Creating a Classroom Newspaper through Task and Project Language Learning: Institucion Educativa San Francisco de Asis with

9th Graders.

Task and Project Work

By Lina Vanessa Crdenas Luna Amazonia University English Degree

INSTITUCIN EDUCATIVA SAN FRANCISCO DE ASS

NAME OF THE SCHOOL: InstitucinEducativa San Francisco de Ass Sede Centro ADDRESS: Street 13 and 13 on the Corner. San Francisco neighborhood.

MISSION To offer an integral education, from the development of basic, citizen and labor competences into the frame of an enterprising culture, within a good quality training offering helpful tools to the comprehend of our environment and its linking to the productive life and professional process formation with high socio cultural sense.

VISSION To be an official Institution which establish academic, technological and ethics training process, into the frame of an enterprising culture, facilitating to the graduate his/her active linking within the productive, social and labor world.

IDENTIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE SITUATION: STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In the InstitucinEducativa San Francisco de Ass, there are 34 students in 9th grade. The group is compound by 21 girls and 13 boys between 14 and 16 years old. Some of them have an inadequate attitude toward the class and the second language learning process. Their teacher uses a methodology focused on grammar, filling the blanks, organizing words writing sentences, listening and repeating the same conversation, etc. The classes do not have any specific structure, there are not special activities to open a class and close it, and just the teacher and students use the Interchange course book photocopies. They speak most of the time in class about different things while the teacher is explaining to them, when she asks them something about her explanation they do not answer or cannot do it correctly. Students are always evaluated in pairs in written way, so it is an easy opportunity that permits them to copy and students who do not make or know nothing approve the exam. Most of them do not communicate in English and they are not punctually with their work. When the teacher assigns them to create a written conversation using their own information, most of the students do not write well, they commit many mistakes, they forget to use the subjects, or the verb, they do not write questions correctly, but when they have to do activities like filling the gaps they do that well. So the teacher corrects their mistakes giving other examples but they do not pay attention to her. Those non-interested students do not like to participate in class; just three or five students like to participate and to speak in front of the class in speaking activities. They have problems with pronunciation, they do not like to participate in speaking activities and they are not punctually with their class works and home works. Teachers face many problems in teaching and learning English Second and English Foreign Language classrooms. Currently, students need to be involved

and engaged in a place where meaningful communication takes place by doing activities and developing different tasks and projects; which involve their real context. Improving their learning interacting with others and looking for possible solutions to specific situations they carry out every day in their educational setting. Teachers could make emphasis in many aspects and strategies of new approaches to teach and learn a language. Among the strategies, teachers could implement Content Based Instruction using authentic material and interesting topics which involve real world. Task Based Language Teaching in which students have to interact and communicate with different proposals and analysis works. Project work, students have to do an interesting project working cooperatively while they are learning the language.

Situation Lack of methodologies and materials implementation for learning and communicating in English class Purpose Statement: To engage students in learning process through task and project work, in order to improve their attitude for learning and communicating during English class. Research Question: What would be the most appropriate project to engage 9th C students during the English language learning at Institucin Educativa San Francisco de Ass?

Rationale: Creating a classroom newspaper is a good way to involve students in reading and writing skills. Also, they have the possibility to work cooperatively using the target language for communicating in class and they can express their ideas or special doubts toward some situations or difficulties they face in the school

or community. Newspaper activities provide many opportunities for students to collaborate with the classmates. Students working together to achieve a common goal develop social skills as they learn to accept and appreciate differences in others. This project require a sequence with a logical and systematical process, in which students have a center-role and the teacher is a facilitator who supports them in the different tasks they have to develop receiving continue feedback, in order to reach the final product and results.

LITERATURE REVIEW English learning has become an important aspect in peoples lives. Although, there is a serious difficulty or special situation that most of the teachers have to face in some official high schools.Students do not like English and they are not interested in learning this language,so this project is focused in finding out the strategies and implementing new approaches to improve students attitudes toward English classes and the use of the language. This section provides a review of the relevant literature to the research purpose.
Willis (1996) presented Task Based Language Teaching TBLT as a development of Communicative Language Teaching, drawing on many principles which formed part of Communicative Language Teaching movement on 1980s. We can observe an example of that: - Activities which involve real communication are important for language learning - Meaningful tasks provide and promote learning when they are applied on language activities - Meaningful language supports the learning process.

