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(1)Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom Internship Work. Luz Elizabeth García Alfonso Sara Marisol González Nieto. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas Facultad de Ciencias y Educación Licenciatura en educación básica con énfasis en inglés Bogotá D.C. 2015.

(2) Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom Internship Work. Luz Elizabeth García Alfonso Sara Marisol González Nieto Tutora: Ruth Amira Calderón. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas Facultad de Ciencias y Educación Licenciatura en educación básica con énfasis en inglés Bogotá D.C. 2015.

(3) Note of acceptance Acuerdo 004, Octubre 2012. ARTÍCULO 4: EXCLUSIÓN DE RESPONSABILIDAD, Y PRINCIPIOS DE BUENA FE. La Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas tiene por contado que cualquier producción intelectual presentada por sus docentes, funcionarios, estudiantes, o vinculados ante la universidad son producciones respetuosas del ordenamiento legal, las cuales en ningún caso se presumen que no han trasgredido otros derechos de propiedad intelectual de otras personas e instituciones, mientras no se demuestre de manera probatoria lo contrario..

(4) Agradecimientos. Agradecemos primero que todo a Dios y a nuestros padres por el apoyo que nos han brindado en nuestro proceso educativo, no solo en el que hemos llevado a cabo en la Universidad Distrital ―Francisco José de Caldas‖, sino en cada una de las etapas de formación de las que hemos sido parte. Damos gracias por cada una de las palabras de aliento y de formación que guiaron nuestro desarrollo personal y profesional.. Por otra parte, queremos reconocer el trabajo de los docentes Ruth Amira Calderón, Yolanda Samacá y Rigoberto Castillo, ya que gracias a ellos la pasantía llevada a cabo conto con un marco conceptual fundamentado y estuvo guiada de forma adecuada tanto a nivel investigativo como a nivel pedagógico. Queremos resaltar el trabajo de cada uno de estos profesionales, que a través de su dedicación, vocación y conocimientos hicieron posibles nuestra formación como docentes investigadores para la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera.. Para finalizar, agradecemos la colaboración de las directivas y de los docentes de primero y segundo grado del Colegio Distrital Marruecos y Molinos, quienes fueron parte fundamental del desarrollo de la pasantía. Infinitas gracias por el apoyo prestado y por permitirnos llevar a cabo esta propuesta pedagógica encaminada a resolver los problemas de comportamiento de los estudiantes de primaria de su institución..

(5) TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER I . Introduction........................................................................................................... 6. . Justification ........................................................................................................... 8. . Problem Statement ................................................................................................ 9. . Context................................................................................................................ 11. . Pedagogical concern ........................................................................................... 12. . Pedagogical objectives........................................................................................ 12. CHAPTER II . Theories Discussion. . Theoretical framework........................................................................................ 19. .......................................................... 13. CHAPTER III . Instructional Design ............................................................................................ 24. . Intership Working Plan ....................................................................................... 25. . Roles ................................................................................................................... 26. . Application ......................................................................................................... 31. CHAPTER IV . Data Collection for evidence .............................................................................. 43. . Innovation ........................................................................................................... 44. . Conclusions and Pedagogical Implications. ....................................................... 48. References....................................................................................................................... 52 Annexes ........................................................................................................................ 129.

(6) 6. Introduction. This proposal called Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom attempts to address the lack of knowledge that the learners of first and second grade of ―Marruecos y Molinos‖ School have with respect to social rules and how to put them into practice in their daily life. These social rules are understood as ―the set of organized systems of guidelines which regulate human social activity‖ (Burns & Flam, 1987). These aspects have affected the classroom environment because pupils tend to be aggressive with their classmates without any apparent reason. In this sense, some cases of violence are revealed when some learners hit their partners when performing classroom activities. For example, in the journal number one, the teacher pointed out ―They do not respect their partners and they usually hit their partners, as the little boy said. It is so important that they establish a group management, because it will be difficult, that they respect other teacher if they don‘t respect their own.‖ (Journal 1a, paragraph 2c) Additionally,. they use rude language which impacts. students‘ relationships and classroom development because the teachers have to take time for solving the problematic situation, as it is perceived in the journal 1b ―I started the game with the dice, but in this group the students tend to be rude, they use nasty words and do not help the other‖ (journal 1b, paragraph 6c). From this perspective, this proposal took placed for five months (February to June) and it was designed in order to solve problematic situations and wrong behaviors applying cooperative learning1 in which learners worked with peers for giving solutions to daily difficulties that they found in different stories (look for page 35). At the same time, cooperative learning developed content knowledge and problem-solving, reasoning and communication skills; in which pupils acknowledge misbehaviors and correct themselves (Barrows, 1996). As it is evidenced in the journal 7a ‗I think that it is important to highlight the change of behavior of this course. They worked together in a proper way; they respect their partners and follow instructions. Moreover, I have noticed that they have changed 1. 1. “ In the ideal classroom, all students would learn how t o work cooperatively with others, compete for fun and en joyment, and work autonomously on their own.” ((Johnson & Johnson, 1989, 1999). Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(7) 7 their bad attitudes, they are working well and they respect their partners‘ (Journal 7a, paragraph 5b). In advanced, we planned to explore creative and innovative skills for presenting content. We developed some videos and stories based on fables understanding fable readings as ―a medium by which stories and themes of humanly lived phenomena may be viewed in light of a particular philosophical lens of understanding.” (Milton,2006). Some of the fables were ―My Little sister Susan‖, ―Goldilocks‖, ―the thirsty crow‖, and so on. For instance, the target language and the social skills were implemented implicitly through the use of storytelling. This means, that the English classes were not focused only on the target language, these lessons were concentrated on teaching values and different alternatives to solve fighting and problematic situations. Consequently, other methodologies were designed as storytelling for solving problematic circumstances and teaching the target language at the same time. For example, they listened to fables in which the characters displayed a problematic situation and the learners pointed out the trouble that the fable was focused on, as it is evidenced in some drawings that the learners designed to illustrate the social skill. (Look for page 35) In addition, the uses of telling stories in the development of the classes helped the students make it a habit in their daily life and producing the development of extra skills that they did not have before. Finally, the stories implemented for the classes were focused on some fables created for kids. These stories had a moral in which the students could reflect upon the importance of respecting their peers and how to overcome the difficulties without violence. Fighting, disrespect, intolerance, irresponsibility and rude language were the problematic situations in which those stories worked on as we could evidence in the chapter number three.