Category Archives: 2.1 Curriculum

End of Placement Reflection

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This placement has been a huge eye opener for me. I have learned and experienced so much while being here in France.

From a professional perspective I have learned about other cultures/backgrounds in terms of ethnicity and nationality. There are a lot more ethnicities in French schools than there are visible in Scottish schools. Along with this they have their laïque principle. This principle made me see they French’s views on religious beliefs in schools. I was able to compare this to Scotland quite a lot when observing the school days.

I observed how the French teach their school curriculum. They teach A LOT of French and Mathematics, because of this they don’t teach as much of other school subjects.

This placement made me appreciate the value of learning another language. As I came to France with limited French language knowledge I quickly learnt how important it is to have a good second language in your knowledge. I had to quickly pick up the basics of the language to help me communicate within the school and around the city of Orleans. Once I got the hang of some French it was very helpful and I enjoyed speaking in the language.

In French schools they start teaching their children a second language right from age 3 (nursery age). This was a big contrast to when I was in primary school as I only started to learn a second language when I was age 10. That’s 7 less years of being taught a language compared to when the French start teaching a second language in 2018.

From my experience with learning French and teaching English to the children in France it made me feel really enthusiastic to teach a second language when I have my own class in Scotland. The reactions I got from teach English were very positive so this boosted this ambition even more. I also bought a few basic French books whilst I was here in Orleans, which I plan to use with my classes. I am really excited to share my knowledge of French with future pupils.

This placement made me think about how to teach a language right from the start where the child has no previous knowledge of this language. I took for granted learning a language and I came to realise how hard it really is to learn one. Through my teaching I discovered how to teach the basics of a language to the children. The French teach languages slightly different to how we teach in Scotland. They are focused on the listening and speaking aspect of learning a language, as they believe this is the best way to learn a language in the first instant. I came to learn that this technique is best way. Children learn through imitation so this technique is proven to work better than showing a child writing and text in the first instance. In Scotland I remember being taught a language with writing and reading as well as speaking and listening, which is too much for a child when first learning a language. One reason being is that the way to pronounce a word and be very different to how you spell it. This can be confusing for a child, therefore it is best to only get the children to speak and listen at first.

From a profession perspective I reflected on the behaviour management strategy similarities and differences between France and Scotland. I observed in France that they are a lot more hands on and in physical contact with the child when giving sanctions, which is a complete contrast to in Scotland. I was quite shocked by the hands on strategies they used, as this would not be allowed in Scotland. It made we reflect on how in Scotland we turn to other techniques from sanctions, for example the way we verbally sanction.

Personally, this placement made me become a more independent teacher, as it was sometimes hard to communicate with the teachers. I took charge of my own lessons and decided on my own what I would include in them, judging what I thought was appropriate and most beneficial for the pupils. I thought this put me in a good position and I enjoyed being responsible for my own teaching.

Values & Culture

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Wednesdays

The French have had a midweek break/half-day in primary schools on Wednesdays dating back to the 19th century. It is a government concession to the Roman Catholic Church, which wanted children to study the catechism (Catholic book) on their Wednesday afternoons off. In today’s secular (schools not connected with religion) France, Wednesdays afternoons are used for a mixture of sports, music, tutoring for families of means, or a scramble for working parents struggling to get by, who must either find a sitter or send their kids to a full day at a state-run leisure centre.

Despite long summer breaks and the four-day school week, French elementary school students actually spend more hours per year in school than average — 847, compared with 774 among countries in OECD. But the time is compressed into fewer days each year. They get about 2 hours a day for lunch and the French school day begins around 8:30 and ends at 4:30 p.m., even for the youngest, despite studies showing the ability of young children to learn deteriorates as the day goes on.

But many parents are afraid that the changes will force them to figure out extra childcare five days a week, especially at schools where the after-school program amounts to sitting silently at a desk for two hours or near-chaos in the play areas.

 

References:

Hinnant, L. (2012). School schedule: Reforming traditions in France. [Website]. The Christian Science Monitor. Available at: https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2012/1005/School-schedule-Reforming-traditions-in-France [Accessed 21/03/18].

 

Lunch Breaks

In French primary schools they have three breaks in their school day; a break in the morning, a lunch break and a break in the afternoon. This is different from Scotland, as we only have two breaks – a morning break and a lunch break. But the difference that shocked me the most was their extra long lunch breaks. They allow two hours for their lunch! In Scotland our lunch break in barely an hour. The French have a long enough lunch that some teachers even go home for a nap!

So why do the French have such long lunch break, in all types of jobs, compared to other nationalities? With accordance to a survey from The Local, 45% of French workers, in all types of jobs, spend over 45 minutes eating their lunch each day. This was the biggest percentage from all the countries surveyed. You are not likely to see a worker eating with one hand whilst still typing with the other hand during their lunch break in France, which is commonly seen in other countries, as they have so much time to do both separately.

Between only 3%-10% of workers in the UK and America eat for 45 minutes in their lunch break, whereas in France this percentage is at 34%. 28% of workers in the UK take less that a 15-minute lunch break; therefore they barely leave their work building to enjoy their lunch.

To the French, the reason for their long lunch breaks is to them this is one of the most enjoyable parts of their day, which they rarely miss. It is an important social time of which worker and friend relationships are built upon. Food is a way of connecting with people.

