It takes time to design activities and tasks that both target language skills and encourage critical thinking. Project-based learning (also known as experiential learning) is one approach you can use to integrate language-learning goals with critical thinking skills. Project-based learning tasks and activities combine language and action so that learners learn by doing (Brown and Lee, 2015). Learners must understand, examine, analyze, evaluate, and create while using English to complete a task or activity. The result is a language skills task or activity that promotes critical thinking skills.

One of the most popular types of project-based learning in the language classroom is the Language Experience Approach (LEA). LEA gives language learners a chance to recount a personal experience in their own words (Brown and Lee, 2015). This week’s Teacher’s Corner offers an LEA activity that can be conducted in the classroom using minimal resources.

High Beginning

• Writing
• Speaking

During this activity, students will be able to the following:

• Use English to talk about a special meal they shared with their family.
• Organize their experience into a written story.

Paper, pencils

• Write the following prompt on the board:

      o   Describe a special meal you ate with your family.

• When was it?
• What did you eat?
• Where were you?
• Who was with you?
• Have your own story of a special meal ready to share with students.

1.     Begin class by telling students: “Today you are going to talk about a special meal you ate with your family.” Direct their attention to the prompt and questions on the board.

2.     Ask students to think about a meal. You might say, “Do you remember a special meal with your family? Do you remember two?”

3.     Encourage students to begin sharing what they remember. For example, one student might share that they remember a time when they had a family dinner for a birthday or holiday. Use the questions on the board to guide the discussion.

• Keep the conversation moving with different students responding and sharing their memories. The more students talk, the more it will encourage and support other students to remember and share additional details.
• Some student might not be able to think of all of the language required immediately. This is fine. Encourage those students to think about other parts of the meal, and tell them you will come back in a moment.
• Give plenty of time for the discussion so that all students have a clear idea of an occasion that they can write about.

4.     Tell students that now they are going to work on writing their story of a special meal.

• Depending on the group, feel free to give them guidelines for writing, but try not to put limitations on what they write. For example, you could say that everyone needs to write at least 5 sentences, but they could write more if they choose.
• Part of LEA is to encourage a learner’s autonomy over their own experience. Allow learners to share their ideas in English without worrying about grammar or spelling. In this way, you can give learners freedom to play with the language, navigate their own story, and negotiate meaning through their language choices.

5.     As students write, walk around and support them by helping them write down exactly what they say.

If you have a student who wants to know how to spell something correctly, you can tell them the correct spelling. On the other hand, if a student spells some words incorrectly, do not correct them. Encourage learners to use the English they know and are comfortable using in their stories.

6.     After students have written their stories, give everyone a chance to share what they have written.

One way to share the stories is to divide the students into two groups. Have one group hang their stories on the wall and stand next to them. Tell the second group that they are visiting the story gallery, and they can go around the room reading the different stories and asking the authors questions. After students have circulated, the groups can switch tasks. The second group now hosts a story gallery, and the first group gets to read stories and ask questions.

7.     Keep all of the stories up on the walls so students can see their work, or encourage students to take their stories home to share with their families.

One variation of this activity is to have learners write their stories in small groups of three or four students. Have one student tell their story out loud while the other students in the group write down the story as they hear it.

An additional variation could involve a whole-class shared experience. Rather than have learners share their individual experiences, you could ask the class to recount an experience you shared as a group. For example, if the class went on a field trip recently, ask the class to recount the field trip together. The teacher becomes the scribe and writes the story on the board, and the students can see their experiences taking shape in writing.

This activity can be extended to include a visual component. Once students have written their stories, ask them to draw a picture depicting the events in the story. This could be done simply with pencil and paper or, if magazines and pictures are available, students could make picture collages to go with their stories.

This week’s Teacher’s Corner provides students with the opportunity to practice speaking and presentation skills through a tour guide activity.

Intermediate to Advanced

Reading, speaking (primary focus); listening (secondary focus).

During this activity students will:

• Practice reading, speaking, and listening skills through a fill-in-the-blank activity
• Develop presentation and speaking skills by conducting a tour

• Teacher: whiteboard/chalkboard, markers or chalk, a timing device, large sheets of paper (optional), computer and projector
• Students: pencils or pens, notebooks or writing paper, computer with Internet access for homework

1. Read through all the materials carefully.
2. Print out copies of the Empire State Building Reading A in Appendix 1 and the Empire State Building Reading B in Appendix 2.
   • Print enough copies of Appendix 1 for half the class and enough copies of Appendix 2 for the other half of the class.
3. Read the Empire State Building Reading Answer Key in Appendix 3.
4. This activity has a homework assignment and an in-class presentation. For more advanced classes, or if your classroom has computers with Internet, this activity could be completed during a single class period. Choose the approach that works best for your teaching and learning context.
5. An option for this activity is to have the students work locally, within your community. If possible, have the students pick historical locations or places of interest in your city or neighborhood. Then, when students conduct their tour, visit that location as a class.

