The Mary Glasgow 14-19 Curriculum Prize 2008

CoPE International has been created by making a hybrid from ASDAN’s Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (a challenge-based and portfolio-assessed Level 2 and Level 1 qualification) and ASDAN’s International Award scheme.  The combined course is equivalent to a GCSE grade B if completed at level 2, or grade E if completed at grade 1. Because it differentiates by outcome, the course is flexible enough to allow students working at both levels to work together and complete the same challenges.

The course represents one whole GCSE option in terms of curriculum time and has been designed so that 50% is spent on language learning and culturally-related projects and challenges, the largest and most significant of which is a 5-day stay in a target language country.   .

The course consists essentially of a series of challenges.  There are no curriculum materials or schemes of work to accompany the challenges and so the teachers have to determine, in conjunction with the students themselves, the ways in which they would like to learn and the content of the course.  There is always a choice of challenge available to the students but it has proved very helpful to have selected some key challenges, and to provide choice and autonomy for the students in terms of the task and the way in which they fulfil the challenge.

For example, the first challenge that they work on is called ‘Improving your own learning’.  All students are new to Spanish so they are starting from a position of no knowledge.  As there is no set curriculum or set level of attainment that must be reached, the teachers were very keen to involve students in two key aspects of this challenge: firstly, in evaluating themselves as language learners and finding their own strengths and preferred learning methods; and secondly, in deciding what they wanted to learn in terms of language content and functions.

This challenge involved 20 hours of time.  For the International Award half of the course there are 3 hours per fortnight, so the 20 hours represents the whole of the Autumn Term’s lesson time. In terms of outcomes, the students need to have evidence of their learning that relates to the aims and objectives they have set themselves.  For each challenge, there are PLAN –> DO –> REVIEW sheets for them to complete.

The students began by trying out a variety of different language learning methods, including independent audio-visual packages like EuroTalk; accelerated audio-lingual packages like Earworms and the Michel Thomas method; teacher-led whole class sessions; Word-picture association; vocabulary learning; and even making and using their own flashcards.

Initially, the content was basic greetings, numbers and personal information.  After students had spent some time learning using each method, a recognition emerged in the group that a combination of some different methods was the best pattern for them.  This involved some teacher-led input followed by a choice of follow-up activity, whereby students played to their own strengths and learning preferences. Rachel admits that this is not ‘rocket science’ in any sense, but she feels it is strategically important that the students arrive at this knowledge themselves through enquiry, investigation and experimentation.

Although the overall CoPE International course leads to a GCSE-equivalent qualification, it does not have within it the requirement of a recognised level of achievement in the language.  At the moment, this has not been made a pre-requisite of the course, but the students are offered the opportunity to accredit their Spanish learning additionally through ASSET languages.     The majority of the students do ‘Breakthrough’ in the first year of the course, and a few will have time within the requirements of the course to go on to achieve Preliminary level in speaking, listening and reading.