004 - Community Views

Activity One - Perceptions

Everyone has a different view on specific topics and it is interesting to discuss what they are. Some of you have some actual experience of living somewhere in the continent of Africa while others may have just seen what it can be like from films. Complete the following questions to find out what the class thinks about the continent of Africa.

• • 1. On an A4 whiteboard (or paper) write down all the words that you can think of that you associate with Africa.

    2. Share your words with the person next to you.

    3. Copy the table below and write in the left column all the words you have in common and then the ones that were different in the right column.

    4. Using highlighters and the use of a key, try and group the words that could be grouped together e.g. to do with culture, cities, landscape etc.

Activity Two - Survey

When collecting information it is important to think about sample sizes. One classes thouhts are perhaps too narrow but collating two classes views will give you a more accurate view of what Year 8s think about the continent of Africa. You are now going to share the first five words you thought of about Africa with another group (if this lesson is a cover lesson just use the words that have been collected in the past by clicking on the 'previous responses' and adding this classes thoughts to the results) . Before we do that there are few things to consider:

Discuss the following questions as a group

• • • How can we record the words easily?

    • Should we all go into that lesson to listen and share our words?

    • Is there another way we could share our thoughts that mean we don't have to disrupt another lesson?

    • Should we ask and record other information such as gender and nationality?

    • Should we ask for them to share the first five words they think of about another continent to help us compare responses?

    • What should we do with all the words when we get back to the classroom?

The ultimate aim is to create a visual summary of the results.

Activity Three - Results

Once you have all of the results in it is important to convert them into a visual image. Visual collections of data help the reader to see either patterns or trends more easily. The group will be divided up into pairs. One person in each pair will focus on the Africa responses and the other will focus on the responses for Europe.

• • 1. What were the most common words used? Count up the number of responses for each word.

    2. Produce a summary sheet for words with two or more responses.

    3. Using the graph paper provided, produce a bar chart diagram, for words with two or more responses.

    4. Using your graphs describe your findings. Remember to talk about the general pattern (use data) and then describe anything that stands out as odd.

    5. Would it have been better to only graph words that were mentioned three or more times? What about synonyms? Discuss

    6. What does the data tell us about the sample population's perceptions of Africa (and Europe)?

    7. Could the collection of data process be improved? e.g. should we have asked more people or students of different ages?.

How will I be assessed? Formative - this will help guide your overall achievement

You will be assessed using Criterion B - Investigating

Activity Four - Research and Read

We often rely on news articles to help us to formulate our opinions of different countries.

• • • Find two different news articles about Africa and make notes on what the main ideas are in each piece. Your notes can be in the form of bullet points or as a mind map.

    • Do remember to record the title of your article and the date it was published. This is going to help with the assessment below.

Activity Five - Summary

We are now going to bring all of your research and data collection together to formulate an answer to the question below. You will write an extended piece of writing outlining what you have found out about the diversity of Africa's culture and landscape. Use the class notes, graphs, and summary of the news articles that you made about Africa to help you fill in the table which will form the 'backbone' of your essay.

"How do we perceive Africa and what affects our perception?"

How will I be assessed? Formative - this will help guide your overall achievement.

You will be assessed on Criterion A - Knowing and understanding and Criterion C - Communicating