Basic One (B01) Course Syllabus

Course name: Basic One

Course code: B01

1. Course description:

Basic One is an introductory course that covers the rudiments of English. For many students, it will
be their first experience with the English language. Basic One covers the topics of introductions,
favorites, cities, countries and nationalities, and personal items. This course addresses situations
related to introductions, asking about people’s favorites, asking where people are from, describing
cities and hometowns, and asking about personal items.

The new words and expressions include personal information, things people like, names of
countries and cities, positive and negative qualities for describing cities, and items people possess.
The language forms used are the verb be in affirmative sentences and yes/no questions, subject
pronouns, possessive adjectives, questions with who and where, adjectives with verb be, plurals of
nouns, and demonstrative adjectives.

Basic One covers the first three units of the World Link series Third Edition plus a "Welcome" unit,
three "Consolidation" units, a "Writing spread", “Video worksheets” and a review unit at the end.
The course represents the program’s first 27 hours of in-class instruction.

2. Course material:

A. Core Learning Material and Resources:

o Learning Outcomes o Review Unit
o Unit Opener and Warm-up Video o Unit Consolidation (Units 1-3)
o Welcome Unit (Units 1-3) o Process Writing Spread
o World Link Basic 1 Student Book 3rd o Language Summaries
Ed. o Grammar Notes
o Workbook o Teacher’s Resource Worksheets
o Video Worksheets (Units 1-3) (Communicative activities)

It is important to note that some of these resources are new to the third international edition and
unique to ICPNA’s customized edition. More details in the following chart:

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 Resource Description

Unit Opener Lead-in questions that can be used to introduce the general topic of the unit.

The video relates to the unit topics (Lesson A or B) in general, and it does not necessarily address
the language being presented in the unit activities. For this reason, watch the videos in advance in
Warm-up Video order to provide students with enough background information. While working with warm-up
videos, students should not be expected to use English at all times. Words or chunks are
acceptable answers at this point.

This section presents activities with basic classroom language (vocabulary and expressions) that
Welcome Unit*
will allow students simple interactions in the target language.

Video These are simple worksheets with pre-, during and post-watching activities related to the videos in
Worksheets the series. At least one out of the three videos available must be covered in class per unit.

These sections provide additional activities for consolidating practice. The speaking and writing
tasks can be used as mirror activities for evaluative purposes if needed (modifications may be
Unit
required). The Listening and Reading sections are meant to help students become familiar with
Consolidation*
the Michigan English Test (MET) question format: multiple choice items and specific wording used
in the exam.

Activities that encourage the development of process writing from sentence level (basic courses)
Process Writing
up to paragraph level (intermediate courses). They are intended to complement classwork, so it
Spread*
may be a good idea to review them in advance in order to identify the relevant tasks for each unit.

* ICPNA’s customized edition only

B. Supplementary Learning Material and Resources:

o My World Link Online (MWLO) – adaptive learning path
o Classroom Presentation Tool (class resource)

3. Course Themes:

 Welcome Unit.- Classroom expressions, Get help, Alphabet and Numbers, Greetings, and
Classroom Vocabulary.
 Unit 1.- Introductions
 Unit 2.- Countries
 Unit 3.- Possessions

4. Course Advance:

Please refer to the Suggested Teaching Schedule for more information on the course advance.
Remember you are expected to record what the first activity for the following day would be on a
daily basis in the e-classlist.

5. Evaluation Criteria:

Students at this level are assessed on general English competence. For more information, please
refer them to the Evaluation Guide available in Chamilo.

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 I. In-class evaluation tasks:

Learning Objectives / Outcomes

Throughout the course, students are assessed based on their performance in given tasks. These
tasks correspond to specific learning objectives/outcomes, which reflect the expected level of
competence in different skills and have the purpose of allowing the teacher to elicit language
samples for evaluation purposes without using activities in the course book that could help
consolidate learning.

Monthly, teachers are expected to choose six (6) learning objectives/outcomes from the course’s
content as follows:

 3 learning objectives/outcomes for Speaking

 2 learning objectives/outcomes for Writing
 1 learning objective/outcome for Reading

Each objective/outcome is worth two (2) points making up a total of twelve (12) points as a
maximum by the end of the course. For the complete list of learning objectives/outcomes, please
refer to the Class Assessment form. Students have access to this information through the Self-
Assessment sheet in Chamilo.

The course book’s activities are reserved for language practice and development rather than
direct evaluation. Therefore, in this section you will find some alternatives on how to assess
your students’ speaking and writing skills in class between days 1-14 of the cycle.

(1) Ways to assess students’ performance

The first option is to create your own mirror activity based on what students have worked on in
class. For instance:

Unit Speaking Writing

Students introduce themselves to each other.

With a partner, they must ask/answer questions Students write about a friend or family
1 about their names, nicknames and telephone member’s personal information and his/her
numbers. They should use greetings in the favorites (book, movie, TV show, etc.)
conversation.

Students choose a country individually, and in

Students write about a city they want to visit and
pairs, they ask/answer questions on its capital
include information on where it is, what it is
2 city and its characteristics. Then, students switch
famous for and what it is like (using positive and
roles. They can also ask/answer questions about
negative adjectives).
famous people's nationalities.

Students make reference to pictures of items on

Students write two or three sentences about an
the screen or board in order to ask/answer
3 item that could be a good gift for a friend or
questions using descriptive adjectives and
family member. You can set different scenarios.
demonstratives in full sentences.

Another way is to choose an activity from the Unit Consolidations, Review Units, or worksheets
whenever these activities match the objectives set for the lesson as well as the level, degree of
difficulty and format.

The Reading objective/outcome is assessed by means of a standardized reading quiz made by

the Headship of Academic Development and Design.
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 These quizzes have four (4) items in multiple choice format. These items aim to assess
students’ understanding of factual information found in the texts (reading for gist and details). All
reading passages in the book / workbook could be used for this purpose.

In class, quizzes are found in the Documents folder in Chamilo. The PowerPoint presentations
are timed (1 minute per slide) and cannot be altered in any way (format or content). Students
have to mark their answers in the separate answer sheet especially designed for this purpose.
Students have to return the said answer sheets right after the quiz administration is over. They
cannot keep the answer sheets with them to protect the integrity of the content.

(2) Rubrics for evaluation of students’ performance

In terms of the scoring process, the following rubrics are taken into consideration during
assessment.

The speaking objectives/outcomes are assessed following the criteria below:

SPEAKING ASSESSMENT
Score
0 1
Area
The student is mostly unable to use the target The student is mostly able to use the target
Accuracy form(s) to successfully comply with the speaking form(s) to successfully comply with the
task according to the level. speaking task according to the level.

The student is able to communicate ideas

The student is not able to communicate ideas
Communication naturally and fluently most of the time to
naturally and fluently to comply with the speaking
Effectiveness comply with the speaking task according to
task according to the level.
the level.

The writing objectives/outcomes are assessed following the criteria below:

WRITING ASSESSMENT

Score
0 1
Area
The student is unable to use the target form(s) The student is able to use the target form(s)
Accuracy most of the time to successfully comply with a most of the time to successfully comply with
specific writing task. a specific writing task.

The student is able to convey the message

The student is unable to convey the message
Communication effectively most of the time and successfully
effectively and successfully to comply with a
Effectiveness to comply with a specific writing task for the
specific writing task according to the level.
level.

Please, consider the following when scoring your students’ performance:

1. Award a total of 2 points if your students display:

 Accurate use of target language for task = 1 point
 Effective communication = 1 point

2. Award a total of 1 point if your students demonstrate:

 Inaccurate use of target language for task = 0 points
 Effective communication = 1 point
Or…
 Accurate use of target language for task = 1 point
 Ineffective communication = 0 points
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 3. Award a total of 0 points if your students display:
 Inaccurate use of target language for task = 0 points
 Ineffective communication = 0 points

Since Reading objectives/outcomes depend on a quiz, the score range is divided as follows:

READING
SCORE CRITERIA

2 The student answered all four (4) questions correctly.

1 The student answered three (3) or two (2) questions correctly.

0 The student answered one (1) or zero (0) questions correctly.

II. Standardized Written Exam

Formal written evaluation is done through the standardized written examinations provided by the
Academic Department at the end of the course. This exam includes sections for listening
comprehension, grammar and vocabulary use, reading comprehension, and question /
response identification. It has a duration of 50 minutes.

Please refer to the Teacher's copy exam file (TC) for more details about the exam sections,
specific instructions, and scoring rubrics (Resource Center).

The scale for this exam goes from zero (0) to four (4) points and students’ grades will depend on
how many points they obtain in the exam. The conversion will be done as follows:

70 – 63 = 4 62 – 56 = 3 55 – 49 = 2 48 – 42 = 1 41 and under = 0

III. Autonomous Learning Project (ALP)

The autonomous learning project (ALP) refers to a task (inquiry, solving a problem, etc.) assigned
by the teacher to an individual or group that is conducive to additional learning outside of the
classroom. The project needs to be set in accordance with the course objectives.

The learner has much of the responsibility for planning and organizing his / her learning outside
the classroom; however, it is up to the teacher to suggest situations for students to research on.
The project should be presented as communicative activities, such as role-plays, presentations,
stories.

