ESTUDIOS CAMBRIDGE
PRUEBA SABER
PREPARANDO ESTUDIANTES
QUE NO HABLAN INGLES PARA
LA PRUEBA SABER GRADO 11
DE INGLES
WORKSTATIONS

ES POSIBLE CONSEGUIR BUENOS RESULTADOS EN LA PRUEBA SABER DE
INGLES DE GRADO 11 SI LOS ESTUDIANTES NO SON NI SIQUIERA A1?
 Primero que todo, la prueba saber no mide competencias comunicativas, si no
comprensión lectora en su gran parte.
 Para leer en un idioma, es necesario pensar en el idioma y esto requiere haber
dominado la gramática y el vocabulario del texto. Por lo tanto inicialmente la meta no
puede ser esa tampoco.
 La meta inicialmente debe ser la traducción del texto, la cual con el tiempo y la práctica
se convertirá en comprensión lectora.
 Para traducir se parte de la descomposición del texto en meaningful chunks o trozos
mínimos con significado. Se le agrega un 20% del vocabulario del texto, se enseñan o
fomentan habilidades de predicción y manejo del sentido y en poco tiempo, el
estudiante se sentirá cómodo con textos nuevos de su interés, curiosidad o necesidad
para el entorno en que vive. En este momento, se despierta la inquietud por manejar la
gramática y la pronunciación correcta de lo que se ha aprendido y las clases
comunicativas pueden empezar en contextos donde antes se consideraba imposible:
grupos grandes de mas de 30 estudiantes, sin recursos, sin tecnología, sin
aplicabilidad directa, sin docente con competencias comunicativas avanzadas. Es
decir, lo que ocurre en la mayoría de los colegios del país.
 Esta presentación está dedicada a todos aquellos docentes que quieren hacer un
cambio en su forma de enseñar inglés y lograr que sus estudiantes desarrollen gusto
por esta disciplina.

 Para traducir se parte de la descomposición del texto en
meaningful chunks o trozos mínimos con significado. Se le
agrega un 20% del vocabulario del texto, se enseñan o
fomentan habilidades de predicción y manejo del sentido y en
poco tiempo, el estudiante se sentirá cómodo con textos nuevos
de su interés, curiosidad o necesidad para el entorno en que
vive. En este momento, se despierta la inquietud por manejar la
gramática y la pronunciación correcta de lo que se ha aprendido
y las clases comunicativas pueden empezar en contextos donde
antes se consideraba imposible: grupos grandes de más de 30
estudiantes, sin recursos, sin tecnología, sin aplicabilidad directa,
sin docente con competencias comunicativas avanzadas. Es
decir, lo que ocurre en la mayoría de los colegios del país.
 Esta presentación está dedicada a todos aquellos docentes que
quieren hacer un cambio en su forma de enseñar inglés y lograr
que sus estudiantes desarrollen gusto por esta disciplina.
ES POSIBLE CONSEGUIR BUENOS RESULTADOS EN LA PRUEBA SABER DE
INGLES DE GRADO 11 SI LOS ESTUDIANTES NO SON NI SIQUIERA A1?

WHAT ARE WORKSTATIONS?
 Workstations are composed of cross-curricula activities set up in the
form of “stations”, where student groups rotate through activities
independent of direct teacher instruction.
 The key to successful workstations is establishing clear expectations
and consistency.
 Stations should be self-explanatory and independent of teacher input.
 A leader is chosen for each group and stays there until he requests
rotation.

VOCABULARY STATION
1. Students find the translation of most words possible for their peers.
They speculate freely about the possible meaning of the text or
passage. They make a dictionary on a board, cardboard, pieces of
paper on a desk or floor.
2. The idea is to gain confidence about the hidden meaning in the
passage or text so that they can make reasonable deductions of
meaning.

GRAMMAR STATION:
 Students focus on verbs, tenses and
structures. They make lists of verbs,
connectors, prepositions and explain their
meaning and function to their peers.

READING STATION:
Silent reading is done here.
Afterwards, a summary may be
written either in Spanish or in
English depending on the
skills of each student.

TEST-TAKING SKILLS STATION
Students take a test or parts
of it silently simulating the
actual conditions of the
Pruebas Saber. 70 seconds
per question.
They report their ratings to
the teacher.
Internet tests are available at
this level.

ENGLISH COMMUNICATION STATION
 English is spoken at this Station. Students
discuss the topics presented. They give their
opinions and viewpoints and state their
solutions or ideas should they be involved in
those situations.

LANGUAGEGAMES AND COGNITIVE SKILLS
The workstations are sometimes
stopped so that the teacher can
present an activity for the whole
class in order for students to stand
up, move and have fun for 10
minutes. This will bring fun and
variety to the class and they will get
more motivation to continue
working at the stations.

GAMES STATION
 Simon says with prepositions, adverbs, action verbs.
 Verb gun: Students are given a list of verbs for them to
memorize using mnemonics.
Then they make a circle and the teacher stands in the
center. They move around him and after the teacher
says a verb, he or she passes a ball to a student.
The students on both sides of the student who caught the
ball, pull out their finger gun and say the translation to
shoot down and eliminate the other student from the
game (you may change the gun finger for something else
if you think it is appropriate). The game goes on until
there is a winner.
 If you need more ideas, http://busyteacher.org/19874-7-
outdoor-activities-teach-english-esl.html

COGNITIVE LANGUAGE SKILLS
 Mnemonics. Teach the steps of a trance song
by giving names to the moves. These names
can be actions, adverbs, etc. The
choreography is learned easily this way.
 Pegs: Students are given mental pegs so
they can hang new vocabulary there.
 1: lamppost 2: bike 3. tripod 4: car etc.

PUTTING STUDENTS UP FRONT SO THEY LEARN MORE
 Teaching is often compared to a circus act;
you stand in the ring, speak as loudly as
possible, and hope it holds the attention of
the audience.
 At times it is revealing to step back and
consider the merits of decentralizing the
teaching process by using workstations.
 When teachers create structured,
independent, learning stations, they can step
out of the ring and let the students step into
the spotlight.

LEARN MORE AT

F E A T U R E BY YUSRA ABOU-SAYED
USING SMALL GROUPS AND WORKSTATIONS:
FROM CHAOTIC TO CONSTRUCTIVE

CARLOS MAN
OSPINA NOVA
2015
cminnovayahoo.com
Content-based English
textbook with Colombian
topics and issues with an
emphasis on reading
comprehension and
preparatory for Prueba
Saber Grade11