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.
Other cultures have always fascinated me ever since learning about Norway in Year 5 or tasting a Stollen in German class in Year 7. My experience of teaching secondary languages suggests that this fascination is true for our students as well.
Was Norway where this fascination with other cultures started? Possibly! It’s still on the list to visit…
We teach culture to build enthusiasm interest and develop the cultural capital of our students. for those students who do not enjoy the language learning process so much, this can be a great way to hook them in.
There are four approaches to the teaching of culture that I have used in my career.
Unit based approach
The obvious benefit of a unit-based approach is that students can gain a deeper understanding of the target language culture full stop. I’ve seen units structured around the films “Innocent Voices” or Valentín. I have seen lessons centered around schools in Latin America or French speaking Africa. I have taught lessons about Cuba (thanks Listos 2), Dali, Goodbye Lenin and the Carnival de Oruro over time. There are schools who use artists such as Miro, Matisse and Picasso as the foundation for some of their early Spanish modules. Some textbooks base entire chapters around a target language festival, country or city. Indeed, one of my former colleagues convinced a class that Mira 2’s “Barcelona Te Quiero” song was once a successful Eurovision entry! The language gym has exercises on La Tomatina. There are plenty of ways to integrate culture into our lessons.
Just as there are benefits to this approach, there can be drawbacks. Culture can be relegated to an end of year project or sometimes a module around culture ends up with grammar or vocabulary “shoe-horned in” as they are good revision opportunities when actually other opportunities might have existed. The way to counter this is to ask the question: “Is this the best learning my students can do with the material that I am presenting them with?”
This might be a slightly extreme example but let’s take bullfighting:
It could be used as an opportunity to describe the colours of clothing worn by matadors, body parts or…
Do you use it as an opportunity to build opinions and justifications?
I think that
bullfighting
is can be
dangerous
as
animals are killed
however although yet
I believe that
barbaric
people risk their lives
In my opinion
unpleasant
the animals have no choice
In my view
cruel
The Pop-up approach
Do we simply just teach about the culture when it just pops up? Festivals in particular lend themselves to this approach. Events such as Las Fallas, Barilletes Gigantes, Dia de los Muertos, Christmas, Karneval and Bastille day are all opportunities to engage students with the target language country and its culture. Sometimes a textbook will have a single or double page spread on something. It does not take long to find a short appropriate video to show towards the end of a lesson.
The benefits of this approach are that it does not take up too much classroom time at the expense of learning the language. The drawbacks are that much can be missed if it is the only way culture is taught.
Displays
There are some wonderful displays out there. I have never quite had the artistic abilities to produce an amazing cultural display of the types one often sees on Facebook groups, X and BlueSky although I have done my best. I managed one on Germany with a lot of authentic materials after a trip to Berlin but our school then made the decision (against my protestations) to phase out German…
If you’re wanting inspiration, you can find some materials here with MFL Magic, Jose Garcia is has some of the most artistic cultural displays I have seen or you can go full mural as seen at this school on X. There are companies who can produce bespoke murals when given a set of criteria. If you are really stuck for inspiration regarding layout and how it could look then the picture below was created by giving an AI image generator a prompt “classroom dia de los muertos display.” Bear in mind these are highly predictive generating tools and will not be perfect but it might spark some ideas.
Like other approaches this does not detract from classroom time and it makes for a pleasant learning environment. The drawback is again that the display may need refreshing every so often and then you have to balance time invested against the return.
Culture slide approach
This is probably my most recent evolution in culture teaching and the one that I actually feel has done it best. Dedicating 2 minutes of a lesson to culture after answers to a starter/do now task and before the lesson fully starts. I prepare a single slide on a topic that includes some pictures and some fun facts. I talk through it for a minute or two and then we crack on with the lesson. The benefits of this approach are that there is largely something for everyone. The students who enjoy history enjoyed learning the history of Spain. The musicians enjoyed learning about singers/songwriters, bands and music. The students who go on holidays learn a bit more about the places they have been. The students – for whom a holiday abroad is unlikely – broaden their horizons. The students who don’t appear to enjoy language lessons often appear to enjoy this part.
Just to unpack what I mean a little bit more by “some pictures and fun facts”…
The Spanish island of El Hierro had a whistling language that was used to communicate between villagers. William Shakespeare was given a barrel of wine from Tenerife as part of his salary. Ibiza and Formentera were used as a base by pirates. Francesco Tarregas’s Gran Vals in A contains a tune known by millions around the world without realising its Spanish origins (seriously, look it up). The Menorcan city of Mahon is home to Salsa Mahonesa, or – thanks to the French – as we now know it: Mayonaise (an utterly disgusting substance with which people inexplicably ruin sandwiches).
I cannot reproduce the slides as they produced in the context of my work for an academy trust and therefore property of the trust, however, here is a rough guide to what you could do:
Year 7
Term 1
Term 2
Term 3
Term 4
Term 5
Term 6
Spanish Islands Mallorca Tenerife Ibiza
Major players in Spain. King, President, famous people
History of Spain Cavemen to present day in 10 lessons. *
Customs / Festivals Mealtimes Siestas Padel Tomatina San Juan
*Simon Barton’s History of Spain was quite useful for this for the division of eras into 10 lessons.
Year 8
Term 1
Term 2
Term 3
Term 4
Term 5
Term 6
Spanish artists.
Spanish musicians
Central American countries
Foods including Paella Mole Negro Pique Macho
Idioms from Spain
Quirky places to visit in Spain + South America Smurf village Water fights in Bolivia Colombian festival of Yipao
Culture can make great cover work
Feedback from the cover supervisors in my first school was that they hated covering Spanish/French/German as they didn’t know the answers, students would struggle with not knowing words and most people sending in cover are often too ill to provide much more than “do these grammar exercises.” Whilst a set of sentence builder activities goes a long way towards solving this, a cultural based lesson could work. A set of cultural based activities means students are still learning, they do not pick up or reinforce misconceptions with unchecked exercises and the cover teacher has a significantly easier job.
I have done this two ways in the past:
Spain Live – This was a great textbook teaching pupils about Spain. It works very like a geography textbook with articles and questions to answer. There are also France and Germany versions.
IT room/library – Write out a list of Spanish speaking countries, periods in Spanish history or famous Spanish people. Give each student a different one so that they have to do their own piece of work. Students have to create a poster / powerpoint / document of some description that explains everything they can find using the computers or the library (if your school has one). To avoid copying and pasting, make them write it in a horrible histories style where it has to be accessible for a child aged 8-10.
Conclusion
However you choose to teach it, there is no escaping the fact that culture can broaden horizons, enrich the mind and enthuse our students. The above are some ways I have done it over the past 15 years. You may have others in which case feel free to suggest them in the comments or underneath the social media posts.
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.
