Answering an Ofsted Inspector's Questions - Grammar

 What would I say to an Ofsted inspector about our curriculum? I would want to answer openly and honestly, because if they are going to have a good look at lessons, talk to teachers and pupils, and look at resources, then there's no point claiming things that don't correspond to what they will see. So does what we do match what we think they want? Should we change things in the overall approach or in the detail? Or should we be concentrating on making sure that what we say we do, is delivered consistently and successfully across the department?

In this post, I am going to put myself through some potential questions on Grammar in our curriculum, and just see if I can put together a convincing answer that meets the angle of questions we might be faced with. I am doing this mainly as an exercise for myself, so you might want to skip some of the unit by unit detail in italics.

Here we go:

How do you sequence grammar?

 Our grammar teaching is built around developing a repertoire of language that pupils can deploy in order to express themselves. Some powerful structures are much more important than others, and we work on making sure pupils can use these, spending a long time focusing on them explicitly. When they meet other grammar, this is carefully added on to the existing repertoire of language they have. We are very clear that nothing is ever done and dusted. And nothing is ever done and abandoned. Pupils will meet important language over and over, accumulating knowledge and increasing their independence and fluency. The overall curriculum is one of modelling correct use, often in chunks of language to be recombined, with a process of increasing independence of resources, and building the ability to recombine or inflect language for themselves, in order to create meaning.

 In Year 7, the early focus is on meaning. Pupils make the shift from (often) mono-lingual status, to having another language they can relate to their life and enjoy exploring. Pupils learn to talk about themselves, describe an artwork, order food, and describe their house and routine. They select, adapt and substitute language through learning based on modelling and scaffolding, in order to create meaning. As they start to accumulate a body of language, the curriculum starts to shift the balance of attention towards forms, but always in a strong context that links grammar to engagement with meaning.

To summarise:

Unit 1 on Self and Identity – apart from acquiring a body of language with a focus on meaning, the main focus is on Phonics. Other high frequency grammatical concepts are met, principally the verb to have and the indefinite article. These are met in context and for pupils to be able to substitute depending on what they want to say. Pupils are taught the literal meaning of words within expressions, eg I have 12 years.

Unit 2 on describing an Artwork. Word order and adjectival agreement are the main grammatical features. Introduced in very concrete ways starting with labelling shapes and objects in a picture, then adding adjectives and then changing the endings. Pupils also meet prepositions and a range of high frequency words eg is / has / there is. They meet basic opinion words for the first time. The definite and indefinite articles are contrasted.

Unit 3 on Food is mainly transactional, based on substituting items in dialogue and building confidence in speaking. Pupils meet tu/vous forms. It is developed into giving opinions about food and taste, and into talking about eating habits conjugating the verb manger in the present tense. Pupils use opinion + the definite article – j’aime le chocolat. The partitive article is met, often in chunks, with some work on the link between a, the, some.

Unit 4 on House and Routine reinforces high frequency words for is/has/there is, definite and indefinite articles, and opinions. It introduces the concept of reflexive verbs in the first person. And pupils meet the idea of verb + opinion that will be picked up in Year 8.

 In Year 8, pupils develop a powerful repertoire of language they can use across topics. This is built around verb + infinitive for giving and justifying opinions. They use conjunctions to link, extend and develop answers. The focus is on being able to speak and write more and more independently, fluently and coherently, using these core structures across topics. We think of their language as a snowball, getting bigger and bigger, not allowing what is learned to melt, and making it easier for new language to stick to the ball of language they already have.

Pupils develop a strong verb lexicon, for use with expressions followed by the infinitive. Typically they will be saying things like, “I like to … because I can… but if I want to… then I have to… But I don’t like to…. because I can’t… I prefer to….” Having stripped our curriculum down over 15 years ago to concentrate on pupils getting good at using this repertoire of core expressions, we are now adding back in more use of adjectives with the verb to be.

In detail:

Unit 1 on Town revisits definite and indefinite articles, prepositions, and high frequency words such as is/has/there is. It adds opinions and words like can/have to/want to with a strong verb lexicon to talk about places in the local area and what you can do there. We are adding back in more use of adjectives and the verb to be, to add to this established focus on verbs.

Unit 2 on School transfers this language to a new topic, aiming for greater fluency and independence from scaffolding. We are adding back in more use of adjectives and the verb to be.

Unit 3 on Free Time recycles the same grammar. It then adds er verbs in the present tense. We are careful to integrate the use of conjugated verbs into the existing repertoire of opinion and verb + infinitive. For example where a pupil was saying, “I can go to the park with my friends”, this mention of “with my friends” will now trigger the use of a 1^st person plural – “and we play tennis.” This unit also introduces the use of the perfect tense in the first person.

Unit 4 on Holidays. This unit recycles and works on fluency in using the grammar from previous units. It develops use of the perfect tense, still mainly in the first person.

