This week the Year 6/7s lesson focussed on strategies needed to translate a text. We did this in 3 steps:

• Firstly, students worked with partners/small group to choose a German Olympic profile and search for already known language/keywords. We talked about looking for smaller known words in bigger words, using dates and numbers as clues and making educated guesses. This information was recorded in one colour in their German books.
• Next, the students were introduced to using Google Translate to help make meaning of other information. We talked about the importance of not translating whole sentences and just translating at the word level. We looked at examples of why we don’t translate at the sentence level! This new information was recorded in their books in a second colour.
• Lastly, the students were given an English translation of the text. We found it interesting how translations don’t work on a word-by-word basis and that some things are translated differently in English. Last facts were recorded in a 3rd colour in their books.

The end result was a page of colour-coded facts. It showed, at a glance, the prior knowledge the students had, the knowledge they gained using a device and finally the knowledge gained by using a translated piece.

All students were very engaged with the task and worked through these strategies well.