Apps and Games

You and your classmates probably belong to a 'smart generation' that uses technological devices on a daily basis. Also, you will probably use the Internet connection from your PC or smartphone to play your favourite games or applications (apps). Is that right? Which is your favourite app or game? Well, you do not need to answer yet. Before that, we want to welcome you to this virtual site and tell you a bit about what you will be working on.

James Teophane. Mobile, mobile (CC BY)

This unit is focused on applications and games that can be installed and run from a tablet, smartphone or desktop computer, among other devices. Apart from practising technology-related vocabulary, you will have the chance to revise and learn simple grammar structures, which you will be using in several missions throughout the unit and in the preparation and presentation of the final challenge: a video tutorial about your favourite applications or games. Let's get started!

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EDIA Project: English PBL by CeDeC.

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About you

Our project. General information

The final challenge of this project is to create a video tutorial on your favourite online applications and games. But, before you start creating the video, you need to surf different websites and overcome several missions that will help you gain knowledge and acquire strategies.

Collaborative work is highlighted in this project, which means you will mainly acquire knowledge by working in pairs or small groups. Likewise, you will also work individually on interactive activities to which you will access by clicking on the website links provided.

Do not forget that your teacher can help you whenever necessary on your way towards the big final challenge.

Geralt. Empresario (CC0)

The missions you will have done at the end of this project are:

a written paragraph about teenagers' smartphone use.

a list of suggestions to improve your classmates' text.

a digital poster on several apps and games.

a slide presentation giving instructions on smartphone use.

a call-in radio programme on smartphone security.

a questionnaire based on teens and tweens' routines regarding smartphone use.

a final challenge which consists of a video tutorial explaining about your favourite games or apps.

To create, design and edit your work, you will use the following apps, among others.

Cacoo, an online tool with which you will create wordmaps to work on key vocabulary.

Canva, which will enable you to design and create your own charts.

StoryboardThat. You will use this online app to prepare the drafts for your presentations. 

Google Slides, to create slide presentations.

Wevideo, the tool with which you will create and edit your big final challenge: a videotutorial, which will be published on a YouTube channel.

Notice that you will be performing several missions and we are sure that, by the end of this project, you will be proud of your great work, which you can prepare, publish or share with the help of the online tools and apps listed below.

To publish, you will use Weebly site. An email account is required to create your own site where you will be posting all your missions. Within this site, you will create a blog entitled 'Your learning diary', in which you will be including relevant information regarding your learning process.

To share your work with your classmates, you will use Pinterest, a digital board where you can publish your tasks and share them with your classmates.

Throughout the project, your teacher may award you with a badge from Class Badges in case of excellent performance. 

Evaluation

Your progress on this project will be assessed according to the following criteria:

Teacher's evaluation: your teacher will use the assessment rubrics to evaluate your work on the missions and the final challenge. This will be 40% of the final mark.

'Rubric for assessing informative/explanatory texts'

'Rubric for assessing your digital poster'

'Rubric for assessing your slide presentation'

'Rubric for assessing your radio programme'

'Rubric for assessing your questionnaire'

'Rubric for assessing your videotutorial'

'Rubric for assessing your digital site' ,where you will publish all your work of this and other projects.

Peer evaluation: you will assess other partners by creating your own assessment sheet with the items that you consider as appropriate or by using the assessment rubrics listed above. This will be 20% of the final mark.

You will self-evaluate the final outcome using the document 'Rubric for assessing the project'. This rubric brings together the main criteria for assessing your missions and challenge and it is a 20% of the final mark.

Teacher's observation in class based on your degree of participation in the project and how well you perform all the missions will be 20%.

As you can see, you will get entirely involved in this project by acquiring, creating and sharing contents as well as assessing both, your own and you classmates' learning process.

Are you a "smart user"?

We will start this project by presenting a video about the use of smartphones.

By the end of this mission, you will have:

learnt about several uses of smartphones;

written a short paragraph about you regarding smartphone use.

Before watching the video, discuss with your class the following questions:

In America, getting a smartphone at the end of primary school or beginning of secondary school is the norm. Is it the same in your area?

Have you got a smartphone, tablet or any other smart device?

Now, click on the image below and watch the video entitled Mr Selfie. After watching, answer the questions below.

Mr Selfie 

Pair work

Write down the actions that people do with their electronic devices. Compare your list with your classmate's list.

Do you do the same actions with your smartphone?

Write down other activities that you and your partner usually do with your smartphones.

What apps have you got in your smartphone? What about your partner?

Your opinion

On the video, you can see Mr Selfie using his smartphone for different purposes.

Do you think people spend too long using mobile apps or playing games? What about you?

Do your parents restrict your time to use an electronic device? How long do you usually spend on it?

Which app(s) do you normally use the most? What do you use them for?

Keep your answers for the writing practice that you will post on your weebly website. 

Writing about you

Your first mission in this project is to write a paragraph on smartphone use. This paragraph will be your first post on your weebly website that you will have created previously by signing up with your school email address and a personal password. In case that you need some help on how to use Weebly, watch the Weebly 2014 tutorial.

Jsks. Moe (CC0)

The following instructions can help you fulfill your mission successfully.

Your site homepage must include a title, an index and a brief description.

Within your site, create another page entitled "My writing guide" where you will include your paragraph about smartphone use.

To write your paragraph, use the answers that you have provided in the previous section and connect them with the connectors listed below. Remember that they can help you put your ideas in a logical order.

In my case...

Regarding...

On the other hand...

Finally...

Your text will be assessed taking into account the criteria included in the `Rubric for assessing informative/explanatory texts'.

Before you start writing, we recommend that you read the information below and practise linking words and the Present simple tense with some interactive activities.

Connectors or linking words are words which you can use to link your ideas. They can express addition, contrast, order, personal point of view, etc. Enter the englishexercises.org site and learn about the use of some other linking words.

For a correct use of the verbs in your paragraph, visit the agendaweb.org site and revise the use and form of the Present Simple tense.

Finally, do not forget to use correct puctuation in your text.

Learning diary

In this mission, you are going to start creating your Learning Diary. It will help you reflect on what you are learning and, most important, what the best way for learning is.

Peter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

In your Weebly website, you have the possibility to create a blog which you will entitle  'Your fauvorite apps and games'. This is going to be your Learning Diary.

After reading all the instructions related to your first mission, we encourage you to reflect and answer the questions below in your diary. Make a first post on your blog with the title "About you" and write your answers:

How could I sum up the sequence of contents I am going to deal with? What do I have to achieve to overcome the mission?

From my point of view, what aspects or tasks are the most important to be developed in this project? What do I expect to learn throughout this work project?

What difficulties may I face? What ideas come to my mind for developing the content sequence?

What doubts do I still have?

Do not forget it would be great if you shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates. You will have 10 or 15 minutes to complete this part.

Feedback

Please, we strongly recommend you reflect and think about the development of your first mission:

Is it clear for me how to access and manage the site where I will be publishing all my work based on this and other projects?

Can I use correctly connectors in English?

Can I speak and write about routines using the Present simple tense?

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Sharing online

If you like it, pin it!

At the end of this section, you will have...

shared your paragraph with classmates.

learnt about how to improve a written paragraph.

practised expressions to make suggestions.

reported to the whole class about ideas in your group.

worked on smartphone use vocabulary.

In this project we consider collaborative work as very important. For this reason, you are going to start sharing your missions with other students so that you can help them at the same time as they help you improve your tasks.

Geralt. Nube (CC0)

For a start, you will enter your site at Weebly to recover the paragraph about smartphone use that you wrote in the previous section. Do you think your text can be improved?

Let your classmates give you some tips on how you can write a good basic paragraph. Likewise, try to make some suggestions to other students. Now, your previous work needs to have included  some new information regarding good wriiting.

Remember that your reference to check the texts must be the document `Rubric to assess informative/explanatory texts'.

Follow these steps

Watch the video How to write a basic paragraph to get some ideas. 

Answer these questions orally:

What guidelines should you follow to write a good text? 

Is there anything else that you must consider for writing a good paragraph or text? Brainstorm ideas with your classmates and teacher.

Watch the video IELTS Writing - Coherence & Cohesion and check if you considered the same or some other tips for good writing.

Now that you all know a bit more about good writing, it is time to share it with some of your classmates. Enter your site, more concretely the page entitled "My writing guide", where you posted your paragraph. Click on the social network buttons and choose P, which stands for Pinterest, the tool with which you are going to share your text with other three students. Likewise, the other students will share their text with you.

Tip: accompany your text with an image related to your text topic. You can upload it from your PC or find it on the Internet.

After reading your classmates' paragraphs, answer the following questions orally:

Were your ideas about the use of smartphones approximately the same?

How can you improve your classmates' text? Did your classmates use connectors correctly?

You will be able to answer these questions properly after practising the language contents presented below.

Upgrading your text

From the ideas that you all have suggested in your text regarding smartphone use, create a wordmap entitled 'smartphone vocabulary' using the online app cacoo.com. Sign in at this site and include all the expressions that are new to you. Your teacher will check that you include key vocabulary in your wordmap.

Once you finish your wordmap, copy the url link and include it in your site, within a section entitled "smartphone vocabulary".Remember that you will need to use the words and expressions included here in your final challenge.

Geralt. Grupo (CC0)

Now, you will focus your attention on tips you can give to improve your classmates' texts.

For suggesting some tips, you can use expressions such as:

I think you need to/must/should ...

How about ...?

It is a good idea to ...

My suggestion/advice is that you ...

Why don't you ...?

You could (try) ...

Enter the BBC learning English site and identify some of the expressions above that are mentioned on a radio programme. In the mission that you are about to carry out, try to use some of these expressions to suggest your partners how to improve their paragraph in terms of content and grammar structures.

Do you know how to accept or refuse suggestions? Click on myenglishpages.com and notice several expressions that you can use to answer your classmates.

In order to fulfill the mission successfully, you will need to follow these instructions:

your teacher will create a group of four students.

from your site, you will click on P, which stands for Pinterest, where you will be sharing your paragraphs.

leave comments on whether you agree or not with your classmates' opinion about the use of smartphones and suggest ways of improving your classmates' text. Use the language structures and vocabulary that you have previously learnt.

In your group, discuss about which paragraph was the best and give a badge to the student who wrote it, according to your own opinion.

After having read and commented on the paragraphs, your group will report to the teacher and the whole class the ideas that the four of you had in common. Remember to add any new words or expressions to your wordmap and post it back on your weebly site.

Finally, at your site, enter the page 'My writing guide' and include all the tips and suggestions that you have received from your classmates.

Learning Diary

As you did in the previous section, reflect on how you have performed this mission in your Learning Diary.

Peter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

Create a new post on your blog with the title  'Sharing online' and answer the following questions:

What are the most difficult aspects?

What tool was the most difficult for you to work with?

What do you think is the most important aspect you have learned?

Are there any aspects you didn't understand?

Do not forget it would be great if you shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates. You will have 10 or 15 minutes to complete this part.

