Key Knowledge and Understanding Grid, and Product Reflection Square

Key Knowledge and Understanding Grid, and Product Reflection Square

Task Description:

 

Key Knowledge and Understanding


Key knowledge and understanding include (a) discipline-specific knowledge and (b) propositional (declarative) knowledge of language and culture (i.e., knowledge about something).

Success Skills


Success skills comprise the competencies described in the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages and in the 21st Century Skills Map and represent procedural knowledge of language and culture such as the one described in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (i.e., knowledge of how to do something).

Key Tasks and Activities


Key tasks and activities may be used as learning activities, formative (benchmark) assessments, or summative assessments that allow learners to demonstrate their key knowledge and understanding and success skills.

Students will learn to communicate at the intermediate range, in all three modes, oral and written, about tourism, and related support services, including the vocabulary of the tourist trade.

Students will be able to ask and answer questions, in collaboration with their colleagues in Ottawa and Marseille, as they gather information needed to build a website devoted to tourism for teens in Napa Valley. They will form hypothesis based on the data they receive from their peers, and test them out with further inquiry. They will reflect on the data they receive, and what the data tells them about the values and attitudes of their peers. They will also reflect on the data as it pertains to their own values and attitudes, seeking to see themselves through the eyes of others.

Students will work in collaborative teams to create a whole class website for their city/region. Each team will be responsible for sections of the website, which will be designed by the whole class. They will do research about the interests of teens with the help of their peers in Ottawa and in Marseille. They will develop surveys, collect data about the interests of their peers, and to collect appropriate language samples to include in their websites. Students will keep a reflective journal to record their intercultural journey over the course of the project, and reflect about how they grow in openness, how their values and attitudes shift, and how they become more aware of the values and attitudes of others.

Students will learn to persuade their target audience in complex sentences related to the tourist trade. They will also learn to make suggestions of activities based on what they think will be of interest to their peers.

Students will be able to engage in interpersonal communication to learn how to persuade teens to visit Napa Valley, and they will suggest activities, and points of interest, they think will be interesting to their peers.

Students will use Edmodo to interact on an on-going basis with their peers in Ottawa and Marseille. They will learn to persuade and suggest, even as their peers seek to persuade them to visit the communities of their peers, and suggest activities of interest to them.

Students will learn to express opinion, volition, necessity, doubt and emotion, in complex sentences to help inform their target audience about points of interest and about activities relevant to teens, and related to the tourist trade.



Students will learn to express their own opinions in complex sentences involving the use of the subjunctive to help inform their target audience about the choices they have as tourists in Napa Valley.

Students will post images, videos, and text, to elicit the opinions of their peers about options available to visit in Napa Valley. They will also share their own opinions with their peers about the images, videos and texts which they will post as well.

 

Product Reflection

Background Regarding the Problem

My students, and the students in Marseille and in Ottawa, all live in areas of the world where tourism plays a significant role in the local economy. Teens also frequently state that there is not much to do in their own home regions, but viewed through the eyes of other teens, that might not be the same conclusion.



Specific Cultural Context for the Problem

In this project, we will explore our respective home regions through the eyes of others in Marseille and in Ottawa, and thereby, come to new understandings of our own values and attitudes, while learning about the values and attitudes of our peers in France and in Canada.



PROBLEM, QUESTION, CHALLENGE

PURPOSE

How can we create an online tourist guide/website, with accompanying promotional videos, for teens visiting our community?





Students in Napa, Ottawa and Marseille all live in areas of their respective countries where tourism is an important aspect of the local economy. Students have expressed the desire to visit one another and to support helping teens visiting to find interesting activities, and points of interest in their own local communities. What is more, teens have expressed high interest in knowing what interesting things there are to do in the target cultures. They all desire to impact their local communities, by making a positive contribution toward embettering options of things to do for teens who may be visiting their regions. Students have also expressed the desire to prepare for future careers in tourism, hospitality and the culinary arts.

PRODUCT

AUDIENCE

Students in all three cities, will collaborate to build websites for teen tourists to their cities/regions. The websites will include photos, videos and articles, featuring points of interest and activities available in their areas.

The target audience will be each of the other classes, and also teens in other parts of the world interested in visiting the respective regions.

Why do learners care?

Students are keen to learn about each other's communities, and to share their own communities and interests with others. In addition, students are keen to contribute to the local community, by creating awareness of the interesting activities for teens to do in their community. Moreover, teens want to prepare for their own future careers options in the tourism, hospitality and culinary arts industries.

Possibilities for Cultural Interaction and Reflection

The nature of this project is intentionally designed to ensure a large amount of interaction between the three cultural contexts. Students in Napa, Marseille an in Ottawa will interact frequently on multiple levels to build schema, to acquire the language needed to describe the activities they want to include as they build their websites, to make decisions about what local activity options to include, and the ways to rate the various suggested activities. Students will also learn how to express their opinions about the various activity choices. Students will learn from each other about the things which interest them. They will explore what are their common interests and what are the differences in their interests. They will learn from each other how to talk about these similar and different interests, and how to formulate their opinions about these interests. The intercultural exchange lies at the heart of this unit.




