Scots and Social Studies at Secondary School

1. Introduction

In this unit by Jamie Fairbairn you will be exploring the benefits of engaging with Scots through Social Studies at secondary school but also have the opportunity to transfer what you are learning here to the primary context and to other subject areas. You will investigate the numerous opportunities for learners to explore Scots in the context of study in Geography, History, Modern Studies, Scottish Studies, Scots Language and Social Studies.

In this unit you will primarily focus on Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) levels 3-6 and will find out about the SQA Scots Language Award. You will consider the benefits of making links across the curriculum through the study of Scots, and the benefits of engaging with Scots for pupil self-esteem.

Key learning points

• to learn about using Scots language through Social Studies

• to write your own lesson plan for using Scots in a lesson in your subject area with possible cross-curricular links

• to build upon your knowledge and experience and further develop your classroom skills with a focus on Scots language and culture

• to find out about the SQA Scots Language Award as a means of accreditation for your pupils’ study in Scots

2. Input 1

Activity 1

There are many examples of how you can use Scots in Social Studies subjects. In Geography you can explore weather, landscapes, farming, fishing, tourism and spatial variations in dialects of Scots. In History you can explore documents in the Early and Middle Scots of the time, accounts of soldiers in WWI and the history of Scots itself from early times to the present day. In Modern Studies you can study Scots in relation to language policy, society, the languages of Parliament and human rights. Scots also lends itself to interdisciplinary learning, and links between different areas of the curriculum are encouraged.

To find out some more about Scots language and culture in these areas, engage with Unit 5, Scots Language in Politics, and Unit 14, Scots and the History of Scotland, of the Open University’s Scots language and culture course. You may also want to have a look at Unit 10, Scots and Work.

Undertake as many activities as you can in the unit of your choice, taking notes on the aspects that are relevant to the key learning points listed for that unit. You may want to import your notes by pasting them into your learning log for future reference.

Learning log

3. Input 2

Activity 2

Cross-curricular geographical focus

This cross-curricular activity is a stimulus for planning learning about Scots place-names and landscape features in your local area and beyond. You will use what you learn here again in Lesson 1 of the Application section.

Signposts, street names and Ordnance Survey (OS) maps are a rich source of Scots words and often contain historical and cultural information. A quick look at your local OS map can reveal words like Ben, Glen, Haugh, Heugh, Ness, Aber, Strath, Dun, Kip, Law, Burn, Nether, Meikle which may describe geographical features, locations, functions or historical events. Broxburn, for example, describes the stream of the brock or badger. Craigandargity originates from the Gaelic word for silver rocks and was then borrowed into Scots. Local signposts may show Scots names whose origin may be Gaelic, Old Scots, Norse. The names that folk use may also differ from the name on signs, e.g. Gardenstown is referred to locally as Gamrie, and folk from there are Gaimricks.

Now complete parts A and B of Activity 2.

Activity 2.A Scots place-names

Read the piece Sauchs, Scaurs and Signage by author James Robertson on the Scots Language Centre website site. Then make notes on these five questions:

1. What are the author’s views on the erosion of place-name words?

2. Do you think Scots names should feature on signs in a similar way to Gaelic names? Give reasons for your view.

3. Give examples of signage names in your local area and write what languages and meanings you think they hold.

4. Watch the video clip on Place names from the Northeast, and consider names of local places or features which don’t appear on signs or maps.

5. What learner activities or outdoor learning projects could you plan around local names? Note down some first ideas for activities and related materials.

Learning log

Compare your answer with our model answer.

Activity 2.B Geographical landscape features in Scots

As well as place names there are a myriad of Scots names for geographical features, which can be explored in the Broad General Education or linked to SQA units in National and Higher Geography and the Scots Language Award.

Use the resources in this activity and other resources you may have found to generate ideas for a lesson on ‘Scots language and geographical features in Scotland’s landscapes’.

To  help with your planning you might want to use the  

• Information about Scots place names at the Scots Language Centre and the Ordnance Survey overview of British place names that use Scots source words.

• Learning resource: Scots names for landscape features (303.2 KB)

Make a note of your ideas in your Learning log.

Compare your answer with our model answer.

