My session at the wonderful Practical Pedagogies conference centred around the use of technology to enhance Primary Language Learning.
Key points I made included:
technology is not just for the pupils but also for the teacher;
it is just one tool we have to use;
it is not always the best tool for the job.
I went on to suggest online tools as well as apps that might be useful in a range of contexts and situations.
My presentation is below and there is wiki with links to tutorials, examples and ideas that accompanies it. Feel free to ask questions via the contact form or @lisibo on Twitter.
I’m making a list of useful links that parents might use with their children to practice and reinforce their Spanish, and was struck by how many ‘goodies’ there are provided by the BBC. So I thought I’d share! NB I’ve focussed on Spanish but they all come in a variety of languages – see individual sections)
For younger learners (preschool onwards), The Lingo Show started out as a website featuring ‘language bugs’ who teach Lingo a few words in their language. As it was so popular, it became a TV series with episodes featuring Jargonaise (French), Wèi (Mandarin) and Queso who teaches Spanish, and then a second series featuring the German, Welsh and Urdu bugs was made and broadcast in May 2013.
The website has fun activities as well as links to songs that feature. Current languages include Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Spanish, German, Sinhala, French, Welsh, English, Italian, Urdu.
Here’s an example of a song featuring Queso from Youtube, and the link to a counting song
The ‘old’ Primary Languages website with ‘animales animados’ and Jhonny (sic) and co was great (and you can still access the archived version minus games here) but I was really excited to be involved in ‘revamping’ the site and rebranding it. It was developed when languages were to be compulsory and the KS2 Framework was THE bible of primary language learning, but it still stands in my opinion. This site was written to be accessible to KS2 pupils and is organized in topics. It includes:
vocabulary with sound files to help pronunciation;
interesting tips and facts about Spanish/French/Mandarin;
vocabulary games;
videos;
songs;
links to other helpful resources
There were limitations to the things that could be done e.g. interactivity, ‘free’ writing, games beyond vocabulary recognition level etc. And I sometimes wonder what happened to other ideas and resources that I saw and wrote that have never appeared on the site – including sentence building games, lesson plans. worksheets and notes for parents.
I’ve used the site with Y2 recently and they love the songs – they listen as they work and have started singing along. Sometimes they want to see the words and other times they want to watch without. The tunes are excellent – the composer did a good job of making the words fit in English Spanish French and Mandarin to the same tune!
I’ve signposted it to my colleagues as well as a way that they can ‘do their bit’ to reinforce Spanish learning; non-threatening as it’s all there for them.
3. Bitesize (now the home of Learning Zone)
The ‘repository’ of all the BBC videos used to be the Learning Zone Class clips, but they have moved to Bitesize (actually since I started writing this post!) The Learning Zone is still there in archive form and still works; it just won’t be updated. If you scroll down to Spanish in the Primary section, there are lots of clips of programmes on a variety of subjects:
However, these videos – and others – are now listed on BBC Bitesize. There are categories for Spanish according to the ‘Key Stage’ system:
(NB there are other languages too in all the above sections! French, German, Italian, Mandarin)
These two clips come under KS2 School and are from a series called Adventures Abroad; a playground game called Abuelita ¿Qué hora es? that I’ve played with classes, and a programme about primary school routine in Spain that I know has been used and enjoyed by others who found Papo the parrot particularly amusing.
This is a series of programmes in which a child, Ashleigh, is helped with her Spanish by friends in Spain via video conferencing. It also includes some songs and cultural information. (Also in French and German)
Here’s the trailer…
and here are the episodes:
Something I’ve noticed is that the clips all have a QR code option for sharing which I like! That means that I can make a display of all the QR codes and then learners can access them whenever they wish (as long as they have an iPad or mobile device!); for example, as an extension/further learning for early finishers.
I really like Virtually there. Ashleigh isn’t a KS1 child; I’d say she’s nearly secondary age so it would appeal to older KS2 learners and also KS3 beginners. I also like the mix of ‘live’ episodes and songs; the gender song is one of my favourites.
So, there’s a round up of BBC online ‘stuff’ for primary learners. Hope it’s helpful!
My FB wall reminded me this morning (edit – was yesterday now!) to wish Happy birthday to Bev Evans and I sighed. She passed away a few weeks ago so it’s another sad day for her family and friends. Her husband Paul tweeted
@bevevans22 birthday girl tomorrow, why not celebrate and plan a lesson using one of her great resources.
Bev set up up Communication4all in 2006 to share all the resources she had made to enable inclusion within her own school, and continued to share there, and then latterly on TES Resources where she was @tes_SEN. Her resources have been downloaded 4.5 million times in 248 countries. Amazing lady – and very much missed.
One of her legacies is her website. There is an MFL section containing numbers, days, months and seasons in French, Spanish, German and Polish as well as multilingual greetings and a few French resources on animals transport and colour. Very attractive and clear – well worth downloading.
However, there is a wealth of other stuff on the site that could equally be used in primary languages.
