Activities using Printable Crossword Maker

Crosswords are a great alternative to practice meaning and spelling. They are suitable for any age in primary and secondary school as well as adult learners. Here a propose two ways of working with puzzles.

Grade: 1st and 2nd Grade

Level: Beginners

After working with animals and animals description, the teacher can create a puzzle that suits the students' knowledge of animals. The hints in the puzzle will contain animals' descriptions for students to practice their reading skills as well.

Students will be graded according to their performance in solving and understanding the activity.

You can find some suggested crosswords puzzles here:

http://www.whenwecrosswords.com/

Grade: 4th Grade and over

Level. Pre-Intermediate and over

Students can be asked to create their own puzzles to share with the class. The teacher can instruct students to work in groups and work with the vocabulary in each unit of the book used in class. After sharing their crossword with the class students will be evaluated on their group work, accuracy of the descriptions, selection of vocabulary, relevancy and spelling.

Check out how to use Printable Crossword Maker here!
http://ictayelenroldan.blogspot.com.ar/2016/11/how-to-use-printable-crossword-maker.html

How to use Printable Crossword Maker

Spread the word!

Printable Crossword Maker is an online tool to create crossword puzzles and word search activities. It is a user friendly and activities can be printed.

Creating your own material provides you with a stock for readymade activities to revisit whenever you want. Some online tools like this ones, make the process of creating original and relevant material that fits your learners' needs. This makes your material appropriate an reliable.  At the same time, it is very easy to use and time saving.

When looking specifically on crossword puzzles when find that students have the opportunity to practice their knowledge in vocabulary, reasoning and spelling. Crosswords bring the students the possibility of differentiating, finding and working with synonyms and antonyms. They are great to review previous knowledge and students are oriented towards the important topics. Moreover, game like activities increase the motivation some learner experience

Learn how to use Printable Crossword Maker from the tutorial below!

1. Enter the webstie http://www.printablecrosswordmaker.com/. You will enter the following website.

2. The website provides a number of option to create your puzzle including creating your own puzzle, creating a word search based on a reading assignment and making a word search from a list of words. In addition, it provides a set or pre-made puzzles arranged by categories.

3. We will click on "Make a Crossword Puzzle" to create our own crossword.

4. You will be directed to the following page in which you will fill the information for the puzzle. Add a title and a description for the assignment.

5. Complete the Word and Hint column with the words and the hints for each word in the crossword.

6. Scroll down when you have included all the words and click on "Create Crossword Puzzle"

7. Your puzzle will be displayed and ready to be printed!

References:

Sharma, P. & Barrett,B. (2007) Blended Learning: Using technology in and beyond the language

Activity using Cacoo

This a suggested activity to apply Cacoo to the classroom

Grade: GCSE students - Adult learners
Level: Intermediate - Upper Intermediate

While working on the topic area of Business, students usually follow a book in which they are introduced to the different key issues to be covered about the subjects.

As students move forward in their studies, they will be asked to create in pairs a diagram that best suits their needs to understand what has been dealt with in the different units about the business world. 

Here is an example involving the three different types of economic system:
https://cacoo.com/diagrams/tUlOPbDGB89S9Pm4
https://cacoo.com/diagrams/tUlOPbDGB89S9Pm4-AC6EE.png

The evaluation criteria of the activity will be based on the appropriate use of the tool, group work, the selection of information, the accurate use of the information and applying to the due date.

Check out how to use Cacoo here!
http://ictayelenroldan.blogspot.com.ar/2016/11/how-to-use-cacoo.html

How to use Cacoo

Let's diagram together!

Cacoo is an online tool which allows to create a number graphic organizers and diagrams for any purpose. It possess easy to use and malleable resources to create the diagram you have in mind.  The tool allows you to create your own diagrams or to work collaboratively with other people on a specific diagram simultaneously. Cacoo also gives you the possibility of sharing your diagrams via email or through a URL code. What's more, it allows you to export your diagram in a variety of formats.

