Flersprogethed som aktiv i undervisningen

Flersprogethed som aktiv i undervisningen

En vanvittig idé viste sig at være fantastisk.

Jeg underviser i engelsk (mest i udskolingsklasserne) på en skole i Ishøj – den kommune i Danmark med det højeste antal borgere med anden etnisk herkomst end dansk.

For nogle år siden mødte jeg en (nu tidligere) skoleleder, Déirdre Kirwan. Déirdre var skoleleder på en skole i Irland, hvor alle elever havde engelsk som deres første sprog, men pga. det økonomiske opsving, som Irland oplevede i starten af dette århundrede, var der mange udenlandske arbejdstagere, der valgte at flytte til Irland. På få år skiftede skolen fra 100% etnisk irske elever til 80% ikke-irske elever, der talte 40 forskellige sprog. Hvordan skulle man håndtere en sådan forandring og udfordring? Déirdre valgte i samarbejde med sit lærerkorps at inkludere de mange sprog, selv om ingen af de ansatte på skolen talte de pågældende sprog.

De gjorde det på følgende måde: Når forældre mødte op på skolen for at indmelde deres barn, fik de at vide, at de havde ansvaret for at styrke deres barns urdu/swahili/kurdisk/polsk osv. Forældrene skulle sikre, at 1/3 af alle skriftlige afleveringer blev skrevet på urdu/swahili/kurdisk/polsk osv., og at eleven havde gjort sig umage med stavning og indhold. Det havde to fantastiske konsekvenser: 1) Forældrene følte, at de havde et ansvar for deres barns skolegang. Forældrene kom helt naturligt til at følge med i skolens curriculum og oplevede sig selv som medspillere. Hvis Déirdre og hendes lærere havde insisteret på, at skolens sprog var engelsk og alle andre sprog uønsket, havde forældrene følt sig fremmedgjort, og de ville have haft meget svært ved at støtte deres barns skolegang. 2) Skolen har haft stor succes med modellen. Skolen ligger i en socialt underprivilegeret forstad til Dublin. I de nationale tests klarer de sig over gennemsnittet. Både i Irland og Danmark vil man ellers tro, at en skole med 80% børn af anden etnisk herkomst vil klare sig dårligere end gennemsnittet.

Så hvad har det at gøre med min engelskundervisning i Ishøj? I starten ingenting, men så skete der noget pudsigt. Mine timer foregår på engelsk, og mine elever arbejder via elevautonomi på selvvalgte projekter i små, selvstyrende grupper. Grupperne skal tale engelsk indbyrdes, og al søgning på nettet skal være på engelske sider. Men for to år siden var der en ny elev i min 7. klasse. Hun var i gang med at arbejde på et projekt om Hillary Clinton, da jeg kiggede hende over skulderen. På hendes PC-skærm var der et meget mærkeligt sprog. Min første tanke var at hun tog p** på mig. Jeg satte mig ved siden af hende og spurgte lidt skeptisk, hvad det var på hendes skærm. ”Serbokroatisk”, svarede hun med uskyldig og alvorlig mine. Jeg blev lidt paf, men var fortsat skeptisk og spurgte, om hun kunne fortælle mig, hvad der stod på skærmen. Det kunne hun. Så kom jeg i tanke om Déirdre Kirwan. Jeg kiggede rundt i min klasse og spurgte, om der var andre, der talte andre sprog derhjemme end dansk. Det var der. Jeg havde haft klassen siden 1. klasse og var totalt ”farveblind”. De var alle sammen bare mine elever, og jeg tænkte ikke over deres etnicitet. Jeg havde ikke tænkt specielt over, om de talte flere sprog end dansk og engelsk.

Jeg roste den nye elevs sproglige kompetencer og spurgte, om der var andre elever, der talte flere sprog. Det viste sig, at cirka en tredjedel af mine elever talte og var i stand til at skrive sprog som urdu, punjabi, tyrkisk, kurdisk, svensk, hindu, russisk … Men det var ikke noget, de talte så meget om – måske var de endda lidt flove over det!

Jeg er sproglærer, jeg elsker sprog, og jeg beundrer folk, der taler mere end et sprog. Så jeg tog en beslutning. Mine elever vælger, hvad de vil arbejde med (elevautonomi), men de skal fremlægge deres læring for deres klassekammerater, og jeg foreslog, at alle de flersprogede elever skulle fremlægge en bid af deres projektfremlæggelse på deres ”ekstrasprog”.

Umiddelbart kan det virke absurd at bruge kostbar tid på noget, der ikke direkte styrker elevernes engelskkundskaber, men det drejer sig kun om nogle få minutter og kun ved afslutningen af et projektforløb (typisk hver sjette uge). Og vi sidder med beundring og ser elever boltre sig på flersprogede fremlæggelser. Eleverne er stolte, meget stolte. Jeg har endda en elev, som klasselæreren mener, måske er under normal intelligens; han fremlægger 90% på engelsk, 5% på punjabi og 5% på urdu. Jeg ved, at punjabi og urdu er beslægtede, men de har forskellige skriftsprog, og eleven ved godt, hvordan man indstiller computertastaturet til henholdsvis punjabi og urdu, og jeg tænker wow!

Som de fleste lærere ser jeg det som mit job at fremhæve og udvikle de kompetencer, som mine elever har, og jeg husker, da jeg voksede op i det monolinguistiske samfund, som Dublin var, at jeg dengang syntes, at det var helt vildt, at nogle mennesker kunne begå sig på andet end engelsk. Det synes jeg stadig den dag i dag.

