PRESENTED BY:

NATALIA ANDREA CONTRERAS

“Now tell me why there is not anything written in this small piece of paper, what was the problem this time? Well… it is a usual comment in the English classes of the sixth graders of a private school. A teacher´s concern focuses especially on this low writing skill development.

Not only the teacher feels frustration due to the low performance students have in their writing skills but students who feel uncomfortable when writing as well. This has caused a big obstacle in the learning-teaching process which searches for improving every day students view toward English classes.

In this way it is possible to ask ourselves how to make students be more interested and identified with the English language? Maybe there are many ways to answer this question but not an absolute one. Bearing in mind those new and innovative resources and strategies to achieve that, this project will let students face some varied tasks that include interesting authentic material which related to a specific topic related to environmental issues will be useful for developing students´ writing skills.

This project is developed with a sixth graders group of a private school. They are 26 students who belong to a low and middle social stratum. Most of them are in the 10-11 age range. They have a low English level and especially some difficulties focused on their low writing skill development ( see appendix # 1 and # 2 graph 4) problem that has caused a low pace of learning-teaching process into the classroom. Although most of the students are motivated in English classes because of its usefulness and innovative resources and activities, they feel so insecure and uncomfortable in the moment to write a phrase or a short paragraph in English.(see appendix # 2)According to some findings collected through a short survey most of them have an easy access to the computers´ use and to internet (see appendix 3). It could facilitate the development of some of the tasks proposed to the project.

To let students explore the target culture in a meaningful, practical and real way.

To create an environmental awareness of the current situation of the planet they are living.

To allow student to feel comfortable and secure when they produce writings through significant and relevant activities for them.

To describe aspects and express feelings related to the animals

1. To divide the class in two groups, provide each group with a set of photos. Then, each group will describe what they perceive of the photos. After that, each group will get together and share the information among them. Finally, the most relevant information of each group will be used to design a poster. Two or three students of each group will be in charge of explain and present the poster(S) to the other group) and vice versa.

PHOTOS FOR GROUP 1

PHOTOS FOR GROUP 2

 Taken from different internet sources(zveno.ru, lpda, mossos d

´squadra)

1.2 STEPS FOR THE POSTER:

1.  Title ( be creative and relate it to the information)

2. An image trying to explain the content

3. Write the relevant information you collect in the group

4. Complete the following chart. Write the advantages and disadvantages of those animals according to their lifestyles and free comments about those animals

PRE-ACTIVITY 2.Now go to

http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/pet_trends/game/trendydog.html

a) Look, read and follow the instructions of this web site. Then, print the result and show it to your classmates making a short description of the pet you have created.

WHILE-ACTIVITY

b) After that, write 5 reasons explaining why you would like to have a pet and why you would not like to have a pet in your house, paste them on the wall to let other students stand up, read and write the answers they like the most

WHY WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE A PET?

____________________________________________________________________________________________

___

WHY WOULDN´T LIKE TO HAVE A PET AT

HOME?________________________________________________________________________________________

POST-ACTIVITY

c). finally, the students will be divided in small groups whose activity is to design two advertisements; one will be promoting the advantages to have a pet at home and the other promoting the disadvantages. It might contain the message and a picture. Anyway, the design and content is up to you.

EXAMPLE :

TAKEN FROM:profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user...

3.To divide the group in pairs and watch at the following video Then, the teacher will assign each small group three of the film animals to make a short description them but adding some new information related to the problems those animals have

Top 10 Most Endangered Species In THE WORLD [from www.metacafe.com].wmv

 3b. To go to page http://www.denverzoo.org/animals/fish.asp and read some other animals descriptions to learn more about animals and to know how to describe an animal.

IT HAS_______________________________________________

IT IS__________________________________________________

IT EATS______________________________________________

IT LIVES______________________________________________

IT CAN________________________________________________

ANIMALS´NAME

Taken from: http://z.about.com/d/gouk/1/7/1/J/-/-/GiraffeBaby1.jpg

To Describe The Animals Taking Into Account The Following Format example :

New information you can add:

Write 5 reason explaining why those animals are in danger of extinction___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Write 5 ways you can help to prevent that animals extintion since your city____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

a) In couples to read the following news from these web sites about two recent animals in extinction in the world:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080610192018.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080608074828.htm

Taken from

b)Now answer the following qestions:

What are the main causes of extinctions of these animals?

Do these animals exist yet?

How is the human being involved in this environmental problem?

What would you do for helping those animals?

B) Taking into account those questions and more information you can look for in other sources (magazines, newspapers, television,videos,music, etc,). Create and present a tv program in groups of 6 students. (BE CREATIVE AND TRY TO GIVE SOLUTIONS TO PREVENT ENDANGERED ANIMALS)

NOTE: to go to this web site about

scinces daily animals news for looking for more animals information: http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/plants_animals/extinction/

To this web site for tv programs: http://www.tudiscovery.com/programacion-de-tv/