Engagement, Interactivity, and Grammar!
By Christine Cavage
Today we are challenged in ways we have never been before. We are preparing to deliver classes both online and face-to-face. In our online classes, we are constantly seeking out tools that are accessible to our students as well as looking for ways to do those quick, formative checks in a digital environment. While in our face-to-face classes, we are often seeking out ways to deeper engage the iGeneration, and make lessons more appealing, yet just as effective. To complicate matters even more, costly texts, which may or may not be accessible to all our students, often do not address all our student learning outcomes, leaving us to seek out additional materials. These challenges can be overcome. How? Consider implementing microlearning, and microlearning lessons.
What is microlearning? According to Dingler, et al. “Microlearning sessions break down a learning task into a series of quick learning interactions, thereby reducing learning units to more manageable chunks.” These manageable chunks are often delivered through technology, such as apps or video streams, making content accessible in everyone’s hands. With manageable tasks, accessible content, and an increase in learner interactivity and engagement, we have a recipe for acquisition and learning. So how do these pieces fit together? How can we achieve microlearning?
Pearson Modular Grammar Powered by Nearpod was designed to put these pieces together. PMG Powered by Nearpod is a library of grammar microlessons built on Nearpod’s student engagement platform. Teachers can deliver these microlessons to students to support learning and supplement instruction. Imagine you are preparing students to an argumentative essay assignment, or a persuasive presentation, and you need to build in ways to make an argument and hedging. PMG allows you to deliver a lesson on hedging, in a micro-fashion. In other words, you can instruct on hedging, but in small, manageable pieces. These pieces allow students to quickly apply what they have learned in a real context.
The Pearson Modular Grammar Course Powered by Nearpod is made up of three levels, and within each level, it is organized by units. Within a unit there are several lessons. For example, at the Intermediate Level, the present time. This unit is organized around the theme of ‘Here and Now.’ There are four lessons within the unit: simple present, adverbs of frequency, the present continuous, and the simple present vs. the present continuous. This allows teachers to deliver the content in pieces, and students to master each piece. Furthermore, teachers can pick and choose. If your students have good control over the simple present but struggle with when to use the simple present and when to use the present continuous, you can deliver that lesson. This allows you to truly tailor the content to your students’ needs. You can also modify each lesson. If there is an activity you do not believe fits your students, you can delete it, modify it, or create a new task.
Structures are ‘taught’ through interactive, short video lessons. After each lesson, students are taken up Bloom’s taxonomy from remember to apply to create. These activities and tasks are engaging and created not only to build fluency, but to give students an opportunity to interact. Students engage with one another, the teacher and the content because learning activities lend themselves to this interactivity. One example is the Collaboration Board. The collaboration board allows students to ‘post’ their ideas for everyone to see. These types of tasks are great for assessing background knowledge, starting a discussion, checking what students know, and reviewing homework. Students can read one another’s posts, and even like one another’s posts. In addition to the Collaboration Board, there are numerous other tasks that allow for deeper engagement.
Overall, the goal of Pearson’s Modular Grammar Powered by Nearpod was designed to appeal to today’s learners while at the same time delivering instruction in their hands, in small, manageable pieces. To learn more, visit: https://www.longmanhomeusa.com/nearpod/.
Christina M. Cavage is the Curriculum and Assessment Manager at University of Central Florida, is the author of the Pearson Modular Grammar Powered by Nearpod. Her email is Christina.cavage@UCF.edu.
References
Dingler, Tilman & Weber, Dominik & Pielot, Martin & Cooper, Jennifer & Chang, Chung-Cheng & Henze, Niels. (2017). Language learning on-the-go: opportune moments and design of mobile microlearning sessions. 1-12. 10.1145/3098279.3098565.