The History of My Family - An Educational Project
Hello fellow teachers,
1. Breaking the ice
As an initial activity, children will be told to talk about their family. They will practice their writing, reading and oral skills, as they will have to write questions such as "Where do you live?" or "How many siblings do you have?" This way they can learn specific vocabulary in order to talk about their family, how to make Wh-questions and at the same time, they will learn more about their classmates.
2. Celebrating with my family
3. Genealogical Tree
4. Dealing with historical data
5. Thanks to my family
With no more delay, let's put this project to the test, by having a look at some of the following aspects:
An essential aspect of an educational project is to have a clear teaching focus. This project has a clear focus on the language use they want their students to acquire in English, which are the past tenses, vocabulary related to family members and relationships.
Throughout the project, children are lead towards the goal of achieving certain skills, skills not only withing the ESL context but also related to the learning and use of ICT skills. They will also improve their interpersonal skills, as they will have to develop activities in groups by learning to collaborate with one another.
There are many meaningful and challenging activities in which children can learn to cooperate with other classmates and to self-evaluate themselves and assess other children's work, besides many other things.
Unfortunately, this project does not intend to explicitly solve any problem; it does not revolve around a specific question that needs to be answered. If it does, it is not explained or mentioned in the project.
However, after reading the project and the activities, there are some questions one can come up with even though they are not mentioned as such. Some of them could be: Who are my family members? What do I know about the history of my family? How other families in other countries live? - these are questions that can be intuited from the different activities of the project.
Right from the beginning, we can see how this project has a real-world context, as it emphasizes the relationships between family members - session 3 -, as well as differences between different cultures around the world - session 2. Children are taught how to use ICT tools that are available in their schools, and they can use different resources such as their family members in order to gather first-hand information.
Some activities allow students to use different resources and tools in creative ways, such as creating their own family tree. Nonetheless, there is a lack of information regarding their freedom in the use of the different resources.
Children are able to reflect upon their learning by means of a learning diary, as I already mentioned, answering some questions. They will reflect on each activity or mission they accomplish, sharing their thoughts about what they learned during the missions, the difficulties they faced and what they can improve after completing the missions.
Throughout their journey of overcoming challenges and fun missions, children will have the opportunity to assess their own work along with the work of other classmates. They are able to give feedback to their peers and reflect upon the processes they followed in order to develop an activity. Students can also learn to be receptive to the opinion of their teacher, classmates, and relatives, as this project allows students to receive feedback from them too. After each mission, the teacher will give the students some bandages as a reward for fulfilling the tasks adequately.
During the entire project, children are given the opportunity to show the final product of their work, missions or challenges to their class, their relatives, and the world. It is interesting to see how this project helps children to share their work with the world, by publishing their posters and their activities to a blog, which can be seen by everyone. Through this blog, they can demonstrate what they learned throughout the activities. The teacher will also share their work, through a twitter account that he/she created for the entire class.
In today's blog, I am excited to share with you an ESL educational project that can be of help in your teaching journey. However, I am not going to only share it with you, but I will be a little bit critical trying to find its strengths and weaknesses throughout a detailed analysis.
This educational project is called "The History of My Family", and it was published through the web of CEDEC (Centro Nacional de Desarrollo Curricular en Sistemas no Propietarios) and INTEF (Instituto Nacional de Tecnologías Educativas y de Formación del Profesorado). The project was designed for students in the first grade of secondary education.
Before going forth with the analysis in depth, I will tell you a little bit about this project.
First of all, this project intends to improve not only the English skills of the students but also their ICT ones, as they will have to create their own blog in which they would have to submit all the activities they have been doing. They will also start being familiarized with the use of twitter, as the teacher will create a class account in which they can share their work with the world.
The project consists of five parts:
Source: own elaboration
1. Breaking the ice
As an initial activity, children will be told to talk about their family. They will practice their writing, reading and oral skills, as they will have to write questions such as "Where do you live?" or "How many siblings do you have?" This way they can learn specific vocabulary in order to talk about their family, how to make Wh-questions and at the same time, they will learn more about their classmates.
2. Celebrating with my family
In this section, children will have to share, find and compare information about how their family and other families around the world celebrate special occasions such as Birthdays, Christmas, Easter, and so on. The activities they will develop will develop their listening, reading and writing skills. There is a final mission for this session, which is to create a digital or analogical poster about the different celebrations around the world.
3. Genealogical Tree
The following activities of the project, that are included in this section, will revolve around the relationship between the family members. Children will have to do some research on their family members, their history, and main facts.
One activity that is mentioned in the project is that they would have to write or create a comic in which they can portray their family history in a different era or time. They can overcome this challenge with the help of their family members for ideas. This section will focus on developing children's writing and speaking skills.
As the title of this session depicts, children will have to complete another activity which is creating their own family tree. They are also given the opportunity to bring one of their relatives to the class.
One activity that is mentioned in the project is that they would have to write or create a comic in which they can portray their family history in a different era or time. They can overcome this challenge with the help of their family members for ideas. This section will focus on developing children's writing and speaking skills.
