German Cities

Created by:

Alex Kerber

Title/Role:

Student Teacher

Organization/School Name:

University of Maryland

Location:

District of Columbia

Grade Level:

9, 10, 11, 12

Type of Lesson:

Stand-alone lesson

Type of Schedule:

Flexible

Collaboration Continuum:

Moderate

Content Area:

Foreign languages

Content Topic:

German cities

Standards for the 21st-Century Learner

Skills Indicator(s):

2.1.6 Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings.

3.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use, and assess.

4.1.8 Use creative and artistic formats to express personal learning.

Dispositions Indicator(s):

2.2.4 Demonstrate personal productivity by completing products to express learning.

Responsibilities Indicator(s):

1.3.3 Follow ethical and legal guidelines in gathering and using information.

Self-Assessment Strategies Indicator(s):

3.4.2 Assess the quality and effectiveness of the learning product.

Scenario:

The students in German 2 have been studying communication skills related to leisure activities and travel. As part of the assessment of their communication skills, they are asked to create wiki articles in German based on the example of Wikitravel (wikitravel.org). Each student is assigned a German-speaking city about which to research and create an article. The activity, taught in collaboration with the school librarian, incorporates information literacy skills into the communication skills of the unit by asking the students to use information sources to create their articles. The librarian will focus on teaching the specific skills necessary for finding and evaluating information sources, using wikispaces to create the wikis, and the importance of citing sources.

Overview:

Travel and leisure activities are popular conversation topics in many cultures. Opinions of leisure and travel activities vary with each person's interests and previous experiences. In this lesson, the learners are asked to create travel advice articles about German-speaking cities.

Final Product:

A wiki page, written in German, containing researched information about tourist activities in a German-speaking city.

Library Lesson:

As a result of this lesson, students will be able to: Language/communications goals 1. describe, in writing, leisure activities in a specific German-speaking city Information literacy goals 1. search for and interpret information relevant to the task 2. create a wiki page incorporating text and media 3. correctly cite sources used in creating wiki

Estimated Lesson Time:

75 minutes

Assessment

Product:

Summative Assessment: completed wiki articles (rubric attached)

Process:

On-going/Formative Assessment: informal questions at the end of class periods, ex: “I am going to ___ where I can ____.”

Student self-questioning:

- Which resources were most helpful for me? - Was I able to find resources which helped to complete all the required sections of the article? If not, where could I find more? - Does the information I included in the article come from trusted sources? Is it something I would use for my own travel planning?

Instructional Plan

Resources students will use:

Still image (i.e.paintings, drawings, plans, and maps)

Moving Image (i.e. animations, movies, tv program, video)

Interactive Resource (i.e. webpages, multimedia learning objects, chat services)

Sound (i.e. music playback file, audio compact disc, recorded speech or sounds)

Text (books, letters, poems, newspapers, etc.)

Interactive Resource URL:

http://wikispaces.org

Resources instructor will use:

Projector

Laptop

White board

Instruction/Activities

Direct instruction:

Students will receive direct instruction from the librarian in finding German-speaking resources online and in the library, in using wikispaces to create articles, and in citing sources using MLA guidelines. The German teacher will help to navigate resources written in German and in the use of the language in writing the articles.

Modeling and guided practice:

With an example city, the class will together practice finding information about leisure activities there. Then, using an example wiki, the class will together create the necessary headings for each section of their own articles. Finally, the teacher or librarian will model creating a citation for the resource used in the first example.

Independent practice:

With their selected cities, the students will then work on finding and selecting sources to use in their articles. They will work on creating text and incorporating media into the wiki articles. During this time, the teacher will be available to assist with language-specific questions and the librarian for help with searching for sources, using the technology, and citing sources.

Have you taught this lesson before:

Yes

Strategies for differentiation:

Various learning styles are accommodated through the integration of media into the lesson. Free choice is given here to allow students to choose which types of media they prefer. Kinesthetic learners are not specifically accommodated here, but could be in further use of the projects (ex: TPRS activities using the wikis as guides for the stories). Differentiation could be included based on individual student needs using modified rubric guidelines.