Learning with Moodle about doing something to help someone else
Today’s teenage pupils are busy with cellphones, Social Media, and more. Should my teenage pupils worry about remembering everything that they study in my lessons? Well, they should, but they are not elephants, are they? Here comes Moodle to the rescue!
Oh, I run the risk of stereotyping. Besides, I do not know whether elephants remember everything, but if you manage your Moodle Learning Environment properly, Moodle does remember “everything” you, teacher, want it to remember. Among other things, this means you can reuse content which you uploaded in the past (and add more) so as to help your teenage pupils remember, learn again, practice, etc..
I use Moodle for Blended learning. I have just reused and added content that has to do with caring about others, helping out, and the like so as to have my pupils learn and use as much English as possible in real-life tasks. They will read, listen, speak and write, learn much vocabulary and engage in subjects that are relevant and authentic.
Watch this Youtube video (it will make cleared what follows) to see what I have just done: https://youtu.be/5PQSx7bAA2s
Please note that while the video shows what pupils will see when they engage with the contents, the different Moodle Resources, and Moodle Activities will NOT be made visible all at the same time. Instead, I will first have each hidden and then shown, as the lessons evolve. Because it is Moodle for Blended Learning, there are pre-teaching, teaching and post-teaching activities that can’t be seen in the video. No less important, some will be given to pupils to take up at home (Flipped Learning, if I can call it that, and, yes, as homework, too)
It is important to remind teenagers to “take the time to break down their days into pieces and carefully consider whether they did something to help someone else.” (Link). This is the theme in “Count That Day Lost” by George Elliot. There is a connection (well, I have made it) between this poem and the work of Diane Latiker, a 2011 CNN Hero, about whom my 10th-grade pupils learn when they take up a Reading Comprehension text that appears in their textbook. The use of Moodle has that added value that can turn English lessons into a meaningful experience.
Oh, I do not want to forget the “remembering” part. My Moodle Platform at The Six-Year Kugel High School in Holon is great at remembering. This learning environment is provided by “Mashov” along with the school’s administrative program. I have been using it since 2013, so I reuse (and add) content all the time. I adapt anything I want to have on the platform to the teaching and learning needs in every course I teach. I also make it a point to share work with teachers both at Kugel and elsewhere. For teachers, sharing (and not competing) is growing.
In a previous post, I shared one way of targetting vocabulary on Moodle. Once again, I try to align my work at school with the requirements set by the Ministry of Education: “The revised curriculum follows international standards, mainly the CEFR, adopting an action-oriented approach to the description of communicative proficiency. The curriculum perceives the learners of English as language users who perform in real-life tasks. This perspective is translated into “can-do” descriptors that define what English language learners can do with language in different situations, for different purposes, at each level along the journey toward English language proficiency. To this end, vocabulary and grammar are targeted and specified to be taught in the context of the “can-do” descriptors.” (SOURCE)
To sum up, just like you don’t have to remember the phone number of lots of people (after all, your cellphone does it for you), you, teacher, do not have to remember everything that you have uploaded on Moodle (the platform does it for you). However, you must remember to make your pupils remember the English they have learned, and add more. Remember to use Moodle, then.
Should you want to use the H5P Presentation I prepared on Diane Latiker, here is the link: https://h5p.org/node/619232
Married to Susy, with two daughters: Gabriela and Maia, and three granddaughters (Sol, Dor, and Eliana), Eduardo is teaching English at school.
Having completed with HRDNZ both MoodleBites for Teachers and the six MEC courses, Eduardo is a Moodle Certified Educator.
He is a Certified Israel Ministry of Education Teachers’ teacher.
He has developed and facilitated several Israel Ministry of Education’s Spanish and English as a Foreign Language online workshops.
- Giving access to high-quality educational experiences with Moodle – 28th January 2023
- Enhance K-12 English Foreign Language Skills with Moodle – 28th September 2022
- Dig into Digital: Focus on H5P – 28th August 2022
Great post – very interesting!