Innovate and Try #4...

This lesson gave me the chance to build on from our pechaflickr introduction from last week. We began with a revisit of how to participate in a pechaflickr challenge. This is always an important step with my target students as it allows connections to be made with information that may have been overlooked previously. Once again the room was a buzz of chatter with the creation of the narratives to match the randomised images.

Today we personalised our pechaflickr style challenge. Each pair made a copy of the google slide template I shared in my previous post and chose an idea to build a story around, then set about finding a series of images to tell that story. To add a written component I introduced a template so the sequence of ideas was clear and links between each image could be made. We will use these later to flesh out what will become the paragraphs needed for our narratives.

What I noticed when I stepped back to look and listen was that everyone was on-task. Why? Probably due to the 'fun' element of our challenge, but also because my learners could connect to their learning. Each pair chose a topic that linked to their own prior knowledge which meant the vocabulary was richer as the words and ideas flowed more easily. Interesting to note here is that despite knowing what they wanted to say, a number of students struggled to access the content words they were searching for. I could hear frustration in their voices as they found themselves settling for what they were able to recall, so I stepped in to give them the words they were searching for as I wanted to keep the momentum going. 

Student voice continues to play an important role in my quest to grow self efficacy so at the end of the lesson I asked my learners what they liked about our learning today. Here is a snapshot of the feedback: 'The slides we created helped us think about the emotions of the image.... People's faces made us think about how they were feeling.... It helped us check that the story made sense and linked with the photos.... It was fun and interesting because we had pictures to help us with the writing.... I learnt to link an idea in one picture with an idea in the next picture'. 

I am looking forward to seeing how this writing challenge unfolds. We have the foundations in place and now need to tap into my learner's awareness of linking ideas and exploring feelings in our guided sessions using the exemplars we have created.