Lingo Bingo

I always presume that activities I do to practice vocabulary are old hat and everyone already knows about them. Therefore I often don't tell people about activities I do, or don't expain them.

Lingo Bingo is one such activity. I know that many people do play this game in their classrooms already (because otherwise how would I know about it), however I also know many others have never heard of it before or struggled to understand my garbled tweets trying to fit an explanation in to 140 characters on Twitter the other day. I'm also pretty sure that it could be use in subjects other than Languages.

Anyway, for those of you who don't know how to play it here it is:

1. Give out plain paper - it doesn't have to be plain.


2. Pupils split the paper in half and draw a 6 / 8 / 9 square grid on each piece of paper - I'm thinking of making a ready made grid and sticking it in the back of pupils books or even laminating it, in order to save paper.


3. Number each box (1-6, 1-8, 1-9 depending on number of squares) on each grid but make sure there is still enough space to write in the squares.


4. Now put one of the grids to one side so that you are just working with 1 grid.


5. On the grid you are working with write 6 / 8 / 9 phrases - 1 in each box. I do it in TL but could also be in English, depending on skills you want to practise. This week I worked with connectives other than et and mais and opinions other than A mon avis.


6. Tear / cut up that grid so that you have 6 /8 / 9 little cards with individual phrases / words on them now.

With me so far?

Good ;-)

Now pupils work in pairs 1 partner will say a number (in the TL of course) and the other partner asks "Comment dit-on ....en anglais" (or similar). If they get it right they can place that card onto the corresponding number on their grid. The aim is to get 3 or even more touching squares for a full house. They can then swap and then move round the classroom playing other class memebers ad inifinitum...

The nice thing about this activity is that pupils get to experience a wide range of vocabulary and structures, including ones they wouldn't never have thought of using before. In addition, they can differentiate for one another. Allowing use of books if they feel their partner needs support or removing and hiding books, if they are feeling very mean! They get very competitive and are much stricter than I am! They can even switch and ask for the TL phrases as extension.

Of course at the end of the lesson you're left with lots of little bits of paper so don't forget to remind them to put them into the recycling as they leave...

Presenting Vocabulary

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I'm always on the look out for new ways to introduce new vocabulary, as I find standing at the front presenting it to a class, with them repeating it extremely tedious and such hard work. Therefore, when I saw Chris Fuller ask about interesting ways to introduce vocabulary earlier this week, I followed the replies with interest.

Firstly, I was glad to see that many ideas that were suggested were things that I already do - nice to be reassured that you're not rubbish by seeing other teachers, who are fantastic using them!

Secondly, I was reminded of some things I that I have done in the past and forgotten about.

Thirdly there were some new ideas that I'd never even thought of.

One of those ideas was a vocabulary treasure hunt, suggested by @germanprof. At first I thought it would take ages to organise and could lead to chaos. However, as Friday last lesson with 33 Year 9s approached the idea suddenly became more appealing. We're doing directions at the moment. Stimulating, I know (personally, I blame the Head of Department) and, having covered the "basics" earlier in the week, I wanted to extend their knowledge. As we all know standing up and presenting stuff to a (large) class last thing on a Friday is never an easy task so I was thinking of getting them to match up new vocab with the tried  and tested line drawing. Having done that last week, and the week before...and the week before I thought they might be a little sick of that by now and my mind was drawn to the treasure hunt idea that someone had suggested to Chris Fuller earlier in the week. At the end of the day it is still the matching up vocabulary idea but a bit more engaging and active.

I gave the pupils 13 new phrases in English on a worksheet. Then I stuck round the room the corresponding French meanings. Most had at least 1 word they already know in it or cognates. (With the exception of allez jusqu'au pont and allez aux feux). Pupils were then given time to work their way around the room, matching the meanings. Cue chaos, so I thought. I have to admit I worried that all 33 would try crowding round the same phrase to find it's meaning. (I did tell them not to do this!).

