Городской фестиваль-конкурс педагогических идей «Я с вами хочу поделиться» Project activity as an environment for the formation of general and professional competencies of students
учебно-методический материал

MAEI «Gymnasium №33 Ulan-Ude»

Chimitdorzhieva Zhargalma Pirangalaevna,

English Language Teacher

Project activity as an environment for the formation of general and professional competencies of students

Ulan-Ude, 2021

Master class on the topic "Project activity as an environment for the formation of general and professional competencies of students"

Hello, everyone!

  Today I would like to share my experience of working with project activities in teaching English. The goals of modern education, outlined in the Federal State Educational Standard, are aimed at the principle of “teaching not science, but teaching to learn”.

Goals and objectives of the master class

To create conditions for the full demonstration and development of the pedagogical skills of its participants on the basis of organizing a collaborative environment for professional communication and exchange of experience.

  The task of a foreign language teacher is primarily to stimulate the creative potential of students, and at the same time develop skills in certain language means.

Why is it so important and relevent today? 

 It involves activities which focus on a theme of interest rather than on specific language tasks and helps the students to develop their imagination and creativity.  The main idea of project work is considered to be based on teaching students through research activities and stimulating their personal interest.

The original reason for developing project work at the beginning of the 1980s resulted from the impact of the communicative approach on what teachers were doing in the classroom.. The method of projects appeared at the beginning of the century, when all  scientists and  philosophers tried to find ways of developing the active, independent child’s thinking.  The founders of the pedagogical method of projects considered to be John Dewey (1859-1952), American philosopher, psychologist and teacher, E.S. Polat and others.

The results 

Project work pushed forward the boundaries by bringing students into direct contact with authentic language and learning experiences not usually available within the four walls of an ELT classroom using textbooks.

Project work offered learners an opportunity to take a certain responsibility for their own learning, encouraging them to set their own objectives in terms of what they wanted and needed to learn.

So what is a project?

It is an extended piece of work on a particular topic where the content and the presentation are determined principally by the learners. The method of projects can be used when teaching English at any lesson, devoted to any topic. A project is typically defined as a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim. Any project is based upon some problem. To solve it, the students need not only bare knowledge of the language, but a large amount of different subject knowledge, necessary for solving this problem.

Classifications

There are a lot of classifications of project work activities, presented by different scholars. According to the type of activities there are information and research projects, survey projects, production projects and performance and organizational projects. Concerning the duration, there are three types: short-term, medium and long-term projects.

A few years ago a group of junior pupils under my leadership launched a big project “School TV”. We shot a program per a month. ( let’s watch a February program). At first it seems so easy and simple. But actually you face millions of problems (total  lack of space to shoot programs, only during intervals, a lack of special devices and what is more important-a shortage  of ELT and consequently - complete lack of time. That’s why I gave up, I had to give up this idea. Maybe, if the situation improves, we will start up again.

                                                     Types of projects

   To start with,  I would like to draw your attention to the implementation of  short-term projects in my practice (often for primary and junior classes)using Bloom's pyramid - the process of forming thinking, when students go through 6 levels, from the basic to the most advanced. This model was developed by the American scientist and psychologist Benjamin Bloom, which helps to effectively develop thinking skills of students.  This PEDAGOGICAL pyramid is the construction of a clear system of pedagogical goals, within which their categories and  levels are highlighted.

From the level of knowledge and understanding, which are the basis or foundation of thought processes, to a higher order - analysis, synthesis, evaluation. The lesson is based on working with a video clip about the UK, the ultimate goal of which is to compose an advertisement based on the created collage.

Have a look at it in details.

The Levels of Knowledge or Understanding are the basis or foundation of thought processes and skills. All mental skills of a higher order are built on it - Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation.

With each level, thought processes become more complicated.

At the first, lowest level - the level of knowledge, the student determines, describes, presents, recognizes, reproduces already familiar information

At the second level, the level of understanding, the student demonstrates the ability to transform, defend, paraphrase, interpret the main idea, and give examples on a given topic.

The third level, the application of the knowledge gained, requires the student to be able to use the information or concept in a new situation.

The level of information analysis forms the skills of high-level thinking, that is, to compare, contrast, break down, highlight, select, delimit, divide information into parts.

The level of synthesis, on the contrary, is aimed at developing generalization skills, combining ideas to create something new, grouping, generalizing, reconstructing.

The level of assessment of the knowledge gained is designed to form thinking skills that help make judgments about the value of the information received. That is, to evaluate, criticize, justify, challenge, support.

   Now I want to pay your attention to the lesson, "Travelling in Britain", which presents the work with a short video-film , where the mental skills of students are developed according to B. Bloom's taxonomy.

Objective: - acquaintance with Great Britain, (final) -  travel advertisement

Related tasks:

- development of the ability to use the information received in a new situation, to make judgments about the value of the information received.

- improving the skill of working with assignments.

- development of the ability to guess, sociability, the ability to carry out reproductive and productive speech actions.

Knowledge Level -

T- Look around and guess what we are speaking about (there is a map of the UK on the board

S-About Great Britain

T- What do you know about Britain? Let’s remember some facts about Great Britain (Appendix 3)

Understanding Level

 T- Look through the English words in the table and try to relate them with Russian words.