De andre elever i klassen er også imponerede, og det siger sig selv, at forældrene til de multisprogede børn er begejstrede. Sprog og især vores modersmål er noget af det mest personlige, vi har, og det betyder utrolig meget, at det bliver værdsat.

Lad mig give det sidste ord til Déirdre Kirwan:

"By valuing every language in the classroom, we cultivate a plurilingual milieu where children are encouraged to use all the languages within their repertoire.

The cognitive benefits of such an approach are well documented. The skills learned are transferable and so inform all areas of learning. Appreciating that their knowledge is valued allows children to take pride in their ability, making them confident and motivated to learn more.

There are huge benefits for monolingual children in such a learning environment, too. From a very early age, they begin to realise that there are different ways to say the same thing, other ways to view the world."

http://scoilbhridec.ie/letter-by-principal-deirdre-kirwan-printed-in-the-irish-times/

Fodnote: Déirdre Kirwan har skrevet en ph.d. om omstillingen af sin skole.

The bane of my life and the backbone of my teaching: Logbooks!

Independence column

The bane of my life and the backbone of my teaching: Logbooks!

(Quotations from the students' logbooks are in italics – my comments in the logbooks are in blue and brackets).

This evening I was sitting at home with an hour or two to spare and thought to myself, “I could read 7a's logbooks now.” That though would be impossible. To read 22 students' logbooks takes hours and hours and, remember, I have 5 times 22 students as I teach English to five different classes, that is 110 students' logbooks. So, as you have probably noticed, I decided to write this article instead.

Logbooks are hard work, really hard work. I try to read all of my students' logbooks approximately twice a month. Some students (maybe 10%) write every single day. One student in particular writes approximately 350 words every day. Others write more seldom, but I do tell my students that I expect them to write at least four times a week (twice during lessons and twice at home). Of course, not all achieve this goal, but the vast majority do. So outside lesson time, logbooks are the most time-consuming activity that I have. I do, however, since I use autonomy, have much less preparation in comparison to traditional teacher-centred teaching.

In 2003, when Leni Dam introduced me to learner autonomy, I was not just sceptical, I was 100% certain that the concept of learner autonomy was absolute nonsense. For more on this, read my article “Autonomy never, never, never” (first published in Independence in ????). The most preposterous idea, I believed, was that (Danish) teenagers would be prepared to devote time to writing a language-learning logbook. Out of the 110 teenagers that I now teach, not one of them disputes the wisdom of writing a logbook.

However, back to the hard work. I really have to push myself, to devote the time to read all 110 logbooks every fortnight, but I do.

Why?

For many reasons:

1.    I firmly believe that autonomy without logbooks is anarchy. Logbooks enable me to keep a very close eye on my students' learning and development.

2.    My students produce huge quantities of writing which I am certain develops their language skill enormously.

3.    The logbook gives the students a voice and freedom of expression which they do use.

4.    Logbooks keep students on their toes, they don't usually know which day I shall read them, and they know that Frank will not be impressed if it is a few days since they last wrote.

5.    It guarantees that they are reading free-reading and thus gaining lots of meaningful input and cultural learning.

6.    It allows for each student to use English at his or her level, i.e. 100% differentiation.

7.    Then there is one more reason…. The private worlds of my students.

When I started writing this article (a few days ago) I intended to tell you about how trivial much of the logbook content is, and it is. I read thousands and thousands of words about what kids did during the weekend, visits to grandmothers, holidays, time spent with friends, and of course linguistic content like “I learnt what the word “denigrate” means,” etc. lots of trivial writing, which is often (sorry) fairly boring!

Like I said, I started writing this article to avoid reading logbooks, but I did nevertheless zap back and forth between 7a's and 8a's logbooks and this article and I got hijacked by the seventh reason, “The private worlds of my students”.

I love teaching, I love the interaction with teenagers. I love to let them see that they are “seen”. They are individuals who are important to me not because they are my students, but because they are real people with thoughts and feelings.

Let's look first at Ahmed's logbook. (Ahmed is 14 years old. I have been teaching Ahmed since August 2016 when he moved to our school).

03-02-2019

Today the first thing I did was playing CS:GO. It went absolutely terrible. Again I had to play with idiots. Then I played with Alexander. We lost again. Later I ate breakfast. Then I came back to playing CS:GO. I lost another game. My trust factor has gotten so low that I don't even get teammates anymore that knows how to play CS:GO. It's very fun to play your favourite game and not being able actually have fun. Of course I can't play any other game because my computer is bad and my parents never let me buy any games. At this point I'm planning on redoing everything I've achieved with this account. Make a new account, get CS:GO, level up to level 21, get prime matchmaking, play the game and become Nova again and actually get teammates that know how to play the game. The only thing I need is money. What I should just do now is take a break from videogames and just calm down and focus on something else… Later I came home. I had already eaten dinner at my grandma's house so I just went onto making homework. We just got some math test back and my parents looked at it. My mom wasn't happy about my result. How am I not surprised? Recently I'm only going down in most subjects and I'm really not surprised. I'm not getting any better and I have a pretty good thought of why I'm not going up. I think it "maybe" has something to do with the fact that school is extremely depressing and almost everything is not interesting to learn about. English is fine, physics/chemistry is fine and history is fine. Everything else is just boring and I really don't know the reason to do most of it anymore. Well after I did homework I had "fun" for the rest of the day.