 

 

 

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
content

Files

Driving Question and learning targets

The Driving question for inquiry and the learning outcomes for the project and unit.

Task Description:

The Driving Question: 

How can we create an online tourist guide, with accompanying promotional videos, for teens visiting our community?

 

SLOs - Student Learning Outcomes:

SLO1 - Students will anticipate, inquire, and analyze their peers' needs, and then test their hypothesis about them, as they respond to the replies they will receive from their peers about them.

SLO2 - Students will describe and suggest activities of interest in their community aligned with their peers' needs and interests.

SLO3 - Students will express their own opinions, doubts, wishes, and needs in connection with the needs and interests of their target audience, as a way to support the choices they will make about activities they want to do.

SLO4 - Students will synthesize the similarities and differences between their own personal interests and those of their target audience.

SLO5 - Students will demonstrate openness to change their own perspectives and values as they reflect on the perspectives of others.

 

Student Learning Targets

Language Targets:

I can describe various activities of interest to teens visiting my community using complex sentences, and hypothetical constructions.

I can express my own opinions (using complex sentences that may require the use of the subjunctive) about the activities included on our website.

I can make suggestions of activities to teens based my inquiry about their interests.

 

Content/Product Targets:

I can promote tourism for teens to our community.

I can use social media to develop interest in visiting our community.

I can create promotional videos to develop interest in visiting our community.

I can build a website to communicate with teens from the Francophone/Anglophone world interested in visiting our community.

 

Intercultural Dispositions Targets

I can demonstrate willingness to show curiosity, tentativeness, and openness, by asking questions, showing empathy toward others' ideas and interests, and by reflecting on my own values and perspectives through the eyes of others.

Task Type:
driving question
Task Focus:
content

Files

Launching the Project

Students will receive a letter inviting them to participate in the project to prepare for eventual visits to each other's communities.

Task Description:

Students will receive a letter inviting them to participate in the project to prepare for eventual visits to each other's communities. The letter will include the following breadcrumbs:

 

  • The development of a website to help inform teens about choices of activities and points of interest in their own communities

  • The inclusion of videos about the choices of activities and points of interest in their own communities

  • The option to make these websites available to a larger community through the local tourist offices of their respective communities

  • The intercultural journey they will embark upon as they work with peers in other countries

  • The need to ensure that the articles on the points of interest, and the suggested activities, include sufficient information, in complex sentences, to inform their target audience, including suggestions, opinions, and viewpoints, about the choices they make.

  • Logistical information about the benchmark tasks in the project.

Task Type:
driving question
Task Focus:
content

Files

Generating ideas

Using authentic texts/media, students will generate ideas for inquiry as they interpret the media, and take notes about the content in the media.

Task Description:

Using authentic texts/media, students will generate ideas for inquiry as they interpret the media, and take notes about the content in the media. They will develop a set of questions for their peers in Ottawa and in Marseille about the activities which they prefer for leisure time. They will post the questions on Edmodo, and the students in Ottawa and Marseille will answer the questions. They will collate the answers to the questions, and formulate some ideas about what students might like to do when they visit Napa Valley. Students in Ottawa and in Marseille will do all these activities as well.

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
interaction

Files

Testing hypothesis

Napa students will test their hypothesis about the interests of students in Marseille and in Ottawa by posting photos of activities to do in Napa on Edmodo.

Task Description:

Napa students will test their hypothesis about the interests of students in Marseille and in Ottawa by posting photos of activities to do in Napa on Edmodo. Napa students will ask their peers in Marseille and in Ottawa to inform them about the ways to describe the proposed activities in French. They will also ask them which activities seem to be of particular interest and to tell why they find them interesting. Napa students will discuss the results and develop other questions for further inquiry. As a class, we will create a "word, expressions, ideas wall" of possible activities for inclusion in the final products. The wall will serve as a benchmark of understanding of how to label activities in French, how to describe them, and how to interpret them. Students in Ottawa and in Marseille will do all these activities as well.

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
interaction

Files

Deepening Inquiry - an Interpersonal Communication Task

Students will post questions and replies on Edmodo to engage in interpersonal communication in both English and in French to further inquiry into the things of interest to the respective target communities.

Task Description:

Students will post questions and replies on Edmodo to engage in interpersonal communication in both English and in French to further inquiry into the things of interest to the respective target communities. Napa students, for example, will reply in the language of posting of their peers in response to their questions. Likewise, as Napa students post items for their inquiry, they will post in French, and students in Ottawa and Marseille will reply in French. Our mutual agreement is to post in the language of the string of inquiry. As one of the three teachers, I will monitor the posting of all students, especially Napa students, to check for understanding, to check language development, and to plan for workshops on aspects of the French language in support of student learning as to how to communicate in the target language.

