2.3 Pedagogical Theories & Practice | Beth A's Teaching Eportfolio

Class/Group:Primary 3 mixed ability Lesson: French Date: n/a

Previous Experience: In previous lesson the class were introduced to the vocabulary used for describing themselves (les cheveux blonds, bruns, noirs, roux, les yeux bleus, verts, marron, grand(e), petit(e)).

Areas to cover in this lesson: understanding that the gender the adjectives use must agree with the gender of the nouns used and the children themselves. (petit/petite, grand/grande)

Working towards outcomes of a Curriculum for Excellence:

Listening / Speaking –I can participate in familiar collaborative activities including games, paired speaking and short role plays. MLAN 2-05b

Writing –I can use familiar language to describe myself and to exchange straightforward information. MLAN 2-13b

Reading –I can read and demonstrate understanding of words, signs, phrases and simple texts containing mainly familiar language. MLAN 2-08b

Learning Intentions:

I will revise the words used for describing myself.
I will learn how to use gender correctly whilst describing myself

Success Criteria:

I will understand how gender agreement works when describing myself both verbally and in my writing.
I will be able to fill out a personal fact file with the aid of a vocabulary list.
I will be able to listen to the teacher describe someone in the class and try to guess who this might be.

Setting the context/Beginning the lesson (Introduction):

Ask class to discuss the vocabulary that they learnt in the previous lesson with their shoulder partner.
Get them to use their ‘show me’ boards to write down any vocabulary that they can remember.
Introduce the concept of gender, (when using an adjective and talking about yourself, you use an adjective that is agreeable with your gender and a noun’s gender).
As the teacher, clearly read out all the vocabulary with correct pronunciation so the class can hear how it should sound.

Teaching the learning intentions (Development):

Introduce myself in French verbally and written on the board. (bonjour, j’ai les yeux verts, j’ai les cheveux roux et je suis petite) explain that the ‘e’ is at the end of petite because I am a female and if I were male there would be no ‘e’. Ensure pronunciation is as accurate as possible.
Hand out worksheets that pupils will work on individually but with the aid of a vocabulary list (this will have eye/hair colours and small/tall).
They will fill these out
Once these are completed ask the children to swap with a partner for peer assessment. Children should check for correct grammar and spelling.
Collect these sheets in and select a few to read out to the class, in French, as a ‘guess who’ activity, where the children have to guess who is being described.
Ask children to turn to their partner and describe themselves using the vocabulary they have just learnt.

Ending the lesson (Plenary)

Use ‘show me’ boards once more to check for pupils’ spelling of the vocabulary, some pupils can use the vocabulary list if need be.

1+2 Approach – Language Learning in Scotland

(Notes taken from https://www.gov.scot/Resource/0039/00393435.pdf)

Children’s mother tongue with the addition of two other languages is recommended by the European Union and has already been implemented in other countries around the world.
There has been a “significant and worrying” decline in the last decade of pupils continuing their learning of languages to SQA level.
Young people are not being challenged or motivated enough whilst learning a new language.
The need for young people to learn additional languages will become increasingly important as the world becomes more globalised.

In order to deliver this framework:

An additional language needs to be introduced at an earlier stage in primary school.
Needs to be an enhanced partnership working between primary and secondary schools.
Needs to be a closer collaboration across all sectors of the curriculum.
More use of technology when teaching/learning a new language.
Regular access to native and fluent speakers to stimulate interest in learning language and other cultures.

Why does learning language matter?

Life enhancing
Opens doors to experiences which are not usually available to those with only one language
Enhances understanding of L1
Enable young people to participate fully in a global society and economy
Learning a language relates to the 4 main objectives in primary school (effective contributor, confident individual, successful learner, responsible citizen).
Business community recognises the importance of communicating in another language of potential clients.
‘damaging perception’ that we don’t need to speak another language because everyone speaks English, has to be challenged.

The Working Group believes that the 1+2 approach is for all young people wherever they live in Scotland, urban or rural, schools big or small.
So much of children’s’ communication is in English (with their families and social media etc) that it does not seem as important to learn another language.
Only 6% of the world’s population has English as their L1.
English represented 51% of language usage on the internet but by 2011 this was down to 27%.

Starting Young

Lots of evidence to prove that young children learn languages more easily than older learners – mental flexibility.
Can enhance natural curiosity
Help to foster a positive attitude towards languages
Learning French, German, Italian and Spanish will continue to hold its importance.

Challenges

Staffing, training and funding issues
Other curricular areas seen as more important to teachers
Teachers not confident enough to teach another language or deliver lessons

The best lessons include a variety of approaches such as games, songs, direct teaching, group and paired work.
Most effective teaching is where teachers implement language learning across the curriculum and not just in their allocated time slot for modern languages.
Learning about the culture of a country frequently arouses enthusiasm for learning the language.
Challenges for introducing L3 are similar to those for L2 (staffing, funding, training).

Time Allocation

The Working Group does not recommend a fixed number of hours for the learning of language in primary schools.
Building blocks of language learning into the daily routine for learners, plus the use of the target language across other aspects of learning can avoid the danger that a ‘language hour’ is the first to go when there are timetabling issues.