| Body | Emily Minelli is an International Bacclaureate French teacher.
This activity was created for intermediate to advanced high students enrolled in an IB language course. It is an interdisciplinary project-based activity with clear connections to history, cultural geography, art, science, and Theory of Knowledge courses. It studies the effects of natural disasters on poverty, globalization, and sustainability by studying the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Learning Objectives: Learners will be able to:
- Watch and understand a televised news program relating to a current event
- Read an authentic text relating to a current event
- Participate in online forum discussion with native speakers of the language
- Demonstrate understanding of persuasive language
Modes: Interpretive Reading, Interpersonal Speaking, Writing
Materials Needed: Vocabulary, access to technology to watch news program (computer, smart phone, class projector, etc.) and participate in UNICEF chat, accompanying news article, materials to create a newspaper, Frayer model handout.
Procedure:
- Students begin by receiving vocabulary relating to natural disasters, poverty, globalization, and sustainability. After completing a “stop-light” sorting activity, they watch the film The History of Stuff by Annie Leonard (available in French http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkg9ds_l-histoire-des-choses-the-story-of-stuff-par-annie-leonard_news ). This film demonstrates the effects of industrialization on globalization, with some explanation of economics and sustainability.
- The next day in class, students will create subgroups of 3 relating to natural disasters, poverty, globalization, and sustainability. They will create a Frayer model of a word on their vocabulary list and complete it through the lens of The Story of Stuff. They will present this in class and their Frayer models will be displayed throughout the PBL.
- For homework students will participate in an online discussion forum. Students can choose one of the sub topics to which they were not assigned and must participate in that topic's discussion forum on teachunicef.org with a young person in Haiti in order to gather further information and insight. The forum is similar to a chat room; UNICEF has people from the country and topic of focus post about their experiences and answer questions posed by people posting in the forum.
- The next day, students will watch TV5Monde clip about the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and read the article: « Trois ans après le séisme, Haïti entre camps de toile et bidonvilles » (both portray work camps and slums three years post-earthquake) and respond by writing a letter from the perspective of a teenager who is still living in the camps today.
- Finally, students work together to create a newspaper presenting life in Haiti today, in the years since the 2010 earthquake. They should include articles on how the natural disaster has affected the country in terms of poverty, globalization, and sustainability.
Notes: This activity is interdisciplinary and can complement activities occurring in multiple classes. For example, it is well-suited for science (environmental studies), history, art, geography, and more. It is designed for advanced students with a strong understanding of basic and some complex grammatical structures, including the subjunctive. However, it could easily be adapted for intermediate or even novice learners, particularly in relation to writing activities. The class newspaper could be replaced by a recorded news program or class presentation.
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