Best-Practice Learning Sequence: ‘Exploring my Hometown’

The development of the following best-practice learning sequence is based on the set-up of the model as well as the compiled competences while focusing on the content topic of ‘Exploring my Hometown’. The term ‘hometown’ refers to the place at which the school is located. This does not necessarily need to be the emotion-bound hometown of the learners or teachers. Since the term ‘home’ refers to an emotionally bound construct, it is variable and its representation may as well be located on a different continent (Werle 1981). However, this topic was chosen because it best promotes the targeted competences and is also embedded in the educational framework

‘Bildungsplan 2004’ as a content topic for grades 3 or 4 in the federal state of Württemberg (Ministerium für Kultus, Jugend und Sport des Landes Baden-Württemberg 2004a). Due to its accordance with the current educational policies, the

practical implementation of this sequence can be partially ensured in the context of Baden-Württemberg.

The official quota schedule for primary schools in Baden-Württemberg was consulted in order to generate the number of school hours needed for a successful implementation of the chosen topic in a plurilingual setting in a primary geography class (Ministerium für Kultus, Jugend und Sport des Landes Baden-Württemberg 2004b). The quota schedule, which is set by the federal ministries’ office, determines the number of lessons allocated to a school subject per week. With regard to geographical topics that are embedded in the social sciences and titled ‘Mensch, Natur und Kultur (MeNuK)’

[Humanity, Nature and Culture], five to six lessons can be held per school week (Ministerium für Kultus, Jugend und Sport des Landes Baden-Württemberg 2004b), each running for 45 minutes. The concrete allocation of these lessons is left to each individual school as long as the total number of school hours in each subject is met each school year. Therefore, the assumed number of lessons for this learning sequence is set at 22 to 25 lessons, each running for 45 minutes. Since the children also take part in several other subjects such as math, German, and sport, a time span of five to six weeks needs to be accounted for.

5.2.1. Lesson Schedule ‘Exploring my Hometown’

The learning sequence ‘Exploring my Hometown’ can largely be split into three major phases: Introduction, Development, and Consolidation. During the introductory phase, the teacher is prompted to pay close attention to the learner’s prior knowledge and to make it visible by letting each learner write or draw his ideas on pieces of paper.

Coming together as a group, these items are thematically structured and cross-linkages are highlighted. Based on this information retrieval, the development phase can be adapted for the learners to be motivated as they do not replicate ideas they are already aware of; the teacher himself is able to provide materials and information the learners are interested in. During this phase which should include at least two lessons, learners should also be strongly encouraged to voice their ideas by using different languages in order to be slowly introduced to the concept of plurilingual content learning. In addition, teachers should not incorporate predetermined images of the hometown since these might suggest a certain degree of importance or correctness to the learners. Furthermore, this phase should not be evaluative of the place but rather focus on various perspectives. As a methodical element, subjective cartography should be introduced to the learners (see chapter 3.1.1). During these lessons, the learners

should be able to draw their subjective maps of their hometown. The use of different languages in the maps should also be encouraged. Explaining the concept of a subjective map to learners aged 8 may pose a challenge to the teacher. The birds-eye perspective that is characteristic of a map is not a set requirement as some learners still experience difficulties with it at this age (Schniotalle 2003). However, this perspective should be encouraged. Drawing the subjective map allows the teacher to gain insights into the learner’s spatial perception, serves as a comparative tool with regard to the consolidation phase of the sequence, and will be filed in the portfolio. As an additional element during these two introductory lessons, the teacher is asked to briefly give an input about the town and its history. This input should be presented in a language that is equally accessible by all learners. In the context of most CLIL teachings in Germany, the shared language is either English or French, since young learners have not experienced these (foreign) languages consecutively. In some incidents, even Russian or Spanish are used as the common language in class. For the input to be comprehensible to the learners, the use of visualizations, authentic materials, repetitive sentence structures, gestures, and mimics is strongly recommended to the teacher. They serve as scaffolds (Zydatiß 2010). In addition, this input serves as a transition to the developmental phase in which the learners experience the orientation process in the context of their hometown. The question that should serve as a guideline for this transition phase is: What do we need to orientate ourselves in a town? Together with the teacher, the learners should discover that a map is needed.

As an extension of the introductory phase, learners will also be introduced to the construction process of maps. Since this is probably the first time learners at that age are institutionally confronted with maps in German schools, the construct of a map needs to be made transparent to them. Therefore, the best way to introduce the map construction process to young learners is through a problem-based approach in which a piece of paper is shown, with the question ‘Do you have any ideas how we are going to get our whole classroom onto this piece of paper?’. This approach should present an authentic problem to the learners which is connect to their current living environment (Rhode-Jüchtern 2013). Subsequently, the learners will voice their ideas, which ideally lead to a model construction process. Should a situation arise in which the learners do not come up with any ideas, the teacher may present different representative boxes to be used during the model construction process. In both situations, the boxes will be used to representatively model the layout of the classroom. Afterwards, the learners are allowed to stand on their chairs for them to view the model from above. Based on this perspective, the learners are now encouraged to draw the classroom model onto a

piece of paper. In order to fully grasp the map construction process, the teacher can provide a piece of acrylic glass large enough to fit the model. Each learner can then draw borders for one item, and in the end, they have constructed a transparent map of their classroom together. As an additional alternative, sand or flour can be used to dust over all boxes. As soon as they are removed carefully, the borders to all the representative items in the classroom will be visible and a map of the classroom has been successfully constructed. This construction method introduces the learners to the main characteristics of a map construction process although it is strongly simplified for this age group. However, the elements of miniaturization as well as simplification are thus experienced by the learners. After another two lessons, they should be prompted to record their individual ideas on the map construction process as a part of the portfolio that is maintained during the whole learning sequence (Claaßen 1997, Claassen & Theermann 1997).

After spending four lessons on a soundly guided and complex introduction phase, the learning process can now enter the active development phase which overall will consist of 14 to 17 lessons. The first four lessons are used for a deeper examination of the construct of a map. The learners will work individually, in pairs or small groups during this time since the methodical set-up is based on a station course. It consists of six different stations which every learner is going to work at. Each station includes diverse and authentic materials in multiple languages. The available languages are based on the linguistic repertoire of the class in order to encourage learners to also work with their first language, to gain insights into contents, and therefore to widen their knowledge structures. In addition, different perspectives on space as well as different types of learning will be included. At some stations, a listening task will be provided in order to authentically incorporate content as well as language knowledge. Furthermore, each station will offer two different levels of tasks in order to take into account the learners’ different abilities. While two maps symbolize a more difficult task set-up, work sheets showing one map offer some additional support items. During this independent learning phase, the teacher is prompted to consistently support the active use of multiple languages in the classroom and to serve only as an adviser to the learners. In terms of contents, which are partially based on the recommendations by Hemmer &

Englhart (2008), the set-up of the stations will be as follows:

Station 1: From picture to map: How does my room fit on a piece of paper?

Station 2: Symbols: Why do I see different colors and symbols on a map?

Station 3: Gradation: How is a mountain represented on a map?

Station 4: Reading a map: magnifying glass, window, or layer?

Station 5: Verbalization: How can I describe a map?

Station 6: Brainteaser: Challenging maps.

For each station, work sheets stating the tasks and further needed information as well as authentic materials are provided. The instructional language on these sheets might vary and be adapted to the learners’ varying language abilities. German is chosen as the instructional language for this independent learning phase because the learners’

receptive skills might be too low for them to understand all tasks in English in their first year of learning English at school. In addition, multilingual items are also offered in order to encourage plurilingualism. With regard to the single station contents, a brief summary is offered in the following, although all original materials can be viewed in chapter 11.1.

Station 1 focuses on a deeper understanding of the map’s construction process which