Implementation of ‘’Priča o čokoladi’’ (SOI-HR-472)

Learning scenario ‘The story of chocolate’ was used  as part of working with students in primary school on a Croatian language class when processing a literary work for full reading by Roald Dahl, Charlie and the chocolate factory’’. I the opportunity to popularize the film ,,Wonka’’ which was shown in cinemas at the time and thus fit thematically perfectly into this script. I implemented the scenario at Tenja Elementary School with 5th grade elementary school students. The class department has 20 students and all students participated in the work. Students did part of the assignments before reading the literary work, and other assignments in the script after reading. The script and activities planned in it fit perfectly into the theme of our lesson as well as in the Croatian language curriculum by developing reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. 

The introductory activity for students was organized in the form of research and presentation of the student attitude towards chocolate. The Mentimeter and Lino.it tools and the Europeana and Pixabay platforms were used in this activity. Students researched and studied the history of chocolate at home, and in class they planned to make digital comics in group work. After that, they were given the tasks according to which they made their part of digital comics. Each group eventually presented and explained their digital comic using the Thinglink tool which was available to all students via QR code.

Finally, the evaluation and self-evaluation of the work of the attachments proposed in the scenario through the MS Teams class group was conducted. Through work on the script and activities, students developed their digital competencies, developed social skills by working in groups, collaborative learning and the flipped classroom and presentation method, and also developed their language skills as well as critical thinking skills.

1.  Chocolate and I – introductory activities for students

Students, by storming ideas using the Mentimeter tool, expressed their views on chocolate using the questions: What is chocolate for me ?, How does chocolate change our lives ?, What would we do without chocolate?. The students typed in their answers using the mentioned digital tool and after that there was a brief discussion of the written answers. The activity lasted 15 minutes.

Students were then introduced to how they would work and how to use the Europeana platform in their work. The students explored the platform themselves looking for interesting things about chocolate. Based on the found photographs and / or texts related to chocolate on the Europeana platform, the students stated their impressions of the making of chocolate, the production and appearance of chocolate today and once, and actualized knowledge. They especially liked the photos of old chocolate packs which sparked a debate about the advertising and popularity of chocolate today. The activity lasted 25 minutes. Picture 2 shows several photos found on the Europeana platform that were most interesting to students.

2. Chocolate and I in the picture and the words – group work

I divided the students into five groups. Each group had four members and each member had their own task that contributed to the work of the group (find a photo, design a story, design a slogan, organize the visuality of the slide). According to the script, the students were given the task of arranging one slide thumbnail using their sentences or sayings about chocolate. They used the photos from the Europeana platform and the Pixabay platform. Each group put their ideas on the Lino.it board after which they explained their choice and thus got their short about chocolate. Some groups also made two slides because it fit their story so better. The students did not record an audio record (as it stands in the script) but everything was done during a live lesson with an emphasis on language speaking skills. The activity lasted 20 minutes.

3. Online research on the history of chocolate (flipped classroom method)

Activities for students in this part were done for the most part at home. Students were given the task of watching a video about the history of chocolate and recording the most significant data they will need later in shaping digital comics. The video attachment we used was suggested in the script as Appendix 2. Video: The history of chocolate – Deanna Pucciarelli
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibjUpk9Iagk

The video lasts 4:40 minutes and there is a translation into Croatian which made it easier for students to listen, watch and follow, especially those students with a weaker knowledge of English. In this activity, the reverse classroom method was used so that students individually studied the video on the history of chocolate at home and then made notes using it when making a sketch for digital comics at school. The activity lasted 30 – 45 minutes.

4. Digital comic – The story of chocolate

After watching the video work, the students in the school in groups changed and commented on the notes they made and had the task of summarizing the content in several places, highlighting the most important ones and the most interesting ones. Their first task was to make a comic book plan. This implied both a text and an image to tell part of the history of chocolate according to their notes. The activity lasted 15 minutes. They then used the Storyboard That digital tool.

Since the tools were not used before, an hour before the division into groups I introduced them to the tool and shared a link with them and instructed them to get a little acquainted at home with the basics of working in the tool. The tool is quite intuitive and it was very easy for most students to create content. They used a free version that was completely enough for them for what they needed to make.

