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1.

Introduction

Primary Education is the first stage of compulsory education. It comprises

six academic years which are ordinarily taken from the age of six to twelve.

Students generally incorporate to the first course of this educative stage in the

natural year in which they turn six years old.

The present Teaching Planning, intended for the fifth grade, will try to

respond to the demands of a society that seeks in the educative system

solutions to face up to challenges of a changing and unpredictable future.

The legal regulations currently in force establish the subject of English as

a Foreign Language as an important part of the curriculum at this stage. The

main aim of foreign language learning is to achieve students’ communicative

competence, which will allow them to handle different situations in the foreign

language, by means of producing appropriate messages in the different

communicative situations. Moreover, from this area we can achieve many other

aims of Primary Education such as the development of their personality, their

communicative skills and socio-linguistic strategies, the improvement of their

ability to feel empathy, the diversification of their sources of information, and the

establishment of social and cultural relationships with tolerance in a world

where international communications has an increasing relevance. All these

aims will contribute to the educational development of the students from a

global perspective.

The English teacher must elaborate a Teaching Planning prior to the

development of his/her area, always departing from the Educative Projects, with

the aim of contemplating all the necessary aspects for a correct approach to the

teaching-learning process, understanding it as an open structure that during the

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school year may go through adaptations due to new physical or personal

situations.

2. Point of Departure

For the elaboration of this Teaching Planning, the following elements have

been taking into account:

 The existing legal regulations.

This Teaching Planning is based on the existing legal regulations which are

the Educational Goals established by the Spanish Constitution, which

establishes in the Article 27 that “everybody is entitled to education”; The

Organic Law of Improvement on Education 8/2013 passed on December 9th

on which the rest of legislation depends; and the Royal Decree 126/2014

passed on February 28h, which establishes the Minima Teaching Requirements

and the Key Competences for Primary Education nationwide under the

principles of LOMCE. It is also based on the Decree 89/2014 passed on July

24th which sets the Curriculum for all the areas in Primary Education, including

the area of Foreign Language. This will be then the most useful document for us

as English teachers, regarding of course, all the other regulations.

 The School Educational Project and The Curricular Project.

 The characteristics of the stage and the area.

The Primary Education stage is a basic education that prepares the student

as a person and as a citizen, giving special emphasis to formative over

informative aspects and trying to ensure a global and integral development

covering motor, cognitive and socio-affective aspects.

From this perspective the English as a Foreign Language area must try to

achieve the acquisition, on the part of the students, of an increasing

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communicative competence that allows them to communicate and participate

actively in economic, social and cultural life in a world where international

relationships are increasingly important, fostering respectful attitudes towards

other cultures and the differences among people.

 Criteria for the specification and sequencing. These are:

- Evolutional characteristics of children.

- Evolutional characteristics of the teaching-learning process

- The own logic of the area.

3. Contextualisation

 Setting

The school in which this Teaching Planning is thought to be applied is located

in an urban environment, in a middle class neighbourhood in the South of

the Region of Alicante . In general, the families have a medium-high socio-

cultural level. About a 10% of the population comes from other countries,

mainly from South America and Eastern Europe. In most cases, they have been

living in the community for a long time so they are well integrated in it. This

neighbourhood has some surrounding facilities such as a Parks and a

Science Museum which I will take advantage of along the school year.

 School

It is a state school which includes both Infant and Primary Education. It

consists of two buildings:

 Main building which is divided into two floors:

In the ground floor there are the spaces dedicated to common uses: library,

psychomotricity room, director´s and secretary´s office, reception, dining hall,

kitchen, teacher´s room, music classroom and toilets for teachers and students.

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In the top floor there are 16 classrooms, ICT classroom and toilets.

 Infant Education building which consists of a hall and tour

classrooms each of which has its own toilet.

The school has good equipment and it provides some facilities for the learning

of a foreign language such as a unique space for the English subject with a

digital board, which will allow me to arrange my students according to my

preferences depending on the activities carried out. In this classroom there are

three different corners that I will take advantage of in many ways: a Book

Corner, an ICT Corner as well as having displays of many topics on the walls

and supplementary shelves. These will be described in the “General Teaching

Resources” section and we will see some practical applications of them in many

different activities from the Didactic Units. There is also a School Library which I

will take advantage of at some point. Lastly, the school has a gym and a big

playground with different sports courts where my students will perform different

TPR activities and learn the basic rules of traditional Anglo-Saxon sports like

cricket (see “General Teaching Resources” section).

