Oposiciones de Maestro Lengua Extranjera – Madrid – 2005.
Hello! Good morning!
First of all, it is necessary to mention that our exposition will be divided into two parts. The first one will be devoted to comment our didactic programme New Friends. And the second one, will be focused on our project of work called “Our Electronic Magazine”. In this way, let’s start with the first part.
In general terms, teachers must plan their teaching with Didactic Programmes. Didactic Programmes are the best tool for sequencing the objectives, the contents and the evaluation of our teaching. Nevertheless, before planning those items, the teacher must know three very important points: the legal framework of the Educational System, his / her own students, and the educational context of the school centre. Therefore, we will start this exposition with a few points of our current legal framework.
The L.O.C.E. Organic Law of Quality in Education (10 / 2002, 23rd December). BOE 24 / 12 / 2002., establishes in its article number 68 the pedagogic autonomy of teachers and its performance as Didactic Programmes. Therefore, we, as English language teachers, have to reflect our educational activity in Didactic Programmes. Besides that, the Educational System shows us the main objectives, contents and assessment criteria that we must follow. Nevertheless, we will explain these points later.
In order to carry out a better exposition of our Didactic Programme is necessary to divide it into 6 parts. The first one will be devoted to comment the sociocultural and academic context of the school centre. The second one will be the exposition of the goals of the Didactic Programme. Next, we will find a brief explanation about the contents and the didactic resources. And finally, we will explain the attention to diversity and the evaluation.
Let’s see now the main aspects related with the sociocultural and academic context of the school centre. First of all, it is necessary to mention that this Didactic Programme has been elaborated taking into account our own experience in a similar school. The school centre would be in an urban area and it would be an Infant and
Apart from this, it is also necessary to establish the main characteristics of the students. In this way, we have elaborated this Didactic Programme for students of 3rd year of Primary Education. In other words, 1st level of the 2nd cycle. The number of students in the classroom would be around 20. And in this group would be 9 immigrants students: 5 from South America (3 from
The choice of this particular group of students was carried out under a exhaustive analysis of the educational reality. In this way, the aim of this choice was to choose the most representative group of students as possible, taking into account the specific needs and interests of each student and our particular experience in a similar school.
Now, we will comment the objectives of our Didactic Programme. Although, before this explanation, it is necessary to comment the general objectives described by the official curriculum. These general objectives are 9 and there are summarized as follows:
1. Understand oral and written texts related to familiar situations.
2. Use orally the foreign language to communicate in everyday situations.
3. Produce brief and simple written texts.
4. Read and understand short and simple texts.
5. Value and respect the foreign language.
6. Use non-linguistic conventions in habitual situations.
7. Use strategies of autonomous learning.
8. Establish relations among meaning, pronunciation and graphic representation in the foreign language and recognize rhythm and stress.
9. Use non-linguistic expressive devices.
These objectives appears in the Royal Decree 1006 / 1991.
Now we will comment the specific objectives of our Didactic Programme:
1. Understand brief oral and written texts, with visual aids, related to students’ interests and experiences and related to previously learned language.
2. Practise the four skills through meaningful and purposeful activities.
3. Practice oral skills in debates about students’ interests or experiences.
4. Achieve students’ participation in oral communicative activities through meaningful and purposeful activities.
5. Answer oral questions using verbal and non-verbal strategies.
6. Foster pair and group work.
7. Get the general gist of brief written texts.
8. Develop students’ interest in the target language and its culture, through the use of authentic or simulated authentic material.
9. Get familiarised with the use of new technologies of information and communication.
10. Use verbal and non-verbal strategies to communicate with the teacher and the rest of classmates.
11. Relate the graphic representation of words with their pronunciation and stress.
12. Develop learning strategies in order to facilitate learning (Learning to learn).
13. Develop the critical view of students.
14. Develop values such as respect, participation and co-operation in order to achieve better outcomes in group work.
15. Promote students’ respect towards different cultures, races, religions, etc.
16. Foster students’ interest in reading as a source of pleasure and entertainment.
17. Foster students’ motivation through the ludic aspect of the language.
18. Gain students’ self-confidence in order to achieve better outcomes in communicative activities.
19. Allow students to make mistakes in order to facilitate oral communication and fluency and to create a relaxed atmosphere.
