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

Active Learning - Infinite Scrabble

Here's another one I've just recently started using again and I really like it for Key Stage 4.

This one is really simple and takes next to no preparation, another reason that I love it!

Give out a grid like the one above to pairs or trios of pupils, depending on how they're sat. The grid should be empty apart from random number in some of the squares, just like the one above. Pupils play against each other in a scrabble-like game.

Allocate a topic (this week mine have been descriptions and holidays-not at the same time, combined with connectives/opinions) and it works like this; pupil 1 starts in the middle of the square by writing a word in the TL, pupil 2 then writes another word that has to connect in some way to the first word and so on. Points are scored when a word goes through one of the squares with a number in it and that square can earn points every time a word goes through it.  You can make is as easy or hard as you want by allowing words horizontally, vertically, diagonally and sometimes backwards. I then had double point scores for letters that had accents on. The games could have lasted the whole lesson, if I'd allowed it!

I didn't know how competitive my pupils could get!

My next task is to work out how it can be less wasteful on paper, maybe laminate grids and use mini whiteboard pens...

Little update on how I'm using Infinite Scrabble to ensure more engagement (although there's already lots there!). I give rewards not only to the winner in each pair / trio and have also started to reward the highest scoring team a reward as well, so not only are they playing against each other but also against the others in the class. Who know that there could be scores of over 100! I also no longer need to explain, just hand out and the buzz starts straights away.

Active Learning - Quiz, Quiz, Trade

Since I'm on a roll, I thought I'd put together another little Active Learning post on one of my favourites.

As ever, I though "everyone" knew about Quiz, Quiz, Trade (a lovely activity taken from Kagan Structures) and I was late to jump on the band wagon. So, last Tuesday during our Active Learning INSET I mentioned it and actually found myself explaining how it works at several tables .  Anyway, I thought I'd explain it here too...it's a good way to avoid real work.

Give each child in the class a card with the TL at the top and English meaning at the bottom. Ideally, each child should have a different phrase which can prove quite difficult in a big class, I know.

Pupils stand up hand up pair up and work their partner, asking them to tell them what the TL phrase means.  If one partner can't do it, the other partner should support and coach them to help them. Once done, the other partner does the same and then they swap the cards and put their hands back up to move on to work with someone else.  This means that pupils work with a wide variety of language and also reinforce their language learning skills, whilst listening to, reading, and speaking in the TL.

For extension more able pupils could be asked to say the phrase in the TL rather than English and even...particularly if you're struggling to find enough phrases with a big class...give out a few blank cards for more able pupils to make up their own. You could also have differentiated cards of different colours and ask pupils to work with people who have the same coloured cards as them.

Instead of "stand up hand up pair up" you could play music and ask them to pair up with the nearest person when the music stops, or even have and inside and outside circle, the inside circle moves and stops when told to, then works with the person opposite them. This would work particularly well if you want to avoid certain pairings ;)

I have it on good authority that Quiz, Quiz, Trade can work in just about any subject area which is always good news.

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...

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!

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?

Time to have your say

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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...

Linked Up Resources now available online

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I have been working on a project funded by the Linked Up scheme developing resources designed to encourage independent thinking amongst KS4 pupils, in particular. The project, lead by Zahida Hammond, ran between networks of teachers in the Northeast and in the Middlesbrough and Stockton Networks we worked on the topic of the environment, in particular using Yannick Noah's Aux Arbres Citoyens as a starting point.

The project has now come to its end and the final results, including resources, learning plans and evaulations (including one by Helen Butterfield!) are also available. These are particularly helpful, if like me, you have an idea that you'd like to do some Thinking Skills activities but don't really know where to start! They can be used as stand alone activities within the topic of the environment, or over a series of lessons. Personally, had I not been doing this for the project I would have mingled the activities in with more "traditional" activities, however the pupils got a lot out of the project and were able to produce some fantastic French...and eventually they will be ready to do their Controlled Assessments on it as well, if we don't have anymore snow disruptions...

