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TitleDating Profiles
SourceCASLS Activity of the Week
Body

Learning Objectives: Students will be able to…

  • build an online profile
  • demonstrate an understanding of descriptions
  • comprehend a wide range of adjectives
  • express desires and give relevant compliments to fellow students

Modes: Presentational Writing, Interpretive Reading, Presentational Speaking

Materials Needed: Forum (see notes), Profile worksheet

Description: This activity is designed to illustrate how language is more than an assortment of static parts. Language learning and use is heavily contextualized so that students will learn with the purpose of interpersonal communication. This activity is ideal for novice level students.

Procedure:

  1. The teacher should set up some sort of forum or discussion page for the class and invite all participating students to join.
  2. Next, students will complete an observational activity. Instruct students to look at dating profiles and/or social media profiles in the target language, paying attention to the discrepancy between what a person portrays and speculating as to what might be reality. Have students make three observational comments about potential differences between how people portray themselves and how they actually are.

It is important to note here that students can use this activity to create a class vocabulary list. Alternatively, the teacher may provide a basic list and add to it or direct students to an alternative source for accessing the necessary vocabulary to complete the activity.

  1. Have students individually complete the dating profile/social profile worksheet.  This step is best if completed electronically, but if teachers would prefer to use the sheet to practice manual writing, then students may type their profile later.
  2. Once students have typed their profiles, have them post them to the forum.
  3. Students should then read over their peer’s profiles.
  4. Have students select at least three profiles that are not their own and comment on them with a compliment and comment/suggestion to the author. Teachers should deliver this in such a way that each student receives at least one compliment.
    1. Ex. You sound very nice. Let’s hang out some time.
  5. Encourage students to contemplate whether they think that what they interpret from their peer’s profiles is what their peer is actually intending to say. Things don’t always get portrayed in the way one desires. Have the class discuss this phenomenon and evaluate how they think they did in portraying their intended profile. Things to consider:
    1. What causes misinterpretation?
    2. Were there any instances you feel that what you interpreted might not be what the author intended? Why?
    3. How do you feel you did? Does what you wrote accurately portray what you hoped?
  6. Teachers should then read over everything and create a list of common errors to call attention to and correct. These errors may be grammatical, but could also reflect a disconnect between what the student intends to portray vs. what is perceived by others.
  7. If necessary, students can then go back and make corrections to their profiles.

Notes: The popularity of certain social media, and types of forums are different for every high school. Ideally, the teacher will create some sort of shared space for their classroom (be a Canvas discussion page, external site, Facebook group, Google Classroom, etc.) in which to conduct this activity. The goal with this space is to be able to post every student’s profile in one place and have the ability to comment on one another’s posts.

Additionally, this activity has immense potential for further extension activities. For example, teachers could have students create an online dialogue with one other student in which they make plans together, discuss similarities and differences between them, discuss their ideal partner, etc. Dialogues like this can be presented as skits as well. Ideally this is an activity that will be done later in the year in order to reinforce many different kinds of vocabulary and sentence structures that students have already learned (suggestions with present tense verbs, hobbies, body parts, colors, stating preference, etc.).

Publishdate2017-09-04 02:15:01