Initial Reflection and Brainstorming.

Students will reflect and brainstorm what they think they know about Seattle and French weather and how it does or does not affect students' activities and culture.

Task Description:

Students will reflect on their personal experiences and how their activity choices and culture have been shaped or affected by weather. They will share with the work group and will also share what they think they already know about student activities in France. They will hypothesize about how they think these might be shaped or limited by the local weather. 

Task Type:
driving question
Task Focus:
content
Task Time:
45 minutes

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Learning about our partner school

Students will view and complete activity sheet with information garnered from College St-Blaise web site.

Task Description:

Students will view the College St-Blaise web site in pairs and complete a data\activity sheet documenting their understanding and reaction to the pictures and information on the web site. The data\activity sheet will require them to identify and record vocabulary that is new and unclear, in addition to their reactions and thoughts on similarities and differences between the French school and their own. Copies of the sheet will be turned in to the teacher for review and later returned to become part of the project journal. 

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
content
Task Time:
45 minutes
Technology Tips:

 http://college.saint-blaise.pagesperso-orange.fr/

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Vocabulary for understanding partners- formative assessment

Students will pass a formative assessment based on the vocabulary list compiled by the teacher from the students' activity sheets in task 2.

Task Description:

After participating in practice activities and vocabulary review games, students will pass a written vocabulary quiz on the vocabulary generated from student activity sheets in task 2.  

Task Type:
scaffolding
Task Focus:
content
Task Time:
2 hours including practice and assessment

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Entry event

Students will observe the entry event as a whole class.

Task Description:

Students will watch the entry event videos as a whole group. The videos will be one of a downpour/flash flood in France, and one of a downpour/flash flood in the U.S.

Task Type:
driving question
Task Focus:
content
Task Time:
45 minutes to watch and discuss videos
Technology Tips:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36443658http://www.kctv5.com/story/32282127/flash-flooding-sends-water-cascading-into-subway-station

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Research weather data

Students will use internet to find weather data for Shoreline WA and for Nantes, France, record, reflect and hypothesize.

Task Description:

Students will research weather data on the internet in pairs. They will use a data organizer to record their findings. The data organizer will become part of their project journal. Students will then reconvene with the larger group, share findings, and hypothesize what similarities and differences they think they may find when they poll their correspondants. 

Task Type:
driving question
Task Time:
90 minutes (45 minutes each sub task)

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Compiling questionnaire

Students will edit basic questionnaire prepared by teacher and send to partner school.

Task Description:

Students will review, discuss and edit the questionnaire prepared by the teacher. The questionnaire will be in English for the partner school English language students to answer.

Task Focus:
content
Task Time:
45 minutes
Technology Tips:

Students will use Google doc for the questionnaire. 

Files

Compiling a vocabulary list

As a scaffolding activity students will compile a vocabulary list of phrases they feel would be necessary or helpful.

Task Description:

Students and teacher will compile a list of weather and activity related expressions is the target language that they believe would be helpful for the exchange. They will ask the partner class for feedback on the expressions to find out if the expressions are really ones that native speakers use before memorizing  or using them.

Task Type:
scaffolding
Task Focus:
content
Task Time:
45 minutes

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Schedule of responsibilities

Students will sign up for responsibilities for gathering data and corresponding with French students during the exchange.

Task Description:

Students will create a schedule of responsibilities for the exchange (securing data, selecting information, inputting data to the shared documents, etc.) 

Task Type:
scaffolding
Task Focus:
interaction
Task Time:
45 miutes
Technology Tips:

Schedule will be created on a Google doc that is shared with teacher and class members.

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Using feedback from partner school

Students will review and use feedback from our partner school.

Task Description:

A time will be set aside during class each day to review and process feedback received from our partner school. Students keep an individual project diary and will discuss the new data in the target language with classmates. 

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
interaction
Task Time:
10 minutes per class period for duration
Task Extension:

Creation of a vocabulary bank from exchange including unfamiliar vocabulary or vocabulary that differs from what they learned in their text books. 

Potential Hurdles:

Time constraints. 

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Discuss and evaluate

Students will discuss and evaluate what they have learned over the course of the exchange

Task Description:

At the end of the monthly exchange, students will discuss and evaluate what they have learned from the exchange and how their pre-exchange ideas have been confirmed or changed. Based on their new knowledge and understanding, students will brainstorm ideas for messages for the poster portion of the project. 

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
interaction
Task Time:
45 minutes

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Creating posters

Students will create posters promoting healthy lifestyle choices for all weather

Task Description:

With help from Big Lab staff and facilities, students will create posters to be shared with partner school and at our all school culture night event. 

Task Type:
driving question
Task Focus:
content
Task Time:
2 class periods

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Final evaluation and assessments

The final task will be assessments including classmate and teacher assessments of the project outcome, and self-assessment of personal growth in knowledge, language, and project skills.

Task Description:

Students will use the benchmarks for the project and due dates, Can do's for the unit, vocabulary test results, and rubrics and self-assessment guide sheets to inform their self-assessments. The teacher will use observation notes, test results, can do's and rubrics for input in assessments. 

Task Type:
driving question
Task Focus:
content
Task Time:
2 class periods

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