DIDACTIC UNIT: CAUTION, WE ARE DRIVING! 1st year, 2nd cycle of Primary Education.
Autora: María Teresa Cuéllar Lemus
Esta unidad didáctica está realizada en inglés, dirigida al 3er curso de Educación Primaria.
Esta unidad didáctica será llevada a cabo en el tercer trimestre de un curso escolar y en ella se desarrollarán diversos contenidos relacionados con los medios de transportes y todo lo relacionado con este tema. Se trabajarán diversos contenidos y para conseguirlos nos hemos propuesto diversos objetivos, los cuales relacionaremos con las competencias básicas que con ellos se desarrollan. Para terminar he de decir que esta unidad didáctica está realizada de cara a oposiciones ya que por su extensión y puntos que trata es ideal para presentar como informe sustitutivo al desarrollo de la unidad didáctica.
| INDEX 0- Introduction…..1 5- Contents…..5
1- Justification of the didactic unit…..2 6-Methodology…..6
2- Context and students……3 7- Evaluation…..7
3- Timing…..3 8- Sessions…..8 4- Objectives…..4 |
0.- INTRODUCTION
The ability to communicate in a foreign language and the knowledge of the same provide a great help to understand and control our own language and behaviour. To contact other cultures through the channel of the language favours comprehension and respect towards other ways of thinking and acting. In a multilingual country as Spain, learning a foreign language is highly interesting since languages are not competitive among them but they fulfil the same functions and contribute to the same cognitive development.
It is important to say that the aim of this curricular area is not to teach a language, but to teach how to communicate through the use of it. This requires an approach based upon communication and aims to acquire communicative competence. At the same time, communicative competence comprises:
- Grammar competence or ability to put into practice the units and rules of the system of the language.
- Discourse competence or ability to use different types of discourse and to organize them according to the communicative functions.
- Sociolinguistic competence or ability to make language suitable in a concrete context.
- Strategic competence or ability to define, correct, or make adjustments according to the communicative situation.
- Socio-cultural competence or the ability to attain a certain degree of familiarity with the social and cultural context in which language is used.
The development of the linguistic skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) must be understood as a process of integration. In real life, the majority of activities contribute to develop different skills. Therefore, they must not be studied separately. However, students must be taught to create and consolidate these skills in order to be able to produce written and spoken messages.
In order to use English significantly it is extremely vital to create real situations of communication. Hence, it is essential that the teacher speaks as much English as possible so that the students receive adequate input. All instructions should be given in English and the mother tongue should only be used when there is a large comprehension gap. Students are expected to use the foreign language at least in terms of greetings (good morning), asking for permission (Can I go to the toilet, please?) or lack of understanding (I don’t understand).
1.- JUSTIFICATION OF THE DIDACTIC UNIT
I have chosen this didactic unit because I think that it will bring the Pupils different and new views of the world into the classroom and helping to create a relaxed atmosphere where children develop their Autonomous Learning Strategies and where the Verbal and Non- Verbal Communication can be introduced. So, my Main Aim in this Project is to help my children’s development as a whole, which is essential to achieve the Communicative Competence. The didactic unit must have as a referential point the curricular project of the area, the stage curricular projects together with the educative project of each school. Therefore, it may have as a legal framework, in this case the educational law, LOE, 3rd May, that establishes the minimal requirements for the English language in Primary Education, Royal Decree 1513/2006, 29th December; and to the official curriculum in Extremadura, Decree 82/2007, 24th April.
2.- CONTEXT AND STUDENTS
The school where we are going to work in is situated in the south west of Extremadura. It has 7.000 inhabitants involved in activities such as agriculture, commerce,… The cultural level is medium/high. Our school is situated in the centre of this village. The school has different classrooms for the different subjects. In this way we have different subjects and different teachers to develop the Primary Education Stage and the English language. We are going to work with a group of 20 students in the first year of the second cycle of primary education. They are 8 or 9 years old. They are developing and acquiring abstract thinking bit by bit. They are all different and they have different level in the English language. They have also different features so we will pay attention to this diversity in order to help our pupils to achieve the objectives and contents we have proposed for this unit. Taking into account our pupils we have to say that we have a Bolivian student who understands and speaks Spanish in a good way, we will make some non-meaningful adaptations if he needs, adapting our activities to his level.
3.- TIMING
Taking into account that the didactic unit we are going to develop is number 12, it will be developed in the month of April (third term) By this time, students already know concepts such as colours, numbers, and others that will be reinforced in this topic. This is important because they will learn different means of transports different places in the city and different aspects of the British culture. Having as a basis my planning, this unit will be developed in 6 sessions (in two weeks) of 50 minutes each one.
4.- OBJECTIVES
Concerning the objectives, we must bear in mind that they are those we want our pupils achieve. We must take into account they will contribute to the development of pupils´ capacities. The division of this objectives will be: General Objectives of the stage are those we want our pupils achieve at the end of the primary stage: a, b, d, f, j and k; English General Objectives for second cycle of Primary Education and some English specific objectives.