The whole idea behind these posts is five simple things you can do in your classroom with minimal preparation tomorrow.
Adam Boxer’s Tick Trick (adapted to MFL)
This arose from a post on X by Adam Boxer (you can find his website here). I started using this with my classes for translation tasks. It’s devastatingly simple to add into a lesson: “If you have that bit on your answer, give it a tick on your board.“ You can even convert it into TL with more simplistic language “If you have A, correct. If you have B, correct.” I used it to break sentence translations down into chunks of languages so that students were being rewarded for the bits that they were getting right. The current AQA GCSE does a similar thing where 2/3 chunks correct might equal a mark.
Recently, our department has begun experimenting with sentence builders. I currently share some groups and wanted to check how much of the sentence builder my class actually knew and could reproduce because when you see them every other lesson, it is inevitably harder to track their progress. Being a fully-signed up fan of mini-whiteboards, I chose 5 sentences from the sentence builder for my class to reproduce in Spanish. In this case, the sentence builders described a house. Each sentence was different, used adjectives with the highest surrender value (that is to say applicable across multiple contexts) and students could attempt an extra sentence from the previous sentence builder if they finished quickly. I asked students to turn their sentence builders over and try to produce the sentences from memory. If they peeked, looked up a word or phrase then I asked them to underline that phrase on the sentence builder. It gave me quick intel as to how much each student could remember.
AI seedling image
Seed-planting for GCSE
One of my Year 9 class this week asked a question about GCSE. It was one of those “let’s slow the lesson down by getting the teacher to talk about something” moments. I quickly weighed up the pros and cons and thought let’s take the opportunity to sell GCSE MFL to this mixed ability group. We have not begun our options process yet but they had some thoughts that needed unpacking.
Do I have to take it?
What is foundation / higher?
My sister says it’s ****** hard?
Do i really have to talk for 12 minutes?
What if i don’t want to teach / translate? Is it worth it?
It’s always worth reminding students that they have been preparing for their language GCSE since Y7. The words that they learn then are equally likely to make an appearance and the topics in Key Stage 3 often map to the GCSE ones. When the foundation reading text says “does Ximena enjoy her history lessons?”, they learnt that in Year 7. I sometimes think we are not so different from maths in that our GCSE is the culmination of everything learnt so far.
Photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels.com Grumpy Smurf picture was copyrighted
Grumpy Time
Not my idea at all and full credit goes to Gianfranco Conti for this one. Having seen that my class had used the sentence builder mentioned above to write about where they live (more ideas for this topic here), I asked them to produce me an answer that was entirely grumpy. Having not done this for a few years, none of my students had written a grumpy answer before so we had a brief moment about adding in adverbs of degree (sometimes MFL teachers and resources refer to these as quantifiers). We noted down a few to add in to sound significantly more grumpy. Students then produced some extremely grumpy sentences and seemed to enjoy it rather than the generic “write about where you live.”
You might notice we have been teaching a fair bit of “in my house” stuff recently from the post above. This idea continues that theme I asked ChatGPT to produce me an image containing two houses and specified what rooms i wanted in each (after a disastrous first go where we had staircases to nowhere). In the end, I ended up using both images! One for a simple writing activity where students wrote “In house A there is but in house B there is not…” The disaster house came in useful as an extension where with a few adjectives given students could write “there is a useless staircase”, “there is a garage upstairs which is stupid.”
A cautionary note on this one. ChatGPT only allows you a certain amount of images per day also since then I have also learnt that AI image generation has a significant water footprint.
Lastly, if you are starting to look for Christmas MFL ideas then…
Also a relatively new blog from Beth M is well worth a look. I remember Steve Smith being kind enough to mention mine in the early days which raised my viewing numbers. I hope this will do the same.
My current school uses mixed ability groups so the scenarios below are from previous years in teaching groups largely set by ability but I thought this might give some hope to those teachers that are struggling.
8×6 – Year 8 Set 6
SOURCE: YARN
I had battled with this class up until Christmas and January needed something new, something different to avoid seven months more of students not learning as much as they could. This class was extremely boy heavy and whilst more recently books such as “Boys don’t try” have advocated avoiding competition, we leaned into it. Bill Rogers “Cracking the Hard Class” played a major part in this one and much of what follows is based on the advice found therein.
My classroom at this point was set up with square tables much like a primary school with four students to a table. The overly rectangular shape of the room suited it and lent itself to this. Rows ended up very long and a horseshoe wasn’t possible with student lockers and cupboards etc. This did however mean that whiteboards and rubbers could be left in a tray in the middle of the desk and all that needed to be given out was pens.
Students were in teams of four. Students had a say in the teams. They could nominate one person they thought they would work well with and 2 people they would rather avoid. This meant that certain combinations did not end up together. Ultimately, I didn’t satisfy everyone but the buy-in increased slightly. The rules and what they could score points for was clearly explained.
Our teams were Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Panama. Points were awarded for completion of work, good work, using the target language in class, positive behaviours such as helping others and completion of homeworks. I occasionally had a TA in this group and they were allowed to award points too. Points were counted in two places a small whiteboard on the wall (which normally held learning objectives) and on a mini-whiteboard when I was mobile so they didn’t get forgotten. We would finish lessons ever so slightly earlier to give time to add up the points for each team. These would be displayed on a PowerPoint slide before students left the room, as well as at the start of lessons. As I taught this class Friday period 6 then this was declared the double points lesson. This meant that friday period 6 was actually quite a nice end to the week. At the end of each half-term we rewarded the top two teams and reset the scores to zero. Certain behaviours would mean points being wiped off. We limited this to rudeness and anything you might deem physically aggressive. The school policy remained in place for other infractions.
The mix of positive reinforcement, short term rewards combined with the team accountability that grew turned this class around. The TA and I actually ended up quite enjoying this class and were both disappointed when they got restructured for Year 9.
8×5 – Year 8 Set 5
Tenor Gifs
I hesitate to include this one but I’m going to and the reasons will become clear later on. This class looked great on paper. There was only 12 of them. How difficult could it be? Our first lesson went actually well, expectations were set, books were neat and students did what they were asked. I went home thinking “job well done lad.” Then came the second lesson. One student decides to run over the tables throwing various items at other students. Another hides under the table refusing to come out. One claims they don’t have a pen. The pen magically appeared flying through the air towards me when i asked them to leave after they had delivered a number of x-rated outbursts at other students. Three others refused to work as they didn’t believe there was anything wrong with the verbal outbursts from the other one. One walked out because they didn’t want to do the work “it was too hard” and that was just copying the date and title. Their book showed they did it perfectly the previous lesson. Another walked out because I asked them to open their book and make a start.
