- intermediate activity 1
TRANSCRIPT
Plague Inc. - Intermediate Activity 1
News Reporting: Tweeting the Spread of Disease
The purpose of this activity is to help intermediate learners summarize a series of events and utilize vocabulary dealing with science, health, and global health factors. By engaging in this activity, learners will be able to coherently and efficiently summarize a series of events when faced with the spacial constraints of Twitter, a popular social media platform.
Objectives
Learners will be able to:
● Appropriately use vocabulary dealing with science, health, and global health factors
● Create with language by summarizing a series of events coherently and efficiently
● Understand and interact within the communicative norms of the target social media platform
Modes: Presentational Writing, Interpretive Reading
Resources: Intermediate Activity 1 Vocabulary Sheet, Intermediate Activity 1 Notes Handout, Intermediate Activity 1 Twitter Handle Documentation Sheet, Plague Inc. app, access to Twitter
Procedure
1. Expose learners to vocabulary dealing with health, science, and global health concerns by exploring Twitter, ideally in the target language. Help learners to negotiate unknown words through use of context and identification of cognates and linguistic patterns. During this discussion, learners should begin to build their own science and health vocabulary list on the Intermediate Activity 1 Vocabulary Sheet.
2. Introduce learners to live tweeting by exposing them to a health care conference with a hashtag. An example is the 2015 World APA Conference (#EAPA2015).
3. After reviewing the hashtags of the selected conference, lead a class discussion with the goal of creating a list of five to ten norms for good live tweeting. Use the Intermediate Activity 1 Twitter Handle Documentation Sheet to ensure that learners know one another’s Twitter
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Plague Inc. - Intermediate Activity 1
handles and have a hashtag to use when tweeting.
4. Allow learners to play Plague Inc. for twenty to thirty minutes. As learners play, they should add words to their vocabulary lists that they are able to discern with context, identification of cognates, and knowledge of linguistic patterns. Learners will also answer the focus questions provided on the Intermediate Activity 1 Notes Handout as they play.
5. After playing, allow learners to share their answers to the focus questions with the class by utilizing the Think, Pair, Share discussion format. The goal of this discussion is not to provide the learners with the correct answers to the focus questions, but rather to inspire continued thinking regarding the questions.
6. Next, randomly assign each learner to a country. The learners will play Plague Inc. again and must originate the plague in their assigned country.
7. As learners play, they must live tweet the spread of the disease from the perspective of their assigned countries. The live tweets should feature information regarding the source of the outbreak, the changing severity of the plague as it morphs, the changing mortality rate for persons infected with the disease, and requests for assistance from targeted partners. Learners should also respond to the tweets that they are tagged in.*
8. After completing the live tweeting activity, discuss the underlying causes of world health issues as revealed by Plague Inc. as a class. Use the focus questions from the Intermediate Activity 1 Notes Handout as your guide.
*To increase learner interest in the activity, the teacher may choose to live tweet as the plague spreads.
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Plague Inc. - Intermediate Activity 1
Center for Applied Second Language Studies
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The U.S. Department of Education Title VI, under grant #P229A140004, supports the development of Games2Teach. Contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education nor imply endorsement by the federal government.
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Intermediate Activity 1
Health, Science, and World Health Vocabulary
For this activity, you will create your own word list. The list will be created while we look at tweets dealing with world health and as you play Plague, Inc. Remember, as you look for unfamiliar words, think about using root words, knowledge of linguistic patterns, and context to negotiate meaning.
Word Definition or Drawing Something to help you to
remember the word (synonym, antonym, or other connection)
Intermediate Activity 1
Notes Sheet
Play Plague Inc. As you play, please add words that you are able to figure out with context, knowledge of linguistic patterns, and recognition of cognates to your word list. Also, please answer the questions below.
1. In which countries does the disease typically spread most rapidly? Why do you think that is? Does it have more to do with the socioeconomic status of the country or the genetic mutations that you have affected on your virus?
2. Which countries are most capable of stopping the spread of the disease? Why do you think that is?
3. What genetic mutations in the disease seem to be especially powerful? Why do you think that is?
Intermediate Activity 1
Twitter Handle Documentation
Hashtag: #
Student Twitter handle Country