Understanding Eleventh Graders Reading and Writing Practices through Project-Based. Learning. Laura G. Mojica Esteban

Transcription

1 Running Head: READING AND WRITING PRACTICES THROUGH PBL Understanding Eleventh Graders Reading and Writing Practices through Project-Based Learning Laura G. Mojica Esteban UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE CALDAS FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS Y EDUCACIÓN PROYECTO CURRICULAR LICENCIATURA EN EDUCACIÓN BÁSICA CON ÉNFASIS EN INGLÉS BOGOTÁ,

2 2 Understanding Eleventh Graders Reading and Writing Practices through Project-Based Learning PROPUESTA DE TRABAJO DE GRADO EN MODALIDAD INVESTIGACIÓN E INNOVACIÓN LAURA G. MOJICA ESTEBAN Código lauragisselamojica@hotmail.com A monograph submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in English Language Teaching ADVISOR Prof. Alejandro McNeil F. amcneilf@udistrital.edu.co UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL FRANCISCO JOSÈ DE CALDAS FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS Y EDUCACIÒN PROYECTO CURRICULAR LICENCIATURA EN EDUCACIÓN BÁSICA CON ÉNFASIS EN INGLÉS BOGOTÁ, 2016

3 3 Note of acceptance This study is entitled Understanding Eleventh Graders Reading and Writing Practices through Project-Based Learning prepared by Laura Gissela Mojica Esteban has been approved and accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Teaching English. Alejandro McNeil F. Director Juror Juror

4 4 Bogotá, The author hereby declares that I am the sole author of this monographic work. I authorize Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas to lend this monographic work to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. La universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas no será responsable de por las ideas expuestas en este trabajo (Acuerdo 19 de 1988, Artículo 177)

5 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First I want to give thanks to God for giving me strength during this academic journey of five years because on him I found the support to keep on going and never given up even in the hardest situations. Next, I am using this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who supported me throughout the development of this research study. I would first like to thank my thesis advisor Alejandro McNeil for his patience and support whenever I ran into a trouble spot or had a question about my research or writing. He consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me in the right the direction whenever he thought I needed it. I would also like to acknowledge Fabio Bonilla as the second reader of this thesis, and I am gratefully indebted to his/her for his/her very valuable comments on this thesis. Overall, I thank my family for their unconditional love and support.

6 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One Introduction...13 Research Interests...16 Research Setting and Participants...17 Initial Observations...17 Justification...18 Description of the Area of Improvement...19 Problem Statement...19 Research Objectives and Research Questions...20 Chapter Two Literature Review...21 Language as Socialization...22 Learning from Cognitive Psychology...23 Cognitive perspective on learning...24 Meaningful Learning...26 Cognitive structure variables for meaningful learning...26

7 7 Project -Based Work...28 Project- based work and meaningful learning...31 Project Based-Learning...33 Active learning...33 Phases of project-based learning...36 Project based-learning and project-based work...37 Learning to Read in Project-Based Environments...38 Reading and project-based learning...40 Learning to Write in Project-Based Environments...43 Writing and project-based learning...45 Chapter Three Instructional Design and Curricular Platform...47 Setting and Participants...47 Diagnostic Stage...48 Results first section...48 Results second section...53 Results third section: Reading comprehension exercise...55

8 8 General Results of the diagnosis...56 Instructional Objectives...57 Theory of Education...58 Meaningful learning...58 Theory of Learning...58 Cognitive learning theory...58 Theory of Language...59 Language as socialization...59 Role of the Teacher...60 Teacher as facilitator...60 Role of the Student...60 Student as an active participant...61 Methodology...61 Project-based work...61 Implementation...62 Schedule for the pedagogical implementation...65 Schedule for the research proposal...70

9 9 Achievements to Evaluate...70 Criteria of Assessment...71 Chapter Four Research Design...72 Research Paradigm...72 Approach...72 Time dimension Variables Setting...74 Participants...74 Data Collection Techniques...75 Observation...75 Interviewing...76 Document Collection...76 Data Collection Instruments...76

10 10 Teacher journal Survey...77 Students artifacts...77 Unit of Analysis...78 Validity...78 Reliability...79 Consent Form...79 Chronogram...79 Chapter Five Data Analysis...80 Data Management...80 First stage: Diagnosis...81 Second stage: Project launch...81 Third stage: Development...81 Fourth stage: Final product...82 Approach to Data Analysis...83

11 11 Data Analysis...84 Findings...87 Categories...88 Analyzing students reading and writing processes...88 Subcategory No. 1. Accuracy and fluency in writing...89 Initial stage...89 Final stage...93 First composition...93 Second composition...97 Third composition...99 Subcategory N 2. Getting the gist Before the pedagogical intervention During the pedagogical intervention After the pedagogical intervention Features of Project- based work in the development of meaningful literacy practices Subcategory N 1: Student voice and choice Subcategory N 2: Group work...121

12 12 Subcategory N 3: Awaken students interest for a specific topic Subcategory N 4. Assessment Chapter Six Conclusions and pedagogical implications Conclusions and pedagogical implications Limitations Further Research References Appendices...149

13 13 Introduction This research proposal was carried out in order to characterize reading and writing practices that arose when young learners began reading Grimm s Tales in project-based class sessions. The importance of carrying out such a project is familiarizing students with the development of reading and writing practices. This focus was considered due to the fact that students are not aware of extent to which the act of developing these skills helps to construct meanings, shape ideas and have a better understanding of the social dynamics which might appear in a given social context. The principal motivation for me to decide carrying out such a project was given in the first day of my pedagogical practicum (March 4th, 2015) with eleventh graders in a public school in Bogotá. As an ice-breaking activity I asked the students about the activities they usually did in their spare time. Most of their answers revolved around hanging out with friends, practice some sports or listening to music, just a few of them liked reading. So I started to wonder about what which were the reasons why most of them did not consider reading as a spare-time activity. Then, if the same situation happened when reading texts in English, and how I could design and select appropriate texts which might be appealing to them. Then I began asking to myself about the extent to which I as a student teacher could help these students to strengthen their reading and writing skills in such a way that they could relate a

14 14 proposed text to their lives or their personal interests. I also wanted to help them understand the texts studied and respond to them from their own perspectives. For my research study I chose eleventh graders because my general perception was they were capable to understand short texts in English and also write short paragraphs in simple and past tense as a result of their English learning process during five years of studying. In order to confirm or disprove my perception I applied a reading comprehension exercise in March 4th with a short descriptive text about the family. Students had to answer the question writing sentences in present simple tense, at the end I took into account the appropriate use of the grammar structures, student s spelling and coherence in their answers. In general students answers were correct, but, there were some troubles with the use of grammatical structures and they prefer using words rather than complete sentences in their answers. Later on, in the fourth class,i made a non-directive interview I gave in which I asked the whole group how they felt when reading and writing in their English classes, which types of text have they read so far and which difficulties they faced when reading and writing in English. It was more like a casual talk in which students could express freely, their answers aimed at the difficulties they faced in regards to unknown vocabulary; memorize the grammatical structures and reading text which were not of their interest. Analyzing the development of both activities made me reflect upon the way in which my proposal should take into account students preferences in order to design reading and writing activities that really appeal to them whilst helping them to read and write in English effectively, in such fashion they do not have difficulties when finding unknown vocabulary. For that reason,

15 15 I decided to integrate Project-Based Learning in the development of my classes as it is studentcentered, goal oriented and situational, it became interesting and relevant for the students.

16 16 Chapter 1 Research Interests Overview Considering the research areas stated by the curricular project LEBEI, my research proposal corresponds with the first line named: Relaciones entre la Pedagogía y la Didáctica de las Ciencias de los Proyectos de Formación because it comprises a pedagogical intervention which promotes learning through projects as well as a reflection of my future role as a teacher. Additionally, my proposal is aligned with the sub-line Teachers Learning to Innovate in Language and Literacy Curricula as it involved literacy studies. My research interests dealt with two issues: the first, understanding reading and writing practices with eleventh graders which involves a process of discovering the students willingness to read in English, their preferred styles of reading, the texts they would like to read and the recognition of their strengths and weakness when understanding a text as well as their writing processes and the social practices arising from their approach to a written text. The second area of interest of my study is Project-Based Learning, a pedagogical methodology which helped me as a student teacher to support the students literacy process, because it promotes problem solving tasks and goal oriented activities, providing students clear objectives and interesting activities which finally will lead them to create some artifacts reflecting their understanding of a literary text.

17 17 Research Setting and Participants The population for my study was integrated by a group of ten eleventh graders from a public school in Bogotá. The group comprised six women and three men whose age range was 16 to 19 years old, the criteria for selection were the students willingness to attend and participate in each session of class as well as their performance in the English classes I had with them in my practicum. Initial Observations As an instrument of diagnosis at the beginning of my practicum I decided to apply a needs assessment(see appendix N 1) which was divided in four sections: Listening, grammar, vocabulary and reading; each section had some exercises to practices those skills. When revising the results obtained in the reading section of the needs assessment, I could perceive that, in general, students were able to identify specific information in a text; an ability known as scanning. Also, they were able to write short answers about the text they read, but they failed to write compound sentences. Hence, students began to hesitate, use their mother tongue or felt not will to give their opinion in class when I asked them to write or state their opinions about the text in English. Those results made me reflect upon the difficulties students had when reading and understanding a text in English, so I decided to observe the next classes and identify which would be the possible reasons for these situations. In fact, in my third class, I applied a reading exercise in which students were asked to read a short fragment of a news report structured in simple present tense, they also listened to it. Then,

18 18 they were asked about some questions related to the people involved in the story, the setting and the main action being reported. At the beginning of the exercise, I noticed students got a bit confused and they took a long time to start answering the questions, also I perceived that some of them did not find the activity interesting. Justification The importance of carrying out this study is supported on the need of constructing a meaningful learning environment where students can understand easily a text in English when reading it and be able to express their opinion about it in written or oral way. Taking into account the difficulties they had when understanding pieces of written information in English and their concerns about learning how to read and write in English as a foreign language. In this regard, the implementation of an active learning pedagogy such as Project-Based Learning could promote student s engagement in different activities, such as reading, writing, problem-solving or discussions. Moreover, as PBL is learner-centered, some of the contributions it would have for the learners are: empowering them in their own process of learning and giving significance to it, as students had the opportunity to set their own goals and select the way they are going to represent what they learned. At the same time, the results gathered from this research study could be useful for further studies in this area, by exploring the potential of PBL in enhancing language learning. Finally, the process to develop this research study was also important to understand my role as a researcher when identifying a problematic situation in a school setting, making decisions about

19 19 it, selecting the most suitable teaching strategy and understanding the implications of a pedagogical intervention. Description of the Area of Improvement / Problem to Address The area of improvement was the development of reading and writing skills in English as a foreign language in a public school in Bogotá. The specific problem to address was the lack of vocabulary and the lack of confidence that students reflected when reading a text in English, which, in turn, affected their ability to express their opinions about it in written and in oral way. Problem Statement In regards to the teaching practicum I had with eleventh graders in a public school in Bogotá in 2015, I concluded, based on the results of the diagnostic stage, that the participants had to face a number of difficulties when reading a text in English which, affected their degree of confidence whenever they had to express their opinions in English in written or in oral way. The previous problem became evident following my class observations carried out between March 4th to May 13th 2015 (see appendix N 2). In order to propose a solution to the previous problematic, I wanted to include a concept which blended reading and writing processes in such a way that they became social practices. I also wanted to abide by a pedagogical approach which would empower students to be active agents in their own learning process. For this reason, I decided to include literacy practices

20 20 as it situates literacy in a particular context and Project Based work as it enables/fosters students to learn in a meaningful way. Research Objectives and Research Questions Research Question Research Objective How may Project-Based Work help develop reading and writing practices to foster meaningful learning? To describe how Project-Based Work may develop reading and writing practices to foster meaningful learning. Research Sub Question Which features of Project-Based work appear to be directly related with the development of reading? Which features of Project-Based work appear to be directly related with the development of writing? How does PBW relate to meaningful learning? Research Objectives To identify features of Project-Based work which may be directly related to the development of reading. To identify features of Project-Based work which may be directly related to the development of writing. To describe the possible correlation between PBW and meaningful learning. 1. Pedagogical Question Which procedural aspects of Project-Based work appear to be more effective in improving students understanding of the texts they read? 1. Pedagogical Objectives To determine which specific procedural aspects of Project-Based work are effective in improving students understanding of the texts they read. 2. Which are students perceptions in regards to reading? 2. To describe students perceptions in regards to reading. 3. How could fairy tales be used to promote understanding and sense-making? 3. To explore possible uses of fairy tales to help students make sense of what they read. 4. Which criteria need to be met in order to design lesson plans aimed at developing reading and writing practices through Project-Based work? 4. To list specific criteria that should be met when designing design lesson plans aimed at developing reading and writing practices through Project-Based work.

21 21 Chapter Two Literature Review Keywords: Meaningful Learning, Project-Based Work, Reading, Writing This study looks into the development processes of reading and writing practices through Project-Based Work in a group of eleventh graders in a public school in Bogotá, Colombia. The aim of the research project was to identify and understand the reading and writing practices that appeared in a project-based classroom environment. The specific objectives were to describe how the target population engaged in PBW in reading and writing practices, which aimed at fostering meaningful learning, identifying features of Project-Based work which would be directly related to the development of reading and writing, and describing the possible correlations between PBW and meaningful learning. Having said that, the literature review in this document attempts to describe the possible correlations between PBW, reading and writing practices, and meaningful learning. As an initial thought in this paper, I need to put forward the view of language from which this study was conceived, as well as the conception of learning from cognitive psychology as the perspective from which this proposal was advanced. It is from this perspective that I intend to tackle the cognitive learning theory. Besides, this chapter includes a conceptualization of meaningful learning and the cognitive structure variables included in the construction of new understandings. Meaningful learning, in this particular case, is to be understood as a result of the implementation of PBW as a teaching method and PBL as a dynamic approach to teaching which

22 22 involves an active learning process with a view to enhancing students engagement in the classes. It is within this framework that I address learning by focusing on it as a cognitive process. The ability to read and write are then studied as reflections of cognitive processes which; once understood, could be dealt with to improve information processing, thus improving the students developments in these macro-skills within a project-based classroom environment. Language as Socialization Language socialization (..)concerns two major areas of socialization: socialization through the use of language and socialization to use language (Schieffelin, 1990, p. 14). In other words, this view of language is based on the fact that language is socially constructed, which implies that language is developed through interaction. Shieffelin s notion of language socialization is connected with Tudor s (2001) who posits that (..) language came to be seen as social action and the social or functional uses which learners were to make of the language became the starting point for the development of learning programmes (p. 57). From the above, Tudor implies that the learner s functional use of the language is the means by which learning is constructed, thus the learner learns the language by using it. This implies the need to create an appropriate learning environment where students could interact, share their ideas and make use of the language. From the previous perspective, Beckett & Miller (2006) assert that language socialization is: a view that sees the goals of project-based instruction to be creating contexts for learning through language (p.6). This view emphasizes that language is learned through usage; implying the creation opportunities for learner to interact and socialize in a project-based environment.

