COMUNIDAD DE MADRID

Programación
didáctica
LENGUA EXTRANJERA
INGLÉS
3º de ESO

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c o r respo
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M a un ramació
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27-28657-12
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5.2 Temporal distribution of didactic units throughout the year

The following chart shows how the 15 didactic units will be sequenced throughout the school
year and the number of session allocated for each one of them:

Units TOTAL S O N D J F M A M J
1 Where I Live 7 7
2 Nearly Fall 7 7
3 Chinese Take Away 7 7
The Community
4 7 7
Manager
5 Walk Like an Egyptian 7 7
6 In Shape 7 7
7 High Street Specials 7 7
8 The Comfort Zone 7 4 3
9 Weather Forecast 7 7
10 Piece of Cake 7 3 4
11 Rush Hour 7 3 4
12 Communicate 7 7
13 Relaxing 7 3 4
14 Green World 7 7
15 The Blogger 7 7
105 7 14 14 7 11 13 7 14 11 7

6 Teaching methodology
6.1 Methodological guidelines for the subject
In 3rd of CSE there is a great variety of students, with different experiences, learning processes,
interests and working pace. During this course, students continue with an evolution in their
though, that becomes more complex and abstract. This is often an uneven process among
students, so that the methodology is adapted to the different situations that may arise.
One of the objectives of the foreign language subject is to provide students with a scientific
knowledge, that allows them its use as citizens, whether in the academic field or not. For this
reason learning, building knowledge, is proposed so that it may facilitate an active participation
of students and encourage curiosity, logical thinking, imagination and the searching for evidences.
The methodology chosen to develop the contents caters for diversity; it is adapted to the pace
of work of students, as well as to the availability of resources for teachers. There is a close link
between teaching methods and competency development, since competences are developed
through practice. It is essential that the pedagogical task facilitates and fosters this competency
development on the basis of the acquired knowledge. This requires a planned work, in which
activities more appropriate to the context are looked for.
The methodological approach followed by the English Department is grounded on pedagogical
principles, developed through teaching strategies and techniques carried out by means of specific
resources.
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XX Pedagogical principles
In order to ensure a correct development of the teaching/learning process and of classroom
practice, our work is based on the following learning principles.

„„ Meaningful Learning
The teacher is the guide of the teaching-learning process. Learning will be effective when
it departs from the student’s previous knowledge, so that the implementation of diagnostic
tests at the beginning of each year is absolutely necessary. If the student’s previous knowledge
is far from that required for the new contents, meaningful relations between concepts and
ideas will not be made in a natual way; learning, therefore, will only be based on mechanic,
memoristic processes, rather than comprehensive and meaningful. Therefore, it is necessary
that the teacher reviews previous contents and links the new ones to those already studied by
the student, in a systematic way, all along the course, so that they become the basis for new
knowledge.

„„ Activity
We want the student to become the protagonist of his/her own learning process, learning by
him/herself, putting knowledge into practice in real situations, since this learning autonomously
and y doing has proved one of the best ways to consolidate knowledge generation, and it
favours the development of learning to learn strategies. By means of this approach, we aim at
the active integration of the student within the teaching-learning process in the classroom,
which must show an atmosphere of calmness and respect, which is highly beneficial for the
learning process.

„„ Interaction
Learning is often carried out by interaction between teacher and student, which is extremely
important and recommendable. However, students do also learn from peers, specially in a
linguistic subject. Therefore, it is necessary to have students interact and work in pairs and groups.
The teacher must organise class dynamics which favour all kinds of interaction.

„„ Motivation and self-esteem

Academic results are deeply influenced by the students’ motivation and their level of self-esteem.
By designing and implementing activities with appealing, interesting contents and interactive
procedures, motivation is increased. The same can be said when the student perceives the use-
fulness of the contents proposed, both in a real life, functional way and for academic purposes.
Another strategy to augment the degree of motivation is to pose feasible challenges, rather than
complex, difficult activities. When the adolescents are able to carry out these challenges, self-
esteem increases and they feel able to obtain positive results in the future.

„„ Attention to diversity
This principle, to be developed extensively in another section of this work, implies the teacher’s
attention to individual differences, different learning paces and styles, and different interests and
motivations. The aim, then is to achieve a comprensive customization of teaching.

„„ Interdisciplinariety
Subject matters are not sealed areas of knowledge. The English language, in particular, is closely
connected with Spanish. The development of the subject’s contents must take into account this
interdisciplinary feature. Permanent contact among the whole group of teachers is a must, in
order to implement the curriculum satisfactorily.
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„„ Education in values
According to LOE, education in values will be dealt with cross-curricularly. Students must
know, assume and uphold their rights and obligations with respect for others, being tolerant,
cooperative and solidary with individuals and groups. Dialogue must be encouraged, grounded
on the human rights as common values of a pluralistic society. As LOE and the order of our
regional government establishes, education in values will be treated in all subjects, together
with other cross-curricular topics, such as Reading comprehension, oral expression, audiovisual
communication, and information and communication technologies.

