CHOICE: In this didactic unit we are going to deal with lexicon related to shops, together with the teaching of the structure “There is… There are... “ as the main situational contexts for their use and understanding This unit aims at helping the students practise the function of talking about buildings and shops, one of the basic communicative functions which make them reach communicative competence, being this, the main goal for foreigner language teaching nowadays. Our learners are required to acquire more oral than written competence, so that we will mainly work listening and speaking skills. On the one hand this unit will be carried out in 4-50 minute session and we will make use of games and activities which in turn will be performed in pairs or groups so that pupils can practice language in context. On the other hand, our students have been learning English since Infant Education and it will be easy to motivate them. ORGANISING AND RESOURCES: This plan will be carried out with students of ages between 9 and 10, that is, students in the 2nd level of the second course of Primary Education. Fortunately, we are provided with an English classroom with the necessary English materials and resources (TV, DVD, cassette ,etc) It is divided into a work corner where we can find all the resources needed to carry out the activities such as flashcards, cards, etc; and a silent corner with dictionaries, books and magazines. Besides, the classroom is decorated with projects done by the students, fostering in this way a feeling of attainment which will motivate them, and on the walls we have hung some wall-charts to encourage them to use language in the classroom when they need to say something. TIMING: This unit will be carried out during the 3 rd term and it will take 3 weeks, 4-50 minute sessions. MATERIALS: The materials we will need for the developing of the unit are:
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Flashcards with several shops.
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Flashcards with different buildings and food seen in the previous unit in order to revise them.
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Photocopies for the development of several activities.
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A tape-recorder.
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Glue, scissors and crayons.
BASIC COMPETENCIES TO BE WORKED UPON IN THE UNIT: •
Competency in linguistic communication.
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Learn how to learn.
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Competency in the knowledge and interaction with the physical world.
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Competency in dealing with ICTs and digital competency.
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Autonomy and personal initiative.
GENERAL OBJECTIVES: •
Listen and understand messages in varied verbal interactions, using the information received for doing concrete tasks to the students’ experience.
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Express themselves and interact in simple and habitual situations with a content and development known by the students, using verbal and nonverbal procedures and adopting a respectful and cooperative attitude.
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Know aspects from different cultures using the language studied and show a respectful attitude towards them.
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Use previous knowledge and experience with the Galician and Spanish languages to acquire the foreign language in amore rapid, more meaningful and more autonomous way.
DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES: •
Learn and consolidate vocabulary and functions related to shops and buildings.
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Take part in collaborative school or whole educational community activities.
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Participation in group activities: role-play.
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Use of communication necessities, either linguistic or non linguistic ones.
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Get familiar with digital resources.
CONTENTS: •
Participation in real or simulated communicative situations expressing vocabulary and functions related to shops.
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Interest in using the foreign language, verbally and non-verbally with a careful pronunciation.
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Association of graphemes, pronunciation and meaning coming from written and oral models.
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Interest in using ICTs to understand and produce texts.
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Autonomous use of reading strategies.
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Enjoyment and cooperation in pair and group work.
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Recognition of socio-linguistic behaviours which help socializing relationships.
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Interest in getting information about the people and culture of those countries where the foreign language is spoken.
PROCEDURE This didactic unit is carried out in four different stages, taking into account the natural way in which students internalise the contents: ACTIVITIES-SESSIONS: Previous knowledge: church, town hall, park, eggs, bread, etc… DEVELOPING OF THE UNIT: SESSION 1: 1. FLASHCARDS (15 minutes)1: We are in the presentation stage and we will proceed in two different ways: 1. Our starting point is the revision of the vocabulary referred to the lexicon related to buildings by means of flashcards seen on the previous unit. Then the teacher writes on the blackboard "SHOPS " and in L1 he/she asks them what they know about shops and how many different types of shops do they know. As they say the different types we show them the flashcard, tell the name in English in order for them to repeat it and we stick it on the 1
blackboard. They repeat it. We are working with the structures orally (listening and speaking) and making sure they connect the new forms of language with their meaning (shown in the pictures). 2. Then the teacher will introduce the written form saying aloud the different names of the shops while he/she sticks them near the correspondent flashcard until all of them form part of the display of the classroom for this session. In this session the teacher acts as a prompter, inviting students to participate in the conversation. It will also be used as part of the initial evaluation to know what the aptitudes of the students are towards the subject matter. Finally, this activity also fosters significant learning since our students will relate what they already know with the new language. This activity is clearly related to Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis, which says that motivation is brought about through keeping the pupils' affective filter low enough. Apart from this, we must also relate the pedagogical theory underlying this activity to the Audio Visual method because of the visual aids used the flashcards that help the learning process, creating at the same time a relaxing and playful atmosphere. 2. GUESSING GAME (15 minutes) With this activity we move to the focused practice stage The teacher divides the students into two groups. The teacher place the flashcards and the written form face down on the table and told one pupil to approach to them. One pupil chooses one and the other group has to guess which shop is saying its name aloud. The same pupil has to look for the written form. If he is right, he obtain a point, if not it was the other group who obtains the point. Then the teacher change the groups in order to make a cooperative as well as competitive, but this time he/she has to take a flashcard with the written form and stick them n the blackboard. 3. READ AND MATCH (it will take us 5 minutes) Still in the focused practice stage, since we give our pupils a worksheet with drawings of different shops and they have to match them with their written form.
