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Lesson Plans
BC Post-Secondary Terminology - What Do Those Words Mean !
Goal: To use the Education Planner website to gain an understanding of common post-secondary education terminology
Objective: Using the Education Planner website, learners will be able to locate the glossary of terms in Education Planner and define 5 - 10 words used in post-secondary educational planning.
Resources:
- computer access to the internet using Education Planner www.educationplanner.ca
- flip chart paper and coloured markers
- small note size pieces of paper or post-it notes
- space for small group work
Introduction to the Lesson: (Suggested Facilitator's Comment)
Many times we go to look at post-secondary program information and we come across words and terminology that we do not use in our every day life. For example co-requisite, post-diploma, prior learning assessment, or discipline. And then there is all the acronyms - CRNBC, TOEFL, PASBC ,EMAT etc. You almost feel like you have to learn another language just to plan your education.
Pre Assessment: ( Facilitators may wish to explore the following questions)
- How many of you know what I am talking about?
- Does any one have an example of a term that they have come across or that they have heard people using in reference to post-secondary education that you would like to share?
- Why would knowing what some of the terminology means help you?
Activities:
1. Building Vocabulary Together:
Step One : Ask each leaner to spend 10-15 minutes in the glossary section of Education Planner and ask them to record the definitions of three words that they find interesting.
Step Two: Arrange a think-pair-share (two students come together to share with each other the words and definitions they collected.) As a pair ask them to remove any duplicate words they might have.
Step Three: Have each pair join another pair - (to make a group of four). Have the group of four remove any duplicate words and exchange definitions.
Step Four: Ask the groups of four to form groups of eight and share their words as in step three.
Step Five: Continue until the class is divided into two large groups and then ask one person from each group to record the group's words on a flip chart to remain posted in the room for future reference.
2. The Vocabulary Interactive Class Challenge:
If the learners are skilled using computers and enjoy creating their own computer games, try having the learners create their own online crossword puzzle or quiz using the terminology in the Education Planner glossary and then challenge each other with the games they create.
To do this you can use Hot Potatoes http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/ The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make their pages available on the web. Other users must pay for a licence. Check out the Hot Potatoes licensing terms and pricing on the Half-Baked Software Website.
You can also have the learners do this activity as a paper and pencil exercise.
Summary - Future Learning
Once the learning activity has been completed hand each learner a small slip of paper and have them write a new word that they learned during the activity. Under the word have them write a prediction of where they might find this word used again when doing their educational planning. For example, they might want to predict what type of program or what type of institution might use a word such as practica. Have the students post their predictions on a piece of flip chart paper and then over the next couple of weeks, as the they are doing their educational planning, see how many actually find their words where expected.
Closure
Remind the class that as they begin their educational planning they now have the following resources to use:
- the glossary on the Education Planner site,
- the flip chart posted in the room, and
- each other (to ask questions).
BC Secondary School
Planning 10
Organizer : Education and Careers
Sub-Organizer : Post-Secondary Education and Training