During this last practicum I have had the opportunity to work with two amazing groups: 3A and 3B. Within this group I just had two pupils with special needs: one with behavioural problems and other one with obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, they were fully involved and participating actively in the activities. Like any other class, I faced different learning rhythms and needs which was a challenge and a very nice way of learning.
Nonetheless, I would like to highlight that they were full of energy and that they loved the teaching unit as much as I did. Moreover, having both classes allowed me to implement the teaching unit twice for each of the groups, learning from the implementation of the group that was the first and applying the improvements in the second implementation.
We were carrying out the lessons in a classroom only meant for English lessons which was full of material and resources for pupils to use and learn English.
Nonetheless, I would like to highlight that they were full of energy and that they loved the teaching unit as much as I did. Moreover, having both classes allowed me to implement the teaching unit twice for each of the groups, learning from the implementation of the group that was the first and applying the improvements in the second implementation.
We were carrying out the lessons in a classroom only meant for English lessons which was full of material and resources for pupils to use and learn English.
Teaching unit
This teaching unit originated from the desire of creating a MEANINGFUL and ENGAGING project as the last step before becoming real teachers. Moreover, it has a special value because it has been designed and carried out by four primary education students: Helena, Txell, Sònia and myself, Mar.
Together, we used co-teaching through our four school of teaching practices, to implement and adapt this adventure to different ages and contents which has end up in a transdisciplinary and very powerful teaching unit!
* Click on their pictures to discover their amazing web pages which contain a lot more of information!! :)
Together, we used co-teaching through our four school of teaching practices, to implement and adapt this adventure to different ages and contents which has end up in a transdisciplinary and very powerful teaching unit!
* Click on their pictures to discover their amazing web pages which contain a lot more of information!! :)
This was our driving question, which leaded us to create a robbery case in which pupils where transformed into detectives.
Each of us had a specific topic to work with, so, we decided to divide the case in four main areas to discover: 1. Who was the thief 2. What was stolen 3. Where was the treasure 4. When the robbery happened As it is showed in the pictures, each of the schools was responsible of one of the areas regarding the topics that were needed to work. Now it's time to share what Guerau de Liost’s detectives did in each of the sessions. If you prefer to check a summary of the teaching unit, please click on the button which is placed below! |
FIRST LESSON: "Introduction to Rose Mary's case" - 1h 30 minutes-
The class started with an unexpected letter from Rose Mary,addressed to 3rd graders ( A and B), asking for help and which contained an USB. One of the pupils read it and then they all guessed that the video was in the usb, so we put it in the computer of the class and we watched the video all together.
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Once we watched the video, we played it three more times while pupils individually were doing a listening comprehension to assess their listening skills. Then, we sent an email to Rose Mary presenting the group and asking to participate. Pupils were asked to volunteer to write the email, each of them could write part of the sentences so that most of the class participate. The rest of the pupils were providing language support by spelling the difficult words. We are also took a class picture to attach it to the email.
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Finally, pupils were given with a photocopy of Rose Mary’s Wikipedia profile and by groups, using the class distribution of 4 groups, they filled in a worksheet to practice their reading comprehension. We finished the class hanging up the results on the blackboard and going through them all together.
SECOND LESSON: "Checking previous knowledge about types of buildings and parts of the house" - 45 minutes-
The class started by reading Rose Mary’s answer email and we entered to the blog to explore it, reading our mission, which was discovering where was the treasure, and to seeing our class pictures.
To check the previous knowledge of the pupils about types of buildings some flashcards with different types of buildings were hanging up on the blackboard and pupils were asked to volunteer (one by one) to match the pictures with the flashcards of the names.
To check the previous knowledge of the pupils about the parts of the house, the poster of the house was hanging up on the blackboard. Pupils were asked to volunteer (one by one) to guess the names of each of the rooms. Once they sayed it out loud, they had to stand up, check the name opening the window and they had to write it on the blackboard.
