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//Reynolds Hallo // //SLIS 574 //   As I develop this lesson for my eleventh and twelfth graders, Webquest will be the recommended web-tool for the students, in which attention will be focused on exploration of the linguistics of of the Africans. The BLUE BOOK, by Callison (page 41) Bennie Dodge, (2001) has defined Webquest as an “inquiry oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with, come from resources from the internet.” By this definition, the students of both graders will depend on the internet to accomplish their prescribed lessons goal.  AASL Learning Standards 1.1.5: Students will evaluate information found in selected sources on the bases of accuracy, validity, appropriates for needs, importance and social and cultural context. AASL Learning Standards 1.1.9: The students will collaborate with colleagues to broaden and deepen understanding of the lessons that are being developed for the two graders. In these processes, the students will work hand in hand preferably in small groups to explore and share ideas on how best they can collate valid information in order to achieve the expected results for presentation.  The students will collaborate with the media specialists, such as the school librarian in order to have access to the computer lab and any other pieces of information that may be needed for these lessons. Even though, this may be a form of free inquiry that was developed by Daniel Callison, per se, whereby the students will have the freedom to search for information, it could also be termed as Controlled or Directed form of inquiry since the teacher and the school librarian may direct or control the students to ensure that they follow the prescribed instructions to arrive at the expected results.  The linguistic diversity of Africa is considered by some to be a problem for its people. For example, estimates of linguistics average over 2,000 languages spoken within the continent. In fact, there still exist some languages with no writing systems. This lesson introduces students to the study of languages, known as linguistics, and explores the linguistic categorization of African languages—including an examination of the possible causes for, and effects of, such language diversity. Students will think about language's role in shaping the environment, and the role of the environment in shaping language(s). The students will also explore the effects of diverse languages on commerce. Since both classes are familiar with information search on the internet and other sources, the lessons for both classes may be identical except that the latter of the two grade levels mentioned above will involve more technical questions that will demand detailed answers to the questions.  This will be composed of Geography, history, language arts, social studies, and National Geography Standards. The lessons may be categorized respectively as follows: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Grade 11: "The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics" Grade 12: "How the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">and control of Earth's surface. Emphasis on the curriculum in these areas will prepare both graders for the upper level classes. The students will be thought how to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future. As mentioned earlier, the distinction between the two lessons is that the Grade 12 students will be required to do more research and provide hypothesis or conclusions. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Time allotted for each lesson daily will be two and a half hours. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Students will explore (potential) language diversity within the classroom. In this process the teacher will voluntarily ask the class if there is any diverse culture or nationalities among the class who can share some culture shocks. One of the popular techniques of achieving student participation in groups is the buzz session, in which class is split into small groups for a brief discussion of a problem for a solution. This approach is to create a friendly atmosphere for the students to interact freely among themselves. The teacher will define linguistic studies and discuss the need for such studies. For example, relocation of jobs is one of the determining factors of mobility of labor in which one may experience culture shock, especially, in areas where there is minimal or little known about the language, or culture of the people. The advantage of starting a lesson with what you expect students to accomplish from a lesson is that it guides both the teacher and the students towards outcome assessment. The eleventh graders will be tasked to explore countries, topography, and total population; whilst the twelfth graders will be tasked to explore language diversity within Africa and discuss how language differences, or similarities, have led to research characteristics of Africa such as size, number of cooperation and conflict within Africa; and present to the class findings on a current event gleaned from individual, or group, research conducted on a single African country based on the following: · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Geographic Skills: · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Asking Geographic Questions · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Acquiring Geographic Information · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Organizing Geographic Information · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Analyzing Geographic Information <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Opening: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Open the lesson by asking if there are any students who speak a language other than English. For classes in which there are multilingual students, ask students if they would be willing to share with the class some common universal phrases translated into their known foreign language(s) (e.g., "hello," "goodbye," etc.) or even do a 1-10 number-count. The step that I have related from Big6 //Big6// model to this lesson is “Task definition” whereby the instructions are clearly laid out to successfully accomplish<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> task. For classes with no multilingual students, begin the lesson by sharing examples of common universal phrases in some more commonly familiar spoken foreign languages. For example, if you engage your students in this lesson at the start of the day, you might consider sharing with the class how to say "good morning/day" in languages such as Zulu, Swahili, Akan, Yoruba etc. Ask the students if there are any benefits to being a multilingual speaker. Are there any drawbacks to being a multilingual speaker? Ask students if they can name any of the languages spoken in Africa (e.g., Swahili, Zulu, Akan, Yoruba), and then direct them to the Internet Public Library's <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Say Hello to the World <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> page to find recordings of some common words and phrases in African languages. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Activity1: //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> For both graders, the questions for the twelfth graders should be more technical and lengthy than the eleventh graders. Ask the class if anyone knows what a linguist studies is. Once the term has been defined, ask the class what need is served by the study of languages. Language can reveal much about historical and sociological factors related to the extension and diffusion of cultures. In relation to the exploration of language diversity within Africa, have students access the Internet to answer the following questions individually, or in groups no greater than three. You may motivate the students to get through this activity quickly by offering a prize for the first student or group to finish. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">1. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What is the total land area of Africa? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">2. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How many countries make up Africa? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">3. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Describe the topographic variance of the African landscape (e.g., How does the landscape of sub-Saharan Africa differ from that of Northern Africa?). <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">4. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What is the current total population of Africa? Give some examples of ethnic groups in Africa. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">5. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How many different languages are spoken in Africa? Students are likely to come up with a variety of answers to this question, which should then prompt a discussion of the challenges faced by linguists in their efforts to classify and categorize languages. //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Activity2: //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Have the students access the //Columbian Encyclopedia’s entry on African Languages// to learn more about language families. Have students read the introductory section to answer the following questions: //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Activity3: //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Have students select any of the four Afro-Asiatic languages and read the corresponding section of the encyclopedia entry. Ask students to take notes on things such as the names and number of branches within their chosen language families, names and number of branch subdivisions, and any unique characteristics. Have students access the <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Languages of Africa map <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> to help illustrate the extent of African language families. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">1. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Lead a discussion to compare and contrast students' findings on language families (e.g., Which language family is the most diverse that contains the greatest number of branches and branch subdivisions? Which is the simplest that contains the least number of branches and branch subdivisions? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Activity4: //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">  <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Have students conclude this portion of the lesson by reading the material, titled "Twentieth-Century Developments," and then have them answer the following questions: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">4. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How does the study of African languages relate to people of non-African cultures? Why is it important to the rest of the world? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Closing: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Have both grade level students read the article [|//Dreams of a United Africa//]<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> to answer the following questions: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Ask the students to discuss their thoughts on the interrelation between language and conflict in Africa; then, have them propose and discuss solutions to address these problems. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Have students work individually, or in groups no greater than three, on the research of a particular African country's language characteristics, population figures, and topography. The method of selection will be left open to the teacher (e.g., assign, let students choose themselves, or have them draw from a hat). Have students organize a body of knowledge consisting of specific characteristics of their African country; then, have them search for a current event that is somehow tied to the language diversity of their country. Instruct students to think geographically about the impact of language on the development/existence of the country they are studying, and about the significant impact that a country's culture and physical geography have on the development/existence of a language. Tell students that their research will be presented to the class at a scheduled presentation time. Presentations may include (but are not limited to): imagery of the state's geographic location, population, language characteristics, state flag, people, etc.; and a discussion about the role that language has played in the current event being presented. If students choose a current event that involves a problem(s) within a country, have them suggest possible solutions in their presentations. After a final lesson conduct a comprehensive written and “multiples choice questions to access the performance of the students if they have really absorbed lessons learned. If the students passed satisfactorily, then the objective has been achieved, else revise the whole lessons and place emphasis on where the students did poorly. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Have students do a web search for Afrikanisms in the English language. For example, some African words in Gullah have entered American English, including //goober// ("peanut"), //gumbo// ("okra"), and //voodoo// ("witchcraft"). Have students watch the film //The Gods Must Be Crazy.// Students will be introduced to the highly unique and extremely interesting Khoisan language of the San Bushmen, which incorporates the extensive use of click sounds. They will not only see western culture from the viewpoint of the Bushmen, they will also get the opportunity to see Africa's beautiful landscape. After students watch the film, have them write a reaction paper on their impressions of Bushmen culture and society (e.g., What differences did they perceive between the Bushmen's culture and their own? What similarities? What was their favorite part of the film?). <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Work cited: // <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Callison, Daniel BLUE BOOK <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Mckeachie, Wilbert Mckeachie’s Teaching Tips <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">[] <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> []
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Introduction: **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Standards for learning: **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Collaboration: **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Overview: **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Connections to the Curriculum: **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Materials Required: **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Computer with Internet access
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Writing materials
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Map of Africa (Atlas)
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Objectives: **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Procedure **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Activity Development: **
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How are African languages classified? Why do you think African languages are classified this way?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What does the term 'African languages' historically mean, and how are these languages? According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, what is the estimate for the number of languages spoken in Africa? In your opinion, why is there such variation among estimates?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What is a common feature of indigenous African languages? Is this a noticeable feature in the English language?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What is the general term for each of the principle linguistic families of Africa?
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Two of Africa's major linguistic families, the Niger-Kordofanian and Nilo-Saharan languages, still do not have a writing system. Why is this now becoming an increasingly important issue?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Does the writer see Africa's linguistic diversity as a help or a hindrance to the African people? Why?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Why is the modern scientific study of African languages beneficial for Africans?
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The Organization for African Unity met in 2000 for what purpose?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">According to the article, how many Africans were forced to leave their homes in 1999 and why did they leave?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">To what single event do some trace Africa's troubles, and which countries were involved?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What colonial legacy remains in the wake of the Cold War?
 * 5) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">According to Richard Roberts, why is the border between Nigeria and Benin such a "fascinating case"?
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Student Assessment: **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Extending the Lesson: **

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