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• Create Date June 23, 2023
• Last Updated June 23, 2023

Too Young

Created by Afifa Garrah

Brief Description

This activity will have students debating over the controversial story of a thirteen-year-old girl sailing around the world alone. The aim of analyzing this story is to express supporting details and use good examples to persuade why or why not she should be allowed to sail alone at the age of thirteen. Furthermore, enable students to be exposed to unfamiliar situations, people, and global life experiences. This topic has different dimensions, such as culture, religion, traditions, fear, freedom, motives, and others.

Learning Objectives

The students will be able to: 

• acquire useful vocabulary for negotiation, persuasion, and open conversations. 
• implement the lexical items/words.
• use different skills like speaking, listening, negotiating, writing, questioning, and reading.
• improve their communication skills/abilities by practicing negotiation skills and discussion (of course, some skills such as inquiry (asking questions to reach knowledge or searching for the right answer), acknowledging, and advocacy.
• practice critical thinking skills: personal response, inference, distinguishing different perspectives, and explanation.
• practice active listening techniques such as empathizing (understanding others' perspectives).
• explain different points of view using the ladder of inference tool to reach a conclusion or an agreement, or an outcome.
• implement negotiation skills in a role-play: a negotiating activity; distinguishing different perspectives.
• work cooperatively in groups (teamwork).

Lead-in / Preparation / Prerequisite Knowledge

"The Learning Process"

• Just Thinking – Eric Cohen Books

Unit 4 – Act your Age

Text type: magazine article "Too Young."

• The students learn and practice the lexical items, chunks, pathways vocabulary, and pathways question stems that are needed to use during the activity. They can practice them by using the ICT activity Quizlet (http://www.quizlet.com). It's very significant because, typically, the students often face difficulties in speaking due to not having the proper vocabulary to express themselves in these situations. 

• The students have to be exposed to different strategies, skills, and concepts, such as understanding the ladder of inference tool, active listening skills, and negotiation skills like inquiry, acknowledgment, and advocacy.

• Teaching the students Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) by definitions and showing examples than "practice & use".

• Encouraging the students to practice and use the language and know the principles of negotiation to help them function in real-life situations to reach better solutions or agreements. Teachers can use "Gamification Techniques" to maximize students' motivation and engagement during the activities.

•  Laptop, projector, papers, cards, worksheets, google images

• Mode of interaction: whole class, pairs, groups, independent work 

Estimated Class-Time Required

Lesson period: 2 lessons (90 minutes)

Description of Activities

• First, Warm-up: brainstorming.

             The teacher highlights two images (google images) google images .pptx and asks the                                                                 students to look at the images: 

             What can you infer? (Inference skill)

             It's a good idea to start a negotiation (arising discussions). The teacher gives the students the freedom to talk about their feelings and real opinions. (10 minutes)

• Second, playing a game "A Press Conference". The teacher asks a female volunteer. The female student plays the role of the young girl that wants to sail/travel around the world alone. She is in 8th grade. She presents in front of the class her interests and motives beyond her sailing/traveling alone. The rest of the students take the role of journalists (creative thinking skills). They ask her questions to negotiate and understand her attitude. The target of this activity is to activate the students to improve their speaking skills/oral proficiency, active listening skills, inquiry and acknowledgment. Asking her for instance:

** Please tell more about…?

** Could you show me how…?

** What information leads you to believe…? (15 minutes)

• Third, in pairs. Each pair has to negotiate the topic "A young girl sails/travels around the world alone". They use the ladder of inference tool. Then some pairs present their conclusion in front of the class. They show if they reach to an agreement or not. Additionally, some pairs can record their discussion to show (at home or in a break). (15 minutes)

• Fourth, five students act out the roles; (role-play):

Student 1: the girl

Student 2: Dad

Student 3: Mom

Student 4: school representative

Student 5: the judge (a court)