In this Teaching Planning I have born in mind The Royal Decree

132/2010 which establishes the minimum requirements for the educational

centers in the 2nd cycle of Pre-Primary Education, Primary Education and

Secondary Education, since I consider it as a very important legal document

that every school, by the Administration support, must try to achieve in the next

future.

 Students

My students are in the 5th year of Primary. They are aged between 10 and

11 years old and I will teach them English as a Foreign Language three hours a

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week. This group is formed by 24 students of which 11 are boys and 13 are

girls. In this regard, it is important to bear in mind that, according to recent

research, boys and girls learn in a different way as their brains are organised

differently. Therefore, they have different preferences that I will take into

account when designing the activities to be used in the classroom so that the

learning experience results positive for everybody.

This group is an example of ethnic diversity because there are two

students from South America, who share our native language and, although

they have different idiomatic expressions, communication with them is always

possible. There is also a girl from Romania. Her level is low, but she can cope

with English as long as difficult activities are adapted. From my point of view,

these three students enrich the learning experience in the classroom as being in

contact with them fosters the other students´ cultural awareness. Moreover,

they are well integrated within the group and their relationship with other peers

is good. There is also a boy with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who will

be described in the Attention to Diversity Section

Regarding the students´ level and abilities, this class could be regarded as

a mixed-ability group since the command of certain skills is different from one

student to another and they also have different learning styles.

Since this Teaching Programme follows a student-centred approach,

knowing how our students learn is of prime importance for us as teachers.

Regarding their learning styles, following on Gardner´s multiple intelligences

theory, about a 70% of my students are visual learners, that means they learn

and remember better if they see things; 15% are kinaesthetic learners, which

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means that they find it hard sitting still and learn better through movement; and

roughly a 15% are auditory learners.

To sum up this section, it is important to remark that all their previous

knowledge and learning styles will be the starting point in familiarising them with

the foreign language.

4. Quality criteria

Before presenting and starting with the specification of the different

curricular elements it is necessary that every teacher reflects upon his/her own

concept of education. This will determine the whole teaching-learning process

and it will help us to solve the different problems we may come up with during

the teaching practice.

In my case, the educative practice will be around three aspects that I

consider to be essential: education, learning and teaching. In them we find the

reflection of the student, to whom learning belongs, the teacher, of whom

teaching depends, and the teaching-learning process, which embraces both the

student and the teacher and results from the interaction between them and the

context.

According to these three core subjects on which the quality criteria depend,

my teaching practice will pursue the following aspects:

 Educate students for an easy and correct integration in society.

 Integral education for the students.

 Education in values.

 Constant improvement of my teaching practice by observing and

judging the success of the different materials and activities so that I can,

if necessary, make changes in the future.

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 Help students to have an easy and lasting learning.

 Construction of meaningful and functional learning by helping

students to see the relationship between what was learnt and its

connection with previous knowledge and everyday life.

 Active and responsible participation, open and flexible methodology.

 Attention to diversity through the inclusion of adapted activities and

different levels of difficulty in most of the sessions.

Definition of “curriculum”

According to The Organic Law of Improvement on Education 8/2013 in

its Chapter 3, Article 6, curriculum refers to the objectives, basic

competences, contents, pedagogic methods, evaluable learning

standards and assessment criteria of each area regulated by the current

Law. In the next pages, these concepts will be explained in detail.

5. Contribution of the area to the key competences

We understand Competence as the ability to meet individual or social

demands successfully or to carry out an activity or task Treatment of the eight

basic competences in all the areas of the curriculum is one of the most relevant

innovations of our current educational system and through their inclusion in the

curriculum, real world enters the classroom enabling us to achieve effective and

efficient learners.

 The Key Competences in the legal framework

The Royal Decree 126/2014 passed on February 28h incorporates these

key competences that must be developed by all our students to achieve their

personal fulfilment, be active citizens, incorporate themselves into adulthood

satisfactorily and be able to develop a permanent learning along their lives.

