Activity

Project work in young learner classroom

1. What is a Project?

A project is a research assignment given to a student which generally requires a larger amount
of effort and more independent work than is involved in a normal essay assignment.

2. Why projects work?

Because students are evaluated on the basis of their projects, rather than on the
comparatively narrow rubrics defined by exams, essays, and written reports, assessment of
project work is often more meaningful to them. They quickly see how academic work can
connect to real-life issues.it can integrates language Target language, and grammar and
vocabulary, in the whole process, as well as, can be planned to fit naturally into the project. It
is important that the children have something to show at the end of the project, it is their end
product not the teacher’s.

3. What are the characteristics of a project?

 Projects focus on learning that is aligned with assessment standards.
 Learners demonstrate knowledge through a product or performance.
 Project work supports the development of both metacognitive and cognitive thinking skills

such as collaboration, self-monitoring, analysis of data, and evaluation of information.

 It provides opportunities for every learner to succeed.
 Challenges for inclusive practice
 Selecting a suitable project idea
 The teacher's role in facilitating student projects

4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of working with projects in the

classroom?

Advantages
  Organized around a problem or challenge without a predetermined solution.
 Creates a need to know of essential content and skills.
 Students design the process for reaching a solution.
 Requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and various forms of
Communication.
 Provides the opportunity for students to examine the task from different perspectives
using a variety of resources, separate relevant from irrelevant information, and manage
the information they gather.
 Students learn to work independently and take responsibility when they are asked to
make choices.
 Students regularly reflect on what they are doing.

Disadvantages

 Project work is more challenging to organise than going through set exercises all
together. You have to be organised and plan carefully, especially if children are working
on different things individually or in small groups.

 Time has to be allowed to set up activities and to tidy up at the end of the lesson.

 You have to think about how and where you are going to store half completed work,
and how you are going to display or show off the completed end product.

5. What do you understand by "investigación-acción" in education?

La investigación-acción es una forma de investigación que permite vincular el estudio de los

problemas en un contexto determinado con programas de acción social, de manera que se
logren de forma simultánea conocimientos y cambios sociales.

Por lo tanto, La investigación - acción es una forma de entender la enseñanza, no sólo de

investigar sobre ella. La investigación – acción supone entender la enseñanza como un
proceso de investigación, un proceso de continua búsqueda. Conlleva entender el oficio
docente, integrando la reflexión y el trabajo intelectual en el análisis de las experiencias que
se realizan, como un elemento esencial de lo que constituye la propia actividad educativa. Los
problemas guían la acción, pero lo fundamental en la investigación - acción es la exploración
reflexiva que el profesional hace de su práctica, no tanto por su contribución a la resolución de
problemas, como por su capacidad para que cada profesional reflexione sobre su propia
práctica, la planifique y sea capaz de introducir mejoras progresivas.

6. How do you organize a project in the classroom? Give me an example.

Storyboards as a project work, it will help to the student to:

1. Develop students’ creativity and to boost students confidence.

2. Encourage group participation and build trust and acceptance in the group.

3. Utilize cooperative, noncompetitive interaction.

4. Support learner autonomy with the teacher often taking the role of bystander or fellow
participant

The storyboard project work will be about holidays using new vocabulary, and using simple
future [am/is/are] + going to + [root form verb] / will + [root form of verb].

Students must bring a poster board showing a sketch and talk about it using simple future.