Triptico: https://www.tripticoplus.com/?
a selection of activities and resources to enhance student engagement.
Triptico offers a wide variety of collaborative activities and resources, which can be used with Interactive White Boards or computers with projectors (as long as there is an internet connection). Resources are very easy to use and can be customised and saved for future use.
The screen-capture above shows the variety of resources available. Many are vocabulary and text based (quizzes, sorting and matching activities, games) and good for recapping, reviewing and reinforcing learning in an active and fun way. Game-playing increases interest and motivation, producing positive feelings towards the subject and the teacher. The tool promotes group work, incorporating peer teaching and correcting, giving learners time to think, which builds confidence in weaker students and increases responsiveness to questions. Group work affords individuals the chance to try out ideas before committing to sharing these with the whole class. For the teacher, these activities allow formative assessment to take place throughout the lesson. The strengths and weaknesses of individual learners can be identified and the teacher can check whether learning has taken place.
Students tend to chose to sit next to their friends when they enter the classroom, but the group-making tool assists in classroom management by randomising groups in a light-hearted and surprising way, ensuring that learners have the opportunity to mix and work with different students in their classes, making communicative tasks more meaningful.
The timers, which are good not only for timed activities but also to reinforce the importance of time-keeping at break time, which is an issue at my college.
Students tend to chose to sit next to their friends when they enter the classroom, but the group-making tool assists in classroom management by randomising groups in a light-hearted and surprising way, ensuring that learners have the opportunity to mix and work with different students in their classes, making communicative tasks more meaningful.
The timers, which are good not only for timed activities but also to reinforce the importance of time-keeping at break time, which is an issue at my college.
Customising resources
It took me under 10 minutes to produce these activities. The first is using "What's the Question?". I can see this as being an entertaining way to check learning/recap a lesson focusing on question formation. The activity can be customised according to the level of the students, who would work in groups to provide answers and gain points for their team.
In this activity teams have to form accurate questions in order to be awarded points.
Sound effects add to the excitement (a cheer for a correct answer, a groan for an incorrect one) and the teams can see their point scores throughout, adding an element of competition to promote engagement.
Another tool I have experimented with is Word Magnets. Again, it's very easy and quick to produce a group activity, with learners manipulating the words on the IWB to sort, match and order. Nik Peachey demonstrates how easy this resource is to use:
This activity is particularly good for low-level students, who have trouble with sentence formation. Breaking the sentence down into composite parts, perhaps even colour-coded, can enable kinaesthetic learners in particular to manipulate words to produce meaning. Learners can make changes and alterations as they process their thoughts - a form of rehearsal before formalising the learning - and giving learners time to think increases confidence and engagement.
Initially I thought that Triptico provided behaviouristic activities, supporting lower order thinking skills (testing knowledge through games and quizzes), but as with most tools and resources, it all depends on how they are put to use. If used constructively, group problem solving and discovery learning allow learners to analyse, synthesise and even evaluate their learning.
