Friendship
Project URL: Friendship
Purpose of the Project:
Core Subject Standards:
Students will read various texts in this unit, write an essays with a controlling idea that conveys the theme of two texts in the unit or
articles on the internet. Students will do peer editing.
Core Subject Instructional Objectives:
Students will verbalize what they know about a topic by looking at the title of a text. Students will improve pronunciation. Students will
understand and utilize new vocabulary. Students will retell the story and act out the play, "Driving Miss Daisy.."
Activities and Strategies:
Students will read Antoine de Saint-Exupery's "The Fox" from The Little Prince and Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy. Students will guess and
explain new vocabulary in texts; the teacher, as a facilitator, helps guide students to understand new vocabulary. The class goes over the three texts
mentioned above together thinking loud. Then students paraphrase. Students
answer written and oral comprehension questions.
Standards Addressed by This Unit:
Students will use writing, reading, and speaking skills.
Software Materials Used:
Computer Applications:
Students will use Microsoft Word and Internet to complete their projects.
Resources (URLS, hyperlinks):
Antoine de Saint-Exupery's life story:
http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/tlp/antoine.htm
Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince:
http://elpa.post.ru/win/MP/EN/I.html
Paul Simon's biography
http://wbr.com/paulsimon/capeman/cmp/biography.html
Students:
Low, intermediate and advanced ESL students may benefit from these activities. Reading, writing, and speaking skills are required. Students
need to work in groups. In addition, if students choose to listen to Paul Simon's song, they need to have certain listening skill in order to
recognize the lyrics of the song.
Overall:
The best features of this program have the following three aspects: first, students will combine textbook information such as the play "Driving Miss
Daisy" with internet information. Students will be exposed to technology which will allow them to explore more beyond their textbook. Secondly,
students get to write an essay with one controlling idea; such type essay will familiarize them with the Standard Regent exam. Third, Students work
in a team where they can help each other.
Tips:
Many students have trouble writing an essay with one controlling idea because they
seldom are exposed to this type of essay writing. Therefore
it's important for teachers to guide students patiently, make sure they know
how to write such kind of essay correctly.
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Linda
Wang is an ESL teacher at University Neighborhood High School. She has
been teaching for two and a half years. Her teaching principle is whole language approach. By that she meant students learn English in a
contextualized environment. Students learn things that relate to their immigrant lives. She teaches grammar in the context of stories or other
literature pieces. She also believes that a classroom should be student
centered, namely students should actively participate in various class activities. She, as a teacher, merely acts as a facilitator to foster and
guide students' learning. Several student centered activities are students teaching in class, group work including peer editing, writing stories
together etc. She evaluates students' progress by examining their progress in
speaking, listening, writing, and reading grades. She evaluates her teaching
by getting feedback from her students who answer questions on the teacher
evaluation forms.
Email: llskw@aol.com
Estimated: 8
Subjects: ESL, Foreign Language
Beginning Grade Level: 9
Ending Grade Level: 9
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