Festivities around the world

Welcome to another fantastic and new learning adventure in which you are going to improve not only your English skills but your ICT ones too. 

In this project, you are going to create a practical guide to the most known festivities in the countries where English is spoken for your classmates, schoolmates and relatives.

Along with this, preparing the guide you will also learn about how to express existence, obligation and prohibition in English.

Try to do your best and enjoy your learning process!

Free-Photos. Concert Crowd Audience People Music Entertainment (CC0)

Throughout the project, you will find several tasks with which you can develop your communicative skills. You will also think about the way to disseminate your product with your relatives, friends and school classmates and students.

Throughout this project, you will be proposed five missions and a final challenge. You will also work individually, but you will have pair or team work in most of them.  

Open Educational Resource by EDIA Project - Cedec.
English. Compulsory Secondary Education.
Author: Leonardo Boix Tapia.

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 4.0

Creado con eXeLearning (Ventana nueva)

Breaking the ice

Your project: general information

The final outcome of this project will be a quick guide on a Weebly site in which you will explain some of the most important and well-known festivities that take place in English-Speaking countries: where can you find them, what are the most interesting features about that festival, when does it take place and so many details about it that you can research about. This project will be dealt with in a collaborative way in work teams.

Each team has to edit, publish and disseminate their guide. This guide will have so different places to be discovered with their festivities, traditions and cultural aspects, focused on giving as many details about these them.

To be able to create it, you will surf the Internet and overcome different missions that will help you gain knowledge and acquire strategies to prepare and publish your part of the guide. Take into account that you are going to prepare one of the festivities, but the final product has to be a complete guide made up by all your classmates with the most important festivities of the English speaking countries.

GLady. girls-colorful-smile-funny (CC0)

Know all the details about this project.

It will be really important for the success of this project to follow all the instructions given in each activity, using the Internet and the links as a source of information.

Before starting with your project, there are some points you must check.

Assessment

This project will be evaluated following this pattern:

Your teacher will assess the final product, your guide, taking into account the 'Assessment rubric for the project: Festivities around the World'. It has to be your reference for the global project. Your teacher will also use the assessment rubrics to evaluate your work on the missions and the final challenge. Remember that this will be a team work.

You can find here some of the rubrics your teacher will use:

'Rubric to assess an oral presentation'

'Rubric to assess a questionnaire'

'Rubric to assess a classroom video'

'Rubric to assess an informative text'

'Rubric to assess a timeline'

'Rubric to assess a digital poster'

'Rubric to assess your digital site' .This one will be specially useful because it refers to your Weebly site where you will publish all your work of this project.

Your partners will carry out peer assessment and will grade your collaborative teamwork. The students can generate and agree on the different levels or items to evaluate.

Students will self-evaluate the final product using the rubric. 

The teacher will also evaluate how the students have involved in the project or tackled the different missions.

At the end the project, if the assessment is positive, your teacher will give you a badge.

Try and do it as well as you can!

Teams and collaborative work

In order to deal with all the tasks in this project, you will work and learn in teams. During the whole project, you will be part of one team. You have to name it and you can even create a logo or a drawing that can represent it. This means that the knowledge will be created by the teacher's explanation, as well as self-investigation and interaction among the partners.

You have to work in teams in order to create your guide. At the end of the project, you will have a lot of information about all the festivities you usually hear of or watch at films and you will understand why they celebrate each one.

Your personal blog

You will also use a blog that will work as your digital portfolio and learning diary. Each of you must have your own blog. The tutorial 'How to start a blog on blogger' will help you create the blog in a very easy way.

The 'Rubric to assess blog posts' will help you do a great work on your blog.

Along the missions, you'll be asked to make some posts to share and present the project activities. At the end of all of them, you will be asked to design a final post with all the knowledge and products you will have come up with throughout this project.

All your posts in the blog will be identified with the tag "Festivities around the world".

This project is part of a group of projects. If you have learnt through the rest of these projects, use always the same blog. If you work only on this one, you must create one for your work.

Dissemination

It would be a pity if just the teacher, you and some of your partners enjoyed your final work and your blog. Why don't you use other ways to disseminate your guide about the festivities?

Send the blog link to your parents, friends... They will really appreciate what you are doing at school. You will also share your guide at the school website or the website of the English department.

Get a Twitter account for the class that will be run by your teachers. Tweet what you want to publish promoting your final post and some of the works using the #EDIAfestivities hashtag and you can even create another one with the name of your group. Remember: 280 characters including the link and the official hashtag or the one your class has decided for this project. Because of your age, the Twitter account will be run by your teachers, so you will write the tweet and then your teacher will recap all the class tweets in list.ly.

The 'Rubric to assess a tweet' will help you create a good tweet.

Is everything clear? If you have any questions, ask your teacher (or your partners). Perhaps they may have suggestions to make your project and work easier and more useful and, at the same time, more complete.

Festivities I already celebrate!

Timing:

50 mins

Grouping:

Pairs

To start with this topic, you are going to play and talk a bit with a classmate about which festivities, both from your country and from abroad, you already know and celebrate. The worksheet  'Festivities I already know and celebrate' will help you with this task.

First of all, you need to get familiar with some of these festivities and knowing them can help you choose the festivity your group is interested in to make the guide. You are going to write down some questions.

jill111. Amusement (CC0)

Think about how many festivities do you know.

Think about the festivities in your country and abroad

First of all, you have to look for the classmates you are going to do the project with and you need to get familiar with the festivities you usually celebrate in your town /city and country and think about the time of the year where the festivities take place. You are going to write down a pair of questions. They are going to be content questions about the festivities you already celebrate without taking into account if they are from your own country or not..

