S2 RME – Hallowe’en / Samhain. I delivered the lesson in Scots – English throughout and started with  a wee discussion about Scots language to gauge who knew some Scots while also making it clear the cultural relevance of the topic & relevance of Scots.  I used a core RME textbook, but my own translation into Scots (as best I could). I create a booklet to give me confidence, but also as something pupils could refer to as they listened along if the liked. Interestingly the pupils with little / no Scots watched me very closely as I read (picking up nonverbal signals to help them follow I think – they paid a lot more attention than they normally do when I speak English), while those with (some) Scots all chose to read along. Giving the option worked well.

In the paired discussion task – many tried sounding out words in the questions. Only one got silly putting on an accent.  They all engaged well discussing the points. I supported using Scots English.

Reading text in Scots – English and then answering questions. They had the option to write in English or try and make use of a few Scots words if they wanted. One boy did incorporate a couple of words – interestingly the one acting the goat earlier on - so it was great he gave it a go. All coped well with the task. The layout of information and questions in order from the text is what they are used to using in Social Subjects with me already so that maybe helped. I was impressed by their engagement and when asked if they wanted to continue in the same way next lesson, they all said yes so the lesson will roll into next week.

Feedback mostly positive:

7 pupils really liked the lesson “I enjoy doing it because I’m Scottish. I find it easy to understand.”  “Fun learning new words.”  “I enjoy learning about my culture.”

2 pupils felt it was OK - one is EAL and demonstrated good skills following and reading in Scots English and engaged more than he does with English texts, but he only rated it as OK as “I’m OK with it, but I don’t like it”. (I will dig deeper next lesson to find out what he meant by this to see if I can help him more. Also get him exploring Winter festivals in Poland to see if any similarities to promote inclusion.)  the other pupil said, “I don’t really know it.” (He grew up in England).

1 pupil did not like it “because it is not practical”. He grew up in London and has no Scots. (though I asked him to try out some words on his Mum + Granny who are Scottish)  (Frustratingly 8 pupils off!)

 Next lesson, I will organise pupils into small groups to mix those with some and those with no Scots to help engagement and I will continue to support closely. The key is keeping it fun though I think.  I will use also this lesson with S1 RME later this week, but I plan to read through the text for the questions for them as they are not used to this sort of worksheet yet.

To give some context to my lesson, I cover NCCT in two primary schools teaching French. However when I signed up for this course, I was given the flexibility to dot in some Scots throughout the year. I also work from home one day a week to design resources to support primary teachers in teaching L2 French, but also many other L3 including Spanish and Scots. I therefore decided to use one of the resources I had designed themed around Halloween with a P5 class.

Here are the Es & Os I focused on:

I can show my understanding of what I listen to or watch by responding to literal, inferential, evaluative and other types of questions, and by asking different kinds of questions of my own. LIT 2-07a 

I can participate in familiar collaborative activities including games, paired speaking and short role plays.  MLAN 2‐05b

Using knowledge about language I explore comparisons and connections between sound patterns in different languages through play, discussion and experimentation.  MLAN 2‐07a  

I explore and experiment with the features and functions of computer technology and I can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts. TCH 1-04a

I started with a quick ICT task to match the characters to their Scots’ name. Moving from one class to another, I often start with an independent task to allow time for me to connect my laptop to the screen. I then got the class back together to discuss the language we were learning that day. I had a quick hand up survey about who spoke Scots at home and who used a different language from English at home.

Afterwards as a class, we listened to James Robertson’s reading of Room on the Broom. This was followed by three comprehension paired tasks. The first one had three adjectives in Scots and English which learners had to match and then discuss which character from the story they would apply to. The second had a short description in Scots of the witch and they had to bullet point the way she was being described. Finally they had to read a longer passage and had to work out the meaning of 5 short expressions from that text. I then had a task with 7 verbs which described a movement made by the character – together we read the verbs, then we listened again to the story listening for these key words. The final task was a group task. In 3s or 4s, they had to write Scots words to describe one of the character. They could use any words from the tasks we had completed and I also provided them with a list of Scots words which went with the story. I encouraged them to add any words they knew, regardless of the spelling.

