Since my PGCE, I’ve always thought that games have a place in MFL teaching and learning but they must have a purpose. That purpose could be: the practice of vocabulary or structures, practising spontaneity or revision of vocabulary.
Variations on Sentence Stealer
It always amazes me how Sentence stealer started in Kuala Lumpur and has made its way to classrooms across the UK and Australia and probably further afield. I’ve played it with a variety of classes in different schools and it always seems to go down well. I have come across one or two obstacles in playing with trickier classes
One student gives others their cards so that they win at the end
Students use a mixture of English and Spanish “do you have joo-ey-go al football?”
Some students don’t talk enough
Here are a few variations I have tried to counter this:
Pink writing – While the students make their cards. Write out four using a pink pen (or any colour they are not using). Slip them into a couple of students piles. Winners are now the ones that have the pink writing ones at the end or the ones with the most cards.
English = lose a card – While students are completing the activity, I walk around. If I hear English, I take a card from them.
Sudden death round – 1-2 minute timer (dependent on class size). Each student starts with one card. They continue to play as normal but as soon as they lose their card they return to their seat. Hint to students that the more they talk the less likely they are to be out quickly.
The 10 phrases game
Made this up after a game of 1 pen 1 dice earlier this week. Write ten phrases or chunks on the board. The more advanced the group, the longer the chunks can be. Colour the sentence complements in red (complement = word phrase or clause necessary to complete expression)
Juego al fútbol
Escucho musica
Student A: reads through the sentences trying to finish them in a different way.
Student B; counts how many they manage.
When finished they swap, but here’s the thing…
Student B cannot use any phrases student A has already used.
The game forces students to use what they know. The intention is to move them away from saying what they want to say and instead saying what they have learnt.
The Algo Game
Every now and again, you rediscover a game that works. The “algo” (something) game is one such example. You can find full instructions here (with pictures) and here (bit further down). This activity is great for reading aloud practice and practice of chunks. I can see it being particularly useful with the reading aloud element of the new GCSE. In the past, I have gone with a point per correct word. It motivates them to focus on listening and transcribing what they hear.
Points for sentences
This came from a lovely MFL teacher called Deborah who ran some training for us back in the days of controlled assessments. It works for both speaking and writing.
Verbs 5
Verbs 5
Time Phrases 5
Conjunctions 10
Showing off 20
You can imagine the kind of things that will fill the grid. You can also vary the requirements e.g. “weil” and “obwohl” might score more than “und” and “aber”. Students have a minute or two to make as many sentences as they can.
Student A: just talks and makes sentences
Student B: listens and notes down their points
Swap
Winner is the person with the highest points score. You can then also set it as an end of lesson writing task. The Nice Man Who Teaches Languages (whose blog is well worth a look) has written about getting students to write sticking to what they have learnt and they know from their repertoire. This activity helps with that as students stick to the phrases there as they score points.
Two truths and two lies
One of the easiest activities to do on the spot, likely inspired by the BBC programme “Would I lie to you?” Minimal Prep, maximum effectiveness. This came towards the end of a lesson on negatives in Spanish using the theme of sports and free time. It is easily adaptable to food, clothes, healthy living etc.
Students write two sentences that are true for them and two that are not. Most students do this in the order you say. Make sure they read them out loud to their partner in a different order!!! It’s then up to their partner to spot the fact from the fiction.
I’ve been a teacher for nearly 15 years. Over the past seven or eight, due to timetable pressures and a variety of other factors, I’ve found myself teaching several different subjects. Often, as a languages teacher, I’ve sat in CPD sessions thinking, I’m not entirely sure how I can apply this to MFL.
In the last seven years, I’ve taught across five different subject areas: History, English, Religious Studies, Drama, and more recently, Computer Science. For those of a footballing persuasion, I guess i’ve ended up as a versatile super-sub*. A mix of Wayne Rooney and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
History
A few years ago, I was given a Year 9 top set history class, shared with another teacher. I like to think this was a mutually beneficial arrangement. They helped me deliver the lesson by explaining content and the activities; I fixed their German pronunciation. Two things particularly stood out from this time.
The first was that the starter tasks—or “do now” tasks —increased in difficulty from question one to question four. The idea was that every single student should be able to answer at least questions one and two. This meant every student in the room came in with an instant chance to be successful and get their lesson off to a good start. They followed the following pattern:
True / False
Multiple Choice
Short answer
Sentence / Multiple Sentence answer
There was a culture of “no excuses” for not answering or attempting question 1 and 2. I was encouraged to circulate and particularly demand extension to answers on question 4 and support those struggling with 3 or 4. I think a similar principle could work with MFL starters.
The second thing that really stood out was how each lesson was framed as a question to be answered. Now, in History, this is significantly easier than in MFL. Take, for example, the questions: What happened at Pearl Harbour? or What did the failure of the League of Nations mean for the future of Europe? Both of those questions immediately build interest, curiosity, and engagement.
In languages, this is obviously significantly trickier. The question: How do we form AR verbs? does not bring with it the same level of curiosity or interest (apart from for a select few of us who love our grammar). Could we possibly rephrase that question to: How can I master 88% of Spanish verbs?
