A teaching unit in a CLIL context Which are the bricks of the universe? The study of chemical elements
Pablo MarĂn CebriĂĄ
Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
Index 1. Justification of the teaching unit….2 2. Context and time needed……..…….…3 3. Aims and contents of the unit…..4-8 4.
Learning outcomes……………………….…8
5. Methodology…………………………….….9-10 6. Materials………………………………….....10-12 7.
Teaching activities……………….……13-18
8.
Assessment………………………………….19-21
9.
Appendix………………………………..…….22-24
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
1. Justification of the teaching unit This teaching unit is related with some contents integrated in the official CV syllabus of the new Spanish educational law called LOMCE. From 2nd to 4th of ESO there is a subject called “physics and chemistry”. This subject is compulsory for everyone during the first two years. However, it is an optional subject in the last course of compulsory education. Physics and chemistry is divided into 5 blocks and the second one is titled “The matter”. The general objetive of this block is accomplishing the understanding of the matter nature and matter properties. The title of this unit will be: Which are the bricks of the universe? The study of chemical elements. As a result, studying the periodic table of the elements and learning the most known atoms and mollecules of our lives are the main purposes of this unit. Due to the fact that this unit is based in a content and language integrated learning, it is very important to promote the English language competence in the students. This unit is going to focus specially on oral, writing and listening skills. This unit is related with previous lessons when students have learnt the evolution of the atomic models during the last centuries and they have learnt how an atom is structured. Scaffolding support is going to be featured during the unit but a prior used of this language during this course is considered. As a consequence, students are already getting used to learning chemistry through this language.
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo MarĂn CebriĂĄ
2. Context and time needed This unit is designed in order to use it in the third course of the compulsory secondary education. As a result, most learners are from 14 to 15 years old. The average expected level of English is B1 according to CEFR common reference levels but resources are going to be adapted in case there are students with a lower level.For example, subtitles will be available in video resources and a glossary will be given with the most common vocabulary of the unit. This teaching unit is designed thinking about some high schools where students are learning some subjects in a CLIL context for some years .9+1 lessons are prepared in order to accomplish all the teaching objectives. That means that 9 lessons will be prepared to put them into practice in the chemistry class but an extra one is considered to be taught in a social science class because there is a multidisciplinary task. Two lessons are given per week and each lesson has 50 minutes duration. Some homework is required during the learning process of this unit but it will be proposed with enough time to do it.
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
3. Aims and contents of the unit This unit aims to encourage the understanding and using of the periodic table. It pretends to foster curiosity about the particles that build the entire universe and it offers a task based learning process where learners have an active role, work together and apply their knowledge learnt in a task context. It is designed to help students towards the English language learning as it is CLIL based. As a consequence, most activities are thought to link content to communication. Next, some content and language objectives are going to be defined:
Content objectives
Classify elements into metals, non-metals and noble gases.
Describe the difference between chemical elements and chemical compounds.
Explain the scientific criteria to order chemical elements and classify them into groups and periods.
Match the chemical elements with their symbols.
Describe the applications of the main bioelements and dietary elements.
List some organic and inorganic compounds summarizing their main features.
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
Language objectives
Learn vocabulary and chemistry terms
Understand oral and written texts about chemistry identifying the main ideas and use the information these texts transmit.
Produce written texts and summarize the main written ideas in an oral speech in front of the class practising discursive abilities such as description or exposition
Discuss your own ideas after looking for specific information in order to develop a statement
Use verbal and non-verbal strategies to improve communication between students.
Favour positive attitudes among students towards genuine plurilingualism.
These objectives are related with the contents which are going to be taught. I think that any teaching unit should balance knowledges, skills and attitudes in order to develop an integral perspective of education. As a result, I present 18 balanced contents for this unit: 6 knowledges, 6 skills and 6 attitudes. Contents are worked during the whole unit.
