Unit of Work Sample

COURSE: 5th/ 6th year
LEVEL: Nivel II- Ciclo Orientado de Secundaria-(NAPS)/ B2- Intermediate (CEFR)
THEME: Traditions and Festivals in Argentina
FINAL TASK: At the end of the unit students will work in groups to create a power point
presentation about a traditional festival celebrated in Argentina and will present it to the class.
GENERAL OBJECTIVE:
During the unit students will:

-Activate, recycle and revise previous linguistic knowledge and develop communication skills to
fulfil the final task proposed in this unit of work.
-Develop cultural awareness and intercultural learning by developing an understanding of a wide
range of cultural issues related to their own community and to the target language community.
SPECIFIC LINGUISTIC OBJECTIVES:
During the unit students will develop ability and knowledge to:
- Read and understand texts that provide information about traditional festival celebrated
in Argentina.
- Organize and select relevant data to describe a traditional festival celebrated in Argentina.
- Apply linguistic contents necessary to fulfil the enabling and communication tasks
proposed as well as the final task.
- Give an oral presentation with the help of a visual support (Power Point)
CONTENTS
-Thematic aspects
(N) Words and phrases related to festivals and customs (e. g bonfire; fireworks; disguise; )
(R) Adjectives to describe people and place (e. g crowded; cheerful; traditional)
Linguistic Contents
- Grammar: (R) Verb tenses (Present Simple, past simple and present perfect); discourse
markers and linkers.
- Vocabulary: (R) Useful expressions to give an oral presentation (To start this
presentation/ our presentation will be divided in... /Let’s move to the next slide / As I said
before. / To conclude our presentation/ etc)
- Language functions: exchanging information; identifying and stating differences between
written and spoken discourse; describing people and places.
- Language Skills: the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) will be worked
and developed in and integrated way.
Other Contents:
- Language –culture connections
- Technological knowledge acquired in other subjects of the curriculum ( Word processor/
PP format)
PROCESS
1
During the task cycle students will carry out a variety of tasks that will be “goal oriented”.
Language will be the vehicle to achieve task goals but the emphasis is on meaning and
communication. Students will also be given an opportunity to use the language purposefully to
collaborate and to be actively involved in the learning process as well as being able to take
language risks.
It is also very important to highlight that this way of organizing language learning activity take
into consideration both formal knowledge (functional, grammatical and lexical context) and the
instrumental knowledge( built up through the unit as the result of students’ participation in the
series of communication tasks proposed).
Day 1 ((80-minute lesson) - INTRODUCING THE THEME

- The teacher explains the objectives of the unit proposed and the final task students are expected
to fulfil at the end of the unit of work.
-Immediately after, the teacher delivers a text called “British traditions and festivals –Bonfire
Night that introduces students to the theme “festivals and tradition”.
- After reading the text aloud, the teacher asks students some oral questions in order to check if
they have understood the text main ideas ( e. g what the text is about, when and why this
celebration is held in Britain nowadays, what is the story behind this celebration)
-Then, the teacher proposes another oral activity to elicit student’s previous
knowledge/experiences about festivals. (Have you ever been in a traditional festival celebration?
When and where was it held? / Who did you go with? / Which activities were carried out during
the event? The teacher encourages students to speak aloud /to air their views.
-Students are then shown a power point about “Bonfire Night” celebrations
(https://es.slideshare.net/lauracdh1/bonfire-night-powerpoint) as a model to be followed in the
final task.
- In pair, students are asked to write down the differences and the similarities they can find
between the information presented in text and the information provided by the power point.
-As a closure, students read aloud the differences/similarities they’ve have spotted.
Day 2 (40-minute lesson) - RESEACH STARTS!

- Students are divided in small groups.
- In the computer room, the teacher provides students with a shortlisted internet sites to explore
in order to find information about traditional festivals celebrated in Argentina.
-Students have to make a list of the festivals encountered and their main characteristics. The data
collected can be edited and rearranged using text editor, such as Notepad or a word processor and
be saved in a digital file.
Day 3 (80- minute lesson) - HANDS ON!

- To start the lesson students, share the information they’ve found and selected in the previous
lesson. They read this information aloud and the teacher asks them to define which specific
information they think could be included in the description of each festival.
- The teacher proposes a consciousness-raising activity to identify words/phrases/expressions that
appear in the different extracts. After noticing these words, students work out the definition of
these words or look them up into the dictionary (printed and online language dictionaries that are
available in the classroom).
- In groups, students start a debate about which details to include and once they have reached an
agreement , they have to take note of the details already agreed by the class (name of the festival,
2
when and where it is celebrated, what activities are carried out during the celebration, what is the
story behind it, how long the festival lasts)
- At this stage, each group is assigned a festival to start working on their final task (delivering an
oral presentation with a visual support)
- Students start organizing the information selected and summarized in a word file; they discuss
the best way of assembling the information and start surfing the net to find appropriate images to
accompany/illustrate the selected extracts.
- During this lesson, the teacher goes around the class monitoring student’s work and tutoring
them so as everybody has the chance to be supported and helped during the completion of the
final task.
Day 4 (40- minute lesson) THE LAST STEP!

