PRESENTATION
The Conselleria d’Educació periodically makes and publishes teaching-learning material as a teacher resource for all the different plurilingual programmes which are developed in the Valencian schools. The new Valencian curriculum introduces the subject of Education for Citizenship and Human Rights.
Education for citizenship is considered an important issue within the educational system to shape civic values and responsibility that every student should have, as well as raise awareness of the basic structures and functions of those institutions which are the foundation of a democratic society. The goal is for students to acquire values within the context of relationships to the rest of society, but also within their own families and school.
The activities suggested here represent a store of additional materials to reinforce the acquisition of such values and knowledge about the institutions which support our democratic system.
At the same time, it is a good opportunity to acquire knowledge of vocabulary and structures in English, since the activities are designed for an integrated learning of contents and foreign language, which is an objective within the framework of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. This document states that all European citizens should acquire two languages of the European Union in addition to their mother tongue. These activities are also designed by taking into account the key competences in the teaching-learning process. This is crucial to assess progress in the subject, in the English language, and in the personal assessment of the contents being taught.
The activities are specially designed for 5th year of Primary Education. Within each block, each unit has a number which corresponds to a thematic teaching unit with different levels for the teacher to choose from, depending of the moment and time, the capabilities of the students and/or their teaching schedule.
Each didactic unit presents, firstly, an outline of the development of the unit: preparation, presentation, opening activity, main activity, closing activity, together with vocabulary and expressions that may be useful for the teacher when putting the chosen didactic unit into practice. Secondly, the unit presents a plan of objectives, an evaluation criteria contents, materials, assessment and self-assessment. Thirdly, the materials will focus on the programmed objectives, not only on the aspect of language learning, but also on values and knowledge. These materials may consist of one or more activities with corresponding worksheets ready for printing and photocopying. Assessment activities are also attached to the worksheets and can be useful for the teacher to evaluate the activity.
The goal is that the materials should be simple and easy to handle. Another aspect is that they can be developed generally during a lesson of approximately an hour, and, above all, that are attractive and stimulating for the student to acquire a basic understanding of civic values and knowledge about the functionings of a democratic society in a foreign language.
We consider that this material may become a very useful resource for the teaching of Education for Citizenship and Human Rights, and thus may contribute to accomplish the previously stated objectives.