Susana L.

Ambrosy Carrera

DIDACTIC UNIT: STRUCTURE OF A TV PROGRAM: THE

NEWS SECTION
1. Introduction
This didactic unit is part of project „Putting together a TV program/podcast’ the third project of the
academic year planned for 3 ESO.
The structure of this project is as follows:
PROJECT 3: Putting Unit 11: The Morning Show – Structure of a TV program. The news section
together a TV Unit 12: The interview section
program/podcast Unit 13: The weather and sports section
Unit 13: The travelling section
Unit 14: The cooking section
Unit 15: Letters to the editor and critics

This unit takes place over 6 sessions and it involves some extra work outside the classroom but being careful
that that work is self-evaluated and and motivating.
The chosen topic allows for working in a multi-subject environment and that is one of the main goals we
strive to achieving with this approach: working with different subject areas in parallel, taking the learning
process and the student as a whole.
However, we will develop this matter deeper when talking about the methodological approach.
2. Methodological principles
1. Communicative Approach: foreign language learning is no longer viewed only as the knowledge of the
underlying grammar rules and use of the language, but as pursuing the goal of being an effective
communicator in the target language.
2. Working on the different communication skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.
3. Learn to learn: the student must work towards acquiring strategies to build the learning process further
4. Autonomous learning and self-regulating ( Zimmermann, 1990 and Ertmer and Newby, 1996):
Methodology will favour students to have to an autonomous training by asking questions, taking part and
assuming responsibilities, which will lead to the development of self-learning
5. Significative learning: Educational intervention must take into account the student‟s prior knowledge and
his / her willingness to learn. These factors are the basis for meaningful learning: relating what one
learns to what one already knows. Ausubel‟s works on meaningful learning are responsible for the
importance given nowadays to prior knowledge.
6. Interactive learning: methodological decisions must take into account that learning is assimilating new
meanings through an interactive process that affects each student, the contents, the teacher and the rest of
students in the group. Therefore, the importance of team work is a key aspect.
7. Take into account the „Area of close development‟: Educational intervention must act upon what
Vigotsky calls “The Area of Close Development”, which is established by examining the difference
between what the student can do and learn by himself / herself, and what he / she can do and learn with
the intervention of other people by observing, imitating, following their instructions or co-operating with
them
8. Personalised learning: Educational intervention must respond to the diversity of students, marked by the
different personal features and the significant social environments. Pedagogic methods must be adapted
to the students‟ individual characteristics.
Educational intervention will act upon overcoming specific needs of educational support, through
personal or material aid to students who need it on a provisional or permanent basis in order to reach the
goals of the educational level. Activity design and group distribution will be planned towards success in
overcoming these difficulties.
9. Using strategies to consolidate the enterprising spirit through activities that favour creativity, initiative
and capacity for research and innovation.
10. Functional approach: Educational action must emphasize functional learning. Thus, learning will have a
life of its own and the student will be able to translate it into his / her own language, use it in other
scopes and take advantage of what has been learnt to go on learning.
 The News Section

Taking into account strategies that give a practical dimension to the contents and procedures we are working
on. Thus, the learning situation will be more closely connected with its application in real situations.
11. Educational action will cover academic and professional guidance. This will help students to make
decisions for building their own educational route. Information and learning opportunities will be offered
through knowledge of the educational, social and working environment by means of purpose-designed
activities
12. Interdisciplinary principle: the LOMCE and the RD 1105/2014 underline the cross curricular aspect of
the key competences. English language learning is not just the theoretical knowledge of the use of the
targeted language, but it contributes and should be encourage to contribute to the achievement of the
other key competences, not only the linguistic communication.
13. Different stimuli: all the educational approaches related to active learning (Montessori, Steiner, and more
recently Gartner with the Multiple Intelligences Theory) underline the importance of presenting different
stimuli that relates to different senses and learning styles (music, kinectic stimuli such as dancing,
learning through imitation, etc.) to activate a more meaningful and effective learning experience.
14. Project based approach: according to the Orden ECD/65/2015, 21st of January, that should be the
preferred approach for competence development.
Besides that, we would like to take into account the „Phenomenum Learning‟ approach.
Phenomenum learning is widely used in strong education systems such as the Finnish. Is a learner-
centred, multidisciplinary instructional approach that is based on student inquiry and problem solving.
15. Student centered approach: although due to class ratios can be hard to personalise the learning
experience, it is needed to provide the student with a educational intervention that is tailored to his/her
needs, motivation and that can be taken everywhere. The TICs and Blended Learning have enable us to
do just that. As this is a very extensive subject, we will only point to Kinshuk, „Designing Adaptative
and Personalised Learning Enviroments‟ (Routledge 2016) and the article by Hannover Research
https://www.hanoverresearch.com/media/Best-Practices-in-Personalized-Learning-Environments.pdf.
16. Evaluation and assessment: what you teach and how you teach is what you should evaluate. This very
simple didactic principle is difficult to keep in mind sometimes: if you only works with projects in your
classroom then you should use projects to evaluate students performance, and if you don‟t work the
conditional clauses, for example, they you can not include them in your assessment.
17. The assessment should be continuous and 360 Degrees: especially in the field of language learning, the
learning process is continuous and does not end, and it should be evaluated as such.
The assessment method should also evaluate the teaching practice, the interaction with the peers, with
other teachers, etc.

3. Objectives:
The list of objectives goes well over the limit set on 3-4, but I am now listing the objectives for the full unit.
Later, when enunciating the objectives for each session we will only call the ones we will work on that
session.
1. Understand short news (oral) presentations in English, being able to extract relevant information
2. Understand short news text (written) in English being able to extract relevant information
3. Identify and being able to use the different past verb tenses in English (and in Spanish)
4. Identify different language levels and registries in English
5. Understand short instructions videos in English
6. Understand and being able to use the reported speech in English
7. Producing produce short news text using the reported speech
8. Producing short instruction texts using the reported speech
9. Understanding an evaluation rubric
10. Producing a short evaluation rubric
11. Understanding a project plan
12. Producing a project plan
13. Getting to know each other
14. Discussing and supporting an argument in an effective way
15. Working in teams in an effective way
16. Being a fair judge of each other abilities and work
17. Self-evaluating their own work
 Susana L. Ambrosy Carrera

18. Setting priorities and timelines

19. Using web tools such as TikTok or You Tube Creator to record media material
20. Using web tools such as Symbaloo or Genially in order to complete tasks
21. Using specific hardware to record video and sound
22. Using BaseCamp or similar to make-up a project plan
4. Materials, timing and evaluation
We will talk about the materials, timing when developing the different activities and sessions. In general, it is
important to point out that the unit takes place over 6 sessions of 50 mins each.
The evaluation as is seeing as an continuous process, will be embedded into the activities of the session, and
they will pointed out when explaining the activities
5. SESSION 1:
OBJECTIVES:
The goals we will work in this session are: 13, 14, 15, 3, 1, 9
Activity 1: Warm-up
PowerPoint, Prezi or Genially (in English, although we may have to give oral explanation in
Spanish) explaining how we will work in this project and in this unit. Interaction with other subjects and how
we will evaluate skills.
Timing: 15 mins
Material: presentation
Grouping form: individual
Activity 2: Getting to know your skills and getting your role
The students follow a questionnaire that in the end will lead them to get a role in the unit and in their group:
- Camera/sound technician and technical support (2)
- Screenwritter (2)
- Makeup and dressing designers (1)
- Social media engagement (2)
- Presenter (this is a double role: it must also work on one of the roles above)
Timing: 15 mins
Material: quiz at https://www.opinionstage.com/susana4/what-is-your-profile-in-this-project
Grouping form: individual
Activity 3: Creating the groups
We create groups of 7-8 students (4 groups, normally) based on who got what role in the quiz. If there are
too many or too little students of a category the students discuss till they reach an agreement (in English!)
Timing: 15-20 mins
Material: quiz results
Grouping form: group of 7-8 students
Evaluation of activities 1,2 and 3: the groups are ready for the next session
Extra-activity: verb tense practice
The extra activity is design in case extra time allows and in any case is a must in order to unlock the next
level of task in the unit.
In this case it involves watching a presentation regarding the „verb tense timeline‟ and playing some verb
tense games.
Timing: 20 mins
Material: verb timeline presentation and verb games/exercises. See pages
https://www.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAACOvS1NsAA42AhBLlAA==
(I included 2 pages with exercises and games regarding verb tenses)
Grouping: individual
Evaluation: the score on the games/exercises is over 90%
 The News Section

6. SESSION 2:
OBJECTIVES:
The objectives worked though this session are:1, 2, 3, 6, 7
Activity 1: Hearing the news
We present the students with 4 different presentation of news (oral) though YouTube.
The students should, through a multiple-choice exercise, answer the questions „what‟; „how‟; „where‟; „who‟;
„why‟ of each piece of news.
Timing; 25 mins
Material: the news videos and the multiple-choice exercise
Grouping: individual
Evaluation: when the score is over 60% on the multiple-choice exercise the next task will be unlocked.
Activity 2: Reading the news
We present the student with the written transcripts of the activity 1 above. We redo the multiple-choice
exercise till the score is over 90%.
Timing: 10 mins
Material: written transcripts and multiple-choice exercise
Grouping: individual
Evaluation: when the score is over 90% then the next task in unlocked

