An Roinn Oideachais agus Eolaíochta

Department of Education and Science

 

Subject Inspection of Gaeilge

REPORT

 

Lough Allen College

Drumkeerin, Co. Leitrim

Roll Number: 71560P

 

Date of inspection: 31 January 2007

Date of issue of report:  6 December 2007

 

 

 

This subject inspection report

Subject provision and whole school support

Planning and Preparation

Teaching and Learning

Assessment

Summary of main findings and recommendations

 

 

Report on the Quality of Learning and Teaching in Irish

 

This subject inspection report

 

This report has been written following a subject inspection in Lough Allen College. It presents the findings of an evaluation of the quality of teaching and learning in Irish and makes recommendations for the further development of the teaching of this subject in the school. The evaluation was conducted over one day during which the inspector visited classrooms and observed teaching and learning. The inspector interacted with students and teachers, examined students’ work, and had discussions with the teachers. The inspector reviewed school planning documentation and teachers’ written preparation. Following the evaluation visit, the inspector provided oral feedback on the outcomes of the evaluation to the subject teachers and principal.

The board of management was given an opportunity to comment in writing on the findings and recommendations of the report; a response was not received from the board.

 

Subject provision and whole school support

 

The school management make good provision for subject meetings in Irish. A subject meeting during school hours is held once per term and it was understood that other meetings are arranged, depending upon the needs of the time, in the teachers’ own time. Coordination of the Irish department’s work is divided equally among the teachers in rotation – each person responsible, one year in rotation. As a result all teachers have experience, knowledge and a general overview on the subject coordination duties in addition to their own experience with their own classes. These arrangements are regarded as satisfactory.

 

Comprehensive documents were provided dealing with Irish department duties which illustrated the teachers’ commitment to planning issues in the subject. Those documents, which were both orderly and systematic, gave a general perspective and details of the type and nature of the planning work. It was clear from the subject documents read, from the discussion with individual teachers and from the discussion which followed in the follow-up feedback meeting with the teachers and the principal, that the Irish teachers had the support of the principal to promote Irish as a subject in the school and to raise standards of achievement in the subject.

 

This support boosted the teachers’ self-confidence and there was a positive atmosphere in the teachers’ attitude to the subject itself – a self-confidence which was prominent in the lessons observed and in the manner in which the teachers spoke about their work. The prominence of this positive attitude towards the subject is a good indication of the subject’s standing in the school, the teachers’ own work and the work of management.

 

There are three Irish teachers in the school and there is a good balance among them regarding the amount of Irish on the teaching programme of each. The Irish department has an advantage in that one of the Irish teachers is also a modern languages teacher – this enhances the department’s range of experience in language teaching and acquisition. The members of the department have significant experience as assistant examiners at the Leaving Certificate oral examinations and at the written certificate examinations. One of the teachers managed to attend the Second Level Support Service pilot scheme relating to the revision of teaching methods in the subject.  The beneficial effect of those teaching methods and the willingness to attempt to spread those teaching methods was to be observed in certain classes. This willingness to try new methods of teaching and learning is commendable. It would be worth grasping the opportunity to share these teaching methods with other department members by visiting each other’s classes on an agreed basis.

 

Good arrangements are in place relating to students’ access to an appropriate level in the subject commensurate with their abilities and wishes.  Irish classes are placed in parallel on the timetable in second, third, fifth and sixth years. Classes in first year and Transition year are mixed-ability classes and, therefore, are not run in parallel.

 

Time allocation for the subject on the school timetable shows four lesson periods per week in the case of each of the junior cycle classes in first year, second year and third year. Two periods per week are provided in transition year and five periods per week are provided in both fifth and sixth year. The amount of time allocated to the subject in the school timetable is fairly low in the junior cycle and Transition year.

 

In any review the school makes of the time allocation on the timetable for all subjects, consistent with all requirements of the timetable, it would be worth assessing the possibilities of providing an extra period for Irish in the junior cycle – in the case of one of those years as a first step. It is recommended that a similar review be performed in the case of the Transition year – where the number of periods for Irish is low. As against that the other arrangements in the timetable are commended in which single classes are held on certain days and each period is a common forty minute period. 

 

The Irish teachers do not have their own classrooms but there is an attempt to set one classroom aside as much as possible for the teaching of the language. This room was well decorated with attractive material in Irish and the opportunity presented to keep resource materials safely in the same room. Limited use is being made of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the teaching of the subject due to the limited availability of the computer room. A laptop computer and data projector are used when available.