There are, however, some areas of language teaching that naturally lend themselves to this “lesson as a question” approach. The teaching of ordering food in restaurants would lend itself well, for example: How can I order food and drink in Spain? Similarly: How can I describe people? or how can I say what is wrong with my hotel room? By phrasing the lesson as a question, students can walk out knowing they have learnt the start of the answer. How can I master 88% of Spanish verbs? I need to know the six endings; I need to remember to remove the AR and replace with the correct ending. For those wondering, the 88% is from a 2019 analysis of the Royal Spanish Academy Dictionary.
Religious Studies
In 2019, I taught Religious Studies due to timetabling issues. My main learning from this year of teaching would be the idea of spending entire half terms on one thing. For example, one half term was Christianity, one half term was Buddhism, and one half-term was Sikhism. These were Year 7 modules that were about six lessons each.
One popular Spanish textbook I used to use had the following five pages: ages, members of the family, pets, descriptions of hair and eyes, and descriptions of personality. The topics were well presented, the grammar chosen was sensible when linked with the topics, and the activities were, to an extent, useful. However, was this too much for two lessons a week in Year 7? The answer is probably yes.
At the end of each term in Religious Studies, we would assess what had been covered in the previous five lessons—and only that. I wonder if sometimes in languages we don’t teach sufficiently narrowly, and then we don’t assess that narrowly either. Gianfranco Conti recently wrote in a blog about the desire to correct everything that persists in many schools and trusts across the country. Perhaps we need to ensure that they can do fewer things well?
Drama
One year shortly before half term, I had a visit from a member of SLT suggesting that they needed someone to teach Drama for four weeks until the new Head of Drama arrived. To make matters worse, they said it was Key Stage 3 Drama.
I had the fortune to take on a good class comprised of pupils I had taught before. My biggest learning from the Drama department—and indeed from watching the new Head of Drama at work—was that projection was emphasised. Phrases such as “say it again but say it better”, “tell me, don’t ask me”, “say it like you’re really confident”, “say it like you believe it” were all used to develop their students’ ability to project, to sound confident, and to deliver lines with character, or as one of my English colleagues would say “with gusto!”
In MFL, sometimes I wonder if we neglect this in paired speaking activities. Recently, with my classes, when we’ve done short conversations, or short question-and-answer work in pairs, I’ve asked them to stop and then repeat it sounding like they are more confident. This might mean I ask them to sit up straighter, or I ask them to stand up.
If you think about it, most conversations in real life do not happen at a table where the person next to you is directly to your left or right. In a café, they are often opposite or slightly to the side. In passing, they are often stood up. It may be confirmation bias, but I tend to find that the second time students perform the activity, they sound better.
My version of the activity quiz quiz trade helps with this. Here’s how I run it. If you have read this blog for a while, then you will know my fondness for mini-whiteboards. They will help us here:
Students have a question on a mini-whiteboard and the start of the answer on the back. Whatever language you teach, you can apply the examples below:
Side facing student = question
Side facing away from student = help with answer
What do you do in your free time?
In my free time …
Do you play football
Yes/No ….. sometimes / never
Do you swim
Yes / no …… regularly / rarely
Students must 1) ask a question, 2) answer a question 3) swap their whiteboard. They can sit down after 5 ask/answer/swap cycles.
In our school, we have a policy that is known as SHAPE. Lots of schools have this, although I wonder sometimes if we focus on the S at the expense of the P. Languages, like Drama, are an opportunity for us to develop our pupils’ oracy—that is to say, their ability to speak confidently and fluently.
Computer Science
More recently, I have taught Computer Science. It may surprise you that both subjects can learn a lot from each other. As a languages teacher teaching Computer Science, I have found that my appreciation of mini whiteboard checks for understanding can continue. However, this post is about what we can learn from other subjects.
One of the things I’ve noticed in Computer Science is that flowcharts are extremely useful as a means for understanding. By this, I do not mean a bullet point list or a “1-2-3 steps for conjugating.” I mean a clearly laid-out visual flowchart. For example, this could be used for explaining when to use the subjunctive in Spanish:
Am I expressing a wish or desire? → If yes, use the subjunctive.
Am I expressing an impersonal reaction? → If yes, and if the sentence includes “it is + adjective,” then yes, I should use the subjunctive.
This could be a helpful way for students to visualise and decide whether the subjunctive is required using my favourite language teaching acronym: WEIRDO (Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal statements, Reactions, Doubts, and Ojalá).
I have also used these to help students build their opinions when talking about school. Word’s SmartArt can be quite helpful in this regard. An example in English is below:
Similarly, a flowchart might be useful in forming the passé composé in French. Students would then be able to decide easily between avoir and être and then progress onto Mrs Vandertramp (does anyone remember—or still use—the YouTube “Umbrella” version?) or however you choose to characterise the remaining verbs.
The second thing I’ve learnt from teaching Computer Science—and this is more aimed at GCSEs—is what we call the Moneyball approach. Moneyball is a film about baseball where a lower-league baseball club finds value in players that people didn’t rate very highly and their data-driven approach makes the club very successful. In the film, one of the main characters tells his club director that he needs to “buy runs,” not “buy players.”
To turn this into a modern-day football analogy: you are essentially buying goals, not buying a striker. Harry Kane scores you 30 goals a season. Other strikers, although highly thought of, may not reach those numbers but you could buy two players who will score 15 goals a season each such as Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo.