They will work
individually, at their own pace, using their cognitive style and making use of their interests and needs.
4. HANGMAN. (15 minutes) We are in the focused practice stage. The teacher chooses a word from the vocabulary they have just seen, and play hangman with these words written. They review the alphabet in a playful and enjoyable atmosphere. SESSION 2: 1. WARM UP (5 minutes) The presentation stage begins with a warm- up in which the teacher shows the students an
object from every different shop seen on the previous session. The first purpose is to encourage students to ask what’s is this?, so the teacher show the object and the pupils have to say the name of the shop aloud. 2. LISTEN AND CHANT ( 10minutes) This activity is part of the focused practice stage. This time the vocabulary acquired in the previous sessions appears linguisticallycontextualised integrated in sentence-patterns in a song called “Look down” fostering significant learning. The procedure we will follow is: first, we play the tape without any visual support so that the students predict what the song is about. Second, we play the song again, but now the teacher mimes the actions for the children to look at his/her. Then, we provide them with the song and they listen to the tape for the third time so that they check their own comprehension of what they are listening to, but now with the visual backup, and they have to mime while listening to. The use of the tape/CD has some advantages such as special acoustic effects and voice versatility. According to the methodology used with this activity, we will make use of Suggestopedia, since the sounds of the story help to create a good atmosphere, as well as the Audio-Lingual method and the Situational method, since it is based on the fact that the oral medium and language is presented through situations. 3. WORKING WITH THE SONG (15 minutes) We are still in the presentation stage and we introduce a new function: give information about what they can see in a town. “there is/ there are...” So the teacher will say aloud There is a supermarket... pointing out the song. Students repeat and the next step is that they look for
similar utterances from the song and say them aloud, too showing where they appear. With this activity the teacher acts as a controller since he/she is totally in charge of the classroom, Through the use of this actiivity, our students are autonomous in, active with and responsible for their own learning, trying to discover how the structure works. As we can see, grammar is adquired inductively.. Now we chant the song with a visual backup. 4. COMPLETE ( 5 minutes) Now, we move to the focused practice stage where students have to complete several sentences individually, with the structure “There is /There are...” This kind of work is useful because students work on their own, at their own pace. The teacher moves around the class prompting and being a resource. This activity forms part of the formative evaluation carried by the teacher. 5. MAKE A SHOP ( 15 minutes) Pupils are given a sheet with a shop to be made. They have to paint, cut and glue in order to made a shop which the teacher will have told before ( each pupil a different one ) The teacher will ask the pupils to finish the activity as homework to be used in another activity.
SESSION 3 1. LISTEN TO THE song (5 minutes) They will listen to the song once more for the students to review the vocabulary presented in previous lessons. 2. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (5 minutes) We are in the presentation stage and we must call our students attention to revise vocabulary referred to the previous lesson, the food.We will do this by means of flashcards.We move to the focused practice stage with the next activity. We ask questions, with the help of realia, such as “ Are there tomatoes? And they have to answer “Yes, there are / No, there aren’t”
3. DIALOGUE (10 minutes) First, the teacher read a dialogue about and they listen to it. Then he/she gave them the written form for them to listen it again with the visual support.. He/she direct their attention to the form “How much is / are? “ 4. HOW MUCH IS IT? (15 minutes) The teacher will divide the class in closed pairs, according to the groups stablished, taking turns to ask and answer questions about how much is it the item the other have and put the price on the label. This activity, which forms part of the formative evaluation, is carried out to get the function of asking and answering by means of meaningful drills and it is part of the communicative practice stage of the session since they have to speak using sentencepatterns in a personal and freer way, thus relating the language they are learning to their own experience (significant learning). The teacher will prompt and help students as a resource and an assessor. 5. MAKING MONEY (15 minutes) The teacher provides the pupils with real British coins. They have to make them, tracing, painting and cutting them. We are working with authentic materials and this fact made the children arouse curiosity about the differences among euros and pounds and pennies. While they are making this activity we could explain them some cultural aspects of English speaker countries. If they do not finish they will do at home. The teacher asks the pupils to take the shops they had made in a previous session and some objects related to their shop, for the activity of the last session. SESSION 4 1. GO SHOPPING ( all the session) The teacher places the half of the tables on a horseshoe arrengement to create the right physical environment as our pupils have to move around the class. We prepare a city with every kind of shop. Each pupil place his/her shop in a table and put things to sell with its corresponding price. Ones are shop assistants and the others buyers, and then they exchange roles. Here they can act out the dialogue seen in a previous session adapting it to the different shop they are in. This session is carried out to get the function of asking and answering and it is part of the communicative practice stage of the session since they have to speak using sentence-
patterns in a personal and freer way, thus relating the language they are learning to their own experience (significant learning/ learner-centred approach). The teacher will prompt and help students as a resource and an assessor. Finally, the students have to draw themselves with all the items they have bought in this session. Finally, we must say that we have attended to diversity in both
the activities and the
materials, as well as in all the components of the unit (objectives, contents, assessment,...) So for fastfinishers we have designed some extra worksheets; for underachievers we have thought of activities which can serve as a reinforcement and for students with special needs we have adapted the activities that their mates have done according to their capacities.