>Planning phase by phase what will happen

eLanguages Project Toolkit

Section 5: Plan phase by phase what will happen

A clear project structure and detailed preparation will make your project work and will also help you to cope with the unexpected.

Think through the materials you will need to prepare before and during the project and estimate if you have the time, the software and hardware, and the ICT skills to do everything. If in doubt, consider simplifying your plans.

Ensure you can place prepared materials not only on eLanguages for your partners but also in accessible places on your school network, both for you and your pupils in the case of materials which you want pupils to use either as consolidation activities or as support and guidance.

Decide for each phase of the project how you will prepare pupils both in terms of learning the necessary language and grammar, and in terms of exploring the topic, especially if the theme is cultural or social and perhaps new to pupils.

Decide at what stage pupils will make contact with their counterparts in partner schools and how they will make that contact. See the notes on use of target language and mother tongue.

Decide how pupils will be organised into groups or pairs and how you will guide them to work more independently and creatively. Plan to make pupils aware of safety and copyright issues. Ensure they have an accessible place to store work in progress prior to placing finished products on eLanguages.

Decide how far you will direct pupils and how much freedom you wish to give them to create their own work and content.

Consider the role that you will adopt in the more independent phases of the project and how you will make best use of a role where you may become more of a facilitator.

Consider also how you are going to work with pupils to share thoughts and reactions at the end of the project and how you intend to use this opportunity to develop critical skills, linguistic, technical and presentational amongst pupils.

Study the various points laid out below in the phase by phase guide before going to the Project Notepad where you can make very brief notes before committing ideas to the project page on eLanguages.

A phase by phase approach

Study the notes below and make notes in the Project Notepad before creating your phase by phase outline on the project page at eLanguages.

Preparatory phase

Which materials must be prepared in advance and as the project continues? For example, presentations to introduce key language or grammatical structures, interactive whiteboard activities, images, worksheets.
Support documents such as notes of guidance, grammar guides and glossaries.

Initial phase

Activities with the whole class.
Individual work by pupils: reinforcement activities such as worksheets, or interactive materials on the school network.
Contact with pupils in partner school: eLanguages forum or e-mail with attachments or contact by other means (video conference).

Central phase

Pupil activities as they develop their project: working in groups to plan work, take photos, research the World Wide Web, prepare scripts for podcasts, slideshows, create web page template and so on.
Pupils share with partners.
Pupils share ideas for improving respective target language or swap resources, such as photos, mp3 voice recordings, video clips.
Teacher role in this phase: facilitator, guide.