task design rationale

8/2/2019 Task Design Rationale

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Material Design Project: Task Design - Olympics Interview Assignment (Chilean Context)

Aarika Floyd

LING 583

April 19, 2012


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The Chilean Ministry of Education has a set curriculum framework for their English

language program throughout the country. As previously elaborated, the education system went

through sufficient reform with the implementation of a communicative language teaching (CLT)

approach (Armand & Floyd, 2012). For this task design, Unit 3 will be featured as the unit to

elaborate on for materials development, as it is the most well investigated unit. The task will be

adapted from an already adapted syllabus design by Armand & Floyd. Their previous research

found that the Chilean Ministry of Educations overarching goal for its students is for them to

have attitudes as global citizens to learn and respect life in other countries and realize the

importance of English around the world and in their own lives (p. 1; Jantus, 2009, p. 106).

For the second semester, Units 3 and 4 of the Travelers 8 series introduce the

importance of English as a world language. As a form of classroom management, the teacher

places the students into groups of four, creating pods. These are called Pod Nations within

the syllabus design previously created. With this overall Pod Nation thread, students have a set

group for the unit term, and certain activities throughout this term will involve collaborative

group work by the each Pod Nation. Having an even number of students per Pod Nation allows

for proper divisions for pair and partner work as well. The methodology for choosing certain

countries featured for this project can be found in Appendix A.

The course website that corresponds with this unit features specific static pages of the

countries available for student groups to choose. This website created by the author can be

found at http://festivalsprojectefl.blogspot.com. These pages will be built upon throughout the

semester with various activities that pertain to the Pod Nation group. Each time there is a new

assignment for the students to complete, the teacher manages the website by changing the initial

post on the websites main page. Additional pages are added that correspond to the assignment


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students are to complete that week or weeks. The template for these pages can be found in

Appendix B. For this task design creation, only information applicable to the current task is

available on the website and for each nation page.

The featured assignment corresponds with the Unit 3 lesson Festivals around the World

(Jantus, 2009, p. 119). The overall objectives of this task design focus on the students ability to

search the Internet via appropriate searching methods to find information about a subject they

wish to research (festivals of their Pod Nation). This task also focuses on performing research

itself and the questions students should be aware of when beginning to research a topic.

Additionally, with the research investigation, students will also perform an oral report answering

the research questions and then input their findings onto the course website with guided help

from the teacher. Students will be assessed by their completion of the research worksheet

(Appendix C), their oral presentation, and participation in all activities. The students will also be

video recorded during the oral presentation for self-reflection purposes at the end of the year.

These assessment rubrics are adapted from the rubrics featured in Travelers 8 for sample

assessment instruments (Jantus, 2009, p. 204-207). All rubrics for grading for this task are

provided in Appendix D.

Technology usage.

Technology use has become a great resource for school in Chile, and especially important

for students to learn adequate computer, technology, and Internet skills for the future. Even the

course textbook, Travelers 8 indicates the importance of technology and the Internet in the

classroom (Jantus, 2009, p. 22) As indicated in the syllabus design, students will have access to

computers at least once a week for Lab Wednesday. The computers available to students have

effective searching filters that do not allow inappropriate websites to be viewed, as well as search


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filters set on Google for the same reasons. Then, students can type in the necessary keywords

provided by the teacher in order to complete their web search. Students are also provided

explicit web addresses so that misusage of the Internet is held at a minimum. Additional Internet

usage for this assignment includes proper navigation through webpages and inputting data into

the class website. For this latter purpose, students will get step-by-step guided help by the

teacher to input their research data onto the course website.

Sequencing of the task design.

Part 1: Schema activation

To activate student schema for the upcoming task, the teacher adapted this section of the

textbook onto a webpage for the Festivals project. The teacher will guide the lesson and ask

questions to elicit responses from students.

1) Students answer schema activation questions as a class from Kelly Hardrockcharacter.

2) Students watch video from YouTube about a festival, Fiestas Patrias, which occurs inChile.

3) Students read questions after the video that ask about the festival itself. Studentscannot answer all the questions based on the video so research or an investigation for

information is needed.

4) Students learn about investigating a topic and answering questions related to thetopic.

Part 2: Introduction to the topic and preparation for task completion

This task scaffolds from previous research task from April Fools Day traditions

assignment where websites were already found and information needed to be found within one

website. This task allows students to do a broader search, with guidance from the teacher, but

also with websites provided to expedite research.

1) Navigating from the initial posting on the Home page to the Searching the Internetpage, Kelly Hardrock introduces students to the steps in performing an investigation


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for information about a certain topic, in this case for modeling and scaffolding, the

students will use strange festivals in Chile as their initial investigation topic.

2) Students will follow along with the steps provided in the tutorial.3) Students will navigate to Assignment page to read the directions for the

assignment. Students can ask questions and gain clarification of the assignment at

this time.

4) Students will complete the web investigation for Worksheet 1a by performing theirown investigation, with help from the teacher to complete the strange festivals in

Chile web investigation.

Part 3: Engagement in task

This part of the task is the students ability to perform the modeled task on their own and

then complete a group presentation of their investigation findings.

1) Students will perform an investigation of strange festivals relating to their PodNation country using Worksheet 1b. Students will collaborate with their Nation

natives as to which festival to investigate.

2) Students will decide as a Nation on the festival they wish to present on in front of theclass and be video recorded.

3) Student will distribute presentation work according to the Assignment prompt andcreate a creative visual aide to display during the presentation. This visual aide may

also serve the purpose, as a script since learner abilities to produce language at this

level is still difficult.

4) Students will be graded on oral presentation and visual aide representation usedduring performance. After the performance, they will submit to the teacher

Worksheet 1a & 1b and the visual aide.

Part 4: Post-task activities

This part of the task allows students to come full circle with finding their information via

the Internet and then submitting back onto the Internet for later reflection.

1) The first post-activity for this assignment is reporting the information from the classpresentation onto the course website along with videos. After students have turned in

the worksheet and performed their oral presentation on their festival with video

recording, the teacher will do a YouTube search for an appropriate video for students

to upload with their presentation video.

2) Students of the same Nation will meet with the teacher for step-by-step instruction onthe course webpage on uploading a video pertaining to their festival.


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3) Students will also input their festival investigation data onto their Nations site page.4) Students will also upload their presentation video onto their Nations site page.

Conclusion.

This task design was created with a specific student and learner context in mind, the

Chilean context. The overall task was to elaborate on the Chilean Ministry of Educations focus

on creating global citizens as well as using appropriate technology for means of research to be

presented orally to the class. The usage of the course website provides a culmination of group

work provided by the students, which hopes to display growth of student work over the semester.

The research investigation and use of technology provide authentic input as well as real-world

tasks students would complete in the future for academic purposes.


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Appendix ACountry Choice Methodology

In order to choose countries to feature in this web investigation assignment as Pod

Nations, the author searched for a list of countries which the majority of the population spoke

English. Upon researching this, the author found the List of countries by English-speaking

population (2012) on Wikipedia. The author realizes that this information is dated, but for its

purpose, the information was gathered to find countries where the percentage of English speakers

in the country out of the entire countrys population was over 90%, and ranked in the top 75

countries that also had a higher overall population. (This is in comparison to small island nations

such as Bermuda, which had 96.92% of English speakers out of 65,000 people versus the

Philippines that is featured, which had 92.58% of English speakers out of 97 million people).

For the purpose of this task design, the number of students per class is twenty, allowing only five

of the eight featured countries to be chosen by student groups allowing for more options for

students.


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Appendix BSample Nation Collaboration Page

Welcome to the United States of America!

Country Facts:

Nation Flag: [insert flag photo]

Location: (provide description) & [insert map] Capital City: Population & (date): Area: Country comparison to the world: Nationality: Languages Spoken & (date): Top 3 Major Cities & (date):

1) 2) 3) Internet country code: Number of Internet users & date:

Information Source: CIA World Factbook -https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Olympic Project

Olympian Interview Video: [insert video]Olympian Interview Transcript: [insert transcript]

Information Sources:

April Fools Day Project

April Fools Day tradition in our country:Jokes in our country:Why is it funny?


Festivals Around the World Project

Investigation Question Answers:Native 1 Report:

1) What is the festival?2) Where is the festival located?


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Native 2 Report:

3) When is the festival?4) What year did the festival first begin?

Native 3 Report:

5) What is the history of the festival?6) How many people attend the festival?

Native 4 Report:

7) What do people do during the festival? What events or activities take place duringthe festival?8) Why is the festival important to people?

Video of Presentation: [Insert Video]


Food Festival ProjectFood Festival Name:Food Festival Date/Time:Food Festival Activities:

Posters for Festival: [Uploaded scans of advertisement posters for festival 4students]

Nation Recipes for World Food CelebrationFeatured Recipes:


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Appendix CResearch Worksheet 1a & 1b

Name: _____________________________ Festivals of the World Project

Date: _____________________________ Worksheet 1a

Class: _____________________________

Investigative Questions for Chile Festival

Topic: Strange Festival in Chile:

1) Is this festival strange? What is the festival? _________________________________

2) Where is the festival located? _____________________________________________

3) When is the festival? _____________________________________________________

4) What year did the festival first begin? ______________________________________

5) What is the history of the festival? _________________________________________

6) How many people attend the festival? _____________________________________

7) What do people do during the festival? What events or activities take place during

the festival? ______________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

8) Why is the festival important to people? ____________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

Sources of Information:

Website Name: ____________________________________________________________

Information Topic: _________________________________________________________

Website Address: __________________________________________________________

Date You Found Information: ________________________________________________


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Name: _____________________________ Festivals of the World Project

Date: _____________________________ Worksheet 1b

Class: _____________________________

Investigative Questions for Nation Festival

Topic: Festival for Your Nation: _____________________________________________

1) Is this festival strange? What is the festival? _________________________________

2) Where is the festival located? _____________________________________________

3) When is the festival? _____________________________________________________

4) What year did the festival first begin? ______________________________________

5) What is the history of the festival? _________________________________________

6) How many people attend the festival? _____________________________________

7) What do people do during the festival? What events or activities take place during

the festival? ______________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

8) Why is the festival important to people? ____________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

Sources of Information:

Website Name: ____________________________________________________________

Information Topic: _________________________________________________________Website Address: __________________________________________________________

Date You Found Information: ________________________________________________


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Appendix DEvaluation Rubrics

Part 1: Worksheet Evaluation Rubric

Worksheet Rubric:

Student:

5 Exceptional Work

- Interesting, neat, and easy to read

- Both sides of worksheet completed well

- With date and name

- Turned in on time

4 Complete

- Neat and easy to read

- Both sides of worksheet nearly completed

- Must have date and name

- Must be turned in on time

3Incomplete

(directions not followed)

- Difficult to read

- Only one side of worksheet completed or both sides only

half-completed

- Has name, missing the date- May or may not have been turned in on time

2 Incomplete

- Unorganized and/or difficult to read

- Almost no completion to either side of worksheet

- Missing name and date (or one)

- Late

1 Missing- Student did not complete the worksheet

- Only name or name & date

Total:

Note: Total evaluation of worksheet is out of five possible points. Adapted from: Jantus, 2009, p. 207.

Part 2: Oral Presentation Rubric

Name of Student: Date:

Nation:Criteria Possible Points Teacher Points

1. Discussed investigation questions assigned by Nation natives 10

2. Presentation was clear and rehearsed 10

3. Visual aide was used, useful, and creative 10

Total Points:

Rate each criteria according to the following scale:910 = Excellent78 = Very Good

56 = Good

34 = Satisfactory02 = Poor


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Note: Total evaluation of the presentation is out of 30 possible points. Adapted from: Jantus, 2009, p. 205.

Part 3: Overall Participation Rubric

Name of Student: Date:

Process Poor (1

3) Satisfactory (4

5) Excellent (6

7) Points1. Worked collaboratively with group members

2. Properly organized to complete project

3. Managed time wisely

4. Acquired needed knowledge

5. Communicated efforts with teacher

Worksheet Evaluation

Oral Presentation Evaluation

Total Points:

Note: Total score possible for Participation Rubric is out of 35 points. Transfer Worksheet Evaluation score and

Oral Presentation score for final score tally to determine overall project grade. Total possible score for Project grade

is 70 points. Refer to Part 4 below for letter grading. Adapted from: Jantus, 2009, p. 204.

Part 4: Overall Grading Rubric

A = 90% or higher = 63 points or more

B = 8392% = 58 points62 points

C = 7382% = 51 points57 points

D = 6372% = 44 points50 points

F = 62% or below = 43 points or below


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References

Armand, V., & Floyd, A. (2012). Syllabus Design: The Chilean Context. Retrieved from

http://aarikapinkfloyd.wordpress.com/curriculum-project/syllabus-design.

Jantus, L. (2009). Gua Didctica para el Profesor . [Teaching Guide for the

Teacher Travelers: 8 Basic] Santiago, Chile: Eds. Cal y Canto.

List of countries by English-speaking population. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved April 23, 2012,

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-

speaking_population#List_in_order_of_total_speakers.

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