4.1.- ENGLISH GENERAL OBJECTIVES: They are those we want our pupils achieve at the end of this cycle. In this unit we want our students to:
1. Listen and understand messages in different oral interactions, using the transmitted information to do tasks in relation to their experiences. (Basic Competence number 1)
2. Express themselves and interact orally in habitual and simple situations, which have a known content and development, using verbal and non-verbal processes and adopting an attitude of respect and cooperation. ( Basic Competence number 2)
5. Learn to use the means around them with progressive autonomy, including new technologies so as to get information and communicate themselves in the foreign language. ( Basic Competences number 4 and 7)
7. Show a receptive, interesting and confidence attitude in their own learning capacity to learn and use the foreign language. ( Basic Competences number 7 and 
4.2.- ENGLISH SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: They are those we want our pupils achieve at the end of this year Specific Objectives will be in relation to the contents of this unit. We want:
- To identify, recognize, name the vocabulary and produce short sentences related to the means of transports.(BC number 1)
- To understand and participate in a story. ( BC number 3)
- To recognize and produce orally and in writing way new vocabulary related to the means of transport. ( BC number 1)
- To know the relevance and importance of respecting the vial rules. (Education in values)(BC number 7)
5.- CONTENTS
- 5.1.- SPECIFIC CONTENTS: As for Specific contents, we have mentioned the four blocks of contents established by new education law (LOE)
a) Block 1: Listening, speaking and conversing.
- Listening to simple texts related to the means of transports in the different parts of the city and the tale of this topic. (BC number 1)
- Conversing and describing different vial situations. (BC number 7)
- Producing present simple structures such as: “I go to school by car”.(BC number 1)
b) Block 2: Reading and writing.
- Reading different texts related to this topic.(BC number 1)
- Writing different rules for being a good citizen. (BC number 5)
c) Block 3: Language Knowledge- linguistic knowledge and reflection on learning.(This block is related to Basic Competences 1, 7 y
In functions of language we are going to study: Present Simple and expressions of frequency. In lexicon we are going to study means of transports and places vocabulary. In pronunciation we are going to learn how to pronounce the vocabulary of the topic and in reflection on learning we are going to promote the confidence in order to learn a foreign language.
d) Block 4: Socio-cultural aspects and intercultural awareness.
- Developing respect towards people who speak a different language and have a different culture. (BC number 5)
- Knowing the different cultural aspects related to this topic: London Bridge, double-decker bus, phone box,… (BC number 3,5)
5.2.- NON-SPECIFIC CONTENTS:
A) BASIC COMPETENCES: The incorporation of the Basic Competences into the curriculum allows us to place emphasis on learning which is considered essential, form an integrated approach and orientated to the application of acquired knowledge. It refers to those competences that young people should have developed by the end of compulsory education in order to reach personal achievement, be an active citizen, join adult life and be able to develop permanent learning throughout life. For this topic we are going to develop: social and citizen competence and personal initiative and autonomy competence
B) EDUCATION IN VALUES. Due to the fact that we are going to work with MEANS OF TRANSPORTS we are going to develop ROAD EDUCATION.
C)INTERDICIPLINE: We will establish some connections with other areas such as: PHYSICAL EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE and PLASTIC ARTS.
6- METHODOLOGY:
Concerning the methodology, I will follow a communicative approach, that is using the English Language to communicate among themselves.
As for the materials we need, we will use as many materials as possible since we are going to work with a heterogeneous group, and an important principle is attention to diversity. Concerning the materials we will use: BOOKS, GRAMMAR- BOOKS, TAPES, FLASHCARDS, DOMINO GAMES, VIDEO FILM, WORKSHEETS, POSTER, COMPUTERS and DIGITAL BLACKBOARD.
With this methodology, the most important part will be the activities I’m going to use in order to develop the contents to achieve these objectives.
The activities will be focused on the four major skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing and will be related to grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Our activities will be adapted to our students´ needs. Within methodology, we will also see the class organization. I’ll work with a WHOLE GROUP, in PAIRS and INDIVIDUALLY.
7.- EVALUATION
● WHY we going to establish an evaluation process? In the article number 4 of the R.D. 1513/06 it is said that every teaching-learning process must be evaluated in a continuous, formative and objective way.
● WHEN is this evaluation process going to be developed? We establish three basic moments: at the beginning that will be an initial evaluation to see their previous knowledge. Throughout the unit: a continuous evaluation resorting to different activities. And, finally, at the end of the unit: a final evaluation.
● WHAT are we going to evaluate? We must check if our students have acquired all the objectives and contents. EVALUATION CRITERIA:
- distinguish and use correctly the vocabulary referred to means of transports.
- use the grammar structures properly.
