Keep Calm and Teach English

Unit 1 of Think Teen 2nd Grade, Beginners  ends with a project on tribes whose ways of life are threatened by modern world. Maravelaki Fryni, an EFL teacher in Serres has an excellent webquest to accompany the book's project in her blog . Turtle Song Cycle (With Turtle) by Anthony Walker / Spirit Gallery As this was our first project work, my main aim was to keep the students' works short so that they wouldn't copy large sections from the internet without processing them. To this end  they had to answer very specific questions and gather information from a range of sites.  Before starting working on the actual project we discussed the evaluation criteria so that they were absolutely clear what was expected of them. During the presentation all the teams used the evaluation sheet in order to discuss and decide on the best project.  Below are some of the students' works:

Doing Projects and Project- Based Learning are not quite the same thing. T he chart below by Amy Mayer, clarifies the main difference between the two.  “Projects” can represent a range of tasks that can be done at home or in the classroom by groups of students, quickly or over time. While project-based learning (PBL) also features projects, in PBL the focus is more on the process of learning and learner-peer-content interaction than the end-product itself. For more information on this engaging, learner-centred method you can browse my learning diary  on  the "Introducing Project-Based Learning" MOOC,  which comprises a wide range of examples, materials and ideas on how to implement PBL in our classroom.

Our coursebook presents the Past Simple tense via a number of famous historical figures like Mahatma Ghandi and Mother Teresa, and completes the unit with a biography project. In my attempt to make it a bit more motivating and to offer some guidance to my students, I've prepared a presentation on Adobe Spark , providing, among other things, a list of recommended websites for research and graphic organisers for note-taking.  Feel free to go through it and use it for inspiration! Leave me a comment below.