Whilst the activities here have focused on place names and landscape features, there are many other geographical contexts for engagement with Scots, as mentioned in the introduction. 

Scots weather words are particularly rich and can be explored in conjunction with weather projects in S1-3 Geography lessons, as well as S3-6 Scots Language Award lessons. There are many good Scots weather resources available: Scots language weather words on the Scots Language Centre website, and on Scots words for weather on the BBC. Once weather words have been explored, learners can construct and present a weather forecast in Scots as part of the Understanding and Communicating Unit of the Scots Language Award

A good source of video interviews of Scots speakers who have knowledge of fishing (Awa tae the sea), beekeeping (Ian Smith on Swarming Bees), farming (The Royal Highland Show 2018) and other geographical topics is Scots Radio.

4. Input 3

Activity 3 

Cross-curricular historical focus

In this activity you will explore historical resources in the medium of Scots and strengthen knowledge about the historical development of the Scots language towards the outcomes of the Scots Language Award. You will use what you learn here again in Lesson 2 of the Application section.

Activity 3.A Historical Sources: Picts, Wars of Independence, James VI, Soldiers in WWI.

Work with these four historical sources and note your answers to the related tasks.

Source 1. Burghead. The Picts and the Battle of Dun Nechtain 685 A.D.

1. Read the piece on the Dig it! website and consider which year group you want to work with this text.

2. When reading, note down words you think would your learners should have a translation into English of – up to four per section. Depending on the year group you will be working with, you can then either look up these words yourself in the Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL) and create a vocabulary list for your learners, or you can use reading this text with your learners to create a dictionary skills activity where they look up the words themselves and compare their translations. Guidance on how to use the DSL can be found here.

3. Now devise five questions for your learners, to accompany the reading activity which will help them and you gauge their understanding of its key points.

4. Finally, a useful activity is to find words in the text that are the same as or similar to their English equivalent to help your learners appreciate the close connections between Scots and English. This activity can build learners’ confidence in reading Scots as they begin to understand the lack of a written standard in Scots and that reading a word out loud in Scots often helps understanding it.

For example, the word anley (only) can easily be decoded when speaking it loud and seen in context.

Whereas a word like coupit are harder to translate because they come from a different origin. Here pupils can learn to decide when they might need to use a dictionary to support their understanding.

Source 2. The Wars of Independence (source Rosemary Goring, 2007)

Read Source 2 and think about how you would introduce each source to your class, depending on the age group you’d be working with and the subject you are teaching. Ideally, you could provide some context and historical background to help your pupils appreciate these sources. With your learners you could use the same activities we are asking you to complete here.

1. Translate the first text in the source into English, again using the DSL where required for looking up words you do not understand. Ideally, you could try to keep the rhyming scheme abab with the last words in lines one and three and lines two and four of each stanza rhyming. Your rhymes do not have to have the same sounds in them as the Scots ones.

2. Read the second text in the source using the vocabulary help provided. Then compare the Scots and the English version of the third text in the source on the Wars of Independence. You might want to look up some of the Scots words you come across here and see whether the translator used different ones of the same in order to create a poetical text in English.

3. If appropriate, you could get your pupils to read the sources out loud to appreciate the Scots language and how it is used more completely. Then discuss with your class the appearance and vocabulary of the second and third source written in Early Scots (the Scots spoken and written before around 1450).

4. Make notes on how these and other sources you find, could enrich learning about the Wars of Independence.

Source 3. Scottish Parliament in the reign of James VI. (Rosemary Goring, 2007)

Click on the link above to access Source 3.

1. Check the meaning of the more unusual Middle Scots (Scots spoken from 1450 to 1700) words such as hines, layne, cameraige, quhairthrow, skayth. Where required, use the DSL for help.

2. Choose a year-group and devise three questions testing comprehension and the structure of 16^th century society.

Source 4. Accounts of life during World War I in Scots (Jock Duncan 2018)

Click on the link above to access Source 4.

1. Consider how a History or Scottish Studies class could use Scots language resources such as these to enrich learning around the conditions in which soldiers fought in WWI? What specifically does the use of the Scots language add here?

