Thoughts upon reaching the halfway point of Term 1

EXTRA WORK. It is important that all the students have something to do in their language, such as a novel to read or a film to watch. This is because they all finish at different times and need to keep themselves occupied with different tasks.

DIFFERENTIATION. In any case the entire lesson is highly differentiated. The board in the classroom becomes a tangle of boxes and bubbles with instructions for different language and groupings quite early on in each lesson. It is very much like spinning a lot of different plates, there is so much to keep an eye on. On the other hand we are definitely treating each child like an individual with a highly individualised learning plan in this course.

BLOGS. The blogs are coming on well with the students who are putting their creative tasks on their. The students who work with a tutor or from a book don't understand very well why they are writing down what they do on their blog, as in doing this they are not necessarily learning anything. So they need regular reminding to keep a record of this.

ARR. This week the students added their comments to the ARR. Mostly they seem positive about the course.

INTERNET. We have been having problems with a very slow internet connection this week, which made me realise just how heavily this course relies on connecting to the Internet. It's hard to think of a way of students learning and practising languages I don't speak, together with speakers of other languages in a non-Internet way. I suppose I could set a written task - "What I did last summer" or similar, but then it would need reading and marking by a speaker of the relevant language.

First Cohort

In the first cohort of students (Aug-Dec 2013) we have the following:

HEBREW

Who is doing it? 8 students of Hebrew, ranging from fluent speakers to GCSE level speakers, all with Hebrew-speaking parents. They have hired a tutor between them. The tutor has split them into two groups of four according to ability. We have three lessons in the Elements course. The Hebrew students do prep work during period 1, set by the tutor. The higher level students have a lesson with the tutor in the second period while the lower level students complete a test. This situation then reverses for the third period

Is this working? To a certain extent, yes. They are by far the biggest group in the class, so they can dominate when they are all in the class. Splitting them into smaller groups and getting them out of the class for their lessons with the tutor is good. My concern is that the tutor's materials are very dry and purely grammatically based. There doesn't seem to be much room for creative or cultural work in what they do.

NORWEGIAN

Who is doing it? 1 student of Norwegian. Both parents are Norwegian. This student began the course by following the work set from the scheme of work we had prepared for native students. However, after three weeks of this she opted to follow instead the Norwegian governments online course for native Norwegian speakers living abroad, which she was already doing at home. In this she has an online tutor and is placed in a class of similar ability students located around the world.

Is this working? Yes. I think so. It is harder for me to monitor what she is doing on the government website, apart from looking at what she is doing in class and occasionally asking questions. However, on the face of it, the online course should be a very useful tool to help her with her language learning.

POLISH

Who is doing it? 1 student of Polish. This student is following the ILC scheme of work and producing a blog, on which he completes weekly tasks.

Is is working? Yes, he is doing the work and I hope he is improving. As a non-Polish speaker it is difficult for me to judge, and as yet we have had no parental input.

KOREAN

Who is doing it? 1 student of Korean. This student is following the ILC scheme of work and producing a blog. This is a very conscientious student. Her mother is very involved in what she is doing in this course. She sometimes phones her mother during the lesson to ask questions. Her mother has also suggested a site she can use to work on her Korean grammar.

Is it working? Definitely, with this hardworking and conscientious student the results seem to be good, she is practising her language and hopefully making an improvement.

JAPANESE

Who is doing it? 1 student of Japanese (native speaker) and 1 student of Japanese (GCSE level). The native speaker is following the ILC scheme of work and is doing well, there is parental input in the form of comments on the blog. The mother is very good at offering tips on what to do to improve. The GCSE student is a conscientious, hardworking student who has a tutor outside of school time. This tutor sets her work to do during the ILC session

Is it working? Yes for the native speaker. Yes, probably for the GCSE student, although it seems a shame she is one her own rather than in a larger GCSE class for Japanese in which she could interact with other students.

SPANISH

Who is doing it? 3 students of Spanish (GCSE level). Under my guidance they are following a GCSE Spanish course. This has already had to be differentiated, one of the students is weaker than the other two. Two of them may be able to take their Spanish in Year 10 as they are gifted and hardworking. 

Is it working? It is frustrating for me as I cannot teach them to the best of my ability, as I have to monitor the work of the other students and give every student equal attention. As with the Japanese GCSE student I feel they are missing out on something that the GCSE class provides. Self-studying a GCSE seems like a lonely task with little fun or enjoyment. However, none of them have complained. 

Links to all the students' blogs can be found here: ILC BLOG

Independent Language Centre

I have created this blog as somewhere to reflect upon the creation of a new academic course within Elements called 'Independent Language Centre'. The description of this course is as follows:

What it is: A place for students to study the language of their choice at the level of their choice, be it a home language or a second/third language. Each week will have a theme such as ‘Environment’, ‘Music’, ‘Traditions’ and a differentiated task to be completed by the end of the 3-lesson period. The second period of the three periods will be an independent study period.  
What it isn’t: Somewhere where students will be given a strict grammatical-based syllabus to learn a language or 1-1 tuition provided by the school in the student’s particular language choice. The school has always encouraged students to take in exams in languages other than those they learn in their regular MFL lessons, and this will continue to be the case. It may be the case that our Independent Language Centre students do wish to be entered by the school for a qualification at some point during years 9-11, but this will not be the primary focus of the ILC lessons.
What the staff do: Facilitate the individual, independent language learning of each student after liaising with parents. Students will be mapped against the European Language Framework to give them a level and encouraged to move on to the next level. Staff will introduce each lesson in an imaginative way and facilitate sharing sessions at the end of each 3-lesson period. Staff will talk to students each week on an individual basis about their progress and what they are doing to move on with their language studies.
What the staff cannot do: Teach individual students in the language of their choice. However, someone will need to regularly check the students’ work and offer feedback. For students studying a language not spoken by the teachers currently staffing this course (FR, ES, PT, JP, RU) they will need a tutor or adult who speaks the language to regularly check the work they are producing. This may be done for one hour during the middle of the three lessons or outside of school time.
Ongoing elements of the ILC course:Blog/Vlog: Students store their work in a multimedia blogReading Log: Students keep a record of books and articles they have read, programmes and films they have watched, songs they have listened to on their blog.Literature: During the course students choose and read a novel.
European Languages Framework (A1,A1+, A2, A2+, B1, B1+, B2, B2+, C1, C1+, C2) 11 levelshttp://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/elp/elp-reg/Source/Key_reference/EAQUALSBank_levels_EN.pdf