The Obligatory World Cup Post.

Nov 1, 2022Aug 13, 2022 / dlh202 / Leave a comment

If you’re looking forward to enjoying the World Cup (2 weeks to go) then you’re probably a football fan or have Brazil, Spain, England (yep, I said it) or France in the staff sweep-stake. If you’re not enjoying the World Cup then chances are you’re not a fan of football, or the staff sweep-stake left you with Morocco or Qatar.

The World Cup does lend itself to a variety of activities to revise material you have likely covered this year…

Recapping clothes and colours

This is one of my favourite ways to teach adjective endings. Football kits lend themselves to this task as the link explains. This could also be achieved with the flags of the countries.

Developing opinions and reasons

CCO Public Domain

Why not get each member of your class to write a prediction? You could even involve yourself in this, particularly if you’re still bitter about the sweep-stake.

I think that <insert country here> is going to win

I believe that <team that is not England> is going to win

In my opinion <probably Spain> is going to win

You could change this depending on the ability of the students. Students could add a reason for their opinion “because they have better players”. You could use the “will” future in French and Spanish instead of going to. They could add superlatives “because Ronaldo is the best”. More advanced students could use a subjunctive: “I hope that”. There is an opportunity to revise descriptions and opinions “I like … because he/she is talented.” You could also teach some colloquial language.

Never ending debate

The opinions above can be turned into a never-ending debate (at least that’s the name I’m giving it for now). This is based on something I hazily recall from a video I saw by Greg Horton a number of years ago where students did something similar with school subjects (apologies to Greg if I have in anyway misrepresented what was going on in the video- happy to amend if needed). It requires some structuring from the teacher. Your slide/lesson resources will require the following:

A sentence builder with opinions similar to the ones above about who is going to win.
Some questions such as “do you think … have a chance?”
Some positive, negative, neutral opinions in your sentence builder.
Some colloquial phrases “no way”, “not in a million years”

Put students into 3s or 4s.

Student A (to student B): Who do you think will win?

Student B: “I think … is going to win because…” “What do you think student C?”

Student C: “No way! I think … is going to win because”

Student A: “not in a million years, … is going to win because”

There are 36 teams in the world cup, you should be fine to keep going for a while!

Ways I have found to make this more effective is to do the following:

Firstly, this one only works first time! Secondly, choose well. Get one student from each group and tell them that if the group is still talking French/German/Spanish after 2mins to silently raise their hand. You reward any groups with hands raised.
Tell students you are walking around and will reward anyone speaking really good French/Spanish/German. Write the names silently on a whiteboard and tell them afterwards. It’s a handy reminder to the rest that had they been doing it too, they would have had the reward.
Tell one student in the group to be deliberately controversial. “Yes Morocco are going to win the world cup because…”
Gradually remove/disappear parts of the sentence builder.
Put a timer on the screen. If students are still talking in TL when timer hits zero then there is a reward.

How are you going to watch the final – future tense revision.

Students produce their plans for the day of the final. There is an opportunity here for a short piece of writing involving time phrases, opinions, reasons and the future tense. If they are not planning to watch it at all then it is still good future tense practice. This is a great opportunity to teach some more complex structures such as “after having done…” or “before watching…”

Consequences Activity

Students write their name at the bottom of a piece of paper. They write a sentence at the top, fold it towards themselves and pass it on. They keep going until all the sentences have been written. It can produce something amusing. Watch the kids closely (you know the ones I mean).

In the morning I’m going to…

For lunch, I’m going to…

In the afternoon, I’m going to

For dinner, I’m going to..

After having eaten, I’m going to…

… and … are going to be in the final.

Phonics Practice

This is one I have used a number of times. I always wonder why students can pronounce any footballer but then get every other word with the same sound patterns wrong!

For Spanish teams, pick one of the South American sides. Far harder. Most of the Spanish team will be well known to your kids whereas Costa Rica or Honduras’ first elevens will not be well known.

Recap target sounds with students. For Spanish this may be G, J, CE, CI, LL among others. For French this might be silent endings or other sounds. For Germany this could be sounds with umlauts, “ch” endings or double vowels.

Option 1: students announce the team to their partner as if they were on TV reading out the lineup.

Option 2: students race through the team trying to beat their partner to the end.

Option 3: teacher goes through lineup and students have to spot the mistakes made and correct them. You could do this as a Conti style “faulty echo”. With faulty echo I tend to have students write “la primera” and “la segunda” on each side of a whiteboard. They show me after hearing both versions of the word and keep a points count going on their board.

Song Activities

I think England could have stopped at that John Barnes rap or Footballs Coming Home

Sergio Ramos was involved in this beauty…

How to exploit it…?

Well, I had some ideas but then found this superb guide on Frenchteacher.net Anything I write would simply be repeating the list.

Or use their Euro 2016 effort…

If you are a bit sick of the football, or your class is, then do the same with the song “Así Soy” It worked wonders with my Year 10 class.

Comparatives/Superlatives Revision

The world cup is an opportunity to revise comparatives and superlatives. Who is better, worse, faster, slower, uglier, less talented, more talented? Who is the best, worst, most irritating? There is a TES worksheet from a previous tournament that just needs a little bit of updating, based on who didn’t make it this year.

Player Biography / Description

Mira 3 has a section on biographies of famous people. Viva 2 does a similar page on musicians. Why not do the same with footballers. There is an opportunity here to practise the past tense with “he played for”, “he signed for”, “he was born in”. There is an opportunity for the present tense “she plays for”, “she is a defender”. I’m sure you can come up with even more ideas.

Whilst this post is predominantly about the World Cup, England quarter final hero and goalscorer Georgia Stanway has just joined Bayern Munich. A quick proofreading of this post shows that there has been a lot of French/Spanish emphasis so far so this is for the German teachers.

You could put together a reading text covering past career, present situation and future hopes.
You could use this text from FCBFrauen with an emphasis on cognates.
You could use it as a listening text. There is a “Text Vorlesen” option. It is a little stilted. Whilst I would normally advocate slowing listening texts with beginners, I’m not sure you would want to in this case.

Read some tweets

The vast majority of international teams are on Twitter, as are their players. You could screenshot a few and use them as a translation task. Example below:

"Hay siete jugadores que no han tenido minutos. Y esos siete, más los que hemos tenido minutos, han puesto todo al servicio del equipo. Somos gente que está haciendo todo lo posible por ser gente que merezca ganar": @CH14_ #NadaNosDetiene

— Selección Nacional (@miseleccionmx) June 26, 2018

Listening Bingo

Give students a selection of football related terms. You could record yourself commentating over a video clip, you could mute the clip and improvise on the spot, or use the original commentary (with advanced level)

Option 1: students select 5 terms and you play bingo. First person to hear all 5 wins.

Option 2: students have a list and tick off as many as they hear. People who get the correct number win.

Evolution of Starters

Sep 1, 2022Aug 15, 2022 / dlh202 / Leave a comment

Over the time I have taught, the role and types of starter activity have varied massively. When I first started teaching, a starter was a quick activity to get the lesson off to a speedy start, ensure that every pupil was “doing something” and allow the teacher to deal with any admin (forgotten books, registers etc). The best starters were differentiated or had challenge tasks (with added chillis. If you don’t know what I mean by chillis, you’re probably better for it). This post is charting the journey of where I started to where I am now. As I researched for this post, I stumbled across MFLClassroomMagic who has a list of principles we should consider when planning starter tasks. I wish I had this list in the early days.

The Early Years

Match ups, gap fills, anagrams, spot the errors and two way translations were the name of the game in these days.

The Pros:

Quick to produce.
Environmentally friendly (no paper needed).
Accessible for most learners.
Easy to differentiate

The Cons

Were these cognitively demanding enough.
Would these have been better after introduction of vocabulary.
Students had to recall single words not chunks.

The Paper Based Ones

I went through a phase of paper based starters. I got to a point where I was quite quick at condensing them on to a page of 4 to a page (without needing a class set of magnifying glasses. These involved simple puzzles, gap fills or occasional Tarsia puzzles. For those unfamiliar with Tarsia, a tarsia puzzle is a shape divided into smaller shapes with clues along the inside lines that match. If you match them perfectly, you will create the shape.

*Example from Mrbartonmaths.com. Whilst not language-specific, you will see the principle.*

The Pros:

Quick to produce is using websites such as Discovery Education Puzzlemaker.
Every student has something in front of them with little excuse for not doing it.
Students do enjoy puzzles or working things out.
Fallen phrase, double puzzles and letter tiles were my go-to puzzles. Never wordsearches.

The Cons

Were these cognitively demanding enough?
Have enough glue-sticks to glue in the tarsia puzzles. Avoid tarsia puzzles during pollen season.
Sometimes took too long for some students and you would find them completing it in the lesson when they were meant to be on other things.
Again single words more likely so lost opportunity for longer chunks of transferable language.

The Vocabulary Test

I went through a phase in one school of vocabulary test starters based on learning homeworks. All students had vocabulary booklets and were allocated a section each week. 5 were Tl to English and 5 were English to TL.

The Pros:

Students had the resources, they just had to learn the phrases.
Rewards the diligent.
Workload light in terms of administering the test. Tests could be marked by partner.
Easy to differentiate to ability groups

The Cons

Working out what to do with those who don’t revise or process things slowly.
Regular repeated failure for students can be quite demoralising.
Harder to make work in mixed groups.
Some kids with dyslexic tendencies admitted they did not enjoy this part of the lesson.

I moved schools in 2018 and learning resources cannot be shared outside of the Trust so examples of the following cannot be given, even on request, sorry. As the Steve Smith style starters and “return of the vocabulary test” are no longer departmental or trust current practice (at least as starters, some of the activities may inevitably feature at other points in a lesson), then I will share them. The final one titled “The Hybrid” (sounds like a sci-fi film) is still in development and refinement. It may make an appearance on this blog one day.

The Steve Smith Style starters

I would characterise the next phase of my evolution as the “Steve Smith style starter.” This is not because they are solely Steve Smith creations (although they may indeed be) but mainly because they (and variations thereof) all appear in this nifty list on his website! One starter task that I cannot locate the author of (wondered if it might have been Kayleigh Merrick via Twitter. If you are reading this and it is you, and you’re not Kayleigh, then please let me know and I will happily link to your blog/Twitter feed), was “Find 4”. This could have been 4 ways to start a sentence, 4 items of vocabulary on a particular theme, 4 connecting words. One would assume that with such an activity marks would be awarded for creativity and originality.

The Pros:

Start/End the sentences. I always referred to it as “starts and ends.” Students enjoyed the freedom with this activity to finish the sentence. Your most creative students will enjoy finishing some of these, particularly anything that involves their classmates. Sentences such as “at the weekend … is going to” or this weekend (insert past tense activity here) said The Prime Minister (or any celeb, other teacher etc)
Activities like “change one thing” work really well. You can also colour some words so that half of the room change one thing and half of the room change another thing.
Convert the sentence from present to future was always challenging but I found worked better if an infinitive was given in brackets

The Cons

Keeping the creativity going with these is ever so slightly trickier.
Odd one out was a good activity and students would enjoy it but it helps to have some phrases so students can explain their decision in TL otherwise you risk going into English for too long. Phrases such as the ones below, allow for a bit more TL use.
- I think the odd one out is … because of the spelling / length /meaning / type of word
- I’ll be honest, it was a guess

Return of the Vocabulary Test

Our school moved to silent starts of lessons for the first 10minutes for all subjects and all lessons. This meant we had to be creative in what we did with our first 10mins that did not involve talking. In that time, students would have 10 phrases to change from English to TL. They were tested on the same phrases for 3-4 lessons in a row so that they got better at them.

The Pros:

Allowed testing of chunks and single words chosen by the teacher.
A positive marking scheme of “2 points for perfect 1 for close” rewarded effort.
Questions could get progressively tougher.
Students repeatedly tested on the same chunks.
Worked well in remote learning.

