Title:Donaldsonville on PowerPoint
Subject and grade level: French 1 (grades 9-12)
Student characteristics:
I
teach French at Donaldsonville High School, Ascension Parish. My students
are 85% Black and most of them are on welfare. The school always scores
low on standardized tests. We have a big drug and violence problem. Academically,
many students do not care about school. This is the reason why I
try to vary my teaching methods in order to first of all not be too boring
and also reach every students' learning styles.
Lesson overview:
Students
will create a PowerPoint presentation in French on Donaldsonville. It will
include sound, text, and pictures. Students will record their own voices
in the presentation. The topic was chosen because students are proud of
the city where they live. I think the project will be appealing to my students
because they will be involved in every step of the production (they will
take the pictures, select the ones that will be in the presentation, write
and record the comments).
Learning
objectives: At
the end of the lesson, they will become more aware of what their city has
to offer and their motivation for French will be increased because of the
use of the foreign language, of their creative and technological
skills in a meaningful activity. Very often, students use their various
skills separately, one at a time. This time, they will be combined.
French
standards and benchmarks addressed (including
those of the expansion activities)
CM-3-E2 producing information incorporating
numbers, time, and weather
CM-3-B3 giving short oral and/or
written messages about people, events, places, animals, and things;
CM-3-D3 preparing and/or presenting
short stories or brief reports about personal experiences, events,
or other subjects;
CM-3-D5 preparing audio- or video
recorded messages on topics of personal interest;
CM-3-B7 telling simple facts about
products and/or practices of the target cultures.
CM-3-D8 preparing short presentations
about products and/or practices of the native and target
cultures.
CN-1-E3 combining information from
other school subjects with information available in the second
language in order to complete activities in the second language classroom
CT-1-B2 interacting with members
of the local community using the target language;
CT-1-E3 participating in age appropriate
class or club activities which benefit the school or
community;
CT-1-B4 illustrating and presenting
a logo, poster, greeting card, poem, skit, song, and/or story to
present to others.
Time: We will need a 1/2 day field trip to gather the information and take the pictures that will be used in the presentation. At least 3 class periods of 50 minutes will be allotted to the realization of the Power Point presentation.
Resources and materials:(including what will be needed for the expansion activities) CD-writer, digital cameras, regular cameras and film, scanner, blank CD-Rs and labels, printer, cartridge, Mediaface label software, binding machine (+ binding combs), floppy disks, computer lab, school bus, microphones, and Power Point software.
Activities & procedures: Students will be paired randomly (I like to team my students randomly so they learn to work with all kinds of people - not only with their close friends). They will be explained what the project is and how they will be graded (a copy of the assessment rubrics will be given to them). With their partner, they will have to decide what they want to take a picture of. The slide show will have a minimum of 20 slides + 1 biographical and 1 personal contribution slide per student. Field trip arrangements will be made with the school board. We will be dropped off in the historical downtown of Donaldsonville because all the interesting buildings and monuments are at walking distance from there. Students will be given disposable cameras and will share the three digital cameras we have. They will be given approximately 2 hours to take the pictures they want to take. The next day, the pictures taken with the disposable cameras will be brought for developing. The cost of the cameras and the developing will be taken care of by the French Club (we have a lot of money because we had a year-long fundraiser last year). Once the pictures are in, students will start working on their Power Point presentations. We have 5 scanners at school. Sharing will not be a problem. The computers in the lab all have microphones and headphones. At the end of the presentation, students will add a bibliographical slide (one per student) and a "personal contribution" slide (also one per student) in which they tell what their personal contribution to the project was (this should avoid situations where one student does most of the work). Each pair will share its production with the rest of the class.
Assessment: Click here to view the rubrics that will be used to assess the presentation.
Sample student
product: Click here
Expansion
activities: There
are many possible expansion activities. Follow-up activities also play
a very important role in students' motivation. Indeed, they show them that
what they are doing can be expanded and therefore does not end after the
completion of the main activity. Here are a few examples of expansion activities:
- Students could
copy their Power Point presentations on CD-Rs and give a copy to the local
Chamber of Commerce, which could use them as promotional tools to attract
French-speaking tourists to Donaldsonville.
- If the presentations
are copied on CDs, students could design their own CD labels using Mediaface
Software.
- Students could
share their work with their parents and the rest of the community
at an especially organized gathering.
- Students could
select one aspect or building of Donaldsonville and create brochures that
would then be bound to make them look like a book.
Title
- Subject and grade level
-
Student characteristics - Lesson
overview - Learning objectives - Standards
& benchmarks - Time - Resources
/ materials - Activities & procedures
- Assessment - Sample student
product - Expansion activities