Putting+It+All+Together-+Denise

=Introduction=

**Research Question:**
What is the impact of technology on students' ability to self-reflect on their oral language production with the goal of improving the quality of their discourse?

=Rationale for the Technology Chosen= Traditionally in French immersion classes the teacher is the centre of all exchanges as s/he is the most proficient speaker of the target language (TL). For this reason, French immersion students' receptive language skills (reading and listening) are substantially better than their productive language skills (writing and speaking). Our school purchased 10 iPads. Wanting to put this technology to good use we began exploring different apps that students could use in the oral centre of the Daily 6 program. Fotobabble, Storyrobe and Educreations were all found to be easy for students to use to create short dialogues and to make audio recordings. One advantage of recording students' oral output is that because what students are producing is recorded it increases their accountability. They will make more of an effort to speak in French. The biggest advantage is that individuals as well as the class can look back on what students have created and engage in discussions about how to continue to improve their oral language production.

=Methodology- data collection, site, subjects, collection tools= Students were initially introduced to Fotobabble. They quickly got started and created many clips. The students mainly took pictures of one another engaged in literacy activities (as this centre was a literacy centre) and gave a simple statement about what the student in the photo was doing- for example, "Voici Sarah, elle fait lecture avec quelqu'un."

Next students were introduced to Storyrobe. The advantage of Storyrobe is that is allows students to use a series of pictures to create a story.

As a class we looked at some of the Fotobabbles and Storyrobes that the class had created. We discussed our goals for the oral centre in the Daily 6, reflecting on the Success Criteria we created in September, and students stated that it was to practice and improve their French speaking. Using some of the clips created using Storyrobe and Fotobabble we compared their output from Fotobabble and Storyrobe. The students decided that their Storyrobe clips were richer, in that students could add more detail and variety to their oral production.

We then created success criteria for using the iPad for the oral language centre based on their observations of what they thought were the strengths of the clips we had watch, while keeping in mind our Success Criteria for Travail Oral:

Critère de réussite: 1. Je parle toujours en français. 2. Je pratique avant que j'enregistre. 3. J'ajoute des détails intéressants.

Students were introduced to Educreations for a math lessons. Students were expected to use Educreations to create "a lesson" explaining how regrouping works with addition. This was modelled by the teacher and then students were given the opportunity to create their own lessons in groups of 2 or 3.

=Findings= Students were eager to get started using the iPad and created many clips using Fotobabble. These clips were very simple and did not provide an opportunity for students to produce high quality clips in French.

After introducing StoryRobe to students their output improved. An example of an early StoryRobe clip The clip above shows a clip of students using plastic dinosaurs. It is fairly simple and repetitive. There are hesitations and some English words used.

The evidence of improvement was increased vocabulary used as students began incorporating toys, such as Lego and plastic dinosaurs into their clips. In addition clips became longer, more varied and more detailed.

After creating Success Criteria with students, students rehearsed their dialogues before recording. They discussed with their peers what their story line would be before beginning. They would verify difficult vocabulary. Interestingly, once students had rehearsed their dialogues they began trying to say it chorally when recording. This decreased their fluency and sometime made it difficult to understand.

After reading a book, __Ninon dit non!__ as a class, Playdough props for hair cutting were introduced. During the reading of the book focus was placed on the main idea of the story- it is alright to say no to our friends, and on vocabulary from the text, se couper les cheveux, chauve,coiffeuse... . After reviewing the Success Criteria and giving students props for play there was an increased use of the new focus vocabulary from the book in their clips. An example after creation of Success Criteria An example of a StoryRobe based on Ninon dit non! In this clip the student uses a PlayDough hair cutting toy. This helped her practice the target vocabulary we were working on in class based on the book.

The app. Educreations was used by students to create a lesson explaining the standard algorim for addition. Students took pictures of their work with manipulatives, wrote on the whiteboard and made an audio recording of their explanations. An example of a math lesson using Educreations An example of a math lesson created using Educreations Student created clear instructions and explanations of what they were doing in their math lessons. They were able to use photos, writing, equations and an oral explanation to explain the algorithm for addition. =Conclusions= Using the iPads increased students' production of oral French. They were eager to create clips and to share them. They enjoyed listening to the clips that other students had created, providing further opportunities to practice their L2 skills.

However, the iPad by itself, no matter how wonderful the app, does not magically make the students produce many, high-quality clips. They needed explicit instruction and modelling. It wasn't until they were given the opportunity to critically analyze their clips based on the Success Criteria created in September and then make a new set of Success Criteria specifically for creating clips using the iPad did the quality of their oral production improve. By providing ideas, examples and context, the quality of the clips students created improved.

Creating Success Criteria for Travail Oral with the iPad and reviewing our Success Criteria and learning goals for Travail Oral helped remind students of their goals when doing Travail Oral. Students readily acknowledged that Storyrobe provided more opportunities for more detailed and richer vocabulary use than Fotobabble.

Providing props that encouraged the use of the vocabulary we were learning (as with __Ninon dit non__, and the PlayDough hair cutting props) improved students' production. Their clips were more detailed and they made an effort to use the target vocabulary.

Having students create isolated audio clips is not the ideal oral language task because language is about communication and there is little response to the clips. Students are producing but they are not usually getting a response. That is where an app like VoiceThreads might be better.

Students did not return to the Educreations app for their Travail Oral. It is a great tool to be used for a specific assignment but does not lend itself to the creative creation of oral language. Educreations is a great evolution of pictures, numbers and words structure we used to use for problem solving in math.

=Next Steps= I am wondering if it would be worth purchasing a VoiceThreads account next year to encourage more interaction between students. In order for students to rehearse authentic language use they need the back and forth interactions that VoiceThreads will provide. However, after watching Lindsay struggle with the iPad app for VoiceThreads I will have to research it a little more closely.

Having said that, I will certainly continue to use Fotobabble and Storyrobe as part of the Travail Oral section of the Daily 6 in my classroom next year. I will start with examples (from this year) of good clips and I will attempt to bring in props that will encourage them to use our target vocabulary.

I am also very interested in finding more ways to use Educreations for math next year.

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