A typical lesson sequence: structured spontaneous production and routinisation

After the introduction and controlled production stages, we reach the final stage of a unit sequence, the free production of language from the part of the students.  This is a painstakingly slow process in many cases and given the constraints of  the GCSE syllabus, a big issue, as we have to rush content through all the different stages because of an unrealistic vast curriculum  to cover and the issue of curriculum time constrictions for MFL. How have I overcome this issue? I haven't completely! but I have managed to minimise it by focussing on a KS3 simple but efficient SoW and curriculum when the constraints of external examinations are still non-existent, to certain extent, by teaching three big topics per school year with key high impact structures, the seeds of the most sophisticated GCSE curriculum, repeated over the three year period of KS3, that is Y7, 8 and 9. Less is more!  I will write about curriculum designing and SoW in a later post.  By doing this, students would have acquired a solid foundation, although knowing fewer topics, but, on the other hand, feeling confident with, meaning that I can then "rush" more to cover the needed GCSE syllabus at KS4.

After many lessons, that's why we only teach a big topic per term at KS3, students become confident and start becoming creative and spontaneous with the language.  This is the stage when we can carry out projects, start collaborative tasks with partner schools etc.. The issue I see in many schools in the UK is that we tend to get to this stage far too early and start creative projects when students are not fully ready, leading to the use of Google Translate and the frustrations of us, teachers.

At this stage, I always, encourage creativity and explain any grammar, for those students interested, (differentiation) that automatically appears when trying to extend their own language and is new to them.  Many of the activities I prepared and carried out in the previous stage are relevant here too but with the expectation of free production.  At this stage I also incentive students to recycle previous language/topics/grammar covered.

These are a few of my favourite activities at this stage:

Oral presentations, via Flipgrid. 

Flipgrid is one of my favourite tools! Not only students can record their own videos, but they can do screencasting or apply a bit Bitmoji over their faces, which appeals to shy kids, increasing their confidence. I love Flipgrid too because, I can incorporate rubrics and give personal feedback in writing but also via my own video.  At Alevel, students are encouraged to respond to each others' videos creating oral discussions online which we can reduplicate in real life in lessons.  I always create a Flipgrid Grid for each of my teaching classes and different threads linked to topics/activities.  

Jane Basnett in her blog post here Even Better if  writes magnificently about the potential uses of Flipgrid and how it can be exploted, I will not repeat myself!

    

Creating short films/videos via iMovie

Students can create imaginative videos or movie based on a given topic using this app. However, in order for this activity to be successful, students need to have been orientated very well in the previous stages, otherwise the use of Google Translate will be far too tempting and the outcome, although technologically great, linguistically can be a fiasco!         

 You Tube Videos  (songs and film extracts, together with vlogs)

This is the time when I start using authentic resources via songs and film extracts via Youtube. I will have a specific post on use of songs and films at a later stage. Basically, I create my own activities matching my students' abilities and my well thought final desirable outcome for the activity: what do I want students to get from this?: learning further vocabulary, get a cultural perspective, practise a well studied grammatical structure, write a little review, write a complementary dialogue based on a particular section of a film, create their own song version matching the music etc...

Creating posters via use of iPads (PicCollage, Balloons + apps, BookCreator) 

I am lucky and I have a set of iPads in the MFL department to use conveniently for this task! However, students can create posters using any app they feel confident on their own computers. At this stage the collaboration between the ICT department and MFL can be vital! Students can use a given app studied in ICT for MFL content! I have seen great use of tools in ICT lessons with meaningless input in English, this can be changed by collaborating closely with different departments. 

We were also lucky to have Joe Dale training the MFL department on how to use different apps on our iPads productively in 2018! I thorough recommend his tailored training days! Also his Youtube channel, where he shares many webinars!  

I collected the notes and ideas on the use of different apps, from our tailored training on this document: 2018 Joe Dale training.

Creating talking avatars

There are many apps that can do this for you! Voki  is one I use on a PC, but if students are allowed their phones, there are many they can create, including their own Bitmoji! I particularly like Photospeak on the iPhone! Once these avatars have been created, I love converting them into QR codes by using any QR code generator. Once I created the QR codes, I share them in our school weekly bulletin, School Twitter account and print them in our MFL department talking wall.  This is a fantastic way to raise the profile of languages in the school community, increase students' pride and great for open days/evening/mornings. 

The same I do with the students' imovies.  

Creative writing using Padlet

At this point, I use Padlet! Padlet is a little bit like Flipgrid but for collaborative writing, oral etc.. Once we finish a topic, students need to contribute in writing and/or orally to a particular class Padlet.  I love this because it is fun, everyone can see each others' contributions and comment! I tend to do it for writing but also for videos, as an alternative to Flipgrid.  Similarly, Padlet is a fantastic tool to carry out collaborative projects with partner schools! I will talk about eTwinning and Erasmus on another entry!  Last year, we carried out an Erasmus project and Padlet was the tool that students used to communicate with each other and work together.

Similarly, Padlet can also be used for you, the teacher, to create a particular subject content wall or a revision schedule for GCSE.  In the free version, you can use up to 6 Padlets for free. As a department we have the paid version and it is money well spent! These are some of my Padlets:

Y9 Cooking competition

GCSE Revision Schedule 

Our Erasmus project Diary

 Boardgames based on general questions

A    Any of the games discussed in the controlled production stage are very valid here! but easier to prepare.  I normally do it with general questions relating to different topics where students need to answer openly without translation tasks. I tend to use this with key high impact expressions that I want students to incorporate in their answers to make the activities more challenging. My repertoire of ready laminated A3 boardgames are great here as well as my Jenga sets.  Also Speaking Dice from Linguascope are a great acquisition for a MFL department for this stage. Of course, the templates available from Genially and developed by Marie Allirot are great here too! Check out our MFLtwitterati Padlet here! 

          Speed dating

My students love this activity! I take them out to the corridor and place them in two rows where each student face another. They need to ask a set of different questions and ask them to their partner. At a sign from me, normally clapping my hands, students from a row only move towards the right facing a different partner and asking each other the same questions.  This is great for practising different questions/ topics over and over again but with different partners, which makes it more enjoyable. Students also follow the rule 3-2-1: answer questions in 3 minutes but then trying in 2 and finally in one minute to promote spontaneity.

Spiderweb Game

Another favourite!  I get an old wool ball and pass it to one student asking him a question. Student A answers the question and throws the ball to another student posing another question, or the same questions as you want to! but before throwing the ball they hold a piece of the wool, the next students does the same creating a spider web in the process!

Picture talk and 1,2,3

Students discuss a series of pictures, related to a topic, in a group. In order to do this, on my tables, I always have a mat with conversational entries to help them!

On a second stage, they need to move around the room talking to each other about a particular photo, which is displayed on the IWB.  The first time they do this they must talk for a minute, the second time, with a different student, two minutes, finally the third and subsequent times, 3 minutes. I change the picture each 15/20 minutes. Remember they would have worked with these pictures in their group talk first!                  

Piedra papel, tijera  evolution (free output)

Same as the game I explained in the Controlled Production stage post but now with free output based on a set of questions.

Dice games with free output

Same as the activities I explained in the Controlled Production stage post but, again, now with free output. Talking dice at this stage are also great!

A document detailing all types of activities for all three stages can be found here:

All three stages of language teaching and learning and activities.