We can apply this Moneyball approach to exams. If the average needed at foundation level for most languages and exam boards (according to ChatGPT) is 60% for a grade 4, and the average for a grade 4 at higher tier is somewhere between 37% and 43%, then we need to consider: How are we going to put our students in the best place to get those marks? What are the things that we can control, that we can drill, and that we can best prepare them for, in order that they may achieve that?
I will leave you to think about those last couple of questions.
Conclusion
I hope this post has shown that, while not every strategy from other subjects will seamlessly translate to MFL, there is a wealth of insight to be gained from stepping outside our own discipline. Whether it’s the deliberate staging of questioning in History, the focus on oracy and projection in Drama, or logical and data-driven thinking in Computer Science, each subject offers something valuable.
By borrowing and adapting these approaches thoughtfully, we can enrich our language teaching and better support our students in becoming confident, capable communicators.
*James Milner was a consideration for comparison at this point but then I remembered his previous club history
This is a re-write of my most viewed post. Despite being written in 2016 and lessons no longer being graded, it has consistently topped my most-read posts every year. It was probably time for an update.
‘Hypothetical’ conversation overheard in staffroom:
Experienced teacher 1: “I delivered a number of outstanding lessons today”
Experienced teacher 2 “Ha! Your definition of an outstanding lesson is you putting your feet up while the kids are standing outside!”
Experienced teacher 1: “you saw them then!”
What makes an “outstanding lesson” is highly subjective and is based largely on the observations of the person watching. It is a positive thing that we have moved away from one word judgement of lessons or lesson snippets and there seems to be a similar move away from one word judgements of schools.
This is not a post on “how to play the OFSTED game” as the only OFSTED game to be played is simply high quality teaching and learning. It is a post about the key ingredients for an outstanding lesson and how we might apply those in MFL teaching everyday.
The big three: intent, implementation and impact.
OFSTED’s re-focusing on curriculum with the three I words is now well known. Intent, implementation and impact. The big question is the question every teacher should be asking of their classes “have they learnt it? And how I know they have learnt it?” Is my implementation achieving the intent? They (ofsted) will discuss this with a Head of Department or Lead Practitioner and then visit classes to see it in action. The idea is that what the Head of Department is saying should be visible in classrooms and students should be benefitting from it. Their evidence for forming their opinion will come from that discussion, watching lessons, talks with students, talks with staff and looking at any work in books.
My experience of being visited by OFSTED and our department going through a deep dive last September was that it followed the following pattern:
Part 1: A discussion about the intent, implementation and impact of the curriculum. My Head of Department did this bit so I cannot tell you exactly what was asked but if you want some typical practice questions then you can click here and this one from ilanguages gives some ideas of example answers too.
Part 2: Visits to lessons, talking to students in those lessons and looking at books. The inspector thought my teaching was “enthusiastic” and the lesson “well-delivered.” They expressed some disappointment that there was not any paragraph level writing in the Year 7 books. It was the first week back in September and their second lesson of Spanish. I’m not convinced their expectations there were reasonable but it also explains the levels of energy on display! They are essentially trying to answer a question around implementation. Is what the inspector has been told evident in classrooms?
Part 3: A discussion later with staff that began with some curriculum matters and then opened up to wider issues such as workload, how teachers are supported in school, safeguarding and recent training. To be honest, I thought this discussion would be much tougher but it was conducted in a fair and supportive manner.
Dealing with the drop in
Inevitably at some point a lesson is going to be watched. Personally, I feel a mixture of being short-changed and relived if not seen by an inspection team. Out of the four OFSTED visits, I have experienced, I have been visited on three. All of the below “ingredients” came from the previous post with some updates for 2025. They are not a recipe but definitely things to think about ahead of any lesson drop in.
Key Ingredient:
What it means for MFL teachers:
Consistency
This is a tricky one. In some schools and trusts, it appears to mean every teacher delivering the same slide decks (hopefully tailored to their groups). In others, it means a set of principles of delivery but teachers might be working on different lessons due to one group being ahead behind because a teacher deemed the group to be in need of re-teaching etc. There probably has to be some level of consistency across your team in delivery but again this needs to tie in with what you say in that deep-dive session.
Starting Points
Some knowledge of the students’ starting points is helpful. If most of your students arrive at Year 7 having had strong language teaching, how are you building on it? Are you able to build on it? Are your Year 8 and Year 9s building on prior knowledge? Would an inspector see more challenging vocabulary, grammar and writing in books if they compared between year groups?
Challenge
Is your work demanding enough? I don’t mean simply sticking an extension task on a starter or a reading activity. Are you sufficiently challenging that student who finishes the task seconds after you have explained it? Should they have finished that quickly? Are all students challenged and engaged? How could you reward risk-taking with the language?
Pupils views
ARGH?! What would they say about your lessons? If memory serves, my students were asked: – What they are learning? – Do they remember what they learnt last lesson? – How does it fit in with what they have been learning? – Do they enjoy learning languages?
Enthusiasm
You got into this job for one of two reasons (or possibly both). You love your subject or you love working with young people. Ignore the fact that someone is watching and teach like you do everyday.