Two websites will help you learn about how to build the questions and the vocabulary about celebrations and some of the most well-known celebrations around the world. Have a look at them:

'Vocabulary: Celebrations around the World'

'My English pages: Wh- questions'

Prepare a short presentation about the festivity you already know/celebrate.

When you have already written the questions and answered them, you and your partner/s have to talk to your classmates about the festivity you already know/celebrate. The worksheet 'Festivities I already know celebrate' will help you with this task. Remember to register the information into the chart.

Then, your team has to do a short oral information to tell the rest of the festivities you already know and celebrate and that you have written down in the worksheet. The 'Rubric to assess an oral presentation' can help you do a great job. You can include your chart and the text of your oral presentation into your blog creating a post.

Don't forget to identify your post with the tag "Festivities around the World".

Disseminating your ideas

Apart from this, if you want, your teacher can disseminate your post using the classroom's Twitter account. For that reason, you have to write down the text of the tweet for the teacher. Remember:

You can use up to 280 characters.

Include the link to your post.

Use the hashtag of the project: #EDIAfestivities

The ''Rubric to assess a tweet'' will help you know how to do a great job with the tweet.

Before posting your text, you must ask one of your classmates in another team to check your work and make any suggestions or corrections he or she can think of. You must do the same task with at least one of your mates' outcomes, too. Don't be afraid. Making mistakes is a good way to learn!

With this task, we have learnt and dealt with lots of vocabulary about festivities and places and also you have also known more details about your classmates.

Learning diary

Peter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

You are going to start creating your Learning Diary. It will help you reflect on what you are learning and most important: what the best way for learning is.

You have to open a Google Document or a text document with the title 'Festivities around the world'.

This is going to be your 'Learning Diary'.

Feedback

In this first section, you will reflect about your learning process using and answering some questions. So, read them carefully, and try to answer them individually in your document:

What is going to be your final outcome?

Do you know how are you going to be assessed?

Who is in your classroom team?

What do you expect to learn after the first mission? And at the end of the whole project?

What doubts do you have at the beginning of this project?

What ideas or suggestions do you have to improve the outcome of this mission?

It would be great if you also shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates. You will have some minutes to complete this part.

Creado con eXeLearning (Ventana nueva)

Let's start the research!

Let's celebrate

Timing:

15 mins

Grouping:

Individual

At the end of this mission, you will have chosen one of the festivities that are celebrated around the world to do some research about it. Once your team chooses the festivity, you will start your website about it.

You will have also worked the listening and writing skills.

Deltaworks. Fireworks (CC0)

To introduce the topic of festivities, you are going to do a listening about "Holidays".

In the listening 'Best Holiday' , there are six people who talk about their favorite holiday in their home country. Listen carefully to what they say. If necessary, you can also read the script.

There are also some questions to check your comprehension. You can answer these questions in pairs and then you can add the result in your learning diary.

Why do we celebrate?

Timing:

Two sessions

Grouping:

Teamwork

Remember that your final mission will be to create a website with information about a festivity of an English-speaking country to learn about other ways of doing things and customs of celebrating around the world. Your team will follow some steps in order to complete all the tasks.

WEBSITE STEP 1.

At this day and age, even though everybody has a lot of duties, people of all places and origins like celebrating their festivities. Are you aware of this? Let's see:

Which celebrations do you usually have in your area?

Which season do they take place?

What do you celebrate?

For sure, there are quite a lot of different festivities that you have and celebrate in your area all year round. Which is your favorite one?

Your final mission in this step will be to create that a digital poster with this information. It must be attractive and clear. Remember to include some pictures of the main events. Don't forget that the 'Rubric to assess a digital poster' will help you know how to do a great job.

Free-Photos. Sparkler (CC0)

Steps for your mission

Previous investigation

Try to look for different videos or information about your local festivals. These videos and websites will help you with your investigation and will give you some ideas about the information that you can include in your presentation/video. To avoid using possible videos you may use in your research, here you can find an example of festivities in French-speaking countries that can give you an idea of the topic you have to look for:

'Bastille Day in France: it's not what you think'

'French holidays & Festivals'

What I already know about my local festivals

From the video you have seen and the information you have read, try to find videos and information on websites about your local festivities and create a digital poster with the following information:

When they take place in the calendar

Some pictures of the main events that take place

Do you participate in any event? Any relative does?

Why do you celebrate them?

How often do you celebrate them? Every year?

You can now create a digital poster. In order to create it you can choose from among some of the following digital tools:

Piktochart

Easel.ly

Genial.ly

Your final mission will be to create this digital poster and include it in your website. It must be attractive and clear. Remember to include some pictures of the main events. Don't forget that the 'Rubric to assess a digital poster' will help you know how to do a great job.

Dissemination

You can also include the poster into your blog.

Don't forget to identify the post with the tag "Why do we celebrate?".

Your teacher can spread your post using the classroom's Twitter account. Before publishing it, you have to write it down for the teacher. Remember:

You can use 280 characters.

You have to include the link to your post.

Use the hashtag of the project: #EDIAfestivities

The 'Rubric to assess a tweet' will help you know how to do a great job.

Before publishing your post, ask your classmates to check your work and make suggestions to improve it, make corrections... You must do the same task with some of your mates' outcomes, too. You don´t have to get discouraged because making mistakes is obviously a good way to learn!

With this task, you have focused on what you already know about your own festivals and why you celebrate them. This will be very useful for your final task. What's more, your poster could include, for example, some information about the festivals of other nearby towns or cities.

Learning Diary

Peter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

After having reflected on your own local festivals, it's time to continue with your Learning Diary.