 

It was understood that the Irish teachers had a high standard of skills in ICT and therefore it would be worth placing ICT items on the programmes of the various years in the subject and reserving the necessary resources in advance instead of waiting to use them during the year.

 

Good efforts are being made to advance the standing of Irish as a subject in the school and it is understood that the whole school supports the promotion of Irish during Seachtain na Gaeilge – when leisure activities and pastimes such as drama and quizzes are organised. County Leitrim Vocational Educational Committee awards three Gaeltacht scholarships to the school and efforts are made to award these to the students who would most benefit from them.

 

Planning and Preparation

 

Planning documents were presented which showed that satisfactory work was being done in the Irish department relating to the planning of the subject teaching. School management indicated that this process is in place in the school since the 1998-99 school year for all subjects. The review of the subject plan for Irish is an integral part of the planning work and this was evident in the plan itself provided and in the discussion with the teachers and the principal on how involved the school itself is with coordinated planning in the various subjects. Minutes of the proceedings of the subject meetings in Irish are provided to the principal and copies are registered in the plan itself. The quality of this planning work is to be commended.

 

The Irish department and management set out a strategy to increase the status of the subject in the school, and among parents, in order to encourage more students to study the subject at a higher level gradually. This plan is ambitious and commendable. One of the Irish department’s conspicuous advantages is the professional attitude of the teachers themselves. This was to be observed in the short-term planning which the teachers did for their own classes. In addition, all the teachers displayed ability, self-confidence and presence, as well as spoken language ability – which presented positive examples to the students.

 

The short-term and long-term planning was in accordance with the Irish syllabi and guidelines and copies of those publications were attached to the planning documents. A plan was provided for the teaching and learning of Irish for all years in the school. There were common teaching and learning programmes for all classes in the senior cycle while planning was done on an individual basis in the junior cycle. It would be worth agreeing the planning work in the junior cycle in the same way. It is in the junior cycle also that the best opportunities will occur to attempt collaborative teaching. This could be done on a trial basis in order to obtain an insight into colleagues’ practical implementation of best practices in the class.

 

The subject plan for Irish showed evidence of the teachers’ consideration of cross-curricular planning. A programme of activities in other subjects was identified in which Irish would have input – including placenames and the history of the language in Geography and History, current affairs in Civil Social and Political Education, cookery and French in the European Day of Languages, and posters and céilís with arts and music. These links are commended.

 

A good range of resources was recorded in the plan including textbooks, newspaper material and secondary publications for learning as well as video and audio material. The references to websites indicated that the teachers were familiar with a wide range of those in which there would be stimulating material to present Irish as part of contemporary life. The information registered in the plan regarding ICT supports the recommendation that it would be well worth while making every effort to include an ICT item on the teaching and learning programme for Irish.

 

It is recommended that the electronic dictionary www.focal.ie be added to the list viewed and that the students be given the opportunity to use this site. It would also be worth while including the possibilities associated with the European Portfolio of Languages in the planning – starting with the classes in the junior cycle. This recommendation is made especially since one of the Irish teachers is a modern languages teacher and therefore is familiar with the aims and approach of that programme.

 

Teaching and Learning

 

Four junior cycle and senior cycle classes were observed and all the Irish teachers were involved. The quality of teaching in all classes was commended. The planning for each of those classes was ordered and well organised, as was the presentation of the subject by the teachers, the variety in teaching and the organisation of work in those classes. There was liveliness and freshness in the  subject being practised and in the way the teachers attempted to handle the material and to encourage the students to take an active part in the work.

 

The objective of each lesson was presented clearly at the start and in some cases the lesson objective was written on the whiteboard as an additional guide for what was to be done. The lesson management was of high quality. Those efforts had more success when there was variety in the work in terms of giving an active input to the students. Good practice was made of the spoken language for a period of time at the start of one lesson, for example. The talk was guided  by well-chosen questions from the teacher. In another class the same work was done but it was not long before the students were set to work in pairs and the teacher directed this work well. As a result of this latter approach all the students were obtaining lively practice of speech as opposed to only those students who were asked questions.