As the title of this session depicts, children will have to complete another activity which is creating their own family tree. They are also given the opportunity to bring one of their relatives to the class.
4. Dealing with historical data
This session consists of two parts. Firstly, children will have to choose one or two members of their family and write about what activity they would like to do together. After thinking and writing about it, they would have to talk about it with one classmate.
Secondly, children will have to choose a member of their family and create a timeline about him/her, in which they would have to include ten historical events of that persons' life.
Secondly, children will have to choose a member of their family and create a timeline about him/her, in which they would have to include ten historical events of that persons' life.
5. Thanks to my family
In this last section of the project, children will be able to improve their writing, speaking and listening skills. The final mission of this educational project is to create a digital poster in order to remember the history of their family, and show their family how grateful they are.
Essential Project Design Elements Checklist
When creating an educational project there are some elements that need to be taken into account. These elements are essential for the better development of a project. Now, the question that arises is: Does this educational project meet the criteria?With no more delay, let's put this project to the test, by having a look at some of the following aspects:
- Key knowledge, understanding, and success skills
An essential aspect of an educational project is to have a clear teaching focus. This project has a clear focus on the language use they want their students to acquire in English, which are the past tenses, vocabulary related to family members and relationships.
Throughout the project, children are lead towards the goal of achieving certain skills, skills not only withing the ESL context but also related to the learning and use of ICT skills. They will also improve their interpersonal skills, as they will have to develop activities in groups by learning to collaborate with one another.
- Challenging problem or question
There are many meaningful and challenging activities in which children can learn to cooperate with other classmates and to self-evaluate themselves and assess other children's work, besides many other things.Unfortunately, this project does not intend to explicitly solve any problem; it does not revolve around a specific question that needs to be answered. If it does, it is not explained or mentioned in the project.
However, after reading the project and the activities, there are some questions one can come up with even though they are not mentioned as such. Some of them could be: Who are my family members? What do I know about the history of my family? How other families in other countries live? - these are questions that can be intuited from the different activities of the project.
- Sustained inquiry
Throughout this educational project, students are required to make research, use different resources such as ICT ones in order to present their findings to the class. They are challenged and encouraged to reflect on their learning by asking and answering questions.
Though this process of learning and researching, children will not only practice their English but will develop their critical thinking skills.
Source: http://descargas.pntic.mec.es
- Authenticity
Right from the beginning, we can see how this project has a real-world context, as it emphasizes the relationships between family members - session 3 -, as well as differences between different cultures around the world - session 2. Children are taught how to use ICT tools that are available in their schools, and they can use different resources such as their family members in order to gather first-hand information.
Sharing information about their family with the class and discovering new things about their relatives as well as the differences between their family and other families around the world, can motivate students throughout the learning project.
The process students need to follow is based on the use of real and practical tools, such as ICT tools like Blogger and Twitter.
The process students need to follow is based on the use of real and practical tools, such as ICT tools like Blogger and Twitter.
- Student voice and choice
Some activities allow students to use different resources and tools in creative ways, such as creating their own family tree. Nonetheless, there is a lack of information regarding their freedom in the use of the different resources.
Moreover, there is nothing specified about the time children will spend working on the project and the time needed to overcome the different missions. It is a given that the teacher will be there to help the students of they are lost or need help. However, there is nothing mentioned about the methodology or scaffolding used for the different activities.
It is difficult to say whether the project fits the criteria or not.
- Reflection
Children are able to reflect upon their learning by means of a learning diary, as I already mentioned, answering some questions. They will reflect on each activity or mission they accomplish, sharing their thoughts about what they learned during the missions, the difficulties they faced and what they can improve after completing the missions. - Critique and revision
Throughout their journey of overcoming challenges and fun missions, children will have the opportunity to assess their own work along with the work of other classmates. They are able to give feedback to their peers and reflect upon the processes they followed in order to develop an activity. Students can also learn to be receptive to the opinion of their teacher, classmates, and relatives, as this project allows students to receive feedback from them too. After each mission, the teacher will give the students some bandages as a reward for fulfilling the tasks adequately. 
- Public Product
During the entire project, children are given the opportunity to show the final product of their work, missions or challenges to their class, their relatives, and the world. It is interesting to see how this project helps children to share their work with the world, by publishing their posters and their activities to a blog, which can be seen by everyone. Through this blog, they can demonstrate what they learned throughout the activities. The teacher will also share their work, through a twitter account that he/she created for the entire class.
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Can "The History of My Family" be considered a CLIL project?
While analyzing this educational project, one can come to the conclusion that it is a project that fits the criteria I have displayed above. However, as I went deeper into the analysis of it, there are two things that I realized:
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- Once I considered the educational project was interesting enough, I started taking notes of the project using PowerPoint slides.
- After I had the summary of the educational project, I started analyzing it in depth. In other words, I assessed if the project met the criteria by focusing on the aspects I mentioned above (knowledge, challenging problem, sustained inquiry, authenticity, students voice, reflection, critique and public product).
- For the better understanding of the whole post, I created a presentation using Genial.ly, as a short summary of the whole post, trying to make it more visual and easier to understand.
