Lesson 6

Lesson 6: 26th June 2019, 12.30-1.15 (Y5 x 12)

Lesson Objectives: Recap previously-encountered letters and words, consolidate vocabulary knowledge.

Welcome, settle: Pupils sat in the same groups as the previous weeks.

1. LESSON STARTER TASK: What Can You Remember? quiz [10]

DETAILS:

1. Write a delta.
2. Answer with an English word written in Greek letters: where do scientists do their work?
3. Answer with an English word written in Greek letters: what is essential for a game of soccer?
4. Answer with an English word written in Greek letters: what is the opposite of good?
5. Answer with a Greek word written in Greek letters: what’s the name of the building where people live?
6. If an elephant said ‘mikros eimi’ would this be true?
7. pou esti Basil? [on the radiator!]

OUTCOME: A mostly accurate recall of delta, and many students could write ὀικος. There was a slight slipping back into thinking that ‘pou’ meant ‘what’ and not ‘where’.

REFLECTION: The orange team won (again!) so I asked them to be magnanimous and let the green team (who came second by only half a point, and who had never won Basil before). We talked about what magnanimous might mean and students were able to decode using their knowledge of Latin (they also study Maximum Classics)!

2. ACTIVITY: Read p.15 plus grammar note [5]

DETAILS: Pupils volunteered to read for Hektor, Sophia and Basil to read the narrative on p.15. We read through the purple gloss box together. Working partners helped readers who struggled a little with some of the previously-encountered but unglossed words.

OUTCOME: Everyone seems keen to give the reading a go. I actually skipped over the grammar note.

REFLECTION: The unglossed words can give some students cause to slow down, but hopefully the word wall will help with this once it’s up.

3. ACTIVITY: Town mouse read-through, plus cultural note [15]

DETAILS: I was originally going to get the pupils to read the story and the cultural note out loud, but instead I read it to them while they were working on their wordwall sheets (below).

OUTCOME: Many of the pupils said that they knew this story, so we had a further classroom conversation about fables and stories with a moral.

REFLECTION: They we very attentive listeners – combining a visual task with reading the story seemed to work well.

4. ACTIVITY: Language detective p.17 in pairs (on whiteboards) and go through [15]

DETAILS: This exercise extends the analytical skills introduced in the Time Travel words feature. I gave the students ten minutes to work with their learning partner, whilst I walked the room and gave (minimal) help where it was needed. The students all grasped that they had to use English-Greek links to get the answers. Pupils who finished quickly were given the task of coming up with more English derivatives, and there were some very interesting conversations around ‘bios’ derivatives. I showed one group how ‘auto-bio-graphy’ can be split into its component parts for decoding

OUTCOME: Some students needed guidance through the thought process, but they all understood and gave the correct answers.

REFLECTION: It will be useful to see the students’ word detective skills extend and grow over the next few weeks. They already have some grounding in it through their Latin learning, as they demonstrated today (above).

5. ACTIVITY: Word Wall sheets – start to colour in and illustrate [15]

DETAILS: Using the first sheet as a model, I showed the pupils how to both transliterate and to translate the word on the sheet. I held each sheet up one by one and the student who could say what it meant got that sheet. They then illustrated them and made them colourful.

wordwall sheets

OUTCOME: The students need a bit more time to finish off their sheets – we can do this next lesson.

REFLECTION: I think it’s going to be important to keep a visual rolling list of vocabulary as we go deeper into the book. There’s always the back of the textbook, but it’ll be good to have a reference point in the classroom.

6. PLENARY: Exit tickets

I forgot to bring them and the pupils were disappointed! They love to recap and respond.