We start saying that the most important goal of teaching a foreign language is that our pupils achieve THE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE and the development of the four main skills, and of course in this didactic unit we are going to develop these skills.
When we make a didactic unit we divide it into two main stages: Teaching learning process and Teaching learning assessment. At the same time we are going to make ourselves several questions:
And the first question is:
WHERE are we working?
As we said in our didactic planning:
The school is placed in a town of 10.000 inhabitants. It is a rural environment and the majorities of the families belong are middle class, so the economic level is middle high. We have 9 units and there are English, music, and Physical Education specialist.
(Another important question is:)
WHO is this didactic unit directed to?
As we said we have 22 children in our classroom, 13 are boys and 9 are girls. They belong of course to the first year of the third cycle of primary education. Previously we haven´t got any pupil with special needs. If we detect this, we must adapt the objectives to this pupil.
(The following question is:)
WHEN and HOW LONG are we going to make this didactic unit?
First we are going to answer to the question “When” and I choose the didactic unit number…9 NINE… .So we make this didactic unit probably in the SECOND term of the year but of course the teacher must be flexible.
Regarding the question “HOW LONG”, we are going to make more or less six sessions about fifty-five minutes each class.
(One of the most important question proposed by the Curriculum is:)
WHAT are we going to deal with in this didactic unit?
First of all we are going to talk about the title of this didactic unit , and that is “…ANIMALS, MY FRIENDS… ”
We have chosen this title because it is motivated for our pupils and it´s related to their own experiences. With respect to WHAT to teach ,we are going to teach the contents, that are divided into concepts, procedures and attitudes:
As for as the concepts are refereed to the concepts that the children must achieve in this didactic unit that are:
First of all we need to say that concepts will be divided into:
Firstly:
VOCABULARY: ANIMALS (tiger, koala, monkey …) ANIMALS FOOD( fish, fruit, insects,meat…)
Secondly:
STRUCTURES: I eat fruit and insects
I don´t eat insects
I eat monkeys…….This tiger doesn´t eat monkeys
And finally,
PRONUNCIATION, in this didactic unit we will work on rhythm, intonation and stress.
With respect to the procedures, that the children must follow to achieve all the previous concepts and now we will see in this didactic unit, for example:
- Identifying the vocabulary related to this unit.
- Reading and writing that vocabulary.
- Taking part in communicative situations.
Then, pupils must acquire the following attitudes such as:
- Show interest to use English in the classroom.
- Respect and tolerance for people from other environments.
- Show a positive attitude towards English.
Within the questions of what to teach in our didactic units, we must talk about the CROSS CURRICULAR TOPICS:
that is interrelated with PEACE EDUCATION(To cooperate with other classmates and help them) ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION(to show respect towards the animals World Fund For Nature. British organization to care them)
And finally we can not forget the importance of INTERDISCIPLINARITY , and in this unit we can see a relationship with:.
(Another important question within the teaching learning process is:)
WHY are we going to make this didactic unit?
In this case we are going to establish two relationships, first of all with the legislative framework and them as for the curricular framework. With respect to the legislative framework we see the connection with this didactic unit and the
R.D. 1006/1991 of 14 of June which establishes the Teaching Requirements for Primary Education.
R.D. 1344/1990 of 6 of September which establishes the Curriculum in Primary Education.
Regarding the curricular framework we see the connection with:
-General Objectives of the stage: for example in the number one, to produce easy oral messages in Spanish and if it is the case in the corresponding spoken language and in the number two: to communicate using body, verbal, artistic and mathematical means of communication in the appropriate way.
-Now we are going to talk about the specific objectives that we want that our children develop. The most important are:
-To learn vocabulary refereed to animals
-To take part in communicative situations purposed in the classroom.
-To use the structures : I eat fruit and insects,I don´t eat insects
I eat monkeys…….This tiger doesn´t eat monkeys
-To show a positive attitude towards English and people of others environments.
(One of the most important question that we must take into account is:)
HOW are we going to do this unit to our children achieve these objectives?
First we are going to speak about METHODOLOGY, and we say that methodology must be active, must be based in pupils´ experiences, pupils must
Participate in all the activities purpose by the teacher. The MATERIALS that we are going to use are: flashcards, worksheets, blackboard, computer classroom,
Cassette, digital blackboard…………..
Now we are going to deal with the ACTIVITIES, we divide the previous activities into listening, speaking, reading and writing. (Let´s see them more deeply).
1ST SESSION: LISTENING ACTIVITIES
LISTEN AND REPEAT
WHAT IS MISSING?
LISTEN AND POINT
LISTEN TO THE TEXT
LIST OF WORDS
LEARN A SONG
2ND SESSION: READING ACTIVITIES
READ THE TEXT
PLAY TO UNDERLINE
PREPARE A SIMILAR TEXT
MAKE A DRAWING
WORD SEARCH
3RD SESSION: SPEAKING ACTIVITIES
FORM GROUPS
PLAY A ROLE
GIVING INSTRUCTIONS
PLAYING WITH FLASHCARDS
SING THE SONG
4TH SESSION: WRITING ACTIVITIES
COPY THE SONG
DESCRIBE THE DRAWING
DESCRIBE THE PICTURE
COMPLETE THE CHART
WRITE A LETTER
5TH SESSION: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING ACTIVITIES
PLAYING WITH THE SONG
READ AND MATCH
USE THE DICTIONARY
ANSWER THE QUESTIONS
COMPLETE IT
Once we have seen the teaching learning process, let´s see the second part in which we will divide a didactic unit, that is the teaching learning assessment, and at the same time we are going to make ourselves several questions, the first is:
WHAT are we going to evaluate? , and we will evaluate all the teaching learning process: The contents that we have dealt with, the space, the time, in short, all the things that take part in this process.
(Another question is:)
WHEN are we going to evaluate? Of course as we said in our didactic planning we will evaluate at the beginning of the teaching learning process (Initial Evaluation), during the process (Formative evaluation) and at the end of the teaching learning process (Final Evaluation)
(The following question is:)
HOW are we going to evaluate? Now we are going to mention:
The instruments of evaluation, they are, Observation, questionnaires, self- evaluation, exams, several evaluation activities, revision of notebooks, pupils' participation and so on. And of course, as we made reference in our didactic planning, using: self-evaluation, co-evaluation and hetero-evaluation.
(Let´s see now:)
WHY are we going to evaluate? Because our R.D 1006/1991 in its article 10 states that the teaching learning process must be evaluated though the evaluation criteria in English we have nine evaluation criteria and my unit shows a relationship with the following objectives:
Recognize and use correctly the vocabulary related to the animals
Say what the animals eat and what they don´t eat
- Value the importance each subjects
(Finally we will see:)
WHO are we going to evaluate? And of course we say the pupils, but not only they must be evaluated, but also the teacher must be evaluated, and we must make a self- correction if is necessary.
That is all about my didactic unit to conclude.
Antonia Conejo Barrero