The French also do not snack like we do in the UK. So they are starving for lunch when it arrives. They also have much bigger portions for their lunch, compared to us in the UK, which keeps the French going longer without snacking.

In my placement school, the teachers spend the first hour doing work and the second hour eating and socialising.

 

References:

Ditton, H. (2016). Why do the French take such long lunch breaks? [Website]. The Local. Available at: https://www.thelocal.fr/20160428/why-do-the-french-take-such-long-lunch-breaks [Accessed 28/03/18].

 

Laïque

One of the general principles for the education system in France is that public schools are “laïque”. The ‘laïque’ principle was introduced to separate the civilian for their religion whilst in school. The aim was to equalise every pupil, there is respect for all beliefs equally. In school is there should be no recognition of any of them. By not showing any signs of your religion everyone is seen as equal, there are no differences and discrimination and racism is avoided. Religion is kept to ones private life. The Catholic church (Christians), make up the greatest majority of those living in France. Because of this principle, Religious education is not a subject taught in school.

This is a great contrast to Scotland as a large majority of public and private schools let you show your religious beliefs openly and freely through any ways, may that be how you dress. They have religious assemblies and do work in class about religious holidays and ceremonies. But I believe this isn’t defining equality as in Scotland we teach mainly about Christianity and don’t touch on other religions, forcing those who don’t believe in Christianity to sit in and listen. It is only in the topics of R.E. that a school may touch on other religions around the world.

 

References:

n.b. (2018). Laïcité. [Website]. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laïcité Accessed [12/03/18].

Frenchentree Staff. (2017). La France : un état Laïque. [Website]. Available at: https://www.frenchentree.com/living-in-france/culture/la-france-un-etat-laique/ Accessed [12/03/18].

 

Ethnicity

The first thing I noticed about the pupils in the French school is that there are a wider variety of races within the school than there is in Scotland.

In 2011, In Scotland 96% of the population was white and only 4% of the population were from ethnic minorities, which includes minorities such as, African, Asian, Black, Caribbean and mixed groups. Whereas in France 85% of the population are white, 10% are North African, 3.5% are Black and 1.5% are Asian.

This also leads to a wider variety of religions and ethnic backgrounds in the school. But as I have spoken about previously, the school I am in is a ‘Laïque’ school so there is no sign of any religion allowed. There is without a doubt loads of different religious beliefs in the school but I would not be able to tell which pupils believe in what as they show no sign through clothes, accessories, personal objects, etc.

References:

Demographics of France. (2018). [Website]. Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_France#Ethnic_groups [Accessed 07/05/18].

Scottish Government. (2011). [Website]. Scottish Government. Available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Equality/Equalities/DataGrid/Ethnicity/EthPopMig [Accessed 13/03/18].

 

Behaviour Management

The French classroom discipline is quite different to the discipline preformed in Scottish classrooms. In Scotland you are not allowed to physically touch a child for a sanction you can only verbally sanction a child. If you were to physically sanction a child there would be uproar on the parental side. Verbal behaviour management is also preferably made positively. For example, instead of saying “don’t do that”, put emphasis on what you would like them to do rather on what they are doing wrong.

From my French classroom observations the teachers can be quite firm and hands-on when giving children sanctions. They are not afraid the drag a child by the arm, whether the child is on their feet or on the ground. I was shocked when I first saw this, as it was so different to the Scottish classroom discipline.

Once article exclaims that the French teach children to “sit down and shut up” and mistakes are pounced upon and punished. I can relate to this statement as I observed in CE2. A boy drew a diagram for a science experiment but is measurements were a centimetre off and the teacher grabbed his work, dramatically scrunched it up and threw it in the bin. It wasn’t seen to her as a case of a little mistake that could be rubbed out and fixed.

A study based on students performance in schools along side a study based on children health and well-being in school, show that within all the countries compared, French school children are seen to have high percentages of low self-confidence and anxiety.

 

References:

Hyslop, L. (2010). Sit down and shut up – that’s the French school way. [Website]. The Telegraph. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/expateducation/7989939/Sit-down-and-shut-up-thats-the-French-school-way.html [Accessed 05/04/18].

 

School Uniform

In France the public schools do not wear uniform. This is different to Scotland as all schools; whether they are public or private wear school uniform. The children are free to choose what they wear as long as it follows the laïque principle. This includes football strips, which is band in many schools in Scotland on non-school uniform days and in physical education.

Up until 1968, French schools had a uniform to be worn by the pupils. It was needed to protect the children clothes and hide socioeconomic differences. But since that date, the uniform in France has been phased out and only military schools, a few private Catholic schools and one state school still make is necessary for pupils to wear uniform.

There is a debate to bring back the school uniform. There are number of reasons for this; integration, bullying, peer pressure and provocative dress. Uniform disguises any discrepancy towards privileged and non-privileged backgrounds; no rich kid can flash around their expensive, in-trend jumper at the poorer kids. Everyone is physically seen as the same so is treated as equal. The rationale for wearing school uniform is to create a level playing field.

It is believed that school uniform improves behaviour in the classroom. Perhaps uniform helps pupil achievement, school pride or reduction in fighting. Some studies show that a change from no uniform to the introduction of uniform changed the level of respect seen in the school and also pupil’s ability to learn. One study that used data from 39 countries found that wearing school uniform did increase achievement.

