Improving writing skills and vocabulary adquisition with Padlet

 

Shared by Blanca Serrano:

This is an activity using padlet, which is aimed at improving writing skills and the acquisition of vocabulary.

It can be done with any level, you only need mobile phones, computers or tablets with Internet connection.In this case, I have planned it for 1ºBachillerato.

I usually observe that my students do not make a good use of dictionaries, they usually rely on translators and most of the times they only read and get the first entry without paying attention to context. Thus,they usually misunderstand words. 

In addition, they sometimes confuse word categories with the same form or when they are similar.Ithink this is a good activity to make students aware of the importance of context.

First,we provide students with the vocabulary we want them to acquire. I usually do it with the vocabulary suggested for the unit in our textbook and I do it at the beginning of the unit. It can be done with a list of words under a title to provide some context:

Or we can also give students short texts in which those words are included, which obviously gives them much more context:

The task is simple. Students pick pens with three different colours. One of them must be red/ pink/ orange; a flashy colour.

With a colour which is not red they underline/circle those words in the list/text they already know. Those words they are 100% sure of their meaning in that context/title.They usually underline many words, which motivates them since they have a lot of previous knowledge before we start a new unit or topic; they know more than they think.

With a second colour which is not red, students underline/circle those words they are not 100% sure, but are /sound familiar, have some rootsthey know, they may guess their meaning...

Finally,in red students underline/circles those words which are totally new; they have no idea what they mean.

Now it’s time to look those words in red up in an online dictionary, paying special attention to context and trying to choose the best meaning /entry. For stronger classes we can use monolingual dictionaries, but bilingual ones are fine. If students do not have many red words, they can also look up those they circled in the second colour.

Once they know what the words mean, they write a clear and detailed sentence which may help other people guess meaning by context. They mustn’t create sentences like:

My sister is stubborn. 

On the contrary, they should write something like:

My sister is so stubborn! She thinks she’s always right and findsit difficult to accept other people’s ideas

Students share their sentences in a padlet the teacher has created and shared before. This padlet is shown on the digital board and once all the sentences have been written, we read them and discuss orally if we consider they are correct, if they would help someone to guess the meaning of that word, if the entry they have chosen is appropriate to that context, how we could improve the sentence, and so on.

This year Ihave done this activity several times with different levels and it usually motivates students to write things in a correct way because they will be shared,and also it really helps them to be careful with the use of dictionaries.

We dont' share Blanca's padlet as it includes the real names of her students.