This is a great starter activity to get children hooked into writing and learning how to appreciate and be involved in other cultures from across the globe. Students use an iPad app to see a panorama from somewhere in the world and can write whatever they like. Read on to find out more…

• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features (ACELY1694)
• Understand how noun groups/phrases and adjective groups/phrases can be expanded in a variety of ways to provide a fuller description of the person, place, thing or idea (ACELA1508)
• Explain sequences of images in print texts and compare these to the ways hyperlinked digital texts are organised, explaining their effect on viewers’ interpretations (ACELA1511)
• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1704)
• Investigate how vocabulary choices, including evaluative language can express shades of meaning, feeling and opinion (ACELA1525)
• Reflect on ideas and opinions about characters, settings and events in literary texts, identifying areas of agreement and difference with others and justifying a point of view (ACELT1620)

1. Explain to the children that today for writing we are going to find out some more about other countries and then write whatever we want about that country.
2. Model using the iPad app ‘TOURWRIST’ by pulling up a panorama of somewhere in the world.
3. Now model what you could do as a writer about the scene that you have just witnessed. For example, you could be looking at the Eiffel Tower which may create the thought of ‘How did I get here?’ Then you begin a mystery. Another example might be the Pyramids of Giza, where you could say something like ‘We were about to begin the next part of our adventure’. The boundaries really don’t exist. It may be as simple as working on adjectives and the children describe what it is that they see.

1. Now that the children have the idea of what is required of them, ask them to use TourWrist to get a cultural picture of somewhere in the world.
2. Ask them to list down some of the things that they see in their writing books. (This could include landscapes, buildings, significant landmarks and more)
3. Once they have an understanding of the country, ask the students to now write about whatever they want using 1 of the panoramas that they have seen.
4. Of course, you would set your own goals and criteria before they go, but it’s not really a necessity as this lesson is about culture and getting kids to write.

Conclusion:

1. When finished their writing (or after a solid block of time), ask all children to come back to the floor.
2. Ask them to show their panoramas, tell the rest of the class what they feel life is like in that country and then get them to read what they have written.
3. Ask the other students to give a rating out of 10 for how well the student captured the culture of the country.

 

Assessment:

• Collect work samples for moderated assessment.
• Use success criteria for students to self-assess themselves at the end of the lesson.

Resources:

• iPads (1 between 2 or 1 each if you have enough)
• TourWrist App available from the iTunes Store
• Pens/Pencils
• Writing Books

 

Here are some samples of panoramas that you could use:

 

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