Tema 21. La programación del área de Lenguas Extranjeras: Unidades de Programación.

Criterios para la Se-

cuencia y Temporización de Contenidos y Objetivos. Selección de la Metodología a emplear en las actividades
de Aprendizaje y de Evaluación.

This essay deals with:

I) Planning in the FL Area: Planning Units,
II) Criteria for the timing and sequencing of Objectives and Contents,
III) and the Methodology used in Teaching and Assessment activities.

I) As an introduction to the present essay, I would like to focus on the fact that our FL curriculum is open and
flexible and is specified at the National, Regional, School, and Class level. When certain curricular aspects are
defined in broad or general terms they must be specified and contextualized at a lower level across the four lev-
els of concretion.

I A)We will start with the legal framework on which teachers must base their Annual Planning or Classroom
Program.

Our current Education Law is known by its initials “LOE” –Ley Orgánica de Educación, which dates from 2006
and has been amended by LO 8/2013 December 9, LOMCE -”Ley Orgánica de Mejora de la Calidad de la Edu-
cación”. The new curriculum reflecting the changes derived from LOMCE has been implemented according to
the ‘Disposiciones Transitorias’ in the following way:

The Curriculum for Primary Education has been developed at FOUR levels: the Spanish National level, the Au-
tonomous Community level, and the School level in its PEC, Propuesta Pedagogica and PGA. The yearly class-
room Didactic Program for each class in each area is the FOURTH level of curricular concretion.

(i) at the National level, Royal Decree 126/2014 sets the basic curriculum for Spain, in order to guarantee that
education is carried out under the same principles and with certain minimum contents in the different autono-
mous communities in Spain. Some areas are ‘core’, and can be expanded but not reduced, other areas are ‘spe-
cific’, providing a certain measure of choice and flexibility (Physical Education, Religion or Civic and Social
Values, and at least one area chosen from Art, Second FL, eventually Religion or Civics to supplement the
above alternative) and the third curricular block can be freely configured by the Autonomous Communities.
Some of the ‘free configuration’ potential can consist on the boosting or extension of core areas.
New, different Areas can be configured as long as the school has the necessary staff, facilities and resources to
impart them and do not entail additional expense for parents or the Public Administration. The Community of
Madrid has chosen and planned for Information and Communication Technologies in D89/2014.

(ii) at the Regional level, each Autonomous Community has developed its own Curriculum which must be
based on Royal Decree 126/2014. In our case, Decree 89/2014 of July 24th sets the Curriculum to be used in pri-
mary schools in the CCAA of Madrid.
At the Madrid regional level we must take into account the new Order 3622/2014 of December the 3rd that
deals with various organizational aspects of Assessment and Specific Educational Support Needs. This Order
supersedes Orders 1028/2008 and 3319-01/2007.

The ‘Reading Plan Guidelines’ in Appendix III of O 3319-01/2007 still applies, but not to the English Area in
non-bilingual schools.

(iii) The third level of curricular concretion is carried out at the School level. Each school must apply the Re-
gional curriculum (defined in D89/2014 C. of Madrid) to the specific context of the school. (see below and
Topic 20!) The school is adapts the official curriculum in its Curricular Proposal which is included in the An-
nual General Plan or PGA, which is the dynamic part of PEC. The various plans and programs included in the
PGA are updated on a yearly basis.
(iv) Our Didactic Program as teachers of a specific English class working in schools in the community of
Madrid must be based on the School's Curricular Proposal where curricular concretion and application of De-
cree 89/2014 24th is carried out to suit the circumstances of specific schools.

Since the headings refers to Planning Units broadly understood we should not forget that at the fourth or Class
level (Class level) our Syllabus Design or Didactic Program is subdivided into Didactic Units, and that each
Unit is subdivided into Sessions.

And for the sake of completeness: in the case of students with specific educational support needs non significant
curricular adaptations involving planning will be designed for each pupil concerned: planning will be carried
out at the individual pupil level. When difficulties are overcome the support plan will be dropped and students
will return to the main class plan.

