Pupil Voice and GCSE Options

 It is Options time, and in order to find out what Year 9 are thinking, I have sent them a simple Google Form to ask them what they think about their progress in French.

What are their views on what is important in their own experience of language learning? I left it completely open, with no prompts. Just a question asking them to comment on what they thought had had most impact on their progress in French.

I was prepared for anything. I well remember making a video for Year 6 Open Evening, where I explained about step-by-step learning, about learning to use your language, and accumulating more and more of the key knowledge that allows you to express yourself. And then the Head of Year 7 got some pupils to do a video and they basically (and very enthusiastically) said, "We learned to say hello and the days of the week." And quite right. If that is their perspective of what learning a language means, we need to be aware. It is very focused on immediate take-away ability to say specific things. Then it's our job as teachers to make sure that all the little things they learn all add up to something bigger. And perhaps we can shift their focus a little onto recyclable language and an awareness of patterns and forms.

So by Year 9, what would our pupils volunteer as the key aspects? And would they be positive or negative?

Here's the grid of positives summarised by me in a spreadsheet. Of course the pupils' own words were much more effusive and cuter. But here's a spreadsheet:

OK, "building on the basics of reusable language" sounds suspiciously like the way I talk. But I think it's a fair paraphrase of statements like Learning lots of the little things and the in between words has helped me with writing paragraphs for different topics, and the right pronouns for things.

So online apps score highly. Many mentioned Quizlet, blooket and gimkit. Often in combination with comments about enjoyment but also memorisation. Some interesting comments about single words versus chunks as well. This doesn't differentiate between homework and lessons in the computer room. And it doesn't prove that these were necessarily effective for learning rather than merely enjoyable. But the question (and the pupils' answers) were about impact and progress. Anyway, when it comes to options choices, a positive is a positive, even if I personally would want to look further into its effectiveness.

And then I feel that given that these were volunteered by pupils, their answers were a remarkable match for the things we as teachers would think of as important:

Building on the basics of language in order to become more confident in developing writing into paragraphs. Confidence in speaking, with explicit reference to pronunciation and the use of the Francophoniques back in Year 7. And a cluster of comments around memorisation, testing each other, and miniwhiteboards which reflect an acknowledgement and understanding of what their teachers are putting in place.

Learning to say, "Hello and the days of the week", or any other references to specific items have almost disappeared. Almost but not quite. One pupil specifically summed up 3 years of learning by saying they had learned how to ask someone when there birthday is. We all know why that line is so memorable! Shame they didn't put "Using songs to create a change in long term memory."

In terms of the whole school focus on Explanation, Modelling, Scaffolding, Feedback, perhaps we did less well. With "clear explanations" being volunteered once. Although "long term memory" did get a mention in the comments on self-testing. Perhaps this is because Explanation, Modelling, Scaffolding and Feedback are so embedded and such a good fit for how we teach, that they are unremarkable. Or do we need to get pupils to think and to talk about their learning much more explicitly in these terms?

And so to the negatives.

A much shorter list. The top was "I don't enjoy it." This was outweighed by the pupils who specifically mentioned how much they did enjoy French. But when it comes to options it is obviously a factor. And I would like to know to what extent "I don't enjoy it" is a proxy for other things. Such as "I am overwhelmed by the demands of the tasks" or "the sequencing of the learning means I am left confused." And difficulty and confusion were also mentioned by some pupils, although where a single pupil wrote that it was difficult and confusing and they didn't enjoy it, this has been counted 3 times.

As this was in the context of options, several pupils did mention that French was something that didn't fit with their future ambitions. This number has gone down since the survey we did in September, so perhaps we have had some impact in talking to pupils about this. It is also extrinsic to the lessons. Important for us to understand, but not necessarily a comment on the teaching and learning.

Some pupils commented on feeling that their progress had been interrupted by disruption caused by covid and staff illness. And two commented on pronunciation specifically as an issue. These are issues that we are aware of and I am happy that our plans for the year go some way to focusing on these concerns.

The survey also showed that the majority of pupils would be happy picking French as a GCSE option. The numbers who actually pick French will depend on what other subjects are in the same column. This is interesting to know, as often when a pupil doesn't pick a language, this can be portrayed as a failure or a negative. When in fact there are 4 or 5 subjects (all perfectly valid choices) in the column so a realistic expectation would be for 20 to 25% to pick any one of them.

That will come out in the wash later. But for now, I think our pupils are very positive about their learning and about the teaching in languages. And I am very pleasantly surprised with the way their independent statements match the vision of the department.