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo MarĂn CebriĂĄ
Description of the contents Knowledges
Skills
Attitudes
History of the main scientifics
Classify an element according
Give value to the scientific
involved in the chemical
to their chemical properties
progress: A collective and contextualized progress
elements classification Properties related with metals,
Predict and discuss the charge
non-metals and noble gases
of an ion by using the periodic
Defence of a healthy diet
table Symbols and names of the
Design their own healthy diet
Be concerned about human
chemical elements
with a full ingestion of
problems such as the lack of
bioelements and dietary
food and water in some
elements
countries
Groups and periods of the
Justify the formation of
Encourage team work and
periodic table
common mollecules
communication
Bioelements and dietary
Summarize the features of
Give value and respect every
elements and their applications
some organic or inorganic
oral speech.
compounds by making an oral speech Main organic and inorganic
Use chemical symbols to
Be concerned about the hidden
compounds
formulate binary compounds
cost of fossil fuels
In 2005, the European Parlament wanted to ensure the fully integration of key competences for lifelong learning. It is consided that these competences provide added value for the labour market, social cohesion and active citizenship by offering flexibility and adaptability, satisfaction and motivation in students. 6
Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
The key competences for lifelong learning have been considered to design this unit:
Communication in the mother tongue and in foreign languages:
This unit will be done in a CLIL context and English language is chosen to be the language for communication. This unit pretends to increase the English language capacity for listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, the mother tongue could be used in some cases.
Mathematical
competence and basic competences
in science
and
technology.
This competence is well developed during this unit. Most of the contents are about chemistry and some maths can be practised as well in order to calculate the mass number or the percentage of some isotopes.
Digital competence
Information and communication technologies are going to be used. Students will learn with videos and apps and they will design a slide deck.
Learning to learn
Students will pursue and organise their own learning with self- assessment activities, team work activities and additional resources.
Social and civic competences
They will think about global issues such as the lack of food and water in some countries or the consumption of fossil fuels. Moreover, students will be encouraged to respect everybody’s speech.
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship
Students will turn ideas into action not only when they will make an oral presentation but also during the entire unit. They will support their own ideas and they will design ways to try to solve global issues.
Cultural awareness and expression
Visual arts and music will be chosen in order to teach the importance of the creative expression of ideas, experiences and emotions.
4. Learning outcomes Intended learning outcomes describe what the students should be able to do or to demonstrate by the end of a unit, course or programme. In Spain they are becoming essential and compulsory in every teaching programme. These intended learning outcomes must be assessed. Particulary, by the end of this teaching unit, students will be able to:
Use chemical symbols to formulate binary compounds
Classify an element according to its chemical properties and its position in the periodic table
Explain the ion formation taking as a reference the nearest noble gas
Design their own healthy diet with a full ingestion of bioelements and dietary elements justifying the benefits of each food.
Summarize the features of some organic or inorganic compounds by making an oral speech.
Formulate with technical terms some global issues and conclude some possible solutions.
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo MarĂn CebriĂĄ
5. Methodology This unit is designed through a CLIL blended learning environment. As a result, a combination of face-to-face and online teaching methods will be made in order to facilitate learning. Online technologies are combined with traditional learning in the classroom and that allows learning a same concept or skill from different ways. This pluralization strategy addresses the multiple ways in which students learn as Howard Gardner says, and increases the likelihood that students will understand the concept being taught. Other scaffolding techniques will be used such as connecting the teaching to prior knowledge and personal experiences. Moreover, students will be given a vocabulary glossary and the complexity of tasks will increase during the unit. Students will need to work in different ways: They will learn sometimes individually but cooperative learning will be used due to the fact that it is considered as an effective technique by research. Games will be used in order to increase the motivation of students and to give them feedback of their progress. Some direct teaching will be necessary to accomplish some specific learning targets. According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, higher order thinking skills will not be forgotten in a methodology focused in strengthen the creativity the capacity of analisis and the application of knowledges in the real life.
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo MarĂn CebriĂĄ
At the beginning of the unit, a tutorial timetable will be given in order to help students who find some difficulties and after the last lesson and a final assesment will be done between the teacher and the students in order to improve the learning process for future students.
