Submitted by: Valerie Bryant
School: Short Pump Middle School
Summary
“I’m going to the gym to lift weights.” “I’m going to the mall to go shopping with Anna.” “I’m going to the pool to practice for my NOVA swim competition.” As students learn to use the vocabulary associated with places they can go, they begin to imagine themselves in those places. Attaching new learning to images and places is a powerful tool for memorization. In the past when beginning this unit of study in Spanish, students have been asked to visit various local places in their hometown, taking pictures of themselves in front of the library, movie theater, and park. However, when studying the culture of another country, through the target language, the students learn more by putting themselves in front of actual libraries, theaters, and parks in the country being studied. This is a great way for them to personalize the new vocabulary, commenting on their photos in Spanish to describe where they are. This lesson will take the students through a two-day activity that will lead them to create a presentation featuring them in actual place in Spain.
TIPC Ratings
Approaching- Teacher models strategies to guide student research by sharing her photo presentation, showing how she found and put together her collection of photos. The teacher creates challenges that promote synthesis of resources to address an authentic task and supports students as they acquire, evaluate, and apply information. Students select the most appropriate digital tools and information sources. They assemble and organize information to address an authentic task.
Approaching: The teacher models a range of communication methods and digital tools. She designs challenges that promote collaboration within and beyond the classroom to address an authentic task. She teaches students how to collaborate purposefully without direct supervision. In addition, during the beginning presentation of photos of Spain, the teacher shared photographs sent to her by a friend who is a native Spaniard, a former VIF teacher from Henrico County.
The students select appropriate digital tools to communicate and collaborate with peers and experts, regardless of time zone or physical distances. They reflect on their roles as communicators and collaborators and set goals for future growth. For privacy reasons, these personal photographs were only shared with the students in class and not attached to this Henrico 21 lesson plan. The students were excited to know that their presentations would be shared with the teacher who lives in Spain and were looking forward to receiving similar photo presentations from that teacher’s students who are studying English in Jaén, Spain.
Approaching: The teacher facilitates and formatively assesses authentic tasks where students are engaged in meaningful questioning, critical thinking and problem solving. The critical thinking that the students are engaging in is related to technology; there are many planning steps involved in choosing the pictures, planning their poses, and then problem solving to make the photos seem realistic. They experience trial and error and practice anticipating how certain angles and positions in front of the green screen affect their final product. Students are learning to hone their crititcal thinking skills related to manipulating photographs and this skill will be beneficial to them no matter what career they end up pursuing.
The teacher develops, facilitates and assesses a learning environment where students are engaged in
creativity and innovation. The students find the green screen work to be delightful since what they are doing taps into their innate desire to create something that says who they are and that reflects their best work to be shared with others. The students synthesize existing and self-generated knowledge to create new ideas and products within and beyond assignment parameters. They also reflect on the creative/innovative process and set goals for future growth.
Student Artifact
