A 1+2 Approach

1+2 newsletter for development officers. Supporting the implementation of the 1+2 Approach to language learning across Scotland.

June 2020

Editorial

Dear colleagues

Well, we are living through interesting times, aren’t we? I certainly don’t think any of us ever envisaged the kind of landscape we are all trying to navigate right now and the kind of challenges that we would be facing. All that seems to be certain is that our short-term future is full of uncertainties. However, in the heart of every crisis lies a grain of opportunity. If we keep positive, we can use this as an occasion to innovate, learn and improve. Speaking recently to a local authority colleague, I was struck by her positive message that this was the time to invent new ways of doing things and to have courage to embrace new ideas. It is true that none of us has the solution to our present circumstances; the only thing we can do wrong, therefore, is to do nothing at all. We will definitely not get everything right, but we all know that failure is part of the learning experience. Sometimes, however, we don’t apply that to ourselves and expect perfection and excellence from the outset of everything we undertake. However, if we continue to support each other, collaborate and share what we learn, then we can and will use this experience to transform our practices, develop our professional skills and improve the educational experiences of our youngsters.

The team at SCILT is keen to support you in any way we can. We will be guided by you and be as agile and responsive to your needs as we can. We are in the process of considering how best to facilitate professional learning in a way that is both accessible and meaningful without overburdening teachers. We are navigating ways of how to use our experience of teaching online to keep languages flourishing in a blended learning environment, thus ensuring that we can play our part to support your recovery plans. However, we can’t do this in a vacuum. We need the comments, ideas and creativity of the languages community to inform our thinking. Please, therefore, help us meet your needs and steer our direction of travel by getting in touch with us.

Fhiona Mackay, Director

Download SCILT 1 + 2 newsletter - June 2020 as PDF.

SCILT news

author Lynne Jones, SCILT

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the innovative distance learning programme offered in partnership between The Open University and SCILT has been able to continue with only minor alterations through the period of lockdown.

Flexibility in the assessment requirements and the granting of longer extensions have meant that retention of the teachers studying on both the beginners and post-beginners courses of the Teachers Learning to Teach Languages (TELT) has been high. Consequently, the quality of the learning demonstrated on the unit forum and in the online tutorials was even more impressive than anticipated.

As one of the Pedagogy Tutors recently explained in an email: “Can I just say how delighted I am to see so many of our teachers over the two year groups put so much effort into their application tasks and professional recognition tasks. They are a credit to themselves and I'm proud of their commitment and effort even during this difficult period.”

The popularity of virtual professional learning has exploded this year. With the Open University having recently celebrated 50 years of distance learning, SCILT is lucky to be working with the best possible partner in the online education business on the TELT programme.

The programme aims to increase language teaching capacity in primary schools. Students simultaneously learn a new language and the practical skills to teach that language in the classroom. The language strand is offered in four languages – French, German, Mandarin and Spanish, and at two levels – beginner and post-beginner. Language tutors are native or near-native speakers of the target language. The pedagogy strand covers a diverse range of teaching approaches including cultural contexts, interdisciplinary and outdoor learning. Pedagogy tutors are experienced primary teachers and have either been involved in designing TELT or are TELT alumni.

Registration for the new intake is open until 4 September 2020. Please share this information with the primary teachers, or secondary teachers with a remit to support primary languages, in your authority. There is a charge of £250 for the programme and most Scottish teachers on the programme are sponsored by their local authority. Find all the information about the course and funding options on The Open University website.

author Lynne Jones, SCILT

The 1+2 Languages Leadership Programme has been an important feature of the SCILT professional learning calendar for the past six years. During that time, we have welcomed over 250 teachers from 32 local authorities and granted over 60 Professional Recognition awards. Numerous language education experts, curriculum leaders and lead practitioners have shared their knowledge and experiences. Programme participants have developed their practice and their professional networks.

However, this year, due to COVID-19, by late March it became obvious that we would have to suspend the next cohort, due to join us at the Summer School planned for 29 June – 2 July 2020. We have collected feedback from everyone who applied for a place on the 2020-21 cohort on what, how, where and when they would prefer to engage in the new incarnation of the Languages Leadership Programme. We are confident that the next incarnation of the programme will be a different – but no less valuable – professional learning experience.

In the coming months, details of how you can participate in new languages leadership development opportunities will be publicised through SCILT and Education Scotland communications. In the meantime, if you have any thoughts or ideas to share, please email SCILT, putting LLP in the subject line.

