Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia

Vicerrectoría Académica y de Investigación

Course: English IV
Code: 90170
Activity Guide and Evaluation Rubric Task 3 - New year’s resolutions

1. Activity Description

Type of activity: Individual

Evaluation moment: Intermediate Unit 1
Highest score of the activity: 100 points
The activity starts on: Monday, May 06, The activity ends on: Sunday, June 02,
2024 2024
With this activity, you are expected to achieve the following learning
outcomes:
To produce a formal e-mailing about his/her New year's resolutions. The student is able
to describe experiences and future events.

The activity consists of:

• Write an e-mail to a friend telling him/her your new year’s resolutions and asking
about the other’s plans.
• Practice informal greetings in written messages.
• Express your plans and ask about other’s plans.
• Classify the resolutions from the most to the less important.
• Interact in a written way highlighting the personal significance of resolutions.

This is an individual task. You should interact with the members of the group, give and
receive feedback.
You must share your process in the forum!

Let’s start!

Step 1: Before reading. What is a new year’s resolution?

Answer the following questions in the forum:

• How important is New Year in your city?

• What food/drink is traditional?
• What customs are there?

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During reading.

Read about the history of New year’s resolutions. Try to guess the meaning of the
unknown vocabulary and use an online dictionary if you need it.

Short History of New Year’s Resolutions

Focus on things that will help you have a happier life and improve your well-
being. You’ll be surprised how motivating learning a new hobby can be! It is even
said that achieving small goals can help reduce stress and avoid depression.

New year’s resolution is a tradition in which a person decides to continue good

practices, change behaviors, accomplish a personal goal, or improve their
behavior at the beginning of a calendar year.

New Year’s resolutions go back to ancient times. In 2000 B.C., the Babylonians
celebrated the New Year during a 12-day festival called Akitu. This was the start
of the farming season to plant crops, crown their king, and make promises to
pay their debts. One common resolution was the return of borrowed farm
equipment (which makes sense for an agriculturally based society).

Resolutions have not changed much over the years. They vary from the promises
people make for themselves each year, from saving money to eating healthier.

Today’s resolutions are also a reflection of status, financial wealth, responsibility,

and self-discipline.

Text adapted from: https://www.almanac.com/history-of-new-years-resolutions

Step 2: After Reading. My personal resolutions.

Look at the chart below about personal resolutions:

Environment Social media and Personal Spreading

technology development kindness
Recycle whenever Be kind on social Read a book a volunteer
possible media month
Don’t buy things I Turn off my phone Start a new hobby Make more phone
don’t need. one night a week. calls

Complete the following chart with your 3 ‘best’ resolutions and add three more to the
category you want. Post the chart in the forum.

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 Post ONLY this chart in the forum (no screenshots!)
My 6 best resolutions
1
2
3
4
5
6

Step 3: Write an email to a friend.

Task: You are going to write an email to a friend telling him/her your new year’s
resolutions and asking about his/her plans.

Language focus: Since you are expressing plans in the future, you need to turn the
resolutions into sentences using either “Will” or “Won’t”. Example:
Be kind on social media → I will be kind on social media.
Don’t buy things I don’t need. → I won’t buy things I don’t need.

Your email must include:

• Informal greetings.
• Your five new year’s resolutions (Step 2).
• Ask your friend about his/her new year’s resolutions.
• Turn the resolutions into sentences (see Language focus explanation).
• Participate in the Student’s Talking Time - STT to learn and practice about writing
formal emails.

Participation in the forum must include:

• Your email in a Word document or directly in the forum. Do not upload images or
PDFs files.
• Comments on your partners participation.
• Edition of the email according to the feedback.

Step 4: Self-assessment

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Complete the checklist and post it in the forum.

Please answer them consciously.

Questions YES NO
Did I answer the questions in the forum?
Stage

Did I read the text?

1

Did I use an online dictionary to check unknown vocabulary?

Did I post the chart in the forum?

Stage

Did I complete the chart with my 3 best resolutions?

2

Did I add two more resolutions to the task?

Did I post the email in the forum?

Did I use Will or Won’t for writing my resolutions?
Did I use informal greetings?
Stage 3

Did I participate in the Student’s Talking Time - STT to learn and

practice about writing informal emails?
Did I give feedback to one of my partners?
Did I correct my letter according to the feedback?
Did I post the final version of the letter in the forum?

Stage 5: Final submission

• Consolidate your final document with the following steps:

1. Cover
2. Step 3: The final version of your email.
• Avoid uploading screenshots or exercises different from Step 3.
• Upload the document in the Evaluation environment.
• Avoid using chat GPT to write your email. This is your own opportunity to think
and create!

End of the task!

For the development of the activity consider that:

In the Initial Information Environment, you must:

Check the course agenda, News forum and STT schedule.

In the Learning Environment, you must:

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Access the online content (e-Book, Units 1 and 2) and carry out the exercises proposed
in the following modules:

- Module 1: Future continuous

- Module 5: Past perfect
- Module 9: Expressing habits in the past

Participate in the forum to share and develop the steps of the writing task.

In the Evaluation Environment, you must:

Submit the final PDF work in Task 3 – My New year’s resolutions with all the steps (1,
2, 3, 4 and step 5) in a PDF document.

Turnitin is a computer tool that identifies the level of similarity of documents,

contributes to the development of writing processes, and encourages critical thinking
and autonomous learning.
Evidences of individual work:
The individual evidence to be submitted is:
The Final document in PDF format.
Evidences of collaborative work:
No collaborative evidence is required in this activity.

2. General Guidelines for the Development of Evidences to Submit

For Individual evidences, consider the following:

• Each member of the group must participate with academic contributions in the
activity development.
• Before delivering the requested product, all the requirements indicated in this
activity guide must be checked.
Please keep in mind that all individual or collaborative written products must comply
with the spelling rules and presentation conditions defined in this activity guide.
Regarding the use of references, consider that the product of this activity must comply
with APA style.
In any case, make sure you comply with the rules and avoid academic plagiarism. You
can review your written products using the Turnitin tool found in the virtual campus.

Under the Academic Code of Conduct, the actions that infringe the academic order,
among others, are the following: paragraph e) Plagiarism is to present as your own
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work all or part of a written report, task or document of invention carried out by
another person. It also implies the use of citations or lack of references, or it includes
citations where there is no match between these and the reference and paragraph f)
To reproduce, or copy for profit, educational resources or results of research products,
which have rights reserved for the University. (Acuerdo 029 - 13 de diciembre de
2013, artículo 99)

The academic penalties students will face are:

a) In case of academic fraud demonstrated in the academic work or evaluation, the
score obtained will be zero (0.0) without any disciplinary measures being derived.
b) In case of proven plagiarism in academic work of any nature, the score obtained
will be zero (0.0), without any disciplinary measures being derived.

3. Evaluation Rubric Template

Type of activity: Individual

Evaluation moment: Intermediate Unit 1
The highest score in this activity is 100 points
First evaluation High level:
criterion: The student answers the three questions of Step 1 and writes
short and simple sentences describing New year’s resolutions.
Step 1 - Before The student posts the answers in the forum.
reading. What is a If your work is at this level, you can get between 20
new year’s points and 15 points.
resolution?
Average level:
This criterion The student answers some of the three questions of Step 1 and
represents 20 writes short and simple sentences with some degree of control
points of the total for describing New Year’s resolutions.
of 100 points of The student posts some of the answers in the forum.
the activity. If your work is at this level, you can get between 14
points and 8 points.

Low level:
The student does not answer the three questions of Step 1.
The student shows serious and frequent problems with word
choice or subject-verb agreement.

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 The student does not show a process of writing in the forum.
If your work is at this level, you can get between 7 points
and 0 points.
Second evaluation High level:
criterion: The student completes the chart with the three best and add
three more resolutions from his/her interest in the chart.
Step 2 - After The student posts the chart in the forum.
Reading. My If your work is at this level, you can get between 20
personal points and 15 points.
resolutions.
Average level:
This criterion The students complete the chart with some of the resolutions
represents 20 and adds one or two resolutions from his/her interest in the
points of the total chart.
of 100 points of The student posts the chart in the forum.
the activity. If your work is at this level, you can get between 14
points and 8 points.

Low level:
The student does not complete the chart with the resolutions.
The student does not add the resolutions from his/her interest
in the chart.
The student does not post the chart in the forum.
If your work is at this level, you can get between 7 points
and 0 points.
Third evaluation High level:
criterion: The student writes an email to a friend telling his/her New
Year’s resolutions and asking about the other’s plans and writes
Step 3 - Write an about the resolutions written in Step 2.
email to a friend. The student turns the resolutions into sentences according to
the explanation in the Language focus section.
This criterion The student uses formal expressions for greetings.
represents 20 The student writes short and simple sentences describing
points of the total his/her resolutions and posts the email in the forum.
of 100 points of The student edits the email according to the feedback.
the activity. If your work is at this level, you can get between 20
points and 15 points.

Average level:
The student writes an email to a friend telling his/her New

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 Year’s resolutions or asking about the other’s plans and writes
about some of the resolutions written in Step 2.
The student does not turn the resolutions into sentences
according to the explanation in the Language focus section.
The student uses some informal expressions for greetings.
The student writes short and simple sentences with a degree of
control, describing his/her resolutions and posts the email in the
forum.
The student does not edit the email according to the feedback.
If your work is at this level, you can get between 14
points and 8 points.

Low level:
The student does not write an email to a friend telling his/her
new year’s resolutions and asking about the other’s plans and
does not write about the resolutions written in Step 2.
The student does not turn the resolutions into sentences
according to the explanation in the Language focus section.
The student does not use informal expressions for greetings.
Show serious and frequent problems with word choice or
subject-verb agreement.
The student does not show a process of writing in the forum.
The student does not post the email in the forum.
The student does not edit the email according to the feedback.
If your work is at this level, you can get between 7 points
and 0 points.
Fourth evaluation High level:
criterion: The student completes the checklist.
The student posts it in the forum.
Step 4 - Self- The student reflects on his/her own writing process by
assessment completing the checklist.
If your work is at this level, you can get between 20
This criterion points and 15 points.
represents 20 Average level:
points of the total The student completes some of the criteria from the checklist.
of 100 points of The student does not post it in the forum.
the activity. The student reflects on some aspects of his/her own writing
process by completing the checklist.
If your work is at this level, you can get between 14
points and 8 points.

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 Low level:
The student does complete the checklist.
The student does post the checklist in the forum.
The student does reflect on his/her own writing process by
completing the checklist.
If your work is at this level, you can get between 7 points
and 0 points.
Fifth evaluation High level:
criterion: The student consolidates the final document with the following
steps: Cover, Step 3: The final version of the email.
Stage 5 - Final The student avoids uploading screenshots or exercises different
submission from Step 3.
The student uploads the document in the Evaluation
This criterion environment according to the course agenda.
represents 20 The student avoids using chat GPT to write the email.
points of the total If your work is at this level, you can get between 20
of 100 points of points and 15 points.
the activity.
Average level:
The student consolidates the final document with some of the
following steps: Cover, Step 3: The final version of the email.
The student uploads screenshots or exercises different from
Step 3.
The student uploads the document in the Evaluation
environment after the deadline.
The student avoids using chat GPT to write the email.
If your work is at this level, you can get between 14
points and 8 points.

Low level:
The student does not consolidate the final document with the
following steps: Cover, Step 3: The final version of the email.
The student does not upload the document in the Evaluation
environment.
The student uses the chat GPT to write the email.
If your work is at this level, you can get between 7 points
and 0 points.