1.     Begin the class by having the students form pairs.

2.     In each pair, give one student the Empire State Building Reading A and one student a copy of the Empire State Building Reading B.

3.     Instruct the students to read through the story on their own for 2-3 minutes.

4.     After the students have had a chance to read the story, have the pairs work together to fill in the blanks in the story.

• Student A can ask questions to Student B to fill in the blanks in their story. Student B can ask Student A questions to fill in the blanks in their story.

5.     After the pairs have filled in the blanks, review the answers as a class. Ask the students what they learned about the Empire State Building.

6.     Next, on the board draw the following table:

7.     Ask the students to read the story again, this time paying attention to the structure of the story. In this part of the activity, students will engage in active reading. In active reading, students work to understand the purpose of an article and how the story is structured.

• Instruct the students to underline the sentences in the story that discuss the Empire State Building’s history.
• Then, instruct the students to draw a square around the section of the story that describes what currently happens at the Empire State Building during the present day.
• Finally, have the students draw a circle around the part of the story that provides an interesting story about the Empire State Building.

8.     As a class, review the answers to the active reading activity by filling in the chart that you wrote on the board.

Optional Activity Extension:

If time permits, have the students read the Empire State Building reading out loud in pairs. Encourage them to practice reading rate (speed), stress, and intonation. These speaking skills are critical for a professional tour guide.

1. Begin this part of the activity by asking the students if they can think of other famous buildings like the Empire State Building. Have the students share their answers with the class.
2. Next, tell the students their homework assignment is to find a building, historical location, or famous place and create a tour of that place.
   For the assignment students should:
   1. • Find 2-3 pictures of the building, historical location, or famous place.
      • Provide a brief history of the site.
      • Describe the present day use of the site.
      • Research an interesting story of the site.
      • Finally, put all of the information and pictures together into a computer-based presentation. If a computer is not available in the classroom, have the students put everything together on a poster.
3. Have the students research their building, historical location, or famous place as a homework assignment. Depending on the students’ level and ability, allow them up to several days to do the research.

1. After students have conducted their research, have them share their presentations with the rest of the class. This section of the activity can be done several ways:
   • Have 4-5 students come to the front of the class, and have each student announce the location they researched. Then have the rest of the class form groups around the 4-5 presenters. Students should listen to the presentation on the location they find most interesting.
   • Each student can come to the front of the class, one at a time, and present on the information they learned.
   • Divide the class in half. Half of the students will present their information a while the second half of the class moves around the room to listen to their presentations. Then, students switch roles and do the activity again.
2. Remind and encourage students to make their presentations interesting. Have them do more than present: take the class on a tour of their location. Being a tour guide can be a great career, but being a good tour guide involves more than sharing information. Tour guides need to be engaging and speak clearly with stress and intonation!

Optional Activity Approach:

If computers are available in the classroom, students can use Internet-based map tools such as Google Maps, Bing Maps, or Open Street Maps to show their building, historical location, or famous place.

For more on New York City, check out the New York, New York and Exploring New York City lesson plan.

For more on using active reading in the classroom, check out the February 2017 Teacher’s Corner and Encouraging Critical Reading in the EFL Classroom.

Appendix 1: Empire State Building Reading A

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The ____________________ is one of the symbols of New York. The name comes from the nickname of the State of New York. Until 1954, the Empire State Building was ____________________, and it is currently the third tallest in New York City. Strangely, it was built during the Great Depression when such a large project should have been unthinkable. After it opened in 1931, it sat mostly empty for years; some people jokingly called it the “_________________.” Now it houses numerous offices, shops, and restaurants and is one of the most visited sites in the city because of the stunning views from the observation deck on the ____________________ floor.

There is an interesting story in the race for the tallest building in the world. At the time the Empire State Building was being built, the Chrysler Building was under construction ten blocks away. The architects of the Chrysler Building had a secret, though. Hidden from view inside the building, they were constructing a spire to top the building. At the end of construction, the 125-foot spire was raised into place, taking the title of tallest building in the world from the Bank of Manhattan Building by just 60 feet. The honor wouldn’t last, though. The Empire State Building would open less than a year later, and it exceeded the Chrysler Building in height by more than 200 feet.

