Month: July 2011

The narrative approach to language learning in KS2 and KS3

Jo Cole

Jane Humphris

Linked Up project – to develop pupils’ linguistic independence and confidence in speaking, based on immersing kids in language

Aims of project

• to enable project work to be firmly embedded in classroom realities
• to build on partners strengths and enthusiasms to address identified needs
• to build capacity in partner schools and the wider school community

The process 

• tell the story
• imitation stage
• role of the teacher
• whole class / group / paired retelling
• moving onto innovation stage
• see the text
• move to invention (re writing the stories)

Things to note 

Pupils could lead activities – it wasn’t scary for them – they like the variety and also the opportunity to lead.

A resource bank was made with reference to grammatical structures.

By working with oral approach, reading aloud improved as confidence with sounds

At no stage does teacher say what it means – use the storymap to decode – partial competence

For more details see

www.ilrc.org.uk

http://www.linksintolanguages.ac.uk/resources/2547

*Part of a series of posts trying to summarise some of the sessions at Language World this year*

The opening of Language World saw a presentation by Anna Turney and Nick Fuller.

Anna Turney, Paralympic Snowboarder

Anna loved snowboarding and wanted to get good enough to compete. She moved to France after her degree, and decided that her best plan was to hang out with the French boys who’d know the place well (so her language skills came in very useful!) One season turned to three then she did a TEFL course, went to Japan and taught whilst still snowboarding at the weekend. In order to get sponsorship, she needed to win some races. Having played hooky one day to compete in a race, Anna crashed and ended up in hospital with 98% chance of walking again. In hospital, Anna had plenty of time to think and decide that she wanted to fight on. Language proved “fun” in hospital with misunderstandings and communication issues, but someone told her about sit-skiing which gave her new hope.

After a year of not being able to do extreme sports, Anna had a go and discovered it was harder than it looked! After practice, Anna came back to England, was spotted sit-skiing and invited to join the development squad, but had to self finance. A mystery donor bought her first monoski and off she went, on the road to Vancouver.

Anna set out to be the fittest and best she could, spending long periods of time away from home. Olympic values of friendship, excellence, respect, cooperation have been really important to Anna, and the buzz at Paralympics was enormous. Everyone has to wear team kit and it’s an amazing sight. When someone who’d won a medal came in, the whole dinner hall clapped. In Alpine skiing, each country is given an area of the hill, and countries need to work together to set courses. It is hugely competitive but there is a real togetherness about the whole experience too. The volunteers are amazing too.

Anna’s achievements in Vancouver – 6th in sitting slalom with which she was really pleased.

Anna acknowledges the debt she owes to all the people who have helped her – volunteers, family, sponsors, training partners – it’s a team effort.

www.annaturney.com 

Nick Fuller, Head of Education at LOCOG

In London there will be 170 nations.

Pierre de Coubertin saw Olympics as a sporting cultural coming together  – it’s more than sport! The vision for 2012 is to reach young people around the world. That’s been done through linking schools across the world, reaching millions of kids.

GetSet is delivered through a digital platform – www.london2012.com/getset

Cross curricular resources – themed and free!

GetSet schools have a strong local agenda as well as a national / international one. Big opportunities to work together too – National Sports Week has just ended! Also Musubi in East Midlands where Japanese team will be based.

Language and sport joined together eg handball in Spanish

Greenwich are offering free courses in Spanish, French, Japanese and Chinese – a focus on functional language.

Let’s get cooking around the world – recipes in Spanish, French, Chinese, Hindi, Portuguese – encouraging schools to engage the community and parents in language teaching and learning.

MYLO – Track list – to build a training track for French team

Get Set goes global – recognises that we’re literally just about to welcome the world to UK. In September – Get Set for the Olympic Truce – to promote peace through sport and culture. In November, we’ll be encouraged to choose our Olympic team to support and find out about it. 25th June 2012 World sports day in Sports week.

Resources available from September onwards.

There are rewards and recognition for GetSet network by filling in a short form – access to benefits and a plaque!

