Lindsay's+Class+Checkin

The following is a brief summary of my project to date:

My driving question was: Will Voicethread encourage students to be more self-reflective of their oral language skills for the purpose of improving their oral production in French? How can Voicethread be used most effectively towards that goal?

The rationale for this project was 4-fold: 1. Teacher accounts of Voicethread being a powerful tool to encourage purposeful, accountable dialogue. 2. I was impressed with how the tool gives students the all-important wait-time necessary for good dialogue responses.

3. Voicethread allows students working in a L2 to listen to what others say multiple times - necessary in a L2.

4. Voicethread would hopefully give my L2 students more time producing - the ultimate goal.

I had 2 goals:
 * __1. Help students make suggestions to improve the quality and correctness of their spoken French.__**
 * I will attribute success to increased variability in kinds of suggestions being made AND increased variability in the WAY suggestions are being made.
 * __2. Help students adding to another's ideas in order to expand on an idea or take that idea further.__ **
 * I will attribute success to the increasted depth of connections made to an original voicethread continue


 * __Changes I have made in order to make the project more manageable.__ **


 * __Steps to be Taken:__ **


 * 1) Students are introduced to Voicethread through a teacher-directed, student-involved, lesson (20 minutes).
 * 2) Students practice starting voicethreads and adding comments to each others' voicethreads. Depending on the number of i-pads available on any given day, this could mean groups of 2-4 per i-pad (30-45 minutes).
 * 3) Students are assigned a specific oral task using Voicethread. Examples might be: Tell a short story about a favourite day you had; Desribe why something you tried once was difficult to do; Imagine you are talking to your hero - what might you say to them? Students work in their small groups to expand on the original work. Students will be told that they can make a suggestion to improve the quality of the French that they hear, or add an idea or question to somebody's work.
 * 4) Students work in these flexible groups over a number of days (4-8), for 30-45 minutes per block.
 * 5) While groups are working independently, I will work with one group at a time to review their voicethreads, listen to their comments, and make suggestions for improvements. Students will know that I will check back with them in another couple of days to see how they have improved.
 * 6) Periodically, we will come together for a whole-class lesson. I will highlight a group that has improved either their suggestions for more accurate French or their ability to add relevant questions and comments to each others' work.

Possible Peer Assessment tools:
 * 1) Two Stars and a Wish
 * 2) Student-generated lists of things to be improved and the improvements made.