When I mentioned on twitter that I was teaching the same Y9 class for six weeks of solid intensive Spanish, I could read the raised eyebrows and feel the sentiments of ‘poor you’ and ‘oh dear’ from the #mfltwitterati and being an NQT never having done this before I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Therefore I thought I would share my experiences with you all, I mean Y9s and for six solid weeks….
Despite the highs and lows and the drama I was expecting from the students, *touch wood* it was all highs and only one sole ‘low’ the whole week which was quickly rectified.
I can’t stress how enough how delightful it is to have a class, formulated especially so that they can achieve the ‘e-bacc’ throughout KS4, all day and every day. When do you ever get a chance to see a class so much that progression from one topic to the next is so smooth, you have the time to let a lesson run over if the students are enjoying and benefitting from a particular aspect or cut something short and move on having all of the resources at your fingertips (I am in my room EVERY lesson unless I choose to be somewhere else i.e. a computer room).
Having the same kids in the same room has meant that I have been forced to be creative with the activities I have been doing as I can’t get away with too much routine. This has made me look at cross-curricular projects in more detail. This is what I have planned over the next few weeks.
- Spanish cooking a la CLIL (will try to record a lesson) starting with a Tortilla Española this week.
- ICT – with a variety of activities including a mini Language Perfect championship for the next five weeks (to get the kids using it). MYLO and not to forget the usual Microsoft packages for project work.
- Sport – Double Club style football day involving Y8 media students reporting on the day and Y10 students coaching and refereeing (tying in with their BTEC qual).
- Drama a la CLIL thanks to being inspired by Liz Black, a local AST to the area.
- Art a la CLIL Mexican Day of the Dead project creating pattern with words and sentences (in Spanish).
- Geography a la CLIL thanks to Rachel Hawkes’ resources on El Salvador, we will also be looking at the film Voces Innocentes.
- Numeracy – as a matter of course…
The highs of the week have been…
- Seeing the students, without any coercion take control of their own learning and ask for dictionaries etc with a view to be creative.
- Seeing the students competitively beginning to use the target language they have been taught and logging what they have been saying.
- Responding extremely well to Class Dojo and logging in at home to change their avatars and see how well they are doing points wise.
- Reflecting truthfully on their learning and not being afraid to share their thoughts.
- Keen to speak Spanish and to say as much as they possibly can – from memory.
The sole ‘low’ of the week
- Last lesson on Tuesday a student did complain that they never realised they would have had to do this intensive course in preparation for GCSE, and another couple joined in. I had to nip this in the bud, spoke to the initial student who apparently just wanted to moan and was an angel for the rest of the week. I explained that I understood where they were coming from, and I do but it had to be done this way as Spanish was new into the curriculum this year. The next day the whole class was full of beans.
This coming week I am mostly looking forward to…
- My KLOO lesson…
- The Language Perfect competition I have set up.
- Seeing the students complete their writing test after having been introduced to the immediate future and preterite tenses by the end of the week through an FCSE assessment.
Any more ideas would be welcome I have a fair amount of flexibility!
