Example - Revised Lesson Based on Analysis

For your reference, the context for the interpretive reading lesson is provided again below. Note two new learning objectives and additional cultural content have been added (in bold) to address the shortcomings identified in the analysis of the original textbook lesson plan.

PART I: Contextualize Your Lesson

The information below provides a context for the interpretive reading lesson based on the textbook chapter in which it occurs.

Teaching Context 1st semester French; postsecondary
Chapter / Unit Learning Objectives Students will be able to…
  1. talk about things to do in the city
  2. ask or say where a place is located
  3. say what they have to do this weekend or at another time
  4. ask basic questions to get information or make simple transactions
  5. analyze differing views of the city
  6. compare Francophone and U.S. cities
Chapter / Unit Language Forms (grammar and vocabulary)
  1. City, transit, entertainment, shopping vocabulary
  2. Question formation
  3. Prepositions of location
  4. Expressions of necessity
  5. - ir verbs, prendre [to take]
Chapter / Unit Cultural ContentProducts: the tangible (e.g., paintings, monuments, literature, clothing, etc.) or intangible (e.g., ritual, education systems, laws, etc.) creations of a particular culture. They reflect a culture’s perspectives. Example: anti-aging / beauty / wrinkle creams

Practices: Patterns of social interactions and behaviors. What to do, where to do it and how to interact within a particular culture. Reflect a culture’s perspectives and may involve the use of a culture’s products. Example: getting botox, coloring hair

Perspectives: The values, beliefs, attitudes, and philosophical perspectives of a society; a culture’s view of the world. Inform a culture’s products and practices. Example: youth is beautiful and highly valued
  1. French weekend activities
  2. City life in Montréal
Authentic Text(s) Blog post & comments: Montréal, c’est ma ville!
Communicative Mode(s) InterpersonalInterpersonal communication: Interaction and meaning negotiation in spontaneous spoken, written, or signed conversations. Exploring relationships, shared assumptions, conventions, imagination, creativity, and emotions that are grounded in understandings of textual content. Oral/aural and written. InterpretiveInterpretive communication: Reader, listener or viewer constructs meaning (e.g., interprets, understands, analyzes) from a written, audio, audiovisual, or digital text. No possibility of negotiating meaning. Aural and written communication. PresentationalPresentational communication: Sharing information and ideas to an (often) distant audience in order to inform, explain, persuade, and narrate on various topics. Demonstrating awareness of communicative conventions relevant to the text type, context, and audience. No opportunity for negotiating or clarifying meaning. Oral and written.
  Terrell, T. D., Rogers, M., Kerr, B., & Spielmann, G. (2012). Deux mondes: A communicative approach (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

 

PART II: Analyze Your Lesson

In this section you will analyze the activities from the textbook lesson using the information from Part I and your understanding of the Knowledge ProcessesWays that students interact with texts to make meaning; foundational types of thinking that students “do to know." Include four different types of activities students can carry out—experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing, applying—as they develop their foreign language literacies. Can occur in any order. of multiliteracies pedagogy.
First read through the revised lesson, then answer the questions in the table. At the bottom of the table, follow the directions to compare your analysis against that of the Literacies in Language Education project leaders.

ACTIVITY 1: Students compare facts (e.g., size, population, climate, transportation, cultural activities, etc.) about Montreal and home city based on instructor- provided information.
                                                                       
ACTIVITY 2: Students read title and brief summary of the blog entry (provided in the textbook) and predict its content and organization.
                                                                       
ACTIVITY 3: Students read and complete a text matrix to identify (1) information related to chapter vocabulary themes (the city, transportation, entertainment, shopping), (2) whether that information was presented in the blog post or comments, and (3) words from the text that support their answers.

1. Informations présentées dans le texte 2. Trouvées dans l’entrée ou les commentaires? 3. Justification – mots ou phrases du texte
a. La ville      
b. Les transports      
c. Les distractions      
 d. Les achats      

ACTIVITY 4: Students reread blog comments and classify them as positive, negative, or neutral.
                                                                       
ACTIVITY 5: Students use expressions of necessity to write suggestions for non-residents on what to do, where to go, or how to behave in Montreal to overcome negative comments.
                                                                       
ACTIVITY 6: Students discuss (in English) possible explanations for differing views of Montreal, speculate about insider and outsider opinions of their home city, and compare the two cities.
                                                           
ACTIVITY 7: Students brainstorm questions to ask people about their home city for a similar blog post.
                                                                       
ACTIVITY 8: Students write a blog entry, including the comments they received.

 

Context Analysis
Enter the number of the corresponding learning objective(s), language form(s), and cultural content (see Part I) that are the specific focus of each activity. If no learning objectives, language forms, or cultural content are targeted by an activity, leave that box blank.
ACTIVITY 1ACTIVITY 1:
Students compare facts (e.g., size, population, climate, transportation, cultural activities, etc.) about Montreal and home city based on instructor- provided information.
2ACTIVITY 2:
Students read title and brief summary of the blog entry (provided in the textbook) and predict its content and organization.
3ACTIVITY 3:
Students read and complete a text matrix to identify (1) information related to chapter vocabulary themes (the city, transportation, entertainment, shopping), (2) whether that information was presented in the blog post or comments, and (3) words from the text that support their answers.
1. Informations présentées dans le texte 2. Trouvées dans l’entrée ou les commentaires? 3. Justification – mots ou phrases du texte
a. La ville      
b. Les transports      
c. Les distractions      
 d. Les achats      
4ACTIVITY 4:
Students reread blog comments and classify them as positive, negative, or neutral.
5ACTIVITY 5:
Students use expressions of necessity to write suggestions for non-residents on what to do, where to go, or how to behave in Montreal to overcome negative comments.
6ACTIVITY 6:
Students discuss (in English) possible explanations for differing views of Montreal, speculate about insider and outsider opinions of their home city, and compare the two cities.
7ACTIVITY 7:
Students brainstorm questions to ask people about their home city for a similar blog post.
8ACTIVITY 8:
Students write a blog entry, including the comments they received.
Which chapter/unit learning objectives does the activity address?
1, 2, 6
1
1
5
1, 2, 4
5.6
1, 4
1, 2, 5
Which chapter/unit language forms does the activity address?
1, 5
1
1
1
1, 4, 5
1, 5
1, 2, 3, 5
Which chapter/unit cultural content Products: The tangible (e.g., paintings, monuments, literature, clothing, etc.) or intangible (e.g., ritual, education systems, laws, etc.) creations of a particular culture. They reflect a culture’s perspectives.
Example: anti-aging / beauty / wrinkle creams

