Emma McDonald Post 1
• 30 November 2024, 8:09 AM • Edited by the author on 30 November 2024, 8:09 AMUnit 3 Application Task - Jamie's Group
Hoping this is what is being looked for. I delivered my lesson integrating the Expressive Arts; literacy development and Scots language using the song 'Jimmy's lost his jaurie'. I have had a class learn this during Feis Rois sessions at my school a few years ago and they loved it so I thought with the approach of St Andrew's Day I would try it this week with my own class. My reflections are as follows:
Successes:
- Engagement with the Scots Language: Using the song captured my pupils attention and made the lesson more engaging. The song really helped them with memorisation and pronunciation of Scots words.
- Connection with pupils at the school: by using a song which they heard being sung by current (older) pupils at the school they engaged more and were trying to work out who they could hear on the track.
- Interactive Learning: As we incorporated actions into the song they fully committed to the experience which was fantastic to see. They also enjoyed looking at images of various objects and people that I pointed to during the song. It helped them visualise the story that was being told through the song.
Challenges:
- Language Barrier: Some pupils did still find it tricky to understand some of the Scots words we used in warm up games and were not confident about saying them in group work.
- Pupil confidence: Some children really enjoy the use of drama in the classroom others are more reserved and preferred to sing but not fully join in with the actions.
Future Considerations:
- What Would You Do Differently?: If I were to repeat the lesson, I would consider incorporating more context about the song's background. Especially around the Broomielaw as they all loved singing this word. This could help my pupils better understand the language and its nuances.
- Next Steps for Learners: To reinforce their learning, I was thinking I could plan a follow-up activity where they wrote an additional verse for the song before "Jimmy blew up the stanky' in small groups. This would encourage them to use the language actively and we could make use of Scots dictionaries to help them find equivalent Scots words for what they were thinking in English. I would also get them to draw what they think was happening throughout the story many talked about wanting to 'draw his granny getting shoved down the stanky'. It could develop into creating a comic strip with written Scots being incorporated into future lessons.
I started this unit a bit early while I had a Level 1 pupil in my S2 rota.
I wanted to explore if Scots Language might be a way of giving a Level 1 pupil more confidence engaging with literacy tasks within an S2 class dominated by Level 3 pupils.
Plan: Introduce Scots Language as part of our studying of Scottish Suffragettes, but allow the Level 1 pupil to explore Scottish vocabulary more deeply before share their learning with the others in the class.
Pupils were keen to explore Scottish words Scottish Suffragettes might have used. The Aye / Naw activity (Play - Scots in Schools) and a ‘Sharin wirds we ken!’ discussion engaged all pupils and, as suspected, the Level 1 pupils shone in these tasks and enjoyed being the expert in the room which was an interesting shift in the class dynamic. While Level 3 pupils carried on with Suffragette tasks in English the Level 1 pupil explored certain Scots Language Centre games (www.scotslanguage.com/learning) to learn more Scots vocabulary. They engaged better than usual in class and were keen to teach the games and the words to other pupils next lesson. We would then use this as a springboard to exploring which words would have been used/ relevant at the time of the Suffragettes.
Unfortunately, the pupil did not return to school for two weeks, by which time the Suffrage unit was completed, the class had moved on, and the sharing aspects had to be abandoned. As a next step the pupil was happy to practice and reinforce their learning in Scots, they attempted an activity I had created using the poem Crocodile (Unit 3 Course Notes). They liked how some words were, “what we speak when I am in Glasgow”.
Overall absences made this project a bit of a guddle, but the pupil did gain confidence in trying literacy tasks and enjoyed knowing more than others in the class. Without support in class the comprehension tasks were too challenging though. Would I try this again? Yes - I think it is a worthwhile task and was a good experience where the class dynamic was altered.- Jump to: Parent to post 1
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Seonag,
This was a lesson highlighted in the tutorial, so I hope you were there listening to all the great comments and feedback! I loved the peer to peer learning, and the confidence given to pupils who knew Scots to teach the others, perhaps they had not felt that ownership of learning before - gold!
Keep the great work going!
Jamie
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Lesson Plan Robert Burns and the writing of Scots Wha Hae.doc
Robert Burns and the Writing of Scots Wha Hae.pptm
- What do you think worked particularly well in your classroom application? - We are studying Robert Burns and how his poetry and song relates to Scotland’s Winter Festivals. As we were studying this in the week leading up to St Andrew’s Day Scots Wha Hae, which was considered for many years to be Scotland’s national anthem, seemed appropriate. The song worked well as I am teaching in Fife so we were able to tie this in to a visit to Dunfermline Abbey which has strong associations with Wallace, Bruce and Robert Burns and is an ancient capital of Scotland.
- Is there anything you would do differently if you were to repeat this lesson? I tried to do too much in one lesson. I am given a 3 hour class and it is hard to judge how much you can cover when you are first teaching a topic. I did the poem but also tried to move on to the Scots version of the Declaration of Arbroath as this is where Bruce and his followers reminded the Pope of how St Andrew had chosen Scotland to house his relics and had special protection from St Andrew. In the ppt I have attached to this post I have taken out the Declaration of Arbroath material and will make this a separate lesson. I have expanded the information on Scots Wha Hae.
- What are the next steps for your learners? The next step after Scots Wha Hae is to look at a Modern Scots version of the Declaration of Arbroath and to do a Reading Comprehension on the Declaration as well as a short piece of writing in Scots on St Andrews Day in Scotland.
