Scots language in the Broad General Education (Early and First level)
4. Planning
Now you will prepare your own lesson by designing the activities and learning outcomes you plan to include. If you do not teach at the BGE level at the moment, consider how you can transfer what you have learned in this unit to your own context and learners.
You may wish to use your ideas from watching the ‘I hiv a little Spider" video as well as notes from the approaches to teaching ‘Crocodile’; and Scots songs; for your own lesson, based on what you studied thus far in this unit and on which curricular areas you plan to incorporate.
The CfE Experiences and Outcomes and benchmarks may be referenced, if this is appropriate to your usual practice.
Activity 4
Using the notes and ideas that you began to gather during the tutorial, complete your planning and produce a lesson/activity plan that relates to the topic of this unit and refers to aspects of the CfE Benchmarks.
- Read the key aspects for planning a Scots-related lesson/activity below, and then in your own time, continue planning your own lesson/activity, adding more detail where required.
- Keep a note of your planning in your Learning log and compare your activity/lesson plan with our model plan.
Key aspects to consider when planning a Scots language lesson or activity
You now need to consider what you need to do before you can use your lesson plan in the classroom. Identify what you will need, say, why, and plan which order you will structure the activities.
There are many resources available for the teaching of Scots poetry and song – these are listed at the end of this unit.
Each lesson should be planned with cognisance of the experiences and outcomes, but this need not be a formal exercise. These describe the knowledge, skills, attributes and capabilities of the four capacities that young people are expected to develop.
The CfE Benchmarks for ‘Early’ and ‘First’ Level: All Curriculum Areas set out clear statements about what learners need to know and be able to do to achieve a level across all curriculum areas.
Learning in the broad general education may often span a number of curriculum areas (for example, a literacy project planned around science and technology might include outdoor learning experiences, research and the use of ICT). This is likely to be in the form of themed or project learning which provides children and young people opportunities to show how skills and knowledge can be applied in interesting contexts. The term often used for this is interdisciplinary learning and Scots language opens a wealth of possibilities for such lessons. Follow this link for more on IDL best practice: https://education.gov.scot/media/bdahf0lv/idl-ambitious-learning-for-an-increasingly-complex-world-oct23.pdf
Should you need further inspiration, the ‘Scots Blether’ on glow has a resources section where teachers from all across Scotland have posted lesson plans and activities as well as links to teaching material from other organisations:
Don’t forget to share examples of the fantastic teaching and learning going on in your classrooms. Share on social media using #OUScotsCPD, and tagging us in your posts @OUScotland, @OULanguages, @EducationScot.