I said the reasons for including this would become clear later on. Being completely honest, I don’t think I ever fully turned around this class but some of their lessons did get better. There is a model of bringing change to organisations that i think works with classrooms and is relevant here. I have paraphrased it below:
Stage 1: “Early Adopters” – Approx 10-20% of a group – Some people will just join in straight from the off. They will go with you.
Stage 2: “Ok, i’ll join” – Approx 20-30% of a group – Some people will join with you after a short while when they have had time to size you up.
Stage 3: “Don’t want to get left behind” – Approx 40-50% of a group – Some people will realise the tide is turning and join you.
Stage 4: “Critical mass” – Approx 55-70% of a group – At this point more people are with you than against you. Some people will not join you as they have decided they don’t like you, or your ideas.
It was clear with this class that we needed to get to critical mass. Here are some of the steps we took:
Removing 1 key player from the group and moving them to another group with a teacher they had had the previous year. They were more comfortable with her.
Getting SEN department involved to assist students under their remit. One was extracted for extra literacy as with a reading age equivalent to that of approximately 5 years old, accessing Spanish was extremely hard.
Getting our behaviour specialist to work with another key player or two. One particularly tricky student was removed for a period of 2 weeks while they worked with him. They then accompanied him to his next two lessons as a means of re-integrating him. The three of us had a conversation prior to his return. It allowed the class to settle a bit and then we carried on. The other we met with in a PPA to try and sort out some of the issues they were having. They highlighted some issues that we could deal with. There was a mixture of the content and the nature of the group.
Having a talk with one of the more challenging students outside the room that went something along the lines of “I’m never going to stop believing that you can do well in my lessons”. After that chat, I had to live up to this every single lesson. Some lessons they did well, some they didn’t but there was a definite increase where we had more good days than bad.
Once it was realised that this group were an issue, someone from SLT would drop in occasionally to see how the class were working and positively reinforce any good behaviours. Simultaneously, they would also look out for, and be quicker to any calls made to remove pupils. It took time and following rules and policies for at least a term or two to get to this point. Once the data of the time out room started showing that these students were an issue across the school and that MFL was over-represented in its two lessons a week (compared to the subejcts with one lesson) then the question became “what needs to happen for the students in that room to be successful?” rather than “what on earth is happening to the students in that room and why aren’t they being successful?”
Talking to their tutors and asking what information they had beyond the stuff that was available from SEN that could help me understand them or use to build a better relationship with them.
Having a starter task on paper, on the desk on arrival and making sure it could not be failed. It could be argued this was a massive lowering of expectations and to an extent it was. Once we had good behaviour and a good start to the lesson, we could get on with the learning.
Listening activities were largely done by me rather than the recordings. It was about giving the students confidence. Some struggled with processing so I would take the transcripts and slow them down or amend the language in them slightly, removing distractors and increasing the cognates.
Battleships and other games became a common feature of lessons and were always done with a model first so that students could “defeat Sir” and practise the language before doing it with their partners.
Writing was very much “write a short bit from memory to answer this question and then look up something to add.” Students had vocab lists. I had stamps where I could praise or give simple feedback. Stamp stacks from this supplier worked quite well.
We sought support from parents via phone-calls and posted occasional reward postcards home. Some parents were more supportive than others but again it helped in reaching that critical mass.
One teacher who was on a PPA would occasionally come and do their work in the classroom and help out here and there. They didn’t have to, they realised it was a battle and just wanted to help out.
I did wonder about posting the above and indeed writing this whole post as it doesn’t make me look like the world’s greatest teacher. I was my own worst critic in that I would go home thinking: “you’ve done this for 7-8 years now, how is this group of 10 giving you such a hard time.” I didn’t realise at the time but I wasn’t alone; other teachers struggled with these students but the timetable didn’t put all 10 together in one room apart from in MFL and ICT!
If you are that teacher going through that class at the moment or looking at taking on a new class that makes you think “aaaaaaahhhh” then know that there are steps you can take. Don’t be afraid to talk to line managers, SENCOs, pastoral staff and SLT. If things are really really bad, then there is support out there: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/ is one such source. Union reps can also help. I would also recommend subject Facebook groups. You can post anonymously if you are just out of ideas and don’t want to be identified.
If you love teaching, love your subject, are passionate about your pupils and want them to do well then don’t let that one class change that.
9x Something – We’re not doing this next year
This next one is an amalgamation of a couple of classes. What do you do when they are not taking it next year?
Class 1 had very much decided this from about September 3rd. I used the setup from 8×6 above, as it had worked well the previous year and went for it. The group contained mostly different kids and in the end, a few were convinced to take Spanish.
Class 2 were a re-structured group post-option confirmation. They had had the options lesson and even despite our best efforts as a department, they had all opted for other things. All those that were studying it were moved into another group: my group. Continuing with the textbook chapter was a non-starter. So we went practical with the idea: If you were dropped in Spain, what would you need? These lessons were all resourced via old textbooks, bbc clips, resources online or lessons from TES.
Lesson 3: Buying things (in the shop you just got to) recap of larger numbers and prices
Lesson 4: Buying ice-cream (if you can ask for ice-creams you can pretty much buy anything)
Lesson 5: Ordering food in restaurants
Lesson 6: Complaining about food
Lesson 7: Hotel vocab
Lesson 8: Checking in and out
Lesson 9: Transport by train/bus
Lesson 10-11: Body parts, illness and injury
Lesson 12: Getting what you need in the chemist
Most students will buy in to the fact that you are teaching them something useful and that in itself can be a big help. Inevitably, there are some who will not but more ideas can be found in this post
Ultimately, my hope in writing this is to give some hope and pathways forward to the teacher who is dreading “that class” tomorrow. If this post achieves that, then it’s worth it. Don’t stay silent and do lean on the support that is out there.
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.
There are many superb teachers of languages out there and if you are teaching your lessons perfectly in the target language then this post really is not for you. I wrote about this first in Developing Target Language Teaching however it has been an ongoing journey of improvement since. In 10 years, I’ve had to teach 3 different languages and am at varying levels with each. In a previous school, this meant all three in the same day on most days and hourly switching. If you are less confident with a language then this post is for you. If you are following NCELP schemes of work or similar then this is for you. If your department is more EPI influenced then a substantial amount of your target language input is probably coming from the LAM (listening as modelling) activities in the modelling, awareness-raising and receptive practice phases, however there may be something for you to take from it.
Routines
In my previous post, I wrote about how scripting was helpful. Lockdowns really helped with this. I began each lesson with the exact same language and it has stuck since. In my department, we moved from using command forms to “we’re going to”. This was partly due to the higher surrender value of “we’re going to” and it has worked a treat as students know a higher proportion of infinitives and are familiar with read/write/translate/speak etc. It also saves working out command forms in a variety of languages where they don’t come as naturally.
How do you start/finish a lesson?
It is well worth considering what are the first and last things that your classes hear from you? Is it target language? Is it comprehensible target language? Do you vary what you say depending on the level of the group?
Working it out Step by Step. This is how I set up a …
If you are teaching a language in which you are not particularly strong then it is a worthwhile use of a PPA to sit down and script out how you would set up a speaking / listening / reading / writing / translation task in that language and then check it by a more confident colleague. For example, let’s take a listening task. I’ll put the script in English below with “stage directions” in brackets.
We are going to listen (check understanding of listen, use gestures)
In your books, the information that you write is numbers / letters / positive / negative (check understanding, use gestures)
We are going to listen two times (gesture, make sure fingers correct way round, check understanding)
If it is dificult, possibly third time (gesture, check understanding).
Number 1 (let it play as per recording)
We are going to check
Number 1 = A
Who has number 1 correct?Hand up (gestures).
We are going to continue with 2,3,4,5 etc.
Afterwards we are going to correct it.
Get pupils to translate as you go.
My one caveat with setting up activities is that certain things are best done in English. I would argue these are (but not limited to):
Some games with high value (no snakes no ladders) are sometimes best explained in English the first time as ultimately the game is forcing the students to produce the language and you might arive at that quicker.
Grammar explanations. I find these are best done in English however practice activities after can normally be explained in TL.
Negative discipline with consequences. Best done in English so complete clarity exists.
Icons
Doug Lemov’s Teach like a Champion refers to “Means of Participation.” Essentially, Lemov’s premise is that students should know exactly how to join in with each phase of a lesson. Ben Newmark (whose blogs are well worth a read) writes: “Clarity and predictability around Means of Participation results in better lessons; better behaviour, clearer teaching and children who learn more. It results in pupils who accept the rules around lesson contributions as non-personal organisational routines that create a fair and purposeful environment.“ There are two ways to ensure that the means of participation in our lessons are clear. Firstly, we can frontload instructions as we mentioned above (in bold). Secondly, we can add simple icons to our PowerPoints. It could be argued that this is taking away the need to listen. On the contrary, I’ve found the icons tend to help weaker learners and the stronger ones will focus on my instructions anyway. I would also add that the icon is often accompanied by the infinitive underneath.
Praise Praise Praise
As language teachers we’re pretty good at praise. We know every word for good, amazing, brilliant, fantastic, splendid and we encourage the students to use them in their writing. I have friends who still know tres bien from their French lessons back in the late 90s but I’m not sure the feedback was that helpful. I’ve tried altering some of the praise I give to pupils in the target language. This was partly with an aim to making it more specific (yet still comprehensible) and also helping them to hear a greater diet of words. In bold below are some phrases I will often use in target language.
Your pronunciation was perfect (this one really builds confidence “I said it right”)
98% correct. One small problem. (highlight problem) Can you repeat? (pupil repeats) Perfect
Incredible. Applause for … Very long, lots of details (with actions and occasional writing of cognates on board, detalles = details).
Great answer, one more time, more confidence please.
I don’t agree (pause) but your Spanish was perfect (often used when student has expressed a view that I disagree with such as mushrooms are tasty, Manchester United aren’t as good as …)
“Again, more passion” or “Again, stronger” Our school is currently using SHAPE to help pupils formulate better responses. This relates to the P for projection.
Displays
I have been through many displays in my time but my target language phrases one is probably the most used in class. I cannot remember where I got the phrases from but having them at the front of the room is quite useful for pointing. The blog link above will give you a flavour of the ones on the wall.
Coaching & hits/misses
It takes time in a language you are less familiar with to develop target language teaching. I suggest you have a friendly colleague who can pop in as a coach. They can praise you when you are getting it right and persevering, which helps to reinforce the routines. They can also log your hits/misses. Were there moments when you used English but simple French/German/Spanish was possible? There is not always time to reflect in a school day and this can be really helpful as long as the process is developmental and not judgmental.
What to do when it slips
Let’s be honest, it slips when we’re tired, stressed, sleep-deprived, not had tea/coffee or when we’re lacking confidence because it’s language number 3 and not your best one or you’re battling teaching 8×6 on a friday period 5. At this point, it is simply a case of get back on track as soon as you can. Don’t beat yourself up. Things that I have done in the past are:
Stick TL phrases in weakest language to my desk.
Stick TL phrases inside front cover of planner.
Write a TL phrase at the top of my planner everyday for a week and try to get it into any lesson.
Leave your door open and use TL whenever someone walks past.
Tell yourself that someone is listening next door to see how much you’re using. Or actually have someone next door.
Spanish minute. No-one is allowed to talk unless what they are saying is in Spanish (including the teacher), set a student to monitor it.
Sometimes you just need to hit reset with a class. “I know we haven’t used as much … as I would like lately. I’ve done that too. We’re going to step it up a bit from Monday, be ready. I will be listening to hear you using …, there will be rewards if I hear lots of it from you. Likewise if you hear me using a bit too much English then you have to call me out on it.” This works better with more co-operative classes. The phrasing will need changing with less co-operative classes.
Language teaching can be exhausting. I have taught 5 new subjects to fill timetable gaps and languages seems to demand more energy than many of the others. It can be easy to slip into english, hopefully this post will help you Deutsch zu erhalten, maintenir votre français or mantener su espanol.
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.
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.
Over the past 9-10 years, I have had a number of classroom displays. I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not very artistic. I look at some of the displays I see on Twitter and think “that looks incredible”, shortly followed by “I could never do that.” If you search MFL displays on Twitter you will soon see what I mean, along with a wonderfully deadpan nativity one! Here is what I can do with my limited artistic abilities and have done. Hopefuly ahead of the new term, it inspires some ideas.
When it comes to displays, I think there two types of display:
Learning
Inspiring
The kind of questions we need to be asking are:
How does this display help my students learning, or help me while teaching?
Is this display doing the thinking for them or making them do some thinking?
Is this helping to inspire a love of languages, an understanding of their value or an appreciation of culture?
I have 4 display boards in my classroom.
Display Board 1 (front) – TL phrases I want students to use in lessons
Display Board 2 (side) – Phonics board – this is an experiment from September
Display Board 3 (back) – Why study langauges
Display Board 4 back) – Map of Spain
My Current Displays
I’m aware that some people out there argue in favour of a “less is more” approach from a perspective of aiming to reduce visual stimulus in a classroom. I can completely see their point of view and definitely lean more towards this now than I did when I first started teaching.
