UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS Primer Claustro Universitario de Colombia LICENCIATURA EN LENGUA EXTRANJERA INGLÉS
Analyzing Sociocultural Identities through Creative Writing with Fifth Graders at San Isidro school in Pauna, Boyacá.
Innovative practices in English teaching and learning: practices of the LLEI pre-service teachers.
Pedagogical innovations in EFL teaching and learning contexts.
YICETH CAROLINA PÉREZ LÓPEZ
CAU Chiquinquirá
Mg. Angélica M. Carvajal T.
Contextualization
This research study was developed at San Isidro School, which is a public institution located
in the rural area of Pauna, Boyacá. The school is located in the countryside and it is about 30
minutes by car and 60 minutes on foot. That school is focused on the agronomy and farm
activities, which means that students learn different aspects about the caring of environment,
especially plants and animals in order to keep working for the improvement of the farm.
The school is small due to the quantity of students that currently are studying there. The
school offers several facilities such as a little park where students and teachers can rest and
interact during the break, a restaurant where students can have their lunch, bathrooms for
girls and boys, a computer room with 10 computers, a television and a stereo system. They
don´t have access to internet but they try to use these tools once or twice a week not only in
their systems classes, also in others like Spanish, English and math classes.
The selected population for that research is fifth grade at San Isidro school, there are 12
students 8 girls and 4 boys. Their ages range are from 9 to12 years old. Their lives conditions
are not easy due to some of them are forced to work before and after school. This situation
limits students to arrive home and do their homework or tasks because of lack of time,
support, materials or resources.
In their schedule, they have two classes of English a week and this is other factor to take into
account in the language learning process, because timing is very short for the development
of a better English level. Besides, English guidelines and syllabus are based on basic
deep explanation in terms of grammar and oral production. Additionally, there is only one
teacher for the whole areas, she has to teach all the subjects.
Observing the routines of students, it is possible determine that living in the rural area has
lots of disadvantages for students’ learning because their parent’s economy is not the best
due to the lack of opportunities to work. Despite the distance and the life conditions of
students, they are very positive, talented, dynamic, creative and clever. Also, they feel
motivated and encouraged to improve themselves because they show interest in carrying out
a good life project.
All of them live in the countryside and they have to walk for lots of minutes or hours to arrive
at school (the student who has to walk the longest path spends one hour and a half to arrive
at school), but they try to be punctual and to arrive on time to classes. This is praiseworthy
and very motivating for teachers to see how students have to get up earlier and walk to school
for long time, only to attend for classes and learn in order to have a successful future. A final
aspect that I contextualize is that it is possible detect that students do not have enough
materials to carry out English classes and in consequence, they have lack of motivation for
English learning. Their levels are not the required for the age and grade they are placed.
All the afore mentioned, let me to describe the context and to find out students could use their
context for the development of writing due to they do not have the corresponding sources to
practice writing in a creative way as main problematic situation, that is why I framed my
study around how students can show their identities in every single activity that the develop
Research statement
To determine the problem, a series of different procedures were applied. First, an interview
was done to the English teacher of fourth grade and she explains the situation of the class
from her position, in this way, it was possible to identify teacher’s needs and points of view
about the language learning process. Teacher states that some of the factors that can limit
students to have high English levels are the lack of time to emphasize in the classes and also
that there are not many resources to implement during the class activities. (See annex 21
Teachers’ interview) On the other hand, through three class observations a reflection was
done around the students and institution conditions, and starting from here, the conclusions
were revealed.
After doing the diagnosis process, I could conclude that fifth graders at San Isidro School
have several needs such as: materials for the correct development of the class, the lack of
proficiency of the language by the teacher, the lack of time to carry out some pedagogical
activities in the English class and some social conditions that don´t allow students to learn
easily and in a friendly context. There are a lot of factors that affect the language learning
process in students that not only are reflected at school, but in their families, community and
in their daily activities. Working writing to identify sociocultural identities comes from
students’ needs to express about their experiences, as they are very shy to talk, it was
necessary to implement writing in order they could feel comfortable with the language
learning process.
Moreover, it was possible to identify that there are not enough strategies to accomplish the
teaching English in a rural area comes from the needs of students because due to their lives’
conditions these students don’t have enough opportunities to learn a new language.
But not all findings were negative; it was possible to observe their responsibility and
commitment with their formative process. Not only by students also the teacher and some of
their parents. How students go to school in spite of their difficult conditions, how their parents
make big efforts to give their children the needed resources to attend school and how the
teacher is committed to help her students in their learning process.
The results of the observation were very productive to determine what kind of resources and
activities students were going to use in order to handle writing and in that sense, they could
express their identities. When students are competent producing writing there are lots of
benefits such as they can express clearly and they can be confident in their learning process.
Besides, currently it is demanding to study English not only at school but at the universities,
three levels as minimum, this is why learning English is not a choice, students have to effort
to face the challenges in education.
Through the diagnosis, it was possible observe that students feel insecure when they have to
write or express by using writing. They don’t like to be pointed out or corrected. Butthey
feel comfortable when they speak about their lives, so you will use this ability to make them
write it down and in this way, improve their writing competence. They were very creative
and self-confidence when they startednarrating stories and anecdotes.
