Addressees

V° Liceo Scientifico

Level

Module Number

Title

B1

Native-Americans

Title of Teaching Units

Unit 1: History of Native-Americans   4 h

Unit 2: Life and traditions of different Native-American  tribes  5:30 h

Unit 3: The Pueblo and their traditions   7 h

Unit 4: Native Americans’ civil rights.  3:30 h

Prerequisites

Grammatical: knowledge of basic grammar.

Lexical: knowledge of level vocabulary.

Functional: can give his/her own opinion about a simple text; can comment a text about topics of interest.

Language Activities:

Reception :can scan long texts in order to locate specific information, and gather information from different parts of a text, or from different texts in order to fulfil a specific task; can skim a text in order to catch its general meaning; can identify the main conclusions in clearly signalled argumentative texts; can recognise significant points in simple newspaper articles on subjects of interest.

Interaction: can maintain a conversation or discussion on topics of interest; can give personal views and opinions in discussing topics of interest; can make his/her opinions and  reactions understood, giving brief reasons and explanations; can summarise and give his/her opinion about a short story, an article, a talk, a discussion or a poem.

Production: can briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions, plans and actions; can write simple detailed descriptions on a range of familiar subjects within his field of interest; can narrate a story; can write simple essays on topic of interest; can summarise, report and give his/her opinion about information on familiar routine and non-routine matters.

Objectives

Formative: enrich the general knowledge; produce an intercultural awareness; know and understand different traditions and cultural realities; stimulate reflection.

Competence

Linguistic: increase lexical and grammatical knowledge; get a sufficient range of language to explain the main points in an idea or problem with reasonable precision and express thoughts on abstract or cultural topics.

Pragmatic: can adapt his/her expression to deal with less routine, even difficult, situations; can explain the main points in an idea or problem with reasonable precision

Sociolinguistic: can recognise and understand expressions of folk-wisdom (proverbs) and dialect (regional provenance, national origin).

Language Activities

Reception: can recognise the line of argument in the treatment of the issue presented; can understand articles concerned with contemporary problems;

Interaction: can exchange, check and confirm information, deal with less routine information situations and explain why something is a problem; can express personal opinion and thoughts on more abstract, cultural topics; can synthesise and report information and arguments from a number of sources.

Production: can develop an argument, in oral and written ways, well enough to be followed without difficulty most of the time.

Competences:

Linguistic: knows the level vocabulary, knows the basic grammar.

Pragmatic: can exploit a wide range of simple language flexibly to express much of what he/she wants; can link a series of simple elements into a connected, linear sequence of points; knows the characteristics of different text types; can resume passages of a text; can report, comment, analyse and interpret the content and the vocabulary of a short text, such as an article, a poem or an historical text.

Sociolinguistic: can recognise markers of social relations and register differences.

Texts to be used

1)  Historical, concerning the  history of Native- Americans

2) Essays on Native-American life 

3) “Native-American myth and legend”

4)”The Pueblo”, which presents portrayals of the history and culture of the Pueblo’s tribe.

5) Poems taken from “Yellow Woman and the Beauty of the Spirit”.

6) Semi-Authentic Article on “The American Indians and Civil Rights”.

7) Online Articles.

Tasks to be performed

Comprehension questions, true or false questions, choose the right answer, matching words with their corresponding meaning, find synonyms, skimming and scanning activities, summarise brief paragraphs of a text, write argumentative texts, taking part in open discussions, analyse poems, reading articles and discussing them with the classmates .

Follow-up: group work with specific tasks, online researches.

Strategies

Can extrapolate the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context; can intervene in a discussion on a topic of cultural interest; can exploit a basic repertoire of language and strategies to help keep a conversation or discussion going; can work out how to communicate the main point/s he/she wants to communicate, exploiting any resources available.

Aids

Authentic Material: photos, maps, online  documents.

Assessment tools and criteria

Formative

Structured: written tests (consisting of closed  questions, matching exercises, choose the right answer).

Half-Structured: summaries and comprehension questions.

Not Structured:  written argumentative texts.

Summative

Not Structured: written and oral group work (the teacher divides the students in groups of four or five. Each group has to develop an argument related to the module, e.g. a specific point of the Native-American history, the cultural traditions of a Native-American tribe, etc.. Then each component of the group has to develop a specific point of their work). The teacher will assess the written group works at home and in classroom he/she will discuss with the students about their group work.

Evaluation of written tests:

Vocabulary control

Fluency

Grammatical accuracy

Coherence

Knowledge of the topic

Each item: from 1 to 10 (6=sufficient)

Evaluation of oral discussions:

Content

Vocabulary control

Accuracy

Correctness

Pronunciation

Remedial work

To be defined according to the outcomes

Links to other modules

This module could be linked with a module of history (the history of United States of America with particular attention to the Natives’ situation) with a module of literature (Native-American poems),with a module of civil rights; with a module of religion and with a module of philosophy.

Time

23 hours (20 h didactic units + 3 h final oral discussion)