Better Community, Better Life Teachers' Lesson Plan Competition
Notion of this lesson plan: The lesson plan is designed for guiding student Lesson plan title*: What we think of Tamsui, we think of…? Better Community – Better Life theme*: Community Culture Curriculum area*: Suggested cross-curriculum links: English and Sociology History, Arts, and Science Suggested level / age*: Ages 12 - 14
Lesson length*: 10 hours lesson (The lesson consists of 5 sessions. Each session contains a two-hour lesson) – The series courses contains more than 10 hours, however, only 10 hours will be presented in the lesson plan.
Learning objectives*: 1. To stimulate learners’ critical thinking skills in doing the research 2. To build capacity of learners in team work and the use of technology 3. Provide opportunities for learners to use English as a tool, thus preparing them for life in a global society 4. To Build up learners’ confidence and learning motivation Links to previous learning / curriculum fit: 1. English dialogue 2. Interview skills 3. Questionnaire design 4. Photography skills (How to film the interview) 5. Basic Powerpoint skills 6. Presentation skills (eye contact, posture, how to interact and attract the interests of the audience etc.) Resources*: (See appendix) Worksheets Powerpoint slides examples Web link to “British Got Talent” Web link to “Sullivan Ballou Letter”
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< Concept of this lesson plan > The lesson plan is designed for theme based, community culture, aimed to stimulate pupils’ learning motivation and also bolster up their cultural and global awareness. As a teacher, we should remind our students that being a global citizen, we should care the global culture; in addition, we should never neglect our local one.
“Cultural awareness developed and the pupils were helped to understand, as far as cognition allowed, that they could communicate with children and young people in another country” (Abbott, Austin, Mulkeen, & Metcalfe, 2004: 237). We are now living in a global village; it is definitely necessary for our learners to build up their openness and understanding while facing different cultures around the world. The same idea shared in Merryfield 1994, “with the increasing interaction among peoples of the world, skills in cross-cultural communication, intercultural competence, and the need for knowledge and understanding of people of other cultures have become critical to survival (cited in Ruth and Sally 2009). The following series lessons are designed around those concepts aimed to help our learners get ready for the global world and build up a global mind, respect and understanding of the world.
The whole lesson contain four parts, try to guide students to find out their own voice and also others’ like doing a mini research,
1st part: Search - Provide opportunities and motivate learners to brainstorm their ideas when they think of their local community. 2nd part: Listen - Collect evidence from others’ viewpoints. Listen what local people and foreigners think of their local community. 3rd part: Inspire - Inspire them to create any art work, writings or poems related to the local community 4th part: Discover - Build up their critical thinking on comparing and contrasting different viewpoints from the evidence they collected. Encourage students to express what they have learned through their local community and through this project.
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Search < Class 1 /5 > Starter / Introduction Timing Warm up (15 mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups - Each group with 5-6 students
Activity (1) Brainstorming – Ask students to work as a group and brainstorm “When you think of Tamsui, what comes to your mind right away?” (2) Students freely share different ideas with the teacher. (3) Groups exchange ideas with each other.
Use“mind Use“mind mapping” mapping”
Main activities* Timing Main session (90 mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups - Each group with 5-6 students
Activity (1) Each group of students spends some time searching pictures and information that represents Tamsui best on the internet. (around 15 mins) [Aim: swift the learning responsibility from the teacher to students. In addition, students learn to search and select the particular information from the net.] (2) In order to prepare group presentation for the next class, the teacher guides students to design their group powerpoint by using the information and pictures collected from the net. (20 mins)
Use Use“slide “slide example” example”
[Aim: build up learners’ social skills while cooperating and negotiating with their team members.] (3) The teacher announces that each group will have 5 mins to practice their presentation skills on the stage once they finish their powerpoint. [Aim: Link to previous learning – get students to carry out the presentation skills they were taught, such as eye contact, body movement, confidence, gesture and interaction with the audience. Plenary / Summary
Timing (15 mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups - Each group with 5-6 students
Activity 1. Wrap up: The teacher shares different ideas come from each groups with the whole class again. [Aim: To show students that even though people come from the same community, they can still hold different viewpoints towards the community culture or other perspectives. Meanwhile, respecting and appreciating those “different sounds” are very important.
