Category: crosscurricular

*cross post with Animation for Education NING *

Having attended animation workshops, made a few plasticine model animations and talked up the use of animation in PLL (primary language learning), three weeks ago I decided to take the plunge and let the kids show me what they could do!

Year 4 are currently studying a Unit of the QCA Key Stage 2 Spanish Scheme of work that is based on the Saint Saëns musical suite, Le Carnaval des Animaux. I think it’s a good unit as it allows lots of different cross curricular links to be made – you can read about it on my blog if you’re interested! I had the idea whilst sitting in one of Oscar’s workshops of using plastic animals to create an animated ‘carnival’ as an end of term project for the class – fun but also has a various purposes – enhancing linguistic skills as well as technological ones.

First step was working out how to do it! I bought a MacBook about six weeks ago and, after much deliberation as to whether I was willing to allow 31 9year olds to touch my lovely white Mac, I decided to be brave and use it. I had thought I might need to buy a webcam as the ones in school don’t seem to work (not been used for a while ;o) ). However, the Macbook has an iSight camera built in and I wanted to get on with it. Next, I raided the Nursery class for some animals – there were Duplo ones as well but I liked the more ‘realistic’ looking ones, especially as some had adult and baby sized ones.

Next, I set up the equipment before the class came in and hit my first snag – how to make the animals seen. The iSight was focused higher that the animals and the only way to get the models in camera was to either incline the screen towards the table – not really an option – or to raise the stage which I did with two trays, covered with paper, and the MacBook as near as possible to the trays. I did wonder if the iSight could be ‘zoomed’ but a quick call to someone in the know told me that I would just have to make the best of it. (I got a tip later that there is something called iGlasses that will make it zoom – I’ll be investigating before next time – ta Andrew!) Background was paper on a freestanding whiteboard, as close to the table as possible.

The class arrived and of course, everyone was fascinated by the set up and started crowding around. i like the enthusiasm but it did make some of them a little deaf to instructions! Having explained what we were going to do and how we might achieve it, the pupils got into pairs and chose their animal from the selection. Most had a couple of models for their chosen animal. We discussed our idea and how the ‘story’ might go, deciding that all the animals are on their way to the carnival; I left it to each group to decide how their animals might move / act on the way, so some are walking, others so excited that they’re dancing and the hyena and the tiger are having a scrap!

I demonstrated what they needed to do using the elephants, emphasising small movements, 12 pictures for one second of film and instructing them to keep the animals far back on the stage to make sure they’re as big as possible. Then, whilst I taught the rest of the class, I sent one pair at a time to the back table where they animated their section of the film, with the instruction to call the next group when their animals reached the centre of the stage.

The first morning we managed to do about six sets of animals and when we reviewed the footage, there were some speedy animals! A bit too much excitement I think for some to remember all the instructions.

As I have the class for two hours each week for Spanish and RE, I had to pack up the stuff until the next week which had it’s problems as the backdrop had been drawn on by the next week, and everything needed resetting. Once done though, the second lot of groups paid more heed to the need for small movements and lots of shots, and by the end of the morning we had an animation!

Today we added ‘finishing touches’ – titles and credits, sound track and sound effects, and voiceovers using iMovie. It’s amazing how long it took to ‘finish’ 1 minute 20 seconds of film! But then again, it was our first go and there was an air of general madness at school today ;o) ( rain and nearing the end of term!)

Finally, I’ve just shared it to Youtube from iMovie.

So, reflecting on the experience, I’d say the following;
It’s our first attempt – please bear that in mind!!
By the end, the class had grasped the basics so the case of the flying pigs will not happen next time.
Background could’ve been brighter – we didn’t want to detract from the animals but we’d use scenery next time.
I’d definitely want to be able to zoom in / out next time as the animals don’t fill the screen.

Although I ended up with a splitting headache – hence my earlier tweet! -it was worth it! The class belongs to the ICT coordinator who was intrigued by what we were doing and several other members of staff came to have a nose at what we were doing. And the class were full of enthusiasm – they increasingly gave constructive criticism and helped one another, and were desparate to see the finished product.