News from our partners

author Ann McDaid, Coffee Break Languages

Lockdown has had a huge impact on teaching and learning across Scotland, with teachers and parents having to quickly adapt to a new way of working. Coffee Break Languages has produced a comprehensive bank of free resources for parents, teachers and pupils. Specifically for primary pupils, we have made our primary video resources, High Five French and High Five Spanish, freely available until the summer. The content follows two young Scottish learners in their language journey with their French and Spanish friends. The short, self-contained lessons require little subject knowledge from the teacher, parent or carer. Check out all the resources on the Coffee Break Languages website.

For primary teachers who would like to improve their own language skills, there are free podcasts to suit each level of learner, in French, Spanish, Italian and German, with new material updated regularly. On our social media channels, teachers will find many useful teaching and learning opportunities, like Verb of the Week, and regular Facebook “Lives”; real-time, online lessons with native speakers. 

In these difficult times, we brought together language learners from all over the world to be united in music. Listen to our Coffee Break Choir performing their multilingual version of Nat King Cole’s classic L-O-V-E. We hope this celebration of music and language-learning can provide some inspiration for our young language learners working remotely!

Find us online!

Facebook

Twitter

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author Liz Neil, British Council Scotland

To support teachers, parents and carers with home or remote learning, we have put together a selection of free activities and challenges. They introduce learners to important global issues together with the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, and help develop core and transferable skills.

The next deadline for funded partnerships is 15 June 2020 and we welcome applications from school clusters looking to collaborate on global issues with partners overseas. Funding is available to cover project activities, events, supply cover and training. We provide a range of classroom resources, and free, high-quality CPD. Funding is available for reciprocal travel for when restrictions are lifted, although full funding is available without travel for those who wish to collaborate remotely and support is available to enable this.

 To access advice and support from a local adviser contact, please email Connecting Classrooms.

author Gary Shiells, British Council Scotland

eTwinning is offering a range of free CPD webinars, including seminars discussing and sharing teaching experiences from across Europe during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The British Council is also running a regular series of webinars designed to help teachers get started with eTwinning, find partners and improve their eTwinning skills.

  • STEP 1: An Introduction to eTwinning Live
  • STEP 2: An Introduction to the TwinSpace - building pages
  • STEP 3: An Introduction to the TwinSpace - communication tools
  • Gaining recognition through eTwinning Quality Labels.

More information on the webinars, as well as registration, is available on the British Council website.

author Richard Tallaron, LFEE Europe and PowerLanguage

The teams at LFEE and PowerLanguage hope that all colleagues and learners are as well as can be during these challenging times. Please get in touch with us if you feel we can support you in any way.

Blended Learning: Teacher training around Scotland

Given the current context, we have adapted our teacher training programmes to offer a blended approach. We will be able to deliver these courses through online sessions and materials, supported by face-to-face training whenever it is safe to do so.

Storytelling online

We have been running storytelling sessions for young learners (P1 to P4) to support the SCILT/e-Sgoil programme of online language classes. Please get in touch if you want to organise a session for your class!

Developing International Projects for Schools (DIPS)

LFEE Europe, in partnership with l’Académie de Montpellier, will run two four-day programmes in October 2020 in Brussels, and in 2021 (date to be confirmed) in Lisbon. The aim of these events is to inform practitioners, schools and local authorities of what European Programmes are available for staff and pupils to participate in, to help them deal with the application forms, and for them to meet potential partners. We hope to attract teachers, advisers and policy makers from several EU countries. Please register interest with us as soon as possible should you wish to attend. The full programme is available on our website and funding for these training courses is through Eramsus+.

PowerLanguage News

PowerLanguage online courses: French/Spanish for families

These courses have been made available free of charge to all families around Scotland during the COVID-19 crisis. Please visit the PowerLanguage website to access the courses directly without having to log in!

PowerLanguage for Schools platform

We are helping with the current home learning situation by making some resources freely available to teachers, pupils and their families. Please get in touch with us to find out how it works.

Take the PowerLanguage Challenge!

Do you fancy setting your primary or secondary language learners a challenge? Why not get them to create podcasts to teach their language, share their culture and learn from other young people around the world? We have videos on the PowerLanguage website to support learners in creating their podcasts.

author Shona Hugh, Education Scotland

As we find ourselves in unsettling and uncertain times, the Modern Languages team at Education Scotland has been as busy as ever, supporting the many working groups around the education recovery process. Like everyone else, we have been connecting digitally with our networks and we were delighted to be part of the recent Dumfries and Galloway Languages conference, hosted on Teams. We were able to share national messages around the ‘Continuing 1+2’ policy and what that might look like as schools resume. In addition, we shared our work on the refreshed curriculum narrative, through a modern languages lens, as well as an in-depth look at the Education Scotland modern languages progression materials from first to fourth level, hosted on the National Improvement Hub.

