Guidelines for the development of

Spanish-British integrated curriculum in Early Childhood

Education

Silvia Bautista Martín

Literature and Literacy in Early Language Learning Education

Index1) Introduction2) Teaching through Topics3) Developing Social Skills4) Literacy Skills

1. Introduction

An unique experiment within the Spanish state education system initiated in 1996

Its main aim is providing children from the age of 3-16 with a bilingual, bi-cultural education through an integrated Spanish/English curriculum based on the Spanish National Curriculum and the national Curriculum for England and Wales.

What is the MEC/British council bi-lingual project?

The team of the project called the working party consists of 6 teachers:

3 Spanish 3 British 2 memembers of

the Comisión de Seguimiento

The especific ones are…

1)To promote de acquisition and learning of both lanugages through an integrated content-basesd curriculum.

2)To encourage awareness of the diversity of both cultures.

3)To facilitate the exchange of teachers and children.

4)To encourage the use of modern technologies in learning other languages.

5)If appropiate, to promote the certification of studies under both educational systems.

What else we need to know about this project?

In the initial stages, the children’s

understanding of English will largely be

demonstrated through non-verbal

response to the language

The spanish class teacher and the project teacher

must plan closely together to ensure that the

concepts are covered and understood in both

languages.Besides, the assessment

will be informal.There are good reasons for introducing pre-reading, reading and writing skills in English while the children are still in the infant class:- The exposure to both

languages helps the children perceive the differences between spoken and writing language positively.

- Acquiring the language orally is greater if this is accompanied by written words and meaninful contexts.

- Fluent readers and creative writers are achieved.

1- Planning and co-ordination between the Spanish teachers and the English teachers within each class is

essential.

2- Planning between years and between the transition stage of infant and primary. SENSE OF CONTINUITY.

4- All children at the end of the cycle should be

assessed on the attaintment targets.

In fact, teachers who are already achieving these targets can extend the

core contents.

3- We must cover all the

topics as well as concepts in numeracy,

literacy and knowledge and understanding of the world

by the end of the cycle.

Recommendations

2- Teaching through topics It’s essential to… Value the importance of the development of the whole child:

cognitive, physical, emotional and social. Remember that we are teaching contents in English as

opposed to TEFL. Develop meaningful and motivating topics for young

children:

1- Myself 2- I go to school3- Our homes and

families4- People who help us

5- Traditional fairytales

6- Animals 7- Seasons 8- Festivals 9- Transport 10- We go shopping

3- Developing social skills1. Class routines

• Enjoy participating in a story

• Enjoy listenig to each other in the group situation

• Show a willingness to tidy up and pleasure in helping

• Participate in class routines in a quiet manner

2. Greetings and goodbyes

• Say good morning, good afternoon, hello and goodbye

• How are you? Fine, thank you

3. Feelings• Express feelings: happy, sad cross, angry, hungry,

frightened, scared, surprised, shy…• Express love for family and affection• Value the friendship and help of others• Have positive self-steem, actively paricipate in class and

enjoy seeing displays of their own work and that of their peers

• Play different roles and express emotions using dramatisation

• Participate with pleasure at parties and celebrations

4. Personal hygiene and health• Understand and respect dining-room rules like: “Wash

your hands before you eat”, “Brush your teeth after eating”.

• Understand the sweets cause tooth decay.• Have an awareness of the importance of a balanced diet.• Enjoy eating fruit.

5. Behaviour patterns• Take pleasure in listening.• Learn to choose and

make thoughtful decisions.

• Say “please” and “thank you”

• Be able to dress and undress themselves

...

6. Sharing and participating

• Realise that the classroom equipment belongs to everyone

• Share classroom equipment, and take turns to use things

• Enjoy tidying up, and know where to put things

…7. Showing respect

• Realise the importance of taking it in turns to speak• Take care of classroom equipment• Appreciate plants and animals

…

4- Literacy skillsLiterature involves the

four skills of

languageUnderstandi

ng

Speaking

Reading

Writing

The teaching of literacy skills ensure children gradually be able to read and write with fluency, accuracy and understanding. But above all, with

pleasure.

Why do teachers need

develop them?

Choosing books and involving children in reading and writing 1) Choose books which have an exciting, funny or

unexpected ended.2) Use fact as well as fiction right from the start to show

children that books can be about extracting information.3) Use books on famiar topics.4) Encourage children to observe features of text and talk

about them: ilustrations, fiction and non-fiction, familar authors…

5) Children should participate in reading the text or telling the story. In the classroom there should be an attractive comfortable book corner.

6) Select books with rhyme, rhythm and repetition.7) Involve the children in the creation of class books and

give them opportunities to do it.8) Ensure that children are surrounded by print to help

them become. aware of written text and meaning: label classroom areas, charts…

9) Demonstrate we read print from left to righ and where a word starts and finishes. Involve them in activities wich develop this awareness.

10)Teach the children to treat the books with care, respect and love.

Development of decoding skills: teaching phonics

At this stage should be a focus on the letter sound, not the alphabet name.

We must provide opportunities to develop an awareness of phonics, e.g. introducing the initial consonant sounds then

the end consonant sounds.

Phonis should be presented in a simulating attractive way.

Appropiate learning activities are: Have a sound box from which children can discover objects

beggining with the sound. Choose a story relating to an object from the sound box. Create a display of objects, name cards and words with the

same initial sounds.

Development of creative writing

Encourage children to experiment with writing creatively in English even if the initial attempts are difficult for you to understand.

Ask the children to read back their written text to you.

Use the children’s writing as a means of diagnosing the stage of the individual child’s their work.

Use the “teacher as scribe” approach both as a model in the whole class sessions and as a model for children to copy in their drawings/labels, etc.