Example 3: La Frontera by Dan Dunagan

Phase 3: Interpersonal Task

Materials needed:

• Instructions to the students – See Appendix E
• Rubric - See Appendix F
• Movie - El Norte - can usually be found in your local video store
  

Description of the task:

The instruction sheets will be given out on the day preceding the actual interpersonal task.

Students will participate in groups of three. Each student will receive a specific role. Each role will represent a different generation (grandfather/grandmother, father/mother, son/daughter). I will pair the students based on spoken skill level (high, medium, low). I will also ensure mixed gender groups.

The students will complete the interpersonal task in a small room right next to the classroom. The various groups of three will be rotating every five minutes. One member of the departing group will inform the next group of three to report to the site of the interpersonal task.

Students not participating in the interpersonal task will be completing an interpretational task. They will watch the movie El Norte and answer various questions from the movie. I fully expect that the students not doing the interpersonal task will assist each other as they answer the questions from the movie. It is unavoidable. Thus, I would consider it a cooperative instead of an individual task.

Step One - Each of the three students will have at least one minute to express his/her point of view. The students base their points of view on information contained on the description card they receive from the teacher.

Step Two - After each student has one minute to explain his/her position, there will a general dialogue lasting at least two minutes. During this time, I expect each student to participate. If one student starts to dominate or get too animated, I will intervene. I do this by portraying myself as an uncle, friend of the family, or neighbor. In this role, I will also prod reluctant group members to participate.

Feedback – At the end of all interpersonal activities, I will provide feedback. I will call each group back into the small room in order to review their performance. Using the rubric as guide, we will review language skills that we the students should sustain as well as areas that require some improvement. I expect this to be a dialogue and not a monologue performed by me. By reviewing with the entire group of three, I hope to spur more inquiry and questioning on the part of the students. This feedback will be provided entirely in Spanish.

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Context and Overview Interpretive Interpersonal Presentational