By October half-term, we’d already come a long way from the beginning of September when almost everyone in this Year 7, mixed-ability class was starting Spanish from scratch. My goal in that first half-term was to get the whole class on board with being taught in the target language and being willing and able to communicate with me and with each other and having the motivation to do so. Content language was kept very low to allow the time to set up routines properly, but of course you need at least some, because you need to have something to talk about and to do! This continued into the second half of the autumn term, with the first real ‘topic’ as such only starting after Christmas.
If you’ve been following this series, you might be wondering where we went next with all that we had set up. In this post, I’d like to set out what happened over the rest of this academic year up to May half-term. It’s impossible to go into all the detail here (although I will write up soon some of the routines that aren’t already on the blog), but hopefully this will give you an overview of how routines which are started in one half-term can be picked up and developed further over time. Some routines drop out of use later in the year and may or may not make a come-back, depending on whether I think the class is close to having had enough or whether I’ve done all I want to do with it. As always, the objective is not ‘to do the routine’ – it’s a tool for getting pupils to use language for real purposes to cope with the here and now of the classroom, and to lay foundations on which I can build later. Many people who start and then give up on target language teaching do so in part because they get stuck at ‘Can I take my jacket off?’ or ‘Can I sit down please? Or ‘Can I have a pen?’. All very useful stuff, but it can easily feel like a bit of a waste of time when the novelty wears off after a couple of weeks if that is all they really do to communicate in the language with the teacher.
You’ll notice that there is quite a grammatical spread. This is deliberate: Although I put a lot of emphasis on using the structures accurately (without that, it all breaks down later in the year), the focus is not on the form so much as on the communicative goal we are using them for. That is to say, we don’t unpick every detail of every grammatical item for quite a long time – they need to use it all first in a very clear situational contrext and get to know it deeply. Then, when we do get to unpicking and formulating rules, the rules will only put into words what they already know how to use. Or, in other words, their procedural knowledge always need to remain ahead of their declarative knowledge.
So, here is an outline summary of where we have been since the start of the course up to May half-term. It doesn’t always work out exactly like this every year. So much depends on who I’ve got in front of me. You’ll notice that the half-term between Easter and the end of May does not have that much new in it routine-wise. At this stage of the year, in addition to the new content material, it’s the time to pull everything together in the run-up to exams which begin for the whole school just after May half-term.
| Topic/Content language | Routines set up | Routines developed | Grammar | |
| Autumn 1 | Alphabet Numbers 1-31 Months Days Colours Greetings School bag items & describing them ¿Qué te gusta hacer los fines de semana? Me gusta / no me gusta + weekend/free time activities ¿Qué tenemos que hacer en el colegio? Tenemos que + infinitives relating to lesson activities | Me toca a mí / Te toca a ti / Le toca a él / ella | Distinguishing between infinitive groups Negatives Subject pronouns Distinguishing between 2nd person singular/plural imperatives (siéntate / sentaos, etc) | |
| Register Routine (presente / hoy no está / ahora viene; ¿cuánto tiempo vamos a tardar en pasar lista?) | ||||
| Lateness routine: (¿Por qué llegas tarde? + 3 reasons) | ||||
| Calendar routine: hoy / ayer / mañana ¿Puedo … + infinitive? (sentarme / quitarme la chaqueta, etc) | ||||
| Instructions: Tienes que … + infinitive (lesson activity language) | ||||
| Forfeit routine : ¡No hables en inglés! | ||||
| Team competition: ¿Nos da un punto, por favor? / ¿Cuántos puntos tenéis? / Tenemos … puntos / No tenemos ninguno / ¡Ganamos nosotros! / ¡Perdemos nosotros! / ¡Perdéis vosotros! / ¡Empatamos! | ||||
| Autumn 2 | Numbers 10-400 School subjects & opinions (expanding on me gusta/no me gusta) Descriptions of subjects Weather ¿Qué vas a hacer durante las vacaciones? (No) Voy/vamos a + infinitive ¿Qué sueles hacer el día de Navidad? / (No) suelo +infinitive Christmas in Spain | Lesson menú: ¿Qué vamos a hacer hoy? Primero / luego / por último, vamos a + infinitive (lesson activity language) | Me toca a mí / Te toca a ti + infinitive (lesson activity language) | Definition of a verb Definition of an infinitive Consolidation of Me / Te gusta + infinitive Voy / vas / vamos a + infinitive Suelo / Sueles +infinitive Tengo / Tenemos que + infinitive Puedo / Podemos + infinitive Acabo / Acabas de + infinitive |
| Lateness routine (La clase empezó a las [+time], entonces, ¿por qué llegas tarde? + wider range of reasons, estaba …-ando/-iendo / preterite, as appropriate) | ||||
| Calendar routine: anteayer / pasado mañana | ||||
| ¿Puedo…? / ¿Podemos …? (sentarnos / quitarnos la chaqueta, etc.) | ||||
| Instructions: ¿Tenemos que + infinitive (lesson / homework activity language) | ||||
| Forfeit routine : ¡Acabas de hablar en inglés! No hables en inglés! + forfeits (conjugate ir) | ||||
| Team Competition: ¿Nos da un punto, por favor? / ¿Por qué? / Porque he dicho … / X ha dicho … / he acertado / X ha acertado | ||||
| Spring 1 | Daily routine (present tense) Telling the time | Register routine: Hoy no está, está en … / está …-ando/-iendo | Regular present tense -ar, -er, ir verbs (yo & nosotros, only) | |
| Lateness routine: wider range of reasons, song | ||||
| Lesson Menu: Para empezar / A continuación / Para terminar, vamos a + infinitive (lesson activity language) / Ya hemos + past participle / -ido, -ado, ¡es pasado! | ||||
| Forfeit routine: ¡Acabas de hablarme / hablarnos / hablarle en inglés! ¡No me / nos / le hables en inglés! + forfeits (conjugate ir / ser / tener) | ||||
| Spring 2 | Describing people (physical & character) Family relationships | Bienvenidos a la primera / segunda / … décima clase | Lesson menu: En primer lugar / en segundo lugar / en tercer lugar, vamos a + infinitive (lesson activity language) | Ser / Tener (present tense) Adjectives (position and endings) Possessive adjectives (mi / mis / tu / tus / su / sus, only) |
| Instructions: En primer lugar / en segundo lugar / en tercer lugar tienes que … + infinitive | ||||
| Forfeit routine: conjugate ir / estar / haber / ser / tener | ||||
| Team Competition: ¿Me da un punto, por favor? / ¿Cuántos puntos tienes? / Tengo … puntos / No tengo ninguno | ||||
| Summer 1 | Fashion | Masculine / feminine nouns Consolidation of adjectives (position & endings) |
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James Stubbs 