** They sit in a group, and each student has a card in front of him/her to ease the rest of the students to recognize the roles cards.docx. They negotiate to reach a conclusion/ an agreement/ a solution…. They have different points of view (distinguishing different perspectives and skills). They can apply the items of inquiry like "What leads you to say that…? Acknowledgment like "I understand from you that … is that right? And advocacy like "I see things differently…." "The data I see suggest that…." "I'd recommend that …" 

** The rest of the students sit together (in a half circle) as an audience to hear, observe and reflect on the students who play roles. They should take notes during this time. The teacher gives them numbers from 1 to 5.  The students who are number 1 write down their opinions and reflections about the girl. The students who are number 2 write down their opinions and reflections about the dad. The students who are number 3 write down their opinions and reflections about the mom. The students who are number 4 write down their opinions and reflections about the school representative. The students who are number 5 write down their opinions and reflections about the judge. The teacher tells them to take into consideration the personality factor, persuasion, problem-solving skills,s and listening skills.

** At the end of the role-play, the students (who were sitting in a half circle) will sit in groups according to their numbers. The teacher prepares cards of groups' numbers and puts them on the tables groups numbers.docx  .They take five to ten minutes to discuss with each other and make a decision. Each group chooses a student (a leader) to read their opinions and reflections about the student that they have to talk about and tell if the students (who played roles) reached an agreement/ a solution or not. Through these five groups, you can also touch the different points of view!!! (30 minutes)

Key Vocabulary / Phrases

Assessment

Formative assessment: giving feedback like asking the students at the end of the activities:

• What is the definition of "points of view"? Give me an example from the previous activity.
• How can we reach to a solution/ an agreement?
• Why did you use the ladder of inference tool? Give me ONE benefit.
• Tell me about an interesting fact/idea through the activities.
• Tell me about a bad idea/behavior through the activities.
• According to activity number FOUR, which character in the role play did you admire the most? Why?

Summative assessment: the class will be divided into groups. Each group consists of three students. They are going to select/choose and act (role-play) a real life situation/issue that typically argue with their parents and they are "too young" to do. They also can choose the same topic of the activities. Each group has to present the role-play in front of the class or to record a video next lesson. (They can imagine controversial topics: imagination is a creative thinking skill). Of course, they will prepare at home or in the break.

Each group: 

Student 1: the girl/the boy

Student 2: mom

Student 3: dad

Note: the students have to take into consideration the terms and strategies that they have learnt. The teacher will check their discussion/conversation (role-play) according to a rubric (conversation criteria). (13 minutes)

Reflection

Read again the magazine article in your book about the youngest sailor "Laura Dekker", or watch the video "Laura Dekker; how to conquer the world when everyone tells you No".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl1MwgMkfkI&t=4s

The question is:

If you were "Laura", would you like to sail alone? Explain your answer/ show reasons/ give examples/ the rationale behind your answer (write at least 80 words). (Personal response skill)

**Personal Response: "personal response refers to questions that require students' personal involvement with the activity/text. In order to answer personal response questions, students have to draw on both literal understanding of the activity/text and their own knowledge and opinions". (http://rama.education.gov.il)

The teacher will collect the students' reflections next lesson. (7 minutes)

Attachments

www.quizlet.com

cards.docx

groups numbers.docx

google images .pptx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl1MwgMkfkI&t=4s

Comments

This activity is for students who are in Junior High School. So, I strongly recommend preparing and teaching them the vocabulary/chunks to practice and apply. Facilitating the negotiation skills, concepts and strategies by definitions, showing examples, practicing and using to reach to a powerful and an effective learning. The teacher should observe the students and draw a map of weaknesses and strengths points according to students' behaviors and reactions. The point is to help the students to be aware of next activity. Interestingly, during this activity the students can undergo different skills, practice the language, negotiate, discuss, understand, listen, write and have fun at the same time. Next activity; the teacher can prepare the students about how to deal with a "conflict". 

Note: Through the role-play students can change their uniform clothes. For instance, the judge can wear a formal black robe, and the role of "journalists" the students can ask by a "microphone". 

Appendix I: Pathways Question Stems

Attached Files