Feedback

Please we strongly recommend you reflect and think about the evolution of the project:

What you are really learning during the project.

What the difficult aspects are.

Value how we are working as a group and try to solve the problems we have had until now.

Please, clarify everything you did not understand.

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At the Play store

Using online apps & games

An online shop offers smart users a wide range of apps and games to play, learn or just get informed. Many of them are free and you just need to connect your phone to the Net and download to use them. 

At the end of this section, you will have:

written down and talked about the use of some apps.

expressed capacity and possibility.

searched further information about other apps and games.

designed a digital poster on your favourite apps and games.

A smartphone or any other smart device can be very useful and can make our lives easier. There are plenty of apps and games that you can run for different purposes: for entertainment or for learning and doing homework. 

Look at the picture and answer the questions below.

geralt. Medios de comunicación social (CC0)

Apart from calling and texting, what can you do with your smartphone?

What can you do with apps such as Twitter or Instagram?

Watch one image about app uses. Can you add more categories below? 

Social Networking

Entertainment

Learning

Shopping

The process that you are about to follow will help you meaningfully in your next mission: the elaboration of a digital poster. So we recommend that you read carefully the steps below. 

Your teacher will divide your classgroup in groups of five students. Each group will be alloted one of the categories above or one that you may have added.

Create a board on Pinterest in which you all will include names of apps that share the same use.

Invite the other groups to add more names of apps to your category.

Help enhance other groups' boards by adding names of apps related to categories different from the one in your board.

Tip: remember to include images representing the apps in your board.

The site Techradar can help you in your search. This web presents information about top apps and games. Enter the site and read about their characteristics.

In order to get some more information about apps, watch the video entitled Facebook, Instagram and Social Advice at commonsensemedia.org.

When finished, you will be able to include a link to your board from your weebly site, in the vocabulary section that you have created in the previous session.

Creating a digital poster

Focus on four of your favourite apps or games and take notes about their use. You can also refer to online games by explaining how people play them. The information that you write down will be included in your final mission: the design of a digital poster.

Use "can" and "can't", useful forms to say sentences such as:

You can take and edit photos with this app.

It can't play MP4 files.

Can Youtube play videos?

For further practice of these verbs, enter the englishexercises.org site.

Also, you will probably use  "must", "mustn't" or "have to" when you refer to the rules in a game. Practise these and other verbs at agendaweb.org, where you will find a great variety of interactive activities. Remember that you can check your own answers after completing the activities.  

Tip: try to practise these language contents as much as possible because you will use them in the presentation of your final challenge: a videotutorial about your favourite apps and games.

geralt. Árbol (CC0)

Speaking task

Get together in groups of four students and compare the apps and games that each of you has chosen.

Take turns to ask and answer the other members in the group about the uses of some apps and, in the case of games, about their rules.

Your digital poster

Click on "show feedback" below and read the instructions to create your poster, which you must publish on a new page entitled 'My digital resources' in your weebly site and share on Pinterest with your mates.

You will work on your poster more easily if you know about the 'Rubric for assessing a digital poster' that your teacher will consider for assessing your mission.

Feedback

There are several tools with which you can create your poster. Choose the one that best fits you or ask your teacher for advice.

padlet

popplet

lino

mural.ly

smore

Notice that all the tools have four main characteristics in common:           

you can include images, video, text and audio;

you can share your poster with other people;

you can embed it anywhere on the Internet;

you can check how many people have viewed your poster.

In your poster, include some images or videos of your favourite apps and games and a brief explanation of what you can do with them. 

In case you do not know very well how to use these tools, several tutorials are available on YouTube, in which experts tell you about how to create a digital poster.

When you finish, publish your poster in your site so that your classmates can see it. The classgroup will vote for the best poster, which will be awarded with a badge from your teacher.

Learning diary

How is it going? Open again your Learning Diary on your site and write down your reflections on your work progress.

your learning diaryPeter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

 Create a new post on your blog with the title  'At the play store' and answer the following questions:

What are the most difficult aspects?

What tool was the most difficult for you to work with?

What do you think is the most important aspect you have learned?

Are there any aspects you didn't understand?

Do not forget it would be great if you shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates. You will have 10 or 15 minutes to complete this part.

Feedback

Please we strongly recommend you reflect and think about the evolution of the project:

What you are really learning during the project.

What the difficult aspects are.

Value how we are working as a group and try to solve the problems we have had until now.

Please, clarify everything you did not understand.

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 4.0

Download completed

From the cloud to your e-device

Downloading apps and games onto a smart device is a simple task. You just need to look for the type of app or game you like, download it and play. If you don't like it, you have the choice to remove it into the garbage can. 

At the end of this section, you will have:

listened to instructions related to application downloads.

learnt about computer-related verbs.

revised and learnt some modal verbs and the imperative mode.

given some instructions on how to download, install and remove apps and games on your phone.

geralt. Teléfono móvil (CC0) 

First, let us watch the video Huawei Vision 2: Using Smartphone Apps Consumer Cellular. Watch and listen carefully to how you can download, install and remove apps and games.

While watching, try to do the following tasks:

Write down four or five actions that you need to do when downloading, installing or removing an app from an online shop.

If you cannot grasp any of the verbs that are mentioned, use a dictionary to check their meaning in your language.

Write down the different steps that are mentioned on the video or as many as you can.

Compare the steps that you have written down with your classmates'. Have you all got the same steps?

Your teacher will check your answers and will write down all the steps on the blackboard. Make sure that you understand all the verbs/actions because you will use them later.

