Read the music, play from memory, improvise?

 Here's the plan for a Year 9 lesson this week. It's an interesting group, as the Head of Year reshuffled them from Year 8. I'm picking up pupils who've had different experiences through lockdown and also staffing changes, plus some new ones who have come in from other schools. So I am trying to continue to push ahead at the same speed with the pupils I taught last year, while scooping up the newcomers and making them feel secure.

We are working on the topic of jobs and future careers. It is designed to pick up from all the verb + infinitive work done in Year 8 and make sure the fluency is still there.

They have written a paragraph on one job. Saying what they would like / can do / have to do / want to do / don't want to have to do etc. You can see the sort of thing in the green Year 9 exemplar text for Unit 1 in the picture.

The first thing we will do is, working in pairs, just read your paragraph from last week to a partner. I will listen for correct pronunciation - picking up on phonics has been a big part of what we have been doing post lockdown. Then we will go to read-look up-speak. So the pupils can look at their paragraph, memorise a chunk, look up, and deliver that section to a partner. Concentrating on communicating a sensible chunk at a time, trying to remember whole clauses or sentences. Then the partner will take their book and prompt them in English so they can deliver the whole paragraph in French without needing to look at the text.

At this point, I am going to show them a video of a Tchaikovsky piano concerto and we will talk aboutthe orchestra reading the music. And the soloist doing it from memory. Then I will put on some jazz piano. Probably boogie-woogie. And talk about improvisation. Because that's what we are going to build towards next.

I will rearrange the pairs by asking the pupils on one row to turn their chairs round and work with the pupils directly behind them. We will do the activity known as Being Ben. One partner will think up what to say. And they will say it in chunks, in English. Their new partner has to say it in French. So when it comes to improvising, we are splitting up the task of what to say, and the task of saying it in French. Of course the partner saying the English may well just be re-hashing their prepared paragraph. But their new partner has never heard it before.

Then we will swap roles, with the other pupil doing the French. Then one row will move one place along, so they have a new partner. The pupil thinking up what to say has had the chance to hone their ideas with their previous partner. And the partner doing the French is having to say something new. They can use whatever resources they need - jobs vocabulary or verb + infinitive expressions for new pupils. And as they move from partner to partner, they decide when they want to stop using the support. Or have it there for moral support but not really use it.

After working wtih a series of partners, they will return to their original partner. They will have practised with several partners, each one making them say something different. And they will have practised coming up with something to say which is coherent and develops their ideas. They will have become less and less dependent on resources for support. So now with the original partner, it is time for their bravura performance. They can deliver a coherent, fluent and impromptu speech on the topic.

In the following lesson, I will play them a jazz duet - maybe Dr John and Jules Holland playing boogie woogie. And we will work on interacting spontaneously with a partner. The partner can ask them to talk about different jobs: "Tu voudrais travailler comme X ?" that they haven't prepared for. Or prompt them with et..? alors..? pour quoi? par exemple..?

Sorry. Drifted off there watching the Dr John and Jules Holland video. Hopefully that won't happen in the lesson. I used it last week with Year 11 to talk about how we are going to prepare for the speaking exam and it made a lot of sense to them in talking about what it takes in order to be able to improvise. Will let you know how it goes with Year 9.