Teaching program for the cycle of fundamental learning

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During cycle 2, we never cease to articulate the concrete and the abstract. Observing and working with reality, manipulating, experimenting, all activities lead to representation, whether it is analogical (drawings, images, graphs) or symbolic, abstract (numbers, concepts). The link between practical familiarity and conceptual elaboration should be continuously constructed.

During cycle 2, there is a large gap between oral and written ability. What a child is capable of understanding and producing orally is far superior to that which he or she is capable of writing. Yet oral and written languages are closely connected, and during cycle 2 children have access to scaffolded writing in production and reading comprehension. In all areas of learning, pupils learn that speaking or writing involves on the one hand translating what we think, on the other, respecting the rules: they are free in terms of content, but restricted in terms of the form it takes. The gap between oral and written ability is particularly important in the learning of modern foreign languages[1]. Cycle 2 puts the stepping stones in place that will lead to pupils' learning many languages, starting with oral ability. The teaching and learning of an additional language must allow the children the opportunity to practise the language and to reflect on its use. Language and culture are closely linked.

During cycle 2, intuitive learning is also central. Outside of school, their homes and elsewhere, children acquire knowledge in numerous areas: social (rules, conventions, habits), physical (getting to know their body, movement) spoken language and culture. This knowledge is a forerunner to learning and implicitly understood must be used as the foundation of explicit learning. It is at the heart of all situations when a child understands what they have to do without thinking about it, or when he or she uses his intrinsic knowledge to check or evaluate what he or she has done (whether they used the right tense, have understood quantity correctly, are reasoning logically).

During cycle 2, children learn how to do fundamental school activities in different areas of learning: how to solve problems, how to understand a document, how to write a text, how to create or understand an object. The common links between these diverse, fundamental school activities must be emphasised by the teachers who should highlight the analogies between the objects of study (solving a maths problem/ investigating in science/ understanding and interpreting a text in French/ interpreting a work of art) so the similarities and differences are obvious to pupils. Without the input of the teacher, only a few pupils would figure out how to complete these fundamental school activities.

During cycle 2, children justify in a rational manner. In the context of an activity, pupils know how to complete it and also to explain why they completed it that way. They learn to justify their answers and their actions using reasons, in a way that is specific to learning: we don't justify the answer to a sum, the comprehension of a text, the appreciation of a work of art or the observation of a natural phenomenon in the same way. Little by little, this rational activity leads pupils to question and criticise what they have done, but also to appreciate what has been done by others. Educating children to understand media and technology prepares them to exercise their own judgement and develop critical capacities.

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Part 2: Essential contributions from different fields of learning to the Common Socle

Domain 1

Languages to think and communicate

I can understand and express myself using written and spoken French

In Cycle 2, learning the French language is accomplished through speaking, reading, and writing. Acquiring oral fluency and accessing written language through reception and production goes along with the study of how the language functions and allows for the production of controlled oral statements and simple, organized, writing with correct punctuation that becomes more and more complex with a focus on correct spelling.

All teaching works together to ensure the mastery of the language. « Questioning the world» and art, such as music education, proposes a look into natural phenomenon and various shapes and representations, providing opportunities to describe, compare, and to begin to manipulate, both orally and in writing, different forms of expression and specific lexicon.

I can understand and express myself using an additional language

Cycle 2 is the beginning of the teaching of foreign languages which should lead students to achieve the A1 level of oral language competencies (listen / take part in a conversation / express oneself fluidly) in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL). In French, the alignment with the foreign language studied in class allows for a better connection with the representation of the linguistic system: occasional comparisons with French, between words, the order of words, and their pronunciation. Encountering literature is also a way to consolidate learning about the culture, thereby using the foreign language just as well as the French (bilingual books…). Working in several other domains, music education in particular, but also physical education, contributes to making students aware of a cultural dimension.

I can understand and express myself using mathematical, scientific and technological language

Mathematics plays a part in the acquisition of scientific language: comprehension of the number system, practicing calculation, knowledge of sizes. Symbols are used for observation, exploration, and questioning objects and the reality of the world. In teaching « Questioning the world, » activities of manipulation, measures, and calculation, as well as simple experiments use plenty of scientific language. Familiarization with an appropriate and precise lexicon allows for reading, exploitation and communication of results from various objects, phenomenon, and simple experiments (tables, simple diagrams, maps, outlines, timelines…) Physical education allows for creating links between real-life and represented space: in orientation activities linked with geometry (location in a space, on a graph, moving around) ; in track and field activities where size and measurements are used, in the diverse calculations of length, time, or in team games (calculating results, scores) etc.