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Catering for learner diversity in the New Senior Secondary Classroom – a wedding planning project to motivate students to learn English. Yan Chai Hospital No. 2 Secondary School. The Planning of the NSS elective module – Learning English through Workplace Communication.
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Catering for learner diversity in the New Senior Secondary Classroom – a wedding planning project to motivate students to learn English Yan Chai Hospital No. 2 Secondary School
The Planning ofthe NSS elective module – Learning English throughWorkplace Communication
English Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4-6) Elective Part • provides learners with opportunities to apply the subject knowledge and skills (i.e. the four skills, grammar, communicative functions, vocabulary and text-types) • enhances the further development of generic skills such as communication, critical thinking, creativity and collaboration • engages learners in a variety of activities • provides learners with opportunities to demonstrate their learning or achievement through producing some kind of products(performance/ display/ portfolio…)
Objectives • Students are motivated to learn English learning English through tasks and activities catering for learner diversity (interests, gender, ability, MI…) • Students get to know more about the working environment Limited budget High expectations Use of English Limited time • Students are motivated to equip themselves for their future career English Generic Skills
easy to cater for learners’ Rationale Choosing an industry with different job types interests abilities
Wedding planning involves lots of jobs types in different industries: How do these job types relate to learning English?
Vocabulary Text types Suggested necessary services
Wedding Company (Module outline) • TheWedding planning business • - Job descriptions Part 1: Background/ Introduction • - Job advertisement • - CV • Application letter • - Job interview Part 2: Job application • - Research • - Understand the organizational set up • Concept of organizational “image” Part 3: Setting up wedding companies • Meetings • Business project • - Use English creatively for a business purpose Part 4: Preparing for Wedding Expo • Sales presentation - Company leaflet • Exhibition - Wedding Outfit Catwalk • Samples - Portfolio Part 5: Wedding Expo
October 2008 – February 2009 • about 25 – 30 lessons (40 minutes/ lesson) • S4 (4 classes) • try out some of the services • simplified some of the tasks The trial lessons
Part 1 Introduction to the wedding planning industry
Tasks / Activities • Reading magazine articles • Reading newspaper articles • Browsing websites of wedding planners
Catering for learner diversity • Simplified versions of newspapers/ magazine articles provided • Reading materials provided by teachers vs Reading materials searched by students
Part 2 Job Application
Reading Job Advertisements CJC Wedding Planner Company Decoration designers Required by Wedding Planner Company. Male or female, Form 5 standard. Preferably having knowledge of decoration design. Please send application with photo, phone number and salary expected to Ms. Carine Jean Clark, no. 232, Queen’s Road East, Wan Chai, H.K. Junior Clerks Required by Wedding Planner Company. Male or female, Form 3 standard, experience not essential. Please send application with photo, phone number and salary expected to G.P.O. Box 1234, Hong Kong. • . What is the title of the job? • . What are the job requirements? • . What the job applicant do if they want to apply the job?
Writing Job Advertisements Driver Required by Transporter Company. Male Only. Form 7 standard. Good manners. Preferably with kung-fu skills. Please call 1234 5678 or come to YCH2SS for interview. Bring driving license and kung-fu certificate. Students’ work Beautician Required by Beauty Company. Female. Form 5 standard. 3 years experience essential. Preferably with experience of bridal make-up. Send application with photo, phone number and salary expected to Mary Chan, 345, King’s Road west, Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
Job Interviews Job Interview videos produced by teachers and students
Observers (students) use the following rubrics to assess the candidate’s performance
Catering for learner diversity • Application form vs application letter + resume • Interview videos produced by teachers and students& movie clips of interview scenes helped to strengthen students’ memory • Higher ability students were given a chance to be bosses and wrote their own job advertisements
Part 3 Setting up wedding companies
Tasks / Activities • Students form groups and set up their wedding planning companies CONTENTS
Themed weddings • Example: • Beach • Nature • Seasons • Special Occasions • Styles • Fairy Tale • Victorian • Religious
Choices Catering for learner diversity • Company names and logos were designed by students • Students were allowed to select services and themes they were interested in • Job types which require higher intellectual ability vs Job types which focus more on technical skills • Each company could select the number of services they would provide • Different levels of tasks can be given to different companies for each kind of service
Part 4 Preparing for Wedding Expo
Task / Activities (Group work) CONTENTS
Writing sales presentation scripts Company: Fairy Tale Wedding Company Good morning/afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our Fairy Tale Wedding Company’s presentation. A wedding is the most important thing in your life. You must have a gorgeous wedding with high quality service and yet, the cost of it need not be high. Not only are our services of high quality, but the price is also sensible. First, we will show you the gowns of the couple. Then, a video clip will be shown to you. It is a wedding party which our company helped the couple to plan. Last, there will be a Q & A session. We hope you can enjoy our presentation. Thank you. Unique Wedding Company as its name implies, is a company that strives for perfection and emphasizes the importance of uniqueness. Unique Wedding Company is professional in offering the wedding through-train services that ease the hassles of the couples. Starting from the detail of costumes renting, make up artists and stylists booking to the design of wedding souvenirs and wedding cakes, we look into every detail and we show our customers we do care about every detail.
Designing wedding outfitsWriting wedding outfit description Company: Pretty Life The theme is romance. The bride’s dress is of ball gown style. Wearing the ball gown, the bride looks noble and graceful. The material for the dress is curtain. For the lower part of the dress, we rolled magazine paper and stitched the rolls onto the dress. There is a big bowknot on the belt so that the beautiful body shape of the bride is fully addressed. Company: Forever Love Our theme is Chinese traditional. The top is made of black plastic. The trousers are made from black cloth. On the upper outfit, there is a red flower ball which is made of paper, representing the two important elements of the Chinese traditional wedding – completeness and luck. Company: Your Choice Our company has designed our signature wedding gown that highlights the love of nature. Our wedding gown carries lots of flowers that gives a refreshing feeling for the lovers. With the mystical design of nature’s spider-web pattern and snake-like hair set, our bride will have the most unforgettable wedding event of her own choice.
Part 5 Wedding Expo
Booth Introducing the services/ products of the companies to the visitors Making Sales Presentations Wedding Outfit Catwalk
Catering for learner diversity • Students selected the jobs they wanted to take up within the group • There were different types of jobs. Jobs were allocated to team members according to their interests and abilities • The companies were allowed to use different ways to introduce their companies to the visitors • Jobs were allocated to team members according to their strengths (verbal, visual, kinesthetic tasks…)
Use of resources • English teachers • Teachers of other subjects • Alumni • PTA & parents • Wedding planner
Students Post-project questionnaire • Students were motivated to learn English • Students got a sense of achievement and were more confident in using English for communication and presentation • Students got to know more about the working environment (93%).
Post-project questionnaire • Students’ generic skills were improved
Post-project questionnaire • Students realized the importance of English in the working environment. They would like to improve their English and equip themselves for their future careers.
Teachers • Developed the teaching strategies to cope with the NSS Curriculum • Encouraged English teachers to use life-wide and experiential learning approach in the teaching process • Strengthened the culture of collaborative & reflective practices among the English panel
At School Level The Project • Enhanced inter-departmental collaboration (cross curricular planning) • Used a whole school approach to enrich the English learning environment • Served as a platform to share successful English learning experiences among students, teachers, parents & alumni
Difficulties and solutions Time Constraints Level of difficulty
content readiness process interest differentiate learning profile product
Workplace Life long learning