23 23 Learning from Cognitive Psychology The concept of learning comprises different dimensions of the human being. This is the reason why there have been multiple attempts to tackle the term and the process involved in it from psychology, sociology and educational fields. In order not to lose track of the notion of learning, it is important to clarify the perspective from which it was addressed. In this particular case, cognitive psychology seems to be the most suitable approach for the concept under study. Cognitive psychology focuses on understanding the way in which people assimilate, process and reflect upon information; exemplifying the role of memory in the case of the relevance bestowed by a person of some issues rather than others. In other words, cognitive psychology emphasizes on the individual mental processes and how these are constructed. Following this vein of thought, Neisser (2014) affirms that (..) the term cognition refers to all the processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used ( p, 4). To put this idea in other words, the stimuli that a person perceives through the senses are transferred, modified, memorized, evaluated and interpreted in his/her mind and can then be used when needed. In such fashion, previous knowledge could be reinforced and new knowledge could be produced. An understanding of the cognitive processes or what occurs in a person s mind also helps to identify how a person makes decisions, solves problems, constructs ideas, creates symbols, uses language; and basically, understands and interacts with the world. Thus, (..)cognitive psychology is concerned with all human activity rather than some fraction of it (Neisser, 2014, p.4)

24 24 Cognitive psychology refers to the study of human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling and behaving. Such study includes the broad categories of perception, memory, acquisition of knowledge and expertise, comprehension and production of language, problem solving, creativity, decision making, and reasoning (Kellogg, 2016, p. 5) Kellog also explains the importance of the study of human cognitive factors, adding other variables related to this area such as feeling and behaving, which one might attempt to describe in other words such as emotion and action. Emotion is related to feelings, which affect the way people perceive reality; and action involves changes in behavior produced during the learning process, as was explained above. Cognitive perspective on learning. In connection with cognitive psychology, Cognitive learning theories deal with the issue of how people process and store information to gain an understanding of themselves and the environment, and how their thinking and reasoning influence their actions and reactions (Henson & Eller, 1999 as cited in. Westwood, p. 19). In this sense, learning is also related with the study of mental processes such as memory and reasoning, including how such processes have a direct influence in a person s behavior whilst constructing his/her own vision of the world. To a certain extent, learning is influenced by cognitive, emotional and physical factors which derive in a persons growth.

25 25 Besides, Cognitive Learning Theory (CLT) makes emphasis on empowering the students in their own learning process, in that sense; they could assume their role as active agents by participating in the development of classroom materials as well as in the process of evaluation and methodology design of the class. When the teacher takes into account student s insights about what they are meant to learn, the development of learning processes in the classroom becomes more meaningful. An argument in favor of the underlying argument runs as follows (..) cognitive learning theory views learners as active constructors of knowledge. That is, the learner is constantly trying to understand the world and incorporate new information into his or her current worldview (Distlehorst, Dunnington, and Folse, 2000) In regards to the construction of the learner s active role, the authors explained how the learner enriches his/her learning experience through the acquisition of new ideas or concepts. As explained earlier, CLT is learner-centered in nature. Therefore the teacher s role is more likely to be that of a guide or a helper instead of a symbol of authority. As Farmer (2004) declares In Cognitive Learning Theory, the instructor leads the learner to make the change, not as a direct reaction to an external stimulus, but through an intrinsic desire to function differently (2004, p. 64). Farmer further depicted some of the main characteristics of CLT: Knowledge is constructed, learning is recursive and situational, knowing of the goals, models and achievement in comparison to a standard is important, it considers the existence of a wide variety of learning styles, successful learning involves the use of different strategies, motivation and affective variables influence performance, and learning is the result of social interaction. (p. 4). In brief, a

26 26 conceptualization of learning from a cognitive perspective implies that it is a continuous situational process, which is goal oriented, interactional and emphatic on the learner s affective factors. Up to now, the concept of learning has been addressed according to the cognitive line of thought which this study followed. It is also important to remind that this proposal sought to promote meaningful learning, in that sense a definition of the term will be provided thereafter. Meaningful Learning Cognitive structure variables on meaningful learning. Until now, we have discussed the way CLT emphasizes on the study of cognition. Ausubel s (1961) theory of meaningful learning forges on the basis of the person s cognitive structure. By cognitive structure is meant an individual's organization, stability, and clarity of knowledge in a particular subject-matter field relative to meaningful new learning tasks in this field (p. 500). As can be seen, a cognitive structure refers to the various associations, processes and structures produced in a person s mind with the purpose of understanding certain types of information and create knowledge. In other words, the inner logical structures, which help people, make sense of information available in whatever sphere of development. Additionally, Ausubel (1961) posits that: In the more general and long-term sense, cognitive structure variables refer to the influence of significant organizational properties of the learner's total knowledge in this subject-matter field on his future academic performance in the same area. In the more

27 27 specific and short-term sense, cognitive structure variables refer to the effects of the organizational properties of just the immediately (or proximately) relevant concepts within a particular subject-matter field (p. 500). The previous idea is related with the construction of long-term and short-term memory. The way in which a person configures his/her cognitive structure will help to determine which type of knowledge he/she should use immediately. For instance, when a student is required to answer an English grammar test; or when preparing a lecture for a doctoral dissertation, the availability of relevant / pertinent information is crucial. Admittedly, the way in which a person develops, builds and modifies his/her cognitive or mental structures during his/her lifetime leads to the development of new understandings or the construction of meanings which, in turn, has to do with meaningful learning. Meaningful learning by definition, involves the acquisition of new meanings. New meanings conversely, are the end-products of meaningful learning. That is the emergence of new meanings in the learner reflects the prior operation and completion of a meaningful learning process (Ausubel, 2000, p. 67) As noted before, meaningful learning is about acquiring new understandings which emerge from the learner s reflections on his or her own learning process. The acquisition of understandings or meanings in Ausubel s words are the result of a fruitful learning process. The essence of a meaningful learning process, (..) is that new symbolically expressed ideas (the learning task) are related in a nonarbitrary, and nonverbatim fashion, to what the learner already knows (his cognitive structure in a particular subject- matter field),

28 28 and that the product of this active and integrative interaction is the emergence of a new meaning reflecting the substantive and denotative nature of this interactive product. (Ausubel, 2000, p ) In other words, the creation of new meanings relies upon two factors which are interrelated: the learners cognitive structure and the interaction with the object of study. The learner s previous knowledge should share certain similarities with the subject- matter field, so that he/she could find it relevant for his/her life. In this sense, the reliability of the content which is going to be taught depends on the acknowledgment of the learner s concepts, ideas and thoughts. In short, three main concepts have been addressed so far: cognitive psychology, cognitive learning theory and meaningful learning. These terms are interrelated in the sense that all of them include three factors inherent to the person: first, the cognitive or mental processes which configure the person s previous knowledge; second, the interaction with the environment and individuals which constitutes the experience of the learner; and finally, the construction of new understanding or meanings from which the learner constructs his/her world perspective and also begins to modify his/her behavior depending on the knowledge that he or she has acquired. Project-Based Work Up to this point, I have discussed the importance of promoting meaningful learning from a cognitive perspective. In the present study, Project-Based Work is being pondered as the means to foster this type of learning. From where I stand, PBW is a methodology that seeks to

29 29 enroll learners in projects through a set of goal-oriented activities with the aim to promote a better comprehension of a subject under study. Project-based work lends itself well to evaluation of both employability skills and language skills. Introducing learners to self-evaluation and peer evaluation prior to embarking on a large project is advisable. Learners can evaluate themselves and each other through role plays, learner-to-learner interviews, and writing activities (Moss, Van Duzer, 1998, p.3) Additionally, PBW provides opportunities to the learners for interacting, reflecting and sharing ideas about a topic which should preferably be of the learner s interest and familiar to them. Along similar lines, Fried-Booth argues that: Project work takes the experience of the classroom out into the world ( ). The potential benefit for students is clear: they are working on a topic of interest to them and using language for a specific purpose (2002, p.5) Project-Based work is an important part of the learning process. This approach is becoming even more meaningful today s society as teachers increasingly teach groups of children who have different learning styles, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and ability levels (Railsback, 2002 in Jacklin, 2008, p. 21) As aforementioned, this teaching approach enables learners to develop meaningful practices in the sense that, PBW provides the teacher with an opportunity to involve each of his/her students, no matter their socio-cultural context or their cognitive styles. The approach also helps learners to be aware of their own process of learning by developing both self-assessment and peer-assessment activities aimed at identifying their strengths and weakness according to the proposed goals during the development of the Project-based classes.

30 30 In short, one could identify three main characteristics in PBW: first, it facilitates working with students from diverse backgrounds; second, it encourages students to evaluate themselves in the different stages of the project; and third it is relevant and interesting for students. To illustrate how PBW may promote these features, one could consider the following situation. Consider a group of high school students from a public school in an English class. They belong to different socio-economic strata; they have different styles, learning abilities and they are of different ages; as one might find in a normal classroom. Through classroom observations, the teacher realized that some of the activities done in class were not interesting for students because some of them were distracted easily or were inattentive. For this reason, the teacher proposed a list of topics for the students to choose from. These would be studied during the school term. Having chosen a specific theme, the teacher had the students do group activities in order to define the way in which they could work on the theme and the way they would be assessed, bearing in mind that, at the end of the term, students should hand in a project which should reflect everything they had learnt during the term. It is important to clarify that the teacher should have a proposed schedule for the class and an assessment approach beforehand to socialize with the students. In the previous description, it is easy to identify some of the characteristics of PBW. First, it is focused on students interest, which means, it is relevant for them. Second, it is endeavored to teach students from diverse backgrounds. It also enacts students participation for the class development and finally it empowers students in their own process of evaluation. Along similar lines, Richards and Renandya (2002) identify six important features of PBW:

31 31 1. Project work focuses on content learning rather than on specific language targets. Real world subject matter and topics of interest to students can become central to projects 2. Project work is student-centered, though the teacher plays a major role in offering support and guidance throughout the process 3. Project work is cooperative rather than competitive (..) 4. Project work leads to the authentic integration of skills and processing of information (...) 5. Project work culminates in an end product (e.g., an oral presentation, a poster session, a bulletin board display, a report, or a stage of performance) that can be shared with others, giving the project a real purpose. 6. Project work is potentially motivating, stimulating, empowering, and challenging. It usually results in building students confidence, self-esteem and autonomy as well as improving students language skills, content learning, and cognitive abilities. (p.110) Project-based work and meaningful learning. In this study, it is important to be clear about the way in which PBW leads to promote meaningful learning. Therefore, the previous characteristics of this approach are going to be explained in the light of Ausubel s perspective on acquisition of new meanings. In the first place, when the author mentioned that PBW is content-based, he implies that students are not focused on the structure of the language, but rather on the new concepts introduced by the teacher. The quest for new ideas through stimulating topics engages the learner

32 32 in the development of a project. Besides, when the information presented to the learner is contextualized, it becomes understandable and easier to relate to prior knowledge. Second, since students are considered important in PBW, this implies, that in such approach, the learning process is also central. As a result, the teacher following the principles of this approach employs all the strategies or methodologies at hand in order to support students learning needs. Third, based on the assumption that learning is socially constructed; that is to say, people construct their own knowledge by interacting with others and by sharing ideas, working in groups and sharing common goals. Cooperative learning then appears to be a good approach to follow for the sake of nourishing the learning experience. Fourth, considering an integrating approach to address different skills, breaks apart from the paradigm of conceiving the nature of learning as segmented. This approach, instead, poses that learning includes all the dimensions of the person. Fifth, bearing in mind Ausubel s premise, the construction of new meanings are the endproducts of meaningful learning. Along similar lines, Richards and Renandya account for new understandings derived from PBW in the form of end-products. Finally, Ausubel s explanation of the essence of a meaningful learning process accounts for the way such process fosters students cognitive, affective and language abilities, which expresses in other words, the way new symbolically expressed ideas relate to the learner s cognitive structure throughout interactive processes to produce new meanings.

33 33 Project Based Learning Active learning. As it was mentioned above I decided to include Project-Based learning as means to promote meaningful learning. PBL corresponds to the branch of active learning pedagogies which are very useful tools to engage students in a wide range of classroom activities. When addressing the concept of active learning and its first appearance in education it is important to mention Bonwell & Eison (1991) as the main proponents of this field, whom developed the claim that: Active learning be defined as anything that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing (p. 19). In other words, learning by doing and learning as a situated practice. In view of that, an active learning pedagogy attempts to engage the students in developing different activities around a specific topic within a specific purpose. Correspondingly, Bonwell &Eison(1991) provide an outlook of how an active learning environment should be like: Students are involved in more than listening. Less emphasis is placed on transmitting information and more on developing students skills Students are involved in higher-order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation) Students are engaged in activities (e.g reading, discussing, writing) Greater emphasis is placed on students exploration of their own attitudes and values. (p.19) As aforementioned, some of the characteristics that an active learning environment promotes are: the development of language and analytic skills, the integration of multiple activities and the

34 34 priority in the students self evaluative learning process helping them understand their weaknesses and strengths. Embracing the previous idea, Michael & Model (2003) asserts: We define an active learning environment as one in which students are engaged in the process of building, testing, and refining their mental models (p. 6). Then, a student-centered active learning environment considers the students cognitive structures, how they analyze and construct information, factors which are connected with a cognitive learning perspective. Following the ideas presented beforehand in regard to the role of the student in an active learning environment, Casale &Schwartz added that Active learning (...) connects learners to the content through movement, reflection, or discussion, making students the center of the learning process (p.6). Therefore, the subject-matter of a lesson is not a static, boring issue from which the students are not familiarized rather something interesting or relevant for them. As far as Project-Based Learning is concerned, the following definition emerges: Project based learning is a comprehensive perspective focused on teaching by engaging students in investigation. Within this framework, students pursue solutions to nontrivial problems by asking and refining questions, debating ideas, making predictions, designing plans and/or experiments, collecting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, communicating their ideas and findings to others, asking new questions, and creating artifacts (Blumenfeld, 1991 p. 371) As aforementioned, the main idea of project based learning is to motivate students to reflect, to inquire and to analyze a specific topic from which they could ask different questions such as:

35 35 What do I know about the topic? Could I relate with I have learned so far with my previous experiences? How can I organize the time to achieve the goals proposed for the class? What will my project look like? Later on, students will be sharing their ideas and opinions with others, reflecting on their ideas and creating new questions as the classes take place. In that sense, PBL might be considered a learning strategy which reflects what students are doing instead of what the teacher does in the class. An argument in favor of the previous description of PBL runs as follows: Project-based learning is learner centered and directed. Students have a significant voice in selecting the content areas and nature of the projects that they do. There is considerable focus on students understanding what it is they are doing, why it is important, and how they will be assessed. (ISFA teachers wikispaces p.1) As has been noted, some of the characteristics of PBL are relevance to the students, a learning centered approach, goal-oriented activities and self-reflective learning. Projects also represent a challenge for the students in the sense that they prompt students to reflect beyond what they have been taught and what they have worked on. Along similar lines, Krauss and Boss (2013) argue that In project-based learning, students gain important knowledge, skills, and dispositions by investigating open-ended questions to make meaning that they transmit in purposeful ways (p, 5). This perspective reflects clearly the way in which PBL helps students to acquire new understandings and gives sense to what the students are going to learn, thus, promoting meaningful learning.