Looking back, I would say that I was not confident with my teaching of Scots. I spoke mainly in English and so did the learners. There weren’t any negative comments about the work, learning Scots and the class was really engaged, more than usual. I had a couple of mistakes in my worksheets which were corrected by the learners, seeing discrepancies and wanting to discuss why.

Looking back, I enjoyed the range of activities and got nice feedback from the class teacher who said the learners were keen to show her what they had learned in my lesson.  I would prepare sentences for me to speak more Scots in my lessons. I used to do that to manage classes when I first started teaching.  The next P5 class I taught did not go as well. The video kept freezing and I had to change the content of my lesson as I was not confident to tackle the whole story without the support of the video. Starting with a brainstorm of Scots words seem to work well for writing, however if I wanted to write in more depth I would need to look in more details at the text first with learners to build fuller sentences.

Hi all,

The lesson was an S3 Humanities lesson. As we had just finished the previous unit before the holidays, the topic was a standalone; Halloween and Scots Language. Objective of lesson was to offer learners a range of literacy tasks in which they would listen, read and write in Scots.

Linking the learning to Halloween worked well as an initial hook but there was definitely apprehension from some learners about the inclusion of Scots. Notably, one learner who is usually confident in literacy tasks commented that she thought she would be “really bad at this”. I reassured the class that there was no expectation for anyone to be fluent in Scots (easily done given my own very basic knowledge!).

The most positive response came from listening to a BBC Radio Scotland recording of ‘The Candle’ by Alan Bissett. This is a traditional ghost story written in modern Scots. The learners responded really positively to this and said that it made the story feel more realistic and scary because it was being told in Scots – they felt they could relate to it more.

For the reading task, I shared an excerpt from the Scots version of ‘Room on the Broom’ and invited the learners to read it themselves. This had a mixed response with some of them saying reading it was easier that listening in Scots and others saying it took more effort.

The writing task was to write a paragraph about Halloween in Scotland using at least 3 Scots words. I provided a list of vocabulary to support. I felt that I rushed this task as it was coming to the end of the session and if I was to repeat I would spend much more time before the task discussing examples of language in the chat first to build confidence before setting the learners off on the task. I got very few returns for the task which I think is down to being rushed and learners maybe not having the confidence to introduce Scots into their own writing, whereas they were more comfortable with reading/listening to someone else's writing.

Overall a really fun lesson and some learners commented that they were looking forward to having more Scots in their future lessons.

Unit 2 - Application Task

• 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? 

Lesson 1 - A large S2 class with some challenging behaviour and disengagement. No support in the class. A wide range of abilities including some very high achieving pupils, a group of disengaged learners and a small number of EAL students. I decided to use this class as my ‘guinea pigs’ as I had previously mentioned the Scots language course and they were keen to know more about it.

The lesson was based on “The Jeelie Piece’ song and our focus was on looking at Scots words for food and drink. I also wanted to incorporate some of the history of tenements being demolished after WWII and families being moved into high rise flats in Glasgow.

My classes are used to using songs as learning tools for new vocabulary and grammar, and they are familiar with taking notes whilst listening and watching. We had a chat at the beginning of the lesson so I could explain our Learning Intentions and pupils could discuss what they already know about Scots and ask any questions they may have. It was no surprise that some pupils questioned whether Scots was a language, one pupils argued that it is ‘just English with a funny accent!’. I was speaking to them in Scots and, with the exception of 2 EAL pupils, they understood almost everything I said. A couple of the more confident boys answered in Scots. Everyone in the class agreed that it was easier to understand and speak in Scots than in French or Spanish, but were still not convinced that it is a ‘real language’.

I asked the class to discuss words that they already know in connection with food and they came up with ideas including Irn Bru, skirlie and haggis. Nobody knew what ‘Jeelie’ was in relation to the ‘Jeelie piece’, and they thought a piece is a biscuit. Many guessed that it was a Jammy Dodger. It was encouraging to see the amount of discussion that was happening, and the pupils who were more familiar with Scots worked well with those who were struggling to understand.

After hearing the song the first time, some pupils commented that it sounded German, and two Polish boys said they hadn’t understood anything. When we broke down the verses and chorus however, and they worked out the story that was being told, it became easier for them to pick out Scots words. 

One thing I will change before doing the lesson again is the activity that I gave the class after having listened/watched the song. I asked them to look up 10 words in the Scots dictionary online in relation to food and drink. They struggled to do this, as when they typed in foods in English, they were confused to be given phrases using these words. I will give them a list of words and ask them to research what each is. This will give them more of a structure to work with.

Feedback Results: 

Would you like to learn more Scots? 

20 said yes (3 EAL pupils) 9 said no (4 high achievers, 4 EAL pupils)

Why / Why not?

• It’s interesting and I would like to know more about where I’m from.
• It’s easier than French and Spanish.
• It’s fun.
• I’m from Scotland so I should know the language better.
• I want to learn more about the history of Scotland and its language.
• It’s not interesting.
• It doesn’t make sense and I won’t need it in the future.
• It’s basically just English so what’s the point?
• I don’t think it’s very useful.

What would you like to do in future Scots lessons?

• Culture
• History of Aberdeen and Scotland
• Learn more Scots words
• What came first - Scots or English?
• Learn the Irn Bru recipe!

I plan to incorporate a Scots lesson into the S2 curriculum around once every 3 weeks using the learners’ answers to ensure they experience all the topics they have asked to study. I am hoping to get more ideas as I work through this course, and through discussion with others, see what works in their settings. I am encouraged that some of the most enthusiastic learners in the Scots lesson were those who do not engage as well in French and Spanish. I hope this makes learning a language more accessible for them, ensuring inclusion in my classroom.

Firstly, I'm sorry for taking so long in participating here. I've had a few staff off in the faculty so it's been a wild return after the tattie holidays! 

Wow, I’m blown away by all the amazing lessons and resources that have been shared. I’m afraid my intro to Scots was very basic. This was with an S1 history class learning about the Vikings in Scotland as well as more locally in Skye & Lochalsh. This specific lesson was looking at effects so we looked at language. I provided some Scots words with Norse origin such as bairn, greet, muckle, along with the English word. Pupils then worked on a paired matching task, where they attempted to match the Scots word to the English. Picture prompts were widely used as Scots isn’t prominent in this area.

Some pupils were very interested and asked to use the time I had reserved for Blooket to look online at other Scots words. I grew up in Peterhead so I was keen to direct them towards Doric!

What I found particularly interesting was that they began to talk about the links between languages. This allowed for them to begin to understand that English is not a standalone language. Some feedback was: 

• I thought an English person invented the whole language from scratch 

• I didn’t know people still have Scots. Only my granny says those words

• It would be good to learn more Scots words because that and Gaelic are our languages. What if they don’t exist one day.

Less enthusiastic feedback was: 

• Scots is silly. People don’t even know what it means

• I’d rather learn Turkish so I can speak it on holiday.

Reflection on the lesson on Address tae ae Haggis

This lesson was prepared to help students gain practice in Reading Comprehension for the Scots Language Understanding and Communication National 5 Unit.

How the lesson helped learners communicate, collaborate and build relationships

Many of the students enjoyed helping each other make the haggis pom-poms. They helped each other problem solve when something went wrong and came up with group-based solutions.

