La Jolie Ronde French Scheme of Work for years 3 and 4

classroom use

Context

The software was used in school with two classes. One was a Year 2/3 mixed class and the other was a Year 3/4 mixed class. We tried a number of sessions with the children over a period of about five weeks. The children and teachers became highly familiar with the programme and the accompanying resources during that time and have found it a very useful tool. Staff installed the whiteboard resources onto their individual laptops and we also put these onto our school network. The children in the class were of mixed ability and responded well to the activities that they were asked to participate in. One of our class teachers had no experience of teaching French before and found the resource to be invaluable. She said that the individual lesson notes were brilliant as they provided a step-by-step process of what she needed to do and which resources she needed to use. Another member of staff who was more confident and had taught French using other resources said the folder was useful but she used it in a different way, choosing to adapt the resources and modify them for her own lessons.

Personalisation

Some of the resources from the CD-ROM were helpful as support materials for the less able children. The visual aids such as flashcards containing pictures and words were good. There are no specific tools to support children with SEN but any teacher will easily be able to adapt the materials to best suit the children in a particular class. The pupil activities vary from whole class to group to individual and are clearly explained in the supporting text. For gifted and talented children, the list of additional websites is very helpful, for example, there is a link to a Christmas website which is written in both French and English. A small group of children enjoyed trying to translate some of the text and were then able to self-check their work.

Assessment and pupil tracking opportunities

This product does not specifically assess the children as they work through the lessons. It does contain review sessions which are suggestions of activities that children and teachers could carry out at the end of the unit of work to ‘consolidate and celebrate learning in French’. The activities suggested include creating a mind map, making a tape or video (which the children really enjoyed!) and making a board game or quiz. All of these activities provide a perfect opportunity for the teacher to make an informed assessment or judgment about the progress that an individual or group of children have made. There is also some documentation which makes links to the Languages Ladder and Asset Languages. The file explains that it is envisaged that some schools will want to accredit the achievements of learners using OCR’s Asset Languages. The schemes of work for Years 3 and 4 contain material that will cover the requirements for Breakthrough Level External Assessment.