This proposal pretends to implement Creative Writing to develop the writing skills in the
fifth-grade students at the San Isidro School in Pauna, Boyacá. Starting from an action
anecdotes and stories. In that sense, students can be critical and expressive. This proposal
belongs to the descriptive tradition that is why allows the researcher to analyze and apply the
implementation of material and artifacts because the students need to foster their writing
skills, having into account the adoption, adaptation, design and implementation of teaching
materials and the researcher path of teaching and learning.
Teaching writing to young students has to be in a creative way. It is the problem of getting
younger students over the fear that they have "nothing to say", in the majority of the cases
they feel that they don’t have enough information to share to others. It is the simple
prerequisite of getting language and ideas flowing so that words and thoughts can be
stimulated and excited one another. Other factor is the difficulty of getting young writers to
critically review and edit their personal patterns of writing and thinking.
This proposal is framed into two fields. The first one, “Language Learning and Teaching”
because there is a process that involves teacher- students in the implementation of creative
writing and how to evaluate writing skills. There is a teacher to guide and apply strategies,
a group of learners to acquire and share knowledge and a process of language learning to
interact in the class.
On the other hand, the field of “Language and context” has to be mentioned due to this
research is going to analyze how sociocultural aspects arrive from the culture of students.
Through writing students are going to express details about their lives in an indirect way. By
learning a foreign language, students are going to change many aspects in their lives, for
instances, the opportunity to know about other cultures through communication, great
advantages in the professional field, which could better their lives’ conditions. That …can
These fields are linked to the same research proposal because they have a relation and include
different topics that connect language, learning, teaching and context. In the same way, the
macro-projects are linked, because it is “sociocultural”, due to the impact of the process in
the society, context and cultural aspects, how students can show the reality through language, and “innovation” because despite the proposal it’s not something new, the researcher has not
created something to revolutionize education, but the implementation of it is new for the
community because students haven’t studied language since this dimension.
After the diagnosis, it was possible to set the main questions and objective for this research
proposal.
Research question
How are socio-cultural identities evidenced through creative writing with fifth graders at San
Isidro school in Pauna Boyacá?
Research objective
To identify, analyze and describe which socio- cultural identities are evidenced through
creative writing with fifth graders at San Isidro school in Pauna Boyacá.
Specific objectives
To reflect on the kind of cultural identities which are evidenced in the writing process of fifth
graders at San Isidro school in Pauna, Boyacá.
To design a pedagogical intervention to foster students’ writing skill at San Isidro School in
Theoretical framework
This study is framed in the following constructs: Critical thinking, Socio-cultural identities
and Creative Writing that are strongly closed to the main proposal of research and supported
with previous studies that show how it is possible to implement them in the population that
was selected. Firstly, it was pertinent to start with Creative Writing, because according to the
findings it turns out to be the main approach of the research.
According to Tütüniş, B. & Küçükali, S. (2014, pag. 2) writing has an important contribution
to the development of other skills and also becomes a tool to express person’s feelings,
thoughts and information. Based on the previous information, it is important to mention that
writing let other skills could be reflected and it was the proposal of this research, allowing
students to express what they think and their points of view about learning. Tütüniş, B. &
Küçükali, S. (2014, pag.2) also mention that writing should be perceived and evaluated not
as a mechanical process but as a skill which covering understanding, thinking, developing
and producing skills. It is necessary to understand that students do not have a big experience
in their writing production, for that reason, the evaluation process was focused on the attitude
and creativity. The most important aspect was that students were able to be writers.
In addition, pointing out to Avila, H. (2015, pag.93) who says that in order to solve problems
and have innovative activities to reach out to students, teacher has to be recursive and
practical. During the implementation of the pedagogical intervention it was necessary to take
advantage of all the sources given by the context, students stories, experiences, activities,
among others, not strictly the use of notebooks or paper. And here is where the word
“creativity” appears. But, why is relevant creativity? It allows students be themselves and
A second construct is Critical thinking because according to Barnawi, O. (2017, pag.115) besides being an indispensable life skill, critical thinking is particularly important and
remains a reliable approach in academic writing. This concept highlights that the process of
writing is not only write by write, the idea is that the learners know and understand what they
are writing and that they can describe ideas, give points of view and be concrete, coherent
and direct. Students can write taking into account real experiences in order to feel related to
the writing process.
By the implementation of both constructs, creative writing and critical thinking, it is
important to underline the third construct that is socio-cultural identities. This proposal pretends that through creative writing the analysis of identities produced in linguistic
interaction can be possible, taking into account that identity is a product and through it,
cultural positions can be identified. Students could tell the researcher how they live, what
their needs are and how the research can contribute to the pedagogical process.
To understand a social identity, this project points a definiton based on Ashforth, B. & Mael,
F. (2016, pag.20) that explain three different concepts. It is argued that (a) social
identification is a perception of oneness with a group of persons; (b) social identification
stems from the categorization of individuals, the distinctiveness and prestige of the group,
the salience of out-groups, and the factors that traditionally are associated with group
formation,· and (c) social identification leads to activities that are congruent with the identity,
support for institutions that embody the identity, stereotypical perceptions of self and others,
and outcomes that traditionally are associated with group formation, and it reinforces the
All these definitions can help to determine what sociocultural identities are depicted from
pieces of writing and how these aspects are related to the research proposal. The authors
define cultural identities not only as individuals, but also as communities. So, this is
something that belongs to the research interest of the project because allows to observe
behaviors, attitudes, thoughts and life styles of a complete community.
