This lesson was requested by Lon a graduate of the January 2011 Language House TEFL course.
It has an accompanying reading that you can find here Lesson Reading and is geared towards an advanced class. If any one of you want your own lesson created, I'm happy to do it. Sign up and follow the blog please.
Introduction (a couple of minutes)
1. write 'From sea to shining sea' on the board and play 'America the Beautiful'
Ask students what they think this means.
or if you know your class well you could...
2. Come in and declare that all of the students have to move to the back of the classroom and share a single desk because you needed more room to teach. This would introduce the idea of expansion and its effect on other people. (This could be pretty funny and effective, but make sure the students know you and like you or you'll look like a jerk).
Tip: Why not make it more engaging by dressing up or showing a picture of an American pioneer?
The goal is to try and elicit or pre teach the concept of Manifest Destiny. You will probably have to elicit a little bit of the history and what this concept meant in terms of the founding of the United States of America. Just off the bat, this is going pretty deep, so try and keep it relatively basic. You might want to bring in two pictures. One of the 13 colonies and the land that the US owned/occupied and a later picture of westward expansion so they can see the difference. Your intro should be only a few minutes max, so don't dwindle on the concept to long.
Lead In (7-10 minutes)
Demo out the questions as a class and then put them in groups.
Tip: Make it relevant to the country you are teaching in. If you are teaching Czechs, start the question off about the Czech Republic. Obviously don't have the question about the Czech Republic if you are teaching in a different country.
1. What are the borders of the Czech Republic? Were they always this way? Who were the first Czechs who settled into Czechoslovakia? Where did they come from?
2. Why would a country want to increase its borders or land?
3. What are 3 benefits of a country expanding? What are 3 negatives?
4. Who occupied the West in America before the settlers expanded? Where are they now? Are they better or worse off then they were before the settlers?
(There's a lot of questions here, so you might not need to do them all. Above are just some ideas).
Prediction for Reading: (1 min)
Show either the title or picture from the reading and ask the students what they thing they are going to be reading about.
Auxiliary Vocabulary (no more than 10 minutes max)
Here are some words from the article that I would pre teach. Since these are words that they will most likely not be using in their follow up speaking activity, you can just pre-board them and go over them briefly.
1. A Puritan
2. divine (a divine obligation)
3. To reaffirm
4. to fuel (to Fuel something)
5. in droves
6. To coin (something)
7. a mindset
8 a heathen
9. The Louisiana Purchase
10 The Mason-Dixon Line
11. Religious fervor
12. To spawn
Focus Task 1 (4 minutes)
1. Cut the article into paragraphs and have students in groups put the article into the correct order.
or you could...
2. Find a few words/dates/names from the article and students have to find their significance.
Tip: The first focus task usually deals with them skimming or scanning. Have them try and read the article quickly to get the gist of it.
Focus task 2. (6 minutes or so)
Create a true or false sheet (not provided here) with about 10 questions for comprehension. Students work on it in groups and answer the questions. Go over them quickly afterwards as a class.
Follow up 1 General Discussion
Tip: Before doing any kind of follow up speaking activity, double check comprehension of the article. This is a deep subject and concept that most foreign students know nothing about because it's not their own history. Without a sound understanding of what they read, any kind of speaking activity will fail miserably if you attempt one. So, just double check that they understand the ideas presented for Manifest Destiny,why the settlers wanted to expand and the impact/consequences that this created.
Have students in groups discuss the following questions
1. Why would the Pioneers believe that the Native Americans were backwards? List 4 reasons.
2. Is it right to believe that one culture is more civilized/advanced than another culture? Name three reasons for each side.
3. Could the Native Americans believe the Pioneers were backwards as well? Why might they?
4. Think of 3 examples of modern day Manifest Destiny. These can include governments as well as corporations. (you might give examples of globalization, Microsoft, Apple...etc.)
5. Is it ever right for one country to enforce its will or beliefs on another country? Why? Why not? (think of a good example where it might have been a good thing e.g. Nazi Germany and the Allies fighting back.)