Giving instructions in English is very easy. Notice the verbs your teacher has used to report the necessary steps to download an app or game. Can you tell your classmates any instructions to be followed? In the next section, you will be working on language contents that you can use to give orders.

Grammar point: giving instructions

When giving instructions, you can introduce your sentences with expressions such as: 

You need to open an account with Google.

You have to / must sign in to access your account.

Also, you can use the imperative form, which is easier:

Sign in to access your account.

Don't press the button yet.

Open a Gmail account.

For more practice about the use of "need to", "must" and "have to", enter the agendaweb.org site.

You can reinforce your knowledge about imperative sentences by doing the activities at uvic.ca site.

geralt. Dedo (CC0)

In order to give instructions, you will also need to use verbs which refer to e-device management. This padlet wall `Apps and Games' contains a list of verbs and three activities to practise vocabulary. Create a wordmap at cacoo.com and add the verbs from the activities that you did on the padlet wall. Copy your wordmap URL to your vocabulary section in your site.

A more complete list of verbs allows you to broad your knowledge about computer-related verbs.

Check the pronunciation of some verbs at the blairenglish.com site.

Your presentation - You are the commander!

Now your classmates and you will take control of the situation. Your mission consists of doing an oral presentation on the necessary steps to install an app for learning English. You can choose the app from the busyteacher.org site.

Please, follow these steps: 

your teacher will set you in groups of three students.

open Google Slides and start creating a slide presentation covering these points: a self-introduction, the selection of an app, the steps that people must follow to download it and final recommendations.

invite your partners to edit the presentation so that you can work in a collaborative way.

use the verb forms that you have learnt.

remember to include titles, images and credits.

present orally your slideshow in front of your classmates.

On your videotutorial, which is your final challenge, you will have to include some instructions on how to install some apps and games, so we encourage you to practise the language contents presented here as much as possible.

Read the criteria in the 'Rubric for assessing a slide presentation' that your teacher will take into account to evaluate your work. 

Once your presentation is finished, you can embed your slideshow in your site, on the page entitled 'My digital resources' and share it with the rest of the classgroup on Pinterest.

Learning Diary

We hope you finished your mission successfully. Reflect on how you performed it and write down your reflections and thoughts about your learning process in your Learning Diary. This will help you become aware of what you have achieved or what you need to reinforce.

Peter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

Create a new post on your blog with the title  'Download completed' and answer the following questions:

What are the most difficult aspects?

What tool was the most difficult for you to work with?

What do you think is the most important aspect you have learned?

Are there any aspects you didn't understand?

Do not forget it would be great if you shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates. You will have 10 or 15 minutes to complete this part.

Feedback

Please, we strongly recommend you reflect and think about the evolution of the project:

What you are really learning during the project.

What the difficult aspects are.

Value how we are working as a group and try to solve the problems we have had until now.

Please, clarify everything you did not understand.

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 4.0

Playing safely

Following your digital print

Entering personal information into your smartphone or tablet and sharing it with people you don't know can be very risky. In this part of the project, we will be looking at security questions on the use of smart devices.

At the end of this section, you will have:

listened to some information about the responsible use of electronic devices.

written down the do's and dont's on the use of smartphones.

revised and learnt must and mustn't.

revised and learnt the modal verb should to give advice.

recorded a phone-in programme on smartphone security.

edar.(CC0)

Let us reflect for a while on security of smartphones. Answer the following questions orally:

Is searching the Net on your phone safer than searching it on a desktop computer?

Do you think people need some protection when using their mobile phones? 

Click on the image below and listen to some relevant information.

Play videocommonsensemedia.org

While watching and listening, discuss the following questions with a classmate:

what is not advisable to do when using your phone?

What measures do you need to take if you want to be/feel safe when you are using the Internet on your phone?

Comment your ideas about good and bad smartphone uses with the classgroup and your teacher.

Sexting or non-wanted contacts are two major problems that teenagers may face when they get online. The site esafety.com presents relevant information about these and other possible risks when you connect your smartphone to the net. Enter the site and read ways of staying safe online. Your teacher will point out the most relevant issues.

Grammar point: obligation, prohibition and advice

Log in at cacoo.com and create a chart with three columns with the headings 'you must' , 'you should / you shouldn't' and 'you mustn't'.

Select one of the three columns to answer each of these questions:

Which actions are mandatory?

Which actions are advisable?

Which actions are prohibited?

Type below each heading the information that you think is correct or wrong when using smartphones. 

Export your chart to your Weebly site.

geralt. Castle (CC0)

With these modal verbs, you express obligation, advice and prohibition. These expressions will be useful for the phone-in radio programme, which is the mission you are about to carry out. For that reason, we encourage you to practise them with activities at the englishexercises.org site.

Phone-in radio programme - role play

For this mission, you will perform a role play based on a phone-in programme about smartphone security. Each student in the group will play a role. The guidelines below will help you fulfill the mission successfully. Please, read them carefully.

Your teacher will set you in groups of four and allot the following roles:

Students A, B and C: teenagers who are into technology and often play online games and use social networks such as Facebook and Instagram. Take turns to talk about a bad experience that you have had when getting online. Ask the expert for advice.

Student D: expert on smartphone security. Ask students A, B and C about their smartphone use routines and give them some advice and instructions for using online apps and games in a safe and responsible way.

Take into account that your teacher will consider the criteria reflected in the `Rubric to assess a podcasting'.

