Festivals+Rich+Task

** English Rich Task – Festivals & Traditions **

Class size: 15 Teacher: Markéta Janečková Subject: English

We got a Rich Task with and English Class where they were working on Festivals and Traditions. From the feedback sheets of what the students wanted to learn about they told that they wanted to learn about Festivals and Traditions in our home countries. So we decided to do a task on the festival “Up Helly Aa” from Shetland and the “Midsummer” festival in Sweden.

** The Tasks **

** 1. **

Since it was an English class we wanted the students to practice their English a lot. So we wrote a short piece on the two festivals in the specific order of the events happening during the festivals. Then we divided the texts into 5 or 6 pieces, so that the students would have to practice their reading ability in English.

We then thought this would be a bit boring, too easy and that they would finish it too quickly. We then spiced things up a bit and came up with the brilliant idea of hiding the pieces in 5 different locations in the school and we wrote anagrams where the 5 locations of the 5 pieces were. This would also let the students practice their reading ability, but also discuss the anagrams in English and then find the locations. We called it, a treasure hunt. This treasure hunt would give the students some more variation of learning environment, which is a pretty important part in Personalised Learning.

After they would have found and put the pieces together, the two people leading the class would go through it with the class to correct the texts to see if they were put in the right order.

** 2. **

The students were to write a piece on either a real Czech tradition/festival or a fake Czech tradition/festival in English. Then each group was going to read out the piece to 4 members of the Learning School group, who then were going to decide if they think the festival was real or fake. This would let the students practice their writing and speaking ability in English.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**First Lesson** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Måns and Greg were leading this Rich Task. They started off with presenting the tasks to the students and divided the students in to 3 groups of 5.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Then the students were given the anagrams to figure out the locations of the 5 pieces of text.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">After maybe 20 minutes of figuring out the anagrams and finding the pieces the students went back to the classroom and started to put the pieces of text together. There were also a few pictures to illustrate the two festivals and the groups had to figure out where the photos belong.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Before the lesson ended, Måns went through the Swedish festival “Midsummer” and Greg went through the Shetland one, “Up Helly Aa”. The students did really well and had almost all of the pieces in the right place.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">** Second Lesson **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">This lesson started off with the students writing about either a fake or a real festival in the Czech Republic. It took the students about 30 minutes to do this. After they were done, they read out the pieces to Måns, Greg, Shelly and Stuart, who were to decide if it was a real festival or a fake one. The students did really well and wrote really detailed pieces and we in the group had the wrong answer on more occasions than we had right answer. They all seemed to find this entertaining as well.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">** Feedback **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The average rating of this Rich Task from the students was 8 out of 10. What the students liked most about the Rich Task is that they got to work in groups and that they got to learn about new festivals from other countries. What they liked the least was that they didn’t understand everything because they found out accents very hard to understand sometimes.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">They think we should improve the communication and they wanted better personal approach.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">However, in general they all found the Rich Task better than a normal class.

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<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">**English Rich Task – Festivals & Traditions**

<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">Class size: 15 <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">Teacher: Pavla Kovarikova <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">Subject: English

<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">We got a Rich Task with and English Class where they were working on Festivals and Traditions. From the feedback sheets of what the students wanted to learn about they told that they wanted to learn about Festivals and Traditions in our home countries. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">So we decided to do a task on the festival “Up Helly Aa” from Shetland and the “Midsummer” festival in Sweden. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">** The Tasks ** <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">** 1. ** <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">Since it was an English class we wanted the students to practice their English a lot. So we wrote a short piece on the two festivals in the specific order of the events happening during the festivals. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">Then we divided the texts into 5 or 6 pieces, so that the students would have to practice their reading ability in English. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">We then thought this would be a bit boring, too easy and that they would finish it too quickly. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">We then spiced things up a bit and came up with the brilliant idea of hiding the pieces in 5 different locations in the school and we wrote anagrams where the 5 locations of the 5 pieces were. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">This would also let the students practice their reading ability, but also discuss the anagrams in English and then find the locations. We called it, a treasure hunt. This treasure hunt would give the students some more variation of learning environment, which is a pretty important part in Personalised Learning. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">After they would have found and put the pieces together, the two people leading the class would go through it with the class to correct the texts to see if they were put in the right order. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">** 2. ** <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">The students were to write a piece on either a real Czech tradition/festival or a fake Czech tradition/festival in English. Then each group was going to read out the piece to 4 members of the Learning School group, who then were going to decide if they think the festival was real or fake. This would let the students practice their writing and speaking ability in English. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">**First Lesson** <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">Måns and Greg were leading this Rich Task. They started off with presenting the tasks to the students and divided the students in to 3 groups of 5. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">Then the students were given the anagrams to figure out the locations of the 5 pieces of text. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">After maybe 20 minutes of figuring out the anagrams and finding the pieces the students went back to the classroom and started to put the pieces of text together. There were also a few pictures to illustrate the two festivals and the groups had to figure out where the photos belong. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">Before the lesson ended, Måns went through the Swedish festival “Midsummer” and Greg went through the Shetland one, “Up Helly Aa”. The students did really well and had almost all of the pieces in the right place. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">** Second Lesson ** <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">This lesson started off with the students writing about either a fake or a real festival in the Czech Republic. It took the students about 30 minutes to do this. After they were done, they read out the pieces to Måns, Greg, Shelly and Stuart, who were to decide if it was a real festival or a fake one. The students did really well and wrote really detailed pieces and we in the group had the wrong answer on more occasions than we had right answer. They all seemed to find this entertaining as well. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">** Feedback ** <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">The average rating of this Rich Task from the students was 8 out of 10. What the students liked most about the Rich Task is that they got to work in groups and that they got to learn about new festivals from other countries. What they liked the least was that they didn’t understand everything because they found out accents very hard to understand sometimes. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">They think we should improve the communication and they wanted better personal approach. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">However, in general they all found the Rich Task better than a normal class.