Implementation of “Festivals in March –Saint Patrick’s Day” (SOl-GR-276)
Author: Maria Karadani
School/Organization: 2nd Primary School of Drama, Greece
The learning scenario ‘Festivals in March-Saint Patrick’s Day’ created by Emilia Marina Alexe was implemented by 16 primary school students (aged 12). It was used to consolidate their communication skills in English as a foreign language, develop intercultural and digital competences.
Subjects that were covered during this implementation are English, Arts and crafts, Religious Education.
The implementation took three sessions of 45 minutes so the information provided in the original scenario was adapted.
The implementation context
Why this scenario?
Part of the Greek primary school curriculum of teaching English as a Foreign Language is the learning about geographical and cultural aspects of European countries. Moreover, this year’s focus of our school is the implementation of local customs and traditions throughout the Greek history. As a consequence, the implementation of the particular scenario revealed the rich tradition of March in both cultures. Moreover, it was an opportunity to find common places on myths and folk stories.
The narrative
Steps of Implementation
The stages of the learning scenario were adapted due to the lesser teaching sessions available. Therefore, the proposed 4th and 5th steps of the scenario were skipped so students did not learn the steps of any given Irish dance. Another adjustment was also made on the rotation of the activities.
Step 1
The first teaching session started with a brainstorming on the life of Saint Patrick and Ireland, trying to elicit students’ prior knowledge on the topic and activate vocabulary. Then, an Irish lullaby together with pictures from Irish symbols (all from Europeana.eu and already included in the learning scenario) were used as a warm up leading up to students reading a text and in pairs and creating a quiz of 5 comprehension questions.
Step 2
As Students were not familiar with the Europeana platform and content, they were asked to work in groups of 2 or 3 in the school ICT Laboratory, browse the Europeana platform and collaborate in order to find more about the celebration around the world. They shared their findings (videos, news reports, photos, etc) through practicing speaking skills.
Step 3
To conclude the implementation process, students answered the quizzes created in previous lessons, while wearing Irish hats or something green. Finally, they listened to music from the Europeana platform to familiarize more with the Irish traditional songs and handcrafted a small bookmark.
Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes
The implementation of this learning scenario allowed the students to consolidate EFL vocabulary, grammar structures, and functions previously introduced, to learn about Europeana to develop research skills and consolidate their digital competence.
Outcomes for the educator
The Teaching outcomes
By choosing this lesson scenario, I discovered the advantages and possibilities of Europeana, learnt about creative commons licenses and enjoyed an easy access to materials in a variety of forms and languages.
Did you find this story of implementation interesting? Why don’t you read about the related learning scenario? “Festivals in March: Saint Patrick’s Day (LS-RO-66)” created by Emilia Marina Alexe
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Public Domain Mark 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Irish Traditional Music Archive.