Case study

Introduction
Students comment on the 'invaluable insight into the Spanish-speaking world', 'inspirational teaching', 'all the help whenever needed'. A success story: Sophia studied A level Italian and Spanish at the College, completed her degree in Hispanic Studies with a first and is now doing a PhD in Bologna with Umberto Eco.
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Associated video clips

Italian
Teacher –  Simona Candiolo

The five video clips show an AS Italian lesson, where students revise and consolidate use of the comparative and are introduced to the imperative set in the context of Italian cuisine.  The lesson follows a logical progression as can be seen from the lesson plan (doc, 43KB). The teacher begins the lesson with instant and continued use of the target language and with good use of ICT and visuals with varied and differentiated activities which are fun and are clearly enjoyed by the students.     

Good use is made of a native speaker of Italian, who is is a member of the group, to ensure that she does not become bored and that the advantages of her presence can be fully utilised. The importance of differentiation in such circumstances cannot be over-emphasised and this lesson gives several ideas on how to make effective use of a fluent speaker of the language who is also a student. A foreign language assistant or other native speaker could be used in a similar way.

The use of game show type activities engages students and encourages light-hearted competition between the two teams. Students are able to practise all four language skills throughout the course of the lesson and those of all abilities are given the tools to enable them to participate fully.  
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Spanish
Teacher –  Magdalena Pickton
Description of lesson – Exploitation of Children and Child Labour

The four video clips below show the first half of an A2 Spanish lesson, where students revisit last week’s lesson discussing ‘Los Gitanos’ and are then introduced to the new theme of ‘Los Ninos Explotados’. The lesson follows a logical progression as can be seen from the lesson plan (doc, 89KB). The teacher starts the lesson as she means to go on, with instant and continued use of the target language and with good use of ICT with varied and differentiated activities. Students are able to practise all four language skills throughout the course of the lesson and are given the opportunity to discuss an involved and engaging topic in a variety of ways and at a high level. After the break (see lesson plan) the topic is further exploited by using a different set of activities which culminates in the students being asked to prepare a campaign and write a letter to their embassy. 
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French
Teacher – Ann Griffiths
Description of lesson – Les Portables

These video clips show good practice in the teaching of A2 French on the topic of use of mobile phones. Initial whole-class teaching is followed by group and pair work. This ensures that students have the maximum opportunity to engage in oral work. The teacher uses the target language throughout and begins the lesson by encouraging the students to recall vocabulary connected with computers, which was covered in a previous lesson. She then introduces the new topic of mobile phone use and makes good use of the interactive whiteboard to provide vocabulary which the students use in the pairwork activity which follows. This topic is consolidated by a full class matching activity of synonyms in French. 

The lesson then progresses to a group work activity in which students are discussing the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones. Each group then reports the opinions of their group to the rest of the class. This activity ensures that students have a greater opportunity to speak than would be the case if this were a full class session. 

The lesson ends with the teacher preparing the students for the essay-writing homework task. A PowerPoint presentation offers them useful pointers for structuring the essay which is to be entitled 'Mobile Phones – Godsend or curse?'. It is especially helpful for weaker students to be given guidance of this nature before embarking upon essay-writing tasks.  Download a copy of this lesson plan. (doc 36 KB)
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