Sorpresas y sonrisas – tips and ideas on how to keep everyone enthused and engaged in the Primary Languages classroom was th title of my contribution to the ALL NE Spanish day at Gosforth High School in Newcastle.

I had the daunting task of starting the day, and if that wasn’t enough, I was sharing the bill with Rachel Hawkes, Neil Jones, Joaquín Moreno and John Connor. No pressure then ;o)

Having got everyone moving with Uno de enero from Take ten en español as it was the last day of San Fermín, I launched into my presentation (see below) punctuated by a quick game of puntos de contacto and el Baile Olímpico (hope the Youtube link works in Slideshare!)

Hope it was useful to everyone, even if they weren’t primary teachers. I certainly enjoyed presenting and the rest of the day was awesome – more of that later!

And thanks to ALL NE for the wonderful book. I am SO excited about it!

Make it real 

Liz Fotheringham, 

Use authentic materials to make it real! All sorts of reasons why online resources are particularly useful – one might be that textbooks are out of date as soon as they’re published!

See http://lizfotheringham.wordpress.com for slides and links

Skills –

• odd one out
• skimming and scanning
• looking for similarities – cognates, near cognates
• Venn diagrams
• matching text and pictures
• statistics – making links with maths skills
• thinking skills – card sorting
• longer texts – blanking out words – you need to look at context, grammar (what part of speech is needed)
• reordering texts requiring looking at numbers, dates, sequencing words (trois ans plus tard)
• fortune lines – high and low points of a career
• colour coding texts / jigsaw reading

When using video

• using cards to match to stills from clips eg songs  (Gregoire – Toi plus moi)
• songs (on video) can be used as listening as well as audio
• McDonalds advert  – made into a sound file using RealPlayer – and then slow it down in Audacity to make it more accessible

Languages:Reboot

Chris Harte, Cramlington Learning Village

Chris’ presentation is on his website so I’m not going to recap blow by blow – just some notes! Needless to say, he was brilliant and will be missed when he goes Down Under.
3 preconditions to learning

• Ganas – WIIFM
• Belief – I can’t do it yet….
• “Do something differently – if you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.”

Jeff Petty – Evidence based teaching  – recommended reading

Learning is …

• social
• about making connections]
• a lifelong process

Chris has a number plate to encourage independent learning – C3B4ME – try 3 other sources of info before me

Do we want our pupils to be engaged?

Yes, but you can be engaged without being challenged.

Harry Potter clips – OWLs – watch this clip from about 2 minutes and substitute the word ‘spells’ / ‘magic’ for languages. Sound familiar?

A failed GCSE is a lost life chance so we want them to pass but how soul destroying to feel you have to stick to learning chunks of language to satisfy an examiner who wants to test what you CAN’T do.

A textbook exclusively endorsed by an exam board means that I will follow it slavishly because I want my pupils to pass. Where’s the room for creativity?

Testing what you don’t know is not fair.

Look at www.hooked-on-thinking.com to investigate SOLO taxonomy – and also  Chris’ post on SOLO taxonomy http://chrisharte.typepad.com/learner_evolution_chris_h/2011/04/solo-im-ridin-solo.html

10 words at word level is not enough in a lesson for our talented linguists

If you want learners to make connections between language, you need to provide them with something with which to make the connections, so we need to give them texta not just words.

Having taught KS3 with films, murder mystery etc, why should we have to go back at KS4 to teaching pencil sharpener!

If you want to see Chris in action presenting on the same theme a few months ago, check him out here and here.

Progression in reading and writing … and STILL having fun!

Presented by Jan Lewandowski, Bedford Borough Council

Ina  whistle stop tour of reading and writing in KS2, Jan showed that teaching reading and writing need not be onerous, scary or boring, but fun and creative!

Here are my notes – I was too busy drawing, singing and making up stories to write more!

Y3 Nous promenons dans le bois (comptines)

www.jeuchanteenclasse.com/promenons1.swf

Show with words – even if they can’t read the text, it makes links with word and sound.

 Y4 Loup (Olivier Douzou) (story)

There’s an unexpected ending – he’s going to eat a carrot , not the person / rabbit that you might expect.

So much to do with it – the simple language lends itself to repetition, rewriting and easy comprehension.

Looking at the (French cursive, joined up) writing – good or bad?

Use it with a visualiser to overcome size, or make your own big book – Jan has one with a paperbag wolf finishing with upside down wolf with ‘prune’ in stomach (false friend)

Structure Je mets…. /Pongo… can also be used for setting table and talking about what you put down and then what you eat.

Y5 Un petit bonhomme (poem)

‘topics’ – fruit and veg.

Split sentence work

Make articulated veggie/fruit people – talk through process in French / Spanish.

Then link to Arcimboldo – part of the existing art curriculum so great for embedding

http://www.wga.hu/art/a/arcimbol/vertemnu.jpg

http://www.artsology.com/gfx/Arcimboldo/my_arcimboldo.jpg

Y6 Qui était Arcimboldo? (short text)

Looking at highlighted words – why? Some cognates, some links to ‘our’ language, some near cognates.

