Preguntando
Preguntas (Asking Questions) Aim:
Students will be able to identify, use, and create closed
and open-ended questions in order to conduct an interview.
Objectives:
Students will practice questioning what they read, debate
an issue, and prepare a list of questions that will help them
to conduct a quality interview.
Vocabulary/Concepts:
1. pregunta cerrada (closed-ended question): a question that
has only one brief answer.
2. pregunta
abierta (open-ended question): a question that forces the
person answering to elaborate, explain or justify what they
are saying.
Procedures:
1. (10 minutes) Teacher asks students when they use questions,
and a list is created on the board. Then, the teacher explains
that we will begin a series of lessons on questioning with
the eventual goal of writing a profile about someone based
on an interview. To get started, we'll take a look at 2 articles:
one that used interviews and one that didn't use interviews
to make a point.
2. (10
minutes) Students will divide into 2 large groups to read
an article on the topic of gay marriage, (an issue many of
my students had been debating informally). Group 1 reads a
pro-gay marriage article, Group 2 reads an anti-gay marriage
editorial. Both articles were genuine articles from a Colombian
and a Honduran national newspaper.
3. (20
minutes) After reading individually, students on either side
of the issue debate which article proved its point better,
and which side of the debate they are on. After the debate,
the teacher explains that the article which used interviews
to get many sides of the issue presents a more worldly view
of the topic than the one-sided editorial. Next, students
work in pairs to complete a graphic organizer shaped like
a clock divided into 12 sections. In each section of the clock,
they must ask a question they have for the author or people
in the article. Students should not have too much difficulty
with this, especially after debating the issue. The teacher
walks around the class and assists students in writing their
questions.
4. (15
minutes) Each pair must choose one of their questions to write
on a large piece of chart paper on the board. After all questions
are up, the teacher introduces the definitions of "closed
and open-ended questions," which students write down
in their notes. Then, for each question on the chart paper,
we have a vote deciding whether or not it's a closed or open-ended
question.
5. (5
minutes) Students then go through their own set of questions
and determine if each question is open or closed.
6. (20
minutes) In order to practice the use of closed and open-ended
questions, students will, in their same 2-person group, conduct
mini-interviews based on one of the following situations:
1) 9-1-1 emergency call. One person is the caller; the other
is the 911 operator. The operator asks and writes down 3 closed
questions and 3 open questions which the caller answers (both
verbally and in writing). 2) Dating service: One person is
the desperate single, the other is the dating service representative.
The representative asks and writes down 3 closed questions
and three open questions, which the desperate single answers
(both verbally and written). For both situations, students
switch roles, from interviewer to interviewee.
Activities:
(both described above)
1) Read newspaper article and create questions for the author
or people in the article.
2) Conduct
mini 911 or dating service interview.
Extension/Follow-up:
In the next classes, students will decide as a class, three
main areas they want to focus on in their interviews of real
people. They will conduct the interviews, write a profile,
and then create a class newsletter for distribution to Spanish
speaking members of the school.
Homework:
Write 3 topics you would want to question somebody about.
Write one closed and one open-ended question for each topic
that you could use if you were interviewing someone.
Evaluation:
Students turn in their mini-interview transcripts, with questions
labeled closed or open-ended so the teacher can assess understanding.
Standards
Addressed:
Standard 1. Listen Speak Read and Write in the native
language for information and understanding. c. Determine the
need for more important information for clarification d. Select
and limit topics for informational writing e. Use paraphrase
and quotation in order to communicate information effectively.
Standard
3. Listen Speak Read and Write in the native language
for critical analysis and evaluation. a. Recognize and acknowledge
various perspectives on issues of local, national, and world
concern. c. Articulate one or more perspectives in the primary
language to summarize arguments on different sides of issues.
Students:
My students are all fluent 11th grade Spanish speakers who
vary in their confidence to use Spanish at school. Because
they can speak and understand Spanish with confidence, this
lesson/unit on questioning allows them to use their strong
skills to help improve their reading and writing skills. The
class has a huge range of abilities regarding reading and
writing, so I like to pair people up, or put them in small
heterogeneous groups so they can help each other with difficult
vocabulary, spelling, etc.
Overall
Value:
My favorite part about the lesson is that students not only
get to learn how to better question what they read, or who
they are interviewing, but they also get to debate a controversial
topic. Thus, they were more engaged and willing to read and
write (which they really resist!) They also liked the idea
that the work was leading towards an interview they would
actually get to conduct and publish for the school. In the
end, my students chose the 3 topics of: 1) Lunch (the food,
the overcrowding in the cafeteria, the lack of daylight, the
long lines, the fights, etc). 2) Teen health (violence, gangs,
sex, drugs). 3) Current events (the war in Iraq, the building
of the West-Side stadium in Manhattan, etc). Their newsletter
turned into a great document of opinions people in their community
(parents, brothers, friends, teachers, community workers)
have on these topics.
Teacher
Tips:
I chose the topic of gay marriage for my articles because
this particular class had already been talking about it. If
your students would be more engaged by something else, search
for an issue that will catch their interest. I found both
of my articles at on-line newspaper sites using the internet.
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Created
by:
Joel Key
Location: Bronx High School
for Visual Arts
Grade: high school
Subject: Native Spanish Lang.
About:
Joel Key is a first year Spanish teacher in the Bronx, New
York. He teaches introductory Spanish and Heritage/Native
Spanish Language classes to 10th and 11th graders. His school
functions on a 110 minute block schedule, so this lesson plan
could take 1-2 days.
If you have any questions regarding
this activity, please contact joeldequito@hotmail.com
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