Preparation: Activities in Class - Greek Program
Objectives of the Unit of Work
A unit of work entitled "At the Greengrocers" was designed to facilitate the following two objectives:
- A) To integrate the numerous community resources into the teaching and the enhancement of Greek to students with diverse backgrounds in Greek, and
- B) To encourage students of differing levels of Greek proficiency - within the same class and, furthermore, between concurrent classes - to work together with activities that will benefit all students.
Description of the Unit of Work
The unit of work included activities for Year 8 students (according to the Victorian Curriculum and Standards Framework II: Level 5 Pathway 1*, and Level 4A-5A Pathway 2**) and introduced the students to features of the Greek language (vocabulary, grammar, etc) relating to shopping at the greengrocer's. Furthermore, it allowed students to simulate their encounter with the community first in class (through role-plays and games), before they visited the community itself. Finally, students were assessed individually and competitively between groups (by their teachers and their peers, respectively) by completing certain oral and written tasks in a final presentation session
* Pathway 1: Formal learning of Greek starts at primary school level.
** Pathway 2: Formal learning of Greek starts at secondary school level.
Organising Students into Groups
At school G there were two year 8 classes that ran concurrently (one 'beginners' class and one class with 'intermediate' and 'advanced' level students), which allowed students from the two classes to combine into smaller groups and work together.
For the purpose of integrating students of diverse backgrounds and language proficiency (see objective b above), the two classes were combined and then organised into four groups. The objective of dividing students into the four groups was to obtain a homogenous level of proficiency in each group. Thus, students of both classes were placed in the four groups, and students from both classes had combined sessions for some classroom activities and for the field trip activities. However, for most classroom activities (including the final student presentation), students remained divided into their four groups but within their own class and not combined with the other class. This was due to a variety of reasons (see Final Outcome).