6. Materials The following resources are the materials used to achive the aims of this unit. Resources to achieve content and language objectives: 1. A periodic table song which will be used to introduce the topic of the chemical elements Dave-Family. (2013, September 2). SLOW "The NEW Periodic Table Song (In Order)" (AsapSCIENCE 2013) [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7l8TgtuLQ 2. A collection of chemical elements games used in order to study and learn the chemical elements and their symbols Gagnon, Steve. Worksheets, Puzzles and Games. Jefferson Lab: Science Education. Retrieved from http://education.jlab.org/beamsactivity/6thgrade/elementbingo/ Gagnon, Steve. Worksheets, Puzzles and Games. Jefferson Lab: Science Education. Retrieved from http://education.jlab.org/beamsactivity/6thgrade/elementwordsearch/
Gagnon, Steve. Element Hangman. Jefferson Lab: Science Education. Retrieved from http://education.jlab.org/elementhangman/index.html
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
Gagnon, Steve. Element Flash Cards. Jefferson Lab: Science Education. Retrieved from http://education.jlab.org/elementflashcards/index.html 3. A periodic table webquest: Groups of 4 learn about periodic table through a student-centered approach where cooperative learning is developed Delameter, Becky. Periodic Table WebQuest. Angelfire’s website builder. Retrieved from http://www.angelfire.com/planet/rdlscience/
4. Links for preparing a diet and study the dietary elements and the RDA. http://www.wikilectures.eu/index.php/Minerals_and_Trace_Elements_in_Human_Nut rition http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Trace_Elements_in_Food__how_much_you_have_to_eat_in_order_to_get_your_RDA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_element 5. A song to think about a global issue: the hunger and the lack of drinking water Mu3. (2014, July 30). Lilly Wood & The Prick & Robin Schulz - Prayer in C Lyrics [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d4HjWCkbes
6. Support resources: These links are a complementary material in order to learn more about the contents of the unit. Periodic table history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPnwBITSmgU Chemical Elements & Compounds, Periodic Table, States of Matter: Main ideas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwQXR6lqrj4
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo MarĂn CebriĂĄ
Chemical learning web with easy vocabulary and grammar: http://www.chem4kids.com/index.html Educational web of the Royal Sociey of Chemistry:http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table Two power point presentations related with the topic:
http://education.jlab.org/jsat/powerpoint_2007.html
Scaffolding resources for language learning 7. General Glossary from General Chemistry Online http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/glossary.shtml 8. Specific Glossary for periodic table( Extra file in the teaching unit) 9. How to Express opinions http://www.vocabulary.cl/Lists/Opinions.htm 10. Examples of present perfect uses: http://everydaygrowingcultures.org/resume-past-tense-or-present-templates.html 11. Mnemonic rules to learn chemical groups: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chemistry_mnemonics
12. Template for listening and learning with the presentations of organic and inorganic compounds: (Appendix section)
13. Hot potatoes exercises to self-assessment before the exam( Extra file in the teaching unit) 12
Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
7. Teaching activities Day 1 1.1.
The class begins with the title of this unit: Which are the bricks of the universe?
During some minutes, students try to answer this question. This is a warm- up activity. At the end of this small talk, students will have learnt:
The concepts of chemical element and chemical compound
The idea of a periodic table that orders all the chemical elements according to some periodic properties.
1.2.
The universal nature of chemical elements After this introduction, a video about a periodic table song is watched. ( Material 1)
Each student is given a number. This number refers to the atomic number of a particular element. Students have to remember which image is shown in the video when their element appears. After watching the video, they have 5 minutes to surf on the internet in order to look for some explanation about the image shown. Learners are asked to explain it to everybody. For example: I had number 41 and this number is the atomic number of Niobium. Rockets are related to niobium element because NASA uses this element to cover rocket reactors. (Bold type words can be written in the blackboard as a scaffolding technique)
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
With this activity students will learn that chemical elements are indeed the bricks of everything they know. As a result, they could have more motivation to learn about something real and set in their context. 1.3
A general and a specific glossary (Materials 7 and 8) are given to help students
with new terminology. Moreover, some mnemonic rules are provided to learn chemical groups. (Material 11) Furthermore, some games will be played in the computers in order to learn the chemical elements and their symbols. They are:
Element flash cards
Element bingo
Element hangman
Other extra games and activities shown in the material section will be proposed to students in order to continue learning the elements and their symbols at home. (Material 2)
Day 2 Students are divided into groups of four in order to do a webquest (Material 3). First of all, they must choose a role between the historian, the architect, the psychologist or the surgeon. Each member of the group does a particular scavenger hunt. They need to answer some questions after reading some of the resources provided. After 30 minutes, all the students with the same role will work together by sharing the information they have found in order to answer the questions. The teacher checks the
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo MarĂn CebriĂĄ
progress of every group of specialists and he helps them in case they need it. He will guide them if there are questions not answered. Students need to become specialist of their branch of knowledge by the end of the day. If not, they have time to become specialist before the following class. The teacher can provide complementary resources to help them to understand their topic (Material 6)
Day 3 The webquest continues. In this third lesson, historians and architects explain the history and the structure of the periodic table to the rest of the class. Students are asked to explain it with their own words or by answering the questions proposed according to their linguistic competence. Some examples of pressent perfect uses will be worked in order to help them during their speeches (Material 9) The teacher should encourage every specialist to talk. He should summarise the main knowledges to learn and he probably needs to correct some misunderstandings.
