Meritxell Lillo, Lucia Martínez, Irene Sandín and Júlia Zúñiga. 

DESCRIPTION

This activity is part of a bigger project about the solar system and its characteristics. It will be a structuring activity, they would have seen the planets in previous classes. In it, students will remember certain characteristics of the planets of the solar system, in addition to the Sun.

CONTEXTUALIZATION

• Group: This activity is proposed for students in middle cycle, we have focused on 3rd grade. 

• Level: A2. 

TOOL TO LEARN LANGUAGE

Planets AR is like a spacecraft that takes you on an amazing trip through our solar system. This application is going to make students know everything about the planets and some other non-planets. 

Thanks to the augmented reality of this tool, it lets us explore the planets and see them through our own eyes with amazing descriptions.  Also, it is important to mention that the explanations can be reproduced out loud, so students with vision difficulties can participate too. Finally, it has an option to take photographs with the different planets!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES 

1. To properly use the app to identify the characteristics of the planets and differentiate them. 

2. To interpret simple texts with technical vocabulary. 

3. To apply speaking skills and structures to exchange information with peers in familiar situations. 

COMPETENCES

Reception

• Can understand short, simple texts containing the highest frequency vocabulary, including a proportion of shared international vocabulary items. 

Interaction

• Can interact with reasonable ease in structured situations and short conversations, provided the other person helps if necessary. Can manage simple, routine exchanges without undue effort; can ask and answer questions and exchange ideas and information on familiar topics in predictable everyday situations.

MATERIALS FOR THE MAIN TASK

• Flashcards. 

• Planet AR application.

• At least one device per group.

• Pencils.

ACTIVITY DEVELOPMENT

As we explained before, the activity proposed is part of a bigger project in which students are learning about the solar system. Here you can see some examples of pre- and post-task. 

• Pre-task

As a pre-task, we would work the planets by doing some activities. In them, they would learn about the characteristics of the planets, with that learning they would be able to later do the main task we have created. 

We would start the session with a video introducing the names of the planets, its order, how they look like and some characteristics of each one. An example that we think could work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD1-rS_TM2o 

Then we would do a “fill the gap” activity about the different planets of the solar system, while we introduce some essential information about all of them, so that in the following session, they are able to relate the information given with the information in the flashcards, in the main task. 

Additionally, taking into account the feedback that our colleagues gave us, we will hold a session where the operation of the augmented reality application will be explained, and they will be allowed to explore as they wish so that for the main task they are already comfortable with it. 

• Main task

For the main task, students will get into pairs, and they will get nine flashcards with a unique characteristic of each planet of the solar system and the Sun. They will have to read all the flashcards, think about it and write the planet or the star that it corresponds to. In order to do this, they will have to consult and use the information that the app offers. For example, to answer which planet is the farthest from the Sun, they can take a look at the solar system the app has in AR.

To finish, the students will take group photos with all the planets and the Sun. In order to do it, they will have to use their prior knowledge and the app Planets AR.  Also, we will leave them extra time to look at the planets from different perspectives and experiment even more with the app, in order to take the picture from the "side" they like the most. 

• Post-task

As a post-task, we thought about using the images as part of a poster that they would do in another session, creating their own solar system. In the poster they would see, all the planets of the solar system will be hung in the classroom, with information about each one.  

SCAFFOLDING

The scaffolding we provide in this activity is the way in which the texts are presented on the flashcards. These have characteristics of what it means an specific word and/or in some flashcards there are illustrations. You can see this in the images in this post. This was made completely by our group.

REFERENCES

• English Singsing. (2016, 31 agosto). Kids Vocabulary - Solar system - Planets - Learn English for Kids - English educational video [Vídeo]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD1-rS_TM2o 

• Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) - Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) - www.coe.int. (s. f.). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages

HOW THE APP LOOKS LIKE?

IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLE