Let’s start knowing a little bit more about the city that we are going to visit in this project. Our first stop in Los Angeles is going to be Hollywood sign. The Hollywood Sign is easily recognized around the world as a symbol for Los Angeles and its entertainment industry.

It was built in 1923 as a huge advert. It is illegal to approach the sign on foot but there are a lot of points nearby from where you can get a great view of this sign. 

At the end of the session, you will have:

• been introduced to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States of America. 
• known all the outcomes you have to produce in this project.
• started thinking about which things you are going to include in the mental map about one American-way-of-life issue.

Watch Los Angeles Travel Guide and taste some of the events and places Los Angeles offers to the tourist.

You will probably have seen most of them in a lot of films. If you need extra help, you can turn on the subtitles. Which place would you like to visit first? Which one has impressed you the most? 

After having watched the video, try to answer the following questions orally:

• Do you know any other famous places in Los Angeles? 
• Have you ever been to Los Angeles? And to any other American cities in the United States? Do you know of anybody who has visited this city or any other American cities?
• If so, do you remember any of the monuments or places you or they visited?
• Would you like to visit this city in the future? Why? Why not?
• Have you ever heard of the summer Olympic Games that were held in Los Angeles in 1984?

If you want to know more details about the largest city of the California State, watch a video about Los Angeles.

As you could see, this is a good resource to see places and hear sounds about the city we are going to work on along this project. Which has been more surprising to you? Is there anything that you already knew? Have you chosen your favourite place in Los Angeles yet?

You can answer and summarize these three questions in a short monologue and you can share it with your classmate or with the rest of the class.

As you are going to see in a few moments, `the Hollywood sign' will be the first place you should include on a Google Site map. Don't forget about it!

Meanwhile, visit its official website and explore all the things you can visit in one of the most famous places in the world. One of the most famous signs in the world which you have seen thousands of times! 

At the end of this project, you will have produced the following outcomes:

StockSnap. Checklist (Public Domain)

Task: Each project has a complete different task, with different steps to complete it. In Los Angeles, you have to produce a mental map about an American society issue using the visual thinking technique and then, with the help of an app called TAWE, you will be able to add effects and sound.

Finally, you will have to present it in you classroom and you will also have to disseminate it through Twitter. All the steps within this task will be identified thanks to their colour, orange.

Challenge: Along the different projects, there is a challenge which is common to all the projects, with a Google Site, where you have to search for certain information of the different English-speaking cities you are going to visit. The different activities are also going to be distributed in different steps and you are going to have some help to look for and select the information for the collaborative challenge.

This is designed to be done in groups of 2/3 students. All the activities within this challenge will be identified thanks to their colour, green. The 'Rubric for assessing the design of a digital site' will be used to evaluate your site.

If you need extra help with this topic, check how to manage a Google site.

Learning Diary: You have to use a blog (wordpress, blogger, edublogs or others), as your learning diary. You will publish the different reflections on the activities you will find throughout the project, the videos of the conversations with your classmates, the reflections on the daily work, all the different tasks, the link to your Google Site challenge, and all the other activities that you will discover throughout these projects.

All the activities within this task will be identified by their colour, blue. These activities will be evaluated according to the 'Rubric to assess blog posts'.

If you need extra help with this topic, check how to start a blog. 

Twitter will be a tool you should use to spread and share your work. Along the project you will be required to publish on Twitter using one (or both) of these hashtags: #taskwayoflife and #EDIAlosangeles. The 'Rubric to assess a Tweet' can help you do a good job in this social network.

If you are new in this network, take a look at this link for new users.

All your work along this unit will be evaluated according to the following rubric. You can use it as a guide and a reference for your work: 'Assessment rubric: Los Angeles'