Última revisión realizada:04/05/2022

Subject Name

Teaching English in Early Childhood Education

Study

Grado en Maestro de Educación Infantil (Grupo bilingüe)
ECTS Credits
6
Type of subject Optional

Presentation

This subject will provide preschool teachers with the necessary tools and strategies for teaching English through stories, tales, picturebooks, drama, songs, fingerplays and games, as they acquire some important skills needed to adapt the literary resources to their student’s capacities, personalities and needs. In our courses, students will learn strategies to engage children in active explorations aligned with the Math and Science objectives. Students will recognize the integration of science and math content as vehicles for literacy and critical thinking.

Students will explore how children acquire language in social context and the impact of biological, psycholinguistic, and sociocultural factors on language development in the developing of children. Students examine the relationships between language skills and emergent literacy.

Students explore early literacy development and the impact of increasing linguistic and cultural diversity on early childhood language arts/literacy education. Through dynamic and original exercises, the students will make up stories to foster their creativity and teachers will find resources focused on listening, speaking and reading.

Competences

Basic competences

  • BC2. Students know how to apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner, and possess the skills that they usually demonstrate through the development and defence of arguments, as well as the resolution of problems within their area of study.
  • BC4. Students can transmit information, ideas, problems and solutions to a specialised and non-specialised public.
  • BC5. Students have developed the learning skills required to undertake further studies with a high degree of autonomy.

General competences

  • GC1. Know the objectives, curricular content and evaluation criteria of Early Years Education.
  • GC9. Know about Early Ears education organisation and the diversity of actions that comprises their operation. Assume that teaching has to be developed and adapted to scientific, pedagogical and social changes throughout life.
  • GC11. Reflect on classroom practices to innovate and improve teaching. Acquire habits and skills for autonomous and cooperative learning and promote it among students.

Specific competences

  • SC45. Know oral tradition and folklore.
  • SC47. Know the process for learning to read and write and how this is taught.
  • SC50. Know and use resources appropriately for the encouragement of reading and writing.

Program

Unit 1. What is storytelling?

The origin of storytelling
Description of storytelling
The objectives of storytelling
Types of stories
References

Unit 2. Getting started to teach through storytelling?

Literature for children nowadays
How to choose stories: resources and criteria
Autonomous reading
References

Unit 3. Debates of the stories and analysis

Autonomous reading
Large and small groups
Theme units around stories
References

Unit 4. Students make their stories

Pre-storytelling and post-storytelling
Tell or narrate: the dilemma
How to prepare a story to be told
How to organize a story to be told
Picture Books
References

Unit 5. Implementing Reading and Writing

How to narrate successfully
Math & Science
Writing and Early Reading in Storytelling
References

Unit 6. Students make their stories

Types of stories
Structures of the stories
Ideas to make up stories
References

Unit 7. Activities Around Stories

Large group literacy activities
Small group literacy activities
Acquiring writing skills through stories
Literacy to scaffold mature play
Learning Math and Science through stories: activities
References

Unit 8. Benefits of storytelling

Introduce vocabulary and grammar through storytelling
Tools to foster reading stories
How to use ICTs in early childhood literature
Promoting Critical Thinking in Storytelling
References

Unit 9. The impact of literacy

For a linguistic development
Global development
Developing self- regulation and problem solving
Practicing Gross Motor Skills through Literacy Activities
Developing phonemic awareness
Assessment
Bibliographic references

Unit 10. Learning through games

Turn a story into a game
Tools to make riddles, poems, rhymes…
Drama
Implementing songs and fingerplays in storytelling
Center time: literacy in every center!
Bibliographic references

Methodology

Metodología

The different tasks and activities programmed during the semester have been developed with the goal of adapting the learning process to the different capabilities, necessities and interests of the students.

The activities included in the subject are:

  • Work. These are activities of different types: reflection, case analysis, practice, etc.
  • Participation in events. Events are scheduled every week of the semester: virtual face-to-face sessions, discussion forums, tests.
  • Reading commentary. This is a very specific type of activity that consists in the analysis of texts of articles by expert authors in different units of the subject.