Decree 89/2014 (Supplemented by RD126/2014 regarding Assessment Criteria, Objectives, as well as Learning
Standards, as well as by O 65 ECD regarding Key Competences) defines and sets among other things:

- The General Objectives for the Primary Education Stage (cross curricular)
- The Key Competences: Regulated by O 65 ECD
- The Cross-curricular elements
- Methodological Guidelines for each of the subject areas
- The Objectives for each of subject-areas are not explicitly stated but can be inferred from the Assessment Cri-
teria.
- The Contents for each of the Subject-Areas.
- The Assessment Criteria can be found in RD 126/2014 which are applied in the context of ...
- A Learning standards based assessment system in order to obtain objective and comparable data reflect-
ing true learning and competence building outcomes.

We will now consider some of the innovations introduced in RD 126/2014 and D 89/2014 regarding the Pri-
mary Stage in general:

The basic unit for programming and promotion is no longer the cycle, but the course.
The external diagnostic evaluation is carried out at the end of the third grade.
The Key Competences have been slightly altered in their formulation without significantly altering their
essence:

1. Linguistic communication
2. Mathematical competence and basic science and technology competences.
3. Digital competence
4. Learning to learn
5. Social and civic competences
6. Initiative and enterprising spirit
7. Cultural awareness and expressions

These seven competences are cross-curricular, which means that teachers of all areas are responsible for the de-
velopment of these 7 competences in the students across the Primary Education stage. However, some areas fos-
ter some of the competences in a more direct way. The English Area is targeted to the development of Commu-
nicative Competence in a second language. (KC1) but it also fosters the other Key Competences in various
ways, particularly 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Standards-based assessment has been adopted in a quest of objectivity. D89/2014 refers to students’ rights to be
assessed in an objective manner. Standards-based assessment is the model currently in place in most EU coun-
tries as well as in America and Asia. The CEFR refers to a necessary period of adaptation in which the different
members of the teaching/learning community ‘get the feel of the system’ and achieve consensus about the na-
ture and level of the exponents used. To become ‘objective’ the system requires a process of ‘intersubjective’
reflection and debate. This is an indispensable step in order to make it fulfill its intended purpose: objectivity
and comparability.

The specific innovations regarding the FL Area introduced in Decree 89/2014 are:

A key element of the new normative framework is ‘competence based learning’. We should mention that the
English Area has been following a ‘competence-building’ approach for many years. Communicative Compe-
tence in a Foreign Language has been its key objective and the classroom activities revolve around this concept.
Therefore, no major change has taken place in the FL class since it was already focused on the practical aspects
of using the language for communication.

Interaction (a key component of the communicative approach) is now implicit and can be found in the blocks of
contents as a combination of listening and speaking. This does not mean that Michael Long’s ‘interactive hy-
pothesis’ has been abandoned.

OBJECTIVES

Objectives must be inferred from the Assessment Criteria of RD126/2014, since these Criteria are the bench-
marks by which we measure the attainment of Objectives. The objectives for each course must be inferred in a
process of curricular concretion. This is usually carried out at the Regional Educative Administration level, but
the concretion of course objectives in our English Area has been implicitly delegated to each school and will be
specified in its Curricular Proposal or Project.

Basic Objectives for the Area (inferred from the Assessment Criteria of RD126/2014) revolve around Listening,
Speaking, Reading, Writing, Culture, Syntax-Discourse/Forms and Functions. Objectives dealing with explicit
English Phonetics and Spelling due to their peculiarly inconsistent nature demanding special care are also in-
cluded. Other items are High Frequency Lexis, single and Multiword, structures, patterns, formulaic language,
sociolinguistic and sociocultural aspects, strategies for reception and production and other items are part of the
list of Objectives. They involve both knowledge and skills, revolving around the key notion of Communicative
Competence as reflected in the CEFR model.

The OBJECTIVES (ASSESSMENT CRITERIA) defined in RD 126 follow IN SUMMARIZED FORM:

