Prof. Annamaria Continillo IIS “Giancarlo Siani ” di Napoli

1. Università degli Studi “Suor Orsola Benincasa” di NapoliCorso di metodologia CLILgruppo BPlanning and realizationof a CLIL biologyunit in high school Prof. Annamaria Continillo IIS “Giancarlo Siani” di Napoli

2. Background • Class: studentsattending the 5thyear of a BiotechnologicalInstitute (age 17/18) • Subject: Biotechnology • First CLIL experiencefor the students • School period: September-October (about 20 hours of lesson time plus homework) • Students’ averagelevel in English: B1 • Teaching team: English teacher, Biologyteacher

3. Lessonplan The lessonplaniscomposed of 2 modules : “DNA structure” and “Prokariots and Eukariots” Reasons for the choice of the a/m modules: • familiartopics (see: scaffoldingstrategies) • thesemodulesprovidebasicknowledge in key areas of Biotechnologiesthat are important for furtherstudies (weusuallyrecallthesetopics at the beginning of the 5thyear) • availability of veryinteresting video materials to be usedas an appropriate input (brief and clearvideos, with English subtitles, goodanimations and diagrams)

4. Startingapproach and methodology • Plananintroductorylesson at the beginningof the schoolyearclearlydefiningaims and procedures 3) Increasestudents’ motivation and curiosity for learningusing: - interesting and variousinputs - scaffoldingtechniques - a “notconventional” lesson (cooperative learning and team work, jigsaw, flippedclassroom, use of ICT and new digitaltools, participation in an e-Twinning project) 4) Supportstudents’ output 5) Check progress constantly

5. Learning Objectives • LANGUAGE: improvinglanguageskills (reading and comprehension, listening, writing, speaking) and acquiring a specificvocabulary • CONTENTS: strenghtening the basicconceptsneededto start studyingBiotechnologies;recognizing the relationshipbetween the molecularstructure and itsbiologicalfunction • COGNITION AND CULTURE: increasing cognitive complexity from lower to higherthinkingskills (from recognizingstructures to comparing, classifying, analysing, coordinating, planning and producing a final output to be shared)

6. Activities (first module: DNA structure) Lesson 1 (2 hours): video input (“Whatis DNA?”) Activities: listening and comprehension, reading (subtitles) and writing Tasks (scaffoldingstrategies): - watch the video a first time: studentslisten and trytounderstand - watch the video a second time: eachstudentwritesall the words he can recognize (individual work) • eachstudentwritesonedifferent word on the blackboard and thenwetry to write short sentencesconnectingwordsalltogether (cooperative work) • final task: eachstudentwrites down a short text on the topic. • homework: studentsprepare some questions and answers on the text to be usedduringnextspeakingactivitylesson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfpdlRfaQu4

7. Lesson 2 (2hours) Activity:speaking Task:studentschat in pairsusingquestions and answerspreparedat home (pair-workconversation); theneachstudentasksanotherone in a conversationchainactivity). Lesson 3 (2 hours) Group laboratoryactivity:reading and comprehension, learning by doing, group work, jigsaw, flippedclass. Tasks: • the classisdividedintosmall, skillmixedgroups (wheregood and weakstudentsinteract). • the studentsbuild a plastic model of DNA, readinginstructions in English. Eachgroupbuilds a small part of the molecule, thentheyhave to join the small partstogether and complete a single big molecule. - eachgroupreportsto the class the building procedure followed.

8. Learningbydoing

9. Lesson 4 (2 hours) Activity:starting an e-Twinning project Partner schools: a Polish, a Slovak and a Turkishschoolthat are carrying out CLIL projects on biologicalsubjects. Task:learningmaterialsexchange/sharing Students preparephotos, videos and presentations in English usingvarious digitaltools and sendthem to the partner schools.

10. Lesson 5 (2 hours) Activity: assessment and evaluation (interacting with the English teacher) • Final test with multiple choice, “fill in the blanks” and “true-false” exercises, writingquestions, filling a table. (Assessment OF learning) But PLEASE NOTE WHAT FOLLOWS: assessment and self-evaluationactivitieshavebeencarried out constantlyduringeachlesson: whilestudentswerewritingwords and sentences on the blackboard, or askingquestionstoeachother, whilegroupswerecooperating and explainingprocedures to the class, or whentheywerecreatingpresentationsfor the e-Twinning project. (Assessment FOR learning and AS learning) (The secondmodule “Prokariots and Eukariots” hasbeendeveloped in a similar way)

11. Evaluationgrid(based on the prefixedobjectives) (from:”I quaderni della ricerca” n.18)

12. Rubric for assessment of a CLIL group work:CONSTRUCTION OF A DNA PLASTIC MODEL( create with: rubistar.4teachers.org )

13. Outcomes,criticalpoints and conclusions POSITIVE ASPECTS Students wereenthusiasticabout: - changingperspectives and learningmethods - havingclearfinaltaskstoachievestepbystep - practicing English throughrealcommunication with otherEuropean students (e-Twinning), employingmeaningful and usefullanguage in real contexts - working in groups CRITICAL ASPECTS - too short cooperationtimewith the English teacher - the final test wastoo easy, due to an incorrect English language assessment (howeverthe studentswereveryproudof their goodmarks!)

14. The CLIL tree Teacher ‘s enthusiasm Scientificknowledge Languageskills Learntolearn Selfconfidence Learningbydoing Creativity Curiosity Cooperative learning Intrinsicmotivation Activecitizenship ICT (LIM, interactiveplatforms, digitaltools) International cooperation (e-Twinning ) Background knowledge

15. Appendices: Sitography: • www.youtube.com • www.khanacademy.org • www.e-twinning.net • www.snappywords.com • www.bubbl.us • www.powtoon.com rubistar.4teachers.org