Language learners will investigate the challenges local/foreign families and students face when moving to New York city. They will collaborate with our school’s Admissions Office and Counselors' office as well as the community at large in order to engage in real collaboration of how to start a blog with information needed to welcome and advise newbies what this mega city has to offer depending on their needs and likes. They will also develop the skills necessary to manage themselves within a business environment where they will be in contact with the authorities who possess decision-making power to address NYC’s tourism as well as the local Chamber of Commerce and their partnerships with foreign offices. Moreover, my language learners will closely collaborate with new Spanish-speaking families that will or have been posted to work in NYC who may find themselves overwhelmed or not knowing who to reach out to find places to eat, where to buy, and/or age appropriate places for new students to hang out and/or make new acquaintances or friends outside of the school setting. The real-world meaningful purpose for addressing this so common setting is to gain great insights to a more inclusive work-life balance in this megapolis.
Sustained-inquiry
Implementation information not specified.
Due to the nature of many international families working for international organizations, they encounter themselves being in a position where they need to start from scratch and find they way through adjusting and acculturizing themselves to their new station. This not only affects the parents but also their children as they also have readjust to their new surroundings and way of living.
ExpatWoman is a blog dedicated to engage language learners in real collaboration of how to set a blog with information needed to welcome and advise new visitors and residents alike what a particular country has to offer depending on their needs and likes. Students will also develop the skills necessary to navigate the business world where they will be in contact with the authorities who possess decision-making power to address NYC’s tourism as well as the local Chamber of Commerce and their partnerships with foreign offices. Moreover, my learners will help new Spanish-speaking families that will or have been posted to work here who may find themselves overwhelmed or not knowing who/how to reach out to find places where to eat, to buy, and/or age appropriate places for new students to hang out and/or make new acquaintances or friends outside of the school setting.
Students will use various blogs and official tourism sites that help visitors and residents alike to navigate the city and/or find what is the calendar of events that are/will take place in their locality.
Learners will develop communicative proficiency and engage in sustained inquiry by exploring the question: How can we create an online presence that will serve as a collaborative welcome site for new families and students who have relocated/are relocating to NYC as expats?
The tech tools that will be used include but are not limited to:
Either Weebly or Google Sites to create the final product of a Welcome Blog for newbies.
I would leave our LMS (Schoology) open for students to have as a reference whenever they need to practice and/or use the mnemonics devices I employ with them in order to facilitate the internalization of grammar rules and/or topics.
As for the vocabulary, I would continue using our classroom Quizlet while also providing a Google Doc for them to also include extra vocab terms that they found they needed in order to fully follow through with their project.
G Drive: Will be my repository of information and resources that can be accessed at any time.
Academically, learners will engage in sustained inquiry about the Hospitality and Tourism, Marketing, and Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security Pathways or based on data and the learners’ interests. As the project unfolds, learners will use the target language to narrate in a new-comers blog the what, when, where, and how to navigate NYC’s somewhat nuisances commonly experienced by newbies to the city; they will also maintain a reference section for those Spanish-speakers and even themselves who have been here for at least a year, to state their opinion and/or comments about how they managed to acculturate themselves into their new home away from home while also exploring cultural similarities and differences that may be experienced here.
Learner will use appropriate netiquette terms and style of writing; in other words, a more formal approach to language usage as well as vocabulary topics related to the business profession and those needed within the hospitality and tourism industries.
Culturally, learners will engage in:
observing how current Spanish-speakers are adapting/have adapted to life in NYC while interacting with the activities that are sponsored by the various Latino associations/organizations as well as those sponsored by the local embassies from Latin American, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain,
comparing and contrasting first and foremost, how Spanish-speakers keep shaping and reshaping the Latino identity here in the USA.
Learners will Skype or visit with the bloggers who are in-charge of the blog ExpatWoman.com to ask and inquire what are the frequent questions posted by stay-at-home parents who have recently relocated to NYC and/or their blog posts that receive the biggest amount of hits in regards to the who, what, where and where scenarios that are read within their popular regional blog.
They will also learn about the importance of SEO and brand marketing in social media so as to reach the desirable audience, and to keep them engaged.
Language learners will research and ask about how the school manages and welcomes new incoming students and what are some of the strategies that they use to make new students feel welcome in this diverse community of international families and staff.
Another idea could be for my learners to reach out to the major hiring companies here such as the UN and their sub-divisions (UNICEF, PNUD ...) to learn more about what do they include (if any) in their “welcome package” for new families with children when relocating to NYC. As before, learners will also inquire about what are the major concerns or questions asked by families and in which way these information can help/assist my learners better prepare an informative or comprehensive blog for new Spanish-speaking families relocating to NYC.
This rubric contains two criterias: Comprehensibility and Quality of Communication
Learners will receive feedback about the development of their Intermediate/Advanced Spanish SKILLS through a formative assessment of their writing formal emails in Spanish to our 3 main Spanish-speaking entities by asking and providing information specific as to how they manage to engage their target audiences in their various cultural activities. They will also be assessed by conducting or participating in a mock interview with the Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain by asking him questions about his professional interests and activities as well as being interviewed for a service opportunity with the embassy regarding the organization/development of Spain’s National Day.
Learners will also receive feedback about their progress toward project learning outcomes through the understanding and comparison of educational pathways for a career of their interest both in their native country and that of a Spanish-speaking country.
Learners will also be able to provide sound reasons and describe the current involvement of Latin American countries and Spain in the USA’s economy, especially in the areas of entertainment, services, infrastructure and transportation.
The culminating product for this project will be a comprehensive one-stop blog for information and FAQs that prospective and newbies to NYC may have. Learners will present it to the blog ExpatWoman.com to perhaps be featured in their blog as what do Spanish-speakers need to know before coming to NYC. It could also serve as a presentation to the Cultural attaché of the Embassy of Spain and/or any of the other Latin American embassies.
The product will be evaluated by a joint team group formed by the Head Editor of ExpatWoman.com, the Cultural Attaché from Spain and Cultural Liaison from one of the Latin American embassies using a rubric that assesses their delivery and quality of content and engagement that could be generated by those accessing our blog.
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