Support for teachers and learners

A Wakelet, bringing together a range of free-to-access language learning websites to support teachers, can be found on the National Improvement Hub, along with other general advice on remote teaching and learning. The LearnerZone on the National Languages Hub on Glow has a wide range of links for pupils at all stages to maintain engagement with language learning.

Scottish Education Award for Internationalism and Languages

Sadly, as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, this year’s Scottish Education Awards have been cancelled. We would like thank all schools that submitted entries; as always, the standard was very high. Our congratulations go to the three schools shortlisted as finalists for Internationalism and Languages: Craigroyston Community High School in Edinburgh, Neilston Primary School in East Renfrewshire and Turnbull High School in East Dunbartonshire.

author Jane Byers, SEET

Whilst we continue to work from home, SEET has developed a new project for pupils of all ages (both primary and secondary) to engage with: SEET @ Home.

We love making films and know that many of our young people do too. As a result, we have developed a project to assist participants in making short films at home, with a little guidance from us. SEET has created an online project pack with everything pupils or teachers need to get started, including a recommended timetable, suggested apps and resources, and some tips and tricks for filmmaking. All they need is access to a smart phone or tablet (any device that shoots video) and to download a free app or two!

One principal aim of SEET projects, which feels even more pertinent in the current climate, is to give pupils a platform to reflect on the ways global issues influence our local and global communities. Therefore, we have asked pupils to make a short film (maximum 2 minutes), based on the theme, ‘community in isolation'. As always, the key element to the project is for pupils to include some of their language learning in the films they create. SEET hopes that using languages to express their ideas on a topical issue will enhance pupils’ interest and enthusiasm for learning languages as they see the relevance of them to their own lives.

We plan to keep the SEET @ Home project model going with a new theme every few weeks. Keep an eye on our Twitter and website for updates. We look forward to working with participants, receiving entries, and sharing the films with communities across the globe.

Local authority updates

Thank you to the following local authorities for sharing how they are implementing the 1+2 approach.

author Sigrid Rieuwerts, GET across Borders Team, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

When we met at Boroughmuir High in Edinburgh at the end of last year, together with the German Consulate General and ministers from Scotland and Rhineland-Palatinate (the home region of the GET initiative in Germany), to celebrate the 200th German Educational Trainee (GET) in Scotland, little did we think that a GET-together would not be possible a few months later.

With the COVID-19 crisis advancing, and schools and borders closing, our GETs had to rush home, sad that they could stay no longer. For many GETs, this came too abruptly, and since they had prepared more teaching material than they were able to deliver, they made these materials available to their (primary) schools. Kahoots and PowerPoints with audio files were particularly popular.

We were already thinking about setting up a Moodle platform, with all the material created by our GETs for German in primary education, when our partners in the City of Edinburgh and in East Lothian approached us to work together on ‘German Going Digital’. With our GET support team at the Scotland Hub at Mainz University, and the Mainz Hubs at Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, we were well-positioned to take up this challenge. We are now working together to make German teaching material available online. By offering learner-oriented teaching with authentic language material, such as audio recordings or videos, young learners with no, or very little, German will be able to take up the language in an engaging way.

When we chose the theme, ‘GET Ahead! Exploring the dynamics of international partnership in education’ for the 2019 GET-together for stakeholders, we did not expect that this partnership would be put to the test less than six months later. But even in these challenging times, you can GET support! We are still accepting offers of placements for our GETs for 2020/21! Although we do not know whether travel restrictions might prevent our GETs from taking up their posts in Scotland after the summer break, or whether they might have to come later, European funding will be made available even for a virtual internship abroad, so you can GET support with the teaching of German regardless of whether it is online or in person.

author Karen Faulds, SCILT

In March, Tighnabruaich Primary hosted an intergenerational Gaelic learning afternoon in partnership with the Gaelic Department at Dunoon Grammar, Cowal Befrienders Group and TPS’s catering manager. The event was organised and co-ordinated by Gwen McCrossan, Argyll & Bute’s 1+2 Development Officer, with support from the staff at Tighnabruaich Primary. The event was held to showcase the benefits of intergenerational learning through language learning which, in this case, was Gaelic.