1) To listen to and understand the gist and the main points of very short and simple oral texts about familiar, rel-
evant topics with the help of speaker cooperation, non verbal language and visual cues
2) To participate in brief information exchanges about familiar topics with a helpful interlocutor using simple,
relevant high frequency lexis and structures, initiating maintaining and ending discourse.
2b) To produce orally and convey meaning simply and briefly using formulaic language, multi-word lexis or
fixed phrases, using mime, gesture, body language, and ‘language repair’ strategies.
3) To read and understand the topic, the main ideas and specific information of simple printed or digital texts of
familiar or relevant topics using high frequency lexis with the help of re-reading, use of dictionary, visual cues,
inferring meaning from context and developing predictive skills.
4) To write on paper or digital media very short and simple texts using simple sentences about familiar topics,
environment, daily life, with reasonably correct basic spelling and punctuation.
5) To learn (about, identify and use) cultural features, sociocultural, sociolinguistic and pragmatic aspects of ac-
cepted English usage to heighten understanding; to follow politeness conventions.
6) To learn and use basic syntax-discourse structures and simple exponents of the main communicative func-
tions using formulaic language, multi-word lexis, fixed phrases, patterns.
7)To develop receptive and productive phonemic competence, segmental and prosodic, linking it to meaning
and communicative functions. To develop grapho-phonemic competence.

Currently, sequencing of Assessment Criteria and Learning Standards is to be carried out at the School level as
they are not sequenced at the Regional level.

(We must bear in mind that some of these key parameters of curricular design may be adjusted, interpreted or specified in
the future through normative development of D89/2014 by the Community of Madrid.)

CONTENTS:

Decree 89/2014 distributes Contents into four linguistic blocks, an English culture block and an additional
block defining Syntax-Discourse Contents:

Listening Comprehension, Oral Production, Reading Comprehension, Written Production, English Culture,
Syntax-Discourse Contents

Contents are sequenced at the course level in D89/2014

The written language, reading and writing remain part of the first grade, and will thus aid correct spelling. The
first years remain mainly oral in design, with writing being gradually introduced across the stage.

The first two Blocks, dealing with Oral Language, are in line with the communicative approach which is the
type of FL learning/teaching approach used in schools everywhere in Europe and outside Europe. Listening pre-
cedes speaking (Krashen’s natural order) but both are present in the activities used to build up communicative
competence and L2 acquisition based on production (Merryl Swain) and interaction (Michael Long). Meaning-
ful (though, obviously limited) use of language is included from the first grade of the stage.

The third and fourth Blocks, concerning Reading and Writing start from letter and word recognition to simple
phrases and gradually build up to more purposeful reading around grade four, and purposeful writing in grades
five and six.

English Culture. This block of contents common to all grades introduces the learner to daily life, customs, tradi-
tions, songs, children’s literature, historical events and significant personalities.

We take ‘English culture’ to mean the broader ‘anglosphere’ as defined by David Crystal. Culture provides a
natural context to language and heightens motivation and interest in acquiring it. The FL becomes a ‘real lan-
guage’ spoken by ‘real people’(including children like themselves!) from many previously unknown countries
where life and customs are very different and arouse intense curiosity and interest.

When learning a FL it is motivating, formative and meaningful to learn about the target culture. The CEFR
points out that cultural competence reinforces “communicative competence”, especially when accompanied by
“cultural awareness and knowledge”, and even more so if we introduce “intercultural awareness” (mutual, re-
ciprocal cultural perception -including misconceptions and stereotypes!- by their language learners and users)

Syntax-Discourse Contents deals essentially with notions, functions, forms and structures that are needed for
basic communication and how to use them using the proper forms and structures. The contents of this block of
contents takes into account the abilities and interests of students in the particular age group that we are con-
cerned with: children aged 6 to 12. This last Block specifies some of the areas of Notions and Functions from
the A1 descriptor as designed by JLM Trim that our young learners will find most useful to start learning to use
the language in a meaningful as well as a formally correct way. It is an ‘open’ list in the sense that it is currently
up to the schools to define the ‘steps’ for its acquisition, defining the level of concretion by grade.

Methodology and Assessment will be dealt with further ahead in the topic.

I B) We will now step down to the fourth level of curricular concretion and planning: The Teacher’s Annual or
Classroom Programme. (Syllabus Design, Didactic Program)

The Didactic Program or Syllabus Design is a Teaching Plan for a class of students in our specific Area, course
and school year. It is based on the School’s Curricular Proposal (third level of curricular concretion)

The Didactic Program specifies objectives, contents, methodology, assessment and attention to students with
specific educational support needs within the COURSE YEAR for a given group of students. Class management
and organization are part of the Plan. Our Plan is open and flexible in order to meet needs as they arise.