So, here’s the premiere (el estreno in Spanish) of El Carnaval de los Animales.
Please leave comments – the kids will love that! and be honest in a kind way please ;o)

Today I had the pleasure of speaking at Coventry’s Primary Language Conference. After a morning at WCPS teaching Year 6 who were rewriting The Snack Song (more of that later in the week when I blog Unit23 of QCA Spanish SOW), I raced over to Coventry to deliver two sessions entitled Languages i my classroom. Sian James, the Primary Languages Strategy Consultant for Coventry had asked me to split each session into three sections – my top tips, some of my favourite games and then to teach something as I would in the classroom. Phew – lots to fit into an hour!

So, speaking in hyperdrive (what’s new? exactly!), I launched into a shorter version of the presentation I did at Tile Hill Wood last week (see my blog post for the notes) before highlighting some of favourite games – see below for notes.

I showed how to play some of the games as I endeavoured to teach Unit 11 of QCA SOW – El Carnaval de los animales in 20 minutes (it took 6-7hours with Yr4- and we might’ve done so much more!). La orquesta went down well as did my attempts to draw animals in Pictionary and the delegates also proved to be excellent lipreaders. (all resources can be downloaded from a previous blog post!)

The conference was really well attended and had a real buzz about it. Coventry is the home of the Language Investigators model of PLL, and the updated version will be launched in September. Sian has also been working on a brilliant resource called Living Languages, featuring six Coventry children whose first language is not English, celebrating languages, the children who speak them, and the similarities and differences we can see through their eyes. The official launch of this will be Sept 25th – more news nearer the time. Well done, Sian for a really successful day!

I had the privilege to speak at Tile Hill Wood School and Language College on Thursday evening. I was really pleased to be asked by Ana Neofitou, Head of Languages, who I’ve met a couple of times at Language World and other more local conferences, and Jo Redford who is Assistant Head and who I met in Oxford this year when she introduced The ALL London Show and Tell session in which I participated.

My session was the last of three sessions for Primary teachers in teaching and learning Primary Languages. Previously the group of about 40 teachers had been working in language specific groups and focusing on vocabulary for topics such as sport and animals. My session, entitled Top tips for Primary Languages, aimed to give them an insight into how to deliver PL in an engaging way, making use of free resources and easily acquired skills. I enjoyed expanding on my presentation from Oxford (you can see and listen to it in this slidecast) which I delivered there in 10 minutes – just over an hour was still too short, but I was happier! I just get so excited that I could talk for hours!

Below is the presentation, and also the notes I made for delegates so that there wasn’t too much mad scribbling as I gabbled away! Even as a standalone document, I think you can see what I’m trying to say!

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Top tips for Primary Languages

Earlier this week David Noble tweeted a request for someone to attend a Flashmeeting on 8th May for his Access Network. Seeing it as an opportunity to virtually meet some new people, to help David and to leave school on the bell, I volunteered to share some ideas about using puppets and also some ideas for eTwinning.

On a very hot afternoon six of us met on Flashmeeting with David sharing about using GoogleEarth and also about ScotsEduBlogs. David is much more advanced in his Flashmeeting skills than me and managed to post his URLs using the URL button so they popped up for us – I managed to forget about this facility until too late, and posted any that I used in the chat. I hope that my contribution was helpful – I learned plenty from the part of David’s talk that I caught.

Below are the links I promised to post to my blog for anyone who is interested ;o)

Puppets – the following blog posts might interest you –
Inspired in IKEA part2 – ideas for where to get and what to do with puppets
Diez animales- an idea for using puppets with song to demonstrate understanding and increase motivation!

eTwinning
I quoted some of these sites in the meeting but I’ll repeat them anyway!
Have a look a the post I wrote last week about my talk at Beaumanor Hall for teachers of pupils with SEN in special and mainstream schools – there are several useful links including to the project at Sackville School run by Anne Jakins I mentioned and to a few projects/ideas I mentioned. You can also find the links to the outcomes of Whitehouse Common’s project with Spain.
There are other posts on eTwinning on my blog – use the search feature on the right- perhaps you’d be interested in this one as well.
The British Council site has an eTwinning section and then there is the eTwinning portal where you register your interest, search for partners and can record your project.
And then there is the all important eTwinning Ambassadors page.

