Applying new information

The description of the method. Before the debate, students get familiar with the details of the debating question. The teacher offers students 2 opposing views (affirmative and negative), divides the class in 2 parts: one representing the affirmative opinion, the other the negative opinion. Each student or group of students shall make at least 2 arguments supporting the opinion. Debates in the classroom can be organised in pairs, groups and classes together. (Method is offered by Latvia)

Process if students debate in pairs:

1. student outlines AFFIRMATIVE opinion and arguments

2. An opponent asks a question or refutes any of the arguments he has heard

3. The student answers the question or comments on the rebuttal (accepts, rejects, develops an argument in response to the rebuttal)

4. On the same basis continue with THE NEGATIVE opinion

The method can be adapted by organising a “quiet debate”. In this case, students write arguments on the page, and the debate takes place in writing, exchanging pages between position and opposition.

It is recommended to conclude the debate with a reflection on the conduct of the debate. Possible issues:

1. What is my personal opinion on the issue of debate? What was it at the beginning of the debate and what at the end?

2. How did my personal opinion change? What convinced me, what - did not?

3. What information would I need to change my stance?

• History. Big Geographical Discoveries; authoritarian regime of Kārlis Ulmanis

• Social sciences. Ethical choices, media freedom, nature protection

The description of the method. The students use the information they have learned to record a podcast, either by themselves or in pairs. (Method is offered by Norway)

• History/English. Interview with Henry VIII.

• Social studies/English. Political institutions in different countries. Task description: Your group is going to make a podcast where you explain and compare the political institutions in Norway with those in an English speaking country. What you should include in your podcast:

1. Elections: explain and compare how elections are held

2. Separation of power (branches of government)

3. Political parties: choose some and remember to explain what recognizes them

4. Heads of state: Monarchy or republic? Explain and compare.

The description of the method. The students work in small groups (3-4 persons) and have to use all their skills and competences on a topic/content in order to produce a poster or a presentation for a lesson to the other groups. It is important that teacher offers students criteria for presentation or poster before students begin their work. This method can be used so that students visualize and contemplate information, but also demonstrate their understanding. Depending on the teacher's goal, criteria is according to the depth of the task. If the teacher wants more information to be collected and visualized, the method will also work well as obtaining new information and learning directing. (Method is offered by Norway & Italy)

• Italian Language. The students collect all the information, data, pictures, sentences by the authors of the Italian writers or poets.

The description of the method. “Learning by doing” can be applied to achieve new content and knowledge. This is the way for students to be the main tools in the construction of their knowledge. In fact, students are asked to investigate new content without any explanation by the teacher. It is essential that students have the opportunity to practically create what they themselves have read and studied. Most often, in order to create an appropriate model, students have to study the provided information several times. (Examples of students works Nr.1; Nr.2) (Method is offered by Italy)

• Science. Topic: “Animal and plant cells”. Students are divided into groups. Each group has to study the topic in the text book and then make a model reproducing the animal and plant cells.

• Math. Topic: “Making the scale model of a bedroom”. Students are divided into small groups and each student is given a role: engineer, architect, construction manager. The engineer has to make a scale planimetry of the bedroom; the construction manager makes the main structure of the model and the architect, in collaboration with the engineer and the construction manager, creates the interior of the room. The aim is to create a plan and a 3D-model based on real measures of one student’s bedroom.

• First Foreign Language. Topic: “ At the restaurant”. Students have to make a personal menu using different creative styles with different creative materials.

• First Foreign Language. Topic: “I’m a stylist”. Students have to make a model of a boy or a girl and to produce clothes and accessories for the four seasons.

• Geography. Topic: “An interdisciplinary approach to orientation on Earth “. After an initial actualization phase during which the teacher proposes a different stimulus and activities to present the topic, and to let the students acquire new information, he/she defines small work groups, thus starting the operative phase. First, each group has to create a quadrant and then, to use it to determine the latitude of a desk in the classroom. Students are asked to apply what they have learnt in a new specific context, therefore this task will promote an improvement of their learning.

The description of the method. At the end of a unit, the teacher proposes to students a “task of reality” made of several activities from a real context where the students have to apply known procedures, contents and knowledge. (Method is offered by Italy)

1. • History. Topic. “I’m a tourist guide”. As every year, a group of tourists from St. Albans (England) visits the War Cemetery of Montecchio (Pesaro-Urbino, Italy). You are asked to create a brochure on Montecchio Cemetery containing the main historical information. The day of the tourists’ visit you will be their guide.

     1. First step: finding, selecting and collecting information, data, pictures, evidence ...on the Second World War and the Gothic Line and Montecchio’s War Cemetery;

     2. Second step: organizing all the material in order to produce a text to read to the visitors: translation of the text into English:

     3. Third step: giving information in English to the visitors.

The description of the method. As a self-evaluation task and to use information in a new context, students create tasks for their classmates (crossword puzzles, dominoes, quizzes). It is important to decide on the conditions under which students need to create the tasks in order to reach the planned immersion level. Crossword puzzles can be created simply about terms or the questions can be made so that students are roused to think about connections to get an answer. Before beginning the tasks, the teacher and students can agree upon the goal - check how the classmate knows definitions or give chance to practice and so on. (Method is offered by Latvia)

• Latvian language. Students need to create tasks about compound sentences for their classmates. Teacher offers versions of what the task could evaluate - check whether the student can recognise compound sentences; whether to separate it with commas; check how well the classmate understands theory on compound sentences and so on.

The description of the method. In order to actualize acquired knowledge each pair receives a magical flower which contains different statements. After reading statements students need to decide what is correct and what does not conform. There is a smiling face and a sad face on the board. The pair reads the statement and puts it under the correct face. (Method is offered by Latvia)

The description of the method. Different stations corresponding to the topic are created around the class. Each student takes the worksheet with the tasks for the stations. Different visual aids are prepared in each station. Students need to do the task which is based on these aids. The order of the stations students can choose themselves. (Method is offered by Latvia)

The description of the method. A question matrix is a tool designed with the purpose of introducing us to a hierarchy of questioning. Designed similar to Bloom’s taxonomy or Higher Order Thinking questions. Teachers encourage students to ask a variety of different types of questions using this matrix. You can use it to stimulate questions about your current topic -in ANY SUBJECT AREA. (Example) [John Sayer's blog; available here] (Method is offered by Latvia)