proff. Avellone e D’Agati

Arable Farming in Medieval England

1. What we are speaking about and why.

2. Lexicon development on Arable Farming (first part).

3. Active and collaborative learning: what was the Open field system?

4. Lexicon development on agriculture farming (second part).

5. How did OFS work? (Active learning).

6. Open Field System’s advantages and disadvantages.

7. Revision activity after each stage and general revision at the end.

WALKING THROUGH THE COUNTRY:

lexicon development

Introducing new lexicon about medieval and modern English arable farming.

Improving reading, speaking, listening.

Methodology:

Cooperative learning

Eliciting

A field is an area of grass, for example in a park or on a farm. A field is also an area of land on which a crop is grown

STRIP: a long and narrow piece of land

HEDGE: A line of low trees or bushes planted to form a barrier or to mark the borders of an area

Pasture is land with grass growing on it for farm animals to eat.

LIVESTOCK: animals, such as cows and sheep, and pigs kept

on a farm.

TO GRAZE: to eat grass growing in a field .

Boundary: line that marks a limit

FENCE: a structure made of wood or wire that surrounds an

area of land.

SOIL: the substance on the surface of the Earth in which

plants grow.

Revision activity: MATCHING

STRIPS

TO GRAZE

FIELD

SOIL

BOUNDARY

FENCE

PASTURE

LIVESTOCKS

HEDGE

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

• A

• B

• C

• D

• E

• F

• G

• H

• I

Revision activity

STRIPS TO GRAZE

FIELD

SOIL BOUNDARY FENCE

PASTURE LIVESTOCKS

HEDGE

DRAWING ACTIVITY

Activity

1.Students are requested to draw a map using

the information included in the following text.

2.Students ' drawings are compared with an

image provided by the teacher.

3.Discussion and revision

In the open field system the land around a village was

divided into three huge open fields. The fields were

subdivided into strips. Each strip of land in each

field was owned by an individual landowner (or rented),

although the boundaries were not marked by hedges or

fences. The village was placed centrally from where

farmers could access their strips more easily. In the

open-field system, the peasants owned strips that were

scattered among different fields. In addition to the

three fields, there were large common lands where the

animals could graze. Wood for burning and building

could also be taken from the common land.

The Open field system: Listening and reading activity

AN EXAMPLE

WALKING THROUGH THE COUNTRY: (second part):

lexicon development

Vegetables grown in large quantities for food

WHEAT: a tall plant that produces grain for making bread and other foods

Barley is a grain that is used to make food, beer, and whisky.

Rye: a plant used for making a kind of dark bread

PEA: a spherical green seed eaten as a vegetable

BEAN: an edible kidney-shaped seed growing in long pods on certain leguminous plants.

Fallow: land which has been dug or ploughed, but does not

have crops growing on it.

TO SOW: to plant seeds in the ground.

The harvest is the gathering of a crop.

CLOVER: a small plant with leaves that have three ro und parts

Revision activity

CLOVER

HARVEST

CROPS

FALLOW

RYE

WHEAT

BARLEY

Beans

PEAS

Finding out how the open field system worked

reading activity

In pairs complete task two: a) new lexicon b) reading a short text c) checking understanding: fill in a chart d) fill in a form Methodology: Cooperative learning

How OFS worked reading activity

Classic open field farming was characterized by the rotation of crops between three fields. Crops rotation was completed in three years. In each year, two fields were growing crops, while the third field was left empty, or 'fallow'. Rotation and fallow periods improved the fertility of the soil. The main crops were wheat and rye (sown in the winter), and barley, beans, peas (sown in the spring, and known as 'spring corn') and clover. Spring crops were also used to feed animals over the winter.

Activity: decide which fields have to be cultivated and

sow the right crop in the right season.

Field one

Field one

Field one

Field two

Field two

Field two

Field three

Field three

Field three

YEAR

1

YEAR

2

YEAR

3

Winter/SPring

Winter/Spring

winter/ spring

Complete the following chart: lexicon consolidation

Fields

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

1

Field one

Wheat (winter)

Spring

? ?