Reflect on and explain my literacy and thinking skills, using feedback to help me improve and sensitively provide useful feedback for others

Students filled in a practice reading comprehension. This required them to consider Burns’s purpose and the target audience for the poem both in 1786 and today. This allowed them to consider how the impact and use of a piece of writing can change over time. They were also required to explain the main messages contained in the poem.

Engage with and create a wide range of texts in different media, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT

An extension activity for this class could be to create a Scots Leid ‘scrap book’ on the theme of Burns Night that could be used as a resource in a care context.

Develop my understanding of what is special, vibrant and valuable about my own and other cultures and their languages

Address tae a Haggis is a poem about pride in being Scottish. When we explore the context to the poem through the learning activity ‘History of the Haggis’. We discover how Haggis became the National Dish of Scotland and how Burns’ Nichts went global. The students therefore get to see how Scottish culture is unique but also an appreciation of Burns’ global impact through the Scottish diaspora.

Explore the richness and diversity of language, how it can affect me, and the wide range of ways in which I and others can be creative/ I enjoy exploring and discussing word patterns and text structures.

The poem Address tae a Haggis uses a prayer as a poem, comedy, double entendre, hyperbole, sibilance, alliteration, caesura, use of the First person, a hero who is the ordinary working Scotsman, ridicule of other cultures that the world would have Scots think were superior to them. All of these devices elicit a reaction in a Scottish reader.  

Extend and enrich my vocabulary through listening, talking, watching and reading.

The lesson allows the student to listen to actors reciting the poem, the lecturer and a Burns Nicht specialist talking about the context of the poem and the poem itself. They watch a youtube about the Address to the Haggis and also read the poem for themselves.

I engage with a wide range of texts and am developing an appreciation of the richness and breadth of Scotland’s literary and linguistic heritage

Address tae a Haggis is one of Burns’ best known poems and is recited as part of the ceremony of a Burns’ Nicht. Knowledge of the text links students to 200 years of Burns’ Nicht celebrations. It gives them confidence to attend Burns Nicht Suppers either in community settings or in their ain hame. It allows them greater access to an important yearly event in the Scottish calendar.

What I would do differently next time

I was under time constraint so I taught this class within the 3 hour block. This was a lot as the students are not super academic and there are a lot of learning needs in the group.  If I was to teach this next year I would teach it over 3 sessions. The first session on the history of the haggis and Burns’s purpose in writing the Address and his target audience and then perhaps talk a little bit about Burns’ Nicht traditions in general. None of the students had been to a Burns’ Nicht so we could talk about how to attend one but also how you can put a simple Burns Nicht on in your ain hame with your family and friends. We could perhaps do a Burns Nicht word search. This would also serve as a word bank that the students could use to do a piece of writing about Burns Nicht and prepare them for a deep dive into the poyum Address tae ae Haggis in the next class.   

A second class could be on the first section of the poyum that talks about the experience of eating the haggis and then make the pom-pom haggis. I could start the class with a word matching exercise (using the same words as the previous week’s word search). This would remind students of the previous week’s work and prepare them for the poyum.  It would also make the lesson more interactive and encouraging deeper comprehension. It would reinforce the new terms and allow deeper engagement. I would encourage students to annotate the poyum as we went through the verses. This would allow students to track their own understanding. We could then make our Haggis Pom-poms. None of the students had made pom-poms before so it took longer than I anticipated. As these students are thinking of going on to work in a care setting enjoying doing craft is a good idea and merits some class time spent on it. 

A third class could focus on the second half of the poyum which provides warning to the non-haggis eating sections of British society. Again we could start with a word matching exercise. The part of the poyum that talks about taps o thrissles reminded me of a game I played with my sisters when we went on family walks with grasses and their heads. None of the students had ever played this game. I might bring in grasses (if they are available) and teach the students the game. We could also do a picture quiz on different foods and their countries of origin. This way the students could reflect on how we make judgements about other cultures’ foods. In the plenary I might add questions that require deeper analysis, such as exploring the historical or social context of the poem. Questions like, "Why do you think Burns wrote in Scots dialect?" or "What might haggis symbolize in Scottish culture?" This could foster higher-order thinking and connections to broader cultural themes. Also “How does learning about Address tae a Haggis affect your view of Scottish culture?” or “What can we learn from the way Burns celebrates simple traditions?” could encourage students to internalize the lesson and connect it to broader cultural themes.

