Blended learning is a very current teaching strategy, which offers teachers and schools a brand new perspective on how a class can be organized, meanwhile allows students to have more personalized learning experiences, what is proved to increase the engagement of these students and the learning itself.
In short blended learning is a teaching modality in which students are allowed to take turn in different activities, called stations, in order to learn certain contents, in the most different subjects, doing so, they feel free do decide the best way for them to learn, and develop important skills such as autonomy, organization, and their own identity.
For a class to be considered blended, it´s important to ensure that at least one activity is done online. Its possible to create this kind of class almost in every context, taking into consideration that nowadays most students have smartphones, and that such devices offer the possibility of sharing internet, even in situations where there are no computer labs, much can be done.
Talking specifically about the English classes, there many sites where interesting games and activities can be used o organize an infinity range of blended classes, with every topic the teacher wants to teach. Video games can also be used in blended learnings, depending on the class size and age, many games can be adapted to pedagogical purposes.
The Blended class bellow is based on Sports vocabulary, in this situation students can be splited in many stations, some of them are ilustrated in the photos.
Producing flags
The students can produce flags from countries they represent in the competition. In order to help the students, the teacher can provide mini printed flags, so that the students can practice colors and countries vocabulary at the same time
Kinect Sports
Meanwhile other groups develop other activities, the students can play Kinect Sports. After the class, the teacher can review all the vocabulary using tutorials.
Online games
The students can practice and learn sports and action vocabulary using smartphones or tablets, the teacher can determine the time each student uses the gadgets.