Go back to the document you opened in the previous mission as a Learning Diary.

Below your previous writing, you have to create a new section entitled: 'Let's start the research!'.

Feedback

You will reflect about your learning using and answering some questions:

Which task have you done in the group? What is its relationship with the project? 

Include the link to the poster you have created.

What resources have you used?

What were the most difficult aspects?

What tool was the most difficult for you to work with?

What do you think is the most important aspect you have learnt?

Is there anything you did not understand completely?

How you are working as a group? How can it be improved?

It would be great if you also shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates orally. You will have some minutes to complete this part.

Creado con eXeLearning (Ventana nueva)

Which festivity do we choose?

Travelling to another country!

Timing:

30 mins

Grouping:

Pairs or Teamwork

At the end of this mission, you will be able to talk about one festivity that takes place at an English-speaking country.

You will work the writing and speaking skills.

Tama66. balloons-colorful-ballons-color (CC0)

Writing a text with some previous ideas

You have to create a short text with at least the most important elements a festivity must have:

From the poster you created in the previous mission, think of all the most relevant elements your local festival has.

Write down your ideas and choose the best ones.

Create your text in pairs or groups and hand it to your teacher. The teacher will help you improve your expression in English.

Finally, read aloud the main highlights about the most important elements your local festivity has.

Maybe you could also ask your classmates, parents, brothers and sisters... They could give you some more ideas about this topic.

Where do we want to travel?

Timing:

60

Grouping:

Teamwork

Let's continue with your work.  Along this mission your objective is to choose one festivity from an English-Speaking country and make some research about it.

Your final mission will be to compose some text with the main events that take place in that festivity and to make some research about the country it takes place.

WEBSITE STEP 2.

You have to continue with your own website with a Weebly site. Remember to tell your teacher the URL of your website, so he or she will be able to compose a padlet with all your websites.

stokpic. hands-world-map-global-earth-600497 (CC0)

Steps for your mission in step 2.

Previous investigation

Decide in groups which festivity is going to be investigated by each of the groups. Remember that all the teams in the classroom have to choose at least one festivity from each country, so all the countries will be represented, but the festivity cannot be repeated.

You can choose the one you prefer from the following websites. :

Public holidays in English Speaking countries.

A calendar of British holidays in the UK.

List of British holidays and celebrations.

After having chosen the festivity, tell your teacher who will prepare a padlet with all the festivities you are going to work with. Remember that they cannot be repeated and there must be, at least, one from each country.  

Create the text for the country where your festivity takes place

Remember that you are at the second step of the website for your festivity:

So, at this step, you will have to include these pieces of information:

basic information about the country (capital city, population, etc)

some text about the festivity

and some images or videos about it

In this second step, you have to look for some information about the country:

physical and political maps

video with the anthem and its lyrics

an image of the country's flag

and any interesting information you may find about the country where your festivity takes place (demography, historical timeline, etc)

Try to be as creative as possible.

In order to explain the things you have discovered in your research about the country, you will need to 'review the use 'there is' and 'there are' in English. After revising how to express existence in English, you may need to practice with some exercises. Your teacher can help you choose the most adequate for you. 

Dissemination

You can include the text you have created about the country information into your blog. 

Don't forget to identify the post with the tag "Travelling to another country".

If you want, your teacher can disseminate your post with the link of your website using the classroom's Twitter account. For that purpose, you have to write down the tweet for the teacher. Remember: 

You can use only up to 280 characters.

Include the link to your post. 

Use the hashtag of the project: #EDIAfestivities

The 'Rubric to assess a tweet' will help you know how to do a great job. 

Before posting your text, you should also ask another classmate to check your work and make suggestions or corrections. You must do the same work with some of your mates' outcomes, too. And remember that you don't have to get discouraged because making mistakes is a good way to learn!

With this task you have chosen the festivity and made some research about the country where it takes place. 

Learning Diary

Peter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

It's time to continue with your Learning Diary. Remember it helps you reflect on what you are learning and most important: what the best way for learning is.

Let's go back to the document we opened in the previous mission as a Learning Diary.

Below your previous writing you will create a new section entitled: 'Let's travel to another country!'.

Feedback

You will reflect about your learning process using the following questions:

Which task have you done in the group in this mission? What is its relationship with the project? 

Include the link to your website.

What resources have you used?

What were the most difficult aspects?

What tool was the most difficult for you to work with? Is the website management difficult to use for you?

What do you think is the most important aspect you have learnt?

Is there anything you did not fully understand?

How you are working as a group? How can it be improved?

It would be great if you shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates. You will have some minutes to complete this part.

Creado con eXeLearning (Ventana nueva)

When does it take place?

What is it about?

Timing:

30 mins

Grouping:

Teamwork

At the end of this mission, you will be able to add to your website some more information about the festivity your team has chosen.

You will work the writing and speaking skills.

MoreLight. munich-oktoberfest-ride-carousel (CC0)

WEBSITE STEP 3.

Think about the name of the festivity that your team has chosen.

Now, you have to try to foresee what the festivity is about. 

You have to think about what can happen in that festival: what people do, what they wear, if they have to prepare for that occasion, etc.

Then, you have to decide what the participants in the festival can and can't do. Once you have written down the text, add it to your 'website'. 

Finally, each of the teams will have to explain those ideas to the rest of the classmates orally.

Remember: it doesn't matter if you are finally right or wrong with that you have foreseen about the festivity. The important thing is to be creative and to try to guess what the festivity is about.

When does it happen?

Timing:

60 mins

Grouping:

Teamwork

Once you have thought about what your festivity might be like, it is the moment now to imagine a little bit. Imagine that in your festivity there is also a music festival with your favourite pop band. Write down the things that you think that you have to take to that festival. These recommendations have to be expressed in terms of obligation or prohibition.

 If you need more ideas about what you can bring to your festivity, you can also visit the website The seven festival essentials you'll probably forget. Take a look at all the objects and discuss with the members of your team which ones you would take to a music festival and which ones you wouldn't. 

Free-Photos. audience-concert-music (CC0)

WEBSITE STEP 4.

Your final product for this step of your mission will be to add some text about your festivity with two things that people must do and two things that people mustn't in your festivity.

Remember that the text about the festivity with all these obligations and prohibitions has to be added to your team website.

Steps for your mission

Previous investigation

You need to learn how to express obligation and prohibition in English in order to know what to bring to the music festival.

The main purpose of this mission is to write down at least two obligatory things that you must do in the festivity and two things that are not allowed.

Creating the sentences

Read carefully the information from these websites and write down the recommendations:

Must/ Mustn't in English

Exercises on must / mustn't

You can also play a Kahoot game to check if you have fully understood how to make obligation and prohibition request with 'must/mustn't'. If you need further information about how to play with kahoot, learn with a tutorial.

Dissemination

Your final product for this mission will be to add to your website what the festivity actually consists of: when it happens, what people must do or mustn't do, etc. Remember that these sentences must be as clear as possible. 

You can also include these sentences into you blog. You must remember to identify your post with the tag "When does it take place?"

Remember to include the link to your website, in order to share it with your teacher and classmates.

If you want, your teacher can spread your post using the Twitter account of the classroom. For that reason, you have to write down the tweet for the teacher. Remember:

we can use up to 280 characters.

Include your blog's link to your post.

Use the hashtag of the project: #EDIAfestivities

The 'Rubric to assess a tweet' will help us know how to do a great job.

Before posting your text, you should ask your classmates to check your work and make suggestions, corrections.etc. You have to do the same work with some of your mates' outcomes, too. And remember not to get discouraged because making mistakes is a very good way to learn!

Learning Diary

Peter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

It's time to continue with your Learning Diary. Remember it helps you reflect on what you are learning and most important: what the best way for learning is.

Go back to the document you opened in the previous mission as a Learning Diary. Below your previous writing, you will create a new section entitled: "When does it take place?".

Feedback

You will have to reflect on your learning process using the following questions:

Which task have you done in the group in this mission? What is its relationship with the project? 

Include the link to the sentences you have created for the website section.

What resources have you used?

What were the most difficult aspects?

What tool was the most difficult for you to work with? Are you having any problem with your wesite?

What do you think is the most important aspect you have learnt?

Is there anything you did not fully understand?

How you are working as a group? How can it be improved?

It would be great if you shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates. You will have some minutes to complete this part.

Creado con eXeLearning (Ventana nueva)

What does it consist of?

Let's take a picture! Cheese!!

Timing:

15 mins

Grouping:

Individual

At the end of this mission, your team will be able to add some images and videos of your festivity to your website. Alongside with this, you will publish, disseminate and assess the work your team has done throughout this project.

You will work the writing, speaking and reading skills.

gazetasecret. music-street-musician-guitar (CC0)

Reading about Edinburgh Summer Festivals.

In this project, you have focused on festivities: the country where they happen, what they consist of and in this mission you are going to make some research about images and videos of that festival. 

After having made your research about the festivity you have chosen, you already know how important they can be for a city. In this case, Edinburgh is worldwide known for its summer festivals.

In order to know more about them, do these reading activities to get in touch with Edinburgh summer festivals.

A wonderful festivity!

Timing:

Two sessions

Grouping:

Teamwork

Remember that so far, your team has made some research about the country, the festivity and now we need to explain the festivity using images and videos from the Internet. Now, it is the turn to surf the Internet and look for some images (without copyright) and for some videos (with Creative Commons license) to illustrate your research.  If you need some websites to look for images and videos, you can search them at:

pixabay.com

youtube.com

vimeo.com

Remember that these images/videos have to include a Creative Commons license. If you are not familiar with these licenses, check these websites:

General Information

Research of Creative Commons license resources

WEBSITE STEP 5.

So, as a final mission of this project you are going to add some more images and videos of your festivity to your team website. When you finish the content of your team website, tell your teacher and he or she will be able to check that everything is correct.

Jill Wellington. Christmas Happy Woman (CC0)

Your final product for this mission will be adding some some videos and images to your website about your festivity. The 'Rubric to assess the project: Festivities around the World' will guide you to know how to do a great job.

Resources and guides for this mission:

Contents of your website

Remember that your website must include information about:

The country where the festivity your team has chosen happens.

Information about what people usually do at your festivity.

The most representative images and videos of that festivity. 

Ideas and tools

Some points you should consider to create a good website are:

Clear information about the country and the festivity. 

Good and representative pictures and videos.

Attractive design and three sections that can be clearly distinguished.

The final post with your website link.

Your final product for this mission will be to create the post to include your website. These points can help you remember all the information we should include in your post.

An explanation about the task for team has done and the link to your website.

You can also embed the padlet that your teacher has composed with all your websites.

The link to your Learning Diary.

A short reflection about what you have learnt and how you have learnt it.

Don't forget to identify your post with the tag "Festivities around the World".

If you want, your teacher can spread your post using the Twitter account of the classroom. For that reason, you have to write down the tweet for the teacher. Remember:

You can use up to 280 characters.

Include the link to your post.

Use the hashtag of the project: #EDIAfestivities

The 'Rubric to assess a tweet' will help you know how to do a great job.