Display Board 1: TL Phrases
I cannot find the original online so it is entirely possible my Head of Department made this. The phrases on this board are largely similar to this one on TES: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/spanish-classroom-language-mat-12359711 The overriding aim in any display like this is that it has to be stuff that students are actually going to use. We have quite a strict equipment policy in our school so any “I have forgotten a pen/book” phrase is out. The rationale for having this at the front of the room is that I can just tap the board if a pupil asks me something in English that could easily be done in Spanish. Phrases it includes are:
“te toca a ti” (your turn) “espera un momento” (wait a second) “lo he dicho bien?” (did I say it right?)
he puesto (I’ve put…) “creo que es” (i think it’s…) “no es justo” (it’s not fair)
DisplayBoard 2: Phonics
This is an experiment for this year. I wanted pupils to be a bit more conscious of how words are formed in Spanish and essentially take a bit more responsibility in working out how they are said. That way if someone says “I don’t know how to say it”, they can break the word down and reconstruct it. This uses some enlarged slides from Rachel Hawkes’ phonics powerpoints here.
Display Board 3: Why study languages
This one is at the back of the room so chances are students are only going to see it when they are a) walking in and b) turning around to look at the clock (how dare they!). It could be more prominently placed if my classroom allowed for it but the material on there is large enough to read even with a cursory glance. Again, I am not the most artistic of people so my first trip was to Instant Displays for some lettering and then to use these resources from NST.
Display Board 4: Map of Spain
If I’m honest this is the one I am most proud of. It took a while to make so here is how:
Draw around the outline map adding dots for places.
Remove yellow paper from whiteboard.
Cut it out.
Cover display board in blue paper (sea).
Fix your map of Spain in the middle.
Write on the places.
Don’t forget the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands.
This tends to be used quite regularly in lessons particularly when a place is mentioned in a text. It can be quite helpful to say: “This place is here. If you have been to … then you were not very far way from it.”
One year we also put some stars on places where students and staff in the school had been to Spain and where.
With apologies to Portugal.
Other things on the walls
The Weather: Students in our lessons write the date, learning aim (post on learning aims and objectives in the works) and weather.
Numbers 1-20: This is quite useful for lower ability classes when getting feedback on tasks. “How many people scored …?” Or for randomly selecting the next person. “Charlie, pick a number between 1-20.” you count along the rows for the next person. This is of course when you are not using Wheel of Names.
Spanish Speaking countries: This is quite a nice poster set by Twinkl. You can check it out here.
My Past Displays
The Sentence Builder
In the past I have turned a display into a giant sentence builder. The sentence builder was modelled on one in this video from Vincent Everett (the sentence builder appears at the 3min 20), which uses modal verbs and infinitives. It was extremely helpful to students, however I quickly learnt I needed to cover it up during tests!!! He also has an excellent blog, which you should check out. His Toblerone idea will be making it into a lesson in September.
I set up a display board as above and then populated it with the origami houses that the students had made. I asked a few students to print off some useful vocabulary that could float in clouds in the sky, which they duly did….only with a few additions such as the house from Up! and the Death Star from Star Wars.
The Three Tenses Board
This was quite a simple idea from my previous Head of Department but effective. It contained 30 phrases all students had to know. His original looked something like the table below. I will let you decide what verbs should make it into the 30.
Past
Present
Future
J’ai mangé
Je mange
Je vais manger
J’ai bu
Je bois
Je vais boire
Teaching Spanish at the time I simply adapted the phrases. Again, this was a “cover up during assessments” board.
Hopefully, this has inspired you with a few ideas. I have probably done others that I cannot remember but these are the ones that I feel answered the three questions best.
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!
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.
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..”
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.
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.
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.
Every now and again on Facebook groups such as Global Innovative Language Teachers, Secondary MFL Matters and Secondary MFL in Wales, a discussion will arise surrounding the use of target language. Almost all responses advocate regular use of the target language. My first Head of Department would emphasise how target language use needed to be “judicious”. By that he meant appropriate to the group and well-thought out by the teacher. A brief search of the aforementioned Facebook groups suggests anything in the region of 70-80% of teacher talk should be in the target language. Some teachers also make the point that any target language in class needs to be comprehensible to the majority of students. This is illustrated most clearly by a story Rachel Hawkes tells of how a student developed the misconception that everything had to be done in ten days. The teacher in her story was checking her class had understood tasks by using the Spanish phrase: “entendéis.”
Almost every MFL blog out there has a post on target language so here is a small selection for your perusal.
You may well ask why I’m writing a post on target language use if it has been done already. I wondered that for a while too! This post is very much about developing teacher target language use. This post is primarily for three types of people.
PGCE trainees and NQTs getting to grips with using the TL in the classroom.
Experienced teachers teaching another language, with which they are less familiar.
Teachers who wish to increase their TL use.
This post draws on some experiences that I have had over the years. I was once a PGCE trainee and an NQT. I have had to teach a third language. There have also been times where the amount of target language has dropped with a particular group and I have needed to raise it. Here are some ways to get started:
Script the lesson
On my PGCE, I remember filling out 2-3 page lesson plans detailing all the things I was going to do. Thankfully, my plans are shorter now.
Scripting interactions that I intend to have with a class can bring about some real improvements in TL use. For a while I had to teach my weakest language (French). To ensure that the students were getting a decent diet of TL, some scripting was necessary. By scripting the various aspects of the lesson: welcoming, admin (books out etc), instructions for activities, vocabulary to use during activities and finishing the lesson, I was able to give them that.
This approach does mean more work and is not always practical to do every lesson. However, I think it pays off. Over time the students grow accustomed to it and it becomes habitual for you. It can have a beneficial effect in your strongest language too. You may find that you can condense instructions, deliver more comprehensible input and also better integrate the language that students have learnt recently into your teaching.
I was told by my previous Head of Department that a teacher he worked with had a yellow box painted on the floor of their classroom. When in the yellow box, she would only speak TL . Students realised that they needed to listen carefully when the teacher was in that position in the room as that is where instructions came from. My former Head of Department said that teacher was one of the best at using the TL in a classroom that he had ever seen. Your site team, SLT, caretaker or cleaner may have issues with this approach, masking tape may suffice!
This is exactly what it says. Count the instances where you use target language and when you use English. If the emerging picture is more favourable towards target language then great, aim to build on it! If not, then there is work to do! If you are a PGCE trainee or NQT, a mentor could do this for you. They could also look at the times English was used and suggest some changes to make.
When teaching French, I was fortunate to have two very supportive colleagues who would occasionally help me out with pronunciation, words I was unfamiliar with or aspects of French culture. There is nothing wrong with asking for help, after all it means the students benefit! Another way to develop is a non-judgemental peer-observation Could an experienced colleague watch part of your lesson and offer some feedback on your pronunciation or TL phrases you could use?
For a while I had a list of TL phrases in my weakest language stuck by my desk. The textbook also had a great list in the back of the book! Pick a new phrase or two you would like to use. Try and get it into every lesson over a two or three week period. You could put them at the top of a planner page for a week or so and try to use them.
