Title: Ferris French's Day Off!

Topic: Health

Level: Novice

Focus Age Group: 12 to 16 years

National Standards Goals:

Communication   Cultures   Connections   Comparisons   Communities

Communicative Modes:

Interpersonal   Interpretive   Presentational

NJ Cumulative Progress Indicators:

• 7.1.17  Respond to statements and initiate and sustain conversations with increasing linguistic accuracy.

Timeframe: One 30-minute period and one full class period

Description of Task:
You and your partner are going to role play a scenario which takes place while you are studying and spending a semester living in a French home. It is Thursday morning and you wake up feeling ill. You want to stay home for the day, but you have a French test. Your host parent knows you have a test and s/he needs some convincing before you may get permission to stay home. In this dialogue you will try to convince your host parent to allow you to stay home. Give symptoms of your illness, and indicate how you will spend the day. The host parent must ask questions of you before reaching a decision as to whether you may or may not stay home for the day.

Materials Needed: None

Teacher Notes:
The focus of this activity is on interpersonal oral communication so writing should be discouraged. You may wish to provide an index card to each pair to write down some English language prompts. This task is best accomplished when students are given two days in succession to complete it. On the first day, distribute the task. Students have time to get comfortable with the topic and begin the role play. The next day they go directly into their "pairs," practice for about fifteen minutes and then the presentations begin. The topic often results in animated dialogues so you may wish to tape (audio or video) the activity. You also may wish to pose a follow-up question as to how this conversation might have changed if the child were talking to their own parent rather than to their "French" parent.

Scoring Criteria:
Students will be evaluated according to the following rubric:

Exceeds Expectations:

• Gives 4 or 5 symptoms or asks 4-5 questions
• Responds appropriately to questions or poses appropriate questions
• Grammatical and pronunciation errors are few and do not impede comprehension
• Superior completion of the task and/or original ideas

Meets Expectations:

• Gives 3 symptoms or asks 3 questions
• Maintains general continuity of conversation
• Grammatical and pronunciation errors do not impede comprehension
• Task completed with adequate and appropriate responses

Does not meet Expectations:

• Gives only 1 or 2 symptoms or asks only 1 or 2 questions
• Responds inappropriately to questions or poses inappropriate questions
• Grammatical and pronunciation errors are significant and impede comprehension
• Presentation reflects lack of attention to task requirements

Adaptations:

1. You may wish to have students alternate roles or to note who asks questions and who responds so that roles can be reversed in a future task.
2. At a younger level one could require the student to offer fewer symptoms and the parent to ask fewer questions.
3. You may wish to develop a follow-up activity describing how the student spends the day.

Deborah Feinberg
New Providence High School
35 Pioneer Drive
New Providence, NJ 07974
908.464.4700