MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

Lesson Plan - Create a Country

 

 

Name: Clint MacPhee               Date: April 14, 2008            Time: 90 - 120 minutes

 

Topic: Create a Country            Level: Intermediate            # of Students: minimum: 15

 

 

Things to Consider

    -before doing this lesson, students should have studied the related grammar points

      -these grammar points will be mentioned in the Activate section of this lesson plan

 

Materials

    resource cards, sketch paper, markers, animal chart, animal worksheet, development worksheet,country     info cards, instruction cards

 

 

Aims

    Students will be able to use the 8 intelligences: linguistic, logical, visual, musical, bodily, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist to complete a task based learning activity.  Students must work in "intelligence groups" to contribute to the final product.

 

Engage

Explain to students that you are going to work together to: create a new country!  For older or more advanced students, you can brainstorm some characteristics of a country and isolate important vocabulary on the board (semantic mapping).  The characteristics that will be focused on in this activity are: resources, flag, national anthem, gestures, laws, and wildlife.

For younger or lower level students, you may need to bring in a model of a country you have created to illustrate what you expect from the students.

 

Activate

Each group will have approximately 15 members.  If your class has this many students, they will all work together to create one country.  However, if you have a larger group (maybe 30 or 45 students), you can have 2 or 3 groups each creating their own country.  Remember, these numbers are flexible so you can experiment to see what works for you.

Tell the students that their group will split up into 6 mini-groups.  You should also mention that after 30 minutes, they will have to rejoin their big group and get ready to present their new country to the teacher and the rest of the class.  At this point you should hand out the country info sheet(s) to each big group.   These info sheets contain: the name of the new country, a picture, and some other information like weather and resources.  These sheets will give your students a basic idea of what their new country is like.  GOHTZA.doc    TOSCA.doc   SAMAN.doc   NUMARA.doc  KHENT.doc   UHRA.doc

(If you have a small class, for example 15 students, you will only be creating one country.  If this is the case, use KHENT)

 

All of the mini-groups will work simultaneously to create the country from their country info sheet.  After your students have looked at their country info sheet, split them up into the following mini groups:

 

Mini Group 1: Make a Flag (Visual Intelligence)

 

-ideally, this group should have 2 students

-give these students the make a flag instruction sheet, a piece of sketch paper, and some markers

MAKE A FLAG.doc

-remind these students that they must work together to create a flag for their new country.  The flag should reveal some information about the country. 

-If you have a few students with high visual intelligence, they should be placed into this group

 

Mini Group 2: Make a National Anthem (Musical Intelligence)

-ideally, this group should have 2 - 3 students

-give these students the make a national anthem instruction sheet and a blank piece of paper (and a tambourine or drum if you think that they won't be too noisy!)

MAKE A NATIONAL ANTHEM.doc

-remind these students that they must create a short national anthem for their country with a simple melody

-If you have a few students with high musical intelligence, they should be placed into this group

 

Mini Group 3: Make the Laws (Intrapersonal Intelligence)

-ideally, this group should have 2 students

-give these students the make the laws worksheet

MAKE THE LAWS.doc

-remind these students that they should make laws that they think are important for their new country

-grammar note: students should have learned 'must' or 'have to' modals before attempting this activity

-If you have a few students with high intrapersonal intelligence, they should be placed into this group

 

Mini Group 4: Wildlife (Naturalist Intelligence)

-ideally, this group should have 2 students

-give these students the wildlife picture sheet and the animal checklist worksheet

wildlife pic sheet.doc        animal checklist worksheet.doc

-remind these students that they should pick 10 animals to live in their new country, and that they need to pick a national animal that represents their country as well

-if you like, you could get the students to draw their national animal as well on a piece of sketch paper (optional)

-If you have a few students with high naturalist intelligence, they should be placed into this group

 

Mini Group 5: Make the Gestures (Bodily Intelligence)

-ideally, this group should have 2 students

-give these students the make the gestures worksheet

MAKE THE GESTURES.doc

-remind these students that they should create original gestures and practice acting them out

-If you have a few students with high bodily intelligence, they should be placed into this group

 

Mini Group 6: Resources (Interpersonal and Logical Intelligences)

-ideally, this group should have 3 - 4 students

-before class, you should prepare these resource cards (print them out and laminate them if possible)

wheat cards   sheep cards   ore cards   brick cards   wood cards

-now, cut out these cards and put them in a bag for each country.  Below is the information for what cards each country gets:

 

 

Ghotza - 13 brick cards, 3 ore cards, 3 sheep cards, 3 wheat cards, 3 wood cards

Tosca - 13 wood cards, 3 brick cards, 3 ore cards, 3 sheep cards, 3 wheat cards

Saman - 13 sheep cards, 3 brick cards, 3 ore cards, 3 wheat cards, 3 wood cards

Uhra - 13 ore cards, 3 brick cards, 3 sheep cards, 3 wheat cards, 3 wood cards

Numara - 13 wheat cards, 3 brick cards, 3 ore cards, 3 sheep cards, 3 wood cards

Khent - 5 brick cards, 5 ore cards, 5 sheep cards, 5 wheat cards, 5 wood cards

 

So, each country gets a total of 25 cards.  If you have a small class (around 15 students) and you are only creating one country, use Khent.  Khent has an equal number of all cards.

-give these students their bag of resource cards and the development worksheet

DEVELOPMENT WORKSHEET.doc

-remind this group that they have to use their resource cards to make things for their country (cities, towns, highways, and technology)

-if the students want different cards, they can trade with another country

-grammar note: students should have learned how to make requests and offers with 'can' or 'may' modals before attempting this activity

-again, if you have a small class and are using only Khent, there will be no trading (or, if you like, you can make some cards for yourself and trade with the students)

-If you have a few students with high interpersonal or logical intelligence, they should be placed into this group

 

 

Okay!  So you've split up all the students into their mini-groups.  The next 30 minutes will be pretty chaotic.  Walk around and try to keep the students focused on what they need to do.  If you like, you can pick some of your more responsible students to be captains for each group. 

 

Feedback

-once all of the mini-groups have finished their work, tell the students that they have 5 minutes to get together with their big group and organize their country

-after 5 minutes, pick a country to come up to the front of the class and present their work.  This part of the activity is a lot of fun and the students enjoy showing off what they have created.

-after the presentations are finished, you can put the students' work up on the walls if you like

 

As I mentioned in my special lecture, the goal of this lesson plan is to test the multiple intelligences of your students in a giant task based activity.  If you'd like to evaluate them on their work, you will have to consider what each mini-group should be evaluated on.  For example, you might evaluate the national anthem mini group on creativity and pronunciation, etc.

 

You might have noticed that their is no mini group for linguistic intelligence.  That is because all of the students are using a 2nd language, so they are all using linguistic intelligence while they work. 

 

Best of luck.  I hope you can use this in your classes!

 

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