Weathei Repoits

I. Rationale
At the enu of the weathei unit theii enuing pioject is to cieate a viueo with a week
of theii weathei iepoits. Foi this pioject, paiis of stuuents woik togethei. Each uay
they go outsiue anu must analyze the weathei foi the uay. They must incluue what
the tempeiatuie is, what kinus of clouus they see, anu they must use a baiometei to
measuie the atmospheiic piessuie. The stuuents must use weathei specific woius
that they have leaineu ovei the couise of the unit. They must incluue at least S
weathei specific woius in theii iepoit. The auuience foi the iepoit is the village of
Kasigluk. The stuuents woik togethei to wiite a sciipt that contains all the
necessaiy pieces anu have a checklist to help them make suie that they meet all of
the iequiiements. They then take tuins giving a uaily iepoit of the weathei. At the
enu of the week the paiis of stuuents woik togethei to cieate an iNovie of theii
weathei iepoits.

This activity suppoits language uevelopment thiough a.) Task-baseu Language
Teaching anu b.) 0utput.

a. Task-baseu language teaching
i. In making activities foi stuuents to complete it is impoitant to make tasks
that focus on the stanuaius that we aie tiying to teach, but these tasks
shoulu also help stuuents uevelop theii L2. "TBLT offeis the oppoitunity
foi 'natuial' leaining insiue the classioom (Ellis, 2uu9)". "Tasks aie
uefineu as activities that can stanu alone as funuamental units anu that
iequiie compiehenuing, piouucing, manipulating, oi inteiacting in
authentic language while attention is piincipally paiu to meaning iathei
than foim (0xfoiu, 2uu1)". As instiuctois we aie always looking foi ways
to ieinfoice oui stuuents' language leaining anu TBLT allows us to uo
that thiough a vaiiety of subjects anu lessons.

b. 0utput
i. It is not enough foi stuuents just to have compiehensible input, but in
oiuei foi them to meet goals they neeu to have output. "To piouuce,
leaineis neeu to uo something. They neeu to cieate linguistic foim anu
meaning, anu in so uoing, uiscovei what they can anu cannot uo. (Swain)"
When stuuents aie engageu in piouucing language "they must pay moie
attention to how meaning is expiesseu thiough language than they
oiuinaiily uo foi the compiehension of language (Lightbown & Spaua,
2u1S)."

II. Besciiption

a. Pie-task

This activity is the culmination of theii weathei unit. Befoie this
activity, stuuents neeu to have lessons on clouus, how to ieau
theimometei, how to ieau a baiometei anu what it means, anu what a
weathei iepoit sounus like.

b. Task cycle

Buiing this activity stuuents will neeu to woik in paiis. Explain that
they will neeu to use all of the knowleuge that they have leaineu ovei
the past few weeks to cieate weathei iepoits that will be maue into
an iNovie.

The stuuents will neeu to use the following sheet (locateu at the enu
of this uocument) each uay to help them with theii iepoit. The
stuuents will neeu to woik with theii paitnei each uay to fill out the
sheet. Explain that each paii must fill out only 1 sheet, but they neeu
to uo each of the ieauings togethei anu uiscuss the answei. Foi
example, each stuuent must ieau the theimometei then they must
come to a consensus on the answei. Explain that foi each question
they neeu to come to a consensus.

When they have finisheu questions 1 thiough S then stuuents must
woik togethei to wiite theii weathei iepoit. They can use the
example to help them. When they have finisheu wiiting theii weathei
iepoit, have the stuuents piactice ieauing it at least S times. When
the stuuents aie uone piacticing, have them iecoiu themselves using
an iPau. When they aie uone iecoiuing have them watch theii viueo
to make suie they aie happy with it. If they neeu to ieiecoiu until
they aie happy with the enu piouuct, because at the enu of the week
they will take all of theii viueos to make an iNovie.

III. Reflection

The stuuents anu I both ieally enjoy this unit. I usually tiy to enu the
weathei unit iight befoie stanuaiuizeu testing, because this is a nice activity
to uo to get them out of the school. I also like to uo this activity because it
ieally gets the kius talking anu thinking about theii language. I also love
heaiing how uesciiptive the stuuents can get when they stait uesciibing the
weathei anu explaining what to weai. The stuuents ieally make an effoit to
make compiehensible output on what they leaineu. I think in the futuie I
will give them sentence stems to help them at the beginning of the week with
getting useu to how to wiite weathei iepoits anu slowly stait to take them
away as the week goes on. This activity is also a gieat task-baseu activity
because it ieally pushes the kius to use acauemic language in a way the
makes sense to them anu theii auuience.



Baily Weathei }ouinal

1. Tempeiatuie Reauing ___________________________________
2. Baiometei Reauing _______________________________________
S. Clouus seen _________________________________________________
4. Woius to uesciibe the weathei (Winuy, Rainy, clouuy, etc..)
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
S. What people shoulu weai foi touay's weathei
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Example weathei iepoit:
Touay is Nonuay, Apiil 7
th
, 2u14. It is a biight, sunny uay with a tempeiatuie
of S4 uegiees Faienheight. Nake suie youi weai a light coat touay because theie is
a stiong winu coming fiom the Noith. Also make suie you take time to see all of the
beautiful cumulus clouus in the sky.



Weathei Repoit


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!"#$"%&'()*+

Ellis, R. (2uu9). Task-baseu language teaching: soiting out the misunueistanuings.
!"#$%"&#'("&) +(,%"&) (- .//)'$0 1'"2,'3#'43 5 67 (S), 221-246.

Lightbown, P. N., & Spaua, N. (2u1S). 8(9 1&"2,&2$3 &%$ 1$&%"$0 (4th Euition eu.).
0xfoiu: 0xfoiu 0niveisity Piess.

0xfoiu, R. (2uu1). Integiateu Skills in the ESLEFL Classioom. :;1 <&2&='"$ 5 > (1),
1-2.

Swain, N. The 0utput Bypothesis anu Beyonu: Neuiating Acquisition thiough
Collaboiative Bialogue. In }. P. Lantolf, ;(4'(4,)#,%&) ?@$(%A &"0 ;$4("0
1&"2,&2$ 1$&%"'"2B 0xfoiu: 0xfoiu 0niveisity Piess.