1. How I use HotPotatoes in my Portuguese classes
1 - I ask the pairs of students to open my site.
( http://www.prof2000.pt/users/didiefe )
2 – There, they go to “Catálogo de Testes” (Tests Catalogue); they
have a paper to note the points they’ll obtain in each exercise.
3 – I tell them to go to test number X, the exercise that helps them
to practise the content I want to be revised (I have that in a
Contents Table).
4 – They do it and note on the paper the points obtained. They ask
for me to confirm the evaluation and note the points in my personal
Table, too.
5 – If they had a negative mark or want to try again to have a
better one, they can repeat the exercise – it’s up to them. I‘ll note in
my Table just the mark they want.
6 – Meanwhile, some students are already doing the next exercise,
others repeating the first one… Me, I’m only there to support them
if they have questions or problems of any kind.
7 – At the end of each term, I’ll use also these marks in my global
evaluation as any other kind of exercise they do in the classroom.
(Sometimes I use also HotPot exercises projected in a normal classroom, just as
a form of practising some new content I’ve been introducing and want to be
practised by the class as a whole; I also include them linked in a PowerPoint
presentation and have the exercise made by two groups of students, as a
game.)
ADVANTAGES:
- teacher has always the exercises ready online;
- no need to use paper;
- students like the interactivity: they like to be given instant feedback about the work
they’ve just been doing;
- responsibility/ autonomy: students do their own choices about the need of repeating or
not an exercise;
- students can do it from their homes, as a homework, and send it to the teacher;
- while doing HotPot exercises, students are doing Independent Learning;
-…