Satire - Task for Literature and Culture Vg3

Gin Lane by William Hogsworth

Satire is a brilliant literary technique with often a noble vision – to highlight issues in a society using wit, intellect and sarcasm. Satire showcases intelligence, both by the one who uses it and the one who it is directed at. This is because to get the subtleties of a satirical text, you need to be engaged and aware of the current social and political issues.

The following task about satire covers the following aims in the English Literature and Culture subject at the Vg3 level.

Competence Aims

• elaborate on and discuss distinctive linguistic features of texts from different genres, from different periods and regions
• interpret literary texts and other cultural expressions from a cultural-historical and social perspective
• elaborate on and discuss the cultural position of the United States and Great Britain in the world today, and the background for the same
• use a nuanced, well-developed and precise vocabulary to communicate on literature and culture
• use suitable language, appropriate to the situation, in oral and written genres

Here is the task.

Task: Choose “Gin Lane” or “Gulliver Travels” and a satirical TV show from the United States or Great Britain and illustrate (present, discuss and analyze) how satire is used to comment on current issues. Your presentation should begin with a clear thesis statement and should include relevant facts and examples. You may include a very brief video not more than 2 minutes).

Criteria for Evaluation:

1) You will be evaluated on the content (the strength of your argument, if you use examples and quotes, if you are you critical, do you discuss or just present) of your presentation, and how it is communicated (if your points/ideas come across, if you connect with the audience).

2) The structure of the presentation will also be assessed (introduction, conclusion and the transitions between the different topics).

3) Your language (including vocabulary, grammar, idiomatic usage, technical terms, use  of formal language) will also be evaluated.

4) There needs to be a clear thesis statement which declares the main point or controlling idea of your presentation.

5) You will also be evaluated on how you use your sources so remember to use and refer to your sources in a proper way. You need to also comment and reflect on the sources you used.

6) You cannot read from a script. Key words are OK.

7) Length of the presentation: The presentation should last at least 10 minutes or more.

Make sure you make a power point for this project.

Vocational Task: Conversation about practical training / Yrkesrelatert oppgave: Samtale om elevenes praksisperiode

Vocational students in Norwegian Schools have to go through a period of practical training for two weeks each semseter. 
Sometimes, I have a short 5-7 minutes conversation with my students about their practical training. This assessment is graded and I give verbal feedback right after the conversation. I prefer not to give the grade right away and wait til I have thought things through.
I then post the grades on the learning platform (Its Learning) and then write a comment there that "Feedback was given verbally after the conversation."

Here is a copy of the task. It also includes the assessment criteria. The learners use this link here to get access to the vocational glossary related to their profession, 

Skriftlig vurderingskriterier / Written Assessment Criteria

Here are general written criteria that can be used for almost all written articles and essays. 

Argumentative task, assessment- criteria and form / Oppgave om en argumenterende tekst, vurderingskriterier og vurderingsskjema

Here is a task that can be used to write an argumentative text about The Civil Rights Movement. The assessment criteria are included in the task.

To work with this task, the students taking general studies (studiespesialiserende), worked with the theme the Civil Rights Movement. Here is an action plan that shows what the learners were expected to learn about this theme and the texts that were of interest.
Here is a power point I used to teach about argumentative texts and how to develop thesis statements.

To make sure that the learners understood how to argue, we worked with the theme: Should gun ownership be legal? The learners wrote down both pro and cons and then had to work with this draft here. It was made very clear to the learners that the paragraph structure that is written in the draft is just ONE way of writing a discussion paragraph for an argumentative text. Another way could be that after the introduction, the learners present all the pro arguments in the first part of the text, and then present the arguments against their point of view/thesis statement in the next part. Then, the learners would have to write another discussion paragraph which shows why they feel that their point of view is better followed by a conclusion of course.

Before the learners turned in their texts, they had to go through this self-evaluation checklist. 

Here is an assessment form that can be used to give assessment. Before I use this form, I write comments in the text using "se gjennom/view" and then "spor endringer/track changes". I also mark some grammatical errors (NOT ALL) using macros. 

Creating a News Broadcast Digitally: Group task

Her kommer en oppgave som vurderer kommunikativ og digital kompetanse for elevene på Vg1. Elevene lager en nyhetssending som de leverer som en video. Vurderingskriterier er også inkludert i oppgaven. Takk til Ingrid Vik, Marthe Steigler, Viktoria Glomnes og Rosy Arnesen for at jeg fikk lov å dele videoen deres slik at andre kan se hvordan de løste oppgaven. Jeg takker også min tidligere kollege Anne Marit Nielsen som delte idéen til oppgaven med kollegaen Richard Minde, som videre delte idéen med meg. En stor takk til Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug for samarbeidet med å utvikle vurderingskriterier til oppgaven.  