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Every area of the curriculum will contribute to this development, and at the

same time, every key competence will be developed as a consequence of the

work of several areas or subjects.

The Decree 89/2014 passed on July 24th also takes these basic

competences and establishes that, although they have to be acquired at the

end of Compulsory Education, the Primary Education stage will contribute to

their development.

We find the origin of these competences in two main sources: on the one

hand, HOWARD GARDNER gave the first framework in his Multiple

Intelligences theory, in which he claimed that individuals have al least seven

different intelligences that can be developed over a lifetime; on the other hand,

our eight basic competences derive from the eight European Key

Competences established by The Council of Europe.

The Foreign Language area contributes to the development of the seven

key competences incorporated in The Royal Decree 126/2014 which are:

1. Linguistic communication. This competence refers mainly to the fact that

language should be used as an instrument of oral and written communication

2. Mathematical and basic competences on Science and Technology. Is

the ability to develop and apply mathematical thinking in order to solve a range

of problems in an everyday situation

3. Digital Competence. It involves the confident and critical use of information

society technology (IST) and thus basic skills in information and communication

technology (ICT).

4. Learning to Learn. It is related to learning, the ability to organise one´s own

learning, either individually or in groups.

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5. Social and civic. This competence refers to personal, interpersonal and

intercultural competence and all forms of behaviour that allow individuals to

participate in an effective way in social and working life.

6. Initiative Sense and Enterprising Spirit. It refers to the ability to turn ideas

into action, involving creativity, innovation and risk-taking.

7. Cultural Conscience and Expressions. It involves appreciation of the

importance of the creative expression of ideas, experiences and emotions in a

wide range of media, such as music, literature and visual arts.

6. Contents

According to DE LA TORRE (2005), contents can be defined as “the

specific subjects that our students need to acquire, such as facts, data and

values among others”.

 Official contents

In order to develop the abilities expressed in the objectives, we should work

on the official contents that our Educational Authorities have established. The

Decree 89/2014 groups the contents to be taught in 5th grade into different

blocks: oral comprehension, oral expression, reading comprehension, written

expression, syntactic-discoursive contents and social and cultural aspects of the

English culture. The main aspects that these blocks cover could be summarized

as follows:

 Oral comprehension and oral expression: These blocks acquire special

relevance including the variety of discourse patterns, common expressions,

phonetic and prosodic aspects belonging to the different real communicative

situations and the capacity to use them for communicative purposes.

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 Reading comprehension and written expression: These blocks focus on

the knowledge of the written language. The progressive use of written

language will depend upon the degree of knowledge of the oral forms and

upon the growing confidence about the graphic representation of the sounds

of the foreign language.

 Syntactic-discoursive contents: This block includes both linguistic

knowledge and contents involving learning reflection. The starting point will

be the speech situations that promote the acquisition of rules about how

language works so that students can establish which elements of the foreign

language work similar to those in their mother tongue, developing

confidence on their own capacities.

 Social and cultural aspects of the English culture: It enables children to

learn about customs, social relation patterns, features and peculiarities of

the countries where the foreign language is spoken.

In the same legislation, the contents are established per area and cycle. Thus,

in the second level of concretion, the School Educational Project, they are

adapted to the characteristics of the school and the students as well as

sequenced within the cycle. Therefore, the contents for our 5th grade are

included in all the Didactic Units, as I will point out in the next section.

 Personal contents

All the contents in my Teaching Planning are connected and organised in a

cyclical way to allow recycling, since children in the third cycle still have a short-

span memory. Therefore, some contents will be recurring throughout the year.

They are organised into fifteen didactic units, all of which have been designed

taking into account my students’ interests, likes and previous knowledge such

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as animals, food, clothes, sports or Christmas. Following STEPHEN KRASHEN

and his Natural Approach, contents must be organised from the simplest to the

most complex. In this way, we will start with a unit called “Welcome to

Hogwarts!”, in which students will connect English with their everyday life at

school and will review some basic vocabulary and classroom language that will

be useful for the school year. The following units will deal with topics which are

closely connected to my students’ everyday life: family and friends, the human

body, daily activities and the town among others.

