Unit 4 Application Task
Wan i thi furst things ah learnt when a began teechin in FE is the need tae be flexible and adapt quickly to, if no shiftin sands, shiftin timetables an classes.
I hud originally planned to exlpore Scots wurds in a mental health context wi a group ae ‘care’ students.’
Thi group ur aw adult returners wi ages rangin fae early twenties tae late forties. Like ma ither group they ur also Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP) candidates oan the ‘Access to Nursing’ course. Indeed, sum ae them ur already sittin oan offers fae local universities (HEI) tae advance thur studies next session.
Maist will pursue General Adult Nursing but some will progress intae Mental Health Nursing. In addition, ithers huv elected tae remian in FE an pursue an HNC either in Healthcare or Social Services and may progress tae HEI thi followin session.
Ah deliver a stand alane unit in Mental Health issues. This unit intoduces not only a cleerur unerstaunin ae diverse mental conditions an treatments but also the stigma and changes in attirudes baith in delivery a services and the reposnses ae wider society towards mental health an wellbeing.
Oor academic year is in twa semesters. A hid anticipatit deliverin the unit as wi began Semester twa. A hidne taught this group previously tae this. However, at the last minute ah hid tae accomodate three significant amendments tae ma timetable and discovered that ah hid to share the delivery ae this unit wi a colleague. Afore a went intae panic as this wid effectively hiv halved the inishul teaching time ah hid wi them ma colleague an a met and devised a plan. A would take the group fur the furst few weeks and prepare them fur the class exam whilst he would pick up thi class as we approachit Easter and prepare them fur an investigative report.
This meaqnt a cud focus on changing attitudes and stigma whilst he cud facilitate thur learnin ae different conditions.
Ma task wis, wit a thocht, a simpul adaptation ae a current activity. Usually, when deliverin this unit, a invite thi candidates to consider thi type ae language society uses within mental health contexts. This includit consideration ae derogatory wurds. Oan a side note, ah dae huv tae express that oor candidates, that is wans counsiderin pursuin the caring dirsciplins, ur reticent about expressin mony ae these wurds. Ah aye tak that as a sign ae hope furra futir.
Thi ammendit activity wud see this shiftin slightly away fae a focus on thi language wi yuise as labellin tae a consideration ae Scots insteed.
Ah confess that ah wis overly optimistic. Logistically I found it haird tae get thru ma teachin material quick inuff tae instil a sufficient level ae trust in thi students wi me tae express thur deliberations. Ah hid established a rapport wi them quickly inuff but thi trust needs tae be deeper tae enable them to yuise thi type ae language we need to considur. So, a felt a hid tae push back thi date a intended fur this task.
In the meantime, a met wi a colleague who hid been deployit in the State Hospital (Carstairs) furra large pairt ae his career in mental health services. Ah hid expectit him tae hiv hid a wide experience ae Scots wurds yuise in the hospital towards the patients/inmates., Hooever, we struggled tae hink ae mony. He said that they would rotuinely enquire ae the inmates/patients “Hoo’s thi heid thi day?” And, atween us, wi could come up wi contenders such as ‘bampot,’ ‘eejit’ an ‘spangle.’ None ae these, a course, tended tae express wit a wis hopin tae achieve.
In addition, ma internet searches thru various Scots langwage repositories tendit tae draw blanks. In ma naivity a hauf expectit tae perform a fairly simplu search an be offerit a barrage ae wurds. A even anticipatit mony tae be derogatory. A drew almaist a complete blank. A found sum archaic wurds an a cupl ae different dialects.
Followin oan fae unit three a wis keen tae further develop ma experimentation ae Interdisciplinary Learnin (IDL). A felt the blendin ae Scots and sociology thru cultural and social capital hid been successful albeint needin further refinement.
A wis buoyed wurkin through Unit 4 especially the IDL aspect ae Modern studies and the exploration ae the wurld ae work. Thi excellent exampuls focussed oan traditional agricultural an heavy industries so wis confident that a wud hiv a similar outcome investigatin the professional wurk within mental health servies.
Ah intend tae complete thi task oan Monday 9th February. A’ll add tae ma poast wance a hiv sum feedback fae the students tae share wi ye.
Unit 4 - Nicky
I opted to explore weather as this was something which the pupils learned about in their S1 Social Subjects course (and I'm very appreciative to the Social Subjects department for being so free with their resources - they told me where to find things and then let me play about with anything I fancied!).
We looked at the BBC weather symbols and worked out what each symbol meant in English. I then gave the pupils a word bank of a range of different weather and asked them to find suitable Scots versions for the symbols. If there were different Scots words ('overcast' has a multitude, unsurprisingly), we had a brief discussion about being able to use different words to mean the same thing. I then gave the pupils a printout of Moray (they initially identified it as Italy - but that particular issue seems beyond the scope of Scots language teaching to solve) and they had to draw on their weather symbols and label it with an appropriate Scots word (they could reuse ones or the word bank also included different ones). Their forecasts could be completely unrealistic so long as there were Scots words. The more confident ones were then invited to 'present' their forecast to the class.
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What do you think worked particularly well in your classroom application?
Having had a successful lesson and a not so successful lesson, I got the balance right this time. There was enough Scots to challenge them but it and the activities were sufficiently scaffolded so the pupils didn't lose confidence. I also noted that every pupil participated in some way - the quiet and more shy stuck to their map (but were using the word bank and transferring the Scots) while the more confident ones were motivated to 'present' so wanted their map to be good enough to be shown under the visualiser. -
Is there anything you would do differently if you were to repeat this lesson?
The presentations were mostly in English. Occasionally, the pupils would pronounce the Scots words they had chosen, but for the most part, they relied on pointing to the Scots then using English to describe it.
Going forward, I would maybe have each group create a 'bingo' card of Scots words, so that while they presented, their audience ticked off which Scots words were used. The group would be 'the winners' if they remembered to say enough Scots words for the audience to get a line or house. This would also be a fun way of promoting pronunciation (instead of mumbling) so the audience actually have to hear the presenters saying the Scots. -
What are the next steps for your learners? / How will you provide further opportunities to practise and reinforce the use and awareness of Scots language?
One other unit the pupils complete in Social Subjects is 'Pirates' (related to History). But I wonder if there's an opportunity to make links with our land-based version of 'pirates' in terms of whisky smugglers and the like. Given that my subject is English, I think there would be a great opportunity to explore the different stories as well as look at details such as setting (which is also where we could return to Geography in terms of place names or Scots words for our surroundings).
As discussed in the Unit 4 tutorial, this is development work for next year, but given Moray is the home of whisky, there would surely be lots of opportunities. (And as I type this, I know Chemistry have DYW links with local distilleries so that's also an additional IDL angle).