Final project

TEPBLL PROJECT SARA CABELLO, CRISTINA JULIÀ, ALBA ROIG, PATRÍCIA ROMERO & ELENA SABATÉ UAB - GRAU D'EDUCACIÓ PRIMÀRIA - 2013-2014

INDEX Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3

Theoretical background ............................................................................................................ 4

Project description .................................................................................................................... 6

INTRODUCTION Ghostbusters is a telecollaborative project carried out between Catalan and French students in 5th grade. As the topic of the project fits in Halloween, it is thought to be done during nine weeks in the first term.

The aim of Ghostbusters is not only to work on linguistic and Social Science contents, but also to foster students’ cultural awareness.

At the end of this project, students should be able to understand and give directions, to write a short biographical text and to carry out an oral presentation. Ghostbusters is an interdisciplinary project, thus it brings together different disciplines such as a Foreign Language and Social Science.

The focused competences in this project are Competence in linguistic communication (reading, listening, writing and specially speaking), Competence in processing information and use of ICT, Competence in social skills and citizenship and Learning to learn.

The Ghostbusters will contact the two schools to tell them that something terrible has happened. Eight ghosts have escaped! They are all historical personalities, well known by their paintings, discoveries, music, social relevance, etc. During this project, both Catalan and French students will be challenged to help the Ghostbusters. Only if they collaborate, they will be able to capture the ghosts.

During this project, students will have a terrific time getting to know each other in telecollaborative encounters, playing a "Ghost Hunt", making hypothesis and using engaging Internet tools.

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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Good teaching happens when competent teachers with non-discouraging personalities use non-defensive approaches to language teaching and learning, and cherish their students .

Dr. James E. Alatis - Dean Emeritus, School of Languages and Linguistics, Georgetown University

Although for several years teaching tendency, regarding foreign language teaching, has focused only on linguistic aspects, isolated from the communicational purpose (Masats, 2008 in Cañete 2013 ), nowadays both teachers and researchers agree to consider the acquisition of a foreign language as a complex process that implies the use of language with the clear purpose of communication.

It is clear to us that the effect of technological development, globalization, and the quick broadening of English as a lingua franca has changed the way teachers teach English as a second language (Warschauer, 2004). Programs like FLEX (Foreign Language Exploratory Program), where students have the opportunity to communicate in a foreign language, enhance students’ cultural awareness while they are learning a new language. Within such a framework, foreign language learning is no longer conceived merely as an inventory of grammatical items to be isolated and transmitted to the students, but as a social practice itself.

It is true that English teachers, which embrace the constructivist approach (Vygotsky, 1978), struggle to provide their students with meaningful interactive activities that take place in particular contexts with particular goals, (Cañete, A. 2013) and strain to find ways of assessment that assure not only the acquisition of content but the certainty that students would be able to apply this knowledge in real contexts (Burgués, C. 2012).

As far as we are concerned, telecollaborative projects, which are educational projects that involve sharing information with a partner and

whose main objective is to foster

communication and cooperative work using Internet tools, are a powerful tool for second language class because they provide the opportunity of learning the language while the students are being exposed to new ways and purposes for communication. Besides, since language and culture are bound together in an inseparable relationship, intercultural 4

telecollaborative projects provide and intercultural exchange than enhances students cultural awareness.

As a matter of fact, as technology can definitively enrich and inject motivation in the language class (Jauregy, K. & Ba単ados, E. 2008), students will immediately be thrilled about new tools and gadgets, but teachers should bear in mind that technology is only a tool, not the purpose.

When planning a telecollaborative project, according to the socioconstructivist approach, teachers should integrate the use of the web communication tools to promote meaningful and contextualized interaction, exchange of information and development of critical thinking.

In our opinion, the telecollaborative project presented, Ghostbusters, promotes the interaction and negotiation of meanings with equals in engaging communicative activities that take into account the different learning styles. What is more, the project includes opportunities for integrating technology, exchange of information and developement of creating thinking through attractive materials and tools such as Google Drive, WeSpeke and a webpage. We strongly believe that GhostBusters is an ambitious telecollaborative project that will succeed.

And not only because it provides students with a real purpose for interaction and fair assessment tools, that gives both teacher and students information about students performance and their ability to apply what they have learned to real contexts, but also with engaging activities in proper grouping that will definitely lead students towards competence acquisition.

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PROJECT DESCRIPTION Project's title: Ghostbusters!

Authors: Sara Cabello, Cristina Julià, Alba Roig, Patricia Romero and Elena Sabaté.

