During this course students will complete assigned activities, as well as activities that will be completed in class. Here are some examples of activities students will complete during this course.
Sample Activity One
Later in this school year, students will be studying the play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. One activity that students will complete during this unit is a small theatrical piece, and a visual representation of a scene(s) in this play. Students will work in groups of 5 - 6 (the number of participants can vary, depending on the scene chosen) and will be given time in class to work on this project. In their theatrical piece, students have the option of recording a video or performing in front of the class. For the visual representation, students will create a poster advertising their theatrical piece using key concepts form the play. Students will be provided with materials for their poster and will also be given some class time to work on it. If students have any other ideas that they would like to include in this activity, I would be very happy to hear them and will accommodate them where possible.
The outcomes that will be met upon completion of this activity are :
General Curriculum Outcome : Students will be expected to communicate effectively
Key Stage Outcome : Speak and write effectively to share knowledge, ideas and feelings:
Specific Outcomes :
* State clearly the subject of an oral or written production.
*Apply rules of grammar correctly.
* Use oral language through role play, etc.
* Speak with appropriate pronunciation and intonation.
* Speak with fluency, appropriate volume and pacing/speed.
* Use a variety of appropriate words and descriptive phrases.
* Use simple and complex sentences and a variety of tenses and moods.
Sample Activity Two
Students will complete several in-class dictations during this course. They will listen to a small portion of text three times and write what they hear. The first time students hear the text they will listen only, the second time the text will be significantly slower and students will write what they hear, and the third time, students will listen and review what they have written. I believe that dictations help strengthen a student’s listening and writing skills as well as reinforce grammatical concepts. Some outcomes that will be met upon completion of a dictation are :
General Curriculum Outcome : Students will be expected to use a combination of cueing systems and strategies to read, view and understand texts :
Key Stage Outcome : Use grapho-phonic, semantic pragmatic and syntactic cues
Take risks in clarifying meaning
Use a variety of textual and contextual clues and strategies
Specific Outcomes : * Use understanding of sound-symbol relationships to predict words (grapho-phonic cues).
* Use background knowledge to make sense of unknown words in a text (semantic cues).
* Use understanding of format and text structure to predict content and vocabulary (pragmatic cues). * Use knowledge of sentence sense and word order to construct variations of words (syntactic cues).
* Accept miscues or errors as a part of striving to get meaning.
* Correct their own miscues or errors.
Sample Activity Three
Whenever possible, I try to integrate games into my teaching. One activity that I have used on several occasions with very positive feedback is Trivial Pursuit. This activity works the same as the usual game, except that the questions are used to review content that has already been covered in class, for example, a novel study. By using this method of revision, I have found that students retain the information more easily and have fun at the same time. Some outcomes that will be met upon completion of this activity are :
General Curriculum Outcome: Students will be expected to obtain information, share experiences and broaden perspectives.
Key Stage Outcome: Recall details and interpret information and ideas.
Specific Outcomes: *Identify the narrator, author, characters, topic, motives and the intended audience.
*Describe the plot, main ideas, events or actions.
*Describe conflicts, obstacles, behaviours, habits and customs.
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