Hi partners!

I have designed a Unit of Work in which through the use of a IWB, a session of 45 minutes is develop in order to practice the contents related to the verbs in the past.

Introduction

This Unit of Work is designed to be used at the last stages of Primary Education, Level 6 . In this session that takes around 45 minutes, we will be working with a heterogeneous class and the students will acquire the following aims:

1. To acquire the past tense.

2. To distinguish between regular and irregular forms in the past.

3. To acquire the meaning of verbs.

4. To tell stories and descriptions in the past.

5. To understand meaning through pictures and songs.

6. To identify when to use past tense.

Grammar does not usually interest children but with the aid of ICT, for instance with this IWB (Interactive Whiteboard), children will be motivated as they can interact in the process of learning and this kind of resources help make things easier, funnier and more dynamic. In order to acquire these aims, the use of ICT, such as IWB, will reinforce motivation and interaction creating a manipulative and recreational environment.

Justification and Context

Justification

Even if Grammar, in this case the acquisition of verbs in the past, is not as fun as other topics, it is necessary to teach these concepts because children need them to communicate accurately. It is true that the presentation and practice stage is harder if we want to get their attention but the production stage is going to be more fun because children can see that language works as an instrument to communicate to each other.

Context

At the time of programming and designing a Unit of Work we should bare in mind several characteristics: the environment, the Center and the Level.

1. The environment: The Centre is located in a working class neighborhood that has enough Health, Administrative and Leisure time services, in Zamora, a little town in Castilla y León. The students are children who live near the School and we can find some immigrants and gypsies.

2. The Centre: CEIP Riomanzanas is a Bilingual Centre, which was one of the pioneers in this way of teaching and it is associated to the British Council which provides them money in terms of human resources. This Center has five native speakers as teachers, It is important to know that this center is a Comprehensive School, which tries to integrate all sort of minorities in an inclusive methodology.

3. Level: This Unit of Work has been designed to work with students at Level 6, which means that can be used in the last courses of the Spanish Primary Education with different aims. In this case, it is going to be used for the sixth course of Primary Education.

General Aims

The general aims in Primary Education in the field of English are the following:

1. To understand the importance of learning English

2. To develop naturally their oral fluency through natural, motivating and nice activities.

3. To get used to the intonation, rhythm and pronunciation of English words.

4. To produce vocabulary and sentences naturally showing non verbal comprehension.

5. To produce short sentences as answer of songs...

6. To participate in real actions that will be really successful in their process of learning.

7. To use writing skills in monitored activities.

8. To read in English through the association of pictures, colours, numbers or other symbols. Pre-reading activities.

9. To write in English, it is said, to colour or draw what they hear in English. Pre-writing activities.

10.To acquire and understand new vocabulary.

11. To recycle naturally the vocabulary that they already know.

Specific Aims

1. To acquire the past tense.

2. To distinguish between regular and irregular forms in the past.

3. To acquire the meaning of verbs.

4. To tell stories and descriptions in the past.

5. To understand meaning through pictures and songs.

6. To identify when to use past tense.

Contents

Conceptual

1. Language:

• Past tense

• Affirmative/Negative/Interrogative

• Regular and irregular forms.

2. Vocabulary: Verbs meaning.

Procedural

1. Memorizing the rules of Simple Past.

2. Comprehending globally.

3. Getting information of verbs in the past through symbols, pictures and songs.

4. Asking questions and making decisions.

Attitudinal

1. Appreciating that the past tense is useful to talk about past events.

2. Having curiosity about learning in English vocabulary related to actions in the past.

3. Having interest at the time of participating in the activities.

Didactic resources

This Unit of Work is focused to be done in a digital environment, overall with the Interactive Whiteboard, Smart Board. This kind of technology allows the student to manipulate interactively with his fingers the knowledge offered in an audio-visual way.

Methodology

In this unit of work the student will be the main character of their process of learning, in this way they build their own learning. The teacher will monitor the process. We will use the PPP methodology which means Presentation, Practice,and Production:

1. Presentation is where the target language is presented to the students generally through eliciting and cuing of the students and then providing the language if no one does. The target language is usually put on the marker board either in structure (grammar-type)charts or in dialogues or in a IWB as in this case. Presentation features more “teacher talk” than the other stages of the lesson

2. Next comes Practice where the students practice the target language in one to three activities that progress from very structured (students are given activities that provide little possibility for error) to less-structured (as they master the material).These activities should include as much “student talk” as possible and not focus on written activities

3. Production is the stage of the lesson where the students take the target language and use it in conversations that they structure (ideally) and use it to talk about themselves or their daily lives or

situations. As we see, the general structure of a PPP lesson is flexible, but an important feature is the movement from controlled and structured speech to less-controlled and more freely used and created speech. Another important feature of PPP is the fast reduction of teacher talk time and the increase in

student talk time.

Activities:

I have developed different activities in order to achieve the aims that I have previously designed. As you can see, there are different activities in this IWB that I will be developing one per one through the following captures. The teacher will be monitoring all the time the activities and he can decide if he wants to erase one of them depending on the rhythm of the class. Each activity takes around 2-10 minutes, but the time is not something closed it depends on the class, for that reason flexibility and second plans are important too.
Organization
1. Space: This activity is going to be done in the classroom n which the Sixth Course of Primary Education is because every classroom in the Centre is provided with a Interactive Whiteboard.
2. Time: This IWB will be used in order to develop a session that takes approximately 45 minutes.
Assessment Criteria
The assessment will be formative continuous and personalised.
How to assess.
It will be assessed through instruments and techniques. We underline
observation and the register of the activities proposed in the IWB.
What to assess.
General Assessment Criteria
1. To recognise the rhythm, intonation and stress of some expressions that are habitual in our daily life and reproduce them properly.
2. To use basic strategies to learn to learn ( asking questions, using dictionaries...)
3. To show interest ans curiosity in communicating in English as well as recognise the linguistic diversity as an element that enriches multicultural societies.
4. To identify habits and customs in anglophone countries and compare them to our own culture.
Specific Assessment Criteria
1. To acquire the past tense.
2. To distinguish between regular and irregular forms in the past.
3. To acquire the meaning of verbs.
4. To tell stories and descriptions in the past.
5. To understand meaning through pictures and songs.
6. To identify when to use past tense.
When to assess
1. Initial Assessment:At the beginning of the Unit of work. It allows to see what the students know and help you to make assumptions of what they need.
2. Formative Assessment: During the whole Unit of Work we will be assessing children's progress and it will help us in the teaching and learning process.
3. Summative Assessment: At the end of the Unit of Work. In this case we will see if the students have achieved the aims proposed and will help us to solve problems and errors in future sessions.