ENGLISH AROUND CANADA

Topic: English immersion in an anglophone province in Canada Author: Corrine Chabot (corrinechabot@hotmail.com)

Estimated time:  6 periods of 75 minutes

Level:  Secondary Cycle Two, Years:   3 & 4

SPEAQ-quest description:

u A SPEAQ-quest designed to allow students to explore Canada and opportunities to immerse themselves in the anglophone language and culture.

ICT’s are used to :   

u Students will explore the Internet in order to research the provinces and territories in Canada. Thy will also be given the choice to use video. The Internet, used as a resource, will give them a diversity of sources to come up with the answer to the ‘essential question’ of their SPEAQ-quest. It is also authentic material. The video will allow them to manipulate other ICT’s and to help them express their creativity. Overall, the ICT’S used in the SPEAQ-quest will allow them to develop the cross curricular competencies found under the intellectual and methodological competencies.

The Broad Areas of Learning  

 Citizenship and community life

Media literacy

Focus of development: 

u To effectively use and manage a multitude of resources (such as ICT’s) and to foster a spirit of openness to the world and respect for diversity.

Targeted Cross-Curricular Competency(ies) 

u Intellectual competencies

u Methodological competencies

u Personal and Social competencies

u Communication related competencies

Specific action(s) to influence the development of the CCC competency (ies)                    

u To answer the ‘essential question’ of the SPEAQ-quest, and to know which information is essential to the project, students will need to use their critical judgement.

u They will need to use information and creativity in order to create their visual support.

u Working in cooperative groups will allow them to exercise cooperation as well as adopting effective work habits as their team-mates are counting on them.

u Finally, grammar and syntax review, as well as one-on-one assistance, will help the students to communicate appropriately when presenting.

Targeted ESL Competency

u To interact orally

u Reinvests understanding of texts

u To write and produce texts

Specific action(s) to influence the development of the competency

u Students will interact in their cooperative groups, and when they answer questions from their peers after their presentations.

u They will reinvest their understanding of texts in many ways. Firstly, when they write a written reflection from the information they have learned from the conferences on exchange opportunities. Secondly, when they write a text, make a video, brochure, power point or poster from the information they have learned from their research on the Internet. Finally, they need to take notes to write reflections and answer the SPEAQ-quest ‘question’ from their peers’ presentations.

u Finally, they will experiment with the production process when preparing for their presentations (power point, poster, text, etc.), as well as writing a formal text.

Integrated Feedback and Evaluation 

u This aspect is explained thoroughly in the SPEAQ-quest (look under ‘Evaluation’)

Integration of Related content

  Specific Strategies

· Before beginning the SPEAQ-quest, look at reading strategies such as: skim/scan, concept maps, key words, recognizing cognates, etc. Also, review affective strategies such as: relaxing, and managing one’s time. Finally, it is important to advise them of the resources that are available to them and how to use them effectively.

Considerations:

u Activate prior knowledge and related experiences: ask the students if they have ever traveled to another province and have them tell the class about the experience. Ask students if they have been on an exchange or if they know someone who has been and have them share the tale with the class.

u Evaluation - traces and criteria: everything is explained within the SPEAQ-quest

u Forming groups: try to have strong with weak students and a mix of gender and ethnic backgrounds in each group. However, it is also optimal if they can work with their friends to make the project more enjoyable for them. Help them decide who will be doing which task to avoid arguments and indecisiveness. Have them exploit their talents while learning to improve their weaker points too.

u Guidance, support, reflection: It is essential to guide them all along. Some students get very overwhelmed when it comes to researching on the Web, and when it comes to finding key information in lengthy English texts. The number one support you can offer is to help them relax and do their tasks in small steps.

u Different learning styles, needs, etc: This is a very ‘differentiation’ friendly SPEAQ-quest. They can choose from 3 Web sites and what to concentrate on (content and process), which visual support they want to present (product) and what to emphasize in their portfolios (evaluation). Also, there are a number of tasks involved that adhere to multiple learning styles. Finally, as they work in cooperative groups, they can get help from their peers if necessary.