Activity Plan - Bianca.docx

Activity Plan (Bianca)

Focus: Speaking Skill Course: Intercultural Communication Students’ expected proficiency level: A2 (Common European Framework) Estimated Activity Time: around 50-60 minutes Overall Aims: At the end of the activity, students are expected to: 

Discuss the concepts of ‘‘culture’’ and ‘‘stereotype’’ connected to their places of origin and their field of work/study;

Main resources: Board and marker; Television (projector); Video ‘‘The danger of a single story – Chimamanda Adichie’’; paper slips. Teaching premises:     

Starting a class with an ice breaker promotes students’ engagement and participation in class/oral activities; Bringing technology into the language classroom approximates the classroom to the students’ reality; Preparing students for speaking activities presupposes providing them with enough linguistic input; Activating students’ previous knowledge about a topic prepares and helps them to understand texts and perform better in class activities; Raising predictions motivates students into paying more attention to texts they are exposed to.

Procedures: Step 1: Warm-up (5 minutes) -Semi-circle with paper-slips: each slip has a name of a country or a city. Students randomly pick a slip of paper which has a name of a place on it. Then, students form a semi-circle and in a sequence say ‘‘I am…’’ + the place they got. The next student repeats the structure (I am) with the new name from his/her paper. Besides that, he/she has to remember and say the places that were said before (I am Recife, she is Salvador, he is Florianopolis…). Step 2: (15 minutes) -Group students in trios or quartets. In the small groups, students brainstorm ideas they associate with names of places from previous activity (‘‘chain game’’ using names of places in the world as students’ names to create a chain and break the ice in the first day of class). Students are encouraged to create mind maps, lists or any form of visual organization they desire. It is important to highlight that only one brainstorm per

group is enough, so each group choses one place and work collaboratively. Teacher offers help with vocabulary. Students are allowed to use computers and cellphones. Elicit from the groups the places they chose and the characteristics they associated to the places. Ask students what element the ideas they come up with represent about the place (the answer must be ‘‘culture’’. In case students don’t refer to it, teacher guides them to do so). Step 3: (5 minutes) Ask students to formulate a definition of culture based on the ideas they came up with in the first part of the activity. Elicit answers. Then, teacher presents definitions from 3 or 4 dictionaries in paper slips (in this case, each group receives one definition) or on PowerPoint so to confront them with their conceptions. Ask students if the ideas listed in Step 1 represent 100% the reality of the place’s culture and why/why not. Students are supposed to understand that their lists are possibly assumed ideas, not in fact ‘‘reality’’. Then, teacher ask students ‘‘What is the word given to assumed ideas about a place or a group of people?’’. The target is to answer ‘‘stereotype’’ but it is possible students answer something like ‘‘prejudice’’. Step 4: (pre-video watching) – (5 minutes) Students will watch the TED Talk video ‘‘The danger of a single story - Chimamanda Adichie’’. Before watching it, teacher presents on PowerPoint a screenshot of the video showing the speaker and the title of the video. Ask students about their ideas of ‘‘a single story’’ and the danger connected to it. Also, ask students about the origin of the speaker and possible ideas she discusses in the video (about her place, about culture and stereotypes and write them down, if possible. Teacher writes the predictions on the board so that students will remember them). After this small discussion, students watch the video. Step 5: (watching the video) – (15 minutes) -While watching, students check if their predictions are correct and make notes of any words/expressions that are new to them (if possible). The words/expressions will be checked after the video. -Students watch the TED Talk video ‘‘The danger of a single story - Chimamanda Adichie’’. Step 6: (after the video) – (10 minutes) -Check new words or expressions; -Students answer questions teacher poses about the video (the main idea of the video, the origin of the speaker, the speaker’s conception of culture and stereotype, the examples that the speaker provides to support her ideas, other themes the speaker presented); -In case students don’t answer the questions posed by the teacher, they can watch the video again at home.

Step 7: homework assignment -Students should record a 2-5 minute-audio journal giving their opinion on the ‘‘The Danger of a Single story’’ video and submit it to the Google Classroom before the next class. Assessment: -Build a new mind map about the places in Step 1 with information obtained from online research (preferably on official tourism websites). -The homework assignment will also be part of the formative assessment.

References: “Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - TEDGlobal 2009 - The danger of a single story” TED: Ideas worth sharing, July 2009, www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language= et.