(Appendix 4)

T-Now I see that you are ready to travel. Let’s start our traveling (Watch a video clip about Britain)

Usage level

T-You have watched the film and ready to do the next task

T- Let’s answer some questions (appendix 5)

Analysis level

T -Choose the appropriate pictures to each country and make up the collage related to your country.

Synthesis level

T- Using reference phrases create advertising for tourists Example:

This is England. The symbol is a red rose.

 Welcome to London, the capital of England!

Use double- decker bus and visit BIG BEN, LONDON EYE, HIDE PARK

We can see …… ..

 Reflection

- Now exchange your ads, study it and say what  you liked and what did not like? Would you like to visit this or that attraction? Justify your answer using key phrases and text material

• today I have learned ...

• it was difficult…

• I realized that ...

• I learned…

• I was able to ...

• it was interesting to know that ...

• I was surprised ...

• I wanted ... etc.

Each participant chooses 1-2 sentences and finishes them

   Next I would like to present one more project with students in grades 9-10, where the final objective will be the release of a book on the topic "Country Studies of English-Speaking Countries." This is a long term project with a 2 year focus. As they study various topics in country studies, students  themselves search for information for tests, decide on questions, look for answers, prepare presentations in power point for these tests (Appendices 1 and 2). The starting point of this work was the 4th place at the Republican Olympiad of my student. He lost points on the assignment in country studies. After analyzing his work, looking at the results of other students, I came to the conclusion that not only he, but most of the participants made mistakes in this particular task. I started looking for tasks in this format, but unfortunately I practically did not find anything, i.e. there is a huge amount of information, but in order to have in system the existing knowledge for  a short period of time, tests of this format are needed. The organization of such project works may seem difficult but if we do it step by step it should be easy. We should define a theme, determine the final outcome, structure the project, identify language skills and strategies, gather information, compile and analyze the information, present the final product and finally evaluate the project. Project work demands a lot of hard work from the teacher and the students; nevertheless, the final outcome is worth the effort.

   Finally I can boast a huge teachers”project of our school “ Moodle”. This is an educational portal for students of high school, where they can find a large amount of optional courses in all subjects, including videos, links, tests of all kinds and things like that.

 (Presentation of the book  and power-point application)        

Appendixes 1 и 2 (separate files)

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Appendix 5

England

                                        Scotland

                                        Wales

Northern Ireland

Appendix 6

1.Create the advertisement.  

Use collage and key phrases to create travel ads

This is….

The symbol is a …..

Use double- decker bus and visit….

You can see ……..

Welcome to London the capital of England!        

2.Create the advertisement.  

Use collage and key phrases to create travel ads

This is …………

The symbol is a ………..

 Welcome to……………   the capital of Scotland!

Visit ……………….(Озеро Лох-Нес)

  You can see ……..(Лох-Нес……)

Welcome to Scotland!

3.Create the advertisement.  

Use collage and key phrases to create travel ads

This is……..(название страны).

The capital city is ………….

The symbol is a ……….

 Visit ……………. (Сноудонию) …..

  We can see  ……..

  Welcome to  Wales!

4.Create the advertisement.  

Use collage and key phrases to create travel ads

This is………. (название страны)

The capital city is ……………….

The symbol is a …………………

Visit …………………….

We can see ……..

Welcome to Northern Ireland!

In conclusion, I can say that the project-based methodology is often used by teachers of our school.

Having worked many years at school, I can state that project work is effective, interesting, entertaining and should be used at the lessons.

Literature

Diana L. Fried-Booth, “Project work”, Oxford University Press, 1996

Голуб Г.Б., Чуракова О.В. «Метод проектов как технология формирования ключевых компетенций учащихся», Самара, 2003

Гузеев В.В. «Планирование результатов образования и образовательная технология» М.: Народное образование, 2001

Гузеев В.В. «Метод проектов» как частный случай интегральной технологии обучения. Директор школы, 1995

Зимняя И.А. Психологические аспекты говорения на английском языке М.: Просвещение, 1991

Simon Haines “Projects for the EFL classroom” Resource material for teachers, Longman, 1996

T. Hutchinson “Introduction to Project work”, Oxford University Press, 1995

Intel «Обучение для будущего» (при поддержкеMicrosoft) учеб. Пособие – 2 изд., перераб. – М., «Русская Редакция», 2003

Канаев Б.И., Канаев Д.Б. Модуль «компетентности проектной деятельности»: Методическое пособие к школьной версии программно-технологического комплекса – Тольятти, 2004

Конышева А.В. «Современные методы обучения английскому языку», Минск, «Тетра системс», 2003

Копылова В.В. Методика проектной работы на уроках английского языка Дрофа, 2003

Пахомова Н.Ю. «Метод учебного проекта в образовательном учреждении: Пособие для учителей и студентов педагогических вузов», М.: АРКТИ, 2003

Полат Е.С. «Обучение в сотрудничестве// Иностранные языки в школе», 2000, №1.

“Project work. A means to promote language content by Fredricka L. Stoller” October 1997, English Teaching Forum.

Diane Phillips, Sarah Burwood, Helen Dunford, Projects with Young Learner