Planning Guide
Creating Learner-Focused
Schools
* Madison-Oneida BOCES- This document may not be reproduced in any form without the expressed written consent of the District Superintendent or his designee.
| LU Title: Francophone countries |
Author(s): Marjorie Duus |
| Grade Level: 7(intermediate) |
School Address: West Canada Valley |
| Subject Area: French, Social studies, English |
School Phone/Fax: 315-845-8802 |
CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
| Declarative |
Procedural |
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Francophone countries locations in World |
internet and books |
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Prose, poetry Essay |
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cultures, lifestyles, foods, economies, values
cooking, drawing, sewing |
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ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
INITIATING ACTIVITY
Students will see a short film on Mali (Glimpses of West Africa, by David Flaccus) and answer a worksheet that asks questions about the film on the specific lifestyle and language differences as well as climate and terrain. The class will brainstorm what it would be like to live there, would it be the same or different. How would they adjust to the differences? If someone were to come to the United States from Mali what adjustments would have to be made to make him feel comfortable, eat well etc.?
Then the challenge, which includes the declarative knowledge, is handed out. Students are divided into groups of three or four by the teacher. The grouping is accomplished by reviewing the student’s averages and assuring that there is a strong student and a weak student in each group. Also, if it is possible, having each group represented by someone creative as well as someone with good organizational skills is beneficial. Each group of students has been asked to house a foreign student from a francophone country. In order to make the stay as congenial as possible, they need to do some research to find out about the visitor’s homeland and compare it to our country. They must choose a francophone country and then take information that has been provided for them on the United States and find the similar information about their chosen country.
There will be 5 five aspects of the final product each group must do to receive a passing grade of a 76 and then other activities to choose from for a higher quality product.
The extra activities include:
Choose 3 for 12 points: 10 specific places they would like to visit there, a time line of historical events, a mobile of the country, or own idea*.
Choose 2 for 12 points: a political cartoon, a travel poster, a poem, a song a skit a short story or legend, a letter from a student telling of a typical day, or own idea.
Choose 1 for 10 points: prepare a dish, make a salt map, own ideas.
* See the teacher for OK on own ideas and point values…
Connection to State Learning Standards
Content Area: French
Level: 7th grade
| Benchmarks: Students will demonstrate the knowledge of foreign cultures and demonstrate the ability to use this information in a comparison of lifestyles. They will demonstrate the skills to communicate with someone from that different culture. |
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Benchmarks: Students will show the ability to research information, compare and contrast the information and then write a summary about it. Finally, the students are asked to form an educated opinion and clearly express it in written and oral form as well in a creative way. |
| Standard: LOTE 2 |
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Standard: ELA 1,3 |
Unit Theme: Francophone Countries
| Standard: LOTE1&2 |
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Standard: SS3,4 |
| Benchmarks: Students will demonstrate the knowledge of foreign cultures and demonstrate the ability to use this information in a comparison of lifestyles. They will demonstrate the skills to communicate with someone from that different culture. They will recognize and translate words in the foreign language. They will be able to use specific words in the language of the culture to communicate with someone from that country. |
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Benchmarks: Students will show the ability to research information, compare and contrast the information and then write a summary about it. Finally the students are asked to form an educated opinion and expressing it in written and oral form as well in a creative way. |
Learning Experiences
Declarative Knowledge
| What declarative knowledge should students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of the unit, the student will know or understand… |
What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire & integrate this knowledge? |
What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store the knowledge? |
Describe what will be done. |
| Cultural information, education, music artistic
Geographic location of the countries.
Economic differences and demographics
Francophone countries and locations
Current Events |
Research internet, books, newspapers, magazines and almanac.
Atlas and research texts as well as internet
Almanac, internet
Almanac, internet and cultural resources
Newspapers magazines, internet |
Note taking, writing letters, writing and acting out skits, preparing and tasting food, writing fiction, creating poetry, writing prose, creating travel brochures,
Draw maps
Draw a comparison graphic, comparing 3 differences. Write a paragraph depicting the 3 greatest similarities and differences between our country and the francophone country
As students hear the reports of others, they will begin to make the connection that all these countries have the French language in common, although many other languages may be spoken as well. French and the history of colonization are the common threads. Students will be shown how to read an article, brainstorm together how to come up with the main idea and summarize. |
Students will choose a francophone country and in groups will research the information needed to make a comparison and create the graphics to show understanding of cultural aspects of the country. Research and draw a map of country and surrounding counties identifying the area of the world it is in. Find the information and think it through to decide whether this country is rich / poor/ educated/ illiterate etc.
Comparisons and conclusions will be made.
Students will read article and then summarize in their own words the events. Finally they will share their summary with the class. |
Learning Experiences
Procedural Knowledge
| What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to:What will be done to help students construct models, shape & internalize the knowledge?Describe what will be done. |
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Teacher will show students how to read a passage, take notes on it and then transfer that into one’s own words.
She will give samples of information that is different and some that is similar and shown how to make a graphic representing this information.
She will give examples of previous works of prose and poetry of varying levels to use as model.
She will give a lesson on the proper format of an essay. The opportunity to hear others and compare their work during the debriefing process will show them how the evaluation process helps them define their own strengths and weaknesses. |
The class will read a short passage that the teacher will provide. They will take notes on the main ideas and supporting details. The teacher will then ask for volunteers to share what they have done. And the class will put together a set of notes and then a paragraph that will summarize the original reading. The teacher will provide examples of previous works for the students to review. The teacher will give the class some examples of data that need to be compared. Then the students will be shown how to do a graphic and then be asked for other ideas from them. The class will form those graphics or charts.