Cowal Befrienders organised volunteers and transport to bring some vulnerable, elderly members of the local community into school for lunch and then to take part in some activities led by Dunoon Grammar senior Gaelic pupils to learn numbers to ten. It was great to see so many people in attendance as the weather had been very wet and windy on that particular day. The catering manager provided a lunch of soup and shepherd’s pie, followed by apple crumble. Pupils in P6/7 served lunch to the visitors and sat with them to enjoy it.

After lunch, everyone went into the P1-3 class and paired up for a series of Gaelic themed activities. This session was led mostly by the pupils from Dunoon Grammar and involved learning basic greetings in Gaelic, introducing oneself in Gaelic and counting up to ten. We even managed to learn a song in Gaelic too! The afternoon came to a close after a few games of bingo in Gaelic, which was fun and enjoyed by all. All pupils were highly engaged and it was reported that some of the elderly participants were much more animated than usual. It was a pleasure to witness the interactions across the generations, with language learning as the focus.

The event was viewed favourably by all parties. In particular, the Cowal Befrienders’ Co-ordinator received positive feedback from both group members and staff who stated that the children in the primary school and the senior pupils from Dunoon Grammar were lovely and chatty. One older gentleman named John, who can speak a bit of Gaelic, particularly enjoyed the event. This view was shared by the senior pupils from Dunoon Grammar, who stated that they really enjoyed helping young children and older people learn Gaelic together.

 

author Kate Findlater, West Lothian

Being thrown into online learning has raised challenges for many teachers. However, our 1+2 Team has been trying to keep the profile of languages high in many ways. Between home schooling, hub working and designing lessons for our pupils, it has been a learning curve for most.

In West Lothian, we have been busy posting weekly challenges on Twitter. So far, we have shared a Sway newsletter informing students, parents and more about all things Spanish! Songs have been uploaded and every week we are finding ways to share our enthusiasm. Different languages have been fired into the spotlight – celebrating Spanish, French, German, Gaelic and many more!

In addition, we are in a fortunate position that our local authority has purchased the online resource, Linguascope, for many of our schools. One of our team made a fantastic video on how to use the resource and our teachers have been sharing games and posting activities using Teams and school websites.

P7/S1 transition activities continue online and some of our teachers have been delivering e-Sgoil lessons, which are proving to be popular! Our clusters have been meeting remotely and have prepared an action plan for the forthcoming session so that we are all clear about the journey ahead. Lead learners also completed a West Lothian survey regarding the implementation of 1+2 so that the data can be analysed and any gaps addressed before August. Online training is also continuing to allow teachers to upskill, share key resources and ask questions.

As we move ahead, thinking about the new blended approach to teaching and learning, we do feel that we are in a very good place to take ‘Language learning: A 1+2 approach’ forward, and we are ready and waiting to meet these new challenges.

author Leila Okasha (Currie High) and Sonja Fedrizzi (Broughton High)

In 2020, we need to remotely re-create the classroom experience and navigate the challenging digital shift in the delivery of lessons. Opportunities for teachers to connect and collaborate from isolation are more important than ever. On 19 May 2020, an enthusiastic group of 34 Edinburgh Modern Languages teachers (French, Spanish and German) met online to exchange ideas and explore digital learning tools. The webinar was hosted by Pam Tosh (Secondary Lead Teacher for the City of Edinburgh) and included presentations by ten very experienced teaching professionals.

The volunteers were allocated a five minute slot to present an idea which they had found useful before participants were able to ask questions or check points for clarification.

The first presentation was on Microsoft Sway and how much more engaging than PowerPoint this can be. It can be used for presentations, newsletters and much more. Pupils are able to collaborate with each other on a Sway presentation. The presenter encouraged us to look at Education Scotland’s French greetings presentation using Sway.

Our second colleague demonstrated how Gimkit can be used online to motivate students and how it can be an excellent tool for learning vocabulary. A free version of Gimkit is available, and a licence can be purchased for a more advanced version.

Our third colleague demonstrated how to use Screencast-o-Matic, which allows teachers to talk pupils through a PowerPoint presentation. She also mentioned an app (app.wizer.me) which pupils can use to record themselves speaking – an invaluable asset for the teaching of languages.

Next two colleagues from the same school showed a typical week’s work being issued for an S1 year group – explaining how it was broken down into ‘lessons’ and how differentiation was incorporated. They talked about a podcast they had made as a listening comprehension for junior pupils.

Similar to screencasting, we were then shown how to record over PowerPoints (audio or video) and create a video clip for pupils.

Our next colleague spoke about encouraging senior pupils to set up times with junior pupils, through staff adding them to the relevant Team (audio only).

An excellent presentation followed on how to use both Google Forms and Loom. The former – similar to Survey Monkey – can create charts from an anonymous questionnaire on any given topic. Loom (Loom.com), used through Chrome, can be added as an extension to the address bar and then used for giving verbal feedback – saving time – or for making presentations more engaging with audio/video.

Kahoot is a tool many will be familiar with in the classroom. With Create.Kahoot.IT, you can assign a Kahoot competition to a class or year group with a deadline and then publish the results. Data available from the quiz can be very valuable to a teacher.

Lastly, a colleague showed us the ‘suddenly-popular-with-young-people’ Bitmoji – an avatar of yourself. She explained how she has used these to create praise postcards to attach to Teams and in a virtual classroom.

At the end of the session, I felt overwhelmed by so many new technologies, but also fired up and excited to try some of these ideas out. I set up a Kahoot competition that very evening for our S1 year group. They have loved it and some of the pupils who have been reluctant to engage so far took part!

Over the course of the next week, I became fully converted, recording myself over PowerPoints to make instructions and new information accessible to pupils. My Curriculum Leader has used Loom to welcome new classes at the change of timetable, and we hope to try Bitmojis in the next week or two!

Overall, it was such a useful professional learning session. There were ideas for everyone; ideas with potential to have a significant impact for our pupils. Forums like this enable the sharing of information and building of expertise, but they also facilitate support between colleagues: ‘The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other’ (Robert John Meehan).

author Lorna Henderson, Craigroyston High School

Craigroyston Community High in Edinburgh was incredibly proud that four girls from our Higher French class won first place in the senior phase (S4/S6) section of the ‘Concours de la francophonie 2020’, run by l’Institut français d'Ecosse.

As Curriculum Leader, Lorna Henderson is always looking for opportunities to open up language learning beyond the curriculum in creative ways, and the competition was part of her departmental strategy to raise uptake in languages. Irina Gancheva, class teacher, says: “We thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to boost learners’ self-confidence as well as further their communication skills in French. The girls all have a genuine interest in French language and culture and decided themselves on the topic and how to present their ideas. They are a small class of pupils whom I have taught since S1, and I have witnessed their progress with pride and joy.”

The pupils interviewed each other before filming in order to gather ideas and information that they could use. The result is a fantastic video of the pupils talking fluently in French, and at length, about how and when they started to learn French. They discuss their own learning experience, the languages they talk at home and how these helped them to learn another language, and the importance of language learning. They also share their motivation to be successful language learners and how they hope to use French in their future professional lives.

They titled the film, ‘Our language journey and future aspirations’. The video will be used in the future to inspire younger learners.

The girls were overjoyed with their success and it gave them a huge boost towards the end of their Higher studies. They are undaunted by the winners’ workshop being postponed, and those that can are now continuing with their studies at Advanced Higher.

author

Prior to school closure, our very active 1+2 Leads across Clackmannanshire hosted an event with Louise Glen from Education Scotland. This focused on progression pathways from first to second level, and was well-attended. The ‘gradient of progression’ was discussed in detail and we made plans for incorporating more live learning opportunities between secondary and primary pupils.

We are excited to be part of the SCILT offer to engage families with language learning, and two particularly enthusiastic schools, Fishcross Primary and Craigbank Primary, have teamed up with Clackmannan Nursery to get involved. This mini-cluster has already made huge progress in engaging families and recognises that language learning could help young people as well as support home engagement. Times have been testing since closure, but the plans are being adapted and it is hoped this can continue in some guise – the enthusiasm is most certainly there! By engaging families, we hope to increase the understanding that languages are for everyone.

We had a number of young people sign up for the e-Sgoil/SCILT live lessons. This has been an added bonus during the school closures and the young people have enjoyed being part of something new. The opportunity to tap into subject specialists has been a welcome addition to Clackmannanshire's 1+2 journey.

As an authority, our priority over the last term has been to engage learners and to support them. For a while, learning felt secondary to being able to check-in with our pupils and give them fun projects to keep them busy. To this end, many schools have created exciting little mini-projects with a language theme. Miss Bryden's class at Menstrie Primary enjoyed a mini-project centred on The Very Hungry Caterpillar, where pupil engagement increased and pupils expanded their vocabulary and their enjoyment of learning a language. Using literacy as the stimulus, the class shared both their language learning and their creativity on Google Classroom.

Moving forward into the recovery phase, we plan on continuing the ‘gradient of progression’ on our 1+2 journey; the importance of thinking global is more important now than ever.

  

We love to celebrate the work being done across Scotland to support 1+2 languages!

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