120 minute language lessons
Lincoln High School
Co-ed Year 9 to 13 secondary school in Canterbury
Around 1700 students
Decile 10
Students select a language from a rich variety of options.
Class sizes – junior classes vary from 20 to 35 students.
Susan Johnson – Teacher of French (Year 10, 11)
Fiona Bamford – Teacher of French (Year 9, 12, 13)
Where did we come from?
In 2015
Year 9 and 10 students:
• Language not compulsory
• 3 x 50 min lessons per week
• Full year
Year 11-13 students:
• 1 x 100 minute lesson, 2 x 50 minute lessons (prior to 2014 - 5 x 50
minute lessons)
Term 3 2015
Time given to one or two in each learning area to plan for 120 minute
lessons for juniors.
These were trialled in Term 4, after the seniors left.
Some types of activities
We came up with lots of activities that work well and then classified them
into categories. Some of the activities include:
Cultural (geography, important dates, food, music, films)
BYOD (language websites eg. Education Perfect, Linguascope, clickview,
YouTube)
Co-operative activities (Hot potato, telephone, crossover)
Language games
Stations activities
Other activities (singing, poems, role plays)
Using SOLO in more depth
Opportunities:
120 minutes lends itself to lots of other activities which are not possible with a much shorter
timeframe. Some examples:
• Making food if we can access the facilities
• Whole classroom scene - role play at shop, restaurant etc
• Team games that you don't want to spend too much time on usually
• Time with language assistant
• Cultural discussions - lead on to researching etc
• Education Perfect competitions
• Trips out of school or guest coming in
• Puppet show
• Going and teaching some language to primary school students or inviting them to come to us
• Creative activities - eg. Making houses
How did the three week trial go?
It went reasonably well because:
• Students had been learning the language for three and a half terms
(Year 9) or almost 2 years (Year 10) so they had a foundation of
language and relationships were already established.
• It was the end of the year so we could afford to do different things
• It was after junior exams
• It was a trial period so it felt as if it was finite
2016
All Year 9 and 10 options have 1 x 120 minute lesson and 1 x 60 minute
lesson.
Interestingly the decision was made that all junior compulsory subjects
would have single 60 minute lessons, without any 120 minute lessons!
Our successful lessons:
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Year 10 cooking – Madeleines
Movie
Using Education Perfect
Research Project – Paris
Year 9 famous nationalities
Ideal family
Storyboardthat.com
Fashion show
Lessons which focus on one theme where students have the opportunity to
work independently
Our findings so far:
If we were teaching 3 x 1 hour periods, we would teach three different
lessons, with new vocabulary in each one and the chance to practise it
through activities.
With a two hour lesson, you cannot teach 2 x 1 hour lessons. Students
cannot retain the vocabulary. Generally we end up teaching one lot of
vocabulary and then spending a lot of time using it. The worry about this is
that we are only really having two opportunities during the week to teach
new vocabulary. Also, we feel that we are finding things to fill in the two
hours, rather than focusing on what is best for the learning.
When surveyed students reported being more engaged at the start and the
end of the 120 minute period. It could be a reflection of the activities at each
stage of the lesson. Engagement is definitely not sustained throughout the
two hours.
Our thoughts continued
• If we could teach collaboratively – 2 classes, 2 teachers we believe we
could explore more options and have more success.
• Some lessons are very successful, we are still working out the winning
formula!
Reflections/Thoughts/Questions
The most important thing is students’ learning.
Is 120 minutes more effective than 2 x 60 minute lessons? Do we have
evidence to support this?
How will this affect retention?
What effect will this have on NCEA?
Year 9 French feedback
What is good about the 120 minute lessons?
“We get more out of our learning and get more done.”
“I like double periods because it gives you more time to learn more stuff and you
only come twice a week”
“You get lots of work done”
“You get to learn more things and have more time to revise them”
“You get more time to settle into the learning environment.”
“I personally hate the double periods”
“Learning more and more time to finish tasks”
“We can keep doing things and finish them instead of have to finish it next time we
have French.”
“Getting it over and done with.”
What is not so good about the 120 minute
lessons?
“They are too long and it gets a bit boring after a while.”
“That we don't get any breaks and it can become hard to concentrate”
“We need at least a 5 minutes break in between.”
“Sometimes it just feels really long.”
“The fact that it is a very long amount of time to learn a language”
“You can get tired.”
Year 10 French feedback
Positive
Negative
Interesting
Too long to concentrate whole Being able to walk around and talk in French makes
time
them better
I hate them, I dread them
I feel like it goes for ages, and we need to mix it up
and do different activities, FTG, repetition and
other activities.
Too boring
It drags
Long and hard to concentrate
like all double periods not just
French
One hour is okay but two hours is too long
Feedback from senior students
What do you enjoy about the two hour
lessons?
What do you not enjoy?
If you had been in Year 9 how would
you have felt about having a two
hour French lesson?
You can get a lot of work done. A good
amount of time for the teacher to really
help you with whatever you need.
After about 1 hour 20 it gets quite
boring with all classes - you just lose
the ability to work
I would have disliked it because it
would be way too long. I feel year
11's have more patience towards the
long periods.
In practical subjects you can finish work.
You have to bring less books
Sometimes we do not have heaps to
do and it is just a waste of time. Being
in there for two hours it gets tiring and
no one does anything.
I think it would be harder because in
year 9 you do not have as much to
do as in year 11. They would still be
boring for two hours but it would
still be good to get heaps done.
More time to complete tasks, useful for
assessments
Hard to concentrate for 2 hours
Hard to concentrate, because just
coming out of primary school, I
would not be used to concentrating
for that long.
You can get heaps done
Get stir crazy from not walking
between classes.
I would not have known any
different, as Intermediate/Primary is
very different. I would have thought
it was normal for a High School to
have 2 hour periods.
I quite like how we do not have to pack
up all our stuff and move to a different
class. I really like how the doubles make
my bag lighter because I have less
subjects per day.
Most people cannot focus for that Because the Year 9's do not know
long and for assessments if you are any other way of learning it then it
away one day then you miss half
would be less of a change.
the weeks' worth of learning. It is
impossible to do Maths for 2 hours
straight.
You can start something and finish it on
same day, instead of having to wait. E.G.
when we were working on our interacts
on Monday and could go from having
written it to having memorised and
recorded it in two hours.
It is hard to stay focussed for the
whole 2 hours and after the one
hour mark it becomes tedious and
boring.
We do not have to switch over our way
of thinking - or in French our whole
language - too quickly, which is nice
Sometimes people can get
I would have taken them as
distracted near the end but a 5 - 10 normal and liked them.
minute break helps this a lot.
The amount of time that we have
in one period is a nice amount, but
two just gets tiring and therefore
boring.
Sometimes things can get a bit
boring if it is all theory. There
needs to be a balance between
practical and non-practical to keep
us interested.
It could have been overwhelming,
especially coming in to learn a
new language or subject - it is
quite a lot to take in
I probably would not have known
any differently. Most likely I
would have been apprehensive
and a bit irritated at first, but then
- like now- I would have adjusted
and seen the benefits
A comment from a Year 12 student
“I find it allows me as a student to increase my overall work output. In
addition, I find it useful for using the time to continue to construct
writing pieces or to practise conversing with a partner. However, there
is a need for a five minute brain break in between. This is due to the
fact that students need to recharge and retain their attention for
further learning in the second half”. Wynton Hammond, Year 12.