 

In another class there was limited practice of students’ speech by questions which focussed on the  literary material presented in the lesson. When it was obvious that the students had difficulty answering oral questions other work was undertaken. It would be worth attempting to promote speech naturally as a normal item at the start of a lesson – based on the usual daily activities or attempting the approach practised in the second example mentioned above. For this reason the teachers are recommended to consider observing their colleagues’ practices. The students gained better results from the second approach mentioned above – a practice which another teacher could implement by seeing that work in progress.

 

There was a good variety in all lessons in that various activities were undertaken in all of them and none was continued with for too long. Information sheets and worksheets were prepared for the students as an aid to the classwork and homework. Work was selected for attention in the class which was in keeping with the students’ range of interests and experience of life. In one case, for example, the focus was on discussing television programmes and well-known presenters. It was clear that the students were familiar with them all and that the material was well suited to their interests. Sporting matters were to the fore in another case and additional work was done on that subject later with a publication in Irish containing an item on the same subject. Pre-prepared work sheets were circulated as a written reminder of the lesson’s work.

 

In all the classes the teachers had the target language to the fore and this practice is commended. In some cases the students were provided with English translations of instructions given in Irish immediately beforehand. It was not clear whether the students were responding to the instructions in the English translation or to the original instruction in Irish. Therefore it would be worth limiting the translation to English and it would be worth discussing this issue among the teachers in relation to its place in the class work or class level.  There is no objection to teachers using translation as long as it is not a regular practice relating to giving instructions or asking questions.

 

It would be worth while also writing significant new vocabulary material which arises during the course of the lesson on the whiteboard and giving the students the chance to write it down in their copybooks. Students are not able to acquire all such new vocabulary by heart without writing it down in order to refer to it again.

 

In the senior classes there was appropriate preparation under way for the Leaving Certificate poetry course. Much of the work was directed towards the students after they had received initial guidance on the work to be done. The teachers’ personality had an effective result and they were totally at ease in guiding pair work – this ensured that the teacher was not talking throughout nor did the students have to listen passively. In one case the students answered well to the inspector’s questions on the material practised during the lesson.

 

There was a good learning atmosphere in all the classes and the students and teachers clearly had respect for each other. None of the teachers in any of the classes had to implement a behaviour or control system or to refer to one. The students made good attempts to come to grips with the challenges placed before them in the lessons.

 

Students’ copybooks and work folders were observed which showed clearly that comprehensive work was being undertaken which was in accordance with the subject plans and there was evidence of teacher recognition of the students’ work. The classrooms themselves were neat and there was attractive material relating to Irish matters displayed in one of those rooms.  

 

Assessment

 

No assessment is made of students relating to Irish on their admission to the school in first year and the students are placed in mixed-ability classes in first year. The teachers indicated that they would be ready to assess the quality of the students’ Irish in future as a reference point for themselves when the students were starting. It would be worth while in such a case to include spoken Irish as part of that assessment. It would be good to share information on that assessment with the primary school teachers in the feeder schools in order to ensure that the assessment is in keeping with the objectives of the amended primary curriculum as regards Irish. A proficiency test in spoken Irish would also illustrate that there would be emphasis on developing that aspect of the language and that it would be worth preparing for it.

 

The homework policy was linked with the subject plan for Irish and there was a particular policy which set out homework – written work and work to be learned – four times per week. The copybooks observed proved that those instructions were being implemented and the copybooks and folders inspected were neat and tidy.

 

The teachers maintain a record of students’ progress in the subject with accounts of continuous work which is marked. Formal house examinations are organised twice a year as well as mock examinations in spring in the case of certificate examination classes. Reports of these examinations are sent home and progress is discussed with parents at the parent-teacher meetings or at any other time when a parent or teacher requests an additional meeting.

 

A comprehensive analysis is made of the results achieved in the certificate examinations and this information is provided to the Irish department. The participation rates at the various levels illustrate that there is a good foundation for the teachers’ efforts to increase the number of students undertaking the subject at a higher level.

 

Summary of main findings and recommendations

 

The following are the main strengths identified in the evaluation:

 

 

As a means of building on these strengths and to address areas for development, the following key recommendations are made:

 

·         The place and amount of English translation as a practice should be discussed among the Irish teachers.

·         Consideration should be given to the inclusion of spoken Irish as part of any assessment examination to be undertaken by new first year students.

 

 

Post-evaluation meetings were held with the teachers of Irish and with the Principal at the conclusion of the evaluation when the draft findings and recommendations of the evaluation were presented and discussed.