Assignment 5.

Designing my own course syllabus (Part 3)

Elizabeth Ramos Castillo

IEXPRO UNIVERSITY
CURRICULUM AND COURSE DESIGN-
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE
Verónica Andrea Escobar Mejía
 Course syllabus

Who are our students?

We attend students from ages among 8 and 9 years old. Such students have a high degree of
proficiency in studying, they are high standard students who also are focused on the Science
learning and Math learning. A good amount of our students also are involved in sports such as
Archery, Soccer and Muai-Tai, so are students who want to learn the language in order to
communicate with their significant other in sports competitions.

At the beginning of the course each student has to complete an interview with the psychologist
of the school; in such interview they are asked about their interests and also take two tests:

RAVEN: Raven's Progressive Matrices (often referred to simply as Raven's Matrices) or RPM
is a non-verbal test typically used to measure general human intelligence and abstract
reasoning and is regarded as a non-verbal estimate of fluid intelligence.

Learning style: A style of learning refers to an individual's preferred way to absorb process,
comprehend and retain information. The four key learning styles are: visual, auditory, tactile
and kinesthetic.

The result of such tests is given to the teachers in order to plan the activities that are going to
be carried during the course.

Who are our teachers?

We are working with teachers that master the English, among C1 and C2 certifications and
also TKT certifications.

Teacher Elizabeth Ramos, who is in charge of the Third grade, is about to finish her Master
Degree in English teaching; she also has experience working in a Science museum for kids,
which gives her a good knowledge about the topics the kids are interested in.

Why is the program necessary?

One of the first obstacles when learning English, is that some students do not know how to use
their knowledge in real-world situations. Our CLIL focus aims to give the students a contact
with the real use of the language and make the learning a fun and meaningful activity.

Where will the program be implemented?

We count with installations that ensure the learning: a wide playground where the kids have
space to eat nearby the vegetable patch that is carried by the 1st and 2nd grade students in
their Science class; We also have a library with books in English and Spanish; Wide
classrooms with spaces to meditate and reading.
 Course Description

The aim is the production of language as they develop their four linguistic macroskills that are
reading, listening, writing and speaking. Also it is focused on specific subskills that learners
can develop and reinforce, such as:

- Skimming and scanning: this is willing to be achieved through the use of different types
of semi-authentic texts providing exposure to natural language.
- Listening for gist: this includes audios and videos that are linked to activities related to
certain grammatical features.

Another aspect to highlight is the focus on CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning),
which allows students to learn the language through other subjects, such as Science, Ethic,
History, Geography and Social studies. They have to work on projects that require the use of
the already mentioned macroskills and subskills.

The Grammar part of the course is based on Emergent Grammar, promoting that learners
build up their own prior knowledge and base upon it to understand the grammar rules and uses
of the English language features they find in texts and audios.

Course goals and expected outcomes:

It is organized around 4 different units which aim to develop a series of skills and functions that
are listed next:

Unit 1: Imperatives/Modal can/Possessive pronouns/Present

continuous
Skills: Functions:

- Learning to make predictions about a text. Following instructions

Asking for permission
- Listening for specific information.
Expressing possession
- Writing about a field trip. Describing insects
Describing activities
Asking about events and buying a ticket

Unit 2: There is-are/How much-How many/Present simple/Adverbs of

frequency
Skills_ Asking about and describing amounts
 - Recognizing characters in stories. Describing city and country life
Talking about animal products
- Looking for specific information in a text.
Describing one’s schedule
- Listening for specific information. Telling the time
- Following instructions. Asking about the cost of items
Describing the frequency of daily activities
- Descriptive writing about the five senses.

Unit 3: Like, Love, Hate + gerund/Want+infinitive/Describing

feelings/Indefinite pronouns/Describing abilities/Verb to Be

Skills:
Describing and asking about intersts
- Looking for specific information in a text
Describing wants
- Listening to other’s likes and dislikes Describing feelings

- Writing their own profile about likes and dislikes Talking about abilities
Talking about personality traits
Asking about the frequency of events

Unit 4: Present simple/Modal should/Imperative/How

often?/Adjectives/Zero conditional Asking about and describing ailments
Giving advice

Skills: Talking about healthy and unhealthy choices

Describing feelings
- Identifying characters and who is speaking in a dialogue.
Talking about personality traits
- Listening to specific information. Asking about the frequency of events
- Comparing healthy habits.

Materials required:

For this course we are going to be using the series of text books Thumbs up by Richmond
publishing; such books involve a Student’s book which is the center of the course, here they
are going to find texts, exercises and grammar rules that are going to appear at the top of the
pages with examples of the language focus of each unit; they also provide lessons to be
studied along with the videos, which are on the Student’s resource book, that also includes
cut-outs that complement the activities on the first text book.