Jan finished with showing us some ‘sous-main’ or learning mats that she’d found from French schools to support recollection of language. A great idea. I’ll now be looking for some in Spanish!

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.

Following on from last year and Bricklaying for beginners,  and 2009 with Absorbing language learning, I’m once more presenting at ALL Language World.

This year Language World is entitled All together now. Here’s the invite from ALL:-

Join us ALL Together at Language World 2011, 8-9 Jul 2011 @ Imperial College, London:

It’s a conference: A packed programme of over 60 speakers from around the language teaching world…

It’s a training event: It’s only 2 days out of your busy schedule… great CPD for a fantastic price!

It’s an exhibition: A large and varied exhibition showcasing the latest in language learning resources and support.

It’s a real boost to your teaching: A great way to recharge your batteries – a two day shot of ideas, advice and inspiration!

It’s a celebration! Get together with other language teachers from around the UK, and around the world… and in the lead up to the London 2012 Games, celebrate language teaching and learning with your community!

For more information, and to book, go to: http://tiny.cc/LanguageWorld2011.

My session this year will be called Entitled to enjoy Primary languages.

Here’s the blurb!

This session will consider the position of language learning in the primary curriculum

(currently as an entitlement) and give practical examples and ideas about how

language learning can be more than a “bolt on”.

It will consider:

• why PLL is so important

• the current position re primary languages

• what is an entitlement?

• what does it mean to me?

• PLL integrated into the curriculum ? learning journeys, cross curricular

activities and CLIL

• international dimension (ref to Comenius Reggio, eTwinning projects)

• motivation to learn

• creativity let loose!

The session will include practical ideas including storytelling, song, dance,

drama, physical activity, international projects, cross curricular links and

exploiting ICT. Examples will be mainly in Spanish with some French ? other

languages may appear!!

I always have a great time at Language World, whether running around the Quad in Oxford, nearly missing the bus in Leicester or dodging goose poo in York, and this year I’m really looking forward to the conference being in London at Imperial College.

I received this message today from Linda Parker, Director of ALL (Association for Language Learning)

ALL together – let’s speak out about languages!

20-26 September 2010

The Association for Language Learning  would like to know about the issues which particularly concern you about the teaching and learning of languages and suggestions of things that should be done to tackle these.

At a time of change in the UK Government, ongoing political pressure from European sources, and internal pressures within our education system, it is relevant that ALL, the UK’s major association for language teachers, consult you, its members, about the matters that are most of concern and in need of attention.

Next week, beginning on Monday 20 September, ALL is asking members and language teachers everywhere to meet up anywhere, anytime – in the staff room, in your department, at home or in the pub – to think about ways in which language teaching and learning could be improved and promoted. And if you can’t find time to meet with others,  don’t let that stop you sending us your own views.

If the Government is serious about the Big Society, then we think it should be ready to hear what teachers have to say!

The consultation week will culminate on Saturday 25th September at the Annual General Meeting of the Association (Goethe Institut, London 10.30 – 12.30, see www.all-languages.org.uk for further details) where we will pull together the ideas that you’ve sent to us during the week and where we hope members within reach of London will join us to take the discussion further.

Here are a few ideas about the kinds of things you might like to talk about
Within the context of your own work and locality:
1. What is the achievement you would most like the media / public / decision-makers to know about?
2. What is your response to media statements such as “language teaching puts most people off learning a language” or “Languages considered least important subjects for children to learn at school” ?
3 What are the issues that worry you most?

4. How can we ensure that decision makers in education value language learning?

We’ll be adding more ideas to our website over the next week – see www.all-languages.org.uk

We’d like to hear from you in the week beginning Monday 20 September – every day we’ll update the website with views as they come in. There are a number of ways you can send us your thoughts:

• Email them to Steven Fawkes, ALL Membership Officer steven.fawkes@gmail.com
• Use our Facebook page to share your views – go to www.facebook.com/alllanguages.org.uk, become a fan and add your comment to our ‘consultation’ thread.
• If you fancy ‘tweeting’ instead, go to http://twitter.com/wendynewman1, follow us and send us your views.

We’ll make a final public statement, bringing together all your views, on the European Day of Languages, to be celebrated this year on Monday 27 September.

Let’s work together to make the voice of language teachers heard!

So, here I am passing the message on!

I’ll be tweeting no doubt!

Bricklaying for beginners – Building firm foundations

It seems months ago that I spoke at Language world and I apologise for my tardiness in delivering this post!  Sadly, although i posted my presentation to Slideshare some time ago, i’ve been unable to get at it for a couple of weeks as the site is being rather glitchy.  Added to that the fact that i have used up my free bandwidth on Podomatic and also my new website, there are been ‘issues’ with getting everything together.

Still not worked it all out but until I do, here’s my presentation in PDF form for you.  Audio will follow asap!