Teaching Modern Foreign Languages in the Community School
Classroom
Course Leader’s Evaluation
Timetable for course

There were gaps in the classroom sessions to allow for school observations
and student observations (two weeks in each case). This made the course feel
disjointed and lacked continuity between elements. I think there is a need to
build in some space to allow for the observations but one week each may be
enough
Timing of the course

There were several festivals in the Autumn, which caused disruption to
observations and meant some students missed classes

Most people were able to be at the class by 6.30 pm
Venue

Worked well most of the time, it was available when required and was fairly
tidy

It was not flexible in its layout as the tables were too heavy. Whiteboards
were available and we could project onto the wall

The room was cold for a couple of weeks until additional fan heaters were
provided
Content

The main focus of the course was around the mainstream observation,
observation of the student and the planning of a lesson sequence. This worked
very well (see separate sections for MFL and student observations)

The amount of material planned for the course was more manageable this
time and allowed for more discussion and clarification to take place during the
lessons

The review of a successful MFL lesson at the start was essential to remind the
students of the areas covered in the last course

Literacy was covered again and the students were encouraged to use books in
their teaching. More time could be used to talk about how to use a text to
develop structures and to discuss themes

Time was give to discussion of the curriculum guides and schemes of work but
it was still insufficient – another week to develop a unit from a scheme of work
would have been valuable. Perhaps the students should be required to develop
units and lessons from the curriculum guides (no Bangla one though)?
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Mainstream MFL observation

Opportunity to observe mainstream MFL language teachers was invaluable for
the students. The observation exposed them to mainstream planning, teaching
strategies and activities. These provided material for discussion in the teaching
sessions and the students were encouraged to incorporate things that they
had seen into their observed lessons which most of them did

The organisation of the observations was time-consuming and there were
some communication difficulties which caused problems. Communication was
better in primary schools

Three students organised their own observations direct with the schools. This
worked well but assumes existing links with the school and that the lesson
observed models good practice. One observation was in an independent school

Student evaluations reflected the value of this part of the course

The report and presentations on the observation were helpful for gaining the
full benefit from the observations. The presentations helped to share what
they had learnt with the whole group and provided an opportunity to discuss
the importance and challenges of assessing spoken language
Observation of CL teachers

These were an essential part of the course and worth the time it took to visit
the classes

There was some confusion over when I was observing the tutors’ lessons.
This was in part because they fell immediately after half term and there were
no course meetings to remind the students. Emails and forum were not always
checked!

As a result of feedback from the last course, each student had a tutorial to
discuss their lesson. These worked well and were done by phone or
before/after the class meetings
Communication

Communication outside class time was mostly via email. This mostly worked
well and at least one student learned to email and attach documents and
improved her word processing skills

There was also some time in class for one to one discussion
Level 2/Level 3 management

Assessing at level 2 and level 3 was not a problem. The internal verifier’s visit
early on in the course confirmed that my expectations for level 3 were at the
right level

The assignments for level 2 and level 3 were similar, with different expected
outcomes. Because the difference was not that great, this caused confusion for
one level 2 student. There were only two level 2 students which meant that
most things were aimed more at the level 3s
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Portfolios

Fewer assignments were included in the portfolio in comparison with the last
course. This made the portfolio easier to manage and also reduced the number
of activities that were done purely to go in as evidence. Those done were
longer, which helped the students to put the time and energy into them

All the pieces of evidence were useful to complete. However there were
difficulties with some pieces of evidence
o
The students found the written explanations about lesson plans and
schemes of work difficult because the reading to gather information was
too challenging
o
The second presentation on the lesson sequence was done very quickly
as we ran out of time, therefore it was not used effectively to continue
the discussion on assessment or to develop their presentation skills

Some of the students needed more time to have the assignments explained to
them. As a result, I spent some time clarifying expectations. Most of the
information was written down but I found that a significant number did not
refer to the information or did not understand it and it needed clarifying

Some people included the lesson they taught as one of the lessons in the
sequence which reduced the work significantly. It would be better to make the
lesson sequence completely separate from the observed lesson
Helen Hicks, Course Tutor
20/12/10
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