Learning how to cook is always a very efficient way to learn about another culture while practicing the target language for a clear and authentic purpose. Below, I'm teaching students how to make crepes:
What is key is to prompt an opportunity for students to implement their own ideas and test them. Below, two of my students are making a portable greenhouse with solar-powered vent and watering system. They thought of the idea when I prompted them to make a product that was eco-friendly. Through this project, they connected English as a foreign language with science and engineering, while improving their language skills to present and advertise their product in 6 presentations given to all the students of the school.
I believe it is important to leave freedom in the means to reach an end. When I asked students to make a plan for a vertical garden, some groups drew one by hand, others thought one out in their minds and explored models of it, while some other groups yet used graphic designing softwares:
Acting is always a great way to interpret a piece of fictions. Here, my 6th graders were assigned to act the scene of the mad hatter's trial in Alice in Wonderland:
When I noticed how much my students at LSTS (Vietnam) lacked basic knowledge of geography and maps, I came up with a project linked to our course where they had to make artistic world maps on A0 pieces of paper. To make it collaborative and an opportunity to use the target language, students were in groups. It helped them learn the continents and countries of the world and improve their communication skills at the same time.
Some examples of activities I organized before can be read below:
FRENCH
Here are some examples of activities I include in my teaching of French (or English as a Second Language):- setting up skype conversations for students to talk French with other speakers than myself
- asking students to email contacts I give them about a particular topic
- games with a grammar or other language target
A game I use at the novice level, to learn how to ask questions, is to give each student 5 red cards or 5 yellow cards. Then they have to mingle and ask the question to people who have the other color. Each time they ask someone, they get a card from that person. In the end, they must end up with 5 cards of the other color than the one they started with.
A game I use to learn vocabulary is to slip the class into several teams. I am on one side of the classroom and students are on the opposite side with a set of objects with them. I say "Apportez-moi..." (bring me) and the name of an object. The first team to bring it to me scores a point. I typically do the entire game in French (or English if it is the target language), teaching the name of the objects by pointing at them, saying the name, writing it on the board, and asking them to repeat it.- asking students to act small skits
I do that even at the very novice level. At Monroe Middle School, where I taught a trimester-long introduction to French course, I taught student a scripted conversation about likes and dislikes. Students then identified the nouns and changed them to other nouns of their choice, so that the conversation was about the topic they wanted. Then, they had to learn the conversation by heart and record themselves on video as they were saying it. Doing it on videos took some stress away from the students and allowed me to listen closely to them to give individualized feedback without taking much of the class time. Students also found it more fun that way.- casually conversing about topics of interests in the target language
To promote this without taking too much class time, I have created a "Déjeuners français" French Club at Monroe Middle School. Every Thursday, students can come to my classroom with their lunch, and listen to French music, try French candies, and, most of all, talk French with me and with each other. I do that even with French 1 students.- listening comprehensions with or without video
For instance, at Monroe Middle School, I spent a week with my students working on "Toi+Moi" a catchy pop song by French singer Grégoire. Students first listened to the song and then watched the music video. They were given a sheet with the lyrics and blanks in them. By listening to the song many times, they had to fill in the blanks. It took time, but at the end students told me they had the feeling they could make out French sounds better. Students also spent some time in groups, circling all the words they knew in the lyrics, looking up other words they thought they needed to know to understand the lyrics, and consequently coming up with a meaning for the song.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Here are some examples of activities I include in my teaching of social studies:- simulations and role plays in which students experience a phenomenon taught in the unit
For instance, when I taught a lesson on the Encyclopedia by Diderot and D'Alembert and its challenging of the absolute monarchy, I gave students roles as king/queen/nobles, members of the clergy, bourgeois, miscellaneous educated people, and uneducated people. After teaching what was the Encyclopedia by Diderot and D'Alembert, I gave a booklet representing an abridged and very simplified version of the Encyclopedia for students to analyze, and asked them to decide what their reaction was and what action they were going to take. This allowed students to realize that the Encyclopedia was dangerous for the monarchy and the clergy, that only educated people could access it, and that it led people to take actions to challenge the absolute monarchy and the clergy's abuses.
Another example is when, while teaching lessons on the colonization of India by Great Britain, I asked students to take on the roles of different groups of India's society (farmers, politicians, factory owners, industry workers, merchants who traded with Europeans, merchants who didn't trade with Europeans), as well as of Great Britain, and of judges. Then students had to act out the trial of Great Britain, charged of having done only bad things in India.- establishing connections with people outside of class via emails, phone or skype calls, etc.
For instance, during my student teaching at South Eugene High School, while teaching a unit on India, after studying Vedism (the origin of Hinduism) I set up a phone call with a Hindu temple so that students asked questions and found out how Vedism had evolved into Hinduism.
Another example is when, in that same unit on India, while studying the emperor Ashoka, I came up with a list of 34 contacts around the world (historians, religious people, politicians, members of cultural clubs in India, Indian expatriates, etc.) that students had to email to ask them what they thought of Ashoka. Some of the contacts replied and it served to show students that people's opinions of Ashoka were not as uniform as history books let it appear.- lectures aided with visuals and note taking techniques
To make lectures more comprehensible, I use powerpoints or kyenotes with a lot of pictures. While using such presentation tools, I also ask a student to take her notes on a transparency (or to film her notes with a document camera) projected next to the screen with the presentation. This provided other students with a model for how to take notes and projects a reminder of what I've just said.