UNIT 5
(Based on: Neil McLaren and Daniel Madrid (1997): Making Friends 3: unit 5, pp. 32-37.
Valladolid: La Calesa).
1. INTRODUCTION
This unit introduces the topic of food and drink in grade 6 of Primary Education. It will
be implemented, approximately, in two weeks and in six hours. The objectives,
contents, activities, methodology and criteria for evaluation, that are proposed, have
been planned according to the characteristics of
a) sixth graders in Primary Education,
b) the guidelines provided by the Spanish Curricular Design in Royal Decree
1513/2006 and fully developed in Orden ECI/2211/2007, (BOE nº 173).
2. SOCIAL CONTEXT
This unit has been designed for a state Primary school, located in an urban area of the
Andalusian Community.
- Most students belong to a low-middle social class;
- 25% of the parents are unemployed, however the students can afford to buy all
the materials recommended in the English class thanks to contribution of the
students’ parents association;
- 30 % of the families have studied some English and can help their students at
home;
- 60 % of the students have an independent study room and the rest (40 %) have to
share the home space with other family members;
- 25 % of the students have internet facilities at home and can use it regularly;
- 30 % of the local population are immigrants and cannot speak Spanish fluently.
- There is one student whose second language is English and her performance is
currently used as a model in some classroom activities.
There is a library with internet and audio-visual facilities in the area. In addition, there
is a small school library and a computer room for 25 students.
3. THE STUDENTS
In the Grade 6 of Primary Education, LEARNERS show specific characteristics:
- They understand situations more quickly than they understand the language
used, so an implicit approach (intuitive learning with very few rules) will be
adopted.
- Their understanding comes through hands and eyes and ears, so small objects,
illustrations and recordings will be fundamental resources.
- They sometimes have a short attention and concentration span, so classroom
activities cannot be too long (55 minutes will be the predominant duration);
- Young students love to play, singing songs and telling stories and learn best
when they are enjoying themselves. So these will be common activities.
- They rely on the spoken word as well as the physical world to convey and
understand meaning, so most teaching will have an oral orientation;
- They are able to work with others and learn from others (cooperative leaning),
so some group work and cooperative activities will also be introduced.
- In relation to their cognitive development, at this age, students live the concrete
operational stage, according to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
(1975), so we will need to use plenty of objects and pictures to work with.
- Learners possess individual learning styles, preferences or multiple
intelligences. Consequently, in this lesson planning we have included a variety
of songs (to develop their musical intelligence), language activities (for their
linguistic and logical intelligence), handcraft tasks (for their kinaesthetic
intelligence), and communicative activities (to develop their interpersonal
intelligence).
- Activities for the younger learners should include movement and involve the
senses.
- Variety in the classroom is a key issue. Since concentration and attention
spans are short, variety of activity, pace, organisation and voice are very
important.
4. BASIC/KEY COMPETENCIES
Basic Competences include the group of skills, knowledge and attitudes according to
the context that every student of each educational stage should reach for their personal
development and active role in society. The curriculum of the Primary Education
includes, at least, the following basic competences (RD 1513/2006; Orden
ECI/2211/2007 ):
a) The Competence in linguistic communication, referred to the use of the
language as a tool for the oral and written communication in Spanish
language as well as in a foreign language.
b) The Competence of mathematical reasoning, understood as the ability to use
numbers and basic operations.
c) The Competence in the knowledge and interaction with the physical and
natural world.
d) Digital Competence and treatment of the information, understood as the
ability to search, obtain, process and communicate the information turning it
into knowledge.
e) Social and civic Competence, through which the individual is taught how to
live in society, understand the social reality of the world where we live and
implement the democratic citizenship.
f) Cultural and artistic Competence, which means appreciating, understanding
and valuing different cultural and artistic manifestations critically, using them
as an enjoyment and personal enrichment source.
g) Competence and attitudes to keep learning through life in an autonomous
way.
h) Competence for the autonomy and personal initiative, that includes the
possibility to choose from a personal point of view and a critical approach.
So this teaching unit will contribute to the development of some these competences.
