Kitchen corners

DESCRIPTION: 

This VR activity aims to work sentences constructions, grammar and vocabulary about the kitchen. For this, the students will use a website called Framevr.io Virtually, they'll carry out different corners within corners. Please note in this page we will develop in depth just one of the corners of this teaching unit (the Framevr.io one). 

CONTEXTUALIZATION:

Target age: : 4th grade - medium cycle

Target level (CEFR): A1

Subject: English as a foreign language

Competences: 

Specific Competence 2: To understand and interpret brief and simple oral and multimodal texts in the standard language, identifying the general meaning and the most relevant information, and progressively and autonomously evaluating basic formal and content aspects, to build knowledge, form an opinion, and broaden opportunities for enjoyment and leisure. 

Specific Competence 3: To produce oral and multimodal texts with coherence, clarity, and appropriate register, adhering to the conventions of different discourse genres, and to participate in varied oral interactions, with autonomy, in order to express ideas, feelings, and concepts, build knowledge, and establish personal connections 

Specific Competence 4: To understand and interpret written and multimodal texts, recognizing the overall meaning, main ideas, and implicit and explicit information, and progressively and autonomously making basic reflections on formal and content aspects, to acquire and build knowledge, and to respond to diverse communicative needs and interests.

CONTEXT: 

For this teaching unit there will be 4 corners in total. 3 are offline and 1 is online.

The 3 offline corners:

- Reading comprehension: The students will be given a text about the famous French chef Ratatouille and will have to answer a set of questions. This activity will follow the structure the students will eventually find in the Basic Competences exams.

- Written expression: Following the "Kitchen" theme the students will have to write a recipe of their literary character's favourite dish. They structure of this discursive genre (instructive) has already been worked prevously during the unit, therefore, they can do it autnomously.

- Speaking - Taboo Game: The students will have different cards with diverse words in them.  The term on top needs to be decribed. Below it there'll be four adjectives that describe it. The students will need to come up with a description of the main word without mentioning any of the four options, as they can't be used. If a learner finds out the main term, then recieves the card as a reward/point. When the game finishes, the student with more cards wins. 

The online corner:

- VR Kitchen Corners: The students will find themselves in an interactive gallery where they will find 4 activities, one about vocabulary and oral comprehension, one about healthy portions, another about translations and a final one about grammar and writing sentences.

OBJECTIVES: 

• To foster language learning by combining vocabulary, grammar, lexicon, and orthography in a gamified and immersive virtual environment in order to improve student engagement.

• To develop the students' ability to explore, interact and learn autonomously in a structured virtual environment in order to promote their foreign language skills.

ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS FOR TEACHERS:

BEFORE THE TASK:

1. Create an account on Framevr.io and choose a ‘’scene'’  (7 min max.)

1. For creating scenes or rooms you can choose from already made templates or create your own from an empty option (you have a small and big gallery options) 

2. Plan the activities or corners for the VR section of the corner's methodology (30 min - 1 hr)

3. Think about the learning objectives

4. Consider the pros and cons of using the app to introduce the students to a VR experience that will be efficient and useful for their learning.

5. Create the activities in the room chosen (30 min - 1hr)

   1. The tools available within the rooms are plenty and you can use them as you wish (such as 360 images, embedded videos or images, embedded websites*, embedded pds, whiteboards, etc) *Please note that tools such as websites can only be added once per room in the free version.

6. The teacher must create and print an instruction sheet for students to be able to enter the website without any problems.*Please note that only 8 people can enter each room in the free version. (15 min)

   1. The students do not need to sign up to be able to use the website.

   2. The website works both on tablets and computers, and VR headsets can be used.

7. Make sure the classroom has a stable internet connection (Always have a Plan B ready).

8. The activity’s aim and design is meant for support and reinforcement of the end of a didactic unit following a corner's methodology.

DURING THE TASK:

1. When the corner's sessions start the teacher will show the students the activities in the website during the first session so all get a glimpse of them (15 min)

2. The teacher will be offline attending to all students during the corner's sessions 

   1. As students will have seen the initial explanation and will also have an instruction sheet, as well as the fact that the website is rather intuitive, the teacher’ role will be to further solve individual doubts.

3. The teacher MUST take screenshots of the poll results after each session

AFTER THE TASK:

1. The teacher will be able to analyze each student's individual interactions with the whiteboards as she or he will have asked for them to download what they wrote and send it to them through the school's digital tools. Moreover, on the liveworksheets activities once finished students can automatically send their results to the teacher.

2. The teacher will analyze the results of the polls within Framevr.io by using the screenshots of each session of them, as a way to self-assess on the engagement of the students on the corners.

ACTIVITY:
This activity will be performed in one-hour sessions. In each lesson, the groups in each corner will change, so everyone practices reading, writing, and speaking (offline corners) and vocabulary and grammar (online corners). 

During the sessions, all the students will do the proposed activities in order to practice the aforementioned topics. When it comes to the VR corners, the organization goes as follows:

Firstly, the group will read the material on how to use frame.or. Autonomously, they will enter the webpage and will write their character names. After this, they'll need to read the rules and corners organization in order to know how this activity will work. Once they are aware of the methodology and rules, they'll divide themselves and start doing the activities, which will last 15 minutes maximum; after the time expires, they'll need to change. 

Their answers will be saved by them; therefore, they'll be asked to devote a moment after the fifteen minutes finish to download their responses. These will be sent to the teacher after the whole session ends.  The professor role is going to be an observer, helper, and assessor of all the corners. However, she/he will be able to be inside the frame.vr activity and control their students whenever she/he wants.

MATERIALS: 

- Tablets

- VR headsets (optional)

- Tablet's pencils

- Paper sheets of the instructions and scaffolding made by the teacher

KITCHEN BOT HELPER ACTIVITY