Listening activities traditionally come from textbooks but there is nothing to stop you devising your own. It increases the amount of TL the pupils hear from you. It is great pronunciation practice if you’re teaching a language you are less familiar with. You can then pitch the listening at an appropriate pace. You are free to remove the asinine additions where the people on the recording share a normally unfunny joke and your class are wondering: “what just happened?!”
Conclusion
Like any aspect of teaching, target language use can be improved. Forming habits is tough (as anyone who has started using a gym will know). It takes time. Jason Selk from Forbes makes the point that Serena Williams did not stop practising her serve after 21 days, assuming she had it cracked. She kept going and still does. It is the same with us. Teaching is a craft and to be a master of that craft takes time and deliberate practice. Hopefully the ideas above play a small part in helping you develop, refine and improve your teaching.
AQA calls it marriage/partnership. Edexcel calls it “relationships”, as does Eduqas. This topic is one that I believe requires a degree of sensitivity when teaching. I have always found it useful to pre-warn students when there are upcoming lessons on this topic. For some, family relationships, divorce and arguments are the last thing they want to talk about because they are living through it. The last thing you want is to dredge up unpleasant memories or experiences.
I’ve tried a variety of activities to make this topic more enjoyable for students and will share a few below. Before starting this topic, it is really worth considering what you want your students to be able to say at the end and how it might be assessed. You might think “well I do that all the time”. However, are we thinking in terms of grammar, chunks of language or set phrases? From a brief look at AQA’s speaking sample assessment materials. Students should be able to…
give their opinion on marriage and appropriate age to marry
to explain a cause of divorce
talk about their ideal partner
state whether you believe marriage is important
You could also imagine how the topic is likely to appear in writing, listening and reading.
Here are some activities I have tried with groups on this topic.
Word Family Matchups.
Give students a list of nouns, verbs and adjectives. They should all have very similar meanings eg: “love”, “to love”, “loved” or “girlfriend/boyfriend”, “to go out with”, “dating”. Students have to match all three. I found this was a good start to the topic as most students started picking up the spelling and meaning links between the phrases and gave them a good base of vocabulary for future lessons.
Synonyms match up around the room.
Give students a list of words. Around the room you will have synonyms with a TL definition. Students have to work out which synonyms go together. This is best done with higher level groups after pre-teaching some basic vocabulary around the topic.
Ideal partner modal verbs
This topic is ideal for revising modal verbs (most common verbs). If you are a fan of Sentence Builders à la Conti, there is plenty of potential here. I’ve put two examples below. Feel free to adapt them to French/German/Spanish/Italian etc.
I want to meet a man who is adjective
I would like a woman can be adjective
I hope
Or
My ideal partner should be adjectives
would be more adjectives
would have nouns
You can then do various games and mini-whiteboard activities based on these.
Consequences ideal partner.
I have used the above phrases in a consequences style activity. Give out A4 paper, one between two. Fold in half lengthways and chop. Students put their name at the bottom of the paper. Give them a sentence to create. They write it at the top, fold towards themselves and pass it on. Give them another sentence. Repeat until most of the paper has been used and then return to original owner. The original owner now has two jobs. Job 1: translate what has been produced. Job 2: write out a version correcting anything they deem not to suit them. For example, if their piece of paper says “my ideal partner would have brown hair” and they would prefer otherwise then they need to change it.
This vocabulary would also lend itself to a trapdoor activity!
Starts and Ends
I have always found this a good pre-writing activity to see how much students can produce independently. Give them the start of a sentence that they must finish or the end of a sentence that they need to start. It goes some way to mitigating the tension that arises when a student is asked to produce 40-90 words on this topic.
Mi novio ideal ______________________________
_____________________________________________ me hace reír
Semi-authentic Texts
I have a love/hate relationship with authentic texts. With some topics I love them (food, restaurants etc) and find them helpful. With some topics I cannot seem to find any that would better what is in the textbook. This is where you can create your own (highly patterned and flooded with language you want them to learn, naturally). I recently had some success with Fake Whatsapp. Rather than an authentic text where you cannot select the language, here you can, in a way that looks authentic. Add in some French textspeak, German textpspeak, or Spanish textspeak if you dare.
How can you turn this into something about relationships? Let’s return to our earlier bullet points:
Your opinion on marriage: Produce a short conversation between two people discussing it.
What is the right age for marriage? Produce a conversation between two people about a friend getting married.
Do every roleplay and photocard on this topic you can find
My experience of the new GCSE so far shows me that when students are confronted with a roleplay or photo card on school, free time, holidays or healthy living then they are largely fine. When confronted with one on marriage or family relationships. They panic. In class I would make sure we have a go at these topics and trust them to be ok with holidays and school. As there is only one of you and potentially 20-34 students in your room. I have found some success using the following process for doing roleplays and photocards in class. I have copied it verbatim from another blogpost on marking here.
Teacher shows students mark scheme and script for roleplay.
One student is selected to conduct the roleplay. Teacher plays role of student
Roleplay is then performed by teacher and student (in reversed roles).
Teacher (as student) produces a roleplay that can be described as a omnishambles full of mistakes, hesitation, use of English, use of Spanglish, use of French, adding O to any English word to make it sound Spanish.
Teacher (as student) produces a half-decent roleplay that ticks some boxes but not all.
Teacher (as student) produces a roleplay that would knock the socks off the most examiners.
After each the students are asked to give numerical scores. The AQA mark-scheme is extremely helpful in this as for each element of the roleplay there is a score of 0, 1 or 2. Their language says “message conveyed without ambiguity” or “message partially conveyed or conveyed with some ambiguity”. In short: 2 = job done 1 = partly done 0 = was it done? Students are then asked to give a score out of 5 for quality of language. The teacher can guide them towards this one a bit more.
Students then have silent prep time for a roleplay on the same theme but with different bullet points. 10-12mins.
Students conduct the roleplay in pairs with script on projector screen. After which, they assess their partner’s performance. When they switch over, you need to switch the unpredictable question to something else! Or generate a new task for the other.
They need to repeat this so that they have two sets of scores. They can then calculate an average. By doing so, hopefully any overly generous or overly harsh marking is minimised.
A very Happy belated New Year to you. If you’re reading for the first time then you are very welcome! Over 10,000 busy teachers visited last year from countries all over the world. Hopefully, you found something useful. Anyway, to kick off this year, here are 5 things you can try tomorrow.
Some schools have vocabulary sheets, some have knowledge organisers. Get some 12 sided dice and set 12 chunks/items for students to test each other. They need to produce the Spanish for this activity to be most effective. Students test each other on 5 things. My year 8s are working through a foods topic so the phrases they were testing each other on primarily concerned restaurants.
3pts – perfect recall without help.
2pts – needed sheet to prompt
1pts – needed sheet but not correct
0pts – silent response
Quick run-through:
Harvey rolls dice, rolling a 9. He looks at the screen. His partner Lewis has to do task 9. Lewis reads task 9. “Order a dessert”. Lewis consults his vocabulary sheet and says “quiero un helado de chocolate”. Lewis has achieved 2 points. He then rolls the dice for Harvey.