Before posting your text, let's ask your colleagues to check your work and make suggestions, corrections. You have to do the same work with some of your mates' outcomes, too. Don't be afraid. Making mistakes is a good way to learn!

Organizing and sharing

Timing:

1 session

Grouping:

Individual and Teamwork

Now it's time to share and disseminate your 'Festivities around the World'. Along the project you have published different posts in your digital portfolio.

As a summary, you will create a complete post (digital portfolio) in your blog with a reflection about what you have learnt with this project.

You are invited to make a public presentation of your videos and of course, a special work with social networks.

You can also publish your padlet with your websites at the school website and share them at school.

cherylt23. Students (CC0)

Steps for this mission

Creating the post

The following items will guide you to create the post (Don't forget to identify your post with the tag "Project:Festivities around the World"):

Main vocabulary of the project.

Grammar reference.

All the activities related with the topic.

Final outcome of the project: The padlet with all your websites about the festivities.

A good idea would be to include the links to all the posts you have created along the whole project.

You can also include the link to your Learning Diary.

Public presentation

You are invited to make a public presentation of your websites. Don't you think it could be a great activity to organize an event at your school/classroom?

Teachers, students, parents and maybe other people could know what you have been doing and value all your effort.

Each group must introduce the website. The resource 'Common linking words' will help you with general sentences to prepare your speech.

The 'Rubric to assess an oral presentation' will help you know how to do a great job.

Dissemination

Now it is time to disseminate your final post through the social networks. Remember to use the classroom's Twitter account run by the teacher. So it is time for you to create a tweet to disseminate your post. It will be published through the class account. Remember:

You can use up to 280 characters.

Include the link to your post, your websites and the padlet your teacher has composed with all your projects.

Use the hashtag of the project: #EDIAfestivities

The 'Rubric to assess a tweet' will help you know how to do a great job.

Learning Diary: final evaluation

Peter O'Shea. Writing tools (CC BY)

You have finished the project, but there is a very important aspect to focus on now: you will assess all the work you have done. It is very easy; you are going to think on everything you have learnt and how you have learnt it: you have to think on all the missions you have crafted.

What's more, if the final assessment is positive, your teacher will give you a badge recognizing this effort that you can include in your Learning Diary. By doing so, you will be awarded an accomplishment badge by your teacher who will be able to create them using this website.

You will create now a new section entitled: "Checking the Festivities around the World project".

Feedback

At this point, it could very useful for each of you to focus on these questions:

What final task have you done?

What have you learnt?

Knowledge

Skills

Values & Principles

How have you learnt?

What tasks and activities have you carried out?

What has been the most original in your opinion?

What has been the easiest tasks? And the most difficult? Why?

How has your team worked? What could be improved?

Do you like this way of working in the English subject? Why?

What do you think that can be improved in other projects? What do you think that has to remain the same?

Did you have the same difficulties as your classmates in the accomplishment of the missions?

Which missions did you find the most difficult to carry out?

Has collaborative work been a positive experience to you? Why / why not?

Creado con eXeLearning (Ventana nueva)

- Didactic Guidelines -

Didactic proposal

This open educational resource entitled Festivities around the world is based on the curriculum of English as a foreign language and it is aimed at students of the 1st year of compulsory secondary education. However, it can be implemented on other levels,. As a teacher, you can adapt or modify its contents. Likewise, feel free to use the whole resource or just the sections that best fit your teaching demands.  

The main topic of this resource will make easy to apply the grammar and vocabulary content to a real situation: creating a quick guide in which the student will explain some of the most important and well-known festivities that take place in English-speaking countries.

Here, students will learn  and practice contents, procedures and attitudes related to the basic knowledge areas  of communication, multilingualism and intercultural values.

Download the Didactic Proposal in editable format or in pdf.

By working on this resource, students will face some individual activities, but also some collaborative  tasks  and a final project in which they will use all their knowledge and will demonstrate how able they are to develop and consolidate some specific and key competences  in several  learning situations very similar to those in which people may get involved in real life.

This project is part of a set of projects entitled "English in my daily life'"which is based on the curriculum for the 1st year of compulsory secondary education.

The following objectives have been considered in the design of this project:

to learn while working on a project.

to encourage collaborative work, since most assignments require information sharing and interaction with other students.

to foster students' self-learning process by using IT resources.

to reinforce students' communicative skills through activities of listening and reading comprehension, but above all, through tasks in which they must produce their own oral and written messages.

The project includes several stages that students will need to go through to eventually do the final challenge: create a poster with the history of the student's family and a thanks message to them. Within this learning scenario, relevant language contents can be practised and a wide range of tasks is presented so that students are encouraged to practise and improve the linguistic skills required for their final output.

This unit starts with the Breaking the ice section in which students are going to focus their attention into the project and how it will work. By using a game students and teachers will identify the previous knowledge. Then students will start working with content questions and it structure and set the beginning of their Learning Diary.

Let's start the research!. In this section, students will focus their attention on the festivity they already celebrate in their countries or hometowns. They will learn about their own festivals and why they celebrate them.

Which festivity do we choose? presents mainly the vocabulary to talk about a festivity which take place in an English-speaking countries. The students will investigate to create a text with the main events of the celebration. 

provides students the oportunity of talking a little bit more about the events of the festivity. In this case, the student will deal with the things that have to take place during the celebrations, they will express in terms of obligation and prohibitions.  

Finally, the What does it consist of? section offers the student the final challenge in which students will show how much they have learnt about the topic. They will have to create a poster in which they are going to talk about heir family past events and also thanks them for being your family.  

