The document describes the English language program at CEIP Emili Carles-Tolrà school in Castellar del Vallès, Spain. The school has 243 students from kindergarten through 6th grade, with 16 teachers. English is taught using an active learning approach with various activity corners in the large English classroom, including games, computers, videos, and projects. Students work in pairs and small groups to reinforce English skills in a motivating way. The program aims to promote communication skills and a positive attitude towards English and other cultures.

1. CEIP EMILI CARLES-TOLRÀ
Castellar del Vallès
ARION STUDY VISIT
11th. May, 2004

2. The school Built in 1934.
Emili Carles-Tolrà paid for
the construction.
Two buildings, one for boys
and the other for girls.
Both have similar lay out
and the same features:
 Big classrooms.
 Long corridors.
 A lot of light, thanks to the
big windows.
The Gymnasium was built in
1986.
In 1996, an annex was built
with a computer room and a
psicomotricity room.

3. School facilities
243 students.
Most students speak Spanish
as their mother tongue.
9 years:
 3 kindergarten levels.
 6 primary levels.
 About 25 pupils in each class.
16 teachers.
An active parents’ association (AMPA).
Full timetable. Each teacher works full time.
This mean that classes can be split into groups. Often
teach 12-13 children only :
 workshops, English, computers, laboratory, inter-cycle
activities, corners ...

4. English organisation
1 English teacher specifically for upper primary
(3rd. - 6th.), not a form teacher.
1 support teacher taking English classes with Pre-
school children and lower primary (1st. - 2nd.), not a
from teacher.
Half a group in all English sessions.
English Department.
English Project

5. ENGLISH ORGANIZATION
Teacher's
Sessions Student's time
time
KINDERGARTEN
4-5 year old
2 sessions a week 1 hour 4 hours
children
FINA
First Cicle
2 sessions a week 2 hour 8 hours
6-7 year old
children
PRIMARY
Second Cicle
2 sessions a week 2 hours and
10 hours
8-9 year old
Theatre workshop 2 during a term
learners
MILOS
Third Cicle
3 sessions a week: 2 with half of the
3 hours 10 hours
10-11 year old group and 1 with the whole class
students

6. English project
Contains the objectives, the methodology and the
organisation of teaching EFL.
It was created by the English Department in 1999.
It was introduced, discussed and approved by the
Teacher’s commitee the School Counsel.
Its approval means that :
 we deeply reflected upon our everyday job
 the use of space, staff and materials is justified.
 the school and all its participants have agreed to be fully
involved.
 the Project will have continuity.

7. English Department
Tasks :
 To work on the Work Plan and the Memory of
the course every year.
 To create a work calendar.
 To make reinforcement and complementary
materials.
 To increase the audio-visual and enjoyable
material.
 To look after the common approach to English
teaching in all the stages.
 To collect and share information about
educational issues.
 To revise the English Project.

8. Main objectives
To be able to
communicate in English
in everyday situations,
using oral and written
English.

9. To promote an active desire in
children to communicate in English.

10. To develop a positive attitude towards
foreign cultures and people.

11. To foster improved learning skills.

12. Methodology and approach
Children are active participants in
the learning process.
The children have the opportunity
to acquire English language skills in
an enjoyable and challenging way.
Activities are orally based (games,
songs with action, total physical
response activities, craft tasks,
simple repetitive stories and
speaking activities with
communicative value).

13. The English
classroom

14. It’s a big space
(90m2) so are all
the classrooms in
this school.
It works since
1998-99.
Second and third
cycle students
attend classes
here, always in
small groups.

17. Corner’s space

18. Library
Books, comics, magazines with their cassettes.
Children are allowed to
get books home.

19. Computer’s corner
PC connected to
the school net.
Used to play
multimedia
English games or
make searches
on the internet.

20. Game’s
corner
Board games.
Some of them
are bought but
most of them are
made by the
students and
teachers from
photocopyable
materials.

23. Laboratory
Recording
activities (songs,
advertisements,
dialogues ...)

24. Video

25. Speaker’s corner
Oral activities.

26. The factory

27. British
corner
It’s used to collect presents or any kind
of objects connected with British and
American culture.

28. Posters and pictures

31. Festivals
Activities around English or American festivals

32. Top
songs
Children can stick and share songs in English.

33. Monitors
English
classroom has
also monitors
who do normal
class tasks :
 Writing the date
 Handing out
material and
books
 Checking the
weather

34. Students projects

36. Posters and signs

38. Materials

40. Corners

41. Corners?
What is it?
“Corners” is a
group of
different
activities placed
around the
classroom which
children do in
pairs or small
groups.