Our course Program divides our teaching into a sequence of coherent and cohesive “units” usually called “Di-
dactic Units” which together comprise our course.

Program and Didactic Unit design involves selection of didactic objectives and contents, choice and design of
communicative situations, methodology involving the application of our broad guiding principles to the specific
activities, strategies, techniques and materials that will enable us to meet our objectives. The Program and
DD.UU contemplate Assessment in its various forms and purposes (formative, summative, self, peer and
teacher assessment, etc) and includes definition, design and application of procedures, criteria, instruments,stan-
dards, etc. Attention is paid to specific educational support needs in each Didactic Unit.

We can distinguish three levels of Class Program design, each including the next and ranging from the most
general to the most specific or concrete:

The Didactic Program is the annual planning for a given group.

The Didactic Program is applied through its component parts: the Didactic Units.
The Didactic Units are developed in individual sessions each of which requires a lesson plan.

The Didactic Program is a plan that defines our aims or course objectives, and the sequenced or timed contents,
resources and methods we will use to achieve them as well as the benchmarks to measure progress: Assessment
criteria, standards and instruments. The way we deal with specific educational support needs is part of the Plan.

The Didactic Program or Syllabus Design usually includes information on the following aspects:

Analysis of the students’ profile and initial situation: age, characteristics, etc
Objectives for the Course
Contents to be taught in the Course
Timing of the contents
Communicative situations and linguistic activities
Functions usually associated with those communicative situations
Communicative strategies and linguistic skills
Didactic resources
Methodology
Evaluation
Attention to students with specific educational support needs, and
Curricular adaptations and Plan, if one or more students require it.

The Annual or Classroom Programme must be coherent and cohesive: We work towards pupil achievement of
the set Objectives. Those objectives are reached though work on Content, and we use Evaluation as a means to
measure the degree of attainment of the Objectives. In order to attain our set Objectives the methodology used
has to be suitable and well chosen and applied.

The Didactic Units

An Annual Classroom Programme defines the teaching/learning activities for a school year sequenced in a se-
ries of Didactic Units. The Didactic Unit can be defined as a planning and teaching unit to be developed
throughout a specific length of time, with specific objectives to be attained through the teaching of contents in-
volving different learning activities and the use of different teaching materials, with a steady focus on the final
outcome, or course objectives, and with global and continuous assessment of pupils’ progress and attention to
specific educational needs
A Didactic Unit can follow a topic based approach, a task-based approach, project-based approach, a story-
based approach, etc, or even a combination of different types, always within the broader communicative ap-
proach that guides our teaching activity. In any case, the teacher needs to select communicative situations, es-
tablish didactic objectives and design activities, considering the materials necessary; for example, type of texts,
additional resources, etc.

Whatever the path chosen, we must bear in mind that we need to cover the six blocks of contents: Listening
Comprehension, Oral Production, Reading Comprehension, Written Production, English Culture and Lexis-Dis-
course Contents At the same time it is our responsibility to foster the development of the 7 Key Competences.

II. The second part of Topic 21 refers to the sequencing and timing of objectives and contents.

We must remember the process of curricular concretion. As teachers, in a school environment we will become
familiar with the last two levels of curricular concretion: school and class.

Sequencing of OBJECTIVES at the SCHOOL LEVEL

Decree 89/2014 establishes the contents for each of the six years of FL (English), of Primary Education.

Objectives are implicit, to be inferred from the ASSESSMENT CRITERIA in RD126/2014 establishing Stage
Objectives. They must be sequenced at the course level in a process of curricular concretion to be carried out by
each school.

Assessment Criteria (RD126) and Learning Standards have not been sequenced at the Regional level for the
English Language Area, their concretion thus becoming a School responsibility.

( At the Didactic Program or class level we follow our School’s Curricular Proposal where Objectives and
Standards are fully specified and sequenced. )

Hypothetical Objectives for the English subject-area as a whole are objectives that children should have attained
towards the end of the primary Education Stage. We can infer the objectives for each course from the Assess-
ment Criteria (see OBJECTIVES above)

The end result of the sequencing of objectives, contents and assessment criteria is a curriculum for each of the
six years of Primary Education that sets the Objectives, Contents, Timing and Assessment Criteria and Learning
Standards for each of the six years.
This will be part of the PROPUESTA CURRICULAR and it will be included yearly in the school’s General
Annual Plan or PGA

Sequencing at the the CLASSROOM LEVEL: The Yearly Didactic Programme

The annual classroom Didactic Program is the final and most specific level of curricular concretion.
Every year each teacher must develop a program for his or her course or courses taking into account Objectives,
Contents, Methodology, Assessment, Diversity, Specific Needs, etc, as well as Timing, that is, the planning of a
sequence of coherent and cohesive Didactic Units.

Teachers will apply the sequence (timing) established by the school’s Curricular Proposal which is based on
D89/2014 with the autonomy and flexibility to attend to the specific needs of her/his students.

When we sequence we go from the more basic towards to the more complex. For example, when teaching how
to express likes and dislikes, first we teach the positive structure I like + noun…… and once the students can
use this structure, we can teach the negative structure I don’t like …. since the use of the auxiliary don’t implies
a higher degree of complexity. Another example, this time using a situation instead of a structure would be the
following: When sequencing how to make descriptions, describing oneself generally comes before describing
places or jobs, etc.

III) “Selección de la Metodología a emplear en las actividades de Aprendizaje y de Evaluación”

III. A) And now, TEACHING/LEARNING METHODOLOGY.

The methodology defined in RD126/2014 and D89/2014 (explicitly described as well as implicit in the activi-
ties contained in the Blocks of Contents) follows the current ELT consensus which is reflected in the CEFR.
This consensus revolves around a communicative language learning core with plentiful production and interac-
tion in various situations, both real and created, supplemented by natural-approach -usually input-based- activi-
ties, such as story listening, and by some cognitivist elements including guidance, scaffolding, learner centrism,
cognitive and metacognitive strategies, problem solving activities and learning by discovery, and reflection on
learning.

MOTIVATION: It is important to create a friendly and supportive environment in which the students communi-
cate naturally in English and are provided with help on how to express what they want to say. (Krashen’s lower-
ing of the affective filter and Harmer’s emphasis on Motivation.)
The activities should stimulating and fun to generate motivation. If we notice that learners get bored or lose in-
terest we must switch to a different activity or task. In this sense, it is a good idea to have a “bank of fun activi-
ties” targeted for various purposes that are tried and tested and we know that always work so we can draw on
them if the need arises.
LEXIS: We will focus on lexis both single and multi-word in the early years. Young children haven’t yet
reached the necessary level of abstract thinking to understand and apply syntax concepts. Syntax will be intro-
duced in the later years of the stage. In order to optimize rate of acquisition Michael Swan advises the use of es-
sential lexical items: We will combine ‘high-frequency, high utility’ words with ‘low-frequency but highly mo-
tivating’ words that will provide the necessary ‘drive and stimulus’ to our students. Instead of formal grammar
in the early stages we will rely on ‘implicit grammar’ by introducing formulaic language, multi-word lexical
units variously referred to as ‘chunks’, ‘frames’, holophrases, idioms, etc following the advice of Swan, Willis,
Lewis, Thornbury, etc. Morphology is the next step. Syntax will come later.
LEARNER CENTRISM: Another key concept is Learner-centered Learning. To begin with we must remember
that autonomy is a strong motivator. But in our case it is also a key component of the methodology contem-
plated in our Official Syllabus. Communicative-based learning is learner centered by design. Useful cognitive
strategies such as ‘problem solving’ and ‘thinking your way through’ a task are also learner centered.

The teacher ‘sets the stage’, presents language items and supervises practice, moderates production and interac-
tion, keeps learners ‘on task’ and guides children’s use of language when engaged in communicative or problem
solving tasks, provides support and takes remedial action if necessary. A positive outcome from a communica-
tive language learning class depends on the application of these basic guidelines. Learner centrism fosters stu-
dents’ maturity, responsibility, autonomy and personal creativity, develops KC 4, 5, 6, and will help them be-
come independent learners.
COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING is based on ‘LEARNING BY DOING’, and that’s where the
learner-centrism lies: students learn to communicate by communicating in a meaningful way using the linguistic
resources that they are being sequentially taught and under the guidance of the teacher. CLT places great em-
phasis on the spoken language especially in the early stages, although the written language is also a focus of in-
terest in the first years in order to stabilize spelling to prevent fossilization and to reinforce previously learnt
oral language.
Language is acquired by producing and interacting in meaningful communicative situations.
For MEANINGFUL LEARNING to take place language should be presented, practiced, and acquired in a con-
textualized way and should revolve around familiar topics and themes that are close to students’ own life expe-
riences and/or fall within their field of interest.