Today's book: Metro 2033 [J] (I added the smiley, and the following is an account of what he has read).

They are on their way to Rizhskaya and on the way something weird happened. Everyone besides Artyom started acting weirdly and suddenly they become normal again and nobody besides Artyom remembered what happened just the hour before. They concluded that it happened from a gas outbreak since there was a pipe with a hole making a weird balloon-like noise. Artyom kept them all together and saved them from running away or hurting themselves.

Ahmed nearly always writes this amount every day and the content is basically the same, day after day. So I do tend to skim his logbook, putting in a smiley-frog every time he mentions free reading at home. This is something that I do with all students', a smiley when they write about their reading, so that they can clearly see that I think that free-reading is VERY important. Nearly every day Ahmed criticises his teachers, writes about his gaming, and how lousy the school provided laptop is. Often he tells me how many hours sleep he had and very often about family situations.

Again I see it as a privilege to made privy to his “private” world. His English is super, and I am sure that it is his logbook writing and therefore also free-reading that are responsible for his linguistic abilities. The logbook fosters a very strong relationship between me and my students, because they bring me into their private worlds.

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Lilian's logbook (I have been teaching Lilian since August 2018, when I took over English teaching in this class).

23rd January 2019

Today, we started having Danish. We did some grammar. We had a substitute again… After the lesson. We had a break. After the break, we had geography. We did presentations today. I presented with Mata and Markus about Korowai. After the lessons, we had a lunch break. After the break we had physic and chemistry. After that, we had math. After math we got free from school and I went home. At home I did some homework. At 6:00 pm o'clock, I was at training. The training was okay. After the training I went home and watched Denmark vs. Sweden. We had a war at home, haha.

[J]

But Denmark won so that was great. After the match I went to bed.

(The smiley is one that I put in when reading her logbook).

This too is quite “boring”, and most days are like this. I didn't at first understand the reference to “war”. Lilian is 13 years old. Her mother is Danish and her father Swedish and she loves to play handball (a very popular sport in Denmark). In January the world handball championships were held in Denmark. In the semi-finals Denmark played against Sweden. So therefore, there was probably lots of teasing among Lilian's parents before and during the match.

Lilian is a lovely kid. When she shares this “family/home” information with me, I feel privileged. When I saw her the next day getting off her bike, I commented upon it to her and she smiled, Lilian could see that her teacher was reading what she wrote, and by acknowledging the situation, I make it obvious that Lilian is not just some anonymous student, but rather a kid who is seen by her English teacher.

I do this as often as I can, when I see students outside of lessons, if I can remember an incident in their logbook or am impressed or even disappointed I will drop a comment, chat a little with them… and demonstrate that not only do I read the logbooks, I notice them too as individuals.

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Tina is 14 years old. (I have been teaching Tina since September 2018, when she changed to my school).

Today its Saturday and I just came home from a birthday party that my moms friend held. We were actually also to a birthday party before, but we were there in short time, because we had to go to the other. In the first birthday it was my moms friends to sons that had birthday, they are not twin they just held the party together. And the second party was also my moms son that had birthday. His name is Daniel, he turned 7. Time goes so fast, last time I saw him was 3 years ago. There was a lot of food, I ate so much today. I couldn't stop myself, there were a lot of cake and a lot of Filipino food. Something else happened….. There were a boy in the party, he was at my age. We always had eye contact and he always smiled at me. And I smiled back. When I was in the kitchen he came, and when he walked pass me he looked down at me and he went very close to me. At some point I needed a charger so I asked Leslie if I can borrow a charger, then he took the boy's charger while he was using it ahahaha. Leif is the father to Danny. He's is very funny and kind. He is good at making people laugh. When we were getting ready to get home, I had to give the charger back to the boy because I wanted to talk to him. I went to the room were he was with he's friend. I asked if he still had to use the charger, and he said yes and smiled, so I gave it to him and smiled back. Then his friend pushed he's elbows, as if it was a sign that he had the chance to say something to me now. So I stayed for a minute, we stared at each other, at some point I had it awkward so I walked, then he said wait, I have a question. I went back, he said have I seen you before? Isn't that a typical flirting line? Ahah. But I said, no I don't think so I'm not that much around here. Then he said "but I feel like I know you, do you know a boy named Jamey?" I said no I don't think so, then he asked if I was hanging out with Filipinos and I said no and that most of my friends are Danish. Then he apologized because he thought I was someone else. He tried though. He could have been a good friend. I should have talked to him.

[Boys!!!!!!!... But don't mind me I have two daughters”].

The last piece, [Boys!!!!!!!... But don't mind me I have two daughters”] is my comment. But here I was knocked off my feet. To think that Tina would tell me that she had a little crush on a boy…I am surprised that I am given an insight into her private world. Suddenly logbooks are not so boring, but quite sweet.

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Judy is 14 years old. (I have been teaching her and her twin sister since August 2015 when they moved to our school).

February 5, 2019

Today is Tuesday

We have an alternative week, and I think that it is good, because then we can set all the homework and tests on a stand by. I like that we do something different than we are want to. (ed: than we usually do).