Double chance to win bingo
Students divide a mini-whiteboard into 6. They put three adjectives and three nouns into the spaces. This worked best with school subjects and opinions. Bingo was one of the go-to games for my German teacher in year 7. I find doing it this way forces learners to listen to more of what you say. I guess you could do it with 9 squares and alter the verb too. The Year 7s loved it this week.
me gusta la geografia porque es útil
Bomb Defusal
Using a writing frame, put a sentence from it on a mini-whiteboard. Learners have 10 opportunities to defuse the bomb or a set time limit using this website. Very simple guessing game but actually allows you to check their pronunciation of the target structures. Make it more interesting by having the first person pick the next person, who picks the next person. Or use a random name generator.
Live Marking
This was sold to me a year or so ago as a way to “dramatically reduce your marking load”. This idea from a history teacher was that you went around the class adding comments to kids work such as “how could you develop this point further?”. The kid then had to respond instantly. In humanities subjects I can see it being effective. I came up with a variation recently designed to help a class that are not particularly confident speakers.. Here’s how it works:
Find a text in TL (textbooks are great for this).
Work student by student having them read out the text – no prior preparation.
With each student write a quick note in their book on their speaking. Here are a few examples:
15/1 Speaking: “superb today – no issues.”
15/1 Speaking: “check words with LL otherwise fine.”
15/1 Speaking: “check words with “CE.”
15/1 Speaking: “pronunciation fine, now try to sound more confident.”
If you feel that they need to respond in some way, write out a series of words containing the target sound and work through them with the student. Or get them to redo the line.
Students seemed motivated by it and seem more confident as a result. As a teacher, it is quick simple feedback and if a response is needed then you can do one very quickly! It takes very little time to do a whole class.
Sense/Nonsense Listening
This is a really simple warm-up activity prior to a recorded listening on a similar topic. Recently year 8 working through the food topic and have arrived at restaurant situations. This one was a bit of a “off the cuff” thing. Read out a sentence. Students have to listen carefully and decide if it is “sense” or “nonsense” based on vocabulary they have covered recently.
De primer plato quiero una tortilla española con helado de chocolate.
De segundo plato quiero una sopa de manzana.
De segundo plato quiero un filete con patatas fritas.
Perhaps this rings true for some of you. I’m not sure how you see parents evening or how they work in your school but I’ll do my best to make sure that there is something for everyone.
I firmly believe that strong relationships facilitate greater progress in the classroom. Parents evening offers a unique opportunity to build two relationships. Empathy and enthusiasm are crucial in those few hours.
1) Student – Teacher. Parents evening is one of the few times you will get where you can talk to the child about their progress without their peers being around but with a level of accountability, as their parents heard it.
2) Teacher – Parent. Parents might have heard from their offspring that you are a fire-breathing ogre with a volcanic temperament, liable to go off at the slightest infraction. Conversely, they may have heard that you are a “legend”. Either way, it is an opportunity for the parent to put a face to a name and to have a dialogue about their child’s progress.
Making the most of parents evening:
Preparation
In my current school students seek you out for appointments and you are encouraged to seek appointments with them. They bring you a flurry of pieces of paper (these diminish as they progress through the years) and you try and pack them all into 3 hours. Other schools do their appointments online and I’ve seen that be quite effective.
Once my appointments are written in then I do three things:
Locate data and assessment results for classes being taught
Look at the list of names and note the first few things that come to mind for each student.
Penny – presentation, homework variable, good effort in class.
Leonard – speaking good, needs to increase detail and variety in written work.
Howard – off-task, focus, incident thurs.
Raj – equipment, off-task, consider seating move?
Make sure that I have a mug of tea ready.
Approach
I have seen a variety of approaches at parents evening. Some teachers ask the student questions “how do you feel you are progressing?” “How do you think Spanish is going this year?” My feedback from students is that they do not enjoy this moment of being put on the spot and are not always certain about what to say. Most students will likely opt for a conservative response irrespective of how they are progressing, as it will minimise fallout if they feel they are not doing so well.
Personally, I prefer the following:
Positive Appointment
Know your student. A couple of words about the student shows that you definitely know them. “This is the second year I’ve taught Anakin”. “Teaching Luke in year 7 and now in year 9, it’s great to see how far he has come”. “What has pleased me most about Rey this year is how she has…”
Data and progress. Talk about how they have performed in assessments or data-drops. Are they where you expect them to be? If not, why not? Was it the assessment or the revision? How can they get there? How can home be involved in helping them?
What’s next? Explain that there are a couple of things they could do “to really help themselves move forward”. Keep it short, simple and to the most important stuff. If a parent is writing notes then feel free to say more. Consider that if there is a conversation at home afterwards then what do you want them to remember? There may be more, but that parent might have had 7 appointments already.
Any questions? Leave a minute or two for the parents to ask any questions that they have.
With year 10s and 11s I have taken sheets of useful revision websites for parents to take away. The students may have already been given this sheet but an extra copy at home never hurt!
Less positive appointment:
Know your student. A couple of words about the student that shows you definitely know them and have caught them being good. Even the very worst students I have taught have not been 100% bad for 100% of every lesson. Key point to consider here: how can you build that relationship? How can you involve home in bringing about a turnaround in fortunes for that student?
Data and progress. Talk about how they have performed in class. Are they where you expect them to be? If not, why not? How can they get there? How can home be involved in helping them? At this point, the student or parent may suggest something that would help. Make a note of it and then deliver on it. This could be a seating plan change, a resource, a need for greater help, checking understanding prior to starting a task. This shows your intentions to secure the best outcomes for their child. Actions speak loudly.
Issues. If the issue is behaviour or homework then talk about where things need to improve. Most parents appreciate honesty. If the parent appears supportive then tell them you will give them a ring, or an email, in 2-3 weeks to review how things are going. As you do this, write it in your planner and then do it. Sometimes parents will engage positively with you at this point. Others may choose not to.
Finish well. Find a way to finish the appointment on a positive note. No kid should feel like they are a lost cause.
Any questions? The parent may well wish to question you further. Do not be afraid to involve your Head of Department if you need to. Perhaps warn them prior to the appointment if you know of a particular tricky parent. If the parent is taking up undue time then politely suggest that you continue the discussion at a later date, possibly with your Head of Department present.
Take a sheet
In previous years I have brought copies of the following to parents evening:
Sheet titled “how to help my son/daughter succeed at languages”.
Sheet titled “effective revision techniques for MFL”.
Sheet with QR codes for revision websites.
Each one has gone down well with parents. It takes a bit of prep time but you can reuse them most years.