Communication can take place in daily classroom INTERACTION as well as in ‘TASK BASED LEARNING’
communicative activities in pairs or groups involving the information-gap principle as well as problem solving
activities and projects. TASKS should have a clear objective, appropriate content, a working/application proce-
dure, and a set range of outcomes.

Interactive situations require "NEGOTIATION OF MEANING". Interlocutors must seek out shared code to be
put to use when communicating. This is an active and dynamic process that enhances language acquisition and
heightens communicative competence.

Other activities involving interaction are games (some of which follow the ‘task’ model) role play, songs,
dramatization, etc. We can rely on children’s natural tendency to play. Games, role play songs and dramatiza-
tion are particularly useful in a child ELT environment as they are all based on their natural inclinations and in-
volve the use of production and interaction in natural and enjoyable contexts.

Since CLT relies on communication in the context of tasks, games, role play, etc in pairs and groups COOPER-
ATIVE LEARNING focuses on team and teamwork and emphasizes cooperation as opposed to competition.
Students share information and help, and achieve their learning goals as a group. Communicative activities in
game contexts can include a measure of friendly competition that adds a bit of ‘sparkle’ that students enjoy.
Competition between teams builds up cooperative skills. Both cooperation and competition are part of daily life
and build up social skills.
Instructions should be given in the simplest possible way in order to make ourselves understood. The activities
should be varied, must be well planned, and all the necessary materials such as flashcards must be planned be-
forehand.
Children should alway use English when they interact. Asking them questions in English from time to time
when they are engaged in a communicative activity (meaningful interaction) in pairs or groups will help to
maintain communication using the L2 code and minimize ‘code switching’

The success of team-work often depends on the team composition and on seating arrangements. We should
switch between ‘mixed abiliy‘ grouping and ‘same level’ grouping. In this way fast finishers will scaffold the
rest but will also be able to make quick, satisfying progress when coupled with ‘same level’ students. Regarding
personality types such as extroversion or shyness striking a balance within the group is usually the best policy.
Group seating in four clusters of six will allow students to interact freely while the teacher stands in the mid-
point where she/he can observe, guide, scaffold, provide information animate or moderate depending on the task
and needs.
When carrying out dramatization we should try to leave a large empty space at the centre of the classroom. The
U shape allows whole-class interaction to take place. ‘Survey’ (‘opinion poll’) activities can be carried out by
children who are free to move around the class in order to ‘interview’ their classmates and ask them the ‘sur-
vey’ questions.
During communicative activities we should walk around the classroom helping the slower ones or keeping the
faster busy. In that way we can check progress, solve problems, guide students, rectify situations and we can
also correct or improve their pronunciation.
Content-based Learning or CLIL sees language as a tool or medium for acquiring knowledge about other things.
The content itself determines what language items need to be learned or mastered, not the other way around.
Bilingual schools in which students learn different subjects in English apply this approach.
In our schools the English Class Sessions in the ICT room are an example of content-based-learning. Children
learn computing through English and English through computing

As regards mistakes (pronunciation and other) we must be patient. Overcorrection can hurt the dynamics of the
class, reduce motivation, intimidate learners. On the other hand we can’t allow errors to fossilize. We must note
down the main errors and carry out language focused games/tasks/activities to set our students on the right
track. The main target is communicative competence. Improvement will be incremental but progress must be
steady, and this depends on our teaching intervention.
The most important thing is that, little by little, students improve their communicative skills in English and de-
velop a positive attitude towards learning a foreign language. The key for success is enjoying the class, partici-
pating in the various activities and becoming confident in the use of the foreign language. Class dynamics must
take into account many important factors.