Curricular Framework

Competencias clave

Competencia en comunicación lingüística (CCL) 

Competencia Plurilingüe (CP)

Competencia en conciencia y expresiones culturales (CEC) 

Competencia digital (CD) 

Competencia personal, social y de aprender a aprender (CPSAA) 

Competencia ciudadana (CC) 

Competencia emprendedora (CE)

Competencias específicas y criterios de evaluación

Competencia específica 1: Comprender e interpretar el sentido general y los detalles más relevantes de textos expresados de forma clara y en la lengua estándar, buscando fuentes fiables y haciendo uso de estrategias como la inferencia de significados, para responder a necesidades comunicativas concretas.

Criterios de evaluación
1.1 Interpretar y analizar el sentido global y la información específica y explícita de textos orales, escritos y multimodales breves y sencillos sobre temas frecuentes y cotidianos, de relevancia personal y próximos a la experiencia del alumnado, propios de los ámbitos de las relaciones interpersonales, del aprendizaje, de los medios de comunicación y de la ficción expresados de forma clara y en la lengua estándar a través de diversos soportes.

1.2 Seleccionar, organizar y aplicar de forma guiada las estrategias y conocimientos más adecuados en situaciones comunicativas cotidianas para comprender el sentido general, la información esencial y los detalles más relevantes de los textos; interpretar elementos no verbales; y buscar y seleccionar información.

Competencia específica 2: Producir textos originales, de extensión media, sencillos y con una organización clara, usando estrategias tales como la planificación, la compensación o la autorreparación, para expresar de forma creativa, adecuada y coherente mensajes relevantes y responder a propósitos comunicativos concretos.

Criterios de evaluación

2.1 Expresar oralmente textos breves, sencillos, estructurados, comprensibles y adecuados a la situación comunicativa sobre asuntos cotidianos y frecuentes, de relevancia para el alumnado, con el fin de describir, narrar e informar sobre temas concretos, en diferentes soportes, utilizando de forma guiada recursos verbales y no verbales, así como estrategias de planificación y control de la producción.

2.2 Organizar y redactar textos breves y comprensibles con aceptable claridad, coherencia, cohesión y adecuación a la situación comunicativa propuesta, siguiendo pautas establecidas, a través de herramientas analógicas y digitales, sobre asuntos cotidianos y frecuentes de relevancia para el alumnado y próximos a su experiencia.

2.3 Seleccionar, organizar y aplicar de forma guiada conocimientos y estrategias para planificar, producir y revisar textos comprensibles, coherentes y adecuados a las intenciones comunicativas, a las características contextuales y a la tipología textual, usando con ayuda los recursos físicos o digitales más adecuados en función de la tarea y las necesidades de cada momento, teniendo en cuenta la personas a quienes va dirigido el texto.

Competencia específica 3: Interactuar con otras personas con creciente autonomía, usando estrategias de cooperación y empleando recursos analógicos y digitales, para responder a propósitos comunicativos concretos en intercambios respetuosos con las normas de cortesía.

Criterios de evaluación

3.1 Planificar y participar en situaciones interactivas breves y sencillas sobre temas cotidianos, de relevancia personal y próximos a la experiencia del alumnado, a través de diversos soportes, apoyándose en recursos tales como la repetición, el ritmo pausado o el lenguaje no verbal, y mostrando empatía y respeto por la cortesía lingüística y la etiquetadigital, así como por las diferentes necesidades, ideas, inquietudes, iniciativas y motivaciones de los interlocutores e interlocutoras.

3.2 Seleccionar, organizar y utilizar, de forma guiada y en entornos próximos, estrategias adecuadas para iniciar, mantener y terminar la comunicación; tomar y ceder la palabra; y solicitar y formular aclaraciones y explicaciones.

Competencia específica 4: Mediar en situaciones cotidianas entre distintas lenguas, usando estrategias y conocimientos sencillos orientados a explicar conceptos o simplificar mensajes, para transmitir información de manera eficaz, clara y responsable.

Criterios de evaluación

4.1 Inferir y explicar textos, conceptos y comunicaciones breves y sencillas en situaciones en las que atender a la diversidad, mostrando respeto y empatía por interlocutores e interlocutoras y por las lenguas empleadas, e interés por participar en la solución de problemas de intercomprensión y de entendimiento en el entorno próximo, apoyándose en diversos recursos y soportes.

4.2. Aplicar, de forma guiada, estrategias que ayuden a crear puentes y faciliten la comprensión y producción de información y la comunicación, adecuadas a las intenciones comunicativas, usando recursos y apoyos físicos o digitales en función de las necesidades de cada momento.

Competencia específica 5: Ampliar y usar los repertorios lingüísticos personales entre distintas lenguas, reflexionando de forma crítica sobre su funcionamiento y tomando conciencia de las estrategias y conocimientos propios, para mejorar la respuesta a necesidades comunicativas concretas.

Criterios de evaluación

5.1 Comparar y contrastar las semejanzas y diferencias entre distintas lenguas reflexionando de manera progresivamente autónoma sobre su funcionamiento.

5.2 Utilizar y diferenciar los conocimientos y estrategias de mejora de la capacidad de comunicar y de aprender la lengua extranjera con apoyo de otros participantes y de soportes analógicos y digitales.

5.3 Identificar y registrar, siguiendo modelos, los progresos y dificultades de aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera, seleccionando de forma guiada las estrategias más eficaces para superar esas dificultades y progresar en el aprendizaje, realizando actividades de autoevaluación y coevaluación, como las propuestas en el Portfolio Europeo de las Lenguas (PEL) o en un diario de aprendizaje, haciendo esos progresos y dificultades explícitos y compartiéndolos.