It is not that fun at school and at home in these weeks. There is so much drama and angriness in the school with the girls. I am never involved, but I feel, it happens so often, and it is so annoying, because it is destroying the atmosphere and mood. I am not that kind of person who gets angry and want to argue a lot. I am starting to be more together with some of the boys from our class, because that is so much easier. If there is a bad atmosphere and some of the girls are angry with each other's, I go and have some fun with the boys. I don't know, I just think I am not that type of person who is good at that drama.

It is hard at home too. I think you know it, Frank, but there is a lot of problems at home. I am not involved, but I still feel that I am involved, much involved. Lucy is very bad, and her relationship with our parents is so bad. In the start I just thought that she was started getting teenager, because she was always angry, especially at my mom and dad. But it started getting worse. Her door was always locked, and she was always fighting with mom and dad, over talk but also psychologically. It was very uncomfortable, but I was just trying to forget it.

It was still getting worse. She got home very late, first when mom and dad was asleep, and she was away before the stood up, it hurt so much and I was so sad, because they couldn't talk to each other. On that time, I hadn't talk to Lucy in a week or something, and we were started ignoring each other in the school. It all collapsed from 2-3 weeks ago I think, were we were together with some girls from the class, me and Lucy. She hadn't eaten the whole day, because she couldn't be at home at the same time as our parents. It was night, maybe 10:30 and we were at a restaurant. She still didn't eat, and it was very horrible to be in her society, which is terrible because she is my sister. Her finger was red and I could see on her that she had losing her weight. She was shaking. A lot happen that night and all us girls could see that something was very wrong. It was that night I understood that it was very serious and that I (ed: it) could be dangerous for her, if she didn't get help soon. Suddenly I started crying, because I was so overwhelmed. I was prepared that it was that bad, and I couldn't baer that it was so uncomfortable to be in her society. It ended up that I was calling my mom to pick me up and I was crying a lot.

Now it is different but still very bad at home. I still feel very uncomfortable together with Lucy, but I think that one of the reasons why is, that she is changing too much. I don't think that it is on a positive way, but I can't rule (ed: decide) that. That is up to her, but I don't like that person she is starting to be… I really don't like the way she is towards me, and especially for the people around her. It is very hard to follow what is happening at home, and I am started to hold back, because I don't want to know it. I feel safer, when I don't know what happens.

My comment, which I wrote: [Poor you and your parents and Lucy… I do understand that life is very difficult for all of you. It is not fair and it doesn't make sense, I know. There are no magic words I can say, just hang in there, kid. Do your best to be there for each other…and if you want to talk, say so,… in my experience, it helps].

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Over the years I have had many students who pour their hearts out in their logbook. I have written to her as soon as I saw this and will of course talk to her and her form-teacher, etc.

I love teaching, I love meeting my students, I love that they feel that they can use their logbook to write English, improve their English and to bring me into their private worlds.

Logbooks are still hard work, many logbooks I just skim quickly, using smileys to give praise or encouragement and non-smileys to express my disappointment. My smileys are hard to reproduce in this magazine, I have a large selection of happy/angry frogs(!) and more traditional smileys.

Each time I read a logbook I write a short (one-to-five line comment), Comments always start with the student's name and often read, “more free-reading, please”, or “try to write more often at home please…” or some words of praise.

Logbooks are the bane of my life, taking so much time, but they are the backbone of my teaching, providing me with a tool to monitor students' progress, and allowing me to give advice and encouragement on how to improve, but logbooks do also bring me into the very private world of the students and I suppose that “English” in that way becomes personally relevant to them, thus opening up affective-motivational aspects, which I am sure impact enormously on their learning.

Formidlingskompetencer

Formidlingskompetencer er geniale! Men hvad er de?

Hvis du har læst mine tidligere indlæg, vil du vide, at jeg altid arbejder projektorienteret med mine elever. Hver enkelt elev har næsten 100% frihed til at bestemme:

1.         Hvad han/hun vil lave.

2.         Hvorfor.

3.         Hvordan.

4.         Hvem han/hun vil arbejde.

Det eneste, eleven skal, er at kunne overbevise mig om, at han/hun vil lære engelsk ved hjælp af projektet.

Et projektforløb varer typisk 5 til 6 uger og efterfølges af 1 til 2 uger, hvor eleverne fremlægger for hinanden. At eleverne fremlægger for klassen, er et ufravigeligt krav.

Dagen lang siger jeg: ”Husk at skrive i din logbog, hvad du har lært”. (Logbogen og brugen af den har jeg fortalt om i tidligere indlæg https://www.folkeskolen.dk/558504/uden-logboeger-duer-det-ikke).

Fokus skal til hver en tid være på elevernes læring – alt andet er ligegyldigt. Og det er så her, at formidlingskompetencer er overordentlig relevante. De er udviklet i samarbejde med min kollega, Birger Rud Kristiansen.

Hvor logbogen er et værktøj til den enkelte elev til at reflektere over sin egen læring, er formidlingskompetencer med til at løfte deres blik over på deres klassekammerater. Med formidlingskompetencer er eleven tvunget til at forholde sig til, hvordan hans/hendes arbejde bidrager til klassens læring.

