Tales come alive with AR!

Group: Violeta Almor, Ragnhild Andersen, Natalia Ballesteros, Laura Márquez and Alba Martín.

Short description

The activity consists of creating a brief theater play, recording it with the AR Zone app, and showing it to the class. They would work with traditional tales. We would provide each group with a storyboard with a summary of the scenes. 

Contextualization

• Target Age: 11-12

• Target Language Level (based on CEFR): A2

• Location (indoors, outdoors, gym, classroom, etc.): mainly indoors, but they can also go outside to the playground (with the teacher's supervision).

Lesson Aims

Communicative Language Competences (Linguistics, Sociolinguistic, Pragmatic): p. 132

• SPOKEN FLUENCY:  ‘Can make him/herself understood in short contributions, even though pauses, false starts and reformulation are very evident.’

Production: p. 70:

• CREATIVE WRITING:  ‘Can write an introduction to a story or continue a story, provided he/she can consult a dictionary and references (e.g. tables of verb tenses in a course book).’ 

Learning Objectives (SWBATs)

1. To write a script collaboratively developing the characters, dialogues, and settings in the target language in order to foster narrative structure understanding and appropriate grammar and vocabulary.

2. To use the AR Zone app to act out and film their stories in order to enhance the digital competence, self-expression and language fluency.

3. To provide constructive feedback on peers' storytelling and acting in order to promote critical analysis and supportive peer interaction.

Preparation for the app task cycle

The AR app, ‘AR zone’, can be used only with Samsung tablets, it will be necessary for the school to have Samsung tablets and download the app. It is not necessary to have an account created. This app has different resources, such as templates, drawings and taking photos from camera roll and add filters or drawings over it. 

Before the lesson, the app would be presented to children in order for them to get familiarised with the tool. To facilitate this, a video will be shown about how to use it and, after that, they would have some time to explore the different features. Twenty minutes will be devoted for this part and it will be conducted in class. 

Furthermore, before using the app in the main activity, students will need to bring their storyboard tales and script to draw their characters. 

Materials

• Link to downloading the app(s) used:

• Android: https://samsung-ar-zone.uptodown.com/android 

• Equipment: Samsung tablets

• Additional materials needed:

  • Storyboard

  • Scaffolding for writing the story and using past tenses.

  • Language support (vocabulary, key sentences and verbs)

  • Pen or pencils to write down the script.

Brief description of each phase of task cycle

• Context: The students before this session have been studying and working with past tenses and writing stories. This is the last session of the unit, in which they will demonstrate what they have learnt by performing with AR a brief theatre play. Moreover, it is essential for learners to understand the real purpose of the project so that they can be encouraged. Therefore, we will explain to them at the beginning of the session that all the videos will participate in Sant George’s school contest and one of the class will win a prize. 

After the demo and the feedback received, we have reconsidered the level of English of the students and the output we expected them to accomplish, as writing the script requires a huge effort and support. Therefore, the activity will be divided into two sessions, not only time has been extended but also  the amount of scenes of the storyboard they will have to act out has been reduced.

LESSON 1:

• Pre-task: The class will be divided into groups of 4 or 5 students, and each group will be provided with a storyboard that summarizes different scenes of a traditional children’s tale. Esch group will have one tale. There will be two types of storyboards, the one with four scenes, and the a challenging one with six scenes -for the groups with a higher proficiency of English-, thus we expoit all their potential. For our demo, we have prepared two storyboards of the tales: Goldilocks and the three bears' and 'The three little pigs', being this one more complex and extensive. After figuring out the plot of the tale, the learners will need to create a short script or dialogue with some language support and scaffolding. Each support material would be organized into separate boxes based on its relevant topic, making it easier to access and use it when necessary. They will have to write it below each scene that appears on the storyboard. 

  • • Grouping and class distribution: All together in the class and jointed in groups of 4 or 5 students. 

    • Material: Storyboard, pencils or pens, boxes with scaffoldings.

    • Time: 1 hour

LESSON 2:

• Main task: Pupils will use the AR app to create the characters which best fits with their tale, click her for a short video on how to use the app. After the initial creation part, they would have to start acting by reproducing the script they have written before and then record the play with the app and their characters. This is going to be part of the second session, students would have time to rehearse and practice their narrations and explanations. We will make sure that the groups are well distributed around the space so that they do not copy each other, and also to avoid some background noise. Moreover, we will mention the time they have to decide the filters so that they don't get distracted with the app and then they need to start filming. 

For the early finishers or as an extension of the activity , the teacher will propose them to create with the same app a poster that may be the one to present to the rest of the school if it appears that they are the ones presenting it in "Sant Jordi". 

• • • Grouping and class distribution: All together in the class and jointed in groups of 4 or 5 students. 

    • Material: tablets.

    • Time: 35 minutes

• Post task: Once they have recorded the play, it is time to share it with their classmates. The different videos will be shown and the teacher and the students will provide some feedback with the help of a rubric. It will be in this part of the activity were critical reflections will be shared regarding the creativity of the group that has presented, the visual design applied (filters, characters, background, etc.), the speaking fluency and the storyteling.

  • • Grouping and class distribution: All together in the class. 

    • Material: computer and projector.

    • Time: 25 minutes

Plan B

As teachers, we always need to prepare a plan B in case there are some added difficulties, for example slow internet or, in the worst-case scenario, no internet connection at all. The chosen app  needs to be already downloaded in the tablets, as that way it does not need to use Wi-Fi. The app works perfectly without Internet connection. 

Attention to diversity

This project has been adapted to pay attention to diversity. As universal measures, the teachers after explaining the activity and giving instructions they have different scaffoldings. For example, they will show a video that explains how to use the app. There will also be different writing scaffoldings that can be used also as additional measures for someone who stills struggles with the language. Another universal measure would be working with groups that will be previously organized so they are balanced. The intensive measures will be implemented according to the special needs of the students.

Assessment:

The assessment will be formative and students will participate, since it is essential that both students and teacher have an active role when assessing the outcomes.

Students:

• Checklist to review their stories to detect any mistake and improve them, taking cohesion and vocabulary into account.

• With the help of a rubric, they will provide peer feeadback assessing the creativity, visual design, fluency and the storyteling.

Teacher:

• Observation grid to examine how pupils work in group, how do they conduct the task, language difficulties, etc. It is crucial to assess the process, not only the final product.

• Final rubric to  assess students pronunciation, language fluency and vocabulary and grammar structures when examining the final output of the  theatre play.

These are the storyboards templates created for this activity: 

Language support and Scaffolding: