Project Work at programa de Ingls para Jvenes

A learning tool to contribute to students meaningful learning

This paper is written with the aim of helping new teachers in the programs, teachers with little experience with
project work, or experienced teachers who dont feel confident to work in the English class with projects, to
have a clearer idea of what is expected from them in the programs and also to enlighten their pedagogical
practice with some standard criteria of what doing project work implies. At the beginning, a short and general
definition of project work is given, then some of the main steps to carry out projects are enumerated and
explained, finally, some tips to implement project work successfully and further readings are suggested.
A project is an in-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about. The investigation is usually
undertaken by a small group of [students] within a class, sometimes by a whole class, and occasionally by an
individual. The key feature of a project is that it is a research effort deliberately focused on finding answers to
questions about a topic posed either by the [students], the teacher, or the teacher working with the [students].
The goal of a project is to learn more about the topic rather than to seek right answers to questions posed by
the teacher. Katz, L. (1994).
Steps for doing the project
1. Topic selection: Since the very beginning of the course, the teacher should encourage students to decide on
a topic of their interest to work on the project. The most important aspect when choosing a topic for the project
is that it be of students real interest, otherwise, they wont work motivated. Sometimes is difficult for students
to come up with ideas of what they want to do, then the role of the teacher is very important to guide their
decisions. To do that, the teacher should be well informed of the kind of activities students like to do, this can
be done reading the report the previous teacher wrote or talking to him/her, also developing activities in the
first classes to detect students preferences and talents.
In the first levels of the teens program, the topic chosen should be connected, somehow, to the contents. In
the advanced levels, six to nine, the topic can be more open. The topics can be academic or just of a personal
interest. Students should put all their creativity and talent to make their decision.
2. Defining the format for the project: Just after having chosen the topic, it is very important to think of the
format students want to choose to present their project, that is to say, what they want to do with the
information collected and the small scale investigation. The suggestion is to choose an oral and written format
for the project through which teachers can help students to develop their communicative competence.
Defining the format can also help to have a clearer criteria for the evaluation. In this way, the project wont be
just a class activity to be accomplished, but a significant event where all the students are involved, with the
clear purpose in mind of learning English through contents, in a participative, constructive and critical way.

Some examples of oral formats are: a presentation using visual aids like Power Point presentations or
posters, a video, a play, a news program, a talk show, a contest, a soap opera, a puppet show or a game
show. Samples of written formats are: an album, a poster, a brochure, a booklet, a didactic game, a big
book, a web site, a blog, a magazine, or a newspaper. If the format for the project is of the type of a video or a
play, the oral format is the video or the play itself, and the written format will be the script.
3. Exploration: In this stage the teacher should guide students to discover what they want to know about the
topic. One suggested procedure is to ask students to do a brainstorm, share what they know about the topic
they chose individually, in small groups or as a whole class. Then the teacher should play the role of facilitator
and organize all students ideas into subtopics to give an order and present it to students the following class.
At this moment students can decide if what the teacher presents is what they really want to work on.
4. Questioning: Once the theme of the project is divided into more specific topics it is necessary to
encourage students to go beyond the simple fact, asking them for instance what they want to learn, what
raises their curiosity about that topic, why they want to know about it. It is also necessary to explore if students
already know something about the topic chosen; if that is so, the teacher should help students to discover
what else they want to know and how deep they want to go into that topic. Specific questions should be
formulated here, open questions of the research type that are not answered just with some specific
information. The teacher should remind students the idea with the project is to learn about meaningful and
purposeful topics.
5. Planning: Once the teacher and the students have clear what they want to know, the teacher or the teacher
in negotiation with the students, can define when and how they will work, and develop the themes in order to
achieve the final target at the end. If the teacher decides the timetable alone, s/he should present or give a
copy of the planning to each student that everybody can be well informed of what is going to be done and
how. The planning should include not only what is going to be developed at each stage of the project, but also
when that is going to take place and who is going to be responsible for each part. At this phase the planning
usually responds to the questions: how are we going to learn about the topic? What instruments are we going
to use to obtain the information we need? Some examples of sources of information are: books, magazines,
newspapers, databases, Internet, videos, interviews, questionnaires.
6. Monitoring: This step is of remarkable importance because it makes part of the formative evaluation we
aim in the Program and also because it is a way in which autonomous learning can be fostered. Monitoring
consists of permanently evaluating if the plan proposed is running accordingly to the time given and if
everybody is fulfilling the tasks they were in charge of.
This activity can be done in different forms. The teacher can ask students to take out the planning of the
project they received at the beginning of the course or just project it to the whole class to check together what

has been done and what is missing, discuss why things have been in that way and what can be done to
accomplish the plan designed. Another possibility can be assigning students individual, pair or small group
conferences to examine what has been done, what is missing and the difficulties found. At some other
moments of the course the teacher can keep individual advisory sessions to revise and correct grammar,
spelling, coherence, cohesion or rehearse pronunciation.
The feedback offered by the teacher in either of these cases should include content and form. In regards the
content, it is important to consider the originality of the text, that is, students should receive clear instruction
about writing their own texts, summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting and in all cases avoiding plagiarism.
Regarding the form, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, coherence and cohesion should be considered.
7. Presentation of the project: At this part, the role of the teacher is very important since the results students
show in the presentation will reflect somehow the process carried out along the semester and especially the
guidance students received from the teacher. It is recommended that the teacher suggests students some
public speech strategies such as: eye contact, speech speed, good use of visual aids and management of
nervousness. Some strategies previous to the presentations can also be promoted, for instance: rehearsing in
front of a mirror, with some family members, a friend, the classmates or audio or video taping.
A good quality of the work presented can be guaranteed if the teacher simply asks students to rehearse what
they are going to present. For this the teacher can suggest for example reading aloud, using online
dictionaries that include pronunciation and phonetic symbols or using some software such as Audacity or
World champ. These programs allow students to save their speech in a file and then listen to it; they can be
easily downloaded from the Internet, and be manipulated by students at home. However, it is recommended
that teachers show students how to use the software during a class held in the computers room. It is
expected that the teacher anticipates all the human, physical and technological resources students require for
the presentation of the project.
Online dictionaries where students can check the pronunciation of some words:
2. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
3. http://www.merriam-webster.com/
4. http://www.wordreference.com/es/
Web site where students can type a text and ask the program to read the text for them, having a model to
listen to the pronunciation:
http://www.wordchamp.com/lingua2/Reader.do

Software that can be downloaded from the Internet allowing students to record their voice when reading or
speaking

and

then

listen

to

themselves

to

see

how

good

they

are

at

pronouncing:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Suggestions to take into account for the written format of the project:
A cover: with the names of the participants, the course, and the date
An introduction: where the aim and the contents of the project are explained
An outline or table of contents
The contents
The conclusions: where students write what they learned about the topic, doing the project, working
with their partners, and some recommendations for other students to take into account when doing
project work
The references: the sources of information used for the project.

Tips for students and evaluation criteria for the teacher to take into account during students
presentation of the project
Do not read or memorize what you are going to present
Explain the text in a natural way
Try to make the audience part of the project presentation involving them into a planned activity such
as a game or simply asking some questions at the beginning, during or at the end of the presentation.
8. Evaluation: The teacher will assess the final product of the project and will give a quantitative grade
accompanied of a descriptive assessment of each student performance in regards the communicative
competence. Nonetheless, it is important to clarify that this evaluation doesnt exclude at any moment the
follow-up that is intended to be done of the project along the semester. The final grade of the project will be
the average of the presentation and the scores of the follow-up. The teacher can also try some more
alternative ways of evaluating students learning with the project such as portfolio or journal for the process
and self and peer-assessment for the product. The criteria to implement this evaluation can be defined in
advance by the teacher in negotiation with the students. Three statements that can be considered in general
are:
I liked the project because
I think we/they have to improve
My suggestions for them are .

I hope this document had helped you to have a better idea of what is expected from teachers for project work
implementation in the Program. Anyways, if you are still doubtful of how to carry out projects with students feel
free to contact me or contact more experienced teachers in the Program. Having teachers in the Program who

clearly understand the procedures to develop projects, is a small contribution to guarantee the effectiveness of
a methodological tool proposed.