 

Year 9 Starts by applying the grammar learned in Year 8 to new topics slightly more removed from the pupils’ own direct experience and requiring perhaps more complexity of ideas. Year 9 introduces the use of verb tables for pupils to have an abstract concept of the different persons and different tenses. They work on adding on what they can do through methodical rational formation of verb tenses, integrating it into what they can already do fluently and independently. This opens their understanding of the language as a linguistic system, while linking this to the creation of meaning and adding it on to their growing repertoire. It prepares them for GCSE, with a focus on narrating in a range of tenses. It is modelled and scaffolded, shifting from memorised language to an understanding of rules and inflections.

 Detailed summary:

 In Unit 1 on Jobs, pupils take their knowledge of verb + infinitive from Year 8 and apply it to a new topic. There is a shift towards forms talking about the future such as going to / would like to. And a shift to “on peut” rather than “je peux.” The perfect tense for “I have worked” is picked up from Year 8 in the first person. Pupils meet verb tables to conceptualise how there are a range of tenses for worked/used to work and different persons.

In Unit 2 on the Environment, pupils continue to recycle their use of verb + infinitive for can/must/should on a new topic with more complex ideas. They continue to use verb tables to scaffold their understanding of different tenses, including imperfect and conditional. They use verb tables to construct tenses that can be integrated with use of their existing repertoire.

 In Unit 3 on Clothes, pupils consolidate work on word order and adjectival agreement. They pick up their repertoire for saying what you can/can’t/have to wear for different occasions. They pick up transactional language for shopping, including tu/vous. They revisit articles. The unit then turns to focus on combining perfect and imperfect to say what was happening and what happened next. This is built around describing an advert. It links to the idea of narrating events that features in the rest of Year 9 and for GCSE.

In Unit 4, we bring back the topic of Free Time. Pupils have the opportunity to deploy their repertoire on a familiar topic, with fluency and independence. They can apply it to different aspects of the topic, for example developing answers on cinema or sport or shopping. And they put together their whole repertoire from opinions, justifying them, if sentences, what was happening, what happened, plans for the future.

In the summer of Year 9, teachers focus on pupils using the repertoire they have developed over 3 years, for creative purposes. For example story telling – pupils look at films, books and literature in French and then create their own stories for Primary school French pupils.

 

At GCSE, we follow the grammatical progression of the textbook. This ensures coverage and takes the pressure off teacher work-load. But we have a strong principle that the pupils are developing a repertoire of language. We make sure that opinions, verb + infinitive, present and perfect tenses are in place early in the course and that pupils are using them on every topic. This way pupils have 2 years to get good at using these grammatical features as part of a repertoire, and we do not delay meeting these core structures. Pupils use their “test and tick” to reinforce their fluency with these key structures.

 

 How do you break down teaching so that pupils are learning one thing at a time explicitly, not through osmosis? And that concepts are revisited in a planned way?

 We break down our teaching so that pupils are spending a long time getting good at using the most important structures. These structures never go away, and other structures are added on to them like snow sticking to a snowball that is getting bigger and bigger. Teachers model and scaffold, so pupils are all producing work of a similar standard, and then reducing their dependence on support.

This may look like osmosis, but it is not. It is deliberate long term internalisation and building of fluency of the whole repertoire. Pupils may meet things in more complex chunks, learning model expressions before they then learn to break down the component parts to modify and manipulate them. They may meet language where more than one simple concept is involved – the key think is that attention be drawn to one thing at a time, and that the teacher monitors what could overwhelm, what sticks, what accumulates.

 We have developed lesson starters, “Fluent in 5” which focus on shifting the attention from lexis to grammar. Pupils naturally focus on meaning and may understandably neglect minutiae of form. The Fluent in 5 starters require pupils to re-address this balance, going back over vocabulary content from previous units and previous years, focusing on eg gender, contractions, plurals, negatives, endings.

 Rather than revisiting, our curriculum makes sure that nothing is left behind. Pupils’ language is formed into a snowball which grows and grows. They develop a repertoire of language they can deploy, which new language is added on to.

Warning - major shift in metaphor coming (from snow to cooking) like a change of key at the end of a boy band anthem.

In reality, and also because we want it to be that way, the curriculum on paper is not as important as what teachers constantly observe in the classroom. Teachers will depart from the scheme of work because they notice a need or an opportunity. In practice what guides us isn't the detailed Scheme of Work, it is the exemplars we share with pupils of what we want them to be able to achieve. Just as when you are thickening a roux, you don't constantly refer to the recipe. Or even worry about the amount of milk left in the jug. Your full attention is on what is in the saucepan in front of you. And it's the same with teaching. What you do is in response to the pupils and their learning. Not a fancy plan you made for Ofsted.

Oh no, I said that last bit out loud! I am going to think about this some more and reflect on how I think these answers might stand up. I've done my best for now. And I need to try a similar exercise on Vocabulary and on Phonics. And what about A Level?