ENGLISH AT THE JOSE MARIA BERRIO SCHOOL

MISSION OF “FLD”:

To offer a whole learning of the foreign language “English”, building knowledge and language together, developing communicative, cognitive, socio - emotional and researching skills, to enable the students interact in different contexts. WHAT´S THEME-BASED METHODOLOGY ?

It consists on teaching the foreign language by using themes chosen by the students. For instance, the teacher leads the processes taking into account the students’ needs and interests. Therefore, they learn the language, about the language and through the language, by exploring different themes.

METHODOLOGY STAGES
1. Negotiation Process: Five universal thematic categories have been established to wrap the diversity of topics that can be explored: Interactions, Knowledge and Technology, Human expressions and Transcendence. At the beginning of the school term, three categories are selected to be explored throughout the scholar year. The teacher presents one of them to the students and they suggest related topics of their interest. Then, with their teacher’s help, they decide what topics are going to be studied during the period. After, the class is encouraged to build the enduring question that leads the whole process . Finally, there’s a meeting where parents, students and teachers discuss, approve and give ideas about how the Enduring Question and topics can be guided and approached.

2. Thematic Exploration: After having defined the theme and the Enduring Question, teachers and students explore the theme in different ways and in real informative sources. The teacher focuses on preparing various events (set of connected activities with a purpose). They are: Grammar and Mini lessons (Learning about Language), Reading and Writing (Learning the Language), and Usage of concepts (leaning Through the Language).

3. Project: The students will gather relevant information to answer the Enduring Question, through the different events prepared by their teacher. They decide the kind of project they want to carry out. Moreover, a presentations schedule is also planned.

4. Reflection: This is the last stage of the process. The students share their achievements, how they arrived at them and there’s a plenary to analyze what they learned about the theme. Students and teacher adopt a reflexive stance towards the strategies used in the process of learning.

HOW DO WE EVALUATE?

The evaluation process is based on the interaction of the Cognitive, Linguistic and Socio- Emotional where the students interact in different situations developing communicative competences and thinking strategies.
In order to get an appropiate and interesting theme for the students, we read, we research on different sources all the fields of knowledge, we share ideas in class and write about them; all this in a Holistic way. That is to say, students aren’t tested in separated units.Finally, we encourage them to be more independent and aware of their learning processes, having classes where learning and teaching are a knowledge adventure.
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

· Slep test for 9 graders and Melicet for 10 and 11 graders (Graduation requirement)
· Academic Improving Center - Reinforcements
· Publishing of original texts in the “Josema English Magazine”
· Meaningful English usage through projects