36 36 Phases of project-based learning. The Buck Institute for Education (Boss, 2013) has identified four phases that happen in every well-designed project: 1. Project launch: This typically starts with an entry event to ignite curiosity and introduces a driving question to frame the inquiry experience. 2. Knowledge building: Students build background understanding and learn new skills to help them answer the driving question. 3. Product development and critique: Students apply what they have learned to create something new (such as a product, solution, or recommendation). 4. Final presentation and reflection: Students share their polished work with an authentic audience. (Boss, 2015, p. 11) To illustrate this, imagine an elementary school teacher who initiates an instructional unit on Healthy Choices, proposing Why is it important to establish habits that promote a healthy lifestyle? as a driving question. That teacher might well assign a project within that instructional unit involving the following assignment. Students working in groups of four will create a media presentation representing what they considered the most important health issue in their school. Content should reflect the following points: Importance of the health issue, description of the relationship between nutrition and health risk factors, analyze a disease prevention plan and give strategies of how to change and unhealthy behavior. The teams will be allotted ten minutes to present

37 37 and five extra minutes to answer questions from the audience. (Adapted version of a project created by Nada Wadell of Teach 21 PBL) From the previous example, it is easier to identify the four phases of PBL. First, the driving question revolving around the importance of developing healthy habits. In this part, students would start recalling certain recommendations that their relatives should have said to them in order to be a healthy person such as. These recommendations include You should avoid fatty food, you should eat vegetables and fruits, you should exercise quite often, and so on. In this phase, students shape a general idea of what the project will be about. In the second phase students will be researching about the topic and developing a range of activities proposed by the teacher in relation to the topic. That information will help the students to answer the driving question. The third phase comprises the development of the project; students will be working in their groups, planning, deciding and analyzing the information gathered to develop the project. Finally, the students present their projects (in this case the media presentation), which should reflect their ideas, thoughts and conceptual understanding of the topic. Project-Based Learning and Project-Based Work. So far I have explained what the concepts Project-Based Learning and Project-Based Work mean. However, it is difficult to make a distinction of both terms from the characteristics mentioned beforehand. It seems to me that PBW is more related with the structure of a project

38 38 and ways for implementing it in the classroom. On the other hand, PBL reflects the profound meaning of teaching and learning through projects. For this reason, it might be possible that the term PBL is mainly addressed in the educational field. By comparison, when I looked for the term PBW, it was quoted mainly in the business field as a model of organizational management. This is the reason why I decided to explain the term Project-Based Work as Project-Work from which I actually found more references from an educational perspective. Learning to Read in Project-Based Environments Returning to the objectives of the study, PBW appears to be a strategy for understanding reading and writing practices. From where I stand, the development of students reading and writing practices emerged unintentionally during the implementation of PBW class sessions. For instance, they started reading texts in English which were longer than those they were used to reading before. They also worked cooperatively and they made use of complex grammar sentences in order to portray their understanding. With regards to reading, I first needed to find a definition which corresponded with the cognitive perspective mentioned before. For this reason, I adhered to the conception of Koda and Wolf in the following manner: Reading (..)is the product of a complex information-processing system, involving a constellation of closely related mental operations. (..) These skill components interactively facilitate perception, comprehension, and memory of visually presented language (Koda, 2004,

39 39 p. 19). Respectively, reading is defined as a mental process in which certain features of cognition such as memory, perception, data analysis and sight (as the sensory input) converged towards an interpretation of written language. Besides, high-order thinking skills can play an important role to foster achievement in reading, thus (..) reading success is governed by three competency groups: visual information extraction, incremental information integration, and text-meaning and prior knowledge consolidation (Koda, 2004, p. 5). Reading is a neuronally and intellectually circuitous act, enriched as much by the unpredictable indirections of a reader s inferences and thoughts, as by the direct message to the eye from the text (Wolf, 2007 as cited in Hedgcock, Ferris, 2009, p. 15) As noted above, reading is a process which involves a relation between language and thought, in such process, a writer expresses his or her ideas through language. Then the reader has to infer meaning from what is written by developing certain cognitive processes (interpreting, analyzing, comparing, asking questions, and so on). In the end, these questions will lead him/her to generate understanding from what is read. Besides, reading includes not just understanding a text but it also reflects an understanding of the world. In this sense, a reader goes back to the amazement and curiosity of childhood, when he/she finds new perspectives, ideals and concepts of another person represented by virtue of written language.

40 40 At this level, reading goes beyond a simple transactional process of decoding symbols and acquires a profound meaning when it is related to the symbolic nature of language. Thus, reading is understanding of the world. The final step of the reading process is reading comprehension, which takes place when a reader gains a deep understanding of a text, and one might say that he or she actually comprehends a text. Reading opens the possibilities for acquiring new insights about the way in which we perceive and conceive the world. A reading comprehension strategy is a cognitive or behavioral action that is enacted under particular contextual conditions, with the goal of improving some aspect of comprehension (McNamara, 2007, p.6). Creating a strategy for reading comprehension depends on the context, the way each person interprets and analyzes a text varies according to his/her own perspective. Reading and project-based learning. Equally important is the need to consider the way in which reading might take place in a Project-Based environment. There is no unique, easy or straightforward approach whereby one could teach how to read effectively. This is so due to the fact that reading is a dynamic process in which different factors inherent to the person play an important role. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify certain characteristics by means of which reading skills could be strengthened and thus pave the way to develop an adequate Project-Based environment. Meek s (1986) view of reading rests on the assumption that Reading is learned by reading. This is not as simple as it sounds, but it is absolutely fundamental. Right from the start, learners have to behave as if they mean to become readers (p. 2).

41 41 The first necessary condition for a Project-Based environment to promote reading is to involve students in developing activities which help them to practice this skill. The underlying argument rests on Dewey s conception of learning by doing which one might see elucidated in his text Democracy and Education (1916): The knowledge which comes first to persons, and that remains most deeply ingrained, is knowledge of how to do (...). When education, (..) fails to recognize that primary or initial subject matter always exists as matter of an active doing, involving the use of the body and the handling of material, the subject matter of instruction is isolated from the needs and purposes of the learner, and so becomes just something to be memorized and reproduced upon demand. Recognition of the natural course of development, on the contrary, always sets out which involve learning by doing (2015,para. 2) From the above, learning is defined in terms of an active involvement with the subject- matter field which is also related with the learner s personal interest. Such an approach differentiates learning from the traditional rote learning process focused on memorization and repetition. Along similar lines, Farrell (2009) stated eight principles for learning to read in a foreign language. These include reflect on reading, teaching fluency and comprehension, teaching reading strategies, teaching text structures, teaching vocabulary building, promoting extensive reading, planning effective reading classes and doing authentic reading assessment. In the first place, A good principle for teachers of ELLs1 would be to reflect on their own reading behaviors, the nature of reading, and the reading process itself (p. 8). If the teacher clearly understands what the concept of reading is, the ways in which he/she learned to read in a foreign language and some of the strategies which helped him/her to develop reading skills; it

42 42 becomes easier to identify the perspective from which the teacher wants to teach his or her students on how to read. 1 Second it is important to help learners develop competences for understanding and interpreting a text So teachers of ELLs may have to focus on (...) how to make use of discourse information (text structure) to build both comprehension and fluency (p. 9) Third teachers have to help learners develop reading strategies when they do not understand a written piece. in this sense, (..) the ultimate goal of reading instruction is not to teach individual reading strategies but rather to develop strategic readers (p.9). Fourth Making ELLs aware of how texts are organized also helps them with their reading fluency, comprehension, and efficiency (p. 9) For this reason, it is necessary to teach how various texts are structured and organized. Fifth, A large vocabulary is essential for ELLs, (..) also explicitly teach vocabulary by instructing students to guess word meanings from the context in order to understand unfamiliar vocabulary they may encounter when reading (p.10). Teaching unknown vocabulary becomes necessary as learners will encounter many new words in the texts they will be asked to read. Sixth by using interesting texts, students find excitement when reading (..) teachers can provide some opportunities for our students to use alternative reading materials by promoting extensive reading of materials they are interested in (p.10). 1 ELLs: English Language Learners

43 43 Seventh Teachers of ELLs also need to consider how to plan reading lessons that are effective so that they can help move their students from a position of learning to read to reading to learn (p. 10). Lesson planning with clear purposes is necessary for effective reading instruction. Finally it is recommended that teachers use their scope to assess their students through different techniques (..) assessment,(..), includes both the traditional, quantitative, paper-andpencil tests and also such qualitative items as portfolio assessment, peer assessment, self reports, anecdotal records, and attitude scales (p. 11). Learning to Write in Project-Based Environments There are many approaches to address the concept of writing. For this reason, it is important begin by mentioning what the word implies in a general sense, highlighting what Sampson (1985) points out. Accordingly, The proper definition of writing is that it is a system for representing utterances of a spoken language by means of permanent, visible marks (p. 26). In simple words, writing is the act of communicating through letters. Nonetheless this definition left aside all the variables included in the process of writing. It is socially embedded and socially situated. In the same way, one could not identify the process of reading as decoding, nor is writing just representing ideas. Besides, Chandler (1995) asserts that The act of writing, for instance, may be shaped not only by the writer s conscious purposes but also by features of the media involved such as the kind of language and writing tools used as well as by the social and psychological processes of

44 44 mediation involved ( p.44). Thus, it is possible to find four components which shaped the way writing is constructed. Considering first the cognitive or mental structure (in Chandler s words the conscious purposes) of the writer where his/her ideas arranged in a logical order; further portrayed in his/her writing. Then the linguistic, social and psychological factors (addressed by Chandler as the media involved) which dealt with language use, structure and strategies that the writer uses in certain fashion depending on the context. Writing also plays an important role in the construction of the writer s identity. In this sense, Ivanic (1998) develops the claim that: Writing is forging in the sense of welding together elements which have benchmarks of their own, and it is often also forging in the pejorative sense of masking the identity of the originator (p.3). To put it in a different way, a writer takes his/her time to unify different ideas with distinctive characteristics and build his/her own understanding and imprint it in his/her writing. Writing is a complex process; it could reveal not just the writer s identity but also his/her socio cultural context. Implying the author s purpose when writing a text requires analyzing social, psychological, cultural and historical aspects about his/her life that might influence the way in which a text was written. Bearing this in mind, another definition of writing emerges: Writing is the lens through which literate people see the world, feel the world, hate the world, love the world, defy the world, and imagine change (Powel, 2009 p.11). The author bestows a metaphoric faculty to the process of writing, as it serves as the means through which people may express different worldviews and perspectives. Thus, every written piece is fully impregnated with the writer s essence.

45 45 Writing and project-based learning. So far, I have defined writing and some of its main characteristics. For the purpose of this study, it is necessary to consider that some of the end-products in Project-based Learning could be writing exercises made by students. Through them, they could portray their understanding of a text by relating it with their own life experiences and background knowledge. As a matter of fact, students are implicitly developing writing activities through the different stages of the development of a project. In this case, teachers should consider different strategies to facilitate their students writing processes. In this line of thought, Kendall and Khuon listed five best practices for ELL, including language and culture, the use of culturally relevant texts and materials, an increase in the amount of comprehensible input, the development of model thinking skills and the generation of opportunities to work with a partner, a small group, and/or the teacher. First, (...) By briefly previewing lessons in students native language before instruction in English begins, students are more easily able to access their prior knowledge. By reviewing the English lesson (..) students native language can be used to clarify their comments and answer questions (p, 17). Considering students background knowledge on the topic and using their mother tongue for clarifications in the lessons is a good strategy to improve understanding and show the learners that their culture is also valued. Second, by using culturally relevant texts and materials (..) that students can connect with (p, 17) so students can draw upon their lives the proposed material for the lesson. Third, one way to make writing lesson more comprehensible is to use realia (..) to make connections with vocabulary words, stimulate conversation and build background knowledge (p,17) following

46 46 Krashen s theory (1987) of comprehensible input in which teachers could make their lesson more understandable. Fourth, by developing higher-order thinking skills through the use of certain activities such as asking students more difficult questions as a part of revision and modeling by thinking aloud as you write in front of them or talk about a piece of writing. Teachers can also assist in language development by questioning, listening, and rephrasing (p, 17) Finally, Small-group work facilitated by a teacher and focused on academic goals, such as improving writing (p. 18). This implies promoting group work with shared, pre-established goals in the lesson. A Project-based environment where writing takes place should promote interest in students, considering the usage of culturally relevant materials, taking into account the students previous knowledge, supporting the students learning processes and working in groups to interact and share meanings. To summarize PBW may develop reading and writing practices to foster meaningful learning in the following way: First, by considering students background knowledge on a particular subject matter field. Second, by promoting students reflection of their own learning processes, third, establishing specific objectives for the class in such fashion they could find relevant what they learnt to their lives. Finally, by providing opportunities for the learners to interact with the subject-matter and represent their own understandings in the form of a project or an artifact at the end of the learning process. These features of PBW, together with the development of reading and writing skills, requires that the learner is exposed to the necessary input to develop and strengthen these skills. This results from establishing a realistic purpose for reading and writing in English and the guidance

47 47 and support of the teacher during their learning process. From where I stand, the most suitable way to help students to develop their reading and writing practices in English is by providing them the opportunities to read and write on a topic of interest whilst empowering them in their own learning process and giving the necessary input to comprehend what is being taught. So then, students learned implicitly how to read and write in a Project-Based learning environment. The following chapter introduces the learning and teaching plan based on PBW by presenting the philosophy of education, vision of language, the role of the teacher and the student and the results from the diagnosis which lead me to design this proposal. Chapter Three Instructional Design and Curricular Platform This chapter includes a description of the setting and participants which were chosen for the development of this proposal, the way in which diagnosis was applied, the instructional objectives, a description of philosophy and principles behind the intervention, the methodology, the type of tasks developed by the students, the achievements to evaluate, criteria of assessment and evaluation, and chronogram for the pedagogical intervention. As it was mentioned above in the introduction, this research proposal was carried out in order to characterize and analyze reading and writing practices that arose when young learners were exposed to Grimm s Tales reading in project-based class sessions. Setting and participants

48 48 This study was conducted in a public school located in Santa Fé in Bogotá. The participants were 10 students from eleventh grade, whose ages ranged from sixteen to nineteen years old. These students belonged to a lower-middle social-economic status. The school focused on aesthetic and corporal dimensions by emphasizing on strengthening artistic, civic and sporting competencies. The school s foundation seeks the development of leadership with responsibility, identity and transcendence. Diagnostic Stage In August 19th 2015, I applied a diagnostic survey (see appendix N 3) with a group of 29 students from eleventh grade. The main purpose of this diagnosis was to understand the conception students had in regards to reading, their reading preferences and previous knowledge they had about Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales. The survey was divided into three sections: the first part included nine questions about students reading preferences such as: topics of interest, reading frequency, text types and choices on reading. The second part included six questions which aimed at identifying students background knowledge on Grimm Brother s Fairy Tales and their willingness to read these tales in their English classes. The final part was a reading comprehension exercise with single response questions about the function of banks. Results first section. Below, the reader will find the analysis of the data gathered for diagnostic purposes. The first part of the diagnosis consisted in a questionnaire of nine (9) questions which aimed at determining preferences, frequency and attitudes towards reading.

49 49 1. Do you like to read? The majority of students take an interest in reading. Implying that this activity has relevance to their lives in some way. The results gathered from this question, contradict those obtained from the first class in which just a few group of students informed that they liked reading when they were asked about their spare-time activities. This result suggested that there was a favorable attitude towards implementing a pedagogical intervention including the development of reading as a central process. 2. Which topic do you prefer when reading? The text types students chose were varied, which led me to conclude that their eagerness to read was not dependent on the topic. Throughout the use of Grimm Brother s Fairy Tales, students could have the opportunity to explore different genres, from romance and adventure to horror and mystery. It was mainly the reason why I decided to include these tales in the development of my proposal. 3. How do you prefer to read? Most of the students prefer to read individually. It is my belief that individual reading helps students to be more concentrated on the text rather than if they were asked to read in groups. Individual reading, additionally, allows students to read at their own pace and choose the most suitable reading strategy to understand a text. However, group reading expose students to different viewpoints from the same text and thus broaden their own perspective.

50 50 4. Which setting do you consider suitable for reading? Students preferred to read at their home, perhaps because in doing so, they can take their time to read and avoid distractions. An interesting aspect was that just one student referred to the classroom as a suitable place for reading, and this made me reflect upon the way in which I could create an appropriate reading environment in the classroom. Additionally, taking into account this result, I decided to implement some reading assignments as homework, so the students could read at their own pace and feel more comfortable. 5. Which type of text do you prefer? Fourteen students chose chapter books as the type of text they preferred to read. Chapter books are defined as story books divided in chapters. These type of texts are intended for intermediate level learners because they allow readers to stop from time to time in order not to get bored or stressed. From this result I would say students like to read short texts revolving around a story. A considerable number of students (10) also chose novels, which are prose narratives centered in the actions, speech and thoughts of some characters. The texts included in the development of my proposal included both characteristics: Grimm Fairy tales are short, include interesting stories and are recreated through dialogues and actions of different characters. 6. What do you prefer?

51 51 The majority of eleventh graders prefer to read books rathen than digital books. Some of the reasons they provided when asked about their answer were that: Books were easier to read; they took less time reading a book than a pdf version of the text. This contradicted the initial perception I had when formulating the question. I thought the majority of students were going to choose e-books because most of them made use of smartphones. However, what happenned was exactly the opposite. 7. When a movie based on a book comes out, do you? Ten students were in favor of watching a movie based upon a book. My purpose with this question was to identify the students willingness to read no matter if a condensed version of the text appeared in the form of a movie. From the results gathered I would say that students were in favor of comparing a written text and its visual representation to perceive their similiarities and enrich their own reading experience. 8. Have you read any books? How many?

