Submitted by Tamie Morphew
Objectives:
Content:
Students will:
- Identify some of the cultural perspectives of their school.
Cultural:
Students will:
- Demonstrate understanding of the concepts of perspectives, practices, and products as they were learned in the unit "Más allá que el Lago Wobegon."
- Demonstrate understanding of the definition of culture as learned in the unit "Más allá que el Lago Wobegon."
Language: Content Obligatory
Students will:
- Understand and use the vocabulary necessary for identification of products, practices, and perspectives of their school, such as: clases, actividades extracurriculares, materiales para educación, deportes, tradiciónes, reglas escolares
- Use the present tense (3rd person singular/plural) of the verb ser and the conjunction porque to describe the cause and effect relationships between práctices, products, and perspectives with the expression: _________ es una perspectiva del colegio porque __________ es una práctica y ___________ es un producto.
- Accurately use adjective and noun agreement to describe some of their school's perspectives with adjectives such as: importante, serio, fácil, difícil, bueno, malo.
- Use cause and effect structures to express perspectives and express doubt in others perspective statements, using vocabulary such as por que, porque, pero, y, ni...ni, si, por causa de, and o.
- Use the present subjunctive (3rd person singular/plural) to express doubt in the validity of another student's statement with phrases such as: No estoy seguro que (subjunctive verb)..., Dudo que (subjunctive verb)..., and verbs like apoye, apoyen, sea, sean, haga, hagan.
Language: Content Compatible
Students will:
- Use the present tense (1st person singular to express opinions and agreement/disagreement with verbs like creer, opinar, pensar and expressions like no/estoy de acuerdo.
Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Students will:
- Work cooperatively in groups.
Time Frame:
Three 50-minute periods
Materials Needed:
- Index cards, in 2 different colors if desired or white
- Copies or transparency of handout 3
- Computers with word processing program, (optional)
Description of Assessment (Performance Project):
Students create a list of perspectives based on the list of practices and products that they identified in the previous lesson.
Pre-activity:
Have students predict what the perspectives will be based on the perspectives, for family and state, that they identified in the previous unit, "Más allá que el lago Wobegon." Class discussion/brainstorm what the perspectives for their families were and what the perspectives for the state were. Students could look back at the collages created during lesson about the perspectives for family and the state. Based on those perspectives, have students predict what the perspectives for the school might be.Because these predictions will be vague and uncertain there is an opportunity to teach the students to use the present subjunctive verb forms. Using the present subjunctive in the following unanalyzed chunks would make it easier for students to use. Whenever the students want to express doubt about a perspective statement they would use the present subjunctive.
- Yo dudo que... followed by the subjunctive.
Yo dudo que los estudiantes hagan su tarea. No veo buenas marcas.- No estoy seguro que ...followed by the subjunctive.
No estoy seguro que las prácticas y los productos apoyen esta perspectiva.
No estoy seguro que los libros sean un producto.- Es posible que... followed by the subjunctive.
Used in a subordinate phrase, the endings could be limited to the Él/ella/Ud. endings (-ar verbs -e; -er and -ir verbs -a) and the ellos/ellas/Uds. endings (-ar verbs -en; -er and -ir verbs -an). The main clause would be the statement of doubt in the present indicative - Yo dudo que... The subordinate clause would contain the present subjunctive because of the uncertainty of its validity -los estudiantes hagan su tarea.
One way to help students to use these phrases would be to print the complete or partial phrases on red paper. The student would hold up the red paper when they want to indicate, Stop! I doubt what I have just heard. Then they can read and complete the phrase that they want to use. Or you could have them write the phrases in their notes and just use the red paper as an indication that the student will be using the present subjunctive. Then they can read the phrase from their notes.
Students will need language structures that enable them to make cause and effect statements in the during activity. Present compare and contrast structures to the students. Require that they record the language structures in their notebooks for future use. If you want you can grade student notebooks at the end of the unit. Language can include: por qué, porque, and a causa de.
One way to practice these language structures would be to have students write cause and effect statements to support the perspectives that they described for their families and their state in the previous unit, "Más allá que el lago Wobegon."
During activities:
Students will identify perspectives by categorizing practices and products. Using the lists of practices and products created in the previous lesson, have students write the products on rectangular shapes and the practices on triangular shapes. Have students sort the perspectives and practices into loose categories, such as sports and education. Having the products and practices in manipulative form will make it easier for students to see what perspectives are supported by which practices and perspectives. If a practice or product needs to be used in more than one category write it on more than one shape. In preparation for this activity cut paper into rectangles and triangles. Shapes do not have to be exact. Cutting index cards in half produces rectangles of an appropriate size and cutting index cards from corner to corner produces triangles. Not an isosceles triangle but a recognizable triangle. Additional visual support could be given by making the rectangles and triangles in two different colors. Students will work in small groups to identify the cause and effect relationships between products, practices, and perspectives. Have students create a graphic organizer showing how the perspectives are linked to the products and practices. See attached graphic organizer examples. (Handout 3) Organizers can be created either on paper in the classroom or on computers using a drawing program, such as the one in Microsoft Word.Once the cause and effect relationships have been identified, students will then use the graphic organizer and collaborate with their small group to write a statement for each identified perspective. Each statement about a perspective will need to be supported with evidence about related practices and products. Such as: La educación es importante en el colegio de JCC porque tenemos muchos profesores calificados. Small groups will share their sentences with the rest of the class by passing their statements to the other groups. Every group will read the sentences of the other small groups.
Small groups should edit perspective statements for evidence of support by practices and perspectives and edit them for accurate language use. The teacher should encourage students to see alternate interpretations from the data. Small groups should write their alternative perspective statements and share them with the class.
Post Activity-Assessment:
Divide the perspective statements equally among the small groups. The small groups will then write a paragraph for each perspective statement describing the culture of JCCHS. Each paragraph will support a perspective statement. Each group will be responsible for writing and typing one or more paragraphs. The students can use the statements, graphic organizers, and categorized practice and product cards to support their writing. The paragraphs will be written using a word processing program. Students will collaborate within their small groups and as a class to write the introductory and conclusion paragraphs. Make sure the drafts are saved to a shared file that all members of the class/small groups/teacher can access. Alternatively students could email drafts to the teacher/group email or post drafts to an electronic bulletin board. This will save a lot of printing before the final draft is ready.
Assessment:
Collect paragraphs, doubt statements and webs for assessment and future use in the web page students will produce as a summative assessment for the unit. Paragraphs can be evaluated for noun/verb and noun/adjective agreement and use of cause and effect statements. Doubt statements can be evaluated for use of the subjunctive. Webs can be evaluated for student understanding of how practices and products are evidence of perspectives.
References and Resources:
Merriam, S. (1998). Qualitative Research and Case Study Application in Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
The idea of categorizing the practices and products into related groups to discover what perspectives emerge from the data is loosely based on the Constant Comparative Method of data analysis as developed by B. G. Glaser and A. L. Strauss (1967) and described in Merriam's book.
Tarquin, P. & Walker, S. (1997). Creating success in the classroom! Visual organizers and how to use them. Englewood, CO: Teacher Ideas Press.
This book contains many graphic organizers and ideas for how to incorporate them into the classroom.
Attachments:
NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)Handout 3: Culture web (example)