Travel the French Speaking World!

Description of Student Work

For our French-speaking countries unit, students typically make a PowerPoint about a French-speaking country.  This new assignment pushed students to think like advertising agents, using technology to create interactive advertisement for the country of their choice.

Here is how the project was completed:

1. Students used online research tools to answer the following questions about the French-speaking country of their choice:
1. What can a tourist do in your country?
2. Why should a tourist do this activity?
2. Students collected information about different attractions and wrote descriptions of the places paying attention to using words that would engage the reader.
3. Students used Google Drawing to make a collage from pictures they found of the attractions they chose.
4. Students uploaded their collage into ThingLink.  
5. Using ThingLink, students were able to create interactive advertisements for their country.
6. Students then viewed each other's advertisements.

Examples of Student Work

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/609452697891897345


http://www.thinglink.com/scene/609460923194671106


How does this fit with the SAM-R model?

This assignment fits with the Modify definition of SAM-R.  While, in the past, students could create a travel document for a French-speaking country, technology helped students create an advertisement that could not have been made without technology.

Here are some ways technology helped improve this assignment:

• Broadband Internet access and individual devices allowed students the freedom to choose whichever country they were most interested in.  Students were not limited to the countries that the school library had information about.
• Google Drawing allowed students to create a collage with real pictures.  Students did not need to print pictures and cut and paste them together.
• ThingLink allowed students to create an interactive image.  No  longer did the pictures require captions.  Lengthy descriptions do not detract from the overall image.  Students were also able to add links to more information about the attractions.