Uniform creates the absence of choice. In the morning it is similar for a child to pick what they are wearing as they only have one option.

One article disagrees with the wearing of school uniform. The blandness of a uniform doesn’t allow one the right to self-express through clothing. Some of the highest academic achieving countries have no school uniform, for example Finland.

One article identifies the strictness of some uniform, enhancing the non self-expression allowed. Shorts are for boys and skirts are for girls, boys hair must be short, skirt length must be below the knee and socks and shoes must match the correct uniform colour.

“Scotland has the uniform without the stunning results”

I secondary education around exam time, no one student would rather sit a 3-hour exam in their tight, uncomfortable, button up shirt than a comfy choice of clothing. Maybe comfort could increase achievement?

In my opinion I think uniform should be worn in schools. It creates the difference from being at home and at school. Home is where you can relax but school is somewhere where you should be engaged and prepared to work. Uniform gives a child a sense of membership to their school. I also agree with all the point about no discrepancy.

I believe though in France that the Laïque principle helps with no discrepancy. This then creates a balance between the arguments of wearing no school uniform and wearing uniform. There isn’t discrepancy about ethnicity backgrounds while wearing no school uniform as they have the Laïque principle in place.

 

References:

blog.tendredeal.co.uk

Oppenheimer, M. (2017). The downsides of school uniforms. [Website] The New Yorker. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-unquestioned-goodness-of-school-uniforms [Accessed 05/04/18].

Jacobs, E. (2014). Wearing a school uniform doesn’t help us learn. [Website]. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/07/wearing-school-uniform-doesnt-help-us-learn [Accessed 05/04/18].

Mergler, A. (2017). Why do schools want all students to look the same?. [Website]. The Conversation. Available at: http://theconversation.com/why-do-schools-want-all-students-to-look-the-same-75611 [Accessed 05/04/18].

 

Blackboards

In each classroom they have blackboards at the front of the class. They do not have whiteboards on the walls. They only have a couple of whiteboards, which are moved around the school on wheels. They do not have interactive boards or projector boards either. When they do want to use a power point they have to use a portable projector and project onto the blackboard, putting pieces of white card on the blackboards so that the projection can be seen. This is very different to Scotland as we don’t really have blackboards in schools anymore and we have predominately white boards and interactive boards.

This change of boards was an interesting experience for me, as I hadn’t taught with a blackboard before and was used to interactive boards and computer based lessons, which were projected on a board.

 

Handwriting

A huge difference between the French primary school and the Scottish primary school is the handwriting. In Scotland the handwriting of a lot of children is un-neat and the letters are not joined up. There isn’t a big emphasis on ‘joined up writing’ in Scotland. However in France from age 6 the children are taught to use ‘cursive’ handwriting. ‘Cursive’ is another word for joined up writing. A child’s handwriting is an important part in their education. Cursive writing ensures a neat flow of words, a ‘running hand’. The French handwriting appears elegant and mistaken to take a lot of time and effort to write but in fact it isn’t as they practice it everyday and it is the norm to them, they don not know any different. It is an art.

Most of my generation learnt the looped cursive way of writing at some point in school, which required all letters to be joined with loops and joins. But children got to choose how they wrote, as joined up writing wasn’t an essential. Therefore my writing isn’t joined up but rather manuscript. There was a longing to learn ‘joined up’ writing when you were young as it felt grown up and sophisticated.

In the 1960s, ballpoint and fibre tipped utensils were introduced to many countries, replacing the fountain pen – except in France. This action may explain why the French retain such elegant handwriting. A fountain pen requires fewer lifts between letters, allowing this ‘flow’, and this results in the slanted cursive and looped letters.

“Handwriting is an imprint of the self on the page”

According to Bernhard, with this generation of mobile phones and text messaging, children are not writing as much as before. Handwriting shows originality and expressiveness that a text message can only approximate. It is our identity, similar to our clothing and our voice. Children of the younger may not see the point in cursive writing anymore and children’s writing is become more and more similar to each other’s. Soon enough it will be difficult to identify the nationality of the writer.

There is an argument, which states that early readers read books that are printed in manuscript so why would we make children’s learning more difficult by asking them to learn two ways of writing. Another argument states that you will not write faster in cursive than in manuscript. You do not need to write fast until after primary school and you will join up letters anyhow if it is needed to help with speed. Cursive doesn’t need to be taught for this matter. Another argument says that when writing in cursive hand, children are less likely to mix up letters or write them backwards.

One cant help but wonder why the French insist that children age 6 must learn all the loops and tails of cursive writing when this way of writing is so different from the text in books they are learning to read. What if they are not ready for it? Writing and reading is one of the hardest early-learning task a child will face and the French are putting the children through this twice, with two different sets of rules, as the French believe that only the writing they teach is “beautiful”.

 

References:

Ball, P. (2013). Curse of cursive handwriting. [Website]. Prospect. Available at: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/cursive-handwriting-philip-ball/ [Accessed 05/04/18].

Bernhard, A. (2017). What your handwriting says about you. [Website]. BBC. Available at: www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170502-what-your-handwriting-says-about-you [Accessed 05/04/18].

 

Traffic Lights

Within a few of the classroom that I had observed, I noticed the use of a traffic light behaviour system, similar to the ones used in Scotland. If the child is badly behaved they are asked to move their name from green to either amber or red.