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
interaction

Files

Examples of Scaffolding

Examples of Scaffolding

Task Description:

Examples of Scaffolding Strategies

  1. For Language: The teacher will provide comprehensible input, guided practice and will assess various language specific content needed for success on the project. For example, the students will receive handouts to support understanding how to create complex sentences which require the use of the subjunctive to express opinion, doubt, necessity, volition, etc. Likewise, students will receive support to formulate and to test hypothesis. As the need for other discrete language items are needed, the teacher will provide workshops and practice to support high levels of achievement by the students. In addition, native speakers from the local community will be invited to come to the classroom to help students improve their language skills.

  2. For Discipline-Specific Content: Students will interview their peers via Edmodo and Skype. Members of the local tourist board will be invited to the classroom to serve as guest speakers. Students will read, view and listen to a variety of authentic resources, and they will collect information relevant to the project from these resources, using a variety of graphic organizers to help them organize the data they encounter.

  3. For the project process: Students will keep a reflective log in Google Docs to record their intercultural journey throughout the project. Students will keep a group folder in Google Drive to ensure they are organized. The teacher will use the Know / Need to Know strategy to ensure students keep track of important details. The class will use a Google Calendar to keep track of due dates and times. Students will have copies of all the rubrics in a Google Folder, and will be asked to review the rubrics on a regular basis.

  4. For Technology Skills: Students will access Google Helps, and YouTube videos, among others, to support them in learning how to build a website. Each group will have a technology expert as a member of their team as well, who will be the point person responsible to ensure that their team can produce the key components to the website. In addition, the point person will serve on a class-wide committee to make decisions on behalf of the class regarding the look and feel of the website, such as font choices, color scheme, website layout, the details of what to include, etc.

  5. For the Final Product:  Students will participate in a feedback and revision protocol to ensure that their group's components are on track to meet the learning targets and SLOs, and that each group is answering the driving question.

 

Task Type:
scaffolding
Task Focus:
content

Files

Creating Promotional Videos

Students will create promotional videos for the identified activities of interest in their respective communities for eventual inclusion on the project websites.

Task Description:

Students will create promotional videos for the identified activities of interest in their respective communities for eventual inclusion on the project websites. There will be multiple drafts of the scripts for the videos, done on Google Docs. Students will peer edit each other's scripts, and the teacher will also comment on the scripts to coach students toward higher levels of accuracy of expression, and for greater proficiency. These comments will not be corrections, but comments meant to help students reflect on how to improve their writing. Additionally, students will create draft videos, and participate in a peer editing process using the critical friends protocol to reflect on the ways to improve the videos - linguistically, visually, acoustically, etc. Students will be able to offer warm feedback using sentence frames to scaffold language production for positive feedback, and for suggesting ideas for improvement.

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
technology

Files

Writing Articles

Students will write articles to post on the website.

Task Description:

Students will write articles to post on the website. They will do rough drafts in Google Docs, and participate in an editing process much like that for the videos mentioned above, before posting their final drafts on the website for the project.

Task Type:
need to know
Task Focus:
content

Files

Assessment

Formative and Summative Assessment Strategies

Task Description:

For Formative Assessment: A variety of assessment strategies will be used to ensure students are on track with the project. For example:

  • Exit tickets to assess what students are learning about tourism, language, collaboration, interculturality, reflection, the PBLL process…

  • Quick checks for understanding: polls, thumbs up/down, comprehension checks, etc.

  • Reflection - students will have frequent opportunities to reflect on their learning via blog entries (on a Google Doc), exit tickets, check lists with narrative responses after the check lists, etc. In particular, students will keep a log of their "intercultural journey" in the form of a journal

  • Collaboration: students will self assess using the rubric for collaboration, including a section for narrative responses on aspects of their own collaboration. In addition, they will evaluate each other based on the collaboration rubric and will provide warm feedback on 3 or more aspects of their peers' collaboration in their groups.

  • Other: we will frequently re-visit the know / need to know chart to see where we are on the way. As we answer the need to know items, we will move them to the "know" column. By the end of the project, we will expect that all need to know items are addressed.

 

For Summative Assessment: Each assessable aspect of the project will be assessed using rubrics. I will list some rubrics below, but these will be subject to revision and adaptation once the project begins. I always like to co-create rubrics with my students on specific aspects of the project; this ensures a greater level of buy-in by the students, and offers additional opportunities for voice and choice.

 

 

Example Rubrics:

Communication - presentational oral - intermediate level

Communication - presentational written - intermediate level

Critical Thinking - students will select the 2 criteria most useful to them for assessment from this rubric - most likely we will choose application and creation

Collaboration

Creativity

 

Digital Project Rubric - for the website, the videos, and other digital tools

 

 

Task Focus:
content

Files

Reflective Journals

Students will keep a reflective journal of their intercultural journey to describe and to synthesize their learning about openness to the perspectives of others across cultural and regional boundaries.

Task Description:

Students will keep a reflective journal of their intercultural journey to describe and to synthesize their learning about openness to the perspectives of others across cultural and regional boundaries. Students will write about the things they find similar and the things they find different about one another's cultural products, practices and perspectives. They will describe how they see themselves through the eyes of their peers in the other countries. They will demonstrate openness to change their own perspectives and values as they reflect on the perspectives of others.

Task Type:
scaffolding
Task Focus:
content

Files