Australia: an interdisciplinary project

in upper primary.

ESL

This project was carried out during the first term of the school year 2011-2012 in the school Els Convents (Martorell – Barcelona) by the students of grade 6 (11 year olds).

In this project the following subjects where directly involved: 1. English as a third language2. Art3. Geography4. Social studies5. Sport6. Literacy

The linguistic goals of this project were mainly focused on productive communicative skills (writing and speaking), as well as on one of the receptive skills (reading comprehension).

But we considered other “social skills” such as how to work with other people, how to share work, how to appreciate the work of others, how to work alone… To use scissors, to design a neat page, to use a variety of ICT tools or dictionaries, creativity, structure and organization …

Hello everybody,

My name is J ulian and I am from Australia. I live in

Coolum Beach, a small town in the east coast , near

Brisbane.

Australia is in the south hemisphere and it is very big.

We speak English as well as other aboriginal languages.

Look! This is me! I’m 23

years old. I’m tall and

thin. I’ve got blond hair

and blue eyes. I like

wearing surf clothes:

flower t -shirts, shorts and flip-flops! Do you know

what “flip-flops” are? Have a look in Google!

Do you want to know more things about me?

J ust write some qüest ions to me and give them to

your teacher.

See you soon. Bye

J ulian

A LETTER FROM JULIANAt the beginning of the school year the students got an e-mail from a new australian friend -an imaginary friend, of course!

Let’s read this mail from our new friend. He is Australian.

Read and underline the unknown words. Find them in the dictionary.

Teacher asks some questions for checking understanding.

World map: Find Australia and New Zealand in the atlas. Then colour them.

Find in the atlas other countries where people speaks in English and colour them.

Name: Date:

Our Questions to J ulien

1. Do you like spaghetti?

2. Have you got brothers or

sisters?

3. What’s your f avourite

colour?

4. Do you like I taly?

5. Do you like music?

6. What’s your f avourite

season?

7. Do you like English?

8. What’s your f avourite

sport?

9. Do you like TV?

10. Do you like chicken?

11. Can you surf ?

12. What sports do you

like?

13. What’s your f avourite

music?

14. Have you got girlf riend?

15. Have you got

Messenger?

16. Do you like footing?

17. Have you got f acebook?

18. Have you travelled to

Argentina?

19. Do you like tomatoes?

20. When’s your birthday?

21. Have you got any pets?

22. Do you like macaroni?

23. Do you like football?

Do you want to know more things about Julian? What do you want to ask him?

Each student writes a question in a word document and then send it to Julian.

He answers a long mail… and he attached some photos…

Hello everybody,

Thank you for asking me so many questions.

My complete name is Julian Cartey. I was born in Sunshine Coast, Australia, in November the 8, 1988, but I live in Coolum Beach, with my dog, Rufus.

I’ve got two brothers, Mark and Seb, who they are older than me. My mum, Claire, is a secretary and my dad, John, is a farmer, in Queensland. I’ve got a girlfriend, Jess. She is 20.

I like watching TV at nights. My favourite TV series is “Sea Patrol”. Sometimes, I prefer listening to music: I love Rock’n’Roll but I also like Robbie William. At lunch time I like eating lots of things, but the food I like the most is pasta a la Bolognese. But I don’t like vegetables and I hate chicken.

I use to wear surf clothes: t-shirts (especially blue!), shorts, trainers, flip-flops and a cap, because surfing is my favourite sport. I can practice all the year, but in summer is the best time to do it. I have won different competitions and in 2010 I was the “Triple Crown Rookie Of The Year” in Australia.

I also like motorcycling and football, but people don’t play very much football in Australia. They prefer Rugby or Tennis. In autumn, when it is cold and the weather is dull, I go running or I do gymnastics for training.

I haven’t got much time for computers, so I haven’t got Msn but I’ve got Facebook, of course?

I like travelling. I went to Argentina in 2009 for a surf competition and I loved “churrasco”. I never been to Italy or to Spain but I would like to go!

Have you got any more questions?