The result was amazing. All were engaged (except for when they had to go to the phrases stuck on the window where they got a little distracted by the football match on the astro-turf) and all did it much more quickly than I anticipated. I was particularly impressed with those who split into teams and arranged to split the task to be more efficient.

By the end of the lesson all had acquired and used successfully the new vocabulary plus they hadn't had me constantly nagging at them to be quiet and listen to me.

I suppose there is sometimes a worry that pupils won't know how to say new vocabulary presented like this, however with the current push to focus on spelling pattern, phonics etc..., I don't see this as too much of an issue. After the treasure hunt we did check that pupils had the correct meaning and I asked pupils to say in French what they had found and there were very few pronunciation problems, as they already know how to pronounce those tricky sounds.

Other activities I like for presenting vocab are quiz,quiz, trade and running dictations. However I am always on the look out for new and interesting ways to present vocabulary so I await the results of Chris' research with great anticipation.

All of this also reminds me of how amazing Twitter is because I would never had moved away from my PowerPoint flashcards had it not been for the amazingness and wonderfulness of the #mfltwitterati and Dawn who suggested the treasure hunt...and several other ideas I'm going to in the coming weeks!

If you would like to find out more about the other suggestions that Chris Fuller has or have some interesting ways of introducing vocabulary that you would like to share, go to Chris' newly created Google Doc on introducing new material without delivering from the front.

TeachMeet Tees

I'm sure I should have blogged about this earlier, however...

On Thursday evening there is to be the first ever (I believe) TeachMeet Tees.

What is a TeachMeet? Well it's an informal meeting of teachers, to learn from one another about classroom practice and have a natter and a drink.

It's at Arc on Dovecot Street from 6pm-10pm.

Presenters are small in number but it's quality that counts. Everyone has something to offer...even me, apparently! Be prepared to be active at some point during my 2 - 7min presentation...

Here's the link to sign up: TeachMeet Tees

Poor neglected blog...

It seems like ages since I last wrote a post here and I have to admit that this isn't realy a post at all. It's just say how neglected this blog is feeling at the moment.

Over the last year I haven't really found that much to blog about at all apart from the odd thing here and there. I hope, now I'm settled into my new job a bit more that I will be able to find things to write about and update more regularly.

That's it really...bit of a cheat I know!

See you soon...

If ever there was a reason to do an eTwinning Project...

...then this is it!

Whenever I talk about eTwinning, one of the biggest things I mention is the fact that it gives pupils an audience for their work, aside from the excellent opportunity to collaborate with other pupils across Europe and find out about our European neighbours.Over the past few months this has really shown itself to be true.

One of my classes have had a bear called Michel that has travelled around Europe this year. A bit childish for Secondary School pupils, some may think (though not me and certainly not them) ...however they have loved it.

At moments when I have been in the depths of despair (not really) one of the boys has asked how he's doing and we've learned such a lot about Europe and schools around Europe. We've learned that older pupils like have bears visit them just as much as younger ones (in fact more, judging by the photos of Michel playing in a band!).

Anway, last week Michel returned to Billingham for the Summer and we used the opportunity to do some creative writing (yes, creative, writing). I believe the resulting work is fantastic (specially considering these pupils could scarcely build a sentence in French in September).

The activity also gave opportunity for pupils to address those other skills that are so important in everyday life; working as part of a team, being creative, reflecting on previous work, being a good self manager etc..., as each group had to assigne group leaders, collators and time keepers to make sure the task got completed to a high standard.

Why has the work been so successful? Well, because they've been so well taught all year...no but really it's because they are interested in what they're doing, it's something real (we've had lots of boys cuddling teddies in the classroom recently) and also they know that someone other than me will read it!

Here's Michel's Wiki...have a look for yourselves:

Les aventured de Michel le Voyageur en Europe

I haven't directed you to the exact page, I'll let you have a look round. The technical college in Rominia with the older pupils is a must, as is his trip to Balamory Tobermory!

Nummerwang!