All my units will contribute to an integrated development of the four

linguistic skills, since in everyday life they are not used in an isolated way,

they are combined. We will also introduce geographical, historical and

cultural aspects of the English-speaking countries which will foster positive

attitudes towards the foreign language and the people who speak it. In addition,

as it is pointed out next to the specific contents, evaluable standards and

assessment criteria of each of them, these units will contribute to the

development of the seven key competences in a balanced and coherent way.

7. General teaching resources

Teaching resources can be defined as the medium by means of which we

are going to get students to experience the learning of a foreign language,

reflect upon it and achieve meaningful learning.

This section aims to analyse what my teaching methodology will be like. The

framework used to study any professional’s teaching style must take into

account the following aspects:

 The standing legislation that sets the guidelines for determining my role

as a teacher, which are the The Organic Law of Improvement on

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Education 8/2013 passed on December 9th and the The Royal Decree

126/2014 passed on February 28th

 The study of bibliographical sources which outline the importance of

the teacher’s role as mediators regarding the media and information

sources.

Bearing this in mind, my starting point will be the principles that I will

follow during the teaching-learning process.

 Methodological principles

The standing legislation is based on the Constructivist Approach

developed gradually by authors such as PIAGET, BRUNER, AUSUBEL or

VYGOTSKY among many others. These principles of educational intervention

are the starting point of the Educational System and they guide the teaching-

learning process. Their main function is to ensure vertical and horizontal

coherence. Vertical coherence refers to the relationship among the different

years, cycles, stages and levels. On the other hand, horizontal coherence deals

with the connections among the different areas, subjects and modules of the

curriculum.

Taking this into account as well as the methodological principles established

by the LOMCE 8/2013, my Teaching Planning departs from the basic

principles established by the legal regulations referred to the educative

intervention in Primary Education, which are:

- Taking student’s level of knowledge as the point of departure: Students’

capabilities and previous knowledge are assessed to build up new contents.

- Encouraging students’ capacities for learning to learn: The effort-based

culture sets its focal point in the redefinition of our education system.

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- Fostering meaningful learning: Based on an interdisciplinary approach

in a horizontal coherence but also in a vertical coherence at Primary Level

providing a contextualize learning applicable in real situation.

- Promoting active participation on the part of learning: Meaningful

learning means an active mental activity. Students are actively engaged by

paying attention to the different ways of learning.

- Exploiting fun activities: The teacher must meet students’ needs and

interests based on an emotional social and intellectual stimulus.

- Increasing social interaction: Meaningful learning requires mental

activity on the part of the learner. In order to achieve such a complex goal, the

students must to be motivated, using a variety of stimuli.

 Activities

Activities are the tools, instruments and means to achieve the objectives

established. In order to ensure their efficiency, we must bear in mind the

following criteria:

- They must be well organised and interrelated in order to fit with the

objectives that we want to achieve.

- They must respond to the personal characteristics of our students.

- They must be linked with everyday life and have a personal meaning.

- They must involve students actively in the elaboration and participation.

- They must be varied (individual work, group, guided…)

- They must have an element of creativity.

There are many types of activities, depending on the objectives we want

to achieve: activities to introduce and motivate; to assess previous knowledge;

to contrast ideas; to develop and apply the new ideas; to summarise; to

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consolidate; to reinforce; to retake; to extend; and to evaluate. When

formulating an activity, we must bear in mind: the objective to achieve, the type

of activity, how is the activity going to be developed, the organization of the

space, the materials needed and the estimated time it will take.

 Resources

There are a numerous quantity of resources on hand to help teachers

create attractive and personalised lessons. In this section, we shall divide the

classification of these resources into personal resources, material resources

and also spatial resources.

 Personal resources

In this section I will provide an overview of who are the main protagonists of

the teaching-learning process. In order to do it, I will analyse briefly some

considerations about the teacher, the student, other human resources and the

families.

Firstly, I will consider the teacher, who must have some competences for

teaching such as a role of mediator and educator. In order to establish the

teacher’s functions, it is important to look at our current legislation in which the

main duties and roles of the teacher are concreted. These are:

- The planning and teaching in their stages, subjects and modalities. At

the same time, they will coordinate, organise and manage those activities

entrusted to them as members of the teaching staff.

- The assessment and evaluation of the students´ learning process,

keeping periodical contact with the families in order to inform them about it,

providing them with professional guidance to obtain their cooperation and

collaboration in the attainment of the educational goals proposed.

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- The self-evaluation of their own teaching practice as a source of

information in order to detect problems and perform improvement suggestions.

- Contribute and participate in the activities within the school

promoting and organising complementary activities when necessary,

contributing to ensure they take place in a climate of respect, tolerance,

participation and freedom in order to foster in students the values of democratic

citizenship.

Teachers will carry out the duties expressed in the above items under the

principles of collaboration and teamwork. Obviously, apart from the in force

legislation, teacher’s role depends on the type of activity carried out. In any

case, teacher must maintain discipline in class, since he/she is totally in

charge of the class, and will decide which activities will be done and how,

controlling and supervising the good running of the class.

However, this doesn’t mean not to allow students to have a say, quite the

opposite, they must be at the same time responsible for their learning and try to

develop their own strategies and methods. For that reason, teacher will be co-

ordinator, guide and a resource in the teaching-learning process, providing

students with enough information to do an activity and making sure that rules

have been explained to them.

A good planning and organization are necessary and essential for the

success of the activity, so both teacher and student should know what they

have to do as well as how and when. Therefore we could say that another

important role must be organiser.

In addition, the teacher must take part in the activities as much as he/she

can, being mobile between groups and listening to them, ensuring that all the

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groups are carrying out the task correctly. For it, we can say that the role of the

teacher has to be also monitor and participant.

This is specially important when talking about the specific role of the

English teacher, because in order to detect pronunciation errors and

grammatical structures that are not clear, he/she will have to move around the

class every time an activity is being performed by the students, whether it is into

small groups, pairs or individual, or whether it is an oral or a written task.

About this specific role of the English teacher we should say as well he/she

must be a motivator, making pupils experience the learning of a foreign

language as something enjoyable, never boring or repetitive. At the same time

we must see every child as separate, and respect their different processes and

rhythms.

After having presented the main features of the teacher, I will deal with

another protagonist of the teaching-learning process: the student. The

relationship established between students can also constitute a first-class

resource. BONALS points out that group work develops important functions of

the students such as: regulation of learning, socialisation and promotion of

emotional balance. Moreover, dealing with the figure of the student, I will have

in mind their psychological features in order to design activities, which are

known as learner-centred activities.

Now I will deal with some other human resources who can be very helpful

for the development of some lessons and also for helping some students with

difficulties. I will try to take advantage of other human resources like: specialists

of the school and sent by administration, extra teachers of English, guest

speakers, such as family members, storytellers, native speakers, drama groups.

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Finally, families and the context in which the school is placed are also

considerations to take into account. I will have in mind the special features of

the context in which the school is placed: families´ context, socio-cultural

features, economic difficulties and parents’ expectations among others.

Moreover, as I said before, I will take advantage of some family members that

can come to the school to tell the students about their work or to show some

abilities that they may have.

 Material resources

Materials facilitate the relationship among the teacher, the students and the

contents. On the one hand, regarding the teacher, materials foster the teaching

process in the following terms:

- Motivation, interest and curiosity are increased.

- Presentation of contents is more interesting.

- Comprehension and assimilation of contents is helped with materials.

On the other hand, talking about the student, materials promote the learning

process by providing students more chances to practice and produce with a

helping hand.

In this section, we shall divide the classifications of material into printed,

audio-visual and computer-based materials. According to the curricular

guidelines found in The Organic Law of Improvement on Education 8/2013

passed on December 9th the classroom is an area where we promote reading

skills, audio-visual communication and new technology skills, which

justifies the choice and the use of these certain materials as necessary and

useful tools in our educational process.

 There are many printed materials useful to carry out our

teaching process. Well known publishers of both text books and

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magazines have been slightly consulted which supply plenty of printed

classroom materials such as worksheets, colourful real pictures and

flashcards and also suggest many ways of working in the English class.