The students will have four different notebooks for the subjects of: Grammar, Writing,
Vocabulary and Science. Each notebook has the purpose to work on a deeper level the
grammar rules found on the text book. They will also are provided each week with the
materials needed to carry out with the projects, such materials come from a list that is given to
the Parents at the beginning of the course. They also need a Spanish-English dictionary,
scissors, glue, pencil and pen.

Instructional approaches and activities:

The school works with project based learning, each month they are having a project which is
monitored by the teacher but the aim is that the learners do the work by themselves.

One of the first things to take into account is the mission of the School, which relies on the
responsibility; learners are expected to develop a strong responsibility sense in order to
become autonomous students. For this reason we base the instructional approaches on
Bloom’s taxonomy.

Appendix 1

According to this, the activities are going to be separated into six stages, where learners are
expected to complete the goals and acquire language while they practice it. In the last stage
learners are going to enhance the language features learned by having a quick grammar
lesson that explains the outcomes they got with the project worked.

Each Unit will be worked in five tasks, the first four in order to make learners to get in contact
with the grammar features and vocabulary that is going to be used, and the last activity will
involve the knowledge that is expected to be acquired through the whole lesson.
Semester outline:

Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4

Period 1 ½ month 1 ½ month 1 ½ month 1 ½ month
Topics Imperatives/Modal There is-are/How Like, Love, Hate + Present simple/Modal
can/Possessive much-How gerund/Want+infinitive/Describing should/Imperative/How
pronouns/Present many/Present feelings/Indefinite often?/Adjectives/Zero
continuous simple/Adverbs of pronouns/Describing conditional
frequency abilities/Verb to Be

Reading “Welcome to the bug “The magic rain “All kinds of art” “My cool neighbors”
museum” book”
Project Independence fights Cultures meeting. Halloween parade. Thanks giving
recreation. presentation.
Test Grammar Grammar Grammar Grammar
Speaking: Evaluated Speaking: Speaking: Evaluated with a story Speaking:
with a presentation Evaluated with a telling about a Halloween Presentation of the
about their thoughts presentation about character. Thanks giving day to
regarding our the Día de Muertos Vocabulary other students.
country. Vocabulary Listening Listening
Vocabulary Listening Writing: they have to write an Writing: with an essay
Listening Writing: with an alternative ending for one of the about what they are
Writing: with an essay about the stories they heard. thankful for.
essay about the Mexican culture
Mexican culture. regarding the Día
de Muertos.

Unit 1
Activities
Present
Following rules Can/Can’t Insects Class museum
continuous and
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 5
past continuous.
 Week 4
 Separate the class  Answer pages 9-13  Answer pages 14-18  Answer pages 19-23  Give the students
into groups, they from Student’s book. from Student’s book. from student’s book. white paper and ask
have to discuss and  Elaborate a mind  After reading about  Describe the them to draw the
elaborate a set of map about the the Insects, ask situations on the different activities
rules for the activities that they students to describe pictures and ask done during this
classroom, and then can or can’t do in what the insects are Should I sleep on month, then place
each team will show the zoo. able to do. Talk the classroom? the papers across
their list of rules to  Separate the group about venomous Then make the classroom and
the class. These into teams, each insects and ask examples about ask them to describe
lists will be pasted team will draw a Should I touch it? people who were each drawings and
on the walls of the place: aquarium, doing something finish their
 Students will
classroom. amusement park, against the rules. presentations with
elaborate a poster
 Answer pages 4 - 8 planetarium, art about a dangerous  Give the students what they learnt
from Student’s book. gallery or cinema. insect, they will magazines and during this period of
 Draw a chart on the Then they will write describe it and warn make them time.
notebook divided the most common about how you elaborate a collage
into two sections: rules that you must should or shouldn’t with people
Should and follow in that place. handle it the right performing activities.
Shouldn’t. The way. Then ask them to
students have to describe those
classify the activities activities and if they
they can find in the can be done only in
book. certain scenarios.
 Ask students to read
again the rules they
have written for the
classroom. Ask
them to explain why
certain rules do not
fit the classroom
context.

