Communication and Autonomy in the English class

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COMMUNICATION
AND
AUTONOMY
in the English class

Lourdes Roviras Pagès

Avda Les Mèlies,83 Vilafant
Tf:972674063
IES Castelló d’Empúries
lroviras@xtec.cat
PROJECTE DOCENT DE L’OPCIÓ 1
Accés als Cossos de Catedràtics
Convocatòria de l’any 2009

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“I know I cannot teach anyone anything, I can only

provide an environment in which he can learn.”
Carl Rogers

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INDEX

1. Introduction 4
2. Objectives 6
3. Justification 8
4. Contents 10
4.1.Communicative Competence 10
4.2. Research and Information Processing 11
4.3. Multilingual Competence 11
4.4. Literature and Aesthetics 11
5. Methodology and resources 12
6. Procedure 14
6.1. Project one : Refreshing your Memory 14
6.2. Project two : Humour 15
6.3. Project three : Pride & Prejudice 16
6.4. Project four : Computers 17
6.5. Poject five : Values & Human Rights 18
6.6. Extreme sports 20
6.7. Selectivitat Practice 20
7. Assessment and evaluation 21
7.1. General evaluation 21
7.2. language room 22
7.3. Oral Competence. Evaluation grids 24
8. Conclusions 32
9. Acknowledgements 34
10. Bibliography and Urlography 35

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1. INTRODUCTION

After some years of teaching experience, trying quite a wide range of varied
activities with my students, without any doubt, one of the main problems of
learning a foreign language is to speak fluently.
Sometimes students do not talk because they just feel so embarrassed. As a
teacher you tell them that, at the beginning, mistakes are not important if the
message is understood. However, they realize that they cannot apply
spontaneously the rules learnt and feel upset and discouraged.

This project pretends to shed a little light on how to improve communication

and something which is even more important, to lose all sense of shame when
speaking in front of an audience.
A new society with new technologies is becoming the centre of research
everywhere, including the school. How can we, digital immigrant teachers, get
involved in the minds of our digital native students? The solution is easy:
observing and studying together with them. That means we have to include the
ICTs in our daily teaching, there is no way back. We must go beyond their
knowledge of new technologies and show them the multiple uses of the web, one
of them precisely: how to be more autonomous. We need to be updated and
contribute to an active and critical use of ICT in education.

A “multi-tasking” student at home

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A big problem we may have with the ICTs is that the student probably knows
more than us, which can mean a drawback for the teacher who does not feel
comfortable in this situation. We can solve it with the acceptance of our
weaknesses and make them a reward to the techiest student, who will feel
flattered to do the job for us. Fortunately, there are a lot of courses about this
topic nowadays: Pla de Formació Permanent: Curs de Llengua +TIC with great
professionals eager to help us.

How can we achieve these challenging targets?. The idea is to change from the
traditional method of teaching which is more didactic to a student-centered
method which is more participatory. The students turn to be responsible of their
learning:

We believe that every human being has the right to achieve his or her full potential-100%,
and that a student-centered approach to learning helps to make this possible. Students
are encouraged to participate fully in, and take responsibility for, their own learning; each
individual is valued and trusted. Such an approach will, we believe, move the student
towards self-fulfilment by enhancing self-concept and at the same time facilitating the
release of potential. These beliefs are not abstract theory but are founded on solid
experience where they have been rigorously tried and tested.(Brandes and Ginnis 3)

Each individual has enormous creative potential. Put a collection of individuals together
and you multiply the potential. This is real power! Power to do and to achieve, power to
solve problems, change things overcome difficulties, power to learn. (Brandes and Ginnis
30)

A clear example of this theory is shown in this project students of fourth year ESO
did two years ago: a TV program. After a couple of sessions in the classroom
stating the rules and helping with the dialogues, they managed to organize
themselves and work on their own, they did not need my help, they just needed a
“good environment” (qtd in Bandes and Ginnis 12). I was impressed with the
results!

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2. OBJECTIVES

There are four main objectives to be achieved in this project :

• To be able to improve students’ oral speech: as it was stated in the

introduction, this is one of the most difficult skills to be accomplished when
learning a language. The goal is to prepare activities to motivate the
students and make them feel comfortable, so as to increase their self-
esteem. Teaching has to do with the holistic view of the learner, we
should be concerned with the whole person involving mind, body and spirit,
making them talk in class is a great way of achieving this goal, a learning
to learn view. We have to try and foster their creativity.

