Goal of the project
I decided that I will let my 6th grade students use Voki to create a fantasy animal as an Instructional Technology Project.
The overall goal for this project is to provide an opportunity for students to learn how to use technology for their learning and to strengthen their technology skills. The primary goal for this project is for students to use this opportunity to practice having discussions about a topic, listen to other people's opinions and express their own thinking. The secondary goal is for students to learn how to use technology. Reading the handout for informational text and writing paragraph about their fantasy animals are two minor goals for this project as well..
This project is student-centered activity, because
1) Students have some control over their learning process. They have a choice of what to do first,
and how to do it.
2) Students are encouraged to collaborate with other students. They discuss about their ideas,
brainstorm descriptive words and sentences, work together to create their fantasy animals using
Voki.
3) Students are provided with opportunities to learn from their peers.
4) This activity involves active cognitive processes, such as creating, problem solving, reasoning,
decision-making and evaluation.
Why use Voki?
This will be their first time using technology in their language classroom. I chose Voki for this project because it is easy and interesting. Students at this age are still fascinated by fantasy, imaginary animals. By asking them to create a fantasy animal using Voki, they will be motivated to use the technology to do the assignment and build skills in technology.
Student preparation
Since they have never used Voki before, I will have a pre-lesson before we start this " Fantasy Animal " unit. Before the unit begins, I will ask students to watch a tutorial video at home on how to use Voki. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FunBew6S4Bk. Students will have to take notes, write down any questions they may have about the video and bring the notes back to classroom for discussion. The discussion in the class will provide students opportunities to practice their speaking skills and help me as a teacher to know what I need to focus on to help them use Voki efficiently. After that students will have time to use the computer for practicing.
Learning objectives
My learning objective is that students will be able to discuss with their partners, use technology to do their assignments and practice writing paragraphs about their fantasy animal using all the descriptive words and sentences they already learned. Voki is quite easy to use, I think my students will like it and enjoy using it. Since my goal is that students will be able to use technology, using Voki for this project is necessary.
What happens in class
When the unit lesson starts, students will go to different stations to work on their project. There will be four stations:
Talk to your partner: At this station, students will work in pairs to talk about the fantasy animals they want to create. They will also brainstorm descriptive words and sentences for the animals at this station. Students will be asked to write down all the words and sentences on their notebook for future use.
Reading station: Students will read "How to use Voki " handout written in Chinese. Since they already watched the video, they will read the text with what they already knew in mind. This will help them to learn how to make a "meaningful guess" when they encounter new Chinese characters they haven't learned yet. They will look at books and pictures about fantasy animals at this station to get ideas for their fantasy animals.
Writing station: Students will work on writing paragraphs about their fantasy animal at this station. They can write down all the descriptive words and sentences they talk about here or at the " Talk to your partner" station. A Chinese dictionary will be provided at this station too.
Computer station: Since we only have two computers in our classroom, students will take turns working on the computer to create their fantasy animal.
Students will have a choice to do what they want to do first. They need to make decision of what to do and how they do it. They need to figure out where and how to find help when they encounter difficulties or problems. Practicing how to use dictionary also provide a good chance for students to learn some new Chinese characters based on what they already learned in the past.
Assessment
I will assess my students by walking around to see how they are doing. I will provide a rubric for students for their technology skills assessment. At the end, the final print of their fantasy animal with the paragraph of the fantasy animal will be assessed as their writing skill, and students will receive a grade.
Voki Project Lesson Plan
Voki Project Rubric
Voki Project Handout