Does the legacy of the Olympics revolves around West Ham vs Spurs? No, it’s more to it than that – it’s looking to inspiring young people, capturing hearts and minds, instilling values and inspiring lives.

Really enjoyed this session as it brought together two of my favourite themes – languages and global / intercultural understanding.

*Part of a series of posts trying to summarise some of the sessions at Language World this year*

A review of inspection findings, and recommendations to improve provision in modern languages

Anne Looney HMI (Subject survey advisor for OFSTED)

The role of the subject survey advisors is management leadership and organisation of subject survey service.

Subject surveys are carried out in 30 primary and 30 secondary a year. They last 1 day for primary or 2 days for secondary and carried out by specialist inspectors supported by additional inspectors. The letters (reports) are published on OFSTED website and the primary letters do not have gradings on them. There is a 3 year cycle of reports and this report pulls together evidence from 2007-2010, with some reference to emerging evidence.

There are grade descriptors on OFSTED website for each of the common features –

• achievement
• teaching
• curriculum
• leadership and management

and special issues  (for 2007-2010)

• reading
• ICT
• take up KS4
• progress to entitlement at KS2

In Primary languages, there is generally a positive picture with language learning becoming an integrated and established part of the primary curriculum.

Achievement

• good – outstanding in just under 6/10 schools
• most progress in speaking and listening
• less systematic development of reading
• least developed skill is writing
• KAL and understanding of basic grammar developing well
• ICU developing well in most but not all (very creative ways seen of developing ICU, using ICT, native speakers, not just about language they’re learning in many – more than the language they’re studying)
• clear enjoyment

Teaching

• good/better in 2/3 of 235 lessons observed
• teacher subject knowledge and teaching methods mostly good; occasional shortcomings in pronunciation and intonation (these shortcomings are significant when in the key language of the lesson)
• class teachers well supported by native speakers, FLAs and other specialists
• assessments predominantly satisfactory (emerging evidence shows that often still the weakest area)

Curriculum

• good / better in more than 1/2
• combination of calssroom and external specialist generally supported provision well
• Fr most popular; Sp and ger in a smaller number also others
• by end of survey, large majority planned using KS2 Framework
• not all schemes wewre adapted sufficiently to match needs of mixed age, time constraints,
• planning for progression through KS2 remained a relative weakness (can be due to exploiting comptetence of staff etc)

Leadership

• good / better in more then 2/3
• strong commitnmtn from senior leaders
• generally clear rationale
• transition arrangements to secondary schools genrally underdeveloped
• weaknesses in montoring and evaluation of provisoon – senior leaders often didn’t feel competent to judge
• improvement in teacher training over period of survey (emerging evidence of more trainees with language skills)

Entitlement to learning

• progress towards entitlement improved during survey – good in 2/3 schools visited in the final year
• of 14 schools contacted during survey who were not then tehing MFL all but 2 were by the end
• rationale for deciding which language to teach increasingly sound  with improving sustainable plans  – clear that many are continuing with commitment to the benefits for the pupils.

From the secondary report-

“KS3 are increasingly looking at KS2 experience BUT insufficient acknowledgement of language work done in feeders”

“Strong leadership is typified by innovation, good use of local initatives and networks, and good liaison with primary and post 16 providers”

Challenges for primary

• development of pupils’ early skills in reading and writing
• clarification of progression through KS2
• teaching straegies for mixed age classes

OFSTED offered the following advice to DfE – “consider how best to support effective consolidation of Primary languages” and also advised groups of schools to support increased liaison to bring coherence and continuity of language learning at point of transfer.

I’ve just received notification from the Consejería in London –

I am writing to offer 2  “last minute” grants  for Primary school teachers interested in attending a course in Santiago de Compostela University at the end of this month. Everything, but trip,  will be paid by our Ministry.

The grants will be given to the first 2 applications we receive.

The requirements are that you have level B1 Spanish – that’s intermediate – more details in the attached document.
If you want more details, please contact me via the contact form or contact the Consejería

There isn’t much time left and the Consejería are quite anxious to fill these places!

USC14PRIMARIA