Scrutiny of work
From this I understand the following: 1) Books will be looked at. 2) Can you demonstrate that students are improving? 3) Is there evidence of challenge or support and scaffolding? 4) OFSTED do not expect to see particular types of marking/feedback however they do expect to see departmental policies enacted so whatever you say you do, needs to be what you actually do.
Subject Knowledge
This will naturally come through as you teach. Remember you are the expert. Keep your explanations clear, don’t be nervous about the observer, just focus on doing what you normally do. If you are teaching your weaker language then there is some advice here: Keeping your languages up!
Effective Planning
No time wasted and all resources readily available and accessible. They will not want to see a lesson plan but it’s very easy to spot a well-planned lesson. This is probably the best thing I have read on planning an MFL lesson and still one of the best posts on the topic 8 years later.
Behaviour Management
Clear rules and consistently enforced. Again, keep to your school or department policies. I would argue that there is nothing wrong with removing a student whose behaviour is detrimental to the progress of the rest of the class, even in an observation. If there is a policy to be followed, follow it.
Adequate structured practice time
Pupils must be allowed enough time to practice and embed what they are learning. There must then be a definite increase in demand and evident progression in difficulty of the material covered in the lesson. Practice in MFL will obviously take place through different skills but it is worth considering: how do they link to your overall objectives in that lesson? Is the planned practice going to lead to some production?
Checks for understanding
Understanding must be checked and any misconceptions identified. You can probably tell who will struggle so maybe set the class a short activity that they can use to demonstrate their learning, while you go and help those who need it.
Challenging h/wk
Homework should consolidate, extend or prepare the students for future work or a mixture of the three. More on homework here
Literacy and Numeracy
Whilst numeracy is harder to shoehorn into MFL, literacy is very much the bedrock of what we do. Start using grammatical terms and do not shy away from them. You’re a language teacher and probably a fan of the odd reflexive verb, subordinating conjunction or relative clause. Own it.
Pupils know why they are learning what they are learning and how to improve
Pupils will likely be asked about what they are learning. They may be asked about work in their books, what lessons are like and how they feel about their progress in the subject. Do they know what they need to do to improve?
Challenging stereotypes
As MFL teachers we are in an ideal place to do this.
OFSTED’s descriptions miss out one major feature of teaching that I believe is key to delivering outstanding lessons and that is relationships. Admittedly you can produce an outstanding lesson that meets all of the above boxes but relationships go a long way to making all of the above much easier! Your relationships with your students will answer that. John Tomsett says: ‘Fundamentally students need to feel loved and I really don’t care what anyone might think of that, to be honest, because if I know anything about teaching, I know that is true.’
What could I do now? 5 things to try this term.
If you’re English then make a cup of tea before contemplating the following:
Build those relationships. Grab your seating plans or mark-book and find 3 students per class who you are going to develop your relationship with. How are you going to do that? Will you be teaching those kids next year? Who knows? Do it anyway.
Key Ingredients. Pick one of the key ingredients that you need to work on. In your planning for next week incorporate it into every lesson. Yep, that’s every single one. It’s all very well reading a blog post but you have to act on it. My old headteacher liked the phrase purposeful practice.
Revisit. Revisit your intent, implementation and impact. Are you doing what you say you are doing?
Gained time. Can you devote some of it to CPD? Who in your department is good at challenge, differentiation, target language use? Who could you learn from?
Power of praise. I used to do termly phone-calls or emails home to a parent to give some positive feedback on a student. I’ve slipped on this and may well do a few in the coming half-term. Shaun Allison writes about them here.
Consider September. Yep, right now! September is where we set the tone, set the patterns and culture in our departments, what would you like an observer to see if they entered your classroom? What needs to be part of your practice?
Iron sharpening iron. “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (biblical proverb). I love this proverb as it applies to most areas of life. Another person can always be guaranteed to sharpen you and smooth out the rough edges. Most NQTs have a mentor and most PGCE trainees do too. Once we exit that process, we are on our own. Who could you work with to improve your own teaching? Can you get them to pop in and watch? No notes, no agenda, no judgments and no threat, but just someone there simply to develop your practice.
Further Reading
Great Lessons – a series of blogs by Tom Sherrington (Headteacher) on what makes for great lessons and still good years on.
It’s been a long while since I studied A-level German, however I would argue the starters to those lessons constituted some of the most effective and efficient retrieval practice in languages I have ever received. They set me up very well for university and I can still remember the verb conjugations over 20 years on. We had five German lessons a week. This post will explain how four of them began. The other one was a vocabulary test on our “5 a day” from that German student staple: Wort für Wort.
This is a very German-centric post and I can hear Germanists out there saying “es ist an der Zeit” (“it’s about time”). I hope it’s useful and thought provoking. I have tried applying the same in Spanish but I cannot quite get the musicality and rhythm to work, although the processes beyond that stage would probably be applicable to other languages
How it worked:
Our teacher – who I should at this point say was brilliant – would begin the lesson saying “ein paar Verben” (a few verbs). We would suggest a number of verbs ranging from the weird to the actually useful in a sentence. She would add in some that linked with the lesson we were about to do or a lesson that had recently been done and the infinitives would be written down the side of the whiteboard. Weak verbs would be marked with a next to them. Occasionally, where time might have been tight, we were left the verbs from the year above and used those.
