NPP 7: Taking Apart our Whole KS3 Curriculum

 In previous posts I have written up how we got started with our National Priorities Project by challenging our assumptions about our Year 7 French Art Exhibition, and how this thinking transfered to our discussions around our Department Inclusion Plan. Next we sat down as a department to take apart our whole KS3 curriculum.

The same questions we were asking about the French Exhibition framed our discussion about our curriculum. You can see already we are becoming more sophisticated in exploring all the implications of our Project:

• Is there long term well sequenced learning where grammar and vocabulary are revisited and accumulated?

• Are there "one offs" where pupils are learning things to say but which won't be met again?

• Do tasks engage pupils or do they distract them from what they are really meant to be learning?

• Alongside the language pupils are learning, are we also developing what they can do with it?

• Does creating meaning and personal expression have an important role in making learning stick?

• Do tasks involving communication and interaction overwhelm pupils?

• What is the role of tasks focused on mechanical application of rules?

• How do we ensure accuracy and ensure memorisation?

• How do we involve learners in developing self awareness as language learners and as users of language in an intercultural world?

And we are also becoming more sophisticated in our responses to these questions. Some of them might seem to give a worrying answer: there are occasions where pupils learn to say something as a one off. But we might decide that it's important to keep it. There are occasions where the demands of interaction are challenging. This doesn't mean we cut it out: we work on explicitly developing it. But I am getting ahead of myself here...

First I should show you the booklets we created for the day:

The front cover setting out the key questions

The central pages for notes on each Unit

Copies of our booklets for Year 7, 8 and 9

We discussed the overall sequencing of the content of the whole of KS3, each year, and each unit. We looked at how pupils accumulated language and at how we explicitly developed their ability to deploy it with increasing sophistication, independence and spontaneity. In the end I think most members of the department didn't make extensive notes. Instead we had a lively discussion, taking it in turns to take the role of scribe.

I now have the task of rewriting extensive tweaks to the booklets for next year, and the additional task of documenting it for the National Priorities Project. As well as continuing to evaluate the ongoing impact of the tweaks. And we mustn't forget the sheer impact of spending a day together in focused discussion of our curriculum. Invaluable!

I will pick out specific examples to share in the future as I tackle the job of rewriting the booklets. But here are the main consensus take-aways in terms of the questions we were asking ourselves:

The tasks in the booklets which work least well are where pupils are doing purely mechanical exercises. They help grasp the concept eg of la plage - à la plage; le collège- au collège. But they don't seem to guarantee memorisation. It seems more meaningful tasks have more impact. It was something of a surprise that this was so unanimous, as we have recently introduced more of these nitty gritty tasks into the booklet.

There are some tasks which appear to be a "one off" or teaching pupils to say things, rather than developing conceptualisation or accumulation of language. But these were often seen as valuable in themselves. Ordering food was seen as an example of something important to learn on its own merits whether or not the language being taught was strictly part of the accumulation of grammatical conceptualisation.

There are tasks in the booklet which are designed to support communication and interaction. Many of these don't sit well in booklet format and can be redesigned as separate resources.

Cultural and intercultural tasks are very important in pupils' motivation and form part of the core of what they are learning alongside the language. "Alongside" is the wrong word. Integrated and enmeshed would be better. Practical barriers around these need to be overcome. And we need an equivalent to the Year 7 French Art Exhibition in Year 8 and in Year 9. The proposals for Year 8 would be to keep going with our letter exchange, despite issues of mixed success with partner schools. And for Year 9 it could be to develop the focus on narrating into the creation of story books for Primary school learners.

Lots of work to be tackled and to be written up for the National Priorities Project. But what is most pleasing is the way when we went through the booklets page by page, the comments and experiences we were sharing were directly related to the questions we are asking in this project. And I think this is the right way round. We aren't trying to answer the questions in the abstract and apply it to our curriculum. The project is casting light on our curriculum. And the curriculum is casting light on the questions in the project.

Next Post: Is our Art Exhibition an example of Task Based Learning?