| Body | This activity was created for classes of intermediate language learners and is intended to valorize every individual’s unique experience in an effort to creating an accepting classroom environment.
Objectives: Learners will be able to:
- Explain events in the past in detail
- Recognize and use words dealing with everyday life
- Transcribe, analyze, and correct learner-generated output
Modes: Interpretive Reading, Presentational Speaking, Interpretive Listening, and Interpretive Writing
Resources: Testimony outline handout, peer feedback handout, computers with internet access, a blog platform such as WordPress, Humans of New York (humansofnewyork.com)
Procedure:
- Learners should explore a digital text (blog, online magazine, online newspaper) like Humans of New York (humansofnewyork.com) that features first-person accounts of life/testimonies. In order to conduct this exploration, dissect some texts as a class in which you identify the characteristics of a strong testimonial and any structural components that should be included in a written testimonial (e.g., byline, title, and/or pictures).
- Learners will outline their own testimonies regarding an event that they think shaped them as an individual using the outline handout.
- After learners complete the outline, allow them to get feedback from a peer by using the peer review handout.
- Next, give learners roughly 45 minutes to write their testimonies.
- The next day in class, give learners feedback on their testimonies. Be sure to point out issues related to meaning making and to valorize them as more important than issues related to grammatical accuracy.
- Give the learners 30-45 minutes to make improvements to their testimonies. The should upload those testimonies to a blog previously created by the teacher entitled “Humans of School Name”. While no specific blogging platform is required, teachers should look for platforms like WordPress that allow for inviting multiple contributors to post on the same blog.
Notes
As an extension activity, have learners pick someone from the class that they don’t know very well and interview that person to find out more information related to the testimony. This information could be shared corporately or individually as comments on the original blog posts.
Another possible extension activity is to have the learners think of a way to represent the stories collected by their class collectively. This representation could include an art installation, an original play, or a digital flier that promotes the class.
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