These young people were at the International Opportunities conference today. They are from five local secondary schools and were there to explain their experience of an international project called INDIE – Inclusion and Diversity in Education.

‘Inclusion & Diversity in Education is a project that addresses the challenges migration presents to schools in Europe.’
‘The impact of migration on schools presents similar challenges to school education at all levels in all European Countries. We want to combat social disadvantage and raise educational standards for students with migration backgrounds. In order to succeed, we need to develop effective and culturally inclusive schools. To achieve this we need high quality school leadership.’
(from British Council site)

They explained how they had been chosen to take part in the project as they had shown leadership skills at school and been invited to take part in training in Sutton Park on teamwork and leading people. They were then selected to take part in a conference in Brussels in February with similar young leaders from across Europe to discuss a common charter for Inclusion and Diversity. As part of the conference, they presented in the European Parliament where they received a standing ovation.

The young people above shared their thoughts and experiences today of the project. One commented on the issues they discovered through the conference such as a young lady from Belgium being banned from wearing her headscarf who was working for a change in that area. Another talked about making an effort to understand people who didn’t speak English. And the lad in the middle commented that, whilst in Brussels, he spoke to people to whom he wouldn’t normally have paid any attention – he described one encounter ‘I’m not sure what he was,….some kind of Goth…. and I definitely wouldn’t have spoken to him in Birmingham.’

Although nervous, they spoke with honesty and simplicity – and they inspired us all. Let’s hope that there will be many more young leaders who look to lead the way for inclusion and diversity in this country.

Note – I’m trying to get hold of a copy of the Charter -I’ll post it here when I have it!

Today I took part in a conference in the Banqueting Suite of Birmingham’s Council House about the International Opportunities, presenting a case study as part of a presentation on Comenius and eTwinning along with Simon Graham from the British Council and Paul Higgs from Belvedere Junior School in Burton on Trent.

For those of you who attended the session, here’s my presentation – especially if you attended the first version when I had to fit it all into 3 minutes ;o)
I’ve also uploaded a couple of examples of work that the pupils did as part of the project. More can be found on our school websites – WCPS and CPCHD.

If you have any questions, you’re welcome to contact me.

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4KP Easter ppt (RE) – Get more documents

1HJ Easter PPT (music) – Get more documents

4CT Easter PPT (maths) – Get more documents

questions for cpchd – Get more documents

The ws of etwinning at wcps – Get more documents

example of pancake day work – Get more documents

I’ve mentioned before how I think that language learning should not be a stand alone but creatively integrated into the curriculum. Today I’ve been alerted to a couple of videos that I can see being used to do just that, using works of art as the stimulus for speaking activities.

Helen Myers (of ALL President and MFLResources fame) passed on a tip from Glynis Rumley about Women in Art, a lovely video compilation of many female faces from works of art morphing into one another.

And whilst I was there, I came across the following video – similar to Women in Art, but solely about Picasso. It could be used in a similar way to the above videos – descriptions, family members etc, and also for cultural awareness of the life and times of a Spanish artist, linked to the art curriculum.

Any more ideas of activities, or suggestions of other video clips you’ve discovered of a similar vein?

PS more ideas on integrating art and languages in Mira Miró.

The last session I attended on Friday at PLS was a really tough choice – so many I wanted to attend but I chose ¡Mira Miró!, ‘a West Sussex KS2 cross-curricular Spanish / Art project, developed by María Roberts (MFL advisor) and Jane Sedgewick (Art advisor) to escape subject silos.’

Maria introduced the project, designed to be cross curricular, not CLIL (most is in English with some Spanish language), and lasting approximately 5 hours / half a term.
The dual objectives were stated as –

• To explore the works of the Spanish painter Miró, using some simple Spanish to describe shape and colour.
• To prduce own art in the style of Miró and be able to simply describe and evaluate it.

Miró was chosen as the artist as he is 20th century, his work is abstract and also not too ‘way out’ in imagery (Dalí would perhaps be a little too disturbing!)

The language involved in the project included the vocabulary of

• shape
• colour
• size
• preposition
• evaluation

Maria showed us a number of activities that were used with the pupils to familiarise them with the work of Miró such as a game involving dominoes based on Miró’s work – each person has a domino and has to find someone with an identical image by describing it (in English) – this was an interesting activity that reminded us that our perception of a piece of art can be different to someone else’s – where I saw a man with long arms, another person saw something completely different, so it took a while to find our partners. The dominoes had been purchased from the Fundació Miró (as had other resources such as the posters that were originally part of a calendar)

Maria then took us through some of the activities that the pupils had done as part o the scheme including:

guess the name of the painting.
Pupils looked at the painting on the right and discussed what they thought its name might be. they were encouraged to comment on the form, colour, texture, lines etc of the piece. The title is Ciphers and Constellations in love with a woman – does it suit the piece? What might be a a better name?
The pupils also learned at this pint that Miró often shut his eyes and painted – interesting and quirky – perhaps they could emulate it?

looking for shapes in pictures
Looking at this painting (left) called Woman in front of the sun, pupils were asked to look for shapes – and this is where some Spanish vocabulary comes in as they describe the shapes they see. In the following lessons, they add adjectives of colour and size to the descriptions – eg hay un círculo grande y rojo.

human sentences
using cards containing images of shape, size, colour and form, we made human sentences, physically emphasising the noun / adjective word order. This could be extended with verb cards for Hay / No hay.
DIY Miró
Having been given a random selection of the shapes from the paintings, we discussed their properties, and then constructed our own picture.

Prepositions
The next step was discussing where things are in the picture – having learned a few simple prepositions, one member of the group was given a very simple extract from a painting to describe whilst the rest drew what they had understood. A good exercise in communication – it’s amazing how clear you think your explanation is until you see how others have understood it ;o)
evaluation. NB accuracy of del / de la was modelled but not insisted upon as the flow of conversation and communication was seen as more important.
How does it make you feel?
Part of art is learning to appreciate it and the end stage was discussing how the painting made them feel. Words such as ‘bueno‘ were banned – words like bonito, tranquilo, calma, alegre, triste, confuso, raro, enfadado were encouraged – I wasn’t sure about the inclusion of ‘horroroso’ as an advisable word to describe another child’s work though!

I’ve scanned the handouts for now (in My Box of Goodies as Slideshare is not liking me today :o(

Maria shared that the hope is to publish these resources on the wsgfl alongside the existing cross curricular packs on Animals and habitats, and Habitats in Spanish (there are also a wide range of French cross curricular resources including The Giant Turnip and the Little Polar Bear, and a couple in German), and also to cover a French artist, Matisse (in his later years his work is suitable!) At the moment, the stumbling

block centres around copyright issues.

I think this is another great idea for embedding PLL in the existing curriculum, and looking in a more ‘joined up’ way at children’s education. Any other ideas out there?

As I approached Conference room 1 on Friday, I couldn’t work out why there was a queue. Was I in the right place or had I taken a wrong turning and ended up by the toilets?
All was soon revealed as ‘boarding packs’ were passed back and we were instructed to fill in our passports before picking three items for our suitcase and collecting our boarding passes. By the time I arrived at the front of the queue with my holiday wardrobe, consisting of a pink bikini, red shorts and green flip flops (there wasn’t much left, and our destination was La Réunion), there was one seat left for me. And, authentically, it was right at the back and involved me climbing over everyone else :o)

We were welcomed aboard our flight by Daryl Bailey, Primary Language Coordinator at Hove Park School and Language College and Hilary Philips from St Andrews Primary. I was already aware of a previous creative collaboration of these ladies – Parachutes and PE: Active language learning in Primary School (downloadable from the Hove park site – link is to German version. Also in My Box of Goodies) so this was going to be exciting!

