This lesson would take place over a number of days in smaller chunks rather than as one solid lesson.
Lesson Plan
Class/Group: P3/4 Lesson: Spanish- Gender Date:
| Previous Experience
Describing myself |
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| Working towards outcomes of a Curriculum for Excellence
I am beginning to share information about myself using familiar vocabulary and basic language structures. MLAN 1-02b I am beginning to use illustrated word-banks, picture prompts, picture dictionaries and displays to support my understanding of simple texts. MLAN 1-11a With support, I am beginning to experiment with writing in the language I am learning MLAN 1-13 |
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| Learning Intentions | Success Criteria | ||
| To learn how the gender of words relating to the family. | I will look for patterns in words and their gender.
I will be able to correctly identify the gender of a word. I can sort the members of family in Spanish by gender. I can talk to a shoulder partner about what family I have. I can listen and take turns in a conversation. I can change an adjective to suit the gender of the word it is describing.
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| Resources | Powerpoint, IWB, dice, mini whiteboards, picture cards | ||
| Timing | Assessment methods | ||
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15 minutes
5 minutes 10 minutes
10 minutes
10 minutes
10 minutes
10 minutes
10 minutes |
Setting the context/Beginning the lesson (Introduction)
Discussion of what we learnt during the previous lesson.
Write on whiteboards any words they remember from last lesson.
Ask if anyone knows any words for the members of the family.
Teaching the learning intentions (Development)
Discuss learning intention and success criteria with pupils. With the use of the powerpoint, discuss how we determine the gender of a family member and when we use el/la and un/una.
Game of bingo to practice words and determine understanding. (Listening)
In pairs, roll the dice with the different members of the family on it and determine if it is el/la. Form a sentence which includes this member of the family. (Talking and listening)
In table groups, sort the picture/word cards under the headings of el/la. (Reading)
Just as before, roll the dice and form a sentence including this person. This time write the sentence in workbooks.
Ending the lesson (Plenary)
Using the mini whiteboards, ask pupils to write down a word they learned today. Ask them to write down words such as ‘the mother’ to determine understanding. Discuss with pupils how they found the work- was it too hard or too easy? Was there anything they struggled with? How did they overcome problems? (dictionary, shoulder partner, ask teacher)
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Discussion
Discussion
Teacher observation
Teacher observation and discussion |
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The 1 + 2 Approach is a Scottish based policy which aims for all children to leave primary school having learnt two languages alongside their mother tongue. An additional language will be introduced in Primary 1 and a second additional language will be introduced in Primary 5. Often, French is the first additional language and Spanish/German is the second. However, other languages may be taught.
– expands horizons and allows pupils to explore the world;
Potential gaps and issues/problems that might appear
I think the policy is a great idea. The younger children are the more sponge like their brain is and this learning of modern languages aids cognitive development. As someone who did A level Spanish, I believe that the learning of languages aids understanding of your mother tongue. By teaching languages, we can help open doors and provide opportunities for children to explore the world around them and the various cultures within the world. An understanding and appreciation for other cultures can be developed through the implementation of modern languages and this helps children to understand the concept of diversity. As the number of immigrants increases, I believe it is important that they feel included; by teaching modern languages this could be a key to making them feel accepted and welcomed into their new society. I think that by integrating languages into other subjects, we can make learning fun and often children do not realise they are learning when languages are linked into routines and other subjects. However, I do agree that there are many challenges to this policy, one of which is the lack of knowledge and skills that teachers have. There is a clear lack of knowledge and confidence in teachers as they did not all study languages at school. Additionally, funding for modern languages is currently insufficient. I do, however, believe that these issues can be overcome with time and effort. I believe that we as teachers need to be open minded and willing to take on the challenges that teaching modern languages will present as ultimately I think the outcomes will outweigh the difficulties.
This placement has provided me with several learning opportunities and I am developing my own educational philosophy and teacher style. I was fortunate to have such a wide range of experiences during the six weeks with school trips, sports competitions and one to one observations. Gaining insight into these aspects has allowed me to grow in confidence of what is to face me as a teacher. I think by going on school trips as a student, I will be better prepared for when I need to plan one as a qualified teacher.
the beginning of placement, I was not feeling confident in my ability to be a teacher. I think my tough placement last year made me really doubt myself and wonder if this career is the one for me. I now feel more confident in my ability to deliver a lesson. Last year, I was constantly feeling I needed to refer to my lesson plan and stick to it. Whereas, this year I was confident enough to teach the lesson without looking at my plan and was able to take the learning wherever the children led it (within reason!).
