As I mentioned in my last post, interpretive skills are overly stressed in the traditional Arabic curriculum. I tend to focus on the interpersonal in class meetings and probably should give more attention to activating and engaging students' interpretive skills. I have many ideas on how to do this, both in the traditional classroom and online. I would benefit most from other teachers' ideas on bringing the presentational skill into play without it feeling too much like an assessment to the student. Unfortunately, the VoiceThread project didn't help me here; four groups did an interpersonal project (including mine), one did an interpersonal project, and the presentational was wholly unrepresented.
While my group designed an interpretive activity, I want to do more with this in my classes (and in a way that engages my students). I liked my group's activity, but had a look at the interpretive activity designed by group 4.
Their asynchronous activity focuses on cultural awareness, and one of the primary goals is to demonstrate that lunch is the biggest meal in the Arab world. Students are shown a video of a Friday lunch in an Arab home. (I immediately thought of Khalid and his family in the nearly-inescapable Al Kitaab textbook, as there's a very similar video in that text.) Students watch the video and are asked three multiple-choice questions to ascertain they understand the basic content (that the scene takes place midday on a Friday, etc.) Students then do a presentation using Photo Story or Comic Life.
This activity is fully online and I probably wouldn't change much if I were to use it. Asynchronous activities can be done as homework in a blended class. However, this could be done in the classroom as well. Students could also work in groups on their presentations, and this could also be done remotely. I think it should be fairly simple to discern students' understanding of the material regardless of where they may be.
The thing that most intrigued me about this activity is that, like the one my group designed, it culminates in a presentation as an assessment vehicle. I found myself wondering if this is why none of us designed an activity focusing on the presentational skill. Maybe we're all "thinking inside the box," considering presentation only in the context of assessment. I'm starting to have ideas for activities that begin with a presentation.
I am curious how students could begin a unit with presentations? If they don't know vocabulary yet, what would they present? I can think of a possibility with, say, families. If they brought in a family tree with pictures the first day of a family unit, then they could start using the pictures immediately as the class went through vocabulary, but it would be at a word level only.
ReplyDeleteI was referring to activities that begin with a presentation, midway or toward the end of a unit of study. Activities that begin with a presentation could have a second, interpersonal aspect (e.g., recounting an anecdote then answering questions from other students).
DeleteIn my Arabic Language and Culture, we have a big stress on culture and this is only a one semester High school elective class. The students will learn to read and write and some beginning vocabulary.
DeleteHowever, when we first start the class I assign the Country project and this is a pretty big presentation that will be done in English. My students present every Friday, so as the semester goes by, they would know more Arabic so the students who present later in the semester will be expected to use more Arabic. This gives me a chance to differentiate and students can chose where they want to be and how much Arabic they want to infuse. This class is interesting because I have students with IEPs and are unable to take another language that will require them at least to go to level 2 and I have seniors who are taking their 2nd or third language , are in Model UN and are super motivated, so students put in as much work as they want as long as they fulfill the basic requirements. Everyone loves it This is a way to have presentation be the starter because the presentation then engage other students in questions and learning .
Thank you for sharing that, Roula. I also teach an elective class of mixed 7th and 8th graders. I like the way you approached this and may model next year's elective class on this. My elective class meets nearly the whole year, November through June. However, we meet only sporadically (an average of twice per month). I think I'd have to modify things a bit for my school. I think, though, that adding a similar presentation component to the second-year Arabic curriculum could be interesting and useful. Again, thanks!
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