Learning about Clil: 2009

The last period of the year, as regards Ingles y su Enseñanza II, was for me very profitable. First of all, I discovered what CLIL is about, how it works and how important it is for us, as teachers-to be, to implement it in our future classes.
I found the talk with David Marsh a very interesting experience as well as the one with Belen from the USA. I think we were all influenced, in a positive way, by the way of teaching in the USA, especially by the use of the smart board! I must say I was astonished!

Now, I must admit that when you told us to present a CLIL project, I was very worried about it. I consider the beginning of the project as the most difficult part of the whole process since first, we had to choose a topic, to find “the topic” that would really represent our (my classmates and me) work. Then, to use as much of our knowledge, creativity and imagination as we could. And finally, to put all this into practice and arrange it properly.
Once we found the topic, everything was easier. Now, we had a clearer idea in mind and we could move towards the activities.
Once we finished our piece of work, as I call it, and we presented it in public I felt all the time and effort we spent had been worthwhile.
It was a very good idea to present the projects in public since everyone could see how their classmates had worked and how they managed to work with CLIL and not to die trying!!
Magali Cervígni

From the very first moment when you told us about the CLIL Project I was scared. Because it was something new and because of the explanations you gave us. As we worked with the theory, those doubts and fears vanished.
Then when we were told the timeline it was another thing to be worried about, but fortunately we managed to do it on time.
The first step we accomplished was the interview with the History teacher. She was really engaged with our topic as he had already worked with it in the past which gave us a positive attitude towards our project. Then, some other steps were difficult, for example the chart with the content language, aids and activities ... we named our content outcomes in the form of an aim which was not what you want from us. It wasn’t until the day of our folder presentation that we realized that what we did was wrong. But we as group were still confident that our project was really nice, we were committed to it and we were happy because of what we have achieved.
I really enjoyed the power point presentations. They were helpful because they showed us different projects to take into account and the time and effort put in these projects too.

Carla Galli

About the second term, I felt very comfortable working with the ppts., I enjoyed them very much and I learnt a lot while we discussed them. A point to highlight was the chat room with David Marsh. About CLIL itself, I have the feeling that we have found some tools that will really serve our purposes and our sts´ as well while teaching and learning. I also think that many teachers have been working with CLIL without knowing it, so I don´t think we will find a lot of resistance in the working field.
With the project, we tried our best to accomplish the task, though it was not so easy as it seems. For us, it was hard to move away from the kind of exercises and activities we always do, as we tend to feel that sts need more the kind of practice and support done in the old ways, but I think we did a good job in the end.

Eugenia Laguia

Making a CLIL Project

The experience of making a CLIL project, for Janeth, Belén and I, was really, really difficult. However, that difficulty was because we were not sure about what we were doing: we didn’t know if the direction of our project was correct and that insecurity made us have lot of doubts (we needed a complete example of a CLIL project).

Although we didn’t trust in ourselves (fortunately), we finished the project. We felt very insecure and disappointed with it, since we thought it would be wrong. Surprisingly, our project wasn’t rejected and we felt relieved and satisfied with our work.

As regards the project, I’m very pleased with it because I think it would be interesting for students, because it includes a lot of technology which would make students feel comfortable and because it also includes activities that are guided by the teacher but that at the same time are free and allow students to use their imagination and creativity as well.

Sharing our CLIL projects with the rest of the students was a great idea, as it gave us the opportunity to show our efforts and also through the presentations we could see the variety of contents CLIL can be applied to.

To conclude with, we suffered and learned a lot during the process of making the CLIL project, but the results were extremely rewarding; not only because of the positive feedback we received from you, but also the feeling of applying a new methodology successfully.
Thank you