We would chant our way through the verbs (working from left to right). There was definitely a rhythm that built up and it even worked with separable ones. I’m aware some teachers prefer to skip the present ones where they don’t change but for the rhythm, I prefer to leave them in.
denken
denkt
dachte
gedacht
essen
iβt
aβ
gegessen
springen
springt
sprang
gesprungen
hören
hört
hörte
gehört
absagen
sagt ab
sagte ab
abgesagt
Next, we would be tested with some quick fire whole class responses on modal verbs.
I can / I want / I must or have to / I like / I should / I’m allowed to
These would also be dropped into the imperfect.
I was able / I wanted / I had to / I liked / I ought to have / I was allowed to
We would then move to “silly sentences” which more often than not included ,weil ,obwohl and other subordinating conjunctions. These sentences often incorporated class members, their interests and quirks. On reflection, I believe this was also used an opportunity to see if recent grammar had stuck such as cases, adjective endings and prepositions.
Quite often the subjunctive (Konjuntiv II) would make an appearance at this point with hätte, wäre and a past participle. Using the verbs above the sentence would likely be “I would have jumped out of the window, if I had thought quicker” or “i would be ill, if i ate the food because it contains gluten.” I can also remember the Konjuntiv I making an appearance to challenge one of the top students in our class (not me) shortly after we had learnt it. Being a skilled teacher, she gave him some reported speech including a genitive and adjective endings.
10-15 minutes of an hours lesson four out of five times a week meant that we did not struggle for verbs or conjugations come the exams. Even if you were not the one cold-called to do a silly sentence, you could be immediately pounced upon if the person doing it had struggled and stopped. You had to be constantly thinking and ready to answer.
EverydayMFL was meant to be a place to share my ideas and there are more of those to come. This post is a tribute to an inspirational teacher that taught me A-level German for two years and probably developed my passion for languages more than most other teachers I have had. She is sadly no longer in teaching but still works with young people as a life/image coach.
Quite why Mini-whiteboards tend to divide opinion is a bit of a mystery to me. A colleague once observed my lesson with a well-regarded speaker who often leads CPD around the country. My colleague informed me later that this speaker had said that the best way to improve my lesson would be to “bin” the mini-whiteboards. Had I not used them at that point then I wouldn’t have an accurate idea of what they learnt that lesson and indeed if they had mastered the verb conjugations I was trying to teach. Conversely, another senior leader (and now successful Headteacher) would not teach science without having them to hand.
Adam Boxer writes an excellent blog about Ratio (a concept from Lemov’s Teach like a Champion). I believe mini-whiteboards to be one of the best ways of increasing ratio in the classroom. I have a few principles when it comes to using them.
Principles:
– Everyone writes
– Everyone tries
– Everyone hides their answer until it is asked for
Logistics
I don’t have a classroom and teach in wide range of different rooms. I carry around a box with everything I need to teach. Here is how I manage:
Stock up on a box of 10 new pens at the start of – and halfway through – each half-term. No-one throws away a pen without my say so. “If I can read it from the front, it works.”
Hand out the whiteboards while students are doing the starter task. Do not hand out pens until you plan to use them.
Give out and/or get students to give out pens and rubbers. Rubbers are 1 between 2. It saves time and also means they are less likely to lose them as the other person needs it too! Some students prefer the blazer sleeve cleaning method.
Always insist on trying a pen that a student claims “is not working”. Often this is a misconception and what they are really trying to say is that it’s not a perfect jet black.
Always give a clear instruction of what you want to see on the board. Challenge any non-compliance such as doodling etc.
Always count down giving long enough for those students that need it. Sometimes it can help to have a particular student in mind as a guide and start the countdown when they are closer to finished.
No-one shows an answer until countdown is over and everyone shows their answer.
Whiteboard Activities
Obviously, you can use a whiteboard to translate both ways and practise verb conjugations. You can use them to draft sentences for work. I often like to have them on the desks so when students ask for words I can simply write them down. With the new new GCSE, you can use them to practise for the dictation activities. I would imagine these are regular occurrences for the pro mini-whiteboard MFL teacher.
Wikipedia Commons
Environmentally friendly time-saving battleships.
To save paper, printing and copying out time. Draw a 5×5 grid on the mini-whiteboard. Shade in the top row and first column. Have students add boats in a non-shaded area. Put your battleships game on PowerPoint slide. Explain that the top row and first column match the shaded ones. A quick model on the board where some students attempt to destroy the ships you have obviously put in there and they will be well away.
Noughts and Crosses translation practice.
Wikimedia Commons
Both students in a pair divide both their boards into a 3×3 grid. Have a corresponding grid on the screen with some translations. Students play noughts and crosses. They have to translate correctly to get the X or O. If there is any dispute then they look it up in vocab lists/knowledge organisers etc. The second board is for the inevitable rematch.
Starts and Ends
I tend to use this activity when teaching opinions with reasons. Students get the start or end of a sentence. They have to finish it however they can. It’s quite good for seeing what they can spontaneously produce, what has stuck and what they can do under pressure.
