Introduction
A Webquest for the armchair travel experience to Ireland.
Created by Audrey Jacquemot and Gonçalo Pereira
This is a lesson designed for student 5th-6th grade. The lesson will get in touch in some of Ireland's cultural aspects and national symbols. It will get the students familiarized with its most famous symbols and their contextual backgrounds.
Regarding the language learning, students will surf the web, skim websites, scan web and word documents for important information, try to decode the meaning as well as translate words into their mother tongue with the use of an appropriate given tool.
It is usefull for this lesson that the pupils have some prior knowledge, henceforth why we will start with a small activity, a quizz about Irish general culture.
Task
By completeing this lesson you will be able to:
- Understand and discuss about Irish culture, weather it be its' legends,culture, way of life and gastronomy;
- Gain more curiosity about the country;
- An increase understanding of the interaction between countries;
- You will be able to identify similarities and differences between Ireland and other countries.
Process
"Dear students, here is the thing:
Choose a theme, and by exploring,
You will present the rest of the classroom
Your brand-new knowledge about the Irish customs,
Enjoy the process and have fun with learning!"
As you will enter the classroom some Irish music will be playing to set the tone of the class.
Starter: Test your knowledge about Ireland!
Kahoot: https://play.kahoot.it/v2/?quizId=7267ff72-1f71-4302-a620-ff540750506b
After Kahoot we will see some videos of Traditional Iirsh music
Main activity:
Picture captions:
- The Claddagh ring
- The Irish imegration to the states
- The Leprechaun
- The Shamrock
- Saint Patrick
- Poetry and Limericks
In groups (2-4), you will be given an image with a national symbol from Ireland, which you will have to investigate in order to create a product you will have to present to the rest of the class. You can use tools like Powerpoint/ Prezi /Videos etc...
The presentation has to include the origin of the tradition, how it is celebrated and it's evolution over the years. E.g: Saint Patrick
Make sure everyone in your group get to speak in the presentation!
Do not hesitate to ask any questions!
You will have the 2 nextt lessons to work on this project! In total 3 hours!
Evaluation
Before handing your final project make sure to use the self check template below and complete it.
You will present you project in the classrom, receive feedback from us (Teachers) and your peers.
Each group must come up with at least 1 question to every group as they finish their presentation about the topic.
You can find below the paper sheet to assign evaluation for each other group. To evaluate other groups, the students must come up with something they like about the presentation followed by a suggestion for improvement. E.g: "The presentation could have had more pictures"
The teacher will evaluate if everyone in the grouop had a chance to participate in the presentation, and if the content was good.
Students to Student evaluation sheet:
Self check revisions sheet:
Conclusion
By the end of this lesson the students are able to:
- To be autonomous and work in a group;
- Use the internet and other resources to find information;
- To create a final project with various tools. E.g: Powerpoint, Prezi etc... ;
- To prepare and perform an oral presentation;
- To listen actively to their peers and elaborate constructive criticism;
- To manage their time.
Credits
More tools to showcase more about Ireland:
Live music at Dolan´s pub(Limerick, Ireland) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9a8pVGa1Mo
Live music and irish dance : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXwc5Ti3py8
Irish accents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee_N3g4ORLk
Live music and irish dance : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXwc5Ti3py8
Intro to Ireland : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqu_wBdrY4s
Cartoon version of intro to Ireland : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQvaGt9B6H0
Irish chunks with Jamie Dornan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEdKqDZn3Bs
"what makes you irish?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuzgsfZNqKM
Teacher Page
A webquest designed for the 5th and 6th grades.
English subject
Designed by Audrey Jacquemot and Gonçalo Pereira
Didactic reflections:
Since this class is aimed for the 5th-6th grades it fall on the 2nd stage.
In here we have a main focus of working in oral communication.
They will improve their:
- Methods of listening by actively listening to their collegues and videos.
- To exchange meaning with others alongside with pronounciation/ intonation and vocabulary practice.
- Oral expression
- Feedback and note taking techniques.
With the research they have to do they will enhance their specific information picking skills from texts/ websites.
As a starter we decided to introduce the pupils to the traditional and folkloric music to immerse them in the Irish atmosphere and bring authenticity in the classroom: by activating their musical senses we hope to enhance their curiosity about the topic as well. Then we created a Kahoot to have a playful activity to increase their motivation, with the aim of activating their prior knowledge about Ireland (music, literature, geography etc.), and giving them confidence in the coming task. In a social constructivism approach, we decided to design a group task where communication in the target language will be needed, because they have to create a product that they will have to present in the end to the rest of the class. Thus, they will learn about Irish culture from each other.
Before the main activity takes place, we as the teacher will present one of Ireland's symbols, in which the students will see a structured presentation of it with useful guidelines they can follow for their own future work. With this the students will understand what a final product should look like.
We tried to create a limerick for the task instructions, which we thought would be another opportunity to expose the students to one aspect of the Irish culture. Before finalizing their work, we provided a self-check template they can use in order to polish their presentation and introduce them to self-regulation. For the feedback to their presentation, the other groups will be active listener: we provide a template they have to fill in, and each group in the audience has to ask a question about the presented content, tell one thing they liked about the presentation and something they think could be improved.
Additional ideas: we thought that a brain break for a future lesson could be learning a small and simplified choreography based on Irish tap dance and performed on traditional music. For lower grades level, we have a coloring picture of a leprechaun
Feel free to do the brain break when you feel the students are starting to space out due to over work.