Professor Lilian Katz said: “ We are looking for more than a mechanical
application of selected techniques.We are looking to achieve success which will
encourage confidence and lead to a real eagerness to learn”- a disposition for
learning. (Fletcher 45)

• To encourage their autonomy, which involves developing confidence in

their own capacities, empowerment. One of the best ways to learn a
language is to use the tools (that the language teachers offer the students)
by themselves, being conscious of their level and being able to choose on
their own: attention to the diversity. It is much easier if the school has a
language room prepared to work in corners, for example. However, thanks
to the amount of new interdisciplinary projects and the new materials
the schools have (computer rooms, laptops, class projectors, digital
blackboards, etc.) all the students get used to work in groups or alone
changing, in a way, the standard teacher-centered class.

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It is very difficult to make them conscious that they can learn a lot, think
better, in a funnier and more creative way, without the teacher being the
center of everything. We know that “the culture of the effort to achieve your
goals” is decreasing, so to make them aware of their learning capacities
is hard work.

From the cognitive point of view, the learner needs to understand the
rules first and then apply them: “awareness-rising through
proceduralization to autonomy.” (Thornbury 37)

Both objectives, autonomous learning and oral production, will be

developed through tasks, following the Vygotskian theory of learning :

- “Children construct knowledge.”

- “Learning can lead development.”

- “Development cannot be separated from its social context.”

- “Language plays a central role in mental development.”

(Vygotsky’s Developmental Theory: An introduction, Goggle videos)

• To use the new technologies to achieve the learner’s goals: the project
pretends to challenge the learner through the use of the ICTs. To motivate
him/her into the collaborative learning (through the use of forums, emails
and the social networks, skype, etc.).

• Basically, the main objective, which includes the three points mentioned
above, is to prove that we can do it all without the help of a textbook. The
role of the teacher is to think which tasks can enthral the students and
how to get their engagement.

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3. JUSTIFICATION

The activities will be focussed on the competences established by the Catalan

LOE DECRET 142/2008, de 15 de juliol, pel qual s'estableix l'ordenació dels
ensenyaments del batxillerat. (Pàg. 59042)

Annex 1 Competències generals del batxillerat ...Per tot això, convé idear tasques
educatives en què l'alumnat pugui aplicar allò que sap, en contextos diferents i en relació
amb qüestions diverses, significatives i funcionals. Ensenyar i aprendre per
competències pressuposa accentuar en la didàctica de cada disciplina aquelles activitats
d'ensenyament i aprenentatge susceptibles de produir coneixements, destreses i actituds
que puguin ser mobilitzats en situacions concretes com, per exemple, pràctiques de
treball en grup cooperatiu, tutorització de recerques, resolució de qüestions en grup,
plantejament de situacions que comportin l'expressió i interacció oral, etc. En definitiva,
ensenyar i aprendre per competències implica, doncs, accentuar la dimensió pràctica i
alhora global de l'aprenentatge(...)

The ideas in this project could be applied to any level of English, but I have
chosen second Batxillerat students. Why Batxillerat? Because they are mature
enough to understand the rules and regulations of oral speeches and they have
the capacity to choose their needs according to their level. Besides, they need to
be autonomous in order to get into university and into the Bologna Process.

"In the decade up to 2020 European higher education has a vital contribution to make
in realising a Europe of knowledge that is highly creative and innovative... Europe can
only succeed in this endeavour if it maximises the talents and capacities of all its citizens
and fully engages in lifelong learning as well as in widening participation in higher
education." Ministers responsible for Higher Education in the countries participating in the
Bologna Process, Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve Communiqué, April 2009
(Official website of the Bologna Process)

Our high school , IES Castelló d’Empúries, is a perfect place to study languages.
Placed on the north coast of la Costa Brava, with an immigration of nearly half of
the population: 4,980 of the 10,629 inhabitants are from another country.1

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El Punt Diari, 18 January 2008
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El 2008 el municipi de Castelló d’Empúries tenia una població d’11.653 habitants, el

65% de la població viu a Empuriabrava i el 35% restant viu al nucli de Castelló
d’Empúries. Entre el 1998 i el 2008 la població s’ha doblat. S’estima que hi ha una
mitjana anual de 15.000 habitants no empadronats. Durant l’estiu es pot arribar a
70.000 habitants. Un 46% de la població de Castelló d’Empúries ha nascut a
l’estranger, principalment a la Unió Europea, seguit d’Àfrica i d’Amèrica del Sud. La
majoria d’aquesta població estrangera viu a Empuriabrava. (Agenda 21 de Castelló
d’Empúries. Bloc1, Població, Deliberaweb, Forums)

Actually, there isn’t a definite number of inhabitants in Castelló because it

increases every month.
The advantages of having students from another country are based on the
richness of cultures and the facilities of the language, some of them are from
Germany, Great Britain and other English speaking countries, so we can share
the classes with them. The big disadvantage is that a high percentage of these
students come from countries where English is not spoken, so they have to learn
Catalan, Spanish and English. It is our job to integrate them into the ordinary
classes. That is why learning to be autonomous can be a great tool for them.

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4. CONTENTS

Our high school, IES Castelló d’Empúries, began an innovation project three years
ago focusing on oral skills in batxillerat. My challenge this year has been to present,
as a part of this project, something which was a bit scary at the beginning, but that
in the end, as you would be able to check further on, has proved to be really
thrilling: no books in 2nd batxillerat, only a grammar book and projects based on
different cross-curricular topics. That is why I have chosen this part of the
research for my Projecte Docent.

All the activities are focused on the four competences of the new Catalan LOE,
which deal with the integration of knowledge:

4.1 . Communicative:
• Varied podcasts (dialogues, interviews, readings of news,
compositions, etc.)
• Oral presentations about a current topic.
• Ordinary class speaking (brainstorming of ideas to introduce a topic,
discussions and debates, comment the readings, the readers...)
• Teacher-student and student-student interaction in English inside
and outside the classroom

A podcast in their blog chatting in the classroom

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4.2. Research and information processing:

• One oral presentation per term: process, sumarize and explain the
information about the theme .
• Readings, songs, exercises related to the topic. They don’t have a
book, so they have to try and find good examples to work in class.

4.3. Multilingual and intercultural competence:

• Every topic deals with cultural differences, there are students from different
countries in the classroom, so it is easier to talk about it: different kinds of
dialogues, sense of humour, new technologies, lifestyles and human
rights.

4.4. Literature and aesthetics:

• One reader per term: work on the book and the film when possible
• The news: BBC, CNN, Catalonia Today, Resident magazine, and others.

Every student ends up with an eportfolio gathering all the competences before
mentioned:
http://batxilleratportfolios.blogspot.com

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5. METHODOLOGY AND RESOURCES

There are three projects in the first term and three in the second term, the third term
is aimed at preparing Selectivitat. We focus on speaking and listening, but there are
also reading and writing skills throughout the course .
The teachers involved in this project need a lot of coordination, in our high school we
have one hour and a half every week to settle down all the objectives, activities,
exams, etc. They are exactly the same for all the students in first and second
Batxillerat. We have three hours every week.
There should not be more than twenty students in the class in order to carry out all
the activities. One of the three hours of classes is completely autonomous: they go to
the language room and work on their own in different corners. There is a set of
work to be done during the term (see page 23) and they have to choose according to
their level and needs:

• Computers: news, grammar, vocabulary, podcast, blogs.

• Film: students choose a film and make a summary
• Listening: listening comprehension
• Reading: newspapers, magazines and make a summary
• Writing and revision: workbook practice, writing styles
• Speaking: games, dialogues, interviews, readers (it is the sofa corner)

Pictures taken in our language room

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There are two groups of second Batxillerat this year and we are three English
teachers, which means that we have been able to part our groups and we have done
it according to their levels. There is no possibility of handling all that work in a big
ordinary class.

In short, those items below are the resources we use to evaluate their engagement :

Portfolio: show your work and evaluate your progress

Language Class: autonomous work

Moodle class: 24h class

Internet tools: blogs, podcasting, wikis, forum, class

Web information: the best websites for practice

Audiovisual material: films, videos, powerpoints, podcast...

Grammar book: a private teacher for you

Readers: a book each term

One of the classes takes place in the language room, as I have explained before,
and the other two classes:

• Ordinary classroom: we normally work the grammar and the reading.

• Audiovisual room: with no tables, only chairs, for speaking and listening

As you can see there is no time for a textbook. We still keep it in first batxillerat
because we think they need a guided support. However, there is no need in second
batxillerat.

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6. PROCEDURE

Project one: Refreshing your Memory

(September-December)

• Session one: Presentation of the course

- Presentation of the activities and timetable

- New format: Can we learn without a textbook?
- Ice-breaking game (speaking)
- Write an email to your teacher
- Give the students the reader (Pride and Prejudice) Begin reading NOW!!

• Session two: Warming up

- Summer holidays: did you work? did you go somewhere interesting? (speaking)
- Listening to a dialogue about holidays
- Comment on the importance of time fillers, discourse markers... (ppt)
First activity in the language room: a dialogue (podcast)

Session three and four: Revising tenses

- Grammar book revision of basic tenses: present/past/perfect simple and continuous,

future

• Project work: find a good reading

- Prepare a list of basic mistakes. Find songs/ readings which show the use of the
tenses. Prepare typical exercises: complete/ filling the gaps... This is a useful link:
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar

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6.2. Project two: Humour

(September-December)

Session one: wit and wisdom (brainstorming)

- Learn some words related to humour, wit and wisdom (speaking)

- Funny quotes (ppt)
- Reading : funny reading showing reported speech
- The best joke in the world:order the lines (speaking and reading)

• Project work: telling jokes in class

- Find a joke on the web, memorize it and tell it to the class (podcast)
(let them hear some of the jokes recorded by the students last year)
An example: Laia Salo’s joke

Links:
Short jokes
Jokes 1
Jokes 2
Jokes 3

Session two and three: Reported Speech

- What do you know about the reported speech ? (speaking)

- Grammar book exercises

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6.3. Project three: the reader PRIDE & PREJUDICE

( September-December )

Two sessions: doubts about the story (speaking)

- The main characters

- The view of women/ marriage/love / money in the story
- Bonus material: the politics of dating / Jane Austen’s life (listening)
- Discussion of the main topics of the book on a WIKI :

Final project work (first term)

Oral presentations (in pairs or groups)

Possible topics about the projects: Pride & Prejudice and Humour

- Love: types of love with couple examples- what are the different values of each couple.

- Social class: /education/ behaviour/housing: upper class, middle class and working class

- Differences between the book and the film

- The Bennet sisters

- The three men: the priest, Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley

- Keira Knightley: the most popular British female star today. Life and films.

- Jane Austen: A popular writer of Comedy of Manners in two examples: Pride and Prejudice,
Sense and Sensibility (this one is for the literary-minded…)

- The myth of Romanticism – What is 19 th century Romanticism? How is it shown in the film?
Can you compare it to some romantic film of the 21st century? Are we still romantic today? In
what aspects of romanticism?

- Life in the 19th century: everyday life with examples in the film. Possible aspects: jobs,
technology, clothing, education, housing

- The director and his filmography

- Humour in the Pride and Prejudice film

- Great comedians today

- Is there an international Humour? Or a Catalan, Spanish, English humour? Find examples

- Humour programmes on Spanish, Catalan and English/American TV

- American sitcoms: what they are and some examples. Are there any typical features?

- (…) and student ’s own suggestions, of course

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6.4. Project four: COMPUTERS

( January-March)

• Session one and two: brainstorming and reading

- Are you a computer-literate? (speaking)

- A joke on computers (order the paragraphs)
- Vocabulary related to computers and a reading about piracy

• Session three: modal verbs

- What do you know about modal verbs? (speaking)

- Grammar book practice

• Project work: a composition

Discussion essay / opinion essay:

“Computers have made the world a better place” Discuss

(writing and podcast)

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6.5. Project five: Values & Human Rights

( January-March)

- “Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice” Heber J. Grant

- “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…it has no survival value; rather it
is one of those things that give value to survival.” C. S. Lewis
- “When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion “
Abraham Lincoln

• Session one and two: vocabulary and reading

- What’s right and what’s wrong? Vocabulary

- Are you honest?
- What do you know about the human rights? (speaking)

• Session three: Conditionals

- Grammar practice
- Speaking: moral dilemmas (Would you buy alcohol or cigarettes for someone who
you knew was under-age?) (podcast)

• Project work: human rights

- Learning some words: worksheet

- Introduction to the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights

- Speaking activities related to human rights

- Presentation of a poster/ news showing some of the human rights studied

• The reader: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)

- Presentation of the book and the author: Where his rights respected in his time?
- Discussion of the main themes on a WIKI

• Final project: Oral presentations (second term)

Five minutes talk about your research paper in second batxillerat or your trip to
London.
If it is possible, a trip to London is the best way to finish with the projects before
they begin studying for Selectivitat.

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London Posted by Elisenda* on 11:21 in london travel

The word that summarizes the trip to London is: UNFORGETTABLE!.Departure time in front of
the

high school, take the bus, emotions inside the bus, arrival to the airport, take the ticket, pass the

controls, embark, sit down in the plane, sleep a few moments, awakening, finally in London, take
another

bus, the Hotel, leave the suitcases and begin the route.

The first day was already exhausting. The whole day walking, even in our free time! The best thing of

everything was to be able to have a lot of free time to walk along London, to visit places, to take

photographs... But when we were arriving at the hotel... FINALLY! What a rest!

I am not going to describe the whole trip. Only the impressions that I have had.

I believe that it has been, on the whole, better this trip than the trip to Italy. I don't know why but the

good companionship, the good moments, no discussion, no misunderstanding...

In general it has been quite fantastic. So many laughs for remembering! Oh my god!

I would have enjoyed to be able to stay there more days and have more moments to remember all

together! The truth is that I came back with a good taste in my mouth and hope that it continues being
2
done, because all the pupils will be grateful for it!

2
This is the post of a second Batxillerat student about her trip to London:
http://sendablog2batx.blogspot.com/2009/03/london.html

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6.6. Project six: Extreme sports

( January-March)

• Session one and two: Reading and Listening

- Revising relative clauses with a reading about sports

- Why do you think that people do extreme sports?
- Reading & Listening: Base jumping (watch a video)

• Session three: Relative Pronouns

- Grammar book: practice exercises

• Project work: talking

- Talk about an extreme sport for a minute (podcast)

6.7. Selectivitat Practice. Writing, reading, listening, speaking

(April-May)

• Revising WRITING:

- Formal / informal letter

- Dialogues
- Descripton of a person/place
- A discussion essay
- An Opinion essay
- A narrative text

Revising READING / LISTENING

- Read and listen to a selectivitat text every week

________________________________________________________________

EXAMPLES: you can see some samples of their work:

Carles’ Portfolio
Adrià ‘s Portfolio
Neus’ Portfolio

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7. ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

7.1. General evaluation

The main objective is to achieve the level B1/ B2 of the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL)

This is the evaluation criteria of the whole project which we are developing in first
and second Batxillerat: A project for Innovation. Focusing on oral Skills. The main
goal is to end up with an Eportfolio showing what the students have done in two
years and making a reflection of their success in learning the language. In the last
post, they have to choose the first and last written and oral evidence and compare
them. Have a look at Elisenda’s final reflection
I am only focusing my research on some aspects of this general project: speaking
and empowerment using the new technologies, with no need of a textbook

Assessment criteria, following what the LOE says about the percentage of oral and
written production:

45% Exams

Two class work exams

One reader

.
55% Portfolio

25% oral: Oral presentation, podcast, class participation,

25% writing: compositions, personal blog, forum, projects
5% portfolio presentation and reflection on your work

Extra points for optional work

translations, extra posts on blog, more activities...
MARK MORE BASED ON WORK, NOT just EXAMS!!

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7.2. Language room

This grid is used to evaluate their autonomy and engagement in the language
room. On the next page you can see the activities they have to do each term (one
hour a week).
It is a great opportunity to read and learn about anything that happens around the
world at the same time that it is happening. They read live news on the CNN or
BBC. One of our students in 1st batxillerat, for example, read a piece of news
concerning the frogs and toads extinction, the birds and the climate change and
made a summary of it. Curiously enough, this was the article which was chosen
for the reading comprehension in Selectivitat 2009.

Do you understand now why I said in the contents that this experience was
thrilling?Why do we need a textbook in class? What we need is a computer room
to have access to all the information at once!
The activities they enjoy the best are the speakings (sometimes spontaneous),
they just sit on the sofa and begin speaking, the games and the news. Of course,
they would always choose the film, but they are only allowed once in a term.
Learning to be autonomous means choosing the activities yourself, not the
teacher, which is really hard work sometimes because there are always students
who need to be ruled, they feel they are wasting their time, otherwise.

Last year we enjoyed the help of a language assistant, which was a great
pleasure for us and for the students. She was always in the sofa corner talking to
the students and doing activities with them. It is a shame we cannot have the
possibility of repeating another year.

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Type of activity What did you do? Which language items

have you
learnt/practiced?
Film Explain what you watched in 50 5 new words learnt
words portfolio
NEWS Summary or Opinion
Catalonia Today (50 words) 3 new expressions learnt
bbc.co.uk portfolio
cnn.com At least 3
(other sites…)
(text or video )
SPEAKING Summary or opinion of a piece of
podcast news portfolio
talk about an extreme sport
Gramma Multirom Practice for the exams
Vocabulary Grammar book
Workbook/Photocopies
Moodle/web sites
Selectivitat At least 3 Practice for the exams
Listenings
Selectivitat At least 3 Practice for the exams
Readings
Informal /Formal letter Practice for the exams
Selectivitat Dialogue portfolio
Writings Description
(100words approx) Narrative
Argumentative essay
Opinion essay

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7.3. Oral Competence. Evaluation grids

• Oral presentation

It is the activity the students feel the happiest. All of them say that although it is hard
work to process the information and explain it to the class without reading, they feel
proud of their work when they finish it. It lasts a minimum of five minutes and the
topics are:
• Personal: hobbies, summer, music, sport...
• The culture and traditions of an English speaking country: England, Scotland,
Ireland, Australia...
• Social topic: drugs, immigration, racism, famine, consumerism...
• Their research project in Batxillerat
• The projects we work in class: Pride and Prejudice, love, humour...
• Their trip to London

PROCEDURE:

1st part:
• The students prepare the oral on their own and give the script to the teacher to
correct the mistakes (if necessary).
• They present the topic to the audience. Most of the times, they use a power
point to illustrate their presentation. They can also have a piece of paper with
some notes.
• The other students take notes and make questions at the end of the
presentation
• The teacher or a student records the presentation

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2nd part:
• The student at home watches his/her presentation, fills in the OBSERVATION
SHEET and writes his/her literal transcription
(this activity helps them to analyse their mistakes)
• When everything is finished, they give it to the teacher (the observation sheet,
the transcription and the summaries of all the peers’ presentations)

EVALUATION:

It is evaluated a 25% of their final mark together with their podcasts and
speakings (reader oral test)
If you want to see examples go to www.youtube.com
The tags are: oral presentation castello d’empuries, batxillerat portfolio

- Fiona and Chainez

- Laia and Elisenda
- Claudia and Carles
- Adrià
- Ariadna
- Marina

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OBSERVATION OF YOUR ORAL PRESENTATION

1- Watch your presentation and answer the following questions.

NAME & TOPIC:

Presentation Did you use any resources?
Were the resources relevant and attractive?

Body Did you look at your audience most of the time?

language and Did you read from your notes ?
eye contact Did you do any gestures/movement to hold the attention of your audience?

Structure Did you organize your ideas in order of importance?

Did you use discourse markers to make your ideas more clear? (First, then,
secondly, on the one hand, on the other, finally…)

Content Did you introduce interesting, NEW information to your audience?

Did you look up information/facts/ideas in the Internet/books…?
Was your information more superficial or more detailed and original?

Language Did you use check your grammar? (verbs, word order…)
Did you use rich vocabulary looking up the dictionary? (synonyms, new words,
expressions…)
Did you use sentence linkers? (and, but, moreover, also, furthermore,
although, however…)
Did you use fillers? (well, you know, for example, one second, repeating a
word…)

Pronunciation Did you know how to pronounce all your words? Did you check the
& Intonation pronunciation with a dictionary, a classmate or the teacher?
Did you change your tone of voice or use a monotone tone all the time? Did
you speed in a fluid continuum or with breaks and interruptions?

Self- You are your teacher! What mark did you get?? ;-)
Evaluation

2- Now it’s time to improve for next presentation. Write down a LITERAL TRANSCRIPTION of your
presentation.
Check your Language and Structure. Can you correct your mistakes??

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90% OF YOUR MARK: YOUR PRESENTATION

Criteria Points
POINTS 90% 8-9 6-7 4-5 <4
Highly Interesting,
Sometimes
relevant and
Mostly interestinginteresting and
Presentation attractive. Use of Not interesting or
and attractive withwith a few ____
10% varied resources: attractive.
some resources attractive
multimedia, real
resources
material…
Some movements No movement or
Holds attention of Very little
and gestures. gestures. No eye
entire audience with movement or
Body language Consistent use of contact with
fluid movements and gestures. Minimal
& Eye Contact direct eye contact audience. ____
the use of direct eye eye contact with
10% with audience. Too much
contact. Little reading audience. Often
Sometimes reading from
from notes. reading.
reading. notes
Student uses
Open and closing either anStudent does not
Student displays
remarks that capture introductory ordisplay clear
clear introductory
Structure the attention of the closing remark,introductory or
or closing remarks. ____
20% audience and set the but not both.closing remarks.
Some discourse
mood. Effective use of Little use ofNo discourse
markers
discourse markers discourse markers.
markers.
Some good
Interesting andinformation andInformation notInformation not
relevant and clear tosome irrelevant,always clear andrelevant, unclear
Content the audience withMostly interestingsometimes a bitand not
____
20% some detail andwith a little depth.superficial. Ideasinteresting, with
depth. Ideas inMost ideas inoften little detail. Ideas
order of importance. order ofdisorganized. disorganized.
importance
Poor vocabulary,
Varied vocabulary
Rich vocabulary, Some vocabularyrepetition of
with some new
Correct and complex repeated, simplewords, simple
Language grammar and
grammar use. Varied grammar oftengrammar or____
20% some sentence
use of sentence and few linkers orincorrect and
linkers and
linkers and markers markers. sentences not
markers
linked

Consistently uses
a monotone voice
Use of fluid speechMostly SatisfactorySome monotone
Pronunciation
and pronunciation.use ofvoice and someand often____
Intonation
Maintains the interestpronunciation andincorrect words
10% pronunciation is
of the audience. voice. pronounced.
wrong.

Total----> ____

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10% OF YOUR MARK: LISTENING TO YOUR CLASSMATES PRESENTATIONS

Oral Presentation CO-EVALUATION

NAME & 3 FACTS Do I have Ideas I copy General

Topic I have any for my Impression
learnt questions? presentation
s 

( who is 
presenting (what is new (interesting 
and what is he info for you?) questions get (what can you copy
talking extra points) to get better marks (what’s your
about?) in your mark for this
presentations?) student?)

Example:

Name: J. Vidal 1) It’s an ancient Where is it She reads little from her
Celtic Festival celebrated apart notes.
Topic: Halloween from the U.S?
2) It’s on 31st She looks at the
October audience and moves 
naturally with some Very good ¡!
3) Only little gestures
children go “trick
or treating” She asks questions to
the audience.

She puts some horror

music, shows a horror
video…

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• Readers’ oral test

Students read a book every term. They only buy one and they borrow the other
two from our library. The second book is the same for everyone, but they can
choose the third. This is something we feel very proud of because they are free to
select the level and the theme and they appreciate it so much. There is a written
test on the first two books, but the third test is oral. We evaluate the fluency and
spontaneity. We give the students some questions to prepare, but they cannot
read any notes when speaking, the test lasts from five to ten minutes.

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Reader Oral test- Sample questions you can prepare

1- Can you summarize the book in two minutes?

2- Is there a mystery sentence or a turning point in the story?
3- When and where does the story take place?
4- Who are the main characters in the story? What’s their role?
5- Choose one character (main or secondary) and describe him/her.
6- Can you identify with any character? Why?
7- Choose your favourite moment in the story
8- Which new key words have you learnt to understand the story?
9- Provide an alternative ending.
10-Would you recommend this book? Why?

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• Podcast
They do the podcasts in the language room. There should be a minimum of
two every term. They are varied and short:

- An interview / dialogue
- A piece of news
- A composition they have written
- A joke

We evaluate the pronunciation, intonation and originality.