If you want a more detailed explanation of the objectives the same way as the connection between the general and the specific objectives you will find it in the appendixes of our Didactic Programme.
From now on, we will comment the contents of the Didactic Programme. Therefore, we must divide this part into two points. First of all, the general contents of the official curriculum. On the other hand, we will find the specific contents of our work. In the first case, you will find a detailed description of the general ones in our programme. Nevertheless, it is important to mention that there are three kinds of contents. Uses and forms of aural communication, uses and forms of written communication and sociocultural aspects. Besides that, each kind of content is divided into three parts: concepts, procedures and attitudes.
On the other hand, we will comment briefly the main contents of the programme and the development of the units of work.
Our Didactic Programme is oriented towards a constructivist model and it has been elaborated following a topic-based approach. In this way, each unit has a meaningful topic which provide our students the link among their experiences or interests and the English language. For example, animals, sports and family are three topics chosen.
Firstly, our didactic programme has been called “New Friends” and it is divided into twenty units. Each unit has got 5 lessons of 50 minutes each one. Nevertheless, there are 7 units with less lessons devoted, generally, to sociocultural aspects such as Halloween or Easter. Furthermore, each unit follows a similar pattern. First, the teacher will introduce the new contents and will elicit the previous knowledge. Next, students will practice with the structures and contents proposed through meaningful activities and finally, our pupils will produce short written or oral messages using the new language studied.
On the other hand, each term will be devoted to six or seven didactic units.
There is also another very important aspects at this point. Each didactic unit has got a final task. This final task is the final outcome of the lesson. In this way, the new and the previous knowledge proposed in the lesson will be reflected in this final task. This is a very good way to keep the students’ motivation because, students will know the main task of the lesson at the very beginning of it.
To sum up, each unit of work will have its own meaningful topic and its own final task.
Let’s see now a brief description of each didactic unit.
1. Topic 0. Are you ready? 3 lessons. It is an introductory unit in which students will revise the previous knowledge. Also, our pupils will carry out a brief guided role-play for using greetings and questions about personal information of others.
2. Topic 1. Gurp at school. 5 lessons. In this didactic unit, our students will work with language related with the school life. The pupils will design a wall-chart focused on the new knowledge proposed.
3. Topic 2. My special calendar. 5 lessons. This topic is very important because from now on, our pupils will write the date in the target language. For this reason, there are contents devoted to calendars and dates. Finally, students per groups will design the classroom calendar.
4. Topic 3. Gurp at the farm. 5 lessons. The students will visit an actual farm at the end of this didactic unit. For this reason, our students must know the language necessary about farms and animals. This kind of excursion is very useful because our students will see the actual use of the language.
5. Topic 4. Trick or treat? 3 lessons. This didactic unit is shorter than others and it is devoted to one sociocultural aspect: Halloween. The main objective of this unit is to design a fear mask and to participate in an anglo-saxon custom.
6. Topic 5. One or two legs? 5 lessons. Through this unit of work, our students will learn the different parts of the body. This topic can be coordinated with the same topic of Sciences area. Moreover, our students will make an articulate picture in which each part of the body will be pointed out.
7. Topic 6. Merry Christmas! 3 lessons. In this didactic unit, our students will learn sociocultural aspects of the target language. Besides that, our students will adorn the classroom with Christmas decorations. With this unit, we will end the 1st term.
8. Topic 7. The clothes shop. 5 lessons. This unit of work is devoted to garments. In this way, the final task will be to simulate a clothes shop with garments of the students. The meaningful context of the classroom will help our students in order to achieve better outcomes.
9. Topic
10. Topic 9. My family. 5 lessons. The relationship among relatives and all of the language related with this topic will be the main contents to teach in this didactic unit.
11. Topic 10. The alphabet. 5 lessons. This topic will be devoted to another basic knowledge: the alphabet. In this way, our students will practice with the english alphabet through meaningful tasks and with comparisons with their mother tongue.
12. Topic 11. My favourite food. 5 lessons. With a little tasting of food (fruits and nuts especially) our students will learn the main contents of the topic.
13. Topic 12. Happy Birthday! 5 lessons. This type of celebration is very common in the school life. For this reason, the English language teacher will include a didactic unit with this topic. All the knowledge related with this type of celebration will be included in the contents.
