CROSS-CURRICULAR: HISTORICAL NEWSPAPER

Shared by Rubén López

Project: ‘Historical Newspaper’
4th Year ESO

Introduction and Objectives:

        In this section we will focus on the analysis of a cross-curricular project, carried out two years ago, working together with other teachers from different departments (Spanish language and English) called ‘Historical Newspaper’. It was applied in a group of 4th ESO throughout the 2017-2018 course.

        The project tried to fulfill several objectives:

        1. The use of an active and participative didactic methodology, which would allow the students to be the protagonist of their teaching-learning process.

        2. The development of individual and cooperative learning by competences, through the co- resolution of tasks in order to achieve the transfer of learning.

        3. Focus on problem-situations, which the student should solve making appropriate use of the different types of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. Thus, learning by projects favors active participation, the development of competences, and the motivation of students.

        4. Promote motivation to learn. The key element is that students understand what they learn, know what they are learning it for, and be able to use what they have learned in different contexts, inside and outside the classroom.

        5. The teamwork of the teaching staff to provide a multidisciplinary approach to the educational process, selecting the best methodological strategies and choosing quality teaching materials and resources.

        6. Use of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

        Description of the Project:

        The activity, based on the historical newspaper format, tries to put the pupils in front of real historical situations. It is about each group of students going through the most relevant historical events in Contemporary History narrating them as if they were journalists who have just witnessed what happened.

        Thus, collaboration with the Spanish language department will be of a paramount importance, especially in the treatment of journalistic language and objective narrative style. Something similar happens with the English department, as it is a great opportunity to improve general and specific vocabulary.

The project was developed following a series of steps:

        1. Class organization in heterogeneous cooperative groups of 3-4 people.

        2. Assignment of topics / historical stages, related to Contemporary History (from the Crisis of the Ancient Regime to the Present World).

        3. Selection of relevant news related to each historical period.

        4. Journalistic treatment of the news (in close collaboration with the Spanish language and English teachers).

        5. Preparation of a digital PowerPoint presentation (development of ICT skills).

        6. Oral presentation to the class, as part of the final mark of the activity.

        7. Maximum dissemination of the works through the development of a collaborative blog (http://artlovers4eso.blogspot.com/) and the paper print of the work for its later exhibition through the center. At the same time, an open poll may be posted on the blog to assess the best or best jobs (the most voted will receive bonus points in the final mark).

Assessment:

        Finally, for the assessment of the project, we will use rubrics so that we can know the competence development acquired by the students, both when generating their works and when transmitting the knowledge acquired to the rest of the class.

Rubric oral presentations	Excellent	Very good/good	Good	Needs improvement
Information, subject knowledge & presentation	Students demonstrate full knowledge of the subject. They have time enough to give the most important information. At the end they summarize the most relevant information.	Students demonstrate good knowledge of the subject, with explanations and elaborations. They can't explain all the items properly because they don't have time enough. At the end they try to summarize the most relevant information.	Students demonstrate not much knowledge of the subject. They finish before it's time. They don't summarize the most relevant information.	Students demonstrate very poor knowledge of the subject. They finish before it's time and They don't know what to say. They have problems with the presentation and they don't summarize the most relevant information.
Organization	Students present complete information in logical, interesting sequence which audience can follow. All the members take part in the explanation.	Students present information in logical sequence which audience can follow. All the members take part in the explanation.	Audience has difficulty following the presentation because students jump around. The order of the presentation is not clear. There aré students who don't participate in the explanation.	Audience cannot understand the presentation because there is no sequence of information. The order of the presentation is not clear.
Graphics and maps	Very interesting and high quality photographs or maps. They go well with the text. Good mix of text and graphics.	Interesting photographs or maps. They go well with the text, but there are so many that distract from the text.	The graphics go well with the text, but there are too few and They are not very interesting.	The graphics do not go with the accompanying text or appear to be randomly chosen.
Enthusiasm, elocution & use of English	Students demonstrate a strong positive feeling about the topic during the entire presentation, with a clear voice and correct pronunciation so that all audience members can hear it. Very good use of English.	Students occasionally show positive feelings about the topic. The voice is clear. They pronounce most words correctly. Most audience members can hear the presentation. Good use of English.	Students show some negativity towards the topic presented. Their voice is low with incorrectly pronounced terms. Audience members have difficulty hearing the presentation. Poor use of English, mixed with Spanish.	Students show absolutely no interest in the topic presented. They mumble, with incorrectly pronounced terms. Very poor use of English, mixed with Spanish.
Body language and poise	Movements seem fluid and help the audience visualize. Students display relaxed, self- confident nature about self, with no mistakes.	Students make movements or gestures that facilitate articulation. They make minor mistakes, but quickly recover from them, displaying little or no tension.	Very little movements or descriptive gestures. Students display mild tension and have trouble recovering from mistakes.	No movements or descriptive gestures. Tension and nervousness is obvious. They have trouble recovering from mistakes.

Conclusions:

We have explained a collaborative project that allows students to approach the study of Contemporary History in an active and participatory way, making them feel like protagonists of their own teaching-learning process. At the same time, we are promoting cooperative learning through group task resolution. In addition to this, we are working on key competences, which will allow us to obtain more lasting and permanent learning. Finally, we are working on ICTs, managing to increase students' motivation to learn.