These pro bono - ie, free - supplementary sessions have run fortnightly on Saturday mornings from 9.30 to 10.30 during the term. It has been an interesting experience. Students who have attended have found the sessions useful – in some cases very useful – but have tended to dip in and out of them, usually because of other commitments, but sometimes because of connection problems. I have also been less than perfect in recording and posting sessions online. I can only apologise for that – I tend to get so absorbed in the teaching that I forget to press buttons.
Some students are not getting enough teaching hours at A level - two are having to get by on an hour a week! I'll add that current GCSE is not preparing students for A level. This is, of course, not the teachers' fault, and I hope - we'll see - that the reformed GCSE content will improve matters. If I were moving higher-attaining students on to A level, I'd want to try to provide supplementary teaching, esp on grammar, immediately after GCSE and before the end of the summer term. Otherwise, much of Y12 is spent doing what those of us old enough to remember, did at O-level.
The following points have emerged
· Students are not confident in their use of the case system. Dative is the prime candidate, but some need to practise the accusative. This may reflect the fact that German tends to start a year later than French in many schools, giving students less time to adjust their thinking. Students have appreciated the opportunity to discuss these issues, think them through and practise constructing sentences.
· Deepl is a very useful tool. It gives an immediate, and generally accurate, indication of the way that something would be said in German. Students can then build sentences with similar constructions. I advise them, whenever they say something in English, to think how they would say it in German and and check to see what Deepl would say, without taking the Deepl version as gospel. Going to Germany in one’s mind every day helps reinforce new neural networks.
· Deutsche Welle’s slow news site is extremely useful. The pace can be varied to suit the student, and each item can be used with or without a transcript. Anything not understood can be cut-and-pasted into Deepl, saving much of the time that I used to spend with my thumb in a dictionary in my first year of A-level French.
· Students enjoy the light relief from songs in German and Internet sites such as Jetzt geht’s um die Wurst and MFL clips with subtitles.
· 8x5 cards are an extremely useful way of making and storing notes. The card is big enough to contain a useful amount of information and examples, but small enough to slip into a book to be glanced at in spare moments. The cards make it easy to organise notes in all subjects, especially if the student has a card index box. I was recommended them by a history lecturer at University, and have used them extensively ever since.
· The award-winning Herr Gröttrup Setzt Sich Hin, by Sharon Dodua Ottoo, is an excellent resource for Year 12. It is presented in short sections, with two parallel translations on each page, and is free at this link. Some students have downloaded it and found it very useful for practice. A student on Saturday, for example, found it interesting to spot datives in the first paragraph. https://stillmagazine.org/.../STILL_Herr-Gro%CC%88ttrup... This is, incidentally, the full version of the story and not a sample. Sharon is a visiting Fellow of Jesus College, and there is more of her work on Youtube. Thanks to Professor Sarah Colvin for introducing me to it.
Sessions will resume on January 14 at 9.30. New and returning students are welcome. In the past I’ve often been asked for help around January of Year 13. It’s obviously much better to start earlier than that. The existing link will work, but please DM if you’d like to join or don’t have it to hand.