Target level of group: 5th graders.

Identified special needs of any students: ADHD Number of sessions: 15 sessions This collaborative project is going to be carried out between a Catalan and a French school.

Both school students will have to capture five ghosts (among different historical personalities) that had escaped in their schools. These personalities are the following: o

Laika

o

Michael Jackson

o

Walt Disney

o

Dalí

o

Hypathia

o

Martin Luther King

o

Charles Dickens

o

Keiko

Throughout the project pupils will “Ghost Hunt” a famous historical person by finding and decipher different clues so they can guess which famous ghost they are trying to seize while collaborating with equals. Students will have to telecollaborate with French students in order to have all the clues needed and to discuss their guesses until they discover the ghost they are investigating.

During the whole project pupils will work by using a webpage where they are going to find all the materials and instructions needed for each “mission”. http://p-water-66.wix.com/ghostbusters As a final output students are going to create an e-Book as a summary of the process, so they can present their ghost at the end of the project.

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Thus, at the end of the project students will be aware of the importance of some figures in the history of humanity and they will also be able to write short biographical texts using the past simple tense.

The main content students will learn is the following one: Communicating with French students in order to get all the information needed.

Getting the main ideas in readings.

Grasping the main idea and specific details in listening activities.

Interpreting clues.

Doing an oral presentation of the e-Book.

Doing a description of the ghosts characters. Understanding the role of the historical figures in the history of humanity.

Writing short biographical texts using the past simple tense.

Giving and understanding directions by doing a ghost hunt.

Showing respect towards the main facts of the relevant historical personalities.

Using of a non-discriminatory language, showing respect towards all the opinions.

The key competences students will learn in this teaching sequence are: Competence in linguistic communication (reading, listening, writing and specially speaking).

Competence in processing information and use of ICT (to use the webpage as a resource, as well as other tools, such as Google Drive, WeSpeke, etc.).

Competence in social skills and citizenship (respect others, etc.).

Learning to learn (to learn the relevant aspects in the historical person's lives and to write meaningful texts).

Social competence and citizenship (to show respect and cooperation when working in groups and doing the oral presentation).

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Key Work

Assessment

Telecollaborative work

Teacher's

Asynchronous Group work

Student's

Scaffolding needed

SESSION

SWBAT / L.O.

SCAFFOLDING

ASSESSMENT

STUDENT'S

MATERIAL

OUTPUT

- Ghost’s box 1

Introducing the topic (Week 1: October 6th)

- Know what Halloween is about.

- Introduce themselves by using English as the target language.

- Webpage - Drama when presenting the topic.

- IDs - Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions)

- Teacher's ID

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SESSION

Introducing 2

Ghostbusters

SWBAT / L.O.

SCAFFOLDING

3

directions

MATERIAL

- Introduce themselves by using

- IDs

English as the target language.

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions)

To

understand

and

to

give

directions.

- Directions’ worksheets -

Directions

game

worksheets

and

- French school map

map

- Directions’ worksheets

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions)

Prepare the school

(Week 2: October 17th)

OUTPUT

- Directions game (Power Point) -

(Week 2: October 13th)

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STUDENT'S

- IDs - Teacher's ID

(Week 1: October 10th)

Give and understand

ASSESSMENT

- Directions’ worksheets

-

To

understand

and

to

give

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions);

directions.

Teacher's observation rubric; - Directions’ worksheets

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- French school map

Self-assessment (sessions).

worksheet

SESSION

SWBAT / L.O.

SCAFFOLDING

ASSESSMENT

STUDENT'S

MATERIAL

OUTPUT

- WeSpeke - Computers First telecollaboration 5

(Week 3: October 20th)

- Selfassessment

- Headphones -

To

understand

and

to

give

- Peer-

- Internet connexion

directions.

- Directions’ worksheets

assessment

- Webpage

- Ghost

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions); Teacher's (sessions);

observation

rubric;

Peer-assessment

Self-assessment

(telecollaboration);

hypothesis - E-Book

Ghost hypothesis.

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First ghost hunt (Week 3: October 24th)

- To exchange information by using

-

- Maps

English in order to capture their To

understand

and

assessment

- Webpage

ghost.

-

- Self-

- Ghost

- Clues

rewrite

hypothesis

information given in the clues and by

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions);

French students.

Teacher's

- To agree with the classmates about

(sessions); Ghost hypothesis.

the guesses.

