PROJECT WORK: MY FAVOURITE SONG

                               MY FAVOURITE SONG.  (A PROJECT).

By Adela Pérez del Viso.

This Project involves students in presenting their favourite songs, by searching their song´s origin, its performer´s lives and anecdotes, and by singing it or playing it on a record-player.

LEVEL: Elementary and above.

AGE RANGE: 14-16 years.

TIME: 3 weeks

GENERAL AIMS: To present a song and report details related to the song and its performer´s history.

LANGUAGE AIMS:  Sts. will develop the four skills.

LOCATION: Sts. will work at home and in the classroom.

RESOURCES:  web pages; magazines; dictionaries for class use;  computer and printer,  photocopies;  banners to display on the board; the board;  a recorder;  exceptionally:  a projector.

TEACHER and STUDENTS PREPARATION: 

1) T. tells sts. about what a project is.  Emphasis is put on   some features of every project, particularly on its length and its need of continuous, independent and hard work.

T. tells sts. they will have to work autonomously in this project, although T. will be assisting them during the preparation of the project.

T. shows sts. pictures, banners, and (when possible) video recordings related to past projects of other teachers and sts.

This part aims to change the point of view of the whole class as regards teacher and sts´ roles.

2) T.  distributes a form on which parents agree on pictures taken to their children during the day of the presentation. T. also asks sts. to bring the form duly signed before the presentation day.

PROCEDURE:

1-      Teacher tells sts. that, during a 3-week period, they will be working on a project called “MY FAVOURITE SONG”; T. tells them they will be working in groups of three.

2-      Teacher gives sts. a schedule:

1st week (from… to…)	Research
2nd week (from… to…)	Preparation: drafting conclusions,  preparing banners,  getting recordings ready, rehearsing the song, etc.
3rd week (from … to …)	Giving your presentation in class. 20 minutes each group.

3-      Teacher also gives them this CONTRIBUTION CHART:

Member of the group	Activities during the preparation period	Role of e.st. during the presentation

4-      Teacher explains to sts. the way this project will be assessed, and  if it is possible, T gives sts. the assessment explanation,  in a sheet of paper, to be pasted on their communication notebooks. They have to  be brought back with the signature of their tutors. 

5-      Teacher and sts. agree on a certain list of presenters, so as everyone knows their turn during the 3^rd week.

6-      Sts. need to decide in group which song is their favourite. T. tells them that if they cannot agree which song is the favourite, they will have to vote; but the resulting song will be adopted as the favourite song of the whole group.

7-      Teacher tells sts. that, during the preparation period, they will have to fill in the chart T. gave them (point 3). The 3^rd column will be filled in also, prior to the presentation. The chart will be given to the T.  before the presentation.

8-      T. tells sts. they have to search about any useful and interesting information related to their favourite song, on the Internet or delving into  other sources (such as magazines, newspapers, posters, etc).  They should focus on the song´s lyrics, performers, composer, and origin. Sts. can also study other aspects of their interest.  After that, they will have to present their findings in front of the class, and the song will be heard by the whole class, whereas performed or played on a recorder.

9-      Sts. will spend time reading, illustrating, and writing, in or out of class time.  When all the material has come in, sts. collate the information and organize their contributions, filling-in the “contribution chart”.  It may be necessary for sts. to decide on the order of features. If a poster is prepared, they will have to decide how it will look.

10-   The day of the presentation:

**every group member will have to participate equally,

**every group will hand in the Contribution chart to T.

**at any point of the presentation, the song will be heard by the whole class.

**The rest of sts. will be encouraged to take part (with questions and contributions) of the class in the target language.

**Teacher tells sts. that at the end of the presentation T. is asking questions to the rest of the class about the content of the oral presentation.  

**pictures are taken of sts. giving the oral presentation

FOLLOW-UP:  

1)      As a follow –up, T. asks sts. to send her/him  a report of at least three paragraphs, related to their favourite song, by e-mail

2)      Meanwhile, T. asks whether there is any volunteer who dares to open and design a blog, which is going to be dedicated to displaying the different results prepared by every group.

T. tells sts. that their reports will be posted on the Internet, on the blog; T. discuss (and agrees on) the name of the blog with sts.

If there is a school web- page T. will ask the authorities to include a reference to the blog prepared by the sts.

COMMENTS:

a)      Through this project, sts.´ autonomy and independence will be developed. Additionally, the activities will tackle different types of intelligence, i.e.: musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, verbal-linguistic intelligence,  all of it according to the theory of Howard Gardner. (Gardner, Frame of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences, 1983).

b)      Despite the need of sts.´ autonomy, T.  should have to devise strategies for “monitoring what is going on in terms of language use “(Fried –Booth, Diana L., 2011, P.19). In this sense, a weekly review sheet could be given to sts.  Every week T. collects this sheet and analyzes every st.´s work. Later, T. can discuss with the st. whether he or she shows any difficulty. A model of this sheet is as follows:

WEEKLY DEVELOPMENT SHEET

Name and e-mail address:
Period of time:	From. . . . to . . .
Materials I have come across this week as part of the project:	a)… b) … c) …
New words or expressions I have encountered this week:	Word or expression Type of word Example: (how I use the word).
Which of these expressions is the one that calls your attention?
Which of these expressions is the most difficult (for you)?

ASSESSMENT:

T. will assess sts´ work through continuous instances,  which imply the following aspects:

a)      The contribution chart:  This chart will contain the narration of what every participant did during the development of the project and therefore it will carry a mark, up to a certain percentage of the total mark for the project. . . . . .  25 % of the total mark.

b)      Assessment during the presentation day:  In this day, T. will assess sts. during their presentation, taking into account:

--Whether they use massively the target language or not during the presentation. (10 % of the total mark)

--Organization of the presentation: whether it is a balanced oral presentation, giving each participant the chance to show their work.  (10 % of the total mark)

--Material efforts: **banners **performance of a song **any other manual activity prepared by the sts. for the day.(20 % of the total mark).

c)       The weekly development sheet:  T. will take into account whether all or some of the members of the group have presented their weekly development sheet and whether it appears to be an honest and authentic contribution for the search of new terms they have come across during their investigation. (35 % of the total mark).

 REFERENCE LIST:

Fried-Booth, Diana L, Project Work (2^nd ed), Oxford, China, 2011

Gardner, Howard: Frame of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences, 1^st ed: 1983, New ed (Basic Books), 2011.