Key Activities for Achieving Desired Results

Phase I: Stimulates student interest and raises essential questions.

The Teacher:

    1) Asks students what they think about parks in their town / city and urban parks in various U.S. cities and what role these parks play for the general population.

    2) Asks students about their favorite park when they were young and why it was their favorite compared to a park they frequent now.

    3) Introduces students to two parks in target language countries and shows pictures and sketches of the parks and people in them enabling students to examine the parks in the context of the entire city. The Resources section suggests at least two parks for different languages. Each park has different characteristics that lead students to make observations on varying cultural practices and perspectives.

Phase II: Focuses on content and language functions needed to assist students in meeting performance outcomes.

Students:

    1) Make a Venn diagram that compares and contrasts an urban park from a target language country and an urban park in New Jersey or another state.

    2) Have a class discussion guided by the teacher that focuses on what students used to do in parks when they were younger. Students brainstorm questions that they can answer themselves or that they can ask their parents. This involves narration in the past. Questions could include:

    • Did we go to a park(s) when I was little?
    • How often did we go? During the week or on weekends?
    • What did I like to do at the park? What did you like to do?
    • How did we travel to the park?
    • Would anyone come with us?
    • Has the park changed from when I was little?
    • Why might the park have changed?

    3) Respond to Total Physical Response commands given by the teacher related to activities engaged in at parks. Actions (vocabulary) for target language parks may be target culture specific.

    4) Take a walk as a class to a local park. The teacher will have labeled various structures in the park and students will complete a worksheet identifying these words.

    5) Make a brochure about a specific target language park that includes the following topics:

    • Location - address, local transportation to park, parking
    • Size - in city blocks or square meters or kilometers
    • Facilities - restrooms, cafes
    • Events - concerts, exhibits, festivals
    • Regulations - hours, behavior
    • Entrance fee
    • History of the park
    • Things to do and see
    • Major attractions such as zoo, sculpture, castle
    • Suggested walking paths

    6) Measure park temperature at a local park at a given time on a paved road and on a grassy area. Convert the temperatures to Centigrade and compare them. (The conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius is Fahrenheit -32� x 5/9 = Celsius). Graph information and then draw conclusions. The temperature should be taken several times as a basis for further comparison.

Phase III: Involves students in performance tasks that address the 3 modes of communication.

Students:

    1) Create a survey questionnaire in the target language to determine the necessary features of an ideal urban park. The class will translate this to English, if necessary, and will interview 6 people (one person older than 70, one person 50 - 70 years old, two people aged 20 - 50 and two children age 10-20). A reason must be provided for each suggestion and results presented in a table for comparison with results obtained by other students in the class. (see survey rubric)

    Items to be included on the questionnaire:

    • Desired activities
    • Lighting and seating
    • Art - sculptures or monuments to people or events from the past
    • Events
    • Types of trees, flowers, bushes
    • Walking paths
    • Park regulations - eg., hours, animals permitted, activities
    • Restrooms
    • Trash and recycle facilities
    • Bodies of water- e.g., ponds, streams, fountains
    • Vehicles (bikes, pedicabs, row or pedal boats)
    • Availability of food and drink - cafes, vendors
    • Security