Chez moi et dans le monde entier: Exploring our use and relationship with water
Summative Assessment
Submitted by Jill Pearson
Objectives:
Content:
Students will...
- show an understanding of the amount of water different activities use
- demonstrate understanding and the ability to use different systems of liquid measurement
- gain insight into perspectives of water conservation
- demonstrate an understanding of ways to cut down one’s water use
Cultural:
Students will...
- recognize that other cultures use different units of measurement
- show an understanding that access to clean water and consumption of water differs across the world
Language: Content Obligatory
Students will...
- use reflexive, pronominal, and other regular and irregular verbs in the present tense to describe quotidian activities with se laver (les mains, les cheveux, la figure), se brosser les dents, se baigner, prendre une douche, chasser l’eau, laver (les fruits/légumes, etc.), boire, nettoyer, faire la vaisselle, faire la lessive, ect.
- make collective suggestions using the nous imperative with verbs such as fermer, utiliser, se laver, conserver, etc.
- advise others using the conditional form with the verb devoir plus the infinitive form of other verbs
- express quantities in liters and gallons using numbers into the hundreds
Language: Content Compatible
Students will...
- discuss possibilities using the first and third person singular present tense of pouvoir + infinitives such as je peux fermer le robinet, on peut conserver…
- use complex sentence structures with conjunctions such as parce que and mais
Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Students will...
- summarize information learned in the unit in the form of the chosen project
- organize/plan the steps to complete the task
- role play (optional)
- use and/or create imagery to represent information about water use and conservation
- locate and use resources as they prepare their projects
- cooperate with a partner to carry out the assessment task
Time Frame:
3 in-class work days, plus presentation days
Materials Needed:
- Handout: Directions for Students (see Attachments)
Description of Assessment (Performance Project):
Project description: Apprenez aux autres que l'eau est précieuse: "sketch" ou "livre d'enfant"
Please refer to handout "Directions for students" to learn about the task students will be asked to perform.
Logistics
After completion of the four lessons, I will present the choices for their presentation. Well before this, I will need to coordinate with teachers at one of the French immersion schools to decide on appropriate dates, times, etc.Students will be able to choose groups of two to three. Because I will expect them to do some of the work and rehearsing outside of class time, and because these are all generally diligent students, I feel that allowing them to work with partners of their choosing will result in better projects. I will let them know that they will be graded together for the content of the project, so they need to choose a partner with whom they know they will work well. In terms of the performance, I will grade the student separately on criteria such as “effort,” “preparation,” and some of the language mechanics.
I will share the rubrics with students after they have chosen their partners and their project. This will help guide their creation of high-quality, appropriate presentations. Students creating a children’s book will be instructed not to begin the final version of their text until it has been reviewed by a peer and/or the teacher.
I envision three in-class workdays before beginning another unit. On the second workday, we will discuss the elements of a good oral presentation and how to engage a young audience. On the third day, students will share what they have with another group who will give them constructive feedback . The day before the students present in the school, they will present for the class, during which time I will videotape so I can show examples of this project in the future and so I can grade them. I don’t imagine that I’d be able to grade their actual performances in the school due to logistical issues, so I’ll grade their performances that they present for the French 3/4 class. In terms of providing written feedback, I find I am able to provide more thorough and accurate comments when I have the ability to rewind and listen and view again.
Meta-reflection
Throughout the creation of this content-based unit, I’ve come to find that developing content-based curriculum appeals to me in many ways. I think where it is most exciting to me is at the “mapping” stages, where the ideas begin to take form. I was inspired to embark on the first steps of the unit design after reading Graves (2000) chapter 4 on Conceptualizing Content. Like the teachers highlighted in that chapter, creating a mind map helped me initially to brainstorm ideas and connections and later to identify a focus for my unit. I think I can credit the mind-mapping process with helping me pinpoint a topic that lent itself well to a week-long unit as opposed to my vague starting point, the environment.Another very helpful stage in the developing process was the text analysis (adapted from Fortune, sources: Chamot & O’Malley, 1994; Kucer et al, 1995). It was a wonderful starting point for approaching content-obligatory and content-compatible language objectives, concepts, and essential understandings. Being able to start with the “language”/text and pull out the CC and CO language provided a wonderful scaffold before moving on to a point where I would need to be explicit about the language I would be using and expecting my students to use throughout the activities that I created.
I found that ensuring that my curriculum was standards-based and incorporated the “5 Cs” came very naturally (Sandrock 2002). I also found that including communication opportunities that were interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational (Sandrock 2002) was something that I was very accustomed to doing. One thing that I found that really changed the way I conceptualized the lessons was having to write them in terms of “Preview,” “Focused-learning,” and “Extension” (Kucer et al., 1995). I think my tendency is to jump into thinking of all the activities I can do rather than thinking of creating a focused-learning phase and building the pre- and post-activities around that phase. I think this helped keep my lessons focused and purposeful.
The only real challenge I find myself acknowledging at the end is how much time and effort it took to create a week-long unit of curriculum. Even after all of the hours, I know that when I teach the first lesson, I will make changes on the spot and will probably make many changes to the proceeding lessons in response to my learners’ reactions, progress, etc. Of course this is to be expected, which is why I tend to plan curriculum in terms of rougher outlines, so I have lots of room for flexibility in planning and instruction. I do see the benefit, though, of being so detailed in the planning of these lessons, especially in terms of the explicitness of the language. I think in order for CBI to work for me, I will need to find a balance between the way I naturally approach planning and how I created these lessons.
Assessment:
Presentation of the project will be assessed using the 2 rubrics developed for this purpose (see Attachments).
Attachments:
NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)Directions for students