 Another type of resources are audio-visual materials such as

CD-ROM, DVD’S and TV cartoons to show real contexts in which

English is used, are also recommendable to support the learning

process.

 Lastly, the internet also constitutes a source of infinite resources

to be exploited. Its potential for information and communication is

unrivalled. Authentic materials provided by webs as interactive games,

stories, songs and rhymes will be commonly used as helpful supporters

of the learning process throughout the whole year.

 Other supplementary materials made by students or by the

teacher such as puppets or paper crafts as well as the use of realia to

illustrate words meaning must be considered.

 Spatial resources

As mentioned before, the main spatial resources that I am going to use are

the variety of places we have in the educational context. In what follows, I will

list down some of the available resources within the classroom and the school

that can be useful to my teaching practice. I will try to use them as much as

possible in my English lessons:

 English class. Since there is a unique space for the English

subject, I will take advantage of it by setting some corners such as a Book

Corner and an ICT Corner as well as having displays of many topics on the

walls and supplementary shelves.

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 Library. I will use the library for different reading tasks such as

practising with the dictionary and also for searching information in some

books. In this regard, it is important to remember that the School Library

contributes to the general effort towards improving literacy skills in our

students. In other words, the early introduction of reading in English can

contribute to the Reading Plan which is one of the current priorities.

 ICT room, for watching some videos, DVD about the topics of my

didactic units

 Other places: canteen, gym, and the playground for TPR

activities.

8. Reading enhancement

The students’ ability to use written texts and to read them comprehensively

is crucial nowadays. In this regard, LOMCE 8/2013 emphasizes the need of

developing reading habits in Primary Education with the Promotion of the

Reading Plan. Through the Foreign Language area, we will contribute to it

since students will have contact with motivating texts such as stories, tales,

comics and storybooks in most of our units. We will also create a book corner

in the classroom so that children can borrow both authentic and adapted books

of their own choice. They will be asked to write comments about the books that

they have read or to do posters about them to decorate the book corner. This

will motivate other students to read those books as well.

9. Evaluation

Evaluation can be defined as a tool for analysing the effectiveness of both

the students´ learning and the teaching practice, with the aim of improving

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them. In this sense, evaluation makes sense when it checks the efficiency and

improvement of the teaching practice.

 Evaluation principles, strategies and techniques

The standing legislation gives evaluation a leading and fundamental role: on

the one hand it allows both students and teachers to check whether the

objectives have been achieved and the contents acquired. On the other hand, it

is essential in order to regulate the teaching-learning process.

Based on this, for this Teaching Planning, I suggest an evaluation which is

based on the curricular guidelines that for this field our standing legislation

establishes, having special relevance The Royal Decree 126/2014 and more

specifically, The Decree 89/2014, which establishes the Foreign Language

Curriculum for Primary Education in The Autonomous Region of Madrid.

According to these legal regulations, evaluation should be continuous, global

and systematic.

Evaluation is a continuous process so it is carried out permanently along the

whole learning process. Then, one of the main advantages of the evaluation as

continuous process is not only checking the final results but also that it favours

a personalised educational system, enabling us to detect the difficulties and

successes of students at the time in which they occur. As stated before, we

need to evaluate the learning process. To do so, we have to take some

decisions regarding the situations, strategies and instruments of evaluation.

These evaluation procedures should have some characteristics such as:

 To be varied, in order to evaluate different abilities and curricular

contents.

 To use different codes (verbal, numeric, audiovisual, graphic…)

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 To be applicable to more or less structured situations of the learning

activity.

 To allow to evaluate the functionality of the learning.

 To evaluate the transference of the learning to different contexts.

 To give concrete information.

Furthermore, in the Curricular Project we must also concrete when, how and

what we have to evaluate. These aspects must follow three basic strategies:

 Initial evaluation: Through this, we will know the actual and previous

knowledge our students have in order to develop didactic units with the best

results. This previous knowledge is what students already know. Besides

this, the initial evaluation has to specify our students’ knowledge in the four

skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. We will check these aspects

in order to adjust the curriculum to meet each students´ unique needs in

order to make them capable to relate the new information with the one they

already have and consequently achieve meaningful learning.