Follow the instructions below to prepare your radio programme:

write a storyboard with storyboardThat including these points: introduction to the programme, questions about teenagers smartphone use and advice and instructions on security online.

practise your conversation as much as you can.

sign in at Voicethread, which is a free online tool.

record your voices through the webcam.

insert an image or video related to the topic of your discussion.

start a discussion with the topic 'Phone-in programme: teenagers' smartphone use'.

save your voicethread and copy the URL link to your page 'My digital resources' in your site. 

The use of the language contents that you are going to practise here will be required in your final challenge as you will need to include in your video some pieces of advice regarding smartphone security.

In case you need some extra help on how to use voicethread, watch the video Tutorial voicethread.

Share the link to your radio programme on Pinterest with other student groups. The class group will vote for the most interesting programme, which will be awarded with a badge.

Tip: when using Pinterest, remember to include a picture to illustrate the link to your radio programme.

After having listened to your classmates' radio programmes, are you sure of the measures that teenagers need to take regarding smartphone use? Take this quiz and check how much you have learnt.

Finally, post the link to your programme on your site, on the page 'My digital resources'.

Learning diary

One last thing, but not the least. It is very important that you reflect on how you felt while you were learning the contents and preparing the phone-in radio programme.

Peter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

Create a new post on your blog with the title  'Playing safely' and answer the following questions:

What are the most difficult aspects?

What tool was the most difficult for you to work with?

What do you think is the most important aspect you have learned?

Are there any aspects you didn't understand?

Do not forget it would be great if you shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates. You will have 10 or 15 minutes to complete this part.

Feedback

Please we strongly recommend you reflect and think about the evolution of the project:

What you are really learning during the project.

What the difficult aspects are.

Value how we are working as a group and try to solve the problems we have had until now.

Please, clarify everything you did not understand.

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 4.0

Statistics: showing the results

Asking your classmates

Your classmates and you may use electronic devices for different purposes. Do you use the same apps as your classmates do? What about the time that you spend chatting online with your friends? Your mission here is to prepare a questionnaire to find out the answers to these and other questions related to teenagers' smartphone habits.

At the end of this section, you will have: 

read some statistics and reviews about games and apps.

learnt about interrogative sentences.

carried out a questionnaire on teenagers' preferences about apps and games.

reported the results with an infograph.

If you are going to carry out a survey or questionnaire, it is really important that you set suitable questions that help you obtain the information that you are looking for. Also, you should do some research to collect relevant information about the topic that interests you.

geralt. Los hombres (CC0)

Before starting to prepare the questionnaire, enter the official dailymail.com site and read some statistics about teenagers' phone habits.

Discuss these two questions with a partner:

Do the figures in the article surprise you or do you think they are normal?

Do you consider yourself as  addicted to your e device?

Draw a chart with cacoo and complete it with phrases referred to smartphone addiction, from your point of view. Export the chart to your site.

At the ansanolex.com site, you can find relevant data about teenagers' use of smartphones for your questionnaire, which will be your next mission.

We recommend that you enter the wikihow site and read several tips on how to prepare a good questionnaire.

Post the list of phrases and ideas that you consider as relevant for preparing your questionnaire on the page 'My writing guide' in your weebly site.

Preparing your questionnaire

Obviously, you need to know how to ask questions for carrying out your mission successfully. That is why we recommend that you click on the changingminds.org link and revise and learn about both, open questions and closed questions.

Also, you can practise interrogative sentences at englishexercises.org and agendaweb.org before you start preparing your questionnaire.

Likewise, the iteslj.org site presents question samples, very similar to the ones you need to use in your questionnaire.

geralt. Intercambio de información (CC0)

Please, follow the steps below to complete the mission:

your teacher will set groups of three students.

prepare the questions for the questionnaire. They can be open or closed questions.

for some questions, provide three answers from where to choose.

the questions that you ask must be related to these categories:

teenagers' smartphone use (texting, play music, play games,make calls, etc.).

types of apps and what teenagers use them for (Twitter for social networking, etc.).

types of games teenagers play (single, multi-player, sports, shooting, etc).

when and where teenagers usually get connected.

teenage habits regarding use of smartphones (to find out the degree of addiction).

Remember: write two or three questions per category. 

Once you have your questionnaire ready, share it on Pinterest with the rest of students in your class. Add some images to illustrate the questions.

Collect your classmates' answers.

In your group, comment on your partners' answers and create a graph to show the results of your questionnaire. You can use the tool Canva to do this task. Once you publish your graph, share it with your partners on Pinterest.

Your set of questions will be evaluated by your teacher following the criteria in the 'Rubric for assessing a questionnaire'.

Remember that you must refer to the data that you have obtained from your questionnaire in the final challenge.

Finally, post your graph on your site, on the page entitled 'My digital resources'.

Suggestion

You can prepare your questionnaire with Google forms or Quizlet online apps. Both have tutorials available which you can find on Youtube. If you decide to prepare your questionnaire with either tool, remember to post it on your site, within the page 'My digital resources'. 

These are only some ideas but, of course, you can suggest other ways to create your questionnaire. Any ideas?

Learning diary

This has been your last mission before the final big challenge. Did you have any problems with the questionnaire? Were you able to reflect the results in a graph?

Peter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

Create a new post on your blog with the title  'Statistics: showing the results' and answer the following questions:

What are the most difficult aspects?

What tool was the most difficult for you to work with?

What do you think is the most important aspect you have learned?

Are there any aspects you didn't understand?

Do not forget it would be great if you shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates. You will have 10 or 15 minutes to complete this part.

Feedback

Please we strongly recommend you reflect and think about the evolution of the project:

What you are really learning during the project.

What the difficult aspects are.

Value how we are working as a group and try to solve the problems we have had until now.

