What do you like about your city?

A short essay homework assigned before a week before the entry event.

Task Description:

During a unit in which we covered the grammatical construction on 'what do you have in your city? what do you not have?' I assigned a short essay asking students to describe what they do have in Singapore and why they like it. None of them are native Singaporeans. After completing the assignment, I had them share their essays by reading them out loud to another. As I had planned, this sparked a rather intense discussion between my students on which restaurants they liked the best, which parts of the city are worth exploring, and where they like to go in their free time.

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
content
Task Time:
1.5 hours
Task Extension:

The extension of task was largely the discussion. I further extended the discussion by creating a FlipGrid for my students, where they could pick one city that they loved and explain why they love it (what features it has that they enjoy as visitors).

Technology Tips:

Because this course is teledistance, the students all submitted their essays via Canvas. If I were to implement this again, I would likely faciliate discussion by adding in a Canvas discussion board.

Potential Hurdles:

It would have been possible that my students all simply stay on campus all the time and don't have any strong feelings about other features of Singapore as a city.

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Showing off Singapore! - Entry Event

This task was the real entry event into the project.

Task Description:

After having my students complete their writing assignment, I began a discussion the following week about how they first approached Singapore when they moved here. They had very strong ideas about what places they loved now, but they came to Singapore knowing almost nothing about what awaited them. What things did they wish they had known? What sorts of resources were helpful for them? Who did they turn to for advice? At the end of the discussion, I told them that they would be creating that resource for others - that is, for Russian tourists staying at the Pan-Pacific Singapore hotel.

Task Type:
driving question
Task Focus:
content
Task Time:
40
Task Extension:

After this discussion, I had them go home and do a short writing assignment to tell me three places in Singapore that they would like to tell other people, specifically Russian tourists about, and why.

Technology Tips:

This particular task did not require any technology.

Potential Hurdles:

The students are all college-aged, ranging from 19 to 22. The main hurdle for this task, and in fact the entire project, is making sure that the locations and sites they choose to highlight are relevant for an audience outside of that narrow age bracket.

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Get the Lay of the Land

Looking at available materials to understand what tourism materials are available.

Task Description:

Students were given a list of sites to peruse in Russian, targeted to Russian visitors to Singapore. Some were tourism sites, others were travel agencies, and a few were personal experiences of Singapore. While several of the sites were above the students' comprehension levels, I asked them to provide general feedback: did the descriptions seem to long or too short? Were the pictures descriptive and helpful? Was there information about hours, ticket prices, and neighborhood? I asked the students to briefly describe, in 8-10 sentences, what they found helpful and unhelpful in the sites.

 

Resources:

http://www.travel-sgp.ru/sights/

http://www.travel-sgp.ru/rest-options/

https://ruspo.ru/countries/singapur/\

http://www.mirtravel.com/geo/singapur/poleznaja_informatsija

http://olgatravel.com/2017/07/dostoprimechatelnosti-singapura-foto-opisanie/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aGoBt1SyBM

http://turist.chitaem.info/topics/singapur-iznutri/

https://www.factroom.ru/facts/24403

Task Type:
scaffolding
Task Focus:
content
Task Time:
1-2 hours
Technology Tips:

Students will need internet access to complete this task. There is also a YouTube video, so students should be prepared with headphones or with speakers.

Potential Hurdles:

Students may be intimidated by large blocks of text or vocabulary they do not understand. It is important to emphasize that total comprehension is not the goal; students should instead try to pick out general themes and the overall effectiveness of the site by design.

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Field Trip to Pan-Pacific Preparation

Preparing students to take full advantage of a field trip to the Pan-Pacific Singapore Hotel.

Task Description:

I planned a field trip for my students to the actual hotel for which they'll be producing materials in order for them to meet with the Senior Marketing Communications Manager. She will give them a tour of the facilities and also answer any questions that they may have. Because of the potential obstacle of writing for the right audience, I asked my students to come up with a list of questions to ask while on the field trip to get a better idea of the audience. The parameters I gave them were to come up with questions that will help them understand who will be using their materials, and how Russian guests at the hotel usually behave. They submitted these questions to me, and we will review them together in the week prior to the fieldtrip.

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
interaction
Task Time:
1 hour
Task Extension:

After they return from the field trip, I will have them utilize the answers they receive to these questions to select what they want to include in their pamphlets.

Technology Tips:

Besides the normal technology used to facilitate teledistance, no extra technology was used here.

Potential Hurdles:

Unfortunately my contact at the Pan-Pacific is not a Russian speaker, so the students will be asking their questions in English. Additionally, because I am thousands of miles away, I will not be able to attend the field trip and make sure everything is going smoothly.

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Interview a Russian speaker

Interviewing Russians to understand what they look for when they travel.

Task Description:

Whereas the data that the students collect on their fieldtrip will help them generally understand the habits of Russian tourists staying at that hotel, I want them to have a more personal connection as well. I have asked them and they all know native Russian speakers currently in Singapore. For a week prior to when the assignment is due, I am going to ask my students to brainstorm questions to ask native Russians about their travel habits and what they like to do while on vacation. I will caution them that a sample size of one is not meant to be representative of all of Russian culture, but that one-on-one conversations can also be revealing and teach them something they won't know. I have done a similar assignment in the past and the interviews become quite stilted, so I want to take great care to practice backchanneling with them and encourage them to not simply read from a script.

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
interaction
Task Time:
3 hours
Task Extension:

After they conduct their interviews, we will have a discussion in class about what they've learned and what they think they now better understand about Russian travel habits.

Technology Tips:

Students will need to record these interviews. My students tend to use their cell phones to record their interviews, and then send me the files for review.

Potential Hurdles:

As I mentioned above, student interviews can easily become quite stilted. Additionally, my students have quite varying levels of language ability and it may be that they don't entirely understand the answers that they get from their interlocutors. I will review how to ask someone to speak slower or more simply, but in the moment they may forget to do so and simply not be able to follow.

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Assessment - Self and Teacher

How students will assess their own project, and how I will assess it.

Task Description:

The rubric for the project has been available since we launched the project via Canvas. Once students have created a rough draft of their project, I will direct them to the rubric and ask them to self-assess. Based on their self-assessments, I will ask them to go back to their projects and edit to get their projects to the 'exceeding' guidelines. After that, I will ask for that version of the project, look for any egregious errors, and hand it back to them for a final pass.

Task Type:
scaffolding
Task Focus:
feedback and/or revision
Task Time:
1 hour
Task Extension:

The task extension lies in the iteration that students will take part in based on the self-assessment.

Technology Tips:

I used Quick Rubric for my own rubric, but I haven't loved it. I can't print out the rubric on a single sheet of paper. For a teledistance course this is not actually a significant hurdle, but I am still looking for a printable version of this site for any future in-person classes I may teach.

Potential Hurdles:

Complicity on the part of the students - they may decide that simply 'proficient' is sufficient for themselves. Similarly, students may struggle with self-assessment in general, or specifically in the context of a group project.

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