WER IST DAS Image designed by freepik com

WER IST DAS? Image designed by freepik. com

PRESENTATION OF THE LESSON 1. Teacher presents the topic of working on someone's biography through the Wer bin ich? QUIZ. It is a simple and effective way to engage students in new content. ü Use the whiteboard or a big picture and cover it like shown below. Ask students a question to recall or activate content. If their answer is correct they choose a number, the teacher clicks on it and reveals part of 2 the image until they guess the character. 1 3 ü Tip: Instead of using a character’s picture you can use objects related to her/him. 4 5 6 7 8 9

TEMPLATE This template can be used by Non-Lingüistic Areas along with Literacy in a cross-curricular lesson. We use a lot the biographies in History, Literacy, Science, Music and the Arts, but they are sometimes not always engaging and difficult to manage for students. This is an activity where students learn how to organise the info when working with facts about a person / character.

APPEALING PRESENTATIONS

1. WORD CLOUDS • WORD CLOUDS. One of the students’ favourites for presentations. While reading the different biographical texts, students underline or write down every key word they find. Using the website https: //wordart. com/ word clouds can be created using different formats, shapes and colours. The inputted words should represent the person’s biographical highlights.

2. ROLE PLAY Role plays give students a fantastic opportunity to impersonate a character where content and authentic language are recalled allowing students to display their detailed knowledge – which is a great combination!!! Photo courtesy of Mª Isabel Domingo

3. DIGITAL RECORDINGS Learners love recording with their mobile phones and digital devices. Encourage them to make an mp 4 or short film instead of acting in front of their peers. Give them the option. Alternatively, students can use their tablets and laptops with free web tools like https: //spark. adobe. com/ or Apple clips to edit their own videos and short films so they are ‘presentation ready’.

4. PICTURE DESCRIPTION: COMPARE AND CONTRAST Learners can use their thinking skills such as “vergleicht und kontrastiert” when presenting a character’s evolution through a series of images. NAPOLEON

5. MOBILE PHONES FROM THE PAST Students are often motivated to use ICT, so let’s provide them with opportunities to show off what they know and can do on paper. The mobile phone from the past activity allows students to think about the many things they might find on the mobile phone of famous historical characters. Bringing together current technology with past events.

MOBILE PHONES FROM THE PAST Use peer-assessment to check them

6. FAKE SOCIAL MEDIA This website has some free templates and examples of fake Instagram profiles so that students can create profiles without actually being on Instagram, and all whilst in the classroom: https: //leehs-fcps. libguides. com/techtools/social-media Students can craft their characters using the entries on social media writing and posting texts and images. Encourage students to think about how their chosen person would have informed people about events, what language they might have used etc. *If technology is unavailable, students can create these on paper, but a digital format allows videos and images to be included too.

FAKE SOCIAL MEDIA Let’s Tweet: Why not use fake Twitter accounts to show conflicts or negotiations between two characters in the past?

7. PLAY LIST OR Musical biography Group learners in teams of 3 or 4. Tell students to research a famous figure (artist, inventor, historical figure etc. ) and create a playlist to represent key moments in their life. The playlist is shared with and played to the class whilst the group explains their choices according to their chosen person’s biography. Photos: needpix

FREE PRODUCTION

1. ILLUSTRATE A QUOTE Learners will create a poster displaying a quote related to the chosen character. They can use different fonts, simple images and colour to illustrate the meaning of the quote to them. Learners can make this digitally or on paper using free tools such as easl. ly , genial. ly or canva. com Create an exhibition of the posters. This can be a virtual exhibition with a mix of the hand made and digitally crafted posters scanned to proudly display student’s work.

2. LETTER HOME Learners impersonate a chosen character and write a letter, postcard or email to a family member (husband, wife, parents, children…) or to a friend or neighbour. This is a great activity featuring peer assessment as if projected each student can see and check the letter making suggestions / comments on accuracy or varietyof language.

3. BALLOON DEBATE Who stays? Who jumps? It’s UP to you! • To gain experience speaking in an informal debate setting. • To think creatively to generate relevant arguments. Photo: Public Domain Pictures • To develop persuasive responses to simple questions.

ü In groups of 4, each learner takes on the role of a specific character. ü The scenario: There are 4 people in a hot air balloon and it’s sinking because it’s too heavy. The only way for them to survive is for one of them to be thrown over the side of the balloon. In the first round each group has to prepare and give a short speech (no more than 2 minutes, although it could be as short as 30 seconds, depending on the group so differentiate the time accordingly) The speech is the reason why they should not be thrown out of the balloon. üAfter hearing each speech, ask the class to vote on who should be saved and why. Remind them that they shouldn’t vote on which character they like most, but rather on how well each person persuaded them with their impassioned speeches. üFor a more competitive atmosphere, you could hold a vote between each round to decide which character is “thrown out” and joins the audience. You can continue with the rounds until there is only one winner left.

BALLOON DEBATE CHARACTERS COLUMBUS CHARLES V PHILIP II ELIZABETH I LUTHER COPERNICUS

OTHER EXAMPLES: WOMEN IN SCIENCE To celebrate wonderful women in science, students research and prepare a brief biography of a female scientist. The teacher offers a list of famous and not so famous scientists to choose from based on prior learning. Students prepare research posters which could form the basis of a presentation. This activity celebrates women and their achievements in scientific endeavours across the globe.

PEER ASSESSMENT Using visual rubric helps learners to assess one other. This rubric provides the teacher assessment horizontally for every student and vertically on the aspects to improve as a class.