How about a Haiku?

I can't believe it's so long since I last blogged!! Maybe I should try it more regularly, or maybe once in a blue moon is just enough for everybody!

Anyway, in one of my few moments of creativity this term, I came upon an idea which turned out to be a winner.

I discovered that it was National Poetry day earlier in October and decided to mark the occasion with my Y10 and 11 classes by writing Haikus. A Haiku is a 3 line poem that has 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second line and 5 in the last line (or atleast, that's what Google told me). Obviously, with the serious business of Controlled Assessments to learn off by heart to ensure GCSE grades are on or above target, we couldn't spend a whole lesson on this, neither do I think a whole lesson needs to be spent on this. However it did work really well as a starter.

After giving them their topic (descriptions for Y10 and holidays for Y11....guess our current CA topics are!) and reminding them what a Haiku was, the mini whiteboards came out and they began work. I can honestly say that I have rarely seen them work so hard! You could feel the cogs turning as they counted syllables while trying to get it all to make sense. They joy when they had finished their Haiku....that quickly turned to despair when I'd point out "don't forget, you say the "e" in German" and they had to try a different way of getting in their 5 syllables...

Needless to say, when they all did manage to get their Haiku completed, they were very proud of what they achieved and were keen for me to Tweet them on our school MFL account, which naturally I did.

Here is a link to our Twitter account, you'll be able to find all of the Y10 Haiku on descriptions (you won't have to scroll down far to find them).

@stmichaelsmfl

More iPad ideas

I've finally got round to using the iPads properly again this week.
Until this week, I'd used them for Y11s to prepare for mock exams and other odds and ends.

Firstly, I used Popplet with Y8 to help them remember what hobbies and pastimes they already knew before beginning a unit of work on last weekend.  I thought it would be nicer (and quicker) than getting them to do it on paper, and so it was.  We used the app to create mind maps based around our key verbs of spielen / machen / gehen and then they could add other verbs they knew, time phrases and opinions.  It meant that pupils could work at their own pace and add as much or as little as they could.  There were some fantastic example and I was really delighted at the work that was done.  The only downside was that it was a little fiddly getting the Popples (?) sent to me at the end of the day and I actually ended up having to go round and do that later...but these are the little hurdles I'm happy to overcome as we all learn how best to use the iPads.

The second big thing I used iPads for this week, as a carousel activity with with Y11.  I had a range of activities planned for Y11 to do, consolidating the topic of Home Life which we are revisiting at the moment. The two activities I used were QR code based. Activity 1 involved using quizlet flashcards to consolidate their vocab.  This was great as all pupils were able to work at their own pace - as it was a carousel, there were enough iPads for one each - and it was great to hear the small cheers as they got all of the questions correct!
There was also a different QR code / iPad activity at a different table, where pupils were able to practice their listening skills on the This is Language site, to which we have a subscription. Rather than set a particular video as a task, I created a QR code from the link and pupils went on to that to practice listening about what they do to help at home.  Again, the personalisation was great, as pupils could listen as many times as they needed in order to finish all of their tasks.

Who knows what we'll do next week...