Speaking and Refugee Resettlement
Language Skills and Strategies in focus: Registers, Formal debate, Adverbs of frequency
Age & Level: B1/ high school age / mixed background
Length of Lesson: 90 mins
Preparations Before Class: 5 mins
Print out worksheets for students (in person class)
Cut out cards for discussion bingo (in person class)
Pull up the Presentation Slides, BEFORE class.
Print out worksheets for students (in person class)
Cut out cards for discussion bingo (in person class)
Pull up the Presentation Slides, BEFORE class.
Materials Needed: In-Person: Computer with HDMI, Internet, projector, paper & writing utensils / Virtual: Computer with Zoom pre-downloaded, Internet, (break-out room capability)
Lesson Plan Objectives
- ARTICULATE obstacles and supports for refugees on their journeys and in their adjustment to the host country.
- FORMULATE a creative story based on relevant information and imagery.
- DICTATE written texts and write down dictated texts.
- DISCUSS what they know, want to know, and have learned about refugees.
- DEBATE on contemporary global issues.
Warm up: Discussion Bingo
Time: 10 minutes
First do a quick check in: ask students something that they learned from last class, discuss vocabulary definitions, who is a refugee, etc.
Gather students into groups of three. (count off, randomize, or allow them to pick)
Students will be given one card, A, B, or C. (Appendix A)
The Students must spark a discussion with one of the ovaled terms, then use all the expressions on their cards, correctly, model this with one student.
You should be going around, determining who is not using the terms correctly, but also allow the students to ‘police’ each other.
When all of the expressions are used on the A, B, or C cards correctly, then with the approval of their teammates they can be pronounced the winner.
Choose a different topic and swap cards to play again.
Vocabulary Review:
Asylum: the protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee
Assimilate: take in or get used to (information, ideas, or culture) and understand fully
Visa/Green Card: a permit allowing a foreign national to live and work permanently in the US.
Border: a line separating two political or geographical areas, especially countries
Identity: the fact of being who or what a person or thing is
Migration: movement of people or things from one part of something to another.
Activity 1: Reflect River
Time: 20 minutes
Project the slides, drawing of a river onto the screen or screen-shares the image on Zoom.
In the physical classroom, you may also use a large piece of butcher paper and have students draw on it.
Explain that in the journey from their home country to their host country, refugees often face obstacles but also find support.
Have the students pair up, and each pair thinks of 3 obstacles and 3 supports refugees may face in their journey.
Class comes back together.
Students share their ideas, and a teacher or volunteer can write down their ideas on the drawing of a river (for example: using the “annotate” feature on Zoom), writing their ideas inside the shape of either tributaries (supports) or boulders (obstacles.)
Boulders (obstacles)
Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Student Examples:
Borders
Anti-Immigration Laws
Detention Facilites
Tributaries (supports)
Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Student Examples:
Acceptance
Organizations
Pro-Asylum Policy
Activity 2: Debate - Fact Finding Through Speaking
Time: 40 minutes
Warm up: 5 minutes
Make a KWL (Know, Want to know, Learned) chart on the board.
Have the students draw it out on paper.
Ask the students: (independently)
‘what do you know about refugees’, then have them fill it in.
‘what do you want to know about refugees’, then have them fill it in.
The third, ‘What I Learned’ will be finished at the end of the lesson.
Play the video, have the students put all writing tools away.
Stop the Video at 2:17.
Worksheet: 10 minutes
Handout the Adverbs of Frequency worksheet.
Have them all get started on the worksheet and
After 5 mins, if unfinished, tell them it will become homework.
Ask them to fold the paper horizontally or ‘hotdog’ so only the right portion shows.
Debate: 20 minutes
Read the Discussion Questions Below ALOUD to the class:
What responsibility do individuals have to respond to the needs of refugees? What can an individual do to help?
Should host countries keep their borders open for refugees at all times, or should they be allowed to set and enforce maximum quotas?
As a group, discuss question a, and then question b. Allow these questions to spark discussion, do not interfere unless to help with vocabulary.
With at least 8-10 mins left, split the class into two groups, and randomly assign the Affirmative Claim and Negative Claim.
Hand out the appropriate worksheets to each student
Give the students some time to confer with their group, then allow turn-taking for each side.
Revisit: 2 minutes
Revisit the KWL Chart and focus on the last category, ‘What I learned’
As a group, have the students call out new things they have learned.
Fill in the information into the L category.
Wrap up: Putting Together Refugee Narratives
Time: 20 minutes
Hand out the Jigsaw Worksheet with the four prepared scenes, each representative of a frame from a picture story.
Students work independently to write down a story based on the pictures.
Students dictate their story to a partner, and the partner jots down notes.
Students then switch roles, with the other partner dictating their story.
Finally, as a class, fill out the L portion of the KWL chart from the previous activity.
As an exit ticket, each student must tell you something they learned that they will share with a family member at home.
4_story-jigsaw.docx