2-week Languages Focus Placement

Professional Learning Log: Primary Languages

Trainee name: Andrew Adamski School name: St. Margrets Ward Date Key Activities Year
27/1/14 Lesson Observations: Literacy, Maths, French, WTL Interview: 3 pupils about French learning Year 5

Data
Notes and 3 pupil profiles

Reading

Comments/Key Observations
I was greeted by the year 5 teacher who said that she would be in charge of drawing up a schedule for me depending on the needs of my placement. She had already informed me that she had been in contact with Angela Gavin, a TA and the MFL teacher of years 3, 5, and 6. I explained that I was to observe as many language classes as possible, liaise with the coordinator, and interview 3 students, the staff, and the head teacher. I was told that the Angela Gavin was a bit timid to see me as she was unsure of her level of French. When she came in, she explained that she mainly an Art teacher and that she wasnt the best at French. She seem relieved that I just started learning French a few weeks before and that I was hoping to learn from this placement. She proceeded to tell me who was in charge of teacher language are various year groups and which languages were taught. The class teachers taught Spanish in KS1, the year 4 teacher taught her own class French and she taught the remaining years French. I proceeded to watch and act as TA for the year 5 class for the first half of the afternoon. I found it interesting that the school is already aware of what will be expected with the new National Curriculum and were already making adjustments in their lessons. In the Literacy lesson that I observed, there was a heavy focus on identifying grammar, in this case, features of relative clauses. We then moved on to Maths, where the lesson had an interesting cross-curricular approach to measuring the radius and diameter of a circle. In the lesson, the UN Game (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) was used which not only worked on Maths, but also gave the children an understanding of global trade and finance. The pupils were randomly given different countries of the world with varying economic stature, and given, of varying amounts, paper,

WEEK 1:
An Analysis of National and International Research on Provision of Modern Foreign Languages in Primary Schools Cynthia Martin

2-week Languages Focus Placement

representing resources, compasses, pencils, and rulers, representing technology, and money. The countries had to uses what they had, or trade some of what they had with other countries to get what they needed. They then proceeded to make different sized circles, which the brought to the teacher (World Bank) who exchanged them for circles. In French class, the pupils first read a story as a class that had a dialogue between two frogs. There didnt seem to be specific language or topic focus to the story. The teacher asked what the words meant and if the children didnt know, she would translate. After the book, she handed out random table activity packs to the groups and they completed the activities. They included a variety of matching card games that reviewed basic sentences, phrases, and numbers 1-20. I finished the day observing WTL, a catholic studies lesson, that was tied into the book about WW2 they were reading in literacy. They talked about the Jewish experience during WW2 and the message of Love thy enemy. When I came in today, I was asked whether I wanted to work with Year 4 for the first half of the day, as they needed help because the TA was out. I was eager, as this is the class I will be teaching during FPP.\I was introduced to the class who were told I was a Language Specialist. They were excited to hear that I have lived near a rainforest, as they had been studying about it recently, and had a lot of questions to ask me. It was a good start. I started by helping out with a literacy lesson that was about putting words in alphabetical order and how to use a dictionary. First, the pupils threw around a doll and said the alphabet order. Next, they formed groups and then, as a competition, put themselves in order of their first name. Then the groups put themselves in order of their surnames. They then ordered a few animals from the rainforest in nd rd alphabetical order paying special attention to the 2 and 3 letters of similarly spelt words. Finally, they completed a worksheet that had them order words in a similar way. I enjoyed the way that the activities contained animals they were learning in geography and that the activities were very kinesthetic. After Literacy, I assisted

28/1/14

Lesson Observations: Literacy, Maths, French, Art

Year 4 and Year 3

Lesson notes

Modern Languages in the Primary Curriculum: Are we creating condition for success?

