Have you heard of PechaKucha before? It's an intriguing format that necessitates a presenter to speak for 20 seconds each for his or her deck of 20 slides. It's nerve-wracking as you are conscious of this race against time while forcing your mind to stay focused and speak concisely. Well, today I worked on a PechaKucha presentation on Quizlet. Here's my script:
1. Hi, everyone. My name is Kai Le and I teach English in NorthLight School. This year, I decided to reflect on my language learning experiences. I used to learn Japanese all the way to JLPT N2 Level. It was during this stage of my life that I picked up the concept known as spaced repetition.
2. So what is spaced repetition? Since we are only human, we forget things naturally. Spaced repetition lets us space our learning over regular intervals so that we find it easy to recall information for the long term. When I learnt Japanese, I would key in difficult words onto Anki and review them. Again and again.
3. Due to my background, Quizlet immediately captured my attention. First, it has a flashcard function that facilitates spaced repetition. More importantly, it can be embedded into SLS, so it’s easy for me to assign it and for my students to access it.
4. These were the reasons that motivated me to try Quizlet out. It was rather easy to make flashcards on a topic. All I had to do was key in a vocab word, and several possible definitions would pop out instantly. Then, I just had to modify the most appropriate definition and customise it for my students.
5. I also like how Quizlet engages the senses and supports multiple intelligences. For one, students can toggle between the word and the definition with a click of the mouse. It gets them to move their fingers rather than stare blankly at their notes.
6. Besides appealing to kinesthetic learners, Quizlet also caters to auditory learners. Students can click on the volume icon so that they can listen to the definition. This especially helps students who are not that good at reading.
7. My favourite feature is actually the Star icon. Students who feel that they need to revise more difficult terms in subsequent sessions can click on this Star icon. So, this means that they can choose to just review these words that have been bookmarked with a star the next day.
8. I think this is an invaluable form of self-assessment as students are encouraged to think about what they have not mastered well in a particular study session. This helps them to take ownership of their learning as they are aware of the words that they do not know yet.
9. After creating a set of flashcards, you can share it with your students. Be sure to select the HTML code for flashcards on Quizlet. Then hop over to SLS and click on the Embed Website/App icon. Paste the HTML code and Voila! your flashcards are successfully embedded into SLS.
10. Why did I stress about selecting the HTML code for flashcards? This is because Quizlet provides other ways for you and your students to have fun acquiring the vocab words. I haven’t explored all these features though. But I will still share on the modes that I have tried out.
11. Looking at the flashcards repeatedly gets boring after a while, so I like to use the Match mode. It is similar to the Drag and Drop function in SLS, except that students match a term to its definition. The words and definitions are scrambled all over the place - like a treasure hunt!
12. In addition, students are timed based on how fast they match all the words to their respective definitions. This ignites their competitive spirit, and it’s fun for me to watch students glued to the screen trying to beat each other’s timing.
13. Another way to test students’ retention of information is the Test mode. In this case, students will tackle 15 questions that come in four different forms so that they see if they can apply what they have learnt. Examples are True/False questions and Written questions.
14. Once students are confident that they have digested the vocab words and meanings properly, they can attempt the Spell mode, which tests them on their spelling of the vocab words. Low-progress students can make use of the Volume icon to hear the word as a form of scaffolding.
15. Should you wish your students to attempt the Test, Match or Spell modes, guess what? You can select the relevant HTML code on Quizlet and embed it into SLS. This helps you spice up learning for them.
16. Now that you know how user-friendly Quizlet is, I’m sure you’re excited to create your original flashcards for your students. However, before you do so, I will like to highlight two points so that you can set your students up for success.
17. Firstly, the layout of the flashcard can appear quite confusing and overwhelming. I spent one period demonstrating to students where to click to see the definition and how they should proceed to the next flashcard. I also wrote an instructional guide on how to use Quizlet.
18. Secondly, many people are visual learners. However, the free version of Quizlet does not allow you to insert images to aid your students’ learning. I was quite disappointed when I found that out, so I wanted to give you a heads-up.
19. Despite the imperfections, I think Quizlet is a great tool to facilitate spaced repetition and enhance student learning. Through creating this presentation, I realised that it has a function called Checkpoint. It seems to be like a Kahoot! game, so I really want to try that out!
20. To conclude, Quizlet empowers students to learn words at their own pace, express confidence in their mastery through its games and build connections with their classmates. Basically, fulfilling the autonomy, competence and relatedness of the Self Determination Theory. Thank you for listening to my presentation! And I hope you will give Quizlet a try!
And this is my YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeumhLxihBA.
