Why do learners care?

Why do learners care?

Task Description:

Everyone loves a good story, particularly stories that help us to see the world in new ways or inspire us to do something we didn't think we could do before. When life gets difficult, people tend to turn their focus inward. The project provides an opportunity for students to interact with people from different cultures and to learn from their stories of how others faced difficult circumstances.  

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Entry Event/Introduction

In order to introduce the driving question and help students recognize that stories are powerful, I wanted to explore a variety of inspiring stories with my students.

Task Description:

1. Students identify and discuss their favorite movies and books as well as the people they enjoy talking with the most. The purpose of this is to introduce the idea that stories are all part of movies, books and discussions.

2. Scaffold and read the Spanish translation of the book "Frederick" by Leo Lionni.

Pre-reading activity 1: Students are shown clipart of key vocabulary in the book with the Spanish word for the vocabulary. Students then have to decide whether the vocabulary word represents something that is tangible or not tangible. 

Pre-reading activity 2: Show each page of the book to the students and ask them to identify what they see. 

During reading activity: Answer the question, What does Frederick do?

Post-reading: Think-pair-share for 2 questions. 1. What does Frederick do? 2. How does he help his family?

3. Scaffolding and viewing/listening of the TED Talk "The danger of a single story" by Chimamanda Adichie. (choose Spanish option)

Pre-listening activity: With a partner answer the question, Is Africa a country or a continent?

During listening activity: What are 3 single stories that she shares?

Post listening activity: Think-pair-shair to answer the during listening question and to answer the question, Are you a victim of a single story?

4. Class discussion. Are stories important? Why or why not? (Provide sentence starters to help students stay in the TL)

6. Think-pair-share. 1. What stories have inspired you? 2. What stories have changed you? 3. Is there a story that is important to you? 4. Is it important to share stories?

7. Introduce the project. The purpose is to gather stories that can change the world. Students will interview native Spanish speakers and we will create a website with all the stories. Show students some examples such as "Humans of New York" and discuss the possible community partners.

 

Task Type:
driving question

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Examining Examples of Inspiring Stories

In order to help students gather inspiring stories from their interviewees, we first needed to identify the elements that make a story inspiring.

Task Description:

1. As a class identify inspiring elements of the life of Sonia Sotomayor. 

Pre-reading activity: By reading the title, and using a checklist provided by the teacher, students predict what aspects of Sonia Sotomayor's life they will find in the text. 

During reading activity: The story is divided into 3-4 parts. In groups of 3, students read a portion of Sonia Sotomayor's story. Only two groups will have the same portion of the story. As they read the story, they identify the aspects that make her story inspiring. After identifying the aspects, students share with the class what they learned. As a class, we discuss the aspects that make the story inspiring and students fill out a small worksheet with the aspects. At the end of the class discussion, students review their predictions made in the pre-reading activity. 

2. With a partner, students identify inspiring elements in other stories. Students are given three examples of inspiring stories to read or view. They complete the worksheet with the elements that make those stories inspiring. 

3. Class discussion. As a class we discuss the following questions: Why are these stories insipring? What are other inspiring stories? Why are they inspiring?

4. As a class we generate a list of elements that make the stories inspring. 

5. As a class we use the list of elements to generate questions for the interviews. 

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Preparing to Conduct Interview

Students complete a series of tasks to prepare to conduct interviews.

Task Description:

1. With a partner, students discuss what famous stories have inspired them.

2. As a class, review the aspects that make a story inspiring. 

3. As a class, review the interview questions brainstormed last class. 

4. As a class, review how students can prepare for the interview.

5. In partners, students practice interviewing each other using the questions we brainstormed. 

6. Students were told to come prepared to tell an inspiring story of their own. Students can choose to share their story in Spanish or English. 

7. If the story is being told in Spanish, the partner listening should write down what information they understand and questions they have. 

If the story is being told in English, the partner listening should write down the verbs they hear and tally the number of times they hear each verb. 

8. After each partner has a chance to tell their story, as a class review some of the verbs they frequently heard. The teacher tells the students the Spanish equivalent of those verbs.

9. Handout the interview checklist. 

10. Provide ideas of where students can find native Spanish speakers to interview.  

11. Informal assessment: students answer questions about the project and the requirements for the interview they will have to conduct 

Task Type:
scaffolding

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After Interview-Preparing for help

Students complete tasks to help them prepare to receive help from more advanced students.

Task Description:

1. Students complete Interview Reflection.

2. Students complete pre-listening, during listening and post-listening activities. 

The listening activities have been uploaded in the files. It requires that students listen to their interview multiple times. 

3. Students  write three questions they have about certain phrases or words they don't understand from their interviews. They will ask these questions to students from higher level Spanish classes coming to class to help for 4 days. 

4. Exit ticket: Students report on the progress they have made, questions they have and % of Spanish spoken. Complete on www.socrative.com

Task Type:
need to know
Task Time:
50 mins

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Interpreting Interviews with help

Students will interpret their interviews with the help of more advanced students.

Task Description:

Students had listened to their recorded interviews and written questions about their interviews in the previous class period.

Students from higher level Spanish classes came to class to help students interpret their interviews. 

Both sets of students were asked not to speak English. The SPAN 101 students were given useful phrases to be able to communicate with the more advanced students in Spanish. Students were able to use www.linguee.com and www.spanishdict.com to look up words that they did not know. 

The purpose of this task was for the SPAN 101 students to understand the inspiring story their interviewee had shared with them. 

Task Time:
4 days/50 mins per day

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Pre-Writing & Writing

Pre-writing and during writing activities.

Task Description:

1. Students complete storyboard with partner. 

2. Students use the storyboard to share their story in Spanish with another group.

3. Students decide who will write the first part of the story and who will write the second part of the story.

4. Students each write their part of the story. 

5. Students work with their partners to combine their sections.

6. Exit ticket: Students report on their progress, report questions or problems and % of Spanish spoken. Complete on www.socrative.com

Task Focus:
content

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Post-Writing/Peer Feedback

A series of peer feedback activities.

Task Description:

1. Students work on Borrador 1 (draft 1). See file attached. 

2. Students make the edits suggested by peers on Borrador 1. 

3. Draft 2. Students switch stories with a different group and work on Peer Revisions. See file attached.

4. Exit ticket: Students report on their progress, report questions or problems and % of Spanish spoken. Complete on www.socrative.com

Task Type:
scaffolding
Task Focus:
grammar

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Final Reflection

Students reflect on their final product and the process.

Task Description:

Students reflect on their final product and on the process. See file attached

Task Focus:
reflection

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Summative Assessment

Summative assessment

Task Description:

Checklist and peer evaluations.

Task Focus:
feedback and/or revision
Task Time:
10

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Formative Assessments

Variety of formative assessments.

Task Description:

The formative assessments include:

Exit tickets completed on www.socrative.com. Teacher provides answers to questions after reading the questions reported on exit tickets. 

Reflections

Quick Checks

Task Focus:
reflection

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