Assigmnent 1 Part D Entry

Introduction

Working on vocabulary in class, I often try to look at what they already know. Nowadays, pupils are generally concerned with matters regarding climate change and sustainability. In year 8, the pupils learn about different types of energy sources in science class, and in this assignment I try to play on their background knowledge.

A Selection of Competence Aims (LK06, udir.no)

Muntlig kommunikasjon
- forstå og bruke et generelt ordforråd knyttet til forskjellige emner
- forstå hovedinnhold og detaljer i ulike typer muntlige tekster om forskjellige emner
- lytte til og forstå varianter av engelsk fra forskjellige autentiske situasjoner

Skriftlig kommunikasjon
- velge og bruke ulike lese- og skrivestrategier tilpasset formålet

Kultur, samfunn og litteratur
- samtale om og formidle aktuelle og faglige emner

In class

Aim:
The pupils will use words and phrases they have learned to explain how electric cars can store energy and power homes

Activity: 
Writing an informative text

About Lingohack

BBC Lingohack
Source: BBC Learning English, Lingohack: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/lingohack/ep-191002

In the last few years I have become very fond of the Lingohack resources at www.bbc.co.uk. In short, it is a website where you can find news stories and articles about a wide array of topics. Most of the news reports come with vocabulary, audio, video, a transcripts of the news report and tasks regarding the topic you have chosen. However, the tasks given at the website are usually neither open nor productive tasks, so I have made a productive task (2007 Thornbury) where the pupils will write a text to explain to their parents what they have learned. From my own experience, I will not recommend using Lingohack "out of the box", but with a few adjustments  it might work very will in the classroom.


Pre-listening activity. 

First, I will ask the learners what they already know about electric cars and energy production. Secondly, I will go through some of the vocabulary used in the news report. Thirdly, I will tell them to listen out the aforementioned words and phrases as I play the video for them. Finally, I will present to them the tasks below.


Classroom task. 

Words and phrases

generated electricity grid hydro power
renewable powered fuel             diesel generator
reversible ebb and flow
climate change sustainable pollution


Do you know more about energy than your parents?

Task 1. You are the expert!

Write a short text where you explain to your parents how they use electric cars in the news story. You are the expert here! Use as many of the words in the list as possible. Tell your parents read the text when you come home. Did they understand it?

Assessment:

This class activity makes it possible for me to review what the pupils have understood, as well as assessing how they put the new vocabulary to work. Moreover, it gives me time to go around and give feedback to the students while they are writing. However, a task like this should never be a standalone activity and something you can use for marks. It should be seen in context with the pre-listening activities as well the post writing activities with feedback from both the teacher and the learning partners. In order to solidify their their newly acquired words, I will do follow-up activities in the coming sessions to facilitate retainment and recycling of the vocabulary. These tasks will contain elements of self assessment, peer-assessment and oral communication.

In the coming sessions, I will give them follow-up tasks like these:

- Task 1, sorting: 
Sort the words and phrases into nouns, verbs and adjectives. Compare your answers with your learning partner.

- Task 2, synonyms: 
Make a small word map on blank sheet for each word and see if you can find synonyms.

- Task 3, recycling: 
Look up the words in the list and see if you can use them in a sentence. It can be in a totally different context than what you read in the news story. Make use of the synonyms whenever possible. Read aloud to your learning partner. 


To conclude, the aim was for the pupils to be able use new vocabulary to explain a topic based on a news story, as well as developing strategies whenever they encounter new words. While assessing the pupils learning, I continually assess my own teaching on order to make adjustments to facilitate the pupils development.


Sources:

Harmer, J. The Practice of English Language Teaching : With DVD. 5th ed. Harlow: Longman, 2015. Print.

Thornbury, S. (2002). How to Teach Vocabulary. Pearson Education Limited. 

Websites: 
BBC Lingohack, (seen 20. Oct 2019, 21:27) Electric Car Island, http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/lingohack/ep-191002







Kommentarer

  1. It was really interesting to see how you were able to combine your goal of effective vocabulary development with knowledge construction in the field of energy. This is real cross-curricular work, which is a central issue in the renewed curriculum, LK20. Making use of a multimodal website for learning is a good move, I think, but what is even better is your clear point about the need to contextualize the material, localizing it to fit your particular group of learners. I would love to read more about how your students responded to your teaching unit!
    Thank you for sharing!

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