For example, the Spring time dominoes feature no language and could be used to practice numbers and spring vocabulary: for example in Spanish
un pollito un pato un nido un huevo un cordero un conejo
uno dos tres cuatro cinco seis
For Christmas, why not try this activity that uses 2D shapes to make Rudolph, Father Christmas an angel and a Christmas tree; not only is it themed for a season/festival but it also allows you to discuss colour, size and shape.
Take Rudolph.
¿Cuántos rectángulos hay? ¿y círculos? ¿De que color son los triángulos? El círculo marrón ¿es grande o pequeño? and so on!
Getting away from festivals, Bev made lots of colourful board games, often with a literacy theme, that I;ve used before in the language classroom.
Her bright bold snakes and ladders board can be used for any topic; simply have a list of questions or instructions for each number to which learners refer, changing the list according to the theme. Or you could make question cards (perhaps the same ones you use for QuizQuizTrade) and learners pick one up when they land on an odd square. (The link is to the numbered version – picture is linked to unnumbered version)
Where in the world is Barnaby Bear? is a good game to link geography to knowledge of the world. It’s in English but you could discuss the languages spoken in the countries visited, the flag and talk about colours (Clare Seccombe has some great resources for this on LightBulbLanguages) and perhaps some discussion of transport.
I love the Catching flies game for counting and as an introduction to who eats what for young learners, and also Build your own Gruffalo which could easily be adapted to another language and used when talking about facial features – great for our unit of mythical beasts! Likewise, Elmer’s Colour Collecting game is great for colours and Build a bigger caterpillar for numbers!
The Hungry Caterpillar is a story that I use in Spanish and there’s a good healthy eating game linked to the story; great opportunity to use food vocabulary as well as ‘es sano’ / ‘no es sano’, and ñam ñam / beurk! or ¡Qué rico!/¡Qué asco!
Likewise, the Handa’s Surprise resource is a data handling one, reinforcing maths skills and asking children to make tactical decisions too! And there are more games/activities too based on other stories such as Dear Zoo, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Hairy McClary.
Then there are all the editable labels – great for labelling table groups, making displays, creating flashcards on topics, creating clues for treasure hunts and generally making colourful resources. I particularly like the handprints and the wild animals!
One final thing I love – the colour sums in the Art section, and also the colour dominoes; love a good paint splat!
And that is only the things directly from the HOME page. I haven’t begun on the resources accessed via the sidebar. I’ll save that for another day, although feel free to explore before then. In fact, I’d encourage you to do so, and share with your primary colleagues as there is such a wealth of high quality resources’ hidden’ here.
One last thing – I am particularly nostalgic about the international rugby balls, originally created for 2007 Rugby World Cup and updated in 2011; that’s possibly one of the first times I ‘spoke’ to Bev and, having made them in English and Welsh, she made them in French and Spanish because we asked her. That’s the kind of lady she was!
Below are the details – well worth noting, bookmarking and etching on your brain as if you don’t already use it, one day you will. Thank you to Clare for her dedication and persistence in sharing. ¡Eres una estrella!
Linguamedia is an app that allows you to watch foreign TV stations online. Originally launched earlier this year with French channels, Linguascope announced today that their Linguamedia app has been updated so you can now watch German, Spanish, Italian and English channels as well as French ones. They’ve also improved video playback, and updated it for the iPhone5 screen.
The app costs 69p and offers 16 French, 6 German, 12 Italian, 12 Spanish and 5 English channels (NB the channels are in that language not necessarily from that country so there is an Austrian and a Swiss channel for German) It is possible to access TV online e.g. by searching “RTVE” you can watch the stream of RTVE1, RTVE2, Telesport and Canal 24H, but for convenience, this app is great. You need a wifi connection to view the stations, and as Linguascope warn
I was really interested to read the following press release this week –
Education Scotland publishes new online resource for modern languages called ‘Passeport pour la Francophonie’ at the Scottish Learning Festival on 19 September 2012.
Passeport pour la Francophonie will support primary teachers to provide stimulating and exciting learning experiences at second level, developing skills for reading, writing, listening and talking. The website provides suggestions for exploring the other curriculum areas such as religious and moral education or maths and numeracy through the medium of French language and culture.
Announcing the launch of the resource Education Scotland Strategic Director Kenneth Muir said, ”Passeport pour la Francophonie’ will support teachers in building confidence to embed language learning across the curriculum in an integrated and interdisciplinary way in line with the ethos of Curriculum for Excellence.
The Passeport challenges and learning journeys are designed to develop and practice key vocabulary to deepen understanding of culture of the French speaking world and to allow learners to see the interconnected nature of languages.
The online resource promotes an approach to the learning and teaching of French that is active, collaborative and makes appropriate and effective use of ICT. Local authoriti
es will find this helpful when planning their provision of modern languages in primary schools.’
Practitioners can use Passeport pour la Francophonie to enhance their professional learning both in terms of their own foreign language skills and developing innovative approaches to teaching a language.