52 52 The quantity of students who read overpasses the quantity of students who do not. This result challenges the initial perception I had from the first classroom observations about the eleventh graders lack of interest in reading. The question also included the number of books students had read so far. Results were as follow: 2-5 books: 10 students 6-10 books: 8 students books: 2 students 50 books: 1 students A closer look at the data indicates that there is, on average, a medium level of reading in students. In few cases, students reported having read on their own, which might be evident in the case of the students who read more than fourteen books. 9. What does reading mean to you? This was an open question which was answered by 15 students, the rest of the group left the space in blank. The instruction did not specify if the answer should be written in English or Spanish. However, 7 students wrote their answers in English because they wanted to make use of the language. From the answers gathered, some of the recurrent characteristics (commonalities) of reading were: From the students who wrote in Spanish: Tranquilidad, pasión, imaginación y saber. From the students who wrote in English: Interesting, good and joyful. Students bestowed an important faculty to the process of reading which dealt with the capability of awakening imagination and promoting learning. Some students defined reading as a pleasing or enjoyable activity which helped them to get rid of stress. The data yielded suggest a favorable attitude towards the process of reading which was one of the main focus points of this proposal. My idea is to propound a good learning environment for reading and writing from

53 53 which students could express similar opinions in regards to English reading as the ones mentioned above at the end of their learning process. Results second section. In this section, the reader will find the analysis of the data gathered for diagnostic purposes. The second part of the diagnosis consisted in a questionnaire of six (6) questions which were aimed at determining background knowledge about the Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales. The questions were written in Spanish to avoid misinterpretations from the students. 1. Conoces los cuentos de los hermanos Grimm? All the participants knew the Grimm Brother s Tales. As was mentioned above, in the literature review; Project-Based Work is student centered, and thus; the selection of the texts to be read was carried out bearing in mind the students background knowledge. In this case, the proposed text was well-known by the students. 2. Alguno de estos títulos te suena familiar? El gato con Botas, La Bella Durmiente, Hansel y Gretel, Rapunzel, La Cenicienta y Blancanieves? In accordance with the previous question, I wanted to know if the tales chosen for the pedagogical intervention were familiar to the students. Evidently they were all the students informed that they knew all the tales. In the lesson plans, I decided to include activities about these tales, so the students already had a general idea of what the texts were about, thus facilitating comprehension when reading these tales in English.

54 54 3. Has leído alguno de los cuentos de los hermanos Grimm? Seventeen students reported that they had read some of the Grimm Brother s tales. This was important because their previous reading of the text served as background information which eased comprehension in the exercise that was done with such tales in English. 4. Sabías que originalmente los cuentos de los hermanos Grimm no estaban dirigidos a los niños? Before formulating my proposal, I started by looking for information about the origin of Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales. Something interesting I found was that these tales were not originally intended for children. I then wanted to know if students were aware of this fact, but came to learn that they were not. 5. Conoces algo acerca de la vida de los hermanos Grimm? In the same way, with this question, I wanted to know if students knew something about Grimm Brother s life. From the answers I gathered, I learned that only five of them knew about it. Now, it is important to mention that every written piece is influenced by the authors life and identity. This is the reason why I included an overview about Grimm Brothers life in the first lesson.

55 55 6. Te gustaría leer alguno de los cuentos de los hermanos Grimm en la clase de inglés? In regards to this question, I wanted to know if students were willing to read Grimm Tales in English, and fortunately they were (25 out of 29 students answered affirmatively). These results provide confirmatory evidence that project-based sessions including Grimm Tales as the central topic would be accepted in the selected participants. Results third section: Reading comprehension exercise. This section consists on a set of five single response questions about the principal functions carried out by a bank. This exercise was retrieved from URL: The general idea of this exercise was to understand the extent to which students were able to identify main and secondary ideas from a text. It was a two paragraph text written in present and simple past tense. Average results range: 2.3 None of the students got a result 5 out of 5. As far as I could understand, from their answers, they felt confused when identifying the appropriate tense in the question. During the development of the exercise, they also expressed difficulties in understanding vocabulary from in text. This short exercise made me reflect upon the struggles students had when comprehending a text.

56 56 General Results of the Diagnosis On the basis of the evidence collected, it seems fair to suggest that: 1. Students are interested in reading, specially short texts revolving around different topics. 2. Students preferred to read individually, in a peaceful environment which allows them to be concentrated. 3. Students liked visual representations of the texts they read. 4. Students conceived reading as a relevant learning process which sparks their imagination. 5. All the students knew the Grimm Fairy tales and the majority were willing to read them in their English class. However, despite the interest, few of them were aware of the origin of the tales and the author s life. 6. Students expressed difficulties when understanding a text in English, specifically in regards to unknown vocabulary and the use of appropriate grammar tenses. On account of the previous observations, the development of this proposal included: 1. Reading and writing activities: As the students mentioned their interest in reading, the main focus of the proposal was on the development of both skills through a set of different activities implemented during the eight sessions of class. Additionally, each group of students had to include written description of their project reflecting their understanding of the chosen Grimm Fairy Tale for the final project. 2. Individual and group work: Most of the students expressed contentment to read individually. For this reason, in the majority of the exercises, students had to read the proposed texts alone. Nevertheless, they were asked to solve the activities in group.

57 57 3. Grimm Brother s fairy tales: The lessons revolved around these tales considering that students had background knowledge of them and were willing to read these types of tales. 4. A lesson based on Grimm Brother s life (week 2): Since students were not familiarized with these authors, a session of class was designed for them to get acquainted with the most important facts about Jackob and Wilhelm Grimm s lives. 5. A lesson based on the origin of Grimm Brother s tales: Before reading the tales, it was neccesary that the students had a general understanding about how these tales were compilled, organized and edited throughout time. 6. Vocabulary exercises: In order to help students to learn and use unknown vocabulary found in the tales, a set of vocabulary exercises were proposed during the development of the lessons. 7. Individual and peer assessment and feedback during the classes: A follow-up of the development of the activities was made by the teacher in order to acknowledge the strenghts and weaknesses of students during their learning processes. Instructional Objectives From the previous findings, I decided to state the following pedagogical questions and objectives. 1. Pedagogical Question Which procedural aspects of Project-Based work appear to be more effective in improving students understanding of the texts they read? 1. Pedagogical Objectives To determine which specific procedural aspects of Project-Based work are effective in improving students understanding of the texts they read.

58 58 2. Which are students perceptions in regards to reading? 2. To describe students perceptions in regards to reading. 3. How could fairy tales be used to promote understanding and sense-making? 3. To explore possible uses of fairy tales to help students make sense of what they read. 4. Which criteria need to be met in order to design lesson plans aimed at developing reading and writing practices through Project-Based work? 4. To list specific criteria that should be met when designing design lesson plans aimed at developing reading and writing practices through Project-Based work. Theory of Education Meaningful learning As was explained before, in the literature review, this proposal adheres to Ausubel s (1961) meaningful learning view of education which consists on the emergence of new understandings or meanings. From this perspective, education should trace its path in pursuit to teach something relevant and purposeful, so that the learner could relate what he or she already knows with new ideas, thus constructing his/her own conceptions, and reflecting on his/her own understanding of the world. From this educational view, the success of the teaching and learning processes relied on the learner s practical use of what is being taught. Theory of Learning Cognitive learning theory For this study, Henson & Eller s perspective on Cognitive Learning Theory (1999) was addressed. This theory is related with the inner processes that occur in people s minds when

59 59 recording and processing information which will then be translated into his/her own understanding of the world. These reasoning processes also shape the way in which a person behaves and reacts in different situations. As was already mentioned, this research project embraced the cognitive perspective alluding to the way in which students process the information gathered from the learning instruction which are eventually incorporated in their learning process. Nevertheless, it is important to consider our social nature as human beings; implying the necessity to interact with our peers in order to construct knowledge and develop in society. From this standpoint, learning is a process of dual nature (cognitive and social). Cognitive for the mental processes which take place, such as perception, memory, judgment, evaluation, reasoning; which allow creating and reconstructing information. And social, for the background conditions leading to this processing of information. With regards to the social nature of learning, I lean towards Jollife s (2007) perspective of cooperative learning: Cooperative learning requires pupils to work together in small groups to support each other to improve their own learning and those of others (p. 39). Considering that my research project implemented Project-Based curriculum, it required students to work in groups. When students were working together, they could share their experiences, interact and communicate among themselves in such a way they could enhance their own process of learning. Theory of Language Languages as socialization.

60 60 In the present study, language came to be seen as socialization in Schieffelin s (1990) terms. These rest on the assumption that language is learned through social interaction. This view considers the social and cultural variables involved in the process of language development, differentiating it from a mere automatic and mechanical process. Role of the Teacher Teacher as a facilitator. Richards & Renandya (2002) acknowledge that the role of the teacher in Project-based work is that of offering support and guidance through the learning process. In other words, the teacher acts as a facilitator in the learning process. Fenstermacher (2004) argues that: The teacher as a facilitator places a great deal of emphasis on students as persons. She is a facilitator in the sense that she encourages and nurtures the growth of students. (..) The teacher as facilitator values subject-matter knowledge, but less for its own sake and more for the contributions it makes to the growth of her students (p. 25) As noted before, the role of teacher as facilitator is centered on the students, which requires taking into account students learning processes, preferences and interests. Providing feedback when necessary, helping them when they feel confused and trying to develop classes contributing to the personal and academic development of the students. This role moves away from the traditional educational view focused on rote learning and memorization, which considered the teacher as an authoritarian figure who was in charge of transmitting knowledge to students in a unidirectional way. Role of the Student

61 61 Student as an active participant. Richards & Renandya also mention that PBW is student- centered which implies that student s played an active role in their own learning process, having the opportunity to assess and evaluate themselves as well as participating in the design of their classes. In view of this, the role of the student is that of active participant, conceived by Lengerman & Wallace s perspective (1981) in the following way: The students act upon theory, their world, their teachers; the teachers both teach and are taught about their students, about theory, about themselves; theory is both studied as an object, and lived through, and actively created by application to our lives (p. 200) In this sense, students and teachers learn from one another, and students could find a real application of theory to their lives. Additionally, when the authors mention that students act upon theory, this implies that students learned by doing, by developing different activities in their classes, by asking their own questions, practicing their reading and writing skills and finally producing their own artifacts. Methodology Project-based work. The methodology this proposal followed was that of Project-based work; this term was already mentioned by following Moss, Van Duzer (1998), Fried-Booth (2002) and Railsback (2002). These authors mentioned some of the advantages of using this approach such as student s self assessment, integration of multiple skills, purposeful activities which had a topic of interest to the students and offered them the possibility to work in groups with mixed abilities and learning

62 62 styles. In Project-Based classes, students also created their own artifacts which made them discuss about how they were going to manage time, which resources they should use and how they would portray understandings. Implementation The main objective of this proposal was to promote meaningful learning practices in students through a Project-based methodology. Accordingly, the development of the lesson plans followed the fourth phases of PBL proposed by the Buck Institute for Education which are 1) project launch, 2) knowledge building, 3) product development and 4) critiques and final presentation and reflection (Boss, 2013). For this purpose, eight sessions of class were developed, one two-hour class per week since this was the time assigned for the development of my practicum in The classes were organized in the following way: Week #1: Introduction to the project: Or project launch, as it was the first phase of the project. In this class session, the topic of the project was socialized with the students, a general overview of my research proposal, the tentative chronogram of activities which were going to be developed and the methodology for assessment and evaluation. First, I carried out a survey on reading preferences and background knowledge about Grimm Fairy tales. Then, students were organized in a round table to socialize their answers and their perspectives in regards to reading and writing. Finally, we discussed the methodology and topics to be addressed in the coming classes. During the development of the class, few students were willing to participate; however some of them proposed

63 63 interesting activities for the English class such as hangman or a scavenger hunt to learn vocabulary. Week #2: Grimm Brother s life: Knowledge building. The idea of this and the third class was to provide a closer look at the Wilhem and Jackob Grimm lives. First, we did a listening activity based on a video: Ten facts about Grimm Brothers, students worked in pairs and at the end they took turns to socialize their answers. Afterwards, students played a matching pictures game based on a video to practice Wh-questions. Week #3 and #4: Origin of Grimm Fairy tales: Knowledge Building: By means of these lessons, students understood key issues in regards to the origin and influence of Grimm Fairy tales in literature and cinema. For the first lesson, the first activity was a socialization of the previous topic. Then students in groups had to discuss some questions in regards to German culture and writers. After that, they developed a trivia individually. Later, they did a picture matching exercise with the names of some of Grimm tales in English. As homework, students in groups needed to choose one tale and write a paragraph about it. In the second lesson, students were arranged in groups of four, and they developed a reading comprehension exercise about the origin of the Grimm tales, which was later socialized with the whole group. Finally, they were asked to write a short text. Weeks#5 and #6: The Little Red Cap: Knowledge building and practice. In lesson five, after revising the homework assigned, students developed two vocabulary exercises; the first was a memory game with the whole group and the second an individual worksheet. Then students took turns to read aloud a fragment of the tale: The little red cap. For the next

64 64 lesson, students were divided into three groups, each group had a different reading comprehension exercise to solve individually. Later on, they had to socialize their answers in groups. Finally, in groups, students had to identify main ideas in the tale and write them in a narrative fan. As homework they had to read a comic version of the tale and find similarities and differences among the two versions. Week #7: Project Development: Students shared their ideas about the similarities and differences they found among the comic and the original version of the tales. Later on, students were arranged into groups according to the tale they chose, and they had to do the following activities: A story cube about their tale, a mind map and brainstorm about their projects. As homework, they were asked to design a flyer about their projects and complete a graphic organizer with the functions of each member of their groups. Week #8: The fliers and graphic organizers were revised by the teacher. Then, students presented their final projects to their partners and to the teacher, who evaluated their presentations with assessment rubrics. Representative Chart of Lesson Plans: The following charts include the object of each session of class, a detailed description of the activities which were carried out, as well as the resources or types of activities done.

65 65 Schedule for the pedagogical implementation Week 1: August 19th Introduction to the project Goal: Students will express their opinion in regards to the concept of reading and writing. Resources Annex 1:Survey Annex 2: Flashcards Activities Solve individually the survey, then socialize the following questions: What the reason for implementing the previous needs assessment do you think it was? How did you feel when answering the reading comprehension test? Discuss the concepts of reading and writing. Socialization of the topics and activities that will be addressed in the following classes. Week 2: September 2nd Grimm Brother s life. Goal: Students will understand important facts about Grimm Brother s life Resources Annex 3: Workshop#1 Annex 4: Workshop#2 Annex : Poster Activities Develop the pre-listening activity N 1 individually according to the video: Ten facts about Grimm Brothers, following the steps: a. Identify the number of the sentence which corresponds to an image. b. Paste the image in the column which corresponds and create the Wh-question which the statement is answering. Ex: The first image corresponds to the third column; the question is Where were the Grimm brothers born? Ask about a specific event using the following pattern: What happened in?. HOMEWORK: Go to this site: Write the answers of the quiz in a piece of paper to hand out the next class. Week 3: September 9th Origin of Grimm Tales Goal: Students will be able to comprehend key issues in regards to the origin and influence of Grimm Fairy tales in literature and cinema.