This is effective as the child moves their name, which makes the sanction real.

 

Pupil Roles

In the French classrooms they have a roles chart of their walls. This is also seen in the Scottish schools. Each day the teacher assigns the classroom roles to different children. The roles include jobs such as; jotter hander out, blackboard cleaner, messenger, line leaders, lights, cloakroom monitor and blackboard writer.

Assigning pupils roles in the classroom boosts their self-esteem, as they feel valued by the teacher as they have been picked and trusted to take on an important role for their classmates.

 

Community

The primary school has a close connection to their local community. For their physical education they use the gym at their local secondary school, as they do not have an indoor gym themselves.

The school also took part in a ‘marche’. This was a run through the local community that the school took part in. The different stages of classes ran for different lengths. They trained weekly for the run in the playground, which I got to observe.

 

CP Classroom Differences

I clear difference that I noticed in the youngest classroom was that there were no playing activities around the classroom. In Scotland, when a child goes to school for the first time they are in a P1 classroom. The typical P1 classroom has lots of play activities around the room, including; play/house corners, sand/water trays, dress up, puzzles, games, a library corner and a child friendly computer.

In my schools CP class there is none of that. They only have a few puzzles and board games at the back of the class, of which I have never seen be used.

I feel in France that as soon as a child is in school they are made to feel they are in a grown up school and they are learning like the bigger kids. There are no more toys to play with as that was left behind in nursery school.

In Françoise Monclere’s CP class the chairs are fitted with tennis balls on the end of the legs. I thought this was a good idea as it avoids the chairs scratching and making a noise on the floor and it also avoids accidents occurring.

Week 6: Day 30

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20/04/18

Today is my last day at École Louise Michel. I’m very sad to leave as I’ve had such an amazing experience and enjoyed every minute of it. Today was also special as they had a carnival dress up day for my last day. I dressed up at Lilo for Lilo and Stitch and all the teacher and children dressed up too. There were costumes such as scarecrows, Indians and princesses to jedis, clowns and dogs.

I was in Laura’s class today with CE2/CM1 and she Started the day by using a behaviour management technique, she sat at the front of the class, didn’t say anything and waited for silence. The children caught on and they quietened down. One of the children took the register, shouting out their names and asking if they were home or at school for lunch. I thought this was a good thing to do, to allow a child to take charge of the register. The child will feel trusted and respected by the Rachel for getting this role.

Laura then did a dictation lesson. She read out a passage a couple of words at a time and the children wrote them in their jotters. She every so often would go back to the start of the passage in case any child had missed a word. The class then went over the passage to make sure everyone had it correctly.

They then had a maths lesson. They got given a problem solving question which involved money. I helped one of the boys who was struggling with it and also asked a boy who was finished to help explain what he was supposed to do to him.

At break time I got to speak to all the children and see what they were dressed up as. I stood with some girls and I translated all the names of the costumes into English for them.

After break the class got out topic work. They each had a poster they were working on, each about a different animal. The poster contained information on the animals habitat, location, diet and life span. I helped the children cut out their information and then stick it down.

At lunch time I went outside to spend by last lunch time with the children. A few of the girls have a dance club at lunch times so they brought a speaker outside and showed me their choreography. I was very impressed with their dancing. It was a sunny 28 degrees today, which made the day even better. I also played hop scotch with two girls from CE2/CM1 and we counted the numbers in English and French.

Once the bell rang for eating lunch i went inside to eat with the teachers. Near the end of lunch they brought out two cakes for me. I was so surprised! One was a late birthday cake so they sang happy birthday to me in English and i got to blow out the candles, unknown to me that these were tick candles and when you blew them out they relit themselves!! All the teachers and I laughed at that. One of the cakes was a traditional French cake, which is only made in France. I was excited that i got the chance to try it, it was very nice. They then brought me out some thank you/leaving gifts, which was all too nice. I got a few unicorn themed gifts as i had taught the school that the uniform is the Scottish national animal. I was glad that they had remembered this! I then got my thank you card for the teachers and pupils and let them read it out at the lunch table. I wrote half of it in French and half of it in English. I also added my contact details on the card so we could still keep in touch. I also have all the teachers some sweets that i had bought for the school. After lunch i went up to CE2 to receive some leaving cards and then I went back to Laura’s class.

After break time we had the carnival!! This was the most exciting part of the day. All the children lined up in their classes so that they could each me given a bag on confetti. Once everyone had a bag every body spread out across the playground and when one of the teachers rang the school bell everyone chucked a handful of confetti in the air. It was such a joyful moment. I had to help Sylvie throw her confetti as she was dressed as a scarecrow and she couldn’t throw it up with her straw hands. All the children were running round and past me, throwing confetti at me. It was such a laugh and all the children had such a fun time. We then spent the rest of the afternoon outside. I played basketball with a few of the CM2 boys and I scored a point that they were impressed with. I also got some photos with the teachers and a few children to remember my time at the school.

Before the bell rang all the classes went back inside and i got two girls form CE2/CM1 to come round all the classes with me to hand out a sweet to each pupil as a leaving gift.

I have honestly had the bets time on the placement in France. I have learnt so much and enjoyed very minute of it. Missing the school, teachers and children already.

