World Wide Web

    Objective of lesson:   Students use their reading, writing, and speaking skills in the target language (TL) to complete different portions of a jigsaw project using authentic materials from the World Wide Web (WWW) and information obtained from classes in other disciplines. They will use their TL listening skills to synthesize the information gathered by their classmates and put the pieces all together to finalize the project.  This extended activity is entitled The Aconcagua Project.

    SWBAT: *  Carry out research using authentic materials in the TL to obtain the data necessary to complete their portion of the class project, express themselves appropriately in the TL when presenting their research to the class, understand TL input sufficiently to comprehend other students' information presentations, make connections with other disciplines to add to their data and thus enhance their knowledge of what a climbing expedition to Aconcagua requires.

    Standards targeted: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3; 2.1, 2.2; 3.1, 3.2; 4.1, 4.2; 5.1, 5.2

    Description of activity:   The Aconcagua Project calls for students to "climb" this famous peak in South America.  The project originates in the language class (here, obviously, Spanish) but spills over into several other disciplines with careful planning and collaboration on the part of the instructors involved.  In order to complete this assignment, the students need to plan the entire expedition from start to finish in order to ensure its success.  They will work in groups and individually, sharing their information at designated intervals.  Each group can have responsibility for a certain portion of the trip and expedition. (The jigsaw designation refers to putting it all together at the end.  Every piece of the "puzzle" or project is vital to its eventual succesful conclusion.) They will collect data from a variety of sources, both traditional and technology-based.  The Aconcagua Official Home Page (http://www.aconcagua.org/ ) will be very helpful for securing much information on the Internet.

    Planning the trip will entail everything from getting to the country (airfares, routes) and meals and lodging before the climb, to the entrance fee to the park and mountain,  conditions for the climb (both geophysical and physiological), costs incurred by the expedition on-site, selection of the optimal ascent route, and so forth. Much of this information can be found at the Aconcagua site on the WWW. The travel information can be found at numerous web sites, using search engines (remember we learned about them before?).

    While much of the discussion and planning will take place in the language class, much of the data collection and planning can be reinforced by studying parallel concepts in other disciplines.  Below are some examples of activities that can be implemented in other subject area classes.

    • Science class:  students study atmospheric conditions as one ascends the mountain (humidity, winds, temperatures, atmospheric pressure, etc.); this information will also be helpful in planning what type of apparel to take on the trip.
    • Geography class:  students will need a wide variety of information including maps, latitude and longitude points, geographical location of the country and the peak, etc.
    • Math class:  many mathematical concepts and functions can be reinforced while gathering necessary information for the expedition:  temperatures, heights, pressures, metric system; reading graphs on statistics for climbing (age, sex, etc.).
    • Spanish language class:  vocabulary on weather, numbers, food, nutrition, climbing equipment; planning the final ascent will entail making comparisons of routes to ascend and descend (here students can debate, compare and contrast, make decisions based on best information presented).
    • Home Economics class:  students research nutrition information to determine their food needs for such a strenuous expedition.
    • Physical Education and Health class: proper physical conditioning for such an expedition is absolutely vital; the instructor could describe the relationship between various exercises and physical activities and indicate how such strengthening will benefit the climbers during the ascent.
    The Spanish teacher might even bring in a mountain climber to talk about the technical aspects of such an expedition and climb.  The teacher could also engage some students who have done this already on a minor scale, etc. If you know someone who has climbed Aconcagua, so much the better! A case in point:  a former student of mine from Spanish V and VI climbed Aconcagua in the late 1980s.  For this project, I would call her--or e-mail her, in this day and age!--and invite her to come and speak (en español, por supuesto) to the class or, at the very least, tape a phone conversation with her talking about her experience on Aconcagua and throughout the expedition.

    Several other examples of on-line lessons and activities that are Standards-based, use authentic materials, and the WWW can be found at the following sites:

    Civilisation française  - a terrific site put together by Marie Ponterio and loaded with activities that enable language learners to discover just what the title indicates.
     

     Taller hispano - a series of Spanish language culture modules tangentially following the themes in "Destinos" but applicable to any Spanish language course; oh, BTW, "I made this."
     

     Netspiegel - focused Internet exercises with common cultural themes, to be used  to "Lernexpress" and similar textbooks; this site was created by Andreas Lixl-Purcell.


    *SWBAT:  indicates what "students will be able to do" at the end of the lesson.
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