My lesson plan!
How would Teresa Burga represent "Cuerdas" for the school's museum?
Through the short film "Cuerdas", students express their emotions with conceptual art. First of all, they discover who Teresa Burga is with a problem-solving activity, and get to know her style by observing and analysing different artworks.
This lesson plan engages students as it takes into account their interests, includes different kind of activities and give them voice and choice at some points. Moreover, the pupils have the chance to regulate their learning process and giving feedback to their classmates, because self-assessing and co-assessing activities are contemplated. This way, students are active agents both in the learning and in the assessing process.
The main methodology carried out in this lesson plan is Project Based Learning (PBL) and there are other important elements such as Cooperative work and Gamification.
My syllabus.
Reflections about the project!
Students' testimonial
"I liked everything, but the games of numbers, puzzles... were really fun". (Marc)
"I enjoyed all the activities, specially coloring the box". (Eliseo)
"For me, the games of the box were the best part". (Zhoe)
"I liked doing the video in English! I want to repeat". (Erik)
"The museum has been funny, because I have seen my sister's works". (Kimberly)
"I like plàstica in English!!" (Sofia)
After having participated in the training sessions and also having implemented the project planned, now, I finish the programme with this reflection.
Throughout the process I have learnt a great deal. For instance, different dynamics to form groups, how to plan better scaffolding, classroom language, cooperative learning activities, how to involve students in writing and reading, how to design good PBL projects, the importance of assessment, among others. I would like to highlight the learning of the secrets of PBL, as it is one of the methodologies, and also a challenge, I apply in my classes.
The course has given me a hand to transfer all the learning acquired in my sessions at school. I consider that after implementing CLIL in Arts & Crafts, English is more visible in our school, both inside and outside the classroom. For example, students seem to speak in English more often than two years ago, when I started this process. They are more motivated and involved. Consequently, one of the aims that I wanted to achieve at the beginning of the process (make English more visible in our school) has been accomplished. Obviously, it is important to keep improving this aim in order to help my students being competent in this foreign language.
At the end of the project we carried out a Museum in the school where students could walk around and observe the creations of the other classes and the families could engage it thoufh an Instagram direct. They really enjoyed the proposal.
Even the difficulties of this year, due to I have done GEP2 alone, this situation has helped me realising how important is to be flexible and also improving my organisation and my self-confidence. Our job is sometimes unpredictable, thus we need to be open-minded and welcome changes effectively. As Jeremy Harmer states (2013) unforeseen problems often crop up and we need to plan strategies to deal with them in this ever-changing reality.
Another idea I would like to mention is that everything that has been learned in GEP 1 and gep2 has given me experience to implement it in class. However, I would have liked visiting different schools implementing CLIL programs.
To conclude, I would like to share with you that one of the best ways of reflecting upon our practice is to become learners ourselves again, so that our view of learning-teaching process if not always influences from one side of that relationship. As language teachers I am often surprised by what I have discovered throughout all this process. The experience of learning almost anything is of benefit, not only for our own development, but also for our understanding of the process of learning. The following quote summarises our current thoughts:
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”. Benjamin Franklin.
What a better way to grow as teachers than keeping learning and participating in new projects?
I am glad to share our thoughts with you and I am looking forward to hearing from all yours.
Marta