14. Topic 13. Happy Easter! 3 lessons. Through this didactic unit, the English language teacher will teach another sociocultural aspect. This unit will be shorter than others. With this unit, we will end the 2nd term.
15. Topic 14. My house. 5 lessons. Our students will design another wall-chart pointing out the main parts of the house. Moreover, this didactic unit is very meaningful because our students can relate their own experiences with the new language proposed.
16. Topic 15. Animals in needs. 5 lessons. This didactic unit is devoted to animals with a different approach to the topic number
17. Topic 16. My favourite sport. 5 lessons. Our students will learn language about sports and finally they will celebrate sport meetings in order to acquire better the language proposed.
18. Topic 17. Gurp’s house. 5 lessons. This unit of work will be devoted to the solar system and the universe. In this way, our students will practice the English language through this meaningful topic.
19. Topic 18. Stories are funny. 3 lessons. This didactic unit will be devoted to one basic linguistic skill: reading. Moreover, the teacher can take advantage of this topic in order to foster the students’ interest towards reading.
20. Topic 19. The big party. 3 lessons. Through this didactic unit, the students will revise all the language proposed along the academic year. Moreover, they will prepare the final party. With this unit, we will end the 3rd term.
Apart from the description of the units of work, it is necessary to mention more important points.
Another important aspect is the teaching of cross-curricular topics. It is necessary to mention that there are several topics of this kind in our Didactic Programme. For example: Education for peace, Education for Health, Environmental education, No sexist education and multicultural education.
On the other hand, the four basic linguistic skills are practised in an interrelated way. Nevertheless, at the very beginning, the oral skills (listening and speaking) are more important than written ones. In this way, the oral skills are reinforced at the first stage of the programme.
Moreover, the common number of lessons in a didactic programme of this characteristics is
Another interesting aspect is the choice of the name of the programme. New friends. In this way, we have elaborated this programme with a main theme. This theme is the arrival of an alien at our planet. This alien, called Gurp, will meet with four children of different nationalities that will show him the most important aspects of anglo-saxon culture and language. For this reason, there are topics such as Gurp at the school in which it guesses that the four children show him the more important aspects of the topic.
Finally, and to sum up it is necessary to point out that our didactic units have been developed in a progressive way. Besides that, the level of language is always monitored and controlled. And, through these meaningful and purposeful topics, the teacher provides enough opportunities to practice the target language.
Now, we will explain the didactic resources needed to carry out this programme in an effective way.
First of all, we must explain that the communicative approach underlies this programme. In this way, the most important goal of this programme is communication. Apart from this, there are more methods and approaches used. For instance, the Total Physical Response Method are used with some action songs (Head and shoulders, knees and toes, topic 5).
In order to provide our students with opportunities to communicate, this Didactic Programme uses several techniques and activities. Two of the most important activities are Drama activities and question-answer tasks. Furthermore, drills and communicative games are used to foster the communicative skills and the practice of the target language. Therefore, through using these kind of activities and techniques our students can begin to acquire the so-called communicative competence.
On the other hand, there is another important point necessary to carry out this programme. This point is the coordination among the teachers. Our performance will be more efficient and coherent if the teaching staff is coordinated. It is advisable to establish periodical meetings among all the teachers that work with the group in order to carry out the globalised way of teaching proposed.
We have grouped our students into 5 groups of 4 students each, but this arrangement is flexible. In other words, groups will change when necessary. In this way, there is another main arrangement: the horse-shoe arrangement used in communicative activities such as debates or games.
Let’s see now, the main materials and resources used with this programme. First of all, we have elaborated this programme as a textbook. In other words, our students would have a textbook with the same contents and knowledge as our Didactic Programme. Logically, the English language teacher will provide them with worksheets, flashcards and activities for reinforcing the contents studied.
The use of cd-player and dvd-player is also very important at this point. But, maybe the most used with this programme would be the personal computer and the multimedia material. Using educative software about the contents of the programme, our students would reinforce very well the contents of it.
Relating to the attention to diversity, we have included some advice in each lesson-planning. Nevertheless it is necessary to comment briefly each case.