Birger og jeg har defineret 9 punkter til formidlingskompetencer:

1.       Hvad er formålet med fremlæggelsen?

2.       Svære ord forklares først.

3.       Hvem er modtageren?

4.       Hvad skal modtagerne lære?

5.       Hvilke medier passer til formidlingen?

6.       Er der nogle gode virkemidler?

7.       Hvad har jeg lært selv?

8.       Hvordan evaluerer jeg, at mit budskab er blevet formidlet?

9.       Hvor gemmer vi produktet og deler det?

Her gennemgår jeg dem enkeltvis:

1.    Hvad er formålet med fremlæggelsen?

Målet er at sikre, at eleven eller gruppen ikke bare har lavet ”lektier”, altså lavet en opgave, fordi de skulle. De skal ved fremlæggelsen – og mens de planlægger fremlæggelsen – have et mål med at vise deres projekt til klassen.

2.    Svære ord forklares først.

Eleven/gruppen er tvunget til at reflektere over deres stof og gøre det nemt tilgængeligt for deres publikum. På denne måde er de også tvunget til at reflektere over deres læring.

3.    Hvem er modtageren?

Modtageren er selvfølgelig klassen, men det er også læreren og sommetider besøgende udefra, og eleven/gruppen skal levere noget, der giver mening for modtageren. Igen tvinger det eleven/gruppen til at reflektere over deres stof.

4.    Hvad skal modtagerne lære?

Eleven/gruppen skal have et klart defineret læringsmål for tilhørerne.

5.    Hvilke medier passer til formidlingen?

Skal de bruge PowerPoint, Prezi, film, drama …? Og hvorfor?

6.    Er der nogle gode virkemidler?

Skal man bruge musik, filmklip eller smagsprøver?

7.    Hvad har jeg lært selv?

Fokus er igen på læring, og hver enkelt elev i gruppen skal kunne fortælle, hvad han/hun har lært. På den måde bliver læringen offentlig, og eleverne deler deres læring med hinanden.

8.    Hvordan evaluerer jeg, at mit budskab er blevet formidlet?

Dette har ført til mange ”Kahoots” (kahoot.it) og involvering af hele klassen i en evaluering af klassens læring.

9.    Hvor gemmer vi produktet og deler det?

Jeg har mødt mange elever igennem de sidste år, som fortæller, at de selvfølgelig har gemt deres arbejde. Når jeg spørger ”hvor?”, kan svarene være ”på min Mac” eller ”i Office 365”, med den konsekvens, at de nogle uger senere ikke kan finde produktet. Og hos mig er det tit, at jeg eller eleverne gerne vil kigge på tidligere projekter som led i et nyt projekt. Derfor er er vigtigt, at de har et pålideligt og gennemskueligt system til opbevaring af deres projekter.

Formidlingskompetencer er ikke noget revolutionerende nyt, men de er et nyttigt værktøj (og supplement til logbøgerne) til at fremme refleksion hos eleverne.

Forældrekommunikation

Jeg arbejder på en privatskole i Ishøj. Ingen tvivl om, at det har sine fordele at være ansat på en privatskole, men en af de ulemper, vi har – og som også flere og flere lærere i folkeskolen oplever – er, at vi møder mange forældre, som ikke alene har en mening om, hvordan vi skal undervise deres barn; de vil også gerne bestemme, hvordan deres barn skal undervises. De færreste mennesker blander sig i mekanikerens arbejde på deres bil, men flere og flere mener, at de har større forstand på pædagogik og didaktik end os, de professionelle og uddannede lærere.

Men der er også samfundsmæssigt meget pres på forældre. Vi ønsker alle sammen, at vores barn skal klare sig bedst muligt. De fleste forældrehenvendelser bunder mere i en bekymring for deres barn end i en decideret kritik af lærerens gøren og laden.

Kort før skolehjemsamtalerne i november prøver jeg altid at sende en slags ”statusrapport” over, hvad vi har lavet i engelsk, og hvordan de første måneder af skoleåret er gået. Jeg gør det dels for min egen skyld, men også i høj grad for at berolige forældrene. I min statusrapport gør jeg det tydeligt, at jeg har styr på det, jeg laver, at jeg har overblikket, og at jeg vil deres børn det godt.

Resultatet er, at jeg får meget stærk opbakning fra forældrene, fordi de føler sig trygge.

Her er et eksempel på min status til forældrene i en af mine 8 klasser.

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8b

Vi er cirka en tredjedel igennem skoleåret, og det er tid til at gøre status.

8b Jeg er så glad for at have klassen tilbage. 8b har et vanvittigt højt fagligt niveau. Kvaliteten af deres arbejde og ikke mindst deres logbøger i engelsk er usædvanlig højt.

I næste uge skal de fremlægge projekter om følgende emner:

·       Writing the first chapters of their first novel

·       Elon Musk

·       Eminem

·       Human Rights

·       Plastic surgery

·       E-sports

·       Ryan Reynolds

·       Conor McGregor

·       Reading TJ and the cup run

·       Wilsonator

·       Frank Ocean

·       India

·       Post Malone

I september var emnerne:

·       Princess Diane

·       Jaycee Lee Dugard

·       Sideman

·       Nash tackle

·       Fitz (Youtuber)

·       The death of XXX tentacion

·       Harry Kane

·       Microsoft

·       Marilyn Monroe

·       Twilight

·       Ender's Game

·       Reading the 100

Niveauet var generelt meget højt. Projekterne var interessante, eleverne var engagerede, og det sproglige niveau meget fint. Jeg lærer meget om, hvad der rører sig i ungdomskultur og om nicheemner, og eleverne arbejder med emner, som er interessante for deres peergruppe. Det betyder, at engelsk bliver brugt i en konstruktiv og personligt relevant kontekst, hvilket er med til at motivere og styrke elevernes læring.

