Professional Learning Log

Trainee name: Andrew Adamski School name: Cedar Mount Academy Please give brief overview of school context here Cedar Mount Academy is part of a larger group of academies lead by Bright Futures Education Trust. It joined Bright Futures early on in its inception and has taken on outstanding teachers, including a few from Altrincham School for Girls, the trusts lead school. It has a rich and culturally diverse student body of over 600 students, many of whom speak English as a second language. There are 26 other languages spoken by 42% of the students at the school, including Romanian, Polish, Urdu, Czech, Somali, and Arabic, to name a few. Of the student body, 71% of the population are entitled to a pupil premium, compared to the national average of just under 27%. The school offers Spanish as a Modern Foreign Language.

Date

Key Activities

Year

Data

Reading

Comments/Key Reflections and Observations

Todays observations have given me a more general idea of the makeup of the school and how MFLs and ESOL are taught. I have observed 3 MFL lessons and have gained a better picture of what is accomplished at this level and therefore, what is needed in preparing students for their move from primary to secondary school. Lesson observations in my MFL journal give an indication of this. Also see lesson observation and reflection attached. Today I continued with my observations of MFLs and ESOL. I was able to gain an even deeper insight into strategies used and followed this up with

6.1.14

Lesson Observations: MFL and ESOL

Years 7 and 8

Lesson observation notes

Chambers, G. (2012). Transition in modern languages from primary to secondary school: The challenge of change, The Language Learning Journal

7.1.14

Lesson Observations: MFL and ESOL

Mixed years; Year 7 and 9

Lesson observation notes

Hunt, M. et al. (2007). Moving on: The challenges for foreign language learning on transition from primary to secondary

school

8.1.14

Lesson observations: English and Maths

Year 11 and 7

Lesson observation notes

Topping, K. (2011). Primary-secondary transition: Differences between teachers and childrens perceptions, Improving schools

9.1.14

Lesson observations: MFL and Science

Years 7, 8, and 9

Lesson observation notes Lesson plan and materials for Group Lesson taught Pupil and teacher interview questions EAL

Languages PoS for key stages 1 and 2.

research relating to transition between the levels. Evidence of this is attached in What Practitioners Need to Know about Transition. Today I moved beyond observing languages to observing Maths and English. I notice the pedagogy when teaching Maths was different from what I observed at the primary level; there was more autonomy given to the pupil and less teacher-lead questioning and answering. It was very much: here is the method, now use it to do exercises in the book while I come around and help. The teaching of English for year 7 did seem similar to what I observed in year 6, other than the obvious timetabling differences. Lesson observations in my MFL journal give an indication of this. Also see lesson observation and reflection attached. Research done regarding transition of core subjects can be seen in the attached, What Practitioners Need to Know about Transition. Today I again observed MFLs and had the opportunity to team teach part of the lesson with two of my classmates. The interactive nature of our portion of the lesson was well received and that pupils where able to show progress. We also had the opportunity to interview the pupils to find out how they felt about the transition of language learning between year 6 and 7. The pupils I interviewed remained

coordinator interview questions

positive about their primary school experience and said it help them in secondary. We managed to interview the class teacher as well and gained valuable information about transition. After MFL, we had the opportunity to observe year 8 Science. I was surprised at first to find out that they were covering what consisted of part of the primary curriculum. It soon became clear, however, that due to the high level of recent immigrants who speak English as a second language, the students often struggle with the academic language needed to discuss science. We had a conversation with the class teacher who informed us that pupils needed to be well supported with vocabulary and the ESOL classes provided to be able to show what they know and show signs of improvement. Following Science, we had a conversation with the Head of EAL, Andrea Jackson, who gave us valuable insight about various measures the school has put into place to ensure that EAL pupils get acclimated and get further support in and outside of the classroom. Evidence of observations, lesson taught, questions asked to the pupils and class teacher of MFL, and conversation with EAL coordinator can be found

in my MFL journal. Evidence of questions with pupils and teacher are also attached. Further reflections on programmes of study are also attached. Your final log is likely to be longer than a single sheet of A4. Please submit it electronically in WORD, not pdf or other format to angela.mclachlan@manchester.ac.uk by Monday 20 January. Please only send the log, not this entire document. This log replaces Reflection Point 6 ie you do not complete Reflection Point 6 via Turnitin. You may prefer to note your KEY REFLECTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS in your Exploring Real World Primary Languages journal please note the relevant page numbers in the column

Now turn to Page 2 for some general information and a learning activity outline; related materials are available on BB in the KS3 Enrichment folder