- know how and when to use different prepositions: up, on, under…
- recognise the importance of being responsible in the road.(Education in values),
We will also have to evaluate the methodology we have put into practise, whether the activities proposed have been useful or not, and if the attention to the diversity has been appropriate or not. In case it has not been appropriate we’ll have to look for reinforcement techniques so as to help students with low level. For instance, as we must be flexible we should prepare extra activities in order to facilitate their learning. Students with difficulties in our subject may be given more letters than advanced students so as to help then to create words in an easy way. Both types of students would be mixed in groups.
● “HOW” to evaluate: by means of observation, daily work, interview,…
Apart from this, I will propose evaluation activities to check student’s improvement and the efficiency of my own teaching practise.
8.- SESSIONS
● First session: In my first session I will start with my routine activity “weather window”, it consists on telling the weather every day is and, as we are in the means of transports topic our pupils tells us if it is a good weather to drive or not I will say: “Good morning!, what is the weather like today?”. Here, we will see their previous knowledge. Later I’ll present the topic with a sticker tale about means of transports and different flashcards. They have to read and to go to the stickers page and put each sticker in its correct place. With this, we will introduce the new vocabulary into the class. To Sum up we will show our feeling faces, with them our pupils tell us how they feel with this new topic and it will serve us to evaluate. You can see the feeling faces in the image of this page.
● Second session: In our second session we will start with our routine activity: the “weather window”, later, we will work with listening and speaking games. We will put a poster on the blackboard in which we can see a city with the different means of transports and different places. Our pupils will listen, for instance: “The car is next to the park”, then, our pupils will point in the poster where the car is. Later they will explain if their parents have or not cars or other means of transports. In practice stage we will give our pupils a worksheet about the skills we have seen. One exercise is a listening where our pupils have to put in order the means of transports. Later we will develop a worksheet where one pupil will speak about in which means of transport people are and the other has to tick if it is true or false. I´ll finish this sessions with the feeling faces to evaluate their feelings about the session.
● Third session: Here, we will start with our routine “weather window”. Afterwards, we’ll talk about the main structures knowing the means of transports and the different places in the city implies: I go to school by bus, car,… Where are you? I am in the hospital, school,… I’ll resort to a song to help them to assimilate their meaning using imperatives: the song: “Caution, we are driving!”. Later, we will practice with a big caterpillar. Later i will practice the structure: “Where are you? I am…” To end with this session i will practice reading and writing skills with a big caterpillar ( you can see the image in this page). We will hide different words that form sentences we have seen in the classroom and in groups they have to look for them, we will put in different places in our classroom. We will make teams and one of them will know where the words are and he has to say: “Hot or cold” .They will prove the different words in the different parts of the caterpillar since they form the correct sentence. With this fact we will develop work in teams and communication among them. To sum up we will evaluate how our pupils feel with our feeling faces.
● Fourth session: I´ll start with my routine activity. Later I will continue with the dramatization of the tale we work at the beginning. The tale has different characters and our pupils will represent what these characters say. Moreover, in this session, we are going to develop writing and speaking skills. We are going to teach our pupils some orders we have to follow when we are in the street. Then they have to write these orders in this worksheet. Moreover we are going to give our pupils a crossword where they have to find different means of transports and other in which they have to put in order all the means of transports. To sum up, i will show them the feeling faces we used in the first session to evaluate the activity.
● Fifth session: We will start with our routine activity. Later we will give our pupils some worksheets made by myself to improve the four main communicative skills. Moreover we are going to work with Education in values and basic competences. We are going to develop a circuit in the playground and our pupils will learn how to circulate. With this we will develop road education. Moreover, we want our pupils achieve for this topic the social and citizen competence. Here, we will develop a role play with our pupils representing different people in different places in the city. For example, one of them see some children breaking a tree. Others have to help some old people crossing the street,… At the end of this session, we are going to put all the vocabulary we have learnt in a big dictionary made by myself. The main aim of this dictionary is our pupils will find all the vocabulary we have taught when they need. So we will put all vocabulary form topic 1 to topic 15 in this funny book. To sum up we will use our feeling faces to evaluate our activities.
● Sixth session: In this last session I’ll focus on using computers (TICs). With this activity I’ll try revise the concepts learnt. I introduce the web page English for little children. First I´ll tell my pupils what we are going to do, I will use the digital blackboard for a better comprehension during my explication. While children are practising the topics I will encourage them to use also the digital blackboard (in pairs). Finally, I will ask my pupils to value if the activities have been funny, if they have learn the vocabulary, grammar…,by drawing faces, according to their feels: Likewise I have prepared other activities using computer for fast finishers: we will use activities from jclic.
11.- CONCLUSION
As I said in my introductory example we must take into account that our pupils are different so we have to attend to this diversity, we must observe this group and apply all the necessary strategies to achieve our main objective: to reach communicative competence.
12.- BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEB PAGES:
- The teacher’s magazine.
- Article nº 27 of the Spanish Constitution.
- Royal Decree 1513/06.
- Decree 82/2007 24th of April.
- www.agendaweb.com
- www.jclic.com