The student with visual deficiencies needs strong contrasts (black and white) and he must be seated in front of the blackboard and the teacher in order to get a direct visual and voiced contact. The pupil with learning difficulties needs a different teaching pace. In this way, the english language teacher have to teach the contents slowly and carefully. Noticing quickly possible problems and anticipating them. Finally, the student under a social disadvantage situation must be integrated in the group as much as possible. Giving him responsibilities and foster the respect and tolerance among the students.
From now on, we will explain the evaluation of the programme. First of all, we must comment the assessment criteria of the official curriculum. This assessment criteria is divided into 9 points and there are summarized as follows:
1. Recognise and reproduce the characteristics phonemes of the foreign language and the basic elements of rhythm and intonation.
2. Understand the global sense of oral texts related to familiar topics.
3. Extract specific information from aural texts with a simple structures and vocabulary.
4. Participate in brief oral communication exchanges related habitual activities.
5. Participate in simulated communicative situations which have been previously practised in the class.
6. Extract the global meaning and some specific information from brief written texts with a linear development, simple structures and vocabulary.
7. Read with the help of the teacher or a dictionary, simple books for children with visual redundant support.
8. Produce very brief written texts, comprehensible and adapted to the characteristics of situation and the communicative purpose.
9. Recognise some sociocultural features.
And, after this, we will explain our particular assessment criteria which is divided into 14 points.
1. Extract specific information from aural texts related to students’ interests and experiences.
2. Produce brief oral messages related to previously known topics.
3. Understand and answer short questions about themselves (name, age, etc.).
4. Recognise the most important characteristics of English language sounds and pronunciation.
5. Produce brief written texts related to previously known topics.
6. Understand, comprehend and use the value of communication through oral communicative activities.
7. Respect the conversational formulae in communication exchanges.
8. Demonstrate the right attitude towards social interaction in communication exchanges.
9. Read with the help of the teacher or dictionary brief texts.
10. Develop an interest in using the foreign language as a means of communication in the classroom.
11. Demonstrate a positive attitude towards mistakes and understand mistakes as a source of learning.
12. Promote solidarity, tolerance and respect towards other cultures.
13. Foster group work through participation and cooperation.
14. Develop an interest in reading as a source of pleasure and entertainment.
The connection between the general and the specific assessment criteria is also avaliable in the appendixes of our programme.
In order to check the achievement of the objectives and the evaluation criteria, english teachers have got observation as the main important tool. Besides that, in our programme we have included self-assessment sheets for our students and brief written and oral tests.
Finally and as a conclusion of this part of the exposition, we have to point out the great importance of planning carefully our perfomance as teachers. Logically, our own performance must be guided through lesson plannings and didactic programmes in order to achieve better outcomes. Also, the coordination among teachers and the attention to diversity are essential to carrying out an effective teaching.
Now, we are going to start with the second part of our exposition. This second part will be devoted to comment the main points and characteristics of one Didactic Unit.
We have wanted to show you two different kinds of teaching. For this reason, our didactic unit and our didactic programme are so different. In the case of the didactic programme, the units were shorter than the present didactic unit. Nevertheless, we have worked with this two kinds of approaches in our own experience with positive outcomes.
First of all, it is necessary to mention that our didactic unit is special somehow. It would be better to call it project of work instead of didactic unit. In this way, in our project of work could be included more subjects than the English language.
In genereal terms, our second part of the exposition will be divided into 3 parts. Firstly, we will identify and comment the design of the project of work. Next, we will explain the development of the project. And, we will end this exposition with a brief comments about cross-curricular topics, evaluation criteria, attention to diversity and space and time management.
Our project is called “Our Electronic Magazine” and we have elaborated it to be developed in the 3rd Cycle of Primary Education, more specifically, we have thought this project for the 1st level of the 3rd Cycle. (6th year of Primary Education).
The development of the project will need 8 lessons of 50 minutes each one.
Once the project of work has been identified, we will present some essential conditionings which have some influence on it.
First of all, we have to talk about the school and its students.
The school would be in an urban area with low-middle sociocultural and socioeconomic resources. The school would have a computers’ room with 12 personal computers with Internet connection. And logically, the school would also have a library, a gym, etc.
Our didactic supposition has been elaborated for a group of 20 students. Whithin this group of pupils, we would find 2 students with special educational needs. One student would have auditory deficiencies and another one would be a Down syndrome person.