Unit 2
Activities
Farm There is/There
How much/How many Natural products The market
vocabulary are
Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
Week 1 Week 2
 Answer pages  Answer pages 29-33  Answer pages 34-38 from  Answer pages 39-  Ask students to
24 -28 from from Student’s book. Student’s book. 43 from student’s elaborate fruits and
Student’s book.  Ask students to count book.
elements in the  Ask students if they can vegetables with clay.
 Students will classroom, for count the water, coffee,  Ask students to Then they will cut
draw a farm on example the tables, sugar, among other name the the bills and coins
their notebooks then ask them to say elements, explain the elements in the from their Student’s
and label each there is/are and the difference between classroom that book, with these
element using number of elements countable and uncountable may come from materials they will
the vocabulary they can find. natural sources. role play a market,
nouns.
list on the book.  Students will visit Make a list on the here they will
other classrooms and  Give the students water,
 Students will will count the sugar and coffee, ask them notebook. demonstrate the use
elaborate a list of elements in it, at the to elaborate their own  Ask students to of farm vocabulary,
daily items that end they will elaborate coffee, they have to take choose a farm there is/are and How
we use that they a list about the note of the amount of sugar animal and then much and How
think may come elements in school by elaborate a poster many.
sharing their results.
or coffee they use and then
from the farms. they will make the other with information
students to taste it and vote about the animal
for the best. (The coffee and the products
must be decaffeinated) we can get from it.

Unit 3
Activities
Hobbies Like/Love/Hate Want+Infinitive Describing Art exhibition
 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 feelings Week 5
Week 4
 Answer pages  Answer pages 49-  Answer pages 54-58 from  Answer pages 59-  Students will
44 -48 from 53 from Student’s Student’s book. 63 from student’s elaborate a short
Student’s book. book.  Students will elaborate a book. description about
 Students will  Using the list of the clubs and extra  Students will themselves and the
write a list of the vocabulary list, class activities that the describe each of extra class they
vocabulary students will school offers. the activities they take, then they will
related to elaborate a survey  With the information about do in the clubs perform a
hobbies and about the activities clubs and extra class and extra class demonstration of it
make a drawing they like, love or activities, they will choose activities; they will to their classmates.
for each one of hate. one of them an elaborate a share how it
them.  Students will visit brochure to present it to the makes them feel.
 Students will other classrooms rest of the class.  Separate the
write a short and ask the group in couples,
description about students to answer they will teach a
themselves a survey about simple activity
where they will hobbies. At the end regarding their
include the they will show the extra class
different results with a activities, then
activities they do graph. they will share to
each week. the class if it was
difficult to learn
and if they liked it.
Unit 4
Activities
Ailments
Should/Shouldn’t Healthy habits Natural products Class health day
vocabulary
Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
Week 1
 Answer pages  Answer pages 69-  Answer pages 74-78 from  Answer pages 79-  In teams, the
64 -68 from 73 from Student’s Student’s book. 83 from student’s students will
Student’s book. book.  Students will elaborate a book. elaborate a poster
 Mimic the  With the vocabulary list of the healthy habits  Students will with advices to
vocabulary about list, ask students to that you can have in order elaborate a list of improve their daily
ailments and play charades, then to avoid diseases or different natural activities in order to
make the change the rules, ailments. products that have a healthy
students guess instead of saying  Separate the class in have healing lifestyle. They will
what is the word the ailment, they teams, each team will properties. give a short class
about, then draw must give an elaborate a poster with  Students will about physical
and write each advice, the best information of healthy elaborate a activation and will
word on the advice gets a point. habits and will present it to brochure with share a healthy
notebook.  Students will a different group in the information about recipe with the
 Students will complement the school. one of the class.
elaborate a brochure made with products in the
brochure with information about list.
the principal what you should do
symptoms of in case of having
COVID-19 COVID-19
symptoms.
Content outline

Unit 1

 Places and rules. p. 4-8

 Can-Can’t. p. 9-13
 Insects. p. 14-18
 Present and Past continuous p.19-23
 Unit 2
 Farm vocabulary. p. 24-28
 There is/There are. p. 29-33
 How much/How many. p. 34-38
 Natural products. p. 39-43
Unit 3
 Hobbies. p. 44-48
 Like, love and Hate. p. 49-53
 Want + Infinitive. p. 54-58
 Describing feelings. p. 59-63
Unit 4
 Ailments vocabulary. p. 64-68
 Giving advice. p. 69-73
 Healthy habits. p. 74-78
 Natural products. p. 79-83

Course content

The main topics that are going to be taught and learnt are: Should/shouldn’t, Can/Can’t,
Present and past continuous, There is/are, How much and How many. These topics are going
to be present during all the units, they will be constantly used. The activities that are
programmed on the last week of each Unit are meant to show the learner’s performance
regarding those topics and the last activity involves the use of all of the topics in a presentation
done by the students.