III B) ASSESSMENT

EVALUATION is a continuous or ‘on-going’ and global process. We can distinguish three types of evaluation:
Evaluation of each child’s progress by the teacher regarding both the Course Contents established in the
Syllabus Design, or Classroom Program and the attainment of the Unit and Program objectives and the seven
Key competences.
Self-evaluation of the teacher’s own work, in order to make any necessary adjustments in teaching prac-
tice.
Self and peer evaluation on the part of each student, so they share the responsibility for their own learn-
ing and take their first steps towards learner autonomy. Self and peer evaluation is normally carried out at the
end of each Session or at the end of Didactic Units.

Assessment is carried out for various purposes:

Initial assessment to establish the starting point at the beginning of the Course or Unit. We can also use it for re-
view and as an opportunity to catch-up and fill in the ‘gaps’ in the learning process.
Formative assessment so that students learn to learn from their mistakes. Formative assessment is an important
part of our curricular design. Mistakes are part of the learning process.
Summative assessment: At the end of each teaching unit: Session, Unit, Term, Course or Stage we must carry
out assessment activities of various kinds reflecting the learning outcome of the each teaching unit.
Evaluative assessment: To officially record the outcome of term or course.
Diagnostic assessment: To assess the effectiveness of the teaching/learning process in a class, school or region.
External Assessment: Our school system establishes external testing after the third and the sixth grades.

Communicative competence in a foreign language is our main Area objective and as such is at the core of the
assessment criteria and process. But things are a little more complex. Communicative competence is divided
into sub-competencies and entails the mastery of linguistic skills all of which must be assessed. For quite a few
years ‘getting the message across’ was the key criterion, with no attention paid to accuracy and linguistic skills.
This is no longer the case as the risk of fossilization was underestimated.

Activities used for evaluation or assessment need not be different from ordinary classroom activities. “Direct
teacher observation” of games, singing, role play plays an important role. Oral production and interaction can-
not be assessed any other way. Work-sheets and other written exercises and production are similar to the ones
used in class.

If we see that a child is falling behind, we must put in place the necessary standard or specific support measures
to help that child. The resulting curricular adaptations are reflected in the Didactic Program.

THE JOINT USE OF ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND ASSESSMENT STANDARDS.

The Community of Madrid has adopted a combined Assessment Criteria and Learning Standards based assess-
ment system in its quest for measuring competence as well as knowledge and to reflect objective and compara-
ble results, as reflected in D89/2014. Its specific design is developed in Order 3622/2014 December 10.

Learning Standards and Assessment Criteria are used jointly to carry out the assessment process.

When applying the Learning Standards the various items contemplated in the Assessment Criteria of
RD126/2014 must be taken into account.

Learning standards are specifications of the more abstract concepts in the assessment criteria. The learning stan-
dards defined in our official curriculum are strongly focused on communicative competence.

The Assessment Criteria reflect a broader set of skills and follow the Common European Framework Commu-
nicative Competence model quite closely.

The communicative competence model of the CEFR contemplates Linguistic, Sociolinguistic and Pragmatic
competences, each in turn subdivided into sub-sub-competences. Most of these are contemplated in the Assess-
ment Criteria, but not in the Standards, at least not in an explicit way. This fact leads to a clearer understanding
of the ‘twin track’ nature of the Assessment system that has been put in place.

The ASSESSMENT CRITERIA of RD 126/2014, are formulated above in concise form

under the heading OBJECTIVES.

The essential features and guidelines follow:

D89 Art. 9.3 “THE CONSEJERÍA (...) WILL REGULATE ASSESSMENT”... (Note: in O 3622/2014)
D89 Art 9.4 “ASSESSMENT REFLECTS DEDICATION, EFFORT, and PERFORMANCE”
D89 Art 9.1 “ASSMT is CONTINUOUS, GLOBAL, WILL TAKE INTO ACCOUNT PROGRESS”
O3622 Art 12.1 “ASS. is INFORMATIVE, FORMATIVE, WILL GUIDE THE LEARNING PROCESS”
D89 Art 9.2 “ASSMNT CRITERIA AND LEARNING STANDARDS WILL BE USED TO GAUGE...”
O. 3622 Art 12.2 “ASSMT CRITERIA AND LEARNING STANDARDS ARE THE BENCHMARKS
both for CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT AND FINAL (SUMMATIVE) ASSESSMENTS”.
O. 3622 Art 12.3 “INADEQUATE RESULTS WILL LEAD TO REINFORCEMENTS”.
O. 3622 Art 13 “RESULTS WILL BE GRADED FAIL, PASS, GOOD, NOTEWORTHY, OUTSTANDING
TOGETHER WITH A NUMERICAL GRADE 1-4, (F) 5, (P) 6,(G) 7-8, (N) 9-10, (OU)
WITHOUT DECIMALS”.
RD126/126 and D89/2014 only publish the end of Stage Standards and Assessment Criteria as far as the Eng-
lish Area is concerned.