66 Resources 66 Activities Annex 1: Flashcards #1 Socialize in group the following questions: Do you know who Grimm Brothers are? How many tales did the Grimm Brothers write? How many versions did the Grimm tales have? Annex 2: Flashcards#2 Annex 3: Worksheet#1 Look at the flashcards, then answer: Have you ever read any of these stories? Have you ever seen the animated version of these tales? When? Where did you see the animated version of these tales? Which books have you read so far? Who were/was the author/s? Which authors do you know? What do you know about German culture? Do you know any German writer? Do you know any of these authors? Franz Kafka, Patrick Suskind, Thomas Man HOMEWORK: In groups of four, choose on the web one tale of the Grimm Brothers and search the following information: When was it written? What was the tale about? Then write a paragraph with that information. How Much Do You Know About The Original Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales? Develop worksheet #1 First, select the appropriate answer and then answer with a complete sentence using simple past tense. MATCHING PICTURES: The teacher will paste in the board some flashcards with images at the right side of the list. The idea is that students guess which image corresponds to each tale and draw a line Matching images: Develop worksheet#1 Week 4th: September 16th The Origin of the Grimm Tales Goal: Students will be able to comprehend key issues in regards to the origin and influence of Grimm Fairy tales in literature and cinema. Resources Annex 4: Worksheet #2 Annex 5: Worksheet #3 Annex 6: Activities ORIGIN OF GRIMM TALES(PART ONE AND TWO) Eighteen students will start reading the text Origin of Grimm tales part one(worksheet#2) while the others will read the second part of the reading: Origin of Grimm tales part two (Worksheet #4) After reading the text students will: 1. Identify unknown and known vocabulary 2. Highlight the verbs and tenses in simple past and present perfect. 3. Identify time expressions: For, since and dates. Then the teacher will ask some students to read orally the text. ORIGIN OF GRIMM TALES PART ONE_ Students will have to answer individually the questions provided in worksheet #2 or #3 as they were assigned by the teacher. Later on, students will make groups of four people in which there should be two people who read

67 Worksheet #4 Annex 7: Flashcards 67 the article number one and the others who read the second part of the article. They will share their answers and then one member of each group will socialize what the group have discussed about. The teacher will give to the students a piece of paper, each group will have to create a concept map writing the main ideas they got from the text. WRITING ABOUT GRIMM TALES: The students will have to write a text, answering the following questions and taking into account the information they read previously: How did the Grimm Brothers write their tales? Have you ever read any of Grimm Brothers stories? What were they about? Have you ever seen a movie based upon a Grimm tale? Which? Why were Children and Household Tales important? Week 5th: September 30th The Little Red Cap Goal: The students will identify main and secondary ideas from the tale The little red cap Resources Annex 1: Flashcards. Annex 2: Chart Annex 3: Worksheet #1 Annex 4: Memory game Activities Answer the following questions: Have you ever read the tale Little Red Riding Hood? When did you read it? Did you like it? Have you ever seen the Japanese anime version of this tale? Did you like it? Complete the chart and answer the questions from your previous ideas. UNKNOWN VERBS: Develop the worksheet #1 in order to identify the meaning of some verbs that will appear in the Little Red Cap tale. MEMORY GAME:Play the memory game by matching some images with the correspondent noun. Students will take turns to participate and match the right pairs. SCANNING THE TALE: Students are going to be divided in groups of twelve. Each group will have an extract from the tale The little red cap.( See annex 5, 6 and 7) Students will look at their text and highlight some phrases in the following way: Red color: Sentences in simple past Blue color: Time expressions Black color: Sentence in simple present Purple color: Sentences in future tense Red color: Wh questions After that, students will make a semicircle, the teacher will give turns for the students to read aloud the text.

68 Week 6th: October 14th 68 The little red cap Goal: The students will identify main and secondary ideas from the tale The little red cap Resources Annex 5: Reading worksheet#1 Annex 6: Reading worksheet#2 Annex 7: Reading worksheet#3 Annex 8: Comic Activities READING EXTRACTS: LITTLE RED CAP Read again the text individually and answer the questions correspondent to the reading extract they got. The answer should be complete sentences in simple past. After that they will share their answers with a partner. The teacher will organize the class in groups of three people. In each group, there should be a student with the reading extract#1, other with the reading extract#2 and finally another with the reading extract#3. Each group will socialize the main ideas they got from the text. Then they will have to make a narrative fan with a piece of paper, similar to the one the teacher will show them. They will complete it by describing the characters, setting, problem and solution of the story; using the ideas they have previously discussed about (see annex 8) HOMEWORK: IN YOUR GROUPS MAKE A NARRATIVE FAN OF YOUR STORY. LITTLE RED CAP: ANIMATED VERSION PRE LISTENING Unscrambled words game: Guess the correct wordlist of words: Dear, enjoy, snack, need, trip, basket, young, remember, listen, snore, investigate, unlocked, kill, lesson. WHILE LISTENING develop the worksheet #4 ( See annex 9) POST LISTENING Answer the following question: How were the reading and the animated version of The little red cap similar? How were they different?identifying SYMBOLS FROM THE STORY: Discuss in a round table the following questions. What does the red cap represents to you? What is the social function of the tale? What is the purpose of a happy ending in the Little Red Cap? What is the role of the huntsman? What is the role of the wolf? What is the role of the little red cap? TAKE A LOOK AT THE COMIC VERSION OF THE TALE: Students will read the comic ( annex 10) in groups of four people. Then they will compare the Grimm version of the tale and the comic one, then they will discuss the following questions: In which aspects are both stories similar? In which aspects are they different? Finally they will draw two circles intertwined, in the middle they will write the similarities and outside the differences between both versions of the tale. Week 7th: October 21st Project Development based upon Grimm Tales Reading

69 69 Goal: Students will design a creative project, based upon a Grimm Tale. Resources Annex 1: Story cube Resources: A sheet of newspaper paper Markers Ruler Annex 2: Brainstorm and mind map Annex 3: Flashcards Resources: Cardboard Markers Ruler Annex 4: Rubric chart Annex 5: Graphic organizer Activities OWNERSHIP OF THE TALE: STORY CUBE: Students will make the groups assigned for their project. Then each group will complete the story cube (annex 1) in order to map the most important information about the Grimm fairy tale they chose. Theme, characters, setting, conflict, resolution and favorite. The questions that will help them to complete the information are the following: Side 1: Characters: Who were the main characters in the story? Side 2: Setting: Where did the story take place? Side 3: Conflict: What was the main problem in the story? Side 4: Resolution: How was the problem resolved? Side 5: Theme: What was the topic or subject of the story? Side 6: What part of the story did you like best? BRAINSTORM: Students will make the groups assigned for their project. Each group will design a brainstorm about the possible ideas for their project, taking into account the following questions. What will our project be about? How can we integrate my Grimm fairy tale in our project? How can we catch our partner s attention during my presentation? How can we be creative in our presentation? After students have developed their brainstorm they will have to number their ideas according to their relevance, then they will choose the central idea. MIND MAP: On the left side of the paper, (see annex 2 for the structure).in their groups, students will have to design a mind map about their project using the ideas they brainstormed and start with their central idea in the middle of the map. The teacher will paste some flashcards with examples of mind maps (Annex3). Later on, students will have to socialize their mind maps in front of the group. FLYER: Each group will have to design a flyer. The flyer will have information about their project: Members of the group: Name of the project: Description of the project Main objective The teacher will revise students taking into account the following factors: Advances in the project Appropriate use of grammatical structures Design of the objectives Creativity Feasibility GRAPHIC ORGANIZER: Students will complete a graphic organizer (see annex 5)including the following variables about their project: Name of the project,objectives, description, resources and timetable Week 8th: November 11th Project Development based upon Grimm Tales reading

70 70 Goal: Students will present a creative project, based upon a Grimm Tale. Resources Annex 6: Roles of the members of the group Annex 7: Peer feedback form Annex 8: Rubric for oral presentation. Activities Students will deliver to the teacher a first draft of their projects, depending on the activity they have chosen, they will have to write a script describing all the things they are going to say at the moment of the presentation. Students will complete a chart describing the role that each member of the group has had during the development of the project, also the role that each member will have when they have the final presentation. Each group will present their project in front of the group. Every group will have eight minutes to present. While their partners are presenting, a member of each group will fill a peer feedback format which they will give to the teacher at the end of the class. Schedule for the research proposal. Task Phase One Observation Journal entries Write-up findings Phase Two Preliminary Research Draft Submission Preliminary Research Draft Approval Phase Three Data Collection Data Cleaning Data Analysis Phase Four Write up findings Paper submission Target Completion Date 04/03/15 13/05/15 13/05/15 17/05/15 19/05/15 12/06/15 19/07/15-11/11/15 Achievements to Evaluate Regarding the curricular standards for English teaching proposed by the Ministry of National Education in the guide 22 entitled: Formar en Lenguas Extranjeras: El reto, lo que necesitamos

71 71 saber y hacer, specifically those related to reading and writing skills for pre-intermediate II, that is tenth and eleventh grades which run as follows: Figure N 1. English Basic Standards from tenth to eleventh grade. MEN(2006). (p.26-27) I considered focusing on standards one, six and seven which dealt with vocabulary building and reading comprehension, in order to evaluate the students reading skills. On the other hand, to evaluate students writing skills, I took into account standards one, five and eight regarding coherence and cohesion in writing, knowledge and understanding of the subject-matter through writing. Criteria of Assessment

72 72 In order to assess my students in their final project, I decided to use rubrics. In Rubric #1 (appendix N 4) students had to evaluate their partners presentation of their final project. By using this strategy, students were more attentive to their partners presentations. Then, Rubric#2 (appendix N 5) was used in order to provide feedback to the students considering three aspects: awareness of the audience, strengths of the material and delivery of information. In such a way, I could evaluate their speaking skills, their creativity skills and their compromise to deliver their project. Chapter Four Research Design Research Paradigm In mixed method research, (...) a qualitative research study and a quantitative research study are conducted either concurrently (conducting both at roughly the same time) or sequentially (conducting one first and the other second) to address a research topic. (Johnson, Christensen, 2004, p.48). For the purpose of this research, a mixed approach was considered since it was necessary to use both qualitative and quantitative data to have a more concise perspective of the students reading and writing practices. The data was collected sequentially in three stages; first from classroom observations, then from a survey and finally from the students artifacts represented in written compositions and reading exercises. Approach

73 73 Additionally, the approach selected for my proposal was that of applied research since it deepens the understanding of the research problem which revolved around the eleventh graders difficulties to read and write in English. In the same way, Hedrick, Bickman and Rog (1993) acknowledge that Applied research (...) strives to improve our understanding of a specific problem, with the intent of contributing to the solution of that problem. Applied research also may result in new knowledge, but often on a more limited basis defined by the nature of an immediate problem (p.2). Regarding the previous information, the main purposes of applied research are not just to generate understanding, but also to contribute to the solution of a specific problem. However, the authors emphasized that using this type of research does not lead in all the cases to an immediate improvement of the situation under study. Concerning my study, certain limitations arose such as the shortage of time, the contrast between the topics provided by the home teacher and the topics listed in the proposal, and tracking students learning processes from their previous English classes. In view of this, the study is most appealing to be applied rather than action research. Time dimension. With regards to the way in which data was collected, the type of study was longitudinal, from which Babbie (2007) acknowledges that it is a study design involving the collection of data at different points in time (p.102). As was already mentioned, the study required three types of data gathered sequentially, to the extent that this research proposal was being developed, I realized that I needed to collect different types of data hinging on students reading and writing practices before and after a project-based approach was implemented.

74 74 Variables. This study is also correlational, which implies that, in Babbie s viewpoint (2007), an empirical relationship between two variables such that (1) changes in one are associated with changes in the other or (2) particular attributes of one variable are associated with particular attributes of the other. Correlation in and of itself does not constitute a causal relationship between the two variables, but it is one criterion of causality (p.90). In other words, this type of study considers the influence of one variable on another, inasmuch as the main purpose of this inquiry was to identify which features of Project-based work appeared to be directly related to the development of reading and writing practices as well as meaningful learning, this corresponds to the criteria of causality mentioned previously by Babbie. Setting As was already mentioned in the previous chapter, this study was carried out in a public school in Bogotá, in Santa Fe s area. Its social strata range between one and three. The school focuses on aesthetic and corporal dimensions by emphasizing on strengthening artistic, civic and sporting competencies. The mission of the school is to guarantee the right of education to children and young people at preschool, primary school and high school, by emphasizing its compromise with the integral formation of citizens with social awareness of science and technology, strengthening the development of corporal and aesthetic dimensions. (Translation made by the author). Hence, the school s foundation seeks the development of leadership with responsibility, identity and transcendence. Participants

75 75 Even though the observation and the pedagogical intervention were carried out with the whole group of eleventh graders, 35 students in all; I decided to analyze the written productions and exercises collected from a selected group of students (purposeful sampling) whom were committed during the development of the classes and were willing to participate and attend each class session. These students also displayed serious difficulties at using grammar, which became evident when they were asked to read a text. Seeing this situation, I decided to go for a purposeful sampling strategy to collect data. Patton (1990) agrees that in purposeful sampling, The goal is to select persons, places, or things that can provide the richest and most detailed information to help us answer our research question (As cited in Lodico, Spaulding, Voegtle, 2006, n.d). Basically, Patton is saying that purposeful sampling allows the researcher to have a more precise understanding of the problem under study. Data Collection Techniques For this proposal, three techniques were employed: observation, interviewing and document collection. The first was used to identify the problem arising from the school setting. The second, in order to get a wider perspective of the characteristics of the subjects under study. Finally, the third was used to assess the extent to which the pedagogical implementation contributed to the students meaningful learning. Observation As was mentioned before, the first technique employed was observation, which is defined as follows: observation usually refers to methods of generating data which involve the researcher immersing (him or herself) in a research setting, and systematically observing dimensions of that setting, interactions, relationships, actions, events, and so on, within it. (Mason, 1996 in

76 76 Mackey, & Gass, 2016, p. 227) Thus, observation implies recording data to describe the different dynamics that appeared in the school setting in order to identify which problematic areas arose and which type of variables could be subject to a closer study. Interviewing A second major type of data collection used by qualitative researchers is interviewing. Interviewing allows the researchers to gain insights into others perspectives about the phenomena under study; it is particularly useful for ascertaining respondents thoughts, perceptions, feelings and retrospective accounts of events (Goodwin & Goodwin, p.134). By using this technique, I could understand students perspectives in regards to reading in a better way. It was also possible to define certain characteristics which would help me to shape my pedagogical intervention according to my students needs. Document Collection (...) this third approach to data collection in qualitative research is not interactive. It involves gathering information from a variety of different kinds of extant material. (Goodwin & Goodwin p. 136) Indeed, a pedagogical intervention introducing a Project-based approach involved students in the development of different exercises. Specifically, in this proposal, reading and writing exercises resulted in a final project. Data Collection Instruments A data collection instrument is the standardized format that you will use for obtaining data, such as a questionnaire, topic guide, checklist or record form (..)data are the raw material that

77 77 you will collect to monitor your project s impact and ultimate success. (Margoluis & Salafsky,1998, p.156) Teacher journal. A teacher journal is a recording of thoughts, observations, feelings, and insights that teachers have (Castle, 2012, p. 72). This type of instrument helped me to conduct a register from the first classes held with eleventh grade. After writing each journal, I could analyze my perspective of each class and identify which problems arose in the classroom in relation to classroom dynamics, students language difficulties and activities that might draw attention from students. Survey. Following McCormack and Hill (1997), A survey is a mechanistic process which deliberately attempts to limit the range of responses people give to the questions asked (to make analysis and interpretation easier), and therefore is not very sensitive at revealing the reason behind observed behavior and attitudes (p.25) In other words, conducting a survey helps the researcher to be focused on the topic under study and have a general view of emergent attitudes and replies from the participants. For my research proposal, a survey was designed in order to characterize student s preferences and habits in regards to reading, along with their previous knowledge about the Grimm fairy tales which were the tales adopted for the development of this pedagogical intervention. Students artifacts.

