Title: Can You Describe Me?

Topic: Wild Animals

Level: Novice

Focus Age Group: 6 years and up

National Standards Goals:

Communication   Culture   Connections   Comparisons   Communities

Communicative Mode:

Interpersonal   Interpreptive   Presentational

NJ Cumulative Progress Indicators:

• 7.1.5  Provide and obtain information on familiar topics
• 7.1.7  Identify some common and distinct features such as parts of speech and vocabulary, among languages
• 7.1.4  Describe people, places, things, and events using short phrases and simple sentences

Timeframe: Two 30-minute class periods

Description of Task:
Activity One (15 minutes)

• The class should be divided into two teams.
• Students will identify wild animals by name as they are pulled out of the "magic box."
• Students will then describe the animals by their physical characteristics, geographical location, or by their food preferences. For example: El elefante tiene trompa (has a trunk), es gris (is gray),vive en Africa (lives in Africa), come hojas (eats leaves).
• Each team will get a point when their teammate correctly identifies and describes their animal correctly.
• The game continues until each student has had at least one turn.

• Students will work in pairs.
• Each pair will have a box of self-made animal flashcards.
• Students will take turns pulling an animal out, identifying it, and describing it.
• This allows the teacher to circulate and assess individuals.

Materials Needed:

• Magic box created by attaching a sock to an empty oatmeal container covered with decorative paper
• Representations of animals, preferably miniature, but realistic plastic animals However, small flashcard pictures of animals may be substituted
• Self-made animal flashcards for each student
• Large area for students to sit on the floor for activity one

Teacher Notes:
The students should have been learning about specific wild animals prior to the assessment. The teacher should first encourage the students to guess what is in the box by asking questions. The teacher will then call them up to pull out an animal. If the student has difficulty, the teacher should give the student choices. For example: ¿Es jirafa o es elefante? (Is it a giraffe or an elephant?) The classroom teacher will assess students during this first activity. It may take more than one class period to assess all students. However, further assessment can be done during the second activity in which the students are working in pairs. The teacher will walk around with a clipboard and listen to student conversation. She is assessing their ability to identify and describe the animals.

Scoring Criteria:
The teacher will give a class list to the classroom teacher with the names of each student to the left and the animals being assessed across the top (example to follow).

Scoring Criteria can be adapted to assess more advanced students by raising the rubric.

Adaptation:
Any animals may be used for this activity. Other themes can also be adapted. Students can sit in a circle. As an animal is held up by the teacher, each student identifies and describes it. They can go around the circle and then back around the other way. Students can demonstrate their ability to use negatives by telling things that are not true about the animal. For example: El elefante no tiene mucho pelo. (The elephant does not have a lot of hair.) El león no tiene trompa. (The lion does not have a trunk.) This circle game can also be played with one student giving an affirmative sentence and the next giving a negative sentence.

Class Checklist Example for Assessment

Rebekah Villano
Littlebrook Elementary School
39 Magnolia Lane
Princeton, NJ 08540
609.924.7925