Get feedback after they've discussed these topics. Then move into another activity if you have time.
Follow up 2 - Debate (10 minutes)
Designate two sides. One are Pioneers for pro expansion. The other side are against it. Give them a few minutes to create an 8 point argument and then let them debate. Don't have them write out long sentences, that will take too much time. Just have them jot down their points. You don't want them to be reading out loud, you should be more interested in them creating language on their own and replying/countering points that the other side brings up.
Tip: Debates can be tricky! and I'll write about doing debates separately in another blog post. Here are some basic things though. Tell your students that it's not what they believe that is important but being able to argue well. This will help if you have students that are really against Manifest Destiny from getting upset. Remember, it's all about the language. Give each side a point if they make a good argument. The side with the most points wins. During debates, I usually post up (on the board or flip chart) helpful language for debating (e.g. 'I agree with your point, but... I see what you are saying, however... That is nonsense!... I'm sorry, but I don't agree with that at all...etc.) This will help them sound better in the classroom. Debates, disagreeing/agreeing, stating one's opinion...etc. is a linguistic function in itself. Work on this!
Feedback (a couple of minutes)
End the debate, board mistakes and correct them. End the lesson with a joke or something uplifting.
Overall thoughts on the lesson:
This one is a bit tricky. Most people are obviously going to side that Manifest Destiny is a bad thing and that the founding of the USA dealt with a lot of pain, bloodshed and horrific treatment of the indigenous people and slaves. Your students might not want to offend you (if you are American) if they feel that they are criticizing your home country. This of course will effect your output. Try to take a stance back from this. You are the facilitator of language and that's really all you should worry about. Use body language, comments...etc. to let your students know that they can express themselves openly. Obviously if you have a student that states something you disagree with (past or current colonialistic behavior of the US) don't get into an argument with them - It's just a language lesson.
Cheers,
W.
It has an accompanying reading that you can find here Lesson Reading and is geared towards an advanced class. If any one of you want your own lesson created, I'm happy to do it. Sign up and follow the blog please.
Introduction (a couple of minutes)
1. write 'From sea to shining sea' on the board and play 'America the Beautiful'
Ask students what they think this means.
or if you know your class well you could...
2. Come in and declare that all of the students have to move to the back of the classroom and share a single desk because you needed more room to teach. This would introduce the idea of expansion and its effect on other people. (This could be pretty funny and effective, but make sure the students know you and like you or you'll look like a jerk).
Tip: Why not make it more engaging by dressing up or showing a picture of an American pioneer?
The goal is to try and elicit or pre teach the concept of Manifest Destiny. You will probably have to elicit a little bit of the history and what this concept meant in terms of the founding of the United States of America. Just off the bat, this is going pretty deep, so try and keep it relatively basic. You might want to bring in two pictures. One of the 13 colonies and the land that the US owned/occupied and a later picture of westward expansion so they can see the difference. Your intro should be only a few minutes max, so don't dwindle on the concept to long.
Lead In (7-10 minutes)
Demo out the questions as a class and then put them in groups.
Tip: Make it relevant to the country you are teaching in. If you are teaching Czechs, start the question off about the Czech Republic. Obviously don't have the question about the Czech Republic if you are teaching in a different country.
1. What are the borders of the Czech Republic? Were they always this way? Who were the first Czechs who settled into Czechoslovakia? Where did they come from?
2. Why would a country want to increase its borders or land?
3. What are 3 benefits of a country expanding? What are 3 negatives?
4. Who occupied the West in America before the settlers expanded? Where are they now? Are they better or worse off then they were before the settlers?
(There's a lot of questions here, so you might not need to do them all. Above are just some ideas).
Prediction for Reading: (1 min)
Show either the title or picture from the reading and ask the students what they thing they are going to be reading about.
Auxiliary Vocabulary (no more than 10 minutes max)
Here are some words from the article that I would pre teach. Since these are words that they will most likely not be using in their follow up speaking activity, you can just pre-board them and go over them briefly.