6.2 Strategies
In the implementation of the abovesaid pedagogical principles, different strategies will be used
within a same session, in the sense that explanatory strategies will be combined with practical or
interactive activities. Basically, four types of strategies will be used:

„„ Teacher’s explanation to the whole group

It is usually the way to transmit theoretical or conceptual contents, with or without audiovisual
support, together with some practical presentations in the classroom. As a rule, this methodology
should not take up a whole session.

„„ Pairwork
Some oral activities, specially dialogues and role-play activities, are to be carried out in pairs. It will
be used in every unit, and it must be facilitated by the different seating patterns in the classroom.

„„ Projects on specific topics to be carried out outside the classroom

By agreement of the whole teaching staff of the English Department, projects and papers
carried outside the classroom will be individual, and may be elaborated by means of ICT
resources, since the school’s library has 10 computers specifically for those purposes. If possible,
whenever the quality of some papers is high, they may be presented orally by students in the
classroom.
In order to attend to the principle of Interdisciplinary, the and program of the 3rd year of CSE
has been consulted with the teacher who gave English in the 2nd year and with the teachers of
compatible subjects of the 3rd year of CSE, with this we will avoid the repetition of concepts.

XX Activities
The different activities that will be carried out can be grouped based on their purpose. These vary
based on the didactic unit to which they are applied: those of hands-on character require some
laboratory experiences and with other theoretical ones we develop motivational activities.

„„ Initiation activities
Before beginning a didactic unit we realize one or more of the following activities that allow us to
detect the knowledge a student possesses of the matter to be studied:
„„ Questionnaires of prior ideas, which each student will complete individually. Brainstorming of
ideas asked randomly to the students.
„„ Conceptual maps where certain concepts are missing that students will also complete
individually.
These activities are very important because they permit a variation in the methodology in a
dynamic fashion based on the level that the students possess and a design of specific activities for
the diverse groups.
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„„ Motivational activities
These should be designed in such a way to help the students become more interested in the
study of the didactic unit. These activities may include:
„„ Exhibition of videos related with the didactic unit.
„„ Reading of newspapers and magazines.
„„ Debates.

„„ Developmental activities
These should permit the student to obtain the basic knowledge of interest for each didactic unit.
The selection of these activities is related to the initial evaluation of the students. Among these
activities should be included:
„„ Skills class.
„„ Problem solving.
„„ Realization, by the teacher, of simple tasks.
The realization of exercises as much in the laboratory as in class gives the student the advantage
of applying what was learned in class and also serves to awaken interest and increase motivation.
Because of this, these activities can be classified as developmental or motivational.

„„ Activities of expansion
These serve to expand on the acquired knowledge. In some cases, only one or two of these
activities can be done during the year because they imply a concerted effort on the part of the
student and can be quite bothersome with respect to their routine of study. These activities may
consist of:
„„ Searching for information and writing reports. The students will be instructed to find information
on topic and prepare a report, what was traditionally called “work”. They are free to look for the
information in the sources they consider necessary (Internet, the center’s library, etc.).

„„ Reinforcement activities
In the cases of students with certain learning deficiencies, or if a specific didactic unit proves to be
difficult for them, we will design activities that will help the students overcome these obstacles
and understand the principle concepts of the unit, in order to reach the objectives with success.
These reinforcement activities will be:
„„ Summaries.
„„ Elaboration of incomplete conceptual maps to be completed by the student. Once it is
finished and corrected by the teacher, the student will have a conceptual map that will help
him/ her understand the didactic unit entirely or a specific part of it.
„„ Completion of exercises that, while simple in nature, connect various concepts explained in
class.
These activities are designed individually depending on the progress in the learning of the
concepts of the didactic units. For this reason it is very important to perform a daily revision of
the student’s notebook.

