Any MFL (German) teachers around?

[AlexanderHamilton]

Ds is really struggling in German. In September he went into Year 9 of a new school who only offer German. At his previous school he spent two years doing Spanish which he enjoyed.

Homework is a nightmare. He has no clue what to do. At his previous school he had a textbook plus worksheets stuck in an excecise book. The textbook was in topics with examples of phrases & interchangeable vocab. He learns best verbally so I used to ask him to say phrases or answer qu actions in Spanish whilst checking his answers against the text.

Now he is meant to copy stuff in his excercise book but they always stay in school. He just gets given a slip with homework on. The problem is he can never remember anything they did (diagnosed slow processing so he has to repeat things several times to learn it) This week he has to write an estate agent advert describing a house in German. He cannot remember any relevant vocabulary or how to construct a sentence.

I did raise this in a meeting (he has asd so I have regular contact with the senco) & was told they do try & differentiate but he's in a high set due to the way the timetable is constructed (he's top set in maths & science).

He can drop German at the end of the academic year but he's spent over an hour on what is probably supposed to be a 20 min piece of homework (he'd rattle it off in Spanish in that sort of time) & is no further along.

I think his old school wore me down so much & I was made to feel so awful (& told that Ds was so bad) that it's made me wary.

How tough for him. Languages are unlike so many other subjects in that it's really difficult to just 'catch up' if you've missed 2 years of study. If he isn't going to take it for GCSE is there really anything to be gained by forcing him to see out the year now? Is there any chance he could go to wherever the school educates students who struggle in big classes and do some reading, or some homework?

He is entitled to go to the flexi-learning area if he feels he needs to but he'd have to do the work he was meant to be doing in class during that time.

Well, could he do some Year 7 German work in teh flexi-learning as opposed to year 9 stuff? I don't think the school are being very considerate here. If I get a kid moved into my language class who hasn't done it before I try to make as many concessions as I can for them - especially if it's Year 9 and they just have to last the year without being too miserable. A 'flexi-learning' area should be just that - it's not flexible to expect an autistic Year 9 child to cope with a language that other students have had teaching in for 2 years already.

It doesn't address the core issues here but could he take a photo of his vocab/exercise book at the end of a lesson so that he has a copy at home?

I guess the other complication biscuits is that they don't have Year 7 resources. Although the school is in our local authority (that was important as our other potential local school was in a neighbouring LA which meant after being in a waiting list for Autism Outreach for over a year they didn't cover that school whereas he was an immediate take up at this school) this school is in a little pocket with a middle school system. Ds was one of only two children not from one of the two feeder middle schools.

I would just let him learn German at home. My similar age child did Duolingo,plus Pimsleur CDs, for a few months. Progress was hugely faster than if had learned at school. Then organise an exchange to Germany for 2 or 3 weeks. He'll have a great time, and be top in German.

With all due respect I'm afraid "organising an exchange" for an autistic child isn't quite that simple.

[https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0435368826/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr= this] is the book we use in yr 7, I like it apart from the terrible front cover picture, second hand on Amazon is good value

Sorry, skip that bit, but the rest may be worth a try?

That's the same publisher as Mira which he used for Spanish clary

Have you posted before re a hobbies homework? Apologies if not you.
I recommended the website www.languagesonline.org.uk/Hotpotatoes/Index.htm
and it has consolidation of the Logo textbook as mentioned above.
Its GAMES section is fantastic for vocab learning.
Click on games click on German Choose a category Choose a game
For example Games German Mein Haus Word list (all rooms vocab) then jigsaw or pairs to practise

The advert homework was probably meant to be along the lines of:
Haus zum verkaufen
Doppelhaus/Reihenhaus/Einfamilienhaus/Wohhnung mit ....rooms listed and extras like Balkon/Garten/Garage
Price in euros and space in Quadratmeter squared
The only difficulty is if she wants the abbreviated advert form (rooms are abbreviated so for example K for Küche, Bz , EG (Erdgeschoss) etc but there are lots of examples online and a chapter including ads in Logo textbook.

Yes I did back in something likecthe 2nd or third week of term.

So the situation hasn't changed lovey and the German teacher is clearly not addressing your son's SEN. Even with top sets, I would never have asked a class to do a homework from memory. They would have had two to three exercise books, one for classwork, one for homework, one for vocabulary, if classwork books had to stay in school. Most textbooks have photocopiable resources with vocab boxes etc there would not been a need to do from memory or wscratch unless a similar exercise was to have been learnt off by heart.

owlcation.com/humanities/FREE-German-Essay-on-my-House-mein-Haus
There are always things you can find online which could be adapted but it would be far better for her to provide them with a template OE example or gap fill then leaving them to their own devices.

Contact the SENCO and set up a meeting with the MFL head/staff member.
Offer a deposit for the textbook or purchase one similar.
Ask for him to have a word list book or vocab sheets to file to accommodate his needs.
With two years deficit and not falling in love with it after nearly a term I would personally not recommend he has it as an option for GCSE.

or from scratch
similar exercise = they did one which has been corrected and they take that one home to learn
NOT recall what you did at ten this morning or sometime last week and write a new one for you

From what you are describing it sounds like he has quite a lot of natural abilitiy for languages, so it would be a shame if circumstances prevent him continuing. I hope you can find the right resources to get him a decent grounding, and well done both of you for him continuing Spanish on his own! (I have bright children for whom languages are the hardest subject)

Come to think of it, my daughter started German in year 9 last year and is taking it for GCSE, I could check what textbooks she has been using. (In her case she was glad to give up French, and has sung enough German to be familiar with the pronunciation which gave her a confidence boost)

He does in terms of speaking python - his written work has always been poor (then again it was poor in all subjects as he can't think when he handwrites so now uses a laptop)

Ds1 started off with Duolingo for German in year 7, did it daily for about 5 minutes. He is doing really well with it, a good combination of speaking, listening and writing.

He is now in year 10 and has taken it for GCSE.

Ds2 started year 7 this year and started Duolingo for French, but his teacher recommended he switch over to Memrise and I believe his teacher can put her own thing on there too.

If it is tackled daily for a mere 5 minutes it will massively help.