The 2016-2017 School Year is underway and we have had our first authentic experience!

Prior to the experience,  I created a Selfie Kahoot (an online quiz about myself) as a “Get to Know You” for my students. This will lead into a Selfie Kahoot they will create as a class.  I also used the Kahoot to build language. We played it first as a class.  I had embedded question and answer frames which we practiced chorally (in unison) before moving to the next question. Choral reading lowers the affective filter and promotes the use of complete sentences by even recent immigrants.  Example:

We played this as a “Blind Kahoot” which means we used the tool to teach new information.   Students were engaged and learning to attend to images.  This will be important as we move into content lessons – I will be sheltering instruction for them with visuals throughout the year.

Our bonus experience, the authentic learning opportunity, was when we had a Google Hangout with the Kahoot Staff in London, England and Austin, Texas.   The students had only been in class 3 days but the students had authentic questions they wanted answered. These “Non-English Speakers” were stepping out of their silent phase for a chance to communicate with the makers of this popular online platform.  (Thank you Steph and everyone at Kahoot!)

I know I’m not supposed to force them to speak complete sentences too soon.  But what if they REALLY, REALLY want to??

😉