Let’s see now the design of the project of work. We will start with a short description of the project and the final task and then, we will explain the objectives and contents of the project.
This project of work gathers several important aspects. First of all, it follows the application of one of the common elements of the curriculum stated by the L.O.C.E. This common element is the so-called Information and Communication Technologies. Besides that, this unit of work practices the four skills and finally, it is focused on the communicative aspect of the language.
Nowadays it has long been accepted that the use of computers is an essential part of our lives. For this reason, teacher must include the use of personal computers in their lessons. In this way, our didactic supposition requires several clarifications.
The first one is devoted to the previous knowledge of the students. The teacher must use the Information and Communication Technologies throughout the whole academic year. The outcome of this will be the acquisition of the basic knowledge about the use of this kind of resources, before starting with the project. In such a way, the teacher will save much time and will use it for other tasks. For this reason, it is advisable that the teacher introduces his/her students in the world of personal computers and Internet little by little since the very beginning of the year.
Next, the second clarification is devoted to the global or comprehensible approach of this didactic unit. Teachers of different areas must participate in the realisation of didactic units, through co-operation and assessment. In this way, the foreign language teacher can take into advantage of concepts, aspects, etc., of other areas in order to complete his / her didactic units.
Another important aspect is that the teacher can take advantage of this didactic unit as a summary of the whole year. The concepts and structures worked till this stage would be reinforced through the current didactic supposition.
Finally, the teacher must take into account that the relationship between the students and the teacher is another essential part of the teaching activity. In this way, the teacher will try to monitor, motivate and advise his / her students in order to create a right and relaxed atmosphere. Also, the teacher can help them to relax and feel confortable using music at the same time they are working.
Apart from this, there is another important part at this point. This part is the final task.
Doubtlessly, our students must know the purpose of the didactic unit before starting it. Hence, the teacher must comment with his / her students this final task and the purposes of the didactic unit during the first session of it.
Basically, our final task is oriented towards two points of view. On one hand, the students can make a short publication in which they will include articles about their interests. On the other hand, the student can take advantage of the great development of Information and Communication Technologies in order to spread their publication.
To sum up, the basic idea of our final task is the following: to make a short publication (on the other hand, very common in schools in the written version) and next, its publication in Internet. Nevertheless, to this aim, the students must make several articles for the publication. In this way, the teacher can offer several topics to the students and then, the students (in groups of work) can choose the more interesting for them. Topics such as sports, music, cinema, news of the school, horoscopes, ecological facts, etc., are topics very interesting for them. Therefore, the main roles of the teacher are motivator, negotiator, assessor and as a source of knowledge.
In our opinion, this didactic unit and its final task gather several important facts. On one hand, the interest of the students in the use of personal computers and Internet and, on the other hand, the interest of the students in speaking about their own interests and hobbies. For this reason, the teacher will try to direct their motivation in the achievement of the objectives proposed.
Now we will comment the general and the didactic objectives of our project of work.
The general objectives are the following:
- Understand oral and written texts related to familiar situations.
- Use orally the foreign language to communicate in everyday situations.
- Produce brief and simple texts.
- Read and understand short and simple texts.
- Value and respect the foreign language.
And the didactic objectives are the following:
- Produce and understand brief written and oral texts.
- Understand simple oral messages coming from the own classmates and the teacher.
- Keep a short conversation by using previously assumed structures.
- Understand the meaning of certain songs and being able to grasp the rhythm and intonation by singing them.
- Listen to and understand a story.
- Read and understand simple articles of magazines and newspapers.
- Respect and know about the English-speaking countries’ culture.
- Show interest towards the target language and its use in New Technologies.
Within this part devoted to the design of the project of work, there is another essential part. This essential part will be the contents.
The contents will be divided into two groups: oral and written communication and sociocultural aspects. And each group will be divided, at the same time, into three parts: concepts, procedures and attitudes.
a. Oral and written communication.
- Concepts.
- Previous knowledge: use of commands, present simple, present continuous and basic use of personal computers.
- Communicative intentions: giving information on people, sports, music, etc.
- Vocabulary: vocabulary about the topics, qualifying adjectives and verbs.
- Procedures.
- Comprehension of brief oral and written texts about newspapers, magazines, personal computers and Internet.
