German at Eskdale
Curriculum -Timetable
3 sixty minute lessons per week in Y7 (shared between both French and German)
3 sixty minute lessons per week in Y8
3 sixty minute lessons per week for Y9
4 sixty minute lessons per week for the accelerated GCSE course group in Y9.
Students in Year 9 are given the opportunity to begin their studies for GCSE German. Those students who opt to continue with the subject can then sit their GCSE exam in Year 10 at Whitby Community College.
Teaching and Learning
There is, and can be, no one single approach to language teaching that can reach and be effective for all students all of the time. The department is committed to using a wide range of teaching styles and approaches and aims to include all students and provide them with the tools for success.
When planning and delivering lessons importance is attached to the following points:
fun, enjoyment and inclusion (games and interactive activities) covering all four skill areas (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing) catering for students with a range of learning styles
Assessment for Learning / Independent Learning
use of ICT (especially interactive whiteboard, language learning games and opportunities for students to produce written German using ICT)
KS3 Strategy – use of starters and plenaries in all lesson differentation
Materials and Resources
The Scheme of Work is based on and around the “Logo” series of course books published by Heinemann. These books are supplemented by a wide range of other materials and resources. These include
Interactive whiteboard activities and powerpoint presentations
Departmental user space on school network and Intranet
Departmental worksheets / activity sheets
Digital video cameras
Regular access to ICT room German is taught in a designated classroom and full use is made of the opportunities this provides. Classroom displays are designed both to help students speak the language in the room, by providing clear examples of useful words and phrases, and to create an atmosphere conducive to learning German – e.g. posters / maps / displays relating to life in Germany.
The department is well-resourced with interactive whiteboard and language learning software, separate course books for Y7, Y8 & Y9 and an extra book for Y9 accelerated GCSE. (Logo 1 -3 + Logo 3 “rot - advanced”).
A German Language Assistant attached to department every two years (employed by Whitby Schools Confederation). They work in German department one day / week with small groups of students to improve language skills. They are an invaluable cultural and linguistic resource.
Assessment and Marking
Central to the department’s policy on assessment and marking are the principles which underpin Assessment for Learning. AfL is one of Eskdale’s chosen KS3 strategy strands and is given high priority in the school. The department’s understanding and of AfL is summarised below:
AfL is a process which encourages students to take control of and
Responsibility for their own learning by:
Setting clear learning objectives and providing students with clear success criteria.
Giving students constructive written and oral feedback.
Providing students with the skills to assess their own and each other’s work.
Giving students the opportunity to set their own realistic targets.
These principles are put into practice in the German Department in the following ways:
All lessons have a clear structure. They start with students being made aware of the learning objectives and success criteria for that lesson and end with an opportunity for students to review these objectives and analyse their success. (It is the departments aim to have learning objectives and success criteria displayed as slides on the interactive whiteboard for all lessons.) |