2-week Languages Focus Placement

with a mental Maths quiz. I moved over the year 3 classroom where I observed an Art lesson before French. In French, the pupils went over a story on Babble Fish and then played a memory game that reviewed fruits and another that reviewed animals. The pupils were very keen to participate and especially enjoyed playing the memory game as a girls vs. boy competition. 29/1/14 Lesson Observations: Y4 Literacy, Maths (symmetry), Y2 Spanish Year 4 and Year 2 Lesson Notes The Provision of Foreign Language Learning for pupils at KS2 Research I spent most of the first half of the day in Year 4, where I observed Literacy and Maths. In literacy, the pupils looked at how to use dictionaries to find definitions for a list of words. They then learned how to use thesauruses to help make writing more interesting. In Maths, they learned how to find the lines of symmetry in 2D objects. Before lunch, I watched a 20-minute Spanish lesson in Year 2. The children first watched a clip of the Incredibles and picked out words they though they recognized. They were able to pick out Como estas in the video, along with some other language. The teacher then put on a Youtube video that counted up to 10 in Spanish. The children walked around the classroom until the music stopped, and then had a short conversation with someone next to them. Words, hola, como estas, bien and adios were used. The pupils did this several times, and then sat down to review their numbers 1-10 forwards and backwards. I had to leave soon after lunch to attend a phonics session in Timperly with my cluster group. Today, there were no languages being taught in any of the year groups. I took the opportunity to spend the day in Year 4, observing Literacy in the first half of the day, and leading guided reading in the second half. In literacy, the pupils were learning about how to use fact books to find specific information. They learned how to go through contents pages and appendices of various books to answer questions about the rainforest. They had to select from a pile of fact books to find the answers as not all of the fact books were useful. I was impressed by how independent the pupils were in completing the

30/1/14

Lesson Observations: Literacy (fact book), Lead a set of 20 one-on-one readings

Year 4 Literacy

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The National Languages Strategy

2-week Languages Focus Placement

task. They no only learned important facts about the subject, but also developed their research skills. After observing PE after lunch, I helped the teacher with one-to-one reading hearing 20 pupils. I started the first half of the day leading two guided reading groups in Year 4. During the second half, I was able to observe languages lessoning in both KS1 and KS2. I started the day observing French in Year 6. The pupils started with reviewing food vocabulary through translating instruction on how to build a sandwich. They then moved on to planning a weeklong camping trip to France, which had a set budget, and need to include transport to and from, meals, and other daily activities. The pupils went the computer room to do their research and even went on Google earth to explore the areas from ground level to get a better impression of where they were going on the trip. I found this to be a fantastic way to introduce pupils to the culture and make the prospect of going to France realistic, giving them motivation for learning the language. I finished the day observing a Year 1 Spanish lesson. As it was the classs first ever Spanish lesson, the pupils were introduced to the Spanish culture vicariously through a holiday adventure of the class mascot Barnaby the bear. The PowerPoint slides introduced the class to the location of Spain in relation to England and its currency, food, the weather, sport, and dress. The pupils were then introduced to basic greeting in Spanish and were able to use these greetings in a mingling activity. The pupils enjoyed being introduced to the culture as it was put into a familiar context. I was impressed by how quickly they were able to pick up the phrases in Spanish.

31/1/14

Lesson Observations: Year 1 Spanish, Year 6 French Year 4 Led 2 guided Readings

Year 1, 4, 6

Lesson Notes

Language Learning at KS2

WEEK 2
3/2/14 Lesson Observations: Year 5 Spanish, Year 5 Literacy/Maths Year 5 Lesson Notes, Interview notes Evidence-based policy_early modern language learning at primary I spent the first hour of this morning organizing what I will be doing this week, which included which class to observe and when, setting up an interview with the head on Wednesday, and looking over the MFL policy of the school.

