Voki
Lower-intermediate level
Description
Main Aims
-
To provide practice of physical appearance, face and body, clothes in the context of friends, family, famous people
-
To provide fluency speaking practice in a describing people past, present and fictional
Subsidiary Aims
-
To provide review of present and past tenses and phrases for describing people
Procedure (55-95 minutes)
Introduce some famous people using voki. Ask students to identify and describe the people. Correct past and present tenses if necessary.
Hand out some printed pictures of people, drawings or real photos are ok. Ask students to go through and identify features. At this stage using a separate selection of people on PowerPoint with some examples may be preferable. However, it is advisable to not exceed the remit if voki in doing so. If the voki tool doesn't feature shoes then they may not be necessary here. After a while have students check with their classmates ( if you handed students different phots have them swap and collaborate on the photos for a while) Feedback everything to the class, have students come and write up their answers on the board. If possible in a way that links them to the pictures so everyone can get a clear understanding. Maybe the PowerPoint slide should contain a large number of answers but if your drawing skills (or the students) are up to the task have some quick sketches up on the board. Be very welcoming of additional vocab, and elicit descriptive words for everything.
Make sure that all the key vocab is understood by CCQing the words from the previous step. Ask some students to describe a feature to ensure they are up to the task,
Go through all the menu options and demonstrate some of the program's key features. Also, explain words that appear in the tool. The activity can be student-led if the class is suitable for allowing them to come to the front and take over control briefly
Ask students to prepare their computer and get into groups or pairs (depending on the tech level of the class and time requirements) Guide people to the tool and CCQ key features. Go around the class and check everyone is ready to go
Set a number of tasks Start easy Changing one feature on a model Finding a person or type of feature in the set Describing the features of a person Then get harder Building a famous person or themselves from scratch. Discussing the background frames and what they represent Using more unusual features or checking more difficult vocab for features. Make sure students take screenshots or save their creations so you can check task completion.
Ask students to break into smaller groups or individuals (as circumstances allow) Explain the final project. Create a person, complete with background and several key features. Create a social profile for the person, referencing their features. Use Facebook as an example. The picture will be the profile pic for a larger information set. Set some requirements. Name, age, occupation, hobbies, interesting life events Ask them to ask to describe the person features and their life background, including their family and childhood (don't expect much from this from lower int, but pushing a bit can't hurt.) Depending on time and availability of computers, begin feeding back examples the same day or have students finish off the task for homework and feedback online in-class group written down or in groups next lesson.