The Cons

Bit repetitive.
Hard to stop students checking previous page in book for answers.
Always had to go through answers, some students would copy down during this and maybe not think enough during the test.

The Hybrid

Where we are now, is a place I’m quite happy about. It takes some of the better elements of all the above. It ticks most of the boxes on MFL Classroom Magic’s list. It is not perfect (few things in education are perfect) but the direction of travel seems right There are two tasks to complete in our first ten minutes, with the suggestion they apportion their time appropriately. Elaborating on this will have to wait for another day.

Final Words

Hopefully this post stirs you to thought. Maybe that thought is “I’m really glad my school does … and not what I have just read.” Sometimes it’s quite nice to be reminded we are doing the right thing. Maybe that thought is “I can’t believe Everydaymfl is not doing this awesome thing which we do, he absolutely should know about this awesome thing!” If that is your thought then please drop it straight in the comments.

However, that thought might be “I should really look at our department starters ahead of the new term.” If the ideas above have not hit the spot then I would whole-heartedly recommend this list from MFLClassroom Magic for 25+ more ideas (with added templates). If you’re stuck after that then ask your team, they might just have a brilliant idea.

You want us to write how much?!

Nov 3, 2020 / dlh202 / Leave a comment

This Blogpost was inspired by a Twitter conversation I have seen over the past week or so and posted a whole year later. Sorry it took so long!

The 150 Word Question appears on the higher GCSE paper. It is the showcase question. This is where 5 years of hard work in Spanish needs to appear on the page.

Irrespective of whether you follow a 2 year or 3 year Key Stage 3, I tend to introduce this in Year 10. Below I will explain how I did it. The suggestions are similar to some suggestions by two teachers on Twitter. I will say now that the similarity is entirely coincidental and it was quite reassuring to read their tweets, as I means I might just be doing the right thing!

Here is how I went about getting my class ready for 150 Word Questions:

Show class a question. Explain to them that this is the showcase question. It has to show them at their best and what we have spent 4-5 years teaching them.
Translate question in pairs, then share answers.
See if class can divide the two bullet points into three, four or five sections.
Divide 150 by number of sections to give approximate and more manageable word counts (3 x 50 word sections sounds more achievable)
Go through how it is marked, including how many opinions, justifications etc are needed. Unpacking phrases such as “narrate events” is also worth a few minutes of your time.
Divide class into groups of 3-4. They write the best section they possibly can on mini-whiteboards or on paper with alternating lines (any means that allows editing). This means tenses, opinions, reasons, conjunctions, adverbs. Remind students that if they have speaking prep that matches the bullet point then they use it.
Remind students of their core language sheets and encourage use of them when writing.
Remind students of their Top 10 Complex Language sheets and encourage use of at least 2-3 phrases from it.
Students compose sections, If they finish then they can try another section.
Hand in mini-whiteboards.
Teacher types up student contributions into a 150 word answer. Mark it and annotates it with why it scores high marks. If you have a visualiser, you could do this live.
Students then attempt a similar question in subsequent lesson. They are allowed their example one, along with core language and complex language sheets. They cannot copy but can adapt it. They do this on their own. You could then mark it or take in a few and give generic feedback. Students do appreciate knowing how they scored on a first attempt.

Explaining a couple of terms above:

Core Language Sheets – idea from Rachel Hawkes.
Complex Language Sheets – basically A* language from use back in the day (wow I sound old) of controlled assessments. Mix of simple memorable subjunctive, past tense, future tense phrases “cuando sea mayor”, “si tuviera la oportunidad, iría a…” etc or “bien que ce soit”

What happens next?

Probably, I will get back to teaching the course, as later in the year they will likely have a mock exam or an assessment point so they can do one without support then. They also have two good versions to revise from! Combining the graduated approach above, along with regular practice of 90 word questions should help in preparing for that.

Other thoughts

Encourage students to avoid duplication of vocabulary. Ban the boring adjectives! “boring”, “nice”, “interesting” and “fun”. Instead things can be pleasant, enjoyable and exciting.
Remind them that the poor examiner has to read loads of these and they are all 150 words long! Encourage them to make it different to the average student. Tell them they play piano in their room rather than football at the park. They do not “go to the park with my friends”. They “go to the cinema with my little brother who is <insert adjective here>”. Again an opportunity for a more interesting adjective here (but not too interesting)
Remember that avoid does not mean you can’t use them when your mind goes blank.
Cutting the question into manageable chunks is always helpful. Can one bullet point be divided into two? To some of our students 40+40+75 does not sound as bad as 75+75.
Lastly: make a plan. What language am I going to use? How can I show off?

5 Things to try tomorrow

May 9, 2019May 9, 2019 / dlh202 / Leave a comment

My new years resolution of at least one post a month has not been kept. Sorry if you stopped by in April looking for some MFL inspiration. However, here are 5 activities you can try with your classes tomorrow…or after the weekend!

4 in a row translation practice

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This was inspired by a game on my old Nokia (the only one they made that didn’t have Snake on it). Pupils draw a 5×5 grid on miniwhiteboards. You project a 5×5 table of phrases they must translate. The winner is the first to score 4 in a row. It’s like connect 4 but you can start anywhere. The translations could be into English, or into the target language. My preference is for the latter. This works well when when you want to do some structured production before moving on to something more creative afterwards. The example below shows a close battle between two students.

Considerably richer than you…

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This was inspired by a Harry Enfield sketch in which a character often pointed out to others that he was considerably richer than them. Having recently taught house and home this works rather well. Jed makes a basic statement such as “in my house I have …”. His partner Leo then has to better the statement in some way. This could be as simple as turning it plural or extending it.

Jed: “In my house I have a garage.”

Leo: “In my house I have 2 garages with a ferrari.”

Jed: “In my house I have a bathroom.”

Leo: “In my house I have 4 bathrooms and a swimming pool..”

Scattergories

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This is a good revision activity if you need a quick activity for year 11. 10 categories on a slide and then give them a letter to begin with. Pupils have 1 minute come up with ideas. If someone else in the class has the word then they get no points. If no-one has it then they get a point. This can be done in teams or alone. An example list is below.

animals you wouldn’t have as pets
School subjects
Colours
Weather
Hobbies
Festivals
Adjectives
House
Holiday
Food

Slowing listening on Windows Media Player or VLC

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Students often find listening texts tough. Some of the textbooks I have used over the past few years are exposing Year 7 to near-native speaker speeds and then give them a tricky activity to do! A decent textbook that we often use had a good listening activity for practising directions but with a low ability year 8 group. Groups like these often see listening as a test. I slowed the track down to 0.7-0.8 of the speed. It seemed to work, they found it slightly easier to pick out the language they were hearing and complete the activity.

In Windows Media Player, open any track. At the top there is are: file | view | play | Under “view” you should see “enhancements” and then “play speed settings”.

If using VLC, then it is even easier. Under playback look for “speed” and it has “slow” and “slower” options.

You will need to use your judgement for when this is appropriate.

Vocabulary Championship

man wearing blue suit jacket beside woman with gray suit jacket

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With exams approaching, I gave my foundation year 11 group a series of vocabulary tests consisting of common words from the exam board’s minimum vocabulary list. We mark them, write in any that they didn’t know, glue them in books for revision later and then I collect in the scores. There are prizes awarded as follows:

Top score in a single lesson
Top 3 at the end of the week
Top 3 scores of fortnight (this may not be the same three as end of first week)

The scores then reset from zero for the following week. Each lesson, I would hint at the themes/topics for the next test. Some students really will surprise you with their efforts.

GCSE: Current and future study

Nov 16, 2018Nov 16, 2018 / dlh202 / 1 Comment

After a far longer break than planned, EverydayMFL is back. Prior to this hiatus, I had worked my way through a number of the less desirable GCSE topics to teach. After going through global issues, customs and festivals and charity and volunteering. I decided school and study should be next. Kids have mixed feelings about the topic. Teachers might also have mixed feelings. It comes with some nice easy grammar in Year 7 but then it is less fun to talk about in Year 11.

Here are a few ways to make the school topic fun.

Who’s the greatest?

Photo Credit: jtfmulder Flickr via Compfight cc

Flowcharts are used heavily in other subjects but rarely in languages. I’ve often used one set out as follows to allow students to give their opinions on the best teacher. It is also great CPD as you can find out the one they genuinely believe to be the best and then learn from them. Quite often the one described as a “legend” is different from the one they feel they learn best from.

Opinion phrase

Teacher

is the most …

because (positive reasons) because (negative reasons)

although he/she can be

positive adjectives negative adjectives

You could achieve a similar effect with a writing frame but I think the flowchart gives a slightly different feeling of progression.

At the end you could get them to apply it to a different topic. Whilst the phrasing is slightly artificial, it should show the students that the same structure can be applied across topics.

I think that <insert sport here> is the most … because … although it can be …

Hogwarts Conditional

The majority of students still appreciate the Harry Potter books. This allows you to teach conditional clauses: “if I went to Hogwarts, I would study …” “If I were at Hogwarts, my favourite teacher would be…”

List of subjects here if you need them.

Alternatively …

If I were the boss

Again teaching conditional clauses, you would be surprised how many students want to talk when they are given a writing frame on school improvement.

“If I were the head, I would…”

“If I had the choice, I would…”

“If I could, I would…”

Clause structures & Descriptions

Early in year 7 students are likely to have learnt how to describe people. It is often worth revisiting in year 10-11 but I have tried to do it with more advanced clause structures:

Not only…but also
Both … and …
Neither … nor
Regardless of whether … is …, I think that …
He/she can be … but can also be …
In spite of being … , he/she is also …

Germanists can have a field day here with “weder…noch…”, “egal, ob…”, “zwar…aber…” and “sowohl…als auch”. I’m sure French and Spanish teachers can come up with a few.

Describing your school

This has got to be one of the most tedious bits to teach. I cannot imagine many students enjoy relating the facts that their school has classrooms, modern science labs and a small playground. Here is an activity to make it ever so slightly more interesting:

Teacher gives half of the class mini-whiteboards. The other half are given cards containing a description of a school (parallel text in both languages). Starting in the top corner students draw in the rooms as they are told where they are. The whiteboard is then passed to the other person to check. They then rub out any wrong rooms and read those parts again.

You will need two sets of descriptions so that both people can have a go.

This could also be done as a whole class listening task. You could even do the school you are in and get students to spot the mistakes you make.

After School Clubs

Again, another topic to enthuse…

Essentially from this you want students to come away with a structure such as: “después del instituto”, “después de haber terminado mis clases”, “après avoir fini mes cours”, “am Ende des Tages” combined with the preterite/passé composé or perfekt tense

Have students look up some slightly more interesting activities in advance of this lesson. Fencing, bungee jumping, quidditch, gaming. They can then practice the structure you want them to learn. I can imagine some quite creative efforts once you add in TMP (Germanists only).

Future plans Cluedo

ah…the good old days

I was introduced to “who killed Santa” cluedo in my NQT year by two super language teachers I worked with. The structure can largely be applied to anything. Another popular language teaching website calls it mind-reading.

Give students the following table on a slide.

They pick three phrases and write them on a mini-whiteboard or in books. The student guessing needs to read out the verbs at the top and the infinitives. The person with the three answers can only tell them how many they are getting right.

I want to…	I’m going to…	I would like to
infinitive chunk infinitive chunk infinitive chunk infinitive chunk	infinitive chunk infinitive chunk infinitive chunk infinitive chunk	infi YOU nitive infi GET nitive infi THE nitive infi IDEA nitive

This is great as you can recycle quite a lot of language and also three ways of talking about the future at once.

5 Things to try tomorrow

May 22, 2018May 22, 2018 / dlh202 / Leave a comment

These may already form part of your everyday teaching repertoire but here are five activities to try tomorrow. Each has a differentiation and challenge added.

Quiz Quiz Trade

Everyone I know seems to understand this one differently. I have seen it used in MFL and English in different ways. It can probably be applied to other subjects too. Here’s how I make it work in my classroom.

Get the mini-whiteboards ready
Project on screen 3 questions students have been learning.
Students pick one of the questions and write it on their board.
Students go around the room. They must ask a question, answer a question and then swap whiteboards.
They must perform 5,6,7,8 swaps before heading back to their seat.

Differentiation: You can differentiate this by getting students to write the start of an answer on the other side of the whiteboard.

Front of whiteboard: ¿Qué llevas normalmente?

Back of whiteboard: Llevo…

Challenge: You could have students put a word on the back of the whiteboard that has to be incorporated into the answer. You could increase the variety of questions used or vary tenses used by questions.

Rewards: whilst the students are doing this, go around, listen and note down the ones who are going for it. Reward them at some point in a manner of your choosing.

MM Paired Speaking

MM are the initials of the excellent teacher who showed me this. It is an information gap activity but I like it as it practises speaking, listening, reading and writing.

Students divide page into 3 columns
Column 1 – write days of week in TL leaving 2-3 lines in between each
Column 2 – pupils draw picture that represents vocab they have been learning such as places in town.
Column 3 – leave blank.
Project on board a question such as ¿Adónde vas el lunes? (where do you go on Monday?). You could also project a model answer “el lunes voy al cine” (Mondays I go to the cinema).
Model the activity with a keen student. This stage is crucial for the activity to work well.
Fiona asks Shrek where he goes on each day of the week. When Shrek answers, Fiona uses her final column to write down exactly what he says.
Shrek and Fiona swap roles.

Differentiation: Weaker students might need this printing out on paper.

Challenge: You could increase the complexity of the sentence demanded by insisting pupils add an opinion. This could be done by adding a column in between 2 and 3.

Car Race Quiz

I resurrected this little gem this week. I cannot find the original car race powerpoint but you will find similar powerpoints here by the same author. Car race, horse race or (at Christmas) race to Bethlehem should work. For those of you big on knowledge organisers, this could be a different way to test them.

Have a list of questions ready to test everything in a unit from key vocabulary to how to form various tenses or structures covered.
Divide class into teams
Teams take it in turns to answer.
If they are right then click the car/horse/wise man (whichever you choose to download) and they will gradually move towards the finish line. If a team is unable to answer, pass it to another team.
Winners are first to the finish line.

Differentiation: This can come through the questions you ask and how you tailor the activity to the students in front of you.

Challenge: you could turn this activity into a translation challenge. First group to produce correct translation of a particular phrase gets to move their car forward.

Song gap fills

I don’t do these too often but a colleague of mine did one with a class recently. Find a song and take out a variety of vocabulary. You could look for words with a particular phoneme that you want students to practice or remove some verbs you have learnt recently. They listen twice or three times trying to put in the missing words and then you show them the lyric video for them to check their answers.

It is best done last lesson of the day or you will be hearing it all day. Whilst my colleague suggested Kevin y Karla (check their Youtube channel out), This one was a hit with my year 9s:

Differentiation: depends on the quantity words you take out.

Challenge: have two versions with words removed. Remove significantly more from one version, or equally put the wrong words in and students correct them.

12 sided dice topic revision

If you have a set of these then great. If not then tell students to roll a six sided die twice and add the numbers.

Set 12 tasks on the screen that link to the topic you have been studying. Give each task a points score according to complexity.

1 Simple vocabulary recall task

2 Explain grammar structure

3 Translate something

4 Make a sentence including …

etc

Differentiation: you could pair up students who are at a similar level. You could turn it into a rally-coach task (the more advanced student does their own task but coaches a weaker individual to help them achieve).

Challenge: depends on the complexity of tasks set

GCSE: Customs & Festivals

Apr 30, 2018Apr 30, 2018 / dlh202 / 2 Comments

800px-Santiago_Sacatepequez_Kite_Festival

Picture of Santiago Sacatepequez by gringologue [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

The Spanish speaking world is full of a variety of festivals. From the perilous San Fermín to the picturesque Fiesta de los Patios en Córdoba or contemplative Semana Santa. If you look further afield you will find El Día de Los Muertos/El Día de La Muerte, and El Yipao in Colombia.

AQA refers to this topic as “customs and festivals in Spanish speaking countries/communities”.

Pearson/Edexcel refer to it as “celebrations and festivals”.

WJEC refer to it as: “festivals and celebrations”.

The ideas discussed in this blog and inevitably the language used will unavoidably favour the exam board I’m currently preparing my students for. Nevertheless the ideas themselves should be applicable to any exam board and adaptable to languages other than Spanish.

It is worth considering how a module like this one might be examined. It could be tested by all four skills

Speaking: any of the three elements could include something related to this topic. Your sample assessment materials should give you an idea.
Writing: write about a festival/celebration you went to or would like to go to
Listening: listen to an account of Carnival and answer questions (AQA SAMS)
Reading: same as above but text on page

Here are some activities I have tried over the course of teaching this module.

The VLOG

This was an idea from a colleague of mine and one of the best MFL teachers I know. The ultimate aim is that students produce a VLOG (video-blog) in which they describe a Spanish festival. A growing number of the students I teach want to be “Youtubers” so they welcomed this idea. Students were told they can appear in the VLOG if they choose or they could do something similar to Tio Spanish. The main rule was that it was them doing the talking. The structures I wanted the students to be using included the following:

it celebrates, it takes place in, it is, there is/are, you can see, you can, it starts, it finishes, it lasts, it is one of the most … , it has, it involves, it includes, I would like to go, because it looks, i would recommend it because it is.

Part 1: 2-3 lessons of controlled listening, reading, speaking and writing practice ensued trying to recycle these structures as much as possible. I had been reading quite a bit over half-term and wanted to try out some new ideas. One source of ideas was The Language Teacher Toolkit The Language Teacher Toolkit. Another was the Language Gym Blog. A number of these formed part of the lesson and I wrote a number of texts that recycled the target structures above.

Part 2: I took the students to the ICT room. They researched key details about a festival from a selection I had produced. No-one did La Tomatina because that was on the scheme of work for subsequent weeks. After that students produced a script using as many of the target structures as possible.

Part 3: They handed in their scripts, which I marked. They then corrected and improved it based on feedback they were given so that their VLOG recording is grammatically sound. As part of this, they also had to underline any words that they felt were tricky to pronounce. Those that finished this redrafting process worked with me on how to pronounce the words. Others were directed to Voki. Whilst not perfect, it will do the job.

Part 4: Students are currently recording their vlogs.

Festivals that match interests.

Sometimes it is worth investigating a little more to find out some more festivals out there. UK textbooks tend to emphasise la tomatina or navidad. I think the former because it captures the imagination and the later because students can relate to it. One student was quite motivated by the fería de caballos in Jerez. Another really enjoyed looking into la mistura peruana (Peru’s food festival). Día de amistad (South America) was perceived to be a great idea by another student and they wondered why we don’t have it here.

Android Game

This was a way of practising the key vocabulary around festivals. Here’s how it works: Frodo draws 9 dots on a whiteboard in a 3×3 pattern. Frodo then joins up 4-5 of the dots consecutively like an Android phone password.

On the screen have 9 squares with phrases in. These correspond to the 9 dots.

Sam’s job is to crack Frodo’s password. Sam says the phrases on the screen trying to guess where Frodo’s password starts. Frodo can only respond “si” when Sam has guessed the first one. Even if he has said other parts of the pattern up to this point, he must get the first one.

The main aim here is repetition of vocabulary and familiarisation with the target structures. You should advise students beforehand not to use their actual phone password. You would think it might not need saying, but it does.

Trapdoor with lives

Trapdoor seems to be a staple of MFL teacher PowerPoints on TES.

Danielle was kind enough to let me use this example of trapdoor. You should visit her site: Morganmfl

The prevailing methodology seems to be that students restart when they get it wrong and go back to the beginning. A slight twist I have tried recently is giving students a number of lives. They then have to reach the end alive. This means that they have a greater chance to use all of the vocabulary on the activity. I tend to base the number of lives on 1-2 guesses per section.

For festivals I used the idea of a past tense account of the festival including the following vocabulary:

I went to, we went to, my friends and I went to, we participated in, we threw, a lot of, we ate, we drank, it was, we are going to go again, because it is, we are never going to go again,

Mastermind with lives

Again using the same principal as the trapdoor activity above. Students have to guess what their partner is thinking. They can only tell their partner how many they get right. Place a table on the board with 3-4 columns. The original game to the left uses four. Personally, I prefer three for MFL lessons. One student writes the target phrases in their book. The other tries to guess the phrases that they have written. This can be made quicker by giving students a number of lives. It also means both students are likely to get a go. Students seem to enjoy this one.

TL Questions and TL answers

By Carlesboveserral [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, from Wikimedia Commons

This module has been great for training students to respond to target language questions with target language answers. Using the AQA book, we covered la tomatina. I wrote text about la tomatina from the point of view of “Marcos” who attended la tomatina. There were then 8 TL questions with relatively simple answers in the text. Part of the activity was to train pupils to look for language that is similar to the verbs in the question.

If this is the answer, what is the question

In the subsequent lesson, I jumbled up the TL questions and TL answers and asked students to match them. The answers were on the left of the slide and questions on the right. To increase the level of challenge in this activity, you could have students create the questions themselves.

Four Phrases One festival

Have four boxes of text on the screen. Three of the boxes all partly describe a festival. The final box should have some details that do not correlate with the others. Students need to work out the festival as well as which box does not help them. The idea behind this was to give them practice of filtering out the distractors when looking at higher level reading texts. Depending on the level of your class you can make this as subtle as you feel is right.

Dice

I’m not quite sure where I would be without a set of 6 sided and 12 sided dice in lessons. Aside from the rather popular “one pen one die” activity, you can do a variety of things.

Improvisation – students make a sentence based on prompt. You could add a minimum word count to stretch them.

Where was the festival?
What was it about?
What did you see?
How was it?
Who did you go with?
What did you like most?

Roll, say, translate – Hugh rolls the dice and says the sentence. Zac translates into English.

se celebra en abril
tiene lugar en Sevilla
hay muchas casetas
empieza dos semanas después de la Semana Santa
la gente baila sevillanas, bebe manzanilla y come tapas
Quiero visitarla porque parece bonita

etc

Extreme Snakes and Ladders

By Druyts.t [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, from Wikimedia Commons

I’ll be honest with you; it is not extreme but the name seems to have an effect on classes. Find a snakes and ladders board. Set sentence-making challenges for anyone who lands on a number ending in 1,3,5,7,9. You could also add a snake stopper and ladder allower. These should be tricky tasks.

1 Where was the festival?

3 What was it about?

5 What did you see?

7 How was it?

9 Who did you go with?

Snake Stopper: make three sentences about a festival that includes the words … , … and …

Ladder Allower: Describe a festival you wouldn’t go to and why

If you have managed to read this far then well done! Feel free to tweet any ideas to @everydaymfl or leave a comment below.

Teaching the weather

Jul 5, 2017Jul 26, 2022 / dlh202 / 1 Comment

Weather phrases in foreign languages are odd. I have never really understood quite why “il fait” or “hace” makes more sense than “it is”. However, we have to teach them so here are a few ways to make it more interesting.

Predict the weather

As a plenary activity students write 5 sentences predicting the weather in various locations on the day of your next lesson. As a starter in the subsequent lesson, they check if they were correct / incorrect / bit of both.

The maps on El Tiempo.es are really good for this. See exhibit A below weather

Photo Response

Show students some photos and have them write sentences quickly on mini-whiteboards. If you use Spanish speaking countries you can generate quite a bit of interest as pupils will inevitably ask “where is that?” Exhibits below include Peru in the height of summer and Bolivia during rainy season. That falling grey mass is rain, not a tornado, as one of the kids thought.

peru bolivia

Today at Wimbledon / Euros / World Cup Scripts

Students in year 7 cover present and future tense. It will take a little bit of revision of verbs but they should be able to produce the following using the near future

va a jugar va a ganar va a perder va a llover

va jouer va gagner va perdre va pleuvoir

They have hopefully covered simple time phrases such as “today”, “tomorrow”, “later on”.

All of this leads to being in a position to present a TV programme. Students need to produce a script for the Today at Wimbledon programme. Click here for the theme tune, which will remain in your head for hours afterwards. They should include

Weather today
Who plays who today
Weather tomorrow
Who is going to play who tomorrow
Opinions on who is going to win or lose.

They then perform this and can peer-assess each other on whatever criteria you set. Personally I would go for the following with scores out of 5 for each:

Fluency – does it flow? Can they sound natural?
Confidence – do they come across confidently?
Communciation – can they make themselves understood?
Pronunciation – How strong is their knowledge of phonics?

Translation Tandems

This idea came from Greg Horton on a CPD course about 2 years ago. He used it for vocabulary tests so this is a small tweak.

Hold an A4 piece of paper portrait. Divide the piece of A4 paper. into 2 halves down the middle.

¦ ¦ ¦

Students write sentences alternating between English and TL. Students then fold the piece of paper down the middle and sit facing each other. They have to translate whatever sentence their partner reads out into the other language. This is a great activity to practise translation both ways. It does require a fair bit of pre-teaching so that it is challenging but not demotivating.

Mira 1 Rap

Mira 1 has a listening text that might be a song or a poem. It can be found on p103 and works rather well as a rap. Challenge your class to turn it into one. A good rap backing can be found for free at this link here on TES. If you have VLC media player then you can alter the playback speed and slow it down if needed.

Real life listening

I experimented the other day. I listened to a weather report on eltiempo.es and the guy was super fast. I picked out 10-15 words that my students might pick up from the video, and then added some more that were not there. I challenged them to listen and see how many of my words on the board they would find. I was pleasantly surprised with the results, and so were they.

If you have managed to read this far then this weather report did make me chuckle.

5 Things to try tomorrow

May 17, 2017May 17, 2017 / dlh202 / 1 Comment

Number, Five, 5, Digit

It has been a while since writing one of these (or anything) so here are 5 things to try tomorrow.

Everydaymfl has been a little bit quiet of late but posts in the works include one on questioning and possibly one on the new GCSE – what I learnt teaching it so far.

No writing lessons

Writing is one of the easiest skills to show progress with.

Student writes something
Teacher corrects
Student improves

However, students are used to a lot of this. It really is quite something for them to have a “no writing” lesson in a subject they will typically associate with writing. An entire lesson of speaking and listening is not a bad thing as it reminds them how important the skills are. Some groups will be noticeably more enthused by this idea. It is quite heavy on the planning and paired activity so you may want a settling activity at some point – perhaps hands up listening.

Group Model Essay

After my year 10 group seemed somewhat intimidated by the 150 word task in the new GCSE, I thought I would approach it gradually. Here is what we did:

They were given a 150 word task from the AQA textbook.

In groups of 4 they drafted the best response on mini-whiteboards that they could come up with. After some feedback from me, they improved the draft on mini-whiteboards. One member of the group put it on to paper. They handed them in and I typed them up on a word document with significant amounts of space around them. I annotated the work highlighting tenses, good bits of grammar (comparatives, superlatives, subjunctives) and double ticks for anything that particularly stood out.

This was really well received and sometimes it is helpful to know “what a good one looks like” but also to know that you were involved in producing it.

Micro-listening enhancers

I have read a lot about these on Gianfranco Conti’s website. I have found myself using them quite a bit recently as my speakers are kaputt. The pupils did seem to be gaining confidence from them. In teaching the perfect tense in Spanish, it seemed to have a positive effect on the pronunciation of “he” and “ha” et al later in the lesson. Well worth a try and something I am looking to do a bit more of earlier on.

Photo Credit: immaculate-photons Flickr via Compfight cc

MM Paired Speaking

Possibly one of my favourite activities. The MM refers to a lady I worked with on my PGCE. In my mind the activity is named after her for two reasons. 1) I have never seen anyone else do it. 2) I’ve no idea what to call it!

Students divide their page into 3 columns. If they don’t have a ruler then gentle folds work well.

Column 1: days of the week or time phrases in a list going down. 3 lines between each approximately
Column 2: draw simple picture representing an activity
Column 3: leave blank.

Person A asks question for example: “Qué hiciste el lunes”
Person B responds using time phrase and makes sentence based on picture “el lunes fui de compras”.
Person A notes down in the empty column what their partner did on Monday.

You can add challenge by getting Person A to write in the third person on step 3. You could differentiate for weaker learners by getting them to write a quick note as to what they heard.

This is a very versatile activity as it can be adapted to different tenses and languages easily. It is good speaking and listening practice at the same time. Both students should have that last column filled by the end of the activity.

The Future Tense Three Musketeers

This came from a teacher I used to work with. She would teach the future tense telling students that there are three musketeers.

Musketeer number 1 has 6 moves in Spanish. Musketeer number 2 always does the same thing. Musketeer has different disguises but you can always tell it is him by looking at the ending. The three can never be separated. Once the concept has been introduced you may then move on to some mini-whiteboard practice. Telling students to check musketeer number 1,2 or 3 seems to be quite effective. It also seems to eradicate “voy a juego” or “voy a hago”

1 2 3

Voy a ______________AR/ER/IR

Vas

Vamos

Vais

Van

Pupil Premium & MFL

Apr 25, 2016Mar 10, 2018 / dlh202 / 4 Comments

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We’ll start with some words from Number 10 Downing Street:

“The Coalition Government introduced the Pupil Premium in 2011 to provide additional school funding for those children classed as having deprived backgrounds, and also those who had been looked after (by a local authority) for more than six months. The Service Premium was also introduced for children whose parent(s) are, or have since 2011, served in the armed forces.” Source Material for super keen readers.

Regardless of whether you agree with the idea of the Pupil Premium and the considerable emphasis placed thereupon, it is here to stay. I have to be honest that over the past few years I have had mixed feelings and a lot of questions about it: what about children who fall ever so slightly above the threshold? What about students with parents in the forces that actually do not access the funding and do not want it? Can it make that much of a difference? Are we in danger of over-emphasizing it? One headteacher’s blog wrote about the disadvantage gap being a chasm. It is a complex issue but not one we should shy away from.

Earlier today our SENCO shared this picture:

It reminds me that my job is a teacher is to ensure that every pupil has a chance to achieve. For some those boxes in the picture will equate to extra funding from Number 10 and for others the boxes are the process of scaffolding and lesson planning. For some pupils the boxes symbolise my teaching, my feedback and my attention or time spent with them. Feedback has been covered here, support and scaffolding for lower ability has been covered here and here. Today we are looking at the Pupil Premium.

Why Pupil Premium Students struggle:

Pupil Premium encompasses a variety of different situations. It should never be confused or used as a synonym for low ability or behavioural difficulties. Both might be true but they are not always the case. I have done my best to list the struggles and the type of student in the table below.

Type of Pupil Premium Student	Explanation
Free School Meals	Eligibility for free-school meals is used as an indicator of poverty. It may be that such students eligible come from homes that do not support their education in terms of material resources, or in terms of assisting with homework. Other needs might be more basic in terms of uniform, cleanliness or communication skills.
Service Children	Children with parents in the armed forces are often eligible for the pupil premium. In my experience this presents slightly different issues in terms of T&L. Some students will be anxious as a result of the situation the parent is in and the infrequency of contact. Other students may need no help at all as the other parent works and provides for them. There is a wide spectrum of need when it comes to this type of student.
Children in Care	Inevitably these students will have varying issues. Much depends on the reason these students are in care, and at the same time, the quality of care they are currently receiving. Children in care are often quite well supported but struggle in other areas possibly in terms of development, communication and social skills, or mental health.
Ever 6	This refers to the fact a student may have been eligible for the pupil premium in the past 6 years. It is worth knowing as whilst the student may no longer be eligible; there may still be needs that require meeting or they may only have moved slightly above the threshold for FSM.

What is suggested to be effective?

Having read OFSTED’s report on how schools are using the pupil premium. They mention a number of ideas but many relate to SLT and governance. The following are their suggestions for the classroom:

Effective teaching and learning for pupil premium students – just teach great lessons everyday.
Target support effectively. How are you moving students forward? What support do they have?
Know the desired outcomes for PP students, not always age related but higher.
Know your pupils.
Deploy your TA effectively (see previous blog post here).
Enhance their thinking, study and revision skills (see blog on revision here).

They also say the following:

“Where schools spent the Pupil Premium funding successfully to improve achievement, they never confused eligibility for the Pupil Premium with low ability, and focused on supporting their disadvantaged pupils to achieve the highest levels and thoroughly analysed which pupils were underachieving, particularly in English and mathematics, and why.”

Having read around the subject it appears there is a “no excuse” campaign going on. Social deprivation, familial background, home situation, low attendance and level of need are not excuses (see 2013 presentation by OFSTED here).

In short, the pressure is on…

Photo Credit: Jack Zalium via Compfight cc

What can we do in MFL?

There are a lot of questions below designed to provoke thought and hopefully action.

Photo Credit: youflavio via Compfight cc

Data tracking – Analysing data has become a necessary part of the job. Whilst we may find it tedious, it is a means to an end. The end should be answering the following kinds of questions:

Are your pupil premium students where they should be?
Are they attaining in line with their targets (grades 5-9, positive progress 8 score, FFTD, or whatever you use)?
If they are not attaining then you need to be asking why?
Is the underachievement isolated to MFL or is it more widespread?
Where are they achieving? Why?
How can you use that knowledge to your advantage? What has that teacher or department done? What are they currently doing?
Could another member of staff give a pupil a bit of encouragement that causes them to see your subject differently? Is their tutor/head of year/achievement leader (or whatever your school calls the role) pushing them to achieve in all subject areas?

Targeted Questioning

Some teachers would advocate a system of no-hands-up whereby any questions are directed at PP students first and then at other key groups (underachievers, more able, SEND, disengaged boys). On a seating plan I do have key individuals highlighted and will more often direct my questions towards them.

Others might add on to this the idea of “no opt out” where the kid is not allowed to say “I don’t know”. It is entirely up to you how to run your classroom.

Quality first marking/feedback.

A suggestion from another school was to mark all PP books first in the pile as you are freshest and most alert. It is hard to dispute the logic if that is true for you. Personally, I find my marking gets better after the first three or so. I would need to adapt that strategy slightly. I do have some issue with the ethics of this approach, as every student should be receiving decent feedback from me. There are also students out there who may not be in receipt of the Pupil Premium but actually fighting battles at home on a par with, or worse than those who are classified as disadvantaged. It is up to you as a teacher to differentiate accordingly.

Seating plans – Some of my colleagues advocate seating all PP students in the same seat in their room so they always know who they are. Others advocate sitting them at the front of your classroom to enable them to seek help. Yet more suggest surrounding them with pupils who can positively influence them. It is up to you as a teacher to decide and you probably have your own views, but we have to know who they are and we have to be able to answer the question: how are you catering for their needs?

Strengths/weaknesses analysis – this was quite a useful exercise with my year 11s. Looking at the data I had, their performance in class and their books. What are their strengths and weaknesses as far as language learning was concerned? Do they know what their strengths are? Are they playing to them and working on their weaknesses? One of the issues with the new GCSE is the many elements: speaking, listening, reading, writing, translations, photocards, roleplays, target language questions, target language answers, 40 words, 90 words and 150 words. What bits are they doing well? What do they need support with? I have seen teachers on some MFL Facebook groups looking for “quick wins”. Actually, could it be a case of looking at the individual pupils and picking one area they need to develop that is going to make the most telling difference in terms of marks?

Resourcing in school – This could be hotly debated and there is a strong argument from both sides. Lend them equipment or don’t lend them equipment, it’s up to you. Similarly the issue is the same with books, do you let them take it home? Much also depends on the individual pupil. For some pupils you will never see the book or pen again, others will have it back in the subsequent lesson. Perhaps for those who persistently struggle the school could supply a pencil case that could be picked up from a central point and returned at the end of the day? Rewards could also be used to ensure its return.

Bought resources

Revision guides?
- A note on guides – having examined a few I am leaning towards CGP. I just feel their explanations and layout are more accessible.
Revision workbooks?
- Some exam boards offer these full of past paper style questions.
Photocopiable booklets from TES?
Learning websites such as samlearning.com and Vocabexpress.
Twilight sessions.
Revision sheets with QR codes containing links to good sites.
MFL revision conferences (one school in Peterborough did this – found via google)
Half-term revision sessions.

With all of this there is a caveat: you need to evaluate how effective and helpful it was. This is very much something OFSTED and the DofE are looking at. It is no longer simply a question of how are you using the money. The assumption is you are using it; the question is what effect is it having?

Resourcing the student with strategies and techniques

Do your PP students know how to revise effectively? I hear from year 11s various comments on learning styles and about highlighters and gel pens however the research shows these to be largely ineffective. If you are curious about how to make revision more effective then I suggest the following:

The Guardian – The Science of Revision – excellent article with links and research to back up.

EverydayMFL – GCSE Revision – Here’s one I made earlier, nothing like a bit of shameless self-promotion!

Classteaching – quality advice and backed up by research.

Anything to prevent the eventuality below:

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Relationship – Some students need someone to believe in them in spite of their home background. They need that person who sees them for who they are and what they can become. They need someone who sees them as a work in progress and who will not give up on them. They need you to be the person who appreciates them just as they are, but cares too much to leave them that way. I am not saying you have to be their best buddy but you can be the role-model, support and guide to life that they have lacked.

“Carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.”

Photo Credit: Macro-roni via Compfight cc

Teaching Assistants – Teaching assistants can be the unsung heroes and heroines of your classroom if deployed properly. These are the questions you need to be thinking through:

If you have one then what is their remit in your classroom?

Do you direct them or leave them to it
Do they have a seating plan and know who they are meant to work with?
Do they have an order of pupils?
Could you promote independence by asking TA to move on after 1-2 minutes with a student?
Do they elicit or explain?
Do they guide to the answer or give the answer?
How well resourced is your TA? Do they have your schemes of work? Do they see a lesson plan or do you brief them on what is going to be taught?
Who is working harder: your PP student or your TA?
Could you get some planning time with a TA attached to a particular student?

Parents – Not all PP students have difficult family situations so get the parents onside. Be careful not to patronise. It is very easy to assume certain things when the label PP is on a seating plan or class list. Parents evening is an excellent opportunity to build relationships, develop that link between school and home and facilitate learning and progress. One parent recently asked me “what can they be doing outside of school as I don’t speak any languages?” 2-3 minutes later she left armed with strategies and places to find resources to help. In terms of cost, it was minimal but there is a huge potential yield.

Marking Meetings – One of my colleagues recently suggested this at a meeting. I’m quite keen to try it. It used to be the norm when I was in school. Certain teachers would call you up to their desk and go through your book marking it with you while the class were working their way through exercises. Would a pupil premium student benefit from some live feedback and a discussion of misconceptions? Equally, this could apply to all pupils but if you’re going to work through a group, why not start with some PP students?

Photo Credit: Jellaluna via Compfight cc

Any great ideas? Leave them in the comments section below!

Everyday Literary Texts

Apr 6, 2016Aug 30, 2016 / dlh202 / 1 Comment

After a couple of blogs titled getting ready for the new GCSE and getting ready for the new GCSE: the sequel (clearly I’m great at naming things). I thought it was about time I made some headway with the various elements required in listening and reading. Literary texts are making an appearance in the new GCSE. Regardless of whether you think it is a good idea, they are coming and this means an opportunity to make the best of it. The government state the following:

“Pupils should be taught to read literary texts in the language [such as stories, songs, poems and letters], to stimulate ideas, develop creative expression and expand understanding of the language and culture” – National Curriculum for Languages

Before going overboard on new resources, budget allocations and looking at every single website for a satisfactory literary text, we need some perspective. It is highly likely that this element of the new GCSE will only be tested in the reading paper.

This blog will look at how we can incorporate the demands from the DfE into our normal teaching practice. Readers of this blog should be advised that my main languages are Spanish and German so French teachers may be slightly disappointed but I would encourage them to head to the excellent Frenchteacher website.

Texts

Our textbooks are technically full of literary texts:

Listos 2 p 92 – biographical text on footballing legend Diego Maradona.
Mira 2 p101 Barcelona Te Quiero – song about Barcelona. One of my former colleagues convinced the kids that this song won Eurovision! To be fair, it is probably better than some Eurovision entries.
Expo 2 Red p93 La Marseillaise – The song that most people know the first bit of!
Klasse 3 – every chapter has a “Lesepause”, what more could you need?!

If your school is on a bit of a “move away from the textbook” crusade then I would encourage you to make use of the texts that are in those books. There is no shame in using a book! You are also doing your bit to promote literacy so on this occasion your use of a textbook is entirely justified. You can also guarantee they have been through proof-reads and revisions, which lessens the time you may spend correcting the errors on a power-point found on a resources website.

Stories

It is likely the story will be only a short excerpt. I would be amazed if they could fit a whole story into an exam paper! To access stories your students will need the following:

To know how speech is indicated in a Spanish text.
To know phrases such as “said”, “mentioned”, “argued”,”insisted”, “replied”.
An understanding of the preterite (events) and the imperfect (description).
To realise that they do not need every single word to understand a text.
Some regular practice texts http://www.cuentosinfantiles.net/ , http://all-literature.wikidot.com/ or http://www.grimmstories.com/de/grimm_maerchen/index You could do this termly or half-termly in class or as part of a homework.

There are many ways you can incorporate a story into your lesson plan. Here are some

Teaching Past Tense: How many past tense verbs can you find in …? I do this with an excerpt from Harry Potter. It tells you if they have internalised the verb endings.
Teaching Present Tense: A day in the life of …
Teaching House & Home: A short text about where someone lives. I normally use Papa Francisco as he could have lived in the Vatican but chose a small modest flat instead.
Teaching Future Tense: pick an unfinished story and get students to write sentences about what will happen next.
Teaching School: A day in the life of … Pick a student in your class with a good sense of humour and write as if you are them.
Teaching holiday experiences: write a tripadvisor review or borrow a real one. Could the students then create their own? Could they take your one and make it better?

Songs/Poems

If a song is catchy or cheesy it will probably stick with the students. Here are some sources:

Lexibexi – German versions of English songs.
Wiseguys – German songs with some English ones rewritten.
Gypsy kings – Spanish songs in Spanish but very clear pronunciation most of the time.
Lyrics Training – gap fill of pop songs. You may need to censor the videos!
Navidad – Christmas is a great time for using songs.

What can you do with a song?

Gap fill lyrics.
Multiple choice questions – which word did they hear?
Make them learn it.
Get them to perform it.
Use it to internalise pronunciation rules
Write another verse.
Predict the vocabulary used in the song – listening bingo
Rearrange verses

Remember we are talking about songs in the context of literary texts so at some point the students will need to encounter the lyrics.

Letters

My assumption is that these will be letters of complaint, emails about holiday experiences and emails asking for information about a job. I think we would do well do let these topics arise as they normally do on our scheme of work.

What I would recommend is giving students a crash-course in letter writing. This can be as simple as teaching phrases like “dear”, “yours faithfully” and various similar phrases. Some weaker students might struggle with “un saludo cordial” as cordial in their minds is something you drink. I really do not think we are treading any new territory here in terms of reading. However, given that the curriculum also mentions registers then students may well need to write a letter using formal or informal modes of address.

Other literary texts

Literary texts may not be encompassed solely by the above so here are some other options you could incorporate:

Newspaper articles eg: Cholita Fashion (clothing unit), Quinoa (healthy eating) or Messi. You could also Prepare your own. After Rosaespanolas superb murder mystery lesson my trainee produced a newpaper article for the students to use so they could write their own.
Websites – one of my ICT-minded colleagues made a brilliant lesson where students were given a budget on an excel spreadsheet and had to buy an outfit for a particular occasion using Galeria.
Signs, adverts and notices:

bastian-sick-tritt-am-27-april-im-theater-an-der_full

Everyday Feedback & Marking

Mar 23, 2016Aug 30, 2016 / dlh202 / 7 Comments

Update: Government publish results of review into marking. It’s worth a read and the three principles of “meaningful, manageable and motivating” are sound.

Feedback and marking conjure up a variety of responses. Some teachers secretly enjoy it. Some would like to drop their marking pile in a woodchipping machine. If you are reading this because you want to improve your feedback then hopefully you find something new to try. If you are snowed under then I would point you in this direction.

We know from research by people such as John Hattie that feedback can be incredibly important. Two videos that demonstrate the importance of feedback and how it can be used well are below. The first: Austin’s Butterfly, has done the rounds on Twitter, Facebook and in schools. Watch for the kid at about the 45-50second mark with his encyclopaedic knowledge of butterflies…

The second video shows that over time with a diet of quality instruction and effective feedback people generally improve at whatever they are doing. Pay attention to his control, his reactions and his speed. It is one way I get the kids to “buy in” to my marking and then the subsequent reflection time.

Feedback or Feedforward?

I know, “feedforward” is not a word but this came from a discussion with some colleagues the other day. Most students do not care about the work they have done once it is over. They care about the next piece. So whilst our feedback is reactionary and responds to what they have done, they are already looking at the next thing. One colleague said that he gets students to copy the target from the previous piece of written work at the top of the next piece of written work they are set, so that it is in their mind while they are producing it. If you are following Mira 2 then you maybe approaching a module on clothes. Here is how you could apply this:

Homework 1: Produce a 75 words on things you wear at different times

Student completes piece of work with the following 2 targets

Try to use a greater variety of vocabulary
Add reasons to opinions given

Homework 2: write 75 words about a party you went to and what you wore

Student writes at top of work

TARGET: Use greater variety of vocabulary.
HOW: no repeated nouns or adjectives where possible.

Suddenly we have a situation where the feedback informs the next piece of work. This means the next piece of work is not only a response to the marking but it is also driving the learning forward.

Do you use coloured pens?

Schools vary on this. Here are some of the ones out there I have heard about:

The purple pen of progress. This is for improvements to work or redrafting of work.
The pink pen of pride. This is for work a teacher wishes to highlight as particularly good or because of how well the task has been met by what has been written
The green pen of growth. This incorporates targets to improve.
The green pen of peer assessment. It’s for peer assessment, the clue is in the name. It is quite a good way of visually defining who did the marking (more for observer than the kid)
The red pen of teacher marking.
The turquoise pen of…you’re just making it up now!

I have seen coloured pens used really effectively in one of our feeder primary schools. The presentation of their work is stunning too particularly given a very tough catchment area. Something goes wrong between the Summer of year 6 and the Autumn of year 7, cynics might suggest it’s adolescence…

Highlighters

My new favourite. This came originally from a colleague in Bristol and a colleague currently on maternity leave. Underlining an entire piece of work in different highlighters.

Green = good leave it as it is
Yellow = something needs correcting

You could add some codes such as (G) = grammar (W.O) = word order (S) = Spelling to aid understanding where needed or just let the yellow stand for itself and force the burden of correction and thought back on to the pupil. Some may disagree but I find this visually powerful for the kids. Weaker ability kids who receive a piece of work that is largely green with one or two hints of yellow get a massive morale boost from this. Even the ones that get more yellow than green benefit as they still appreciate knowing that at least some of it was right!

Stamps

Ross Mcgill who runs the Teacher Toolkit website has a post about verbal feedback stamps. I see no point in repeating him. However many stamps can save time and I have benefited from the stamp stacks supplied by a website out there. The stamps contain things such as:

“please give nouns a capital”
“please take more care over presentation”
“please watch your verb endings”
“great work, keep it up!”

DIRT

I mentioned DIRT mats in this post. There are a number of things you can do to maximise DIRT time. Firstly, make it really clear what you want students to do with the time and how you want them to do it. Secondly, refuse to take any questions apart from ones concerning your handwriting for the first 5 minutes. Lastly in that first 5 minutes, focus on the ones who need your attention most.

Prove to me beyond all reasonable doubt

My Head of Department posed a difficult question last week: “early on in year 7 when you have an able kid getting everything right, what feedback do you give that drives their learning forward?” I happen to have just such a year 7 so here is what I tried. When we have done grammatical exercises, her DIRT task has been to “prove beyond all reasonable doubt that you can apply the grammar points from the previous lesson using pages … of Mira 1,2,3”. She then gets on with exercises that challenge, extend, consolidate and deepen her learning. Sometimes the grammar book used is not the regular one (e.g: listos rather than Mira or the GCSE foundation book if I was feeling really mean). She has responded really well.

Patricia’s problems page.

Patricia is a student I teach who struggled with a new language: German. We decided that at the back of her book we should have a problems page. Initially, I did not mark much of her work to keep her confidence levels high but we had an ongoing dialogue on the problem page. It was not triple impact marking or deep marking or excessive dialogue. It was just an honest conversation where she could ask the questions she did not want to ask in class.

“I get that the verb goes second, what if you have two or three verbs?”
“How do you form questions?”
“Why can’t German be easier?”
“What is the difference between denn and weil?

Feedback sheets

TES is full of these. Rather than writing the comments then they can be on a sheet. This can be very effective but again the sheet has to be meaningful and linked to your assessment criteria. I remember marking an oral exam with another teacher and they suggested I listen to the amount of subjunctives and connectives the student was using. The problem is that the Edexcel Speaking mark scheme does not really mention either. If you are going to produce a sheet like these then make it a good one. The question the sheet needs to answer is not only “what do I need to work on?” but also “how am I going to go about it?”

Formative Comments

For a while we ran with comment only marking and to an extent we still do in that pieces of work are not graded. It can be very easy to get into a rut of formative comments. The following are based on the new GCSE Writing mark scheme (AQA is the only accredited one I am aware of).

Content	Quality of Language	Accuracy	Language Specific
Stick more closely to the question	Include greater variety of tenses	Check genders	Spanish accents only go one direction: /
What else could you say about?	Use a greater variety of opinion phrases	Check spelling	Please give nouns a capital
How could you make … clearer?	Find more interesting adjectives than “aburrido” and “interesante”	Check verb/adjective endings	Check direction of accents
Aim for longer, more detailed sentences	Include more complex clauses and structures	Check accents	Check use of avoir/etre

If making comments then they should be demanding a response. Mary Myatt has some points to make on this here.

Subtle comments.

The exercise book is a way of communicating with your students. Do not underestimate the power of a well-placed positive comment. Matt Walsh’s blog has a brilliant post worth reading called “to the quiet boring girl in the class“. Sometimes they just need a little encouragement. One of the most talented students I have ever worked with once said to me “why must it always be “to improve”, why can’t I just be good for a few seconds?” Here’s the challenge: pick the quiet kid that doesn’t contribute much in lessons. Look through their book, find a piece of work, single out the positives and finish with a comment about how much you valued the effort and thought that went into it. If you need convincing of the effect you can have then read this.

“I thrived on the quiet praise I was given” – Emma Thomas

Everydaymfl’s Marking & Feedback

I’ve outlined a lot of different stuff here. I’m sure you have lots of other idea. If you saw Everydaymfl’s books, what would he hope you would see?

Underlined date, title and label as to class or homework
Legible work.
Pieces of work marked with highlighters.
Codes where absolutely necessary but very few to force the student to examine their work.
2-3 targets at the end of work with how to improve.
DIRT task for the student to work on (using purple pen).
Some elaborate positive comments – not just “well done” but “this is great because.”
Challenging and redrafting of poor quality or poorly presented work.
Regular marking (half-termly)
A comment somewhere to make the quiet kid feel ten feet tall.

5 Things to try tomorrow

Mar 9, 2016Aug 30, 2016 / dlh202 / 2 Comments

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I’m snowed under with marking, reports and grades at the moment. So here’s 5 ideas which helped me procrastinate, which you may like to try tomorrow…

Target Language Answers

How do your pupils respond at the end of starters, reading activities, listening activities? I’ve started getting my classes to use the following:

creo que es …A,B,C etc
pienso que es
podría ser …
Estoy seguro que es …

It’s a simple way of drilling in key phrases and it keeps the lesson in the target language. I thought it might slow things down but it hasn’t. Even better is that students are using them and they are appearing in their work.

Dice

Such a simple thing but so versatile. Get a set of 6 sided or 10/12 sided dice. Try any of the following:

1 me gustaría trabajar con animales

2 mi amigo le gustaría trabajar en una oficina

3 mi profesor debería trabajar como domador de leones

4 no me gustaría trabajar al aire libre

5 mi mama debería trabajar con la gente

6 mi papa debería trabajar como profesor ~~estresado~~

1 Give an opinion about … using ich denke, dass

2 Give an opinion about .. using gefallen

3 Give an opinion about … and add a weil clause

4 Give an opinion about … using gern

5 Give an opinion about …. that adds a sentence in another tense

6 Give an opinion about … using meiner Meinung nach

Or vocabulary revision

1/2 Partner names 5 words on topic of …

3/4 Partner gives 5 adjectives on topic of …

5/6 Partner gives 5 verb phrases on topic of…

or create your own…

“Hide your whiteboards.”

The credit for this one goes entirely to a trainee teacher who gets better and better with every lesson. She insists that students keep mini-whiteboards under their chins once they have written and then they raise them on her instruction. Copying other people is one of my pet hates and this eliminates it and also forces the “less motivated” (bone idle) to work harder and produce something or it’s really obvious.

DIRT mats.

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Our school has introduced DIRT time. One pupil suggested it be called “time for improvement, reflection and development” but then realised that “TIRD” had a slightly unappealing ring to it. During that time, my focus needs to be on the students with genuine questions about how to improve their work. The rest need to get on. These mats are editable and really easy to adapt. Despite the fact they are aimed at KS1 and KS2 they can be adapted and used with all years. My experience so far is that the younger years like the Pixar one and my 10s & 11s feel that the force is strong with the Star Wars versions.

Hands up listening

This came courtesy of Nick Mair on a course. It is incredibly versatile and quite effective in terms of assessing the skill of listening. It also shows you who your best listeners are.

The teacher talks in the target language. Students have 3 options: left hand , right hand, both hands. You assign something to each hand. Maybe it is “opinion”, “reason”, “two tenses used”. Or “sensible”, “idiotic”, “mixed”.

Here are two examples using Mira 1, which would lead to students putting both hands up.

“En mi casa hay un salón, un comedor y una cocina. Había un baño en el jardín.”
“En mi casa hay un salón, un comedor, una cocina y un baño. Arriba hay un dormitorio, el dormitorio de mis padres y el dormitorio de mi tortuga.”

Credit to www.cooltext.com for the cool text effects.

Getting ready for the new GCSE: the sequel

Feb 28, 2016Aug 30, 2016 / dlh202 / 3 Comments

“There is an immutable conflict at work in life and in business, a constant battle between peace and chaos. Neither can be mastered, but both can be influenced. How you go about that is the key to success.” Phil Knight

I’m not actually sure who Phil Knight is, but I like the quote and it has relevance to this situation with the new GCSE. We will not master the new system in its first few years but we can influence the outcome by preparing our students well. The last post on this topic looked primarily at preparing pupils for the new speaking tasks and a previous one examined the return of the roleplay. This one will focus on the writing element of the new GCSE. I have previously blogged before on writing but this is specifically aiming at the new GCSE. Whilst I aim to be unbiased, three exam boards are submitting 3rd and 4th drafts. This post therefore will be written with the AQA specs in mind. Today’s post is an amalgamation of my own thoughts and ALL South West’s conference in Bristol yesterday.

Here is a summary of what candidates have to do based on the AQA spec.

Foundation Writing	Marks Available	Higher Writing	Marks Available
4 Sentences in TL based on picture	8	90 word task in TL Instructions in TL	16
40 word paragraph in TL. Instructions in TL	16	150 word task based on 2 bullet points Instructions and bullet points in TL	32
Translation of sentences into TL	10	Translation of paragraph into TL	12
90 word task in TL Instructions in TL	16

The question inevitably is: how do we prepare our pupils for this? A quick look at the mark scheme provides us with two themes to be aware of:

Foundation students will need to focus on content and quality of language.

Higher students will need to focus on content and range of language.

From what I can see, it appears the higher students will need to do more, with more. We are looking at breadth and depth, which is great. Teachers of foundation students might this allows more time for reinforcement and repetition of material, once you have worked out how to teach all the topics in 2 years but that is another blog post. Given that we now have 6-7 lessons per CA back then we have to maximise the time on language learning.

Whatever you choose to do the focus will be on preparing students to use the language in a situation where they have no help other than some TL prompts, a picture and what they remember. Some of the ideas below were gleaned from yesterday’s conference and credit has been given below where appropriate.

Folded tests (thanks to Greg Horton)

Greg suggested this idea yesterday. I might have modified it as I couldn’t remember it all. Students have an A4 sheet of absolutely key phrases that they should know (creo que, es, son, pensaba que, pienso que, voy a, espero, me gustaría etc). English is down one side and Spanish down the other. You hold the sheet portrait and fold it in half. The students then test each other: Sherice says the English and Chardonnay aims to recall the Spanish working down the list. They then swap but Chardonnay starts at the bottom of the list and works up. They then check their scores and see who wins. The test reinforces and tests spontaneous production of key phrases. Greg then suggested a penalty shootout between the two highest scorers at the front of the class. This would ensure that the students know quality language and it places value on knowing these phrases. You could also develop the range and breadth of language with higher sets by changing the test papers after a term. A homework task could be to make sentences involving the words.

TL Instructions for all written work

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The new exam is going to be largely in TL. Some exam boards may supply “probable rubrics” but why not start now? The more students are used to it; the less scary the exam will be. As MFL teachers we are used to acting and a lot of gesture and mime can probably help to ingrain the key phrases in the minds of our learners. Failing that then you can teach it to them or have your most frequent utterances displayed on walls or learning mats.

Learning walls

Displays of posters might need to become a thing of the past (perhaps save them for the corridors). What can students learn from your wall? At the moment, I will be honest, they cannot learn enough from my walls. A fantastic idea I saw at Bradley Stoke Community School was a teacher who had pouches on the walls of short summaries of how to do each tense or how to form negatives in French. What do your walls contain that improve written work? Foundation students will need this kind of support. Otherwise they will become too dependent on dictionaries they are no longer allowed to use If I had my way the walls in my room would act like the ones in Minority Report, but we’re not there, yet!

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Equipment checks

One of the curses of controlled assessments is that students memorise entire paragraphs about their work experience but cannot form sentences in a foreign language or hold a basic conversation. Eva Lamb spoke yesterday about engineering situations such as an equipment check and repeating TL that can be used in other situations:

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Eva:Hast du ein Heft?

Boris: Ja ich habe ein Heft?

Eva: Hast du dein Heft?

Vladmir: Ich habe kein Heft

Eva: Hast du dein Heft verloren

Vladmir: Ja Ich habe mein Heft verloren

Eva: detention!

Ok…so she didn’t say the last line…but it is a very simple way to recycle language and one I am itching to try. She suggested doing it with year 7 from the very first lesson. It forces every student to speak and the haben verb paradigm is instantly being absorbed. From then, change it to homework, who won the Manchester United Arsenal match (sorry Arsenal fans) etc. It is also not much of a stretch from knowing “ich habe, some personal pronouns and some past participles to being able to use them in written work.

More Grammar practice; less nouns.

Students can find the nouns for homework on Wordreference. Textbooks are massively guilty of presenting nouns, nouns and more nouns. Students need verbs. Every sentence on this blog contains a verb, some might even have more than one. Verbs are going to be key. Foundation students will need a stock of them that they can deploy at any point. Higher students will likely need a greater range of them but know what they can do with them. For example: knowing that adding é ía to a Spanish infinitive will change the meaning and equally removing the last two letters and replacing with o or é will also change the meaning. Irregular verbs will likely need to be learnt. This could be done for homework.

Core language

Two of my colleagues from English recently tried testing their bottom set 3 times on the same vocabulary. They took in the marks from the third time. They also made the students then write some sentences using the vocabulary. Unsurprisingly the scores increased each time, even for the weakest.

MFL departments need to nail down a core of language that students should know at the end of years 7,8 and 9. If you work with primary schools then you can do even more of this. Every student should be able to produce certain structures. Why is it that last year’s year 11 bottom set could also remember juego al fútbol (pronounced “joo way go al fut-ball”)? Yet a simple pienso que, debería, tengo que or other verbs was beyond them. They need a core and they need testing on it regularly to give it value. They also need testing on their ability to apply it.

Some phrases need to be procedural in the same way that students are taught a procedure to approaching a simultaneous equation, expanding brackets or a quadratic formula. We do this with ,weil clauses but do we do it with other structures?

Transferable structure plenaries

Most of our lessons contain some nouns but it is the grammatical structure that is important. Take for example the Expo 1 lesson on “dans ma ville”. The structure that the book is teaching is a very simple “il y a” and “il n’y a pas de”. Quite often students will remember this in the context of “dans ma ville il y a” but the question is can they apply the il y a elsewhere?

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This photo could be shown at the end of the lesson. Qu’est-ce qu’il y a dans le photo? Suddenly the students have to apply their knowledge of the structure along with the previous topic of house and home. Get them to produce the sentences on mini-whiteboards. This way you can measure their spontaneous production of the TL (thus managing the first task of the foundation paper) and also check their understanding of the structure. Then try it with another photo (maybe the one below). Qu’est-ce qu’il y a dans le photo?

Say more

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Greg Horton had a slide which simply had question words on it. One of his class would sit at the front and be given a simple sentence to read or you could give them a picture. The students ask questions to elicit more detail from the person sat at the front. Continuing on from the previous idea, the starting sentence could be: “Hay un perro” Pupil could then ask:

¿Cuántos? ¿Dónde? ¿De qué color es?

More advanced students could ask:

¿Por qué? ¿Qué hace? ¿qué opinas tú de los perros?

Again it is about spontaneous production. Students could note down the answers on whiteboards to test their listening. They could change the verb forms to practice grammar. They could even do a tabloid version on mini-whiteboards where they exaggerate every claim that is made or completely misrepresent what the student says:

Student: en la foto hay un perrito tierno.

Students: en la foto hay un perro agresivo y violente.

Everyday Homework

Feb 16, 2016Aug 30, 2016 / dlh202 / 4 Comments

Leading headteacher Tom Sherington writes on his blog “great teachers set great homework”. In fact, he dedicates an entire blogpost to it. I thought I would do the same but with an MFL slant. I’m sure I have set some good homeworks and some bad ones in my time. Below is a buffet of homeworks. It will allow you to add to your plate the ideas you like, whilst avoiding those that you don’t.

One of the best bits of the blog mentioned above is this:

“The research by Hattie et al shows that homes make more difference to learning than schools. So, take away homework and what do we have? Essentially, homes with the greatest cultural capital, typically more affluent and middle class, will just fill the gap with their own family-education as they always have. They’ll be fine. Meanwhile, children from families where home-learning is scarce or simply doesn’t happen are left without structure or resources to fall back on. The same inequalities that give children such different learning orientations from pre-school persist. I’d argue that homework for all is a basic element of an educational entitlement; it is a leveller – provided that schools offer support for ‘homework’ to be done anytime, any place.” – Tom Sherrington September 2nd 2012

So, how can Everyday MFL teachers such as you and I make sure that learning continues outside the classroom? Just as feedback and marking should drive learning forward; homework should do the same!

Vocabulary learning

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Well that was obvious wasn’t it! As MFL teachers, we know the value of vocabulary learning but how can you ensure that they have actually learnt it. One method I have used in the past particularly with lower ability learners or year 7s is the look, cover, write, check sheet. You can find an example on the TES here. There is also one that I would recommend with your weakest students at this link.

Sites such as Languages Online, The Language Gym, Linguascope, Memrise, Duolingo, Pons Vocabulary Trainer all have their place and role to play. The Language Gym focuses quite heavily on conjugation. This excellent with the advent of the new GCSE and the greater focus on being able to manipulate language. Memrise I like as it forces the students to type the vocabulary and produce it, rather than simply reading. I’m a big fan of the phrase “reading is not revision” so this site is right up my street! Languagesonline is also excellent. The only issue I have with these sites is you cannot see which students have done the work! I believe Vocabulary Express does allow such things but have yet to try it.

Rachel Hawkes suggests that students should achieve a certain amount of points from a selection of activities to prove they have done their homework, using a variety of different techniques. Too many students will simply stare at the words and assume that some osmosis will occur unless they are given specific tasks to do.

I tend to teach the students as much as possible about how to learn vocabulary early on. Look, cover, say, write, check can be very effective. Flashcards and mindmaps equally so. By testing it, you will give it value. By sanctioning unacceptable performance, you will find students are more likely to do it. I’m not going to give a minimum acceptable level as sometimes that can vary depending on the student.

A couple of colleagues in another department have recently experimented setting the same vocabulary for 2-3 weeks with lower ability classes. They have tested them each week but only taken in the marks on the third time. Looking at the books, they have found that the students improved and their confidence was boosted by this process. I would argue the amount of reinforcement also helped. You could do this with some high-frequency language for your weaker groups. It is an experiment I would certainly like to repeat.

The multi-skill homework.

Currently my favourite! Why set homeworks that test only one skill??! This epiphany came to me at some point in the middle of a lesson! It has only taken 5 years to have it.

Slow German, Audio Lingua, Conjuguemos and the websites previously mentioned might allow you to set a variety of different tasks. My current year 10 were set the following last week:

Listen to this podcast on audio-lingua
Complete following exercises on languagesonline and samlearning
Produce dialogue for … situation

I’m allowed to set up to 50 minutes worth of work so I might as well go for it! I was not exactly popular when I did this. Once the rationale was explained, most students went for it.

Exam boards also have past papers on their websites, that would easily allow multiple skills. Again the specimen papers for the new GCSE could be used in this way. Admittedly speaking would be out of the question but listening, reading and writing would all be possible.

The worksheet

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There are some brilliant worksheets out there on websites such as TES and the excellent Frenchteacher. Having said that, you might have a low photocopying budget so I would encourage you to create your own or borrow bits from other people and condense it on to a single page. The big question with the sheet is: does it make the students work hard? Does it take them from a level where they might follow a model to get the answer to being able to apply the grammar rule? With the appearance of translation in the new GCSE, this could be a place to include it?

The paragraph

Produce a paragraph on … Produce two paragraphs on … These can often be effective as it gives the student time to work on something using what they have learnt. However, beware the evils of googletranslate. This website, long the bane of the Everydaymfl teacher, is getting. Students shouldn’t need to recourse to it if they have been taught how to use wordreference.com correctly, or if they have sufficient resources on your VLE, in their book or on paper.

Have you considered a point scoring paragraph? Higher point scores generally indicate better work…

5	10	20	25
Simple connecting words	More complex connecting words	More complex structures um…zu ohne..zu ausser…zu ni…ni bien que…	The amazing mindblowing structures to really impress examinersKonjunktiv II Konjunktiv I Si hubiera pensado… French subjunctive
Simple time phrases	More complex opinion phrases	More of the above	More of the above
Simple adverbs	Less common adverbs	Less common adverbs	More of the above

Another idea would be to ask students for an ASL calcuation. Average Sentence Length. They need to divide the amount of words by the amount of sentences. Scores of 7+ indicate they are probably using opinions. Scores of 12+ indicate they are justifying those opinions. Scores of anything higher and they might need to consider the occasional full stop!

Have you considered banning certain words from their paragraphs? Some of the below would be top of my list!

French	German	Spanish
ennuyeux	langweilig	aburrido
interessant	interesant	interesante
amusant	lustig	divertido

The example sentences

Regularly I will set my learners a task to produce some examples using a grammar point we have worked on. This is mainly because I want to see if they can do it outside the classroom without me and also to reinforce the material at a later date. The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve suggests they will have lost some of it after the lesson so this is my attempt to fight the curve! Perhaps suggest a theme for their example sentences:

Future tense: “what Homer Simpson will do at the weekend”

Past Tense: what”insert celebrity” did last week

The Culture Homework

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I tend to set one of these once a half-term (homework is weekly). Students are naturally curious and like to learn about the country. I remember, when I was in school years ago, a couple of homeworks from my language teacher: “find out what you can about who won the election in Germany?” Gerhard Schröder was the answer, which seems like a long time ago now, probably because it was! Students like to know about the place, not just the language. However, we are language teachers and so the homework should be proportional to what we do. I would also counsel that you tell them to avoid the blindingly obvious and go for a more horrible histories style in their research. “Madrid is a city in Spain” is the kind of thing you can open yourself up for if not careful!

I have highlighted my favourite one in orange. Google it, you will see why it is such a cool festival!

French	German	Spanish
What is “la marseillaise” actually about?	What is Karnival?	What happens at “la tomatina”?
Find out 10 facts about the French Revolution	Find 10 facts about the fall of the Berlin wall	Produce a poster showing what happens at “las fallas”
What is Bastille day?	Who is Angela Merkel?	What is Yipao and why is it celebrated in Colombia?
What is Mardi Gras?	Produce a timeline of major events in German history starting from 1800	What is día de los muertos all about?
How do the French celebrate Christmas?	10 Facts about any German city	Produce a short biography of Franco or another famous figure from Spanish history
Who was Marie Curie?	Who was Hans Riegel from Bonn?	Who is the current King of Spain?
Find out 10 facts about a city that is not Paris.	Find out 10 facts about a city that is not Berlin or Munich	Find out 10 facts about a city that is not Madrid or Barcelona

Flipped Learning

I’m a bit of a skeptic at the moment when it comes to this. John Hattie claims that along with effective feedback; clarity of explanation is crucial in our teaching. Most youtube videos teach a grammar rule and then explain EVERY exception known to man. If you are not confused by the end then it is because you got up to make a cuppa 2-3minutes in. I think there is a place for it, but video selection needs to be carefully done. Then the students need to do something with the knowledge to reinforce it, otherwise it is just another video. The questions the teacher needs to ask are as follows:

Is this better than explaining the concept in class with worked examples?
Is the person on the video easy to listen to?
What will I do about students who do not watch the video?
Should I use the video to introduce or consolidate?
Is the video clear, too fast, too slow?

If you have read this far then well done but don’t forget it’s half-term. Enjoy yourself, rest, have some fun, have some more fun and be ready to go again on Monday.

Teaching around the town

Jan 26, 2016Aug 30, 2016 / dlh202 / Leave a comment

Coming up soon in Expo 1 and a bit later in Mira 1 is that topic of what there is in your town. Here’s some ideas to make a slightly drab topic slightly more exciting.

Videos

In my town video This is a great little video for year 7s. I tend to give them a list of places and they check off the ones they find. Equally you could give them a variety of spellings and they could select the correct one. You could then ask pupils to prepare their own version if you have access to smartphones and the like.

Colombia video Complete with traditional South American music and there is a degree of cultural knowledge to be gleaned. Perhaps give the pupils a script to gap fill or some questions to answer.

Visit … Advert

Pupils could make a radio advert using spreaker or audacity. This is best done at the end of the topic.

Google street-view directions.

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I have tried this recently and to an extent it worked. I made my own using the city of Madrid and getting students to follow the directions I gave them. I allowed the weaker ones to use LINGRO to turn my exercise sheet into a clickable dictionary. It can work really well as long as your students have some staying power. If you’re unsure as to how to put one together then a highly rated example can be found here.

Talk and draw.

Great for practising prepositions, listening and speaking. Student 1 has a mini-whiteboard and a working pen. Student 2 has a brain and vocal chords. Student 2 puts a building in the centre such as a football stadium. They then begin to describe their town “a la derecha del estadio hay un parque” and the other student starts to draw a plan.

Past and present

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Antes había… ahora hay…

Antes era … ahora es …

This is a great way to introduce students to some basic past tense phrases and also go a little cross curricular with a historical picture of their town.

SIM City

SIM City was a simulator game where players had to build a city. Students could do the same. They would produce a town map, a description of each building or area of town. I’m sure some could do it via audio or visual means if you choose to let them have that freedom.

5 Things to try tomorrow

Jan 3, 2016Aug 30, 2016 / dlh202 / Leave a comment

Happy New Year to you all. With the term imminent I thought I would offer the following 5 things to try tomorrow.

Shake up the seating

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Most teachers change the seating plan when the class is not working how they would like. It happens when they realise that little Brendan and little Alex are a positively toxic combination, or when you realise that little Chardonnay has fallen out with little Sinead. However, maybe there is a sound pedagogical reason for changing the seating. This post by David Didau has really caused me to think and I might well experiment with my classes. I have 8 tables of 4. What if I rotate them half-termly? It means the pairings stay the same but the location changes.

Didau writes…

“A few years ago I became aware of a very strange and as far as I know, unresearched phenomena. If I taught a lesson where students knew something in that chair, they would not necessarily know it in this chair. Simply asking students to move seats in the middle of a lesson was enough to disrupt their ability to recall and transfer.”

So give it a go. Didau himself goes on to say:

“So I started experimenting with moving students about and giving them a greater variety of sight lines and thus a greater and more unstable range of visual cues….And guess what? Their ability to transfer what they’d learned within the classroom improved. Now, I would, of course, hesitate to make a mountain out of this molehill, but it does seem worthy of further investigation.”

As they say on BBC News, more on that story later…

Tarsia

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This is one of my favourite plenary activities. It works particularly well if you are the kind of person who has objectives in the “know”, “understand” and “be able to” format. You need to download their generator here. You can then create puzzles like a triangle of triangles. The aim is to get the English and Spanish words to match up with no text around the outside edge. Other shapes are possible. You could equally do sentence halves etc. Make sure that the format is set to “text” otherwise it will squish (yes that is a word) all your words together. Allow 5 mins for an able group and 10mins for a less able group. I might suggest also printing the “solution” tab, or copying it into word to be printed as it will save you massively on photocopying!

Word Association

Simple but great for seeing what vocabulary students can recall over time. Give them a starting word and see how long they can go for.

Gallery Critique

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I wrote a post on peer-assessment ages ago. I have always thought that for language teaching peer-assessment is extremely hard to do effectively. The statistic mentioned by Shaun Allison rings in my head every time someone mentions it. Even if pupils are trained well, I feel it is risky and potentially detrimental to weaker learners. One student once wrote “excellent use of connectives”, which was not a bad comment but there were none! MFL is not like English where one can suggest additions to their argument. And it is not like history or geography where you can examine how closely someone has answered the question. With gallery critique it is my understanding that Student 1 produces work. Students 2,3 & 4 comment on it and then student 1 reviews the feedback using it to develop their work. The same process will be happening with students 2,3 &4. Hopefully there will be some kind of triangulation that leads to more accurate peer-assessment. After all, 8 out of 10 cats did prefer Whiskas…

Starters to make them think more.

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I’m a big fan of gap-fills, anagrams, matchups, odd ones out etc but they do get stale after a while. My new favourite is giving pupils sentences that they have to alter in some way to make their own.

Dans ma ville il y a une gare. – transform this into a sentence with 10 words.

No me gusta el inglés porque es aburrido – say something nice

En mi familia hay cinco personas – say it in a different way

No hay una piscina en mi casa – Change this while keeping the sentence on the same topic. You may not use any words from the original apart from “casa” and “piscina”.

5 things to try tomorrow

Nov 26, 2015Aug 30, 2016 / dlh202 / Leave a comment

5 things I’ve tried this week. You could try them tomorrow…

Picture Starters

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Mira 1 gets students describing their teachers. I wanted to see how much my year 7s could remember so I demanded between 3 and 5 sentences based on a picture I showed them. Initially I typed in angry teacher into google and used one of them before using an image of Robin Williams from Dead Poets Society. I was pleasantly surprised what they were able to generate.

Me gusta el inglés porque el profesor es interesante

En mi clase hay un profesor interesante

Odio el inglés pero el profesor es interesante

This one came from Greg Horton. You can learn more about the work he does here, the big O seem keen on him.

Hands up listening

In an era of no hands up being in vogue this one goes against the grain. The teacher can prepare the listening phrases and it is really good in seeing who in your class has the best auditory processing skills and is an effective listener. It may well surprise you.

Mano derecha	Opinión positiva
Mano izquierda	Opinión negativa
Dos manos	no hay opinión

You read out a sentence and depending on the content, the students put a right hand, left hand or both hands up. This idea came from Nick Mair and I’ve tried it a few times since. It also can be massively adapted with tenses, negatives, comparisons, conditionals etc

Forms and Functions

An idea from the effervescent Rachel Hawkes.

1) Past	A) Future plans
2) Present	B) Uniform
3) Future	C) School rules
4) Negative	D) description of school
5) Comparison	E) Teachers
6) Conditional	F) Other students
7) Sentence with two tenses	G) Homework
8) Sentence linked with subordinating conjunction	h) Stress

The students could do this with mini0whiteboards or a series of exercises could be set on the board and students work quietly through them. The teacher demands a 1A sentence from the students. This might mean that the student has to write about future plans whilst incorporating a past tense in there somewhere. 5E might be easier as students would simply compare two teachers. It is great getting them to think about content, meaning and including the right things in their work.

Literary texts

My year 8s are reading Peter Pan together. I picked it up for 75 centavos. I’ve taught them about reading around both sides of an unfamiliar word (deducing meaning from context).

Deducing meaning from what has gone before

Bob entered the kitchen and saw his son doing the dishes. His son threw a ______ at him.

The most obvious suggestions the students generate are dishcloth and sponge, along with some other, rather imaginative ones…

Deducing meaning from what has gone after.

Bob entered the kitchen and saw his son doing the dishes. His son threw a ______ at him, which hit Bob and shattered into pieces.

Why do it? It is mainly to stop them getting hung up on the one word they do not know.

We have also done a fair bit of work on infinitives and knowing the little words such as “de” “el/la/los/las” “un/una” etc. Someone reads out loud before we look at what is going on.

Authentic Texts

The hotel boca juniors powerpoint on the TES was good for getting students working with some authentic material. Here are some I am looking to try out:

Quinoa – bit of reading for healthy living and food topics

Farting cows – animal/environment topic maybe? Might need simplifying…

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5 things to try this week

Nov 1, 2015Aug 30, 2016 / dlh202 / Leave a comment

Half-term – where did that go?!

Anyway, here are 5 simple things to try this week…

Mini-whiteboard Vocab Scrabble

You need some large tables, mini-whiteboards and pens. Start by writing a word across the middle (a long one). Students score points for the following:

Point per letter
Point per letter of word they create and the word it bisects
Double points if the word links to the topic from the previous half term (another way of making it stick).

Alternatively you can use paper but mini-whiteboards are more environmentally friendly 🙂 If you’re feeling nostalgic you can do it with a whole class and an OHP.

Odd-one-out remix.

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Give students a line of 4 vocabulary items on the same topic and a big capital letter at the end. They have to invent the odd one out. Again you could demand that they recycle knowledge from a previous topic.

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Find 5

Great way to build vocabulary. If you have access to dictionaries, picture dictionaries or Usborne’s first thousand words. Get students to find 5 of something so they broaden their vocabulary. Try to avoid them getting hung up on finding the duck!

Taboo

Talk or write about a topic without using certain words. In the cases of one or two students, I’m going to declare war on the next individual who uses interesante, aburrido, bueno, malo, emocionante.

Mark – Plan – Teach

I’ve been reading a little too much on the Teacher Toolkit website but I like this one. It should be the way we approach marking. I have just marked a set of year 8 assessments and whilst most did what was asked of them, there are a number of errors that I want to sort out.

It would appear most of them have great command of possessive apostrophes in English but these do not exist in Spanish yet nowhere in Mira 1,2, or 3 does it cover this.
Me gusta + Me encanta are often followed by conjugated verbs so that needs sorting.
ie and ei keep getting confused so some phonics drilling is probably in order.

Making it stick!

Oct 18, 2015Aug 30, 2016 / dlh202 / 1 Comment

Possibly the biggest lament of language teachers in my department and across the country is this: why do my students insist on writing “me prefiero”, “me gusta juego” and “mi gusta”?! Is my teaching really that ineffective? Are my students so inattentive? What on earth is going on?!!!

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Making it Stick – 5 ideas for increasing the right kind of retention

Palabras importantes

At the end of the unit I talk my students through the key vocabulary that they need to take into the next one. I go through on the board what the most important phrases are and put them into groups. For year 7 Spanish it might look as follows:

Verb phrases	Little words	Question words	Others
(no) Hay	el/la/los/las	Como	y
(no) Tengo	un/una/unos/unas	Que	también
es	de	Por que
necesito	en	Cuando

They are then set homework to learn these phrases and tested on them in the subsequent lesson. I find it gives them value and increases the likelihood of remembering the key vocabulary rather then being able to say “lápiz” and “monedero” but not being able to do anything with them!

Palabras importantes part 2

2-3 weeks later I test them again on the same words. It adds value and reinforces their importance.

Flowcharts and process

Students are used to these in other subjects. They use them in technology, science, maths and even history when composing essays. I have been teaching my year 9s the future tense and the conditional. They have a sheet in their books that has the endings and the persons along with a table of irregulars. Breaking it into steps is working even for the weakest ones. Chris Fuller made a pertinent point in a webinar: the past and present take away from infinitives; whereas futures and conditionals add to them. Most of them in a middle set can now take the majority of Spanish verbs and turn them into a “will” or a “would”. On the whiteboard, I put a flowchart which simply says 1) “what is the English action?” 2) “what is the verb in Spansh?” 3) “go to table in book” 4) “who is doing it?” 5) “add that ending”. The issue now is sorting out the past and present tenses!!

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Photo Credit: orangejack via Compfight cc Scarily I can see my students working their way through this process in their minds!

Practice, practice, practice.

I have increased the amount of grammatical practice in my lessons this year and it is gradually working. There has been a lot of animosity in schools towards textbooks, however they often have some very good exercises and I have seen multiple powerpoints on the TES resources ,which replicate the book word for word. Even Elodie, Patricia and Gert are still in the exercise on the PowerPoint! So why not just give the kids the book?! Again, with my year 9s, I have increased the practice they do using a combination of books, Languagesonline and the Language Gym websites. It is taking effect with the dedicated ones. The question is now what to do about the less-dedicated ones but that is another blog post!

Clarity of Explanation

In a survey of teaching by John Hattie, the following things were found to be most effective:

Daniel Willingham writes in his book “Why don’t students like school” (i’ve blogged on this book before) that “deep knowledge must be our goal”. This is borne out by the effect sizes above of instructional quality and quantity. Willingham explains the following two principles:

We understand new things in the context of things we already know.
We therefore need to ask “what do students already know that will be a toehold in understanding this new material?”

I teach German and one thing I have been trying to do is to link new learning to old learning at every opportunity. For example, we tackled weil with a nice animated powerpoint showing the verbs moving to the end of the clause. We then considered “wenn” and “obwohl” before tackling “ich denke, dass”. Before I introduced ,weil we looked at what they knew of clauses in English and introduced the idea of a main clause and a sub clause. This might sound very basic and something that you do all the time but I find that quite often textbook schemes of work do not have this link from one element to the next. For example: Mira 2 introduces tener que, poder, querer and “le gusta” in the space of two pages. The next chapter does not reinforce them at all. Neither do the three after that!