Didactic unit: “Let’s

go to the city”

Didáctica de la Lengua Extranjera: Inglés

Ester Álvarez

Soraya Cruz

Ana Gago

Carlos Gonzalo

Laura Martín

3º Educación Primaria. Grupo 3, P1

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INDEX

1. INTRODUCTION

2. FORMULATION OF THE SPECIFIC DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES

a. BASIC COMPETENCES

b. GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF THE STAGE

c. GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF THE AREA

d. SPECIFIC DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES

3. THE SELECTION OF CONTENTS

a. DIMENSIONS

4. METODOLOGY

5. ATTENTION TO DIVERSITY

6. THE TIMING DISTRIBUTION

7. DESIGN OF THE ACTIVITIES

8. RESOURCES AND MATERIALS OF THE UNIT

9. EVALUATION

10. BIBLIOGRAPHY

11. ATTACHMENTS

a. ATTACHMENTS OF SESSIONS

b. ATTACHMENTS OF DIVERSITY

c. ATTACHMENT OF THE EXAM

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1. INTRODUCTION

This Didactic Unit has been created to pupils of 5th year of Primary Education in the

English Language Area. It is going to be developed in six sessions of 50-60 minutes

each one which will develop during two weeks. This Unit is the number 8 of our

Didactic Programming and it will be carried out the two first weeks of May.

The topic we are going to deal with is “The City” because it is much closed to pupils

and they can see the parts of the city and its elements in their daily life. They have much

previous knowledge on their mother tongue, so they will be motivated to communicate

with foreign people developing the new vocabulary and structures in the English

Language.

During this Unit, children should use the language in a controlled and free way through

communicative situations where they will develop the communicative functions of:

asking and giving directions, asking and describing something and requesting

information. They also will use the new linguistic contents such us: “where is the …?”

“How can I get to …?” “Is … (somewhere) near/far from…?” … as tools and some

vocabulary within the lexical fields: parts, places and elements of the city.

The central inputs for this Didactic Unit are: the song about the parts of the city, a

comic, a tale and a listening input with instructions.

2. FORMULATION OF THE SPECIFIC DICACTIC OBJECTIVES

a. Basic competences

The seven Basic Competences, which are established on the Curriculum, pursue the full

and personal development of the students and the development of their personal

identity. The final aim of the Basic Competences would be: to integrate all the learnings

and to use them in an effective way depending to the situation.

Keeping these directions in mind, our Didactic Unit will contribute directly the

following basic competences:

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- Linguistic Communication: through dialogues, emails, descriptions,

instructions… they will have to communicate in all these situations so they will

develop this competence during all the process of learning.

- Digital Competence: the new technologies are used in all the areas of our daily

routines so we are going to include them in many of the activities of our

Didactic Unit; for example: writing and email, looking up for information…

- Social and civic competence: At school relationships are very important to

pupils, so in this didactic unit there will be different kind of activities mainly

based in group activities, developing the cooperation between them.

- Autonomy and personal initiative competence: The teacher will guide pupils

during the learning process making them protagonists of their learning.

- Artistic and cultural competence: In this didactic unit, we want our pupils to

learn some aspects about the Anglo-Saxon Cultures and to develop their

creativity. We are going to do it by reading and listening English texts and

producing it in a motivating way.

- Learning to learn competence: Working towards the constructivism they will

have to put in practice different abilities to develop a proper work.

- Knowledge and Interaction with the environment: As we are working with the

city, pupils should pay attention to the relation between the environment and the

society.

b. General Objectives of the Stage

All the objectives we work on the Primary Stage are based on the Decree 40/2007, of 3

of May which organizes the Curriculum of the Primary Education in Castilla y León.

This Decree is based on the Spanish Organic Law 2/2006 of 3 of May of Education

(LOE).

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Although they all are very important in order to develop all the students’ abilities, in

this Didactic Unit we are going to focus mostly in two of them:

- Objective b:

“To develop habits of individual work and of team work, of effort and

responsibility in the study as well as self-confidence attitudes, critical sense,

personal initiative, curiosity, interest and creativity in the learning with that to

discover the satisfaction of the made well task”.

- Objective f:

“To acquire in, at least, a foreign language the basic communicative

competence that allows them to express and to understand simple messages and

to develop in daily situations”.

Taking into account the two objectives, we are going to work in a creativity way,

focusing on the Learning to learn competence and trying to make them always

participants of their own learning.

c. General Objectives of the Area

All the objectives of the Area try to get different and significant inputs in order to

develop properly the skills and micro-skills of the pupils. There are different objectives

related to different abilities, we are going to work with the numbers 1 and 2, which are

related with the oral skills, the numbers 4 and 5, related with the written skill. Another

objective we are going to deal with is the number 8, which talks about the auto and self-

evaluation.

Apart from all these objectives, we are going to focus on the objective number 9:

- Objective 9:

“To use the knowledge and the previous experiences with other languages for a

quicker, effective and autonomous acquisition of the foreign language through

the reflection on the strategies that are the more effective and valid to develop

their capacity for learning to learn”.

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d. Specific Objectives of the Unit

The Specific Objectives on which we are going to base our Didactic Unit will work in a

direct relation with the contents and the activities we want to develop. We have kept in

mind a set of criteria in order to formulate our objectives, and the most important part of

these criteria is the relation with the Communicative Functions, the relation with the

Basic Skills and the flexibility in the adaptation to our pupils.

Taking all this into account, these are the Specific Contents we are going to develop:

- To be able to ask and give information and instructions about how to get to a

place.

- To extract specific information from an oral dialogue.

- To be able to describe a specific place with fluency and accuracy.

- To identify and use the prepositions of place.

- To talk in a polite way using expression for gratitude and attention.

- To answer oral and written questions with accuracy.

- To use the ICT with responsibility.

- To respect the standards of living.

3. THE SELECTION OF CONTENTS

The contents are established by the Official Curriculum and, as we know, they work on

a cyclical way, so we have to pay attention to the contents that our pupils have learnt

before or not. The contents of the Official Curriculum appear in a very general way, so

we, as teacher, should adapt them to our pupils’ characteristics. We are not going to

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close the semantic fields or the basic structures, because maybe they are going to join

previous knowledge to this new Unit.

a. Dimensions

I. Communicative Dimension: the structure of the unit is going to be based on the

development of the communicative abilities of the pupils, so the most of the

activities will deal with this aspect. As a result, on our Didactic Unit we will

focus our attention on:

Communicative Functions: asking and giving directions, asking and

describing something, requesting information, attracting attention and

giving thanks, locating places in a city.

Development of skills: answer to oral and written questions, extraction of

information of an oral story or a song, scanning for information,

predicting (we have developed this micro-skill in almost all the activities

from the presentation stage), reading to confirm expectations on a tale.

II. Linguistic Dimension: in order to develop their communicative ability, they will

need to use some structures and vocabulary that are going to work, mainly, as

tools, subordinated to the communicative functions and to the development of

skills. That’s why we are going to work with the following aspects:

Basic structures: where is the … (place)? How can I get to … (place)? Is

… (somewhere) near/far from…? There is / there are… Directions (go

straight ahead, turn left, and turn right…) Giving thanks (thank you!

Thanks’ …) Asking for attentions (excuse me, … )

Basic Vocabulary: Places of the city: museum, shop, bakery… Parts of

the city: downtown, neighborhood, suburbs… Elements of the city:

pavement, pedestrian crossing, traffic lights, streetlight, roundabout,

bridge… Kinds of houses: flat, apartments, semi-detached house…

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III. Attitudinal and sociocultural Dimension: we all live in a global world, where we

are in continuous connection, that’s why we think that the attitudinal and

sociocultural aspects are important. It is necessary to know how the others live,

in order to know how my behavior should be. In this Didactic Unit we are going

to promote: the interest towards other cultures and places of living, valuation if

ICT as means of communication, respect the standards of living.

4. METHODOLOGY.

The Official Curriculum is based mainly in two frameworks: the psychological

framework and the pedagogical framework. The first one works with the principles of

the Constructivism Theories, modifying the previous schemes and joining them with

new contents. The pedagogical one works with the Communicative Approach

pretending the acquisition of the Communicative Competence. Taking into account this

two frameworks we are going to apply The Communicative Method (PPP) during all

sessions.

The main purpose of this method is to use the foreign language in different significant

communicative situations in a personal and creative way developing this four basic

skills in a global process through the children´s linguistic immersion and respecting the

children´s cognitive characteristics.

This method works with three stages:

1. Presentation / warm up Stage: In this first stage we are going to introduce new

knowledge and the contents of the previous sessions. This presentation will be

the base for the next phases in order to lead the activities that the teacher

purpose to pupils.

2. Comprehensive Stage: In this second stage the teacher provide models to the

pupils in order to learn following a pattern. In this way, pupils will learn

different structures in a motivating way.

3. Expressive Stage: In this last stage pupils will be prepared to produce texts in a

free way. They will create without following a pattern, with autonomy.

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5. ATTENTION TO DIVERSITY

In our class, as in other classes, there are pupils with different levels so we have to

develop some activities in order to get a basic level. Developing these activities we want

to increase or reinforce the learning of our pupils adapting them to their rhythm and

level of knowledge. We are going to use some activities for fast finishers and some

activities for slow finishers.

