improve this activity by selecting a website that has interactive games and that allow students to be creative when creating their games, such as Baamboozle (https://www.baamboozle.com). I think it would be a great opportunity for the students to have an active role when creating their vocabulary activities, and it would be very fun to play the games in class because they are very interactive and communicative. 

What do you think of them?
I believe Stanley's activities have covered many relevant aspects of teaching vocabulary. He has designed activities in which teachers can use for practicing both, production(in speaking and writing) and recognition (as in listening and reading). His activities include ideas for teaching words in terms of word form, word meaning as well as spoken form and written form. In most of them, students have to remember words they have learned by imaging, using, and repeating them. The author is also concerned about keeping students motivated by suggesting activities for having fun. Finally, he ensures teachers use technology in an appropriate way and not for technology’s sake, as he states in chapter 1.
Which one would you use in your classes and why?
Many activities suggested by Stanley have inspired me. However, I would have to adapt most of them considering my students’ profile. It’s important to say that I teach adults only, both in private and small groups. One of the activities I would choose for the B1 level is Making word games(3.9). I would choose this one because I believe students get actively involved in learning words when they play games.
How would you improve it for better results?
I would change its focus from learning vocabulary form to learn vocabulary meaning. So, students would have to use the dictionary to focus on the definition of the words instead of on their form; Besides, I would divide students into two main groups to create the vocabulary list suggested by Stanley, so they would have to build a learning community as suggested in chapter 2.

The activities proposed by the author are not only fun but also quite beneficial for learners to be able to develop a certain skill, either in class or autonomously. The ones I liked the most and would like to use in my future classes would be: 3.2 Digital camera scavenger hunt; 3.6 Memory posters; 3.7 Alien vocabulary; 3.11 Synonym swap; 3.12 Experimenting with antonyms and 3.14 Multiple-meaning presentations. 

Reasons for choosing them:
- 3.2 Digital camera scavenger hunt; 3.6 Memory posters; 3.7 Alien vocabulary = Fun activities, provide learner's engagement, encourage them to use their creativity and to become more autonomous in their learning process.
- 3.11 Synonym swap; 3.12 Experimenting with antonyms; 3.14 Multiple-meaning presentations = Provide learners the chance to improve their vocabulary of synonyms and antonyms in a more entertaining way, provide learners the chance to discover a wider variety of words and examples of them in sentences than they would if they were not using a technological device.

I think I could adapt "Experimenting with antonyms" activity by asking students to write a short description of two of their classmates using examples of antonyms they found online so that later the other classmates would have to guess the person by listening to their classmates' descriptions making associations with the antonyms and the original word.

1) I really liked Stanley's vocabulary activities. While I read them I was particularly happy to imagine that much of the activities would work nicely in an online classroom environment. Since Stanley's book was published in 2013 and this particular topic changes every year I also wondered about a second edition. 

2) As a teacher I've been thinking a lot about students' motivation as well as about the importance of a multidisciplinarity approach. In this sense, I selected activities that could be adapted to address other relevant topics besides language.

3.5 Learner-generated quizzes

3.6 Memory posters

3.8 Word associations

3.13 Slang, register, and style

3) Each one of the activities cited above can be conducted with topics from history (e.g. quizzes about the civil war), literature (e.g. words common in the books of X author), and geography (e.g. the many Englishes that are spoken worldwide).

Hello.

There is much practical discussion about how to integrate technology into language learning contexts in Stanley's book. Among a huge range of language learning activities concerning vocabulary, what I like most:  3.2 Digital camera scavenger hunt; 3.6 Memory posters; and 3.7 Alien vocabulary. 

The activities presented last class were really nice. I especially liked the one I developed “ Ask the Internet”  because this is something that our students are used to do, but in a “copy and paste” format. I think the activity proposed by Stanley is very didactic, providing room for  critical selection of information. The students select the information, but they have to explain their choices, mentioning why the presented information is relevant for the audience.

There was another activity that called my attention. The activity is “Developing a story” which deals with writing and was presented by Daniele. She suggested the site “imagineforest.com”. I’ve checked the writing ideas on this site and I guess it is an excellent option to provide creative writing classes.  For sure, I will use it with my students.

After watching many interesting presentations, with lots of ideas, Professor Celso pinpointed that the activities presented are meant to develop reading and writing skills, however, nowadays, the integration of the four skills may be present in all the tasks. Thus, teachers can offer engaging and realistic language classes.

Hello!! :D

As I commented in the previous forum, I found the vocabulary activities proposed by Stanley very interesting and engaging! I believe the strategies would have a positive impact in the classroom! If I have to select one as my favorite, I would have to say it is the online word game (3.3 p.43), first because I am a big fan of Scrabble and every time I used the app or the board game with my students, all of the appreciated it and were engaged! When it comes to acquiring and developing vocabulary, one of my favorite practices are the ones where students have to think beyond the language itself, in which they reflect on the task proposed using the target language as a “bridge”.

Another activity I would like to suggest that would fit Stanley’s game proposal is the app StopotS, the famous STOP game! A nice aspect of this app is that the teacher can create their own game “room”, inviting selected participants and also create the categories as they wish! So, let’s say the teacher has just finished some units of a book the class had been studying, the teacher can create the categories according to the themes that are in the book!

Just like mentioned in the last forum, I liked that Stanley proposed some ongoing activities. Also, I think that there are amazing apps out there to help learn that. Quizlet (quizlet.com) is a very nice option for learning a variety of subjects, but it specially useful for vocabulary training. It is a digital and modernized version of the training cards, like the cards we used to study, with a question in one side and its answer on the opposite side. But quizlet offers gamification options as well. I believe that this could be adapted to activity 3.3 (Online word-game tournament), or even activity 3.1 (In context), to train and crystalize the words that were used during the activity.

I liked Stanley’s proposals of activities for vocabulary learning. The one that I liked the most was “Camera Scavenger Hunt” because in this activity the students would be required to learn things that are around them. Moreover, they would be active in this process. To improve this activity, I think I would provide a different list of words for each group, and after everyone took the photos, each group would be required to guess the words’ meaning of the others’ photos.