Content and learning outcomes 3

Complete this analysis of the meaning of content.

All teachers have objectives, even if it sometimes seems unnecessary to make them explicit.

However, it's surely impossible to divorce the content of a lesson from its 
 Correctobjective

. That would make no sense! This being the case, the objective of a lesson or of a sequence of

activities will always contain certain 

 Correctelements

 , or content. Consider, for example, part of a science objective for 12-year-old learners:

To differentiate between the planets in the solar system.

This is certainly a valid objective because it describes an outcome which can be assessed. At

some point in the 

 Correctprocess

, you can test the ability of the learner to tell you the 
 Correctdifferences

 between Earth and Jupiter, for example, perhaps on the basis of their size, distance from the

Sun and some of their other characteristics. Those three concepts – size, distance,

characteristics - would be appropriate for a 12-year-old learner, studying either in their native

language or through a foreign language.

Content and learning outcomes 4

Look again at the objective:
To differentiate between the planets in the solar system.
The problem with this objective is that it's only conceptual (it describes what the learner will learn).
The learner can expect to learn that the planets are different and find out how they are different, but
how will that be achieved?
For example, the teacher could spend the entire lesson dictating the differences for the learners to
copy or note down. Maybe the teacher could hand out a long text, ask the learners to read it in
silence and then require them to answer some questions that follow. Neither of these options would
be very interesting, but as procedures they would support the conceptual dimension of the objective.
How could you make the procedural elements more learner-centred?

Content and learning outcomes 7

This running dictation is a more chaotic activity than many science teachers might be used to
managing. However, in a CLIL context it's easy to see why the procedure might help the learners to
engage with the concepts and to view the process as significant.
The three verbs support the conceptual content by introducing procedural content, or the cognitive
skills involved in the process. The ‘runner' must produce a description of the texts by memorising
chunks, then dictating them to the best of his or her oral ability. The ‘writer' must interpret the spoken
text from the runner in order to write it down comprehensibly in an appropriate format. The group will
later interpret the texts more deeply in relation to the pictures.
One dimension of content is still missing in the learning objective. What is it?

Content and learning outcomes 8

Let's add language content to the learning objective:
To differentiate between the planets in the solar system by interpreting, transcribing and producing
descriptions and matching text to pictures using derived adjectives, comparative and superlative forms,
and language to express relative distances.
This specifies the language content, which is an important part of the conceptual and procedural
choices that a teacher makes. In fact, it's impossible to differentiate between the planets without, at
some point, using comparative and superlative structures. The language content is a natural product
of the discourse context, which occurs as a result of the need to differentiate between planets in the
solar system.
Tabs

Examples of the language content

LIL in 3D 1
It's possible to represent the entire learning objective in the following way:
Learners will be able to differentiate between the planets in the solar system by interpreting,
transcribing and producing descriptions and matching text to pictures using derived adjectives,
comparatives and superlatives and language to express relative distances.
The learning objective is broken down into three parts:

 differentiate between the planets in the solar system

 interpret, transcribe and produce descriptions of the solar system
 use derived adjectives, comparatives and superlatives and language to express relative
distances.

Try to use this '3D' concept when planning any CLIL syllabus, unit or lesson. The three dimensions
are concept, procedure and language.

CLIL in 3D 3
The three dimensions – 3D – are a powerful summary of what CLIL is attempting to do from
curriculum to unit to lesson objectives. Objectives should include conceptual content taught by
means of procedural choices (cognitive skills), using specific language derived from the discourse
context.
Concept, procedure and language can all be described as ‘content' but it's the relationship between
them that's at the heart of CLIL practice. The concepts are ultimately understood by doing
something, using a certain type of language.
These three types of content can be seen as learning ‘dimensions'. Teachers in CLIL-based contexts
should always combine all three dimensions of content, in order to support learners in achieving the
outcomes of the lesson or unit. However, you may decide to prioritise one dimension at a particular
point in a sequence of tasks to help your learners achieve a specific objective. In the next part of this
section, you'll see a practical example of how this can be done.

CLIL in 3D 4
Look at these tasks from an activity in a textbook. Each task prioritises a different dimension of
content. Match the task to the dimension of content being prioritised.

When you have finished the table, select three of the sources that you think are significant (for

either negative or positive reasons) and write up the reasons you brainstormed. But write them

as three separate paragraphs.

This is a good chance to practise 'although' and 'such as'. You could write:

'Although hydroelectric power has some small disadvantages, such as the problem of needing

mountains and rivers, it has many more advantages such as...'

 CorrectLinguistic

LIL in 3D 5
The 'Three dimensions of content' approach is just one way that you can begin to think about how to
plan a lesson, a unit of work or even a whole programme. In this approach you need to adjust the
dimensions so that all the content works together. This represents a type of curricular integration for
a CLIL-based context.
The three dimensions don't need to be evenly distributed in every lesson

End of unit
You've now completed Unit 1 in Engaging with CLIL – curriculum, unit and lesson planning. You
should be able to:

 give definitions of curriculum

 order the stages of curriculum organisation
 identify three dimensions in CLIL objectives.
You can already begin thinking about your curriculum and content objectives. In the next unit, you'll
look in more detail at sequencing and planning units of work.