Page 77 - Beyond Methods

Maximizing learning opportunities 65
3.1.9 In the next class session, play back the video (or the audio), asking the students to listen carefully for a closer examination of the structure and the content of the talk. If students have difficulty doing so, highlight the salient features of the talk in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, etc.
3.1.10 After a month or so, ask whether any of the students have ac- tually participated in any campus event or volunteered to do any ser- vice, and, if so, ask them to share their experience with the rest of the class.
Microstrategy 3.2: Connecting with the Local Community
3.2.0 This microstrategy is designed to bring together members of the classroom and the local community. It aims at creating opportu- nities for the learners to develop their oral and written communica- tion skills as well as critical thinking and decision-making skills by fol- lowing, analyzing, understanding, and reporting a news story of local interest.
3.2.1 Ask your students to read a target-language newspaper, or lis- ten to radio news broadcasts, or watch TV news coverage focusing on stories of local interest—any act or event that excites or agitates the local community. Ask them to select any one news story that interests them, and be prepared to talk about it briefly in class (What’s the story? Why is it interesting? etc.).
3.2.2 Divide your class into small groups, preferably no more than five in each. Let the members of the group listen to each other’s choice of story. Ask them to negotiate among themselves and decide on one story to work on. If necessary, guide them to select stories that have the potential to develop further.
3.2.3 If two or three groups select the same news item, let them do so. But you may ask one group to concentrate on local newspaper cov- erage, another on radio coverage, and yet another on TV coverage.
3.2.4 Allow a week or two (depending on how the story unfolds) for each group to follow the story and develop a sense of what the story is about, why it interests or excites or agitates the local community. En- courage group work and advise each group to meet as often as possible either in the class or outside to discuss the story and to maintain a diary tracing its development.
3.2.5 Have each group plan to interview members of the community to elicit reactions to the developing story. It would be a good idea for learners as a group to come up with a list of questions they can use