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Finally, it was time for playing! Pupils were divided in 4 teams, using the way they were already sitting, and they were given with some buzzers. One of the flashcards of the types of buildings was shown and they had to press the buzzer as fast as they could. If the team did not guess it right, the second team that had pressed the buzzer had the right to answer, and so on. Once we had played some rounds like this, pupils were provided with a little white board and this time, they also had to press and write the name of the type of building.
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THIRD LESSON: "Discovering the 6 suspicious places" - 1h 30 minutes-
The class started recapping what we learned the last lesson. Pupils were asked to individually do an alphabet soup about types of buildings. Once they finished, they could move on to the worksheet of the house in which they had to design their house writing the name of each of the rooms and drawing the furniture. If they didn’t finish the worksheet it was asked for next session as homework to do.
Then, we entered to the blog to check our next mission, which consisted of finding the 6 suspicious places. Each of the 6 groups of pupils, using the way they were already sitting, were given with a tablet and one part of the map of Rose Mary’s neighbourhood in which they had 3 QR’s that represent three different buildings.
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Once they scaned it, they found a number and a sentence describing the building, once they guessed the name they hadto come back to the teacher and told the different names and numbers. If it was correct, they hung up their part of the map on the blackboard so that at the end we created the puzzle of the whole map of Rose Mary’s neighbourhood.
Afterwards, they were given with another sheet full of numbered QRs and they had to scan the 3 QRs with the numbers that they had previously discovered and they had to interpret the policemen clues to know which were the suspicious ones. The final step was to hang up the picture of the buildings that each of the teams had discovered, circle the suspicious one and explain to the rest of the class why was it suspicious. If they finished before, they could keep on working with the design of the house.
FOURTH LESSON: "Voting for What, Where, Who and When" -45 minutes-
We entered to the blog to check our next mission, which consisted of voting the possible thief, place, treasure and time. Each of the suspicious, for each of the topics, was described by the teacher so that pupils could decide what to vote. Then pupils were asked to explain what they had voted and why.
The results were the following ones:
FITH LESSON: "Finding where is the treasure" - 1h 30 minutes-
Before entering in the class, each of the pupils was given with a sticker of different color which determined his or her team (I was the one who created balanced teams regarding their needs and abilities). Then, I explained that the objective of the session was finding where was the treasure, but that to know it they had to pass some activities and I explained how the carousel works. Each of the groups was placed, by me, in one of the six group of tables. On the table they are found: one tablet, one Qr code, worksheets and some material if needed.
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Firstly, they had to scan the Qr code to see the instructions. Secondly, they had to take the worksheet with the rectangle of their colour and do the task. They had between 10 and 7 minutes to finish the task. When I sayed: STOP, they had to rotate, following clockwise, to the next task (all the groups of tables were numbered).
ACTIVITIES
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Once all the pupils had carried out all the activities, we corrected them all together (each group sayed one of the answers of each activity following clockwise). Once we had corrected all the activities, we discovered, one by one, which suspicious was in each of the colored envelopes and discovering if it the treasure was there or not (each of the teams opened the envelope ,matching with the color of the team, and it contained a yes or a no). Finally we ended up with two suspicious of the 6 ones and we discovered them simultaneously to discover where was the treasure (in the hotel). I showed the fake police evidence to make it more real.
SIXTH LESSON: "Creating the video" -45 minutes-
Pupils were explained about how the recording was going to be carried out. I distributed the scripts taking into account the language skills of the pupils. They had 10 minutes to colour and decorate their script although they could keep on doing that while their classmates were being recorded. I recorded the pupils in groups of two or three. In addition, some other pupils were asked to volunteer to also appear in the video showing the material of the different activities. Finally, I gathered all the class to say the place where the treasure was hidden all together.
SEVENTH LESSON: "Watching the final video and sharing the reward" -40 min-
They watched the video and discovered that the florist stole the paint the fourth day and that it was hidden in the hotel. An explanation of why this happened was provided. Finally, pupils were asked to assess the T.U and the performance of me, as a teacher, to obtain the second part of the reward (lacasitos).