LESSON TITLE  "Opiniones personales" part 2

LESSON SKILL TARGETED  Speaking activity: interviews and jigsaw information swap

CLASS LEVEL     IV
 
 

TARGETED STANDARDS

1.1 Interpersonal Communication   1.2 Interpretive Communication  1.3 Presentational Communication  3.2 Acquiring information  5.1 School and Community

I.  OBJECTIVES:

1.1 Students create interesting questions for an interview about the environment.
1.1/1.2 Students interview their peers about the environment and track responses.
1.3 Students share the results of their interviews with each other.
1.3 Students create a presentation to share their results with the class.
3.2/5.1 Students interview a native speaker about the environment.

II. PROCEDURES:

A.  Pre-speaking:

1. Students complete listening comprehension activity (Opiniones personales, part 1).

2. Working in three groups of four, students brainstorm 4 questions for peer interviews about the environment.  While the requirements for the questions are minimal, the questions should involve the soliciting of personal opinions, they should be open ended, and they should relate somewhat to the ideas discussed in the audio comprehension lesson.  Some examples of good questions: (Do you think Concord Academy acts responsibly re: the environment and why/why not; which problems receive the most/least attention in your neighborhood; do you think the students at this school are aware/responsible; do you think there are enough waste receptacles in Concord/Boston; which kind of contamination is worst around here; how does Concord/Boston compare to your home town (half of Concord Academy boards) in terms of environmental awareness and responsibility; etc.  Different groups will come up with different questions, but all students in a group must ask the same questions.

3. Teacher reviews questions and makes suggestions for improvement if necessary.

B.  Speaking:

1. In jigsaw fashion, the students regroup into four groups of three and conduct their interviews (each will interview two other students), taking brief notes to catalog the responses.

2. After the interviews are completed, students get back into their original groups and share the information they collected with each other.  They should discuss what common themes emerged and which questions garnered disparate responses.

C.  Extension:

1.  Each student in the group then 'adopts' one of the four questions and, as homework, prepares a brief oral summary of the eight responses to that question, to be given in class the following day.

2.  Students create questions for a longer, one-on-one interview to be conducted individually with a native Spanish speaker outside the classroom, either in the Concord Academy community (there are many) or beyond it.