Hope to hear from you soon!

A big hug.

Julian

1

10 9

8

4

3

5 6

7

2

11

12

13

14

15 16 17

We did some different activities...

1. Read through and catch the overall meaning. 2. “Discover” where the answer to their questions is.3. Show the photos and match them with the sentences. 4. Write the answers on the worksheet: “Our Questions to Julian” 5. What questions doesn’t Julian answer? Does he write any extra information? 6. Let’s write our personal introduction to Julian (using a model, of course!)

Two examples of personal introduction

Hello, how are you?

Thank you very much for your introductions. I like them very much.

They are very interesting and I know lots of things about you, now.

I want to propose a quest for you all, a little research to know a little bit

more about my country Australia. They are three activities. If you

complete them you will get a small prize.

So let’s go on!

Activity 1. Ask your teacher for a map of Australia. Circle or write the

following places:

Where’s Queensland?

Where’s Brisbane?

Where’s Sunshine Coast?

Where’s Coolum Beach?

What’s the capital of Australia?

What are the six states of Australia?

What are the State level capitals?

Activity 2. Complete the Australian Adventure Sports worksheet. Cut

out the names of sports and stick under the correct sport drawing. Ask

Enric.

Activity 3. Let’s hunt some photographs! Your teacher will give you a

word you must find in Internet (Google). Find a photo, print it and

write something about it. (Enric, please! Can you show them an

example?)

You’ve got one week to do it. Good luck!

Bye! Julian

JULIAN’S QUEST

Julian has read the personal introduction of each student. They like them very much!

They want to propose a quest (or a little research) about his country Australia…

Activity 1Map of Australia worksheet.

Find or write on the map.

Where’s Queensland? Where’s Coolum Beach? And Brisbane? Where’s Sunshine Coast?What’s the capital of Australia? What are the 6 states of Australia? And, what are the state level capitals?

waterskiing

horse-riding

cycling

hiking

climbing

kayaking

surfing

snorkelling

Surfboarding

Activity 2. About sports in Australia… Adventure sports

Cut out, match and paste (names and drawings).

Oral practice: He/she is ….-ing .

Talk about other famous adventure sports from Australia.

What are they doing? Paste the name of each sport

IN AUSTRALIA

Activity 3. Let’s do a little research on images about Australia.

The teacher gives some words to the students to be found in Internet using Google. They must find a photo, open a word document and write something about it, following a model.

This is a photo of a White Shark

This is a very dangerous animal. It lives in the sea,

near the Coral reefs. There are many white sharks in

Australia. They are meat eaters and we cannot surf

when there is one near us.

By J ulian

Sth about the photo (First, you can use L1 and then translate into English)

And this was the final result of our research about Australian “things”.The assignments were published in Issuu to be displayed in the school blog.

But we wanted to go further in our research about Australia. ..

Da ni el L ópez

T he Gr ea t V i c t or i a i s a des er t ver y n i c e. T he r ed s a nd des er t i s ver y , ver y la r ge, w i t hou t m a ny p la nt s , a nd w i t hou t w a t er . T h i s des er t i s bet w een w es t er n A us t r a l i a a nd s ou t h A us t r a l i a .

Coral reef

Joan

The coral reef is in the sea of Australia. It is in the north east of Australia. It is very long coral barrier. It is very beautiful.

It has got fish, plants and red coral.

What about aboriginal art?

http://www.aboriginalartonline.com/culture/symbols.php

And these curious animals?

And the extraordinary Sidney Opera House?

The final outcomes..

Map of Australia and display of assignments

Aboriginal art: tiles in the hall

Opera house: drawings made with Paint.A nice drawing made on a window with tempera.

Opera house: computer made drawings using Paint.

A beautiful drawing on a window with temperas.

Animals: koalas, a kangaroo and crocodiles made with cardboard

Project assessment

A rubric to evaluate student performance

Instant Rubric makers: http://www.teach-nology.com/

School Blog

Cockroaches and Ladybugs

©Enric Calvet, 2011

Project published