Welcome to teacher Chiara's blog! Questo blog è principalmente rivolto ai miei alunni con l'obiettivo di stimolare in loro interesse e curiosità per la lingua inglese che ci permette di comunicare con tante persone di culture diverse dalla nostra.
"A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality" (John Lennon)
Students of class II G of the school "L. Da Vinci - O. Nucula" in Terni took part in the etwinning project "LEFT: Learn English with Fine Tunes" and had the chance to listen to some songs in English. The songs have been chosen both by the students and by the teachers. Students created language games and activities on each song and shared them among all the partners of the project (Italy, France, Portugal). We collected all the works in the ebook below with the aim of using it with different students the next school year and we share it because we think it might be useful for teachers and students of other schools too.
This school year students of class III H of the school "L. Da Vinci - O. Nucula" in Terni took part in the etwinning project "Invent your future".
Inventions, as opposed to what people often think, are often the result of a teamwork and thanks to digital technology cross borders.
We wonder ... to what extent collaboration between European students can lead to creation ?
Thus this project aims at enhancing collaboration between teenagers from different European countries in order to create an invention.
So during the whole year students from Italy, France, Spain and Portugal shared ideas, searched for info on famous inventors from the past to create their own inventions and came up with some great ideas. Here are some info on the inventors students found working in mixed nationality groups.
Students from all the countries shared chindogu inventions and students from Portugal created the projects using a 3 D printer the results are awesome!
In the short video below you can see some of the chindogus Italian students created and the one in 3 D too.
Students of classes III G and III H here you have info on London and New York.
Pretend to be tourists and choose at least 4 places you would like to visit and be ready to talk about them in class saying the reasons why you chose them.
As the end of the school year is approaching even the etwinning project are coming to an end.
Class 2 H of the school "L. Da Vinci and O. Nucula" in Terni took part in the etwinning project "When a photo talks" and we have carried out a lot of activities which are summarised in this ebook.
We also created another ebook with stories from all the partner schools involved (Georgia, Ukraine, Greece, Italy (Venice and Terni) and with the aim of celebrating the European Year of Cultural Heritage.
We started this book with a common introduction, common characters different stories and a common end.
Students worked both at school and at home using photos, drawings and writing the story in google docs to be more collaborative and to share their work with all the students involved in the project.
Some days ago, while I was reading some posts on facebook groups for teachers I came across this post here https://www.weareteachers.com/anchor-charts-101-why-and-how-to-use-them-plus-100s-of-ideas/ that is about anchor charts. And I wondered ... what is an anchor chart? Lets read!
So I read the article and it reminded me of mini posters I used to create for my students some years ago but there is a difference: an anchor chart is a mini poster the teacher starts then the students finish, or that teacher and students edit together and even better ... students create it for other students to finish. So ... I decided to create a couple of anchor charts for my first and second year students, I brought them to school, presented them to the students and explained they could create some too.
They can be created using some cardboard and colours and/or using ICT.
Here students will add words under each column.
These pictures will be cut and pasted in the chart above.
And to my surprise here is the first anchor chart by one of my students! We will work on it tomorrow in class all together.
Here you see anchor charts on grammar but they can be created on any other topic as well.
Some days ago I published a post about the short stories created by students of class I H and now is the turn of the students of class I G too. In both classes we worked in the same way in fact we followed the tips given for the preparation of the Cambridge global story competition you can find at this link http://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2017/12/15/enter-story-competition/ This time too the stories have been submitted to the competition and collected in a colourful ebook that you can see below.
Students of class I H of the school "L. Da Vinci - O. Nucula" of Terni created some short stories following the steps suggested from Cambridge University Press within the preparation of the Cambridge global story competition.
(more info here http://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2017/12/15/enter-story-competition/)
All the stories have been sent to the competition and we also created a nice ebook and paper book with them so the students will read their stories to their mates at the end or at the beginning of an English lesson.
Students of class II H of the school "L. Da Vinci and O. Nucula" in Terni took part in the activity "Photostorytelling" within the etwinning project "When a photo talks".
Here is the final result of this activity which is an ebook with a wonderful collaborative story
To create this ebook all the students from the partner schools chose 5 images from their culture and shared them in a collage in the padlet below. They explained the meaning of the photos and then commented on each other collage.
After that they were divided in teams from different schools and each team had to choose 3 words from the padlet and create a story. To do so they worked in a google doc shared with all the partners.
Using an online tool to write a story collaboratively has been a new experience for our students and they had to get used to it, respect what the other had written and be careful notto delete anything: a new task and a bit of a challenge fro them but also a very nice result!
Students of class II H of the school "L. Da Vinci - O. Nucula" in Terni are involved in an etwinning project called "When a photo talks" together with students from other European countries.
Here are all the schools taking part in the project.
The activities focus on developing the main key competences for lifelong learning as follows:
- Communication (writing and speaking skills) in English and mother Language. - Digital Competences (the use of ICT tools in the classroom). - Learning to Learn. - Social Competences. - Raise of Awareness of European and Global Citizenship. - Respect for Diversity (culture, people). - Cooperation, working together on the same goal -> Protection and Appreciation of Life, Culture, Environment, Tradition. - Develop of Creative Thinking and Artistic Expression. - Increase students’ Knowledge about Past, Present and Future. - New ways of Learning, via Photography.
This project also wants to raise awareness on the importance of each country cultural treasure in the European year of Cultural Heritage.
Students introduced themselves using a post in a padlet which is an online billboard, then they worked in groups in class and described their school, their town and their Christmas tradition using "talking photos". To create the photos they first took photos then used an app called PicTalk to add the baloons.
The students had the chance to collaborate in small groups all of them gave their contribution to the work.
Here are the results
Our town
Students also created a quiz on their presentation for the students of the other schools.
Students of class II G of the school "L. Da Vinci - O. Nucula" in Terni are working at a new etwinning project this year.
In this project they will work on songs and will create language activities together with their friends from France and Portugal.
The main aims are:
use English as a means of communication among teenagers;
develop the competence in communicating in a foreign language;
develop the digital competence with the ICT tools and apps;
create language activities;
know more about music styles and genres;
learn to work collaboratively;
know more about other cultures in Europe;
realize we are part of the EU;
broaden cultural horizon;
making European friends.
This is the map of our project
After having introduced themselves in a padlet (an online billboard), the students started listening to songs and created activities on them as in the examples below.
Galway girl by Ed Sheeran
Language activities by Italian students
French students worked on the song "My name is Luka" by Suzane Vega and here are their activities.
So all the students of the partner schools will do the activities they prepared for each other.
They will also discuss about their favourite songs and singers, choose and listen to other songs and create more language activities together.
Students of class I G of the school "L. Da Vinci - O. Nucula" in Terni are carrying on with their etwinning project called "Teenagers in Europe".
After celebrating the European day of Languages in September they have started to introduce each other in the TwinSpace of the project and got to know their Finnish peers.
They talked about their hobbies and pets using padlets as in the example below.
Finnish students created surveys Italian students filled in and Italian pupils did the same so they came to know each other tastes better, in fact they talked about themselves, their possessions, their pets and hobbies, their reading habits and so on.
Here is the Italian survey created by all the students during an English lesson using google forms:
To strengthen the link among them, they also exchanged messages in etwinning and wrote letters in the old way using paper and pen and of course received letters from Finland too as you can see in the video below. They loved this activities and all of them took part in it with enthusiasm.
Before Christmas they created and sent Christmas cards as well and Italian students prepared a surprise for their Finnish friends: a song in Finnish!
Cards from Finland arrived during Christmas holidays and when students get back to school next week will find a very nice surprise!