- Identification of the main parts of a magazine.
- Production of short written articles about people, sports, music, etc.
- Attitudes.
- Positive and optimistic attitude towards their own capacity to learn how to speak and write in the foreign language.
- Interest in the possibilities of the press and Internet.
- Effort to improve their pronunciation.
- Active participation in the activities proposed.
b. Socio-cultural aspects.
- Concepts.
- Different kinds of newspapers, magazines, etc., in English-speaking countries.
- Procedures.
- Recognition of the different kinds of newspapers, magazines, etc.
- Use of authentic materials from different sources close to the learners in order to obtain specific information.
- Attitudes.
- Curiosity and respect towards other countries’ socio-cultural aspects.
- Curiosity and interest in the use of Information and Communication Technologies.
Finally, we must comment the material needed to carry out this project. In this way, the material will be the following:
- Hardware: Personal computer, Headphones, Microphone, Speakers, Scanner and Printer.
- Software: Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Paintbrush, Microsoft Word 97 or 2000 and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
- Cd-player and DVD-player.
- British and American newspapers and magazines.
- Worksheets.
- Flashcards.
- Adapted text about "The Hobbit".
- Balls for sports.
- Movie “The Lord of the Rings”.
- Cd-roms and diskettes.
Next, we will start with the part of our exposition devoted to the development of the project of work. In this part, we will comment the development of the 8 lessons and a brief comment about the first considerations and possible problems.
As previously mentioned, this didactic supposition comprises 8 lessons in which the teacher and the students will develop several kinds of activities. First of all, and as a basic plan for the didactic unit, we can say that the activities of the didactic unit are oriented towards three points: presentation, practice and production. In this way, the lessons number 1 and 2 will be devoted to the presentation stage. Next, the lessons number 3, 4, 5, and 6 will be devoted to the practice stage. In this stage, the students will practise with the structures and vocabulary required for making the website. And, finally, in the session number 7 and 8, the students will produce their articles and then, they will type their articles in the personal computer.
Next, we will talk about the process of negotiation. During the choice of the topic, the teacher can take advantage of his / her previous knowledge about his / her own students in order to propose more interesting and motivating topics. Nevertheless, the teacher must be prepared to the possibility to alternative choices. In this case, the teacher will adapt his / her lesson plannings in order to reach a better motivation of his / her students. In our particular case, we have chosen several topics in order to illustrate better our didactic supposition. We have divided the topics into four (one for each group): music, cinema, sports and literature. In this way, we have chosen one specific item according with the previous division:
- Music: Keane.
- Cinema: The Lord of the Rings.
- Sports: Basketball and football.
- Literature: “The hobbit” J.R.R. Tolkien.
Finally, and ending this part of our didactic supposition, it is necessary to mention that the motivational aspect of this plan depends, partially, on the possibility of the students to choose the topics. For this reason, the teacher must help them and negotiate with them in order to reach a consensus.
1.1. First lesson.
a. Review of the previous knowledge. The teacher will elicit the previous knowledge about the use of computers and Internet. Furthermore, the teacher will check the previous structures and vocabulary. 15 minutes.
b. Presentation of the project of work. The teacher will show them examples of newspapers and magazines from the
c. Establishment of the first conditions. The teacher will show them the order of the activities and the first action plan of their work. 5 minutes.
d. Group work. First proposal of topics for the electronic magazine. Brainstorming actiivty. Based on the authentic material. The students will think about possible topics. The teacher will write down on the blackboard these possible problems. 10 minutes.
e. Brief summary and introduction of the next lesson. The teacher will show them the most important aspects of the lesson and will introduce the next one. 5 minutes.
1.2. Second lesson.
a. Review of the previous lesson. The teacher will elicit the previous knowledge and will introduce the activities of the lesson. 5 minutes.
b. Introduction of the main linguistic aspect of the project. In this part, the teacher will introduce the main contents about the topics chosen using authentic material, flashcards and songs. 25 minutes.
c. Choice of topics and sharing out of them into groups. The students will choose the topics at random. 15 minutes.
d. Brief summary and introduction of the next lesson. The teacher will show the most important aspects of the lesson and will introduce the next one. 5 minutes.
