Computer-based Lesson - Planning a Vacation by Tracy Howard

 

Title:                    Planning a Vacation  

     

Learner Level:    High Intermediate to Advanced ELA Learners

 

Pre-Instruction:   Introduce the idea of a vacation

                          

Duration:             8 classes

 

Materials:           handouts, computer, floppy disk or cdr’s, LCD projector, calendar

 

Objectives: 

To have students plan a “realistic” vacation of their choice from start to finish using the Internet.  Final outcome will include a PowerPoint presentation to the class.

 

Procedure:

 

Day 1:  Begin the class by asking students if they have ever gone on a vacation.  If they don’t understand introduce the concept of a vacation.  Bring in pictures of places they might want to go on vacation.  Help stimulate this idea of vacation.  Once they understand this the next questions might be:

1.      Are you planning to take a vacation this year?

2.      Where would you like to go on vacation?  (Hawaii, Las Vegas, Korea etc.)

3.      How long would you go? (1 week, 2 weeks etc.)

4.      How would you travel?  (plane, car, train, etc.)

5.      What would you do there?  (Seaworld, beach, visit family etc.)

6.      Where would you stay?  (hotel, family etc.)

7.      Where would you eat? (restaurant, in hotel room)

8.      How much would it cost/would you like to spend?

This first day could be used to introduce these questions to the class and generating answers.  This could be done as a brainstorm activity.

 

Day 2:  Computer Lab

Materials:  Handout – Internet Activity Worksheet

 

Example handout may include the following information and can be adapted to whatever destination you want them to research.  It is assumed that these students are already familiar with using the Internet to do searches.

 

 

Internet Preparation

Planning a Vacation

 

Most people in the US travel by flying.  As you make travel plans, consider that there are four ways to go:  plane, car, bus, or sometimes train.  Sometimes, you can’t get to a city by train or bus.  Let’s see how we can travel and compare prices.

 

 

Going to New York City.

 

1. By plane

Go to www.expedia.com.  How much is a round-trip fare from Phoenix to New York City? (check LaGuardia and JFK) $______________.  How much is it from Buffalo? $___________.   

 

2.  By train

Go to www.amtrak.com.  How much is a round-trip fare from Phoenix to New York City?  $_______________.  How much is it from Buffalo? $_____________

 

3.  By bus

Go to www.greyhound.com.  How much is a round-trip fare from Phoenix to New York City? $________________.  How much is it from Buffalo? $ _____________

 

4.  By rental car

Go to www.enterprise.com, www.hertz.com, or www.thrifty.com.  How much is the cheapest car to rent for one week?

 

Which is the cheapest method of transportation? _________________________

 

Which is the most expense method of transportation?  _____________________

 

Which method would you prefer? Why? ________________________________________________________________________

 

The students should only take one class to complete this, but some may need to finish on the third day.

 

Day 3:  Planning your own vacation.

Materials:  Handout #2 -- Pre-Project Planning, Calendar, Computer

 

The following questions may appear on this handout.

 

Pre-Planning Your Vacation

 

1.  Where do you want to go?

 

2.  When do you want to go?  Have them look at calendars.  Discuss what dates might be cheaper to fly.

 

 

 

3.  How much money can you afford to spend?  What is your budget? ($1000, $500)

 

 

 

4.  Before you begin making travel arrangements.  Please look at the following information.  Take a few moments to explore each of these websites.  They offer prices on hotels, cruises, flights, vacations, and rental cars.

 

 

 

Day 4 & 5:  Plan your vacation

Materials:  Handout #3, computer

 

This day should be spent with the students gathering information about their trip.  The following might be included on this handout.

 

Plan Your Vacation

 

Now that you know where you want to go, it is time to find out all the details of your vacation.  Answer the following questions to help you plan your trip.

 

 

1.  TRANSPORTATION:  How are you planning to get there? (car, bus, plane, train)  Write down the days and time you will be leaving and return.  How much will this cost? (gas)

  

2.  HOTEL:  Find a hotel to stay in.  How much will that cost?  How many beds do you need? You may try doing a search on hotels for that city, or one of the websites such as hotels.com.  You can also try to search by hotel chain.  What amenities does the hotel offer (pool, restaurant, game room, babysitting, etc.)?

 

3.  DINING:  Where do you plan to eat while you’re there?  Do a search for restaurants in the area. What kind of food do you like to eat?  See if you can find a menu or the cost.

  

4.  SIGHTSEEING:  What local attractions can you see there? (museums, Disneyland, etc.)  Choose some places to visit.  Find out the cost and hours of operation.  You can usually find this information by searching for the place on the Internet.

 

Day 6&7:  PowerPoint

Materials:  Handout of sample PowerPoint slides.

 

Introduce Powerpoint:  Most of the students have probably never used PowerPoint previously.  The lesson would begin with an introduction to basic PowerPoint. 

  • Purpose – Slide presentations, use to assist you with oral presentations, highlights key points of your presentation 

  • Handout #4 – “Welcome to PowerPoint”, handout I have.  Introduces PowerPoint, pictures of your screen telling them which icons to choose.  Goes over beginning a new presentation and auto content wizard.

  • Presentation – Students will sit around my computer as I walk them through the steps of auto content wizard presentation.  I will go through a sample presentation with them.

  • Handout #5 – Sample PowerPoint slides, printed in handout version of PowerPoint.  These slides contain the following:  Title Page, Introduction, purpose of trip, transportation, hotel, dining, sightseeing, itinerary, budget, summary.  Under the slides I have put ideas that they might use for points.  (ie. under Transportation –flight details, cost, rental car).  These points are to give them an idea of what information they might want to include.

 

Practice:  Students are now told to take the information they have gathered and organize into a presentation format.  They may first use paper and then transfer to PowerPoint if they prefer.  Students begin using the task wizard to help them create their presentations.  I move around the room offering assistance wherever needed. 

 

Edit/Revise:  Once the students have completed the presentation, I will go over their presentations with them to check for spelling or grammatical errors.  At this time we may also look at options to liven the presentation up such as animation, adding pictures etc.

Once, completed they would print a notes copy up for themselves so they can practice their presentation and save a copy to disk or floppy.

 

 

Day 8:  Oral Presentations

Materials:  PowerPoint presentations, LCD Projector and computer

 

Students take turn presenting to the class.  Others may ask questions.

 

Evaluation:         Did they plan a realistic “possible” vacation?

                           Did they learn how to conduct research on the Internet?

                           Did they learn how to create a PowerPoint presentation?

                           Will this information help them with their vacation?

                           Did they find the activity worthwhile?

 

Possible follow-up:  Did the students take the vacations they planned?  Write about the experience.

 

Technologies Used:  Basic Computer Skills (keyboarding), Internet research using websites and general searches, using PowerPoint, saving to a disk or floppy, copying pictures to PowerPoint, printing, Using projector to give presentation (hitting keys to change screens)