The project, together with all resources can be found on the Linked Up pages of the Links into Languages website here. You will have to be logged in with your Links into Languages account to download.

Dictation!

It's that time of year again when Yr 11 have had enough of GCSEs already and they haven't even started them yet (or is that just mine). I seem to have them come in every lesson and sigh when I remind them that there are only another 2 weeks of term left, then another week and then it's the orals...I must admit that I groan too!
So, today, I took a "new" approach and showed them how things used to be! We did dictation both with my Set 4 French set and Set 1 German set and I must say it worked quite well. My French "skater boys" (as my colleague so aptley described my loud, hairy, trousers-round-the-tops-of-thighs-rather-than-waist wearning Yr 11s) actually engaged with it for about 30 seconds and my top set suffering from "last lesson of the day-itus" also did well. All I did was dictate a "model" C type answer about school that they had to write out, then they came out and wrote their version a line at a time. After that they had to translate it into English and the German class then had to make the answer and A* answer instead of C/B. I think looking backwards could be the way forward :o) They all seemed to enjoy it!
And whilst thinking about GCSEs, does anyone else find it a very long and boring process, getting the conversation question answers prepared and marked? With a top set, marking them so that the answers are A/A* level can take an age...of course, I've only heard this on the grapevine, I would never dream of getting my pupils to pre-prepare their answers, our conversations are all spontaneous and "off the cuff" in our Speaking Exams(cough) :D

Taboo and other fun stuff

It being Christmas and everything I thought I'd let my Year 11 class have a bit of fun yesterday. Firstly we did the Wise Guys' "Schlag mich Baby noch Einmal" from the Sunderland School's webiste (can't find it nowon the website), using their YouTube video. It's so funny when you give out the work sheet and the think "oh yes, another dodgy German song"" then some begin to realise what it is and then the video starts and the penny really starts to drop. The first time through very little blanks got filled in, as they stared in disbelief at the screen :o)
They must have enjoyed it as they asked on of my colleagues to put it on again when she had them in a science cover today!
Next we played Taboo. I made up some game cards with their words on plus "verbotene Worte" and then "wichtige Vokabeln". That too seemed to go down well...my group a brilliant boys were still playing when I wanted to move on. I must admit I was worried about how it would go, as sometimes these things fall flat don't they?
One day to go can't wait...

A day of speaking

Today was my day for mock orals - oh joy :o)
25 Higher German orals this morning and 24 Foundation French ones this afternoon. To say I'd lost the will to live by the end of the day is an understatement.
I fail to understand why children do not believe teachers when they are told that they need to be prepared. However, having said that most of them did exactly how I expected them to do but I still came away feeling disappointed that my star didn't get an A* in that part of the exam. On the other hand I was chuffed to bits that a couple of others who are seen as "a bit lazy" had obvioulsy done their work and came out with great results and actually had a conversation (OMG)
My next challenge is to get those who I think could get upto A* to come to an after school club to help them achieve it. Of course, some will and some won't c'est la vie.
Still I feel more positive than in other years after them.

How to get A* in MFL?

Pray for a miracle, I think :o)
After a journey by rail to Manchester Airport that ressembled a bad dream I arrived at a conference led byn Terry Murray about how to get more A* grades. It was very useful - if just to remind me of strategies etc that I already know but had forgotten (ie don't send someone in with coursework marks of 104 when A* is 105). He also suggested giving sweets at the end of oral exams and having something for pupils to fiddle with when they're nervous and don't know what to do with their hands.
Well lo-and-behold it was our mock orals today. So last night I tripped off to Tesco's to buy a big box of roses and a cuddly teddy. I can safely say that the chocolates made them smile (and realise that maybe I'm not the witch they think I am), as did the teddy. It's lovely soft (cheap) doggy from Tesco. Some actually used it too - included that lad who got the highest mark over all. Of course there were the usual sceptical looks from colleagues - particulary out Head of Area elect who was in today, who looked at me as as if I was a complete lunatic - however, the kids seemed to like it (and find it useful) and that's what counts at the end of the day :o)