Planining Didactic Units

Legislative Framework 

The main structural law is: LOMCE.

• Groups
• All students are equal

For the plannning we need the main document, the primary education curriculum and the relation amog competences, contets, moreover the primary education curriculum ceuta (Orden ECD/686/2014).

The basic document is the LOMCE that defines the curriculim as: the regulation of the elements that manage the teaching.

Key competences

The nomenclature and definition of key competences in the Lomce is based on a European commission document on 21st century competences:

• Linguistic competence
• Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology
• Digital
• Learning to learn
• Social and civic competences
• Iniative and entrepeneurship
• Cultiral awareness and expression

Curriculum of Primary Education

The new curriculum will be integrated by:

1. The objetctives; they are the reference odels related to the outcomes the students must achieve at the end of the educational process. 
2. The key competences or capacities to activate and apply the contents in an integrated way, with the aim of achieving the appropiate fulfillment of activities and the effective solving of complex problems. 

Contents

The contents, or sets of knowledge, abilities, skills and attitudes that contribute to the achievement of the objectives and the acquisition of the competences.

Evaluation criteria

Evaluation criteria: they are the specific referent models to evaluate students' learning. They describe what must be assessed and students must achieve. 

The didactic methodolgy taht includes both: 

• A description of teaching practices.
• Ther organization of teachers work. 

This is to say , it is a set of strategies procedures and organized actions. 

Evaluative learning

They are specification of the evaluation criteria that allow to define the learning results and that specify what the students must know, understand, know how to do in English. They must be observable, measurable, gradable. 

Autonomy of schools

Schools will habe autonomy to elaborate approve and carry out. 

Your school

We have to focus on the education project which have a pedagogical proposal divided into three aspects:

1. School educational offer
2. Curricular proposal
3. Didactic plannings

Planning

For each of the communicative tasks listed and described in the standards. We will have to incorporate the set of contents included in its corresponding block of activity to evaluate the degree of acquisition of each of the learning standars of a particular language activity we have to apply each and 

Communicative task

Set of contents:

1. Strategies
2. Cultiral aspects
3. Communicative functions
4. Phonetics/orthography
5. Syntax
6. Lexicon

The curricular proposal

It will be elaborated by the stage teaching team, and will comprise the following elements :

1. Contextualisation of the stage objectives and the integration of the key competences in the cirricular  elements.
2. Methodological and didactic principles.
3. Strategies and instruments for the evaluation of students learning 
4. Curricular and organisational measures of individual attention

Criteria for grade advancement.

1. Reading plan. 
2. Information and communication technologies plan. 
3. Integration of cross-curricular elements.
4. Agreement for improving learning outcomes. 

Didactic planning.

It will be elaborated by the team that teaches in the same school year. It must include, at least, the followuing elements:

1. Sequence and timing of contents.
2. Profile of each key competence or relation between  the evaliative learning  standards and each competence. The elaboration of these  profiles the key competences will majke its evaluation easier.
3. Evaluation criteria
4. Strategies and instruments for the students' learning
5. Methodological and didactic decisions.
6. Procedures of elaboration and evaluation of the curricular adaptation
7. Didactic resources.
8. Student's materials, including textbooks. 
9. Program of extra-curricular and complementary activities. 
10. Evaluation procedure of the didactic planning and indicators. 

Evaluation

It will be continuos

Listening, speaking, reading and wrtiting (IV)

WRITING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

The process of learning to write in a foreign language should be started in Primary Education and it really never ends. 

Academic: writing is the production of sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and linked together to form a coherent whole called text.

From a communicative perspective we could understand writing as "the ability to communicate with each other and express our own ideas in written form".

Specific skills attached to writing

Writing is clearly a complex process requiring the ability to manipulate many sub-skills simultaneously.

Graphic or Visual skills

Spelling: difference between pronunciation and spelling in the English language. How can our students improve their spelling? We advise them to: 

1. Select priority words to learn. 
2. Get plentiful, regular practice. 
3. Know about the language.
4. Learn techniques
5. Develop an interest in words. 
6. Check their work. 
7. Have confidence in themselves

Punctuation: learning how to use punctuation correctly is a slow and laborious process. It should be started from the very beggining. 

Layout: there are certain conventions on how to write a letter, construct a paragraph, organise a written text and so on that are culturally determined. 

Grammatical Skills

This refers to the students' skill in making efficient use of the grammatical structures and constructions. 

Expressive or Stylistic skills

This includes the leraner's capacity to select the most appropiate meaning in a range of styles and registers. Sociolinguistic competence. 

Rethorical Skills

This refers to the ability to use lingusitic cohesive devices -what we call "connectors" and "modifiers"- in order to link parts of  a text into logically related sequences. Discourse competences.

Organisational Skills

The organisation of pieces of information into paragraphs and texts.

Relationship between the four skills

It is an obvious fact that languages are spoken before they are written. There are people who communicate perfectly in the spoken language without being able to express themselves in writing. When introducing the skills we should know what stage the learners are at in the acquistion of their first language skills. Only when children are confident with reading and writing in L1 can we begin the task with L2. 

At begginer levels in particular, writing practice should be aimed at, reinforcing the learning of lingusitic elements which have been practised orally, without practice and structures of written language itself. 

Integrated skills: it means that we can create activities, tasks where the four basic skills are practiced. 

Listening, speaking, reading and wrtiting (III)

READING

Characteristic of written language

Permanence	The time can access the information in the written form as many times as needed. Oral language, on the contrary, vanishes after being uttered.
Processing time	The processing time needed to decode the information is greater and readers can read at their own rate.
Distance	The context is which the text is written is different from that in which is read. Consequently, readers interpret the written material using their back ground knowledge and trying in minimizing the effects of the passing of time and sociocultural conventions. Besides, the reader cannot confront the author and question him/her about the text.
Orthography	Written language is materialized   through graphemes. These are accompanied by punctuation marks, pictures or charts. Thus, it may be more difficult to interpret written language than oral language since this is enriched with suprasegmental features and non verbal language
Complexity	Written language tends to have longer clauses and more complex sentences than spoken language.
Vocabulary	Written language usually presents a more varied and more formal lexical register. The writer makes use of more precise lexical items since he/she has more processing time and lower-frequency words often appear.
Formality	Written language makes use of conventionalize forms which enable the reader to recognize the type of text. In addition to this, a written text presents some rhetorical devices which the reader should know in advance in order to make sense of it. As Brown (2011) said : conventions like paragraph topics: :… a logical order for, say, comparing and contrasting something:… openings and closing: and  a preference for non-redundancy and subordination clauses, etc”.

Approaches to reading in a foreign/second language

Bottom-up process is based upon the assumption that the reader starts from decoding the most specific levels of the language before grasping the mos specific levels of the language before grasping the most general ones.  The reader first recognises individual letters, forms words, these in turn make up phrases, then clauses, sentences, texts... Later on, they make use of their linguistic  mechanisms to make some sort of sense of the data. 

Numerous activities to develop the learner's bottom up strategies and subsequently allow him/her to process the text in this way. 

1. Identofying words by letter comninations
2. Difficult sound clusters
3. Re-ordering scrambled words and matching
4. Discriminating minimal pair sounds
5. Reading and stress.

Top-down process starts from the higher levels of proessing and proceeds to use the lower levels selectively. Background knowledge plays a key role since the reader combines what they already know with the new information from the text to achieve a personal interpretation. 

1. Deducing from context.
2. Relating written text to general world knowledge.
3. Drawing inferences.

Interactive process (evlectic approach) the reader, depending on their purpose, the type of text, etc, activates different strategies which shift from bottom-up to top-down  and viceversa. This has come to be known as interactive reading.

The common European framework of reference for languages points the level of English for the reading skills:

• C2.- The reader can read without difficulty almost all forms of texts, including abstract, structurally or linguistically complex texts such as manuals, specialised articles and literary works.
• C1.- The reader can understand long and complex factual and literary texts, appreciating distinctions of style. The reader can understand specialised articles and long technical instructions, even when they are not related to his field.
• B2.- The reader can read articles and reports connected with contemporary problems in which the weriters adop particular attitudes or viewpoints. The reader can understand contemporary literary prose (short stories and popular novels).
• B1.- The reader can undestand texts that consist mainlu of high frecuency everyday or job-related language. The reader can understand the description of events, feelings and wishes.
• A2.- The reader can read very short, simple texts, specific, predictable information in simple veryday material such as advertisements, prospectuses, menus and timetables. The reader can understand short simple personal letters.
• A1.- The reader can understand familiar names, words and very simple senteces, for example on notices and posters or in catalogues. 

Styles of reading applicable to the reading class

Reading alour or reading silently:

• Silent reading:
• The most common and natural type of reading. Different goals can be pursued dependind on the predetermined purpose of  reading.
• Scanning: search of especific information within a text: relevant dates, numbers in a directory, times on a timetable or key concepts in an academic text.
• Skimming: very common in everyday life; used to ger a global impression of the content of a text. It requires a definite reading competence because it implies and over-view of the text. Develops students' self-confidence since they obtain a lot of information without needing much reading. 
• Intensive: focuses on lingusitic and content accurancy. It is very important in some educational contexts because it is used to exemplify different aspects of the lexical, sytactic and discourse systems. Full understanding of the literal meaning presented in the written passage. 
• Extensive: oriented towards grasping a general inderstanding og the text for the purpose of enjoyment or learning. Text are usually long such as books or articles and reading them takes extended periods of time. Extensive reading is not usually perfomed during class time it is known that this activity helps students to improve their reading abilities. 

• Reading aloud:
• In the first years of Primary education, storytelling plays an important role in the process of learning.
• More effective if the story is told aloud due to the fact that learners become more involved and consequently more motivated. 
• Students can show that they recognises written and spoken forms and the relationship between form and meaning. 
• At early and intermediate levels, it can be used to check bottom-up processing skills or simply pronunciation. 
• It is not a ver authentic activity.
• It is a boring activity because while one student is reading, the others can easily lose attention. 
• It is not an interactive activity because students only have to recite. 

An extensive reading programme for children.

Goals for an extensive reading programme.

Take into account institutional goals and expectations for learning (students' goals, language abilities, L1 and L2 reading experiences, students' motivations and attitudes toward reading in general and particular goals of the curriculum). 

Plan reading curricula in relation to specific goals (hours of intruction per wek, aailable resources, etc.), topics, texts and tasks. 

Select appropriate text materials and supporting resources according to levels of difficulty. Diversify students' erading experiences (reading in different places: classroom, library, or home).

Work with texts within a pre-, during- and pos-reading framework.  Recognise the complex nature of reading through meaningful instructions (vocabulary development careful reading of the texts, awareness of text structure and discourse organisation, the use of graphic organisers to support comprehension, strategic reading, sudent motivation and integrated-skills tasks). 

Types of texts.

• Authentic texts refer to readings which have not been adapted or modified in any way for teaching purposes. 
• Pedagogic texts are reading that have been especially written for the language classroom. 
• Adapted texts or Graded readers aim to facilitate the language and content of the text in order to make more accessible to the language learner. 
• Chart for keeping track of student's readings

Task to develop reading skills

Task before reading to introduce the topic of reading and to activate schemata, that is, previous world knowledge. The teacher may also decide to introduce structural items. Five main goals of pre-reading instruction:

1. It enables the reader to access background knowledge.
2. It simulates student's interest.
3. Ir provides specific information needed for successgul comprehension.
4. Ir sets up student's expectations.
5. It models strategies that students can use later their own. 

Task after reading. Post-reading instruction extends ideas and information contained in the text. It also docuses on ensuring that the main ideas have been perfectly grasped and understood. 

Listening, speaking, reading and wrtiting (II)

READING

Reading is one of the four basic skills needed to gain competence in mastering a language. It is a written receptive skill. To achieve full comprehension, it is necessary interaction between  the information given and the reader's expectations. 

1. Reasons for reading and text selection

The ability to read effectively is fundamental for survival in our western society. Whenever we read, we have a specific purpose in mind. Sometimes, we read simply to get the gist of th text or to locate a concrete piece of information.

Reasons for reading	Text selection
·         To get information or search for information	·         Travel brochures ·         Train timetable ·         Bus schedule ·         Public signs ·         Weather forecast ·         Menus ·         Internet: web sites.
·         To satisfy to curiosity about a topic	·         Magazine articles ·         Newspaper editorials ·         Advertisements ·         Internet
·         To follow instructions	·         To know how to use a game ·         Recipes ·         Maps
·         To keep in touch	·         Postcards ·         Letters ·         Notes ·         Messages ·         Invitations ·         Emails
·         To find out when and where	·         Announcements ·         Programmes

Text shoul be adapted to the learner's cognitive development. Texts should cover a wide variety of topic in order to reflect the diversity of interests present in the classroom. Text should enhance motivation and promote self-esteem. They should reflect situations where the learner can activate his/her schemata and enrich the interpretation and should introduce some of the most important cultural references of the target language. The selecte text should be the result of a needs analysis.

Types of knowledge	Text selection
Sytantic knowledge	-          Position or articles -          Position of auxiliary verbs -          Position of adjectives and adverbs.
Morphological knowledge	-          Word formation (affixation compounding) -          Cohesive devices
General knowledge	-          Background knowledge
Sociocultural knowledge	-          Cultural references
Topic knowledge	-          Previous ideas related to the content
Genre knowledge	-          Science fantasy novel -          Tale -          Poems.

The Organic Law for the Improvement of Quality of Education. The curriculum of primary education

The methodology should be communicative, active, participative and collaborative.

•        LOMCE-LOE

LOMCE is not a law itself, but a modification of the previous one, so the basic document is the LOE, so it introduces new aspects and some others have been removed.

LOMCE do change what LOE states.

The curriculum is Ceuta doesn’t introduce objectives, but for instance in Andalucía does introduce them.

•       OBJECTIVES

a.      To reduce variations in requirements and demands within education systems throughout the country.

b.      To lower the drop-out rates in compulsory educational levels (pupils under the age of 16).

c.       To improve levels of achievements in Compulsory Secondary Education.

d.      To establish a clear system of profess indicators according to education objectives.

e.      To increase the autonomy of schools.

f.        To generalize and spread the use of ICT within education.

g.      To improve foreign languages learning.

h.      To promote and update vocation training studies. 

•        KEY COMPETENCES

The nomenclature and definition of Key competences in the LOMCE is based on a European Commission document on 21^st century competences. There are seven competences defined by the LOMCE. These focus on preparing children for the future, developing skills and attitudes that will help them to enjoy a good quality of life and to successfully interact with others in the contexts they are likely to encounter in their daily lives.

1.      Linguistic competence

2.      Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology

3.      Digital competence

4.      Learning to learn

5.      Social and civic competences

6.      Initiative and entrepreneurship

7.      Cultural awareness and expression

•          SUBJECTS

     Within the LOMCE subjects are classified in three ways:

1.          Obligatory core subjects

a.      These are the same for pupils throughout the country, so they should take up at least 50% of the school timetable.

                                                              i.      Natural Sciences

                                                            ii.      Social Sciences

                                                          iii.      Spanish Language and literature

                                                           iv.      Mathematics

                                                             v.      First Foreign Language

2.          Obligatory specific subjects:

a.      Physical education and (religion or social and civic values).

b.      At least one of the following.

                                                              i.      Artistic Education

                                                            ii.      Second Foreign Language

                                                          iii.      Religion

                                                           iv.      Social and Civic values

      Elective subjects dependent on the Autonomous Community or School: these subjects are designed by each of the Autonomous Community.

•          ASSESSMENTS

   3^rd Primary, this is a diagnostic evaluation to detect difficulties and implement improvement measures. Each Autonomous Community carries these out and there are no academic repercussions.

    6^th Primary, this is an external exam, the same for all students across the country. The Government will develop and design the evaluation criteria and characteristics for these tests. Competences are measured: what the students knows and what the student knows how to do. The result will be informative and orientative for Secondary Education.

• ICT

The LOMCE emphasizes the importance of digital literacy and the appropriate use of technology to assist learning and build children’s confidence with technology and a to allow teachers to create a tailored digital solution to suit their pupils’ needs and their teaching context.

• FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Command of a second language, or even a third foreign language is a priority in Education as a consequence of the process of globalization. Nevertheless, there are still shortcomings in our educational system.

The promotion of plurilingualism is an objective that cannot be given up in the construction of a European Project.

The law definitely supports plurilingualism, so that students can express themselves fluently at least in one foreign language. 

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