What if you only had 1 day in a famous city/area in your Target Language (TL) country? Where would you go, what would you do? This is the premise for my “Visit to Kyoto” activity with my Yr 3 Japanese class. This is a 3-class activity that introduces my students to some iconic Kyoto sites – and hopefully gives them ideas should they plan a trip in the future!
Day 1 – Webquest/Google Docs Survey – In order to establish a common basis for discussion, I ask that they visit the National Tourist site for Japan – and in my case (as I’ve outlined my authres challenge before) in English. I want them to see the specific country’s site, the extent of its offerings and, as I have a high population of students who don’t have English as their first language, the variety of languages offered to explore the site . For Kyoto I identified 5-7 top sites in the city. For the assignment the students are asked to go to each site and complete the following information (in English and on paper):
What is it? Where in the city is it? Why do tourists go there? What would I see if I went there? What could I do if I went there? Why would I personally want to go there?At the end of assignment, and to ensure they’ve gone to the site I want them to, I also ask the students email me to respond to the website in particular – telling me what their initial impression of the site was and one improvement that they might suggest for the webmaster and why. I’ve sometimes even sent their suggestions along to the organization.
Google Doc Survey – Once students have completed the paper survey I ask them to enter the info into the google docs survey. This survey just asks them to rank each site for the ‘visit’ preference from 1st (most want to go to) to the last. I don’t do this Day 1 work as an all on-line google doc activity as I want students to have the hard copy for class work – and I really only want the info to generate the rankings.
Day 2 – Vocabulary Crowd-source – Generally I put up the 6 spots on the whiteboard and ask the students to talk to their partner and answer the ‘questions’ that they had to when they did the webquest. They do this as a ‘mindmap’ on a larger sized piece of paper. For the first 10-15 min. (or so) I don’t allow dictionaries – in the hope that I can tap into their circumlocution skills. Then students source out the TL that they would need of they had to answer using dictionaries. Finally they take turns adding information to the whiteboard. If it’s a ‘looked-up’ word they put the English beside it. The last part of class allows them to borrow any words seen on the board that they might want.
Day 3 – Summary Discussion – Prior to class I go to the form response data and generate a “Summary of Responses” and a series of TL questions about the place in general and their specific responses. I use conversation circles a lot and students are used to answering questions as a group. The questions can range from “What is Kinkakuji?” to “Why do you think the Gion was the ‘least’ popular site among students”. They get 10 min or so with their partner (and notes) to work through answers to the questions. Then they move into tables of 4. They can have notes with them if they need them still but they are there really for ’emergency’ purposes only. The discussion generally lasts 35-40 minutes and we change groups once half-way through. The discussion is self-evaluated with the written response prompts being “Today I was proud that I…” and “For next time I’m going to …”
It’s a great activity for students that makes use of their real data, and incorporates reading, listening and speaking. If your class went to an area in your TL country – where would that be and why?
Colleen