78 78 These are conceived as the written compositions and reading comprehension exercises made by the students which were related with the general objective of the proposal. Specifically, turning to the final written projects delivered by the students at the end of the pedagogical implementation. Unit of Analysis Words, phrases or sentences reflecting students learning insights from reading Grimm Brothers fairy tales. Validity Babbie (2007) asserts there are four different types of validity reflecting the degree in which a measure corresponds with the concepts under study. These are: face validity, criterion-related validity, construct validity and content validity. For the purpose of this study two types of validity are addressed. Face validity. That quality of an indicator that makes it seem reasonable measure of some variable (p.146). The data collected was oriented to respond to the research question How may Project-Based Work help develop reading and writing practices to foster meaningful learning?, thus considering the Project-work as the pedagogical approach and the emphasis on developing reading and writing activities with the students. Construct validity. My research question aims at developing an understanding of the relationship between one variable and another. Thus, Babbie posits out that construct validity should reflect The degree to which a measure relates to other variables as expected within a system of theoretical relationships. (p.147)

79 79 Reliability Consent Form Those students who agreed to participate in the development of this study, signed a consent form (See appendix A and B) (for the ones who were of legal age) or their parents agreed to sign the document which described the general purposes of the study and the type of date which was necessary to gather. Chronogram The following chart describes the stages of this proposal, the instruments used to collect data and the actual goals to achieve in each stage. Name of the research stage Instrument Objective February 25th 2015 Observati on August 19th 2015 Diagnosis September 2nd- October 21st Teacher s journal Students artifacts: Group writing exercise Individual reading comprehen sion exercise Identify student s difficulties when reading and writing in English Survey Students artifacts: September 2nd: Reading and vocabulary worksheet September 9th: Written exercise: Grimm Brothers trivia September 16th: Vocabulary exercise September 30th: Vocabulary exercise October 21st: Mind map Story Cube Written description of the project Rubric Students artifacts: Final Papers Understand the student s conception in regards to reading, their reading preferences and previous knowledge about Grimm Objectives focused on the students: September 2nd: Students will understand important facts about Grimm Brother s life September 9th September 16th: Students will be able to comprehend key issues in regards to the origin and influence of Grimm Fairy tales in literature and cinema. September 30th: The students will identify main and secondary Students will present a creative project, based upon a Grimm Tale. Students will evaluate their partners presentation through an Project Development November 11th 2015 Final Presentation of the Project

80 Brothers Fairy Tales. ideas from the tale The little red cap October 21st: Students will design a creative project, based upon a Grimm Tale. 80 assessment rubric. Chapter Five Data Analysis This chapter is aimed to describe each of the stages followed for analyzing data; considering first the management of the data gathered, second an explanation of the approach followed to analyze data, third the data analysis process, considering the variables involved and the objectives stated for this proposal; and finally, a description of the process by which preliminary patterns emerged and the way in which those patterns became categories. The process of data analysis constitutes an essential part in the development of this project. As Merriam and Tisdell (2015) stated, Data analysis is the process of making sense out of the data. (...) involves consolidating, reducing, and interpreting what people have said and what the researcher has seen and read- it is the process of making meaning. (p.202) In other words, data analysis is the means by which the researcher can consolidate the data collected as new concepts, ideas and constructs emerging as information suggesting possible answer to the research questions proposed at the beginning of the study. Data Management

81 81 In the previous chapter, I explained the data collection process, including the instruments and techniques used to collect data, as well as the type of data each instrument was intended to collect. After this, it was necessary to explain how data was organized and selected. Given Guest and MacQueen s (2008) conception of qualitative data management as all the processes necessary for systematically and consistently collecting, tracking, preparing, processing, organizing, storing, securing, retrieving, verifying, and sharing qualitative data so that it can be used to (a) inform subsequent data collection and (b) perform data analysis, including triangulation and interpretation. (p. 168) This part provides a brief description of the processes carried out for displaying, sorting out, and filtering the data; so that the data gathered corresponded with the objectives stated in this proposal. In this vein of thought, the first step was to identify the principal stages in the development of this study. The pedagogical intervention consisted of four stages: diagnostic, project launch, development and presentation of a final product, which are described as follows: First stage: Diagnosis Diagnostic assessment or tests are used to discover how current performance or abilities differ from the expected or required level of performance. It can be used to identify specific problems that a learner might be experiencing and to provide appropriate learning support (Scales, 2013, p.195). With the purpose of having a record of the events happening in the classes and identifying possible students difficulties in their English learning process I wrote a journal entry for each one of the classes I had with eleventh graders. Later on, I revised all the journal entries and selected the ones which revealed data related with students reading and writing difficulties in English. From these journals I designed a rubric (see appendix N 6) with three

82 82 components: a general description of the class, an interpretation of the class and then a list of interesting issues from situations observed during the development of the class. Second stage: Project launch After having identified students problems related to reading and writing, an introduction to the project was given by describing the methodology of work, the topics for the lesson and the type of products students had to present at the end of their learning process. Larmer, Mergendoller and Boss (2015) described this stage as follows: The project is launched when the teacher conducts an entry event that lets students know this is not just another assignment. The event engages their interest in the project and sparks questions about the topic and the processes. (...) This phase is usual when the project s major products are defined, student teams are formed, other logistical details are discussed, and groundwork is laid for project tasks. (p.105) This part included a survey which had as main purposes understanding the conception students had in regards to reading, their reading preferences and previous knowledge they had about Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales. The results obtained by this survey helped to shape the topics and objectives of the lessons. Third stage: Development This stage included the implementation of the lesson plan with a Project-Based methodology. It was divided into two sections: Knowledge building and product development and critique from which students as Boss (2015) pointed out: (...) build background understanding and learn new skills and (...) apply what they have learned to create something new (p.11). In this step, the data was gathered from the activities and exercises which were developed by the students. In addition, I wrote a journal entry for each session of class, in order to keep track of the students reactions towards a Project-Based methodology in their classes,

83 83 after that I designed a general rubric (see appendix N 7) to organize the most relevant factors which were identified from each journal. Fourth stage: Final product For the final session of the class, students had to present their final project in front of the class. Some of the written productions of the students were chosen to be analyzed and also the co-evaluation rubrics made by their partners to assess those presentations. In this stage (...) students make their work public and explain the process they used to complete their project. The teacher facilitates students self-evaluation of their work and reflection on what they learned in the project (p.105). The second step was to revise all the data collected after the pedagogical intervention, displayed in the form of journals, surveys and students artifacts. Each instrument was revised and it was selected the most relevant information related with the purpose of the study. Besides, three of the students volunteered to write a short reflection about their learning experience from the classes given, which contributed to validate the data collected with other instruments and also to recognize students voices in relation to the process developed. Approach to Data Analysis This study followed some of the procedures of data collection and analysis provided by Corbin and Strauss with regards to Grounded Theory Research (1990), which in general terms, hinge on the notion of generating theory from the gathered data in a research study. In the same vein, The procedures of grounded theory are designed to develop a well-integrated set of

84 84 concepts that provide a thorough theoretical explanation of social phenomena under study. A grounded theory should explain as well as describe (p. 5). Thus, these procedures might lead to a better understanding of the case under study in such a way that the emergent theory from the analysis would be easily interpreted for further research in the same area. Data Analysis The main objective of this study was to identify which features, procedures or characteristics of a Project-Based learning environment helped to promote students meaningful learning. For this reason, the first step followed after the data was collected, was to revise all the information, organize the data, and to identify which type of data seemed to have an apparent relation with the development of reading and writing practices as well as meaningful learning. For this reason, I decided to design three matrices for analyzing and coding the data. The first matrix (see appendix N 8) included three components: observation, performance and final written reports. In the column for observation, I listed all the negative and positive aspects that were collected from the journal entries (see figure below). Figure 1. Matrix#1. Observation column For the second column, I began reading each of the students artifacts gathered in each session of class, and then I attempted to make sense out of it by coding the data, bearing in mind

85 85 the type of attitudes or behaviors that students displayed during the development of the activities as shown in the figure below. Figure 2. Matrix #1. Performance column. The final column included a general interpretation of each of the written reports presented by the students (see figure below). Figure 3. Matrix #1. Third column: Final written reports In the second matrix, I started by identifying the recurrent themes found in each column of the previous matrix and grouping them by colors (color-coding). After that, I made a chart with three columns, in each one I wrote some preliminary ideas embracing the similarities that I found. The following figure represents the analysis carried out.

86 86 Figure 4. Matrix #2. Color coding Figure 5. Matrix #2. Grouping ideas From a revision of the previous chart, I grouped the patterns that emerged and I began to organize them into larger groups. These groups, a brief description of each one and the respective codes of each item were the components of the third matrix (See appendix N 9). From the previous analysis, five major themes emerged: student achievement, retention of content knowledge, student voice and choice, group work and assessment, these were the preliminary patterns.

87 87 The last step consisted in organizing the emerging themes into a coherent display, in such fashion that the results corresponded with the research questions and objectives that I posed in this study. The following section provides a description of those themes to explain my findings. Findings The figure below illustrates the way in which the research objectives corresponded with the main themes and subcategories that emerged from the gathered data. Analyzing students reading and writing processes How may Project-Based Work help develop reading and writing practices to foster meaningful learning? Accuracy and fluency in writing Getting the gist Student voice and choice Group work Features of PBW in the development of meaningful literacy practices Awaken students' interest for a specific topic Assessment Figure 6. Display of findings The main objective of this study was to describe how Project- Based Work may develop reading and writing practices to foster meaningful learning in a group of eleventh graders. In this sense, the analysis of data led me to reflect on two issues: first, upon the way in which students reading and writing processes evolved after the implementation of a Project-Based methodology

88 88 and second about the emergent characteristics of project-based work which helped the students to construct knowledge, create new meanings, make sense of the texts they read and be more engaged in their own learning processes. These reflections were represented in two main categories: Analyzing students reading and writing processes and Features of Project-Based Work in the development of meaningful literacy practices. Categories. In the following section, I provide a detailed description of the two categories and subcategories resulting from the analysis, in light of their relation with the research question stated for this study. Analyzing students reading and writing processes This category describes the way in which students reading and writing processes took place before and after the pedagogical intervention, so as to determine the impact that project-based work had in the development of both skills. In this regard, the writing process is understood as (...) a way to describe the steps that effective writers follow, from the initial point of coming up with an idea for writing to the final point, the paper that the intended audience reads (Narzario, Borchers and Lewis, 2010, p.9). In the same way, the students had to start from an initial idea for their project, organize their thoughts in a coherent way and develop their final written product at the end of the course. The emergent sub-category resulting from the analysis of these processes was Accuracy and fluency in writing.

89 89 On the other hand, following Manzo and Manzo s (1995) ideas The act of reading is said to be composed of two parts: the process and the product. The process refers to the functions, or operations, that one goes through in deriving meaning, whereas the product or more appropriately products refers to the actual information and insights reached as a result of reading (p.9). Indeed, when reading, students developed different cognitive processes in order to derive meaning from the text. However, as these processes are not observable, the evidence of their progress was reflected in their answers and opinions expressed after reading. The subcategory reflecting this analysis was called Getting the gist. Subcategory No. 1. Accuracy and fluency in writing This subcategory deals with the appropriate use of vocabulary and coherence to express ideas from the students written exercises. From an initial stage that included the first writing assignments that students developed in their English classes before the pedagogical intervention, to a final stage including the students final written productions. The purpose was to identify the degree of improvement in the quality of students texts, especially in their length, coherence and use of grammar. Initial stage As part of a diagnostic exercise carried out on February 25th, students worked in groups and were set in an imaginary situation in which they needed to figure out how to survive in a desert island by using just five objects. The exercise consisted on listing and describing the objects that would come in handily if they wanted to survive in the desert island. The following images are extracts from the students responses:

90 90 Figure 1. Writing exercise #1: Desert Island From this exercise, I observed that students did not understand the given instruction; instead they wrote some objects they could find in a desert, as shown in Figure 1. In this sense, Markel (1994) posits that: Accuracy is a simple concept in one sense: you must get your facts right. If you mean to write 2.000, don t write (p. 9). Since, as the emphasis of this analysis was placed on the students writing skills rather than on their listening skills, I continued revising their exercise in terms of coherence and use of grammar. Figure 1.1. Writing exercise #1: Desert Island From the sample above, we can observe a recurrent mistake with the sentence: always we can found, where students used the verb find conjugated in past although it was meant to express a regular or habitual action. The repetition of the same mistake in four sentences made

91 91 me realize that they did not have clarity about the appropriate use of the grammar tenses: simple present and simple past. In sentence #2 students misused the word: death using a noun instead of an adjective. In sentence #3 students added the preposition in but omitted the use of prepositions before the noun oceans. In sentence #4 students made a mistake in word order by placing the adjective lonely after a noun. Another mistake was the omission of the article a in sentences #1 and #4. In the final sentence students expressed an unclear idea by repeating some words and using the inappropriate word class. Similar mistakes were also found in other exercises done by students. Figure 2. Writing exercise #2: Desert Island This group also misunderstood the instruction given. In the first sentence students stated an unclear idea, in fact after the word find they should have written an extra word in order to explain which object they chose. Additionally they misspelled the word can and which. In the second sentence, students added and misused the word for. In the third sentence they misspelled the word caverns and used the incorrect preposition. In the final sentence students wrote the pronoun it instead of is.

92 92 In general, the difficulties found from the first students written exercises were the omission of words, misspellings and inappropriate use of prepositions. This situation is problematic in the sense that The application of accurate grammar is an important aspect of any good piece of writing ( ) students can advance their level of English by producing written work that employs the grammatical structures they have learned (Baleghizadeh & Gordani. 2012, p.160). Correspondingly, the use of accurate grammar is necessary for the students to move forward in their written processes. Therefore, problems related to grammatical inaccuracy could deviate the meaning of the students compositions. Nevertheless, some groups were able to understand the instruction and organize their ideas in a better way; but they wrote shorter sentences and misspelled some words as illustrated in the following sample. Figure 3. Writing exercise #3: Desert Island

93 93 Figure 4. Writing exercise #4: Desert Island In regards with the second component of this category: fluency in writing, Atlee (1998) asserts that it refers to the flow of ideas. To fluent writers the act of writing comes as easily as speaking. They express ideas clearly and fully. They write smoothly with control over all aspects of language: wording, phrasing, organization, and style. They develop ideas with a sense of purpose and detail. Fluent writers know there are many ways to express an idea (p.11). Hence, it is the ability to be concise and coherent when writing, without making a great effort. When comparing the previous students exercises in terms of fluency, I would say that the first two groups felt more at ease when expressing their ideas in written form than the other groups. In fact they tried their best to connect their ideas by using the words they knew which was reflected in the length of their composition contrasting those illustrated in figures 3 and 4. Final stage. In relation to the development of the final projects, students were asked to present a product in which they could reflect their understanding of a Grimm tale. From these products, three written compositions were chosen to be analyzed. First composition. It was a summary about the tale: The girl without hands which was sent by . See figure below.

94 94 Figure 5. Written composition #1.Summary about the tale The girl without hands At first sight, something which drawn my attention was the length of her composition (19 lines). It was a reasonable extension, given the fact that I did not specify the number of sentences that it should have. Students made their own choices in relation to the type of product, the length of their report and how they were going to present it. Later on, I revised the text in terms of use of grammar, punctuation and coherence. For this purpose, I proceeded to include some comments at the right side of her summary, indicating where a mistake was followed by my perception of the exercise (See appendix N 10). An extract from this revision process is indicated below. Figure 6. Comments about the summary of the tale: The girl without hands

95 95 From my standpoint one important factor to develop fluency is that of loosing fear to write and making mistakes, in this case the student tried to express her ideas the best she could in two structured paragraphs rather than short sentences as the initial exercises. Some of the mistakes found were misspelled words, lack of punctuation marks, unclear ideas, invented words and the use of words in Spanish which affected somehow the readability of the text. Type of mistake Misspelled words Lack of punctuation marks Unclear ideas Invented words Example poberty, washs, God morning given birth to a monster but the king responded by saying think that would make for poor on the road found u. man csminar comones Table 1. Sample of mistakes found However, there were some improvements in regards to the use of the appropriate grammar tense and accurate vocabulary. Given that the purpose of this proposal was to identify a certain degree of improvement in the quality of text, my emphasis will be on explaining the areas of difficulty where a positive change was noticed. Grammar Tense During the development of the classes, I perceived certain difficulties students had when choosing the appropriate grammar tense, specifically at the moment deciding whether to use simple past or simple present. This situation is exemplified above. I applied a grammar test about simple present, simple past and present perfect. First, I provided the instructions students were really confused when answering, they asked me things like: Teacher What do I have to do? or Is this tense simple present or simple past? Journal Entry #2 (March 4th, 2015)

96 96 And in the following extracts from an exercise on simple past tense, where students wrote the inappropriate grammar tense structure. Figure 7. Extracts from students exercises on simple past tense. The following sentences taken from the first written composition, demonstrated an appropriate use of simple past tense, since the student was narrating the facts she remembered from the tale. one man had a mill and an apple that girl was sweet and kind and raised in God's grace she had very clean hands she refused and he left the house when he sent a letter to the king the king received and took command Figure 8. Sentences extracted from the written composition #1. Moreover, the appropriate use of other grammar tenses such as present perfect simple tense could be identified, in the sentences: the girl had cried with his hands on his eyes (lines 8-9) and the queen had given birth to a monster (lines 17-18).