 Formative and continuous evaluation: This second strategy is understood

as a measure of progress since every activity includes a moment to reflect,

comment or contrast, their achievements and learning problems. Obviously,

this continuous will call for different changes and adaptations for those

students who show a slower rhythm of acquisitions of contents. Formative

evaluation is an integral part of instruction that informs and guides us as we

make instructional decisions. Moreover, it is important to note that it is not

done to students, but for students in order to enhance their learning.

 Summative or final evaluation: This last strategy is only used at the end of

the teaching process to determine what has been learnt over a period of

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time and summarise our students´ progress. The activities designed to

evaluate, follow the same patterns of the activities done throughout the

whole unit. This make possible that the teacher judges their work according

to the same criteria established to achieve the objectives proposed in the

development of the unit.

In relation to the evaluation procedures that I am going to use for the different

didactic units we can distinguish different techniques:

- Formal techniques: There are a wide variety of instruments that allows us

to carry out a formal evaluation. In my case, I will use:

- Student’s diary: our students will have a personal diary where they will

write about their successes and problems every week.

- Non-verbal assessment: my students will be encouraged to express

academic concepts through physical demonstration in tasks like role-

plays or dialogues.

- Specific tests: they should contain activities similar to the ones made in

class as they do not have to look like an exam for our students.

- Anecdotariums: they pick up the most attractive aspects of what

happens in the school activity as well as simple records of behaviour.

- Observation checklist: these are rating scales that I will use during

class time when students are actively engaged in learning activities

- Informal techniques: The most popular one used in the English classroom

is direct observation which allows us to get information every day on every

moment when ours students are performing any task. In order to be

effective, we should be trained to do observation and it should be carried out

periodically and systematically.

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Finally, evaluation is regarded as an integral part of the students’ learning

process, since it is concerned with the improvement of students’ academic

performance. Then, this continuous process will assess the students’ global

development, not only paying attention to the students’ intellectual development

but also to the socio-affective one.

 Evaluation criteria

 Assessment Criteria in the Official Curriculum

According to the Decree 89/2014, the achievement of the general objectives

of the Foreign Language area will be assessed in relation to the following

assessment criteria for the Fifth Grade established in the Official Curriculum:

1. Understand the global sense and identify specific information in varied oral

texts produced in different communicative situations.

2. Read, both to oneself and aloud, different texts, with increasing vocabulary

and expressions of greater complexity, with the help of basic strategies to

obtain specific information and extract direct inferences.

3. Have everyday and familiar conversations about well-known topics in

predictable communicative situations, in accordance with basic norms of oral

exchange, such as listening to and looking at the speaker.

4. Elaborate different types of written texts from previously-introduced models,

both in printed and digital format, and paying special attention to production

stages: planning, writing and revising.

5. Recognize and reproduce with greater correction sound aspects, rhythm,

stress and intonation, in different communicative contexts and using basic forms

and structures, typical of the foreign language.

6. Use some strategies that favour the learning process: using visual and

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gestural resources, asking relevant questions to obtain information, asking for

clarification, using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, searching for,

compiling, and organizing information in different formats, using information and

communication technologies to contrast and check information, and identifying

some aspects so as to learn better.

7. Value the foreign language as an instrument to communicate with other

people and as a learning tool. Show curiosity towards people who speak the

foreign language and interest in establishing personal relationships with the

help of information and communication technologies.

8. Identify some aspects, customs, and traditions typical of the countries

where the foreign language is spoken, establishing connections and comparing

them with one’s own so as to develop an intercultural awareness.

 Assessment Criteria in the Teaching Planning

Apart from this normative foundation, I want to emphasise that the

formulation of my criteria is justified by the need of improving the development

of oral and written communicative strategies, developing my students´ interest

towards the English language and its culture and the autonomous use of ICT

with educational aims. Taking these aspects into account, in order to carry out

the evaluation process I have established 14 Assessment Criteria which follow

an order of priority. At the end of the school year, students need to be able to:

 Follow basic instructions in order to carry out a specific task.

 Extract specific information from aural texts related to known topics.

 Produce brief aural and written texts related to the description of people,

places and objects

 Understand and reproduce songs and dialogues that have been worked

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in class.