Please, clarify everything you did not understand.

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You are the expert

Your knowledge on the screen

You are about to finish this project on the evolving world of online apps and games. We would like to suggest you a final challenge that will let you show yourself how much you know about this topic. 

At the end of this section, you will have:

put together and organized all the contents that you have learnt all along the project.

designed a storyboard for your video.

edited and published a video about favourite apps and games. 

edar.(CC0)

You will take this final step together with three other students. Remember that you can help them, but also learn from them!!

Your challenge

Get ready to face the big challenge consisting of the creation of a videotutorial based on your favourite apps and games. In order to do that, you need to follow these steps:

Your teacher will put you together in groups of four students.

Write a story board with storyboardThat including the text and images that will appear in your video.

Choose two apps and two games that you all like and search for further information about them.

geralt. Tira de película (CC0)

Take into account that the final outcome must deal with the main topics that you have been working on all along the project. These are:

General introduction to smartphone use (refer to teenagers as main users and their purposes to get connected to their phones).

Presentation of  the apps and games that you have chosen (give a short explanation on their use).

Give instructions on how to download them into a smartphone.

Recommend how to use and play them safely.

Conclude with a report about teenagers' favourite apps and games (you can take this information from the questionnaire, the mission that you carried out in the section entitled Statistics: showing the results).

Watch the tutorial about how to edit the video with Wevideo.

Your teacher will allot the roles in each group. Watch out both the contents and the form of your video. Use titles, subtitles, search attractive images and care your pronunciation while recording your voices.

Once you finish your video, your teacher will publish it on a YouTube channel. Also, you will include the link to your video in your site, concretely in the page that you entitled 'My digital resources'.

Your final challenge will be assessed by your teacher and mates according to the criteria stated in the 'Rubric for assessing a videotutorial'.

Promoting your work

You have made a great effort to complete all the missions and the challenge within this project. At this final stage of the project, we encourage you to show it to as many people as possible. The promotion of your project is a very important part of your work. Otherwise, what is the point in doing such a hard work if nobody knows about it?

geralt. Iconos sociales (CC0)

In order to make this possible, we present you three different activities you must / could develop:

Why don't you show all your work to your family, friends and classmates? In groups, you will prepare and develop a complete presentation of your work. The final result can be developed in the classroom or/and recorded as a video that will be uploaded on a channel.

We want you to promote it by using the social network Pinterest. Here, you can create a board where you must include all the links to the outcomes that you have completed. Remember to insert images to illustrate each mission. You will find out the number of people that pin your tasks, which means they like them a lot.

Another promotional activity can be done by using your own school web page. Your teacher will create a page entitled 'English Portfolio - 2nd Year CSE'  in your school website and will include the links to your classmates and your own Weebly site. This would be not only a good way of promoting your work within your school community, but also a way of reaching a higher number of people interested in learning English through collaborative projects.

Any other ideas? Can you imagine other ways of promoting your work?

Learning diary - Project assessment

Your participation in this project will be completely finished after you evaluate your own experience all along your learning process. 

Peter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

Please, enter the documents below and answer the questions.

Classroom experience assessment

Reflection on your project work

By answering the questions, you will become aware of all the work that you have been able to do easily and of the difficulties that you may have come across. Besides, from your evaluation, your teacher will find out which contents and aspects of the project were meaningful to your learning process and which ones need to be modified because they did not help you achieve the project objectives.

You can discuss the questions with some classmates with whom you have shared the missions and challenge.

Finally, add your answers to  "Your favourite apps and games", the learning diary that you have created in your site. Create a final post summarizing all these reflections. In this case, you will decide the title of this post.

Feedback

At this point, it could very useful for you to focus on these questions:

Did you have the same difficulties as your classmates in the accomplishment of the missions?

Which missions did you find the most difficult to carry out?

Has collaborative work been a positive experience to you? Why/ why not?

Do you prefer learning from textbooks or from online projects like this one?

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Didactic Guidelines

General guidelines for teachers

This project is part of a set of projects entitled 'Digital World' which is based on the curriculum for the 2nd year of compulsory secondary education.

The following objectives have been considered in the design of this project:

to learn while working on a project.

to encourage collaborative work, since most assignments require information sharing and interaction with other students.

to foster students' self-learning process by using IT resources.

to reinforce students' communicative skills through activities of listening and reading comprehension, but above all, through tasks in which they must produce their own oral and written messages.

The project includes several stages that students will need to go through to eventually do the final challenge based on the production of a tutorial about their favourite online applications and games. Within this learning resource, relevant language contents can be practised and a wide range of tasks is presented so that students are encouraged to practise and improve the linguistic skills required for their final output.

geralt. (CC0)

This unit starts with the About you section in which students are required to answer some questions based on a video related to the use of smartphones. This section aims at fostering students' reflection on their lives as netizens. Here, students will create a written paragraph giving their personal opinion about the topic.

Sharing online. In this section, students will focus their attention on the channels that they will use to publish and share all their work as we think that they will be happy to showcase their familiy and classmates the poster, slideshow, writing composition, radio programme, graph, etc. that they will have done throughout the project. From the wide range of websites and social networks available, we suggest that students have their own site at weebly.com, just like a portfolio, where they can post all their work and complete a Learning diary that will help them reflect on their own learning process.

Encourage students to design their site following a clear structure. Their site must contain at least these pages:

Homepage, the first and main page which must include a title, index, images and a description of the project.

'My writing guide' . This page will include all the student's writing tasks and tips for good writing.

'Smartphone vocabulary'. Students will include here links to the wordmaps that they create using key vocabulary.

