View Content #18957

Elizabeth Robinson is an Instructional Designer at BYU Independent Study. She taught Spanish at the junior high, university level and currently teaches online. She graduated in 2014 with a Master’s in Spanish Pedagogy from BYU.

In this unit, groups of students are given the opportunity to function under a unique government while creating a presentation to persuade a native speaker to come to their assigned country. Communication is limited to chat through Google Doc and Google Slides, which is monitored by the instructor to maintain communication in the target language.

Groups present to a native speaker who decides which country he/she will visit based on the information students provide and their persuasive arguments. After completing their presentations, students reflect on their observations using VoiceThread.com and their work is posted to a group Weebly.com page.

Objective: 

•    Students will create a presentation to persuade a native speaker to come to their country.

•    Students will reflect on what it would be like to be from a different country with a different form of government. 

Resources:

•    Country Presentation Template-Spanish 

•    Country Presentation Template-English

Preparation:

1.    The instructor posts the “Country Presentation Template” to a Google Doc to insure his/her access to student work and to monitor chats. The Google Doc will then need to be shared with students. (Note: Instructors may also change the country on the template to use other countries with varying government types. You may also want to add specific grammar requirements to each section.)

Procedure:

1.    Students are divided into groups and assigned a country. Students are given instructions to create a presentation to persuade a native speaker to come to their own country. A template is shared with them through a Google Doc. Students then begin dividing up responsibilities through the Google Doc chat according to their structure of government.

2.    During the preparation stage (described in procedure 1) the main government official of each country is given extra items (food, drinks, etc.) Some days there is only enough for him/her, and other days there is enough for the rest of the group if he/she decides to share. (This is to help students reflect on inequality and what it would be like to be a part of a different form of government.)

3.    Students present to a native speaker, who then decides which country he/she is going to visit based on the information students have presented.

4.    Students reflect on their assignment using a VoiceThread that is then shared with the class using Weebly.com. Instructions are included in the “Country Presentation Template”. An example may be viewed at http://voceshispanas.weebly.com/. For pictures of classroom, see http://robinsonspanish.weebly.com/