As a student who was educated in Northern Ireland until coming to Dundee for university where I have experienced 6 weeks of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence, I have found it interesting to compare the two systems. I would say that the aims of each subject area are more specific in the Experiences and Outcomes. With NI, it is less specific on what topic the learning would be on and is instead about developing the skills. Additionally, whilst Scotland has standardised testing at the end of P1, P4 and P7 in primary school, Northern Irish children are assessed every year through teacher assessment and planned tasks and activities. Formal results, in the form of levels, are reported to parents at the end of primary 4 and 7. Certainly, from this experience I would say that Northern Ireland schools are more open to expressing and exploring Christian values. This, however, may just be the case for a few schools rather than the majority in NI.
Last year, my class were extremely difficult for all staff and myself to manage. This meant that my tutor’s feedback on my behaviour management was poor, decreasing my confidence in myself. This placement has really helped me to build this confidence up as the class have been well settled I adapted a firm but fair approach with the pupils which appeared to work as they respected me whilst we also had fun together. Pitt (2001, pp.155) believes that the best ways to support good class management are to vary the type of activity to cater for different learning styles, link learning to children’s interests and maximise the time spent on direct teaching. I tried to incorporate this into my lessons. During my time on placement, I tried to minimise interruptions, however, it is not always possible to avoid interruptions e.g. children from another class with a message. I felt my expectations were clear so the children were not distracted or likely to interrupt e.g. talking or playing with pencils. The class teacher was very impressed with my control over the class and didn’t see any cause for concern.
I tried to work on cross curricular learning during this placement. My main literacy topic of the Lighthouse Keeper provided many opportunities to link learning to crafts, RE and even data handling. I planned to read Jack and the Beanstalk to lead into measuring and planting beans but unfortunately as I learned there can be interruptions during the school day. I developed a confidence and ability to deal with change and take over from the class teacher without notice.
“No hands up, its thinking time” – this means that all children need to think as the teacher could ask anyone. Children cannot hide and not make an effort, everyone needs to try.
Teachers should start right at the basics i.e. without the rope. This sounds a bit strange for a skipping programme but it is important pupils know how to land correctly and safely when they jump. Next is keeping to a rhythm, perhaps by putting some music on as pupils skip. Some pupils may benefit from group or partner skipping in order to further develop their skills and increase their confidence. Once pupils are ready they could move onto more complex techniques such as spinning around or side swings with the rope. Skipping rhymes could be introduced for children to jump along too. This will help challenge children to keep in time to a song (pp. 84-100).
This week had a rough start between being sick and then spilling coke all over my laptop so I had a broken laptop and a messed up head and stomach- not the best start to the week. Unfortunately, I was in no state to go into school on Monday or Tuesday so that was quite a lot of teaching time out the window for me but there was no way I could have delivered effective lessons.
On Wednesday, I did a lesson on writing about a character and related it to The Lighthouse Keeper book series. We looked at the character of Mr Grinling. It was important for me to model what I expected the students to do. I did this by gathering all the students up to the front of the classroom and explaining the worksheet in detail. We considered who Mr Grinling is and what family he has and his physical features. We looked at what he does and where he lives to give a more detailed description of the character. By having a word bank at the bottom of the page and going through these words, I think it helped the children to complete the task and know exactly what they were meant to be doing. The children responded well to this activity and were engaged throughout. They couldn’t wait to share their sentences about Mr Grinling with the rest of the class. I believe it is very important to use topics such as The Lighthouse Keeper across several subject areas as it helps the children to dive deeper into the story and adds an element of enjoyment rather than some plain and simple sums. My main learning point from this lesson was to always put the writing part at the top of a worksheet rather than a drawing part.
On Thursday, I was teaching the children about tally charts. They had touched on the topic before but some pupils weren’t sure about tally charts so I took it right back to the basics. I once again modelled how the children should do their work whilst allowing them to have a go on the whiteboard. I think this is important as many children learn by doing something rather than listening to how we do it. This also helped me to see if they were grasping the concept. The worksheet was all about finding out each pupil’s favourite sandwich and recording our results. I decided it would be chaotic for the children to go round and ask each classmate their favourite sandwich plus the results would likely be inaccurate. Instead, I thought we should take it slow and do it together as a class asking each pupil what their favourite sandwich and ensuring each pupil put the tally mark in the correct row. I felt this worked well as pupils were able to help one another and had to listen to one another. No one ever seemed fed up by the slower pace and no one was left behind. By the end, everyone had completed their tally chart and created their own sandwich out of paper for the class tally chart wall display. My time management was really good with everyone getting the work done in the set time. I felt my behaviour management was good with no children talking over one another and no acting up. I would definitely use this activity again in the future as the children were so engaged and so eager to share their favourite sandwiches. Next time, I would consider using pictures to help those who cannot read as this meant it was harder for them to keep up and they required more support. This was a great link to The Lighthouse Keeper’s Picnic and Lunch stories.
This was a great idea as each class raised about £80 gathering more money than a non-uniform day. As a treat on Friday, during play time the children made sandwiches with me in groups of 4 or 5. This was quite funny as they were making sandwiches in their pyjamas and onesies! They really enjoyed this especially with reading all about Mr Grinling’s lunch and picnic and seeing what my perfect picnic would be. These practical and fun cross curricular activities are a great way to link topic learning and bring it to life. Cross curricular learning provides opportunities to further develop skills and values and creates richer learning opportunities (Centre for Global Learning, undated, p.5). It linked in nicely with our data handling on our favourite sandwiches the day before. There were some odd combinations of sandwiches with chocolate spread and cheese sandwiches and chocolate spread and ham!
The lighthouse craft continued this week for me but unfortunately not for the children as the lighthouses needed to be glued onto the cardboard bases which the children had already painted. This involved me using the glue gun which I had used on many occasions before but unfortunately I experienced the joy of getting burnt by it as the glue dripped off a Pringles tube onto my wrist-ouch!
Recently, I have observed the class teacher using primary movement particularly after break or lunch or when the children are unsettled. These are different body movements which require children to focus and give their full attention if they are to do it right. Interestingly, those children who do it right often yawn. These movements allow children to relax and have been shown to improve handwriting. 5-10 minutes with a dyslexic child improves concentration and helps to calm them. Primary movement is all about replicating the movements of the foetus in the womb. This triggers the integration of retained primary reflexes, which contribute to behavioural, educational and emotional difficulties. At the age of one, the primary reflexes system turns off and our movements are controlled more by thought than by reflex. However, problems arise when the primary reflexes continue after their normal time span. If this continues, there can be problems with neuro-development which in turn may affect educational functioning and has been linked to a diverse range of learning difficulties such as dyslexia (The Learning Clinic, undated). It only takes about 10 minutes each day for 6 months for it to be effective and have a significant impact on a child’s learning and behaviour.
It has been a bit of a weird week with being off for two days and then having the ‘Break the Rules’ day as it has thrown me out of routine slightly. I am looking forward to next week as I hope it will be fun between getting the lighthouses finished and doing some more teaching. I hope it doesn’t go too quickly as I want to enjoy it and know that I will be sad when Friday comes especially with it being a half day. I think I am probably the only person who is disappointed that this week is only 4.5 days long!
Tessellations of congruent shapes, such as above, are called monohedral tessellations. The word monohedral literally means ‘one’ – mono and ‘shape’ – hedral. Regular tessellations are made up of only one regular shape repeated, whilst semi-regular tessellations are made up of two or more regular shapes tiled to create a repeating pattern. A lot of Islamic art uses tessellations of equilateral triangles, squares and hexagons. Furthermore, in Spain there are many examples of art in tiling such Park Güell in Barcelona.
Snowflakes are another example of maths in nature. They exhibit six-fold radial symmetry, with elaborate, identical patterns on each arm. Snowflakes are made entirely of water molecules which have solidified and crystallised to form weak hydrogen bonds with other water molecules. The bonds maximise attractive forces and reduce repulsive forces, allowing the snowflake to form its hexagonal shape 
Maths is even required in photography. Many photographers use the ‘Rule of Thirds’ to set up their photos. This is where the image in broken down into 9 sections using 4 lines. The idea is that if you capture an image where the main object/focus is placed along the lines or the intersections, the photo will be more natural and pleasing to the viewer instead at the centre of the shot (Rowse, no date). Another method photographers use is balancing elements. This is similar to the rule of thirds and is simply placing a focal point off centre to create a more interesting image, however, this means there is empty space at the opposite side. This is where balancing elements comes in- you place another similar object at the other side to balance the photo out- known as formal balance. Informal balance is when you place two varying objects at opposite sides of the image (Google, no date). Leading lines are another method used in photography in which straight objects such as roads are used to draw the viewer’s eye to the image and connect the foreground to the background (McKinnell, no date). The final method photographers use is symmetry and patterns within photos to create a balanced and aesthetically pleasing image (DMM, no date).
