Submitted by: Anne Dillon
Collaborators: Shannon Hyman and Janis Jones
School: Byrd Middle School
Summary
Les gens and La gente. People. No matter the language we speak, people all over the world can learn from each other. We can develop an awareness of and an appreciation for another people’s unique way of life, the patterns of behavior that order their world, and the ideas and perspectives that guide their behaviors. We can learn about other cultures’ contributions to the world and how these contributions have shaped international perspectives. This lesson for our World Languages class requires the students to develop questions about various Spanish and French speaking countries, and research to find answers which will broaden their world view. Students will apply their research to create a new and innovative resource to communicate this learning and information to inform other students. This resource will be used to inform prospective students about the countries that will be studied in World Languages as an elective class. Students will choose to create a movie or digital story book to promote interest in the country they have researched.
TIPC Ratings
Ideal/Target: A large portion of this lesson centers on research. Students use print and virtual sources of information, applying research strategies to select, evaluate, and synthesize information. The information students gather answers a real-world need, promoting the World Languages class as an elective course, and accomplishes areal-world task, an informative multimedia project.
Ideal/Target: Students communicate ethically within and beyond the classroom using a variety of resources, sharing knowledge with their school community. The students may choose to work together in collaborative groups to create their product. Peer evaluation is used as part of editing the product before submitting. There is an opportunity for the students to reflect on the project experience and respond to classmates threads of conversation.
Approaching: Throughout the assignment students apply research methods and critically think about the information they find using a variety of resources to gain new understanding of their topic country. Their research answers questions that identify, compare, contrast, portrays their topic country, and summarizes their learning.
Ideal/Target: Students use self-selected technologies to create an original product to share with their peers outside of the classroom. Peer review of products was a collaborative part of the assignment, offering suggestions to increase value for the targeted audience.
