Activity 2 Understanding - Grammar

Level: 9th-Grade L2 learners - Low-level/Mid-level.

Time: 1 session (60 minutes).

Norwegian curriculum:

• velge ulike digitale ressurser og andre hjelpemidler, og bruke dem på en selvstendig måte i egen språklæring.

Goal: 

• You should be able to use your smartphone independently for learning.
• You should be able to understand how to use the wh-questions right.

Technologies:

• Smartboard - Using the smartboard as a way to introduce the app makes it easier and more understandable for the students. They will be able to see it clearly and be given a tour through the app. 
• Smartphone - I want the students to know that there are a lot of ways to use their smartphone. That they can use it for learning and help when they need it.
• The App: Grammar - I choose the Grammar app because it was the best one of those I could find. It is easy to understand and it is easy to use. It also had some good tasks that the students could work with. 

The students will later work with interviews and writing assignments. That`s why I felt it was important to have a lesson with grammar. By using their smartphone and an app, I want to show the students that their phone can not only be used for connections, but also for learning. 

Into: 10-15 minutes

The student needs headphones for this exercise. This is information they have been given in advance. The teacher will start the session talking about questions. How they can ask questions. They will be informed that they will need this information later, when they will be working with interviews.
Before the students start with this exercise, the teacher needs to introduce this in the right way. Some might have used their phone for learning and for finding information. In this class, they will use their phone for grammar learning. The teacher gives a presentation on the smartboard to show the students how the app is used. Using screenshots and informing them how the app works and how they can use their phone for learning. They need to know how they can reset the question when they have answered wrong and inform them about the advertisement. I will inform them to take their time answering the questions, and to try not to guess. That way they will see what they know and what they need to practice on. 

Through: 30 minutes

When they have downloaded the app, I want them to open it, and choose Practice.  There it is different tasks they can do here. The tasks I want them to do in this session is:

• Beginner pack 1 - Questions. 
• Elementary pack 1 - Questions.
• Intermeditate Pack 1 - Questions tags.
• Elementary Pack 1 - Wh-questions in the past.
• Intermediate Pack 1 - Wh- questions in the past.

Some will not manage to get through them all, and some will have time to spare. If they have gone through everyone, I want them to do it one more time. So that they can repeat and make sure that they know and understand it. If they manage to get through everyone twice, they will be able to try out some of the other exercises. 

Beyond: 15 minutes

To see what the students have learned in this class, the teacher needs to go through some of the questions at the end of the class. In the app, they can guess the answer several times. So to make sure they have learned something, the last 15 minutes of the class should be an oral repetition of the questions. Where the teacher writes some of the questions on the chalkboard and have the students answer. Here they have to communicate what they have learned. I would use the Intermediate Pack 1- Wh-questions in the past. They have to really think to answer the questions in that exercise.

Goals:

• You should be able to use your smartphone independently for learning. While the students work with the app, the teacher should go around and help. Here the teacher will find out if the students have understood the task, and see if they are working independently.
• You should be able to understand how to use the wh-questions right. By taking time at the end of the class to repeat the questions with the students, the teacher will find out if they have understood it, and it they can use it. There will also be questions that are not in the app. Another way to do it is to have a test at the end of the class. Where they have to answer some of the questions in writing. I did not choose to do this in this class. The reason for this is that it was not a lot of time, and they will be working more with this later. 

Reflections:

This learning activity is great in many ways, but it has its flaws. Not every student has a smartphone, that way it would have been easier to use a tablet. But not every school has a tablet. So the student who does not have a phone has to work with someone else. This is an assignment where the students should work on their own, to find out how much they know. 

Another flaw to this assignment, the teacher does not know how the students are doing in the app. They could be guessing, and doing other things on their phone. 

The last thing I want to bring up is all the advertisement, after a few tasks an advertisement pops up. If you pay for the app, this will go away. But you can not ask the students to pay for it. 

Literature:

Utdanningsdirektoratet, (2019), Læreplan i Engelsk (ENG1-03), Retrieved from: https://www.udir.no/kl06/ENG1-03/Hele/Kompetansemaal/kompetansemal-etter-10.-arstrinn