 

Week 6: Day 29

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19/04/18

Today I was with Sylvie Lambert and her class CE2. Today there would be no canteen food so the pupils were supposed to have taken a packed lunch but many of them forgot it. The teacher then had to phone certain pupils parents to ask if they would take a packed lunch in for their children. This reminded me of when I was in school and if you for got your lunch the same thing would have to happen. Sylvie started off the day with a dictation lesson. She spoke out the paragraph a couple of words at a time so that the children could write it down accurately. After she had finished the paragraph she picked a few children to repeat back what they had wrote down.

After break I taught an English lesson. Sylvie had a meeting at the start of class so I took the class by myself, without her there, for the first time. I enjoyed this more as I felt no pressure from her being there. I started by sitting the children down and then asking them to take out their English books. I then asked what the date was today in English and I got the children to tell me each part of the date as I wrote it on the blackboard.

The lesson was a carrying on lesson from the previous weeks one in this class. This time the biography I gave them didn’t have my personal parts in it but rather blank spaces for them to fill in with their own details. We practiced speaking all the sentences in the biography and went over them quite a few times so that they would memorise it better. Then I asked the children to fill in the blanks in English. Sentence by sentence I wrote them on the blackboard and showed them what they would put in the blank spaces. I gave multiple examples of what to put in each space. The children also put their hands up to ask me how to spell certain words in English, especially for the animal and sport sentences. I really enjoyed doing this on the board as I got to practice my French handwriting, as it is difficult for them to read my English style handwriting. Once they had filled in their biography sheets I asked a few children to read out their whole biography to me. I thought this pulled this part of the lesson together well as they could hear and see how the biography flowed,

They then stuck a class picture underneath and circled their face and along side that they stuck a picture of the map of France and circled Orleans. This whole piece of work that they had then done of this page would be for me so that I would remember my time here with the children. I thought this was a very thoughtful gift. My lesson carried on until after lunch.

At lunchtime I went outside with the children. I played a card game with one of the girls, which involved me using my numbers and colours in French. This was fun as I got to interact with the pupils and using my French too. I also used my French during lunchtime to count down races and to count the numbers for hopscotch.

Once the children came back in from lunch we started the lesson again. On the page beside their personal biography page, I gave them the same handout as last week with my personal biography on it to stick onto this page. I then went over my biography on the blackboard, in French cursive writing, and told them to highlight each word that was personal to me. Underneath this they then each got a picture of me and stuck it along side a map of Scotland, which had a circle round Aberdeen. This would be for them to keep as a memory of me.

In the afternoon I went to Françoise Monclere’s class, CP, to help her with an art lesson. We went to the art room in the school and carried on the topic of kitchen utensils. All the children were given a sheet, which had a plate, fork, spoon, knife and chequered table mat drawn out on it. They used coloured pens and pencils to fill in and decorate their own one. While the children did this I pulled out a child at a time to help we with the hot glue gun. We were using the glue gun to stick down big polystyrene kitchen utensils onto an A2 chequered background.

During this part of the lesson I had to explain and brief the children on the safety aspect of using the hot glue gun. I told them not to touch the nozzle of the gun as it is very hot an to keep their fingers away from the glue as its drizzled onto the polystyrene as it would burn their fingers. I felt this was an important direction to give children before doing any activity that has a risk of injury.

I demonstrated how to use the hot glue gun and then gave it to the child, they then traced the glue around the shape and then I placed the shape onto the background for them to press down into place.

After break I went back to Sylvie’s class to play maths games with them. I played the same maths game as last week but with different children. This time I knew how to play the dominos game better, therefore this time round the games went much smoother. Again every time a child had the answer domino and placed it down I asked them to show me that time on the interactive clock and then listen and repeat back to me what the time is in English as well as French. I enjoy playing the maths games with the children as I get the Practice by French at the same time as teaching the children English in maths and I get to work with a smaller group of children, which is easier for communication and checking for understanding.

Week 6: Day 28

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18/04/18

Today we were not in our French school but rather we had an end of placement meeting with Nina Huss at the ESPE centre. At the meeting we discussed; how we felt our placement went, what we had noticed that was similar and different from schools in Scotland, if we felt we had integrated well into the school team, the different lessons we got the chance to teach, how our French had progressed, what we would take form this placement back to Scotland with us, how this placement has changed our thoughts on teaching and if we had any quires about the placement.

Nina was very supportive and we thanked her at the end for organising the placement and helping us along the way, She suggested that we keep in contact with our schools for future reference and that we could even keep a close relationship by writing letters and even create pen pals when I have a class of my own.

We then went into the centre of Orléans to go to a children bookshop that Nina had recommended. We spent hours in there as the shop was full of useful French children books. They had books for basic French; numbers, colours, shapes, etc. and they even had English classics; Elmer, The Hungary Caterpillar, Fairytales, etc. I bought 4 books, which I thought would be handy to use in my classroom when teaching French once I graduate and I also thought they would be a nice memory of my placement here in France.

Week 6: Day 27

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17/04/18

Today I was with Axelle Holef in CE1. Axelle started the day by asking the children the day of the week and what day comes before and after today’s day. She then spoke about the weather and asked the children to describe it to her.

She then started a mathematics lesson linked to a money goal of the classes. The class has a change piggy bank and each morning the children put any loose change into it and today they had reached 131€. They wrote on the blackboard as many ways as they could make the number 131 by adding and then how many ways of making 131€ using notes and coins. Axelle used hundreds, tens and unit squares to also give a visual representation of 131.