I næste uge deltager vi også i DM i Fagene i faget engelsk. Det er første gang, at engelsk er med i konkurrencen. Vi deltager selvfølgelig for at vinde. Om vi er i stand til det, vil tiden vise. Da engelsk aldrig har været med før, er der ikke eksempler fra tidligere år, som man kan forberede sig på. Så det bliver spændende, fordi vi ikke aner, hvad ”testen” går ud på.

Klassen har skrevet én stil indtil videre, og i denne uge vil vi aftale det næste stileemne. Stileskrivning er en del af den skriftlige prøve i engelsk, og vi har fokus ikke bare på skriftlig korrekthed, men også på kreativ skrivning. At være både korrekt og kreativ kræver et stort ordforråd, en fornemmelse for sproget og fokus på korrektheden. Disse tre færdigheder trænes godt ved frilæsning, som jeg bruger meget krudt på. Næsten alle timer starter med ca. 15 minutters frilæsning. Det er, fordi jeg gerne vil støtte elevernes læsning derhjemme. Det giver mig også mulighed for at snakke med eleverne om deres valg af bøger og for at finde titler, som kunne interessere den enkelte elev.

I oktober var vi i teatret og så et engelsk stykke, ”The Woman in Black”, udført af en engelsk teatergruppe. Jeg tror, at det var en meget sjov oplevelse for samtlige elever. De skreg! J Og stemningen var helt i top bagefter på vejen tilbage til Ishøj.

8b I uge 41 havde vi besøg af to lærere fra Østrig, som gerne ville se elevautonomi i praksis. På samme tid havde vi besøg af en tysk fotograf fra Stuttgart, som var kommet for at tage fotos til en artikel, som jeg har skrevet til et tysk magasin. Artiklen bliver offentliggjort i midten af november.

I december får vi fornemt besøg af den tidligere FBI-agent James Fitzgerald. Han vil holde et oplæg om sin tid i FBI. Kontakten til James Fitzgerald kom i stand, da en elev fra sidste års 8. klasse var i gang med at lave et projekt om Unabomberen, en amerikansk universitetslektor i fysik, som sendte bomber til universiteter og flyselskaber (UNiversity and Airlines = UNAbomber). Manden blev efter 17 års efterforskning fanget af James Fitzgerald, som i mellemtiden havde opfundet ”forensisk lingvistik” (dvs. man bruger forbryderens sprog fra trusselsbreve osv. til at afsløre vedkommende).

Besøget har fået en del mere opmærksomhed, end jeg havde forestillet mig (se f.eks. her: https://www.tv2lorry.dk/artikel/14-aarig-elev-tog-kontakt-til-kendt-fbi-agent-nu-kommer-han-til-ishoej?fbclid=IwAR3odTN4Za9EWXJN4hMsOPcEszBk9s7su5vWqJpMocw195YD3pAgIfzsbXw). Så vidt jeg ved, kommer TV Lorry, TV Ishøj og Ekstra Bladet til oplægget den 14. december. TV Ishøj var på skolen i går for at lave interviews med eleven og mig (https://youtu.be/q6SfhrLzA5E). Så det er noget af et kup, vi har gjort, og det er et bevis på, at det kan give nogle meget spændende resultater, når eleverne i forbindelse med deres projekter rækker ud til ukendte, men interessante personer i engelsktalende lande. Lige nu er der flere elever i 7a og 9a, som har fået kontakt til personer, der giver input til deres projekter. I 9a er der en gruppe, som arbejder med emnet ”School shootings i USA”. De har skrevet med en mor, som mistede sin datter i en ”school shooting”, men som forsvarer retten til at købe og eje våben. Det har givet mange spændende overvejelser.

Både 8a og 8b har nu fået en international penneven. Vi samarbejder med en skole i Finland. Alle vores elever har hver fået et brev fra en 14-årig skoleelev i Finland, og de har også alle sammen skrevet deres svar. Det er påfaldende, at vores elevers engelskkundskaber er væsentlig bedre end finnernes. Man hører meget om, hvor godt det finske skolesystem er, men de samfundsnormer og den eksponering for engelsk, som vores elever møder, betyder, at vores elever er dygtigere i engelsk.

Lærerevaluering

I dag bad jeg klassen evaluere deres engelsklærer (mig). De skulle svare på 14 spørgsmål om min undervisning. (I kan se spørgsmålene på elevernes computer under teams.) Svarene var meget positive, og det lader til, at de er tilfredse og trygge og synes, at de lærer meget i timerne.

Læsning og logbøger

Læsning og logbøger er de to værktøjer, der bedst styrker elevernes læring. Jeg giver sjældent lektier for, men jeg beder eleverne om at læse derhjemme og skrive om deres læring, deres læsning og deres projektarbejde derhjemme (og i skolen). Jeg synes ikke, at I forældre skal have skænderier med jeres børn om frilæsning og logbøger, men I må meget gerne rose dem, når de læser/skriver. Jeg synes, at I alle burde prøve at læse jeres barns logbog – det giver jer et meget godt indblik i, hvad det er, de arbejder med i engelsk, og hvad deres sproglig niveau er.

Tusind tak for jeres støtte og opbakning. 8b er dejlig klasse, som formår at overraske og begejstre mig. Ros til jer forældre for de kompetente unge mennesker, som I sender i skole.

