More iPad fun this week

I have always been very clear in my head that technology should be used to do what you couldn't do on paper and therefore avoid using the iPads just for the sake of saying I've used them. This week, therefore, I tried something that I could have done with worksheets but that had an extra layer added due to the use of the iPads. 

I went for the "old fashioned" ... or maybe "new-fangled" translation exercise with Y11. This was an idea suggested by @missmclachlan the previous week, as something that she had tried and worked.

I created 4 sentences to translate, each converted to a QR code. One set of QR codes had French to translate into English and the other set of QR codes had English to translate to French.  As my classroom is set out in groups of 4, to facilitate cooperative learning (and to make the room seem a bit bigger), one pair in each group had the French set and the other had the English set. They were told not to let the pair opposite see their work (and they didn't!). When they finished, they swapped QR Codes and self marked the translations, to sighs it "I don't believe it, they had the answers all the time". I was then able to differentiate the activity as well, quite easily by creating some easier texts to translate.  However, because all of the work was in QR codes there was no issue with pupils feeling put out because they had been allocated an easier task, or pupils trying to avoid challenge by going for the easier choice.

We finished off, with a "Lino" to show what French they had learnt during the lesson, which it what the QR code at the tope of this piece links to.

 I will definitely repeat this activity with other classes, but for the coming week, I think it's going to be webquest quizzes about Christmas in other countries...

iPads week 2

Not much to report on the iPads front this week. 

I have continued to love Socrative...pupils are very competitive about getting the first answer in and knowing whether it's correct, they also love the voting on the answers aspect, so I am definitely continuing with that. This week we had a focus on questioning and looked at hands up/ no hands up etc...Socrative gets round the whole thing by ensuring EVERYONE answers the question and there can't be an opt out and sit back.

I also experimented with more personalised learning for y11.  Those who had finished the extended writing task they had been set were given an iPad and worked on the Duolingo app. Those who got that far, absolutely loved it and have gone home to download the a app at home, in order to continue with it at home.

In the coming week, I will try using them to help y10 learn for their first Controlled Assessments...