She then moved onto dictation. She wrote the sentence on the board and then discussed with the children what words in the sentence were the; preposition, adjective, noun, verb, feminine, masculine, singular or plural and the ‘determine’ word. She then read a passage and picked certain phrases out of it to analyse. The children analysed them and told Axelle whether they were feminine, masculine, singular or plural and what language rule makes them this way.

During break time a few of the pupils had to stay in for a few minutes since they had to correct their dictation. I think this is a good consequence as it teaches the children that if they do not correct themselves during class they then have to stay in during break.

After break she continued teaching about singular and plural words. She wrote lots of nouns on the board with a ‘determine’ word in front of each. The children then identified the singular and plural words.

CE1 then had a mathematics lesson. They were again adding and taking away using different sized squares that represented hundreds, tens and units. These squares had magnets on the back of them so that they could be stuck to the blackboard and moved around depending on the equation. They also looked at partitioning tens into tens and units. She used a number line above the blackboard to help explain the jumping up in tens and then units.

After lunch I taught my English lesson. This was my final class to teach my Scottish lesson to. I started of my lesson at the front of the class while Axelle set up the projector. I tested the children to see how many English phrases they already knew. I asked; how they were feeling today, how old they were, what their name was, what the full date was, what the season was and what the weather was like today. They all managed to respond to most of the questions I asked in English well.

I then started my lesson on Scotland. I did this lesson the same as all the others I had taught, getting the children to repeat each word a couple of times before moving on. When I got to the slide on tartan a few of the children told me that they owned items of clothing with the tartan pattern on them. One child even asked me where they could by tartan!

I felt this lesson went very well for my last teaching of my Scottish lesson. They were very engaged and interested about Scotland and they asked lots of questions at the end.

Week 6: Day 26

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16/04/18

Today I was in Benjamine Duplouy’s class, CP/CE1. They started off the day by assigning the classroom helper roles. Benjamine went down the list of roles and asked who would like to do them for this week. The children put up their hands if they wanted to do the job and Benjamine picked a child to take on the role.

I think this is an important thing to do right at the start of the week so that all classroom jobs are covered before starting lessons and activities that involve using them. Assigning roles to children boosts their self-esteem, as they feel valued by the teacher as they have been picked and trusted to take on an important role for their classmates.

Since this is a composite class, whilst the CP got taught a lesson and CE1’s were given a word search to start off their day. Benjamine read out a passage to CP and then she got a few of the children to come up, one by one, and also read the passage she had just read. I thought this was a good way of testing the children reading and presentation skills.

CP then had a French lesson whereby they were discussing the sound of ‘c’ and ‘ç’ . Benjamine didn’t tell the children what specific letter/sound they were learning about at first, the children had t figure it out. ‘c’ and ‘ç’ in French can sound like a ‘s’ at times so a lot of the children were shouting out words which had a ‘s’ rather than a ‘c’ and ‘ç’. It was only once a child said a word with a ‘c’ in it that Benjamine wrote it on the board and the other children caught on what the sound for today was. The other children then came up with words that have ‘c’ in them. For example, some included; cinq, François, c’est, police and garçon. Benjamine when got the children to get their mini whiteboards out and put a tick on one side and a cross on the other side, she then shouted out words and the children had to show a tick or a cross depending on if they thought the word had a ‘c’ or ‘ç’ in it.

I went around helping CE1 with their word searches and dictionary work. The children had a list of words and they had to find them in their dictionaries and then write down the page number they found them on.

After break, CP was given a worksheet to do with the sound ‘s’ and letters ‘c’ and ‘ç’. CE1 had a lesson on adjectives and a worksheet to go with it. The compared two pictures of cows and had to match the correct sentences that described the cows using adjectives to the correct picture of the cow. Another part of the lesson involved the children looking at a picture and a connecting sentences that gave the read two options of adjectives describing the pictures, the children had to pick the correct adjective out of the two. After the worksheet, on the blackboard, Benjamine wrote up sentences and got the children to identify which word was the adjective. This gave the children more practice of what they had just done on their worksheet.

Once some of the CP children had finished their work a few of them want to try speak to me in English so wrote me messages in French and I translated them for them into English, I found this quite fun as I liked how interested they were in the language.

After lunch I went with Sylvie Lambert with Laura’s CE2s to help with her science lesson. We went out into the playground where they have a garden. In the CE2 lesson we were planting vegetables and flowers and learning how to use the garden tools and equipment correctly and safely. Before we went outside Sylvie explained on the blackboard with diagrams what we were going to do outside. I followed along so that I knew what they were doing too so that I could help and demonstrate instructions outside. The children helped Sylvie and I take all the garden equipment outside and then we both helped demonstrate how to use the tools. To start we raked the soil to turn it up and flatten it out. We then used bamboo sticks to indicate where we were going to plant each vegetable/flower. The children used metre sticks to space out the bamboo sticks along the garden. Once all the bamboo sticks were positioned in the ground we got rope that had a metal rod at ether end and placed each rod in the ground, right where each bamboo stick was, and ran the cord perpendicular, right across the garden to meet the bamboo stick at the other side. This created a grid to work with. We then started to mark out where we would plant the vegetables/flowers. We used a tool to create an indented line in the soil parallel with the robe and then deepened it with a sharper tool. I particularly helped the children with this bit, as it was trickier as the tool was big and heavy. Once we had created these valleys in the soil we took out the guide ropes and started to plant the seeds.