'My digital resources'. On this page, students will publish the links to the tasks that they will have created with digital tools, like their digital poster, slideshow, radio programme and video.

On the other hand, students can use Pinterest to share their outcome with the people they like. Google drive apps will be also used for writing texts and preparing presentations collaboratively. Besides, students can collect and add notes about vocabulary and grammar using online tools such as cacoo and padlet.

At the Play Store presents mainly the vocabulary and grammar necessary so that, at the end of the section, students manage to explain about the use of their favourite apps and games. They will design a digital poster where they can include relevant contents.

Download completed provides students with the possibility to practise instructions using computer-related vocabulary. By the end of this section, students will have created a slide presentation with the necessary steps to download and install apps and games into e-devices.

The Playing safely section presents modal verbs of prohibition, obligation and advice which students can practise through a role play based on a call-in radio programme. Besides, students can learn about tips to get online with their smartphones in a safe way.

At the Statistics: showing the results section, students will find out about teenagers' habits regarding smartphone use by preparing and asking a questionnaire so that they can get relevant information from their classmates. The results of this questionnaire will be reflected on a graph that each group.

Finally, the You are the expert section challenges students to show how much they have learnt about online apps and games. They will have to create a video tutorial on their favourite apps and games, using the language contents they have focused on.

Assessment

Evaluation

As a teacher, you can use the rubrics referred to each mission and challenge to evaluate your students. This will be 40% of the final mark.

'Rubric for assessing written texts'

'Rubric for assessing a digital poster'

'Rubric for assessing a slide presentation'

'Rubric for assessing a radio programme'

'Rubric for assessing a questionnaire'

'Rubric for assessing a videotutorial'

'Rubric for assessing a digital site' where students will publish all their work of this and other projects.

Students will also play an important and active role in the evaluation process.

Alexander Henning Drach. Question Mark in Esbjerg (CC BY-SA)

peer evaluation: students will assess other partners by creating their own assessment sheet with the items that they consider as appropriate or by using the assessment rubrics listed above. This will be 20% of the final mark.

students will self-evaluate their work using  the criteria stated in the 'Rubric for assessing the project'. This makes 20% of the final mark.

teacher's observation in class based on students' degree of participation in the project and how well they perform all the missions will be 20%.

Remember that the 'Rubric for assessing the project'. is an important document where relevant criteria are gathered up to evaluate your students' main missions and challenge.

Timing

This project has been designed to be worked on along approximately fifteen 50-minute sessions. However, feel free to adjust the time sequence according to your students' learning pace and needs.

Sese Ingolstadt. Bahnsteiguhr.jpg (CC BY-SA)

For carrying out this project, remember that you can follow the flipped classroom-based pedagogical model with which the majority of assignments such as watching videos, reading texts, doing collaborative work online or writing down doubts about contents can be done at students' home. Later on, in the classroom, you can revisit the concepts students do not understand and offer them support in the realization of their missions and final challenge.

Resources

Language Resources

In this project, students are presented several language contents that they can practise by clicking on the links below:

Mr Selfie on Vimeo -video

Linking words - activities

Present simple - activities

Grammar video – Present simple

How to write a basic paragraph – video

Improve your English writing – video

Making suggestions – listening

How to accept suggestions - useful expressions

Presentation of top online apps and games

Smartphone apps - video

Can / can’t – interactive activity

Must / have to/ mustn’t- interactive activities

Using smartphone apps – video

Online dictionary

Imperative – theory and practice

Computer verbs – dictionary

Computer verbs- pronunciation         

Apps for learning English 

Following the digital trail – video

Cybersmart – website advising on teens' smartphone use

How cybersmart are you?- quiz

Smartphone use - website showing statistics

Open and closed questions - theory and practice

Yes/no questions -interactive activity

Present simple – interrogative sentences. Interactive activities

Set of conversation questions

Online Apps

Throughout this project, we suggest a wide range of open source apps and tools with which students will carry out their missions and final challenge. However, feel free to replace them or recommend your students others which you think are more suitable according to their profiles and needs.

Weebly site

Pinterest

Cacoo

Canva

Padlet

Google slides

Storyboardthat

Voicethread

Google forms

Quizlet

Wevideo

YouTube channel

How to

Some links to tutorials are provided throughout the project to help your students  learn about how several online tools work so that they can perform their work more easily.

How to create and edit a Weebly site

Pinterest 2015 tutorial for Educationn

Video on Voicethread

WikiHow, an explanatory site presenting some tips on how to prepare a questionnaire 

How to create and edit a video with Wevideo

Remember that you can find more tutorials about other online apps and tools on YouTube.

Project Mindmap

Contents (LOMCE Curriculum)

At the end of the project, students will have been able to work on the following contents:

listening and reading activities: students understand general information and identify specific information in oral and written messages.

writing  a basic and logical paragraph on  teenagers' routines regarding smartphone use.

use of the Present Simple tense to refer to daily actions.

use of linking words to express several semantic relationships.

expressions to make suggestions: students' interaction.

giving orders using the imperative mode.

expression of capacity, prohibition, obligation and advice with modal verbs.

students' interaction: phone-in radio programme.

use of open and closed questions to find out relevant information in a questionnaire.

pronunciation practice: intonation in open and closed questions.

use of technology-related vocabulary.

Notice that all the contents are related to the four blocks stated in the new curriculum for the first foreign language area in the first cycle of compulsory secondary education. These four blocks are comprehension of oral messages, production of oral messages: expression and interaction, comprehension of written texts and production of written texts: expression and interaction.