5. OBJECTIVES FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION
Obviously, our lesson planning has to be designed so that it contributes to the
achievement of the OBJECTIVES established by the Spanish Ministry of Education for
Primary Education. These, in turn, are based on the general objectives established by
Royal Decree 1513/2006 developed in Orden ECI/2220/2007. These objectives
establish that the students must achieve the following capacities and skills:
1. To listen and understand messages in varied verbal interactions using
information transmitted for the completion of specific and diverse tasks related
to students’ experience;
2. To express oneself and interact orally in simple, familiar, everyday situations,
using verbal and non-verbal procedures and adopting a respectful and
cooperative attitude;
3. To write diverse texts with varied purposes on topics previously seen in the
classroom with the help of models;
4. To read diverse texts related to students’ experience and interests, extracting
general and specific information;
5. To learn to use all available resources including new technologies with
progressive autonomy in order to obtain information and communicate in the
foreign language;
6. To appreciate the foreign language and languages in general as a means of
communication and understanding between people from diverse countries and
cultures and as an instrument for learning different contents;
7. To show a receptive attitude and confidence in their own learning capacity and
in the use of the foreign language;
8. To use the previous knowledge and experiences for a more rapid, efficient and
autonomous acquisition of the foreign language;
9. To identify elements related to phonetics, rhythm, accent and intonation as
well as linguistic structures and lexical aspects of the foreign language and
use them as basic elements of communication.
5.1. UNIT OBJECTIVES
The specific objectives that will be achieved in this unit are the following:
- Developing the students’ communicative competence, that is their oral and
written communicative skills, with situations that include the contents given
below.
- Learning the grammatical, lexical and linguistic items indicated below.
- Developing the students’ intercultural competence through the contents and
communicative situations presented in class.
- Developing the students’ attitudinal and learning competence with the activities
presented in this unit.
5.2. CONTENTS AND ACTIVITIES
ORAL COMMUNICATION (BLOCK 1)
- Identifying and introducing family members indicating their profession (e.g.: My
father's name is Colin. He's a policeman.)
- Asking and answering questions about family trees (e.g.: - Who's Joy's father? - Colin
is)
- Introducing your family: - This is my father/mother, …
- Expressing existence: - What is there in the park? - Is there any …? - Are there any ….?
- Encouraging the listening comprehension and speaking skills with the game “ Who is
it?”
- Describing professions: - He’s a poet;
- She’s a florist
- Listening and learning songs about professions and parks.
- Developing the listening comprehension and speaking skills with the game "Repeat
what you hear"
- Encouraging the listening comprehension and speaking skills with the game “I spy
with my little eye”
- Talking about the food needed for a party.
- Offering food and drinks (e.g.: - Come on, have a sandwich - Right! Cheers! )
- Simulating a party by asking for and offering food
- Practising stress, rhythm and intonation patterns (e.g: These are muSIcians. They're
PLAying the guiTAR in the STREET)
- Discriminating and pronouncing words and expressions with /Ө/-/s/ y /z/ (e.g: three,
sing, girls)
- Using the dictionary to look for the meaning of new words.
- Developing strategies which help communication
- Associate spelling and pronunciation
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION (BLOCK 2)
- Reading brief descriptive texts about parks in Britain.
- Finding out irregular plurals (e.g.: child – children, woman - women ; man - men)
- Increasing vocabulary about the Topic of this unit by expanding the student’s picture
dictionary
- Completing incomplete texts.
- Deducing meanings from context and without the aid of the dictionary.
- Identifying and discriminating phonic elements ( sounds, stress, rhythm and intonation)
in written words, sentences and texts.
- Reading comprehension of texts related to parks.
- Structure of the rhymes studied in this unit (e.g. My father’s a gardener, and … for ….)
KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGE / LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE (BLOCK
3)
Vocabulary:
JOBS: teacher, policeman, gardener, decorator, painter, musician, florist, poet, writer, …
FAMILY: grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, brother, sister
NAMES: Paul, Fred, Leo, Tony, Alison, Norah, Margaret, Peg, …
SURNAMES: Mr. Collins, Mrs. Collins
Language items (Grammar) :
Saxon genitive: This is Joy’s father
THERE IS/ARE; IS THERE A …? ARE THERE ANY …?