Me gusta ir al cine … (I like going to the cinema)
Me encantan las matemáticas (i love maths)
porque es mi asignatura favorita (because it’s my favourite subject)
aunque me da miedo (although it scares me)
Occasionally, with this activity, I tell students I will give them a score of 1,2,3 depending on how impressed I am with the sentence. This generally has the effect of them suddenly showing they know even more. If they get a score over 10 (keeping track on their boards) they may get a positive point.
Sharks + Icebergs
This is good for practising lots of small chunks. I’ll be honest, I came up with this activity at some point in the past 6-7 years. Soon after trying it with a class, I realised it owes a lot to Language Gym’s rather superb Rock Climbing. Where it differs is that you are not making one long sentence, merely practising short chunks and you don’t have the blood-curdling “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargggghhh” when the man falls off the wall. You do however find some kids rather gleefully removing limbs from the stick man (should I be worried about them?)
Setup:
Students: The board needs to be portrait. Divide the board into a 7 x 3 grid. 7 rows, 3 columns. Students shade a map from one end to the other (see diagram). One shaded box per line. On the back of the board they draw a stick man.
Teacher: On your board/projector screen you will need a set of 21 short sentences using language the students have been learning.
Front of board(facing student):
/////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////
Back of board (facing away from student):
Wikimedia commons
Students try to guess their partner’s path across the icebergs (shaded bit) avoiding the sharks (unshaded). Each time they guess wrong, their partner removes a limb from stick man. The winner comes when either someone has made it across the icebergs, or their partner has neither body or head. You can still win if you make it to the other side like the Black Knight in Monty Python. As long as something is left, you are in the game.
Wikimedia Commons. It is surely a crime that Dara never got to properly participate in “Scenes we’d like to see”
Future Tense Scenes We’d like to see.
Copied from the popular game show mock the week, this works best with the future tense. Pick carefully the class you use it with. Students tend to overcomplicate here, restrict them to the language they have been learning.
Things that Mr /Mrs … will never do..
Things that His Majesty will never do
Things I am not going to do at the weekend
Unexpected things that … is going to do this evening
Environmentally friendly strip bingo
Early in my MFL career I was introduced to strip bingo. I admit I tend not to use it too much however it is very simple to hold a whiteboard portrait, write down 5 phrases and rather than tearing off the strips, students simply cross off the phrase that is at the top or bottom of the list. Lots of paper and time saved. Mini-whiteboards can also work well for any form of bingo game to break up a lesson.
This was an ambitious one. Trying to make the topics of environment and global issues interesting was not the easiest task I have ever set myself. I’m admit that I am not entirely sure if I have succeeded on this one. Hopefully there is something for every reader. Maybe it is an activity, or an idea below reminds you of a great resource or activity you have not used for a while.
Before I start, the reader should be aware of the following:
AQA refers to “global issues” and refers to “the environment”, “poverty/homelessness”
Edexcel/Pearson refers to “international and global dimension” with subheadings of “environmental issues, being green, access to natural resources”
WJEC simply refers to “global sustainability”.
I have done my best to put ideas that can be applied to all boards. There will be a lean towards one in terms of the language used as that is what I am currently teaching. There is certainly no intent to promote one above the other.
This post will look at a mix of the environment and global issues. Poverty was covered here as I thought it went well with charity and volunteering.
What can I do with these themes?
Environment is a great opportunity to recycle or introduce previously learnt language. In the past I have taught “you must” and similar phrases. It has been used to revise the future (“will” or “going to”). I have also used it as a means of teaching the conditional (“i could…”). Lastly, it was a good means of introducing students to the subjunctive with impersonal statements such as “es necesario que”. They were then introduced to the subjunctive properly with the global issues. Global issues also became a good way to revise comparatives and superlatives.
Will my students be interested?
I think this is all about the “buy-in” from students. Some will have an interest in the environment and being environmentally friendly. They will go along with you on this topic. I can picture that with other groups, and you know the ones I mean, it might be a tough ask. I think in this case, any “buy-in” comes from the possibility that this topic could confront them on a roleplay card or photocard and they need to be ready for it. Some may not engage at all. I found the global issues topic engaged a mixed ability group, particularly the debate mentioned below.
Match up L2 & L2
Having seen this on a past paper example, I have started to use it more with my GCSE students. There is a reasonably detailed reading text about a topic. Opposite the text are 4 text messages from supposed young people that relate to points made in the text.
This infographic from día mundial del medio ambiente would serve just such a purpose. students would have to write a number based on the alleged text messages sent by 4 supposed teenagers.
I have put links to two French ones below and two German ones as examples, you may be able to find better ones.
You can also create your own infographics if you were looking for a different reading text for recycling vocabulary. Easel.ly and Infogram were two I came across on a brief search. If you know of a great one, put it in the comments section and claim the title of “First Commenter of 2018”.
Fake Whatsapp
I discovered this whatsapp generator. The disadvantage in using it is that it does mean a bit of work in terms of resource preparation. However, it will stop the normal glazing over that occurs when students see the textbook displaying a Nokia 3210 with buttons and a green screen (also known as the good old days). The advantage is that you can produce the language and recycle plenty of vocabulary that you have covered in class.
How does this relate to global issues? Very simple. Create a fake group-chat using fakeWhatsapp. Person 1 in the chat suggests they have a project where they have to ask people what they do to help the environment. Persons 2,3,4,5 simply answer with what they do. You could set some comprehension questions. You could read out some statements that they then match to the people in the conversation. Students could produce their own groupchat mimicking your one. Plenty of options here.
