Steps To Designing Web-based
Objectives and Lesson Overview
a Class Site
California Community College level 5/6 (lower intermediate) ESL students
from a variety of countries and language groups.
One computer connected to the
Internet for every student.
LCD projector and screen
Country Comparison Grid Sheet
(download a Word 2000 doc)
Time: 3 hours
(probably over the course of two classes)
If teacher feels it is necessary,
he or she can do a review of the superlative and comparative forms of adjectives.
This can be done using online resources (see the class site for more information).
Teacher and students discuss
the United States and go over new vocabulary. Teacher poses questions
to the class:
Class and teacher then go to
News Country Profiles site. Teacher or student volunteer demonstrates
how to navigate the site and gather the necessary geographical information
to answer the questions.
How big do you think the United
What’s the population of the
What are the major religions
in the U.S.?
What’s the average life expectancy
in the U.S.?
Class then brainstorms for all
the different countries represented in the classroom. They then fill
in the country names in Country Comparison Grid Sheet. The sheet
has the countries in the cells down the far left column and the different
information to be compared in the cells across the top row. Students
work in pairs to formulate the question they would have to ask to get the
information they need on the grid. As a class students fill in the
grid for the United States.
Students break into groups of
3 (preferably from different language groups). Students divide up
the countries and collect the information they need from the
ABC News Country Profiles site. Students interview each other
and fill in the information in the grid that their partners supply.
Groups work together to write
comparative and superlatives sentences about the countries in the class.
Students present their sentences to the class. Class discusses what
they have learned.
Now let's create the final
step in our lesson, a Web site that has all the links the students need
for the lesson. How do you create
a daily class Web site?