Irregular plurals: child - children
Pronunciation and spelling
Sounds: /Ө/ - /s/ - /z/, Stress, rhythm and intonation
SOCIO-CULTURAL ASPECTS (BLOCK 4)
- Recognizing different cultures and social behaviours which are realized by language in
different communicative situations
- Describing the British police and the Spanish local police uniform.
- Identifying the main characteristics of British local parks in contrast with the Spanish
squares.
- Recognising British men’s and women’s foremanes and surmanes.
KEY/BASIC COMPETENCES
- Social competence and Environmental education: parks and the countryside.
- Nature and health: Learning about food and nutrition to improve the student’s education
for health
ATTENTION TO DIVERSITY
Language reinforcement (for low ability children):
- Saxon genitive; vocabulary about the family; revision of THERE IS/ARE + countable
and uncountable nouns.
- Asking and answering questions about the students’ families.
Language expansion (for high ability children):
- Composing short rhymes following models.
- Project work about environmental education.
- Doing a project work about parks
- Playing with rhymes and composing similar texts following models
ATTITUDES
- Becoming conscious of the need to value and preserve our own culture, without any
sense of inferiority.
- Showing a favourable disposition towards the independent reading of short texts.
- Acquiring a positive attitude towards the learning of linguistic elements: grammar,
phonetics, lexical items, etc.
- Showing respect and consideration towards parks and their importance for people.
6. METHODOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES FOR THE TEACHING UNIT
We have aimed to base our approach on communicative principles. Besides that, we
would also like to emphasise the following:
- Language is considered, fundamentally, an instrument of communication, so
teaching the English language implies teaching how to communicate in English.
- The final aim of the FL instruction is the development of the student's
communicative competence, which includes linguistic, sociolinguistic and
pragmatic, cultural, strategic and discourse subcompetences.
- We believe that the L1 (mother language) can be beneficial for second language
learning and the L2 may contribute to a better knowledge of the L1, that is the
central point of the interliguistic hypothesis proposed by Jim Cummins in 1979.
- Pragmatics (language in use and in context) becomes more relevant than
grammar, so a variety of communicative situations and contexts is essential.
- Goals are learner-centred, so our teaching plan is very much influenced by the
potential students’ needs and interests. It means that they will be able to choose
and negotiate their learning tasks with the teacher.
-
-
-
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At present, constructivism is the predominant learning theory. According to it,
learners regulate and “construct” their own learning, in a personal way, so they
need time and opportunities for that.
Great emphasis is placed on collaborative learning and team work;
The syllabus should be cross-curricular in nature and a careful attention must be
paid to the Basic Competences: Linguistic, Mathematical, Physical World, ICTs,
Social, Cultural, Autonomy and Learning Through Life
In group work, we will attempt to encourage the exchange of roles between male
and female students, and to promote active participation
We have included tasks of varying difficulty, so that the differing abilities,
interests and expectations of the students may be appropriately covered.
Pair work and team work activities are regularly presented, in order to
facilitate cooperative learning.
Although contents have been structured in several categories, there must be an
interrelation and integration between all the contents in communicative
situations.
It is important to keep a balance between oral and written activities.
6.1. Attention to diversity
We often teach classes with different starting levels of English and with students who
learn at very different speeds. To deal with this DIVERSITY …
a) We will provide various output levels in such a way that all pupils take the same
programme but I introduce various levels of demands or difficulty.
b) We will also adopt a flexible organisation and the students will be grouped
according to their level for some activities.
c) We will also introduce curriculum options so that pupils can choose what they
like according to their capabilities.
Complementary activities of language expansion will be provided for high ability
students and language reinforcement activities for low achievers.
6.2. Materials and resources
In order to implement this lesson planning, the following CURRICULAR
MATERIALS AND TEACHING RESOURCES will be used:
TEXTBOOKS
They are useful for the presentation and exploitation of:
- Dialogues, texts and communicative situations, appropriately illustrated
- Oral communicative activities aimed to develop the basic competences:
- Reading activities, at initial and more advanced levels
- Phonetic exercises and rhymes
- Songs and games to assist motivation
- Synoptic charts and tables covering contents included
- Lexical groups, organised by topics and semantic fields
An alphabetically organised dictionary with phonetic transcription and
Spanish equivalents, as a final appendix to each book.
A WORKBOOK OR A NOTEBOOK
RECORDINGS
REALIA, FLASHCARDS, WALL CHARTS AND POSTERS
VIDEOS AND DVDs
INTERNET
SONGS AND RHYMES
USE OF GRADED READERS (starting from 250-300 words)
6.3. Unit evaluation criteria
In relation to the ASSESSMENT CRITERIA that we will apply, our purpose is that
the evaluative process involve all the participants in the curricular process, that is, the
teacher and the students by means of:
- Continuous, formative or ongoing evaluation of the curricular process.
- Summative evaluation of outcomes (final results).
- Self-evaluation forms for the students, by using the European portfolio: the
language dossier, the language biography and the language passport.
Continuous assessment will be carried out by:
-
Observing and analysing the students’ work daily.
Some oral and written quizzes.
Evaluating the students’ projects and other extracurricular tasks.
TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES
(Based on Neil McLaren and Daniel Madrid (1997): Making Friends 3: unit 5, pp. 3237. Valladolid: La Calesa).
SESSION 1
1. Identifying and introducing family members indicating their profession.
The students not only will introduce their family members, but they will also express
possession by using the Saxon genitive with the following situation:
Situation: a student greets the audience, shows a picture of his/her family members and
introduces them.
Who are your parents?
- Hi, friends! I’m Joy and this is my family:
- My father's name is Colin. He's a policeman.
- My mother's name is Jean. She's a teacher.
- My sister's name is Sally. She's a secretary.
- My brother's name is Toby. He's a student.
Colin
Jean
Sally
Toby
1.a) Asking and answering questions about each picture by using the model below:
- Who's Joy's father?
- What's Joy's father's name?
- Colin is.
- Colin.
1.b) Game “ Who is it?”
Skills: Listening comprehension and speaking.
Language: family members and professions.
How to play:
1 . The student of team A thinks of one person in the previous pictures and says,
for example, “who’s the teacher?” and team B has to find the picture and name
the person: “It’s Jean!”
2) SOCIOCULTURAL ASPECTS: describing what British police and the Spanish
local police wear.
The students will describe the clothes that police in the Spanish Autonomous
Communities wear in contrast with the British police.
3. LANGUAGE REINFORCEMENT: Asking and answering questions about the
students’ families using the language below:
- What's your
father's
mother's
brother's
sister's
name?
SESSION 2
4. Listening and learning songs about professions
Again the students can learn more prefabricated language that they can use for
communication and practice new stress, rhythm and intonation patters:
My father's a gardener
My father's a gardener
And flowers he grows
For the girl I know!
For the girl I know!
My mother's a florist
And flowers she sells
For the boy I met!
For the boy I met!
I'm a poet
And verses I write
For the people I like!
For the people I like!
4. a) Game "Repeat what you hear"
Skills: Listening comprehension and speaking.
Language: Items which have appeared in the text “My father’s a gardener”.
How to play:
1. This game can be played with representatives of each team of students or with
several teams competing again other.
2. After several repetitions in chorus, the teacher reads the poem or plays the
cassette and leaves some time, by using the pause button, for the students to
repeat what they have heard.
3. The student has to listen carefully and must try to reproduce correctly what
s/he has heard. Any intelligible version should be accepted.
5. Singing the song.
The students will listen to the recording and will memorise the words.
6. Reading text about parks in Britain.
The students will develop their reading comprehension skills with reading texts that
describe the main elements of British parks and some common notices for the visitors.
Parks in Britain
- Look at these parks
- There are swings, trees and children.
- There's a Punch and Judy show for children.
- There are notices for visitors:
Look: Portsmouth City Council.
Keep dogs on leads.
Maximum Penalty 100 pounds.
No litter.
Clean up after your dog.
Use this bin.
SESSION 3
6.a) SOCIOCULTURAL ASPECTS: project work about parks
Attention to diversity (Language Expansion)
The students will look for information on British parks and will copy the corresponding
pictures to be compared with other Spanish parks that they know.
6. b) Game “I spy with my little eye”
Skills: Listening comprehension and speaking.
Language: Vocabulary about parks.
How to play:
1. A student (or the teacher) studies a picture/wallchart/poster about a park and
says; -I spy with little eye something beginning with... (/g/).
2. The teams look at the same picture/wallchart/page of the textbook, etc. and
have to find words beginning with /g/ (e.g. grass) If they choose the correct
word, their team gets a point, if not, the other team has a chance to select another
work beginning with (/g/).
6. c) Attention to diversity (Language Expansion): Playing with rhymes:
The students will write simple rhymes about parks by following some models provided in
class. Examples:
Come on, let’s go!
Come on, let’s go!
O.K., let’s go!
Let's go to the park
Let's go to the park,
Let's go and play.
The birds in the tree,
The ducks on the pond,
The fish in the sea
O.K., let’s go!
But where?
But where ?
To the park!
To the park!
Hoo-ray, let’s play
Let's sit on the grass
for the whole day!
And me with my blonde!
7. Preparing and offering for a party.
With this activity the students will learn to talk about food.
Situation: Amy is preparing food and drinks for her party with a friend.
Amy's party
- What is there for the party?
- Look: orange juice, crisps, peanuts, coke, sandwiches, biscuits, pizza,
hamburgers and chips
- Come on, have a sandwich
- Right! Cheers!
8.
ATTENTION TO DIVERSITY (LANGUAGE REINFORCEMENT):
Reviewing the use of "there is/there are"
The students will make questions based on the previous items of food by using the
language below:
- What is there for the party?
- Is there ?
- Are there any ?
Examples::
- What is there for the party?
There's.... / There are
Yes, there is / No, there isn't
Yes, there are 1 No, there aren't x
- There’s coke, orange juice, pizza,
- There are crisps, peanuts, sandwiches,
SESSION 4
9. Simulation about a party.
The students will simulate a party and write down what they have prepared for it. Their
classmates will ask questions about the items they have for the party. Example:
-What have you got for the party?
- Have you got any (chocolate)?
- Is there …?
- Are there any … ?
10. CROSS-CURRICULAR ASPECTS: Education for health
ATTENTION TO DIVESITY (LANGUAGE EXPANSION)
The students will prepare a project work about “food and nutrition”. They will inform
about the risk of having candy, chocolate, fast food, sweets, etc.
11. Practising stress, rhythm and intonation patterns. Example:
Street musicians
These are muSIcians.
They're PLAying the guiTAR in the STREET.
And they're SINging: LOOK at their MOUTHS.
SESSION 5
12. Discriminating and pronouncing words and expressions with /Ө/-/s/ y /z/.
/Ө/
/s/
/z/
three
sing
girls
bath
street
guitars
mouth streets
songs
teeth
boots trousers
13. Game "one, two or three?"
Skills: Listening comprehension, phonetic discrimination.
Language: The sounds of English.
How to play:
1 . The teacher should make clear which is sound n.º 1, which n.º 2 and no. 3.
Note that this activity should be used with sounds that are difficult to distinguish
or 2. The teacher then pronounces words which contain either sound 1, 2 or 3,
and the students have to say ,one! two! or three!), as appropriate. Examples:
/ Ө / = 1 /s/ = 2 /z/ = 3
T.: bath
boys
cats
S.: one!
three!
two!
T.: father's
desks
mouth
S.: three!
two!
one!
14. Working with the difficult words and phrases to pronounce:
The students will look for the most difficult words and expressions and build up sentences
with them. These are possible difficult items:
- That's my father, mother and brother.
- Open your mouth and show your teeth
- What's Heather's brother's name?
- Painters paint pictures.
- And decorators paint walls
- She's a secretary.
SESSON 6
15. Learning irregular plurals:
The following irregular plural will be presented and learnt.
child ----- children
woman ---- women
man ---- men
16. Picture dictionary
The students will complete their picture dictionary by adding new elements from this unit
and writing their name. They can look for images in the Internet and will find pictures
similar to these:
PARKS
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FOOD FOR A PARTY
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17. REVISING THE MAIN POINTS OF THE TEACHING UNIT