In the weekly program you can find the specific tasks you need to complete in this subject.
Descarga el pdf de la programación

These activities are combined with the following aspects:

  • Personal Study
  • Tutoring. The tutoring class can be implemented through different tools and means. During the course of the subject, the teacher-tutor plans the individual tutoring on specific days for the resolution of academic-oriented doubts through “Consultation sessions”. Supplementing these sessions, students have also available the “Ask your teacher” forum through which they can formulate questions and check the corresponding answers on general aspects of the subject.  Due to the very nature of the media used, there are no fixed schedules for the students.
  • Final exam presence-based or online modality.

 

You can personalize your study plan choosing the type of activity that best matches your profile. The tutor will advise you and help you elaborate your study plan. S/he will always be available to guide throughout the course.

Bibliography

Basic bibliography

The section Basic Bibliography is essential for the course. If any document (reading, article,…) is not available in the virtual classroom, you will have to find it by other means: UNIR bookshop, virtual library…

The necessary texts for the study of this subject had been elaborated by UNIR and are available in a digital format for consultation, download and print in the virtual classroom.

Aparicio, Y. y Pérez, M. (2020). Storytelling. La lectura de álbumes ilustrados en la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa. Madrid: Pirámide.

Bruner, J. (2002). Making stories. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Dorling Kindersley Book. (1991). My First look at Nature. New York: Random House.

Dowdy, J. y Cushner, K. (2019). Reading between the Lines: Activities for Developing Social Awareness Literacy. Rowman & Littlefield.

Ellis, G. and J. Brewster. (2002). Tell it again! The New Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers. Harmondsworth: Pearson Penguin.

Gibbons, G. (1984). The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree. New York: Scholastic.

Dunn, J. (1980). The Little Rabit. New York: Random House.

Keats, E. J. (1962). The Snowy Day. New York: Scholastic.

Maass, R. (1993). When Winter Comes. New York, Lothorp: Lee & Shepard.

Propp, V. (1998). Morfología del cuento. España: Akal.

Stephen, C. y Edwards, S. (2018). Young Children Playing and Learning in a Digital Age: A Cultural and Critical Perspective. Routledge.

Wright, A. (2008). Storytelling with Children. New York: OUP.

evaluación

Evaluation and assessment

The evaluation system is based on the following numerical chart:

0 - 4, 9

Suspenso

(SS)

5,0 - 6,9

Aprobado

(AP)

7,0 - 8,9

Notable

(NT)

9,0 - 10

Sobresaliente

(SB)

The grade is made up of two components:

calificación

Final exam (60%). At the end of the semester, you need to assist a compulsory final exam either in presence- based or online modality. You need to pass the final exam so the grade obtained from the assignments (continuous assessment) is summed up to the final grade of the subject. 

Continuous assessment (40%): this type of assessment will be measured through the different assignments you need to complete during the course:

    • Active participation and involvement in forums, online classes.
    • Tasks. The completion of the different activities the students need to send through our virtual classroom such as research, critical thinking, practice cases.
    • Self-evaluation tests. At the end of each unit, students will find a short quiz which will help the students to check the knowledge acquired during the course.

Remember that you can check the points (value) of each assignment in the weekly program.

Take into account that the sum of the grades of the assignments included in the continuous assessment is 6 points. You can do as many as you want to until a maximum grade of 4 points (which is the maximum grade you will be obtaining in the continuous assessment)In the weekly program, you can find the grade of each assignment. .

Assessment method
Min. Score
Max. Score
Participation in forums, classes, etc.
0%
10%
Task, practice cases and activities
10%
40%
Self-evaluation test
0%
10%
Final exam
60%
60%

 

Bear in mind…
That if you decide to only take the final exam, you will need to have 5 points out of 6 to pass the subject.

