Short description
Learning English as an additional language should support pupils understanding that our view of the world is culture dependent. As users of English, pupils should feel a sense of safety and demonstrate confidence in their linguistic identity as multilingual speakers of English.
Competence aims LK20 after Year 8-10
- bruke varierte strategier i språklæring, tekstskaping og kommunikasjon
- lese, diskutere og videreformidle innhold fra ulike typer tekster, inkludert selvvalgte tekster
- bruke ulike digitale ressurser og andre hjelpemidler i språklæring, tekstskaping og samhandling
Core elements
Communication, working with texts, creation
Interdisciplinary topics
Health and life skills: By allowing pupils to understand how language background could lead to variations in thinking and communication patterns, the task aims to support pupils’ positive self-image and a secure identity.
Democracy and citizenship: Inclusion and diversity
Learning objectives:
Read a story to take a character perspective.
Create a collaborative piece of writing in the form of a two-voice poem.
Resources
- Attachment 1: A model two-voice poem
- Attachment 2: Examples reading texts
- Attachment 3: Worksheet Venn diagram
- Attachment 4: Writing template for a two-voice poem
- YouTube video: Reading a two-voice poem
Teacher preparations
Pre-teach key vocabulary associated with a person’s name (identity, belonging, language, culture, origin, food, music, family, history, ancestors, ethnicity).
Prepare reading resources (or use the attached model texts).
Introduce pupils to the Venn diagram as a tool to organize ideas/notes.
Plan for lesson
Pre-reading phase
Introduce the theme word ‘name’, and invite pupils to say words, topics, things that they associate with it. Draw a word cloud of all the words.
Present/distribute “A two-voice poem about names" (attachment 1). Divide the pupils into pairs.
To demonstrate how a two-voice poem is read, play the YouTube video.
In each pair, ask pupils to choose a column of the poem for themselves. Tell the pupils that the poem is read line by line, and that they should aim to start their line exactly when the other has finished the earlier one. The overlapping lines are read in unison.
Divide the whole class into two groups of column A and column B. Then ask them to read the poem aloud.
When they have read the poem, start classroom discussion about information/details used. (What details and/or information about names do you find in the poem? Have you experienced anything similar or different related to your own name?)
While reading: reading from a character perspective
Tell the pupils that each member of a pair will read a text in attachment 2 (either A or B). As they read, they will identify themselves with the main character (A: Esperanza, and B: Jack). Ask them to read through their assigned story.
Distribute attachment 3 (one copy per pair). Using a circle of the Venn diagram, each pupil notes down words/expressions/details related to the main character’s name and personality (physical descriptions, feelings and experiences). For pupils who are at a lower proficiency level, it would be better to provide a list of describing words so that they can choose and note down the right words that describe their character/role.
Post-reading: sharing, discussion and drafting
Looking at their Venn diagram, ask each pair to identify common character traits that overlap across their circles. The overlapping descriptions are moved to the middle circle of the Venn diagram. In case they don’t have exactly common descriptions in the notes, they could discuss and agree on the descriptions/words that are synonymous or closely related. These descriptions become shared lines of their two-voice poem. They should aim for three or four common things between them.
From the rest of their character traits, ask pupils to select an equal (five to six) number of character traits they want to include in their final two-voice poem.
Once they have agreed on their common and separate lines/character descriptions, they decide in which order the lines will appear in the final poem.
Finally, they write down the common and separate lines in the two-voice poem template (attachment 4).
Reflection and assessment
Hang the two-voice poems on the wall. Assign each pair a poem.
After reading, each pair should prepare constructive feedback that includes the following:
- Two items they found interesting and why
- One or two items they would like to know more about and why
Comments and follow-up that may lead to deeper learning
A two-voice poem can also be used as a stand-alone reading text to familiarize pupils with this genre. Integrating a two-voice poem with a reading lesson could be more efficient when pupils are already familiar with the genre.
After reading the poem, the pupils could be asked to rewrite it by changing the narrator. Pupils could also be asked to rewrite a given two-voice poem by using synonyms and antonyms of the descriptive words used.
Idea developed by
Lekh Baral © Fremmedspråksenteret