How environmentally-friendly are you?
Some textbooks will have these. However, if you are good with the language then translating this one will not take long. You can probably find others on the TES website. Quizzes are a great way to recycle and repeat language, along with revising time adverbs. Partners take turns reading the question and answering them. If answers are linked to points then students could grade how environmentally friendly they are.
Do you turn out the lights on leaving the house?
A. I always turn out the lights on leaving the house
B. I often turn out the lights on leaving the house
C. I sometimes turn out the lights on leaving the house
D. Never. I’m scared of the dark
The advantage of preparing your own is the recycling of previously learnt language.
9 Lives
Using the quiz above. Students pre-select an answer for each question. Their partner then has to get from the start of the quiz to the end of the quiz. Each time they are wrong, they lose a life.
Person 1 pre-selects answers
Person 1 reads question “Do you turn out the lights on leaving the house?”
Person 2 tries to guess pre-selected answer. “I always turn out the lights on leaving the house”
Person 1: “non/nein/no”
Person 2: now down to 8 lives, tries to guess pre-selected answer “I sometimes turn out the lights on leaving the house”
Person 1: “oui/ja/si” reads next question “How often do you have a shower?”
and so it goes on…
7 pictures 7 sentences
This was adapted from a commercially produced textbook. It involved 7 sentences, each was divided in two. There was also a picture. The first task was to match the sentence halves and then match the sentences to the pictures underneath. It would not take much to create your own version of this.
Moving on from the activity above, you could use these as a start of a photo-card discussion. You could also simply get the pupils to generate sentences relating to the picture.
Recycling container seen in San Sebastian.
Containers Card Sort
Again an adaptation of a commercially produced textbook (the same one in fact). It was a great way to acquire and use a variety of vocabulary in a meaningful context. Give students a series of headings in books (such as recycling containers) and a set of vocabulary (that can go in the containers). You could adapt this to different levels
Easy: put vocabulary in correct container
Medium: Scaffolded sentences explaining where you would put each item
Hard: Use of conditional + direct object. I would put it in … because
This was an activity that happened after a few lessons, in which we had covered opinion phrases, superlatives, subjunctive and global issues vocabulary.
A few years ago, there were a number of teachers talking about “Grouptalk”. One of the ideas I saw was the idea of a cyclical discussion. Students would start a discussion on a table of four and try to keep it going as long as possible. I tried this last year with a mixed ability year 10 group on the “biggest problem facing the world”. The conversation was heavily scaffolded with vocabulary help and some prompts on paper. I have rendered the potential conversation below in English. Names have been altered.
Ross: “In my opinion, the biggest problem in the world is poverty What do you think Phoebe?”
Phoebe: “For me, the biggest problem in the world is terrorism. Joey, in your opinion, between racism and terrorism, which is worse?”
Joey: “I believe that world leaders are the biggest problem.”
Rachel (interrupting) : “Joey you’re completely wrong, it’s global warming.”
Joey: “I disagree. Ross, what do you think: global warming or terrorism?”
Students were genuinely surprised that they could take part in a relatively tricky debate entirely in the TL.
Debate Round 2: Bingo cards
Were I to do the debate above again, I would give 5×5 grid bingo cards with phrases to use. Students that complete a line or a row would receive some form of reward. Something like this could work…
Questions
Subjunctives
Opinion phrases
Fancy Language
I asked someone an opinion
me da miedo que exista
Desde mi punto de vista
aunque quisiera pensar de otra manera
I asked a question with two options
es increíble que haya
Opino que
el problema que nos enfrenta es
Finished statement with a question
no creo que sea
A mi modo de ver
y por si eso fuera poco
If you do not trust the student who is claiming the reward then you have two options:
Students have to tell you one or two of the ways they used the phrases above
Their partner completes it while they talk
Original Tarsia
Environment Tarsia
Formerly an italian Renaissance design motif, now an educational activity. The idea of Tarsia puzzles was hotly debated on the GILT Facebook Group a while back. Some were heavily in favour; others were heavily against. Arguments for included testing of vocabulary. Arguments against suggested it was testing of being able to put shapes together. Both points of view have been put forward by experienced colleagues. Rather than a simple English-German matchup, I have tried to make them more challenging by doing the following:
Populate it with a mix of seen and unseen vocabulary.
Have the words around the outside edge as well – Maths do this with formulas to great effect. Students could translate the outside edge vocabulary as an extension task.
Have the tarsia composed entirely of synonyms in TL.
Have the tarsia composed of starts and ends of sentences.
Have the tarsia composed of a mixture of haben/sein verbs in perfect tense or etre/avoir verbs in passé composé.
Tarsia are puzzles I was introduced to by our maths department. They were used to match up formulas that would give the same result but there are many ways to adapt them for MFL. A google image search of the word will show you how they look. How can you make one? Download the program here. They are quite heavy on the photocopying and chopping up so you may need your tutor group to do the chopping for you.
NOTE – IF YOU ARE READING THIS IN 2024 THEN THERE IS NOW A NEW NEW GCSE.
