Current Irish syllabus

opticalillusion

Hi, posted this in the wrong section...

Can't seem to find much info, can anyone tell me what books and everything I need for LC higher Irish? Curriculum isn't going to change in the next 2 years or anything is it? Also if there are english versions can you let me know also, I hear there is an english version of gafa... or are there any books you find particularly helpful? It's been 7 years since I did LC Irish -I need all the help I can get!!

On a side note when is the latest one can apply for state exams?

Thanks!

Also, I went into a book shop today and the girl there hadn't a clue about books and said that all schools study different things and therefore have different books??

I see an trail is mentioned in the odd bit of info I come across, what does this consist of? And do you really have to study 13 poems...? :eek:

Mary007

Yes you do have to study 13 poems, 5 ordinary level and 8 higher level for the honours course.

An Triail is a drama / novel that you have to read in order to answer your question based on a text.

You also have to study about 5 short stories as you have a question to answer on them also.

Then you have 'Stair Na Gaeilge' which is basically just a pile of codswallop but none the less 30 marks!

The oral consists of your conversation plus 30 marks for your 'sliocht', reading in Irish, easy marks to pick up. Choose 5 and the examiner will pick one for you to read.

Aural - self explanitory.

And then obviously the essay and the two comprehensions.

Big course, good luck!:)

Zephyr91

I feel sick after reading this reply.

OK - I'm doing honours Irish and am in 6th year.

We (as a class) have done one story in detail, and one poem.

We have not even glanced at Stair Na Gaeilge.

I have never heard of An Trail in my life.

What the hell? When I mentioned poetry etc to my teacher he said he'd fly through that later on with us all.

Er...how far behind ARE we? I knew my teacher was useless but I never realised we have nothing at all done!

nazar

Can I just ask does anyone know roughly when the orals are held. I am a mature student and i'm hoping to attend a gaeltacht in March, but just want to make sure that i'm not away during the oral exam!! I really, really need to go away to Gaeltacht beforehand, to really get stuck into Irish mode.:o

gaeilgebeo

Zephyr91 wrote: »

I feel sick after reading this reply.

OK - I'm doing honours Irish and am in 6th year.

We (as a class) have done one story in detail, and one poem.

We have not even glanced at Stair Na Gaeilge.

I have never heard of An Trail in my life.

What the hell? When I mentioned poetry etc to my teacher he said he'd fly through that later on with us all.

Er...how far behind ARE we? I knew my teacher was useless but I never realised we have nothing at all done!

I'm an irish teacher. I'm shocked!

gaeilgebeo

opticalillusion wrote: »

Hi, posted this in the wrong section...

Can't seem to find much info, can anyone tell me what books and everything I need for LC higher Irish? Curriculum isn't going to change in the next 2 years or anything is it? Also if there are english versions can you let me know also, I hear there is an english version of gafa... or are there any books you find particularly helpful? It's been 7 years since I did LC Irish -I need all the help I can get!!

On a side note when is the latest one can apply for state exams?

Thanks!

Also, I went into a book shop today and the girl there hadn't a clue about books and said that all schools study different things and therefore have different books??

I see an trail is mentioned in the odd bit of info I come across, what does this consist of? And do you really have to study 13 poems...? :eek:

In my opinion, the best text book to get is Fiúntas 1 and Fiúntas 2. The first book covers paper 1 and the second book paper 2. The notes are good. Get a set of exam papers and practice the Aural and comprehensions. Buy a copy of An Triail and a notes book to go with it. Folens publish a good notes book on An Triail. Cumarsáid is a good book for the oral.

waheyyy

Zephyr91 wrote: »

I feel sick after reading this reply.

OK - I'm doing honours Irish and am in 6th year.

We (as a class) have done one story in detail, and one poem.

We have not even glanced at Stair Na Gaeilge.

I have never heard of An Trail in my life.

What the hell? When I mentioned poetry etc to my teacher he said he'd fly through that later on with us all.

Er...how far behind ARE we? I knew my teacher was useless but I never realised we have nothing at all done!

out of curiousity, what have you done for the past year? lol

and you don't HAVE to do an triail, afaik there's a selection of texts you can choose from, 'a thig na tit orm' is another popular choice i think

Zephyr91

out of curiousity, what have you done for the past year? lol

For the past year we have done the following -

Grammar stuff - past/present/future etc
Comprehensions
Small amount of listening
Small amount of oral
Essays -and by this I mean copying chunks from the book.
Cearrbhach Mac Caba (we read it and discussed it)
Gealt - we read it and discussed it

I'm struggling to remember anything else. But that's more or less all we've done.

I am pretty scared/freaked out because I want to be a primary teacher and I need a good C in this subject.

I went through my Revise Wise (which is in complete Irish) and doubt I could teach myself - unless I knew exactly what to know.

And on the subject of Revise Wise - my ideal version would be a load of translated sentences (English and Irish) that would be useful in essays, and useful phrases for answering poetry questions, etc. Not a book totally in Irish that only someone who is weak at Irish would buy.

So yeah...am I totally screwed? Any advice anyone or should I change my future career.

I'm an irish teacher. I'm shocked!

Would you like an extra 5 students? lol. There's 5 of us in the class doing honours and today I made them realise just how screwed we are when I told them what we actually need to know.

dory

5 our of how many are doing honours??

When I was in school I had a crap teacher for one subject. I went to Bruce and signed up for an evening class. Once a week, got an A in it in the end. There's loads you can do to improve your Irish. Even buying a Teach yourself Irish CD and listen to is over and over. I swallowed a grammar book at one stage, there are some really good ones out there.

Is this teacher teaching pass and honours in the same room or does he just have 5 people to deal with?

Zephyr91

The class is a mixture of pass and honours students so he switches from each, (but if I may say so spends a lot more time with the pass people).

5 of us are doing honours and about 15-20 are doing pass.

Although this might explain why we have absolutely nothing done - last year honours and pass were divided and there was roughly only 9 in my class.

gaeilgebeo

Zephyr91 wrote: »

The class is a mixture of pass and honours students so he switches from each, (but if I may say so spends a lot more time with the pass people).

5 of us are doing honours and about 15-20 are doing pass.

Although this might explain why we have absolutely nothing done - last year honours and pass were divided and there was roughly only 9 in my class.

My advice, with my current Leaving Certs HL, we are practicing papers at this stage but we have the course covered bar the Stair na Gaeilge. Get a set of papers and start getting familiar with layout/marks,questions etc...
Throw yourself into the oral work, its worth 25% and practice comprehensions as well, 70 marks for them.
You should do Aural work at home. The marking schemes/answers are on examinations.ie.
Get cracking at it now though! I wouldn't be changing my career just because of this though. Hope I've helped a little.:)

Zephyr91

I'm probably being a bit hard on him, but I'm just extra stressed lately and very tense. He is great at Irish - and I admire his passion for the language. He's all about us becoming fluent in Irish, he just needs to realise that the Irish course isn't about being fluent. It's about memorising as much as you can in 2 years. Obviously being fluent in the language would help, but we so don't have time for that. I have basic enough Irish and got a C in Junior Cert Honours Irish without studying much at all (the JC didn't really scare me as much as the LC is).

Thanks for the advice, gaeilgebeo. I have a set of exam papers myself and I'll start going through them and answering questions. It's come to the stage where I just have to stop feeling sorry for myself and try my best, and think positively.

I'm pretty decent at the oral - I went to the gaeltacht last year and in the mock oral exam they had for us I got 80% I think with only 2 weeks of speaking some Irish and a few days study.

As for the aural - I am terrible at listening in any subject but I will try and train my ear! (in fact, I think it was the aural that brought my grade down in the JC).

Thanks for the advice - it was great help.

Thanks everyone else as well.

laura93

Zephyr91 wrote: »

The class is a mixture of pass and honours students so he switches from each, (but if I may say so spends a lot more time with the pass people).

5 of us are doing honours and about 15-20 are doing pass.

Although this might explain why we have absolutely nothing done - last year honours and pass were divided and there was roughly only 9 in my class.

Maybe you could get Irish grinds? I know they're not cheap, but they'd definitely be worth it considering you need to do very good.

Even the people who are doing pass don't have enough covered. They have to do all the same stories as you, and 5 or so poems.

opticalillusion

gaeilgebeo wrote: »

In my opinion, the best text book to get is Fiúntas 1 and Fiúntas 2. The first book covers paper 1 and the second book paper 2. The notes are good. Get a set of exam papers and practice the Aural and comprehensions. Buy a copy of An Triail and a notes book to go with it. Folens publish a good notes book on An Triail. Cumarsáid is a good book for the oral.

Thanks for this.

Zephyr91

Oh ****e, sorry I kinda hijacked your thread, opticalillusion, lol.

Mary007

Ye are way behind to be fair, we're doing atleast one essay every week, one Aural paper,the oral everyday, poems/stories revision in class and then comprehensions for homework.

You need to go through the stories yourself and the poems, they're easy enough. If you're going to get grinds, don't get the grinds teacher to do the poems/stories etc with you it's a complete waste of money. Concentrate on good sentences for essay, loads of oral work - you need to cover loads of topics, and lastly your aural - easy marks but requires practise.

It sounds like ye are going to need to motivate yourselves so get moving, you'll be grand!

Zephyr91

Jesus, wanna swap teachers?

Thanks a lot, Mary for the advice.

And you're right - I think motivating myself will be the hardest part - (especially because I am already teaching myself business due to another not-so-great teacher) but I just need to think about what's at stake.

Cheers everyone.

partyatmygaff

Way way behind I think. Im in 5th year and at this stage we're starting our 2nd poem already, we do an aiste every two weeks or so. Comprehensions every day....., have not touched aural nor oral yet.

DancingQueen:)

Zephyr91 wrote: »

(especially because I am already teaching myself business due to another not-so-great teacher)
.

Exact same position as myself, my irish and business teachers arn't the best but i'm trying to get through the courses the best i can
Revise Wise is pretty good for irish.

emzxxx

i'm in 5th year at the moment in higher irish and so far we've done one poem and notes on it in detail, one essay and lately some debates, we seem to be jumping back and over things...,but I don't know where I'm heading with Irish cause I don't know exactly what I've to learn regarding poems and that...also the Stair na Gaelige we read about that from the book and our teacher said just learn it..don't even know what it means

anyways I was wondering if you guys know of any good irish grammer books or something along the lines of that?

pfannkuchen

emzxxx wrote: »

i'm in 5th year at the moment in higher irish and so far we've done one poem and notes on it in detail, one essay and lately some debates, we seem to be jumping back and over things...,but I don't know where I'm heading with Irish cause I don't know exactly what I've to learn regarding poems and that...also the Stair na Gaelige we read about that from the book and our teacher said just learn it..don't even know what it means

anyways I was wondering if you guys know of any good irish grammer books or something along the lines of that?

Sounds like you're doing fine actually - the course is so long that you really do end up jumping around. Regarding poems, you obviously need teamaí, mothúcháin, íomhanna, friotal, meafair, codarsnacht etc. and you need to be able to explain important lines in your own words.

To be honest, understanding SnG doesn't make it much easier, if you just rewrite what you have in simpler language and read it over and over, it'll stick in your head. I reckon 5th year is a little early to be doing it though? I'm in 6th year now and we literally started it 3 weeks ago and are almost finished it and I think it was best to leave it until now.
So try not to worry about it too much, you have next year too

lauralee28

I agree with the above poster. You're covering topics at a normal rate!

randylonghorn

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