Year 12 French: Polo le aventurier rêveur
Scaffolding Writing
Polo: le aventurier rêveur
Polo is a character from a French magazine series called Les belle histoires published by Bayard. More information is available on the website: https://www.chezpolo.com
Polo’s adventures are depicted in a series of wordless cartoon pictures.
Background
Cedric adapted the Scaffolding Writing Model for his Year 12 VCE French class. The class comprised 21 students including 8 background speakers. The non-French speaking background students began their French studies in Year 7. According to Cedric, they are a competent cohort with a strong work ethic.
Prior to experimenting with the more literacy-focused materials described in the model, Cedric’s approach to teaching writing involved:
- unpacking a sample text;
- explicitly teaching the structure or layout of the text-type/s;
- providing a list of useful phrases.
Cedric characterised his approach as largely undifferentiated and teacher-centred. �His goals are to prepare his students to perform well and with confidence in the written component of the VCE French exam.
Given the demands of Year 12 French, Cedric allocated 2 x 48 minute lessons to this learning sequence and omitted elements of the model. He also felt that some steps such as the building the field stage were not necessary given the language level of the students and the relatively simple nature of the writing prompt materials.
Lesson 1
Students were then given 5 different writing prompts which corresponded to the VCE exam requirements for writing (personal, imaginative, persuasive, informative and evaluative). See next slide.
The class discussed and agreed on the correct order.
Students worked in mixed-ability groups of 4 with sets of pictures. Their task was to sequence the pictures and justify their sequence. Students used mainly French but some English as well.
Writing prompts
Lesson 1
Each group negotiated the content and language required to undertake the task. They pooled their knowledge of French (vocabulary and grammar) as well as their ideas for content, Students accessed dictionaries only if no-one could supply a vocabulary item.
The students selected one prompt and collaboratively planned a text. They used a generic familiar planning approach which comprised:
1. Introduction (context, answering who, what, when, where, why questions
2. Body with appropriate paragraphing
3. Conclusion
Lesson 2
Students reflected on the novel approach to writing. Their key observations are summarized below:
1. It was a fun and light-hearted activity for Year 12
2. They enjoyed working collaboratively, all students contributed including students who weren’t as strong in French.
3. The students adopted roles to facilitate the process (e.g. someone looked up vocabulary, someone scribed, someone referred to the plan, others contributed new ideas and refinements).
Students worked in the same groups as Lesson 1 and co-created a piece of written text. They edited their work as they went since only one student scribed. Others offered vocabulary, grammar and spelling advice.
Examples of student work in shown on the next slides.
Reflections: Cedric (Languages teacher)
Cedric was particularly pleased to see that all groups structured and sequenced their written pieces well. He felt that the separate images and preparatory work facilitated this. Providing students with the basic content empowered the lower achieving students and relieved them of one element of the writing challenge (coming up with ideas).
Cedric judged that the quality of writing the students produced was higher because the students ‘sifted through’ the ideas that were offered, material was subject to collective critical scrutiny and having a joint task kept the text ‘on track’ (coherent).
Students cooperated and helped each other, acting as ‘knowledgeable others’ by modelling creativity or more sophisticated language features.
Overall, Cedric regarded the approach as a success, and he plans to use the approach beginning in Year 7 or 8.
Reflections: Andrea (Learning designer)
Andrea hadn’t realised the benefits of having students of different abilities working together applied to all students, they each got to showcase their personal strengths.
She felt there was a missed opportunities to: