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Looking to our Future Sustainability in the ELC
Year 4 Incursion with Miles Franklin Winner
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On 29 March, our Year 4 students enjoyed a unique experience with Australian author (2015 Miles Franklin winner) Sofie Laguna. Sophie ran a workshop based on The Grace Stories – she even brought in her original manuscript!
Sophie is the author of a number of children’s and adult books including Eye of the Sheep and The Choke.
ANTHONY JOHNSTON, MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING TEACHER
Systems Engineering student Miles Nathan was featured at the Melbourne Museum’s Top Designs exhibition as part of the Season of Excellence (till 11 July). The exhibition showcases the best design projects from across the State, and Miles’ project was one of only nine Systems Engineering projects selected for the honour.
Principal Jon Charlton and teacher Anthony Johnston attended the opening night with Miles and his family and couldn’t be more proud of his achievement.
The Star Wars BB-8 droid was Miles’ inspiration for his Unit 3-4 SAT major project. Despite remote learning and the COVID-adjusted study design (which only required students to complete ‘an aspect’ of their project), Miles forged ahead to complete a fully functioning robot.
B.R.U.C.E. (ball rolling under centrifugal energy) features a fully 3-D printed spherical shell and head-piece held at the top by magnets, while internally a drive motor rotates the sphere propelling forward.
Steering is achieved through an integrated counterweight which is controlled by servo motors to lean the sphere to either side. The counterweight is also utilised in conjunction with a gyroscopic sensor to achieve active stabilisation such that a displacement away from vertical is rapidly corrected.
Extensive coding on the Arduino platform was required and includes Bluetooth connectivity to allow remote control from a phone. Quite impressive work from Miles, particularly considering 2020’s difficult circumstances.
>Learning More than a Few Words in Another Language
If learning a language was solely about learning vocabulary, verbs and grammar, students would rely purely on online translators. One might wonder what really happens in a Languages class that cannot be taught by a computer.
Learning another language involves far more than understanding and saying words accurately. It provides a context in which culture can be taught and experienced, and where soft skills of tolerance and respect for other cultures can be acquired. It teaches students that there is value in having different cultural perspectives. It is on this journey that students can develop a deep sense of who they are as English speakers, by focusing on how the English language is formed and how it differs from the target language they study.
Developing an intercultural understanding and capability is something technology is yet to be able to teach this current generation. Undoubtedly, new technologies must be integrated in teaching Languages, but many other factors must also be considered when delivering an engaging and meaningful Languages program.
At Kilvington, the quality of our Languages classes relies on the continuous effort of dedicated and creative Languages staff, who set high standards and value the following elements as key in keeping students engaged and motivated to pursue their Languages studies to VCE level and beyond.
Setting the Scene, The Learning Space
Across Junior and Senior School, three designated classrooms host most of the Languages classes, where students are surrounded by cultural displays and posters. Learning languages in an environment which is culturally stimulating contributes to the immersive experience students can have. It can also assist students to switch from a monolingual to a bilingual mindset as soon as they enter the learning space.
Transferable Soft Skills
A Languages classroom is often a noisy, busy and vibrant space, where students can develop their communicative skills through oral Languages games, roleplays, presentations, songs, videos and discussions. The range of activities enable students to practise speaking, listening, reading, writing with different purposes and for different audiences. In doing so, students are often collaborating in pairs, small groups or as a whole class.
In the Junior School, French is taught from Foundation Year (Prep) using the Accelerated Integrated Methodology, where authentic learning is achieved through scaffolding techniques such as story-telling, gestures, active collaboration and repetition.
At all levels in the School, Languages students learn therefore to develop strong communicative and collaborative skills, which they can transfer to other areas in the curriculum.
The Focus on Literacy
Students who struggle with literacy in their first language might find that Languages classes give them the support they need to acquire and consolidate grammatical concepts previously learnt in their first language.
For the visual learners, character-based languages can be found to be a choice, in particular when struggling with spelling. It is often in Language classes that discussions can happen about how our first language, may it be English or another, compares and is formed. Having a better understanding of one’s own language is key to enhancing one’s expression. Senior students often reflect on how their English results improved due to learning another language.
Culture as Central to each Lesson
Language and culture are interconnected elements in any given Languages class. The topic of each area of study is chosen so that students learn about the culture of the target language and the set of language is chosen to suit the cultural topic explored. Even part of a lesson on vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, or a new grammatical structure often leads to a discussion about culture. The way in which a language is formed informs us on how the speakers of that language think and view the world.
Authentic Meaningful Experiences Within and Outside the Classroom
Using the target language in a real-life context can be seen as the ultimate experience for a Languages learner. At Kilvington, Languages teachers interact with students in the target language as much as possible in the classroom and around the School.
Incursions are organised so that students can interact with other native speakers in different settings beyond the traditional classroom environment. For instance, Junior School students celebrate French Bastille Day, Years 7 and 8 students experience cultural days; Japanese students learn calligraphy with a native speaker; and food is often introduced throughout the year.
Kilvington VCE students benefit from weekly individual conversation classes with native assistants, who support them with their listening and speaking skills. However, experiencing the language and culture beyond the four walls of the classroom is as relevant to maintaining students’ interest and motivation to pursue their Languages studies.
Students often go on excursions to see movies, eat at French or Japanese restaurants, and go to see French or Japanese Art exhibitions. The Languages co-curricular activities offered at lunchtime are other ways in which students can also explore the language and culture. As students form deep emotional connections with their Languages studies through these enriching experiences, they tend to remain motivated and engaged.
The Global Connections Program
Among the six schools Kilvington is partnered with, three are from Japan and one is from France. For Kilvington students, the opportunity to connect with young French or Japanese students as part of their Languages studies brings another authentic and meaningful dimension to their studies and several friendships have already been formed.
Languages staff continue to design specific and relevant tasks to include as part of their curriculum, which require students to share videos and audio presentations with students in France and Japan. Kilvington students can also see their work published in our partner schools’ newsletters which, again, validates the meaningful use of their Languages skills and gives students a sense of connection to the rest of the world. Due to COVID-19, school tours and individual exchanges have not been possible lately, but we look forward to these resuming soon as students have often returned from these experiences as mature and confident young adults who have a global perspective on issues.
The dedication and passion that Kilvington Languages staff put into ensuring these elements are included and central to their French or Japanese lessons contribute to the quality of the overall Languages program. With a 71% retention rate in Year 9 and 36% in VCE, Kilvington students value the importance of speaking another language in the interconnected world they are growing up in, where more than half of the population is bilingual and intercultural understanding is essential in the process of creating peaceful relationships.
At Kilvington, we encourage and invite students to study a language as a part of their Kilvington experience to celebrate our differences and to grow as confident individuals, who respect and are aware of others and their cultures.