The following are some ideas teachers can use for this category in Basic 1:

UNIT 1 UNIT 2 UNIT 3

 Students choose a country and

 Students interview a classmate and  Students make an advertisement
make a poster about it. They can
give an oral presentation about their for an electronic product. They can
include information such as the
findings. include a description of the product.
country’s nationality, language,
 Students make a fan club brochure  Students make a conversation in a
description, etc.
for their favorite actor or singer and gift shop describing the items found
 Students prepare a conversation
present it to the class. there.
about a place they like.

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 The evaluation will consider four important aspects: the appropriate use of language structures
needed for the task, the organization of the presentation, its content; and students’ effective use
of presentation support (intonation, gestures, visuals, videos, etc.) appropriate for the task.

The ALP is worth four (4) points and the rubrics for assessment are presented below:

Scores
Outstanding Quite Good Average Lacking Poor
CRITERIA (4) (3) (2) (1) (0)
Descriptors
Appropriate use of Inappropriate use
Appropriate use of Appropriate use barely enough of Appropriate use of of all or almost all
*Appropriate all or almost all of of many of the the target few of the target of the target
use of the target language target language language forms language forms language forms
language forms necessary forms necessary necessary for the necessary for the needed for the
(articulate and for the task. for the task. task. task. Makes task.
accurate) Comprehensibility Comprehensibility Comprehensibility comprehensibility Comprehensibility
is effortless. is not affected. is not significantly difficult. is significantly
affected. affected.

On task. Off task.

Very effective and On task. On task. On task, but Very ineffective.
Logical creative, logically Quite effective, Moderately ineffective. Continuously
Organization structured all or logically structured effective, logically Disorganized most unclear and
almost all of the many of the times. structured at times of the times. disorganized all the
times. time.

All or almost all of

Content is
the content is Much of the Much of the content All content is
Adequate moderately
adequate and content is adequate is inadequate inadequate for the
Content adequate for the
pertinent for the for the task. content for the task. task.
task.
task.

Outstanding use of Moderately Inadequate or No use of

Quite adequate use
presentation support adequate use of insufficient use of presentation
Presentation of presentation
(intonation, presentation presentation support
support (intonation,
Support gestures, visuals, support (intonation, support (intonation, (intonation,
gestures, visuals,
(visual, auditory, videos, etc.) gestures, visuals, gestures, visuals, gestures, visuals,
videos, etc.)
paralinguistic) appropriate and videos, etc.) videos, etc.) videos, etc.)
appropriate for the
pertinent for the appropriate for the appropriate for the appropriate for the
task.
task. task. task. task.

*This chart serves as the new ALPs rubrics to be used in the Adult Program. It has been upgraded in
order to allow for an additional performance band that will aid teachers to identify more easily those
students who demonstrate an outstanding performance in relation to the learning outcomes of the course.
As the ALPs are communication-oriented tasks that seek to integrate the use of several key learning
outcomes in the course and the use of 21st century skills such as creativity, critical thinking, use of
technology, etc., the allocation of the said additional band (number 4) will enhance the students’ intrinsic
motivation to constantly strive for excellence.

The Guiding ALP Rubrics have been carefully designed in order to help teachers distinguish students
across 4 holistic performance bands ranging from 0 – 4 (poor – outstanding). The performance
assessment is based on 4 types of criteria; namely, appropriate use of language, logical organization,
adequate content, and where applicable, presentation support. In addition, the performance band
descriptors aim to rate student performance depending on the quality and quantity that students are able
to sustain.

Please be aware that for the rubrics to fulfill their purpose, it is key that the students clearly understand
what they are expected to do so that their academic achievement can be duly acknowledged. Please let
students know what you expect them to produce and present so they can strive for excellence. Make sure
that the instructions to carry out the task(s) are clear.

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Please keep in mind that the evaluation approach intended to be used is holistic (assessment of the overall
proficiency ability as a whole. Rubric consists of a set of descriptors that generate a single, global score for the
entire production.), not analytic (specific assessment of proficiency ability evaluated independently with separate
scores for each criterion, which can be combined – for example adding, etc. to produce a final score ). Be aware
that neither one is better than the other; they just address different contexts and limitations.

When using this set of rubrics, consider the Appropriate use of language as the “central” criterion to establish the
language proficiency demonstrated by the student(s). Once you have a feel for this, complement it with the others
and decide whether it would be adequate either to keep the student at that level or move him/her up or down
one level. Do not move the student more than one level in either direction.

*The Academic Department will be monitoring the usability of the rubrics in case it is necessary to continue fine-tuning it upon
general agreement.

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