The grammar references that are going to be the center of the course are contained in the
book and they can be used to take notes in the notebooks in order to make clearer the use and
the vocabulary that is aimed to be learned in each class.
Appendix 2

Each class is separated into: work with the book, where the students get closer to the
grammatical structures to be studied by answering to exercises and reading materials. In the
next image we can see how the book presents the topics. It uses short and clear examples of
the use of the language and illustrates the context where it might be used to make it easier for
the students.

It also includes parts where they highlight the grammar features to be learned, they can be
seen on the upper part of the pages and in the small boxes that have the title of “rule of
thumb”. The exercises are very short, leaving a wide range of time of the class to practice the
language use with the activities planned.
Appendix 3

It also provides a list of vocabulary to be used during the units.

Appendix 4

The book is designed to provide examples of the use of the language, this way the course can
be focused on the tasks where the students will show their learning and performance. We are
using a strong/deep-end version of Communicative Language Teaching with the aim that
the learners develop their understanding about the language through the use of it. Instead of
making them memorize a large amount of concepts, they can have the opportunity to develop
significant learning through the repetition of the grammar features and observation of its use in
specific contexts, this way they can associate the language with its meaning.

After the work with the book the students are given with the instructions to perform the task for
the day. Such activities are contained in the Teacher’s guide, which is the extended version of
the book. Here the teacher is provided with the main situations that may occur during the
explanations and performing the activities of the book.

The Warm-up is the beginning of the class; this is an introductory activity to make the learners
aware of the topic that is going to be studied. The class activities involve the use of the book.
The wrap-up is an activity where the students can use the grammar features studied and it
also includes an extension activity, this activity is complementary and is not mandatory to be
done.

Appendix 5
Course requirements:

The students have three different evaluations: through a series of test which evaluate each
one of the macroskills; through the monthly project they have and through the work during the
class. The first two have a percentage of 30% to the final grade, which means the average of
the grades equals that percentage. The work during the class that involves notebooks and
books, as well as group work has a value of the 70%.

The classroom has a wide space in order to move the desks and chairs to improve different
activities. Students have a special space where they can leave their books and notebooks;
they only take them home when they need them to study and when they have homework.
Each week a monitor student is chosen, he or she have the role to give the books and
notebooks to their classmates when they are going to work.

The classroom also has a speaker in order to use when working with listening activities and a
screen tv in order to watch videos or movies when it is required.

The students also have with a reading space where they can sit and relax while reading one of
the books they have. The books selected are short and easy to read stories directed to
children.

Classroom rules:

The set of rules is divided on the rules that apply for issues relevant to the school and the way
we work. Firstly, all the students have an Agenda, here they have to write each week the
Decalogue, this Decalogue is a set of principles that the school aims to operate, it changes
every two weeks, so at the beginning of each period, in the first class, they have to write down
the Decalogue in English and in Spanish. They also have to color a emoji that is below each
day, here they are going to show how they felt on this day. Also they have to write the activities
they did on that day and the homework assigned for the day.

Before they start to work, each student has to take out their “sanitizing kit”, which includes anti-
bacterial gel, disinfectant, a rag and two face masks; each student has to clean its desk at the
beginning of the class and when they change to another class.
Regarding the other classroom rules, this set is going to be elaborated by the students during
the first week. They are going to be linked to the first lesson about Following rules which aims
to teach the use of should and shouldn’t in specific situations. During this activity is expected
that learners try to shape the rules according to their own benefit and this is going to be used
for them to reflect and analyze at the end of the week if these rules were fair for all of the
students or if they involved situations that contradict what is expected to be done inside the
classroom; this way the students will be involved in the creation of the rules and will learn and
practice the use of the grammar structure that is expected.

However, the rules have to operate according to the rules of the school; they will be
remembered during the week that the rules only apply for the English class. The rules of the
school are concerned about the correct use of the uniform, cleanliness, responsibility and
punctuality.

Policies:

Regarding the Agenda, each time the students break a rule they have a special space where
the teacher and principal can write a note for the parents. If they come to school without the
agenda, the principal has to call the parents to bring it or they get one mark, when they reach
three marks they have to stay in detention at the end of the classes.

Also the teacher has four different colors to sign the Agenda:

Black: It means the student worked and behaved well during the day, there are no incidents.

Blue: It means the student did not bring the material needed to work in class.

Green: It means the student did not finish the work on the time assigned.

Red: It means the students committed a major fail, either their behavior was mean towards the
teacher or with their significant others. It can also be used when they do not do the homework.