Examples:
Podcast of a dialogue
Podcast of a piece of news

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8. CONCLUSIONS

Just by having a look at the oral presentations above and their own self -evaluations
and final reflections we can say that the improvement on their oral competence is
really amazing, not only because of their fluency, but also for their self-confidence in
front of the audience. They are speaking and using the power point as if it were the
most natural thing in the world. In the language room they also feel at ease with the
computers, blogs, podcast and other similar gadgets. Sometimes they complain
about the difficulty of recording their oral and post it in the web (they have problems
with formats) but in general teachers and students are particularly happy about the
progress in learning. Moreover, this activity has helped them a lot in their oral
presentation of the Research Paper in front of the examining board.

Being autonomous is something which is harder to attain at this age. However thanks
to the range of activities they can do in the language room (with a certain control) in
the end they learn to choose according to their necessities.
Next year, it will be our goal to have a better control of the activities they do in the
language room. Most students are concerned about their work, they know that it is a
good way to do their homework . They love reading the news, watching films and
doing the blog. However, it is hard to make them write a composition or do grammar
and vocabulary exercises.

In June, we always ask them their opinion about this new way of teaching and
learning. All of them agree that they have improved in oral and written fluency. Most
of them complain about the amount of work that the subject involves, they will realize
about their progress in the long run, not immediately (obviously they are teenagers
and want results now). Some of them miss the grammar and the teacher-centered
classes; they feel more confident with grammar exams and some writings from time
to time. A few “good” students do not like this way of teaching at all because it

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involves a lot of work and they know that, without studying, can get an excellent
mark, so why so much practice?

They have not complained about the fact of not having a textbook, probably they
have not even realized that there was no textbook this year, which proves that it
is not necessary if you work with projects.

The most worrying thing for a student is his/her mark. Do they get better results
by working in a student-centered way? I would say that the weaker students get
better marks because they do a lot of homework, a lot of practice, which
represents a higher percentage of the final results: 55%. Students who do not like
working get a pass mark, but not a good mark. This year in second batxillerat
nobody failed.

In conclusion, projects entail a lot of work for the student and for the teacher, but
the results are very positive and the effort is worthwhile. They do not need a
teacher in front of the class, they just need thrilling, enthusiastic activities and
getting involved.

“If you study to remember, you will forget, but if you study to understand, you will
remember.”
Author Unknown
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9. Acknowledgements

I really appreciate the help of my colleague Sònia Guilana, who I met four years ago
in the high school. I would have never reached this point of rethinking education
without her enthusiasm and encouragement.

I must confess that four years ago I only used the computer to prepare exams. I had
no idea of ICTs, it was something really chilling for me. The first year of the project, in
2006, I was the most stressed teacher in the high school!

Fortunately, I have understood that learning about new technologies and using them
in the classroom has been the best experience I have ever had in my professional
career.

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10. BIBLIOGRAPHY

- Fletcher, Mark Teaching for Success. Brain-Friendly Publications,2004

- Ginnis, P.;Brandes, D. A Guide to Student-Centered Learning. England. Blackwell
1988
- Lin, M.;Mackay,C. Thinking Through Modern Foreign Languages. Cambridge2004
- O’Connor, Joseph and Seymour,John Introducing NLP. Neuro-linguistic
programming. Harper Collins, 2000
- Rogers,Carl Freedom to Learn for the 80’s. Merrill, Ohio
- Seligson, Paul Helping Students to Speak. Richmond 1997
- Thornbury, Scott How to Teach Speaking. Longman 2005
- Windeatt,S.; Hardisty,D.;Eastment,D. The Internet . Resource books for teachers,
Oxford

URLOGRAPHY

- Competencies Bàsiques a Batxillerat

www.xtec.es/estudis/batxillerat/03_doc_bat_loe/competencies_generals_batxillerat.p
df
- European Language Portfolio
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/portfolio/default.asp?l=e&m=/main_pages/welcome.html
- Vygotsky’s Theory
http://www.educar.org/articulos/Vygotsky.asp
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=634376752589779456
- IES Castelló d’Empúries, Engish at Batxilerat
http://batxilleratportfolios.blogspot.com/
- IES Castelló d’Empúries, Blogs
http://thebloggingworldofcastellohighschool.blogspot.com/
- IES Castelló d’Empúries, 2nd batxillerat portfolio
http://2ndbatxilleratportfolio.blogspot.com/

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