We were asked to fasten our seatbelts, extinguish cigarettes, and advised of emergency procedure and that our lifejackets were under our chairs, all in French. Then we took off – complete with sound effects and images on powerpoint of the view from the cockpit.

Once airborne, Hilary explained the activity. A week before International Week began at her school, Hilary was inspired to create an unforgettable experience for every child at the school.
St Andrews is a two form entry primary school with 450 pupils with a range of home languages. The idea was that the activity would focus and give context to language work and involve everyone – Hilary came up with the idea of a flight. She considered a flight to a French town before settling on different countries to match the focus country chosen by each class.

having got the staff onside, parents were contacted by letter explaining that despite what the kids may have said, the flight was a fantasy one, not in reality, and asking for any help that could be offered-
did anyone work at Heathrow or have contacts?
anyone have any equipment that might be used?
could anyone come in and give a hand?

In this way, the school discovered that several parents had old cabin crew uniforms in the loft that were worn by staff on the day; an airline captain that someone knew became involved on one of the two days and several authentic posters and articles from airports were lent to the school.

Each flight was for two classes across Key Stages to enable the older pupils to look after the younger ones. According to Hilary, this led to some lovely moments as pupils read to one another, looked after those who looked apprehensive, and helped carry luggage.
The airport was in the school hall so had to be easily moveable to allow for it to be packed away at lunch time and for activities after school. There were checkin desks, a luggage desk with luggage for each flight being placed in a trolley (lent by Iceland!) and wheeled round to baggage reclaim in the corridor after the flight. The caretaker made a metal detector archway from carpet tube and sliver paint, and all kinds of old technology such as old fashioned phones, obsolete keyboards and walkie talkies were discovered and used.
Pupils each had to pack a small piece of baggage with suitable clothes for their destination (researched as part of the activity earlier in the week) and prepare their pass port that they had to present at Passport control where the staff found all sorts of excuses for querying passengers being allowed to board.
Staff had a corporate image – black tops with a chiffon scarf and a badge – and everyone gat involved including kitchen staff, governors and even the local vicar!
Once through passport control, pupils waited in the ‘departure lounge’ where they had a choice of reading materials – magazines prepared earlier in the week about the destinations of the flights. The first pupils through were allocated to the ‘First Class’ loinge, giving a front seat and the best choice of the magazines.

Once boarded on the ‘plane – marked out by tickertape – passengers had a magazine, menu and advertisement sheet to study in a polypocket on the back of the seat in front. At takeoff, a big screen formed the front of the ‘plane on which were projected pictures as if from the cockpit on takeoff with accompanying sound effects of engine noise.
Once airborne, there was even a refreshment trolley before the flight dropped off the first group of tourists, perhaps in Sark (Reception) before flying on to La Réunion (Year6) – bizarre but fun!
The experience was unforgettable for the pupils – Daryl tracked down some pupils who had been at St Andrews last year for the flights, and had now moved on to Hove PArk, and they still recalled the excitement and delight of the whole thing.

Hilary and Daryl pointed to the plurilingual nature of our world and how this activity drew together all the other activities of the week. It promoted teamwork, involved everyone, gave huge opportunities for speaking and listening, offers a context for language learning, brings the wider world closer to home and offers opportunities for FUN! Hilary also pointed out that this linked in with the QCA Geography unit on La Réunion, and was thus also cross curricular.

The Air St André experience sparked and inspired a Chinese Day, links with Travel and Tourism and Enterprise at Hove Park, and perhaps most importantly of all, the pupils are still buzzing about it six plus months on.