Overall, I would like to get more confident with the poyum. I am not Scottish so I did not know it well but having studied it with this class I can see the comedy aspects of the poyum and the accompanying actions and it would be nice to bring these into the classroom.

I still have to devise assessments for National 5 Scots Leid Understanding and Communication. I think Address tae a Haggis might be a good contender for the assessment, especially if it is being taught in the first semester which finishes at the end of January.

Hi folks, 

I'm very impressed with the depth in the level of discussions and cross-fertilisation of ideas for your Scots lessons in this thread. You can really feel the enthusiasm and energy around this, and we're very happy as this is exactly what we hoped the forum would encourage. Keep it up, or as they'd say up here in Banff, hud gyaan. 

Jamie

I'm affa sorry for being ower lang in postin this.  I dinna ken far the time his gone.  Onywye, here's ma wee reflection on teachin in the Doric:

I taught an S1 History lesson on witchcraft in Scotland.  We were looking at a case study of the Aberdeen witch trials of 1596-97.  The lesson involved role playing the different characters involved in the case and recreating the trial of Janet Wishart.  To start with I used a power point to establish the circumstances and set up the task.  Pupils then had a worksheet to complete during the task by making notes during the trial and acting as jury to decide on Janet's guilt or innocence.  I had prepared a script written in the Doric for the role play and a glossary of new words / phrases.  

Pupils were on the whole enthusiastic about the task despite some initial reluctance. Those who volunteered to take on speaking roles fully embraced the Scots language aspect, and I think it helped them get into character and sympathise with those involved.  

Overall, it went well.  The use of Doric suited the lesson as we were learning about something specific to Aberdeen.  I didn’t feel confident enough to teach the whole lesson in Doric and used the English version of the power point.  I hope to become more confident in using my Scots voice in the classroom over time and that this will encourage learners to do the same.  

When teaching this or a similar lesson again, I would have learners involved in the creation of the glossary rather than preparing this for them or possibly prepare a glossary and have them write the script if time allowed.

Unit 2:  Activity 7

My lesson took a week to complete from start to finish.  Basically, I wanted to encourage my two S2 classes to write more in Scots when writing imaginatively.  I used ‘a Hunner key Gallowa Scots wirds’ from Education Scotland, as well as the first page of Harry Potter: The Philosopher’s Stone in both English and Scots.  I also used Tom Leonard’s ‘Six O’Clock News.’ The pupils read through the hunner wirds and highlighted the ones they already used, then translated the English version of Harry Potter into Scots and then compared with Matthew Fitt’s version.  Then they wrote the beginning of their own stories in Scots.

It seemed there was a huge chasm I was jumping over to carry out these lessons as it had been so long since I did any teaching of Scots.  Indeed both S2 class did not realise Scots was an official language and when I asked them to write down all the languages they spoke, one class did not write down Scots at all.  For a lot of the week, I really did feel despair as we waded through the wirds an’ the Harry Potter and the lack of knowledge about Scots in general.

However, when I started to get in the creative writing from the pupils my heart did soar because they really engaged with it and the starts of stories they created were in Scots in the main and they were probably the best creative writing, I had read at this school.  A lot of that was to do with the fact they used the Harry Potter start as a model for their own writing, but also because they were writing in Scots, they set their stories in Scotland so they had a really authentic feel to them.

The next steps will be to get them to complete their stories and to remind them to use Scots more in their creative writing.  I have also been made responsible this year for enhancing Scots within the English curriculum and so will use this example to provide feedback to the other English teachers.