Activity 6: Joint Productive Activity.

Joint Productive Activity

A Joint Productive Activity can be an utterly enriching experience. It is rewarding seeing how the different stages of Joint Productive Activity are going forward and how the final project starts emerging after days and even weeks of work. This does not mean that the steps in Joint Productive Activities are neither always easy to follow nor satisfactory every time. What is important is to deal with the difficulties that arise during the Joint Productive Activity. It is important to observe what is happening and try to see why it is happening and suggest remedial measures. What I found challenging is that these remedial measures have to be generated at the moment of the occurrences. I believe that after all, our project had a good outcome.

I started working with my students on this Joint Productive Activity about two months ago, before I had even heard of such term. Our Joint Productive Activity is called ‘From concepts to the construction of knowledge’, and it is my entry to a teaching contest. This Joint Productive Activity was conducted by 40 students (two 12 years old, first grade, junior high school groups divided in: 1A, and 1B, 20 students each), and I. This represented a challenge because the lesson planning had to be carefully conducted. I estimate a 10-12 hour planning period from the beginning to the end of this Joint Productive Activity. This included organizing teams, looking for sources of information, adapting this information to the students level of English, distributing topics, planning collaborative learning activities for each of the teams, deciding which technology resource were going to be implemented, writing instructions, designing and adapting electronic worksheets and templates for the students, and introducing the students to the project: name, purpose, objective and the different steps.

This Joint Productive Activity basically consisted in the students writing a short academic essay. As the project name suggests From Concept to the Construction of Knowledge’, the students had to first find what the different parts of an academic essay are and their function: paragraphs (introduction, body, conclusion), topic sentences, supporting sentences, thesis statements, closing sentences, and what an academic essay is and its purpose. These topics were distributed in teams of four students and they were given prompt questions and worksheets which would lead them through the process of finding information. After the students having found the information related to their topics, they had to design an electronic presentation to tell the rest of their classmates what they had found out. The other students had to take notes about these presentations so that at the end everybody had everything. After this, I provided the students with feedback to correct any information and clear any doubts.

The following stage in this Joint Productive Activity was the most challenging. When we had finished explaining the different parts in an academic essay, I distributed some sample essays for the students to identify its different parts. After the corresponding feedback, they had to put into practice what they have seen in theory (‘From concepts to the construction of knowledge’). Here is where everything started to be much more interesting.

The students had to show how much they had understood by writing a short academic essay on their own. To begin with, the different subjects that the students have during their first grade in junior high school were distributed among the teams. In other words, each teams had to write and academic essay about different subjects: mathematics, biology, literature, social studies, Spanish and geography (this also required the students to translate from Spanish to English). Once they had their designated subject, they began by implementing different techniques, which we had worked on before this Joint Productive Activity such as scanning, skimming, underlining, paraphrasing and summarizing (these last two techniques were implemented while writing the essay). After the students having their information, I explained what is and outline and how it is used to organized the information in it.

The following step was typing their outline and first academic essay draft. It was not easy for the students to think of topic sentences and closing sentences, the most difficult was thinking of a thesis statement. Yet, we continued working until they finally finish their outline and first draft. After this, they exchange their outlines and first draft with a different team for peer feedback. They had to focus on the structure of the essays: paragraphing, topic sentences, supporting sentences, closing and thesis statements. Subsequently, they had to exchange the essays back and analyze the feedback provided by their peers. Afterwards, they had to make the changes they considered necessary, this would be their second draft. I would check the students’ second draft, and they would make the corresponding correction, this would be their final academic essays, and the end of their Joint Productive Activity.

The most frequent difficulties we experienced during this Joint Productive Activity were technical difficulties. Many time the students had Internet connections problems, which keep them from retrieving the information they needed in the first stages of their project (different parts of the essays, for example). Fortunately, we had books which contained enough information to solve this problem. Another difficulty was finding multimedia classrooms for their presentations. I had to negotiate with different teachers who had booked these multimedia classrooms. There were satisfactory arrangements with these teachers most of the times. Besides this, I feel that this Joint Productive Activity was conducted satisfactorily.

Lesson Plan

General Phases	Specific Phases	Prompt questions to generate reflection	Sessions	Expected learning
Preparation	I.            Questions to get started (Begining of the project)	1.        What is a paragraph? 2.        What is an introduction? 3.        What are body paragraphs? 4.        What is a conclusion? 5.        What is a topic sentence? 6.        What is a supporting sentence? 7.        What is a thesis statement? 8.        What is a closing sentence? 9.        What is an academic essay?	This project was distributed in 60 sessions along the 4th partial corresponding to the students’ junior high school education during the current school year.	·          Students will be able to explain what the different parts of an academic essay are. ·          Students will be able to work collaboratively to develop a digital presentation. ·          Students will be able to write an academic essay.
	II.            ¿What do we know about it?	This section is to be completed in class. The students discuss the questions and their ideas are written on the board after the discussion. A matrix is a good chart to do this.
	III.            ¿What do we want to know about it?	This is also filled in by the students. Their suggestions are written on the board.
Development	IV.            Let´s organize the work	1.        The students are distributed in 5 teams of four (two boys and two girls when possible) 2.        The students are given the topics (corresponding to the prompt questions in the phase I) ·          Team 1: paragraphs (introduction, conclusion) ·          Team 2: topic sentences ·          Team 3: supporting sentences ·          Team 4: closing sentences ·          Team 5: Supporting paragraphs ·          Team 6: Expository essays
	V.            Let´s get to work	1.        Students search information related to the topics (material selected and adapted by the teachers) 2.        Students design electronic presentations to shoe and tell the class about their topics. Students take notes about the presentations. 3.        Students are provided with feedback. Students correct/complement their notes. 4.        Based on the information the students have, they are given sample essays to identify the different parts. Feedback is provided by the teacher. 5.        Students choose a subject from the ones they have at school. 6.        Students work on a section in one of the units in their text books. 7.        Students organize the information from their textbooks in an outline to get ready to start writing their first draft. 8.        Students type their first draft. 9.        Students exchange drafts and peer feedback each others drafts. 10.     Students type their second draft based on their classmates’ suggestions. 11.     Students turn their second draft in so that they are checked by the teacher. 12.     The third correction is the final academic essay.
Communication	VI.            These are our answers.	In this stage, the final essays are shared in teams. Students are encouraged to provide feedback base don the academic essay structure (sentences, paragraphs)
	VII.            What did we learn? What else can we learn? (end of the project)	This is filled in class. The students’ ideas are written on the board.

Students' first draft with peer feedback

Students' second draft with teachers' feedback

Students' presentation sample

Outline

Science

Math