Regarding Assessment the Madrid Educative Administration has not carried out curricular concretion at the
course level. We must infer that this task is tacitly delegated to each school. Each school must reflect the vari-
ous course levels in its Curricular Project.

It can be argued that this provides schools a greater margin of flexibility in curricular design to suit their spe-
cific circumstances.

The exponents themselves of the Learning Standards should be contextualized to fit the theme of the Didactic
Unit being developed.

Different schools within the margins of their curricular autonomy may apply standard based assessment in
slightly different ways following their curricular projects as approved by the DATs.]

THE SAME structure of LEARNING STANDARDS and ASSESSMENT CRITERIA CAN BE USED
throughout the STAGE as long as they are adapted to the level of the course and the contents taught.

We must remember that non-bilingual schools have an A1 target at the end of the Stage, so all our leaners are
pre-A1 level students.

REGARDING STANDARDS: Course grading can be done not through the exponent itself but through the in-
cremental complexity or difficulty of the items to be graded or tasks to be carried out.

We must bear in mind that according to the Methodological Guidelines from RD126/2014 and D 89/2014 our
students will focus on the oral form and only gradually will be introduced to the written form.
Learning will initially be focused on lexis and meaning (semantics), using multi-word lexis, fixed phrases, for-
mulaic language and patterns which will enable them to communicate. As they grow older and cognitively more
mature we will introduce syntax, which will give them valuable insights as to how language works. This is re-
flected in the Methodology part of this topic but provides valuable hints as to how to sequence Assessment Cri-
teria and Learning Standards throughout the Primary Stage.

As a CONCLUSION, I would like to say that it is important to plan our work as teachers to ensure that nothing
is left to chance and that our pupils are given the best possible opportunity to learn in our classes.
Since I will be presenting an Annual Classroom Programme and a Didactic Unit in the next part of this exami-
nation, what I have written today will fit in with what comes next.
Material removed for various reasons: (redundancy, obsolescence, etc)

Focus on Lexis: Lexis, both single and multi-word, is emphasized in the early years, as young children haven’t
yet reached the necessary level of abstract thinking to understand and apply syntax concepts. Syntax will be in-
troduced in the later years of the stage. Essential lexical items used are ‘high-frequency, high utility’ words,
‘low-frequency high motivation’ words that will help drive the class forward, and formulaic language, multi-
word lexical units variously referred to as ‘chunks’, ‘frames’, holophrases, idioms, etc which will help them to
convey meaning.

The school adapts the Area Objectives to each Course on which our Annual Programme is focused. We will il-
lustrate this with an example.

For instance, starting from the objective number one of the foreign language area in Decree 22/2007, which is :
‘To listen to and understand messages, using the information to carry out tasks’ we can sequence this objective
for the second cycle of Primary education as follows: ‘At the end of the second cycle pupils will be able to un-
derstand the general meaning of simple oral texts emitted by the teacher with a simple structure and vocabulary,
in familiar contexts, and with the help of gestures, mime and any necessary repetition’.

We should use different strategies to enhance learning, for example:

Pay special attention to motivation and how to increase it
Create an atmosphere of security and respect. Provide encouragement and positive feedback on the learner's
achievements to develop their confidence and self-esteem.
Create situations of meaningful interaction by means of group games, tasks, etc.
Contextualise new language to help learners understand why and how the language is used
Use contexts that are real and relevant to learners.
Establish realistic goals that relate to what the learner can and wants to do so that they will feel a sense of
achievement.
Break tasks into small steps appropriate to the level of the learner's concentration.
Check understanding of instructions; reinforce instructions with visual input, for example demonstration, using
pictures or objects.
Use games and strategies to help improve memory and repetitive stories or situations.
Give the learner time to process information and respond to questions.
Observe closely to see what does and doesn't work.