Firstly we planted the potatoes that they had, had in the classroom for 6 weeks now, to allow them to sprout. We used a tool that created a circular hole in the ground when you pushed it into the ground and pulled soil back up with it. The sprouted potatoes were then placed in the holes that were evenly spaced out along the line and covered over with soil. Next we planted peas. The peas were scattered across the next valley and then covered over with soil. Then we planted beans, which were planted the same as the peas.

Next along we planted lettuce, we used the same tool that was used for the potatoes for this vegetable and it was covered over in soil so that the existing leaves were seen coming out the top of the soil. Beside the lettuce we planted carrots, the seeds were scattered in the valley and then covered over in soil. In the final two valleys we plated two different flower seeds, these were scattered in the valleys and then covered over with soil also. Once all the seeds were planted we got watering cans to water all the seeds. It was a very sunny day so perfect for the seeds to start growing. The children then got lollipop sticks and labelled each one with each of the vegetables/flowers. These were then stuck into the ground at the start of each planted line.

I really enjoyed this lesson and I think the children did too as it got them outside and hands-on during the lesson. Although it was fun it also needed the children to use their mathematical skills when measuring and judging during the lesson.

Week 5: Day 25

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13/04/18

Today I was in Françoise Monclere’s class with CP. She started off the day by asking the children what the date was. She wrote it on the board as on of the pupils recited it out. She also had a pupil writing it on the board alongside her so that they could practice writing it. She then picked a few pupils to recite the date out and then tell what day was before and after this date.

I then taught my English lesson. I did the same lesson as I did yesterday to the CP/CE1s. This time I prepared my French script better so that I could do more translating from English to French since the children in CP are so young I wanted to make sure they were understanding and following.

At the start of ‘Spot Can Count’, the book about English numbers and animals, I introduced it in French and English and then I asked the children to count from 1-10 in English for me. I thought this was a good idea so that their brains were refreshed with the numbers before starting the book where they would need to answer with these numbers. After this I taught the lesson with this book the same way as I did yesterday as I thought it worked well for the children and me. I thought this class was more difficult to control regarding behaviour as there was a few pupils during the lesson who weren’t listening as well as others and misbehaving. Because of this difference from yesterdays class, who behaved really well, I had to use the phrase “Levre la main” more, which means “put your hands up” and write a few names on the board for warnings.

I then moved onto the book ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?’. I also taught this book the same as yesterday but again with more behaviour strategies in place. I felt this class struggled more with the names of animals than yesterdays class but there was a few different children who confidently knew the names for certain animals that I was happy about. After I had finished the books, I told the class an animal in French and then asked them if they could tell me what that is in English. They managed to respond back with most but struggled with ‘bird’.

 

I felt this lesson didn’t go as well as the lesson the pervious day but I think it was down to the behaviour of today’s class. Because there is a language difference it is difficult for me to give proper sanction to the children, as I am not confident in the language. So I have to try my best but it doesn’t always work and the class teacher has to help and jump in for me.

After break they had singing with CP/CE1 and CE1. They sang a new song, which involved half of the children singing at one time and the other at another time. The children managed to do this well. After singing CP came back to class and they did some maths. The maths was counting involving adding tens and units. I helped a girl when counting sets of beads in tens and units and then adding them together to then figuring out which groups of beads had more altogether than others.

After lunch CP from Benjamine Duplouy’s class came through to our class and we watched and discussed how baby animals are born. I helped set up the projector for the videos. We watched the hatching of a chick and a turtle and then the birth of a horse. The children were very interested in the subject and had previous knowledge on which type of animal is the mother and father of the chick would be (a chicken and a cockerel). During the videos a few children misbehaved and I had to speak to them and give them warnings. At one point Françoise had to give a sanction to one of the boys. I was quite shocked when she proceeded to lift the boy over the table to then push him in the direction of the door. This type of hands-on punishment wouldn’t be seen in a Scottish school.

Week 5: Day 24

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12/04/18

Today I was in Benjamine Duplouy class with CP/CE1. I started off the day with an English lesson. My lesson contained teaching of the colours, animals and numbers form 0-10. I used two books to aid the teaching. The books were all in English. One was called ‘Spot Can Count” and was about numbers and animals in English. The other book was called ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?’ and was about colours and animals in English. I really enjoyed the use of these books, as it was very visual for the children, which helped the children answer the questions I asked in English.

I started with the number and animal book. I explained in French that we were going to read this book that will help their English counting and animal knowledge. I started off reading each page of the book in English and the for the first couple of pages I also translated it into French so that the children could begin to understand what I am saying in English, thus I could remove the French translation after a couple of pages and they would understand what I am saying.

On each page I firstly asked the children the question “how many (animal) can you count in English” and for the first couple of pages I also said “Combien (animal) pouvez-vous compter en Anglais?” and I asked the children to put up their hands to answer. Once a child answered I would unfold the flaps on the pages and reveal the number answer. I would then say the number and get the children to repeat that number a couple of times to help memorisation. I then went over what the animal is called in English and got them to repeat that a couple of times also. I used the phrase “en Anglais” through out the lesson along with my English to help remind the children that they should answer in English. If at any point the children got stuck with the number in English I got the whole class to count up to that number from 1, as the children have learnt the numbers in English in an order so counting up can help the memory.