September 2016 heralded the start of teaching the new old GCSE in MFL. It was quite a bit to prepare for and necessitated two blog posts: this one and another one. Having taught a mixed ability Spanish group this year, it seemed like a good time to look at what has worked, and what I would like to do next.
Keeping Going
Key Language Sheets
Students have these in the back cover of their exercise books. They have proven to be invaluable tools and they do use them. The sheets need some tweaking as my section of fancy language was titled “frases para conseguir 1 o 2”, having completely confused the top and bottom grade boundaries! These have been regularly used in class and at home. There is a box at the bottom with key conjugated/modal verbs and infinitives allowing students to take one, follow it with the other and then add an opinion. I feel a section is required on justifying opinions so a few tweaks to the sheet will be my homework at some point.
Setting these as a vocabulary learning homework was…illuminating. Even after 3 years of Spanish some of the students did not know the 100 most common words in Spanish. The list on Vistawide is pretty good albeit not authoritative. I set 25 per week to get through them rather quickly. I told the group it was their new 5-a-day and still left weekends free. The reaction was muted to say the least! They were then tested on 20. I tried to vary the methods of testing to see if they had really learned them. It did work and the students did find it helpful.
1-5 Gap fill/anagrams
6-15 English –> Spanish
16-20 Spanish –> English
Roleplays & Photocards
Students are seeing at least one roleplay and photocard task with each topic that we cover. My way of managing to get them into class was to model how the task should be approached, give students some preparation time and then they complete the roleplay or photocard with two different people, with the unpredictable question being varied each time. They then calculate an average of their scores, thereby reducing any impact by over-generous or overly harsh markers. A full explanation of how I do this can be found on this post here.
Reinforcing the need for effective vocabulary learning
In the book “Why don’t students like school?” Daniel Willingham makes a number of points that have influenced my approach to students learning vocabulary:
“Memory is the residue of thought”
“Proficiency requires Practice”
P210 Why don’t students like school? – Daniel Willingham
Our homework is set online so attached with the list of words is a document detailing effective learning techniques, mostly sourced from the above book, personal experiences and The Language Gym website
Students need to understand that learning and memorising does not occur through merely reading or some imagined osmosis process. The more I can get them actively practising the vocabulary; the better it will be for them long-term.
Moving Forward
Regular Revision lessons
Every month I plan to do a revision lesson of one of the topics covered in year 10. If I have planned it right then I can do topics 1-7 at least once by February. This lesson will likely place a strong focus on the listening, reading and translation side of the exam. It will allow a refreshing of vocabulary and also emphasise the need to retain everything as they could be tested on anything. Previous exams have had questions on guide dogs for the blind, phoneboxes in Spain and nordic walking. The greater the emphasis on retaining vocabulary from previous topics; the better-prepared they will be for these weird and wonderful question topics.
Recycling
Schemes of work can be relatively linear, however that does not mean that vocabulary and grammar from before cannot be revisited. Some advice from Gianfranco Conti’s website was particularly useful:
Problem: “in typical secondary school MFL curriculum design as evidenced by the schemes of work – and the textbooks these are often based on – which in my view seriously undermine the effectiveness of foreign language instruction in many British secondary schools.”
“Solution: include in the schemes of work a section in each unit headed ‘recycling opportunities’ and include activities aiming at consolidating old material.”
To help combat this the revision lesson should help, but I have also added a section on my scheme of work to take the opportunity to revisit certain grammatical elements that are pivotal for students. Research by Graham Nutall (The Hidden Lives of Learners) suggests that students often need at least 3 exposures to new concepts to start to internalise them properly.
I will also be setting vocabulary learning on units not directly related to what the students are studying.
To add an element of competition and purpose to vocabulary learning, I am considering a championship whereby their scores are noted down. Some form of reward will be given for the student who attains a high score each week but also the students who maintain an average of 75% or more per half-term. That figure was just plucked from the air so may change.
Ipsative assessment was a new word learnt from one of our SLT. It refers to the idea of comparing oneself to previous results. Athletics taps into this all the time as runners try to equal their personal best. I have experimented with this in a lower ability year 8 group. Their aim with each vocabulary test is to equal or better their score. Students have so far responded really well to this idea but we are only 3 tests in. It will get tougher later as they will need to maintain higher scores. I could picture this working well with lower ability GCSE groups as they would have a chance to succeed regularly.
Decipher the Question starters
The reading and writing papers feature target language questions. Similarly parts of the speaking exam prompts are in the target language. A starter activity might be to translate the question and some bullet points. The students may not actually complete the question but it gives them the feeling or working out an exam question in a short space of time.
Prior to Christmas, I intend to send out a google-form requiring students to submit their responses to a number of statements eg:
I can understand questions in the target language 1 2 3 4 5
I can translate single sentences into English 1 2 3 4 5
I can use the preterite eg: fui, hice, tuve etc
This should give me an idea of their areas of strength and weakness and allow me to target my teaching better, and plan twilight sessions tailored to the individual student. It will also show me if my teaching has not sufficiently covered any of the challenges presented by the new GCSEs. The Google-form method allows me to conduct a quick analysis of their areas of strength and weakness as it automatically can produce graphs etc. If I am feeling really brave, I might add a box for their own comments.
next to them. Occasionally, where time might have been tight, we were left the verbs from the year above and used those.
Everyday MFL 