Parents that care will likely read the sheet. Those that do not care will not but I have seen them appear in Spanish books, or have heard that it was stuck to the fridge or useful later down the line.
What do you do when they say….?
“Why does he/she need languages?”
“He/she is never going to go to France/Germany/Spain”
“I was never any good at languages”
“Why does he/she have to do a language?”
“Everyone speaks English”
“You can give it up in year 9 anyway”
If you read my previous blogpost Blogging for Languages without nodding off, then you will have an idea of my answers to these questions. Firstly, I started Spanish at university at the age of 18. Secondly, I never planned to teach languages. Lastly, I never thought I would ever end up in South America. However, all of these things happened. I find this normally works as quite a disarming start to a number of the above statements. After this, I can then talk about the importance of languages, the doors they opens and the benefits for their child. You will need to come up with your answers to these questions and similar ones. If you want some statistics to back up your answers then have a look at the Year 9 Options post or some things I picked up at the ISMLA conference. The main thing is delivering them with empathy and enthusiasm.
I was recently invited to lead a seminar titled “Blogging for Languages” at the ISMLA conference in Cambridge. I had a great time, met some great professionals and learnt a lot over the course of the day. The following are some gems that I picked up from Jocelyn Wyburd, Wendy Ayres-Bennett and Jess Lund from the Michaela School
Jocelyn Wyburd (@jwyburd)
Jocelyn was the first speaker at the conference. She is the Director of Languages Centre at the University of Cambridge. She spoke about how the landscape in the United Kingdom currently looks for languages and language learning. There are some points from her talk that are particularly relevant and encouraging for us as MFL teachers.
Jocelyn mentioned referred to an article in the Washington Post, shared on the Transparent Language Blog that stated most important qualities required to work at Google were being a “good coach, listening, empathy, problem solver, communicating well, insights into others and critical thinker.” STEM came last on this list. Jocelyn’s view was that a language develops all of those qualities that Google look for.
The British Academy wrote in 2017 that half of global leaders have a arts/hums/social science degree, along with 58% of FTSE 100 CEOs and 62% of UK election candidates. This goes against what might be expected given the current push for STEM subjects. Jocelyn then referred to research into languages that the UK needs post-Brexit. A summary of that research can be found here courtesy of the British Council. There is also a report on Languages for the Future which was cited in Jocelyn’s talk.
Jocelyn’s spoke strongly about how the UK needs more MFL to remain globally competitive, how the CBI (confederation of British industry sees languages as a “valuable asset to businesses” and how the Financial Times when reviewing the book Languages after Brexit spoke of a need for greater “cultural agility”. Again this cultural agility is something MFL teachers are developing in our lessons, departments, displays and trips.
Lastly, she mentioned 300 different languages are spoken in London. I would imagine this situation is slightly reduced but similar in other large cities. The MET benefit greatly from police officers with language skills. She also highlighted the MOD, GCHQ and armed forces as recruiters who see the value of languages.
I have always been of the view that languages are important and develop a variety of skills. Jocelyn’s talk has reminded me of how much unseen development occurs in our students, the value of languages to employers and given me some really up-to-date stats, facts and information to share with my year 9s.
Wendy spoke about the MEITs programme (Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies). Here are some nuggets of information taken from her seminar:
1 in 5 UK school children have a language other than English as their home language.
90% of UK primaries do French but transition is variable and often poor in state sector.
Cognitive Benefits of learning a language were demonstrated in a study in Canada. The study involved 230 dementia patients. 50% were bilingual. The bilinguals developed dementia 4 years later. This study was then replicated in India in 2016. Another study showed that bilinguals recovered twice as well from strokes. Greater detail can be found in Wendy’s blog here.
Jess Lund – The Michaela Way
The Michaela School has divided opinion. The Guardian called it Britain’s Strictest School”, Tom Bennett writes “I left, as I have before, impressed. The kids are happy, and totally loyal to the school. Parents for the most part love it.” From what I have seen, they have a strong belief in their approach and a desire for their students to be the very best they can be.
Jess’ presentation was delivered at the kind of pace that makes speed cameras flash. It was informative, humourous and engaging. What came across was her love of language teaching, her passion for her pupils and her belief in the Michaela Way.
The biggest take-away for me personally was the acronym: “PROFS” (past, reasons, opinions, future, subjunctive). How had I not come across this before?! I introduced my year 9s to it on the Monday after the conference and they are getting the idea that PROFS = better work and higher marks.
Other ideas I took were:
Dotting silent letters in French to improve security with pronunciation. Unfortunately, my French class did tests in the lesson before half-term so I have not had an opportunity to try it out!
Constant phonics and over-pronunciation. I do fairly regular lessons on phonics but perhaps something more systematic and targeted would help my students even more.
Teaching high frequency structures earlier on. This is something I had been trying with my year 8s but not in quite the same way. Jess’ sets of “awesome top 10s” definitely go further than I have. They are something I am starting to look at.
Jess’ presentation made me question a few things about language teaching:
Should we be teaching high frequency structures in year 7 as student enthusiasm is higher? Also teaching the language that makes the biggest impact earlier could lead to greater long-term retention.
They attempt to have “no wasted time” in their lessons. This got me thinking, out of the 50 minutes I teach, how many might have been lost?
NOTE – IF YOU ARE READING THIS IN 2024 THEN THERE IS NOW A NEW NEW GCSE.
There has been a lot of chatter on Twitter, various Facebook groups, between schools and within schools on preparing students for the new GCSEs. Their concerns seem to relate to the following areas:
Grade boundaries – there has been a multitude of different percentages suggested. Some are based on Maths; others are based on previous C grades. Some would offend my maths colleagues as they did not show their workings out!
What does a grade 9 piece of work look like?
How to predict grades for data drops, SLT, line managers.
Applying mark schemes – some exam boards are beginning to publish exemplar material with mark-scheme applied.
Teaching the new elements – translation, literary extracts, roleplays, photocards, spontaneous speech, conversation questions.
I considered my own post, however it would appear that the following people have already covered most of this territory:
Both are excellent, well-informed blogs by experienced professionals.
Steve’s post deals with practical ways you can bring about the results you want by what you do in the classroom. There are also helpful strategies and tips aimed at people who are teaching lower ability learners.
Helen’s post deals more with information that is out there. She looks at what is within your control and what is out of your control. She has some helpful links to Ofqual information on grading, predictions and how the grade boundaries will be set. If you are looking for some grade boundaries to use, this is not it, but it is a very enlightening read.
There are some answers out there, yet there are still a lot of unanswered question when it comes to this new GCSE. My main message would be to keep teaching as well as you can, focusing on delivering the best you can in the classroom and prepare your students as best as you can.
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.
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
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.
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.
next to them. Occasionally, where time might have been tight, we were left the verbs from the year above and used those.
Everyday MFL 