97 97 Vocabulary Additionally, the student started to make use of new vocabulary in a creative way. This is one important aspect to examine because: The interactions between vocabulary and writing skills are twofold. On the one hand, writing practice contributes to the development of vocabulary. On the other hand, vocabulary knowledge is central for the writing activity, and moreover, vocabulary is considered a criterion for assessing writing (Agustín, 2011, p. 50) In her report, the student included complex words in her writing such as: water inlet and stumps which are not commonly found in students context or in everyday language, besides the use the word dusk instead of sunset or the verb weep instead of cry demonstrate the usage of synonyms employed to convey a particular idea. It was also evinced the use of some phrasal verbs which were not taught in their English classes such as: cut off look after and give birth. In this sense, I would say that the student was able to expand her range of vocabulary. Second composition. The second composition consisted of a short script about the tale: Cinderella which included the dialogue of three characters from the story. See figure below.

98 98 Figure 9. Written composition #2.Script about the tale Cinderella As we can see, the text length was shorter compared to previous exercise. However, this group was able to express their ideas in a clearer way and did not misspelled words. Some of the mistakes found were related with the lack of punctuation marks, addition or omission of words, word order and use of vocabulary. I decided to mark with colors each type of mistake in the following way: Missing punctuation mark Extra word Incorrect preposition Word order Missing word Wrong word Figure 10. Correction code.

99 99 As we can see in Figure 8, few mistakes were made by the students. In sentence #1 for instance they used the incorrect preposition to make the phrasal verbs; writing fit on instead of fit in and cut out instead of cut off. And in sentence #9 students wrote the adjective promised when they wanted to express the noun fiancée, this problem might arose because they found in their dictionary this translation of the word and were not aware about its context of use. In fact (...) to know a word productively is likely to involve deep knowledge which may include various components covered by depth (Ma, 2009, p. 40). In a general sense, these difficulties did not affect the readability of the text as it happened in the first composition. Furthermore, an achievement in the level of grammatical competence was evidenced with the use of the appropriate grammar tense throughout all the students composition. Since, they were presenting themselves as the characters of the story, students were aware of using simple present tense to write their dialogues, and changed the tense when it was necessary to express an action developed in the past, for instance in the sentence The prince came to my house. Third composition. This composition was a short script about the tale The twelve dancing princesses which was divided in four scenes. The length was similar to the previous exercise and the mistakes found were highlighted with colors using the following conventions. Wrong word Misspelled word Missing word Word order Figure 11. Correction code And the students written exercise is illustrated above.

100 100 Figure 12. Written composition #3.Script about the tale The twelve dancing princesses From the previous analysis of the students exercise, I could identify that the majority of mistakes they made were in terms of spelling, word order and vocabulary usage. Their text was coherent and grammatically accurate. In terms of spelling, they repeated the same mistake three times throughout all the composition when writing the word escene instead of scene, when writing the verb appear without an s although they were mentioning a third person and when

101 101 writing the article an before a noun starting with a consonant. With relation to word order, a mistake was the position of the noun before the adjective in the sentence doll ugly and the use of the auxiliary verb before a noun in the question What is the time. As regards word use, they misinterpreted the meaning of the word last in sentence #7 when they wanted to write late, and the word past when they must have written last. Students made some improvements related with the appropriate use of the grammar tenses, as in affirmative as interrogative sentences. For instance in sentence #6 our father will punish us, sentence #16 What happened to the shoes and sentence #17 We are here, you locked us. Also, in these sentences we can observe also that they used correctly the possessive pronoun and object pronouns. Students also incorporated new vocabulary from the tale in their writing, such as the words: whosoever, came forward, forfeited and undertake. So far I have made an analysis in terms of accuracy and fluency in the students written compositions, from an initial stage to a final stage after implementing a Project-Based methodology. After making a comparison between both stages, I would say that there was a certain level of improvement in the development of students writing skills, mostly related with the usage of the appropriate grammar tense and a wider range of vocabulary. Despite of the fact that students could make just one draft of their text before the due line owing to time constraints in the development of the classes in my practicum and considering the difficulties and learning gaps they had in regards to English language use. Indeed, Foreign language students possess fewer linguistic abilities in the target language than in their native language for the mere reason that they are learning it. Their vocabulary and knowledge of grammar and sentence structure are limited (Elliot, 2008, p, 21)

102 102 In addition, bearing in mind that writing is a complex and evolving process. It requires a long time for students to learn how to plan and revise their compositions so that to achieve a more fruitful performance. In the same vein of thought Nazario, Borchers & Lewis (2010) assert: One reassuring quality about writing is that it should be viewed as a process leading to a successful final draft. Instead of being a lightning bolt of inspiration, a good essay usually evolves gradually from brainstorming, to organizing, to drafting, to receiving and digesting feedback, to final editing (p.9).thus, notable changes in the development of writing might not be evident in a short period of time, but it is possible to guide the students to become more fluent in writing by helping them to lose the fear to write, especially in a foreign language. In this sense, I perceived that students in their final written compositions were able to expand their vocabulary, make use of the limited range of grammar structures they were familiarized with, and try to express their ideas the best possible way. Subcategory N 2. Getting the gist. I decided to name this subcategory in such a way whereas the meaning of the word gist refers to a main point or essential idea. As far as my study is concerned, the phrase getting the gist implies the students understanding of the main idea of the text, in particular, the Grimm tale they chose to develop their project. The word gist is also the acronym for generating interaction between schemata and text, a strategy developed by Cunningham (1982) in which students read a paragraph and immediately write is main idea in one sentence (Housel, 2002, p. 51). Therefore, the purpose in here is to

103 103 describe the students reading comprehension process before, during and after my pedagogical intervention. To this end, the analysis describes each part of the process with the purpose of identifying eventually the impact of the Project-based methodology in the development or enhancement of the students reading skills. Before the pedagogical intervention. During the development of my English classes with eleventh graders in the first academic term of 2015 (February 28th May 20th) I could identify through my classroom observations, that students had difficulties when understanding short texts in English. In fact, they took a long time to recall information about the setting, characters or main events happening in the story. It was evidenced in the fourth class, as an assignment students had to read an extract of the short story The Old King s Secret by Oscar Wilde, and then they were asked four questions about the text. However, there was low participation and some students expressed their frustration at not having understood the text. It is evidenced in the following example: I perceived students were not willing to participate, hence they told me they had not understood really well reading, so I decided to paste a poster with the reading and read along with the students the text, asking them questions from time to time, with this exercise I could realize they understood better the main idea from the reading Journal # 4. (April 8th, 2015).

104 104 As a consequence, it was necessary to read the text again by giving further explanations about the vocabulary students did not understand and helping them to state their ideas in a clearer way by reading again the text with the whole group paragraph by paragraph. A similar situation occurred in another class: I wanted to know what students remembered from: False expectations a short story which they were working on with their English teacher the whole period. So, I asked them what the main idea of the story was, which the main characters were and what they did like from the story. Students expressed that they did not remember anything about the story neither when I allowed them to answer the questions in Spanish Journal # 1. (August 19th, 2015). These situations demonstrated a low level of comprehension from the students and failure to express their own ideas from what has been read. This case might occur because students did not actually understand the assigned texts, which represents a problem starting from the fact that: Reading without understanding is worthless; (...) depth of understanding can only come from active reading, alias, deep reading, the unmeasurable and unseen possibilities of engagement with language that leads to the reader s meaning making (Waxler & Hall, 2011, p. 161). During the pedagogical intervention. In order to support the students progress in their reading processes, it was necessary to develop some activities which helped them acquire the necessary vocabulary to understand the texts they were going to read. In accordance with this thought, Kusiak (2013) posits that Vocabulary knowledge (...) is important in reading comprehension; in order to comprehend a text, one needs to understand individual words (p. 26). Moreover, one might said that there

105 105 exists a linear relationship between the students increasing range of vocabulary and the level of proficiency in reading, in this sense people with bigger vocabularies also tend to be better readers (Wagner, Muse, & Tannenbaum, 2007, p.52). This idea is also supported by the three hypotheses stated by Anderson and Freebody (1981) with regards to the bond between word knowledge and reading comprehension these are: the instrumentalist hypothesis, the knowledge hypothesis and the aptitude hypothesis and these basically dealt with the degree of importance that a person s high vocabulary has in his/her level of comprehension and ability to read. To illustrate this, in the following task students were asked to match some words with its correspondent meaning. These words later appeared on a listening exercise about Grimm Brothers life. See figure below: Figure 13. Vocabulary exercise about Grimm Brother s life. Other similar exercise on vocabulary was related with the tale: The little red cap :

106 106 Figure 14. Vocabulary exercise about The little red cap This type of exercises helped the students to create associations between the word and its meaning avoiding translation and facilitate their vocabulary comprehension for the consecutive activities. Other type of exercise was a memory game in which students had to match a picture with the appropriate word; this vocabulary appeared in the tale of the little red cap which was read in class later. Figure 15. Memory game: The little red cap

107 107 With this type of exercise students started making associations among images and words. Hence, as the activity was developed with the whole group they began guessing the meaning of the word, nor just looking up the word in their dictionaries. Moreover, students developed some reading comprehension activities, such as the one exemplified below: Figure 16. Reading comprehension exercise about Grimm Brothers life #1. In this exercise there was a short text about Grimm Brothers life, from which students were asked to recall some key facts. Indeed, students answers were precise and coherent and in some cases longer including more details or descriptions, as is shown in the following extract. Figure 17. Reading comprehension exercise about Grimm Brothers life #2.

108 108 Another reading exercise (see appendix N 11). was made by following the principles of the gist strategy. Students in groups were asked to read some fragments of the tale of Cinderella, match them with the correspondent picture and write a sentence about what was happening in each part of the story. This is a sample of the exercise: Figure 18. Reading comprehension exercise about Cinderella. Some of the students sentences are illustrated below:

109 109 Figure 19. Written extracts from students answers about Cinderella s worksheet From the students responses I could identify that they were able to summarize and identify the main idea from each fragment of the text. They also made use of different vocabulary from that shown in the text to state their ideas in a clear and concise way. With respect to the gist strategy, Hathaway says that: This strategy strengthens students writing skills by teaching them to eliminate unnecessary information and determine the key points of the text (2014, p.182). And this was in essence what I could perceive from students answers in the previous exercise. In another session of class, I applied another activity aimed at determining how well students comprehended the Grimm tale they must have read the previous week. For this activity, students in their group had to fill a graphic organizer (see appendix N 12) with information about: the theme, characters, setting, conflict, resolution and their favorite part of the story. Guided by the following questions: Side 1 Side 2 Side 3 Side 4 Who were the main characters in the story? Where did the story take place? What was the main problem in the story? How was the problem resolved? Side 5 Side 6 What was the topic or subject of the story? What part of the story did you like best? Table 2. Questions story cube Students answers are shown below: Theme

110 110 Figure 20. Side 1 story cube: Theme Characters Figure 21. Side 2 story cube: Characters Setting

111 111 Figure 22. Side 3 story cube: Setting Conflict Figure 22. Side 3 story cube: Conflict Resolution

112 112 Figure 23. Side 4 story cube: Resolution Favorite Figure 24. Side 5 story cube: Resolution From the students answer above, I would say that they were able to retell the story by using their own words. Through this activity, students made inferences, show conclusions, establish cause-effect relationships and make generalizations of the reading, thereby portraying their own

113 113 understanding of the text. Along similar lines Lapp, Moss, Grant, Johnson (2015) mention the advantages of the gist strategy (...) students focus on the who, what, where, when, why, or how (5Ws and 1H) of a piece of text. They write a 20- word GIST- a summary or explanation that addresses one or more of the 5Ws or the H. (...) students (...) collaborate to synthesize their ideas into one joint GIST (p.136). It is important to clarify that the use of this strategy was also part of the project-based methodology, at this respect Krauss & Boss (2013) argue that: A good project environment doesn t eliminate proven strategies for increasing literacy. Instead, projects offer students motivating reasons to expand their language arts skills (p.81). In fact, the previous characteristic was evident as I stated in my journal entry for this class: The good thing was that they were engaged developing the activities, they used their dictionaries and most of them brought the materials they were asked to bring for the class. (...)Also when students were developing the activities I perceived they liked the class a lot because they wanted to write correctly and appropriately in English. Journal # 6 (October 21st 2015) After the pedagogical intervention. From a detailed analysis of the students written compositions (see figure 5, 9 and 12), I could observe that they were able to recall the main ideas of the tale they read. For instance, in the first composition (Figure 9) the student tried to follow the sequence of events appearing in the tale The girl without hands and write them in their own words by using time expressions such as a few years later or the next night, as it could be seen in the following sentences:

114 114 one man had a mill and an apple last three years the devil was for her but she had very clean hands the next night the girl had cried with his hands on his eyes the devil is very upset and ordered the parents to cut off his hands the father promised to look after the girl but she refused a few years later became pregnant and her husband at that time the king had to go to war the queen had given birth to a monster but the king responded by saying that caring for the child and the queen while returning Table 3. Excerpt written composition #1 In the second composition about the tale of Cinderella, I could identify how students made allusion to the original end of the story which differs in a great extent to the well-known version of the tale, thus demonstrating that they actually read the assigned text, which was the 1884 s translation of the German Household Tales made by Margaret Hunt. Figure 25. Extracts from composition #2 In the third composition (see figure 12), students also included the most important facts of the tale The twelve dancing princesses following a chronological order, as is illustrated in the following sentences: Oh sisters, is very late, our father will punish us Appear the father disgusted. What happened to the shoes? The king demonstrate a proclamation Whosoever could discover where they danced at night, should choose one of them for his wife It was not long before a king s son presented himself He died Table 4. Excerpt written composition #2 According to Kuhlthau (1997) Project-based learning approach to education may positively affect students' ability in understanding a written text, as students actively explore, select, collect, analyze, and comprehend information sources (as cited in Poorverdi and Ezati, 2014, p.39).

115 115 During the development of their project students, I would say that students were able to organize, synthesize and understand the information they found in the Grimm Brothers tales. Besides, research on the field has shown the effectiveness of Project-based instruction in the development of reading skills. In fact, from an exploratory study on students test scores in different schools Thomas (2000) found that Skills of reading, writing and computation are often involved in constructing project products (...) the reported effects of PBL-based programs on students basic skills achievement may be result of a generalized effect associated with the whole school reform or, perhaps, the motivational effect of project-based instruction may lead to increased students attendance, attention, and engagement (p.11) Features of Project- based work in the development of meaningful literacy practices This category explains the emergent features of Project-based work which seem to promote meaningful literacy practices, in connection with the research objectives stated at the beginning of this study. Research Objectives To identify features of Project-Based work which may be directly related to the development of reading. To identify features of Project-Based work which may be directly related to the development of writing. To describe the possible correlation between PBW and meaningful learning. Table 5. Research Objectives I decided to include the term literacy practices, as it embraces both the development of reading and writing processes from a socio- cultural perspective. In this regard, Barton and Hamilton (2000) assert that: Literacy practices are the general cultural ways of utilizing written language which people draw upon their lives. In the simplest sense literacy practices are what people do with literacy (p.7) this implies that the reading experience acquires sense for the

116 116 students as it is relevant for them and related to their context. Besides, they have the possibility to reflect their thoughts and opinions of a text through their written compositions. At this respect, Barton and Hamilton (2000) add: The notion of literacy practices offers a powerful way of conceptualizing the link between the activities of reading and writing and the social structures in which they are embedded and which they help shape (p.7). Thus, the observable characteristics of Project-based work that I found after the development of my pedagogical intervention and that might contribute to develop meaningful literacy practices were: Student voice and choice, group work, awaken students interest for a specific topic and assessment. Subcategory N 1: Student voice and choice In a project-based learning environment, the student has the opportunity to express his/her opinions or thoughts about the development of the classes, as well as making his/her own choices in regards to the project that he/she will present at the end of the academic term. Indeed, when using this type of methodology, the core purpose is empowering students to take ownership of their own learning processes, so that they could establish their own learning goals and play an active role in school activities. In this regard, Larmer, Mergendoller and Boss (2015) argue that: Gold Standard PBL calls for students to voice their ideas and make choices over the course of the project. This requirement has consequences for both learning and motivation. (...) Students need some freedom to act and to reflect on their actions if they are to learn from the situation. In terms of motivation, giving students an opportunity to

117 117 express their own ideas and opinions and make choices during project work validates the basic drives of autonomy and competence (p.n.d) For this reason, the first step before the pedagogical intervention was to apply a survey with the students aimed at determining students willingness to read the proposed topic, the results of this survey were shown in Chapter 3. Through this exercise, I could also observe some interesting opinions about how students conceived reading. For the question What does reading means to you? These were some students answers: Figure 26. Students answers point 7, survey. Students voiced a profound connection with reading which might be influenced by their own experiences with the texts they have read so far. In this class, students also suggested some activities to include in their classes:

