TEACHING UNIT: THE ZOO

• 1. CONTEXT OF THE TEACHING UNIT

• 1.1 Age of the students:

Nine years old, fourth course of primary education.

1.2 Previous knowledge:

Names of some animals (elephant, bear, lion, tiger...) and some kinds of food (bananas, meat...)

1.3 Interests of the students.

They are very interested about the animals of the zoo, because they can´t see them frecuently. They only watch them on T.V, but they can´t see most of them in their real lifes.

2. TEACHING UNIT

2.1 Comunicative situation the teaching unit is based on

2.1.1 Setting: The zoo.

2.1.2 Number and social roles of the participants: The

guide of the zoo, the man who works selling the

tickets, the teacher and pupils.

2.1.3 Topic:

a) The animals of the zoo.

b) The teacher.

c) The man who is selling the tickets.

pounds).

• e) The guide of the zoo.

f) Pupils.

• g) Prohibitions like: Don´t walk on the grass, Don´t

• smoke...

2.1.4 Attitudes regarding the participants and about

the topic: All the students are partners in the class and they have a good relation between them and with the teacher too.

2.2 Script of the situation:

Macrotext: the students go to the zoo because most of

the animals that can be there are from other countries

and pupils must see them.

Microtexts:

2.3 Props.

First, pupils with the help of the teacher, have to make a scale model, which is made of porexpan, cartoon, paper, sticks (macrosticks and microsticks), glue, coffee, grass, breadcrumbs and straw.

Pupils have to make drawings of each animal and each other thing that they can see in a zoo like trees, cage, public toilets, a public telephone, bins, the lake for the aquatic animals, the ticket office, street lamps and the plants.

2.4 Linguistic skills needed:

Speaking: They have to review the vocabulary that they´ll need to use in the communicative situation.

Listening: Is very important because they have to see how to pronounce each name, to use after in the communicative situation.

Reading: They have to read the animal´s names which are wrotten around the zoo. There are other things that they can read like the prohibitions, the public places and things (telephone, toilet,...) and the price of the tickets.

2.5 General goal of the teaching unit.

The general goal is that pupils learn the names of the animals and all the things that they can see in the zoo.

2.6 Evaluation.

We think that the evaluation would be oral, because is very important a correct pronunciation of all the words, but the teacher could make a written exam too.

2.7 New contents:

2.7.1 Linguistic: new vocabulary about animals, food

and countries.

2.7.2 Sociolinguistic --------

2.7.3 Sociocultural: money, relate the country with

the animal using maps.

2.7.4 Discursive: use of expressions like: “How much is it?”, “Where does each animal come from?”, “What does kangaroo eat?”.

2.7.5 Strategic: they can be surprised when the

guide talk them about some exotic animal, for example the ostrich, using expresions about the strategic competence like: oh!, really?…

2.8 Old contents.

We think that they only have a small idea about

animals and food, but they didn´t see it on third

course. So, most of the contens are new for them.

3. LESSON PLANNING

3.1 Number of lessons needed:

Six lessons.

3.1.1 First lessons: activities to learn new contents and to review old contents.

In the communicative situation, children could be in groups of people, where one of them could be the guide of the zoo, other could be the man who sells the tickets, other could be the teacher and the last people could be pupils who go to visit the zoo.

The communicative situation become when the visitors go to buy the tickets, then the guide explains all the things about the animals (where does each animal come from, names, food that each one eats and all the characteristics of each one.)

Teacher can give some advices to pupils like: “don´t give food to animals”, “please, be quiet”, “ please, walk in group”, “there are public toiletes if you want go”, there is a public telephone if you want call”...

Finally, pupils can ask something to the guide like: “what is the favourite food of parrots?”...

3.2 Structure of the first lesson.

3.2.1 Teaching goal.

3.2.2 Contents.

3.2.3 Activities.

3.2.3.1 Type.

Activities to learn new contents, because pupils are nine years old and we think that they go to see the activities by first time.

3.2.3.2 Skills needed.

Speaking: They have to review the vocabulary that they´ll need to use in the communicative situation.

Listening: Is very important because they have to see how to pronounce each name, to use after in the communicative situation.

Reading: They have to read the animal´s names which are wrotten around the zoo. There are other things that they can read like the prohibitions, the public places and things (telephone, toilet,...) and the price of the tickets.

3.2.3.3 Timing.

Each lesson remains about 55 minutes. Most of them have only one activity, but some of them has two activities.

3.2.3.4 Contents.

The contents of the activities are of different kinds: linguistic, sociocultural, strategic and discursive. (We described each activity before).

3.2.3.5 Goal.

The principal goal is that children learn the names of the animals which they can find in the zoo, because most of the animals are animals that pupils can´t see frecuently in their real lifes like can be a dog or a cat.

3.2.3.6 Description of the activity.

The activities are different, but the contents are always the same. Children can learn with the crossword, the domino and the situation on the map but they are learning the names of the animals all the time. (We described each activity before).

3.2.3.7 Instructions for the students.

The instructions wouldn´t be the same for all the activities, so we'll go to explain some of them for each activity:

“In this activity, you have to relate each drawing with the correct name”, for example in the flashcards activity or in the domino, or in the crossword too. In the activity of the maps, the teacher can give them this instruction: “you have to put each animal in the correct map or in the correct country”.

3.2.3.8 Teaching aids needed.

The principal teaching aid needed is review the old

vocabulary that they can find in the zoo, like: plants,

grass, tree, toilet...

3.3 Structure of last lesson.

3.3.1 Teaching goal: general goal of the teaching unit.

The general goal of the teaching unit is that children learn new vocabulary about the animals of the zoo, the food that each animal eats, expressions for buying the tickets and some another important expressions.

3.3.2 Contents: script of the situation.

The situation is the visit to the zoo. First pupils have to buy the ticket at the ticket´s office. Then, one guide explains them all about the animals while pupils walk around the zoo. The teacher gives them some instructions like: “don´t give food to the animals, “please, walk in group”, pupils can ask lots of questions to the guide and to the teacher too.

3.3.3 Activity: communicative situation including props.

The communicative situation happens when children go to the zoo. There, they buy the tickets using expressions like: “How much is it?”, “How much is the ticket?”, then the teacher gives them some instructions like: “Don´t give food to the animals, “Please, put the rubbish in the bins”, “Don't walk on the grass”, “Don't disturb the animals”... After that, pupils begin to walk around the zoo seeing the animals and the guide explains them all about the animals and children ask questions to the guide like: “What animal is this?”, “What does tiger eat?”, “Where does ostrich come from?” pupils can ask some questions to the teacher too...

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