ELT's journey V.II: PROJECT BASED LEARNING

This is our project, from Group 2 (Ana Gonzalo Díaz, and myself).

THANKSGIVING DAY- PROJECT

INTRODUCTION

For our project, we have decided that the context of our classroom is going to be in a bilingual school, in 4th grade of Primary School.

The project is going to be developed in 7 sessions, two days a week in a total of 4 weeks. We want it to be very engaging to the children, so we have decided to do this project only two days a week, the Thursdays and Fridays, so they end the week in a very intense way.

The outcome of the project is to understand what Thanksgiving is and why it happens. The different objectives that we are going to work with are:

· Develop empathy with their environment.

· Apply their knowledge in TICs.

· Develop civic awareness and ethical values.

We have decided to work with two questions instead of only one because we think that in that way we can concrete more on the topic. Those two questions are:

· Why do they say “Thank you”? With this question, we pretend to look for the origins of Thanksgiving, what they do on Thanksgiving day, etc.

· How can we say “Thank you” in our neighbourhood?

With this question we want them to be aware of their privileges. Also, we want them to understand that not everybody is under the same circumstances, and some people do not have the same privileges that we have. We want to bring Thanksgiving Day to Spain but not as we know it.

Schedule of our project

SUMMARY OF SESSIONS:

· Introduction day: assign the roles to the students and explain the project.

· Researching days (Why do they say “Thank you”?): the students would have different resources to do researching and understand what Thanksgiving is and its story.

· Discussion (How can we say “Thank you” in our neighbourhood?): the whole class would discuss what they are thankful about and answer the question that we propose.

· In search of associations days: the students would have to look for the different associations that there are in the neighbourhood and decide with which associations are they going to collaborate. Those days, the other half of the classroom would do the different boxes in which the students of the school would leave their donations. Also, the students would take advantage of the radio studio that they have in the school to promote their initiative.

· Thanksgiving day: this day the students would carry the donations to the associations that they have decided to work with.

DAY 5th of November - Introduction Day.

· Main goal of this lesson: work individually extracting information from a text.

This day is very important because everything has to be clear for the students. The question “Why do they say Thank You in the USA?” would be in the big blackboard so the students could start thinking about it at the start of the lesson.

There would be a brainstorming to make sure that the students actually know what Thanksgiving is and what people in the USA do on this day. The teacher role in this first-class is to guide the students making questions about what they already know about Thanksgiving Day. The students are going to be very active in answering the questions.

The teacher would also show them a video of the Macy’s Parade to the children, so they know a little more about Thanksgiving Day.

After the brainstorming, the students would be divided into groups. Each group would have a topic and would work in it. The different topics are going to be:

· Who are the Wampanoag and what relation do they have with Thanksgiving?

· What was the Mayflower and what people were in it?

· Who were Samoset and Squanto?

· Who was Massasoit and what relation does he have with a feast?

· Is Thanksgiving the same for Native Americans?

The different topics would be written down in papers, and one of each group would stand up to catch one without looking.

When they have the topics, we are going to give them a text (https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/history/first-thanksgiving/) which is going to be read by the language assistant. The text is going to be for them to work with it.

After the reading, individually, they are going to start looking for information in the text about their topics and writing the main ideas in a sheet.

DAY 6th of November - Start the research.

· Goal of this lesson: work in groups and assume the roles.

This day they would have to continue with the research that they started the past lesson. Firstly in the lesson, they are going to sit by groups and compare the information they have extracted from the text read the day before. They would decide before they start working, what different role is going to assume each member of the group (facilitator, proposal, supporter, critic and recorder).

After they have decided the roles, they are going to put in common the information that they have extracted from the text. The next step is to decide what else they need to look for to make their work more complete. They would have access to the Internet and to encyclopedias in which they can find the information they are looking for.

Also, one of the assistants of the school would be in class helping with the English doubts and also answering questions about her own experience on Thanksgiving Day.

While the children are working, the teacher is going to be watching them work and taking notes about their behaviour to write it down then in the rubrica that she/he is going to have to evaluate the children.

The children do not have to do a huge writing in which they explain all the information that they have found. The main idea is that they understand their topics perfectly and assume their roles.

Taking advantage that this day they have to go to the TIC classroom, the TIC teacher in the school is going to show them how to use “Powtoon”, an easy way of doing presentations and videos.

For the next day, they would have to prepare a presentation about the information that they have about their topics, so in that way the rest of the group can better understand the history of Thanksgiving Day.

DAY 12th of November - Cineforum.

· Goal of this lesson: relate the different topics and finish answering the question “Why do they say “Thank you” in the USA?”

This day is the last day about this first question: Why do they say “Thank you” in the USA?

The whole lesson would consist of the presentations of the Powtoons that they should have done in their houses. The first minutes they would have time to talk with their mates about the different ideas they think that are necessary to be mentioned in the presentations.

After that, the presentations would start. The teacher would decide the order in a convenient way, so the children can understand better and follow the information they are receiving.

After each presentation, there would be a round of questions if there is any question they have. In this round of questions, the teacher can help the students to answer if they do not have all the information clear.

The last minutes of the lesson, there would be a discussion of the relation between the topics. The teacher would be a guide for them to understand that every topic has relation between each other.

The last part of the lesson is going to be the last reading about the text they work with the first lesson, so now they understand it better with all the information together.

DAY 13th of November - Discussion session.

· Goal of the lesson: Review all the information seen in the previous sessions and dive into the concept of being thankful.

Since this day, we are going to begin a new stage of this project. To assure every student has already a framework of culture and history of Thanksgiving, as well as key vocabulary words from it, we are going to approach the next question that would guide the next and final sessions: How can we say thank you in our close environment?

If it is needed, in the first 10 minutes we will do a Kahoot with some key concepts, key vocabulary words and contents they have researched last week, so they refresh the data and finish the understanding and acquiring process of the history.

Once we have this assured, we will sit all together on the floor, in a circle and we will do an assembly session. There will be music in the background to create a comfortable and low affective filter sensation in the students.

The main idea of this lesson is to discuss (focusing on speaking) on some philosophical and moral concepts. We will start with a question, and in silence, maybe in two-three minutes, the students must answer in a paper sheet.

· For what are you thankful about?

Once they all have written it down, the teacher will be guiding the conversation between the answers so everyone can participate, can open their hearts and minds and feel the protagonist of the lesson. We can commission a student to write down in the blackboard the most repeated answers.

The next questions to relate what they are thankful about to the final product of the project would be:

· How can we thank others?

If the class and the discussion allow us, we can get deeper on the topic and try to answer all together questions like: What means to be thankful? What is to thank? Do we have to thank others? Just if the group shows interest in it.

With the last question, How can we thank others? The main objective is to guide the group to the next session, what can we do (and this is the aim of the project) to show our thanks to others. Can we do something in our neighbourhood to show how thankful we are for what we have been talking about in this class? Who are the people that will be more excited about receiving our gratitude and help? Is it satisfactory to share our happiness in what we have got with others? Does it make us better people? Does it make us feel better with ourselves?

We will finish the lesson with a storytelling part (10-15 minutes) from a book-related with the topic. To help students to understand better the story as well as improving the learning of Thanksgiving vocabulary, we will create a word wall with key words that are important to know or that they might do not know. For that, the children would write down in a paper those words they did not understand and we will write down in the blackboard to work them later (maybe with direct translation or explaining it to them with synonyms or explanations in L2).

This lesson apparently doesn't work on anything about English, but it is not true. We are working speaking, listening and writing skills. They are also all the time receiving sounds inputs, as well as producing outputs themselves, which means using the language for a real purpose, communication with others in order to participate in a big discussion with their equals. Also, we are practising vocabulary, grammar tenses, maybe some idioms, pronunciation, intonation and conversation strategies and skills.

Day 19th of November - In search of our association!

· Goal of the lesson: Find the association to collaborate with.

For this session we will work together with the TIC teacher. We will use both sessions that are consecutive in the schedule. We will start in the TIC classroom. For today’s lesson we need to find and set the association, ONG, etc. we are going to help in order to fulfill our Thanksgiving aim. The previous day we will have told them to ask at home for some charity causes that might be working at the moment in the city, or some charitable associations that their families or friends know that would be grateful for receiving our help.

So, to begin the class we will do a brainstorming and write in the blackboard those names they have brought and simultaneously search it on the Internet so we can all see the information and pictures of it. Once they are all said and debated, they will divide in groups of 4-5. Also, all of them will have roles to assure the efficient work of the group (as well as they learn how to manage the varied tasks, practise group management, group communication and consensus). The teacher would give each group a new association and they should find information about it:

· Banco de alimentos

· ACNUR

· Save the children

· A project from a near church

· A neighbourhood association

To collect all the information they would fill the next template in order to register the essential information of it:

They would have to do a research of it (with TIC’s teacher help and strategies, she/he will have a monitor role) to find more offers that would interest us. Ourself would have a facilitator role, we will stand there for doubts, taking notes of the group work process and the information they are collecting, always active for them if they need us but not interfering in their work so we promote autonomy. In order to do this, we will also put in the big whiteboard a clock with a countdown of 40 minutes. That is the time in which they have to search all the information. This is a way to make them conscious of the time they have to do the work and personally manage the time-work as an individual person and as a group.

When the time is over, they would have to give the teacher the template filled and they will all sit around the whiteboard. The teachers would search for that association so it can be projected and everyone can see it. The group in charge of it would give a brief speech of the work they do and the project in which we can be involved. Once they are all exposed, they will have 5 minutes to think and vote for the best option or the one they most like. As it is going to be a group decision, the one chosen would be the most voted. When they say out loud which is their decision they would have to argue why. We will write on the blackboard this guide sentences to help them:

· I consider this project the best one because…

· Also it is important that…

· I like that…

· We could help them by….

Also it is important to decide how we are going to contribute (for example, collecting food, toys, a performance, etc) so the goal is clear and decided by all in consensus.

Once the association is chosen we will tell them the next steps of this project journey. The teacher will contact the association and once they told her how to participate she will tell them and the next day we will start preparing everything.

Day 20th of November - We get going!

Goal of the session: get everything prepared, work in small groups and as big class group.

Once the project is decided this day would be devoted to prepare all the materials and schedule the process of recollecting and giving our gratitude. As this is going to be unexpected because the students are going to be the ones who decide who and what we are going to give to help, we can only schedule the lesson from a general point of view. It could be adaptable to whatever situation.

The main idea is to work in collaboration with the Arts & Craft and TIC teacher. We are going to prepare the class in four sections or corners and in groups, the students would be spending 20 minutes in each corner to participate in all the tasks needed to get our project done.

· FIRST CORNER. The painting corner: Here they will be working with the Arts & Craft teacher and will prepare some boxes to collect all the objects we are going to give to our elected association. The paperboard boxes can be painted with Thanksgiving elements for example.

· SECOND CORNER. The advertising corner: In this corner we will be heading the activity. The aim is to write altogether their advertising speech that after will record. As a teacher, we will guide them in the writing process but, as always, monitoring and not interfering.

· THIRD CORNER. The radio corner: We will use the radio project of the school to spread our advertisement for all the education community to let them know what we are going to do and explain to them how they can participate if they want. Here we will be the TIC teacher with the material needed, recording their voices.

· FOURTH CORNER. The poster corner. Here the group has to create a poster made with a board, pencils, crayons, collage photos, etc. to put all over the school to advise everyone and promote the participation of everyone.

For this penultimate session we will be using two hours of class, using one of the teachers involved in the activity.

Day 26th of November - THANKSGIVING DAY!

Today we will do the excursion to the association decided to give out what we have collected! If it is needed, we will take hours from other lessons so they can experience it calmly. The main point of this day is to make them take an active part in the final stage of the project. As it has been student centered, it is really important that they are the protagonist of the thankful action. To make them aware of all the work done in the process, of all the reflections about being thankful, of helping others who need us, it is essential that they go out to the association they have decided and give them what they have collected as well as talking to them and personally say thank you for the reason they want.

Maybe in this session they will not use L2, but I think the main reason here is not only the language we are teaching but the values and civic competences they are showing out. Teaching shouldn’t be only focused on contents, but in helping to create better citizens of this world.

CONCLUSION OF THE PROJECT:

As you can see during these seven sessions we have worked four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) at the same time, as well as vocabulary and grammar tenses adequate for their level. Although the main objective was not the language itself but the civic and social competence and awareness as well as the historical knowledge. The language was the vehicule to get to the outcome. They have worked with different subjects, using different skills and learning without even knowing, because their goal was not to learn contents but to create something they were committed to.