Learning Standards (LOMCE)

At the end of the project, students will have been able to practise and acquire the following learning standards stated in the BOE (3rd January 2015) regarding the curriculum for the first cycle of CSE.

Bloque 1. Comprensión de textos orales

1. Capta los puntos principales y detalles relevantes de indicaciones, anuncios, mensajes y comunicados breves y articulados de manera lenta y clara (p. e. cambio de puerta de embarque en un aeropuerto, información sobre actividades en un campamento de verano, o en el contestador automático de un cine), siempre que las condiciones acústicas sean buenas y el sonido no esté distorsionado.

2. Identifica el sentido general y los puntos principales de una conversación formal o informal entre dos o más interlocutores que tiene lugar en su presencia, cuando el tema le resulta conocido y el discurso está articulado con claridad, a velocidad media y en una variedad estándar de la lengua.

3. Comprende, en una conversación informal en la que participa, descripciones, narraciones, puntos de vista y opiniones sobre asuntos prácticos de la vida diaria y sobre temas de su interés, cuando se le habla con claridad, despacio y directamente y si el interlocutor está dispuesto a repetir o reformular lo dicho.

4. Comprende, en una conversación formal, o entrevista (p. e. en centros de estudios o de trabajo) en la que participa lo que se le pregunta sobre asuntos personales, educativos, ocupacionales o de su interés, así como comentarios sencillos y predecibles relacionados con los mismos, siempre que pueda pedir que se le repita, aclare o elabore algo de lo que se le ha dicho.

5. Distingue, con el apoyo de la imagen, las ideas principales e información relevante en presentaciones sobre temas educativos, ocupacionales o de su interés (p. e., sobre un tema curricular, o una charla para organizar el trabajo en equipo).

Bloque 2. Producción de textos orales: expresión e interacción

1. Hace presentaciones breves y ensayadas, bien estructuradas y con apoyo visual (p. e. transparencias o PowerPoint), sobre aspectos concretos de temas de su interés o relacionados con sus estudios u ocupación, y responde a preguntas breves y sencillas de los oyentes sobre el contenido de las mismas.

2. Participa en conversaciones informales cara a cara o por teléfono u otros medios técnicos, en las que establece contacto social,
intercambia información y expresa opiniones y puntos de vista, hace invitaciones y ofrecimientos, pide y ofrece cosas, pide y da indicaciones o instrucciones, o discute los pasos que hay que seguir para realizar una actividad conjunta.

3. Toma parte en una conversación formal, reunión o entrevista de carácter académico u ocupacional (p. e. para realizar un curso de verano, o integrarse en un grupo de voluntariado), intercambiando información suficiente, expresando sus ideas sobre temas habituales, dando su opinión sobre problemas prácticos cuando se le pregunta directamente, y reaccionando de forma sencilla ante comentarios, siempre que pueda pedir que se le repitan los puntos clave si lo necesita.

Bloque 3: Comprensión de textos escritos

1. Identifica, con ayuda de la imagen, instrucciones de funcionamiento y manejo de aparatos electrónicos o de máquinas, así como instrucciones para la realización de actividades y normas de seguridad (p. e., en un centro escolar, un lugar público o una zona de ocio).

2. Entiende los puntos principales de anuncios y material publicitario de revistas o Internet formulados de manera simple y clara, y relacionados con asuntos de su interés, en los ámbitos personal, académico y ocupacional.

3. Capta las ideas principales de textos periodísticos breves en cualquier soporte si los números, los nombres, las ilustraciones y los
títulos vehiculan gran parte del mensaje.

4. Entiende información específica esencial en páginas Web y otros materiales de referencia o consulta claramente estructurados sobre temas relativos a materias académicas, asuntos ocupacionales, o de su interés (p. e. sobre un tema curricular, un programa informático, una ciudad, un deporte o el medio ambiente), siempre que pueda releer lassecciones difíciles.

Bloque 4. Producción de textos escritos: expresión e interacción

1. Completa un cuestionario sencillo con información personal y relativa a su formación, ocupación, intereses o aficiones (p. e. para suscribirse a una publicación digital, matricularse en un taller, o asociarse a un club deportivo).

2. Escribe notas y mensajes (SMS, WhatsApp, chats), en los que se hacen breves comentarios o se dan instrucciones e indicaciones relacionadas con actividades y situaciones de la vida cotidiana y de su interés.

3. Escribe notas, anuncios y mensajes breves (p. e. en Twitter o Facebook) relacionados con actividades y situaciones de la vida cotidiana, de su interés personal o sobre temas de actualidad, respetando las convenciones y normas de cortesía y de la netiqueta.

4. Escribe informes muy breves en formato convencional con información sencilla y relevante sobre hechos habituales y los motivos de ciertas acciones, en los ámbitos académico y ocupacional, describiendo de manera sencilla situaciones, personas, objetos y lugares y señalando los principales acontecimientos de forma esquemática.

Key competences

By working on this project, students will be able to develop and acquire the following key competences published in the organic law on the improvement of the quality of education (LOMCE).

Linguistic competence: students are able to use and interact with othe people using the English language, both in oral and written registers.

Digital competence: students are able to use IT resources to obtain, analize, produce and share information.

Learning to learn: students are able to manage their tasks and time throughout their learning process and can work in an individual and collaborative way to achieve an objective.

Social and civic competences: students are able to ineract with other students and participate actively in different missions following codes of good behaviour.

Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship: students show themselves as creative and are able to take risks, plan and manage their projects.

Licencia de Creative Commons
EDIA Project: English PBL by CeDeC.

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 4.0