Learners will find that the activities bring languages to life by travelling through five different countries of the Francophonie. They will discover other cultures, meet children from around the world and gain an understanding and appreciation of their native language and culture.
Passeport pour la Francophonie will be demonstrated at the Scottish Learning Festival on the Education Scotland stand (D65, Hall 3, SECC) on Wednesday 19 September at 11.30am and on Thursday 20 September at 10.30am.
And looking at the website, it looks really great! There are ebooks, sound files, videos and clear lesson ideas and plans with links to the Scottish curriculum. I love the way that it’s not about the language in isolation but about experiencing the culture and the “sights and sounds” of different places that have a common language.
Below you can hear Fhiona Fisher of Education Scotland speaking about just that – ‘widening out’ the idea of French as European to go on a voyage in their imaginations to see it as a worldwide language, and how language learning can be done cross-curricularly.
Another part I really like is the Links between languages page, looking at language in general, and also the Using this resource section which gives helpful information to the teacher on using the resource and also some CPD videos on Primary Language learning (MLPS in Scotland) Lovely to see some familiar faces from Le Français en Ecossewho were so instrumental in helping me love French again (merci Richard et Elise)
I had a bit of time today as my youngest was ill so decided to make some simple resources to go with my previous post about Nubeluz and their song Quiero ser…
a set of bingo cards (10 different cards in total) Jobs bingo
a boardgame
A very versatile site which is really useful to a pretty average drawer like me! And resources such as the board game and the bongo cards can be used for multiple languages so could be used in literacy as well as Spanosh/French/German etc.
My one issue is that there is a distinct lack of women in the library of job images!
You can make wordsearches which are fun but not my favourite activity in the classroom as well as crosswords and mazes. ANd there’s a new ‘guest tool’ which I will be investigating called Comic Strip Maker that allows you to make dialogues between the Anime style people on the pages.
As is often the case, this site is not a language specific but it allows you to input your own language elements.
Whilst reviewing resources onThe TES resources website, I came across some that referenced Tools for Educators – Board Game maker so I thought I’d investigate.
As is often the case, this site is not a language specific but it allows you to input your own language elements.
From a bank of images, you can choose to make a board game on a wide variety of subjects, using just images as in the fruit example, or incorporating instructions as in the mini beasts. These examples use the Galactic Challenge theme but there are three others from which to choose (it defaults to Galactic Challenge but all you need to do is go to the bottom of the list of topics and click on the board you’d like) The third and fourth examples show other board games.
These games can be printed and laminated for future use, then used for a variety of exercises.
For example, take the fruit one. It could be used for-
a)vocabulary rehearsal – everytime a learner lands on a fruit, they say the name of it in Spanish
b)giving opinions – learners give their opinion of the fruit on which they land
c)asking questions – learners ask one another if they like the fruit
d)shopping – learners must travel the board buying fruit – perhaps give them a list of fruit and they must keep going until they have all their fruit?
e)pronouns – ask and answer ¿Hay uvas? and response could be Sí las hay or No no las hay
f)colours/adjectival endings – learners say what colour the fruit is eg La manzana es verde or Hay una manzana verde; Los plátanos son amarillos / Hay plátanos amarillos
And that’s off the top of my head. I’m sure with a bit more thought I could come up with more ideas. If you have any, post them in the comments!
There are also Printable board games so that learners can design their own games. what about using the Loveheart game board for likes and dislikes – or for Valentine’s Day? The question cards can be edited to include your own images or questions. Or perhaps use the Bubbles theme for wishes or wants!
For example, La Pelota Dorada in La Biblioteca Infantil is a story based on a fairytale (won’t give away which one!) in which you can name the princess, the prince and also the hero which you choose from a duck, a beaver or a tortoise. The story has passages of text to read and sections of dialogue that appear in speech bubbles and are read to you.
Accompanying the story is an activity – in this case a ‘Find the difference’ – and also a list of books on a similar theme.
In La Biblioteca Pre-Escolar the stories are more simple and are all read aloud to the reader. In El canto del corral features a little girl who wants to sing but everyone is too busy until he goes into the farmyard. To accompnay the story there is an online activity – choosing musical instruments – and a craft activity as well as a list of books ona similar theme.
There aren’t a huge number of stories, however they are on a variety of themes that are suitable for integration into the primary curriculum, particularly in the EYFS / PSHE areas.
The site also exists in English so good for comparing language, and also for the less confident Spanish speaker who wants to check out the meaning of the story!
Offering sections of guidance, useful weblinks, documentation and training opportunities for coordinators and class teachers as well as a growing bank of downloadable resources including sound files, there’s plenty to investigate. The site is in its infancy but will hopefully grow and grow, especially if the Primary Language teachers of Birmingham volunteer resources and ideas to add to the bank.
My session at the wonderful Practical Pedagogies conference centred around the use of technology to enhance Primary Language Learning.
And looking at the 
