I am one of 12 teachers in
Linköping municipality which partnered in an Ipad project. This means that we
have received ipads (1 to 2 students) to the class and that we should use these
in the teaching as much as possible. This has been a lift for both me and my
students, especially in English.
There
are plenty of apps, good and less good, that is exercising English in different
ways. Most apps are focused in training english words, for example, colors,
food, body, things, etc. It has been good to use for increasing the pupils vocabulary. But I
have noticed that my students have difficulties when it comes to speaking English
loud, they do not really dare. They have a good vocabulary but do not really
dare use their knowledge, particularly not in a large group. It is better in
smaller groups.
I found an app
that you can use in both English and Swedish. This app has helped them in
speaking English. It is called "Sock puppets". In Sock puppets you set
up a scene with different characters and environments. Then you can record
audio and also move characters. The result is a little film. The good thing is
that all the characters have their own distinctive voice, so you can`t say
which one of the pupils who played what. Now, when we have worked with the app a
number of times I have noticed that students dare to use their English also
"outside" the app, fun!
/Sara Skagerström
1EN06U
I think Sarah's blog is interesting because my school also has decided to buy ipads to our pupils. So far all the pupils in the fourth grade to ninth grade have got their own ipads and it is intended that even the youngest pupils will get their own ipads next year.
ReplyDeleteSara writes that her pupils usually have difficulty speaking English and especially to do it in a larger group, despite the fact that her pupils already know many English words. I think many teachers have the same problem in their classes. The pupils often know many words in English, but they are still afraid to speak the language. In my opinion, it is beacuse they are worried that their English pronunciation is too bad and that their classmates will laugh at them. The interesting thing about this blog is that Sara seems to have found an app which may help the teacher with this problem.
Sara writes that she is using an app called "Sock puppets". In this app, the pupils create an animated theater, where they are supposed to record the animals' voices. Since the program disguises the voices so they sound like cartoon characters, Sara noticed that her pupils dared to speak more English when they used the app. Sara believes that this is because you can not hear who is saying what. When her pupils had used the program for a while, they even dared to speak English in other situations.
I had never heard of this app before, but since I also have pupils who are afraid to speak English in the classroom, I decided to try the app. My pupils thought the app was really fun to work with. They also became less afraid of speaking English in the classroom, so I agree that the app can play a useful role in English teaching. I also showed the app for my teaching colleagues and they were also impressed by the simplicity and usefulness of the program.
Marcus Sandberg, 1EN06U
I also work with Ipads and we have 10 in my class. I have tried sock puppets and think it´s good. I use an app Puppet pals. This is good for both English and Swedish and the children makes own shows.
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