Professor

Mercedes Pérez Agustín

Formación: Prof. Gema Jiménez is a BA in Education with a spezialization in Teaching English as a Second Language.Doctora en literatura norteamericana especializada en la tradición oral de los nativos canadienses por la UCM Máster en Traducción e Interpretación por la UCM Filología inglesa y francesa en la UCM Curso de formación de TOEFL en Ottawa (Canadá)

Experiencia: Coordinadora Académica del itinerario bilingüe de los grados de infantil y primaria. Profesora de inglés desde el nivel A1 hasta el C2, didáctica de la lengua inglesa, didáctica avanzada, gramática de la lengua inglesa, Practicum I, dirección de TFM y TFG (infantil y primaria), inglés aplicado al turismo e inglés para psicólogos. Impartidora de talleres para docentes de formación en metodología bilingüe Impartidora de talleres de ¿cómo aprender inglés a través de cuentos? Creadora de la escuela de inglés en colaboración con Cambridge en un centro concertado Examinadora de Cambridge (KET, PET, FCE, CAE)

Líneas de investigación: Es IP del grupo Picturebooks de UNIR donde estudian los beneficios de impartir inglés a partir de los álbumes ilustrados en la etapa de infantil. Es colaboradora externa del grupo de investigación REWEST de la UPV. Publicaciones
-El origen del mundo y otras historias de los indios de Canadá. Editorial Verbum.
-Conversación que mantuve con Evan Pritchard en relación con los cuentos del pueblo micmac y sus construmbres. Nexus. AEDEAN (Asociación Española de Estudios Norteramericanos).
-El acercamiento del canon literario europeo a la literatura de los nativos americanos: Lee Maracle y Leslie Marmon Silko. Editorial Comares.

Tips

Orientación para el estudio

Studying online means you can organize your study as you wish, as long as you meet the due dates of the different assignments (activities, tasks and tests). In order to help you, we propose the following steps:

  1. From our online platform you will have access to each of the subjects you are enrolled. Apart from this, the virtual classroom of Lo que necesitas saber antes de empezar (All you need to know before starting). In this section, you have available all the documents on how to use the different tools included in the virtual classroom, how a subject is organized and you will also have the possibility to organize your study plan with the tutor.
  2. Do not forget to check the weekly program. You will see which part of the content of the course you have to work on every week.
  3. After knowing your work for the week, go to Temas in your virtual classroom. There, you will have access to the study material (theory and practice) from the unit you need to study throughout the week.
  4. Start by reading the Key ideas of each unit, there you will find the specific study material and it will help you understand the most important points of the unit. Afterwards, check out the sections Specially Recommended and More Information where you will find more resources in order to deepen on the topic of the unit. .
  5. Devote some time to the practical cases and tasks in the subject (assignments and test). Remember that in your weekly program you find all the information related to the schedule for each assignment and the maximum grade you can obtain in each of them.
  6. We strongly recommend you to participate in the Events of the course (online classes, forums….). To know the precise schedule of the events, you need to check the communications tools in the virtual platform. Your teacher and tutor will inform you on the updates of the course.
In the virtual classroom of Lo que necesitas saber antes de empezar (All you need to know before starting) you will always find available information on the structure of the units and information on their sections

Remember that in Lo que necesitas saber antes de empezar (All you need to know before starting) you can check how the different tools of the virtual classroom work: email, forum, online classes, sending the tasks, etc.

Please, take into account the following tips…

  • Whatever you study plan is, go often to the virtual classroom so that you are always up to date about the course and you are in contact with your teacher and your tutor.
  • Remember you are not alone: send an email to your tutor if you have any doubt. If you attend the online classes, you can also ask your teacher about the contents of the unit. Also, you can always write your doubts and questions about  the contents in the Forum of each subject (Ask the teacher).
  • Be active and participate!  Whenever it is possible, attend the online classes and take part in the forums. The exchange of information, opinions, ideas and resources enrich us and the course.
  • And, remember, you are studying online: your effort and perseverance are the key element to obtain good results. Don’t leave everything to the last minute!!!