- How will you provide further opportunities to practise and reinforce the use and awareness of the Scots language? I am teaching this as part of National 5 Scots Language Understanding and Communication and Scottish Studies so the use of the Scots Language will be ongoing.
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This sounds such a well planned lesson. Your tie in of language + visits to various sites sounds such a good idea. You have got me thinking about how I might use Scots Language when we do fieldtrips across Social Subjects.
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I have a real thing for getting out and about. Dunfermline is a great site to visit and the free bus travel for under 22s has really helped. I attended a history walk in September led by the Andrew Carnegie Museum about the different architecture in Dunfermline. I plan to reuse this walk to show my level 4 students who are doing the history and development of the Scots language how architecture changes over time and use that as an image for them to pin how language changes over time as well.
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Rosemary,
Sounds like a brilliant lesson, and love the 4 point evaluation - so useful for future lessons. Great to use the local area to consolidate the learning, grounded in the community around the bairns. The visit provides a great focus for the learning and nae doot creates a buzz around it.
Trying to do too much in one lesson is probably the most common comment we hear, and I've experienced that myself. It just means there is so much possible around Scots learning as I find the medium of Scots can connect the curriculum so well. As Scots learning may be new to the bairns, it will take time for them to normalise it.
Look forward to seeing your ideas for the SQA Units you will be doing with the class - exciting stuff.
Aa the best
Jamie
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Unit 3 application task
Application task – Unit 3
I enjoy listening to stories, songs, rhymes and poems in the language I am learning by joining in and responding to show my understanding. MLAN 1-05a
I can participate in a range of collaborative activities. MLAN 1-05b
Through a variety of media, I am developing an awareness of social, cultural and geographical aspects of locations in a country where the language I am learning is spoken. MLAN 1-06
I can use my knowledge about language and pronunciation to ensure that others can understand me when I say familiar words and phrases. MLAN 1-07b
As I listen or watch, I can identify and discuss the purpose, key words and main ideas of the text, and use this information for a specific purpose. LIT 1-04a
Using what I know about the features of different types of texts, I can find, select, sort and use information for a specific purpose. LIT 1-14a
Lesson “plan”:
I decided use the story the night before Christmas as it is a story know to all students. Because the story was in Shetland Scots, we discussed first about where Shetland was, if anyone had gone before or if they knew the difference between the different Scots dialects. We then watched the video on the Shetland dialect from the Scots language Centre, followed by a discussion on the words they had heard before. We then watched the video telling the story. We then listened to it again but this time, they were allowed to follow the story.
We then worked through a series of comprehension activities and tried to pronounce some of the lines and compared it to how it should have sounded like.
Successes:
Learners enjoyed looking at a different type of Scots. Watching the video on Shetland dialect was great as it gave us the opportunity to discuss the different words they knew in Scots and if they knew the different areas they came from. They found listening with the text much easier to understand, than when it was unsupported. They enjoyed working in groups to decode meaning. We had fun practicing our pronunciation.
Challenges:
Despite being a known text, they found the language difficult, particularly when dealing with a longer piece of written text. That put off some of the less able learners and they actually asked for us not to do Scots again.
Next step for learners:
Despite having a one hour lesson, we never managed to do any writing. We need to build the confidence to do so.
Next step for myself
I misjudged how the learners and I would cope with the text. It was not a level 1 text, particularly as there were no Scots speaker in the class. I struggled to support the learners who were themselves struggling and some of the grouping did not work to support them. When the tasks were short and structured they did well but when they had to find information in the text it was much more difficult.
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Your review sounds like you know you class really well - I think we will all find that if peers are unwilling to help one another it is going to make it even harder for us to deliver lessons in Scots (particularly for the first time). Your suggestion of "short and structured" tasks as a way forward is really helpful + is something I will try to incorporate myself into future lessons.
Your lesson sounds smashing + your use of the Shetland dialect to get discussion going around wirds folks already knew or had heard was a great idea.
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Mylène, this looks like a great lesson. It's great to work on listening skills, like that, and as you say, bairns tend to understand spoken Scots more easily than written at first.
Interesting to show the bairns other dialects of Scots to the ones they hear more frequently around them. Christmas is a great time to build up vocabulary, like sna mannie, flichters o sna, bubblyjock (turkey), sproots, roastit tatties, breid saas, grumphies in blunkets, Suntie Claas, Blythe Yule, Yuletide, Yule moggans (Christmas Stockings), chantin Carols, Clootie Dumplin, bobantilters (icicles) etc. You could also get the kids to try a bit of writing, telling what happens on Christmas Day at home, in Scots - families have their own rituals and timings for the day, and it's an easy thig to write about, but something they've perhaps not written down before.
Aa the best
Jamie
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Emma,
This is a fantoosh way to structure your application task - brilliant. The engagement, connection and interactive learning clearly show that the bairns have enjoyed the lessons and learned a lot. In terms of challenges, it's natural to have a range of skills and confidence, and that will come with time. I like the follow up ideas, particularly getting bairns to write a new verse of their choice, maybe depending on which bits of the song they liked most, and the comic strip will be reinforcing what they've learned in a different context.
Sound like your bairns are enjoying their lessons and learning a lot!
Jamie
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"fantoosh" is such a good word! I will try to use it every day next week as it makes me smile. Thank you for reminding me of it Jamie!
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