Everyday life in an American town

For a couple of weeks, you will learn a lot about a small town somewhere in America.

Teaching in English should essentially give pupils the opportunities to develop their ability to:

• understand and interpret the content of spoken English and in different types of texts,
• express themselves and communicate in speech and writing,
• use language strategies to understand and make themselves understood,
• adapt language for different purposes, recipients and contexts, and
• reflect on living conditions, social and cultural phenomena in different contexts and parts of the world where English is used. 

Content

You’re going to “adopt” a small town (no more than 7000 residents) in America. You'll find the instructions down below.

Mandatory assignments – find out the following:

• How the nature that surrounds your town look like - farmlands, forests, industries, mountains, lakes, rivers, plains, prairie etc.
• How many people live in the town 
• How people live – farms, apartments, houses, large villas etc.
• If there’s a sports team
• What the town's newspaper is called
• How the town is governed – mayor, governor or in another way
• How many schools there are and of what kind – elementary, high school, college…

 

If you’re aiming for a higher grade, I also want you to find out and do the following assignments:

• Choose an elementary school and check how many students go there, what subjects they take etc.
• Read the local newspaper online each day for a week and take notes of the most important events
• Look at the main street and find out what’s going on there and what stores you can find
• Find out if the town has an interesting history – it could be from the civil war, about the native Americas or something else.

Assignment

Use the information you have gathered and prepare a 5-10 minute long presentation. You can choose to make a PowerPoint presentation or a movie using any programme.

When you gather information about your town don't forget to use Google Earth to get as good a view as possible over the surroundings. You may save screenshots over places you find especially interesting, for example, the main street, the school, parks etc. Make sure to only use allowed or official pictures.

Search YouTube for videos from your town.

Compare your town with Skutskär, Älvkarleby or Gävle and write down your thoughts about the differences and similarities, for example, the school system, everyday life, economy and health care. 

You're also going to write a Letter of Introduction and e-mail it to the city's mayor, police chief, the principal or another person in a leading position. In the letter, you are supposed to tell a little about yourself and the project you're working on. Take the opportunity to ask questions in the letter and use the answers you get in your presentation. 

Assessment

I'm going to assess your ability to:

• compile fact and information
• adapt your language to the receiver
• tell and describe in English
• analyze how it is to live where you actually live and compared it to your American town
• be critical of the sources

Timetable

Week 6
Decide on which town you want to learn more, use Google, Google Earth or any other way.

Week 7-8
Gather information about your town. You can choose to do only the mandatory assignments or if you want to do the extra ones as well.
Don't forget to look for videos on Youtube from/about your town and to use Google Earth to find pictures/views from your town that you can use in your presentation later. 

Week 10
Write your Letter of Introduction to the city's mayor, police chief, the principal or another person in a leading position.
I want the opportunity to read it so make sure to leave it in our shared folder on your OneDrive.

Week 11
Test week (to give the recipients of your letters the chance to respond to them)

Week 12-13
Prepare your presentation in class and at home. You can choose to make a PowerPoint presentation or a movie. 

Week 15
Time to present your presentations.You can choose to do so in front of the whole class or just a few of your classmates. 

Week 15 or 16
Compare your town to Älvkarleby, Skutskär or Gävle. Write down notes to help you remember when you discuss it with a couple of your classmates.