You can tell it's getting near to the end of term, as I'm using more and more videos to keep me going! Yesterday whilst teaching my Y9 afterschool German class numbers I remembered Mitchell and Webb's Nummerwang.

Not that much to do with numbers really but good German and a nice bit of fun for 5 pm on a Friday!

Let's see if it works this time (4th time lucky!)

Maybe the link will work since the video won't embed :(

Nummerwang!

L'histoire du poussin

Last night, as I was looking for inspiration to make the Perfect Tense with être more interesting, Kath Holton pointed me in the direction of L'histoire du poussin. It's a lovely little story about the short life of a little chicken, using the MRS VAN DE TRAMP verbs.

My classes liked it today maybe yours will too...

L'histoire du poussin

As for the QR Code. QR Codes are cool, they're what I do now!

eTwinning National Conference 2011

I've just returned from eTwinning's 2011 National Conference at the NCSL in Nottingham. I will blog in more detail about the workshops that I attended later in the week, when I've had time to catch my breath!

I just wanted to write a very quick post to say what a thoroughly inspirational weekend I've had. I've come away from the weekend with my head full of ideas about ways in which I can put in to practice the skills I've learned, both in linking with other schools through eTwinning, of course and also in my day to day teaching.

From the inspiring Key Note speech by Kevin McCabe from Jervoise Primary School, through using QR Codes and hand held devices with Technoteach, Working with bilingual pupils with Lisa Taner and creating virtual journeys in Google Earth with Baldev Singh

Podcasting at Trinity Catholic College

Today I had to enormous privilege to go to Trinity Catholic College in Middlesbrough to share some ideas on Podcasting.

Below is the presentation.

I've included some quotes  from my lovely Y10 French class who have been making Grammar Podcasts over the last year. It gave me the opportunity to experiment with Google Forms to get the survey done. I have to say that I really liked it and can see me having a look in more detail at using Google Forms for pupil voice surveys in the very near future!

I hope that you find the presentation useful in some way.

The second slide contained a little video that Joe Dale showed when I went to a Podcasting Workshop that he ran for Links into Languages last July. It's describes very nicely what a podcasting is and can be seen here Podcasting in Plain English

Podcasting with Pupils 

View more presentations from Helena Butterfield.

Education Blog Awards

I received a Tweet this morning from@chrisrat asking me whether I know this blog had been nominated for Blog of the Year in the Education Blog Awards.

I have to admit that it hadn't even occurred to me to even look on the site as I never thought I would be nominated.

I'm amazed and very flattered that anyone would nominate me, so thank you whoever you are :)

Thank you also to everyone who stops by and reads. I'm always surprised that people find my ramblings interesting...and sometimes wonder whether I should even write half the things I do!!

Finally, of course, I would like to ask that, if you find this blog interesting and enjoy reading please take a second and vote for it... :)

Linoit vs Wallwisher

I am a keen advocate of Wallwisher as it it an excellent tool for pupils to use both inside and outside of the classroom both for collaborative work and showing me what they have learned and enjoyed. However, since September I haev found it to be more and more unreliable, particularly in the early evening when most of my pupils would be doing homework (I hope). I therefore stopped giving Wallwwisher activities as homework for some time.

Feeling that my pupils were missing out on an opportunity to share their work quickly and easily I set about finding an alternative. Someone from my Twitter PLN (I'm afraid I can't remember who now, sorry!) suggested I try Linoit. I did and found it really user friendly too. I have used it a few times recently both with pupils as plenaries/homework and for crowdsourcing ideas for a CPD session I ran on Web tools to use in MFL.

How do the two tools compare? Well, I really like Wallwisher as I can set moderation, which I like to do if setting homework (cough...wasn't working ealier!!)...it means that all of the pupils don't just then copy the first person's piece of work as I can moderate it all once the homework deadline has passed, it also means if anythere inappropriate were to be posted it wouldn't appear at all. Linoit on the other hand doesn't appear to have a moderation feature (unless I'm missing something). Therefore, I'm loath to set it for homework. I love it in class for plenaries etc..., but am not sure whether it would be quite as good for homeowords.  However, I do really like that you can lovely brighly coloured stickies on Linoit and also easily add images. There also seems to be more space

Whichever tool I decided to go for, one thing is for sure...my pupils really like both and love that they can give me feedback...or just say "hi"!!

What do you think?

Have you used either?

Have you used both?

Have you discovered a good way to moderate Linoit?

Let me know...and maybe we can learn together!

 

Go animate 4 schools

 

A few weeks ago I recieved an email from Go Animate about their new education site Go Animate 4 Schools. I signed up for a "Teacher Plus" Account which gives me unlimited access to all Go Animate 4 Schools features and my pupils access to creating 2 minute videos, Text2Voice, Voice Recording and own music uploads all for free! You can get a "School Plus" Account, but as I am as poor as a chrurch mouse I decided to go for the free version.

Last week I got confirmation that my account was now ready to go, so I set up a class with Usernames and Passwords (really quick and easy to do) and took the opportunity to make very short "Love Stories" on Valentine's Day with on of my Year 8 classes.

The results of the lesson can be found here

I was pretty pleased with most of the classes results, specially as most of the class had never used Go Animate before! Obvioulsy in the future I will be looking for much more French!!

Some reflections on Go Animate 4 Schools:

• I like it! I find it much easier having all of those animations in 1 place rather than having to get pupils to email me the embed code. I find this much more convenient.


• The pupils like it! Some were keen to have a go at home (not sure how many will...we'll see after I show them the animations tomorrow and try to enthuse them for half term!)


• There is a text-to-voice feature. I didn't know there was one on Go Animate. Unfortunately only in English as yet :( However...this confused my class a little as some typed their French in there reather than in the speech bubbles so we got a garbled odd kind of language coming though!! This was probably my fault, as , had I realised about the text-2-voice beforehand I would have guided them in the right direction.

Also there are many other features for teachers, a lesson gallery for those who may want some inspiration as to what to do with their classes on Go Animate.

So, all in all, a positive experience! I can't wait to get back doing some more, both with that class and will many more. Thanks, Go Animate 4 Schools!

Controlled Assessment - an interesting idea!

 

When the GCSE Exam for MFL was reviewed and changed, someone in their wisdom decided to invent something wonderful called "Controlled Assessment".

Designed to move away from Coursework, which was open to "interpretation", Controlled Assessment was supposed to give teachers and pupils more control I suppose, and also take away pressure of the final all or nothing exam (particularly the Speaking Exam). In MFL Controlled Assessment accounts for 60% of the final grade; 30% for writing over 2 pieces and 30% for speaking over 2 pieces.

I have to admit, when I first heard about Controlled Assessment, I thought it was a wonderful idea. I had it clear in my head how I would teach the GCSE and how I would make sure my pupils performed well at their CA...then the complications began...

Pupils were allowed a 40 plan or prompt sheet or...call it what you like, really. Good idea thought I, naïvely. Then it started.

Some exam boards allowed pictures, some didn't.

Some discussed conjugated verbs...were they or weren't they allowed for some they were, for some they weren't.

Then there was the moving of the goal posts half way through the course.

Then there was the changing of job half way through the course, thus changing exam boards and a whole new approach to CA, quite different from what I had imagined.

This is all alongside the poor, almost forgotten about, GCSE pupils who are being subjected to Controlled Assessments and Modular exams every other week of their KS4, stressed out permanently and actually not gaining much in terms of linguistic skill...in languages at any rate. We find ourselved teaching to the test more than ever and what's more, wasting valuable lesson time in the preparation of CA tasks, where we are not allowed to have any input so just supervising while the more diligent pupil prepares but several see it as an opportunity to catch up on the latest gossip.

Over the last few weeks I have been engulfed in the delight that is Controlled Assessment with my Year 11 classes and all I seem to have spent the time doing was apologising! Apologising for not being able to help, apologising for the way the exam is structured, apologising that I'm not prepared to bend the rules, apologising for apologising... I even spent one lesson reading the teachers' guidance for CA out to my Y11 so that they knew I wasn't a big bad (Lang)witch who made up the fact she couldn't help and couldn't correct what they were doing now.

I have heard that there is a plan to go back to the final all or nothing exams and that these Controlled Assessments are on their way out as quickly as they arrived. I have also heard some people (not many) praise CA and others saying that a final exam is the best way forward. I'm not sure I'm the best person to make judgements on how Languages should be tested but I do know that anything is better than what we have now...isn't it?

Top Tools for Digital Creativity in MFL: St. Robert of Newminster, Washington

Today I was very lucky to attend a CPD session that was run by the Catholic Partnership South for the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. Co-ordinated by Sara Crawshaw, the Catholic Partnership runs CPD sessions, enrichment activities and a whole host of other things for staff and pupils who work or attend Catholic School in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. This particular event was for Heads of MFL and MFL teachers from the region.

In the morning we focussed on Ofsted and improving teaching of MFL, with a particular emphasis on independence. Sarah Brough and Sarah Sharpe both from County Durham LA inspired us with great ideas that work to help improve our pupils' indepence, particularly at KS4.

In the afternoon I was invited to run a "short" session on digital creativity in MFL. Below you can find my presentation that gives a whistle-stop tour of my current favourites in no particular order. I've also added links  mentioned in the presentation below that incase you can't access them from the slideshow. I know some people asked about having the powerpoint available to show their departments. You can do this either by downloading from the Slideshare site or it you're not sure about doing that follow this link to  be able to download the file from my Langwitch Language Resources Wiki.

Last night in preparation for the presentation, I asked MFLers on Twitter what their favourite Web 2.0 tools for MFL were and they posted their responses on a linoit, which you can view here (I'm unable to embed it, unfortunately but there is also an image of it at the top of this post). Favourite Web 2.0 Tools for MFL

I hope everyone found the session useful and many more find it useful viewing here.

Top tools for Digital Creativity in MFL

View more presentations from Helena Butterfield.

Websites that were mentioned:

For word clouds

• Wordle: http://wordle.net


• Image chef: http://imagechef.com


• Tagxedo: http://tagxedo.com

For making language walls

• Wallwisher: http://wallwisher.com


• Linoit: http://linoit.com

Voice recordings and collaboration

• Voicethread: http://voicethread.com


• Voki: http://voki.com


• Xtranormal: http://xtranormal.com

Cartoon makers

• Toondoo: http://toondoo.com


• Go animate: http://goanimate.com and http://domo.goanimate.com

Story telling

• Storybird: http://storybird.com


• For MFL Storybirds: http://mfl-storybirds.wikispaces.com

I'll add more when I remember them. If there are anythat I've missed please let me know and I will add them.

If you'd like some examples of how I have used some of these tools, please feel free to look around my school blogs and wikis:

Langwitch (blog that I ran at my last school)

Langwitch @ St. Michael's

Langwitch Wiki

Time to have your say

[caption id="attachment_506" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net"][/caption]

On Thursday, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, announced the review of the Primary and Secondary National Curriculum in England. The Department for Education, apparently, wants our opinions and evidence about the National Curriculum...so now its our chance to give our views through the Call for Evidence.

Whether they decide to listen to us or not, I think it's still important that we give our views, as teachers, parents, students...infact anyone who has an interested in the education of our future generations, it maybe our only chance!

If you wish to contibute you can do so by following this link. You can do it either online, or download it as a word document and fill in a hard copy instead. I've already started mine and have found I have some pretty strong views, not only about my own subject buy also about every other subject on the curriculum! I just keep typing everywhere I can that I believe MFL should be statutory at Primary Level and that I would like Languages for All at KS4 but not  necessarily GCSE Languages for all! Maybe they'll get the message...eventually...