„„ Evaluation activities
The evaluation is continuous but all the units will begin with activities to connect with the
knowledge and representations that the student already possesses. For this reason there is always
an initial test. Each trimester there will also be different evaluative exercises, approximately five,
in order to improve motivation and self-esteem with the accomplishment of short term goals.
There is also a cumulative written exercise at the end of each evaluation.
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6.2.1 Project work

Project work will be favoured, so that contents are organized in real contexts of learning and the
purpose of this may be understood. All in all not forgetting the relationship with other fields of
knowledge and other artistic languages. Music is a privileged field for connecting naturally with
other disciplines: with image, mathematics, language, literature, technology, media, natural and
social sciences…
Project work constitutes the privileged space to verify the progress in the development of
competences, since it favours the integration and application of knowledge, abilities and attitudes,
endowing them with social and personal meaning. A project will be proposed for the end of
each term, starting from students’ concerns and interests. In its development, students will find
opportunities for reflection, making responsible decisions, valuing attitudes and they will develop
their own ways of thinking. At the same time they will carry out collaborative work, prioritizing the
efforts with a democratic and participative attitude that may contribute to collective and individual
improvement.
The project will be presented on several stages, with an accurate schedule for the realisation of
each task, specifics roles for teachers and students, various activities as well as particular forms of
organization and cataloguing. The projects are developed in teams in order to promote collaborative
work by assigning tasks and, afterwards, integrating the results. A good teamwork requires a great
responsibility on the part of each of its members; students also learn to reflect, to make appropriate
decisions and to assess the attitudes and mindsets of their classmates with a democratic and
participatory attitude, and this will contribute to their personal and social improvement.
An example of project for addressing a particular topic related to foreign language content in the
third year of CSE is offered below.

Project file
Concept Description

Project name Oral expression

Unit Weather Forecast

Elements to be considered for the realization of a project

Research problem Expressing the message with clarity, consistency, structuring and adjusting it
suitably, when necessary, to the models and formulas for each type of text.
Objective Express themselves and interact orally in an intelligible way and produce simple
oral texts, with a certain degree of fluency and correction, taking into account the
specific communicative context.
Activities yy Design of the interviews.
yy Applying interviews.
yy Searching for and registering information.
yy Information analysis.
yy Preparation for the communication phase.
Resources yy Surveys for the interview.
yy Books, magazines, the Internet.
yy Depending on the format chosen: paper, paintings, photographs, drawings
(posters, newspapers, mural, brochures, oral presentation).
yy In front of the group: computer, projector (electronic presentation).
Presentation of results It varies according to the available resources and the agreement of the teamwork.
Calendar It is required to establish a precise calendar for the realization of every stage,
preferably marking on the leaders responsible for implementing each of the
planned actions.
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6.2.2 Problem-based learning (PBL)

It is an inductive methodology (methodologies that stimulate intellectual development and the
independent learning of students). This methodological strategy consists of posing a challenge to
the students. The problem posed must have the following characteristics:
„„ It must be proposed before the knowledge has been acquired.
„„ They must be real-life problems, where students have to find out what pieces are missing,
hence they are not completely defined and they do not need to have a single correct solution.
„„ They must be interesting and developed in stages throughout the student’s learning process.

Consult some activities to work with students from the perspective of this theory in the Guide
to develop teaching unit, in the Methodology section.

6.2.3 Multiple intelligences

The theory of Multiple Intelligences, developed by Dr. Howard Gardner, a psychologist, researcher
and professor at Harvard University, is based on that all people possess at least eight forms of
intelligence, that are at different stages of development when we are born.
Gardner defines intelligence as an ability that is not innate and unchangeable; on the contrary, it
can be developed through stimulation. People come into the world with different potentials. Their
intelligence is the result of the sum of what is available in the culture around them, the degree of
personal motivation achieved and the quality of education they receive.
Gardner remarks that the brilliance in mathematics or language is not enough to cope with life.
Therefore, this syllabus aims to the development of all the intelligences so that the student can
face the future with the maximum of available resources.

Consult some activities to work with students from the perspective of this theory in the Guide
to develop teaching unit, in the Methodology section.

6.2.4 Cooperative learning

The Simple cooperative structures are introduced gradually in the teaching units. These structures
facilitate the transformation of fundamentally individual activities, in which there is not any kind
of interaction among students (reading texts, open questions to the class group, response to
a questionnaire, conducting exercises, summary or synthesis of the subject studied...) in group
activities, carried out in small teams (cooperative teams) in order to promote and maximize the
interaction among students in performing these activities.

Consult some simple cooperative structures to work in the classroom in the Guide to develop
teaching units in the Methodology section.

6.2.5 Learn to think

Thinking strategies are intended to foster meaningful learning, to understand deeply and be able
to apply knowledge to everyday life. It is a set of processes, tools, skills and habits of thinking.
Throughout this course students will work on:
„„ Visual organizers:
„„ Conceptual maps.
„„ Mental maps.
„„ Schedule.
32 PROGRAMACIÓN

„„ Lighthouses of thinking:
„„ What am I learning and for what.
„„ What did I know, what do I know.
„„ I thought, I think.

„„ Techniques of thinking
„„ Skills of thinking
„„ Metacognition: thinking strategies, valid to other subjects and applicable to other contents, will
be worked.

