An English teacher diary

Genially is a tool with a wide range of options to create presentations (among other types of content) in an engaging and interactive way. Although it may seem too much to handle at first, you can start from a basic design until you feel confident enough to move on. 

I suggested my 5th and 6th grade students to explore this tool, as they hadn't created anything with it yet. We followed this sequence:

1. We had a debate and agreed on the general topic ("wild animals" for 5th grade and "daily technology" for 6th grade) and the guidelines to carry out each assignment.

2. We drew the groups using Random Group Generator. 

3. Each group chose a theme inside the general topic (a wild animal to research about or five apps that they generally use).

4. I created a task in Google Classroom that reflected all the decisions that we made as a reference point.

5. They registered and logged into Genially, chose a presentation design and shared it with the members of their group to work collaboratively. 

6. They organised the contents and created the presentations throughout two sessions. During that time they explored the tool and I helped them solve the problems we didn't anticipate. Here's a sample of the works:

Presentation 1: Lion

Presentation 2: 5 apps

I expected to have a final session for my groups to present their final work to the rest of the class (which was the point of this activity) but we ran out of time, so they could just only present a few slides. We would have used Padlet to write feedback comments as a co-assessment. Moreover, each student would have writen a short self-assessment reflection.

I have been using Genially during this school year to enrich my lessons and it still surprises me with new features. I think this mini-project has been a great first contact experience and I hope it won't be the last. Given the good acceptance that my students have had with the tool, I wish I had introduce them to it sooner to build their knowledge little by little. 

On top of that, it has been really motivating for them to interact and share the features they have discovered (these groups are really into design and details). I hope we can make time to do more oral  presentations in the future, because we haven't worked on that skill that much (in English) and I find it really useful for daily life.