Competencia específica 6: Valorar críticamente y adecuarse a la diversidad lingüística, cultural y artística a partir de la lengua extranjera, identificando y compartiendo las semejanzas y las diferencias entre lenguas y culturas, para actuar de forma empática y respetuosa en situaciones interculturales.

Criterios de evaluación

6.1 Actuar de forma empática y respetuosa en situaciones interculturales construyendo vínculos entre las diferentes lenguas y culturas y rechazando cualquier tipo de discriminación, prejuicio y estereotipo en contextos comunicativos cotidianos.

6.2 Aceptar y adecuarse a la diversidad lingüística, cultural y artística propia de países donde se habla la lengua extranjera, reconociéndola como fuente de enriquecimiento personal y mostrando interés por compartir elementos culturales y lingüísticos que fomenten la sostenibilidad y la democracia.

6.3 Aplicar, de forma guiada, estrategias para explicar y apreciar la diversidad lingüística, cultural y artística, atendiendo a valores ecosociales y democráticos y respetando los principios de justicia, equidad e igualdad.

Saberes básicos

A. Comunicación

Autoconfianza. El error como instrumento de mejora y propuesta de reparación.

Estrategias básicas para la planificación, ejecución, control y reparación de la comprensión, la producción y la coproducción de textos orales, escritos y multimodales.

Conocimientos, destrezas y actitudes que permitan detectar y colaborar en actividades de mediación en situaciones cotidianas sencillas.

Funciones comunicativas básicas adecuadas al ámbito y al contexto comunicativo: saludar, despedirse, presentar y presentarse; describir personas, objetos y lugares; situar eventos en el tiempo; situar objetos, personas y lugares en el espacio; pedir e intercambiar información sobre cuestiones cotidianas; dar y pedir instrucciones y órdenes; ofrecer, aceptar y rechazar ayuda, proposiciones o sugerencias; expresar parcialmente el gusto o el interés y emociones básicas; narrar acontecimientos pasados, describir situaciones presentes y enunciar sucesos futuros; expresar la opinión, la posibilidad, la capacidad, la obligación y la prohibición.

Modelos contextuales y géneros discursivos básicos en la comprensión, producción y coproducción de textos orales, escritos y multimodales, breves y sencillos, literarios y no literarios: características y reconocimiento del contexto (participantes y situación), expectativas generadas por el contexto; organización y estructuración según el género y la función textual.

Unidades lingüísticas básicas y significados asociados a dichas unidades tales como la expresión de la entidad y sus propiedades, cantidad y cualidad, el espacio y las relaciones espaciales, el tiempo y las relaciones temporales, la afirmación, la negación, la interrogación y la exclamación, relaciones lógicas básicas.

Léxico de uso común y de interés para el alumnado relativo a identificación personal, relaciones interpersonales, lugares y entornos cercanos, ocio y tiempo libre, vida cotidiana, salud y actividad física, vivienda y hogar, clima y entorno natural, tecnologías de la información y la comunicación.

Patrones sonoros, acentuales, rítmicos y de entonación básicos, y significados e intenciones comunicativas generales asociadas a dichos patrones.

Convenciones ortográficas básicas y significados e intenciones comunicativas asociados a los formatos, patrones y elementos gráficos.

Convenciones y estrategias conversacionales básicas, en formato síncrono o asíncrono, para iniciar, mantener y terminar la comunicación, tomar y ceder la palabra, pedir y dar aclaraciones y explicaciones, reformular, comparar y contrastar, resumir, colaborar, debatir, etc.

Recursos para el aprendizaje y estrategias básicas de búsqueda de información: diccionarios, libros de consulta, bibliotecas, recursos digitales e informáticos, etc.

Identificación de la autoría de las fuentes consultadas y los contenidos utilizados.

Herramientas analógicas y digitales básicas para la comprensión, producción y coproducción oral, escrita y multimodal; y plataformas virtuales de interacción, cooperación y colaboración educativa (aulas virtuales, videoconferencias, herramientas digitales colaborativas, etc.) para el aprendizaje, la comunicación y el desarrollo de proyectos con hablantes o estudiantes de la lengua extranjera.

B. Plurilingüismo

Estrategias y técnicas para responder eficazmente a una necesidad comunicativa básica y concreta de forma comprensible, a pesar de las limitaciones derivadas del nivel de competencia en la lengua extranjera y en las demás lenguas del repertorio lingüístico propio.

Estrategias básicas para identificar, organizar, retener, recuperar y utilizar creativamente unidades lingüísticas (léxico, morfosintaxis, patrones sonoros, etc.) a partir de la comparación de las lenguas y variedades que conforman el repertorio lingüístico personal.

Estrategias y herramientas básicas de autoevaluación y coevaluación, analógicas y digitales, individuales y cooperativas.

Léxico y expresiones de uso común para comprender enunciados sobre la comunicación, la lengua, el aprendizaje y las herramientas de comunicación y aprendizaje (metalenguaje).

C. Interculturalidad

La lengua extranjera como medio de comunicación interpersonal e internacional, como fuente de información y como herramienta para el enriquecimiento personal.

Interés e iniciativa en la realización de intercambios comunicativos a través de diferentes medios con hablantes o estudiantes de la lengua extranjera.

Aspectos socioculturales y sociolingüísticos básicos relativos a la vida cotidiana, las condiciones de vida y las relaciones interpersonales; convenciones sociales básicas; lenguaje no verbal, cortesía lingüística y etiqueta digital; cultura, costumbres y valores propios de países donde se habla la lengua extranjera.

Estrategias básicas para entender y apreciar la diversidad lingüística, cultural y artística, atendiendo a valores ecosociales y democráticos.