The teacher will have a short lesson on what an essay must contain. There will be group editing and teacher conferences. The teacher will debrief with each group discussing strengths and weakness of the project after it is completed. |
Learning Experiences
Extending and Refining
| What knowledge will students be extending and refining? Specifically, they will be extending and refining their understanding of… |
What reasoning process will they be using? |
Describe what will be done. |
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In gathering the information, the students will be recognizing certain facts about these francophone countries. They will then be asked to take the information and through inductive reasoning come up with some comparisons. After the students have heard the information about other countries, they will be asked to do some classification of the countries; wealthy versus poor etc. They will also be asked after hearing information on the other countries by their classmates to do some deductive reasoning and arrive at some generalities about these countries. |
| Planning Guide |
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Unit: Francophone Countries |
| Step 1 |
Step 2 |
Step 3 |
| What knowledge will students be using meaningfully? Specifically, they will be demonstrating their understanding of and ability to… |
What reasoning process will they be using? |
Describe student's products and performances and the criteria for evaluation. Products/Performances |
| Students will be reasoning as follows: Deciding which part of the project they want to do and who will do which part within the group. Solving the problem of how to treat the visitor and come up with ways to deal with the differences in culture and background. Creating either a graphic, a poem, a story, a cartoon, a regional dish, a mobile, a salt map or other personal choice to exhibit what they have learned about the country. Investigating the current events of the country in order to determine what activities are occurring under the cultural and economic circumstances of the country. Analyzing the information that they have accumulated in order to define what kind of country their francophone country is, in relation to wealth, education and lifestyle, and whether they would want to live there as a result. |
[x ] Decision Making
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Criteria for Performance |
| All students will turn in a map of the country, graphic of comparisons, a flag, a newspaper summary, and an essay on the similarities and differences between the francophone country and ours. In this essay, they will describe how they would make the visitor feel comfortable under the differing circumstances, whether they prefer to live here or in the francophone country and why, and what they learned from this research that was awesomely new to them. They will choose from varying options to exhibit their knowledge of the country’s history, lifestyle, culture, economics, languages etc. These items will be evaluated on accuracy, neatness, creativity, presentation, thoroughness, and the evidence of conclusions made which show that thinking and the processing of information were involved in the preparing of the project. Assessment will also include whether the project was completed on time. |
Rubric:
Key Questions:
What are the key elements, traits, or dimensions that will be evaluated?
Are the identified elements of equal importance or will they be weighed differently?
| Element #1 |
Element #2 |
Element #3 |
Element #4 |
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| Elements Scale |
Understand the cultural and economic differences and similarities. Share and turn in graphics, newspaper article, and flag. |
Know the many francophone countries and where they are in the world. Describe map in the presentation. After presentation fill in a map of other areas of the world where francophone countries are located, languages |
How is life-style affected by the wealth of the country? Students will share information during presentation and turn in extra credit cultural information learned. |
Where would you rather live and why? Be specific as to the positive and negative aspects of the countries. Students will share essay information during presentation and turn in essay. |
| Weights |
56% |
10% |
24% |
10% |
| 4 |
Student is able to compare and contrast information and see the important similarities and differences, and to deduce whether the country is rich or poor in comparison to our country. |
Student is able to show where the areas that these francophone countries are located in the world and what languages they speak. |
Student is able to delineate lifestyle characteristics based on the research of culture, economy and the climate |
Student is able to clearly surmise where he would prefer to live and why, based on the economic, cultural and educational aspects of both countries |
| 3 |
Student sees some major similarities and differences, some minor ones and can induce whether the country is rich or poor |
Student knows where his francophone county is and can name at least 3 others and where they are located. |
Student can delineate a few aspects of lifestyle based on research. |
Student can list at least 3 important reasons why he would rather live in one country vs the other. |
| 2 |
Student can list differences in the economies of the countries, but little induction takes place. |
Student is able to point out the area of the world the country is in, and one other area of the world where there are francophone countries. |
Student can delineate only two aspects o f culture and lifestyle. |
Student can list two major specific reasons why he would rather live in one country vs. the other. |
| 1 |
Student is barely able to describe major similarities and differences. |
Student knows only where his own country is in the world |
Student can share only 1 aspect of the lifestyle of the country. |
Student can only give one reason for wanting to live in one country vs. the other. |
Have You Considered These Yet?
Learn to Learn Skills: Learn to research, take notes and assimilate information so that one may do other research later. Provides a format for finding differences and similarities, forming an opinion and how to act in new situations keeping in mind those differences.
Assessment Modifications:
Unit Schedule/Time Plan: The plan takes about an hour to prepare for and 1 class period to show the film on Mali and discuss, 1 class day to go over the samples and examples for the project. Another 4 class days of 40 minutes each in the library is needed. The students have 4 weeks (due to scheduling in the library) to complete the products and one class day is given for computer word processing. A day for the presentations is needed (depending on the size of the class) and a day for the food sharing and skits. Total days – 9.
Written Overview: This project is a cross-curricular research project, which involves standards for SS 3&4, MST 2&3, ELA1&3, LOTE1&2, and ART 1 & 4. The research involves technology using the Internet for information on culture, history, daily living, geography, and leisure activities and for the creation of graphics and flags.