English around
A SPEAQ-quest for Secondary four and five,
Cycle 2 students (ESL)
Designed by
Corrine Chabot
Teacher’s Notes
Image courtesy of: Clipart, from
Microsoft Office
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits
Introduction
◊ If you could go to another province to improve your English,
over one summer, where would you go and why? ◊
It
is said that the only way to truly learn a second language is to be immersed in
that culture. So, if you want to improve your English, travel and stay in an
anglophone province in
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits
Essentially,
your role is to discover and illustrate why YOUR province is the best one to
spend your summer and help you on your way to becoming bilingual.
The
final outcome of the project will be to present your province. You will have to
convince your classmates why
your province is the one to spend your summer. Each person within the group
will be responsible for gathering and providing certain information about
his/her province. You are all experts on ‘selling’ your province. You will have
to write a written report and present your province to your classmates. Finally,
you will have to listen carefully to your classmates’ presentations so that you
can make an educated decision on which province you would like to go to.
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits
1. You will visit the sites of Exchanges Canada, Canadian Heritage, Katimavik and Canada World Youth. They will tell you about the possibilities you have to travel and improve your English. You will take notes so you can write a half page reflection on what you’ve learnt.
☺You will keep this reflection and put it in your portfolio. You will also include the notes that you have taken to put into your portfolio.
Follow these links:
Canadian Heritage (under Official Languages): http://www.pch.gc.ca/pc-ch/sujets-subjects/jeune-youth/echanges-exchanges/index_e.cfm
Exchanges
Katimavik:
http://www.katimavik.org/section/index/id/1
2. Next, in groups of three, you will label the map of Canada with the appropriate provinces and territories. You will also brainstorm to come up with a list of five things that you know already about each province and territory. We will then discuss these lists as a class.
☺You will keep your map and your list to put into your reflections pocket of your portfolio.
3. Now, on a piece of paper, you will write down
the province that you think that you would like to go to and why. You will also
have to give me a second choice. Then, names will be chosen from a hat and
groups of three will be made up depending on the province of choice.
4. It is time to go on your SPEAQ-quest. Each person in your group will follow one of the links under the province
that has been assigned to you. You will research these internet sites and you
will take notes on important
provincial facts (like major cities, population, geography, cultural make-up,
etc.), what is special about the province (like celebrations, historical sites,
parks, sports and leisure, etc.) and take note of what YOU like about the
province the most (what you think is cool, what attracts you) to help you write
up your report and then present it to your peers. Once you have read all the instructions, you will go on this SPEAQ-quest
to research your province (each person has to take notes on a separate piece
of paper, and print up pictures you would like to use in your
presentation).
☺You will keep your notes to put into your
portfolio as evidence of learning.
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits
5. Individually, you will now write a report on
the province you have researched from the notes that you have taken. Remember
to write it in your own words… DO NOT PLAGERIZE! You must include facts about
the province, as well as what you really like about the province and why. This
will be a one page report, typed, double spaced. It will be marked.
☼ Look under the heading EVALUATION to see what the teacher evaluation
looks like.
A)
If you want to make a brochure, follow these links to help you with the form
and what is found in terms of information. I will also supply you with samples
of brochures from all of the provinces.
Brochure
template Travel Brochure Outline 1 – 2
- 3
B)
Now, to give you an idea of how you may want to develop your video, things you may
want to include in your video, or just to inspire you in creating your video,
look at the following sites.
Passports: http://www.passports.com/trips/video_index.asp
Travelistic: Videos for
Travellers: http://www.travelistic.com/
C) If you choose to put
together a poster, follow these guidelines: the written part should tell of
facts of the province, what you found interesting about it and why. The collage: the pictures should
represent the province as much as possible. It could include cultural events
famous to the province, historical pictures or landscapes and cityscapes.
D)
If you want to make a power point presentation, look at some of these possibilities
1
– 2
– 3 to give you ideas of how yours can look.
7. You will now have to get together with your team to decide on one form of visual support
that you will use. Once your group has chosen a visual support, you will cooperatively put it together. You will
have to share what you have discovered through your research with your team
mates, and just include the most important aspects that you want to present to
the class. This will be marked.
☼ Look under the heading EVALUATION to see what the teacher evaluation
looks like.
8. Finally, it is time for you to present your
province or territory to your peers. As a
team, you will now have to decide what you will present and how you will
present it. You will have to assign different parts to all the members of your
group. Your presentation should be 15 minutes long, it should be original and
informative. REMEMBER, your job is to convince your peers that your
province is the place to go. While your peers are presenting, you will have to
take notes on what you find interesting about their province or territory. You
will also have to evaluate your peers on their presentation.
☺You
will keep these notes to put into your portfolio as evidence of reflection.
☼ Look under the heading EVALUATION to see what the teacher evaluation
looks like.
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits
As
you have seen, you will be evaluated by your peers, by your teacher and you
will be evaluating yourself. The Peer evaluation will be based on your
presentation alone. The teacher evaluation will be completed after the
presentation and will take into consideration your written report, your visual
support and your final presentation. You will also have to put together a
portfolio of all the steps mentioned above. You will have to present your
portfolio to your teacher in a conference style discussion to discuss the steps
you have taken throughout the quest to come up with your answer to the
question. This portfolio concentrates on the processes you underwent, while the
rubric and scale will evaluate the final products (written report, visual
support, presentation). Finally, you will be evaluating yourself on your
overall involvement and cooperation with your team. You are also asked to write
a reflection that will be included in your portfolio and talked about at the
conference (for instructions look at the conclusion to this Web page). Finally,
I will be recording observations that I have made on you throughout your project
so that I can share feedback with you during the conference and while you are
working to help you. You will find all the evaluation sheets listing the
criteria of your evaluation by under the appropriate headings:
Observation chart: I will be taking notes on your work
habits, cooperative skills and any other observable behaviour I see during your
project. This is only an informal, formative assessment that will help me to
help you.
Portfolio evaluation form (HTM)
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits
After
you have all become experts on the provinces or territories explored by your
group, and have been exposed to the other provinces and territories of the
other groups, you will have enough knowledge to be able to make an educated
decision on what province attracts you to explore so that you can have an
enriching language and cultural experience.
Finally, it is time to make your decision, and answer the following
question:
◊ If you could go to another province to better your English, over
one summer, where would you go and why? ◊
You
will have to write a half page reflection on which province you have chosen to go
to, to enrich your English and why. I also want you to write about what you
have learnt from this project and if this new information has changed anything
for you.
For example: did you want to travel before, and
now? Did you know about all these programs offered to you, and does it inspire
you to learn more about such opportunities? Did you like to work individually
more or cooperatively more, and why? Did you like to work with technology and
why? What did you learn about your reading, writing, listening and speaking
abilities? What would you do in the future to improve your team work and
language skills? This reflection will go into your portfolio as evidence of
learning; you can use it as a base for discussion when you present your
portfolio to me.
☺You
will now put everything into your portfolio to be evaluated.
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits
Thanks to
Bits, Bytes and Chips for the Brochure Template
Thanks to Passports and Travelistic for their inspiring web sites.
Thanks to
Wikipedia and the provincial government sites for both pictures and information
on Canadian provinces and territories.
Thanks to Canadian Heritage, Exchanges Canada, Katimavik and Canada World Youth for their great opportunities for our youth.
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits