SOS: So after the Y11 mocks, what?

We just completed our second set of mock exams for Y11 before the February half-term and after analysing results, most students missed the next grade up just for two or three marks. This shows me that the next three of months will be key for my classes. How to maximise our time with our Y11 classes from now up to their exams to improve grades a grade or more?  I wrote a post on this topic in 2021 and my approach has not changed much!

This is my straight-forward line of action, which I have followed for many years, to make sure that students improve their Mock results for at least one grade.  In fact, although a SOS guideline, these are strategies we apply to all our KS4 lessons, including the new GCSE course. 

Maximising Listening skills

This is the skill our students tended to underperform in the trial and in the real GCSE exams, the wrongly called the passive skill!  Nevertheless, listening is the foundation of the learning journey to achieve fluency and get students using the language.  In our department we believe so strongly in the fundamental need to develop listening skills, linked to phonics, that we start tackling this skill at KS3 with a dedicated lesson every two weeks where students carry out listening personalised tasks, independently, with their headphones, in Google Classroom. I wrote extensively about listening at KS3, how to exploit textbook audio material and how to create a virtual language lab in this blog. 

Focussing on GCSE,  these are the strategies we adopt as from Y10:

• We dedicate a lesson every two weeks, exclusively, to practise listening skills. We have three lessons per week so, one of those 6 lessons, in a fortnight, is exclusively a listening lesson. During that lesson, we prepare listening material + transcripts, based on the topics we teach in the curriculum and students carry the activities individually with their headphones.  
• During the first lessons we do independent listening practice, we record ourselves and create classic activities such as "dictation with gaps" "putting sentences into order" "fill in the gaps without gaps" or "finishing the sentence", using 100% vocabulary that we have covered in lessons, so it is 95% understandable material, this is an example of a Y10 Independently Listening session. The idea is to treat listening for learning and retrieve vocab in a listening format.
• As we carry out these lessons, and definitely at this stage of the GCSE course in Y11, we use mainly past paper listening questions,  for that use Exampro activities for AQA. Examwizard is the equivalent for Edexcel Pearson. We choose tasks, on a given theme/topic, so we concentrate on specific vocabulary at a time. When we create the tasks using Exampro, we use a variety of questions: Foundation, Overlapping and Higher. Students work with at their own pace individually, using headphones, so we also develop independent learning skills: Students learn how to revise for the listening exam, once they are at home. 
• Use the transcripts wisely. Share them, with your students, at all times, but especially when carrying out exam style questions. We always include the transcripts and the mark schemes. Remember this is listening for learning not testing!  Use the transcripts to create pre-listening tasks, so there is an opportunity to look up vocabulary and do translation activities.  Ideally, this can be done in previous lessons, or as a homework task. During our listening independent lesson, students always listen to the audio while reading the transcript and then complete the task. Students work at their own pace and some may do only 2/3 tasks this way. On a second listening lesson, they can attempt some of the same tasks, again, interleaved with previous topic tasks, without  using the transcript, although this is always accessible to them. This is a powerful listening technique: Listening while reading the transcript. This practice has become more valuable now with the new GCSE and the reading aloud task, as this will provide excellent modelling practice for students for the reading aloud task, as well as developing their phonological recognition and develop listening processing skills.
• At some point in the process, we also carry out an exam style question together: we look at the transcript first and highlight key vocabulary. We read the exam question and make sure we understand it, emphasising key words which may act as distractors in the exam: a sentence may start with something someone likes but later will say what they love, which is what is needed for the actual task. We pay attention to key, high frequency words that can be key for the listening exam, especially negatives and superlatives and opinion key words. We analyse why a particular question is challenging and what is key in the transcript to make it accessible: developing  metacognitive skills as we go through the thinking process of tackling a listening exam question.
• We look up random vocabulary in transcripts and reading past papers: vocabulary that has appeared in previous years and we know we have not taught explicitly, and we create Quizlet courses. This is one of mine, I have two of these courses. Students learn this vocabulary over several homework tasks. It is amazing to see how some of the most random vocabulary keeps appearing in exams, year after year like: falta, ancianos, sopa de marisco, productos lácteos or me enteré/me decepcionó/ me di cuenta in AQA!
• Students must add, any unknown vocabulary appearing in the transcript to their own random Quizlet courses: the more vocabulary they know, the better they will be at recognising it in a listening but also a reading task!

We keep doing this routine every two weeks, starting in Y10. During our normal lessons, we continue emphasising listening skills via Modelling activities such as Dictation, listening Battleships, Finishing the sentence, Spotting the listening mistake etc.. Over time, start mixing up topics and themes and set up listening tasks for homework too.  

Maximising Reading Skills

Students tend to do better in this skill. Learning  high frequency words and random general vocabulary, as done per listening, and all topic vocabulary is key for success! 

I normally tackle this skill via homework tasks, as I personally like using lesson time for oral/listening activities mainly. The use of Exampro or Examwizard can prove invaluable here too!

The key for success for this skill is to treat it, like the listening component, as an opportunity to learn the language!  So, students are encouraged to add any unknown vocabulary to their Random Vocabulary Quizlet, when carrying out the activities. In fact doing this is part of the homework task!

It is important that students don't see this practice as a test/assessment but as a learning opportunity!  Going through the reading tasks/answers with students and stop, to model, as a whole class, the thinking process to tackle those tricky questions, it is vital and super important. 

Don't just ask students to complete a task: reflect on the process of how students came to a particular answer and why it was not another. The exam is full of "catchy" bits, so training students to recognise these and look up for intensifiers, synonyms, negative words etc.. in a text are crucial skills!

Tackling  the Writing paper 

To get better at this, students need models of what a good writing task looks like and must know the structures/vocabulary/grammar extremely well! This is why using Sentence Builders throughout the GCSE course, not just at KS3, is so important: as these provide a wonderful framework to work with and manipulate the language as needed. 

All our Sentence Builders for GCSE can be found here . Of course, interleaving, retrieval practice and carrying out key activities throughout the GCSE course to help students learn these Sentence Builders and transfer them to their Long Term Memory, are essential.  To get ideas on Writing Tasks in general, as from KS3, visit this blogpost. 

• Present students with a model of a writing task. This is my model video on how to tackle the 150 word question in AQA, modelling with students they thinking process they have to through when tackling a writing task question/bullet points.

• We also dedicate a lesson every two weeks, to carry out a timed writing task in Y11, as we do with listening as from Y10.  For the tasks, again, we use Exampro past paper questions. We always prepare two tasks:  one aimed at Foundation level, including Description of a photocard, 40 words task a d 90 word task, and another at Higher level, 90 word task and 150 word task. Every two weeks, students for homework, prepare one of the tasks (Foundation or Higher), taking into account the 5 Magic Powers. 
• To be successful in the previous task and to do also really well in the oral exam, especially the General Conversation, students need to fulfil certain criteria.  This is what I call the 5 Magical Powers:
  • Use of different tenses (at least three)
  • Giving opinions 
  • Giving Reasons
  • Talking about someone else, in its simple form, the use of reported speech mi madre/amigo dice/dijo que..
  • High Impact expressions

  We embed these Magical Powers in our SoW as from Y7! In fact our mark scheme at KS3 is based on how well these powers have been achieved in a written/oral task. Click here for a Blogpost on this. Looking at the new GCSE, still these criteria are present so it makes sense to get students familiar with them as from Y7! The idea is that when preparing their writing task for a timed writing lesson, they must make reference to these powers. 
  
  
  To help students to use the Magical Powers, we created the following document, with examples of the Powers to practise as from Y10. This document has been printed in A3, laminated and displayed in the students' desk.  Click here for a copy.  Students also have their own laminated copy for their bedrooms! 
  
  
  I have talked extensively about the Powers before, but one of the elements I developed recently is the use of LINKS or NUGGETS.  
  
  
  What are the NUGGETS?
  
  
  My Y11 students were really struggling with verb endings so I thought of using LINKS or NUGGETS, basically expressions acting as shortcuts,  which can be used for different tenses, without having to conjugate a verb.  I still expect most of my students to use verb endings but, if they struggle, in a moment of panic, the nuggets work wonders. Similarly, those students who can conjugate well and easily can alternate traditional conjugation with the NUGGETS, as these are also examples of High Impact expressions (a Magical Power), widening their use of vocabulary!
  
  
  

  
  

  How do they work? If students do not remember the endings for the present tense, especially for irregular verbs, they may use Suelo/Suele/ Me gusta/ Podemos/Se puede. In the Preterite, Decidí/empecé a, in the Imperfect, Solía, in the future Voy a and in the Conditional Me gustaría. The NUGGETS or LINKS are very popular because once you use them, you just need to use the Infinitive after them!!

  
  

  They also help weaker students to understand that an infinitive can never be used without the support of a NUGGET or LINK.  When we practise sentences, for example, we always do it using a verb ending but also a LINK/NUGGET if it is possible.  This has helped my students a LOT to avoid grammatical mistakes regarding verb endings. 

  
  

  The nuggets or links work so well that these are introduced as from KS3, so they become a second nature for students when they reach KS4.

 During our Writing Timed lesson, students carry out their Foundation/Higher task in exam conditions, which will be marked by the teacher, using the AQA Mark Scheme, so we can give give students specific feedback.

This technique, has dramatically improved the writing grades of our students in exams. As a matter of fact, we start using Timed Writing lessons in Y11 as from October Half-term up to their Study leave.

• We retrieve, constantly in lessons, the 5 Magic Powers that students need,  to get the highest grades in the writing and oral papers.
• During lesson time, we carry out Translation activities in a game environment using MWBs.

Maximising Speaking skills 

As with the Writing skills, it is important to model how to tackle the different components of the Speaking exam. In the case of AQA, knowing how to do well in the Roleplay and the Photocard is essential, as these two components will provide 50% of the marks for the whole oral and they just require exam technique! To prepare students well for this, we created this Oral booklet, based on past paper Roleplays and Photocards, as well as, example oral questions. 

• We try to spend as much lesson time as possible on oral skills and scaffolding activities leading to fluency. This is the only skill which is very difficult for students to master on their own! Similarly, it is the skill that will motivate them the most to study a language at GCSE and beyond!!! If they feel they cannot speak, they will give up on the subject. For that, you can use, some of the activities proposed on this blog, preferably from KS3.
• Using the Oral Booklet, model and practise, first in writing using MWBs, the Roleplay and Photocards. In Y11, these present great starter activities for a lesson! After practising as a whole class with MWBs, Students can practise the tasks, easily, with their partners as the oral booklet has on one side the student card and on the other the teacher's version. 
• To practise the General Conversation part of the exam, 50% of the whole speaking mark, we give them model questions which students can start preparing in flashcards, little by little as from Y10, as the course progresses. I make it clear they cannot learn by heart all these questions! but having them in writing, gives them some confidence for their own revision on what a good model answer looks like! We are also continuing with this practice with the current Y10 cohort in preparation for the new GCSE. On this occasion, the model questions will be in preparation for the conversation to take place after talking about two photocards in the last part of the oral paper and the questions that will be asked after the reading aloud task (AQA)

Make the link between the General Conversation in the Speaking exam and the Writing exam

• We help students practise these questions via home work tasks and we connect the oral to the writing: for example, we link the next timed writing, as explained above, to the same theme/topic covered in a previous oral homework task. There’s a clear link between both exams and students need to understand such link!

  Students must realise that by revising potential oral questions for the general conversation they are, in fact, learning potential content for the writing tasks. Understanding this link breaks down the gigantic task of tackling four different exams for GCSE. Such concept is also reinforced by using multi skilled activities and the same type of tasks to practise different skills, for example Battleships for listening, oral and writing. Students must understand that all skills are interwoven and must be practised interlinked with each other. Using our 5 Magic Powers has certainly helped us with this link, as the powers are valid for both productive skills.

• During lessons, dedicate time to practise the general conversation questions in a game format. This is an example with Flippity: students click on the randomiser, play, Piedra, Papel, Tijera and must answer a question as it spins. To make the task more challenging, ask them to include a high impact expression, from the second column, in their answer. We tend to do this in writing with MWBs too. It works wonders as it reinforces the link between the speaking and writing paper and gives confidence to students before tackling purely oral tasks.

• We dedicate our lessons two weeks leading to the Mock and real MFL orals to just to practise oral skills. 

• As with writing, we retrieve, during our lessons, key verbs in different tenses and high impact expressions: basically our 5 Magic Powers.

These techniques have made a big difference for me year after year and have helped my students maximise their grade! I hope it is useful for you. For a blog just on maximising Speaking and Writing skills at Y11, look at this blogpost.  I would be super happy to hear what other techniques you use which are successful for you and your students!

Skilful Questioning in the MFL mixed ability classroom: adaptive and responsive teaching

 As I am recovering from an operation at home, I have been thinking a lot about adaptive and responsive teaching, what I call Spinning the Plates, meaning that teachers start assessing students' answers in the classroom and start responding to students' needs, encouraging students to work at different speeds/levels within the classroom. 

I wrote a very thoughtful blogpost on adaptive and responsive teaching three years ago and I still stick to each strategy detailed and explained there. To have a look at that post, click here. 

However, what happens when most students in our MFL mixed ability classroom are disengaged students as they find learning languages extremely challenging and have multiple special needs?  What happens when students' working memory is particularly weak and they have processing difficulties?  How do we get those students to produce language after the modelling stage and numerous listening/dictation activities?

The answer is RETRIEVAL PRACTICE and CHECKING FOR UNDERSTANDING in every single lesson, via SKILFUL QUESTIONING.

This morning, I read a great blogpost by Ross McGill in the teacher toolkit website on  The art of asking good questions in the Classroom you can find the article here.  In the article, Ross McGill talks about Monological, Declarative, Dialogical and Metacognitive questions. This made me think  of my own practice and how I use questions in the classroom to scaffold the production learning stage from word to paragraph level.  

Scenario with a mixed ability Y8 class with multiple students with SEN and high level of disengagement: scaffolding the production process 

In this scenario, retrieval practice is key. Imagine we are studying the topic of Free Time and we have been doing so for some weeks, so students should be ready for some structured, guided practice of the language in small paragraphs.  How do we move them from word to paragraph level?

This is what works for me.  Using MWBs, I start scaffolding their practice.  All students have access to our Sentence Builders via Google Classroom and these must be opened in their laptops, so they can be easily accessed if needed, although I will encourage the most able to work from memory. The sequence of questioning will be something like this:

OK, how do you say "I like" in Spanish?" Please, write it in your MWB, 3,2,1 show up your boards"  I am confident that nearly everyone will have written Me gusta. 

That's brilliant, so, let's use our Magical Powers and let's use some other vocab and tenses. How do you say "I tend to"?  Again, we are working at word level and most of my students will be able to write suelo in their MWBs, because they know it or in some cases, because it is in the Sentence Builder hand out.  

Fantastic, what about "I liked"?  and "I used to"? Great, do you know, these are now GCSE structures and you can do it! By making this comment, I am telling them that I believe in them and they are clever as they can do GCSE work!

Well, what about "I like to listen to music"? At this stage, I will start revising the free time verbs so we can move to writing in sentence level. Remember, force your brain to remember how you say listen to music, a clue, starts with E M.  However, if you really cannot remember, use your SB!  3,2,1 show up your boards.  Great.  I like doing this, as I like to share the learning process with them so that they can start owning it. This is how we learn and we are doing this to help you remember the vocabulary. 

Can you think and share other activities that you remember from your free time? such as to go to the swimming pool, to play football, to read?  Do this with a partner. You have 2 minutes to think and write as many verbs as you remember in your MWBs.  This is  the classic, think, pair and share strategy.  OK, 2 minutes have gone by, 3, 2, 1 boards up!  At this point students will have written different verbs in the infinitive form.  

My experience tells me that someone, may have written the "I form" of the verb, instead of the infinitive. If this happens, I can stop the class and say: Ok, someone has written "juego al fúltbol", that is a great verb, but what does it mean? pause 2 seconds, Maya? (cold-calling someone that I know will know the answer to move to the explanation). That's right "I play football" but I want structures with the infinitive, basically with "to in front of the verb, to sing, to play" so how do you say to play football? pause 2 seconds, Tyler? (cold-calling the person who wrote "juego al fútbol" in the first place) You can check your SB, Tyler.  That's right "jugar". Why am I making a fuss of this? Why do we need "jugar, tocar" and not "juego, toco" etc...? pause 2 seconds, Seb? (Cold calling and probing questions now). If students  are insecure, I can proceed with something like this to scaffold their thinking process to get them to the answer I need to: well, How do we say "I like"? Can I say "I like I play" in English? Does this make sense? what does "Me gusta juego" mean?, pause 2 seconds, Trish? (cold calling again).  Well done, "I like I play" and that is wrong, so I need " I like to play"? How do you say "I like" again? how do you say "to play"? How do you say "I like to play" then? write it down in your MWBs, 3,2,1  show me boards!   

Excellent, what about "I liked to play football"?  Remember that you must force your brain to give you the answer, but if your brain is not working today for you, use your SB!  By doing this, I am allowing students to use their SB if they cannot remember and I am telling them is not them the issue but their brains that need more exercise!!

Maya, that's great ( she wrote the answer in a few seconds, while everyone is still writing, so I approach her and say: Maya, can you extend your answer? can you say what other things you liked to do and when?  There may be other students like Maya, working at a different level now: adaptive teaching).  Ok, 3,2,1 boards up!  Brilliant, now, can you write something you like or tend to do and something you liked or used to do in the past?  Check your spellings! Remember that we are using the infinitive. After several examples with this, we can move to the next level.

What about reasons? how do you say "because"?  how do you say "because it can be fun"? "because it can be cool?" Excellent. Use your MWBs, 3,2,1, boards up. Ok let's do it orally now,  "how do you say because it is cheap", Tom? (cold calling, if he doesn't know I will go to someone else and then come back to him, so he cannot opt out). 

Brilliant, you are working hard and you are really helping transfer all these expressions to your long term memory!  

So how do you say "I like to listen to music because it can be fun"? thinking time, 3, 2, 1 boards up. Excellent,  how do you say "I used to play football with my brother"?  Thinking time, 3,2, 1 boards up.  Excellent, how do you say "I like to listen to music because it can be fun but I used to play football with my brother"?  This is now more challenging so the thinking time is longer.  When doing this,  try to work from memory, but the SB is there to help you as your safety net. I can then approach some of my weak students and say: I can see you are stuck, open your SB and look for "I like" and "to listen to music", that's right, can you find the other vocab?  Maya, you finished, excellent, can you add more information by saying other activities you like and liked?  Again, I am spinning the plates, approaching different students who will be working at different levels. We do these with several sentences.

Excellent, so now, using your MWB, can you write a small paragraph saying two activities you like to do in your free time and a reasons and two activities you liked/used to do before? Can you do it from memory? Tris, don't worry if you need to use your SB but make your brain work before you look at it.  You have 2 minutes to write your answer. If this is easy for you, can you make your paragraph as long as possible? OK, time is up 3,2,1  boards up!  We are moving now to paragraph level, while reassuring some  students and making sure I stretch others. 

Who would like to read their little paragraph loud for 3 Achievement Points?  Someone reads their paragraph. Excellent reading, remember how we pronounce "JU" in Spanish.  Ok, what does Maya like to do in her spare time? now, I will ask for volunteers, why does she like it?  Maya can you read it again? We now do some impromptu listening with the students' information. 

Let's have a look at your paragraphs, why is your paragraph good? Think about the 5 magical powers! Does it have more than one tense? does it have reasons? Does it have high impact expressions? Have you used "because I have always wanted to do it" or "because I am good at it" or "because it helps me relax"?  Check with your partner.  We have now moved to the metacognition self-reflection, self-monitoring sphere. 

Can you now write another paragraph in Google Classroom? Try to do  it from memory! Does  it have all the ingredients for a great paragraph? Reflect on it. Remember to use the infinitive! (Metacognitive skills). If you need to, use your SB. Trish, can you write at least 3 sentences like the ones you did with your MWB?  I am moving around (spinning the plates) and I will be giving a scratch card to those who are writing a great paragraph!

This will take the whole lesson but the idea here is that students can move from writing one word to writing a whole paragraph in different tenses, using opinions. Weaker students always have the support of their SB and are not punished or made feel less good for using these, while more able students are encouraged to write longer sentences, paragraphs from memory.  Students get constant feedback and get rewarded with Achievement Points.

Finally, I moved from monological, right-wrong questions to more metacognitive questions that make students think about their own thought process.  The beauty of this process is that it can be adapted to any level from Y7 to Y11.

The NEW GCSE: It's all about RETRIEVAL. PART 4 PRODUCTIVE structured Practice and developing FLUENCY

Merry Christmas to all! What a term this has been! I hope you can now relax with your loved ones and enjoy the festive season. As I have now some time, I would like to complete the final part of my thoughts/strategies to tackle the new GCSE for MFL. Part 4 and the last one, is all about developing fluency in students via oral structured practice. I find this stage the most challenging one and, in my experience, only possible to achieve if the other stages have been carried out thoughtfully and in depth, which can be difficult given the curriculum time constraints we all face.  

Stage 4 is all about students being able to produce language via structured practice, mainly via the use of translations from English into Target Language, or prompts, expecting students to work from memory as much as possible. At this stage we create models of language that students, eventually, will be able to produce on their own as they become more and more fluent. 

This stage should be full of communicative activities/games, where there's a need to produce language. These are some of my old favourite tasks:

Oral Battleships

This old activity is always a winner! Students work in pairs and choose 8 boxes from the battleships grid randomly. I give students the prompts and they must create sentences to find out where their partner's chosen boxes or ships are.

Information Gap Activities

In any shape and form! Basically, any activity where students, working in pairs, have to exchange information to complete a task.  This can be done by asking each other questions to get specific answers, that students need, to complete a table, or just by exchanging information by translating sentences to each other. The important element for these activities is that we give students prompts or the sentences we wan them to produce and again, we expect them to translate such sentences from memory as much as possible!!

Board Games

Again, in any shape and form! Any game will be great, virtual or by using a classic board, dice and counters! Snakes and Ladders or No Snakes and Ladders, which is the same! Connect 4, Noughts and Crosses, Jumanlly etc.. work wonders. The idea is that when students are placed in a box, they produce target language orally responding to a particular prompt: an image, a sentence in English that they must translate, a word they must extend and put in a sentence etc.. 

I love digital games, so I use many games from Genially, which require hardly any preparation time.  Click here for an example. 

Flippity is also great for this: have you tried its new Connecto game? Click here for an example

The idea with these games is to create nearly real communicative situations basically the willingness to win the game and for that, a need to speak in the target language. As they become more and more confident with the covered material, we can exchange the prompts for questions and add time to the equation, so that students need to produce the language, quickly.

The same games/activities can be carried out by students several times but decreasing the time they have, to produce their answers: 2 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds, so we start developing fluency. 

Wheel of names matched with "Stone, paper, scissors" is also a popular game: students spin the wheel then play "Stone, paper, scissors" and the winner translates the utterance that appear in the wheel. 

Writing Practice using Google Forms

Productive language does not only involve oral work, but it can also be written production. In fact, this can be a powerful task before doing extensive oral work.  To do this, Google Forms with open end questions can be an excellent alternative and to create them, we can use the Chrome Extension Brisk. 

Brisk is wonderful to help you create a Google Form based on a given set of questions. I created the following Blogpost explaining how to use Brisk in this way, step by step. Click here to have full access to instructions about how to use Brisk.  At this stage, I expect my students not to need prompts, so oral, open free questions are key at this stage, but in writing, so students can still think freely, at this stage. 

Writing Practice using Padlet

Padlet is another old friend. It is great, again, to develop fluency in students. I create a Padlet for a given topic, any type of Padlet works. 

Once created, go to "Settings" and then "Posts". Once in Posts, go to "Posts Fields". Create a post field for each question you want your students to write about in the Padlet when they add their entry. You can create as many Post fields as you want to! This means that when you share your Padlet with students and these click on the + button to add their entry, they will see the questions, you want them to answer in writing, one for post field, which you previously created. Students then press "publish" for their entry to be visible to you and all the other students. This is powerful to get inspired by others' answers/entries. 

See an example here

Using a tutor chatbot with Mizou

Finally, the ultimate fluency developer, Mizou. 

Mizou is a FREE AI chatbot generator. I started using Mizou last year with Year 11 students and it proved a great success for those students who were reluctant to practise their oral skills with me as they were too shy. Mizou allows you to create a personalised chatbot in minutes. Just click on "Build a chatbot" , then "Custom". 

Give your Chatbot assessment a title, for example: Practising questions on the topic of Technology. Then fill in the "AI Instructions". Be specific for example, for my Mizou practice on Technology my instructions were:

The students will practice their new GCSE oral exam with you. You will need to ask them the following 4 questions on the topic of Technology:

1 ¿Tienes un móvil? ¿Qué haces con tu móvil? 

2¿Cuál es tu red social favorita? ¿Por qué?  

3 ¿Qué peligros y ventajas tienen las redes sociales? 

4. ¿Cómo solías usar tu móvil en el pasado? 

Ask one question at the time. Ask the questions in Spanish but give feedback in English. Students should answer with accurate Spanish using opinions and reasons.

Give your AI assistant an image, Mizou will create one for you, after your description and give it a name. My AI assistant in Mizou is called Ana. Click on "more options" and type the welcome message that students will see when starting their session with Ana. Then type the "rules". My rules were:

Use the new MFL GCSE mark scheme for the speaking exam to give feedback

Students will answer in Spanish

Ask a question at the time in Spanish on the topic of Technology, starting with the questions given in the instructions.

When giving feedback, do it in English

Add a thumbnail on the topic of your questions and a short description. 

Try your Chatbot and if you are happy just launch it. Click on "Share with students". Mizou will ask you to start a session and will give you link to share with students. 

You can have a look at the final product here. 

The idea with Mizou is for students to develop their fluency with typical GCSE questions that they are familiar with from lessons. 

I hope you found these ideas useful, please, share your views and ideas by leaving your comments below. 

The NEW GCSE: It's all about RETRIEVAL. PART 3 PASSIVE structured Practice using AI

This blopost Part 3 is all about Retrieval of vocabulary and structures in the Structured Practice of our learning journey. When I think of Structured Practice after the Modelling stage, I think of receptive and productive practice. Receptive Structed Practice consists of students getting exposed to the vocabulary and structures we have modelled in the previous stage in a listening and reading format, but still not expecting students to produce language themselves. Productive Structed Practice will consist of tasks expecting students to produce language in an oral or written format with scaffolds, mainly, through the use of translation from English into target language or by the use of prompts that will encourage students to practice the language we want to focus on. 

Passive Structured Practice

At this stage, it can be really difficult not to end up doing the same types of tasks over and over again. Similarly, it can be very timed consuming creating new listening and reading material to base our activities/tasks on. 

That's why the use of Artificial Intelligence can be vital at this stage as it will allow us to create multiple texts, on given vocabulary, to be exploited in the classroom. It is also important to make it clear that any listening and reading tasks should not be based, purely, on reading/listening test comprehension questions, but these should be an opportunity to work with the language (meaning and form) to help students to embed new structures into their long term memory, reading/listening for learning not testing.

Using Twee to create multiple texts 

Twee is a free website that allows teachers to create a text based on specific vocabulary/structures and subsequent different types of questions, which we can easily modify, such as Fill in the gaps, Multiple Choice answers etc.. 

However, the best asset of Twee is to be able to create the texts in different formats: for example, in the format of a funny dialogue or funny story.  The key is to allow students to have access to the vocabulary we want them to embed in many different ways. Twee will also allow you to create activities based on Youtube videos, for Alevel students, vocabulary, or writing tasks. Once the texts are created, we can choose to use Twee activities or create our own ones, based on "form" as well as meaning. Some activities that we can create with the given texts are:

• Asking students to identify specific words/expressions/tenses or grammatical points in the text.
• Asking students to translate parts of the texts.
• If several texts are created, Twee will allow us to create Narrow Reading activities easily: comparing the differences between 2 or more texts. 
• Asking students to infer meaning from specific words/structures in the text. 
• Asking students to turn the text from present to past or future tenses.
• Asking students to focus on collocations of words, seeing words in context and create own sentences. 

Of course, the texts we create can also be used in the Fluency Stage as model texts on what students could write themselves! 

Using Diffit to spice up your texts

Once we created a text with Twee, we can use Diffit to format it and transfer it into Slides/ PowerPoint but also into Forms. I love the latter possibility. Diffit, will create questions based on a given text, that was created with Twee and will turn it directly into a Forms activity. Once in Forms, we can modify the questions by focusing, again, on form, specific meanings etc.. but within a Form activity.  I think this is great in order to retrieve the vocabulary we want students learn, aka, transfer to their long term memory, over and over again, in different formats: as a worksheet, in Slides/PPT and Forms.

Using Vocaraoo to personalise listening tasks

Once we have our texts created by Twee (we can also use Claude or ChatGPT) we can turn a text into sentences and exploit them as listening material by recording our voices with Vocaroo. Vocaroo is an old friend but it does the job! It will allow you to record your voice and share your recorded audiofile directly, with a unique URL (which expires within 3 months), or download your audio into a MP3 file to be used over and over again on different activities:

• Dictation/fill in the gaps dictation/ fill in the gaps without the gaps dictation.
• Transcription type of tasks: write down exactly what you hear in English or Target language.
• Correct the mistakes in given translations from an audio.
• Matching halves of sentences
• Putting sentences in order making up a full paragraph, which students can then translate or work from a reading point of view. 

To make the experience more real, I ask my students to bring headphones to our lessons, so they can carry out these activities individually at their own pace. This works wonders at KS3 too!

Using Vidnoz to create video/listening material with avatars

This is my favourite site. In the past I have used Synthesia for this type of activities but in September I came across Vidnoz, which is so much easier to use. Vidnoz allows us to create a video, within 5 minutes, with a chosen avatar from the site. We can choose a video template, an avatar, the language we want to practise, the voice and finally we can just copy and paste the texts we created with Twee to be turned into audio. We can decide the speed we want our avatar to talk and a MP4 video will be created within 5 minutes. You are allowed to use 3 minutes per day for free, which I think it is enough as videos, should not exceed the 2 minute length, to avoid fatigue. Once created, we can download it or we can upload it into our own Youtube channel to share more easily.  Once you have the audio/video material, it is great to carry out, again, lots of audio tasks:

• Fill in the gaps
• Transcriptions of the whole video
• Rearranging the transcript in the correct order
• Spotting all the verbs in a particular tense 

Using Google Earth to spice up reading tasks

Another app that can really help us to do reading/translation tasks with a twist, is Google Earth. Why not ask students to go on a virtual journey around Madrid, Paris, Barcelona or Berlin showing them the main landmarks while we ask them to translate specific texts/sentences? Again, this is a fantastic way to retrieve vocabulary in an interactive way! Once you create your project, by choosing your landmarks, your pictures and editing the content (the text you want students to translate, work on) you can share it as a slide show. Students will be taken to the specific landmarks, they can complete the tasks and have a walk around Barcelona, Paris or Berlin!

Passive structured practice is key to establish a very good foundation for students to be able to use the language. It should not be rushed and AI is great to help us create interactive material swiftly and interactively. 

The new GCSE, it's all about RETRIEVAL. PART 2: Retrieval in Modelling

Following my post in part one and this week's Language Show, this second post is all about Modelling activities and how we can ensure that students start learning the vocabulary/structures/chunks they need, to start communicating. This stage is extremely important and traditionally rushed by practitioners as the perfect lesson, in the past, had to include Presentation (similar to modelling), Practice (structured practice) and Production (fluency activities) ALL happening in the same lesson!  As if it was that easy.

By modelling I understand, following, Rosenshine's principles, to introduce the language in small steps/chunks, orally, so we set good pronunciation patterns, choral repetition from students, I still believe this is so important and fun and, finally, lots of activities, based on receptive skills: listening/reading to help students to start embedding the language into their long-term memories. 

This stage, in my lessons, last roughly, two lessons. I personally introduce the language with my interactive Sentence Builder, created in Sentence Builders.com. I like it this way as students can see the written form while listening to the Spanish pronunciation (dual coding) AND the English translation, so it is absolutely clear what each chunk/expression means. I also like using pictures for games, but not initially when I introduce the vocabulary so I don't get interrupted with the typical: what does that suppose to mean?

Modelling is about, what I like calling, passive retrieval, meaning that students get lots of exposure to the language but they don't need to produce anything themselves, yet. It is all about recognition of sounds, meanings, phonics, grapheme-sound correspondence and good pronunciation habits. 

My typical Modelling activities are DICTATION and READING ALOUD, taking into account that dictation will be intrinsically linked to LISTENING FOR LEARNING NOT TESTING activities. These are my favourite activities.

SOME DICTATION ACTIVITIES FOR PASSIVE RETRIEVAL PRACTICE

Classic dictation

This involves the dictation of small sentences/paragraphs after language has been introduced to students via chorus repetition. I start slowly, making clear pauses between words, to quickly increase speed and start joining words via liaison. Students just write in the TL what they hear and show me after I count 1,2,3. I use Mini Whiteboards when I do this as I can check for understanding immediately, which also allows me to adapt my dictations to the students' responses.

Filling the gaps or Fill in the no gaps dictation

This is a classical fill in the gaps activity where a short paragraph or sentences are presented to students with gaps. I then dictate the sentences and students just need to write the words which are missing in the gaps. This is a nice activity to do before a full on Dictation activity. To make the activity more challenging, as suggested by Dylan Viñales, I like presenting the sentences with the missing words but without the gaps. Students now really have to listen hard to identify first, where the missing word is located and then transcribe the word. I love this activity as, before we do the listening activity, students can actually predict where the missing words will be, leading to nice retrieval practice itself!

Mistaken dictation

This is a classical dictation activity but with deliberate grammatical or phonetic mistakes which the students must spot. This is a great activity, again, to test whether students have assimilated a particular grammatical/phonetic rule.

Delayed dictation

This type of dictation which I heard first from Gianfranco Conti, is great for students with processing difficulties and poor working memory. The idea is to dictate an utterance, like in the classic dictation, but students are not allowed to write the heard material until after 7-10 seconds. During these seconds, students need to try to memorise the heard utterance by mentally repeating it to themselves in their heads. Students keep their hands in their heads while they do this and when I say "now", they write the sentence. 

Random dictation

This involves dictating random sentences that if put in order will make up a paragraph. After dictating the sentences, students, in pairs, rearrange the sentences in order to form the original paragraph. I love this activity because it can lead to translating the paragraph, improving it or just using as a model to create a new one.

Running dictation

A classic that works every time! Students work in pairs. Several texts are displayed around the room, one for each pair. One student, the scriber, remains sitting while their partner runs to one of the texts, memorises a sentence, runs back to their partner and dictates the memorised sentence, which the scriber writes down. The fastest couple to rewrite the text on the wall, is the winner! After they dictate the text, students can then translate it into English, improve it, use it as a model etc..

Dictogloss

Dictogloss is a dictation activity where learners are required to reconstruct a short text by listening and noting down key words, which are then used as a base for reconstruction. I love this activity because it is a multiple skills and systems activity. Learners practise listening, writing and speaking (by working in groups) and use vocabulary, grammar and discourse systems in order to complete the task.

I sometimes carry out the activity doing the dictation myself but my favourite mode is when students work in small groups or pairs as follows:

1. One student reads a text prepared by me based on the Sentence Builders we are working on and will take notes in English (not literal translation)

2. Working in pairs, student one, using their English notes, will reconstruct/dictate the text in Spanish to student two. Student two will  write in Spanish the text they hear. As a final task, both students will look at the original text and compare both versions.  

I do use this at all levels by adapting a given text. An example on the topic of Jobs is below for a Y11 class. I tend to prepare two texts so all students have the chance to be speakers! Students then exchange information, this way Dictogloss becomes an information gap activity.

Buzzed dictation

You will need a buzzer for this activity.  The teacher dictates sentences or a paragraph to the students, which they write in MWBs, every so often the teacher presses the buzzer (or claps) and the students need to write a word that makes sense in the given context, to replace the buzz. At the end of the activity, we look at the different options that students have written. 

Information Gap dictation in pairs

This dictation is to be done by the students in pairs. Students have a list of 10 sentences. However, student A, has sentences 1,3,5,7,9 while student B has sentences 2,4,6,8,10. student A starts by dictating sentence 1 while student B listens and writes down the sentence. Then student B reads sentence 2 while student A listens and writes down the sentence. Then student A will read sentence 2 etc.. Basically the classical Information Gap activity turned into a dictation and read aloud task!

SOME READING ALOUD ACTIVITIES FOR PASSIVE RETRIEVAL PRACTICE

Reading aloud Group Ping Pong

I carry out this activity using Flippity or Wheel of Names. See an example here. In Flippity, I go to the Single Name option and a sentence comes up. I divide the the class in group A and group B. Everyone in group A starts by reading the sentence together aloud, then someone in group B has to translate it accurately to get a point. At this stage, another person in group B can extend the sentence with something that makes sense so they get an extra point. I click on Flippity again and another sentence appears. Now is the turn of group B, all together, to read the sentence aloud and someone in group A to translate it and even extend it. 

Reading aloud: Piedra, Papel, Tijera, evolución

I tend to do this activity after the previous one, using the link from Flippity. Students now, play in pairs the popular game stone, paper, scissors. Whoever is the winner, clicks on Flippity and reads the sentence, for an extension, again, they have to translate the sentence or even extend it. For a twist to the game, I love Rachel Hawes' suggestion to play, stone, paper, scissors, evolution. This means that the first time a student wins, they are an egg, the second time, a chick, then a bird, followed by an elephant and finally superman. The player who manages to get to superman first, is the overall winner.  The typical slide for this activity in my lessons, looks like this. 

Battleships Reading

This is also one of my favourite activities! I tend to do it as a listening activity first, where I read the sentences and students write the coordinates, followed by the Battleships game, played in pairs. Basically, students choose 8 boxes in the grid and must find out the ships/boxes chosen by the partner by reading the sentences, which will lead to a particular coordinate/ship/box. This activity is always a winner! Students, again, can not only read the sentence but also translate it and extend it. 

Don't be the last one

Another lovely reading aloud activity. Students play in pairs. A list of sentences in the target language, normally I include 11, are shown on the screen. Students take turns to read the sentences. They can read up to 3 sentences in a row BUT the student who reads sentence 11 is the loser. The idea is to be strategic and make your partner read sentence 11. This is always a winner in my lessons!

Trap Door

This is a classic activity too. A text is displayed on the board where gaps are presented with different options. Students play in pairs. Each student, chooses an option for each gap. Students try to guess which options their partner has chosen by reading the passage. However, if they get it wrong at some point, they exchange roles and when it is their turn again, they need to start reading the text from the beginning again. I normally play this game with the whole class, first. I select my choices and students need to guess which these are.

High Five (Chócala) game

This activity is a mix between the classic Quiz & Trade and Find your partner. I display 20 sentences on the board and give a little piece of paper to each student. Students write a number from 1 to 20 in their piece of paper. They get up and move around the classroom reading to people the sentence attached to their number. After doing this with a person, they exchange the paper and they go to someone else. However, if they encounter someone with the same number as them on their piece of paper, they say chócala (high five) and get a point. The idea is to find as many chócalas as possible to win. 

These are just some of my favourite activities to do when I introduce new language to my students, all based on the concept of modelling sentences that eventually, I expect that students can produce freely themselves.  For h/w my students need to learn the vocabulary/chunks for a vocabulary test. However, my experience is that after two lessons carrying out these activities, and some other listening tasks, students end up memorising most of the vocabulary/structures naturally in lessons, giving them a sense of achievement, which they so desperately need!