A really interesting idea – I wonder how the staff at my school would respond if I went to a staff meeting and made such a suggestion? Might try it out….

The abstract for this session promised –

‘This workshop will look at ways in which Primary Languages can play a central part in a relevant, exciting primary curriculum which engages young learners through stimulating contexts, stunning starts and fabulous finishes! Rather than treating PL as a bolt on extra, & schools in West Sussex have committed to placing PL at the heart of their curriculum. From commotion under the ocean, through lost worlds, empires and eruptions and into the unknown, all with a global dimension…’

Sounded intriguing – and turned out to be inspirational.

Elaine Minett, Primary MFL advisory teacher for West Sussex presented the project to us, explaining that it stemmed from a focus on a creative curriculum in the LA, and on raising standards in Foundation subjects through developing skills, producing successful learners who

• Enjoy learning
• Make progress
• Achieve
• Make progress in attributes, attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding
• Experience relevant learning opportunities (ECM)

She shared that deep learning was the underpinning concept – how can learning be made memorable? She shared that key thoughts included a learning journey, first hand experience, use of environment, focus on talk, quality texts, celebrating learning, and making meaningful connections. A couple of aspects I’d pick out as particularly interesting are

Exciting contexts –The Romans became ‘Empires and Eruptions /Les empires et les éruptions’; Underwater worlds sounds much more mysterious called ‘The hidden forest / le foret cachée’; Prehistory was renamed ‘Lost World / Les mondes perdus’

Stunning starts and fabulous finishes – each project (lasting a term) had a really special opening activity or experiences – and the kids were hooked, inspired, gobsmacked, the lot for the whole topic. Equally, the end of the project was celebrated and had a ‘fabulous finish’ – bookending the experience.

Some examples of the starters-

– Voyage dans l’inconnu began with the pupils returning from Christmas to discover a crater in the school grounds, containing bits of metal and an advert for ‘jeunes astronautes’ in French, calling for fit young people.

– For Les empires et les eruptions, Dr Who arrived in the school hall in his TARDIS, covered in volcanic ash having escaped Pompeii. Can the pupils find out more about what happened to Vesuvius and volcanoes in general – are there any in France?

– Les mysteres de Paris – pupils ‘flew’ to Paris courtesy of the local college who have half a plane (see later post for another way of doing this if you don’t know anyone with half a plane :o) )

So – what sort of things did they do?

Each school did a baseline assessment of skills, attitudes and integration of MFL into school at the start and from this wrote individualised targets for the school. Then each school looked at existing curriculum and, using the targets as a starting point, created a topic or module lasting 6 or 12 weeks that enmeshed all the subjects including MFL (in most cases French) .

I’ve taken pictures of some of the plans- hope you can read them 😮

(A tip – if you click them, they get bigger!)

(please excuse the scribbles – can’t find the ‘blank’ copy I picked up)

At the end of the project, the results were really exciting. Benefits included:

• increased motivation for pupils and teachers
• increased time spent ‘doing’ French, but no feeling that anything had been squeezed out in doing so
• big impact on literacy
• increased parent – child conversation about school work!
• attendance improved as pupils didn’t want to miss things.

Some quotes from particpants –
‘Science and Maths are linked to French somehow’
‘The talk which went on on the launch day would have fulfilled my Speaking and Listening objectives for the whole term’
‘The children are excited about learning’
‘I’m doing more language but I don’t feel it’s encroaching on other areas’

And the one I liked best:
‘Just because pupils are in KS2, why does creativity have to stop?‘
AMEN!!

I love this approach – I’m all for creative curriculum planning and in the light of recent posts about the preponderance of literacy and numeracy, it’s heartening to see the use of other areas of the curriculum enhancing these skills.

Elaine pointed out that this wouldn’t necessarily be a termly event, but rather something that was done every year / two years. As such it seems a great idea – manageable and a truly thrilling activity for pupils and teachers – one final quotation from a teacher –
‘I don’t know who is more enthusiastic – the kids or me!’