Day 4 In this fourth lesson, psychologists and surgeons explain the trends of the sections of the periodic table and the relationship between atom structure and the periodic table. Students are asked to explain it with their own words or by answering the questions proposed according to their linguistic competence.
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo MarĂn CebriĂĄ
The teacher should encourage every specialist to talk. He should summarise the main knowledges to learn and he probably needs to correct some misunderstandings. By the end of this class, students should have learnt around 40% of the contents of the unit.
Day 5 Students, working in the groups of 4 they did the second day, do the scrap book explained in the webquest. It is important to read with them the grading rubric that appears in the webquest in order to tell them the assessed categories. Doing this scrap book is a good self-assessment task in order to check if the concepts learnt in days 2, 3 and 4 have been understood. At the end of the class, students get a link of a hot potatoes exam sample. (Material 13) They are advised to do it due to the fact that the following day a similar exam is done.
Day 6 Students have 10 minutes to ask doubts about the exam sample done at home. After solving the doubts, they have the rest of the class to do individually a similar exam. At the end of the class, the teacher explains the slide deck they will present in a week. They will work in pairs at home.This activity is exposed in Day 8 but the topic worked by each pair is known since Day 6 so they can do it as a homework.
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
Day 7+1 Today it is a different day. The chemistry teacher and the social science teacher are together at class. During one chemistry class and one social science class, students will work in trios to design a healthy diet. Firstly, the chemistry teacher explains the meaning of some concepts such as the concept of bioelement and diet element. He also provides some tables and reports with specific information about diet elements needed for human living. (Material 4) Before starting the diet, a song is listened to. (Material 5) Part of the lyrics say: “See, our world is slowly dying… And see the children are starving, and
their
houses
were
destroyed,
don't
think
they
could
forgive
you”
After listening to this song, a small chat is introduced. The topic will be the lack of food and drinkable water in some parts of the world. A language support material will be worked to learn about opinion expressions (Material 10). The social science teacher gives to each group some written information about a particular country: Typical foods, variety of foods and drinks, weather, economical issues… Students must design the diet according to the country they are supposed to live. During the second class the students will show and present to the rest of the class the diets they have designed. Both teachers will conclude the activity talking about the big differences shown between countries.
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
Day 8 Students, working in pairs, will present today a slide deck about a particular organic or inorganic compound from the following list:
Butane
Carbon dioxide
Octane
Nitrogen oxide
Aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid
Sulphuric acid
Polyethylene
Sodium hydroxide
Ammonia
Sodium chloride
Students will have received in Day 6 an outline with all the information they need to find and explain during the presentation. Moreover, students have to fill a chart with information about all the chemical compounds during the presentation of their partners. (Material 12)
Day 9 Student presentations finish today. At the end of the last presentation, the teacher introduces a moment for sharing the opinions about this unit. Students are encouraged to talk about the teaching outlines. Have you accomplished them? Did you find interesting and useful the materials and resources given? What would you change if this unit is used again next year?
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo MarĂn CebriĂĄ
8. Assessment Assesment should be the tool used in this unit to gauge student progress and to check if they are accomplishing the learning outcomes. Formative assessment wil be then the more used assessment type in this unit. The main idea is doing activities on specified content and skills and giving a fast and personal feedback about strong and weak points to everybody. As a result, the didactic unit could be partially restructured if the assessment along the unit shows that some skills or knowledges are not learnt by most people. Initial assessment is done with a warm-up activity. During the unit, the learning process is assessed. Moreover, different products are assessed as well. Some of these products can be modified after receiving teacher feedback as continue learning is the main objective with assessment. Teacher assessment is the most used technique but students will have to do peer assessment during the oral presentations of their partners. An analytic rubric will be used to involve appraisal of other students’ work. Furthermore, a self assessment is offered to students. They will receive an exam sample to do on their own to engage them in the appraisal of their own work. Assessment is done every class and it can be done in class by observation or at home by correcting tasks, portfolios or exams.