Reference

Katz, L. (1994) Accesible at: http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/1994/lk-pro94.html

Further reading

Mesa, C. & Frodden, C. (2004) Promoting autonomy through project work. En: Ikala, Revista de
Lenguaje y Cultura Vol 9, No. 15 (Ene-Dic) Accesible at:
http://quimbaya.udea.edu.co/ikala/images/PDFs/Ikala-Vol.9_7.pdf

Toro, C. (2007) Promoting EFL students responsibility with learning activities through Project work. En:
Ikala,

Revista

de

Lenguaje

Cultura

Vol.

12

No.

18

(Ene-Dic)

Accesible

at:

http://quimbaya.udea.edu.co/ikala/images/PDFs/Vol%2012%20articulo%209.pdf
Prepared by: Diana Pineda February 2009
Modified by: Tifanny Carvajal Julio 2012

Programa de Ingls para Nios y Jvenes

Suggested timetable for project work
Topic of the project:

Format:

Subtopics related to the main topic:

Questions or issues that will guide the project:

Sessi

Stage

Activity description

on

Responsib

Deadlin

le

Students

2nd class

Dialogue with students about their previous experiences with project work, the talk can include the
project they did last semester.
1

Exploring the
topic

Ask them to brainstorm what they would like to do for the project this semester in pairs, small groups or
as a whole class. It can also be possible that students bring the topics for next class.

Teacher

Show students different projects you or other teachers have done to motivate them to do something
challenging.
Plan activities to know students interests and talents.
Defining the
2

format

Discuss and negotiate students on the most recurrent or interesting topics.

Students

Define with students the format they want to prepare for the project.

Teacher

3rd class

Organize the subtopics of the project.

Ask students to talk or write what they want to know and what they would like to know about the topic,
3

Questioning

why they want to know about it.

Organize the questions taking into account the subtopics.

Teacher
Students

4th class

 The teacher organizes the subtopics and tasks according to a plan that helps to achieve the final product
of the project.
4

Planning

The teacher presents and shares the timetable of the project to all the students that everyone can be

Teacher

5th class

Students

6th class

aware of what is going to be done and when.

Give students tips to find information in a successful way.
Show students other sources of information: interviews, questionnaires, videos, TV programs.
The teacher assigns students to bring the first source of information for next class.
Developing the
5

project and

Start researching about the topic of the project.

Give students reading and vocabulary strategies for them read the information in English.

monitoring it

Teacher
Have students sharing the information they have searched: doing reading aloud activities if the whole

Developing the
6

project and
monitoring it

class has the same text or reporting the info if they all have different texts.
Plan pair or small group activities to help students to read, understand and extract the information they
need for the project.

Students

7th class

Teacher

Teach students note-taking strategies.

Developing the
7

project and

Promote self and peer correction of the texts.

Teacher

monitoring it

Revise students writing pieces.

Students

Developing the
8

Teach students how to summarize, paraphrase or quote the information they obtained.
8th class

Ask students to correct mistakes and resubmit the text.

project and

Ask students to search information from a second source.

Students

monitoring it

Teach them how to prepare a questionnaire or an interview to collect information and to report the

Teacher

9th class

answers.
Developing the
9

project and

Show students technological tools they can use for project preparation such as: online dictionaries or
software to rehearse pronunciation. A practical session can be planned at the computers or multimedia

Teacher

10th

Students

class

monitoring it
Developing the
10

project and

room.
Give students tips for public speech.
Teach them to use key words of key sentences in Power Point presentations or posters.

Teacher

monitoring it
Developing the
11

Have students partially present what they have.

Give them immediate feedback on the use of their public speech strategies and the use of language.

Students

12th

monitoring it

Have students peer-assessing their classmates presentations.

Teacher

class

Assign students a third source of information to investigate, read and write.

project and

Ask students to peer-assess the text.

Teacher

13th

monitoring it

Collect the text.

Students

class

Developing the
13

class

project and

Developing the
12

11th

Give the texts back to students with your feedback.

project and

Have individual, pair or small group sessions with students to report progress.

Teacher

14th

monitoring it

Give students tips to rehearse the presentation.

Students

class

Students

15th

Teacher

class

Students present the project to their parents and another group if they want so.

Students

16th

Encourage parents to comment on their childrens presentation of the project.

Teacher

class

Prepare a rubric to assess the presentation.

14

Project
presentation

Students present the project and receive feedback from the teacher and the classmates.
Have students doing self and peer-assessment.

and evaluation
Project
15

presentation
and evaluation

Ask for a bigger room or auditorium in advance when needed to present the project.