English I Cultural Unit Gets Real, Virtually

Written by Monica Champagne

What is the best way to learn about other cultures? When our English I team asked themselves this question, team member Jessica Lynch suggested that they immerse their learners in the cultural environments virtually through Google Expeditions.

Google Expeditions is a virtual reality teaching tool that lets you lead or join immersive virtual trips all over the world — get up close with historical landmarks, dive underwater with sharks, even visit outer space!

I reflected on the lesson with our English I team lead, Ashton Wright. This is Ashton's second year teaching English I and her first experience with Expeditions.

Tell me about the overall design of the lesson.

Ashton: I did a practice expedition with all of my classes. I was the guide and they all followed.  Some of them even brought their own virtual reality goggles. That was really cool.  After I lead them through an expedition, I showed them how to be guides. Then, with their groups they had different roles, such as leader/recorder. They were then able to conduct research through the Expedition to help them get some preliminary information on their chosen culture. If they didn't find an Expedition that was exactly what they were looking for, they were all able to find something close. This gave them an opportunity to see the cultural experiences in a more realistic way instead of just reading about them. Learners then lead their group or the whole class through the Expedition.

What surprised you about the lesson?

Ashton: I was surprised by how much they enjoyed it and the increased number of engaged learners. Sometimes when we introduce new things, for them it is just still a checklist, but they seemed to get involved and it wasn't just about getting the assignment done. They took their time and explored and got into sharing the information with their peers and not just scanning through to find all of the information.

I know sometimes when learners are this excited about a new tool, it can be hard to get their attention when you need it. What kind of classroom management strategies did you need to incorporate?

Ashton: When we would first begin a new scene in the Expedition, I would give them time to explore around and see everything before I started sharing information. We also incorporate the "Apples Up" method which works very well with my classes. It was also helpful to have specific "look fors". In this case, they were looking for specific cultural elements such as norms, language, value, and symbol. We still did this through text, but having them search through Expeditions gave us another way to do this that is hands on and different than what we normally do in the classroom.

What Expeditions are you excited about conducting in the future?

Ashton: Shakespeare's Globe Theater and Civil Rights Museums!

Resources

Google Expeditions has a huge library of resources to address every content area. Check out this ThinkLink below to learn more, explore resource, and complete practice challenges of your own. 

This isn't my first time to write about Expeditions. Read here about how I used it with my class and their Challenge Based Learning Project.

What's Next?

One of the highlights from my week was seeing my teammate, Sam Neal, pilot Google Expedition's upcoming Augmented Reality Tours with her learners. I was given the chance to preview secondary content and can't wait to share more with you when the tours are released. Read more about Expeditions AR Pioneer Program here.

I really enjoyed working with the English I team on this project. If you are interested in designing a lesson that integrates Google Expeditions, feel free to leave a comment below.

Keep the conversation going. Comment below or on this Flipgrid to share how you have or would like to use Google Expeditions in your classroom.