Instructional Session 22
Objective: By the end of class, you will be able to… Beginner: write phrases or sentences in French to answer questions in French about the pictures people in class submitted to tell what they think about when they think about France Intermediate: write a series of sentences in French to answer questions in French about the pictures people in class submitted to tell what they think about when they think about France Advanced: write a series of connected sentences in French to answer questions in French about the pictures people in class submitted to tell what they think about when they think about France, and using transition words to organize the information
Preparation: The Guided Oral Input strategy you will be using today is Academic Card/Slide Talk. This is a content-based variation on the familiar strategy of Card/Slide Talk. The only difference is that you will ask students to submit/ sketch images that reveal their prior knowledge, and perhaps bring to light any misconceptions, stereotypes, or other erroneous conclusions that they may have in their minds. The question that I like to use, and which will be modeled in this example lesson, on Regions of France, is “What comes to mind when you think about X?” In this case, the question is “What do you envision when you think about France?” and students are asked to submit three pictures of what springs to mind about France. Of course, many students will submit the same typical images: the Eiffel Tower, cafés, mimes, bérets, etc. Sometimes teachers can get discouraged because the images their students submit reveal very “lazy” or “surface-level” understanding of the topic. This, however, is no cause for alarm, or even mild concern. The whole point of beginning the Information cycle with this strategy is precisely so that your students have a safe way in which to “brain dump” their prior knowledge, including any misconceptions or limited thinking on the topic. The purpose of this strategy is not for you to heroically disabuse everyone in class of their erroneous thinking, but rather to accept the information they submit, not as the gospel truth, but as “what you thought of when you thought of France.” As you work through the topic study, you will find that the organization of the Information cycle is designed to support you in returning to these original understandings and misunderstandings, so that students themselves can begin to “correct” or refine their original thoughts on the topic. This is student-centered, constructivist unit design, and it is one of the main strengths of the Information cycle. Much of the structure and many of the strategies in the Information cycle were adopted and perhaps modified from the powerful work of Project GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design), an evidence-based approach to teaching content and language to bilingual students. Because the needs of students in the average World Language course are different from the average English Language Learner, I have experimented with the GLAD strategies and adapted them for my own students. The Information cycle can be thought of as a mini GLAD unit adapted to suit World Language courses. Page 388