Practices: Patterns of social interactions and behaviors. What to do, where to do it and how to interact within a particular culture. Reflect a culture’s perspectives and may involve the use of a culture’s products.
Example: getting botox, coloring hair

Perspectives: The values, beliefs, attitudes, and philosophical perspectives of a society; a culture’s view of the world. Inform a culture’s products and practices.
Example: youth is beautiful and highly valued
does the activity address?
2
2
2
2
2
2
Knowledge Processes Analysis
Indicate which knowledge process each activity corresponds to by checking the appropriate box in the table. Note that some activities may correspond to more than one knowledge process.
ACTIVITY 1ACTIVITY 1:
Students compare facts (e.g., size, population, climate, transportation, cultural activities, etc.) about Montreal and home city based on instructor- provided information.
2ACTIVITY 2:
Students read title and brief summary of the blog entry (provided in the textbook) and predict its content and organization.
3ACTIVITY 3:
Students read and complete a text matrix to identify (1) information related to chapter vocabulary themes (the city, transportation, entertainment, shopping), (2) whether that information was presented in the blog post or comments, and (3) words from the text that support their answers.
1. Informations présentées dans le texte 2. Trouvées dans l’entrée ou les commentaires? 3. Justification – mots ou phrases du texte
a. La ville      
b. Les transports      
c. Les distractions      
 d. Les achats      
4ACTIVITY 4:
Students reread blog comments and classify them as positive, negative, or neutral.
5ACTIVITY 5:
Students use expressions of necessity to write suggestions for non-residents on what to do, where to go, or how to behave in Montreal to overcome negative comments.
6ACTIVITY 6:
Students discuss (in English) possible explanations for differing views of Montreal, speculate about insider and outsider opinions of their home city, and compare the two cities.
7ACTIVITY 7:
Students brainstorm questions to ask people about their home city for a similar blog post.
8ACTIVITY 8:
Students write a blog entry, including the comments they received.
Does this activity engage students in experiencingLearning through immersion in texts, activities, and social situations. Expression of thoughts, reactions, opinions, and feelings about familiar or new experiences, objects, ideas, situations, perspectives, and ways of communicating. Does not involve deep reflection or analysis.

.
?
Does this activity engage students in conceptualizingLearning how language forms, conventions, organization, and other features of texts work to convey meaning. Unpacking texts, practicing skills and knowledge, and explicit learning about textual features helps learners participate more fully in communication.

?
Does this activity engage students in analyzingLearning by connecting the content of texts to social, cultural, and historical contexts. Questioning the meaning, importance, and consequences of textual content. Critically reflecting on textual content and its relationship to one’s own culture, perspectives, and learning.

?
Does this activity engage students in applyingLearning by using new knowledge, skills, and understandings and by producing language in creative ways.

?

Reveal the responses of the Literacies in Language Education project leaders.

 

PART III: Evaluate Your Lesson

In this section, reflect on the revised lesson and the changes made based on its analysis.

  1. How does the revised lesson improve upon the shortcoming identified in the analysis of the original textbook lesson?

  2. The revised lesson moves beyond a near exclusive focus on talking about things to do in the city to include a number of other learning objectives, including two new ones that were created to focus the lesson on both language-oriented and textual interpretation goals. In addition, the revised lesson expands the original lesson’s language focus to address not only vocabulary, but also the subjunctive and question formation. Through the revised lesson’s conceptualizing activities, students connect these forms to the meanings they express in the reading and in the final applying activity. Finally, the revised lesson features more intentional scaffolding, such as additional pre-reading activities that prepare students for the content they will read in the blog; revised while-reading activities that move from global to detailed comprehension to support more in-depth analysis of the text and an understanding of how language forms are used within it; and new post-reading activities that provide linguistic support to help students write their own blog post.
  1. How does the revised lesson better reflect the knowledge processes framework of multiliteracies pedagogy (experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing, applying)?

  2. Because the lesson now includes activities representing all four knowledge processes, it more effectively develops students’ foreign language literacies by ensuring that they work with the blog post to express their thoughts and opinions (Activities 1, 2, 3, 6); understand how language forms are used to express ideas (Activities 3, 5); interpret the importance and consequences of ideas in the text (Activities 4, 6); and use language and new knowledge in creative ways (Activities 5, 8). As was the case with the original textbook lesson, the revised lesson includes a number of experiencing activities; however, unlike the original textbook lesson, the revised lesson’s experiencing activities are complimented by conceptualizing, analyzing, and applying activities. It is important to note that these activities are not organized sequentially, but rather move from one knowledge process to another in an order that appropriately scaffolds the lesson, and that some activities target more than one knowledge process (Activities 3, 5, 7).

 

  Now use a blank Checklist to analyze a text of your own.


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