After I had finished the book I went back to the start and we went over the numbers and animals again. I asked on each page “L’animal qu’est – ce que c’est en Anglais?” after I picked a child to answer I then asked “Combien (animal)?” I think going back over and recalling the knowledge they had just learnt was important to helped to settle it in their brain.

I then moved onto the next book for my lesson. This book was about animals and colours. I explained to the children that this book was about animals and colours in English. I read the title of the book and then turned to the first double page where there were coloured stripes of each colour across the pages. I went down the stripes on the pages and went over what each colour is in English. I did this twice through. Next in the book on each page there was a picture of animal and each animal was a different colour. For each page I asked the children “what colour is the animal in English”, again for the first few pages I also translated this into French, “De quelle couleur est l’animal em Anglais?” The children put their hands up if they had the answer and after I picked a child to answer I then asked, “what animal is (colour) in English” For example “what animal is green in English” and they responded with “the frog” and again this was translated into French for the first few times, “Quel animal est (couleur) en Anglais”.

One of the last pages of the books displayed all of the animals and their colours that had been seen through out the book. I got the children to listen and repeat what I was reading. So I said “a red bird” and they repeated it back to me, and this was done for all the animals.

After the book was finished I went back to the start of the book and asked what each of the animals are called in English. On each page I said “Qu’est – ce que c’est en Anglais” which means “what is it in English”. They then put their hands up and responded with the animal’s name in English. This helped the children recall their memory of the animals we had spoken about already.

I really enjoyed teaching this lesson, it has been my favourite lesson yet that I have taught. The children all engaged really well and I think using books to teach worked very effectively, as they were colourful, interactive and visual for the learners. A lot of the children were very keen to answer which showed me they were willing in learning. My action plan is to teach this lesson again tomorrow in CP with Françoise Monclere and see if the different class has the same reactions and enthusiasm for the learning.

After my lesson Benjamine did a French lesson with the CP half of her class. On the blackboard she wrote ‘que ‘ and ‘gue’. She got the children to write these on their mini white boards, one on one side of the whiteboard and one on the other. She then shouted out French words with these sounds in them and the children had to show the side of their boards that fitted the word being shouted. For example she said “fatigue’ and the children should have shown the ‘gue’ side of their boards. She did another with ‘k’ and ‘qu’. An example was ‘kilo’ and the children should have showed the ‘k’ side. She also went over how to properly write a ‘k’ in French cursive handwriting. She then did two more with ‘er’ and ‘erre’, and ‘el’ and ‘elle’.

After break Benjamine then asked CP to spell and write down words on their boards that she dictated. The words were linked to the sounds they had just gone over. She sounded out the words and repeated them a few times for the children so that they could get an accurate go at spelling the words out.

 

CE1 then had a French lesson about what they are going to be when they grow up. They went over all the ways to say ‘go’ linked to a subject. This included; I’m going, you’re going, he’s going, she’s going, we’re going and they’re going. To finish these sentences they spoke about types of jobs they wanted to do, types of family names they would be called, for example grandma, and also age.

After lunch I went to Sylvie Lambert’s class with CE2 and did a group lesson on Mathematics. Specifically we did the topic of time. Sylvie explained to me how to play a domino game with a group of three children, it involved cards that had a clock face with a time on them and a different written time underneath, I had to read out the written time and then the children had to find a card that had a clock face which matched the time that was said. We started the game and I spoke the times out in French and then again in English and got the children to repeat the English. Whoever had the card to connect to the next domino had to show me the time on the interactive clock too. We played the game until the card that said ‘fin’ was placed and then the children counted how many cards they had left, whoever had the least amount of card left won. We played the game again a few times. I learnt the word for ‘to’ today when speaking about ‘to the hour’ and I was able to use it correctly when telling the time.

Week 5: Day 23

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11/04/18

Today I was in the nursery again and I brought a new song for the classes to learn today. I taught the classes a song to do with the days of the week so that they could learn the order of the days in English.

I firstly went over the days of the week in French and translated them into English form each one, In each class they had the days of the week in French on the walls so I used this to point to when saying the English days of the week to help the children understand and follow. After I went over the French translation I went through the days only in English. I repeated this 3 or 4 times, starting by speaking slowly and building up to a normal rate.

I then sang the children the song and they listened. I did the chorus part of the lyrics and then they copied and then we moved onto the different versus and they copied. They lyrics repeat themselves but each time you change the volume of your voice or add an action. This was good as the children were just repeating the same lyrics, which meant they would memorise it better. The first time round we sang it all normally, the second time was with a whisper, the third time was speaking loudly, the fourth was with a clap and the fifth was with a stomp.

 

Chorus:

“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

7 days are in a week”

Verse 1:

“We like to sing it quietly”

Verse 2:

“We like to sing it loud”

Verse 3:

“We like to sing with a clap”

Verse 4:

“We like to sing with a stomp”

Verse 5:

“We like to sing it proud”

 

They found this song quite difficult so the teachers told me that they will practice and when I come in next week again we will practice this song again until they are better at it.