2. Think about how you could use and teach the vocabulary from these sources. Pupils could again work with the dictionary and even create their own list of key vocabulary from the eye witness statements.

3. The language of the trenches for many Scottish soldiers would have been in broad Scots, and traditional music and song would have been key for raising the mood in such terrible conditions. In your view, how much does and should our History teaching reflect this important cultural element?

Learning log

Compare your answer with our model answer.

Activity 3.B History and development of the Scots language

1. In this part of the activity you will engage with resources and information you will need to deliver the History and Development unit of the SQA Scots Language Award, in which learners need to explain the factors shaping contemporary Scots and explain the relationship between contemporary Scots and other languages. Your learners, depending on age group and subject area, could undertake a similar sequence of learning activities in your classroom.

Learning log

Compare your answer with our model answer.

2. Scots has many links with other languages, both due to common roots with other Germanic languages as well as exchanges of words through trade, migration and settlement. 

Lesley Riddoch is a journalist, filmmaker, author and broadcaster who comments on Scottish politics and investigates links between Scotland and Nordic countries. In her book Blossom (Lesley Riddoch, 2013), she identifies links between Scots and other European languages. 

Other good sources as listed in the Further Reading section of this unit, include Murison (1977), McClure (1988) and Millar (2020), which give many examples of Scots words and their links with languages such as Flemish (loon, gowf), French (douce, pooch, gigot), Norse languages (redd up, reek, biggin) and Latin (legal terms such as sederunt, interdict, homologate). Nicolaison (1976) is a classic text which deals with the influence of different languages on place names in Scotland.

Activity 3.C Learning Resource: Scots and other languages

Access the learning resource: Scots and other languages

Your learners could undertake the same activity sequence as outlined below in your classroom. To help you prepare, undertake this yourself first of all.

1. Compare the phrase in Scots in the table with the same phrase used in the other European languages. Notice any similarities between the different languages. With different colours highlight any similarities between words.

2. Identify the languages which are most similar to Scots.

Learning log

Compare your answer with our model answer.

5. Input 4

Activity 4 

Modern Studies, Politics focus, cross-curricular

The language of Parliament and State in Scotland, from the 15^th to the 18^th centuries, was Scots. Statutes and laws during this period were written in Scots, and so the language played an important part in Scotland’s political history and the governance of the country. Historic records from this period provide a rich source from which to understand society, politics and life in Scotland.

In the context of currently growing evidence that the languages that children use early in life make up a critical part of their personalities, their image of themselves and the way they understand the world, many activists regard the right to use your mother tongue as a basic human right and are pushing for further legal recognition by Government. In addition, societies need to decide how minority languages are regarded, whether they need protecting, and if so, how to raise their status in education, arts and life in general.

The inclusion of a question about Scots in the 2011 Census allowed researchers and activists to use the data to support change. Several MPs and MSPs, across a range of political parties, have sworn in through the medium of Scots, and some are campaigning to raise its status. The Scots language, therefore, is relevant not only to the history of politics and governance in Scotland, but also to issues of human rights, democratic processes and political and societal change.

Learners can benefit greatly from debate around Scots, beginning with their own positive or negative attitudes, their experiences in primary and secondary school, and spreading out to the status and function of the Scots language in wider society.

Human Rights and Language

In this activity you consider the rights of a child to express themselves in their home language.

1. Watch the Scots Radio clip concerning the Aberdeenshire Children and Young People’s Charter: "The Bairns Charter".  [*Please note: You can watch this video with subtitles/closed captions by activating this feature on the YouTube player
   

2. Also read the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English and for comparison the Universal Declaration o Human Richts in Scots.

3. When engaging with these sources, take some notes on the key points made in them with in relation to language use. To what extent is it important that children’s rights include being able to engage in their home language at school, which may well be Scots?

Compare your answer with our model answer.

6. Tutorial

Now you will review your learning and bring your ideas together in preparation for applying your learning at school with a group of youngsters. You will discuss what you have learned with colleagues, both in your curricular area and other curricular areas. You will collate your ideas and discuss plans for delivering your own lesson or series of lessons, involving Scots. An ability to speak Scots in lessons is not essential, but you will facilitate learners to engage with Scots. Think of learning that will suit your learners, and address curriculum outcomes. You can use resources and ideas from this unit or come up with your own.

