The “new teacher”:

 Designer of learning activities, projects and environments

 

Section A: Innovative contexts for learning (warming up activity)

　

n      Use the provided template to convert the main or organizing “learning objective” of a conventional lesson into interesting and relevant context ideas. These ideas could be used as a introductory activity role play or scenario, or for the design of the

n       In short, you are asked to think of imaginary or authentic situations which (a) pupils might find an interesting and relevant connection to the chosen learning objective or outcome, and (b) provide a ‘pretext’ for individual or collaborative learner participation in some purposeful activity – to solve a particular problem, to undertake some task, to find information, to produce some kind of knowledge synthesis or application , etc. 

n       These contexts need not and indeed should not be directly related to the lesson objective, but as a pretext for learning should have potential for developing an indirect connection to chosen learning objectives/outcomes.

n       Your context ideas may (a) relate to simple everyday situations if you want to emphasise relevance or (b) be more imaginative if you are really want to engage learner interest. An example of (a) might be an activity designed to provide a pretext for learners to develop or apply mathematical fractions in terms of having to make calculations on a shopping expedition (e.g. the context of having to buy your mother a present at the last moment because you forgot it was her birthday). Examples of (b) typically involve roleplaying or scenarios which transport beyond the here and now of their own situations (e.g. forward or back in time, or into some other fantastic or extraordinary situation).

 

Briefly sketch out “context” ideas for three possible learning objectives

  

 MAIN LEARNING OBJECTIVE/OUTCOME

 IMAGINARY/AUTHENTIC CONTEXTS

e.g. the learning of mathematical fractions OR the key principles of a healthy diet 

e.g. its your mother’s birthday and you have a limited budget to buy your mother a present OR you and your friends decide to help get information for a friend wanting to lose weight

 1 the learning of  English vocabulary items

 

 

 

An alien has committed crimes in Mercury and is punished by the leader of his planet to collect 30 vocabulary items’ names from Earth within 10 days. Since he does not understand the language of the people on Earth, he is unable to collect the names. Learners have to help him to find all the items’ names correctly so that he can return to his planet.

 2 the learning of phonics

  

Some famous cartoons ( e.g. Hello Kitty, Twin Stars, Snoopy) appear in the web page and teach learners how to pronounce the phonics.

3 the learning of  ‘Wh’ English questions

 

 

 

 

Steffie lost a very valuable thing one day after school —a watch that was given by her dear aunt who died three years ago. Her friend Candy helps her to find the watch. While searching, Candy asks a list of ‘Wh’ questions of Steffie to seek more for more clarification so that they can get more hints to find the match. Learners have to select the correct ‘Wh’ words from the boxes to complete Candy’s questions. 

 

Section B: Design a basic ICT-supported learning activity idea

 Requirements:

n      Use the provided template to outline a basic learning activity

n        Your activity should therefore demonstrate the translation of a learning objective into the context of an imaginary or authentic situation

n      The details of the activity should (a) reflect the steps by which learners would use such a “context” as a focus learning in a chosen subject area and (b) integrate ‘ICT-supported learning’ in at least one of three distinct modes (the use of ICT as an information resource, a means of communication or as a mode of presentation or publication)

 

CHOSEN SUBJECT/TOPIC/FOCUS           

Second language learning of English vocabulary by Chinese students

 MAIN LEARNING OBJECTIVE  

Develop conversational English and vocabulary related to supermarket items

 

1. AN AUTHENTIC OR IMAGINARY SITUATION FOR YOUR ACTIVITY

 An alien has committed crimes in Mercury and is punished by the leader of his planet to collect information from Earth within 10 days. The alien was required to collect 30 items’ names from the Earth, otherwise, he cannot go back to Mercury and will be exiled to an isolated planet. Therefore, the alien pretends to be a pretty girl in the Earth so that no one will be scared by him (but in fact, he still looks like an alien) in order that he can get the information by their help. After he has settled down in the Earth, he started to find the information. He visits different shops, but the shopkeepers refuse to tell him what the items are because of his ‘pretty’ appearance. On the last day, he finds a supermarket where the manager allows him to collect the items by himself ( i.e. he has to match the names of the items with the objects). However, the alien is not able to collect the items because he does not understand the English names. Therefore, students have to help the alien to match the items with the appropriate names in the supermarket in order that the alien can return back to his planet.  

2. WHAT WILL LEARNERS NEED TO DO AS THE PURPOSE OF INTERACTION ABOVE (i.e. solve a problem, address some issue or challenge)

 Learners in this activity have to help the alien to go back to his planet by typing all the names of the supermarket names correctly. Most of the vocabulary items are missing in the houses. Although the alien can still see ten pictures in each house, he does not know what they are. Therefore, learners need to help the alien match the pictures with the appropriate words all correctly so that the alien can return to his own planet. Choices of the words will be given. If students do not know the meanings, they can check the meanings via the given online dictionary. Answers will be at the end of the activity.     

3. HOW WILL THIS PROVIDE A PRETEXT FOR SPECIFIC LEARNING OUTCOMES IN A CHOSEN SUBJECT AND RE: A LEARNING OBJECTIVE

 In order to help the alien to return to his planet, learners have to find 30 vocabulary items’ names in this activity. Therefore, by the end of this activity, learners can learn new vocabulary items from a typical supermarket effectively through pictures. The pictures can strengthen students’ memory of the vocabulary items and help students to obtain a better image of the meaning of the words. In addition, students can learn how to search information via internet resources.

4.   PROVIDE AN OVERVIEW OF KEY STAGES OR STEPS OF ACTIVITY 

l          Students have to read the animation powerpoint that provides students with an  introduction and the guideline of the activity first so that they understand the story of the alien and understand what they are going to do.

l          Students should click the icon ‘Help me’ to enter the activity page. In this page, students can see the alien and three houses (the food shop, career information house and entertainment introductory house).

l          Now students have to follow the alien to enter the houses one by one. There are ten pictures of the ten items in each house and almost all their names are missing.

l          Students have to type in the names of each item below the pictures in the boxes provided by choosing the correct name among the four words provided, which is next to the boxes. If students do not understand the meanings of the words, they can click on links, provided on the same page, to online dictionaries to check the words’ meanings.

l          After helping the alien to find the items’ names, students have to click ‘Go to Mercury or the Isolated plane’ to the result page to see whether or not they can help the alien to go back to his planet. The sentence ‘ Thanks a lot, my dear friend’ indicates that the vocabulary items’ names that are found by the students are all correct and match the pictures, and students can see the alien is sitting on the spaceship with a big smile as well. However, if some of the vocabulary items’ names that found by the students are incorrect and cannot match the pictures, students will see the sentence ‘Oh…No…I cannot go back’ and the alien is crying.

l          Finally, students can check all the answers by clicking ‘Answers please’ on the result page.

  

5. WHAT IS THE MAIN ICT-SUPPORTED LEARNING FOCUS AND WHAT ADDITIONAL RESOURCES NEEDED FOR THIS ACTIVITY?

(a) Activity will be developed as a Powerpoint animation with language learning links  

(b) Pupils will use online dictionaries to undertake translations

http://www.tigernt.com/dict.shtml (English-Chinese online dictionary)

http://www.dreye.com/tw/  (English-Chinese online dictionary)

http://www.yourdictionary.com/