Blended Learning: "How to " Tutorials for my favourite Digital Tools

I have talked a lot about Digital Tools and how these can support my lessons, creating a Blended Learning experienced in my classroom.  See my post here. 

On this post, I am sharing some quick How to videos on how to use these tools in the classroom to create a Blended Learning experience.  These tools were also invaluable during lock-down!

In the videos, which are not edited so apologies if they are not perfect, I show how I create the resource and I quickly explain possible uses in the classroom for MFL but also for other subjects!

These tools are great for Retrieval Practice and when implemented in the classroom where students bring their own device, you suddenly have Blended Learning in action!  I use Onenote to share the activities created this way.  However, Google Classroom would be equally good. 

Since September, all my students bring their own device to lessons and they open their Onenote. I teach using, face to face techniques, activities through my board but also via activities using the apps from the videos, which have been previously shared via Onenote.  

During lessons, some students may work on the activities online while others may do oral work with me, or the whole class may work through the activities online. This is how I have been teaching for the last three weeks and my students love it!  Rather than doing an old-fashioned worksheet, students may do a Quizizz, Wheel of Names or a LearningApps activity!  As we cannot use board games now, students play board games (for oral, translation practice) via the Genially free digital boards!  

I have tried to maximise all the knowledge I acquired during Lock-down from amazing educators such as Joe Dale, Helen Meyers, Jane Basnett, Vincent Everett or Marie Allirot to just mention a few! I hope you find the video guides useful!  There are more guides to come: Flippity, Flipgrid and Padlet but on a second post as this has taken most of the Sunday morning to make. 

How to use Genially for Board Games in the Blended Learning Classroom

How to use Quizizz in the Blended Learning Classroom

How to use Google forms to create a simple Escape Room

How to use Learning Apps in the Blended Learning Classroom

How to use Wheel of Names in the Blended Classroom 

How to use Spiral.ac in the Blended Classroom

How to use ClassroomScreen in the Blended Classroom

How to make a simple learning path using Deck.toys

Teaching MFL at ALevel: A 10 step guide!

Teaching ALevel is very different from teaching KS3 and KS4 in the UK, or not? The approach is certainly different.  At this stage, Sentence Builders are not a must anymore, although learning some chunks with difficult expressions to express an idea, can be powerful! Similarly, the principles from cognitive science about how our memory works (transferring information/knowledge from the working memory to the long term memory) prevail. This means, that the recycling of ideas, structures, vocabulary, working with texts, milking them, teaching to analyse facts etc.. will need to be extensively modelled, practised with scaffolds until it leads to Fluency. Rosenshine and lexicogrammar still apply to A Level teaching.

At this stage, teaching single words is beneficial and studying grammar explicitly, as well as implicitly, via texts, is essential. Similarly, teaching the ALevel syllabus is not just about teaching a MFL but developing high thinking order skills, studying literature, film studies and most importantly, assimilating facts about the target country which students must analyse and draw conclusions from, this will need to be modelled and extensively practised! It is like a General Studies course but in a MFL, not easy! 

The Setting of High Expectations: The iceberg model!

On the first day of lessons, I go through our MFL Sixth Form booklet which, clearly explains what is expected from our Alevel students from day one! Normally the gap between GCSE and Alevel is big! The booklet makes reference to the Iceberg metaphor: the visible part of the iceberg represents lessons, while the invisible part underneath, refers to self study work!

The MFL Sixth Form Handbook

The handbook points out the skills that will need to be developed, under the surface outside lessons, to be successful in the course, as well as providing a model timetable of self study. Lesson work, alone, it is not enough! Finally, it gives students ideas on how to practise the different skills of reading, listening, vocabulary and grammar learning, independently. For that I also create a bank of resources for students to choose from to carry out their own independent study tasks, as explained in their booklet. Zig-Zag podcasts, films and Authentik reading resources are invaluable here. See picture below. 

My 10 Step Guide

The approach I use to teach the Spanish Alevel AQA syllabus, with some variations, is the Teaching Through Text based approach, which correlates nicely with lexicogrammar and whose foundation is rooted in cognitive silcience. This is what I do for each given topic, say, Changes in Family in Spanish society, in Y12.

1. I start my sequence of lessons with an oral activity similar to those carried out at GCSE level on the topic of family. This is normally a group discussion activity where students talk about themselves and their families, with a final thought proving question, in Spanish, such as what does a typical family look like? Is it normal that grand parents live with their children?  Some key vocabulary can be given to conduct the activity, or this may appear spontaneously while carrying out the task. This is a Retrieval classic task. 

2. At a second stage, in the same lesson, I show students some photos in relation to the topic, in this case I would show them photos of different types of families. At Y12, I would expect answers similar to those given for the Photocard in the oral GCSE exam. Students speak in groups for this activity and we carry out a brainstorming of ideas towards the end. Again, I finish the activity with a thought provoking question: how do you think is the typical Spanish family? Why do you think is this way? In Spanish of course! After brainstorming students’ ideas, I give some ideas myself, in Spanish. This is listening in action and modelling! I will speak slowly writing key words on the board. While I do this, for not more than 5 minutes, I frequently stop to check understanding of ideas and vocab. 

3. In another lesson, we start working with a text on the topic. More modelling, focussing on form to move to meaning. I always start with a text from the textbook. Yes! I do use a main textbook for Alevel supported by many other resources, such as newspapers and Youtube original videos! We read the text aloud during lesson time and translate it, word by word, into English analysing vocabulary and verb tenses in the process. This activity normally takes a whole lesson but students learn lots of vocabulary and revise many grammatical rules, especially tenses! I love doing this because students get knowledge of the society, learn vocabulary and go over grammar in one task! A winner! Students are asked to learn the vocabulary for homework. See below for an example of such a text with important verbs highlighted in blue and key vocabulary in yellow.

4. As a follow-up activity, I prepare a second text, in English, which I break up in sentences, based in the vocabulary learned at the previous stage. More modelling and structured production. For this activity I normally use TaskMagic and students use whiteboards. I basically expect them to use the vocabulary discussed and learned at the previous stage. If the group is good, we do this orally. For homework, using the practised vocabulary, they write a 70 word summary of the text. Summarising a text is a skill I tackle from the very beginning, which is one of the tasks they will need to complete in the actual Alevel exam (in the reading and listening sections).

5. We work on a second text, this time through listening. We are lucky to have a language lab but if students bring their own laptops and headphones, you can create a language lab in your own classroom! At this stage I create my own listening exercises, as I do at KS3/4. When I do this I create tasks to practise vocabulary, grammar as well as listening comprehension, with tasks similar to those required in the exam. I always provide students with the transcript. This is important because the listening can then become a reading activity and the text a source of information to get ideas about the studied topic, which students can, later, use to carry out the oral exam. Another reading text with specific vocabulary and grammar concepts is used for homework.

Example of Listening Tasks based on texts on the topic of Family

As linguistic skills start developing in our students, I introduce Youtube videos or short film extracts at this stage.

6. We carry out an official grammar lesson every week, if possible linked to a particular topic. For example on the topic of family we revise the present and imperfect tenses. At this stage of their language learning, grammar lessons are explicit, as I believe students studying a language at Alevel must have a love for linguistics! However, the activities we carry out to practise structures are very similar to those at GCSE: games via snakes and ladders, connect 4, wheel of names and use of mini whiteboards! 

7. Language assistant use

All my students have 6 lessons of Spanish a week plus an oral individual lesson with our language assistant. This lesson is vital as this is an opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge on a particular topic orally! We work very closely with our language assistants so that they have complete access to our course resources/lessons and know what we are covering at all times. This communication is vital. My language assistant does know all the texts I have covered so she knows what content and grammar to expect from the students and will prepare her oral classes accordingly. Students from day one are exposed to texts from which they will get information, which they need to reuse to back up their ideas in an oral scenario.

Our wonderful language assistant, Arancha Lorente, has also created two oral booklets for our students. She bases her oral sessions on the information we share with her in relation to our lessons, but also on the texts and oral bullet points highlighted in her invaluable booklets. Similarly, her compilation of texts taken from many sources: the Level AQA Oxford textbook, newspaper articles etc.. forms the foundation of our teaching!

8. The Lecture-Styled lesson

At this stage, I carry out a Lecture-style listening lesson based on me giving information, supported by a video and/or pictures on a topic. This is the lecturing part of the sequence! Students listen to me and take notes on the ideas/experiences I share. My students love this stage as it is based on story telling structures, a great technique for modelling! I support my lecture with key words on the board and I also use the vocabulary and ideas studied within the different texts in previous stages. This activity prepares students for university too! They listen, take notes and ask questions in Spanish! For homework, students are asked to prepare the oral questions from their oral booklet. To do this, students will use the ideas, vocabulary and grammar practised in all previous lessons within the topic.  

9. After exposure to two or three texts and my lecture style lesson, students will start assimilating ideas about topic of family in Spain, they will know how the family unit was composed in Franco times and how it has changed nowadays and its impacts. At this stage we carry another oral lesson where questions checking understanding on different data on family are practised. These will be based on the content of the texts studied in previous lessons and the oral questions they previously prepared .At this stage we carry out oral games such as Genially in lessons. See example below.  Debates at this final stage also prove to be great! Flipgrid can also be used for students to generate opinions and other students respond to those!

10. The final stage of this model involves exam style questions collated via Exampro! 

When working with texts, apart from translations, summaries and comprehension questions, we work a lot of on fill in the gaps type of activities.  My experience is that students find this type of task particularly difficult in the actual Alevel Exam!

The film/the book and the Individual Research Project

We study a film in Y12, and a book and IRP in Y13. In Y12, students dedicate two lessons per week to the study of the film. Similarly in Y13, students spend three lessosn per week, during two terms studying a literature title. We empower our language assistants with the management of the IRP as they conduct the oral exam in the department, of course, supported, at all stages, by the teachers in the classroom. 

I will explain my approach to literature in another post!

To sum up, the key goal at Alevel is to provide students with ideas through texts which they can use to analyse the target society they are studying while practising exam style questions from day one! 

Tackling Speaking from KS3 to the GCSE Exam!

On this post I am going to concentrate on the wonderful skill of Speaking. Everyone will agree that is the most important skill, together with listening, when we learn a language. You can get away without writing the language, even reading it (long passages anyway) but not without speaking it! 

Most importantly, students measure their language learning success against their oral ability and this tends to be low, which results in poor motivation and very low language uptake beyond GCSE, in the case of the UK. So, although not officially part of the GCSE exam this year, oral skills must not be forgotten in the current climate.

Speaking is perceived as difficult because it requires hours and hours of practice, which we just simply do not have in the curriculum. If we add to the equation a long syllabus content, we have a recipe for disaster, as students end up with cognitive load, meaning that there are not enough opportunities for students’ brains to embed the language and automatise it internally.

What’s the solution?

Creating real life experience opportunities where to use the language is important, as mentioned in two previous posts on the power of culture and the importance of providing extracurricular activities in the MFL curriculum. Similarly, teaching structures for  students to use the language during lesson activities is vital too, including vocabulary to interact with each other: it’s your turn! You are cheating! I do not understand etc.. When you hear students using this language praise them! Make speaking in the target language fun and worth doing it!

Similarly, at the same time, we need to structure and plan speaking tasks, highly linked to listening, in our classroom experience as much as possible, including spontaneity. When doing this, think small! Less is normally more! 

I tend to teach structures via Sentence Builders, I practise these, through listening and orally as much as possible in lessons and move to the next lot of structures: step by step, using retrieving practice in the process. I hardly do reading and writing activities in my lessons (unless they are part of short outbreaks of retrieval practice with mini whiteboards). I leave those tasks for homework. I use my lessons to provide as many listening and speaking opportunities as possible! These are some of my favourite classics!

Oral Battleships

A classic in my lessons. I do it as a listening but, mainly as an oral activity. The idea is simple: I write language on the top row (blue) and the first column (orange), which allows students to create different oral sentence combinations. Students tick 6/7 boxes (ships) and they need to try and guess where their partner’s ticks (ships) are by creating different combinations with the input on the row and column. See the example below.

I love battleships because it can be done at all levels and to practise ANY structure: 

1. Different grammatical persons on the top and different infinitives on the column (like the example above), with the aim to conjugate verbs in a given tense. This can be expanded to say a sentence with the conjugated verb!

1. Sentences in the present on the top row and in the past on the first column, with any other verb tense combinations, so students create sentences using two tenses.

Example here on Present and Past practice on Holidays

2. Nouns on the top and adjectives on the first column, to practise adjective agreement.

Example here with Animals and Colours (second page)

3. Expressions needing subjunctive on the top and verbs in infinitive in the first column which require the formation of the subjunctive.

Example here on Subjunctive and Environmental issues

4. Vincent Everett also proposes to fill in the squares in the Battleships with extra chunks for students to reproduce orally: top row I swim in the sea, side column but I wanted to sunbathe, middle square, because it was more fun. 

The possibilities are endless! To stretch able kids, I always ask students to extend their sentences with something they can think on the spot using high impact expressions, for example.

Information Gap Activities

Any type, any shape of these. Basically, any activity that requires students to get missing information from a partner or partners. Once structures haven been over practised through listening, reading and short, brisk translations, students can start practising the language themselves. This stage is still controlled production as I tend to specify in the activity what I want them to say: different SBs combinations! 

Example of Information gap activity based on questions and exchange of  information

Example of Information gap activity based on filling in an incomplete table, topic of health

My students love these activities because there is a real communicative purpose and they are achievable as they are based on the Sentence Builders practised in previous lessons. They also increase their confidence as I tend to use long paragraphs so there’s a sense of accomplishment.

Stealing Sentences

This idea is taken from the Gianfranco Conti repertoire. It’s uncomplicated and in its simplest form, it allows just reading: I usually display 7 sentences on the board, students choose 4 numbers at random which they write at the back of their books (I don’t give them pieces of papers anymore which they can physically steal because of COVID). Students move around the classroom reading the sentences to people. If the student they speak to has the number of the sentence they are reading, they are entitled to steal it: writing the number in their book, while the other student will have to cross it from their list. The person with most stolen numbers/ sentences wins! 

At a second stage, after10 minutes doing this I present the same sentences with gaps in them:

At a third stage, I show the English translations with the Spanish initials. At this point, students have been working with these sentences for nearly a whole lesson and can just reproduce them by heart! I make the sentences longer or shorter depending on ability!

As a follow up, students write the sentences and create their own ones.

Oral ping-pong

Another Gianfranco Conti classic. This is really a type of information gap activity. Students are given a sheet with a list of sentences in English. The sentences are the same in both cases but student A has the Spanish translation to the first half of the sentences while student B  has the other half. Students take turns, hence the Ping-Pong name, to translate orally the sentences they do not have the translation for.  Partners listen to their opponent and check the accuracy of oral translations using their sheet. If perfect, they award 2 points if there’s a mistake 1 point, more than 1 mistake, no points at all. When mistakes are made, students show the correct answer to their partners, creating really interesting metalinguitic discussions! 

Find someone who

I prepare pairs of cards, examples:

1. Find someone with the same names as you. On cards: María  Fernández, Luisa García. For Y7.

2. Find someone with two digits in their phone number the same as yours. On cards: 44 6422, 44 23 68. For Y7.

3. Find someone who plays this sport. On cards: Juego al fútbol. 

4. Find someone whose sentence combined with yours, makes sense.  Cards: ¿Vas a ir al cine mañana?, Sí, mañana voy a ir al cine porque ponen mi película favorita.  

5. You are spy. You have to find your fellow agent who has the same secret codeword as you. You have to drop this word or phrase (on card) into a normal conversation. Cards: los sábados me gusta desayunar salchichas. For Y11 and Alevel.

Speed Dating

Students are placed in two lines/ or two circles, one inside the other, facing each other. They must have a conversation with the person opposite to them. At the signal from the teacher, often a clap, the children from the outer circle or one of the lines, move towards the left, changing partners. They now perform the conversation again, at a second signal, students move to the left again (from the outer circle or one of the lines) and so and so on. I tend to do this outside, weather permitting! I also give them a list of questions to choose from, or prompts to formulate the questions themselves! Great for all levels but it is a fantastic way to practise the General Conversation questions for the GCSE oral exam. Also, I ask students to answer their questions, say in 3 minutes, but when they change partners to do it in 2 minutes and finally in 1 minute so they develop fluency! 

Dictogloss

This is a great activity that can be used to practise oral or writing skills! I present students with 2 texts, one for student A and one for student B, similar but not the same. Students do have time to read their won text in silence and take notes in English on it, not a literal translation. After 5/10 minutes, depending on the size of the text, students work in pairs: Student A will recreate their text, orally, using the notes they took in English, while student B will listen and will write in Spanish, not literally but the gist, what they understand from their partner! Student B does the same with student A. This activity is great because incorporates reading, listening, writing and speaking at once! Great for fluency! It can be repeated several times, but each time, you can ask students to be faster, hence, work on fluency, adopting the 3,2,1 strategy!

Spider Game

Teacher throws a wool ball to one student and asks a question. This student gets hold of some wool and throws the ball to another student while asking another question, the third student answers the question, keeps some of the wool thread and throws the ball to someone else and asks another question and so on. The idea is that students create a spider web with the wool every time they throw the ball. It is great for generating questions but difficult to carry out in a Covid environment.

Piedra, Papel, Tijera: evolución! (Stone, paper, scissors, evolution) 

I love this activity as it requires minimal preparation! The evolution part I heard it from Rachel Hawes. I put an open question on the board: talk about your holidays. Students play piedra, papel, tijera. Whoever wins needs to talk for a minute in the topic. If successful they move in the evolution chain. They evolve from egg, chick, bird, elephant to superman. Whoever gets to superman first wins! I have used this game with the GCSE photocard: students are given  series of photos and they talk about the photo for one minute when they win. Students can also ask each other questions in the card. 

Dice games in pairs or groups

There are lots of variations to this activity but basically, teacher prepares 6/12 key words on the board attached to numbers 1 to 6 or 2 to 12 if working with two sets of dice. Students work in pairs or groups by throwing the dice and saying a sentence with the key word which corresponds to the number in the dice. On the board, you can have question words, sentences to be translated and extended, key words to develop at Alevel etc... as dice cannot be used at the moment, I am still carrying out the activity using this digital version of dice. I share it with my students and they open the link on their own device: Interactive dice.

Board games

Any board game: snakes and ladders, connect four, trivial etc.. are great ways to practice oral: if students fall in a square they need to translate a sentence from a pack of cards, or create a sentence using a particular word, or create a sentence on a particular topic using a particular high impact expression. These can be in cards. I use these a lot to practise the GCSE general conversation exam. As boards cannot be used at the moment, I am using the interactive board games on Genially or from PowerPoint templates. 

Jenga Same as above but students need to do something before they can remove a piece of Jenga. Unfortunate I haven’t found an interactive version of this game yet!

Oral activities and IT tools

Wheel of names

I talk about this app on a previous post here. In the current climate, I share my Wheel of names activity link with students who can play from their own devices in pairs. This is a hit at the moment in my lessons! There are many activities to do:

1. you can display key words and students need to create a sentence
2. Students need to translate a sentence
3. Students need to create questions
4. Students need to talk for a minute on a given topic

PowerPoint Games

Check these lists of interactive game templates below to practise oral skills as a whole class  or individually! 

PowerPoint game templates

10 more PowerPoint games

Genially

You can use the templates within Genially to generate Boardgames to be played by groups of students together. 

Flipgrid

This is a great app for oral practice. I create a group for each of my classes and then threads on whatever I want them to give a presentation on. I use this at the last stage of the learning cycle: Spontaneity and free output from students! Great to practice the GCSE photocard and General Conversion questions. I love this app because I can create model answers to questions and provide feedback to students based on a predetermined mark scheme. Students can also see each other videos, although you can disable this feature, and learn from each other’s answers and, even better, contribute with an opinion to a certain video. This last option works best with Alevel students! Check Jane Basnett's blog for further ideas using Flipgrid!

Padlet

Great for oral practice too! You can insert a picture and students record themselves describing it and answering to the questions that come with it! As in the case of Flipgrid, this is great for a sharing culture in the classroom as all students can listen to each other’s inputs. Personally, I find that extremely empowering! 

Flippity

I love the Randomizer element of Flippity to practise oral skills. I enter the Sentence Builders in each box and students play the randomizer, and translate the sentences that appear.  As a follow up they must extend the actual sentence or doing the sentence in writing. 

HOW I TACKLE THE GCSE ORAL EXAM

Our department’s philosophy is NOT to teach for the exam but teach a skill which, if learned well, will allow students pass the exam. We do not start teaching exam style questions such as Roleplays and Photocards at KS3. Instead, we put oral skills at the core of our face to face lessons so students become confident speakers from day one in general. At a second stage, we, inevitably, prepare them for the GCSE exam, but not until they are actually doing their GCSE course.

This is the process I follow:

1. Oral activities, like the ones described above, are 100% embedded in all my lessons. Those activities which I have identified as good for GCSE are key to develop the skills the students will later need to tackle the oral exam.

2. After a topic is finished, I plan a couple of oral lessons where I go through Photocards and Roleplays. For this purpose we have an oral booklet with past Roleplays and Photocards to choose from. Activities such as Paper, Stone, Scissors are great for this! Also Flipgrid presentations for homework, where students need to prepare and talk about a photo from their booklet, including the surprise questions is good practice too.

Y10 oral booklet

3. Also for prep, students complete in writing, model answers for potential oral questions which they can use for the General Conversation, also available in their oral booklet.

4. We start a new topic but our oral assistant carries out one to one practice on either the general conversation questions or the photocard/roleplay.

5. I come back to step 1 but I always use retrieval practice to include in my oral/listening activities content from past topics.

6. Every 3 weeks during Y10 I plan oral an oral lesson where students practise the general conversation questions via Board Games or dice games. Our oral assistant keeps working with the students one to one during lessons.

7. In Y11 one lesson every other week is spent doing oral practice in pairs/groups: one lesson Roleplay and Photocard and another lesson just General Conversation questions. 

8. For prep they get to carry out, without help, mini presentations on Flipgrid on a given topic.

Writing model answers to questions for the General Conversation and practising these in pairs or individually via Flipgrid mini presentations is key! Students start reusing the same vocab/structures over and over again. This will not only be good for the oral per se, but also for the writing exam! In Y11 to reinforce this idea, every other week we dedicate a lesson to time writing based on a topic of the syllabus, in exam conditions. 

Finally, we aim to finish all the syllabus by the end of February in Y11. We conduct the oral exams after Easter. Therefore, we have around 7 weeks of teaching where each lesson (3 per week) is dedicated to one skill: oral, listening, writing/translation. Reading is done at home. To do this practice we use exam style questions via Exampro and Photocards, Roleplays from our oral booklet. 

During the oral lesson, at this stage, I, and the oral assistant, work with students one to one while they work in pairs, providing individual feedback.

Finally, the circle closes with extra practice, in pairs, during lunch time and after school. We make these sessions compulsory and I create a timetable where all students, in pairs, are given a 15 minute slot. We start this extra practice in February in Y11 up to their oral exam. 

This last strategy is a luxury, as we may not have time to do so a particular year because of school commitments etc.. but I always try to offer this practice at least a few weeks before the oral exam!

Whatever I do for the GCSE oral exam, the key is to embed oral skills in lessons as much as possible! So during Y10 and, especially Y11, I only need to focus on the actual exam structure not teaching students how to speak. 

Tackling listening from KS3 to the GCSE exam!

On this post I would like to write about some of my favourite listening activities that I keep using year, after year. They are not just my ideas but a compilation of resources from wonderful and generous people on social media, colleagues and friends. These are high impact activities, which, in most cases, I believe require minimal preparation! 

Similarly, I explain how I tackle the teaching of Listening in preparation for the GCSE exam, which is one of the hardest papers!

Listening activities based on Sentence Builders

Listening activities should be an integral part of MFL teaching and learning. Listening opportunities must be present in all language lessons, from simple classroom instructions, to specific well-thought and planned activities aimed to consolidate structures. Listening is great for modelling good pronunciation and avoid the fossilisation of mistakes based on pronunciation. It is also core in the process of acquisition of the second language on its whole! In fact, it is through listening that we learn our mother tongue. In other words, listening tasks involving the teacher should be a first priority when teaching a language which should lead to listening opportunities from the mere use of the language through oral activities among learners.  Some of the teacher-led activities I use to practise listening are:

Dictation

This is a great activity which can be extremely powerful and requires hardly any preparation.  There are different versions of this:

1. Dictation of syllables of single words

2. Dictation of words not syllables, as a second stage

3. Dictation of sentences based on Sentence Builders before requiring students to translate sentences.

4. Dictation of paragraphs

5. Dictation among students in pairs

Partial dictation

This activity is another of my favourites. It is similar to a Dictation but the teacher starts the word and students finish it in writing or orally. Great for phonics! It does not need any preparation and it is great for retrieval practice and adaptable to any topic and level! 

Teacher: Me lla.....

Student write: mo

Delayed Dictation

This is another great activity, inspired by Gianfranco Conti. It is a like a normal dictation but students are not allowed to write what they hear until  after a few seconds (I normally wait 10). This activity helps students memorise words/ sentences, while focusing on phonics and making the link between phonemes and spelling.  It also helps the process of syllables identification in another language, which can be very difficult to spot, specially in Spanish where we use elisions between words and utterances sound like a very long word!

Running Dictation

Students, even at KS4/5 with complex texts, love this activity. Prepare different texts stuck on the wall and divide your class in groups, as many as texts you have, (the text can be the same for all groups). One student in each group remains seated, while the others in the group take turns to run to the text, memorise a section and dictate it to the student sitting on the table, who in turn writes it down. This is a fun way to practice listening, reading and memorisation of key structures. I normally have groups of 3/4 students. The quickest group to write down the text, exactly as the one of the board, wins. You can add a further step in the process: to translate the text into English once this has been completed. Or use the text as a grammar activity by changing it to the past or adding another paragraph in the future!  

For more reflections on dictation, visit Gianfranco's blog here and Steve Smith's blog here

Spot the missing word

This activity, which I originally heard from Gianfranco Conti, consists of preparing a text, remove words from it, without gaps, read the original text and expect students to write the missing word, without knowing where the gaps are. 

Bad Dictation

This activity is similar to the previous one. The teacher prepares a text and reads the text to the students but with subtle differences. Students must listen to the teacher and spot the differences between the written text and what they hear from the teacher. 

Listening Battleships

Another activity of Gianfranco's repertoire! This is another one of my favourites! I present students with a grid similar to the one below, based on the Sentence Builders we are working on.

I read different sentences and students must write the coordinates (A1,B5 etc..). The sentences are very, very similar so students really need to listen for detail. The subtle changes in detail will depend on what I would like to focus on: vocabulary, grammar or phonics!

This activity is great as it leads to playing batteships in pairs orally and then, for homework,  to translate the sentences or a selection of these based on coordinates!  Gianfranco also suggests to play battleships orally making patterns with the difference coordinates, so students listen to their partners and try to sport a shape!

Listening Pyramid

This activity is based on the original Pyramid Translation activity from Gianfranco Conti. The Listening Pyramid idea, I first heard it from @MFLSwavesey in our mfltwitterati Padlet (photo below), where the original Powerpoint can be found under "Other Games". The idea is for the teacher to say increasingly longer sentences, which students write them down. 

Dictogloss

This is a great, multi-skilled activity, which incorporates listening, reading and writing. It can be carried out by the teacher to the whole class and/or in pairs.

1. Teacher reads a paragraph based on the Sentence Builders we are working on.

2. Students listen and write down in, Target Language, key words.

3. Students, in groups or a partner try to reconstruct the text

With students, I like doing this activity with two texts A/B. In pairs, students first work through text A and then text B, which are very similar!

1. Student A reads text A and writes a summary in English. Student B reads text B and writes a summary in English too.

2. Student A, using their notes in English must translate the text into Spanish to their partner who listens and transcribes in target language.

3. Student B completes step 2 with Text B

4. Both students compare their transcription with the original texts.  

As a follow-up activity, students can translate the texts into English or use it as a model to create a similar one in writing or as mini oral presentation.

Parsing Listening Activities

This is another activity I first heard from Gianfranco Conti's. The teacher reads sentences and students need to recognise a grammar pattern in the string of words they hear. Students write down the words containing such grammar pattern, for example, verbs in the past tense, future or subjunctive.  At a low level could be, writing the adjectives or the feminine/masculine nouns. This activity is very powerful to make students think about the structure of the language and hearing for detail, especially if you mix different verb tenses, for example!

Transcribing Listening Activities

Another Zero preparation and high impact activity. The teacher reads sentences and students write them down in English: this process involves high level decoding as students need to decode the sounds of the language into meaning (linking phonemes to semantic form) and then translate these sounds-meanings into English. Give a couple of points for each correct answer and you can spend a whole lesson doing this! 

Oral activities 

Any oral activity you carry out in the lesson will involve listening!  This is great as students can actively practice this skill while carrying oral activities just by writing down key points/ideas on what their partner is telling them.

For more ideas on Listening activities, you can visit Dylan Viñales blog here or use Gianfranco and Steve Smith's book: Breaking the sound barrier, which is dedicated entirely to this skill.

Exploiting the textbook listenings

Formal listening instruction has, traditionally, been rather ignored in the past, which is a big mistake as speaking a language involves 50% listening and it is such a powerful source for modelling. The listening audio files that we get along with text-books are potential gems as language input offering different accent experiences, intonation etc. to that of the teacher.  

However, in my opinion, these listenings have two big flaws: 

1.  the tasks that students are required to do with the oral input,  in most cases is superficial and does not exploit the potential of the listening, in fact activities seem to be a mere test exercise! 

2. the vocabulary on the audiofiles, especially if you do not teach via a specific textbook, may vary significantly from your sentence builders, which may be difficult to comprehend and demotivate students.

Nevertheless, I believe that after practising the specific vocab of Sentence Builders  through listening practice using the activities above, textbook listening materials, if paired up with transcripts and modified on what is required as a task, offer a great opportunity to learn new vocab and grammar in context, while practising listening/reading skills.

That's why I always create my own listening activities based on audiofiles from different textbooks on a given topic, exploiting these to their maximum potential. Below there is an example of a listening lesson to take place in the Language Lab based on the topic of Holidays for a Y10 group, middle set. I ignored the activities from the textbook, far too easy and superficial, and created my own tasks based on the needs of this particular Y10 group. 

These needs will differ from class to class and from a same audiofile, I may create activities focusing on grammatical input requiring listening for detail and lexico-grammar connections, or I just may ask students to write down a general summary of what they hear, ignoring specific detail. The transcripts can then lead to translations, reading activities etc.

Holidays Listenings Y10 

How to create a virtual Language Lab in your classroom!

Technology is great as it allows you to simulate different learning environments. If you do not have access to a Language Lab but you use Onenote in your lessons, this type of activities can also be done in the classroom, in individual laptops, where audio files and specific tasks are  shared/ distributed via Onenote. Using their laptops and headphones, students can access the activities via Onenote while working at their own pace, simulating a Language Lab in your very own classroom.

Similarly, you can share your resources: audio files and worksheets, via your school VLE, Teams (in assignments) or Google Classroom. Students just need to bring their laptops and headphones to lessons and work independently.

Language Lab environments, not only develop listening skills but they also encourage independent learning in students. 

How to tackle GCSE listening preparation

The listening GCSE paper, regardless of board and language, is traditionally one of the hardest papers for students. There are different reasons for this, on one hand I am not convinced that Listening, as such, is taught systematically in many schools and it is just assumed that it will develop naturally as you teach the language, the Cinderella skill as Gianfranco Conti calls it. This tends to occur especially in Spanish and German as they are phonological languages and not so much in French. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the language and type of tasks that students are asked to carry out in GCSE exams can be extremely ambiguous and confusing, making this skill rather difficult to master in these exams! It seems as if the boards want to catch up the students, with too many implied meanings and obscure use of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions.  How to tackle this?

After our Spanish listening results were the worst of the four skills 7/8 years ago, we implemented a plan in the department for KS4: to teach listening explicitly and dedicate at least a lesson every two weeks to it exclusively, while still practising it to some extent in all lessons. This is our routine, which has resulted in the Listening being,now, the highest scored skill in the GCSE exam:

1. We carry out simple and short listening activities during lessons based on Sentence Builders, like the activities explained above (delayed dictation, dictogloss etc..)

2. In the Language Lab we dedicate a lesson or two to carry out text book listenings previously modified by me to make tasks more meaningful from the point of view of grammar, vocabulary or phonetics, as I explain above. At this stage, having the transcript is vital! Students are trained to cover the transcript, where possible but to use it while listening to the audio file if they need to. The idea is that students are not tested but they learn from the text and train their ear to the string of foreign sounds!

3. While carrying out step 2, students highlight new vocabulary in the transcripts and add it to a personal Random Vocab Quizlet and learn it for homework.

4. Students repeat steps 1 and 2 in other lessons.

5. Once the studied topic is fully covered and students have carried out multiple listening activities from the teacher and textbooks (we use Viva, Mola and Oxford for AQA listenings), students get exposed to exam style questions from past papers on the studied topic. 

To do this, we use Exampro, which is brilliant!  

Exampro is worth every penny and it allows you to create activities based on past paper questions on any skill. In the case of listening, you can download the audiofile for each activity and the transcript, together with the mark scheme. 

At this stage, we carry out the Exampro activities in the classroom first. We listen while reading the transcript. We read the question, analyse the question and reflect on the difficulty for that particular question, so that students get exposed to the type of thinking they will need to face in the exam. This way we develop exam technique! During this process, students highlight new vocabulary and add it to their personal Quizlet as before.

6. In the Language Lab, students work on the same Exampro questions, again. This time they are encouraged not to use the transcript while working at their own pace.

7. Every so often, we use This is Language. This website is pricey but very good to develop listening skills: students carry out listening activities on line based on videos on the different GCSE topics. They get points and compete against each other. 

This sequence works! When repeated, over and over again with each topic, students start improving their listening skills considerably. To incorporate retrieval practice to this structure, when carrying the different stages, I always include vocabulary from past topics. 

I have seen many lessons where students carry out just textbook listenings, and only exam style questions when formally tested, without reflecting on how to tackle the actual task/question in the exam.  In many cases the gap between the textbook listenings and those appearing on exam is far too wide and if the exam technique has not been taught systematically well, only the higher attainers can narrow such a gap, which can lead to frustration and a sense of inadequacy in weaker students.

I do not believe in the way the listening GCSE exam is tested BUT it is what students will need to face on the day and we need to teach them to tackle this.