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
Students will be assessed in different ways:
Written assessment o
Limited and constructed responses
o Portfolio: All the student work, reflections and self-evaluations
Oral assessment o Classroom participation
Performance assessment o Slide deck presentation o Games o Situation- based problem solvings o Team work
Finally, next table will summarize the assessment distribution in order to give a final mark at the end of the teaching unit (summative assessment):
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Product/process
Pablo MarĂn CebriĂĄ
Individual/Cooperative task
Points
Days
First part individually. Second
1
Day 2
1
Days
Webquest: Answering
the
questions
of
you
specialty
part with the rest of specialists.
Webquest: Becoming an expert in the rest of the parts by answering all the questions
Cooperative learning with an individual product at the
3 and 4
end Webquest: Designing a scrap book
1
Day 5
Individual
2
Day 6
Trios
1
Day 7
Cooperative task( 4 people)
Exam: Crossword, fill in the gaps Diet: Designing a healthy diet Slide deck presentation
Days In pairs
1
8 and 9
Portfolio: Writing thoughts, conclussions of the
Days
days and finishing the chart of the
Individual
2
1,7,8 and 9
Individual
1
Days 1-9
chemical compounds Participation
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Which are the bricks of the universe?
Pablo Marín Cebriá
9. Appendix
9.1 Rubric for peer - assessment during the oral presentations of chemical compounds and information chart to fill in during the presentations
Oral Presentation Rubric
Clarity of the
4 points
3points
2 points
1 points
They seem to
They
They had
They said
be experts
Understand
some doubts
something
everything they
during the
incorrectly
said
talk
Calm, eye-
Calm but not
Very nervous
Looking to
contact and
looking to the
and difficult
other places
easy to
audience
to understand
and impossible
topic
Posture and tone
understand
Organization
Very clear
Points/ Comments
to understand
Quite well
Something to
A mess
change
Answering questions from
Good
They had some
They barely
They didn’t
answers
problems to
did it
know to
answer
answer
audience
Total points:…..…/16
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Name of Compound Butane
Octane
Acetylsalicylic acid
Polyethylene
Ammonia
Is it an organic Chemical formula or an inorganic compound? Butane is Formula: an…………………… It is a mollecule of ……atoms. compound ….. atoms of ……. …..atoms of…….
Relationship of the compound with society and technology
Environmental/ Health problems
We use it to… Some people has died at home after………………………it during an unknown escape.
Octane is Formula: an…………………… It is a mollecule of ……atoms. compound ….. atoms of ……. …..atoms of…….
We use it to…
Acetylsalicylic is Formula: an…………………… It is a mollecule of ……atoms. compound ….. atoms of ……. …..atoms of……. …..atoms of…. Polyethylene is Formula: an…………………… It is a mollecule of ……atoms. compound ….. atoms of ……. …..atoms of…….
We use it to…
Ammonia is Formula: an…………………… It is a mollecule of ……atoms. compound ….. atoms of ……. …..atoms of…….
We use it to…
It is an environmental problem because…
Taking too many of them can cause you…
We use it to… It is ………………. to degrade
Kids must be…………. from chemical compounds in the kitchen
Which are the bricks of the universe?
Name of Compound Carbon dioxide
Nitrogen oxide
Sulphuric acid
Sodium hydroxide
Sodium chloride
Pablo Marín Cebriá
Is it an organic or an inorganic compound? Carbon dioxide is an…………………… compound
Chemical formula
Relationship of the compound with society and technology
Formula: It is a mollecule of ……atoms. ….. atoms of ……. …..atoms of…….
We produce it when...
Nitrogen oxide is an…………………… compound
Formula: It is a mollecule of ……atoms. ….. atoms of ……. …..atoms of…….
We produce it when…
Environmental/ Health problems It is a greenhouse gas. We need to …………………………… the concentration of it in the air.
It is one of the responsibles of the smog and it can…………………the ozone layer
Sulphuric acid is Formula: an…………………… It is a mollecule of ……atoms. compound ….. atoms of ……. …..atoms of……. …..atoms of…. Sodium Formula: hydroxide is It is a mollecule of ……atoms. an…………………… ….. atoms of ……. compound …..atoms of……. …..atoms of…. Sodium chloride Formula: is It is a mollecule of ……atoms. an…………………… ….. atoms of ……. compound …..atoms of…….
Factories use it to produce… It can easily skin
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………………. your
Factories use it to produce…
It is very…………………………. As a result, contact can cause pain, burns and redness
We use it to…
An excess of it in meals can cause you ……………………………………