42. Type of activities :
Board games.
Multimedia activities (CD’s,
Internet search, penpals ...)
Listening comprehensions.
Videos
Recordings.
Oral activities (dialogues,
differences, drama...)
Language games (wordsearch,
crosswords ...)
Posters and pictures for the
classroom.

43. Corners? Why?
To attend to different learning patterns
giving children a more personal attention.
To motivate learners using attractive
proposals and materials, adapted to their
level.
To make English real, practical and
communicative.
To foster the children’s autonomy, own
responsibility and their own work.
To let children participate in their own
learning process.
To favour group and pair work.

44. Course 2003 - 2004 CEIP Emili Carles-Tolrà
COMPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES SYLLABUS Castellar del Vallès
TOP CLASS 3 (Unit 6)
AIMS AND CONTENTS
OBJECTIVES PROCEDURES FACTS and CONCEPTS ATTITUDES
 To ask and answer about  Understanding the Communicative structures Morphology, phonetic and Vocabulary Social and cultural  To co-operate.
transport and its features. global meaning of a spelling aspects  To participate and to
message. be in charge of some tasks.
 To write with the help of  Requesting and  Has/hasn’t got  Forms and parts of  Fable: The tortoise and
 Describing transport.  To be autonomous.
an e.g. expressing information  How do you go to...? transport: the hare (modern
 Giving and asking for  To self-evaluate.
 To make a poster or an about daily routine and ways  wheel, wing, engine, version).
information.  The prepositions by, on  To respect and
advertisement about an of transport. bus, car, train, bike, lorry,  Differences between
 Making decisions from with ways of transport. appreciate others students.
invention. I go to (school) by … van, helicopter, plane, boat, British and Spanish driving.
several alternatives.  Position of adjectives.  To acknowledge the
 To describe daily  Developing listening I walk motorbike, taxi, tractor, value of new knowledge.
routines.  The rhythm. pushchair, balloon
skills to find specific How do you go to … ?  To value the use of
information.  The phoneme /3:/.  Adjectives: public transport.
 Following the sequence  Transport descriptions. slow, fast, exciting,
of a story. It’s got / It hasn’t got expensive, comfortable,
 Matching and labelling It is / It isn’t clean, big, quiet
 Reading and writing  Verbs for transport:
about transport and routine. go, walk
 Identifying.
ENGLISH ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
Environmental education: traffic and pollution
Road safety: the right use of public transport
COMPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES
Games corner  Traffic game  Transport dominoes
 Trivial
 Jack in the box
Computer corner  The tortoise and the hare  Clic: Riddles
Library  Did you know that ?
Reinforcement/  Read & match  Crossword
Extended  The bikes  Word search
 Play the game
Laboratory  The wheels on the bus. Karaoke
Video  Let’s travel
Speaker’s corner  Spot the differences  Definitions
Factory  An invention 
Song to finish: The wheels on the bus

45. CEIP Emili Carles-Tolrà
Castellar del Vallès
Let’s travel Video
Spot the Speaker’s
NAME : differences corner
Activity name Place I have to … Assessment
An invention The factory
The tortoise Computer’s
and the hare corner
Did you know Library
that?
Read and
match
Jack in the box Game’s corner
The traffic Game’s corner
game

46. A corner session
Students set-up the activity corners.
Before starting the session, students plan which
activities they want to do.
Work in corners.
Finish with a song.
Tidy the classroom.
Individual comments.
Evaluation of the session with the whole group.

47. Organisation
Top Class unit
3 weekly English
sessions
4/5 weeks
2 ordinary sessions 4/5 corner sessions
12 activities
1 corner session
2/3 activities per
session

48. Groups
First, students form
pairs to start the
itinerary.
Depending on the
activity, they make
small groups.
Every new group of
activities (that’s
every month) they
have to change
partners.

49. Criteria to select activities
They must :
 Work the basic learning skills.
 Be clear and understandable, in order to favour
the autonomy.
 Bear diversity in mind.
 Be varied, using different formats.
 Link with the unit and course contents.
 Work co-operatively.
 Be self-corrective.

50. Evaluation
Students :
• assessment after every activity
 5th. grade with faces
 6th. grade with adjectives
 general aspects assessment at the end of each
session
• Teacher :
 assessment after every session.
 observation during the activities.
 collection of personal comments and the
students’ assessments.

51. Testing the experience
It allows attending different rhythms adapting strategies and
resources to the children characteristics.
Motivation increases.
It favours interaction.
Work in small groups with more individual teaching helps children
get over inhibitions.
It fosters self-learning :
 organisation
 responsibility
 hypothesis formulation and intuition
 time administration
 election
 self-correction

52. CEIP EMILI CARLES-TOLRÀ
-Castellar del Vallès –
http://www.xtec.es/ceip-emilicarles/
ceip-emilicarles@centres.xtec.es
May, 2004