Oppgaven har absolutt overføringsverdi og kan lett brukes i andre språkfag både på Vg1, Vg2 og Vg3. Du kan se videoen her:  

Here is brilliant task which assesses the communicative and digital competence of the learners of the English Language. Learners create a news broadcast which they hand in as a video file. The assessment criteria are also included in the document. I also have the permission of four of my students to upload their work/video as a sample video that shows how they answered this task. Thank you Ingrid Vik, Marthe Steigler, Viktoria Glomnes and Rosy Arnesen. I must also thank my colleague Anne Marit Nielsen who shared this task with another colleague Richard Minde who further shared it with me. And a big shout out to Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug for her input in developing the assessment criteria. You can see the video here: 

Task about Global English (in accordance with the new competence aims) / Oppgave om global engelsk (i samsvar med den nye læreplan i engelsk)

Here is a task that fulfills the following competence aims. Assessment criteria are included:

1 1) to discuss the growth of the English language as a universal world language 

 2)   write different types of texts with good writing structure and coherence that are adapted to a specific purpose and situation.

 3)   use standard forms of grammatical structures, spellings, conjugation patterns, varied sentence structure and varied cohesive devices.

4)   assess various sources and use content from these sources independently, critically and in a way that the content can be verified.

The above aims have been translated to English by me from the Norwegian version since Udir has still to upload the English version of the new curriculum. 

Her er en oppgave som oppfyller følgende kompetansemål. Vurderingskriterier er inkludert: 

   1)  drøfte framveksten av engelsk som et verdensspråk

·         2) skrive ulike typer tekster med struktur og sammenheng, tilpasset formål og situasjon

·         3) bruke mønstre for rettskriving, ordbøying og variert setnings- og tekstbygging i produksjon av tekst

·         4) vurdere forskjellige kilder og bruke innhold fra kildene på en selvstendig, kritisk og etterprøvbar måte

Assessment Form, Task and Assessment Criteria for a Short Story about Indigenous Peoples / Vurderingsskjema samt Oppgave og Kriterier til en Novelle om Urfolk

Elevene våre på Studisepesialiserende Vg1 har skrevet en novelle om urfolk.
Her finner dere oppgaven samt kriteriene og her finner dere vurderingskjema. Kriteriene for innholdet er laget i samarbeid med mine kollegaer Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug og Linn Therese Jostem. Her finner dere et annent skjema med vurderingskriterier som jeg utviklet tidligere om å skrive en novelle som ikke har med urfolk å gjøre.

Pupils taking general studies at my school have been writing a short story about the Indigenous Peoples. Here is a document where you will find the task along with the assessment criteria. Here is the assessment form we used to correct the short stories. The assessment criteria for the content of the task have been developed with critical input from my colleagues Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug og Linn Therese Jostem. Here you can see another form with assessment criteria which I had developed earlier and which can be used for writing any kind of short story. 

Artikkel/Essay : Kjennetegn for måloppnåelse/Vurderingskriterier + Vurderingsskjema / Assessment Criteria + Form for Assessment

For å praktisere vurdering for læring i klasserommet, må elevene få:
1) Kjennetegn på måloppnåelse eller Vurderingskriterier på forhånd
2) En oppsumering om hvordan elevene har prestert
3) Framover melding dvs. råd til elevene om hvordan de kan forbedre seg

Vg1 elever må ofte skrive en artikkel eller et essay. 
Klikk her for Vurderingskriterier for Artikkel/Essay. Følgende skjema kan brukes til å gi elever vudering på hvordan de har prestert og hva de kan gjøre for å skrive bedre:Vurdering Skjema for en artikkel/ et essay. Jeg uthever det som gjelder eleven. Det går selvfølgelig an å utheve på datamaskin, men jeg foretrekker å skrive disse ut og bruke en markerings penn. 
Her kan dere se en eksempeloppgave på en artikkel som viser høy måloppnåelse samt lærerkommentarer om hva gjør den til en bra tekst. Her er en til slik oppgave. 

 
In order to use assessment to promote learning, the following steps need to be covered in a classroom.The pupils need to get:
1)  Assessment Criteria for written and oral assignments

2) Feedback that explains pupils'performance

3) Advice to pupils on how to improvetheir results

Here is a form for Assessment Criteria for an Article/Essay that can be used to present the pupils the criteria that are used to assess their written assignments and how they need to answer the tasks to acheive a certain result.  The following form can be used to give the pupils assessment about how they answered the task and what they need to work on: Assessment form for an article/essay. I highlight all that applies to the pupil with a highlighter. This can of course be done on the computer as well, however, I prefer to print these forms out and use a highlighter pen. Here is an example of a brilliantly written essay/objective article and my comments on what makes it such a good text. Here is one more such text.

Assessment Criteria for Writing a Short Story / Vurderingskriterier til en novelle på engelsk

Click here for the criteria for assessing a short story assignment. You can also check these out here on a prezi presentation. 

Here is an assessment form that can be used to grade this task.

