Welcome to sixth form! Bridging that gap

I started this post a few weeks ago, having met my new year 12 group for the first time.  I've taught these pupils since they were in year 9, and they have achieved great things at GCSE, yet this transition into sixth-form is potentially more difficult than the transition from primary to secondary or even from sixth-form to university, so it takes some longer to adjust than others. We need them to be independent learners, have the maturity to manage their own study time, and for A-level German, they need to discover a love of learning tables very quickly. That's before we even start on the more sophisticated thinking skills required for A-level. This has been in my thoughts a lot in the last few weeks, so it felt right that the first blog of the new academic year should be dedicated to them.

Vocabulary learning
When I first started teaching sixth-form, I was surprised at how many of these high-flier students admitted that they had spent very little time on learning the vocabulary for the weekly tests I gave during GCSE. The shock, then, of the volume of vocabulary learning was huge, and every year I have pupils who struggle to get to grips with this.

Of course, much comes down to the structure of the teaching and homework tasks set, so this is where the teacher planning comes in.  I try to diferentiate in my planning between "core" vocabulary and "nice-to-use" add-ons.  I still think the core vocabulary is worth teaching actively, and there are many ways to do it. Breaking words down (especially in German), matching the definitions, Call-my-bluff style guess the definition, looking at all the words associated with one verb (prefixes, suffixes, nouns, adjectives), using key words to describe a picture.  Once you have done a listening or a reading text, it is important that the pupils actively use the language from that text - cloze text, translation, match the 2 halves of the sentences, free-range speaking activities.  This will help to cement much of the learning, but I find that there is still a need for learning - especially when it comes to genders, plurals, irregular verbs.

Helping pupils structure this is important, and the "learning conversation" I find needs to be revisited to keep the momentum going, and to help those students struggling.  Some students really get into quizlet.com and make their own sets, especially if they have a tedious commute by public transport. Others use spreadsheets, some simply keep lists.

I'm not a fan of lists that have no rhyme or reason to them - I don't think they help students focus their efforts.  We use a word bank template divided into nouns, verbs, adjectives/adverbs and useful phrases.  This also has the benefit of making them look for words other than nouns, as a non-directed search for vocabulary seems to end up simply being a big list of nouns at the expense of everything else.

Generating a buzz and curiosity

I am often astounded at the number of pupils who come into sixth-form who think that after one trip to Germany and a good grade at GCSE means that they have this German thing all sewn up - that they have this thing sussed and apart from getting better at German, they have nothing else to learn. This is by no means the majority, but I do get more than I would wish for.

So - what to do?  This is where edmodo.com has come into its own.  It allows the teachers, and importantly the students to share videos and websites that they come across, and it allows us to generate a bit of a buzz.  It takes a while before the students want to put their heads above the parapet, but with encouragement, they will.  We start the topic of advertising next week, and it is always a good one for beginning the sharing process.

We also do weekly scrapbooks, an idea which I know quite a few schools use.  The pupils have to find an article of their own choosing, look up the vocabulary which is new, and summarise it.  I have also started asking the pupils to post their choice of article onto Edmodo.

Speaking skills

Speaking - ah.  I think students used to large groups suddenly feel rather exposed in smaller groups, and with the amount of grammar thrown their way, it can leave them tongue-tied.  This needn't be the case, and there is much to be said for adapting the strategies we use in earlier years.  Group talk? perfect!  Speaking bingo? perfect! Speaking mats for debates? Why not?

In the early days, it is about getting them to enjoy the speaking.  If we let them get too hung up on accuracy, they will never speak!

In the next post, I'm going to consider essay-writing *groan*
Essay writing skills
Getting them involved with younger pupils