Pro-action activities

- Match definitions about the elements of the city.

- Reading a text and answer open questions.

Support activities

- To reinforce the structure: “There is/There are” and the vocabulary of the city

with different activities.

- Using a picture pupils have to complete sentences with There is/ There are.

- Guessing the name of the elements/places in the given pictures.

6. THE TIMING DISTRIBUTION

Our Didactic Unit is formed by six sessions; each of them includes some small activities

to put in practice the specific objectives that we have established. The sessions are:

- Session 1: “What are there in your city?” in this session we are going to work

with the basic vocabulary of this topic using the structures there is and there are.

- Session 2: “Singing in the city” here, we are going to listen to a song in order

to internalize the previous contents and to offer a varied input.

- Session 3: “Where do you go?” in this session we are going to go deal with

the places and what can we do on it.

- Session 4: “GPS Friends” here we are going to work on giving instructions to

the classmates.

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- Session 5: “Can you help me?” in this session we are going to work with

giving thanks and attracting for attention.

- Session 6: “Welcome to my favorite city” here we are going to ask them to

explain some part of a city using a map.

7. DESIGN OF THE ACTIVITIES

Session 1: “What are there in your city?”

Presentation stage:

First of all the teacher is going to present the topic: “Let´s go to the city” and then he is

going to explain to the pupils that the final aim is that they are able to manage in a

foreign city. After that, the teacher will show the pupil a video about the city in order to

identify some elements.

Vídeo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSTh80Aybjs

Practice stage:

Activity 1

To develop this activity pupils are going to do a listening comprehension about the

comic of the book. First they are doing the listening without the text and they are going

to listen to the first part only, because the final aim is that they predict the second part of

the comic. Then they will put in common their prediction and, finally, the teacher will

play the listening again and pupils will also work with the text.

Activity 2

This activity consists on doing a True or False questionnaire about the comic they have

read before. The questions are about the structure “There is/are” to introduce it to the

pupils and also to work out the specific vocabulary about the city.

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Production stage

On this activity pupils have to invent a new dialogue following the model given in the

comic. They will have four pictures, the same as in the comic, and in groups they will

have to invent the dialogue using the structure “There is/are” and the vocabulary they

have learnt about the city.

Session 2: “Singing in the city”

Presentation stage:

During this session we are going to work with a song, developing the listening skill. We

are going to give them two or three verses of the song and they will have to imagine a

tittle for the song, taking into account the information that appears in these verses.

Practice stage:

Activity 1

In this activity we are going to give them the lyrics of the song with a multiple choice

inside. As they are listening they have to circle which word appears in the song. We are

going to work with an ear-training technique, because they have to guess the word that

appears.

Activity 2

In this activity we are going to work with a contextualized dictation for a song. We are

going to dictate a new verse for the song, practicing the vocabulary that we have seen

already.

Production stage

In order to develop their creativity, we are going to ask them to write a new verse for

the song. They have to talk about other things that we can see in a city.

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Session 3: “Where do you go?”

Presentation stage:

Activity 1

To start working on the vocabulary of the city, we will do a memory activity. The

teacher will choose five or six flashcards with some elements from the city. He will

show the flashcards rapidly and will say the name too. When he have finished he is

going to ask the pupils what flashcards they have memorized. This process will be

repeated until they have learnt all the name of the flashcards.

Activity 2

In this activity we are going to do a guessing game. Pupils have to ask the teacher about

the flashcards he has hidden. They should use the structure “There is/are”, in an inverted

way, to practice the formation of the questions.

Practice stage:

Activity 1

In this activity, we are going to give them some definitions of the city (kind of houses,

elements and parts of the city), and they have to match them with the photograph and

the name of the place. We are going to give the definitions always with the same

structure, as a model, because they will have to reproduce it later.

Activity 2

For the activity 2, pupils will make their own descriptions of some pictures of the city,

following the model given before. They will choose three or four pictures to describe

and we are going to read some of them aloud as a continuous evaluation.

Productive stage:

Activity 1

In this activity we are going to work orally and in pairs. We will work with an

information gap activity but we are going to modify it by introducing a guessing game

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in order to discover the part of the city that the classmate is explaining. They will use

structures as: “I want to see a picture from Picasso, where can I go?” ”I want to buy

some meat, where should I go?”

Session 4: “GPS Friends”

Presentation stage:

To present the part of the unit about the directions, we are going to use a technique from

the TPR method (Total Physical Response). To develop this activity we are going to

move the tables near to the walls in order to have more space to work on the activity.

All the pupils will stand up and form into two rows one in front of the other. The

teacher will act as a “traffic commander” giving to pupils orders of movement and

directions. He will use phrases as: “Turn left” “Turn right” “Go straight ahead” “Shake

hands with the classmate who is in front of you” …

Practice stage:

Activity 1

For this activity we are going to work with a listening comprehension. We will give to

pupils a map of a city and they will listen to some people talking about where they are

going to go. For each character they will use different colors and they have to draw a

line according to the instructions. With this activity we are going to work on following

oral instructions.

Activity 2

In this activity we are going to work with a multiple choice based on a map. We will

give them a sheet with a map in which there are some places (shops, town hall,

museums…) and some multiple choice questions about identifying a place or the

instructions to get to somewhere.

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Production stage:

Activity 1

We will use the writing skill for this activity. Pupils will do some instructions for

tourists and foreigners about how to arrive to some interesting places of the city. They

start from the bus or train station and they will choose the place they want to guide their

classmate. They will write the instructions next to the map and draw the way on the

map.

Session 5: “Can you help me?”

Presentation stage:

We are going to make a brainstorming to refresh their previous knowledge about how to

give thanks and haw to attract for attention. We hope we are going to develop structures

like “thank you” “you´re welcome” “excuse me”…

Practice stage:

Activity 1

In order to develop the reading skill, in this activity we are going to read a story about a

foreign boy lost in the city. First of all, we are going to read the tittle of the story and try

to guess what is going to happen. Then, they are going to read the text in order to check

their predictions and to find the giving thanks and attracting for attention structures.

Finally, and after the second reading, they are going to answer some comprehension

questions about the places where the boy has or hasn’t been.

Activity 2

In this second activity pupils will have to invent what the boy would have said to the

people who were waiting for him at the hotel. They will have to write some phrase

using the structures and models that appear in the story. We have already practice with

past in previous units, so they are going to be able to use it now.

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Production stage

Activity 1

In this activity they will use ICT’s in order to send an e-mail to one of the people who

have given the instructions to the boy of the story. They have to write some sentences

giving thanks to these people.

Session 6: “Welcome to my favorite city”

Presentation stage:

In order to review all the contents that we have seen during the unit, we are going to

create a Pictionary in the blackboard. We are going to stick the pictures in the

blackboard and pupils will have go one by one writing the name of the place or element

that the picture shows.

Production stage

Pupils are going to create a final project individually in which they are going to describe

parts of a city and how to get them with a given map. They have to use all the structures

and all the vocabulary we have seen. We are going to ask them to be as much creative

as possible.

8. RESOURCES AND MATERIALS OF THE UNIT

To develop this Didactic Unit we are going to use the following resources:

- The blackboard

- Flash-cards

- Texts, comics and tales

- Dialogues

- Computers

- Cassette

- Any kind of materials needed for the final project

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9. EVALUATION

We are going to do an initial evaluation in the first session of the unit. We are going to

use it to know what previous knowledge have the pupils about the contents of the city

we are going to deal with. In fact, this evaluation will be useful for us because we will

discover what they have learnt in the previous units.

We think that it is important to develop a continuous evaluation, paying attention to the

grammatical and vocabulary contents and to their motivation and creativity way of

learning. The continuous evaluation will be made using:

A systematic observation in which note the evaluation of the children and their

initiative during all the sessions. We will also pay attention to their attitudinal

and social behavior in class. We are going to do it using a control table with

some items.

Children’s reading skill: we are going to evaluate it when pupils read aloud in

class.

Children’s written skill: we are going to evaluate it by correcting their

productions from each session.

Children’s listening skill: after each listening we will do some oral and

comprehensive questions in order to know if they have understood the listening.

We also are going to pay attention at the comprehension of the teacher inputs.

Children’s speaking skill: in relation with this skill we are going to evaluate their

fluency and the use of the specific vocabulary and structures.

The final evaluation will consist on an exam in which we are going to evaluate again the

four basic skills, in order to know if they have acquired the basic competence in each

skill.

Is order to carry out this assessment process in this Didactic Unit, we have formulated

the following Assessment Criteria in relation with the contents and the specific

objectives we have establishes:

Understand oral and written inputs.

Answer to oral written questions by scanning and extracting information of an input.

Recognize, use and write properly vocabulary about the parts and elements of the city

and prepositions of place.

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Ask and give polite requests.

Give and ask directions to get to somewhere in the city.

Use maps correctly to locate places on it.

Participate in the activities.

Respect and show interest on other’s cultures, standards and places of living.

Use computers and internet with responsibility.

10. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Some of the activities that appear in our Didactic Unit have been taken from “Bugs World” (Ed.

Macmillan) from 4th year of Primary Education.

11. ATTACHMENTS