Popular British icons (1Dc)

Prof. Maria Grazia Severi

1 D internazionale (a. s. 2016-17)

ICT PROJECT
Evergreen British Cultural Icons

 

OBJECTIVES

We want to:

- experiment a different model of the teacher-student-content triangle, where the prominence of the learner is inequivocal and the teacher is a mere facilitator of the acquisition of skills and knowledge

- use ICT devices in school as they take up such a big part of students’ out-of-school life.

- promote spontaneous and autonomous learning together with students’ responsibility for their own actions

- encourage motivation as the project largely relies on cooperative learning and peer support

- provide cross-cultural indepth concerning popular fictional characters teenagers are familiar with and identify as representative of British popular culture.

 

Finally, it should be noted that this is a real web quest, where students need to use their language skills in a creative and critical way (they cannot just copy and paste material from the Internet or any other source, as they have to produce a unique creative project) following the task-centered learning method (Web 2.0 technologies for teaching English).

 

STRUCTURE OF THE TASK CYCLE

Pre- task: Class debate on the most popular British fictional/film characters (group work in English), group lists are pooled together to create a class list (class debate in English), a shortlist of 6 items is chosen and students are assigned to each one (class debate). This is the resulting list: Sherlock Holmes, Peter Pan, Mr Bean, Harry Potter, James Bond, Robin Hood.

 

Task: each group prepares a presentation that must include factual information on the chosen character and relevance in British culture, creative rendering of the character through any technological form available.

Planning: three lessons (once a week) in the multimedia language lab to search for useful information and draw a general outline of the final project as well as individual roles within the groups

Report: four lessons in the classroom (computer and overhead projector) to show the class the final product.

Language focus: at the end of each presentation the teacher briefly discusses major language mistakes, carefully avoiding overcorrection

 

This is a short description of the groups’ final projects:

Sherlock Holmes: ppt presentation of the author and character, graphic video on key features of the character, Murder Hunt (a game where groups try to find the murderer in a crime case, using the clues provided by the “Sherlock Holmes” team)

Peter Pan: online presentation, video, game of cards (game invented by the “Peter Pan” team, using special cards and a set of original rules)

Mr Bean: online presentation, Kahoot quiz game

Harry Potter: ppt presentation, video interviews to people in the street about the character

 

 

 

 

James Bond: quiz presentation, game

 

Robin Hood: ppt presentation, video