118 118 (...) when students were asked about which learning activities would they want to include for the English class, some of them provided interesting activities to work on such as hangman or an scavenger hunt to learn vocabulary Journal #1 (August 19th, 2015) In another reading comprehension exercise, students were asked about their opinion about fairy tales: Figure 27. Extracts from the reading comprehension exercise about Grimm Brothers life. As we can observe in the first answer, students explained their answer by addressing the influence of fairy tales in culture, which implies that they did not perceive the tales as mere children stories. In another exercise (see appendix N 13), a student expressed their opinion with regards to a political issue, when he was asked to create a sentence with some given vocabulary about Grimm Brother s life. The political turmoil doesn t have a legacy Figure 28. Extract from a vocabulary exercise. The previous exercises could be showing how students started using the language as a means of self expression. Hence, students made their own choices with respect to the type of product they were going to present as a project:

119 119 Figure 29. Description of the final project group #1 This example shows how students structured their project by stating a main objective, thinking about how they were going to present it, which type of resources they were going to use, explaining their methodology of work and how much time were they going to spend presenting their project. In this sense, Boss and Krauss (2014) claim that During projects, students will inquire, study, plan, evaluate, compare, collaborate, manage, create, and present. (...) They will organize their work over time and reshape work products into more polished forms (p.146). As it is also illustrated in the figures below:

120 120 Figure 30. Description of the final project group #2 Figure 31. Description of the final project group #3 Figure 32. Description of the final project group #4 In these samples we can observe how students were mapping their project, by describing the essential features of their proposal and introducing their project to the audience as in figure 32. In fact, A project map is a detailed description of your intended venture, with your goals, ( )timeline and resources needed. The more concrete and detailed you are with this, the easier it is to get and stay organized, and to successfully complete your project (Myles, 2010, p.296).in that order of ideas, the students started developing organizational skills by their own to shape their project. My role as teacher in here was that of providing them a general topic to work on

121 121 rather than assigning them a specific work with a list of requirements to follow. This situation gave the students the opportunity to be more autonomous and creative in the design of their proposals. Subcategory N 2: Group work. One important feature of Project-based learning is group working. Students working in teams interact, share opinions, negotiate to reach an agreement, and join efforts to achieve a common goal; they also need to develop certain abilities in order to know how to reach a consensus with their partners and work in a collaborative way. As a matter of fact, teamwork and collaboration are part of the 21st century skills which are needed to be successful in every workplace. According to Bender (2012) As students become adept in PBL instructional experiences, they will also become seasoned team players who are used to planning activities as a team, specifying roles for various team members, working together to solve problems, supporting each other s ideas, and offering appropriate and helpful peer evaluations of each other s performance (p.52) One example of this type of work was evinced in one session of class in which students in their groups were asked to make a poster divided in two: on the left side they had to create brainstorm by writing some ideas related with the development of their proposal and on the right side they had to organize their ideas in a mind map to describe the main idea of their project.

122 122 Figure 33. Students developing their brainstorm and mindmaps. In the figure above is shown how students gather around their cardboards and started discussing about which ideas they were going to include. All the groups brought their own materials to develop the activity.

123 123 Figure 34. Students developing their brainstorm and mindmaps. Students were dispersed around the classroom, working together and talking with their partners about how they were going to structure their maps. Although they spent a long time doing this activity, students committed in developing the activity and showed a favorable attitude towards the class. As it is evidenced in the following excerpt: I perceived they spent a lot of time managing their ideas in English and also assigning the roles of the members of the group. In fact, the first activity took more time than expected. A good point was that students were really interested in the class, they proposed interesting ideas for their final project and they also made an effort in order to make a good job. Journal # 7 (October 28th, 2015)

124 124 Figure 35. Brainstorm and mind map (B&M) #1 Figure 36. (B&M) #2 Figure 37. (B&M) #3

125 125 Figure 38. (B&M) #4 Figure 39. (B&M) #5 Figure 40. (B&M) #6

126 126 Figure 41. (B&M) #7 As seen in figures 35 to 41, all the groups were able to complete the task and understood the instruction given. I wanted to make this type of activity keeping in mind Finkelstein s (2001) conception of this strategy: Brainstorming is a creative, fun and crazy aid for teaching problem solving skills and critical thinking (p. 42). In this proposal, the challenge or problem stated for the students was to figure out how to present a creative project which expressed their own understanding of the tale they read which draw their partners and teacher attention. Besides, the author further states that Students using this technique share original thoughts, and build on the ideas other suggested. Brainstorming fosters teamwork and cooperation, while allowing for personal recognition and self-acknowledge (p.42) From an analysis of the previous exercise, I identified how students organized their ideas in different ways. For instance, in figure 36 and 38 we can see how students stated as a central idea in their mind the purpose of their project whilst the other groups wrote the type of product they

127 127 were going to present. Another characteristic was the number of ideas students wrote in their brainstorm, in figures 37,39 and 41 we can observe how students wrote complete sentences to describe in detail their ideas, this corresponds with Wilson s perspective: Quantity, not quality, is the goal of brainstorming. The primary criterion for the success of brainstorming is the sheer number of ideas that are generated (Wilson, 2013, p.3). Besides, students used images and different font styles to illustrate their ideas. Another example of group work was revealed through the following exercise in which students were asked to complete a rubric (see appendix N 14) with the purpose of identifying the role of each member of the group. Figure 42. Rubric roles of the members of the group. During the development of their project, students started assigning functions to each member of the group and facing the challenges that might arose when working in a collaborative way. For instance, one group was dissolved because two members of the group could not reach an agreement about the type of project they were going to choose. But in general, students were able

128 128 to work in their groups by sharing their ideas and reaching a consensus to accomplish the proposed tasks. Subcategory N 3: Awaken students interest for a specific topic. This subcategory attempts to describe the degree of involvement students experience during the development of the project-based methodology, based on my classroom observations and the students reflections. In consonance with Blumenfeld (1991): Projects can increase student interest because they involve students in solving authentic problems, in working with others, and in building real solutions (artifacts). Projects have the potential to enhance deep understanding because students need to acquire and apply information, concepts, and principles, and they have the potential to improve competence in thinking (learning and metacognition) because students need to formulate plans, track progress, and evaluate solutions (p.373) In the majority of my classes I perceived a favorable attitude from the students. In general they felt interested and willing to develop the proposed activities: During the development of the activity, the students were attentive to the instructions provided, (...) and in general I noticed they were engaged in doing the activity Journal #1 (August 19th 2015) In general, I felt the students were committed to develop the activities Journal #2 (September 2nd 2015) It was easier for me to keep the students attention during the class. Also, the students displayed a good attitude towards the class and were willing to work Journal #3 (September 16th 2015)

129 129 Some good aspects of the class were the change of attitude by the students during the development of my class, their involvement in the activities and the students interest for choosing a Grimm Tale and start thinking about their project Journal #4 (September 30th 2015) The previous excerpts were taken from the journals I wrote during the pedagogical intervention. As I mentioned above, students felt interested and motivated during the development of the classes. As a matter of fact they attended the instructions provided and liked working on the topic proposed. In some cases, they expressed surprise or amazement when they learnt some unknown facts about the original stories of the Grimm tales or some of the gruesome endings as in the tale of Cinderella and The Little Red Cap. In accordance with my observations, the following students reflections made in the final class, confirm the positive effect of the project-methodology in students involvement: Figure 43. Student reflection #1 As it can be observed, the student mentioned four characteristics of the class: dynamic, funny, different and interesting. Also, the student emphasized on the way in which she progress in her

130 130 English learning process when she writes: me ayudó a soltarme and how she could learn new words. Figure 44. Student reflection #2 In this reflection, the student addressed the value of the pedagogical intervention as well as the dynamic. She also mentioned how significant her learning experience was when she wrote: a sido una experiencia maravillosa Figure 45. Student reflection #3

131 131 In the figure above the student describes her perspective of the class when she says: nos gusta su creatividad. Hence, she mentioned her interest in the topics of the class and the activities developed when she wrote: nos llevas a nuestros gustos comunes para manejar el inglés y actividades lúdicas en el inglés. Finally, a common aspect found in students reflections was the influence or the impact that this type of methodology and working dynamic had in the development of their English learning process. In this regard, Larmer, Mergendoller and Boss (2015) argue that: Most students enjoy project-based learning, and teachers frequently comment about how much more engaged their students are when doing PBL. (p.n.d) Subcategory N 4. Assessment Another characteristic of Project-based work is assessment. The need to provide feedback to students in each step of the project is reflected on the way students felt the support of their teacher and could identify their strengths and weaknesses to improve their learning. This type of support was evinced in students reflections, for instance in figure 44 when the student wrote: estaba pendiente de todas nuestras inquietudes.and in the following excerpt: (...)they wanted to write correctly and appropriately in English. In some cases, they asked me to revise their sentences and immediately they corrected it or try to improve their work. Journal 6 (October 21st, 2015) Students also felt confident when expressing their doubts about the topic of the class, the feedback provided helped them to identify their mistakes and improve their work. Along with these lines, Frei, Gamill and Irons (2007) assert that: Without the assessment piece, students

132 132 project will have little focus, students will have little direction, and the results will be below par (p. 124) Although assessment was given in each class, I put an emphasis on summative assessment, as the purpose was to evaluate the students final project, as well as identifying the degree of understanding of the tale students read. In this respect, Orlich, Harder, Callahan, Trevisan, Brown (2013) explain that: A central purpose of summative assessment is to certify the completion of projects, classes and programs (p.324). For this purpose, I consider the use of rubrics because: Assessment rubrics list the appropriate performance criteria for student success. Rubrics provide objective guidelines to measure and evaluate students understanding (Frei, Gamill and Irons, 2007, p.126). In this sense, two types of rubrics were applied. The first I evaluated students presentation and the second students evaluated their partners (see appendix 4 and 5). Since Project- based work is student centered, I am going to illustrate how students started expressing value judgments to evaluate their partners presentations whilst making use of English language.

133 133 Figure 46. Extracts from Peer-feedback form From the extracts above we can observe how students could identify strengths and weaknesses in their partners presentation. They assumed a reflexive and critical attitude towards their partners work which helped them to become active agents in the learning process. Certainly: exchanging peer feedback can foster a sense of community within the classroom, identify areas that need more development, and keep students engaged in a dynamic learning process. As students become more comfortable exchanging peer feedback (...) they are better able to understand and apply contextual information (Schupp,2015,p.144)

134 134 Chapter VI Conclusions and Pedagogical Implications This study was framed around a main objective which was to describe how Project-based work may develop reading and writing practices to foster meaningful learning. For this purpose, it was implemented a project methodology with a group of eleventh graders aimed at depicting how students reading and writing processes occur and the way students engaged in meaning making practices. In accordance with this objective, there was evidence that the participants of this study showed some growth in their reading comprehension and writing skills. They also expanded their range of vocabulary, explore their creativity, expressed their opinions and strengthened their organizational and social skills through group work. The analysis of the gathered data helped me to identify two factors: The first deals with the improvements in regards to the development of students reading and writing skills perceived during and after the pedagogical intervention. The second refers to the observable features of project-based work which lead to the development of meaningful literacy practices. In regards to the first factor, students demonstrated through their final written compositions a certain degree of improvement in terms of length, organization, vocabulary usage and grammatical accuracy. Besides, during the development of the reading comprehension activities that were proposed in this study, students were able to recall main ideas, establish cause-effect relationships and portraying their own understanding of a text.

135 135 With reference to the second factor, those emergent features of Project-based work related with the development of reading, writing and meaningful learning were: Student voice and choice, group work, awaken students interest for a specific topic and assessment. In this sense, students had the opportunity to become active agents of their own learning process by making their own choices with regard to the type of artifact they were going to present as well as participating by giving their opinion about the methodology and dynamic of the classes. Hence, students work in a collaborative way, sharing their opinions and setting common goals to achieve the expected results of each lesson. Besides, students felt motivated to learn and displayed a favorable attitude towards the development of the classes. Finally, assessment serves as a tool to have larger view of student needs and accomplishments, provide the necessary support to students to identify their weaknesses and strengths and encourage active learning through peer assessment. In general terms, I would say that this experience has allowed me to gain insights into teaching and students learning process which have helped me to grow and improve as a teacher. By working with project-based learning I could perceived how students willingness to learn increased during the development of the classes and how it has a positive impact in students writing and reading comprehension skills. This pedagogical intervention was also worthwhile for the students. After the implementation of the project-methodology, their written compositions showed an appropriate use of grammar tenses which was a problematic factor at the beginning of the course, additionally they included a wider range of vocabulary in their texts by employing synonyms to convey a particular idea contrasting their first written exercises.

136 136 Regarding the implications for the institution, my cooperating teacher and my university advisor expressed their appreciation and approval concerning the intervention and my role as a student-teacher in the school. Specifically, they highlighted my attitude, commitment and responsibility in the classes just as the dynamic and the interaction with the students (See appendix N 15). I had also the opportunity to share my experiences with the head-teacher and he also integrated in his classes some of the activities proposed in my lessons. To summarize, I hope that the results of this research study as well as the instructional design might be useful for future pre-service teachers and the EFL community in general. And serve as the starting point for different studies in the areas of literacy practices and project-based learning. Limitations There were certain limitations in this study which affected the development and impact of my proposal. To begin with, time constraints did not allow me to implement all the proposed activities in the lesson plans and to follow and assess in a detailed manner students writing processes. In fact, during the development of the pedagogical implementation I lost some classes because there were some extracurricular activities scheduled for the days in which I had my practicum. Another limiting factor was the students English language proficiency level. Students had a limited range of vocabulary and present difficulties when expressing their ideas in written way, for that reason some of their compositions were not very clear and coherent. These, along with other language gaps that I could identify during my practicum related with grammar accuracy

137 137 and comprehension skills might have been affecting students performance in class and in their projects. In terms of the instructional design, it is necessary to acknowledge that the implementation of a project-based methodology represented a challenge for me as a teacher, since I had not had previous experiences using this teaching method. Nevertheless, throughout the literature review of this document I develop an in-depth study on the characteristics; importance and effectiveness of Project-Based work in the educational field, taking as a central axis the works published by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss educational consultants from the Buck Institute of Education and project-based learning experts. Further Research Based on the findings of the current study, I would say that there are clearly many additional areas for continuing doing research in the fields of project-based learning and literacy practices. Also, it is my belief that the positive outcomes resulting from this work might be extended to other disciplines and grade levels and could be enriched by using of other type of data collection instruments such as students written reflections, interviews or reading comprehension tests after the implementation of a Project-based methodology. With the knowledge and experience that I gained from this research study, I would suggest as future directions for other studies: Studies related with the use of interdisciplinary approaches in Project-based learning and their impact in the students English language proficiency. Comparative analysis among traditional teaching methods and project-based methodologies.

138 138 Studies that inquire into students development of organizational such as planning, scheduling and time management, through Project-based learning. Action research studies that evaluate pedagogical implementations that include Project-based activities applied in public schools in Bogotá, oriented to both teachers professional development, and curriculum development.

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149 149 Appendices Appendix A Consent Form Students

150 150 Appendix B Consent Form Parents

151 151 Appendix N 1 Needs Assessment

152 152

153 153

154 154

155 155

156 156 Appendix N 2 Class observations

157 157

158 158 Appendix N 3 Survey

159 159

160 160 Appendix N 4 Peer feedback rubric

161 161 Appendix N 5 Oral presentation rubric

162 162 Appendix N 6 Rubric Sample Appendix N 7 Rubric from journals of the pedagogical implementation

163 163 Appendix N 8 First matrix

164 164

165 165 Appendix N 9 Matrix N 3

166 166 Appendix N 10 Feedback first written exercise

167 167 Appendix N 11 Worksheet Cinderella and Little Red Cap

168 168

169 169

170 170 Appendix N 12 Story Cube

171 171 Appendix N 13 Vocabulary exercises

172 172 Appendix N 14 Rubric roles of the members of the group

173 173 Appendix N 15 Cooperating teacher observation format