Submitted by Pam Wesely
Objectives:
Content:
Students will...
- develop the ability to enter information on reservation websites and get a result according to specific guidelines
- develop the ability to use an online currency calculator in order to calculate current exchange rates of American dollars to French francs
- develop the ability to identify and list common clothing items needed for a trip
Cultural:
Students will...
- acquire knowledge about the schedule of a Eurostar train through reading a website and reporting the information on a worksheet.
- acquire knowledge about a French hotel through reading a website and reporting the information on a worksheet.
- become more familiar with the intricacies of exchange rates and structures
- identify French money in paper form
Language: Content Obligatory
Students will...
- learn and use vocabulary terms related to making airplane reservations: la compagnie aérienne, le prix total, l'avion, le départ, le billet d'avion
- learn and use vocabulary terms related to the Eurostar train: les kilomètres, la gare, le billet de train, 1ère classe, 2ème classe
- learn and use vocabulary terms related to hotel reservations: l'adresse, le numéro de téléphone, le numéro de fax, les chambres, la station de métro
- review common clothing vocabulary
- learn vocabulary terms related to washing clothes: faire la lessive, laver, la machine à laver, le sechoir
Language: Content Compatible
Students will...
- demonstrate their ability to write dates and times in French
- respond to questions asked with the question word, Combien de...
Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Students will...
- use images and context to decipher the meaning of unfamiliar French words
- develop their reading and writing ability through answering questions in French about websites in French and English
- persevere in difficult and unfamiliar web-based tasks
Time Frame:
Three 40-minute classes, dependent on student Internet familiarity, Internet connection speed, and age and computer proficiency of the students.
Materials Needed:
- Gargie website Lesson 1: http://www.angelfire.com/trek/gargie/prep.html
- Feuilles 1-A, 1-B, 1-C (see Attachments)
- pencils
Description of Assessment (Performance Project):
Technology Tips
Technologically, this unit is very dependent on high levels of computer and Internet accessibility. If that is not possible at a teacher's school, he/she may show the students through the website and do some of the exercises together, but most of Gargie's projects would not be very instructive. If a school has only reduced capabilities for Internet and computer access, there are some possibilities. Students do not need to work on this unit for three to four weeks in a row. Lesson completion can be interspersed with other work, thus parts of the class can be staggered through the computer lab as a "station." Another option would be to assign several students to each lesson and then assign them to present on their lesson. This would of course require that the assessment be rethought. Finally, putting students in pairs or even trios can help reduce the computer and Internet load.
There is no formal summative assessment for thus unit but I encourage you to look at the final lesson in this series which addresses that in more detail.
To the Teacher: About this Unit
The website and this unit are divided into three required lessons and one supplementary lesson. The first required lesson (Lesson 1: The Preparations) is concerned with Gargie's preparations for the trip, including making reservations, packing, and changing money. The second required lesson (Lesson 2: The Trip) is about Gargie's travel experiences, including his adventures on the airplane, the train, and in his hotel in Paris. Finally, the third required lesson (Lesson 3: Paris) is about the Parisian métro as well as the monuments that Gargie visits in the famous French capital. As the students proceed through these three lessons, they will complete three sets of worksheets for each lesson. These worksheets direct the students how to navigate through the website and its links, leading the students to tasks in websleuthing (finding and recording information about unfamiliar websites), writing dialogues, playing web-based vocabulary games, and more. The students will store completed worksheets in a simple pocket folder specifically designed for this unit, using the "Gargie Feuille Checkoff" to keep track of their progress (see Attachments). After completing the worksheets for an entire lesson, the students will submit them to the teacher for evaluation.
Lesson
This lesson is a series of three parts: Partie A: Les Réservations, Partie B: Les Valises, Partie C: L'Argent. In order to complete all three parts, students have to navigate through websites linked from http://www.angelfire.com/trek/gargie/prep.html in English and French to find information that they will then fill in on Feuilles 1-A, 1-B, and 1-C
Partie A: Les Réservations primarily revolves around the three reservations that Gargie must make before his trip: plane, train, and hotel reservations. In the plane and train scenarios, the student must look on English reservation sites, input information, and record the results of the search. In the hotel scenario, the student must look on the French website where Gargie will stay in France and extract information which will also be recorded.
Partie B: Les Valises is essentially a clothing vocabulary review. The first question is linked to exercises written through the use of Swarthmore's activity makers site (see References/Resources). The rest of the part is identification and listing of clothing vocabulary which would be appropriate for Gargie's trip. Students will also stretch their clothing vocabulary to words connected with washing and preparing clothing for a trip.
Partie C: L'Argent introduces the concept of exchanging money and exchange rates. Using a web-based currency calculator, students will need to figure out how many francs are equal to different amounts of American dollars.
Assessment:
Students will be assessed using the rubric "Gargie Lesson 1 Evaluation" which can be found with the Attachments for this unit. This rubric is based on the efficient and accurate completion of the worksheets for all three parts of the lesson.
References and Resources:
Please click through the Gargie website, Lesson 1 for the links used in this lesson: http://www.angelfire.com/trek/gargie/prep.html
Attachments:
NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)Feuilles 1-A - worksheets for Lesson 1, Part A
Feuilles 1-B - worksheets for Lesson 1, Part B
Feuilles 1-C - worksheets for Lesson 1, Part C
Gargie Lesson 1 Evaluation - a rubric for the worksheet evaluation