Using Wordle, Snapguide, and the TED-ed Flip Tool in the Spanish Classroom Kimmy O’Brien

What is Wordle? Is a free tool that generates word clouds from any text. The resulting word cloud emphasizes the most common words according to frequency and shows them in different sizes.

How can I use Wordle? Word association and writing practice: Create and pass out a Wordle that incorporates vocab, verbs, and grammar of a particular unit. Then, ask students to brainstorm what the unit could be about and pinpoint what type of verbs and tenses are being used. What they do not recognize, they should write down separately to be addressed later. Matching activities: Pairing synonyms, opposites, and pairs, such as countries and their capitals. masculine vs. feminine; plural vs. singular; adjectives

Continued… Spelling rules: Have students find and correct misspellings of a particular rule. Sentence structure: Have students unscramble the message/story Vocabulary review Personalized: Students create their own Wordle about themselves.

What is Snapguide? Snapguide is an app (available for iphones, ipads and ipods) that allows you to create beautiful “how – to” guides of any sort. It is as simple as uploading any photo and writing the steps beneath it.

How can I use Snapguide? This is great for individual or pair projects! Teacher can assign authentic Spanish recipes for students to create, or if they are more advanced, they can choose their own. Can create Snapguides from any content based vocabulary set. For example: How to dress for winter, steps for a safe hike, tips for travel, etc.

Continued… Snapguide is also good for practicing tenses that are more commonly written than spoken such as Ustedes Commands Snapguide can also produce videos! More advanced students can prepare their own video tutorial in Spanish and present it to the class. This could also be a great review tool before a final exam. Teachers also have the opportunity to create flipped classroom material.

What is the TED-ed flip tool? The TED-ed flip tool allows you to take any YouTube video and create a short lesson with it. The teacher can include a summative questionnaire and can insert further complementary material.

How can I use TED-ed flip tool in my classroom? Homework resource: Students can keep and revisit videos as part of any homework or test review Culture: An opportunity to teach particular cultural aspects Paperless quizzes or activities: Teachers can track responses of the questionnaires. Absentee resource: If the teacher or student is out, this program can be used to keep everyone on track.

Thoughts I absolutely love the examples and ideas shared by this blog! I am excited to integrate some of these resources into my future lessons as they encourage student growth while still making learning fun!

Resources http://spanish4teachers.org/technology-tools-to-use-in-the-foreign- language-classroom/ http://spanish4teachers.org/spanish-imperatives-with-snapguide-app/ http://spanish4teachers.org/ted-ed-foreign-language-classroom/