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observation

rubric;

Self-assessment

- E-Book

SESSION

7

Second ghost hunt (Week 4: October 27th)

SWBAT / L.O.

- To exchange information by using

SCAFFOLDING

-

English in order to capture their ghost.

- Webpage

- To understand and rewrite information

- Clues

Teacher's

guesses.

(Week 4: October 31st)

- To exchange information by using

OUTPUT

- Selfassessment - Ghost hypothesis

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions);

- To agree with the classmates about the

Third ghost hunt

STUDENT'S

MATERIAL

- Maps

given in the clues and by French students.

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ASSESSMENT

observation

rubric;

Self-assessment

- E-Book

(sessions); Ghost hypothesis.

-

- Maps

English in order to capture their ghost.

- Webpage

- To understand and rewrite information

- Clues

given in the clues and by French students.

- Selfassessment - Ghost hypothesis

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions);

- To agree with the classmates about the

Teacher's

guesses.

observation

rubric;

(sessions); Ghost hypothesis.

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Self-assessment

- E-Book

SESSION

9

SWBAT / L.O.

SCAFFOLDING

-

Second

STUDENT'S

MATERIAL

OUTPUT

- WeSpeke

telecollaboration (Week 5: November 3rd)

ASSESSMENT

- Selfassessment

- Computers - To exchange information by using

- Peer-

- Headphones

assessment

English in order to capture their ghost.

- Internet connexion

- To understand and rewrite information given in the clues and by French students.

- Ghost

- QR codes

- To agree with the classmates about the

hypothesis

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions);

guesses.

Teacher's

observation

(sessions);

rubric;

Peer-assessment

- E-Book

Self-assessment

(telecollaboration);

Ghost hypothesis.

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Prepare presentations (½ group) (Week 5: November 7th)

-

To

understand

and

rewrite

the

information in the E-Book.

- To write short biographical texts using the past tense.

- To be aware of the importance of some figures in the history of humanity.

- The teacher will help each group to prepare the

- Computers

- E-Book

- Internet connexion

- Presemtation

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions); Teacher's observation rubric, E-Book assessment.

presentations.

- Oral presentation guide: steps to success.

- Oral presentation guide: steps to success.

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worksheet (EBook)

SESSION

11

SWBAT / L.O.

SCAFFOLDING

Prepare presentations (½ group) (Week 6: November 10th)

- To write short biographical texts using the past tense.

- To be aware of the importance of some figures in the history of humanity.

- To share with their classmates (Spain) the Ghost studied.

- The teacher will help each group to prepare the

ASSESSMENT

MATERIAL

STUDENT'S OUTPUT

- Computers

- E-Book

- Internet connexion

- Presemtation

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions); Teacher's observation rubric, E-Book assessment.

worksheet (EBook)

presentations.

- Oral presentation guide: steps to success.

- Oral presentation guide: steps to success.

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Prepare presentations (½ group) (Week 6: November 14th)

- To write short biographical texts using the past tense.

- To be aware of the importance of some figures in the history of humanity.

- The teacher will help

- To share with their classmates (Spain)

presentations.

the Ghost studied.

each group to prepare the

- Computers

- E-Book

- Internet connexion

- Presemtation

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions); Teacher's observation rubric, E-Book assessment.

- Oral presentation guide: steps to success.

- Oral presentation guide: steps to success.

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worksheet (EBook)

SESSION

13

SWBAT / L.O.

SCAFFOLDING

Prepare presentations (½ group) (Week 7: November 17th)

- To write short biographical texts using the past tense.

- To be aware of the importance of some figures in the history of humanity.

- The teacher will help

- To share with their classmates (Spain)

presentations.

the Ghost studied.

each group to prepare the

ASSESSMENT

STUDENT'S

MATERIAL

OUTPUT

- Computers

- E-Book

- Internet connexion

- Presemtation

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions); Teacher's observation rubric, E-Book assessment.

worksheet (EBook)

- Oral presentation guide: steps to success.

- Oral presentation guide: steps to success.

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-

Student’s presentations (Week 7: November 21th)

- Computers

- Presemtation worksheet (E-

- To be aware of the importance of some figures in the history of humanity.

- Internet connexion

- To share with their classmates (Spain)

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions);

the Ghost studied.

Teacher's

observation

Book) rubric;

Feedback

(presentations).

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-

Student’s presentations (Week 8: November 24th)

- Computers

- Presemtation worksheet (E-

- To be aware of the importance of some figures in the history of humanity.