1. A Puritan
2. divine (a divine obligation)
3. To reaffirm
4. to fuel (to Fuel something)
5. in droves
6. To coin (something)
7. a mindset
8 a heathen
9. The Louisiana Purchase
10 The Mason-Dixon Line
11. Religious fervor
12. To spawn
Focus Task 1 (4 minutes)
1. Cut the article into paragraphs and have students in groups put the article into the correct order.
or you could...
2. Find a few words/dates/names from the article and students have to find their significance.
Tip: The first focus task usually deals with them skimming or scanning. Have them try and read the article quickly to get the gist of it.
Focus task 2. (6 minutes or so)
Create a true or false sheet (not provided here) with about 10 questions for comprehension. Students work on it in groups and answer the questions. Go over them quickly afterwards as a class.
Follow up 1 General Discussion
Tip: Before doing any kind of follow up speaking activity, double check comprehension of the article. This is a deep subject and concept that most foreign students know nothing about because it's not their own history. Without a sound understanding of what they read, any kind of speaking activity will fail miserably if you attempt one. So, just double check that they understand the ideas presented for Manifest Destiny,why the settlers wanted to expand and the impact/consequences that this created.
Have students in groups discuss the following questions
1. Why would the Pioneers believe that the Native Americans were backwards? List 4 reasons.
2. Is it right to believe that one culture is more civilized/advanced than another culture? Name three reasons for each side.
3. Could the Native Americans believe the Pioneers were backwards as well? Why might they?
4. Think of 3 examples of modern day Manifest Destiny. These can include governments as well as corporations. (you might give examples of globalization, Microsoft, Apple...etc.)
5. Is it ever right for one country to enforce its will or beliefs on another country? Why? Why not? (think of a good example where it might have been a good thing e.g. Nazi Germany and the Allies fighting back.)
Get feedback after they've discussed these topics. Then move into another activity if you have time.
Follow up 2 - Debate (10 minutes)
Designate two sides. One are Pioneers for pro expansion. The other side are against it. Give them a few minutes to create an 8 point argument and then let them debate. Don't have them write out long sentences, that will take too much time. Just have them jot down their points. You don't want them to be reading out loud, you should be more interested in them creating language on their own and replying/countering points that the other side brings up.
Tip: Debates can be tricky! and I'll write about doing debates separately in another blog post. Here are some basic things though. Tell your students that it's not what they believe that is important but being able to argue well. This will help if you have students that are really against Manifest Destiny from getting upset. Remember, it's all about the language. Give each side a point if they make a good argument. The side with the most points wins. During debates, I usually post up (on the board or flip chart) helpful language for debating (e.g. 'I agree with your point, but... I see what you are saying, however... That is nonsense!... I'm sorry, but I don't agree with that at all...etc.) This will help them sound better in the classroom. Debates, disagreeing/agreeing, stating one's opinion...etc. is a linguistic function in itself. Work on this!
Feedback (a couple of minutes)
End the debate, board mistakes and correct them. End the lesson with a joke or something uplifting.
Overall thoughts on the lesson:
This one is a bit tricky. Most people are obviously going to side that Manifest Destiny is a bad thing and that the founding of the USA dealt with a lot of pain, bloodshed and horrific treatment of the indigenous people and slaves. Your students might not want to offend you (if you are American) if they feel that they are criticizing your home country. This of course will effect your output. Try to take a stance back from this. You are the facilitator of language and that's really all you should worry about. Use body language, comments...etc. to let your students know that they can express themselves openly. Obviously if you have a student that states something you disagree with (past or current colonialistic behavior of the US) don't get into an argument with them - It's just a language lesson.
Cheers,
W.
Awesome post! I will try this someday with my advanced class at my university! Thanks so much Chris. You never cease to amaze me with your lessons. You should publish a book.
ReplyDeleteThanks. My Polish students enjoyed the subject and talking about Polish wars of expansion also....
ReplyDeleteAre you thinking of teaching English in Prague or Abroad? Here are some positives and negatives aspects of living and teaching in the Czech Republic from TEFL trainer who spent nearly a decade living in the city.
ReplyDeleteFree Destiny Reading