Embedded Files
This unit integrates language learning with cultural awareness and digital literacy. It encourages students to describe, compare, and present information about Argentinian athletes while sparking creativity and collaboration, integrating technology through content-creation tools. In addition, it supports 21st-century skills (communication, creativity, critical thinking, and digital competence) aligned with the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers and DigCompEdu descriptors for digital content creation and responsible use of technology.
CONTEXT
CONTEXT
This lesson was designed for a group of 2nd-year students at EET 24 DE 17, a public secondary school. The learners are around 13 to 14 years old and have an English level of High A1 to Low A2 according to the CEFR. They attend three 40-minute English periods per week. The lesson belongs to the unit “Sports and Great Argentinian Athletes,” which aims to engage students with familiar and motivating topics while developing their language skills through communicative and task-based activities related to national sports figures.
Picture taken from https://billiken.lat/
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to design interview questions to explore new information about a famous Argentinian athlete, fostering both critical and creative thinking. They will interact with Character AI to conduct a simulated interview, taking accurate and organized notes to understand the athlete’s life and achievements. Then, they will record and produce a video using Humva, combining spoken or written text with a digital avatar to present their interview in an engaging and effective way. Finally, students will present their videos in class, showing their understanding of the athlete’s achievements and their ability to communicate creatively, and they will reflect on their learning process to develop evaluative and metacognitive skills.
PRE - TASK
PRE - TASK
Allotted time: 10' / 15'
For this task, students will complete a thinking routine called Creative Questions proposed by Project Zero. Students will work in pairs, and they will complete this activity on a Google Doc created by themselves, which they will upload to a Google Folder to document the whole process.
First, students will brainstorm all the questions they would like to ask their athlete. They will be requested to make at least 10 questions.
Second, students will curate those questions, selecting and transforming them into questions that challenge imagination. For that, the teacher will provide students with some question starters, such as What would it be like if...? How would it be different if...? What would change if...? Suppose that...?
Then, students will select 7 questions from the list to use for their interview.
The reflection stage will be carried out after students have completed the interview, as a sort of exit ticket. Reflect: Students will answer the following question: What new ideas do you have about the athlete you have explored that you didn’t have before?
TASK - CYCLE
TASK - CYCLE
Task 1: Chatting
Students will go to Character AI and select the option celebrity chat. With their partner, they will use the questions from the pre-task they have previously selected. Then they will take notes on the athlete's answers on the first Google.doc they've used to make their answers, but this time, copying the answers.
Task 2: Planning and Scripting:
On the same Google doc, students will write an introduction to be used in their interview. They can introduce the athlete briefly using some personal information about them, e.g., the sports they play/played, why they are important for Argentina, some of their achievements, etc and after they have transcribed the answers, they will create a final closure to their interview.
Screenshot from CharacterAI homepage.
FINAL TASK
FINAL TASK
As part of the final task, Students will go to HUMVA and they will upload the script they've created in the previous task. After the video has been created, they will upload it to their Google Drive folder.
After completing the interview, answer this reflection question: What new ideas do you have about the athlete you explored that you didn’t have before?
Screenshot from HUMVA homepage.
ANALYSIS
ANALYSIS
Through the stages of this lesson, students move progressively along the levels of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy (Wedlock and Growe, 2017), engaging both cognitively and digitally. Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy builds on the original Bloom’s Taxonomy by integrating digital tools and skills into the cognitive learning process. It emphasises how technology can support learners in moving from lower-order thinking skills, such as remembering and understanding, to higher-order ones like analysing, evaluating, and creating.
In this lesson, students begin by remembering and understanding key vocabulary and ideas about Argentinian athletes during the pre-task. As they apply their knowledge to formulate interview questions and interact with Character AI, they demonstrate comprehension in meaningful contexts. During the scripting and video production stages, learners analyse the information gathered, evaluate its relevance, and create a final multimodal product using Humva. This creative process encourages autonomy, reflection, and collaboration, transforming students from passive language users into active digital creators.
Moreover, this lesson particularly addresses several key areas of the DigCompEdu Framework (n.d.). It is a European framework that defines the key digital competencies educators should develop to effectively integrate technology into teaching and learning. It focuses on how teachers can use digital tools to enhance instruction, empower learners, and foster students’ own digital competence.
This lesson targets Area 2: Digital Resources, as students explore, select, and adapt authentic online materials to support their project. It also connects to Area 5: Empowering Learners, by positioning students as active agents who construct meaning and express understanding through creative digital products. Finally, it reinforces Area 6: Facilitating Learners’ Digital Competence, as students develop digital communication, content creation, and information management skills through guided and reflective use of technological tools.
REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Verbs For 21st Century Students (2016) https://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/blooms-digital-taxonomy-verbs-21st-century-students/
UNESCO (2024) AI competency framework for teachers. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391104
DigCompEdu framework. (n.d.). The Joint Research Centre: EU Science Hub. https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/digcompedu/digcompedu-framework_en
PZ’s Thinking Routines Toolbox | Project Zero. (n.d.). https://pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines
Wedlock, B. C., & Growe, R. (2017). Student engagement in the digital age. Journal of Education and Social Policy, 4(1), 25–32. The Technology-Driven Student: How to Apply Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to the Digital Generations. Retrieved from http://jespnet.com/journals/Vol_4_No_1_March_2017/4.pdf
Ritchhart, R. and Church, M. (2020). The Power of Making Thinking Visible. [PDF]
Page updated
Report abuse