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Enchanted Learning: Inventors and Inventions

Details

Main Website:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html

Activity Website:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/indexa.shtml

Tech Product/Equipment:

Computer and projector, Mobile devices for students, Computer

Activity Description

Steam Locomotive - an old-fashioned image of a steam locomotive

Source: Pixabay by Dorothe - Darkmoon_Art (License: Creative Commons 1.0)

Intermediate and advanced students learn about inventions and inventors through jigsaw reading and follow up by writing a paragraph and/or making an oral presentation about an important invention or inventor.

Preparation

Make sure that the site is not blocked at your school. If it is, you may choose to print pages about select inventions. If not, preview the inventions and practice navigating through the site (see the right panel to the browsing options for the inventions) in order to be prepared to demo for students and anticipate problems.
To present the target grammar of present and past passive, download the Inventions - Present and Past Passive PowerPoint. Prepare a script to include the grammar forms as you go through the inventions and inventors in the preliminary slides. "It was invented by / it was discovered by..."
Download the Infinitives of Purpose handout and plan how you will use it, as desired, to teach these target structures. Print and photocopy for students, as desired.
Download the Inventions that Changed the World file (Example Document, above). Modify it and resave if you plan to use it as a prompt for the instructional and follow-up activities (paragraph and oral presentation). Print and photocopy for students, as desired.
Decide whether you will use a follow-up activity (paragraph and/or presentation) and prepare (a) model(s) for students to follow or download the Typewriter PowerPoint file (Example Document, above) which is a sample slideshow for an oral presentation on Inventions. You may instead to have students prepare visual aids using Google Slides. In that case, use this Sample Google Slideshow as a model, as desired, and students can copy this template.

Teacher Tips

The Enchanted Learning page on Inventors and Inventions has numerous resources searchable alphabetically, by type period, by theme (food, communication, clothing, fun, medicine, science/industry, transportation, and undersea), or by country. You may choose to focus on a particular country, such as the USA, or allow students to write and present about an important inventor or invention from their native countries.
Many sites, like this one, have advertising. Teach your students what ads look like and how to avoid selecting them since sometimes they contain malware that they will not want on their computers, at school or at home. It is a very important and necessary skill for them to know.

More Ways

Enchanted Learning offers Web and print curriculum materials, many without a subscription, appropriate for use with many levels of ESL on the subjects of holidays, states, maps, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, games, and much more. See the site index for a complete list.

Program Areas

ESL: English as a Second Language

Levels

Intermediate High
Advanced

View Lesson Plan

Warm-up

Engagement

Begin by introducing the topic of inventions by either showing some important inventions or by having students brainstorm and list in groups their top 10 important inventions. You may also use online timelines or slideshows, such as the following:

Introduction

Engagement

Tell students that they are going to practice listening, speaking, and reading to learn about and write and make a presentation about an invention of their choice.

Presentation

Engagement Enhancement

Introduce infinitives of purpose. Using some items in the classroom, ask what the items are used to do and what they were invented to do or not to do.

Distribute the Infinitives of Purpose handout and use it to teach about the forms and for student speaking and writing practice. Go over students' work.

Distribute the Present and Past Passive - Inventions Notetaking. Give students time to answer any questions they may know in Part I. Allow them to compare answers with a classmate and then tell the whole group.

Using the Inventions - Present and Past Passive PowerPoint, provide students with the answers and guide them to take notes on the target grammar form, present and past passive on the first part of the handout.

Practice

Engagement Enhancement

Explain Part II of the handout.

Tell students that they will be working in groups to learn about inventions from the Enchanted Learning Web site.
Demonstrate how to use the site, especially how to avoid ads and to use the side navigation menus to browse inventions and inventors by first letter, category, location, and date.
Assign or allow groups to choose the inventions they choose to read about, but make sure that there are a variety of topics groups are reading about and taking notes on. Divide students into small groups. These groups will be the home groups. Within these groups, number students 1–3, 4, or 5, depending on how many students there are. All 1s, 2s, 3s, etc., will join together in expert groups.
The expert groups will read and take notes about an invention for a jigsaw reading activity, using print-outs of the invention's information from the Web site, or students can work together using the computer. If using one computer per expert group, have students open the Example Web Site (above) and select the invention they have been assigned or have selected.
Provide the questions (for example, "What is the invention or discovery? What is its history? Who invented it? When? Where? Why / what is it used for/ what is it used to do?") to the expert groups.

Model for students how to read and take notes and/or answer the questions.

In expert groups, students can write sentences using the target grammar forms (Part IV of the handout) and optionally construct a short summary together for one or more of the inventions they researched, or they can practice orally summarizing what they have read.

Once all expert groups are confident that all the members understand what they have read and can orally summarize the information, reconvene the home groups.

In each home group, the "experts" will share what they learned about one or more inventions. The other members of the group can take notes.

After each member of the home group has shared information about an invention, ask students to share what they learned. Optionally, you can tell students to study their notes and give a short quiz the next day.

Practice

Enhancement

Next, you can have students write a paragraph about an invention or inventor of their choice. You may choose to have students write an opinion piece about the greatest invention ever or the best invention of the past century or millennium (see the note-taking form for an outline for their paragraphs).
If they need to, they can get more information about the inventions or inventors from Wikipedia or Simple English Wikipedia.
Guide students in writing a topic sentence identifying the invention or discovery and its inventor with a statement about why they chose that topic, explaining briefly two to four reasons why this invention is important, using transitions between sentences, and using a conclusion.
Provide feedback on the content of students’ first drafts, and help students correct mechanics on subsequent drafts.

Evaluation

Enhancement Extension

Finally, students can use their paragraphs as a basis for an oral presentation. Distribute the handout An Important Invention Presentation, go over the requirements, and show a model. If you decide to have students make a Google Slideshow as their visual aid, this is a template for copying. There is also a PowerPoint template in the Documents section you can share with them. Sample Google Slideshow.

Enchanted Learning has a Rubric that can be used to provide students with feedback on their work.

Application

Extension

Students will be able to conduct short research projects by gathering information from online sources, summarizing information in writing, and delivering oral presentations using visual aids.