6.2.6 Flipped classroom

The flipped classroom or inverted classroom is a pedagogical model that proposes redefining the
traditional structure of a class. Instead of focusing school hours on teacher’s explanations so that
students practice afterwards at home what they have learned, students are suggested to have an
approach to the contents at home (through videos, presentations, etc.) and later, in class, to work
on them and practice them with the teacher and the other classmates. The students’ involvement
in their own learning process affects directly in their motivation to progress on comprehensive
training.

6.3 Resources and materials

Materials and resources for the study of English must be diverse, varied and interactive, both in
terms of content and support. Their use in the classroom will allow for sequencing objectives,
content and activities, catering to the different types of content, proposing activities of varying
degrees of difficulty and offering guidelines for the evaluation. It must be also taken into account
that these should not be discriminatory, allow their use in common, not degrade the environment,
offer relevant learning situations and variety of elements to adapt them to individual differences,
and encourage curiosity and reflection on the educational action itself. Among those materials
there must have the following:

„„ By the student
The student needs a textbook, including a workbook, and a notebook, although a folder is
recommended. Within this folder, with the aim of turning it into a portfolio, the student will not
only take note of additional information given by the teacher, but also store and classify the extra
materials provided by the teacher, as well as reading cards and the compositions done during
the course. Highly recommended is the use of a pocket monolingual or bilingual dictionary.
In our case, the recommended textbook is: English Alive! 3, by Ben Wetz, Oxford University Press.
Students will also read three graded books during the course:
„„ The Phantom of the Opera, by Jennifer Bassett, O.U.P.
„„ Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, O.U.P.
„„ Dead Man’s Island, by John Escott, O.U.P.

„„ By the institution
With regards physical spaces, the school offers the following facilities:
„„ The classroom has: foldable whiteboard, a shelf with a dictionary of Spanish, a bilingual
dictionary of English and the books that the students of that group borrow from the school’s
library. Desks are paired, with aisles separating every column. This distribution is common to
all the classrooms.
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„„ The English Language Classroom has 30 individual desks, and its distribution varies on the
activity proposed by the teacher. The walls are covered with thematic posters, and there is a
whiteboard, a laptop computer and a projector. Regarding audiovisual means, there is a TV
and VCR/DVD player. There are numerous bilingual dictionaries. The timetable for the use of
this classroom is agreed upon by the members of the English Department.
„„ The Audiovisual room has a electronic blackboard, a VCR player and a DVD player, a laptop and
projector, a large screen, and connection to the Internet. Use must be appointed by booking
onto a chart placed at the Teacher’s Lounge. On every floor of the building there is a portable
TV set, a VCR and DVD player, and an Overhead Projector. Its use is booked at the beginning
of each week.
„„ The school library also possesses some interesting resources for the English subject:
−− Magazines: Speak up, It’s magazine.
−− Spanish daily press: The school is subscribed to the “El periódico en la Escuela” program, so
that it receives 30 daily copies of every national daily newspaper, which are distributed
among the teachers participating in the program. A weekly appointment chart at the
teacher’s lounge shows the distribution of the copies, which are collected at the library.
−− Encyclopedias: Britannica, Encarta CD-ROM, Wikipedia.
−− Audiovisual resources: for the English Language, the most outstanding resource is a collection
of 30 DVD Films which can be watched in English and which have English subtitles available.
They can be used for individual study by students, or they can be screened in the English
Language classroom, the Audio-visual room or in the group classroom.
−− Computer resources: The abundant digital resources available in the Internet may be used
on the library Computers, or screened in the audio-visual rooms, which has a computer
connected to the web. The use of computers is booked in advance at the beginning of
each week.

Some of the many useful resources and sites available are listed in Annex 2.
In addition, you can consult the Annex 3.

−− Other reference books and materials for the teacher and the student:

Dictionaries: Any medium-sized bilingual dictionary is welcome (about 500 pages), so that it
is easily portable and contains enough information. Recommendable dictionaries following
these guidelines are those published by Cambridge University Press, Collins, Longman,
Oxford University Press y Richmond. Some of these dictionaries come with a CD-ROM, highly
recommendable.
A monolingual dictionary is not needed at the moment.
Reference Grammars: Murphy, R. English Grammar in Use (with answers). Cambridge
University Press. Oxford Practice Grammar Basic. Oxford University Press.
Listening and pronunciation skills: Tuning in. Longman. Listen Carefully. Longman New
Headway Pronunciation Course Elementary. Oxford University Press.
Writing practice: Reading and Writing Skills 1. Longman. Word for Word. Longman.
Reading practice: First Impressions. Longman. Reading and Writing Skills 1. Longman. Basic
Comprehension Passages. Longman.
Vocabulary practice: English Vocabulary in Use Elementary. Cambridge University Press.