Engaging learners in task work provides a better context for the activation of learning processes than form-focused activities, and hence ultimately provides better opportunities for language learning to take place. Language learning is believed to depend on immersing students not merely in comprehensible input but in tasks that require them to negotiate meaning and engage in naturalistic and meaningful communication. (J. Richards & T. Rodgers. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, 2001: 223-224).

Nunan (1989:10) offers this definition for TBLT: the communicative task is a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form. Learners should not go into new tasks cold and that some sort of pretask preparation or cuing is important. Such activities might include topic introduction, clarifying task instructions, helping students learn or recall useful words and phrases to facilitate task accomplishment, and providing partial demonstration of task procedures. (J. Richards & T. Rodgers: 236)

When teachers are applying TBI, the use of authentic tasks can be supported by authentic materials when it is possible. The following are some of the task types that can be built around such resources: Newspapers, one task might be students examine a newspaper, determine its sections, and suggest new sections that could go in it; other activity could be preparing a job-wanted ad using examples from the classified section. Television, students take notes during the weather report and prepare a map with weather symbols showing likely weather for the predicted period; in watching an advertisement, students identify and list hype words, then, they try to construct a parallel ad following the sequence of the hype words. Internet, seeking to find an inexpensive hotel in a country, they have to search with different engines (eg. Yahoo, Netscape, Snap) comparing search times and analyzing the first ten hits to determine most useful search for their purpose; students initiate a chat in a chat room, indicating a current interest in their life and developing an answer to the first three people to respond. They then start a diary with these text-sets, ranking the responses. (J. Richards & T. Rodgers: 237)

According to Pia Arboleda at al (Pedagogy Workshop Summary. 2010: 2), challenges and assessment in Task based project could be consider into the following aspects:

Task based can be a performance based assessment and project based can be a productbased assessment; of course, there is overlap. Assessments types and devises will change according to the theme at hand and level.Need many rubrics to assess grammar, vocabulary, cultural competency, register, etc.

Peer review is always challenging especially with differing cultural expectations ofstudent-teacher and student-student relationship and dynamics. Prior training to students to be respectful and constructive in their criticism is crucial.

The process of accomplishing the project needs to be taken into consideration, e.g. multiple drafts, training and continuous feedback in order to design and accomplish the project, division of labor in collaborative projects and keeping track of individualcontribution.

According to Willis (1996) Task-based language learning is an approach in which learners concentrate on meaning rather than form. That is, students carry out a group of communicative tasks instead of doing form-based discrete exercises. Students are expected to express their own ideas, either orally or in a written mode, about the topic of the lesson. These ideas should be based on the analysis of meaning derived from a communicative activity.

According to the Fredricka L. Stoller statements based on different authors definitions about project work , its features are:

and approaches

Attends to the process even though it has a final product. Project work focuses on content learning rather than on specific language target. It is student centered. Teacher offers support and guidelines the whole process. It is cooperative rather than competitive. Develops participation and collaboration. Integrates skills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing). Promote meaningful students engagement with language. Requires active students involvement

Stimulates higher-level thinking skills. Gives students responsibility for their own learning. Distances teachers role from teacher-dominant instruction. Demands adaptation and creativity from teachers and students. Use information from varied sources. It can be carry out in different period of time. Can be over a short period of time or

extended over a few weeks.

Can be adapted and used in almost all levels, for different ages and abilities. Traditional classrooms can diversify instruction with and occasional project. Projects can be integrated to reinforce important pedagogical issues. Works on Real life issues. They are linked with students interest about Real world

concerns and issues or significance.

Has a final product that can be share with any person from the community

or outside. Can simulate real word situations.

Can be adapted by any kind of issue. Project work is potentially motivating, stimulating, empowering, and challenging.

It usually results in building students confidence, self-esteem, and autonomy as well as improving students language skills, content learning, and cognitive abilities. Depends on a variety of factors, including curricular objectives, course expectations, students proficiency level, students interests, time constrains and availability of material.(p. 110)

Sheppard and Stoller (1995) proposed an 8-step sequence of activities for applying project work in a classroom, so that model has been modified, after testing it in several language classrooms and teacher-training courses. After that, there is a proposal of 10-step sequence described here in detail. 1. Agree in a theme for the project 2. Determine the final outcome 3. Structure the project 4. Prepare students for the language demands of step 5 5. Gather information 6. Prepare students for the language demands of step 7

7. Compile and analyze information 8. Prepare students for the language demands of step 9 9. Present final product 10. Evaluate the project These language interventions help students to complete their projects successfully because of their applicability and relevance. The language intervention steps 4, 6, and 8 are optional, depending of the language proficiency and needs of the teachers in training.

To sum up, it can be say that all of the mentioned studies reconfirmed the importance of applying Task and Project Based in ESL/EFL classroom. There are many suggestions and theories by scholars and researchers about these approaches. Even though, there are not sufficient experimental researches and studies applied to our context, most of the researches have been carried out in other countries with different learners conditions and institutions environments. Therefore, some aspects about these studies can be contribute to the development of the research project applied in order to find out the best strategies to create and apply a classroom project and use of the language among students from San Francisco de Asis High School 9th C (Florencia, Colombia) during the English class.

Procedure In May 4th, 2012, I went to Institucin Educativa San Francisco de Ass and talk with students from 9C in order to tell them about the project I wanted to develop with their collaboration; it is to create a classroom newspaper, applying two ESL/EFL teaching approaches Task and Project Based. They were informed about the objectives and the significance of the research project. Then, I asked them if they wanted to help me with the development of the project and they were in agreement. The first class would start on May 7th.

Data Analysis Procedure:

The data analysis in this project was qualitative. It was focused on the process, learning and improvement that students were showing through the development of the project. How they wrote at the beginning of the process, how they were improving and at the end the results they had in their articles and news.

Limitations of the Study

There were some limitations in this study, which should be mentioned as so avoid any overgeneralizations and misinterpretations of the results. First, due to the time concerns, because there were many days in which the students had not class, because of extracurricular activities and holidays. For that reason, it was necessary they worked at home and sent the articles by e-mail and receive feedback in the same way. On the other hand, there were financial problems, because the printing is so expensive and most of the students did not give the economic contribution for that. We just could print 30 newspapers. It can be considered they were independent learners because most of the time they need to work outside the class due to the time to finish the project.

Organization of the lessons

The project is designed for 12 hours of instruction taken during four weeks.

Teachers Lesson Plan: First lesson the teacher show to students the parts of a newspaper and the type of news we can find in them. Student objectives are stated next, followed by a list of pre-organizing strategies. Next, learning activities outline steps to help students learn about newspaper writing or design. The final section directs students to take information they have studied and apply it to their own classroom newspaper and at the end they have to make an

oral presentation to another group from the school in order to show their news to them. Students worksheets:

Students have to work in groups with different kind of newspapers and identify in them the main characteristics the teacher presents to them; also they have to decide what they are going to write for their classroom newspaper. Then they are going to receive a worksheet according to the type of article they want to write in order to make a first draft. They have to send to the teacher their writings by E-mail and she gives feedback by the same way. At the end they have to do an oral presentation in order to show their newspaper to another group of the high school. On Assignment Content activities:

Activities can provide additional experiences for the students as new gatherers. Each activity can be used to help students create portions of thenewspaper. With this project students can develop reading and writing skills in order to make up their articles and news, and at the end they can practice speaking through the presentation.

Classes Analysis- Diaries Monday, May 7th The class started at 6:15 am, I greeted the students and remembered them what was the project about. Told them the objective for the class,The students were able to identify the main characteristics and parts in a newspaper. First, I used a slide power point presentation and some newspapers to explain to them the main characteristics and parts we can find in a newspaper, giving examples and

show it in the newspapers I had. They took notes while I was explaining and asked questions if they did not understand something. When I finished the introduction, I asked them to work in groups of four people for students to work with some newspapers I delivered to them. They had to identify the parts and kind of news and articles they could find in the newspaper they received. The newspapers they received were written in Spanish because in our context it is difficult to get real English newspapers, so the idea was they could identify the parts and kind of articles. At the end they had to give me the written report about the activity. The class was good, students participated actively and few of them try to do it in English. They showed interest in the activity, although there were few students who did not like the activity and they did not showed good disposition to work, so I encouraged them to work, and they did it but in Spanish.

Monday, May 14th The class started a little late, because the teachers were in a meeting with the coordinator before starting classes. When students arrived to the classroom I greeted them and took the attendance. After that, I told them the objective for the class, The students selected the type of article they wanted to write and started doing it. I showed them a set of formats or worksheets for each type of articles; it was a kind of support for them to start writing. Then I asked them to organize in groups of four people because they had to decide thetype of article they wanted to write. They organized into groups and when they decided I gave them the format they need according to their decision. Two groups selected news stories, other decided to make a puzzle, two chose editorials, two groups decided to write feature articles and two took the decision of making up advertisements.

They had to decide the article they would write, according to the type of article they wanted to write. It took some minutes and they asked me if their decision was appropriate for the format they chose. I helped them giving some suggestions and recommendations to start writing, and they asked me if they had some difficulties and doubts. Finally, because of the time, it was necessary to say to them send me the first draft to my e-mail account two days later in order to check it and give them feedback to make the necessary corrections. Students were in agreement and I perceived they liked what they were doing.

Friday, May 25th The class started at 8:15 am in the technology classroom. I told students about the e-mails I received on May 22nd and asked them if they received it, because some of them did not send the homework, I asked them the reasons of that. They gave some excuses and I gave them the opportunity to continue working in it. Fortunately, there were internet in the classroom, and the students who sent the work and received feedback could correct it during the class. They had the opportunity to ask me when they did not understand some suggestions I wrote in their articles and I clarified it to them. The class was just one hour and the time was not sufficient for students to finish their works. Because of that I asked them to send the second draft on May 26th and they were in agreement. Finally, they organized their stations and left the classroom.

Monday, May 28th The class started at 6:30 am.Because most of the articles continue with mistakes, I printed them and gave them to the students. They had to finish the

correction that class according to the suggestions and recommendations I gave them before. If they had some questions, I was there to help them to finish their articles. They worked well and they behave as never that day, because they wanted to present a good article in the newspaper. Because I needed their articles to print them, I asked them to send the last correction that day in the afternoon. At the end of the class, I gave some suggestions to them for the newspaper. I wrote some possible names on the board and I asked students to select one. Most of them selected this name School Times.

Tuesday, May 29th The mathematics teacher let me her class in order to organize with the students their newspaper presentation. The class started at 10:15 am. I told them, they had to organize the oral presentation for Friday, June 1st; they will make the presentation to 7th grade.I said to them some suggestions to organize their presentation. They had to focus on the following questions: Type of article and its name. Why did they decide to write it? Some articles main ideas Why should people read it? They started organizing what they wanted to say, they used their dictionaries and I helped them when it was necessary. They were afraid of the presentation and I tried to encourage them to do their better.

Friday, June 1st It was the newspaper presentation for students show their results to another group of the high school, they day before I told them the categories I would evaluate (Accuracy, Vocabulary, Fluency, Pronunciation, Interaction), I sent the rubric to

their e-mail accounts because they had to know the specific characteristics that will be evaluated during their intervention. These are the results students showed in the oral presentation, five categories were evaluated and each one had four items. 4 is the higher grade and 1 the less one. CATEGORY Accuracy Vocabulary Fluency Pronunciation Interaction TOTAL 2 students 5 2 students 1 student 4 3 14 students 17 students 5 students 6 students 6 students 48 2 8 students 2 students 12 students 15 students 8 students 45 1 2 students 3 students 6 students 3 students 8 students 22

It can be said that most of the students are between 2 and 3 grades, they present more difficulties in fluency and pronunciation, but most of them have a good use of the vocabulary according to the context and topic they were talking, It is important to consider if students continue learning through the application of projects and tasks they could improve their skills at the end of the school process. Grade 4.5 3.0 3.5 2.0 2.9 1.0 1.5 1 16 4 3 Number of students

4.1 % of them obtained an excellent grade 66.6 % of the students obtained a good grade. 16.6 % obtained a low grade 12.5 % obtained a lower gradCoding the Data

Class objectives The students were able to identify the main characteristics and parts in a newspaper The students selected the type of article they wanted to write and started doing it. They had to finish the correction that class To organize the oral presentation for Friday

Resources I used a slide power point presentation newspapers to explain to them formats or worksheets send me the first draft to my e-mail account the technology classroom there were internet in the classroom

Teachers strategies giving examples give them feedback I printed them and gave them to the students I said to them some suggestions

Students interest They took notes asked questions few of them try to do it in English

few students who did not like they did not showed good disposition to work they liked what they were doing They worked well and they behave as never that day

Students organization them to work in groups of four people organize in groups of four people

Students developed skills give me the written report about the activity. they did it but in Spanish received feedback could correct it during the class wanted to present a good article in the newspaper

Students likes type of article they wanted to write Two groups selected news stories make a puzzle two chose editorials two groups decided to write feature articles making up advertisements.

Teacher-students interaction they asked me if their decision was appropriate

they asked me if they had some difficulties and doubts ask me when they did not understand suggestions and recommendations I gave them before.

Teachers active part I wrote in their articles and I clarified it to them.

CODES AND THEMES THEMES CODES Class objectives Resources Teachers strategies Teachers active part Students interest Students likes Students developing skills Teacher-students interaction, Students organization.

Class direction Teachers Methodology

Students Attitude Students Performance Classroom Interaction

Themes Descriptions

Class direction

The objectives of the class are an important part of a ESL/EFL lessons, because we need to set what our students are going to reach or get during the class and the results we expect them show at the end of the process. According to Willis (1996) Task-based language learning is an approach in which learners concentrate on meaning rather than form. It

means students develop a group of tasks and they do not concentrate on form based exercises, so students need to express their own ideas, either orally or in a written way about the topic of the class. For that we as teachers have to consider the aim for each class and the objective or purpose we want to reach at the end of the process; in this study the objective was to create a classroom newspaper, so the students had the opportunity to practice writing skill during the process and show the results orally.

Teachers Methodology

The methodology is the way to do something, so, it is a variety of resources and strategies teachers use in order to implement easier the teaching-learning process and get the purposes step by step. First, she tried to create a good classroom climate greeting the students and asking them about their previous day or classes, giving them the opportunity to work in pairs or groups as they wanted, providing them the facility to access to the materials, correcting and congratulating them using formulaic speech, are you sure?, really?, Oh no!, excellent!, you are right!. Also we have to consider our role as teachers when we are applying task and project based, we are facilitators, according to the Fredricka L. Stoller, we need to offer them
support during whole process,for that we can not impose anything to our

students, just give suggestions and recommendations helping them when they need us. Students Attitude Students showed a good disposition at the moment of starting their assignments and they liked to work cooperatively. I noticed some groups help others, they interchange ideas and most of the time they were interested on doing the better as they could. They had the opportunity to

select what they wanted to write about and it is consider they work better when they have the possibility to write or speak about they like, because in that way they can express their ideas and positions toward any situation or thing. Students Performance Throughout the project process the learners improve their knowledge and use of the language in a little part. They showed good results in written skill. They learn common vocabulary related to the context. Even though they did not have the better pronunciation while they tried to communicate something to the class, they pronounced the words like they write them and sometimes they wrote the words like they listened them, but the messages were understood by the teacher most of the time. All of the students work well in the written exercises but only few of them like to participate in class sharing their learning and ideas. As FedericaL. Stoller says Project work is potentially motivating, stimulating, empowering, and challenging. It usually results in building students confidence, self-esteem and autonomy as well as improving students language skills, content learning and cognitive abilities.

Classroom Interaction In the interaction part we need to consider students organization, teacher-students interaction, students-students interaction. It can be said the interaction between teacher and students was good because she involve all of them in the activities and she permit that students express their ideas helping them to correct some mistakes and suggesting if it was necessary. Students worked cooperatively and they showed a good disposition to do their assignments as better as possible listening to the teacher and classmates suggestions and recommendations to improve their articles.

Conclusions and Recommendations This study aimed to apply an interesting and meaningful project through Task and Project Based Work in order to improve students attitudes for learning English meaningfully. For students attitude and performance in learning a Foreign Language it can be said they showed good disposition to work while they are doing something and working cooperatively with all of their classmates and the support of their teacher, but let them to express their ideas and thinking according to their context and interests. The role of the resources and materials is an important aspect we have to take into account when we work with this approaches because we need to catch students attention and identify how they learn better, according to Pia Arboleda at al (2010) multiple drafts, training and continuous feedback in order to design and accomplish the project, division of labor in collaborative projects and keeping track of individual contribution play an essential role during the process; and we can see it in the current study, in which it was necessary to correct many times to reach a successful result in the newspaper project. The findings indicate that students from 9th grade in the Institucin Educativa San Francisco de Asis present positive responses to the applied methodology, whereas, it is very important to combine the activities and connect the resources with them in order to obtain good results. It should be considered by English instructors as a beginning point for providing some pedagogical implications at the moment of design their syllabuses, plan their classes and prepare their materials and methodologies, and continue to investigate in order to find out better results.

Appendixes In this section we can observe the lesson plans the teacher carried out during the process, the worksheets students develop in order to start writing their articles, and the rubric for assess the speaking part during the newspaper presentation.

UNIVERSIDAD DE LA AMAZONIA AIM: The students are able to identify the main characteristics and parts in a newspaper CLASS:9 C ENGLISH PROGRAM Situation/function PROFESSOR: Maritza Housset Fonseca STUDENT: Lina Vanessa Crdenas

Number of students: 34

May 07

LESSON
STARTING

TIMING
20

SKILL
Speaking

INTERACTION TEACHERS
Teacher whole Class

PROCEDURES STUDENTS
Students greet the teacher and present themselves saying their names. Then, they listen to the teacher in order to know what they are going to do in the project. The teacher greets the students and takes the attendance. She presents herself and asks students names in order to meet them. Then, she tells them what the project is about and the importance of do it. She presents to the students the parts of a newspaper and the characteristics of that giving to them examples. She asks questions in order to know if they understand and at the same time she listen to them when they want to participate. Teacher asks students to organize into groups of 4 people and gives the directions to make the activity, and give a newspaper to each group. She goes through the classroom helping students in the activity.

TEACHING AIDS

REFLECTION

20
PRESENTA TION

Speaking

Teacher Whole Class

Students pay attention and take notes about teachers presentation. Also, they participate in class asking and answering questions during the presentation.

Laptop Video beam Marker White board Newspapers

30
PRACTICE

Reading Writing

Students groups

Ss. listen to the teacher and start working, they have to identify the different aspects in the newspapers according to the previous explanation and introduction made by the teacher. They have to write what they find. Ss. give to the teacher their papers and organize the classroom.

Newspapers

FINISHING

10

Whole Class

She asks students to deliver the piece of papers about the exercise, and invites them to organize the classroom before leave it.

UNIVERSIDAD DE LA AMAZONIA AIM: The students select the type of article they want to write and start doing itCLASS: 9 C ENGLISH PROGRAM Situation/function PROFESSOR: Maritza Housset Fonseca STUDENT: Lina Vanessa Crdenas

Number of students: 34

May 14

LESSON
STARTING

TIMING
15

SKILL

INTERACTION TEACHERS
Teacher whole Class

PROCEDURES STUDENTS
Students greet the teacher and know what they are going to do during the class. Students pay attention and organize the groups. Then each group decides what type of article they are going to write. (Stories news, feature articles, advertisements, puzzle, editorials) Ss. receive the format and decide what topic they want to write according to the type of article they select. If they need help or have some doubts they can ask the teacher. Ss. copy teachers e-mail account and leave the classroom. They will receive feedback on May 18 to correct the paragraph and send it again on May 22. The teacher greets the students and takes the attendance. She tells students the activity for the class. T explains to them what they have to do and presents to them some kind of formats for writing different type of news. Then, she asks them to organize into groups of four people.

TEACHING AIDS

REFLECTION

15
PRESENTA TION

Speaking

Teacher Whole Class

Board Marker Photocopies

40
Writing PRACTICE

Students groups

T gives a format to each group according to the type of article they are going to write and give some directions. She goes through the classroom in order to check students work and help them if they need her. She asks students to finish writing at home and to send the first draft to her e-mail account before Wednesday th May 16 in order to check it and give feedback.

Photocopies

FINISHING

10

Speaking

Teacher whole Class

Board Marker

UNIVERSIDAD DE LA AMAZONIA AIM: The students correct their articles according to their teacher feedback ENGLISH PROGRAM Situation/function PROFESSOR: Maritza Housset Fonseca STUDENT: Lina Vanessa Crdenas

CLASS: 9 C

Number of students: 34

May 25

LESSON
STARTING

TIMING
15

SKILL

INTERACTION TEACHERS
Teacher whole Class

PROCEDURES STUDENTS
Students greet the teacher and listen to her. Then, they say to her the reasons about their lack of responsibility to send the homework. The teacher greets the students and takes the attendance. She reports to the students about the e-mails she nd received on May 22 and asks what did it happen with the rest because not all of the groups send the correction. T explains to them what they have to do and gives them some recommendations to correct their articles. The teacher is checking students work and helping them to improve their articles. She asks students to send the last correction to her e-mail account on May 26, and gives them the date to make the oral presentation.

TEACHING AIDS

REFLECTION

10
PRESENTA TION

Speaking Reading

Teacher Whole Class

They pay attention to the teacher and they have to work in their computers on the technology classroom. Ss. start correcting their articles and asking for help when they do not understand something. Ss. listen to the teacher and leave the classroom.

Computers

20
Writing PRACTICE FINISHING

Students groups

Computers Internet

Speaking

Teacher whole Class

UNIVERSIDAD DE LA AMAZONIA AIM: The students correct their articles according to their teacher feedback ENGLISH PROGRAM Situation/function PROFESSOR: Maritza Housset Fonseca STUDENT: Lina Vanessa Crdenas

CLASS: 9 C

Number of students: 34

May 28

LESSON

TIMING
15

SKILL

INTERACTION TEACHERS
Teacher whole Class

PROCEDURES STUDENTS
Students greet the teacher and listen to her. Then, they say to her the reasons about their lack of responsibility to send the homework. The teacher greets the students and takes the attendance. She reports to the students about the e-mails she th received on May 26 and asks what did it happen with the rest of them because not all of the groups send the correction. T explains to them what they have to do and gives them some recommendations to continue correcting their articles. She gives to them a copy about the articles they th sent to her on May 26 . The teacher is checking students work and helping them to improve their articles. She presents to the students some options for the newspapers name, and asks them to select one. After that, she asks students to send the last correction to her e-mail account during the afternoon to send them to print.

TEACHING AIDS

REFLECTION

STARTING

15
PRESENTA TION

Teacher Whole Class

They pay attention to the teacher and they receive the writings they th sent to the teacher on May 26 , they have to work in their groups in order to improve their articles.

Board Marker

30
PRACTICE Writing

Students groups

Ss. start correcting their articles and asking for help when they do not understand something. Ss see the different names options for the newspaper and then they choose one. Finally, they leave the classroom.

Students articles Board Marker

FINISHING

20

Speaking

Teacher whole Class

UNIVERSIDAD DE LA AMAZONIA AIM: Students prepare their oral presentations to present the newspaper ENGLISH PROGRAM Situation/function PROFESSOR: Maritza Housset Fonseca STUDENT: Lina Vanessa Crdenas

CLASS: 9 C

Number of students: 34

May 29

LESSON

TIMING
15

SKILL

INTERACTION TEACHERS
Teacher whole Class

PROCEDURES STUDENTS
Students greet the teacher and listen to her. The teacher greets the students and takes the attendance. She tells them what they are going to do during the class. T explains to them what they have to do and gives them some recommendations to organize the oral presentation. The teacher is checking students work and helping them to correct mistakes in pronunciation, accuracy, etc.

TEACHING AIDS

REFLECTION

STARTING

15
PRESENTA TION

Teacher Whole Class

They pay attention to the teacher and they ask questions if they do not understand something or give suggestions if they want to do it. Ss. Work in their presentations according to the teacher recommendations, they can base on some questions: What type of article they wrote and its title? Why did they decide to write it? Main ideas about their article. Reasons for people read it. Ss. listen to the teacher and leave the classroom. They ask questions if they want to clarify something.

Board Marker

35
Speaking

Students groups

PRACTICE

FINISHING

10

Speaking

Teacher whole Class

She tells students she is going to send to their e-mail accounts the rubric to evaluate their presentations. She is going to evaluate five points: 1. Grammar/accuracy 2. Fluency 3. Vocabulary 4. Pronunciation 5. Interaction

Board

Reporters Notebook Planning the Newspaper To the newspaper writer: You will design your class newspaper. Your assignment: Decide what your newspaper will be like. Fill in the blanks below. PLANNING OUR NEWSPAPER Newspapers name: People who decide where to put the stories on the pages: Person who checks our stories for spelling, grammar and punctuation: SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS News Stories: Feature Articles: Advertisements: Editorials: Puzzles: Comics:

DEADLINE TIME! Our stories and ads must be finished by: Newspaper will be sent to printer by: The presentation will be on:

Reporters Notebook Writing News Stories

To the newspaper writer:
Here is one way to help you find the news. What is new in

Your class ____________________ ____________________ ____________________

Your school ___________________ ___________________ ___________________

Your community _________________ _________________ _________________

This story is important because It is about something that is happening now It is happening here in our classroom or school It is about something unusual It is about an important person Other Answer these questions about your story Who is the story about?___________________________________________________ What happened?________________________________________________________ When did this happen? ___________________________________________________ Where did this happen? __________________________________________________ Why is it important? _____________________________________________________ Write some details about your story _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Write your introduction _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Finish your story: _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

Reporters Notebook Writing Feature Stories

Your assignment: Think of something that interests you. Write a story about it.

