Teaching English in the 10th grade
I have chosen these two competence aims from K06 for discussion on my blog:
1) Use various situations, work methods and strategies to learn English.
2) Write texts that narrate, describe, argue or give message, with the appropriate basic structure and adequate paragraphing (in this period the focus will be on writing a short text that describes and argues with adequate paragraphing).
Week 41-42:
In October the current theme in my 10th grade English class is “Voices of Africa”. The main focus is on South Africa. The pupils have read different texts about South Africa. I will show the film “Goodbye Bafana” to give the students a deeper understanding about the South African history, the Apartheid system and the story about Nelson Mandela’s fight for democracy and his years at Robben Island.
To show a film in class should not solely be done for entertainment. It should be used as a form of education (Drew and Sørheim,2011:190). So the choice of film is very important. Hopefully this film will give the students a more visual and tangible feeling of the themes we have read about. Maybe the students will pick up some new words and expressions (working on competence aim one).
Week 42-43:
After watching the film, the students will write two paragraphs about the film and if they liked it or not. The introductory line is given for the two paragraphs. This is a task to practice and repeat the art of writing a good and precise paragraph. It will also give the pupils practice in writing a summary and extracting the content of the film. Both will work on parts of competence aim two. The results of the “two paragraphs-task” will give an indication to which level of achievement the students have reached concerning parts of competence aim two. And it will also show if they have understood what the film is about.
Experiences:
I showed the whole film continuously. In retrospect I would have liked to split the session in two and have discussions about the film in between and after, both in groups and in a plenary discussion. This would perhaps have given the students more time to digest the content of the film and we would have achieved more of a process like Drew and Sørheim talks about (2011:191).
Some of the students commented on that a part of the film was a bit long, sometimes a bit complex and some mentioned at times boring. But a lot of them really liked the film and that it was based on a true story. Two of the students commented: “The film was exciting, not like a boring documentary”. “The teachers tell us about it in school, but it is different to see it in a movie”. They also said they learned a lot more about Nelson Mandela, the life in South Africa, the apartheid system, injustice and friendship. In total I think to show films in class is a good way of giving different topics more meaning in a concrete and visual way. And it is a way to vary the teaching methods (competence aim 1).
The “two paragraphs task” showed that most of the students had grasped the meaning of the film. Though one student had mixed Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandih;) Most of them used the given introductory lines, and wrote more or less functional paragraphs. But some still have to work on this skill. Two pupils had clearly done “the copy and paste” and had taken a review of the film from the internet and used it as their own. The language and the choices of words that was far too complex.
To sum up: This period has given me valuable experience in working with the competence aims in everyday life in a lower secondary school.
Litterature:
Drew, I. & Sørheim, B.(2011). English Teaching Strategies. Samlaget