If language is a social practice of meaning-making and interpretation, then it is not enough
for language learners just to know grammar and vocabulary. They also need to know how
that language is used to create and represent meanings and how to communicate with others
and to engage with the communication of others.
There are different dimensions to teach and identify socio-cultural identities. One dimension
is the axis of culture as facts or as processes: that is, whether culture is seen as a static body
of information about characteristics of a society or as a dynamic system through which a
society constructs, represents, enacts and understands itself. The second axis represents the
way in which culture is conceived in terms of educational content. It makes a distinction
between artifacts and institutions and practices: that is, whether culture is seen in terms of
the things produced by a society or as the things said and done by members of a society.
Scarino & Liddicoat (2009, pag. 20)
Also, it is important to step that a dynamic relationship between language and culture is
always at play. It is through exploration of the interactions of language and culture that this
awareness and the ability to act on it can be developed. Language and culture are always
connected and related due to the use of it in the interaction and its function in communication.
The idea of teaching English in a rural area comes from the students’ needs. Due to their live
conditions these students do not have enough opportunities to learn or practice a foreign
language. I decided to implement Creative Writing because this approach is one of the most difficult to teach and learn. Ariza, A. (2005, pag.38) states that the most important principle
of the pedagogical process is that writing is the result of a very complex, highly
individualized process, the need to investigate or innovate regarding this topic was significant
because the more time passed, the poorer the EFL students’ production at school was.
As the research is based on writing, it is important to mention some aspects of this ability,
according to Manzo, A. & Manzo, U. (1995 p. 339) all writing is something of a plunge into
the unknown; hence it requires a certain degree of willingness to venture within. Also, they
point out that there are several factors that tend to inhibit effective instruction in writing and
thinking in children. Firstly, is that it doesn't happen much, although there are many efforts
under way to change this. Secondly, it is the problem of getting younger students over the
fear that they have "nothing to say". In third place, it is the simple prerequisite of getting
language and ideas flowing so that words and thought can be stimulatedone another. The
fourth factor is the difficulty of getting young writers to critically review and edit their
personal patterns of writing and thinking.
As Rivera (2011, pag.15) states that teaching of writing should be stated as a developed
production by means of following a writing process, having in mind that this process must
be learned and supported by principles to guide that writing in an effort to increase
cognizance of the writing skill and expectations from repetition. For this process of writing
learning, the interest is that students can produce writing and learn English language through
that reason, researcher has to know the socially and politically situated context of writing and
how these contexts influence both how writing gets done and the end products of writing.
Casanave (2004, pag. 84)
Therefore, by using creative writing teacher can encourage students to construct a new and
innovative way to learn writing effectively. Besides, having into account that students are
young learners, teacher must be innovator, creator and enthusiast (the term “young learners”
covers a large chronological age span: from around three years of age to 15) Nunan, (2011,
p. 5).
Thus, Nunan reframes the idea of Pinter (2006, p. 2) in which he establishes that all children
are unique, and two children at the same chronological age can exhibit markedly different
characteristics. Also, he points out young learners have marks, some are favorable and some
not so favorable. For instance:
Generally, they have a holistic approach to language, which means that they
understand meaningful messages but cannot analyze language yet.
They have lower levels of awareness about themselves as well as about the process
of learning.
They have limited writing and reading skills, even in their first language.
Generally, they are more concerned about themselves than others.
They have limited knowledge about the world.
And the last one, “they enjoy fantasy, imagination and movement”. This is a point in common
to this proposal because the idea is to work with the students by using these elements to keep
In addition to the previous information, Díaz, M. (2014, pag.34) retakes the idea about
writing is identified as a process rather than a product. The writing process involves
pedagogical techniques which include brainstorming, planning, multiple drafting, peer
collaboration, delayed editing, and portfolio assessment. In fact, this type of writing promotes
meaningful learning by making learners more aware of cognitive processes as a central
activity in writing as well as “stressing the need to develop students’ abilities to plan, define
a rhetorical problem, propose and evaluate solutions” (Hyland, 2003, p. 10). As this model
makes use of the process of pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing, it offered a great
opportunity to expose students to meaningful feedback and developed their written
production.
Also, other aspect to take into account in the language learning process is the lack of
strategies that we as teacher use to implement writing; sometimes we focus only in speech
production and leave out the writing practice. Lombana, C. (2005, pag. 43)points out we
teachers of English in Colombia usually deal more with the spoken language and feel
challenged and threatened by the writing skill when we have to teach it. We rarely give much
thought to the types of writing activities we use in the classroom and pretend to have our
students involved in them without considering what underlies these activities.
Other author that supports this research interest is Ávila, H. (2015, pag.93) who says that in
order to solve problems and have innovative activities to reach out to students, one has to be
creative. Creativity motivates students to innovate, to carry out new experiences and to learn
in a different way.