My story is about:______________________________________________________

Here are some interesting details about my subject ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Write an interesting opening for your story ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Develop your story ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Finish your story ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

Reporters Notebook Writing Opinions

Your assignment: Think of an issue that is important to you. Write down facts about the issue. Then write how you feel about the subject. Get your editorial ready by filling in the spaces below. Draw an editorial cartoon about the same topic. Introduction:Use a sentence to say what you are going to write about ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

Body:Write your facts about the subject here. Use sentences. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

Conclusions:Write how you feel about the subject here. Use sentences. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

On a separate piece of paper, design an editorial cartoon on this topic.

Reporters Notebook Creating Ads

Your assignment: Think of something that other students would like to have. It could be something to use or something to eat. Create an ad telling about it. Make your ad special. It should catch the readers attention right away. Get your ad ready for the newspaper by filling in the spaces below. The product to be advertised is:__________________________________________

These people will be interested in what Im advertising: ______________________________________________________________________

Draw your ad in the box below. If you are going to make a larger ad for your newspaper, use a separate sheet of paper.

Check your ad be sure it attractsthe readers attention increases the readers interest in the product creates a desire in the reader to own the product urges the reader to action to buy the product

UNIVERSIDAD DE LA AMAZONIA ENGLISH PROGRAM PROFESSOR: Maritza Housset Fonseca STUDENT: Lina Vanessa Crdenas INSTITUCION EDUCATIVA SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS (IESFA) RUBRIC ORAL PRESENTATION (NEWSPAPER) LEVEL: ELEMENTARY ENGLISH SUBJECT GROUP 9C

CATEGORY

3 A few minor difficulties arose from not using the grammar to achieve communication A few minor difficulties arose from not using appropriate vocabulary. Student is comfortable when he/she was speaking and words came out without much effort. Pauses were not very evident.

2 Grammatical errors led to many minor difficulties or one major breakdown in communication. Some difficulties arose due to limited vocabulary and/or bad diction. Some effort was required to maintain the intervention. There may have been a few long pauses.

Score

Grammar Accuracy

Grammar was used to communicate effectively.

Grammatical errors severely hampered communication.

AB

Vocabulary

Vocabulary related to the topic was used to express ideas eloquently. Student was very comfortable during the presentation and he/she acted as a facilitator, helping the conversation flow and develops. Excellent and clearly articulation of words, appropriate pronunciation and contractions in spelling and adequate intonation of sentences. The interaction with the audience was very good. The student was looking at them most of the time.

Communication was severely hampered due to lack of vocabulary. Much effort was required to maintain the intervention. There may have been many long pauses.

Fluency

Pronunciation

Good articulation and intonation in words and sentences (statement, question)

Lack of intonation in sentences, but there is a good spelling and articulation of words

Great lack of articulation and unusual spellings all of the time.

Interaction

Few times the student did not make eye and language contact with the audience.

Student did not make many contact with the audience, most of the time he/she spoke like he was alone.

Student did not make eye contact with the audience and he/she spoke as he/she was alone

4 = Consistent control 3 = Reasonable control 2 = Inconsistent control 1 = little or no control

Bibliography Arboleda, P,.Bhatawadekar, S., Cheon, S., Jiang, S., KondoBrown, K., Gonzalez-Lloret, M., Lee, A., &Fafinejad, D. (2010). Pedagogy Workshop Summary: Project and Task Based Instruction.NHLRC Heritage Language Institute. (Online) from http://nhlrc.ucla.edu/events/startalkworkshop/2010/handouts/project.pdf Crdoba, P., &Navas, C. (2009).USING TASK-BASED INSTRUCTION IN AN ESP COURSE IN THE COMPUTER CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COSTA RICA.Revista Electrnica Actualidades Investigativas en Educacin, Vol. 9, Nm. 1, eneroabril, 2009, pp. 1-25. (Online) from http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/pdf/447/44713054011.pdf Fredricka l. Stoller.(2010). Project work: A means to promote language and content. Cambridge University. Teaching can be better (Online blog). fromhttp://teachingcanbebetter.blogspot.com/2010/11/project-work-means-to-promotelanguage.html AtefAll-Tamimi.,&MunirShuib. (2009). Motivation And Attitudes Towards Learning English: A Study Of Petroleum Engineering Undergraduates At Hadhramout. University Of Sciences And Technology. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies.Volume 9(2) 2009. Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (2001). Task Based Language Teaching: Approachers and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. Richardas, J., &Renandya, W. (2002). An Antology of Current Practice: Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.