1.3. Third lesson.
a. Review of the previous lesson. The teacher will elicit the previous knowledge and will introduce the activities of the lesson. 5 minutes.
b. Song activity. The teacher will introduce the Keane’s song and after that, the students will comment the theme of the song. 15 minutes.
c. Introduction of interviews. The teacher will explain the most common questions and answers in interviews. 5 minutes.
d. Pair work. The teacher will ask them to do a role-play activity. In which one student would be the interviewer and another student would be the famous singer. 10 minutes.
e. Reading activity. The teacher will read a short text of the adapted version of the “The hobbit” showing them flashcards. 10 minutes.
f. Brief summary and introduction of the next lesson. The teacher will show the most important aspects of the lesson and will introduce the next one. 5 minutes.
1.4. Fourth lesson.
a. Review of the previous lesson. The teacher will elicit the previous knowledge and will introduce the activities of the lesson. 5 minutes.
b. Mix and Mingle activity. The teacher will ask his / her students to elaborate an opinion poll about the characters of “The Lord of the Rings”. 15 minutes.
c. Reading activity. The teacher will read a short text of the adapted version of the “The hobbit” showing them flashcards. 15 minutes.
d. Worksheet. The teacher will ask them to fill in a worksheet in which they will have to order the correct sequence of events of the story. 5 minutes.
e. Communicative situation. The teacher and the students will relate the movie with the novel proposed. 5 minutes.
f. Brief summary and introduction of the next lesson. The teacher will show the most important aspects of the lesson and will introduce the next one. 5 minutes.
1.5. Fifth lesson.
a. Review of the previous lesson. The teacher will elicit the previous knowledge and will introduce the activities of the lesson. 5 minutes.
b. Cinema. The teacher will show them a brief scene of the movie “The Lord of the Rings” with the original audio and subtitles and next, he / she will establish a debate about the linguistic points. 20 minutes.
c. Hangman. The teacher will divide the students into two groups. Each group, with a representative, will choose words related with the previous knowledge and also with the movie. For example: walk, run, jump, etc. 10 minutes.
d. Role-play activity. Our students will have to dramatize the scene proposed dividing it into groups of students. 10 minutes.
e. Brief summary and introduction of the next lesson. The teacher will show the most important aspects of the lesson and will introduce the next one. 5 minutes.
1.6. Sixth lesson.
a. Review of the previous lesson. The teacher will elicit the previous knowledge and will introduce the activities of the lesson. 5 minutes.
b. Group work. Using the target language, the teacher will distribute the students into groups in order to play sports such as basketball and football. 5 minutes.
c. Group work. The teacher will establish two teams for playing football and two teams for playing basketball. Then, the teams will change the sport. 35 minutes.
d. Brief summary and introduction of the next lesson. The teacher will show them the most important aspects of the lesson and introduces the next one. 5 minutes.
Note: This lesson could be complemented with a lesson of Physics Education.
1.7. Seventh lesson.
a. Review of the previous lesson. The teacher will elicit the previous knowledge and will distribute the personal computers. 5 minutes.
b. Group work. The teacher will ask them to prepare their articles and type them using the personal computers and the software previously mentioned. 40 minutes.
c. Brief summary and introduction of the next lesson. The teacher will show them the most important aspects of the lesson and introduces the next one. 5 minutes.
1.8. Eighth lesson.
a. Review of the previous lesson. The teacher will elicit the previous knowledge and distributes the personal computers. 5 minutes.
b. Group work. The teacher will ask them to finish their articles and write them using the personal computers and the software previously mentioned. 25 minutes.
c. Group work. The teacher will illustrate them the way in which their articles will go together in a web of Internet. He / she will ask them to paste all the articles into one. After, the teacher will ask them to print a copy for each group. 10 minutes.
d. Brief summary and introduction of the next lesson. The teacher will show them the most important aspects of the lesson. After, he / she will ask them to fill in a self-assessment sheet and finally, the teacher will introduce the next lesson. 10 minutes.
In order to avoid problems, the teacher must take into account the possible difficulties of this project of work. So, in this way, the teacher can find several kinds of problems at this point:
- Technological: the teacher can find some problems with the technological equipment. In other words, several problems can arise when using personal computers in our lessons:
- The personal computer doesn't work.
- The software required has not been installed.
- The personal computer hasn't installed the software required.