Learners may be unused to being allowed to use and think about Scots in lessons, so before launching into strictly curricular linked activities, it is always worth brainstorming Scots words with your learners to evaluate their knowledge. Freely discuss attitudes to Scots they have encountered, and whether and how it is used at home by parents and grandparents. You may be surprised by how much Scots your learners know. Planning can be based around the results of your evaluation.

Activity 5

In preparation for the tutorial, write a rough plan for a lesson activity involving the Scots language, which builds on what you have studied in this unit so far. Bring this draft plan as well as any questions you might have about planning something suitable to the tutorial session.

You can find out when the tutorial will take place in your course timetable.

Your plan should include the following:

1. the age group and subject area

2. suitable Scots vocabulary you plan to use/introduce

3. a suitable resource or more which you want introduce to support the use of Scots in your classroom

4. suitable activities around the resource that can help develop your learners’:

   • understanding of the Scots language

   • their confidence in using it

   • their understanding of a particular aspect of your subject area

Learning log

6.1. Lesson planning

7. Application

Now you will finish preparing your own lesson based on what you have studied in this unit by planning the activities and learning outcomes you plan to include.

You may wish to refer to the 3-18 Literacy and English Review (see pages 66 and 67 for specific reference to Scots) as well as the Education Scotland resources search feature on the National Improvement Hub.

The CfE Experiences and Outcomes should be referenced as often as possible.

Activity 6

Using the notes and ideas that you began to gather during the tutorial, complete steps 1-5. 

1. In your own time, continue planning your chosen activity, adding more detail where required. You might want to record your plans in your Learning log.

2. Try out the planned activity with your learners. You might want to gather some feedback from your learners about the activity as well, which you can bring to the course and share with your fellow students. 

3. Write an account of 250 to 300 words, highlighting the successes and challenges you encountered when applying what you have learned in terms of pedagogy and Scots language. It may be helpful to consider these questions: 

• What do you think worked particularly well in your classroom application? 

• Is there anything you would do differently if you were to repeat this lesson?  

• What are the next steps for your learners? 

• How will you provide further opportunities to practise and reinforce the use and awareness of the Scots language?

4. Then post your reflective account in your course Course Forum. 

5. Read and comment constructively on an application task post by at least one other colleague. 

Learning log

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.

8. Community Links

5.A Oor Hoose - A Scots Language project with Duff House, Banff

© Jamie Fairbairn Duff House Banff

In a partnership with Education Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland and Banff Academy, Scots Language students undertook a creative cross-curricular project based at Duff House. Learners researched the pictures, furniture and objects in the house, using their favourite objects as a stimulus for creative output involving Scots language. The work culminated in a sharing event at Duff House, inviting parents and friends to view the output. Learners then introduced themselves to the assembled gathering with a short biography in Scots, and then acted as tour guides, explaining their chosen objects to guests. Outputs ranged from mosaics and pictures to a Doric Duff House quiz, riddles and stories in Doric. The Doric quiz was printed and used by Duff House for use by the public.

Examples of Oor Hoose project learner output

© Jamie Fairbairn

There are many benefits from local community partnerships and ongoing opportunities for learning experiences for learners. Once the school partnership with Duff House was established there were numerous additional benefits for learning in different year groups and different parts of the curriculum. For example following a few years of the Oor Hoose project with seniors, a Picts exhibition provided the opportunity for cohorts of juniors to explore art and history at Duff House. Scots language provides a learning focus around which many themes across different curricular areas can be explored.

5.B Partnership with the Elphinstone Institute

© Jamie Fairbairn

The Elphinstone Institute is a centre for the study of Ethnology, Folklore, and Ethnomusicology at the University of Aberdeen. The research interests of the Elphinstone Institute fit very well with Social Studies, Scottish Studies and Scots Language courses and outcomes. They focus on the on-going traditions and customs of the North East of Scotland, including a recent project on Lockdown Lore. They were instrumental in the setting up of the Board for North East Scots or the Doric Board. Public engagement is an important part of their work, and they are delighted to work with learners and teachers. As an example of partnership, Banff Academy have been working with the Elphinstone Institute for several years, within which time learners have benefited from: workshops about folklore as a stimulus for projects; learning research techniques and how to interview people (Fair Trickit!); a boost in self-esteem (Banff Academy pupils are fair trickit) through transformative methods of learning, in which learners explore attitudes to language. Learners have found themselves engaging with development, debate and research about status, recognition and learning benefits of engagement with Scots and its dialects in research reports, articles and film.