- Internet connexion

- To share with their classmates (Spain)

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions);

the Ghost studied.

Teacher's

observation

(presentations).

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Book) rubric;

Feedback

SESSION

16

SWBAT / L.O.

SCAFFOLDING

ASSESSMENT

-

Farewell: decide and

- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions);

STUDENT'S OUTPUT

- Farewell

Teacher's observation rubric.

make (Week 8: November 28th)

MATERIAL

- To prepare a farewell for the French students.

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View French’s farewell

- To be aware of their learning.

- To see French students' farewell.

(Week 9: November 1st)

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- Assessment: Teacher's assessment (sessions);

- Top 5

Teacher's observation rubric.

students

Comments

Before carrying out this roject, the teacher must bear in mind the following: - No other teachers are needed apart from the English teacher.

- You will find all the materials (assessment, scaffolding worksheets, etc.) in the teacher's section at the webpage: http://p-water-66.wix.com/ghostbusters. Bear in mind that you will need the password: 12345 - Pupil organization: Pupils only have to follow the instructions given in the webpage. The groups they will work with need to be planned previously by the teachers of both schools so you can mix different learning styles, English levels and any special needs.

- Previous knowledge: Pupils need to have some basic knowledge about Internet browsers, directions vocabulary and past tense. Even though, the webpage and the clues provided are very intuitive so students will be able to work autonomously.

If the teacher considers some lessons are needed in order to teach them how to use some of the tools if they have never used them before, you will have to plan more than 15 lessons for this project.

- Tools needed: Computers, Internet connection, Webpage, Google Drive, Wix and WeSpeke.

- Resources needed: Clues, directions’ worksheets, scaffolding handouts and webpage.

- Space organization: Pupils will work in groups of 6 students (3 students of each country) on each computer. If possible, they will work with laptops in the same classroom; if not in the computer's room.

- Assessment: As teachers we position ourselves in the formative approach, according to the socioconstructivist approach we have already referred to, so the assessment has been thought to monitor students learning process, to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. Throughout the whole project the following assignments will be required: 

Teacher’s assessments: Session rubric (to assess how the session worked); Observation rubric (to assess students all over the project); Presentation assessment (to assess students' presentations) and E-Book assessment (to assess students' E-Book after teacher's guidance).

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

Student’s assessments: Self-assessment (to assess how students felt during the telecollaborative sessions); Peer-assessment (to assess students between schools); Feedback presentations (to provide feedback to the classmates) and Top5 (to highlight the 5 aspects, among 10, students have learned during the project).

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Summary of each session Introducing the topic. October 6th Each teacher, the one in Barcelona and his/her colleague from France, will introduce the project to the students. They will tell them that they have been chosen among hundreds of schools to help the Ghostbusters by using the webpage. They will be told that some famous ghosts have escaped so the Ghostbusters asked for their help. The problem is that they are not sure about which ghosts are the ones that have escaped. Their objective will be to find out which spirit they need to hunt and bring it back to where it belongs.

During this session they will be able to get to know their partners in France, like what their school is like, its location, etc.

Finally, students will be invited to fill their personal Ghostbusters’ ID, that later on will be embedded in the webpage. The objective is that students introduce themselves.

Pupils will have to paste a picture of themselves and write some personal information such as their age, country, school, one special day of their lives, their hobbies, etc.

Introducing the Ghostbusters (Catalan IDs). October 10th Before starting the project the Catalan students will get to know their partners in France as they will be working together and it is important they know each other beforehand.

Then they will continue creating theirs IDs and, finally, they will need to upload the files to the webpage so students in France will be able to have a look at the webpage. The French students will follow the same procedure.

Scaffolding of giving directions. October 13th For the next sessions it is important for students to know how to give and understand directions. That is why during this session students will be playing a game and doing some worksheets and the teacher will be in charge of giving some directions in order to scaffold students.

Meeting French Ghostbusters and school map. October 17th 18

The teacher will tell students who they are going to work with. Each group will be formed by six students, two or three from Barcelona and two or three from France, as they need to achieve the mission together.

The first mission will be introduced. Students in Barcelona will have the map of the school in France and the other way round. The clues will be located in the school maps. The following day, students will have to give directions in order to help their partners to be able to find the clues that will lead them to know who the ghost they are looking for is. Only by decoding the 6 clues, 3 in BCN and 3 in France, they will discover which ghost they need to capture.

Finally, before the telecollaboration, they will have a look at their partners’ Ghostbusters’ ID in the webpage so they can know a little bit of the mates they will be working with.

1st telecollaboration  Giving directions. October 20th During the first telecollaboration they will meet their partners in France. Their mission is to give and receive directions in order to find the clues located all over each school. It is important that they do not get mislead, otherwise they will not be able to find the clues!

Ghost hunt  1st clue. October 24th In this session each group, provided with their map, will have to look for the first clue1. Once they find it, they will need to decipher it and report to students in France what they have found, what they know so far about the ghost and who they think it could be. They will need to fill a document to send it to their partners in France, so there is an asynchronous telecollaboration.

Ghost hunt  2nd clue. October 27th Provided with maps/directions given by the French students, they will seek the second clue around the school. Once they have found it they will report it to their partners in France. They

1

The clues will not be only written documents, also other kind of inputs such as images, food or music will be given

in order to attend to different kind of learning styles.

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will read the French report in order to know what they have found and which ghost they think they are trying to capture. They will be working asynchronously.

Ghost hunt  3rd clue. October 31th The same as both sessions before this one, students will seek the third clue around the school.

Once they have found it they will report it to their partners in France. They will read the French report in order to know what they have found and which ghost they think they are trying to capture. They are working asynchronously one again.

2nd Telecollaboration  Finding the ghost. November 3rd During this second telecollaboration meeting students will negotiate with their partners who they think the ghost is. They will have to take all the information they have been given into account and, finally, groups will need to come out with a name. Scaffolding regarding expressing opinions will be provided in order to facilitate communication.

At the end of the telecollaboration session, they will know if their hypothesis is consistent by reading an QR code that will reveal the identity of the ghost.

Prepare presentations (½ group). November 7th to November 17th (4 sessions) During these sessions students will have the opportunity to prepare the oral presentations on the famous historical person they have been investigating during the ghost hunt.

In order to facilitate the thework, the following sessions will be done with only half of the students (½ group). They will have to follow a guideline which will help them to know about what they have to talk about and also some grammatical structures to follow.

Each splitted group will have two sessions to prepare their presentations.

Student’s presentations (½ group). November 21th/November 24th.

During these sessions, students will present all the information they have learnt in order to let other students know about the life of the famous person they have been working on. These are important sessions to pupils as they need to share information with their classmates and show them what they have learnt during the project about their famous historical person.

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For that reason they will have ten steps to be succesful when doing their oral presentations.

The teacher will provide them with this list in order to scaffold the activity and make it a real presentation, rather than a “reading” presentation, as sometimes happens.

Farewell: decide and make. November 28th.

As a closure, students will be asked to make a farewell for the French students that they had been collaborating with. During this session they will create their personal farewell, as a class group (a video, a comic, an email, etc.), which will be sent to their partners in France.

View of French’s farewell. Closure session. December 1st.

This will be the last session of this TEPBLL, so in order to finish the project off, the French student's farewell will be seen. Right after that, the teacher will promote some time for reflection (overall feelings, favourite sessions, etc.).

Bibliography

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Massats, D. (2008). El discurs dels aprenents d' anglès com a llengua estrangera: una aproximació interactivista al procés de construcció de tasques comunicatives. Unpublished doctoral disertación. Bellaterra. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Cañete, A. (2013). Assessment of young Language Learners. Using rubrics to bridge the gap between praxis and curriculum. Bellaterra Journal of teaching & Learning language & Literature. Vol 7 (1). Febrero/Marzo 2014. 52-57.

Jauregy,K. & Bañados , E. (2008). Virtual Interaction through Video Web Communication: A step towards Enriching Internationalizing Learning Programs.

Warschauer, M. (2004). Technological change and the future of CALL. In S. Fotos & C. Brown (Eds.), New perspectives on CALL for second and foreign language classrooms (pp. 1525). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Vigotsky L,S (1978). Mind in society. The development of higher philological processes.

Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

Online resources 

The essentials of Language teaching, consulted on Sunday 8th june 2014

http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/index.htm 

Three experts talk about learning and assessment (2012), Carme Burgués, Iolanda Guevara and Neus Sanmartí, consulted on Tuesday 10th June 2014

http://www.edu3.cat/Edu3tv/Fitxa?p_id=83556

Acknowledgements This project could not have taken place without the true support and motivation of our TEPBLL teacher, Melinda Dooly, and the feedback of our classmates, as well as the ideas of our U.S. telecollaboration partners and Dr. Sandler for also introducing us into this new learning world.

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