Francesca Biz is a teacher at the secondary school 'U. Cosmo' in Vittorio Veneto, in the Veneto Region , in Italy.  She has written the project.  She is interested in new methodological approaches to learning and teaching. She took part to Erasmus exchange programmes as  a University student and last year as a teacher ; she is interested in foreign languages learning, in new learning style sharing and in meeting new teaching methods and cultures. She likes teaching according to the CLIL methodology and letting her students work in a cooperative style. She tries to keep her teaching method updated and offer her students interesting activities. Email: francybiz@libero.it

 

Introduction

As travelling is a focal point in my life and is the best way for meeting people, cultures and open our minds I decided to let my students organise a trip to London in order to collect information about an amazing city which we are studying the language and culture of. 

 

Background

Instead of speaking and explaining I prefer to provide my students with some inputs , linguistic and cultural and after suggesting the topic and creating a motivation in them , I organise the groups and point out the different groups which will work for the same aim in a cooperative way. I organise the groups and parts of the work to be developed. I ask one of the students to write on a A4 paper  the names of the students in each group and the name of the topic they will work on during the group work. Each group will have to carry out a task , either in a written production way or through technological tools if they are more skilled .

I think a teacher has the role to develop students'  creativity in order to create motivation among them. Teens are happy whenever they have to create something together and  there are different ways to motivate them especially when everybody shares the same aim. Students can understand that everybody has a different style in expressing ideas and their own task and that there is no right or wrong but different ways to approach a topic and that the best result is given by a strong cooperation.

Posters ( I attach one picture as expression of one of the group works) are always a way to express  r own creativity as they give origin to something original by using drawings, colours ans it is a learning by doing experience. They plan , share opinions , agree and disagree and consider the others' point of view and realise something together that must be presented to the other classmates and maybe to other students of other classes as peer tutoring .

In addition to this even if the main focus is to use creativity because the poster is a  visual activity, they have also to write short texts and so they need to check spelling, grammar, select information and make what they present clear to the reader  . For this reason, I think the poster  is a good activity for students to express their own creativity as they enjoy doing something that is made by them, and they are active in their learning process. The poster is the final result of the group work activity and the video as well.

This is an example of a lesson plan based on a creative activity and a video containing some students' contribution . They present their virtual tour to London as they imagine it. ( the link to the video is provided) 

Main Aim: To develop reading skills  / to be able to select main information for the outlined topic deduce meaning of vocabulary from context / to develop written skills/ to develop spoken production 

Sub Aims: To develop creative skills (haiku) / technological skills / discussion/ sharing opinions and styles 

Age group: Teens

Level: A2

Time: 45 minutes

Materials:  photocopies, pictures, city maps, hand written texts, video

 

Lesson Plan: 'A virtual tour to London'

	Teacher-Student Interaction	Time (mins)
1	Warmer: Define the topic you would like to develop with the students: 'I would like you to organise a virtual tour to London before visiting it on a school trip.' Teacher organizes a brainstorming activity to warm up students and let them associate the word London to what the already know about it.  Then teacher shows a Video about London and its monuments. Teacher elicits that students will work in small groups and imagine to work for a travel agency and have to organise a trip including different features:   SS: Show interest in it as the are fascinated by London and its monuments	10
2	Topic definition and groupwork organisation Discuss Title: ‘A virtual tour to London ’ Elicit/clarify the topic which will include different steps and tell them they will work in small groups each one developing a feature of their staying  Get SS to predict what they might develop in each group and then give a list with groups definition and topics: Teacher says: 'I need a group working on the logistic aspect of the trip organization  from departure to arrival mentioning the means of transport used ; I need one group working on hotel accomodation and provide information about  the name of the hotel, where it is located in London , price per night and facilities provided by the hotel; I need a group working on  six recommended monuments ( Big Ben, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge) situated on the north and south riverbank of the Thames; I need one group working on another city of the UK that might be visited during the staying: York (or Edinburgh or Stonehenge). Three groups will produce  posters using their creativity and two groups will produce material through  Pc programmes used by two computer skilled students . ( The time needed to complete the posters and videos can be used as a homework activity and the students meet as a small group)	10
3	Vocabulary: Teacher or one student writes a worksheet  to be kept inside the classroom so that it can be a topic reference  for students: groups and tasks are outlined on the paper to follow the steps ex: group 1: ......name of the SS........  Topic : Means of transport used from departure to arrival...........	5
4	Creative Writing: Divide SS into groups ( 3 to 5 students). Each group gathers materials, information, pictures and texts about their own topics to organise their focus on  posters or on video using a technological programme and support ( premiere and pinnacle studio 20)	8
5	Speaking: Divide students (SS) into groups (from 3 to 5 ). Each group will prepare a brief 5 minute talk/presentation of the previously developed topic. Each student will speak about the content of its groupwork. Their homework will be to revise written texts focusing on spelling and revising pronunciation as well for the final spoken activity in front of the class	3 for each group

 

Conclusions

The students present their works to the class and alternate in two groups .

The activity is a CLIL activity : it develops knowledge in English and Geography

This activity develops students' creativity, cooperative learning, planning and problem solving working in team 

 

Selected bibliography

Shelly J. Poppiti R., DVD Images from London, contained in Culture Clips , ed.  Zanichelli ,2009 , Bologna.

C. M. Coonan La Lingua straniera veicolare

C.M. Coonan La Ricerca Azione

London, Francis Hallawell, ed. Longman (for information about monuments)

 

Electronic sources

Websites: Premiere  

www.bbc.uk.co;

Programme: Pinnacle Studio 20

Here  is the final link to the  realised video:

Link: www.soluzionigrafiche.com/alessio/Italian_School_Cosmo.zip

After downloading the zip. file, propmt cmd and enter the file where the zip file is and write on the cmd

"......... ren Italian_School_Cosmo.zip Italian_School_Cosmo.mov .........."

Then press Enter and after that you have the video to be opened and watched

 

Please check the  Methodology and Language for Kindergarten course at Pilgrims website.

Please check the Methodology and Language for Primary course at Pilgrims website.

Please check the CLIL for Primary course at Pilgrims website.

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.