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(8) 8 Justification From our perspective, we considered important to carry out this internship project because we observed two main aspects that took place at the school where this project was developed. On one hand, currently at the school, in elementary grades there are no English classes but certainly in secondary school are organized as follows: from sixth to eight grades they have four hours of class per week, and from ninth grade to eleventh grade they have three hours class per week; and on the second hand, students‘ bad behavior is causing negative reactions among students. Cases of rudeness, disrespect and bullying, to mention some can be observed in the school setting. In this sense, our project is intended to provide tools in order to solve these two aspects: the lack of English teachers at first grades and the bad behaviors of the students. We considered that our contribution to solve these two situations were to make Elementary School have current English classes, as the rest of the school, but at the same time to use the English class as a tool to teach social rules to the students. Of course, this had an impact in the school setting because elementary students would start their high school with a basic English knowledge but not as it was happening when they started high school without having any English knowledge at all. We as student- researchers consider that if this project can be implemented permanently, it will have a positive impact in the school because the elementary students will take current English classes as it is supposed according to ‗Plan Nacional de Bilinguísmo 2015- Colombia Very Well‘. Additionally, the entire school syllabus should be revised and establish from elementary school and the result of the students‘ academic performance in the subject it is expected to be improved as well.. In this regard, it was considered that the development of this project answered the main pedagogical concern related to how primary students develop social skills through storytelling in a Cooperative Learning environment. Furthermore, it provided real solutions for real problems in the institution where the current proposal took place, as the lack of English teachers in first and second grade. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(9) 9. Problem Statement As it has been considered before, people have debated about who should teach social rules to young learners. On one sense, educators believe that these rules should be taught at home. On the other one, parents believe that the responsibility of teaching rules is for the school. It is considered that these points of view should not be taken separately, but as part of the same goal it should be by the learners‘ too. At first glance, it may seem that schools are places where children should be educated, so that, teachers have to illustrate the morals and rules that young learners must follow for being part of their society as Gabriele Harecker (2011) argues “Educators and teachers as well as parents are not just there to practice behavior based on values, but are mainly there to help adolescents to understand the rules which society has developed, to be able to apply them independently and also to participate in political discussions regarding any possible changes to these rules” In this way teacher‘s role goes beyond the curriculum, it should find a balance between what may be taught and which factors students are exposed to as a result of the interaction between educators and pupils. Consequently, ―educators are permanently involved in values education… sometimes … without even realizing that they are teaching values …‖(Kohlberg &Turiel in PORTELE, p. 7). Although, it is necessary to work on social skills as we have mentioned above; public school‘s home teachers, where the internship was carried out revel that they did not currently work on social skills. For that reason, they assumed that the learners assumed rude attitudes among them because they did not know the rules and the parameters that they should follow in the school. According to the problematic situation described above, we implemented telling stories for teaching moral principles and social rules. Understanding story telling as a technique of performance in which readers use their imagination and intellectual comprehension of themselves and others. Likewise, Vannini (2009) says, ―Thus Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(10) 10 storytelling can be viewed as means for ordering potentially disconnected experiences into mutually interrelated, meaningful episodes... to perform a meaningful individual and social act. In other words, individuals construct realities‖. This method allows them to present conditions in which the students can take place on the story and change or reflect upon the trouble that it is presented. Furthermore, telling stories as a method for teaching helps people ‗to access, express and retain information and knowledge‘ (Lickorish, S.2003). That is, it provides ‗meaningful learning‘ for learners because they are able to remember and retain what they learned and put it into practice.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(11) 11. Context The internship was developed in a school called ―Marruecos y Molinos‖ from the public system located in ―Rafael Uribe Uribe‖, in Bogotá. In this institution, we taught English for elementary students of first and second grade taking into account some problematic situations that have been taking place in the learning process. One of the main factors is related to the constructions of social skills. According to some teachers, students in elementary school started to present aggressive attitudes. They stated that what happens outside the school affects what it is done inside the school. At the same time, they considered that the family role in the society should be more active. That is, that the negative situations that take place in our society could be reproduced in the school setting, based on what it has been observed in elementary students and nobody is doing anything to face this situation. The second problematic situation presented in the school is that English class for elementary students is not a regular class like the rest of the subjects they have. That means that the formal study of the English subject begins in high school. This is a situation that has been carefully considered by the teacher staff. Most of them state that is a mistake not to have English class in elementary school. In this sense, our proposal was addressed to work with elementary students inside the school setting in order to provide possible solutions to the issues previously mentioned: to make elementary students have normal English class but at the same to work social rules using English class as tool to improve elementary students relationships.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(12) 12. Pedagogical concern How can primary school students develop social skills through storytelling in a Cooperative Learning environment?. Pedagogical objectives. General Objective. To integrate storytelling and cooperative learning for teaching English and values to some students of primary school. Specific Objectives: To design some teaching materials such as performances, videos, etc. for integrating stories into the English classes. To integrate Cooperative Learning and storytelling for providing awareness about social skills and their importance in community living. To implement stories for teaching English to students of primary school. To design pedagogical strategies in which the students can understand the concept of social skills and their importance in their society. According to the last ideas presented in the general context about the proposal, the next chapter will be focused on explaining the curricular platform that we implemented as guide for planning each one of the lessons. It presents at first the discussions of the principal points of the internship project: storytelling and social skills. Then, it will develop the theoretical discussion in which it provides the basis for the creation of the instructional design, through social constructivism, cooperative learning and progressivism, the principal theories developed in this work.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(13) 13. Theories Discussion For this pedagogical intervention, the theoretical support was created based on the needs presented in the context. For that reason we have created the curricular platform presented in the following schema.. Storytelling Social Interactional • Theory of Language. Cooperative learning • Theory of language learning. Social constructivism • Theory of learning. Storytelling Storytelling was chosen as the main methodological strategy for teaching English in the internship work that was carried out at the school already mentioned. It is defined ―as means for ordering potentially disconnected experiences into mutually interrelated, meaningful episodes (...) to perform a meaningful individual and social act. In other words, individuals construct realities‖. (Vanini, 2012) Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(14) 14 Thus, storytelling was implemented as a tool for transmitting inherent knowledge and messages to the learners. According to Kiarie (2001) some features are important to take into consideration when storytelling is focused on teaching English; the following were the characteristics implemented in our internship project; . First, it was necessary to balance the story selected and the skill that was taught.. . Second, we found appropriate stories or books known and with samples of the skill.. . Third, we considered how the story is presented in terms of the use of violence.. . Fourth, we used simple stories, not complex for children, because they need to understand the main idea of it and the skill.. . Fifth, it was important to take into consideration factors as time; so, select short stories with not much time to use.. . Sixth, we selected stories with cultural aspects; these were given to students‘ perspectives and teach them; respect, tolerance and recognize the others.. . Seventh, it was necessary to consider gender issues, to give to learners‘ skills for equality. . Finally, we considered age and ability in reading; inasmuch as, the children in preschool need more drawings than colors. Kiarie (2001) proposes some steps, which are presented in order to make. emphasis on the social skills that are taught; taking into account that the major sense of using storytelling in social skills education is how the story is used and not the story itself. For that reason we followed these steps: . Present the story: Students identified the social skill that they learned through the knowledge of the story and activities related to this. It was given to learners and educators guides to follow the story and its purpose.. . Clarify the story concepts: the role of the teacher was presented, identifying that the students understood the events of the story and recognized how it made feel different to the students, if they felt identified with the story or not.. . Clarify the skill: it was necessary to use strategies to realize the skill that was presented in the story, it depended on the age of the students and the activities presented to them.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(15) 15 . Enact the skill: Through activities, the skill was practiced in the class; using role-plays or discussions.. . Practice the skill: We used real events to practice the skill learned; here, the teachers gave to the learners some problematic situations related to the story and the students solved the situation with the skill learned.. . Maintain the skill: strategies needed to be used to keep the skill in the daily life of the learners. Taking into account the elements provided by Kiarie. Storytelling was directly. connected to social skills learning, thus, strategies and elements were implemented, and some of the tools involved. Finally, the use of storytelling in the classroom was a benefit as a methodology used for children‘s needs. Thus, we implemented it through strategies in which the knowledge was presented and at the same time, the process was materialized into the final behavior of the children, and the implementation of the story was presented in the solving problem way that they used. Social Skills Social skills are understood as the set of necessary values, tools, procedures and abilities for interacting with the environment and place where people live. Those skills are created for the community where they take place, it means, they are not transcendental creations that somebody can teach in a different context, ‗They are embodied in groups and collectivities of people – in their language, customs and codes of conduct, norms, and laws and in the social institutions of the modern world, including family, community, market, business enterprises and government agencies‘ (Burns, T. & Machado, N. 2014). Consequently, social rules cannot be taught without taking in mind the environment where they were established and the cultural component that those rules carry out. Those are needed components that the individuals require for developing interactions with their peers and community, but they base their principles in who they are and where they are.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(16) 16 As a result of this conception, some authors as Burns, T & Machado, N. (2014), Çifci, I. & Sucuoglu, B. (2004) and Gülay, H. & Akman, B. (2009) have worked on the relationship that the social rules have with the interaction and the importance of them as a ‗monitor‘ that helps individuals to accommodate and to construct their personality and set of norms, values and belief according to the input that they receive of the society. Gülay, H. & Akman, B. (2009) point out the social skills as an agent ‗to enable social adaptation, to create social relations and to maintain existing social relations during social development‘, those are indispensable to strengthen the connection between what the individual is and what the society wants to build of him. Thus, the social skills provide the society a frame of reference of behaviors relevant for acting as a community. As a way to conceptualize those rules, Buns & Flam (1987) designed a ‗Rule System Theory‘ in which they delineated a fine set of rule categories. Those are based on three main functions in social life: coordination of social action and interaction, understanding of what is going on or will go on in the future, and referents in asking for accounts (Buns & Flam 1987). These functions focus on how social rules are developed by the individuals of the community and the process in which they are acquired and understood. For example, in the first step, the rules are gotten by the individual, then he/she is able to act in a specific situation in accordance with the rule that he/she has learned previously; finally, it is necessary a feedback offered by the actors. This outline represents a basis for creating a learning program based on the acquisition and clarification of what a social rule implies. Furthermore, the ‗Rule System Theory‘ categorizes ten different categories that can be associated according to the agency conditions, social structure, interaction material conditions, the time and space where they were built. The main rules are divided into four subcategories: . Concern agency relating to: Identity; group membership; share values, ideals, and goals; and share knowledge and beliefs. . Group social relations and structure. . Group action and interaction orders/patterning. . Material and resource conditions of group action and interaction.. . Rules relating to group times and space conditions for the group to meet and interact. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(17) 17 In the last categories, they highlight the relationship between what the identity, values, social relations; and materials are for the interaction and the development of social skills. As a main concern, our internship project took those concepts for constructing a proposal where the conception of social rules was created by the students implementing their own rules that the environment provided them and it implemented as procedure the following questions that Burns, T & Machado, N. (2014) provide for the frame: . Who are we?. . Who are we and how are we identified – to ourselves and possibly to others (some groups have rules of secrecy so that they cannot be identified by external agents).. . Who belongs and does not belong?. . What does the group consider good and bad? What does it stand for?. . How do we view ourselves and the world, our cognitive orientations, distinctions and models of causality and dealing with causal forces?. . How do we relate to one another? What is our internal order?. . What are our characteristic practices, production activities, our ceremonies and rituals?. . What are ―our‖ places and times? The last questions represented a guide to formulate the own conception of social. rules and the main ideas of what they mean before establishing which of them should be taught to primary students and why they should. Finally, the ‗Rule System Theory‘ represented a frame for applying social rules constructs in the classroom and clarifying the doubts that emerge about what should be explained and why those were necessary for students. The integration of social skills and literature As it was explained above, storytelling and social skills are connected among them. This methodological strategy allows teachers to explain and create social skills with their students. So, some researchers as Artemis A. Georgopoulou & Eleni Griva (2011), Mubeccel Gonena, Emine Hande Aydosb & Hatice Gozde Erturkc (2012) have. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(18) 18 studied how the implementation of stories in the classroom can modify the learners‘ attitudes and value system. In the first study, Artemis A. Georgopoulou & Eleni Griva (2011) developed a project for first graders in which they constructed some stories based on the young learners‘ background, feelings and thoughts. They work on the idea that the ‗stories are deemed to be a valuable tool for young learners foreign language learning, since they offer both linguistic and personal benefits to the children in a safe and relaxing environment‘ (Shin, 2006). At that point, they created eight illustrated stories called ‗The Adventures of Little George‘, and then, they implemented storytelling as a methodology for explaining to the first graders the stories. As a result, they found that this methodology allows students to develop communicative, oral and social skills in the English classes. Those abilities are required for creating values and social skills as it was explained in the section based on Burns & Machado (2014). The second study was developed by Mubeccel Gonena, Emine Hande Aydosb & Hatice Gozde Erturkc (2012). In this research they analyzed how children‘s story books can affect children behavior. It was conducted on turkey and the researchers used one hundred books for examining the impact of them in children and how social skills are integrated into the stories that teachers implement in their classes. They found that many values are taught using different perspectives and stories about the same topics and that it is a fault to believe that values only can be taught through one specific story .The authors suggest that teachers should choose the books that provide situations that the pupils can relate to their own experiences. Finally, they assert the use of telling story activities for enabling children to gain social and communicative skills, self- control skills and recklessness skills. As it was illustrated, we can find that the connection between stories and values have been implemented for researchers as a methodology for teaching and explaining social skills in the first years of the learners, because of they provide ‗mental health, emotional and behavioral accommodation and academic successes‘ Gulay & Akman (2009). So, this internship implements as a procedure storytelling and fables for achieving the goal of teaching social skills to primary students. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(19) 19 Thus, in the following chapter it will find the learning and language learning theories which were the guide for applying in the internship project, hence, each one of the activities proposed in first and second grades used storytelling as methodology for teaching English and values at the same time.. Theoretical framework Cooperative Learning The interaction among the individual and the society is fundamental because of it provides the bases for constructing the parameters or the rules in which the individual will base his/her attitudes according to what the community has stipulated as correct or wrong. So, it plays an important role in working on teaching Social Skills; for this reason, the teachers decided to implement Cooperative Learning as a theory of language learning, by reasons of it contributes to establish cooperation and relationship among the students. Cooperation will be understood as the interaction between two or more people, this interaction has a common purpose or goal to achieve (Smith, A. 2006). Consequently, in cooperative activities individuals work for mutual outcomes, those are beneficial to themselves and beneficial to all other group members. As the acquisition of rules that is the main goal of groups as the family, school and social groups. In this sense, cooperation is part of teaching and learning values. Cooperative Learning consists of ‗the instructional use of small groups, so that students work together to maximize their own and each other‘s learning (Johnson, Johnson & Smith, 1991). These groups are structured under conditions that involve the positive interdependence and the responsibility of each one of the participants. Thus, the members of the group work in teams to accomplish a common goal, this work and ―(…) reinforcement of collaboration, increase of learning interest, and feeling of collectively and individual feeling responsibility, boost students` morale of criticism and accepting criticize, reinforcement of the ability of listening, the improvement in the emotional relations, increase of Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(20) 20 trust and mutual respect, reinforcement of anxiety, reinforcement of self-directing skills, and decrease students` dependence with their teacher‖ (Keramati, M. 2007).. According to Smith, K. (2006) there are two ways for implementing Cooperative Learning in the classroom. The first one is called formal cooperative learning groups, those are groups that are highly structured and who are implemented as long term in classroom activities. The second one is informal cooperative groups that involve little structures for short term of time. Taking into account the purpose of this study, we have decided to work deeply in formal cooperative learning groups because of it allows teachers to create a long term course in which they work cooperatively with the students. So, for implementing formal Cooperative Learning groups, it is significant to work on five essential elements and suggestions for structuring the work groups in which learners work. . Positive interdependence: Each participant should be aware about his/her role in the group and how it interferes with the success of each one. To achieve the positive interdependence, it is necessary to ask each one if they agree with the group assumptions, if they can argue and talk about the group‘s work, and how much each one learned about the topic. These elements provide a brief view about the work that each one developed as group and how the role of all the participants changes the results of the team.. . Face to face promoting interaction: After organizing and explaining what the positive interdependence means, the teacher should ensure that each one of the participants of the group is able to explain, interact, participate, explain and support their partners‘ activities and roles for achieving the goal.. . Personal responsibility: each member of the group should be conscious about the importance of his or her role in the group. Moreover, every student is accountable for her/his assigned task; it means that all of the members of the groups can be graded according to the proficiency in the activity.. . Team work skills: the group member should acquire skills as leadership, decision-making, trust-building, communication, and conflict- management skills for achieving the goal and a real cooperation among their partners and him or her. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(21) 21 . Social skills group learning activities provide an opportunity for communication and interaction. Leadership, decision-making, and conflict management are an integral part of group work, and teachers should encourage students to use these skills in the classroom. (Johnson and Johnson 1994). The last elements represent a frame for designing and applying Cooperative. Learning as a theory of learning in the course. It supports the construct and acquisition of basic skills as leadership, decision-making, and conflict management. Those are necessary for the interaction that Burns, T & Machado, N. (2014) argue necessary for the acquisition of social skills in individuals. Finally, it is necessary to establish the teacher‘s role in Cooperative Learning. Smith, K. (2006) points out five actions that the teachers should put into practice promoting effective Cooperative Learning in their classrooms. They should specify the objectives for the lesson; make a number of instructional decisions; explain the task and the positive interdependence; monitor students' learning and intervene within the groups to provide task assistance or to increase students' teamwork skills; and evaluate students' learning and help students process how well their group functioned. Those behaviors will ensure the success of Cooperative Learning in the classrooms and in the program of social rules that the teachers implement for second graders. Constructivism As the previous concepts presented, the interaction takes an important place in the construction of behavior in the person, it gave us elements to adapt in the daily routine. For that reason, the term Constructivism appears as ―(…) a philosophy founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in‖ (Voda, p. 11). Thus, the person reflects who is and what the context is, according to the behavior. At the same way, Voda says that constructivism models the society with its own rules and mental models which allow appropriate behaviors for each situation, all of these from our experiences. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(22) 22 Some principles guide the philosophy of the constructivism, these are the following: . Learning is searching for meaning: Learning should be presented through an issue in which learners find answers to this.. . Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts: the parts of the knowledge must be connected to the direct context of the learners, and the same way, the presentation of them, cannot be isolated in the world of students.. . Teachers need to understand the mental models of the learners in order to identify what they think about the world and support these ideas.. . Seeking own meaning is one of the main features of constructivism, memorized is not sufficient, the learners should recognize his/her own perspective of the world. The elements presented, show us clear ideas about the constructivism in the. education and the society, and provoke a rupture with the traditional conception of education. Thus, the curriculum changes to promote solving-problem tool to the students and identify them as the main factor in the knowledge. Also, educators change the role to interact with the students and promote analysis of the problematic situations in their life, and discussions among the groups in which each one finds different strategies and create their own knowledge. Finally, the assessment is not considered as grades and final results, instead of it, assessment is the evaluation of the learning process. Likewise, the constructivism learning environments proposed by Cunningham, Duffy & Knuth (1993) have to achieve seven specific goals in order to follow the constructivism philosophy, thus, the seven goals are the following; 1. Provide experience with the knowledge construction process: here, students take the decision to select the importance of the topics and subtopics and in the same way, find out the best way to solve the problems, in that sense the teacher takes the role of facilitator. 2. Provide experience in and appreciation of multiple perspectives: students ought to select the best solution for the problematic situation presented, taking into account that it will be relevant for their life.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(23) 23 3. Embed learning in realistic and relevant context: Educators have to conduct the learning related to the real life, because, the constructivism learning environment should provide tools for the daily life of learners. 4. Encourage ownership and voice in the learning process: the student-centered is presented as the main agent in the decisions of the class; here, learners select the importance of the topics and have clear objectives about what they are going to learn and the teacher is a consultant on the subject. 5. Embed learning in social experience: interaction is the most effective strategy to promote experience in learning environments. Thus, educators and learners should be in constant interaction to increase the knowledge, at the same way among learners will be promoted collaboration. 6. Encourage the use of multiple modes of representation: tools for teaching have important impact on learning process; thereby, the use of different skills to writing and speaking could present a significant knowledge; so, the goal is use elements as videos, photographs or sounds that provide knowledge. 7. Encourage self-awareness of the knowledge construction process: the outcome is presented to the awareness about how students solved the problematic situation, in this way, the learner should be able to know why and how he/she solved the problem in a certain way. The constructivism philosophy presented elements in which the society is the nucleus of the knowledge, for that reason it took an important place in which learning born from the principal agents, the learners and they started to be conscious about their life and how it is affected by the decisions took. Thus, the constructivism in the education must to guide the students learning in order to provide them sufficient tools for applying solve-problem strategy. Taking into account the theories developed in the chapter above, the next stage presents the instructional design that the teachers implemented for preparing each one of the activities. It focuses on three dimensions: linguistic, pragmatic and social. Furthermore, these approaches will be determined for the theories of language, learning and language learning that we have explained in this chapter.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(24) 24. Instructional Design The pedagogical intervention considered the needs of the school and primary school learners, in which they developed language proficiency and social abilities in order to promote among them skills in their life. For that reason, the dimensions for implementing the project were three; linguistic, pragmatic and social. Understanding these from the Basic Skills Standards in Foreign Languages: English and Basic Citizenship Competencies Standards for Colombian education. The following schema presents the sense of each dimension:. Linguistic competence. Pragmatic competence. Social competence. It refers to the use of formal knowledge. It means lexical, phonological, syntactical and spelling expertise applying for different situations.. This competence includes two sub-competences: 1. Discursive competence: Organize sentences in order to create a fragment. 2. Functional competence: how to connect linguistic competences in order to use them in a real situation.. It refers to the use of social skills in the use of language, through the basic values in citizenship interaction; like, solidarity, respect for their and the others.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(25) 25. Internship Working Plan The following working plan was designing as a general framework in order to organize the instructional design in two periods. This plan is focused on the ―Estandares Básicos de Competencias en Lenguas Extranjeras: Inglés‖ and ―Estandares Básicos de Competencias Ciudadanas.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(26) 26. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(27) 27. Roles Teacher’s Role. The main teacher role allows the faculty member or student mentor to act as a/an:  Setting goals  Planning and structuring tasks  Organizing groups Also, the teacher role should be as a facilitator in which: •. Gives feedback. •. Redirecting the group. •. Encourage the group to solve their own problems. •. Extending activity. •. Encourage thinking. •. Managing conflict. •. Observing students. •. Supplying sources In this method the learning process is basically facilitated by a tutor who. designed educational methods to develop students‘ social skills through the interaction and diagnosing the problems in groups and intervening for effectiveness, as well as designing the lesson according to the unique instructional needs, circumstances, curricula and students.. Student’s Role Cooperative Learning Method provides to the learners tools for working in groups in which each one of the members had the responsibility for their partners. In. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(28) 28 this sense, each one will apply a specific role, but, in the same way, it supported the other. The main features of student‘s role are: . Learning working cooperatively. . Directing their own learning (compilation lifelong learning). Likewise, specific roles are presented like these are the following: LEADER . Makes sure that every voice is heard. . Focuses work around the learning task. RECORDER . Compiles group members‘ ideas on cooperative graphic organizer. . Writes on the board for the whole class to see during the presentation. TIME KEEPER . Encourages the group to stay on task. . Announces when time is halfway through and when time is nearly up. PRESENTER . Presents the group‘s finished work to the class. ERRAND MONITOR . Briefly leaves the group to get supplies or to request help from the teacher when group members agree that they do not have the resources to solve the problem.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(29) 29. Role of the materials The role of the materials is divided in two main factors, the role in cooperative learning and the role as a storytelling; in that sense, the first role refers to:  Thanks to the materials students can work cooperatively  Same materials can be used but variations are required  For students working in groups one set of materials is needed for each.. And for the second role (storytelling) there are some elements that portray the students outcomes and to summarize the class process in learning social skills of students. For that reason storytelling works as: . Storytelling influences change at individual practice as social level. . Listening to stories facilitates better person- centered care and can lead to improved behaviors. . It provides different experiences and interpretations.. . Storytelling as an art form also employs literary conventions, such as point of view, plot, style, characterization, setting and theme.. Learning Process Assessment The assessment of the learning process according to the Cooperative Learning Method required evaluation through different categories, in which learning was presented. Thus, being the two main processes and product assessment had the responsibility to evaluate positive independence and individual accountability. Process assessment: it promoted motivation among learners through feedback and evaluating learning process, in order to give them confidence with the task. Product assessment: finals activities portrayed knowledge, completion and improvement. This represented the attitudinal change and language improvement. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(30) 30. Assessment took place into the classroom development in this order, it was linked to the classes stages, in order to evaluate each stage as a unit to identify cooperative learning presented ( for that reason we implemented three stages; PreExercise Assessment, Assessment During the Exercise and Post-Exercise Assessment. Pre- Exercise Assessment: it provided the complexity of the student task in the initial activities. Here, students presented active participation in the introduction of the class. Assessment during the exercise: Educator as a monitor and controller into the learning process in the class development. In this sense, it was important to identify the role and attitudes in the groups and the skills developed. Post-exercise Assessment: The final assessment represented individual and group process in which the activities showed the learning process into the class development.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(31) 31. Application of the proposal in the school Taking into account the students‘ needs the strategy applied in the project was storytelling; it was focused on improving social skills through stories which gave them the possibility to reflect about their lives and social context. Storytelling was selected as the strategy in order to create meaningful experiences for the learners through the social interaction and personal reflection. The stories that the teachers used into the classroom were some stories designed for children. These stories had a moral in which the students reflected upon the importance of respecting the others and solving the problems without violence. The fable was showed to the students through cartoons, videos, drawings and songs. These fables engaged all the topics that must be developed according to the curriculum, that is, the linguistic and social objectives proposed for each period. As an example, if the topic was about routines, the teachers worked on a story in which she explained the routines and at the same time the main rules in a conversation as the respect for the others ideas and the turn for talking. Then, by groups they discussed the moral of the story and each one of the participants had a different role for explaining the moral. For example, if the moral was about respect their partners‘ voice, one student read the moral, the other took notes about their partners‘ ideas, the other one designed the way in which the group presented their conclusions and the others presented them to the course. This was followed by drawings, role-plays and crafts where the students evidence the conclusions of the group. The following activity is an example of the stories implemented by the teachers and how it was developed. My little sister Susan. One day, Thomas was sleeping. Suddenly, he started to dream which his sister, she was a little girl called Susan. Susan is 6 years old; she loves her school in which shares with her friends, learns, and plays. Each day she wakes up at 5:00 am, but she does not like Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(32) 32 to get up early, so, she gets up from her bed at 5:10 am. Her mother, every day makes that Susan brushes her teeth and takes a shower for preparing for the school. When she is ready, she takes a breakfast and she has energy for the school. At 6:15 she goes to the school because she starts to study at 6:30 am. Each morning she is prepared and happy to go to the school and learn about the wonderful world. But this morning she starts to study and sees little boys fighting because they had some problems. So, she tells them that they do not have to fight because it is bad for them, and it does not solve problems. She tells them “you need to talk to solve your problems, violence does not solve problems.” When Susan tells to her classmates that, they talk and thanks for giving them a different solution. Susan and her new friends, go to play, because it is better than fight. At 11:30 am she returns to her home and tells to her brother the problem presented in the school, the brother thinks that Susan is a good girl and takes lunch with her. At that moment, Thomas wakes up and thinks that each day we can find problems, but there are different solutions, to avoid violence. Presentation: The story was presented through images and the teacher described each one according to the plot and the sequence of it. Additionally, the teacher asked the students which daily routines they could see in the images; and then she explained their name in English.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(33) 33. Practice: The teacher organized groups of 5 people. Each student had the responsibility for each member of the group. In this sense, each one applied a specific role. The leader, the recorder, the time keeper, the presenter and the errand monitor. The activity was focused on the daily routines and the story. The students should describe the daily routines that they could find in the images of the story, then, they should create a new story using drawings and colors for narrate it. The main topic for their narration should be respect for others.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(34) 34. Roles . The leader: she/he organized the group and gave to her/his partners turns for talking.. . The recorder: he/ she Compiled group members‘ ideas.. . Presenter: she/he presented the story to the group. The presentation should include the daily routines that they implemented for creating the story.. . Errand monitor: he/she asked for materials to the teacher and whatever the groups needed for the story. The entire group should participate in the story; all the learners should design the. story and the drawing to be presented. Production: The presenter explained the daily routines that the group implemented for creating the story and what it is about.. Assessment Pre-. exercise assessment: students presented. active participation in the. introduction of the class. When the teacher asked them for the daily routines that they could find in the story, they answered, it did not matter if they answered in Spanish because the teacher explained it in English. Furthermore, the students should express what they understood of the story and the importance respects their partners. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(35) 35. Assessment during the exercise: the teacher collected the groups‘ ideas that the recorder complied. Post- exercise assessment: the teacher assessed: . The daily routines; she asked the members of the group, which daily routines they implemented for doing the story.. . The story and the reflection about respect. The other stories implemented for developing the topics. Three Little Pigs This story tell the life of three pigs which one day have to build their own houses; the first pig build its house of straw, the second one made it of sticks of wood and third build the house with bricks. The next day the wolf was to the house of each pig and told to them that he was to eat them; and destroy their homes. Thus, the first home was destroyed and the wolf ate the first little pig, next day, he went to the house made of sticks of wood and the huffed and puffed and the house was destroyed and the little pig ate. Finally, next day he went to the house made of bricks and tried to destroy it, but he could not, then he tried to enter in the chimney but the pig had a pot with water in that place, so the wolf had an accident there. The story can teach the importance to avoid violence and think about the possible solutions as the pig made. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrcWstqwA4M. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(36) 36 Goldilocks and Three Bears The story is about a little girl which one day was walking in a forest and in one moment she saw a home and knocks the door but none opens the door, so she entered to the house. She was hungry and took the soup of the three bears without permission; later she was tired so she went to sit in some chairs and selected the most confortable; but she was really tired so she entered to the bedroom and was to sleep in the best bed. But when she was sleeping the three bears arrived to the home and saw all the elements that she took. Finally they found her in the baby‘s bed sleeping; and when she woke up she saw the three bears and got out of the home to the forest again. This story shows the importance to respect the other and the elements that they have; in this sense, we cannot take the other objects without permission. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeRKXwtnulw. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(37) 37 The Wolf and the Crane This is a story about a Wolf; one day a wolf was eating his dinner and suddenly he had problem with one bone which clogged her throat and this started to run for the forest waiting for someone who help him; but none helped him just one animal, a crane which was passing for the forest and saw the wolf, but even that the wolf was dangerous he decided to help him; but the crane though about the possibility to have a reward for the favor; but the wolf did not give anything to the crane, just let him live. Although that the crane did not received a reward he was happy helping someone else. This story presents the importance to help the others without thinking about a reward or the vision that we could have about the others. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPFOzXa0zXM. The Dove and the Ant The Dove and the Ant is a story that tell the episode that lived these animals; all start with an accident that suffers the ant when he was crossing by a bridge in a river and suddenly he fall down in the water and every animal that saw him did not help with the rescue of the animal; but one dove saw him and he threw a piece of tree leaf and he saved him life. Some days later; the ant was walking in the forest when he saw a hunter Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(38) 38 with a weapon pointing to the dove; so the ant bit the hunter and saved the life of the dove. This story tells the importance to help and share with the others in order to have a good relationship with the classmates and support them. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp5QtAgsjuY. B-Big cousin and the family birds This is a story created by the teachers. This present an episode in which one family of little birds are meeting in a light cable and unexpectedly arrived the B-Bing cousin which is so different, because he is bigger than the others; so the family reject the cousin because he is not like them; but in a moment the cousin arrived to the center of the meeting and the light cable change its form; then, the family decided to bite the feet of the cousin trying to make him fell down; but the plan is not useful because the weight of the cousin is higher and when he touch the floor the family is throw away and fall without feathers and the B-Bing cousin start to laugh for that situation; when the family saw the situation they take the cousin as a way to escape for the condition. The story teaches the significance to respect and accept the other with their qualities and differences.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(39) 39. The Thirsty crow The thirsty crow is a fable in which the students can understand the concept of perseverance. It is the story about a crow, it was flying in the desert and it was so thirsty. Suddenly, he saw a bottle of water but he could not take the water because it was on the button of the bottle. Then, it had an idea and he started to put little rocks in the bottle, as he could not take so many rock, he had to make a lot of travels; as a result, he achieved that the water raised and he could drink it. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QVB506wQYU. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(40) 40 The hare and the turtle This fable focuses on teaching that we do not have to underestimate our partners and that we have to respect our partners. It is the story of a hare who believed that he was the fastest hare of the entire region. One day, a little tortoise listened the hare and he told him that he wanted a race, the hare started to laugh and he answered that he wanted to make the race. The day of the race, the tortoise was prepared, but the hare did not prepare anything, he started to run and he fell asleep. When the hare woke up, he noticed that the tortoise was near to the end of the race, although he ran so fast the tortoise won the race and the hare learnt that he should not presume of his strengthens. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeZe2qPLPh0. The ugly duck This fable is focused on teaching social skills as respect to the others, as the children said the main point of this story is that ―we do not have to reject our partners, they are our friends‖. So, the story is about a little duck that was different to the others. He was rejected because we looked different. One day, the little duck was crying, Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(41) 41 suddenly, he saw a big bird that was so beautiful, he started to think that he was similar to him and he discovered that he was not ugly, he was different because he was a swan. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qafXdmFsTbE. The grasshopper and the ants The following fable was focused on teaching the responsibility of the students for their actions and their future, it means, all the things that they do. So, the story is about a grasshopper that did not want to do anything, he only wanted to sleep all the day. One day, he saw some ants working so hard, they were collecting food for the winter; he started to laugh about them and he thought that it was not necessary to be prepared for the future. The time was over and when the winter started the grasshopper did not find anything for eating so he had to ask for food, but nobody helped him; when he asked the ants, they gave him food and they told him that it is important to be prepared for the future. Finally, the next summer the grasshopper learnt that he had to work hard for the future and that his actions of one day will affect his future. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ripQ9jJnw1c Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(42) 42. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(43) 43 Data Collection tools for evidence of the intervention According to the pedagogical intervention applied, it was necessary to implement some instruments to gather some data as evidence to show and demonstrate the process that learners followed into the English classes. For instance, some interviews and surveys were applied, understanding these as ―a specific way of social interaction that has for the objective to gather information for a research work‘. (Sabino, 1992). These interviews were semi-structured and the purposes of these were to manage the same theme when they were applying; likewise, these are known as interviews guides (Sabino, 1992). Another tool for collecting data that we used was field notes, ‗They are contemporaneous notes of observations or conversations taken during the conduct of qualitative method‘ (Thorpe, R. & Holt, R. 2008) and diaries, that are defined as ‗documents written by individuals to keep a record of ongoing events in their lives and in their surrounding social environment. Sabino (1992) argued that to constitute data for empirical projects, diaries generally need to be contemporaneous, personal, and kept regularly and also must feature entries that include emotions, beliefs, interpretations, interactions, events, and activities. Different types of diaries exist. Logs contain records of activities and events, often in minute details, but feature no personal or intimate information. Finally, journals are diaries written with a narrow audience in mind—the writer himself or herself. Memoirs are similar to journals in both content and form, but their intended audience encompasses both contemporaries of the author and posterity. The latter is often intended for publication and, therefore, may include artistic elements and fictional components‘. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(44) 44. Innovation Taking in mind the rude attitudes that the students presented in their classes and the way in which these attitudes affected their appropriate relationships, the internship attempted to solve these behaviors using stories as it was presented above (look for page 35). These stories were selected taking into account the steps proposed by Kiarie (2001) in which some features are important to take into consideration when storytelling is focused on teaching English; some of the steps implemented in our internship project were focused on: the balance between the story selected and the skill that was taught, the pertinence of the stories according to the age of the students, the time of the class and the presentation in video of the stories due the age of the students. After analyzing the last factors, the next stage were focused on the presentation steps proposed by Kiarie (2001), these stages were necessary in order to present the stories to the students. The sequences were the following: presentation of the story in which the students identified the social skill, clarification on the story where the teacher and the students discuss about the story and the value (Look for the example ―My Little Sister Susan) and the practice of the skill where the students represented what they understood about the social skill and the story. (Look for page 31) Thus, the internship project took the last ideas in order to provide the learners the social skills that they needed for avoiding conflict among them. As a result, the teachers could notice the impact that the intervention had in students attitudes, as one of the teachers said ―en este momento han mejorado, ya podemos decir que hay unas ciertas normas con ellos‖ (interview 3, Lines 5-6). After presenting the way in which we decided the stories that we implemented, it is necessary to talk about the implementation of cooperative learning and the impact that it had for solving conflicts and integrated the fables into the classroom. So, considering the initial behaviors from the learners, such as it was evidenced in the journal 5, paragraph 2c; in which students rejected to work in groups; ‗When the focus game was presented to the students, they started to play and some of them did not want Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(45) 45 to be part of a specific group, because these groups did not win any point‘ The internship work reinforced collaboration, self- confidence, and the ability of listening and discussing with others, accept criticisms and participate in groups where each one of their partners was essential for achieving the goal that they had as it was perceived for some teachers who denoted that the students learned how to work and discussed together without violence. This goal was achieved following the parameters stipulated by Johnson & Johnson (1994), which include personal responsibility, teamwork skills and social skills. The first one could be evidenced in the journal 6a paragraph 4b where the teacher stipulated that the students have acquired responsibility because they presented their homework at time. The second parameter called teamwork skills can be evidenced in the journal 10b paragraph 1b- 2b where the teacher writes ―Here, students had the opportunity to work by teams and implement cooperative learning in which each of them had a role for the class. Also, the idea of have a common idea about something was a special situation for kids, because they work alone most of the time‖. The last concept stated by Johnson & Johnson (1994) is related to the social skills, it means the abilities focus on communication and interaction; these were applied in each one of the activities where the students communicated their ideas and clarified them together. The last elements guided the planning process and the activities carried out by the teachers as we can evidence in the application of the internship work (look for page 31) It can be evidenced too in the journal 10b, paragraph 1b in which the teacher wrote: ‗students had the opportunity to work by teams and implement cooperative learning in which each of them had a role for the class.‘ Thus, the goal proposed for the collaboration was achieved by the learners, applying relevant activities for the group work. Another innovation implemented in the school was the importance of teaching English in Elementary School because they did not have this subject, and in the internship project the teachers and the director evidenced that it was necessary to integrate English into the curriculum, as it was presented in the journal 1b paragraph 1b ‗when the teacher arrived in the classroom, she said ‗Good morning‘ and they did not answer because they did not understand what it meant After the teacher noticed that Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(46) 46 they did not understand these words, she tried with other greetings as ‗hello‘ ‗hi‘, but they did not understand‘; for this reason, this project implemented the parameters based on the Basic Skills Standards in Foreign Languages: English (2006) from Ministerio de Educación Nacional, in which learners for the first cycle should be able to ‗To understand the use of greetings in order to meet other people.‘. Thus, the necessity of English classes was evidenced and the Director took part of this trouble asking the Distrital University for some students- teachers in order to cover the lack of English teachers in Primary, in this sense, the Director solved the lack of English teachers in primary. Another parameter that we could covered in the internship project was that the students learnt how to follow instructions as it is perceived in the Interview No. 1, lines 35-38 where the teacher stated ―ee, en algunos momentos si se nota que siguen instrucciones más concentraditos, duran más tiempo concentrados en las actividades que deben hacer, porque antes eran muy dispersos. Hay algunos que todavía siguen dispersos, pero si se ha logrado centrar más la atención‖. This situation exemplify the way in which the teachers achieved one of the goals of the ―Estándares básicos de competencias en lenguas extranjeras: Inglés‖, that is focused on following instructions related to activities in class (MEN, 2006). Finally, the teacher could perceive some changes in the behavior of the students; they learned new social skills as responsibility, respect, turns for talking, to help the others, and so on. These changes can be evidenced in the interviews and the journals that the teachers carried out during the internship, as it is demonstrated in the following examples: ‗Sí, ellos van internalizando las normas, y se les habla especialmente del respeto, porque si ellos aprenden a respetar no tienen tantos conflictos entonces de a poquito ellos van cambiando y a veces los papás también atienden las sugerencias entonces allí es cuando se ve más cambio.‘ (Interview 4, lines 31-34), ‗si se promueven reglas sociales, porque de todas maneras ellas tienen que mirar que los niños tengan cierto grado de atención y para eso es importante que ellos sigan las normas.‘ (Interview 4, lines 37-39) and ‗The students have started to follow the rules presented on the second week, now they raise their hand to speak or ask something‘ (Journal 6b, paragraph 2c) Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(47) 47. As a conclusion, the internship project developed in ―Marruecos and Molinos‖ School had an impact in each one of the dependences because it helped students to solve problematic situations among them; for example, one of the teachers said ‗han aprendido que hay que dialogar, que hay que hablar, que hay que mirar los conflictos de ellos mismos y solucionar.‘ (Interview 3, lines 20-22), likewise, it improved the relationship between teachers and students, due to that, the teachers could develop their classes without breaks as the teacher pointed out ‗I am so happy because some students have changed their behavior. For example the second group has changed a lot. I can work with them in a proper way and they have learned that they should listen and respect their partners and teachers‘ (Journal 7a, paragraph 1c); and finally, it created an agreement between the Distrital University and the Director in order to provide students- teachers for Primary.. Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

(48) 48. Conclusions and Pedagogical Implications To begin with the conclusions and the pedagogical implications, it is necessary to engage the objectives proposed for developing the internship project. Thus, the main ideas to develop are focused on the impact of the stories in students‘ behavior, the teaching of the second language and how cooperative learning influenced the changing of attitudes in the different groups. Consequently, the main objective of this pedagogical intervention was to design strategies in which the students could understand the concept of social skills and the importance of them in our society through storytelling.. Before the application of the. activities students did not follow any instruction; for example in one of the interviews one of the teacher states ‗porque al llegar no, no querían seguir, no querían hacer nada, sino solamente lo que ellos quisieran, cada uno por su lado‖ (Interview No. 1, lines 25-26). Another example, in which it is perceived the lack of social rules is narrated in the journal 4 ‗They didn‘t pay attention. It was so difficult to work with them. When the coordinator arrived she tried to organize the classroom, but they didn‘t do it, they continued playing‘ (Journal 4A, paragraph 2b). In the last statement, it is noticed that they did not respect anyone. Due to that, the teachers decided to work harder on social skills, it means to reinforce ‗the set of necessary values, tools, procedures and abilities for interacting with the environment and place where people live‘ (Burns, T. & Machado, N. 2014). Taking into account the situations described above, the first step for developing the project was to apply one of the seven goals in the constructivism, in which educators had to ‗Embed learning in realistic and relevant context’ in terms of giving the learners the appropriated knowledge for their life. In consequence, we decided to use their own context and the situations that we found in the classrooms, in order to choose the story and the value that they should learn. For example, we evidenced that they used to hit their partners, ‗I noticed that a little girl was crying because another girl hit her (…)‘ (Journal 6, paragraph) ‗Some students started to fight (…)‘(Journal 6, paragraph 6b). So, the story was Use of Storytelling to Develop Awareness of Social Skills inside the Classroom.

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