COOPERATIVE LEARNING AS A STRATEGY TO START WRITING IN FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS AT LA CANDELARIA SCHOOL DIANA CAROLINA AMAYA MORENO LUZ DARY BALLESTEROS BABATIVA RODRIGO SNEIDER CARREÑO MUÑOZ LA SALLE UNIVERSITY DEPARMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES TEACHING IN SPANISH, ENGLISH AND FRENCH DEGREE BOGOTÁ, D. C. 2007 1 COOPERATIVE LEARNING AS A STRATEGY TO START WRITING IN FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS AT LA CANDELARIA SCHOOL DIANA CAROLINA AMAYA MORENO LUZ DARY BALLESTEROS BABATIVA RODRIGO SNEIDER CARREÑO MUÑOZ Research advisor WILSON HUERTAS LA SALLE UNIVERSITY DEPARMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES TEACHING IN SPANISH, ENGLISH AND FRENCH DEGREE BOGOTÁ, D. C. 2007 2 Nota de aceptación ________________ ________________ ______________________________ Firma del presidente al jurado _____________________________ Firma del jurado __________________________ Firma al jurado Fecha ____________________________________ 3 DEDICATION This project is dedicated first of all to God, to our families, teachers and the university by their collaboration and unconditional support. 4 CONTENT INTRODUCTION 11 1. RESEARCH THEME 12 2. TITLE 13 3. PROBLEM 14 4. BACKGROUND 15 5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 22 6. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 23 6.1 General Objective 23 6.2 Specific Objective 23 7. FEASIBILITY OF THE RESEARCH 24 7.1 RESOURCES 24 7.2 LIMITATIONS 24 8. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 26 8.1 WHAT IS COOPERATIVE LEARNING? 26 8.1.2 WHAT MAKES COOPERATIVE GROUPS WORK? 27 8.2 ELEMENTS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING 28 8.2.1POSITIVE INTERDEPENDENCE 28 8.2.1.1 Positive Goal Interdependence 29 8.2.1.2 Resource Interdependence 29 8.2.1.3 Role Interdependence 30 5 8.2.1.4 Identify Interdependence 30 8.2.2 PROMOTIVE INTERACTION, PREFERABLY FACE-TO-FACE 30 8.3 ASSIGNING STUDENTS TO GROUPS 31 8.4 ASSESSMENT IN COOPERATIVE LEARNING 31 8.5 “ESTANDARES CURRICULARES” 31 8.5.1 Competencias en Lengua Extranjera: Inglés 32 8.5.2 Estandares en Lengua Extranjera Básica Primaria 33 8.6 WHAT IS WRITING? 34 8.6.1 Writing is a good thing 35 8.6.2 Guided written activities 35 8.6.3 Pre-writing 35 8.6.4 Topic vocabulary 36 8.6.5 Dialogues 36 8.6.6 Summary of dos on writing 37 8.6.7 Reinforcement 37 8.7 DEFINITION OF BASIC CONCEPTS 37 9. METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK 40 9.1 Type of Research 41 9.2 Population 47 9.2.1 School Context 47 6 9.3 Time Line 48 9.3.1 Student Context 48 9.3.2 Student Knowledge 48 9.3.3 Cooperative Learning and Writing 48 9.3.4 Assessment 49 10. DATA ANALYSIS 50 CONCLUSIONS 58 SUGGESTIONS 59 BIBLIOGRAPHY 60 ANNEXES 62 7 ANNEXES ANNEX A Survey 1 what do they like? 63 ANNEX B Survey 2 cooperative learning 66 ANNEX C English activity 68 ANNEX D English program for fourth grade students at la Candelaria School 72 ANNEX E Observation form 74 ANNEX F Lesson plan and colors activity 75 ANNEX G Lesson plan and Countries activity 82 ANNEX H Lesson plan and greetings and introductions activity 88 ANNEX I Lesson plan and describing people activity 94 ANNEX J Lesson plan and animals activity 101 ANNEX K Lesson plan and means of transport activity 107 ANNEX L Lesson plan and fruits activity 113 8 GRATEFULNESSES We are grateful to God, Our parents, La Salle University, The teachers who were our guides During the major and helped us In the development of this project. 9 ABSTRACT This research project is focused in the development of a proposal in which is used cooperative learning as a strategy that might help at fourth grade students at La Candelaria School to start writing. Besides, it is used some essential elements of cooperative learning as positive interdependence in which students must be conscious that they sink or swim together into the teamwork; the second one is face to face interaction where pupils have to work together, sharing resources, helping, supporting each other’s to reach a common goal. This project is carried out into four stages which are: Student context, student knowledge, cooperative learning and writing and assessment. Moreover, this document shows all the tools used through the research process such as surveys, test, lesson plans, guides, activities and so on, which helped to clarify and establish easier the veracity of the problem. 10