2

Field two

Fallow

?

?

3

Field three

?

?

?

How Open fields worked (reading activity)

Read the following text:

Villagers farmed together and received a part of the harvest depending on how many strips they owned.

Everybody was required to sow and harvest crops in a particular field within a specified period of time. Open

field system was a communally managed system of farming but it was not a communist society (a society

without private property).

You are a peasant. Would you please mind filling in this information sheet for

the forthcoming generation of students?

Name …...............................................

Age.......................................

Village....................................

Are you allowed to get more than one strip? …………… ………………

Do you farm alone?.........................................................................

Why is your neighbour getting richer than you? .......................................

Are you free to sow what you like?......................

Can you decide which field to farm?.... ........................

Are you allowed to use the common land?……………

What were the main advantages and disadvantages of the OFS?

1.Matching activity (in group of three)

2. Activity about advantages and disadvantages of OPF

3.Checking the answers

4.Final discussion with the teacher

What were the main OPF advantages and

disadvantages of the OFS? Reading, speaking, listening

activity

A. It allowed a fair share of good and poorer soils.

B. Peasants were not motivated to increase the production

C. Villagers supported each other

D. Common land provided every member of the village with significant resources

E. It was environmentally friendly – close to nature.

F. The peasants could survive even though they owned a few strips

G. It did not allow experimentation

H. It was a waste of land – each year one field was left fallow.

I. It was a co-operative system, encouraging sharing of oxen and ploughs.

Advantages Disadvantages

Revision activity

1. Final revision: individual (fill in the gaps in a text)

2. Final discussion with the teacher

Revision activity: fill in the gaps using the following words. Look out for two intruders!

Wood Common land(x2) Soil Strips Graze

Field(x2) Hedges Rented Wheat Crops

The Open ……….. system had survived for hundreds of years, perhaps longer, which is testimony to its success in many ways.

In the Open ………system the land around a village was divided

into three open fields, which were divided into ………; between each

of them there were no……. or fences .

Members of the village owned or ……several strips in each field.

No matter how many or how few strips they had, they shared

the good and poor ….. .

Around the village and beyond the three main fields , there was also

…………… , where cattle could ………….. . ………. for burning

and building could be taken from the ………………

I:/CLIL Colleghi/clil pattern sinthesis.html

Cosa è cambiato dalla nostra precedente sperimentazione?

• La lingua madre può essere utilizzata se aiuta l’apprendimento.

• Maggiore attenzione al coinvolgimento intellettuale e motivazionale

degli alunni (eliciting).

• Maggiore attenzione alla gradualità con cui le informazioni sono

presentate agli alunni (scaffolding).

• Maggiore attenzione ai tempi di apprendimento degli

alunni.(revision).

• Maggiore spazio alla dimensione linguistica.

• Maggiore attenzione alla progettazione di student centred oriented

lessons.

• Maggiore attenzione alla creazione di ambienti di apprendimento

attivo (active learning).

Cosa è rimasto immutato

• L’assoluto scetticismo nei confronti dell’introduzione del CLIL soltanto all’ultimo anno della scuola s.s.

• L’idea che il lavoro di gruppo consenta agli alunni di lavorare attivamente e con maggiore motivazione.

• La certezza che solo una buona preparazione linguistica del docente e degli alunni consentono una seria e non superficiale trattazione degli argomenti storici.

• Il dubbio che davvero “Less is more!.”

• La certezza che la metodologia CLIL possa aiutarci a svecchiare alcuni aspetti della prassi didattica, indipendentemente dalla lingua utilizzata.

• La certezza che la metodologia CLIL possa spingerci a collaborare maggiormente tra di noi.

• La certezza che il CLIL rende più evidente il conflitto, tipicamente italiano, tra una scuola che continua a mirare alle conoscenze e una che

vorrebbe lavorare sulle competenze.

Thank you for the attention .