Naiman, L. (2006, pag.) states that creativity is the process of turning imaginative ideas into
that innovation is the production or implementation of an idea. If teachers have ideas, but do
not act on them, they are imaginative but not creative. It is noteworthy that any idea should
be used in an educational context to see if it works or if it does not. The proposal in this
research it is not only to think in how students can learn but in how to students can apply the
knowledge.
Research design
Action Research Design was chosen to the implementation of the process of creative writing.
It was necessary to take into account both actors, teacher as a researcher and students, in this
way, it was possible to design mediums to interact, explore, communicate and let students
show their identities. An action research design allows researcher implement the activities
that are going to produce results during the research process.
The action research design pretends to solve a specific problem within a program and
organization, according to Anderson, G. & Herr, k. (2005, pag.3) it is a reflective process,
but it is different from isolated, spontaneous reflection in that it is deliberately and
systematically undertaken and generally requires that some form of evidence be presented to
support assertions. In order to know the details in the research activity, it is necessary to
follow the next steps proposed by Kemmis, L. (1982, p.7):
1. To develop a plan of action to improve what is already happening; before stating, it is
necessary the identification of area and reflection over it: the analysis of the context, students’
Their lives condition and how their context affects their language learning process. After that
to put in practice the activities to promote the creative writing between students.
2. To act to implement the plan; The collection of data by using elements that can provide
information about the student’s needs: for this step, it is demanding the use of research
instruments such as surveys, interviews, observations and more elements to be sure about the
necessities between learners, teacher and context. Also, how identities can be analyzed using
them.
3. To observe the effects of action in the context in which it occurs; for this step, it is
demanding the use of research instruments such as surveys, interviews, observations and
more elements to be sure about the necessities between learners, teacher and context. Also,
how identities can be analyzed using them.
4. To reflect on these effects as a basis for further planning, subsequent action and on, through
a succession of cycles. The analysis and interpretation of data to understand students’ needs
and the tools to solve them: after knowing the context, aspects of students and teacher,
abilities, skills and difficulties of teacher and students, the resources for the language learning
and the mean needs of students, the researcher has to do the analysis of the tools that are
going to be used to improving the students leaning.
Figure n. 1 (Research cycle)
Framing to Gray, D. (2004, pag.383) who steps that in action research the role of the
researcher is seen as more of a facilitator than an 'expert', it is possible point out that this
process is clearly related to the interaction that researcher has with the context. The same
author argues that the researcher is a catalyst for achieving change by stimulating people to
review their practices and to accept the need for change, the idea is that students and
participants involved in the pedagogical process could be conscious about the importance of
English nowadays.
The type of study implemented by the research proposal belongs to a descriptive tradition.
For the tradition of this research project it’s necessary to know students as individuals and
how they show themselves in an educational community. According to Ellis, R. (2012) the
descriptive tradition can identify qualitative and quantitative accounts of the classroom
processes. It means that students are going to be evaluated not only by a final product or by
analysis of the context to develop a plan
of action
implement the plan to collect
data.
observe the effects of the
action in the context. analyze the
data
reflect over the action
a systematic way, but an integrate process where they can express knowledge by each action
in the class or in the context. For this tradition, it is important to involve the elements in the
class, starting that teacher needs to transform part of the strategies to promote writing skills,
it means that the work should be set.
Data gathering
The researchimplemented instruments for the data gathering were observation, interview,
teacher’s journal, and students’ artifacts.
These instruments were designed in order to identify the research context needs and analyze
the research objective. One of them was the observation. According to Cargan, L. (2007 pag.
142) a major advantage of observation is its directness: it allows for the recording of behavior
as it occurs. Through the entire lesson, it is possible to identify how students are felling. As
qualitative researcher, it is important to observe the attitudes, actions and results during the
process of research implementation.
Also, it was necessary to implement an interview. This instrument is useful because
according to Wengraf, (2001, p.4) by using interview it is possible to collect information with
the purpose of developing or constructing a model of some aspect of reality that we hope will
be found to be in accordance to the facts about that reality, testing a constructed model to see
whether it is confirmed or falsified by the facts. It is important to take into account the opinion
of students and context in order to develop a process not only for teacher, but for all the
Another chosen instrument was the researcher journal. A research journal keeps a systematic
and regularly record of events, dates and people and is a record of the researcher’s
interpretative, self-evaluative personal experiences, thoughts and feelings with a view to
trying to understand their own actions. Karisson (2016 pag.262). For that reason, it is
important to have evidence on how I can feel as teacher during the process of researching,
how I could observe my students and what kind of experiences I could take to make
conclusions about the research process.
Finally, the artifact was used to observe how students wrote, what kind of vocabulary and
grammar structures they used to implement creative writing. Rosenthal, R and Rosnow, R.
(2009, pag. 5) by using artifacts, besides of evaluating students I can evaluate all the
pedagogical process, observing the results of students is easier to conclude how truthful and
reliable the elements are in the lesson. Through this material, it was possible to observe how
students are accepting the information provided during the explanations in the class.
RESEARCH TIMETABLE
RESEARCH STAGES RESEARCH ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP
TIME
ALLOTTED.
Research proposal formulation 2016-2
PROPOSAL 2016- August to
November
-Classroom observation, consent
form and analysis of the context.
-Design and organization of the
research proposal.
2016- October and
November
Research Implementation stage 2017-1
IMPLEMENTATION 2017-February to June
Review and corrections of the
research design.
2017- February
Choosing data collection sources 2017-March
Data collection 2017- April
Data analysis 2017- May
Final research report 2017- June
Chart n. 1 Research timetable
Implementation and data analysis
Approach
The selected approach to carry out this project was creative writing. As in the initial stage
of research, the analysis allowed identifyingthe main problem with the language learning
process with fifth graders at San Isidro School. Students could implement this approach and
through it, sociocultural identities were reflected. Creative writing was an educational
reform between 1880 and 1940 (Myers, 1993). Since schools fail to promote
the educative value and hygienic worth of creative writing is discovered again (Witty,
1940). Creative writing was an attack on the formalism of current English studies and a
desire to show the academic forms of English study in human experience (Mearns, 1923) in
this sense, it is a different way to produce writing without ask students what they have to
do, but they can feel free creating their own writing. According to Tütüniş, B. & Küçükali,
S. (2014) who states that creative writing is a chance to free your imagination in which
people get satisfaction, this principle allows students use language in a motivating,
imaginative and enjoyable way.
For this writing learning process, it going to be used the five stages of writing
(writing-prewriting, writing, revising, editing and publishing), in order to students work
appropriately during the unit. The role of the teacher is monitoring the process helping
students to be more structured when they are producing writing, and be a model for
students. Modeling promotes how to write; it promotes how to process. When teachers
demonstrate their abilities to take risk, students become more accepting. Caswell, R. and
Mahler, B. (2004, pag. 3). The role of student is that they are the self-drivers of the content
in the classes, the idea of implementing creative writing is that students can be autonomous,
that they can produce free writing and no limiting their own ideas.
Design
The implementation of this pedagogical intervention emerges from the students’ needs to
practice writing. Writing as communication is a daily activity. No matter their age, students
problem was clearly identified by asking students through a survey, in which they expressed
the lack of tools and time to practice English as a foreign language.
Goal
At the end of this pedagogical intervention, students will be able to write about their own
lives, feelings and experiences, which will reveal their social identities and realities.
Objective
- Students will be able to use past, present and future tenses to talk about the things
they used to do, they do and they will do.
Contents
According to the proposal of the research design, students are going to implement creative
writing in order to practice English as a foreign language. This practice is going to be
applied by a didactic unit which consists of by six lesson plans and a final project. Each
lesson is composed by 2 hours. This didactic unit was applied during the first academic
term of 2017. Each lesson plan has a different topic related to a specific objective, the
contents for the pedagogical intervention are:
- -First lesson (needs analysis): who are you? Student give personal information as
the name, age, place of birth, family, among others.
- Second lesson: (daily routines) Students talk about their daily activities and their
routines, by using present simple.For this activity, they are going to practice
- Third lesson: (My biography) Students will use and write affirmative, negative and
interrogative sentences in simple past to talk about their lives stories and write their
own biographies.
- Fourth lesson: (What did you do?) Students talk about their lives stories, what they
did when they were younger.
- Fifth lesson: (I will be a…) Students talk about their short and long-term future plans
by using the auxiliary “will” and the expression “going to”.
- Sixth lesson: (final project) Students express and talk about who they are, were and
will be, by using all the topics studied during the unit.
Taking into account that it is an action research and researcher has to do an intervention
during the learning process to understand the students’ needs and how through this
pedagogical intervention these needs can be identified, some materials were going to be
used:
- During the pedagogical implementation, five lesson plans were applied, each lesson
contains a workshop where students produce their own writing according to personal
experiences. These workshops find to achieve the objective of take writing as a
process.
- As at school there is not access to internet, it was necessary designing the material
for the lessons such as: flashcards, poster, maps, games, among others.
- Students’ experiences and thoughts to carry out the activities for the class, for
example, a worksheet was done to write a poem for their favorite person, firstly
students learned how to describe a person and then they worked by themselves and
- It is important to promote creativity among students in order to reflect how they feel
during the classes and what the findings at the end of each section are.
On this account of triangulation in research, I try to draw on multiple viewpoints to draw
out the process of learning. By drawing on multiple viewpoints such as teachers at school,
students and researcher. For more confidence, validity and credibility, it is necessary to
have evidence the validation of the process by using grades and students’ interview.
Procedures
Here is possible to observe one of the lessons applied during the unit “Let’s Write”
“LET’S WRITE”
Lesson Plan Format
All the lessons are going to be designed by using Presentation, Practice and Production
(PPP) what is based on communicative language teaching and so promotes pair and group
work. Maxom (2014, p.58). I select the syllabus by using a skill-based syllabus, focused on
writing practice.
Lesson Name: Introducing students LessonNumber: 1
Institution: San Isidro School
Student-Teachers in Charge: Yiceth Carolina Pérez López
Grade: fifth Date: March 1st , 2017 week: 1
Rationale
Students need to know what are their strengths and abilities. For this, I try to identify the most important issues in order to take advantage for the students’ skills. It is important they learn how to talk about their own lives.
Methodology:
Audio-lingual method. Students are going to be in constant communication with their classmates and teacher, connecting their context and experiences in the class. They’ are going to integrate speaking because they are going to talk, not all the time, but when it be necessary. Listening, because they are going to pay attention to teacher and classmates.
Silent way. For some spaces in the class it is necessary to give time to students for solving activities about personal information.
Resources:
Flashcards Board Notebooks Markers Worksheet
Objectives Communicative: Students will be able to talk about their preferences.
Language: students will be able to express ideas, likes and dislikes by using simple present, vocabulary about sports and free time activities.
Learning: Students will apply patterns, memorizing key words, take notes, and monitor their own work.
Type of Activity
Description
Transition I ask students about their interests activating previous knowledge from students by using questions such as:
What is your favorite hobby? Do you practice any sport?
Then, they start using the verb “like”, and the expressions “prefer-rather than”
Getting Started
I explain the meaning of the verbs and expressions by using the board. I will start by implementing the verb “like”.
Transition I ask students if they understood the explanation. I say students that listen the pronunciation.
Formal presentation
I explain the use of the verb “like”.
I show students some flashcards with some hobbies and funny activities. I am going to explain the meaning and pronunciation.
Transition Students learn the pronunciation and writing of the verbs and activities given.
Practice Students practice the vocabulary through an activity, where they have to go in front of students, and choose the flashcards with their favorite activities.
Transition I tell students an oral feedback about their writing and pronunciation.
Controlled practice
Students use the same flashcards to tell me and their mates what they prefer.
They go to the board and write the complete sentence by using the expression.
All students write down the sentence in the notebook and practice writing.
Outcome I tell students the structure to write preferences by using the “to” or “ing”. They practice on the board.
Transition Teacher asks students if they have any doubt.
Final assessment
I ask students to draw and write in recyclable cardboard 3 activities they like and three they don’t like, according to the explanation of the topic, and they have to answer some questions about the previous explanation.
This activity is individually.
Homework assignment
They must prepare the exposition of the work they did in class.
For the development of the class, all the materials were designed by the teacher-researcher
in order to be close related to students’ learning. These elements such as worksheets,
flashcards and others were done by using recyclable paper and cardboard. Also, these tools
were focused on searching information that could reflect students’ identities, for that reason,
each student worked in both ways, individually and in groups.
B. Evaluation
Instruments to evaluate
For the process of evaluation different items were taken into account, here is the rubric that
was used for grading students.
Scoring rubric
POINTS DESCRIPTION
1 Student has a complete lack of understanding of writing concept. Writing is not enough clear and creative.
Student shows no understanding about the topic.
2 Student has limited understanding of the topic. Student use strategies that are not clear enough.
Student use ineffective tools for creative writing.
3 Student shows understanding about what he/she is writing. Student use appropriate sources to arrive a good writing.
Student implement creativity and autonomy in his/her process.
4 Student understand clearly the concept of writing process.
Student uses critical thinking and creativity to carry out activities.
C. Data analysis
For this data analysis, it was necessary to observe the previous materials that were used for
the development of the pedagogical intervention applied during the second academic term
2017 and the research instruments that were used to collect data, such as interviews, artifacts,
journals, and audio recordings. During the intervention, it was possible to identify different
social aspects related to the proposal of the research. In this part of the research it is possible
to observe how sociocultural identities are going to be reflected in the English learning
process and practice.
The approach used for this data analysis is Grounded theory because according to Birks, M.
& Mills, J. (2015, p.6) is most often derived from data sources of a qualitative (interpretative)
nature. This research is based on the definition of the sociocultural identities and how this
aspect can impact the education process, in this way, the research is close related to the
qualitative nature. In the axial coding, it is important to highlight that the intention is
discovering connections between abstract concepts Punch, K (2014, pag. 201) and to have
into account the theory and the results. Besides, it´s possible to point out that coding is not
just labeling, it is linking. Saldaña (2013, p.8). This theory allows to connect the results to
the cycle of research done for the action research design.
Besides, the research analysis was based on theory because doing grounded theory, research
departs from the typical linear sequence of theory verifying research because data collection
and analysis go on simultaneously. Fitzpatrick, J. & Kazer, M. (2014, pag.) the
analysis. It is coherent and organized. The chart below shows the categorization for the data
analysis based on the results of pedagogical intervention.
How are sociocultural identities evidenced through creative writing with fifth graders in
San Isidro School in Pauna?
For the data analysis, it was required to categorize the topics to investigate. Each
categorization has subcategories that allow clarify and understand the results and findings
during the research process.
Main Categories Sub Categories
Which sociocultural
aspects are evident in the
writing process done by
fifth grade students at San
Isidro school in Pauna?
1. CLASS IDENTITY 1. Families’ life
conditions.
2. REGIONAL
IDENTITY
2. Sense of belonging
3. PERSONAL
IDENTITY
3. Male and female
interaction.
Which writing features
can be revealed by the
implementation of creative
writing with fifth grade
4. WRITING CONTENT 1. Daily activities
2. Preferences
3. Future plans
students at San Isidro
school in Pauna?
Chart n.2 Research categories
1. Class identity
People who are financially impoverished, are likely to perceive a variety of obstacles to
financial success and economics resources that would increase one’s quality of life. Liu, M.
(2013 pag. 119). In spite of students’ economic situation is not the best, they are encouraged
to learn and to have better life conditions. Observe the annexes 1, 2, 3 and 4 where the
evidence their wishes. They said “I like studying”, “I like riding a bike and studying”, “I
would like a better life”, “I will have work, happiness, house and money”. In this part I could
observe that students want to overcome adversity and have a better life condition and clarify
that they can achieve their goals studying.
2. Regional identity
Regional identity is taken for granted by the populace every day. Regional identity is an
awareness of an acceptance by, its inhabitants that there is an approach and continuity to its
methods of keeping itself optimally organized, intact, integrated, and functioning for those
in the region, and that these protect and provide continuity in the meaning of region. Sugar,
M 2002 (pag. 87) students show how they feel identified to their context, they dream with a
better life, but they want to stay in their context because they want their region grow up.
In the annexes 5 and 6 students evidenced that they prefer living in their country or region
than living out of the country. They said: “I will live in Bogotá”, “I will live in
Chiquinquirá”, it shows sense of belonging because they are not planning in going or living
enjoy doing farm activities and they dream helping their region when they achieve to be
professionals.
3. Personal identity
According to Wallace, T. 1827 (pag.6) personal identity is the continued existence of an
individual of the human species without changes, it says that personal identity is related to
the way an individual think, act and live. Also, it could be related to their culture, religion,
believes and every single thing that construct the personality. In this category, I could observe
some relevant aspects in the students as individuals. For instances:
Gender: Students feel uncomfortable working and interacting between male and female. See
annex 7 in which teacher uncharged explained trough and interview this: “I have seen how
boys and girls compete with each other, they do not relate much to each other.”
In the annex 8 taken from the researcher journal evaluation of the first lesson plan, the
researcher observed that “Through the warming activity, I realized they don’t like to work
with the opposite genre. They prefer to work male and male than male and female.”
Age: there are different range of ages. It could be a factor that affect the interaction between
students, due to they have different interests. See annexes 9 and 10 where students say the
age, “I am 10 years old”, “I am 8 years old”. Hereis evidenced that some of them are two
years older than others, which makes their interests are not the same.
4. Writing content
The students’ writing production let see different aspects about their identities. Clearly it is
As it is possible to observe in annexes 11 and 12 that are students’ artifacts, in which they
explain their favorite farm activities and make a drawing of these activities, “My favorite
farm activity: to feed chickens”, “My favorite farm activity: To milk a cow”, here it is evident
how students produce their own writing texts. Over these artifacts, they let us know about
their lives and how are their contexts. It is possible to understand sociocultural issues because
all is related to real situations, taken from their own lives experiences, what they do before
and after school, their free time activities and .
Rural area limitations
How the regional context can be implicit in students’ writings?
What kind of EFL limitations are observed during the pedagogical intervention?
The role of parents as participants in the educational experiences and decision-making of
their child, in creating a culture of learning, has a distinctive flavor and purpose in languages
education.
Parents are not only first educators; they continue to shape the learning and attitudes to
learning of their children into adulthood. Parents seek opportunities to participate in, and
contribute to schooling by sharing curriculum related information, knowledge, experience
and skills, and through the understandings they have of their children and their aspirations
for them. Scarino, A. & Liddicoat, A. 2009 (pag.13) It is important to highlight the work of
parents in the education of their children, because they will always be the basis of their
education.
In this part of the analysis it is possible to observe that parents do their best to help children
understand. I mean, as the mothers in the interviews said: “In the afternoon, revising
notebooks, teaching him to be organized, to be responsible, his homework”, “Yes, yes. I
advise her revising the notebooks and asking her to do her homework.” (see annexes 13 and
14) they try to help them revising the notebooks, asking for the homework and demanding
order and punctuality, but they don’t know English language, which is a limitation for
children study in home.
On the other hand, lack of resources is an important aspect to highlight. According to some
parents’ opinions such as: “…one of the disadvantages is that sometimes they live very
limited, in things like technology…for instances, because here the problem in the rural area
is that the internet doesn’t work here. So, they are a little bit limited in that sense.” (see
annex 15) students need more resources, tools and materials to carry out a successful learning
process.
Conclusions and implications
This project impacted and strength students not only as individuals, also as members of a
society because students are going to be competitive in a world that is demanding integral
professionals. For the teacher and the institution in general, the impact is going to be in the
way they teach, the guidelines and standards to teach English. For the researcher, as a teacher
in training the experience is going to be constructive for her career as a professional.
This whole process integrates a community that is going to construct the bases to generate
cultural and social identity between students. In this way, teacher and students are going to
creative writing, students are going to reflect what they think, live and feel. Language is
something that people do in their daily lives and something they use to express, create and
interpret meanings and to establish and maintain social and interpersonal relationships.
It was possible to identify, analyze and describe sociocultural identities trough creative
writing with fifth graders at San Isidro school in Pauna, Boyacá because students were able
to reflect closed aspects related to their ways of living, such as how they live, where they
live, who they live with, their daily routines, how their lives have been, what their favorite
activities are and how they are projected in the future. It was interesting to observe how the
students felt motivated to tell their own stories and how they could focus on writing English
to make their classes different, where they could give their opinions and points of view from
their realities.
Students showed that learning English as foreign language in a rural area it is possible, no
matter the difficulties they always showed a good attitude and acceptance in class. their desire
for overcoming is reflected in all the efforts they must make every day, walking long
distances, wearing not so comfortable uniforms, coping with the harsh weather conditions in
both summer and winter and challenging the many adversities that arise in his daily life
despite of their young age.
In the same way, it was observed that, in order to carry out a productive class, it is not
necessary to have so many technological resources or books, notebooks, among other tools,
since it is possible to use the resources offered by the context and maybe it is not easy, but
this is a challenge that teachers in rural area must face. Teacher in a rural area must be
Also, students have a different point of view about learning English, it is necessary to use
new technologies, but through creativity we can develop a productive class. I argue this
because students preferred working with the material designed for the class than go to the
computer room. They also felt very comfortable doing their own work, without being strictly
imposed what they had to do, only with a guide or idea provided by the teacher, they let their
imagination fly and in almost all of the time the results of their jobs were better than expected.
Teaching in rural areas is a challenge because you can find a different context that in a city.
Every day the countryside is being left alone and much of those who study think about
traveling, working in the big cities and leaving aside the life of the farm. But in many of the
students, it was possible to see their roots in their origins. A large part of the students prefers
the tranquility that living from agriculture, livestock, and other activities to which they have
devoted throughout their lives. This does not mean that they are not willing to learn new
things, on the opposite, they let them see that they have the same or more skills than urban
students, since they are children who have to face difficult situations, not only for economy
but for society and still stand out in their formative process.
Raising the idea of sociocultural identities, it was determined that in this region still acts of
chauvinism are manifested, where children show what they are taught at home. For instance,
in some simple activities such as picking up the pieces of paper from the floor after the
development of a class, they were the girls who took the broom and swept the room.This
type of actions allowed identifying some of the most remarkable aspects of the relationship
between boys and girls of the selected population. They have a hard time relating, interacting,
children should be separated from girls, has limited the process of socialization among
students.
The experience of teaching in a rural area is quite rewarding because it is possible to observe
the students’ effort and motivation. Students in rural areas have lots of skills and they can
learn every moment. Researching in this proposal let me know that when you have dreams
Annexes
Annex 1
Class identity
Annex 2
Class identity
Annex 3
Class identity
Annex 4
Class identity
Annex 5
Annex 6
Regional identity
Annex 7
Personal identity
Annex 8
Personal identity
1. Teacher’s journal.
RESEARCHER NAME: Yiceth Carolina Pérez López JOURNAL #1
School and/or community name: San Isidro School Group:fifth Session / Class:1 Date: March 1st Place: classroom
Activity to reflect on: Introducing students
Purpose of the activity: they are going to use personal information to introduce in the class, such as:
- Name, age, place of birth.
- Description by using adjectives.
- Hobbies
Description Reflection/ Analysis Students introduce themselves to the teacher.
They say their names, age and place of birth. Through a game with balloons, students work in pairs to describe themselves, what their characteristics are. In this game they had to find a quality or ability into the balloons and say if their peers are or not identified with the word.
After that, the teacher starts explaining them how to talk about preferences and interests. She explains them some expressions taking into account the verbs: like, love and enjoy.
Then they drew and wrote in a cardboard what they like to do, their hobbies or favorite activities. Finally they do the dissertation of their preferences.
Through the students’ introduction I could learn about students, how they are, they live and they feel in their learning process.
At the beginning they were very shy, but then, when I stared to talk and ask, they stared to interact too.
In the warm activity, playing with the balloons I realized that they don’t like or feel comfortable working male and female. It was very hard to persuade them to work boys and girls. Besides, I observed the age differences and how it impacts the group.
Then, when we started working with the topic about preferences, they started to work more confident. They practiced the vocabulary learnt and interact with me during the whole class.
Evaluation: The results were very positive. I felt accepted and if they know me before. I think they were afraid because they are not used to talk all the time in English, but they tried to do their best during the class activities. Through the warming activity, I realized they don’t like to work with the opposite genre. They prefer to work male and male than male and female. Also, I could observe that they are very clever, participative and attentive. It was an excellent class.
Annex 9
Personal identity
Annex 10
Annex 11
Writing content
Annex 12
Writing content
Annex 13
Annex 14
Rural education (parents’ participation)
Annex 15
Rural education (parents’ opinions) Researcher:
- Very good Mrs. Claudia. The second question is: Do you help your son with his academic process?
Mother:
- Yes, I do. Researcher:
- In which way?
Mother:
- In the afternoon, revising notebooks, teaching him to be organized, to be responsible, his homeworks…
Researcher:
- Do you help your daughter with her academic process? Mother:
- Yes, yes. I advise her revising the notebooks and asking her to do her homework.
Researcher:
- Ok, Mrs. Finally, from your point of view, what are the advantages and disadvantages of education in the rural area?
Mother:
So, the advantages are that as they are few students, teachers can concentrate and pay them more attention. Doesn’t she? And one of the disadvantages is that sometimes they live very limited, in things like technology…for instances, because here the problem in the rural area is that the internet doesn’t work here.
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