Sharma and Barrett (2007)state that in a blended learning class there must exist a self-study component. In this case, Cacoo offers the possibility od students creating their own web-based material to help develop new ways of studying and organizing information."Learners have the opportunity to work at their own pace and follow their own interests." In addition, this tool provides teacher with the opportunity to assess students understanding of a topic by checking their progress and reviewing their material.

Here is a tutorial to learn how to use Cacoo!

References:

Sharma, P & Barrett,B . (2007) Blended Learning: Using Technology in and beyond the language classroom.

Activity using Jeoparfy.rocks

Here is an activity to apply Wizer.me to your classroom

Grade: 7th Grade
Level: Elementary

Jeopardy.rocks can be used for any language topic you deal with. It provides the opportunity to practice vocabulary, grammar, reading, listening, speaking, etc,

This time I propose an activity based on Literature. After reading the book "Taste and Other Tales" students can play a Jeopardy.rocks game in teams to answer questions about the different stories. The activity will be designed so that the different categories will be portrayed by the different stories and the questions will be more complex as the amount of points go up.

See the sample below:

https://www.jeopardy.rocks/tasteandothertales

Later on, students will be asked to create their own Jeopardy.game to share with the rest of the class based on the different stories or books tackled in the course. The game will be designed in pairs. The activity will be graded based on understainding of the story through the designed questions and answers, how relevant to the story the questions are, due date and commitment to the task.

Check out how to use Jeopardy.rocks here!
http://ictayelenroldan.blogspot.com.ar/2016/11/how-to-use-jeopardyrocks.html

How to use Jeopardy.rocks

Jeopardy certaintly Rocks!

Jeopardy.rocks is an online tool that allows you create a Jeopardy game-like activity to review any content taught. The tool provides a fixed structure containing 6 columns and 6 lines to complete with the categories, questions and answers you would like to apply to the game. It will also provide the amount of points that each question will give to the teams participating. Up to 4 teams will be allowed to play. The tool will add up the points automatically and will provide a winner by the end of the game. Jeopardy.rocks allows a great number of games to be created and recycled whenever you need.

Variety in the type of activities we bring into the classroom is key to catch out student’s attention. A Jeopardy game is a great alternative to make learning fun which always attracts our students’ attention. This tool has the extra advantage of bringing technology into the classroom and a new and original way of practicing language and assessing performance. At the same time, this tool brings to the teacher the possibility of creating authentic and personalized material.

Check out this Jeopardy.rocks tutorial to try it out!

References: 

Dudeney, G., & Hockly, N. (2007). How to teach English with technology. Harlow: Pearson/Longman.

Jeopardy.rocks (n.d.). Retreived October 30, 2016,  from https://www.jeopardy.rocks/

Activity using Wizer.me

This is an activity to apply Wizer.me to your classroom

Grade: 2nd Grade - 3rd Grade
Level: Beginners

Most school in Argentina still do not count with the necessary equipment to provide access to a computer to all students. If this is your case, Wizer.me is a great option to bring techonology into the classroom by taking students to the computer room. They will not have to create any accounts or worksheets and the teacher will be able to communicate to students the necessary procedures to carry out in the computer. Wizer.me can be used for any topic or unit that you are working on. 

Here is a suggestion to work with Wizer.me:

After working with animals vocabulary and animal habitats, students can get extra practice from two worksheets from Wizer.me. The teacher can design a Sorting activity by asking students to classify a set of animals into their correct habitat to later on move on to an open question activity where students will have describe an animal using the structures HAVE GOT/ HAS GOT, HAVEN'T GOT / HASN'T GOT, CAN/ CAN'T, IS/ISN'T.

This activitites can be carried out in pairs or individually. The teacher will prepare all computer in the computer room beforehand and will creat the necessary groups on the webpage to share the worksheets with. The evaluatio will be done according to the system presented by Wizer.me or by the student's production based on the correct use of the grammar structures, spelling, creativity and applying to the task's requeriments.

Check out how to use Wizer.me here!
http://ictayelenroldan.blogspot.com.ar/2016/10/how-to-use-wizerme.html