WORDWALL AI Tool

Group: Nerea Acedo and Laia Mulero

AI tool: https://wordwall.net/es

Short description

In our learning situation, we will be using Wordwall, an interactive website that enables teachers to create engaging activities such as crosswords, matching games, quizzes, and more. These activities will help students develop essential language skills such as vocabulary, grammar, and spelling.

For this project, we will focus on 3rd grade EFL students and work on the Learning Situation titled "Going to the Market." Throughout the sessions, students will practice market-related vocabulary, engage in speaking activities, and participate in a market role-play to build their confidence in using English in real-life scenarios.

Pros and cons of Wordwall 

Pros:

1. Interactive and Engaging
   Wordwall offers a variety of interactive activities like matching games, quizzes, and word searches. This helps students engage with content in a fun and memorable way, making learning more enjoyable.

2. Customizable Activities

3. User-Friendly Interface

4. Multilingual Support
   Wordwall can be used in various languages, making it suitable for language learning classes, such as EFL (English as a Foreign Language)

5. Good Variety of Activity Types

Cons:

1. Limited Free Access
   The free version of Wordwall only allows teachers to create a limited number of activities. 

2. Basic Design Options

3. Not Suitable for Advanced Learners

4. Internet Dependency
   This may be a limitation in classrooms or areas with unreliable access to the internet.

5. Limited Assessment Options
   While Wordwall offers interactive games, its assessment tools are not as comprehensive as other platforms. 

Contextualization

• Target Age: 3rd grade students

• Target Language Level: A1

• Location: Classroom 

Lesson Aims

As of the CEFR Companion Volume, we will be working on Interaction and the following specific competences of said article based on the student's A1 level of English according to their grade:

• ‘’Can act on basic instructions that involve times, locations numbers, etc'’

• ‘’Can ask for things, and give people things'’

Learning objectives:

• Develop the ability to use basic vocabulary related to market interactions in English.

• Practice speaking skills through role-play activities, engaging in simple dialogues as buyers and sellers.

• Improve the ability to understand and respond to basic questions and instructions during everyday transactions.

Materials:

• Website: Wordwall  https://wordwall.net/es

• Equipment: Devices (tablets, phones or computers) with access to internet

• Handouts: Pictures of items that can be found in a market, plastic food toys and fake money and coins

Teacher preparation before hand:

• The teacher must get familiarized with the ‘’Wordwall'’ website.

  • 1. They should sign up (you have the options to use the free or premium version, this could be talked with the school to know if they are interested in acquiring a subscription)

• They should explore all the options and templates that the website offers such as ‘’Random Wheel’’, ‘’Quiz'’, ‘’Matching Pairs’’, etc.

• Once the activities have been chosen the teachers must test the website's functionality and flow to check for mistakes in the creation of the templates or games and create one initial Wordwall activity to model for students.

• Prepare materials and instructions for students to create their own Wordwall activities.

• Consider the learning objectives for the session(s)

• Always have a Plan B in case of internet connection issues (Overall be flexible with unexpected circumstances and take advantage of student's contributions)

Brief description of each phase of task cycle

• Pre-task (1 hour): 

The class will begin by brainstorming market-related vocabulary in their native language, which will be translated into English by either the help of the teacher or online translators. This could include words like:

• Market Items: apple, banana, cabbage, watermelon, orange juice

• Verbs: buy, sell, pay, choose

• Useful Phrases: How much is…?, I want to buy…, Here is the change.

This will all be written on the blackboard or digital board as it follows (this is an example of the words that could come up during the discussion):

• Afterward, the students will work in groups to help the teacher create the Wordwall activities. They will select vocabulary from the brainstorming session and use templates like "Matching Pairs" and "Fill in the Blanks" to design quizzes or games that their classmates will later use. 

Once the activities are created, students will test each other's Wordwall games by leaving one tablet from each team in one table while the groups rotate until they have tested all group’s activities. 

They will write down their feedback and tips for improvement on a paper sheet that will be placed next to the tablet of each team, therefore practicing vocabulary recognition and sentence construction, and giving tips to improve.

• Main task (1 hour): For this session, the teacher will do a brief recall of the prior session and the vocabulary learned/used.

• • To reinforce the knowledge of what each role (buyer/seller) implies the students will begin by accessing today's ‘’Wordwall'’ link where they will play the game ‘’Classify into groups'’ Here they will be given two columns (buyer and seller) and they will have to match the phrases given with the correct person who says it, further solidifying their understanding of market interactions.
    
    

  • The second link will direct them to a ‘’Quiz'’ in which they will have to answer some basic True or False questions related to spellings and grammar.
    
    

  • Once they have finished, they will be paired and they will have to roleplay as the characters in a supermarket. Student A acts as the seller and B as the buyer and vice versa. They will use the vocabulary and phrases they've learned, first practicing in pairs and then preparing for the larger role-play session.

• • Students will record their dialogues, creating short mini-theater recordings where they perform simple market scenes, which will later be shared with younger learners.
    
    

  • To finalize this session, the teacher will explain to them that they will be creating a simulation of a market experience with their peers of the same grade of the other class and during Arts they will be creating the decoration for their stalls.

• • Post task (2 hours): This session will be dedicated to the Market roleplay. During the first hour the students from class A will be the sellers and the students from class B will be the buyers (during the second hour the roles will be exchanged).
    
    

    1. The stalls and decorations have been positioned and installed in one of the classrooms by the teachers prior to this session.
       
       

    2. The students will be put into groups of 4 or 5 members and each team will be given 15 minutes before opening the ‘’market’’ to create a recipe with the items available at the stalls and create a list of what they will need to buy. If they finish their shopping too quickly, they will be asked to come up with yet another recipe.
       
       

    3. In the stalls there will be either pictures of the items or plastic food toys.
       
       

    4. Once a group finishes their shopping, they will have to return the items to the corresponding stalls.
       
       

    5. Only English will be allowed in the market, otherwise they will have to pretend they don't understand each other.

• • After the roleplay, students will reflect on their performances and give feedback to their peers.
    
    

• • The teacher will also show the mini-theatre recordings created earlier, providing opportunities to critique and celebrate the performances.