Hilsen

Frank

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Men tager det ikke lang tid at lave sådan en statusrapport? Det tager mig to-tre timer at sætte sådan en status sammen. Jeg har fem klasser, som jeg underviser i engelsk, og jeg bruger rapporten i alle fem klasser med nogle små ændringer til de enkelte klasser. Så i første omgang tager det mig to-tre timer, og de efterfølgende tager kun 20-30 minutter, da der er meget, der kan genbruges. Så totalt taler vi om en investering på ca. 5 timer, hvilket er givet godt ud, når man ser, hvor meget jeg får tilbage på goodwillkontoen.

Behovet for at berolige forældrene er måske lidt større for mig end for de fleste lærere, idet jeg praktiserer elevautonomi, hvor eleverne har meget selvbestemmelse i timerne og i forhold til, hvordan de skal/vil lære engelsk. Men jeg er sikker på, at alle lærere kan bruge den ekstra styrke, respekt og opbakning fra forældrene, som en sådan status giver.

Elevautonomi – hvad siger eleverne?

Hvis du har læst min blog før, så vil du vide, at jeg brænder for elevautonomi. Det vil sige, at jeg giver eleverne maksimal indflydelse på, hvordan de vil lære engelsk.

Så i mine timer bestemmer eleverne selv (dog i samarbejde med mig):

·       Hvordan de vil lære engelsk

·       Hvad de vil arbejde med

·       Med hvem de vil arbejde

– og de evaluerer og dokumenterer selv deres læring.

Jeg syntes engang, at det var en vanvittig ”undervisningsform”, men en diplomuddannelse for ca. 12 år siden med masser af forskning i egen praksis ændrede min opfattelse.

I august 2017 overtog jeg en 8. klasse. I årets allersidste lektion bad jeg dem om at evaluere elevautonomi, og nedenfor kan I læse elevernes svar. Jeg fortalte eleverne, at formålet var give dem mulighed for at evaluere engelskundervisningen, og at jeg helt oprigtigt var åben for at ændre formen, hvis de syntes, at det ville være en god ide.

Jeg stillede i alt fire spørgsmål. (Denne blog omhandler kun elevernes svar til spørgsmål nummer 1). Spørgsmålene var:

1.      Did autonomy work or not work for you? Why/why not?

2.      Were logbooks good? Why/why not?

3.      Was free reading good? Why/why not?

4.      What is most important in your learning English? Autonomy or Frank?

Til hvert spørgsmål skulle de give mellem 5 og 1 point, hvor 5 var meget godt og 1 meget dårligt.

Klassen har normalt 22 elever, men tre var fraværende, og en elev havde IT-problemer, så hans svar blev ikke modtaget, så i alt fik jeg svar fra 18 elever.

·       13 elever gav autonomi 5 point.

·       4 elever gav autonomi 4 point.

·       Og en ny elev (to uger) gav 3 point.

Så gennemsnittet lå på 4,666.

Klassen er fagligt en meget differentieret klasse og blev introduceret til autonomi i deres første lektion i skoleåret 2017-18, da jeg kort fortalte, hvad det gik ud på. Når jeg kigger på min tavle (gemt i Microsoft OneNote) fra denne første lektion, kan jeg se følgende overskrifter:

“10 August 2017

Autonomy is the freedom to learn

Logbooks

Free reading

What are you doing?

Why are you doing it?

How are you doing it?

What did you learn?

What will you do now?”

Her er elevernes uredigerede svar på spørgsmål nummer 1:

Pupil 1

I LOOVED it. I came from a school with a teacher who always would give us homework and we would always be sitting dying in the lessons but the independens in this form of teaching has really opened up my look of what english and school should be like.

Pupil 2

I think it worked very well. I liked that we could choose the topics that we liked and write about them, because it is a lot more easier and more fun to make a project about something that interests you, instead of writing about something you really don't like or think is boring, because then the project doesn't get good.

Pupil 3

I really liked that you could work with what interest you. It was good that you could have some fun when you were doing your projects. I liked that I worked with some different people that I normally don’t choose every day in school.

It was with a smile I was ready for Franks lessons because I knew that I would have some fun and learn at the same time.

Pupil 4

I absolutely loved it because, there were few restrictions so I had fun learning and I actually wanted to learn.

Pupil 5

I definitely like it, I think that this way is the best way of learning English. I think it's great working with topics that you self-picked, and that YOU can decide who you want to work with, what you want to work with, and you have a reason WHY you want to work with it.

Pupil 6

I think that it was nice that I could chose my own topics that interested me

Pupil 7

I think the autonomy worked very good for me… That's because I like the freedom to choose myself what I want to learn about instead of getting told to learn about something you don't want. The thing that makes this a 4 instead of a 5 is that every time there was 2, 3 or even 4 groups that had this bad presentation and hadn't used their time well and because of that, I didn't learn anything from their presentations.

Pupil 8

I like having control over myself and what I do. And generally I really don't like when someone or something is telling me what to do, that's really frustrating. So I like the idea but maybe if Frank got in a little more control of the class while we are working at our project. Which I really hope is going to happen next year.

Pupil 9 

I think it's a good idea that you give us freedom and show us that we need to work hard for learn. It's a great way to let us decide how we learn English and what we will work with. It's different compared to the other lesson with the other teachers. But that also one of the reasons why I like is, but some time it can be hard to know what to do.

Pupil 10

I love the idea of giving us some freedom to work on basically whatever we want, because then we actually want to work with what we want, then just being forces to do something that we don't want to do…

Pupil 11

I love it because I would say that I learned not only about English but also about around the world what had happened.

Pupil 12

I think it worked great it gives students freedom so they don't get bored and when that happens they start learning.

Keep up the good work Frank

Pupil 13 

Because there is so much more freedom in the lessons, and it is our responsibility to learn something.

Pupil 14

Because it was intrusting to make project's about something that you do think is intrusting. You are also learning a lot about yourself, how you best can work in groups or just yourself and you are also learning how to make a time schedule over all the thing there have to be done.

Pupil 15

I give this a 5, because it works REALLY good for me, I think this is the best way, I've ever tried to learn English. Because of this freedom you have to learn English, so it's interesting almost all the time. The only bad thing, with this way to work is, that some peoples are not taking it that serious. So there is almost every time someone's project were I was very bored. But yes, for me I think it work's really good, and that's why i gave it 5. 

Thanks for a great year, I really look forward to next year. I've think that this year, was the year I've learn most English, than ever. So many, many, many thanks Frank, you were the best teacher I've ever had.

Pupil 16

Because it was nice to decide, on your own, what you will be working with, though that can be some trouble sometimes when and if you can't come up with anything.

Pupil 17

I really enjoy being able to be more free while working with project like the ones we have worked with, because I feel like it's not as "tight" as if the assignment is more concrete.

I also like i because instead of being given a topic to work with, we can choose more freely. That's nice because we can choose something we think is interesting and actually enjoy writing about.
The only thing not as good, is that sometimes (mostly when beginning a project) it's a little too free. I have (only a few times) found myself being "stuck", meaning that i didn't know what to write about or where to start. Then later i have asked for help and figured it out.

Pupil 18 (new student)

I haven't really worked so much with your way of teaching, but the things I have seen in the 3 week I have been here seems really nice. I do also look forward to getting to know it even more next year.

Autonomy sounds like something that could be a good way to learn stuff because you may feel more like the things you work with is something you like and finds interesting. Personally, I myself like it when there is more kind of structure, but I really wish I had tried to work with autonomy, so I could have a feeling about haw it is for me.

Som du kan se, er de fleste elever meget positive. To udfordringer, som de nævner, er, at det kan være svært at starte et nyt projektforløb og at finde et emne. Det er, fordi eleverne ikke får emnet færdigtygget og leveret af læreren, men i stedet er tvunget til selv at tage ansvar og finde et emne, som både interesserer dem og vil kunne bidrage til deres engelsklæring. Og det andet, som kan være svært, er, at nogle af de andre elevers fremlæggelse kan være mindre interessant. Klassen er ny til autonomi, og jeg bruger tid og energi på at arbejde med formidlingskompetencer (se tidligere blog om samme emne).

Her kan du se de projekter, som er blevet fremlagt i år:

·       Reading Sapiens

·       Ice Hockey USA/Canada

·       Blue lives matter

·       A film about Coca-Cola addiction

·       PowerPoint JC Lee Duggart

·       Walt Disney

·       Making a movie about attractions in England

·       Reading The Fault in our Stars (+ film)

·       Manchester United Prezi

·       Ian Brady, the Moors murderer

·       FBI

·       Korean war 1950's - 2017

·       Writing the first chapters of their first book

·       WWW + Minecraft

·       Liberty and horsemanship

·       Guantanamo

·       Yellowstone Park

·       Religion

·       The Amish

·       Apple

·       Rich and poor USA

·       Arms industry

·       Teenage problems USA

·       The working poor USA

·       Death row/innocent prisoners

·       McDonalds

·       The Unabomber

·       Black lives matter

·       KKK

·       Cyberbullying

·       Conspiracy theories/Illuminata

·       Shooting in Las Vegas

·       Homeless people in USA

·       Women’s rights

·       Jack the Ripper

·       Terror in Manchester

·       Horror Family (https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/18/us/turpin-family-conditions-inside-house/index.html)

·       Maze Runner

·       Writing and publishing fan fiction

·       Zodiac killer

Og til spørgsmålet, om det virker … Det er tydeligt, at eleverne er positive, og det er jeg også. Jeg har en klasse, hvor stort set alle er meget positive over for læringsformen, og det er naturligvis godt for elevernes motivation. Jeg tror, at det er Edward Deci (motivationsforskeren), der siger i sin bog Why we do what we do, Penguin 1995: ”People want to be agents in their own lives”. (Folk vil agere selv i deres liv). Elevautonomi giver eleverne frihed til agere og til at konstruere deres læring i samarbejde med andre – og så er vi ovre i Vygotsky ...

En anden mindre abstrakt måling på, om det virker, kunne være elevernes karakterer ved 9. klasses prøve. Jeg havde to 9. klasser til mundtlig prøve i år. Den ene klasse endte med et gennemsnit på 10,3 og den anden på 11,3. Begge klasser har jeg dog haft siden henholdsvis 3. og 5. klasse. Sidste gang jeg havde en klasse til skriftligt engelsk (ca. tre år siden), lå snittet på 10,0. Så det lader ikke til at være skadeligt for deres slutkarakterer.

Hvis du synes, at det lyder interessant, vil jeg fortælle mere på Sproglærerforeningens Sprogkonference den 4. april 2019, hvor jeg taler om ”Hvordan får vi alle med?”

God sommer 😊