Estrategias básicas de detección y actuación ante usos discriminatorios del lenguaje verbal y no verbal.

Breaking the ice

Let's start the research!

Which festivity do we choose?

When does it take place?

What does it consist on?

CCL
X
X
X
X
X

CP
X
X
X
X
X

STEM

X
X
X

CD
X
X
X
X
X

CPSAA
X
X
X
X
X

CC
X

X

CE

X
X
x
X

CCEC
X
X
X
X
X

Competencia en comunicación lingüística (CCL), Competencia plurilingüe (CP), Competencia matemática, ciencia, tecnología, ingeniería (STEAM), Competencia digital (CD), Competencia personal, social y de aprender a aprender (CPSAA), Competencia ciudadana(CC), Competencia emprendedora (CE), Competencia en conciencia y expresión culturales (CCEC)

Learning Path

Section

Objectives

Sessions

Breaking the ice

Have a general idea about the topic.

Play and talk a bit with a classmate about which festivities, both from your country and from abroad, you already know and celebrate.

 2 sessions

Let's start the research!

The student will be able to choose one of the festivities that are celebrated around the world to do some research about it. 

They will work on listening and writing skills.

2 Sessions

Which festivity do we choose?

The students will be able to talk about one festivity that takes place at an English-speaking country.

They will work on writing and speaking skills. 

 2 sessions

When does it take place?

The students will be able to to add to their website some more information about the festivity their team has chosen.

They will work on writing and speaking skills.

2 sessions

What does it consist on?

The students will be able to add some images and videos of your festivity to your website.

The students will be able to publish, disseminate and assess the work their team has done throughout this project.

We will work on writing, reading and speaking skills.

 2 sessions

By the nature of the resource topic, the English teacher can work in collaboration with teachers of other didactic departments to coordinate the students' tasks.

Geography and History. The teacher giving this subject can encourage students to use maps and identify the different English-speaking countries and some of their culture.  

Information and Communication Technology. The IT teacher can take part by helping students with the different apps and digital tools they are going to use. 

Last, but not least,  students can study the grammar structures and key vocabulary of the English subject and compare them with those in their mother tongue. This way, they will be able to reflect on both languages and will be able to understand better how they work.

Assessment

Teachers can use different tools to evaluate students' performance throughout their learning process. Likewise, students, will be able to self-assess their work. The evaluation will be formative and it will take place at the stages listed below. The assessment should be formative, it looks continuously to improve the learning process of the student. By working on this way the teacher will help on what, how, when and how much the students are learning. After that, it would be possible to adjust the lesson activities, the resources or the strategies in order to achieve better resources. 

At the beginning of the resource

Teachers can assess their students' previous knowledge about cities and their different part, also about the interest of the topic by using the thinking routine ate the beginning. Teachers should inform students about the project rubric so that they know how their work will be assessed.

During the process

Teachers will assess their students' work by observation in class and, also, using a rubric for each of the tasks they are required to do

Students will be also able to assess their own learning process by completing a learning diary  with which they can reflect on how well they are  doing.

Do not forget that the digital portfolio that students will create to publish and share their tasks and final challenge can also be used by teachers as an assessing tool.  

At the end of the process

This resource includes a project rubric that includes  the necessary items for teachers to check to what extent students are able to achieve the required learning objectives.

This final rubric can be use also for student to do the self - assessment or peer assessment to check their partners final product. 

Tips for teachers

As a teacher, you may feel free to use the entire resource or just the sections that best match your teaching demands and the real conditions of your class group. Notwithstanding, if you decide to use this resource in its totality, we recommend that you consider the guidelines below before your students start working on the contents.

Info about structure & contents

Make sure your students know about the different tasks and the final challenge  they will be carrying out. You can devote one or two lessons to clarify the different stages throughout the resource and the tools which students are required to use to produce their work. As much as you work this aspect, the best you will develop autonomy in work of your students. 

Assessment info

Raise students' awareness about how and what you will consider to evaluate their work. Focus their attention on the rubrics of the different tasks and of the final challenge so that they get to know about the way their performance will be assessed.

Encourage students to use their learning diary so that they can reflect on how well they are performing in their learning process. If you read it on a daily basis and comment with the student, they will find the importance of it. 

Info about tools

Clearly, this resource fosters the use of digital devices and includes a wide range of apps to produce and share the students' outputs. However, in case that your students or school suffer from a digital divide , we encourage you to use this resource as a guide and  make students work in an analogue way by using cardboards instead of digital posters, notebooks as learning diaries or your class notice board, which can be used to publish and share your pupils' work.

Also it will be great, in case you want to work following this digital project, to let the students to investigate the different tools and look for videotutorials. If they find useful, they can share with their mates. 

Creado con eXeLearning (Ventana nueva)

- Credits and download -

Title | Festivities around the world | English in my daily life
Coordination | Centro Nacional de Desarrollo Curricular en Sistemas no Propietarios (Cedec)
Authorship | Leonardo Boix Tàpia
License | Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0

This content was created with eXeLearning, your free and open source editor to create educational resources.

Download elp file

Information on licensing and use

This open educational resource has got a CC BY-SA license and therefore it can be used, downloaded, modified and adapted, as long as the name of the creator is provided, and in case of being transformed and publishing a new version, it must be done under the same CC BY-SA license as the original.

The following text can be used to acknowledge authorship in case of modification of the resource:

This material is an adaptation of the original resource "Festivities around the World" from Cedec's  EDIA project.

Creado con eXeLearning (Ventana nueva)

- Resource feedback -

Help us improve this resource and take the EDIA Project questionnaire on this OER. Thanks for contributing.

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 4.0

Creado con eXeLearning (Ventana nueva)