The students mostly chose to work in three thumbnails which is allowed in the free version, so they organized their comic book plans that way. Students were divided within the group according to assignments, but I instructed them to change their tasks when editing each thumbnail so that all students would participate equally and go through all stages of work. They shared their work with me through the MS Teams platform for class collaboration and I made their work public in the class group and left the opportunity to comment which later helped them with evaluation and self-evaluation. The students were very active in the work. It took them 30 minutes to make it. After looking at the comments, they partially changed their work, but there was no need for major changes as they did and understood their tasks very well.

Upon completion of the work, the students conducted a self-evaluation. I used a template from the script, but I partially adjusted it so it looked like this:

5. Presentation of work results

In the last activity, after reading the comments on their work, students made certain changes and completed work on their digital comics. When commenting, I stressed to them that they certainly write one compliment for the comic they are commenting on first, and then in the form of advice suggest a possible change. In this way, it will give comic book authors complete feedback. We made an online exhibition using the Lino.it tool.

Students presented their comics by saying how the comic was created and who did which part of the work activities in the group and how the arrangements and work went. They evaluated the work in the group orally. The students eventually got a job with chocolate, everyone brought their favorite chocolate. Some students dressed in characters from the literary work “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” during the presentation of the digital comic. It was fun and interesting to observe creativity and goals achieved in the form of their creations. They presented their work online on the MS Teams pages of other fifth grades. (picture 6. and picture 7.) The activity lasted 25 minutes.

Outcomes

As part of the English language course, which I teach, based on the curriculum, students should master the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. In the presented scenario, I achieved elements from all areas, which enabled correlation with numerous teaching content and activities for students and contributed to the development of their skills and competencies.

The Europeana platform was an excellent repository of various interesting content and it was very interesting to observe how students research it themselves and how interesting it is for them that so many different content on the platform can be an incentive for both learning and creation. Students acquired the following skills: they approached the topic in a research way, collected data and researched the default topic. They shared their information and research results with other students in a joint discussion and evaluated the information. They approached the summarization of the collected data, independently developed a digital comic book plan, and sent it through MS Teams for review, edited, donated through joint collaboration.

Eventually they shared their work in a common virtual place in the MS Teams classroom in the class group and shared comments from each other taught and taught, developed critical thinking in a fun way to learn and realize new knowledge. I achieved the script almost entirely with minor adjustments that were conditioned by the age group of my students and the working conditions in our school.

In applying this scenario in my work, I have achieved a number of outcomes of my curriculum for the Croatian language as well as outcomes of interdisciplinary topics. These are the outcomes achieved in the field of language and communication:

OŠ HJ A.5.1. The student speaks and talks according to interests, needs and experience.

Outcome elaboration: Student: – talks to exchange information-

– describes according to a simple structure

– speaks and accurately intones sentences.

OŠ HJ A.5.2. The student listens to the text, extracts the keywords, and explains the meaning of the text.

Outcome elaboration: Student: – extracts keywords and writes short notes about the text listened to

– recounts the listened text using notes.

These outcomes have been achieved in the field of creativity:

OŠ HJ B.5.4. The student is creatively expressed according to his own interest driven by different experiences and experiences of the literary text.

Outcome elaboration: Student: – shapes workpieces that express creativity, originality and creative thinking based on language skills, active vocabulary and acquired knowledge

– explores, experiments and works freely on a topic that is close to him

– respects other people’s intellectual property.

Outcomes achieved in the field of Culture and Media:

EYE HJ C.5.3. The student visits cultural events in the physical and virtual environment.

Outcome elaboration: Student: – visit to institutions: libraries, museums, atteliers, art workshops, institutes, institutes (visiting and exploring the Europeana platform).

Outcomes have been achieved from as many as three thematic areas of the interdisciplinary curriculum, and that the student:

rs B.2.1. Describes and respects the needs and feelings of others.

rs B.2.2. Develops communication competencies.

rs B.2.4. Collaborative learns and works in the team.

under B.2.2. Plans and manages activities.

ict A.2.1.According to the advice, the student selects the appropriate digital technology to perform the task. ikt A.2.2.The student uses it independently with known devices and programs.

Link to the learning scenario implemented: Priča o čokoladi (HR-CUR-669) – Teaching With Europeana (eun.org)

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CC0 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Tallinn City Museum.