Week 8. Unit plan

The first day of my unit plan: The Mass Media.

The first thing I did was to talk to them about what we were going to do during these 6 days. Afterwards, I made them watch 2 videos in order to introduce the topic. I first put the video about a famous actress who appeared in different media (magazines, TV shows and commercials) and then I asked them what they had seen. The video’s aim was to show them some of the different ways in which we get information. They began naming some of the media; they almost forgot the most used: Internet! Then, I put them the other one which was about a “Dove” commercial which showed them how we get manipulated by the media. So after watching it, I also asked them about what they had seen and what have they understood and if we do get manipulated by media, most of them gave their opinion.

Afterwards, I made them put into groups of 3 or 4 people and handed out one coloured card for each group. Then, I put them a power point about the activity they had to do, that’s to say, about what they had to do with the card. They had to choose one media, draw it and then answer some questions like why they had chosen it or to give examples of manipulation with this media, among others. It was great because I saw them working and having fun, and they were all participating in the group and they wrote a lot of information in the cards. The thing is that maybe there was some noise, but I mean that’s normal if people work in groups. Time passed by really quickly and without noticing it I only had 1 quarter of an hour to do another activity I had prepared. So, I made them stop and then they had to choose a speaker and share the information with the entire classroom, it should have been more orally, but some of them read it, but anyway it was ok.

Then I had prepared them an explanation about the present perfect and a short exercise, but the thing is that I didn’t have time to explain them all the present perfect, so I told them to have at look at the grammar little box of the photocopy and do exercise number 1 for homework. I don’t know if they are going to do it because, as I’ve said I barely could explain them the first 2 points of the box. So, I’ll have to explain them the grammar this Friday.

Important things to be taken into account: The truth is that time goes by really quickly when you are teaching and that’s a problem, because then you can’t control the timing, and that’s what happened to me the first day. I devoted a lot of time in the first activity because I saw that they were having fun while working, and that’s really important, but grammar is also important… so I hope that next time I'll be able to control it.