What Does it Look Like in the Classroom

Hamstead Hall Academy has collaborated with the Open University to produce a film which describes and illustrates our application of a language based pedagogy.

The film appears on The Open University’s website and forms part of an OpenLearn course called ‘Grammar Matters’ Section 7.1.

To view the course, follow this link and submit your email address through the ‘enrol’ button.

The film shows the register continuum in action, in both a P.E. and a science lesson. It shows the students learning a metalanguage – that is language to talk about language – to help to scaffold their understanding of how language works. This is typical of the Hamstead Hall initiative.

In both classrooms you will also see examples of how students are being supported to use nominalisation to make their writing more scientific. The focus is partly on the lexical element – vocabulary – but also on the grammatical element of nominalisation and the way in which lexical choices and grammar patterns work alongside each other in technical and scientific writing. Aside from the classroom sequences, the video features the teachers talking about their experience of making language more central to their teaching and why and how the school developed a language and learning policy.

The teachers you will hear from include Mark Rayner and LeeJames, two PE teachers who you will see co-teaching a lesson, and Alistair Clarke, a science teacher who you will also briefly observe. In addition, you will hear from Eileen Mawdsley, the assistant head, and Helen Handford, a literacy and language consultant to the school.

To learn more contact Eileen Mawdsley:  mawdsleye@hamsteadhall.com