I just have to share this lovely lovely storytelling clip that was brought to my attention by @mariefrance.
It is so cute – what an imagination!
¡Vámonos!
"The decision to learn a language is an act of friendship. It is an outstretched hand." John le Carré
eTwinning in the primary language classroom – why is it so great?
January 10, 2010
Following on from my previous post about rediscovering Seesmic, another friend, John Warwick, asked me to share a little bit about eTwinning in the primary language classroom for an eTwinning presentation he was preparing. I decided to record him my answer as it’s easier to explain in person and I also thought it might be useful too! So here it is!
If you want to find out more, see my Slideshare and post here.
Wondering if any of you would like to add to a debate I’m having at the moment re QCA schemes for KS2. I’m trying to help someone choose the best way to present materials on a site to satisfy as many Primary MFL teachers as possible. Having drawn their attention to the KS2 Framework and the QCA units and their thematic and skills rather than topic based approach, they’re now in a quandary as to how to best present things.
In your experience, do teachers tend to still take a topic based approach?
Are people using the QCA schemes?
They’ve just been updated – how long do you think their shelf life will be?
And, here’s a tricky one! – do you think if we get a change of government that the policy and therefore Framework / SoW will get changed again?
If you were planning resources with the aim of them being used universally, would you go for topic based approach or would you choose a number of themes loosely based on the QCA schemes of work, covering a number of topics, and follow their order to get the progression through the years right.
Any insights more than welcome. You can leave comments or contact me privately if you’d rather!
Gracias xx
Image from Gutter’s Flickr stream
I’m helping the producers of the BBC schools website a bit this week, giving them some suggestions about their Primary French and Spanish pages.
If you haven’t seen them, there are animated characters to help you speak the language, games to practice the vocabulary in each section, and some interesting fact files about the countries, traditions, festivals etc. The sites are quite different in layout and content. for examples, the French site has two sections, 1 and 2 and is hosted by Roller. The Spanish site looks more minimal at first glance but has some interesting sections, not just on vocabulary.
Have a look and let me know what you think –
Which do you prefer?
Do you like the site(s)?
What is your favourite bit?
Wat doesn’t work for you?
What would you like added?
what would be most helpful to you?
which resources are most appealing to you – games, activities, worksheets, quizzes, songs, factfiles, sound files, flashcards, grammar notes, video clips, world language clips??
Don;t miss your chance – if you dont ask, you don’t get!
One week on from the Language Show at Kensington Olympia, here’s my presentation entitled
SURVIVING THE PRIMARY LANGUAGE CLASSROOM. Not a title I would necessarily chosen as, to me, it implies that teaching languages is some sort of ordeal which is, for most of us, far from the truth.
I hope you enjoy the Slidecast – complete with kids and noisy neighbours. And if you want to listen whilst shopping, there’s the podcast of my talk on Lisibo talks!
A couple of things I skipped;
Firstly, a great tip for PLL is making links via something like eTwinning – http://etwinning.net – find out more here and check out my Slidecast here.
Secondly, I mentioned Oscar Stringer’s animation workshops but didn’t explicitly mention his upcoming workshop in London on 13th November –
This one-day course will give you the opportunity to gain knowledge and hands on experience using the latest software and hardware. Use the course as an opportunity to get to know your own equipment, bring laptops and cameras with you if you wish.
You will learn tips and tricks for getting great results quickly in the classroom, ideas to take back and use with your class as well as teaching resources designed to kick start animation projects.
For: Teachers in KS 1,2, 3 and 4 (ICT coordinators, Art and Media Studies Teachers.)Cost: £130.00 + VAT Includes a CD of your work with teacher’s resources and lunch.
Times: 9.30 a.m. – 3.30 p.m.
All enquiries to Oscar Stringer, Tel: 07974 764 849 or Email oscar@animationforeducation.co.uk.
And don’t forget that you can download forms for ICanAnimate and Hue HD webcam from his site.
Any questions, please feel free to contact me!
On Saturday I’ll be in London at The Language Show. So excited!
There is so much to see and do – check it out for yourself here!
I’ve been asked to do a seminar this year – so if you want to know How to Survive Primary Languages, pop by to see me in room 3 at 1pm. And there are so many more too.
You can get in free by registering on the site so whatever your interest in language learning, if you can get to Olympia over the next three days, it’s well worth the effort!
Of course, I’ll post my presentation here straight after the show, and I’ll be tweeting all day too.
I’ve been having a little look at Youtube resources again, and, inspired by the session last week on teaching Infants languages, I’ve found some sweet little videos featuring Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too! Now, Winnie is always a winner in my books – I just love that bear of very little brain! – but talking Spanish is even better.
A couple of ideas.
This clip is called Estrellita abrillar and is a version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (I know other words). The story seems to be that Lampi, the Heffalump can’t sleep and they sing to him. However, his Mummy sings different words so he sings them to the friends then goes to sleep. A cute little story in a song in just over a minute.
The words are:
Estrellita ¿cómo estás?
me preguntas ¿qué serás?
en el cielo brillas tu
como un diamante es tu luz.
Estrellita ¿cómo estas?
me preguntas ¿qué serás?
Lindo lampi ¿cómo estás?
No te quejes; duerme ya
La noche es para soñar
Pon su trompa, descansar.
Qué se acabe mal humor
y no ronques por favor.
Lindo lampi ¿cómo estás?
Es mejor que duermas ya
Then there’s this clip called Es la hora de pensar and is a little song to signal thinking time. I think it would be a lovely cue to send children to their desks to work on whatever they are doing, or as a signal to change activity. And not just in language lessons but as one of those ’embedded’ ways of making language an everyday, incidental thing.
Hope you like them!
Any other ideas people have found?
I’ve spent some time over the weekend doing something that I find rather uncomfortable – listening to my own voice! Whilst it is much better than watching myself on video, I find myself cringeing at the sound of my accent and speech habits. In my head I don’t sound like that – my ‘self-image voice’ speaks much more ‘properly’ and sounds less Brummie!
So why do it? Well, I was catching up with editing the audio from my presentations at two
recent conferences – in Hull and in Basingstoke, Hampshire – before adding it to my podcast. I kept reminding myself that I wouldn’t have to listen again once I’d finished, and then remembered that I’d have to listen one more time to synch the audio to my Slideshares to make Slidecasts.
So – I’m pleased to announce three new episodes of my podcast Lisibo talks! But does it make sense?
You’ll also find that my Slideshares in previous posts on Hull Primary Language Conference an
d Hampshire Language Conference are now Slidecasts with the audio added.
So, I hope my agony was worthwhile and that people will have a listen and perhaps learn from the presentations – even if it is how to talk Brummie ;o)
Very sweet – love the graphics. And it’s short too.
This looks like the Spanish version of Ten Town!
I like the repetition in this one.
I’m on a blog writing roll this week aren’t I?
I picked up the following earlier –
which was followed by this tweet –
And being an inquisitive gal, I went and had a look.
What a brilliant tool! You’re provided with a vast array of images from different artists that you can use to make story books. You just choose the images and write the story. SOOOOOO exciting!
I wrote a story – click below to read it!
I’ll be writing more soon too.
And I can see pupils enjoying this too – lots of scope for description, imagination and creativity! For example, there are many monsters that could be used for physical description. There are animals for stories of the jungle and savannah and quirky characters just asking to be written about.
Not only a great tool for creating though – when you write a story you can choose to keep it private or make it public – and there are many many public stories so you need never be stuck for a story again!
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