 Identify the global information in written texts about familiar topics.

 Employ strategies in order to make communication effective.

 Understand and use appropriately the basic formulae and expressions

necessary for social interaction such as greetings, farewells, thanking,

asking for permission or apologising.

 Demonstrate an interest in getting to know more about the foreign

language, its culture and the people who speak it.

 Appreciate de value of English as an instrument of communication

among people from different countries.

 Participate actively in communicative activities, showing an attitude of

tolerance and respect towards others.

 Understand specific and global information in a multimedia recording

 Employ ICT to look for specific information and practice the foreign

language.

 Evaluable Learning Standards

As an innovation, LOMCE 8/2013 establishes a new concept called

Evaluable Learning Standards. These standards take the evaluation criteria

as the point of departure and, as The Royal Decree 126/2014 describes,

they allow us to define the learning results as well as specifying what the

students must know, understand and do in the FL subject. Moreover, the

Royal Decree 126/2014 dictates that these standards must be observable,

measurable and evaluable. Lastly, they must allow us grade the students´

performance and the success achieved by them.

In this Teaching Planning, the Evaluable Learnign Standards are the following:

- Understand and follow class commands and rules

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- Listen responsively to stories and other oral texts.

- Participate actively in oral exchanges using verbal and non-verbal strategies

- Use appropriate grammar and vocabulary in oral language to describe ideas

and feelings.

- Write short texts using a model.

- Consider the importance of care, spelling, elaboration and presentation of

written work.

- Read texts in order to work on specific vocabulary and grammar aspects.

- Recognise main ideas and supporting details in a text.

- Recognise the sequence of events in a text.

- Understand specific and global informaton in a multimedia recording.

- Employ ICT to look for specific information and to practice the foreign

language.

- Appreciate the foreign language as a communicative instrument.

- Appreciate the cultural features of English-speaking countries.

- Participate actively in group activities using the foreign language.

- Demonstrate self-confidence when presenting a group activity in front of their

partners.

- Make use of strategies in order to communicate effectively.

- Use and identify rhythm and intonation in interactions.

- Pronounce with the correct intonation and rhythm when singing a song or a

rhyme.

10. Conclusion and bibliography

. Programming enables us to think in a strategic way, helping us to be more

objective and scientific, and therefore more professional. But we must remember that, in

order for a Teaching Planning to be successful, it must be based on the particular

28
features of our students. Developing this Teaching Planning has given me the

opportunity to realise that the teacher is the real designer of the Curriculum, deciding on

the aspects that the planning of a course involves

 Scrivener, J. Learning teaching. MacMillan Heinemann. London, 2005. User-

friendly guide with helpful information on everything you need to get into the

classroom and start teaching.

 Halliwell, S. Teaching English in the Primary Classroom. Longman. London,

1992. The guide identifies priorities for working with young learners and suggests

strategies for teaching. It also offers guidelines for creating or adapting work

programmes and explains how English can be cross-curricular.

 Harmer, J. How to teach English. Longman, London, 1998. Complete manual of

teaching English as a foreign language. It covers from general teaching and learning

topics up to specific problems that English teachers frequently have.

 Richards, J. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. CUP, United

States, 2001. Key stages in the curriculum development are examined, including

needs analysis, goal setting, syllabus design, materials adaptation, teaching support,

and evaluation.

 Organic Law of Improvement on Education 8/2013 (LOMCE) passed on

December 9th

 Royal Decree 126/2014 passed on February 28h which establishes the minimum

requirements of Primary Education nationwide.

 www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistant : Advices and support for English

teaching as well as a wide selection of activities for the English class

 www.oup.com/elt : English teaching resources and activities with explanations

adapted to the Spanish Education System.

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DIDACTIC UNITS

Didactic units can be defined as “units of planning and teaching action

designed around a set of activities that are developed around a period of time,

for the achievement of specific objectives”. Based on this definition, designing

the didactic units involves setting the contents, assessment criteria and

evaluable standards for each of them. This Teaching Planning comprises 101

sessions distributed into 15 Didactic Units which are timed as follows:

TERM DIDACTIC UNITS

1ST TERM 1-5

2ND TERM 6-11

3RD TERM 12-15

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