* Reading adapted from New York, New York by Thomas W. Santos

Appendix 2: Empire State Building Reading B

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The Empire State Building is one of the symbols of New York. The name comes from the nickname of the State of New York. Until 1954, the Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world, and it is currently the third tallest in New York City. Strangely, it was built during the Great Depression when such a large project should have been unthinkable. After it opened in 1931, it sat mostly empty for years; some people jokingly called it the “Empty State Building.” Now it houses numerous offices, shops, and restaurants and is one of the most visited sites in the city because of the stunning views from the observation deck on the 102nd floor. There is an interesting story in the race for the tallest building in the world. At the time the Empire State Building was being built, the ____________________ was under construction ten blocks away. The architects of the Chrysler Building had a secret, though. Hidden from view inside the building, they were constructing a spire to top the building. At the end of construction, the ____________________ spire was raised into place, taking the title of tallest building in the world from the _____________________ Building by just 60 feet. The honor wouldn’t last, though. The Empire State Building would open less than a year later, and it exceeded the Chrysler Building in height by more than ___________________ feet.

* Reading adapted from New York, New York by Thomas W. Santos

Appendix 3: Empire State Building Answer Key

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The Empire State Building is one of the symbols of New York. The name comes from the nickname of the State of New York. Until 1954, the Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world, and it is currently the third tallest in New York City. Strangely, it was built during the Great Depression when such a large project should have been unthinkable. After it opened in 1931, it sat mostly empty for years; some people jokingly called it the “Empty State Building.” Now it houses numerous offices, shops, and restaurants and is one of the most visited sites in the city because of the stunning views from the observation deck on the 102nd floor. There is an interesting story in the race for the tallest building in the world. At the time the Empire State Building was being built, the Chrysler Building was under construction ten blocks away. The architects of the Chrysler Building had a secret, though. Hidden from view inside the building, they were constructing a spire to top the building. At the end of construction, the 125-foot spire was raised into place, taking the title of tallest building in the world from the Bank of Manhattan Building by just 60 feet. The honor wouldn’t last, though. The Empire State Building would open less than a year later, and it exceeded the Chrysler Building in height by more than 200 feet.

* Reading adapted from New York, New York by Thomas W. Santos

In this week’s Teacher’s Corner, students will explore the world of employment by taking part in a job fair. Job fairs provide employers the opportunity to teach people about the work they do. In a job fair, these employers, or companies, create a poster presentation that provides details about the work that either they or their company does. These job fairs are often held at secondary schools or universities so that students can learn about the many career opportunities waiting for them after graduation. 

LEVEL

Intermediate to Advanced

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Reading, speaking (primary focus); writing (secondary focus)

GOALS

During this activity students will:

• research job opportunities
• practice note-taking skills
• practice presenting and asking questions about career opportunities

MATERIALS

• Teacher: whiteboard/chalkboard, markers or chalk, a timing device, large sheets of paper (optional)
  o Note: If possible, provide students with poster paper (63.5x76.2 cm) for their presentations.

• Students: pencils or pens, notebooks or writing paper, computer with Internet access
  o Note: Internet access is not needed in class, but for students to conduct research as homework

PREPARATION

1. Read through all the materials carefully.
2. Create a list of possible career opportunities. If students have trouble brainstorming careers, the list can be used to assist them.
3. This activity occurs across several days and includes three parts: Pre-homework brainstorming, research homework, and the job fair. For more advanced classes, or if your classroom has computers with Internet, this activity could be completed during a single class period. Choose the approach that works best for your teaching and learning context. 

ACTIVITY PART ONE: PRE-HOMEWORK BRAINSTORMING

In this part of the activity, students will work in teams to create a list of jobs or careers. Once the teams have created their lists, a member of the team will come to the board and write their team’s list on the board. Each unique job or career the teams list will be worth one point. The team with the most points at the end wins!

   1. Begin the activity by dividing the class into two teams. Instruct the students that each team will need one sheet of paper and a pen or pencil.
   2. Next, tell the teams that they will have three minutes to write down as many jobs/careers as possible.
   3. Say “Go” and have the teams work for three minutes, brainstorming as many jobs/careers they can and adding them to their sheet of paper.
   4. When the three minutes are over, say “Stop”.
   5. Have one member of each team come to the chalkboard and write down the jobs/careers their team brainstormed.
   6. After the jobs/careers have been listed on the board, drawn a line through any job or career that both teams have on their list. For example:

   7. Any job listed by both teams is not counted. After these jobs have been crossed out, give each team one point for any job the opposite team did not list. In the example above, Team A earned 3 points and Team B earned 2 points, so Team A wins!
   8. Next, have the students look at all of the jobs on the board (including the crossed out ones) and do a think-pair-share:
          a.  Think: Have each student decide which job listed on the board is the most interesting to him or her (1 min).
          b.  Pair: Have the students form pairs. Each student should share with their partner the job they find the most interesting and explain why (3 mins)
          c.  Share: Have the students share the job they like best with the class. Encourage them to explain why.
   9. Finally, have the students choose a job they would like to have in the future. This can be the job they picked in the think-pair-share, or a student can select a new job if the one they liked best was not listed on the board.
   10.  Inform the students that for homework they will research the job they selected.

Availability

• Resources

The Job Fair

Text (PDF)

• Read more about Week 1 - Job Fair