Undervisningsopplegg Urfolk (Native Americans) No. 2 / Teaching Assignment Indigenous Peoples (Indianere) No.2

Denne oppgaven handler om å kombinere følgende kompetansemål: 1) drøfte litteratur av og om urfolk i den engelskspråklige verden 2) drøfte sosiale og kulturelle forhold, samfunnsforhold og verdier i flere engelskspråklige land.Tanken bak oppgaven er at elevene ikke bare lager en faktabasert presentasjon om urfolkene, men at de samtidig klarer å drøfte og sammenligne livet til urfolkene før og etter den europeiske oppdagelsen og koloniseringen av deres land.

Her er oppgaven: Indigenous Peoples - Presentation and Discussion. Jeg har skrevet om dette her tidligere, men hadde behov for en ennå enklere versjon.

This post combines the followng competence aims: 1) discuss literature by and about indigenous peoples in the English-speaking world,  and 2) discuss social and cultural conditions and values from a number of English-speaking countries. The intention behid this assignment is to make sure that the pupils don't just present some facts about the indigenous peoples, but that they also are able to discuss and reflect on how the lives of these peoples have changed after the Europeans discovered and colonoised their continents/countries. 
Here is the task: Indigenous Peoples - Presentation and Discussion. I have written about this here before, but felt the need for an easier version.

Oral Presentations Assessment Form + Criteria / Vuderingsskjema + Kriterier for Muntlige Presentasjoner

Click here for the new form that I have been using recently. To me this is better because this one is not so complicated, yet it covers all the criteria that I use to evaluate my students. I just highlight the part on the form that applies to the pupil.
I have started to write the criteria on the task itself. Here is one example:

Criteria for Evaluation: You will be evaluated on the content of your presentation, and how it is communicated (if your points/ideas come across, if you connect with the audience). It is important that you not only present a topic, but you also discuss it. Some ways to do this could be to talk about advantages and disadvantages, causes and consequences etc. Your language and the structure of the presentation will also be assessed (introduction, conclusion and the transitions between the different topics). Make sure you don't just announce the slide with one word, but use a sentence. For example, "As far as the festivals go etc. instead of saying "festivals"". There needs to be a clear thesis statement which declares the main point or controlling idea of your presentation. You will also be evaluated on how you use your sources so remember to use and refer to your sources in a proper way.

Length of presentation: The presentation should last 5-7 minutes or more if you are working alone and about 10 minutes or more if you are working in pairs. If working in pairs, both parties need to speak equally.

Make sure you make a power point.

Script: You will also turn in your script i.e. all you have talked about in the presentation with clear description of who worked on what.

Oral Presentations - International news topic or a current event

According to the syllabus issued by the The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, Upper Secondary School pupils taking the course International English need to:

 - present and discuss international news topics and current events

In order to work with this aim, I have created the following task. You can see the file here:

Et av de kompetansemålene på engelsk som fellesfag er at elevene må kunne:

- presentere og diskutere internasjonale nyheter og aktuelle hendelser

Her er en oppgave jeg har laget for å jobbe med kompetansemålet. 

Working with the novel "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

One of the books my pupils read and work with is "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. It is the story of a fourteen year old girl Lily who is looking for her mother. Set in South Carolina in 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was passed with an aim to end the segregation policies between blacks and whites, this book touches on racism and how Lily has to confront her own prejudices. This is an excellent book and highly recommended both for International English, Literature and Culture, Vocational Classes and Students taking general studies (Studiespesialiserende). The plot is well developed and not all is revealed right away and the reader has to read on to get answer to all the secrets of the plot. 
       For evaluation purposes, I usually have an oral conversation with my pupils (one on one) for 15 minutes. I really feel that this helps me assess their English speaking skills thoroughly. To work with this task, they get a few questions to work on as they read the book and also a list of questions they will have to answer when I evaluate them. Here  is a link to a file where you will find the competence aims this task covers, questions that the pupils get for working with the book etc. Here are the Assessment Criteria/Form. I hand out this form to the pupils since all the criteria are there as well. Here is a link to the power point on Analysis and here is one for Literary Devices. Let me know if you want any of these files in word if you want to modify them etc. and I will email them to you :-)

While I have these conversations, the other pupils usually work with Folder Activities or Mappekrav. I wrote about this here earlier.

Working with the novel "Holes" by Louis Sachar

One of the books my pupils read and work with is "Holes" which is an excellent book by Louis Sachar. It is short, the language is easy which works really well for ESL learners. The plot is well developed and there are actually three narratives which are interconnected and they all come together in the end. My students often have this aha moment when they realise how the different stories in the book are related.
For evaluation purposes, I usually have an oral conversation with my pupils (one on one) for 15 minutes. I really feel that this helps me assess their English speaking skills thoroughly. To work with this task, they get a few questions to work on as they read the book and also a list of questions they will have to answer when I evaluate them. Here is a link to a file where you will find the competence aims this task covers, questions that the pupils get for working with the book etc. Here are the Assessment Criteria/Form. I hand out this form to the pupils since all the criteria are there as well. Here is a link to the power point on Analysis and here is one for Literary Devices. Let me know if you want any of these files in word if you want to modify them etc. and I will email them to you :-)

While I have these conversations, the other pupils usually work with Folder Activities or Mappekrav. I wrote about this here earlier.