-Students complete the final task and rehearse what they will present to the class the following
lesson. The teacher combines the role of prompter and resource by providing students with the
necessary language support and helping them improve their pronunciation (language focus)
Day 5 (80-minute lesson) LET’S SHARE OUR PRODUCTIONS!

-Students perform the final task. They give their oral presentation to the class supported by a
visual aid (power point presentation)
-After listening to every group, the teacher takes the last minutes of the lesson to give students a
brief feedback on their performances.
EVALUATION
-Carried out by the teacher:

Assessment will be carried out throughout the unit. It will be continuous (on-going) and final
(overall assessment). Students performances will be constantly and systematically observed. The
information will be collected on a profile sheet (checklists, rating sheets, rubrics completion) to
assess students in the four language skills.
Teacher will assess students’ responsibility and engagement during the whole process.
Participation as well as spontaneous interactions will be also assessed.
The assessment of the final task will be in term of outcome. Students will have to accomplish the
final task proposed (Power Point presentation) and this presentation should be well –organized,
informative and have clear objectives. It will also have to give evidence of collaborative work.
Students’ individual performance will be also assessed in terms of accuracy and fluency
- Carried out by the students:

In order to promote student’s autonomy and to provide them with the opportunity to confirm their
strengths and be aware of those areas that need improvement, students will check mistakes and
listen to each other. They will carry out self and peer-assessment during the unit development.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
-Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Learning, Teaching, Assessment.

Corporate Author: COUNCIL OF EUROPE. (2001). Chapter 1. The Common European
Framework in its political an educational context. Chapter 2. Approach
adopted Cambridge University Press.
3
-Douglas Brown, H. (2001). Teaching by Principles. Chapter 3. The present: An Informed
“Approach”. Table 2.1. Approaches and Methods Chapter 4. Chapter 15. Integrating the Four
Skills Teaching by Principles. Longman.
-Douglas Brown, H. (1994). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Chapter 9.

Communicative Competence. Prentice Hall Regents.
-Douglas Brown, H. (2004). Language Assessment. Chapter 1. Testing, Assessing and Teaching
and Chapter 2. Principles of Language Assessment. Longman.
-Consejo Federal de Educación (2012). Núcleos de Aprendizajes Prioritarios (NAPS): Lenguas

Extranjeras. Documento aprobado por Res. 181/12. República Argentina. (pp. 1-5).
-Estaire, S. and Zanon, J. (1994). Planning Classwork. A task-based Approach. Chapter 1. A

framework for planning units of work.
-Estaire, S. and Zanon, J. (1994). Planning Classwork. A task-based Approach Chapter 2.The
framework for planning units of work stage by stage. 2.1. Stage 1: Determining the theme.
-Estaire, S. and Zanon, J. (1994). Planning Classwork. A task-based Approach Chapter 4. A

rationale for thematic task based units of work.
-Williams, M. and Burden, R. (1997) Psychology for Language Teachers. Chapter 3. What do
teachers bring to the teaching-learning process? Chapter 4. What can teachers do to promote
learning? Chapter 9. The learning context Cambridge University Press
-Willis, J. (1996) A Framework for Task-based Learning. Chapter 1: Language learning: creating
the best environment. Longman
OTHER RESOURCES
-Foley, Mark (1998); Fountain 3 (Workbook ) ; Longman
Web pages
-https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/guides/writing-a-powerpoint-presentation
-https://www.powershow.com/viewht/5fbc6c-
ZGY3N/Traditional_Festivals_powerpoint_ppt_presentation
-https://www.whatargentina.com/festivals-argentina.html
-https://www.welcomeargentina.com/fiestas/dates.html
-https://graylineargentina.com/blog/guide-culture-and-festivals-argentina

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COURSE: 5th/ 6th year

LEVEL: Nivel II- Ciclo Orientado de Secundaria-(NAPS)/ B2- Intermediate (CEFR)

THEME: Traditions and Festivals in Argentina

During the unit students will:

SPECIFIC LINGUISTIC OBJECTIVES:

Day 1 ((80-minute lesson) - INTRODUCING THE THEME

Day 2 (40-minute lesson) - RESEACH STARTS!

Day 3 (80- minute lesson) - HANDS ON!

Day 4 (40- minute lesson) THE LAST STEP!

Day 5 (80-minute lesson) LET’S SHARE OUR PRODUCTIONS!

-Carried out by the teacher:

- Carried out by the students:

-Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Learning, Teaching, Assessment.

-Douglas Brown, H. (1994). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Chapter 9.

-Consejo Federal de Educación (2012). Núcleos de Aprendizajes Prioritarios (NAPS): Lenguas

-Estaire, S. and Zanon, J. (1994). Planning Classwork. A task-based Approach. Chapter 1. A

-Estaire, S. and Zanon, J. (1994). Planning Classwork. A task-based Approach Chapter 4. A

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