Noelia Paulilli

Personal reflection about Inglés y su enseñanza II during the second term

This is my reflection as regards how we have been working during this second term.
In my opinion, I consider the attractive and meaningful way in which CLIL was presented a big advantage.
By working on a CLIL project, we were showing that we not only knew about the theory of this new approach but we were also learning how to put CLIL into practice in our future classrooms.
Another advantage is that it was great of you to decide not to evaluate each of us through an oral test because most of the time we tend to study theory by heart and after being evaluated we forget everything we have studied. So, I strongly believe that power point presentations, projects and oral defenses are very motivating alternative ways of assessment. This shows that not always a formal written or oral test is needed when evaluating content.
The main disadvantage had to do with preparing the CLIL project. As we had no model to follow as a guide but the book “Uncovering CLIL”, my classmate and I based our project considering the information given by this resource. However, there were some parts of the project that were wrong, such as the part in which we had to describe the content outcomes of the activities. According to the book (chapter 3 - Starting CLIL in the classroom) they were described like this: e.g. Students can articulate their knowledge about volcanoes. So, we wrote our content outcomes like this: e.g. Students can discuss about the causes of Global Warming but it was incorrect. We didn’t realize that we should have only written Causes of Global Warming.
In conclusion, I think that during this term we have been taught about CLIL in a meaningful and engaging way. Having the possibility of working with technology and seeing all the creative and innovative CLIL projects carried out by our classmates was an enjoyable and significant learning experience.
Karina Barulli

Hi! Liliana, I'm Brenda... Well as you have said I've learnt a lot about CLIL in this second term, maybe I would have learnt the same by studying by heart a book, but I would (for sure) forget about everything the moment I relax after having the test.

We had the oportunity to have a video conference with David Marsh, so it's far better than reading the book. So this term was actually quite different. I want to be honest with you, at the beginning of the term, I was afraid of "studying" a new book (I thought : oh no! another book, more words to remember, more methodologies, etc), but when we were supposed to deal with each chapter things started changing for me, really. It was going to be more dynamic...

As regards the CLIL projects, ok I want to be honest: today, I realize the great potential (I don't know if this word is the correct one, I hope you understand what I mean) there is at the ISFDyT 5.... really, the projects were just great.... Sometimes we don't realize how wonderful our minds can be!! but today this was clear... The projects were really interesting..
Next time, maybe, you should give more time and at least a kind of model to follow as you did in 2nd year with Silvina's project (For example, we were quite lost in how to present the project formally , how to complete the chart, the activities)

Thanks for this year... It was actually wonderful... At least I enjoyed it and I, personally, appreciate that.

The best for you...
Brenda Jorge

Comment on the Second Term 2009.

I think this second term was really good!
In my opinion we learnt a lot about CLIL; not only theory but also how to put it into practice, which I consider more important.
The idea of explaining one chapter each group was good because we focused on one specific aspect of CLIL to exploit (one specific chapter) and we gave our classmates the opportunity to teach us other specific aspects. So, we learned and taught at the same time.
Another important thing to underline is the presentation of the projects to our classmates. I felt really comfortable while doing so, since it was really interesting to show the results of our (hard!) work and besides there was a relaxed atmosphere, and we were under no pressure at all.
If I have to express anything negative of this term, I’ll just say that we really needed an example for the preparation of the projects because at the beginning we were at a complete loss. Besides, the timing to hand it in was another inconvenience but I know it was neither yours nor our fault.

Janeth Massi

In my opinion the way you chose to work during this term was much better than the others because I think that it is senseless to repeat the content of a subject as it appears in the book without getting in touch and WORKING with the material, so for me it was better to work in this way.
The only thing I can criticize is that you didn't give as an example of a CLIL project and although we tried to do our best working only with the book it was very difficult to do it without having a real example of how to do it, since some of the things that were in the book were not what you expected as to write (by saying this I'm talking about the content outcomes).
I loved working on the project and working with the theory withouth having to memorize all the definitions by heart, it is much more significant in this way. In spite of the fact that we read the whole book I didn't feel so much pressure and in this career that was something new!

That's all I can tell you, I enjoyed my classmates' talks very much.

see you
Laura Campás

As we have commented in class, the 2nd term was different because instead of being formally assessed in an oral test, as we did in the first period for example, we had to work on our projects. For me the experience was quite positive, mainly because working on the project implied a lot of reading about the CLIL methodology and also doing a lot of research before writing it. This is the main reason I believe it was more meaningful, I mean, it is not the same to memorize the concepts by heart for doing a test than trying to grasp those concepts in order to put them into practice by designing an activity in particular and a whole project in general. Our projects relied on a theoretical background of course, if not it would have been impossible for us to carry them out. Besides, we had the opportunity to keep on learning about CLIL by listening to our classmates and sharing with them how they designed their projects, how they dealt with the topics they chose, how they organized the activities and so on. In fact, I took many creative and interesting ideas from them. At the very beginning, we found it difficult because we were not sure how to write the activities and how to fill in the chart with the content and language outcomes; perhaps it would have been useful to have a model or an example. I believe it was a worthwhile experience and surely the next time we set out to accomplish a new project we will be more confident.

