Transcript CLIL in our school

CLIL in our school
An example of implementing the
CLIL teaching in a primary school
in Tampere, Finland
Aino Houttu and Miika Lehtovaara
Location/ school profile
• Tammela School is a large school near the
center of Tampere.
• Over 600 students and 45 teachers.
• In addition to normal Finnish classes we
have classes that specialize in teaching
art, special education and teaching
content through English and German.
• special emphasis on teaching computer
skills to all the different classes.
The history of CLIL in our school
• The first English class at Tammela School
started their first grade in 1997.
• At the moment have grades 1 to 6 in the
English classes every year. Grades 7-9
are taught at Sampola School.
• All children learn Finnish well enough to
continue their studies at normal Finnish
high schools, if they choose so.
Staff
• Our staff consists of 6 teachers.
• All teachers have either lived abroad or studied
English at University or both.
• All our 6 teachers are teaching content through
English.
• We meet once or twice a month to discuss either
the everyday school work or bigger issues, like
the curriculum.
• In our English team we have one team leader
who is responsible for reporting our actions to
the principal.
Students’ background
• Most students in the English classes have
lived abroad, are bilingual or have
attended English language playschools
before coming to Tammela School.
• Each student’s English skills are assessed
before they are accepted to the program.
The reason for this is that every child will
be able to learn and study in English
without great difficulty.
Goals and the curriculum
• The English classes’ follow the general guidelines of the
curriculum set down for the Finnish classes at Tammela
School. In addition, the English classes have their own
curriculum for English.
• Emphasis is placed on developing a good knowledge of
English by learning the language naturally through daily
routines, topic work and communicating with other
students and teachers in English.
• The goal is to help children develop a natural and
uncomplicated attitude towards the English language
and culture.
• All subjects except Finnish language are taught in
English.
• Teaching through English places extra
demands on a student, because each
child must be able to listen, understand
and carry out instructions in English.
• Children should be able to actively
participate in all kinds of situations in the
classroom in English.
• Therefore, the English classes are ideal
for children who are motivated to learn
through a foreign language and who are
given positive support at home.
• Children learn to read and write in both Finnish
and English.
• Most of the content is taught in English in the
first years of school.
• The amount of Finnish used in the classroom
increases in the upper grades.
• Teachers use mostly English when
communicating with the children.
• Students are encouraged to use English as
much as possible in all situations at school.
• However, students are given the opportunity to
express their thoughts and feelings in Finnish if
necessary.
School schedule
• Children have 22-28 lessons in a week. Each
day is different.
• In the curriculum there is a fixed number of
hours for each subject in each grade.
• The number of lessons increase as the children
grow older.
• Each lesson is 45 minutes and children have 15
minute brakes after each lesson.
• 4 to 7 hours are taught in Finnish every week.
ICT use for CLIL
• Technology is used in many different ways to make
teaching and learning more effective, interesting and
interactive. In our school we have data projectors and a
computer with internet connection in every classroom.
This helps us a lot to really use ICT as a part of our
teaching.
• Some examples of how we use ICT in our work:
– children can return their exercises/essays/texts through email
and send their own stories and poems to the teacher
– information hunt; searching information in the internet while
working on a project or a group/individual work
– writing reports
– international contacts and projects over the internet