ZANICHELLI- ADVANCED COURSE SPRING 2015
THE THEMES
The following one is the final output of my on line course by ZANICHELLI which I did in April-May 2015.
It is a framework for my project in English for my students of the four classes " specializing " in BUILDING and CONSTRUCTION" . It is based on English, English literature and the main theme is HOMES/HOUSES. The special route should start at the end of the second year and continue in the third, fourth and fifth year. As the students are going to design homes and buildings I chose this topic but the focus is not only on buildings , it is a journey into the homes and the houses which have now become museums. They tell us much about their inhabitants , and we can talk about the other cultures in English.
This is not my own idea, I must confess that last year before I left for Ireland I did a MOOC course about Literature and the countryside and most of the texts presented had to do with homes/buildings/houses/castles. I enjoyed visiting beautiful homes in the English countryside and thanks to internet we can see many more houses. I also chose texts with the title " home/ house" because they are offering us a lot of old memories and also a better knowledge about the writers/poets who wrote some works of art and also lived part of their lives there.
Old houses are places which we can visit anytime we start a journey: I visited a lot of places in DUBLIN last summer and in most of them I could find the many places where Joyce lived.....
So architecture, home and buildings are the main line that link this journey which I have devised for students in my country.
THE TOOLS
What tools I have used for the organization/ creation of the activities:
- internet search engines for pictures which are not copyright
- visual dictionaries on line :
http://www.visualdictionaryonline.com/
http://www.ipicthat.com/index.php ( Online dyslexic talking picture dictionary, aimed at people who suffer from dyslexia, specific learning difficulties SpLD and poor readers.)
http://wordvis.com/
_ http://www.esolhelp.com/online-picture-dictionary.html
- YouTube videos
- I have created my wallpaper with www.fotor.com for the padlet
- I have used thinglink for my presentation of the specific module about the Age of Shakespeare for class 3^ ( lower intermediate level students)
- padlet is the tool which I have used for collecting the main materials on line and the topic that deal with my project
- zamption for editing videos : I created a video with open questions for my students
For writing and creative writing skills: how to write a short story
_ http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Short-Story
_ http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative1/shortstory/
MY PRESENTATION ON LINE FOR THE ACTIVITY
Here is the thinglink presentation on line for the 3rd year class ( the age of W. Shakespeare)
Based on this embedded video which is present in the presentation on line - SHAKESPEARE'S HOUSE- the students of the third year could write their own script and dramatize something similar in class:
The following one is the VIEWING COMPREHENSION about houses and the project by the research unit in the European Community: it is about better ways for buildings and how they can resist earthquakes.
Here is the padlet with the main topics and materials found to present HOME/HOUSES in the different classes: this is my board , it is the focus of my interests and it is a collection of the texts which I would like to use in the different classes.
LISTENING AND VIEWING ACTIVITY FROM TED : I MIGHT USE IT AS COMPREHENSION TEST FOR 4^ YEAR STUDENTS
WRITING TASKS- Year 4^ and 5^
Creative writing activities: in the fourth and fifth year the teacher can devise activities that have to do with writing short stories following the main ideas of the CAMBRIDGE FIRST CERTIFICATE IN ENGLISH.
Writing tasks: look for information about famous people's houses and write an article in English