Background to resource
The idea behind this resource is to honour and respect the vast array of countries and cultures from which our students in our classes come. This resource gives them the freedom to reflect on how a country should be by working with key elements that make up a new country.
During the process students reflect on the places they come from and listen to the same information about the others in the group. The tasks provide a good platform for discussion about cultural differences and similarities.
The aim is to bring the students together through creating a new country of their own. Working together as a group collectively to design and create a new country, students experience first-hand how to work democratically. Each group of 4 has to agree on the final outcome of the task to produce a giant poster showcasing their work through a gallery tour.
Teacher tip: Allow students to speak in their home-languages to insure understanding of the task. If students struggle getting started, allow them to write in their home-language first and google to translate to English.
Key words
collaboration, creativity, following criteria, self/peer assessment, oral presen-tations, reflection
LK20
School shall allow the pupils to experience the joy of creating engagement and the urge to explore, and allow them to experience seeing opportunities and transforming ideas into practical actions. Collaboration inspires innovation and entrepreneurship so that new ideas can be transformed into action. (Core Curriculum §1.4)
Pupils think, experience, and learn in interaction with others through learning processes, communication and collaboration. The school shall teach the pupils to demonstrate good judgment when they express themselves about others and shall ensure that they learn to interact in an appropriate way in varying contexts. (Core Curriculum §3.1.)
Interdisciplinary topics
School shall provide the pupils with the opportunity to participate in and learn what de-mocracy means in practice. (Core Curriculum §1.6)
Basic skills
The basic skills of this resource include the three elements below
- Oral skill is the primary skill for this resource. Students use strategies to present their own cultural/country background to each other in their small group of 4. During the gal-lery tour they present their posters orally. The students also use strategies to communi-cate orally as part of a group and individually when presenting their finished work. In the design process, students must explain their ideas and listen to new ideas.
- Writing - Students write on task sheets provided and the final posters.
- Digital - Students use internet tools such as Google translate to find information about their own country first before they share with the group. The internet is also used for in-spiration and information for creating their new country.
Competence aims LK20:
- use appropriate strategies for language learning, text creation and communication
- express oneself in a nuanced and precise manner with fluency and coherence, using idiomatic expressions and varied sentence structures adapted to the purpose, recipient, and situation
- explain the reasoning of others and use and follow up input from others during conver-sations and discussions on various topics
Learning objectives
The pupils(s) should be able to:
- use communicative skills to discuss as part of a team
- negotiate with each other to decide on the outcome of the task
- collaborate democratically as a team respecting everyone has a place in the group
- give a presentation about their new country to the rest of the class
- reflect on their own and peers´ performance by answering questions in writing
Reflection and assessment
The evaluation task sheets give the students the opportunity to reflect on their own work and the others in the class. They have questions to answer which will guide them on the criteria when taking part,and listening to the presentations.
Resources
Teacher preparation/materials needed
We Are the World Song on Youtube (or another song to start the topic off)
Task sheet explanations /materials needed
- Task sheet 1 - Where I am from - (Students write individually about the country they come from by answering questions and drawing their own ideas)
- Task sheet 2 - A new country (Students start to write about the country they want to create. They can write individually then compare their answers to start the process of making decision)
- Task sheet 3 - Presentation plan (Students individually write what they will say when talking about their new country)
- Task sheet 4 - Questions to ask the presenters - (Here are some suggestions for questions students can ask. They can also write questions of their own)
- Task sheet 5 - Self-Evaluation (Students answer questions to how well they did when presenting their new country)
- Task sheet 6 - Peer-Evaluation (Students answer questions about how their group members “performed”)
- Large poster paper / coloured markers - (flip-board paper is a good example)
How to do the lessons
Materials needed for introductory lesson
- Task sheet 1 for students
- Make an overview of the groups with four students per group and set up the classroom in these groups
- Teacher makes a mini presentation about where they come from using the criteria from Task sheet 2
Intro. lesson
- Have music playing when the students enter the class. Where do we all come from?
- Teacher begins by presenting his / her own country
- Students then do Task sheet 1 Where I am from
- Once complete they present their work to each other in their group, or as a class de-pending on the group.
- Let the students know what the project is about, how much time they will use, and that they will be working in groups of four
Materials needed for group-work lessons
Task sheets 2 - 6 (see above under teacher prep./materials needed for details)
Group work lessons:
In groups of four students will work together to create a country of their own.
Using Task sheet 2 students start creating a new country.
Students nominate different roles in the group to create a structure. These roles can change throughout the process.
- The Manager - makes sure the group works to plan and includes all of the criteria
- The Researcher - uses the internet to find out about things the country has to include and for inspiration
- The Artist - is the one that leads the creative process
- The Negotiator - is the one that helps the group come to any decisions they have to make
- All four work together supporting each other when necessary
The process and what to look for:
Throughout each session, the teacher should constantly support the groups. Check that everyone understands and is active. Students should know that they must ask for help from each other or from the teacher.
Allow for chat in home-languages. Members from the groups should be encouraged to walk around and see how the others work to get inspi-ration.
Strategies for working as a group:
Group your students in a way that works best for them. Allow friends to work together, students with the same home languages, or split them up into groups coming from differ-ent countries. Know who works well together and let them work together.
How to set up the gallery tour:
There are many ways to set up a gallery tour. One way is to pin the posters around your classroom. Each group can stand ready by their poster and step up one at a time to say their piece.
- The class gathers in front of the presenting group to listen/ ask questions, be-fore moving on to the next group.
- Make time for a two-minute break after each presenta-tion for the next group to settle last minute nerves.
- Once the gallery tour is finished, cele-brate with some tea and biscuits and everyone give a round of applause as a class.
Comments and follow-up that may lead to deeper learning
A good follow-up idea could be to let the students do research on an English-speaking country using the work from this resource as a starting point. The result could be for them to also present the English-speaking country to the class in general.
Idea developed by
Elaine Gowie-Fleischer (EL EDUCATION) © Fremmedspråksenteret