2-week Languages Focus Placement

Interview: Years 3, 4, and 6 French Teacher

After first break, I observed Year 5 French, taught by Angela Gavin. The lesson, which lasted about 35 minutes, included review of colours and numbers, some pair conversations about their family, a dance that reviewed parts of the body, and an exploration of a computer program where the pupils reviewed a topic of their choice. In the afternoon, I interviewed Angela Gavin, the TA in charge of teaching French in years 3, 5, and 6. As she has been involved with teaching French as a PPA cover for the past 7 years, she was able to provide a wealth of information about the school and its view on MFL. I finished the day acting as the TA for year 5. Today I was with year 4, where I assisted with Guided Reading and English lessons. In English, the children were to write a magazine article on an aspect of the rainforest of their choosing. I helped them researching information on the internet. I found it valuable to watch the children develop their independent study skills. While some seemed to ask for help as it was easier then making the effort themselves, others truly need assistance on how to research their own information. At the end of the day, I discussed MFLs with the class teacher, who was relinquishing her role as MFL Coordinator due to having been made the SENCO of the school. As she had been the MFL Coordinator for 6 years, she was able to give me valuable information about the history of MFL in the school. Today I spent the morning in Year 4, where I observed and assisted further with the pupils research on the rainforest during Literacy. I also observed and assisted in Maths with the identification of 3D shapes and the creation of nets of 3D shapes. I also had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Ratchford, the Head Teacher, about MFL at St. Margrets Ward. He seemed confident about the level of effort that the school has put into teaching languages and believes they are well enough prepared for September, 2014. He did want to stress that was not as much of a priority as most other subjects, but they always have tried their best with what expertise they have available to them. The schools

4/3/14

Class Observations: Year 4 English Year 4 Guided Reading Interview: MFL Coodinator

Year 4

Lesson Notes, Interview notes

Evaluation of the Key Stage 2 Language Learning Pathfinders

5/3/14

Class Observations: Year 4 Literacy and Maths, Year 3 Art Interview: Head Teacher, Mr. Ratchford Taught Lesson: Year 3 French

Years 3 and 4

Lesson notes, Interview notes

Challenges with Transition

2-week Languages Focus Placement

Literacy and Maths scores are well above the national average. In the afternoon, Before teaching French, I observed and assisted with Art in Year 3 to get to know the class a bit more. I found it a real challenge to teach the one-off French lesson. I did my best to prepare a fun and engaging lesson, and felt the activities went down well. However, I found myself timid when it came to pronouncing the word. Though the children seemed to enjoy themselves, I noticed that my discourse management was not as strong as it took extra focus to remember how to say the words correctly. While I was teaching numbers 1-10, I quickly realized that the pupils knew these pretty well. Towards the end, I just pointed at the numbers and let say them, as their pronunciation was better than mine. Teaching the French lesson gave me valuable insight into the difficulties class teachers face when teaching a language they know little about. Speaking a language is a skill that needs to develop, and not something that can be prepared for well the night before. When teaching a language for the first time, a teacher can learn along with the pupils, but they must be sure that they are not making errors that are then transferred to the students and later become fossilized. When teaching for the first time, it also becomes difficult to extend the pupils learning, as they often progress beyond the teachers themselves. It is challenging enough to learn a language along with your pupils, but what happens if you are a class teacher in year 6 expected to teach a class that has progressed in a language throughout Key Stage 2? I spent the first part of the morning looking through the MFL coordinator files while the children where in an assembly. I was also able to observe a Year 5 Music lesson. The remainder of the time I assisted with Maths in year 4. The pupils were doing a practice test. I learned that these test are as much about them understanding follow instruction and consider the questions carefully, as they are about Maths aptitude. During the literacy lesson, I helped with guide pupils in a group read. While initially I was focusing on getting them to answer

6/3/14

Observation: Year 5 Music Year 4 Maths

Year 5, Year 4

Lesson notes

An analysis of National and International Research

7/3/14

Observations: Year 4 Literacy

Year 4

Lesson Notes,

Achievement and Challenges

2-week Languages Focus Placement

View of Staff Language Coordinator Binder

Information from Languages Coordinator Binder

questions related to specific standards, I realized that I could get a lot more out of them if I asked questions appropriate to the text; with their teachers permission and encouragement, I did so. I was amazed by the pupils ability to look deeper into the text, seeing what was inferred by the author through various use of language. I finished the day by collecting information from the language coordinator binder. I gained a better understanding of the amount of work that takes place for those who hold this position, including liaising with the local council, scheduling meetings with governors and staff, and looking at the budget for resources and deciding on effective resources. I was amazed at how the old language coordinator managed this all while being the SENCO.