ACTIVE LEARNING METHODOLOGIES 1

Active learning methodologies - I

Index

1. What are they?

4. Don't forget

2. Communicative competence

5. Some examples

3. Interactive groups

6. Thank you

What are active learning methodologies?

01

Main characteristics:

Teaching is student-centered.

Learning as a constructive rather than a passive process.

Learning is self-directed.

Team work and collaboration.

02

Communicative competence

Active learning methodologies as a key to improve students' communicative competence.

Some active learning methodologies:

Successful educational actions for inclusion and social cohesion

Project-based learning

Task-based learning

Cooperative learning

Fllipped classroom learning

Content and Language Integrated learning

Gamification

03

Interactive groups

A successful educational action that interests us as English teachers is:

Interactive groups

Consists of grouping students into small, heterogeneous groups, each of them supported by an adult.

Activities are short, around 15 minutes, and centred on instrumental learning.

Why IG are great for our classes?

Teaching is student-centered.

They are an inclusive strategy.

Time restriction can be very challenging and motivating.

Team work and collaboration.

04

When planning IG don't forget

Take these factors into acount:

scaffolding

reachable goals

take your time

prior knowledge

voice level

4 skills

Classroom set up possibilities:

4 activities + 2 /4 teachers

2 activities + 2 teachers

Some examples of IG English activities

05

BOARD GAMES

You can adapt any board game to practise the specific language students have been recently working on in your classes (developing language accuracy). You can find many language board games ready to print online on different websites. or you can create your own.Click on the image to download this "what's the time" board game from isl.collectivecom

DOMINOES

Dominoes are also a great opportunity to create language interactions. You can use only image or image and word dominoes with the little ones or you can introduce some grammar (matching sentences according to the subject) or do a CLIL dominoes with your older students. You can find many ready to print dominoes online or you can create your own if nothing online suits you. Click on the image to discover a website with many ready to print dominoes.

CARD GAMES

Traditional card games like Snap, Kim's game or memories are an all times favourite. Although there's also other contemporary games you can adapt like UNO. When playing card games students have fun whilst they're communicating in Enlish, developing their basic interpersonal communicative skills. For those of you who'd like more card games ideas you can click on the image to discover more card game options.

BUILDING SENTENCES

You can give students images or words cards and ask them to build as many sentences as they can with the given words either orally or in paper. With the older students you can give them only word cards and ask them to order them to build complete and correct sentences. Or you can add an element of fun by creating silly sentences and using lego pieces instead of laminated cards.

ROLL AND SPEAK

On the other hand, you must also provide students with opportunities to be spontaneous with their language, developing their fluency. You can do it with questionnaires like this one. You can laminate it and write different questions on it every time you're going to do an IG session. Click on the image to download it from "class class yes yes" TPT account.

WHO AM I? /WHAT AM I?

Guessing games like "what's up/what's on my head" are also a wonderful opportunity for students to formulate questions and answers. You can buy plastic headbands and image/word cards, you can create your own headbands with some card or you can just stick post-its with word written on them on your students fore-fronts if you're short on time.

STORYTELLING

From using digital or physical story cubes bought on a store, to roll a story or printable story cubes you can download from the internet, storytelling has an endless list of possibilities we can benefit from when doing IG both in a written or oral way.

UNSCRAMBLE A SONG/STORY

We all use songs and stories in our English classes so if we think about it there's a good deal of stories and songs our students are already familiar with. So why not reminding them of some songs/stories they've listened to in the past and ask them to work in groups and put the sentencers or paragraphs in order? It's a fun reading & speaking activity they will enjoy to do. You can download and cut this "Happy" activity by clicking on the image.

ONLINE ALPHABET WHEEL

4 AGAINST THE CLOCK

In this activity 4 students are given the same blank paper and a random letter. In a selected time they must complete the grid with as many words as they can. They have to help each other and share their knowledge to increase their punctuation. You can use an online alphabet wheel and a timer to add an element of fun. Download the template by clicking on the image if you wish to use it. Laminate it in blank so students can reuse by writing over it.

ONLINE CLASS TIMER

USING TABLETS TO DO DIGITAL ACTIVITIES

When doing IG with a big group it's great to have at least 4 tablets and make sure students develop their digital and communicative competence in at least 1 out of the 4 planned activities. There's a wide range of educational apps and websites students can explore on their own. Also, we can link specific digital activities we want our students to do on Aules. We'll learn all about the most useful educational apps along this course.

Thank you!