UNIT 2 - THE BIGGEST GIANTS ON EARTH

GRADE

This didactic unit have been designed for a sixth grade class in Primary Education.

MOTIVATION

The first thing that has to be taken into account is the interests of the students of this age. They are teenagers and their interests are not as childish as in the first stages of Primary Education. They are eager for participating in the world as adults, but at the same time they are still children. For instance, they enjoy games a lot and when a topic is presented like a game they enjoy it much more.

UNIT STRUCTURE

Al the Units of this Didactic planning have been structured in 7 sessions.

Each session will last 45 minutes.

The four skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing) will be worked separately in this order in different sessions, although the oral interaction will always reinforce the concepts that the pupils have to learn in all sessions. Last input must be the first output, because when you express something with your own words you do not forget it as easily as it happens when you listen to something passively.

In the fifth and the sixth session all the skills will be worked together and in the last session our students will be evaluated by doing a final task, though there are several activities along the unit which will be considered as partial tests of the students’ skills.

Topic:  USA’s geography, national parks and ecosystems.

Didactic main aim: To extend the pupils’ communicative competence by describing lanscapes and ecosystems of the National Parks of USA.

Vocabulary: National Park, sequoia, redwood, elk, bobcat, mountain lion, sea lion, sea pool, whale... // grow, climb... // big, bigger, biggest...

Structures:  Where is Redwood National Park? // How tall is a redwood? // Redwoods are more than 300 feet high. // That's twice the high of the Statue of Liberty. // What tree is the biggest/tallest? // Can you describe it?...

Socio-cultural aspects: The students will learn social and cultural aspects in volcanic areas of USA: Yellowstone and Hawaii Islands. They will study volcanic areas in Andalusia (Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park).

Resources: Written and oral descriptions, National Geographic magazine, internet links, the written lyrics of a song, and videos.

ACTIVITIES - Timing: 7 sessions (45 minutes each one).

SESSION 1 (LISTENING)

a. Warm-up activities: Guess what it is! (6 minutes)

b. Documentary video (Listening a video about a National Park in USA). (3 minutes)

c. Brainstorming: What do you know about this? (17 minutes)

d. Flashcards (Vocabulary presentation) (4 minutes)

e. Final task presentation: My favourite USA’s State (10 minutes)

f. End of class routine: Song (Tour the States) (5 minutes)

SESSION 2 (SPEAKING)

a. Warm-up activities: Video Intro (Listening a video about the tallest trees on Earth) (4 minutes)

b. What have you learnt? (16 minutes)

c. Invisible words (10 minutes)

d. Bets. (10 minutes)

e. End of class routine: Singing and dancing (5 minutes)

SESSION 3 (READING)

a. Warm-up activities: Picture Intro (5 minutes)

b. Guess the magical formula! (15 minutes)

c. Stars Hunters (20 minutes)

d. End of class routine: Singing and dancing (5 minutes)

SESSION 4 (WRITING)

a. Warm-up activities: Picture Intro (5 minutes)

b. Short Reading (10 minutes)

c. Complete the story (10 minutes)

d. Crosswords. (10 minutes)

e. End of class routine: Fill in the gaps of the lyrics (10 minutes)

SESSION 5 (4 SKILLS)

a. Warm-up activities: What's happenning there? (5 minutes)

b. Let’s Investigate as a Scientist! (20 minutes)

c. Let’s make your Volcano model (with play dough) (15 minutes) 

d. End of class routine: 30 seconds (5 minutes)

SESSION 6 (EVALUATION)

a. Warm-up activities: What's happenning there? (5 minutes)

b. WRITTEN TEST

b1. CROSSWORDS (15 minutes)

b2. PICTURE DESCRIPTION (15 minutes)

c. End of class routine: 30 seconds (5 minutes)

SESSION 7 (EVALUATION)

a. Warm-up activities: What's happenning there? (5 minutes)

b. FINAL TASK: Oral Exposition (30 minutes)

c. PORTFOLIO (5 minutes)

d. SELF EVALUATION (5 minutes)

Attention to the diversity - Reinforcement activities

Memory games (words-images), picture dictionary, picture dictation, ordering words...