Late homework: when the case is an absence for medical appointments, they are allowed to
recover the work done in class. According to the student’s performance, I could ask the
parents to allow them to stay one extra hour in order to explain with more detail the lesson.
Homework that was forgotten gets a red signature, when they reached three red signatures
they have to stay in detention for one hour after class.

Classroom tasks: when the students have finished quite early, they are allowed to sit on the
reading corner and take a book. When there are more than four students who have finished
and others are struggling, they are going to be asked to help their classmates.

Only excellent works get extra points for the final score of the subject.

Methodology:

Using the experience of the teacher in working in a Science museum that has the kids as a
focus, the main methodology works through observation and experimentation. There are
specific activities planned and previously designed, but in between, the teacher can decide to
implement other activities such as experiments and field trips.

The method used in the class is going to be shaped according to the results of the students in
the Raven and Learning style test, meaning that if the students need more listening
experiences, the activities planned are going to be shaped to fit such needs.

We are also subject to the changes made in the curriculum by the SEP, but this has not a huge
difference in the way we work since the new school that is going to be implemented next year,
is extremely close with the way we work in project based learning. Nevertheless our teachers
are in constant preparation and we work at the same time as public schools during the CTE
reunions.

Evaluation:

The evaluations are carried through the projects the students make during the course. Such
projects are evaluated according to a rubric where the teacher measures the degree of
proficiency in the major skills and sub-skills that the students are expected to acquire.
 Skills
Student’s name: Listening Reading Speaking Writing
Listening for gist Reading for gist
Skimming and scamming.

Each skill is going to be evaluated in a scale:

Excellent: no mistakes are made or not enough to make the work confusing.

Good: a few mistakes are made, they need to be polished.

Adequate: the performance shows that the student is in the path of learning and has already
acquired certain parts of the language.

Poor: the performance shows that the student needs attention in certain aspects of the
language.

For each skill they have different criterions, such as:

Work in notebook: where they are going to be evaluated from cleanliness to grammar
mistakes.

Work in book: where they are going to be evaluated according to the amount of work done.

Participation in class: this is going to be evaluated with special participations such as

expositions or speaking for the whole class.

Project: it involves different stages and it is presented as a whole at the end of each unit.

After each evaluation the teacher has the freedom to shape the class if she feels it’s needed,
also if there are two or less students who struggle with learning, she can open an extra class in
the afternoon in order to help the students with the topics that are being difficult for them.

Both, Product based and Process-based evaluations to the curriculum are going to be worked,
since the teacher has the freedom to change anything planned if she notices that the students
are not responding to the kind of work they are given. Also the products will show if they need
to focus more in certain areas. So the curriculum is constantly being shaped for the student’s
needs.

Regarding the data collection, each month and a half, the parents are given with a report about
the performance of their kids; in this report they can have a meeting with the teacher in order
to exchange information and points of view about the needs of the students. They also have a
headland in the student’s Agenda, where they can write notes for the teacher if they notice
anything wrong.

The students are also provided with questionnaires where they can give their opinion about the
class and the teacher. If any negative comment is done, it has to be checked by the principal,
the teacher, the parents and the student together.

The mandated to do the analysis of the opinions and information is the psychologist, the
principal and the teacher all together.

References:

(1) Universidad IEXPRO (n.d.) Curriculum and course design-principles and practice.
https://selmaestriasvirtual2.universidadiexpro.mx/pluginfile.php/130805/mod_assign/introattachment/
0/Reading%20week%202%20%2811%29.pdf?

(2) British Council. (n.d.) Communicative approach.

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/communicative-
approach#:~:text=The%20communicative%20approach%20is%20based,learn%20to%20use%20the%20la
nguage.
(3) Teaching Commons (n.d.) Types of Rubrics. https://resources.depaul.edu/teaching-commons/teaching-
guides/feedback-grading/rubrics/Pages/types-of-rubrics.aspx
(4) Van thiel, E. (July 4, 2022) Raven’s progressive matrices test. https://www.123test.com/raven-s-
progressive-matrices-test/
Appendices
(1) Raaflaub, E. and Beede, R. (2016) Types of Social Instructional Approaches. Gradual release of
responsibility. https://sites.google.com/site/gradualreleaseofresponsibility/teacher-centered-to-
student-centered-instruction/social-instructional-approach/types-of-social-instructional-approaches
(2) Fash, S. (2017) Thumbs up! 3. Richmond publishing, p. A32
(3) Fash, S. (2017) Thumbs up! 3. Richmond publishing, p. 10-11
(4) Fash, S. (2017) Thumbs up! 3. Richmond publishing, p. A3
(5) Fash, S. (2017) Thumbs up! 3. Richmond publishing, p. T4