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2. Remind students to work together and finish the rest of the powerpint. Bring the complete work to the class for the presentation next time. 3. Encourage students to make some visual aids or posters for their presentation if needed. 4. Students are asked to dress their formal suit for the presentation next time. Search < Class 2/ 5 > Starter / Introduction Timing Warm up (20 mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups - Each group with 5-6 students
Activity 1. The teacher uses question and answer to help students recall what have been discussed in class last week. [Aim: help students to link what they learned before and what they are going to learn next.] 2. The teacher then helps students revise the group powerpoints. At the same time, other groups take turns to rehearse their presentation on the stage. Main activities*
Timing Main session (90 mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups - Each group with 5-6 students
10mins 10minsfor foreach each group group
Activity 1. The teacher announces his/her grading criteria of the presentation to the students. [Aim: students are clear what they need to achieve and accomplish for the task.] 2. Each group then takes turns to present their thought on the stage. Meanwhile, students are required to perform the presentation skills taught in previous class. [Aim: having presentation on the stage helps learners build up their confidence. They learn to express for themselves. Imagine they talk about their own culture to other people from the world, they will have no fear.] 3. The teacher finally gives his/her comments at the end of the presentation. [Aim: Avoid giving comments after each group but gives the feedback to all at the end, so that the teacher does not hurt pupilsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; feeling.] 4. The teacher guides students to design an interview questionnaire â&#x20AC;&#x201C;
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encourage students to work as a group and brainstorm a list of questions related to community culture. For example, by asking people “When you think of Tamsui (local community), what do you think of?” to see find out what their answers are. Plenary / Summary Timing
Groupings
- 6 Groups Wrap up (10 mins)
- Each group with 5-6 students
Activity 1. Give students positive feedback according to their presentation today. 2. Ask them to finish their questionnaire and then email to the teacher before they interview people. [Aim: never helps students finish their work in class, so they can go back and work with their members till accomplish the work by their own.]
Listen < Class 3/ 5 > Starter / Introduction Timing Warm up ( 20 mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups
Activity 1. Share students’ feelings and feedback after their interview task.
- Each group with 5-6 students
2. Ask students to exchange what they experienced through the interview with each other, any difficulties or fun things. 3. The teacher goes to each group and checks their interview clips. Gives short comments on the good parts or any parts needs to be improved. [Aim: always gives students positive feedback first, however, also make them realized that there is always space for improvement.] Main activities*
Timing
Main session (90 mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups - Each group with 5-6 students
Activity 1. Each group takes turns to share their interview work on the screen in front of the class. (around 30 mins) 2. The teacher also asks students to share their reflection of doing this work on the stage after showing the interview clip. 3. The teacher then guides students to find out the “evidence” from the
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films – to see whether others’ viewpoints match theirs. 4. Students then share the similarities or differences of the evidence they found with each other. Plenary / Summary Timing Wrap up
Groupings - 6 Groups
(10 mins)
- Each group with 5-6 students
Activity 1. The teacher gives positive feedback to students hard work on the interview. 2. Asks students to bring some English newspaper to the class next time. [Aim: always gives students something new to expect for the next class.] Inspire < Class 4/ 5 > Starter / Introduction
Timing Warm up ( 15 mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups
Activity 1. Ask students to find out the features of newspaper they brought.
- Each group with 5-6 students
2. Brainstorm what they can design and put in the newspaper.
Main activities* Timing Main session (90 mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups - Each group with 5-6 students
Activity 1. The teacher guides students to design a magazine paper/ newspaper reporting anything related to community culture (“When they think of Tamsu, what do they think of ?” ) 2. Each student from the group is supposed to design a section of the newspaper. For example, one may be responsible for art design, one may be writing the main story etc. Use Useworksheets worksheets (appendix) (appendix)
Timing
Groupings
3. Students then finally combine those sections together and come out with the final work. Plenary / Summary Activity
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Wrap up (15 mins)
- 6 Groups - Each group with 5-6 students
1. Each group shows their newspaper or magazine paper on the stage and express their design ideas. 2. The teacher gives her comments and asks students to edit their works and bring them to class next time. Discover < Class 5/ 5 > Starter / Introduction
Timing Warm up (30 mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups - Each group with 5-6 students
Activity The teacher gives students some time to think and discuss what they have learned from the previous sessions, (At the beginning, they expressed their thoughts about Tamsui, and then they interview local people and foreigners to ask their opinions, finally they write a short report about Tamsui) - What do they find from this process? Main activities*
Timing Main session (60mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups - Each group with 5-6 students
Activity 1. The teacher draws two circles on the board, one written with students’ viewpoints and the other written with others’ thoughts. Encourage students to compare and contrast the evidence they collected to their own thoughts. 2. The teacher explains that there are many different viewpoints existing in the world. 3. The teacher also helps students to realize how much they know their local community from not only their viewpoints and also others’ through this project. Plenary / Summary
Timing Wrap up (30 mins)
Groupings - 6 Groups - Each group with 5-6 students
Activity 1. The teacher gives students positive comments, especially for their very hard working. 2. The teacher asks students to bring their favourite lyrics to the class next time. (They are going to write a poem for Tamsui for the next time, students are going to express what they think of their local community with a poem. – more lessons to come…)
Reference
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Abbott, L., Austin, R., Mulkeen, A., & Metcalfe, N. (2004). The Global Classroom: Advancing Cultural Awareness in Special Schools through Collaborative Work Using ICT. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 19(2), 225-240. Ruth E. Van Reken and Sally Rushmore (2009). Thinking globally when teaching locally. KAPPA DELTA PI RECORD. WINTER 2009
Appendix 1. Website links: (1) Link to “British Got Talent” - http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=YdDIsImNfBY&feature=related (2) Link to “Sullivan Ballou Letter” http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=k6Rj49qIOvQ&feature=related
2. Example of Mind mapping
3. Slide examples used in class
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4. Activity Sheets used in class
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