Activity 3: mark the verbs

The student must mark the different verb tenses used in each text and state what verb tense is.
Timing: 15 mins
Grouping: individual
Material: written transcripts

Extra-activity: introducing the reported speech

We present the students with a summary of the rules for the reported speech and what is used for. Then we
also include games and exercises using the reported speech.
Timing: 20 mins
Material: summary of rules, games and exercises
See in https://www.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAACOvS1NsAA42AhBLlAA==
(The summary of the use of reported speech and the block with games to practice it)
Grouping: individual
Evaluation: when they reach a score of 90% minimum then the next task is unlocked
7. SESSION 3
OBJECTIVES: in this session we will work on the objectives 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17
Activity 1: Listen and learn
Each role will be presented with a different task:
- Screenwritters: they will look for a news video regarding the types of news chosen by their group. The
video must be in Spanish. Their final task will be to write a 2 mins screenplay to be read by the presenter in
English, answering all the questions asked in session 2/activity 1 and they should use reported speech.
The „techies‟ will watch or read instructions regarding the use of a video-recording and editing software.
Their final task will be to write the summary of the instructions, with a on-screen presentation eliciting how
they will record the video for their group (250 words), using reported speech.
Makeup and dress artists: the students with that role will watch a video regarding how to makeup somebody
to achieve a natural look. As their final task they will write screen presentation with the instructions, using
reported speech. (250 words)
Social media: watch a video or a text on how to create media-hype over news. Their final task will be to
write a set of instructions on an on-screen presentation, using the reported speech (250 words).
 Susana L. Ambrosy Carrera

Timing: 15 mins
Material: different video presentations
Grouping: grouped by role

Activity 2: how to make a rubric

We present the students with an example of a rubric and encourage them to produce a simple one (10
evaluation points) for all the students of their role
Timing: 20 mins
Material: sample rubric (see at https://view.genial.ly/61fe7dcb8b8df80018ae0d22/interactive-content-
rubrica-evaluacion)

Grouping: grouped by role

Activity 3: get to work
The students should work individually on their final tasks. Once completed, they should self-evaluate their
tasks using the rubric made for their role. This work and the rubrics should also be provided to the teacher.
Timing: 20 mins (this may be finished at home)
Material: rubric for the role
Grouping: individual
Evaluation: when each student has achieved at least 80% of the rubric for their role, they can move on to the
next task.
8. SESSION 4
OBJECTIVES: in this session we will work on the objectives 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22
Activity 1: Project Plan
We present the students with a very simple project plan and we give them the task of creating a project plan
including „who‟ is going to do „what‟ „when‟ in order to present their piece of news recorded
Timing: 15 mins presenting the sample project plan. 30 mins to work on each group project plan.
Material: simple project plan and access to a project planning software
Grouping: in groups
Extra-activity: the extra activity for this session consists on finishing the project plan and uploading it for
the teacher to review. The feeback for the project plans will be also uploaded by the teacher 24h later.
Timing: as needed. 24 hours of teacher‟s time.
Material: a material aggregator such as Classroom, Google Drive or Symbaloo, and project management
software (BaseCamp). A rubrica for the teacher to evaluate the project plan.
Grouping: in groups
Evaluation: the teacher evaluates the finished project plan according to a rubrica and uploads the result.
9. SESSION 5
OBJECTIVES: in this session we will work on the objectives 19, 20, 21, 22
Activity 1: Evaluation rubric
We present the students with a possible rubric that evaluates the work reading, talking, listening and writing,
as well as the social aspects of the project and its organizational side. It should also include the previous
evaluation with the rubrica for each role.
Together, we complete the rubrica.
Timing: 30 mins
Material: a draft of a rubrica.
Grouping: in groups and the whole class.
Evaluation: the rubrica is completed.
Activity 2: Recording
The students prepare themselves and attempt to record the news piece.
Timing: 20 mins
 The News Section

Material: the project plan, recording material, make up and dressing material, etc.
10. SESSION 6
OBJECTIVES: in this session we will work on the objectives 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22.
Activity 1: reviewing the work
Using a projector or a digital board we review the pieces of news together. Each student evaluates all groups
using the rubric.
Timing: 25 mins
Material: the rubric made collectively
Grouping; individual
Activity 2: evaluating the unit
We also evaluate the activity and the adquired skills using a rubric provided by the teacher.
Timing: 25 mins
Material: the rubric provided by the teacher
Grouping: individually
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