The first letters have given the
students a good insight into each other's personal background. Now, the school should
be introduced. Again, students will be given a questionnaire to help them
write their letters.
It may be a useful idea to go through
some of the questions together with the students. In this way, you will avoid
endless questions about the number of students at school, etc.
In the Words and Sentences part of
the pupil's page, a large number of school subjects is given. Point out
to the students which subjects apply to them and what they could tell about them.
Obviously, these subjects differ from country to country.
Make sure the
students give their personal
views of the school. Let them be frank and reveal their likes and dislikes.
It will give their partners a good insight into their personal opinion
on education and educators.
Keep in mind that there is a possibility
that students will give too many negative opinions about their school. If
this is not the type of information you would like to have conveyed to
the other school, you may find it necessary to discuss this beforehand - also
with your partner.
Freedom of speech should be allowed, but only to a certain degree.
Other ideas
A
After writing the letters
students can produce Webpages where they make a virtual tour
of their school
using photos and / or small vide oclips.
Starting
at the entrance of the school students can photograph / film several places at
school,
such as normal classrooms, special-subject room - Chemistry, Art, Music, ICT lessons
and so on - the library, the students' room, the canteen,
outdoor spaces, the playground, the gymnasium, etc. To create the Webpages they need the photos / films taken beforehand to
which they add descriptions of the places featured.
B
All the
mentioned work can also be done in word processor and saved as documents and
attached to the e-mails.
C
The
students can
also produce a video about their school (taken by a digital camera and sent via
e-mail or by a normal videocamera and sent via snail-mail).
D
As
a conclusion to this work and a challenge for their partners the students will
create an online multiple choice quiz of about 10 items. The questions asked in
the quiz are based on the
information provided in the virtual tour. This
information is also vital for the partners to successfully accomplish their
task.
The
"questions" in the quiz, depend on the information available, but they
can for instance include features such as:
-
the name of a special subject where something very
specific is done
-
guessing the correct origin of a small detail taken from one of the pictures
-
the number of students in a certain class
-
...