A New Challenge in My Professional Life: Blended Learning

Just yesterday, February 23rd, I started a new online course - "Becoming a Blended Learning Designer" on Canvas Network. I'm really excited about it, for it is a challenge I need to face as an EFL and a Teacher Development Course teacher working with this model. 
Let the challenge begin.The main aspect of this week 1 reading “Understanding Blended Learning” is, for me, the idea of connectivism, which gives special emphasis on the importance of sharing information, ideas, resources, and networks. In my EFL teaching context, with a Teacher Development Course group, enforcing this concept among my students seems to be fundamental. Instead of focusing on lecturing, I’m urged to provide the students with the various resources I find appropriate to the course objectives so that they can choose the ones that fit their needs. Shifting from a more traditional paradigm to a more student-centered model can surely foster opportunities for students to create their own learning pathways. 

iPhones

This template is from dragonfliesinfirst@gmail.com.

I use this tool with my students whenever I notice they are having trouble spelling some words correctly. I select five words, dictate them, and have the students check the spelling in pairs. Using an iPhone to write the words makes all the difference.

Foldables - Templates

Window

  

KWL Chart

Petals

 

Flaps

Venn Diagram

Foldable - Stores

Here is the project my group used to consolidate the names of stores and the items that can be bought there.

   

The template I used for this project can be found below:

Lapbooks and Foldables - Feelings

In this lesson, we talked about different feelings. 

- pocket and slips: the students wrote the comprehension questions and asnwers.

- faces: I dictated the feelings for the students to write the words down and illustrate the faces, giving me the chance to identify which words the students had problems spelling correctly.

Lapbooks and Foldables - Past Activities

My students made a lapbook for this theme, using the following foldables:

- pentagon petals: the students wrote the comprehension questions and answers.

- shutterflap 6 areas: they used each flap to write about where they were, using different time expressions.

Lapbooks and Foldables - Free-time Activities

This lapbook is about free-time activities. It uses the following foldables:

- quilt book (orange and purple): the students write the following verbs on each triangle: love, like, prefer, don't like. Inside each one, they write the activities accordingly.

- venn diagram (white): the students classify the activities according to indoor / outdoor / both.

Lapbooks and Foldables - Sports

Here is the lapbook my group is working on to write about sports.
The foldables are:

- tab (white): the students write about the most popular sports in Brazil and in the U.S.A., as well as about their favorite sports.

- accordion booklet (redand white): the students complete the sentences, identifying the sports depicted in the pictures, and contrast between the use of present and present continuous.

Lapbooks and Foldables - The Weather

This lapbook focuses on the weather vocabulary and what people are doing.
The foldables I use are:

- window booklet (orange): the students write "What's s/he doing?" on the front window, choose a picture cut-out, glue it to the inside of the booklet, and write a sentence describing what the person is doing.

- envelope (green): the students use slips to write comprehension questions and the answers and keep them inside the envelope.

- wheel booklet (yellow): the students write "What's the weather like?" in the outside circle, color and cut-out the weather symbols, glue them to the big window (inner circle), and write the kind of weather in the small window.

Lapboobs and Foldables - Places in Town

This project is about "places in town".

Here are the foldables the students use:

- stand-up city: the students color and cut out the city printouts from www.madebyjoel.com. They then glue the cut-outs to the lapbook. Students present their projects and tell their peers about the different locations of the places. Peers also ask the presenter questions, e.g. Excuse me, where's the hotel? Is there a drugstore near here?

- booklet: the students write and answer the 3 comprehension questions.

- flaps: the students write 7 place words (one on each flap) and 2 items that can be bought/found there.

Lapbooks and Foldables - Food

Another project is about "food".

Here are the foldables for this project:

- layered booklet - the students write their meals planning for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

- tags - the students write what food there is and there isn't on the table as the teacher projects a picture.

- recipe card - the students write a favorite recipe.

- folder pockets - the students write the food words, color the pictures, and classify them according to their colors (brown, red, yellow/orange, and white).