This post features a video tutorial on how teachers who follow a "parallel text knowledge organiser" approach can exploit their KOs to maximum effect in textivate.
Just something I was playing around with today, sort of based on this idea on "Using mini dual texts to present vocab in context in MFL lessons" from the TaskMagic blog.
I thought it would be nice to make both the L2 and the L1 text available at the same time as a parallel text along with vocab activities, as a way of drawing students' attention to how the sentences break down (and, conversely, how the chunks of meaning are fitted together to make sentences).
A resource blog based on a text suitable for AS French, I think. The text is about Tesco's decision to stop selling crescent-shaped croissants...
This link opens the activity shown in the image above:
http://www.textivate.com/frames.php?ext=50069143432406z&res=m_1in4-50069143432406ze1
This is a cool way of checking and reinforcing understanding of key elements of a text. In this case it is a very short text, but the same principle could easily apply to any text.
What we have here is essentially a reading activity with a multiple choice matching activity. Note the following:
If you create a textivate resource which includes a text plus matching - as outlined in this blog post - it's dead easy to add a "Find the French" (or Spanish, German, Italian, Latin or whatever) activity, with just a couple of clicks.
So if you have a Text + Match activity such as this...
I thought it would be a nice idea to try adding a word cloud, such as the one above, as an image to accompany a textivate resource.
I added it using the procedure outlined in this post, by simply adding the url of the image to the "image" section of the parallel text box on the textivate edit screen.
The result is the screen below.
There's a renewed focus on translation in Modern Languages teaching in the UK. The GCSE exam will soon include some form of translation to and from the target language.
Exactly what form that will take remains to be seen, but I thought I'd put together a post on the ways textivate can be used to help create scaffolded translation activities -- with varying levels of support provided to the student.
This post focuses on translation into the target language, which is where I think textivate can be more useful.
Parallel texts
The parallel text feature of textivate allows you to specify an additional text to appear alongside the textivate exercises. (See this blog post for more details.)
If this parallel text is in English, it's a great way of providing structured translation practice.
And you can provide translation-type activities at various levels, ranging from putting chunks together to putting words together to filling in letters etc. See the examples below. The ones toward the end of the list are more like true translation activities.
You may be aware that we've recently added the facility to embed an image or a video to appear alongside textivate activities?
(No? Here's some info about embedding videos. And this post is about embedding an image.)
Well, it occurred to us that you could add a parallel text to a textivate resource and have this appear alongside your activities. This would allow for all sorts of possibilities. e.g. guided translation & find the French / Spanish / German etc
We've now incorporated all of these extra features into a new "Extras" tab.
Just toying with the idea of adding a parallel text feature to textivate.
I thought I'd try it first with the parallel (L1) text as an image.
Here's my text in English:
The French version of the text is in this textivate resource: https://www.textivate.com/menu-bijjn1
(Click on the image icon -- the butterfly -- to see the parallel text as an image.)
Here it is with the text (image) visible.
Here's an embedded activity. (You need to click the picture icon to open the activity in a separate screen along with the English text.)