Florencia Ferrario.
REFLECTION ON MY PROJECT WORK

Although having done it alone, I felt quite satisfied with my project and presentation.

Written Project:

At the very beginning, I found it a quite demanding task. To be honest, I had no idea which way to take but later on, I began to feel heavily involved with the project. The point is that I would have liked to know before hand how to present the chart (in which the activities were stated) and what exactly I should include in there; or at least to have had or have seen an example so as to have had a better idea about how to proceed and be able to do it well.

PPP:

After having seen and appreciated a great percentage of PPPs, I realised I did not include so much written information but it was worthy, I guess. At least for those who are especially visual as I do. I am accustomed to including a lot of images when preparing a PPP but in this case I preferred to choose more images than words because I believe that they are “the tools” for making the meaning clearer.
Apart from that, the topic I chose for my project really asked for images to raise people’s awareness and to cause the necessary impact for them to think and understand deeply the dangers of pollution.

General conclusion:

All in all, I found these ways of assessing quite interesting and rewarding since I believe that it is really useful and meaningful for everybody to learn by doing instead of repeating concepts that are to be forgotten in time. What's more, this work made me realise that I can do things on myself. I must honestly say that once I've finished with this, I really felt proud of what I've done. The experience in itself really proved to be challenging for me because it is more than pleasing to have shown one’s piece of work and for others to give value.
This is also a kind of building path that helps to develop one’s self-esteem aiming at improving in every aspects of life.

Andrea Bustos

I think this second term was very productive. Personally, I learnt a lot about CLIL; I found the book very interesting. This new way of dealing with the book was very good for me since we had the opportunity to learn, to teach our classmates, and exchange our ideas about the different exercises we could do to put CLIL into practice. I really enjoyed doing the project and learnt a lot about its content, but I really believe we needed an example of a project since I did not know how to start and felt kind of nervous because I had too little time to prepare it.
Anyway, I must say I found this change very interesting. Congratulations.

Antonella Olivero

In my opinion the kind of learning we experimented this second term is more memorable than the traditional one. I believe that it is through practice that you can acquire new concepts. Putting CLIl into practice made me realize about its contents, its principles and also helped me understand that it is possible to apply CLIL in our country, we just have to adapt it to our needs.

Gaby Alasio

Hello liliana I think that the presentations were beautiful. It was a dynimic class and I have learnt a lot!! I could appreciate the interest of all the students. Thank you for this opportunity..
Lis Bolognese

I think this second term has been great really. It was very motivating to do the presentations about CLIL and what was it about. I got to hear my classmates talking about it and I must say that all the presentations were amazingly clear and thanks to all of them I've learned a lot. You too guided us very well through the theory.
Well, David Marsh talk was unbelievable. He was very nice and pacient with us and it was very kind of him to have answered all of our questions. That was a wonderful experience and I think you really pulled it off.
About the CLIL project, well I must admit that at the beginning the project was a bit difficult to organize and didn't have a lot of time but then we could see the big picture and we were able to work on it pretty well. It was awesome that we could get CLIL into practice, at least in paper. All the projects were very interesting. I was amazed during the presentations. All of them were very creative and motivating and I think all the girls will succeed in putting them into practise.
I think that what you did this second term was great, you did a hell of a job. Congratulations!
Mariana Fartado Lomelino

In my opinion, it was very useful to work in this way. It was not easy to apply the theory from CLIL. It was a difficult experience but I learnt a lot. Next year students should have a model of a project because we didn't have a model and it was very difficult to create the project without one.
I believe the way in which we worked this second term was very useful.
Sharing our projects and our knowledge was fantastic, it was the best way to finish the term.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity of putting Clil into practice.
Congratulations!
See you!
Aurorina Caggiano

I consider this approach to CLIL to be effective. Probably if we had discussed the book in ordinary lessons as we used to we wouldn’t have learned as much as we did; since we had to put our capacity of synthesis and analysis into practice to prepare a meaningful and easy-to-follow presentation. The conference with David Marsh was a real hit, it would be great if all students had the opportunity to do something like this at some point of their training.
The fact that we had to prepare PPP’s was in my opinion also beneficial for everybody. Some students are highly skilled in the use of technological resources, but for the ones who are not (including myself) it was good having to prepare a presentation in this way, so that we could keep on learning and practicing how to use this type of tools which are becoming so important in teaching nowadays.
Perhaps it would have been better for us when preparing our projects if we had been able to have a look at an already made project as an example; in order to avoid the type of mistakes we made with Content/Language outcomes and the sort. But anyway, that’s just a detail.
I would conclude saying that definitely, it is better working as we did in this second term than in the traditional way.

Florencia Deminicis

I think that this part of the year was very interesting because I experimented another way of studying and putting in practice different concepts. The fact that I had to make Power Point presentations to poresent a lessons, made me read the information several times until I could get the main idea of it. Sometimes, when we have to study for a written exam, although in some cases we have to justify things with our own words, we repeat some concepts without understanding them very well because we know that those concepts will be evaluated. However,in the way that we have been evaluated this second term (making Power Point presentations, listening to our classmates presentations and commenting on them, designing a CLIL project instead of just learning how to do it), we not only study all the concepts, but also we revise them while doing our work, search other sources in order to understand them better, etc. I think it was a great and profitable experience.

Valeria Nemi

I think that the way in which we worked throughout the second period was very useful for us, in the sense that we made CLIL our own. That is, after having analyzing CLIL, we could put into practice almost all what David Mash proposes in a final project. As regards the project, we felt a bit lost because we realized that a model project would have been great so as to guide ourselves; but this just happened at the very beginning; then everything was right.

Leticia Codino

This is my reflection : the second term goal was to know about CLIL. All sounded extremely unusual for me, beginning with the name. What did this abbreviation mean?
Each chapter of the book about this methodology was analyzed in groups; one chapter per group. We had to interpret and make decisions by ourselves. Afterwards we had to transfer the "potential" knowledge to the whole class through a power point presentation; the more creative we are, the best results; learning is memorable if we laugh during a lesson.
Then we were asked to create our own CLIL project; in this regard, I was worried about how to adapt the content language to the content subject and the level of the students since we had chosen to work with ten years old ones.
After finishing with the project we had uncovered the essence of CLIL methodology; the work was not easy at all but it was fruitful. Sharing other projects was really interesting; all of them were great!
Susana Justo

The classes delivered by the other girls have been very fruitful. In my opinion, the Power Point presentations were very well prepared and I think that we learnt better in that way instead of memorizing 100 pages of theory.It was a memorable way of learning and I will never forget What CLIL is!!
With regard to the CLIL projects, I must admit that It was really challenging, though we had some difficulties in arranging the exercises because we didn't have any examples of CLIL projects. I believe that It would have been better if we had practised how to make it beforehand.
María Elena Gomez

Hi liliana!

This year I've learnt a lot. I enjoyed your subject a lot and I did it with enthusiasm. I found it easy to carry. I felt comfortable.
About the Clil project, I liked doing it and I would like to put it into practice. I think Clil is a good method to teach any subject and to learn in an easy and enjoyable way.
Ethel Thomas

I think that after this hard second period we can call it a year! I really enjoyed working with CLIL. I not only feel that it has been truly productive, but also a great sharing experience for all of us. We can not deny the fact that we are working with the latest techniques used in the world and we need to thank Liliana for that. Though I know that it was hard for her too - for she had to update herself at the same time she updated us- she could put through this whole idea of CLIL and gave us the tools to work better. The mistakes we shared are surely going to be revised and improved for next year students'. I liked this way of working and I believe we have learnt much more in this way than in studying a whole lot of theories whithout putting them into practice.
To tell you the truth I PANICKED when Liliana said... "you have a month to hand in your projects"!!! GOD!! We had so much to do and no idea where to start from. But well... as in every learning process, time, hard work and patience pay dividens.
Agustina Villamil