Enhanced Lesson Plan

For this assignment, we have decided to enhance a lesson plan used for the 4th year practicum. Students in this class had been working with a diverse variety of movies. The communicative goal and final task proposed for the lesson plan was to ask students to write a movie review.

What we have decided to enhance was the final task. In the original lesson plan, the students were asked to do a movie review in an Instagram post. In this enhanced lesson plan, the students will write it using the tool Jaguar Paw. Before doing this, the students will use another tool: Cube Creator.

The Teacher will divide the students in groups and each group will be assigned a movie that they will have to work on. Once each group has their movie, they will discuss the most important and main aspects of the movie; those aspects that are relevant to take into account for a movie review. In order to achieve this, they will work with Cube Creator. Cube Creator is an excellent tool to summarise information and it’s amazing as a pre-writing activity, since it will help them synthesise.

Once they’ve completed all the information required to put the cube together, they will print it and have it done as a basis for their story. Once this is done, it’s time to get them working on their draft. This draft will be improved as they work together. After this, they will start working on Jaguar Paw. This tool is a newspaper generator. By using it, students can feel motivated to write their pieces since it will end up looking just as if it had been published in a newspaper. The final version of their reviews can be printed and compiled in a sort of class newspaper for them to take home.

SEN Model

According to Hockley (2017), SEN students can really benefit from technology since it provides a wide gamut of possibilities. These tools can help students gain confidence and build self-esteem, also, it can help them to work independently or in groups; thus, overcoming frustration. In the activity proposed, SEN students are well catered for. By using the Cube Creator, students who have hyperactivity disorder can make the summaries of their movies in a more fun, entertaining and dynamic way. Also, by using Jaguar Paw, students with visual impairments or who suffer from dyslexia can modify the background colour, the size and font of the letter used, in order to accommodate them to their needs.

SAMR Model

This model designed by Puentedura categorises four different degrees of classroom technology integration:

• Substitution: Technology has substituted existing processes with no change. These two tools used have replaced pieces of paper or Gdoc/Word documents but they haven’t replaced the steps needed in order to craft a review.

• Augmentation: The use of technology in this lesson plan makes improvements in the process. It is a great opportunity to get our students to work with different tools that they may have never used before and get them acquainted with new ways of working; in this way, they can improve on their 21^st century skills.

• Modification: The final task has been redesigned in order to have a new purpose; writing a review for a newspaper. As it has been stated before, this can help them to get acquainted with new tools that they probably knew nothing of.

• Redefinition: This is the last stage of the model. Here, technology has transformed the student’s experience by making it more collaborative, creative and authentic. The final task wouldn’t have been possible without technology: the tools selected really facilitate students’ production.

Assistive Technology (AT)

AT is any item, piece of equipment, software program, or product system that is adapted or designed to help people with SEN and disabilities. It gives students tools to work more independently and can help overcome barriers to learning. In the English class, it can help with reading and writing, organisation, motivation and working memory. AT helps students gain confidence and build self-esteem, improve literacy, work independently, show what they know, and overcome frustration and tiredness.

Some learners with SEN find abstract concepts and theories difficult to grasp. Allowing them to use the internet to look up information in class makes learning meaningful and relevant. They can focus on actual events in real time and find solutions to real-life problems. They also realice how useful English skills are when using the internet.​ The use of AT has given students with SEN opportunities to overcome barriers to learning and express themselves in new and exciting ways.

In this lesson plan, we are applying AT to give students planning and organising support​. Students with SEN often have trouble organising their thoughts and ideas. Graphic organisers can make a big difference to all kinds of writing and learning tasks. They appeal to visual learners and work by breaking down pieces of information into smaller, more manageable steps.​ In this case, we are using Cube Creator as a prewriting task to help them organise their ideas so then they can write their pieces.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Institution​: Escuela Normal Superior N° 10 "Juan Bautista Alberdi"

Course:​ 3ro.

Number of students:​ 26.

Time allotted: 80 minutes

Available tools: Each student has at their disposal notebooks with wifi-connection.

Student teachers: Alvarez, Petersen, Raisis

Topic:​ Films.

Function:​ Expressing comparison.

Grammar Focus:​ Comparative and superlative degree of adjectives - revision.

Final Task: After 6 classes, students will write a film review using the tool Jaguar Paw. Before doing this, the students will use Cube Creator to summarise important facts of that film.

ACTIVATION (5 minutes)

• VOCABULARY REVISION: Students will benefit from this activity because the words are really useful for the final task.

Teacher will present the following vocabulary items. She will ask students if they remember these words. The teacher will divide students in two groups, according to their seating arrangement, in order to play a short game. She will bring one picture for each word and she will have it covered with a sheet of paper. Slowly, she will start uncovering it and students have to guess which word is it. The first group guessing the word wins one point. One by one, as students guess, the teacher will paste the images on the board next to the word.

AUDIENCE - CHARACTER - EPISODE - SERIES - REVIEW - SCREEN - HIT - SPECIAL EFFECTS

SYSTEMATIZATION - REVISION

Task 1: FOCUS ON FUNCTION (10 min)

Students will play a game. They will be divided into teams and they will take turns to spin a wheel. They will have to decide if the sentence they got has comparatives, superlatives or none. The teacher will explain that they are already familiar with the sentences as they were extracted from the texts students have read so far. For each correct answer they get a point:

https://wordwall.net/resource/33735156

Task 2: FOCUS ON FORM (10 min)

Teacher will give students the following activity for them to revise comparative and superlative rules. Before starting, she will explain to them the task and she will tell them that they should use what they have copied in their notebooks on previous lessons as help:

This activity will be corrected orally. And the teacher will clarify queries, if any, using the board.

ORIGINAL FINAL TASK (50 minutes)

La profesora recapitulará lo visto en las clases anteriores. Han aprendido vocabulario relacionado a las películas, como los tipos y los componentes y han repasado comparativos y superlativos, una estructura muy útil para comparar y describir películas. Ahora, llevarán a cabo el proyecto introducido en la primera clase de esta unidad. Los alumnos se pondrán en parejas (como están sentados) para hacer una reseña en Instagram sobre su película favorita.

The teacher will give students the following photocopy.

After they have finished, the teacher will ask some of them to read theirs aloud.

ENHANCED FINAL TASK (50 minutes)

The Teacher will divide the students in groups. Each group will be assigned a movie that they will have to work on. Once each group has their movie, they will discuss the most important and main aspects of the movie; those aspects that are relevant to take into account for a movie review. In order to achieve this, they will work with Cube Creator.

Once they’ve completed all the information required to put the cube together, they will print it and have it done as a basis for their story. Once this is done, it’s time to get them working on their draft. This draft will be improved as they work together. After this, they will start working on Jaguar Paw (newspaper generator)

The teacher will give students the following photocopy.

After they have finished, the teacher will ask some of them to read theirs aloud.

Hockly, N.(2017) Unit 45: 10 things to know about SEN students and technology. EtPedia: Technology.pp.

Dincer, Nazmi . «The SAMR Model for Technology Integration». Myeltcafe, 6 de febrero de 2020, https://myeltcafe.com/articles/the-samr-model-for-technology-integration/ .

Applying the SAMR Model in the ELT Classroom – PeacheyPublications.Com. https://peacheypublications.com/applying-the-samr-model-in-the-elt-classroom

Delaney, M. (2016) Special Educational Needs. Chapter 6: Assistive Technology. Oxford: OUP