- The availability of using the computer’s classroom.
- Personal.
- The students haven't confidence in the use of personal computers.
- The students have received any class about the use of personal computers.
- There are only one or two students active in each group.
- There are only 12 personal computer to 20 students.
Apart from this, there is another problem very easy to solve. It can be possible that the teacher cannot do websites or cannot manage the technologies required. In that situation, the teacher can ask for help to the Information and Communication Technologies coordinator. It would be very positive if this coordinator will work in the project too.
Finally, it is necessary to mention that there personal websites in Internet without charge. In other words, everybody can publish his / her opinions and articles in a website, because there are several sites that offer us this possibility free.
On the other hand, in our didactic supposition are also included several cross-curricular topics:
- Education for Peace. This is always a main objective and must be included in all our school life.
- Multicultural Education. The teacher can take advantage of the relationships among the different races of the movie’s characters to teach this topic.
- No sexist Education. The teacher can improve and foster this topic mainly in the sport meetings.
Logically, another essential part of the present project of work is the evaluation criteria.
The students’ evaluation will be a continuous one; therefore, the teacher will observe the students’ production and achievement and will note down whatever he / she regards important. Some important points to consider will be:
- Comprehension of the vocabulary and expressions worked.
- Right production and understanding of simple texts.
- Ability to keep short and simple question-answer dialogues.
- Their active participation in every activity proposed.
- Students’ pronunciation.
- Their respect for the English-speaking culture.
Another important part of the evaluation of the students will be the self-evaluation. The teacher will ask them to fill in two self-assessment sheets, one at the beginning of the didactic unit and the other at the end. In this way, the teacher can check the level of knowledge at the end of the didactic unit. Furthermore, this kind of activity helps them to develop a feeling of responsibility and involvement in the teaching-learning process. Finally, we include an example of self-assessment sheet in order to illustrate the previous statements in the appendix of this didactic unit.
Besides that, and in our educational reality, we cannot forget that we can find in our classroom several students with special educational needs. In this case, the teacher must be prepared to adapt his / her lessons in order to help them to advance in the process of teaching-learning. In this way, we, as foreign language teachers, must guarantee the appropriate transmission of information to these pupils. In this particular case, we have prepared some guidelines about two students with special educational needs in order to help the teacher in the teaching of this didactic supposition. In our particular case, we have elaborated this project of work taking into account two students with special educational needs.
A deaf person would be one case of student with special educational needs. In this particular case, the teacher has to facilitate the process of communication by keeping a face-to-face communication. In this way, the student can read the teacher's lips and reach a better level of communication.
The another case is Down Syndrome person. In this case, the teacher must repeat and reinforce all the activities in order to help him / her with the understanding.
Logically, the teacher must take into account the students with special educational needs when planning. However, it is also possible to make curricular adaptations during the development of the didactic unit. Anyway, the teacher must know exactly the specific problems of each child in order to plan better his / her work.
The teacher must be always ready to help his / her students and to eliminate all the possible communicative barriers between the students and him / her. Furthermore, the teacher must have the reinforcement of other teachers such as the Pedagogic Therapyst or the Speech Therapyst.
The last point to comment will be the space and time arrangement.
Our distribution of space is flexible. So, the teacher will group them according to the activity proposed. The general arrangement will be the following: 4 groups of 5 pupils each one. Nevertheless, there are several games or communicative activities in our project that need a different distribution.
The time arrangement will be determined by meetings among the teaching staff. Nevertheless, the common arrangement will be lessons of 50 minutes each.
Finally, and as a conclusion, we must remain you some important aspects of this didactic unit. First of all, we must taking into account the great possibilities of learning that Information and Communication Technologies have. Furthermore, when using this kind of resources, the motivation and interest of the students is, generally speaking, guaranteed. For this reason, the teacher must consider his / her lessons taking advantage of this motivation and interest. The important idea is that the teacher use personal computers as a resource for his / her lessons and not as the basic tool. In this way, the teacher can solve the problems using alternative activities. Also, the teacher can focus the motivation of the students on a feeling of responsibility with the work. Basically, the development of this didactic unit is not easy but it is possible if the teacher and the students are enough motivated and interested.
If you have questions about our exposition, I will answer you with great pleasure.
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
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