- After I finished the presentation, I realized that there is too much text in the post and maybe more visual aid will help teachers comprehend better what I have been analyzing and the purpose of it. These visual aids are some screenshots of the PPT slides I created previously.
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- There is no mention of it being a CLIL project
- It is a project that can be adapted to primary education
It can be considered a CLIL project, as it can use English in order to teach different contents included in different subjects. In this project, we can see that children communicate in English in order to develop different activities, overcome challenges and learn things that are included in the context of family relationships. However, we can see that it can relate or the activities can be linked to different subjects such as:
In other words, if the project would be more focused on the teaching of the different subjects I mentioned above, by means of the English language, it could be perfectly considered a CLIL project.
After analyzing this project, I came to the conclusion that it can be perfectly adapted to students in primary education. The project is well designed, it could be more detailed on some occasions, but it gives us all sorts of challenges that could be overcome by the little ones if they were to be amended and focused on the age and level of our primary class.
Finally, the post has come to an end, but before I leave I want to share with you a short presentation that I created with Genial.ly as a summary of the entire analysis that has been made.- Social Sciences: students learn about different roles of the members of a family. They will also learn about different celebrations and customs in different families around the world.
- History: they get to travel into the history of their own family and can link some important facts in the history with the time their parents or grandparents lived.
- Geography: they get to locate different countries and compare how people in those countries live and celebrate special occasions in comparison to the country they live in.
- Arts and Crafts: students can make their posters using different techniques such as collage.
In other words, if the project would be more focused on the teaching of the different subjects I mentioned above, by means of the English language, it could be perfectly considered a CLIL project.
After analyzing this project, I came to the conclusion that it can be perfectly adapted to students in primary education. The project is well designed, it could be more detailed on some occasions, but it gives us all sorts of challenges that could be overcome by the little ones if they were to be amended and focused on the age and level of our primary class.
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The process of analysis
- First of all, I chose an educational project among many other ones and I read it carefully- Once I considered the educational project was interesting enough, I started taking notes of the project using PowerPoint slides.
- After I had the summary of the educational project, I started analyzing it in depth. In other words, I assessed if the project met the criteria by focusing on the aspects I mentioned above (knowledge, challenging problem, sustained inquiry, authenticity, students voice, reflection, critique and public product).
- For the better understanding of the whole post, I created a presentation using Genial.ly, as a short summary of the whole post, trying to make it more visual and easier to understand.
- After I finished the presentation, I realized that there is too much text in the post and maybe more visual aid will help teachers comprehend better what I have been analyzing and the purpose of it. These visual aids are some screenshots of the PPT slides I created previously.
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Self-reflection
As teachers, we are constantly surfing the net in search for great and productive educational projects and activities that work and benefit the learning of our students at every level: psychologically, physically, cognitively, socially, emotionally, and academically. Undoubtedly, as adults, we have to be cautious about what we teach our students, and for this reason, we cannot deny the importance of being able to critically analyze what we find on the internet and intend to bring in our class.
This activity was of so much help, as I could learn the importance of analyzing in depth an educational project; finding its strengths and weaknesses and trying to figure out what I could do to take the most out of this project. It is not an easy mission to make a fair analysis of a project. Many times we may feel that the project is good enough as it is and there is no need to make any type of analysis as we do not have that amount of time. Nonetheless, there are so many benefits in analyzing the educational projects we want to include in our teaching.
What I personally learned and I believe you too will be able to experience is that when you assess the work of other people you can get ideas for future projects that you can design yourself or you can start to figure out ways to improve the weaknesses that were found in the educational project you analyzed. You will start asking yourself questions such as: What can I do to improve this project in order to bring it in my class? How will my primary class benefit from this project? How can I adapt it? Are there other ways to put this project into practice? - besides many other ones.
Throughout the process of analyzing this project, I found myself learning how to use an amazing ICT tool for presentations called Genial.ly! It is an awesome tool I recommend you to try using, as it has so much potential and it is so fun and creative!
What I personally learned and I believe you too will be able to experience is that when you assess the work of other people you can get ideas for future projects that you can design yourself or you can start to figure out ways to improve the weaknesses that were found in the educational project you analyzed. You will start asking yourself questions such as: What can I do to improve this project in order to bring it in my class? How will my primary class benefit from this project? How can I adapt it? Are there other ways to put this project into practice? - besides many other ones.
Throughout the process of analyzing this project, I found myself learning how to use an amazing ICT tool for presentations called Genial.ly! It is an awesome tool I recommend you to try using, as it has so much potential and it is so fun and creative!
I will conclude this post encouraging you to take a look at this educational project I analyzed myself. I would definitely adapt it and put it into practice with my primary students!
Feel free to leave a comment below if you were able to take it into practice with your students or if you feel like sharing your own opinion about it.
Feel free to leave a comment below if you were able to take it into practice with your students or if you feel like sharing your own opinion about it.
Hello Rebeca!!! You did a great deep analysis of "The history of my family" taking into account many characteristics. It is very complete and I like how you created your genially, it is very well structured and clear.
ReplyDeleteBesides, you show a very complete reflection, you have learnt many things! and that is fantastic.
Good job!!!