9. Research on teaching Scots

Throughout this course you are engaging regularly with academic papers which explore aspects of the Scots language. In this unit you will work with the following research article and link it to the content you studied in this unit:

Philip McDermott (2019) ‘From ridicule to legitimacy? “Contested languages”and devolved language planning’, Current Issues in Language Planning, 20:2, 121-139, DOI: 10.1080/14664208.2018.1468961

McDermott, from the School of Applied Social and Policy Studies, Ulster University, Derry, Northern Ireland, looks at both Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland and Scots language in Scotland, exploring the extent “to which devolution in Scotland and Northern Ireland has enhanced the status of Scots and Ulster-Scots in areas such as broadcasting, education, and the arts” (p. 121).

Activity 7

Using both Fairbairn’s unit and McDermott’s article, further develop your understanding of Scots, focussing particularly on Scots and links to other languages, to human rights, and its place within education as either a spoken language used today or as a way into studying the history of Scotland.

1. Read McDermott’s text and highlight aspects you personally find interesting and important.

2. Then take notes to answer these questions about the article:

Gather your thoughts and opinions on this. Use evidence from your own experience to discuss the future of Scots in your school as a language which:

You may want to compare your post with our model answer.

10. Professional Recognition Reflective Task

Activity 8

This reflective blog post should be informed by your learning during the unit.  You should write critically and in some depth about at least one of the following: 

• your understanding of/thinking about the theme of the unit in general, 

• a particular experience/incident arising either in the community of peers on this course or in your workplace, 

• a specific piece of reading associated with the theme. 

Start of Question 

Your post should: 

• be 300-500  words in length. You may write a longer contribution if you wish.
  

• address the programme’s three Masters level criteria: 

1. Knowledge and understanding 
2. Critical analysis 
3. Structure, communication and presentation 

In writing your post, you may choose to: 

• use one or more prompt from the bank of reflective prompts provided to frame your writing, 

• make connections between readings related to the theme and your practice,  

• explore the extent to which you agree/disagree with or were surprised/impressed by an aspect of the peer discussion in the tutor group on the unit forum. 

Reflective blog

11. Further reading

• CfE Outcomes

Read this overview of all activities in this unit and how they link with the SQA Scots Language Award, the Scottish Studies Award the Social Studies Curriculum.

• You may want to explore Unit 10 of the OU’s Scots language and culture course in more detail, as it provides useful materials for areas covered in this unit and explores in depth aspects of the world of work in relation to Scots language. You could also consider asking your students to study parts of the unit online themselves, depending on the age group you are teaching and their access to online study resources.
• Jock Duncan (2018). Jock’s Jocks. Voices of Scottish Soldiers from the First World War. Edited by Gary West. NMSE Publishing Ltd./European Ethnological Research Centre. Theatre production based on the book: Jock's Jocks from the Scottish Storytelling Centre on Facebook.
• Billy Kay (1986). Scots. The Mither Tongue. Mainstream Publishing Company.
• Derrick McClure (1988). Why Scots Matters. The Saltire Society, Edinburgh.
• Robert McColl Millar (2020). A Socio-linguistic history of Scots. Edinburgh University Press.
• Claire Needler, Jamie Fairbairn (2020). Local Language, School and Community: Curricular Innovation Towards Closing the Achievement Gap. A BCF Curriculum Investigation Grant Report. British Educational Research Association BERA.

• Local language, school and community: Curricular innovation towards closing the attainment gap. An investigation of how schools can, by working in and with local languages and dialects, raise pupils' educational attainment, cultural awareness and self-esteem.

