Grantown Grammar School & ML Subject Supporter for Highland

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1 Grantown Grammar School & ML Subject Supporter for Highland
Big Issues in French Thea Searle Grantown Grammar School & ML Subject Supporter for Highland SALT, 7th November 2009 How many of you already look at big issues or global citizenship in your school?

2 Big Issues What? How? Why? Case studies – conflict, human rights, environment Workshop activities In today’s session I hope to give you an overview of global citizenship and give you examples from my own practice to help you think about how you could bring it into your classroom. Global citizenship is something we can and need to all address and should not just be left to Social subjects or PSE or RME. We can use global citizenship issues as a vehicle to develop language skills in an exciting way, rather than simply using the same old topics of my house, my school etc. There will be a practical element to today’s workshop so please make sure you have pen and paper. I want you to have a go at thinking about what you can do!

3 Global citizenship “Global Citizenship is about understanding the need to tackle injustice and inequality, and having the desire and ability to work actively to do so. It is about valuing the Earth as precious and unique, and safeguarding the future for those coming after us. Global Citizenship is a way of thinking and behaving. It is an outlook on life, a belief that we can make a difference.” (Oxfam website) There are many different interpretations of global citizenship which you can find by doing a web search. I like Oxfam’s definition and related documents on global citizenship. It is a good starting point for beginners and a good reminder of key issues for any experienced hands. Their information is clear, well set out and practical. Citizenship is one of the cross cutting themes of CfE and LTS has their own website with resources and documentation. Find something that works for you and that you like.

4 Knowledge & understanding
Social justice & equity Diversity Globalisation & interdependence Sustainable Development Peace and conflict What topics could you look at to address these issues in your Languages classroom? Oxam breaks global citizenship education into 3 areas – knowledge and understanding, skills and values and attitudes. These can provide a framework for your teaching and you may choose to focus on one strand eg. diversity to create a unit of work. For instance looking at diversity is key to Languages. We often explore the culture of the country of the language we are teaching. We may look at festivals, eating habits, lifestyle etc. Why do we look at diversity? Is it just because it is interesting, or are we trying to get pupils to appreciate a different (or similar) culture an understand that cultures are different and this should be celebrated. Aren’t we really trying to develop tolerance and understanding?

5 Skills Critical thinking Ability to argue effectively
Ability to challenge injustice & inequalities Respect for people & beings Cooperation & conflict resolution What types of activities could you do to develop such skills? One of the key aspects of education for global citizenship is that pupils learn by doing. It is based around the idea of active learning which is emphasised in CfE documentation. This can mean activities such as inquiry, problem solving, simulation, role-play, games, debates. In Languages we do a lot of active learning. Can we use active learning to focus on the development of one of these skills? For instance if we are looking at the topic of the environment with a S4 class could we develop critical thinking through photographs? Photographs are very powerful tools. You could give pupils different photos and do various activities: 1) changing situations 2) beyond the frame 3) put yourself in the picture 4) links and commonalities

6 Values & attitudes Sense of identity & self esteem Empathy
Commitment to social justice & equity Value & respect for diversity Concern for the environment & commitment to sustainable development Belief that people can make a difference It is not enough to just impart knowledge to pupils. Global citizenship is about developing values in pupils so that they can manage in today’s world. Pupils in my school in Grantown on Spey have probably had very little contact with children from another country or ethnic background. In fact one pupil said that when she went to university in Edinburgh, she found it incredible to see so many people from so many different backgrounds. We need to prepare young people for this so that they can cope. These skills link to the 4 capacities of CfE

7 Podcast Modern Studies Conflict SCIAF Free time Francophone country
I decided to explore the topic of conflict as it was highlighted as a possible topic across the school for interdisciplinary work with S2 pupils. I brainstormed different things that came to mind related to the theme of conflict from my own knowledge, and what I was doing with my class at the time ie. free time. I thought about what I might want pupils to create ie. a podcast. Then it was a case of putting together a unit of work. So how did I do this? First I needed to find out what Modern studies was doing. Free time Francophone country

8 Conflict – Critical thinking
Man versus nature – mining Man versus society - dictatorship Man versus man – civil war Man versus self – ethical & moral dilemma The pupils had looked at the different types of conflict and had brainstormed different activities and where they fitted in. This provided a framework for pupils. I thought that I could get pupils to look at conflict and categorise, but I needed a country to focus on.

9 Francophone country - RDC
Map of African countries & languages Background information in English & quiz I had just seen the resource by SCIAF on the RDC, which fitted perfectly as the RDC had gone through a lot of different conflicts. So first I gave the pupils some background information and I used the photocopiable worksheets in the resource. Pupils had a map of Africa and they had to label the countries. Then we talked about the different languages in Africa and the notion of francophone countries and why some countries spoke French. They read a text about the RDC in English, and then had to create a mind map showing the different types of conflict. Pupils were making connections between Modern studies by applying their knowledge to their French work.

10 Podcast – Social justice
Raise awareness of conflict in RDC Look at the work of SCIAF Develop language skills I wanted the pupils to produce something to show their awareness of the RDC, the conflicts and also the charity SCIAF. Pupils had to create a podcast to raise awareness about the work of SCIAF and produced radio shows. They had quizzes, news headlines about HIV, animals being captured etc, and publicity fort the charity. Following this some pupils decided they wanted to do more and decided to take part in the wee box campaign, and give something up for lent and donate the money to SCIAF.

11 Pupil feedback Good fun
Learnt their lives are different but we have a lot of things in common We enjoyed not using text books Our vocabulary has got bigger. We found out Africa had French speaking people It was new.

12 Conflict unit of work GGS French Blog
You can find all the resources I used and web links on my French blog. There is section on Congo work. Do you have any questions?

13 Social justice - Human Rights
Human rights – match English & French Kroo Bay Fact file Kroo Bay Day in Life & communication via blog Reading from text books / past papers on aid organisations, children working in developing countries, poverty. I chose to look at Human rights because I had noticed that on several SG Credit reading papers there were more abstract texts about developing countries and in particular children working in developing countries. I thought this could be developed into a unit of work to develop pupil’s understanding of their own rights and how rights are met / not met in different countries with my S3. I based my work on worksheets from Human Rights in the French classroom, produced by Amnesty. I wanted to find a context for looking at human rights in developing countries and happened to know about a slum community called Kroo Bay in Sierra Leone. Although this is not a French speaking country, I thought Save the Children’s website was excellent and would put things into a real perspective via an exciting and stimulating website.

14 Pupils had to present their understanding of human rights and compare life in Kroo Bay and here in Scotland. We then looked at how life would change for people in Kroo Bay if their rights were met. We did this through a brainstorm activity in English. I used this as a context to teach the grammar structure of si sentences. Pupils then tried to write simple phrases in French. Some pupils decided to create a radio show about Kroo Bay.

15 Pupil feedback The writing activities were 'exciting' as made me think about life over there. They made me use more complicated French. Really enjoyed it was completely different & interesting. Very good as see where people live and the situation they live in. Improved my French because required to use French in challenging and interesting situations The quality of the French was extremely high and pupils were very engaged and motivated. Although some discussion was done in English, it was very valuable and made pupils think quite deeply. The French work reflected this. Inevitably this fits in with the purposes of CfE – to provide a meaningful curriculum.

16 Human rights What countries/events could you focus on?
What issues could you look at? What language skills could you develop? What activities could do in your Languages classroom?

17 Conservation In S1/2 pupils complete the John Muir Award and have to do conservation activities as part of this. I thought this could provide an interesting project looking at animals and their natural habitats, and issues of conservation with a focus on a trip to the Highland Wildlife Park. I wanted something motivating for my new S3 pupils, but still wanted to start the SG course and do something meaningful in the last month of the school year.

18 Animal vocabulary Genders Pelmanism Personal details Basic Q & A
Survey HWP Visit Quiz Observation Discussion Description Adjectives Dictionary Miming Actions Verbs Whiteboards I created my own scheme of work using French as the main focus. This was very different to my other 2 projects which took the citizenship topic as the main focus. Conservation Reading texts Animal profiles Writing

19 Ils veulent sauver leur zoo
Le zoo de Vincennes, souffle ses 70 bougies toutes portes fermées. En effet, le personnel ne veut plus y travailler car il le trouve en trop mauvais état et donc dangereux. Le zoo de Vincennes, à Paris, a été fondé en Mondialement connu, il a attiré l’an dernier visiteurs. Pourtant de nombreuses zones sont interdites au public : les rhinocéros ne reçoivent plus de visites depuis 2 ans, les lions et les tigres ont déménagé vers d’autres parcs et les ours vont bientôt les suivre. En effet, le zoo ne pouvait plus accueillir les visiteurs en toute sécurité. Les énormes faux rochers qui constituent son originalité s’effritent et menacent de s’écrouler. Les soigneurs et les gardiens ont alors jugé que la situation devenait trop dangereuse pour eux. C’est pour cette raison qu’ils ont décidé d’arrêter de travailler. Ils veulent également attirer l’attention des Français sur l’état du zoo. Ce dernier appartient au Muséum d’histoire naturelle qui affirme que plusieurs projets de travaux sont à l’étude. Here is a reading text I found online at Les cles junior. There were quite a few texts on animals / zoos as I found through a search. I made up questions. We talked about zoos and conservation in English and had lively debates.

20 Une loutre Les loutres vivent dans et autour des rivières. Elles sont carnivores. Elles mangent les poissons, les oiseaux et les petits mammifères. Elles ont un territoire de à propos d ’ onze miles de longue. Elles vivent dans la rivière Spey. Elles sont petites, marron avec un fourrure impermeable. Elles ont de longues moustaches. Elles adore la chasse et jouer. The final activity was for pupils to create a profile of an animal they had seen at the Wildlife Park and try to use all the language they had learnt.

21 Conservation How could you look at conservation in a French / German speaking country? How could you structure a debate about zoos in the foreign language? What language structures could you develop?

22 Next steps - Climate change
Age of stupid film trailer I would like to look at climate change in more detail in line with the Copenhagen conference. I have found some great film clips. I may try to get pupils in groups to represent a country and have a mini G8 summit presenting key issues and possible solutions.

23 Environment The environment is a topic I cover with my S4, Higher and Advanced Higher pupils, and is probably something pupils look at in other subject areas. It could provide an excellent stimulus for a cross curricular project. In my classes, I look at the key environmental problems and what we can do combat these problems at a personal, local, national and international level. Photographs are an excellent way to develop active learning, understanding and critical thinking. Photographs are very powerful tool and can be used in different ways: 1) changing situations 2) beyond the frame 3) put yourself in the picture 4) links and commonalities. Choose one of these methods and consider how to develop language skills in your classroom.

24 Workshop Choose 1 context to bring a global dimension into your classroom. Consider what knowledge, skills, values are key. Think about what vocabulary, language structures, grammar or phrases you want to develop. Choose particular language skills as focus areas.