• Claire Needler, Jamie Fairbairn (2020). ‘How do you feel about the language that you use?’: Promoting Attitudinal Change Among Scots Speakers in the Classroom. Chapter in: Transformative Pedagogical Perspectives on Home Language Use in Classrooms. IGI Global

• Scottish Language Dictionaries (2017). Concise Scots Dictionary, 2^nd Edition. Edinburgh University Press.
• Scottish National Dictionary Association (1990). Scots Thesaurus. Polygon at Edinburgh.
• Amanda Thomson (2018). A Scots Dictionary of Nature. Saraband, Glasgow.

• The Story of Poem 49: Social Studies

  Third / Fourth Level and adaptable for the Senior Phase

  This lesson plan will support you to deliver lessons about early modern Scotland’s attitudes towards gender and sexuality, particularly those of the church and the state. This is framed as the context for Poem 49 of The Maitland Quarto Manuscript, a same-sex love poem written in the Scots language. The lesson offers several case studies which highlight how social norms were upheld through the threat of capital punishment: the criminalisation of homosexuality and the Scottish witchcraft trials.

  This resource pack includes a powerpoint, teaching notes, and supporting resources.

  Access: Secondary Resources on tie.scot
  

  Interpreting Poem 49

  Literacy and English / Languages

  Third and Fourth Level

  This lesson plan will support you to deliver lessons about Poem 49 of The Maitland Quarto Manuscript; a same-sex love poem written in the Scots language. This poem has become an important artefact in Scotland’s LGBT history. In the lesson, learners will be introduced to a historical overview of the author, believed to be Marie Maitland, and her family, as well as a brief historical context for when it was written. The poem is then broken down stanza by stanza for analysis and interpretation.

  This resource pack includes a powerpoint, teaching notes, a close reading of Poem 49, and supporting resources.

  Access: Secondary Resources on tie.scot

• Connected to the LGBTQ+-Inclusive Education resources, you might find the free professional learning programme developed by TIE useful. This goes beyond the teaching of Scots but it explores wider issues connected to inclusive education. Stage 1 of this course is an instantly accessible E-Learning module, and teachers will receive CPD certificates upon completion. Further information is available here: Teachers on tie.scot. 
  

12. References

Banff Academy (2019). Fair Tricket! Skills booklet.  https://d3lmsxlb5aor5x.cloudfront.net/library/document/Fair_Trickit.pdf (accessed 3 February 2025)

Ashley Douglas (2019).Burghead, the Pects an the Battle o Dun Nechtain. DigIt! Discovering Scotland’s stories. https://www.digitscotland.com/burgheid-the-pechts-and-the-battle-o-dun-nechtain-scots/(accessed 3 February 2025)

Peter Drummond (2007). Scottish Hill Names. Their origin and meaning. Scottish Mountaineering Trust.

Jock Duncan (2018). Jock’s Jocks. Voices of Scottish Soldiers from the First World War. Edited by Gary West. NMSE Publishing Ltd./European Ethnological Research Centre.

Education Scotland Blog (2016). Oor Hoose language project. Duff House, Banff, Aberdeenshire. 

Rosemary Goring (2007). Scotland the autobiography. 2000 years of Scottish history by those who saw it happen. Penguin, Viking.

Derrick McClure (1988). Why Scots Matters. The Saltire Society, Edinburgh.

Robert McColl Millar (2020). A Socio-linguistic history of Scots. Edinburgh University Press.

David Murison (1977). The Guid Scots Tongue. William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh.

Bill Nicolaison (1976). Scottish Place Names. Their Study and Significance. B.T.Batsford Ltd., London.

Lesley Riddoch (2013). Blossom. What Scotland needs to flourish. Luath Press Ltd.

Robertson, J. (n.d.) ‘Sauchs, Saurs and Signage’. [Online] Available at: https://www.scotslanguage.com/Scots_placenames_uid108/Sauchs%2C_Scaurs_and_Signage (accessed 3 February 2025)

kintakintyea (2010) ‘Scottish place names’, YouTube, 28 January. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miuKrBB3xaE (accessed 3 February 2025)

Philip McDermott (2019) ‘From ridicule to legitimacy? “Contested languages” and devolved language planning’, Current Issues in Language Planning, 20:2, 121-139, DOI: 10.1080/14664208.2018.1468961

13. Acknowledgements

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. 

If any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources: