Spinning the plates: Responsive and Adaptive teaching

I have not been posting recently, as I have been busy moving to Oxford. As I am having a Christmas break, I thought I would write something on how adaptive and responsive teaching looks like in the real classroom. The idea of differentiating by multiple tasks being used in the classroom at once, is long considered obsolete as it is time consuming and so difficult to implement successfully! Instead, we talk about adaptive/responsive teaching embedded in a culture of anchoring in challenge and providing scaffolds.

Anchoring in challenge, a term used by Shaun Allison and Andy Tharby in their book Making every lesson count, is well rooted in my teaching philosophy:  having high expectations for ALL students and pitching high, getting them ready for their best performance ever and making them believe that they can aspire to and achieve their personal best. As we pitch high, we provide the foundations for a I can attitude and we scaffold activities to support students to reach the same final goal.  To achieve this, sentence builders, underpinned by a lexicogrammar approach is key, as all students have got the ingredients to communicate and become fluent at the highest level, while providing a clear scaffolded structure to reach spontaneity. 

Adaptive teaching is about planning high ability core activities that are scaffolded by us, in response to our students’ answers, skilfully, through checking for understanding techniques, to cater for all abilities. It’s like a lift, that we elevate, when necessary, to stretch all students, or take down, to reinforce misconceptions from some students and to provide scaffolds for some, in order to immediately go up again, to stretch students straight away. 

How is this done in practice? 

Modelling stage

Through dictation activities where we move from dictating very short sentences to longer ones, using MWBs, to constantly check for understanding and react appropriately. In this type of activities, varying the speed of the utterances is also key to adapt input to the students’ demands: 

I start saying sentences very slowly, increasing the speed and the length of the utterance, as the activity progresses, to move back to a slower speed, again, if some students cannot cope well and go back to being faster again. We may need just a lesson for modelling but we may need two or even three if that is what our students need: Responsive teaching.

Modelling activities  are also great opportunities to check for understanding and identifying gaps in knowledge. I, personally, do this via grammar dictation, which is a normal dictation but with deliberate grammatical mistakes of stubborn, classical errors which students must spot themselves or via our skilful questioning: 

Is this sentence correct? Why? What would  be the correct way? Let’s revise adjective agreement! Can you give me examples of this rule applied correctly? 

For a wide range of modelling activities visit this blogpost. 

Scaffolded production 

At this stage, students must start producing the language themselves via structured and scaffolded practice. A this level, checking for understanding and carrying out responsive teaching, may be trickier as, we stop using MWBs and students start working in pairs or move around the room. It is imperative for the teacher to keep moving constantly to spot errors, making a mental note of these for a subsequent whole class feedback task, after an activity, or just to give advice and encourage students individually, as they carry out the activities in the lesson: 

That was a great answer, well done! How could you make it even better by adding the past tense? Or You are doing extremely well, can you include some content from the past topics we studied? Or, That was a great answer but a little bit short, can you have a look at your sentence builder to make sure you extend your answer?

When common mistakes and issues are spotted, we adapt our teaching to address these:

Students may need more practice of the learned structures as a whole class, either orally or with MWB, using a Wheel of Names or a Flippity task, where they need to translate sentences practising key structures, from English into the target language. When this is done, scaffolded and responsive teaching is also key. For example, for those who have finished translating a sentence, while others keep going: 

That’s great, could you add some more information on the spot using the future/past/imperfect tense? Or Can you write a list of alternative things you could have used instead of the shown translation? (Outformation/metacognition). For a wide range of activities to be carried out at this stage, visit this blogpost. 

Grammar

Some grammar will be learned, implicitly, within the modelling and structured/scaffolded stages. However, given the constraints of curriculum time, explicit grammar needs to be learned to make sure that students can manipulate the language and start moving away from the sentence builders. 

My experience is that an inductive approach to grammar works best, which also allows for checking for understanding and adapt teaching accordingly: 

Can students work out a specific grammatical rule after extensive use of sentence builders and narrow readings/listenings? Can they discuss this rule in pairs? Can we all explain the rule explicitly? Can we contrast our knowledge of past grammatical rules with this new rule? ( for example the formation of the present and the past tense?) 

After rules have been established, students need to apply the rules, using the same activities used in the structured production stage, but now, moving away from the sentence builder by changing the person who does the action and using different vocabulary from that on the sentence builder. The idea is to work with the grammatical structure in context (lexicogrammar) and in sentences, not just in isolation with new examples. Wheel of Names, Boardgames, Battleships or Flippity (randomiser), work extremely well to practise grammatical rules. 

As before, we do so as a whole class activity using MWBs, encouraging, supporting and stretching students as we carry out different activities: 

Great answer! Could you write this verb/sentence in the future too? Can you read your sentence and spot any mistakes? Where? Adapt your teaching according to the information you gather from the students: Do you need further lessons embedding grammar practice with scaffolded production tasks? If so, which activities are you going to use?

Reaching Fluency and Creativity 

At this stage, the idea is to work, entirely from memory and under time restrictions. Students tend to work independently, so moving around to spot errors is now more important than ever! This is what I call spinning the plates! We move around, we spot errors but also excellent use of the language: we showcase the latter; we engage students in deep thinking about what they know well and expect them to demonstrate this knowledge through meaningful independent output. Students set themselves targets based on this and where gaps are noticed, we reteach, remodel, practise again and again. Speed Dating, group talk or the 1,2,3 technique work brilliantly here. The important thing is to listen to the output produced by the students and to respond to it!

The beauty of the process is that not specific worksheets are needed, all is managed via our skilled questions and observation of the classroom and students' answers. It is teaching skill at its best. 

5 Magic Powers for GCSE productivity and high grades

As a new GCSE is coming home soon, I am still thinking about the current one and what to do to make sure that students can and will manipulate the language, while scoring the highest grades in the productive skills of Writing and Speaking in the GCSE exam. 

In other words, how can we make sure that students use the vocabulary and structures they know to express opinions on any topic, spontaneously and fluently?  Uhmmm that's what the new GCSE is trying to sort out! I believe the current GCSE, already does that, but anyway... 

These are the techniques we use as from Y7, the beginning of the learning journey, to make sure students become spontaneous with the language and get the highest grades at GCSE in the process, a default nice outcome!

To do so, we introduce  5 magic powers as early as possible, from Y7, little by little!

The 5 magic powers, based on the GCSE AQA Mark Scheme, are:

1. Using more than one tense
2. Giving opinions
3. Giving reasons 
4. Reported Speech
5. High impact expressions and Idioms

These powers are practised inside out, via retrieval practice, throughout KS3 so, when students start the official GCSE course in Y10, they are a second nature to them! 

Then as from Y10, the GCSE specific topic vocabulary is taught, but always subordinated to these 5 magic powers, whose use is needed to score the highest grade in Writing/Speaking at GCSE. Topical vocabulary is constantly revisited via Retrieval Practice and our Sentence Builders. We also work hard to make sure that as much vocabulary as possible from the different topics is recycled in new ones. This is a necessity to tackle the Writing Task 2 in the Higher Paper or the Translation exercise.

As a department, we decide the language we are going to include for each magic power, which will be used, over and over again, throughout the learning journey, by the teachers and students alike: via modelling listening and reading activities and structured practice, creative and, finally, fluency tasks, following a lexicogrammar approach to teaching and learning languages.

We also use the following strategies:

Planning Writing Frames

We use these when students attempt any writing task as from Y10. 

Remember that most of the expressions in the Magic Powers, have already been introduced and fully practised as from Y7! so now we have two more years to make sure these powers are even more embedded with the new GCSE topical vocabulary, which we simplify for the Writing and Speaking exams in our GCSE AQA Sentence Builder Booklet. 

Self-Evaluation and Marking Frames

To develop independence and metacognition in our students, we also try to develop evaluating skills in our learners. For that, once they have produced a written task, they will also use the following Green Sheet/Card to proof-read their work. 

It is very similar to the Planning Writing Frame, but the green card is meant to be a checking point  for the students to notice and avoid careless mistakes, all taken from the AQA mark scheme. Students are welcome to tick the boxes they think they have covered well. Students will get this card and their planning time frame, with every piece of writing they have to produce.

Teachers also use the green card to mark students' work. This saves lot of time for us and it makes it clear to the students what the expectations from the exam and the teachers are. We highlight in green what was great in a given piece of writing, and in pink what could be improved, according to the check list in the card, with a general comment, if applicable, written in the card. The good news is that most of the time this is not needed! 

We also tick the boxes, with a green pen, to make it visually clear, what students did include and could have included!  When a piece of writing is given back to students, they have some reflection time to look at their green card and make improvements, where applicable, while they have the opportunity to ask a friend or teacher if unsure about something. 

These 5 magical powers are reinstated in oral activities too! 

To develop automaticity, spontaneity and fluency, we use Flippity, with potential questions and expressions from this 5 magic powers. We don't want students to learn by heart answers, but, instead, to try to answer these questions with bits they can retrieve spontaneously, using the magic powers column. The answers will be different every time they practise the questions, although, some nice phrases will be learned for specific questions and this is fine! 

Of course, these 5 magic powers are practised via many other activities all the time! and of course, there has been a lot of thinking, as a department, about what expressions/ structures to teach as from Y7 to maximise the students' grades, for example, teaching SUELO + infinitive or Me gustaría que mi madre tuviera. Then in Y8 students will say Me gustaría que mi casa tuviera.

The approach, supported by our Sentence Builders and our repertoire of activities works!

Practising Exam skills at A Level with Wheel of Names

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about A Level teaching. There are so many activities and ideas to help us teach languages from KS3 to GCSE, but hardly anything for A Level teaching. In the case of Spanish, I have always loved Neil Jones' Blog, Ollie's Boletín and the weekly news from Fiona's A Level news, which have always inspired me with ideas and resources fo which I am extremely grateful!

In this short post I want to exemplify how gamification can successfully and easily take place at A Level too, to practise those elements of the A Level exam which are vital to score the highest grades. For AQA, these are the six skills that students need to have command of:

• Listening for key information / summarising texts from audio input
• Reading for key information / summarising texts from written input
• Accurate translation skills = Command of application of grammar
• Essay writing skills: analytical and critical skills + vocabulary + accurate application of grammar
• Knowledge of culture and society to be applied to the essay and oral exam
• Oral skills: Fluency + development of ideas + knowledge of culture and society + vocabulary + accurate application of grammar + analytical and critical skills

Most of these skills can be practised with simple, interactive, fun games.

I use Wheel of Names (Yes! my favourite app!) to develop oral follow-up ideas, containing analytical thinking in my students, orally, or in writing, to start with, using MWBs in a competition format between two teams. The questions in the wheel have been taken from several Stimulus Cards from AQA past exams. When a question pops up, a student in the correspondent team needs to answer such question, backing up their ideas with specific examples (data, facts, events) showing their knowledge of Spanish society. Students need to answer on the spot, developing fluency. 

The same technique can be used with a proper Stimulus card. In this case, students need to respond to the information in the stimulus card, giving a critical opinion and making sure they make reference to all the information printed in the card. This is an essential skill to have if students want to score marks from the top band in the exam. Again, giving an element of competition between a team A/B works well after doing work with the whole class with MWBs: How do you react to this information?

The same principle can be used to practise reading summarising skills in a fun way as an activity embedded in our lessons:

Finally, the same technique can be used to practise essay skills for the writing paper. In this case, a question comes up and students, in MWBs or in paper, write a paragraph answering the question in relation to a text or book. They must do so, giving evidence to prove a point and explaining how this evidence proves such point, another essential element to score high marks in the A Level essay. After writing their paragraphs they exchange it with a partner and mark each other's. Where does the paragraph fall within the mark schemes bands, why? Alternatively, students can work in pairs and write a paragraph collaboratively.

Finally, Wheel of Names is perfect to carry out simple games with translation or grammar!

These little games are not only great way to embed exam skills practice in lessons, but they are also a great way for students to use on their own to revise for their exams as part of a revision schedule. They work great to be used with a language assistant if you are lucky to have one. After working with them as a whole class competition, I share the URL with my students and they work in pairs, orally.

I know I use Wheel of Names a lot, but, isn't it a versatile, easy to use and above all GREAT tool to be used even at A Level?

Ideas for European Day of Languages

The European Day of languages is on Monday 26th September.  This is a fantastic opportunity to raise the profile of languages in your school!  Over the internet, especially on Facebook, I have read wonderful ideas and schools who are planning a full timetable of activities for the day or even the week!  Amazing!

This is a very short post for those who have not planned activities in advance and want something quick to do on the day! 

Some short Youtube Videos to show with your students or in a short assembly: 

A simple video from Birmingham University about the benefits of learning languages

A funny video on learning languages  with GoldFish Kitty! Very old but always a winner!

A video by David Binns, UK Sanako representative talking to students about his experience with learning languages and how it had an impact on his career!

A video from Naziha de Londres for MFL departments on the careers that can be pursued with languages. Click here. I love this video to share with parents and students via a QR code and also to display in your department corridor! 

These are 5 activities that require very little preparation and have a great impact to celebrate the European Day of Languages: 

A European Theme Baking competition throughout the school.  Easy to set up and you will only need a place to keep all the cakes!  Involve the community by inviting your school kitchen staff to judge which is the best cake! Give prizes to the students. Take lots of pictures and showcase them around the MFL block/corridor!

A European T-shirt Logo competition. We did this with our Y9 students last year and it was a great success!  Students in Y9 designed a logo to showcase the importance of learning a language. The did this by hand and/or digitally. The MFL department staff chose the best logos, 5 in total, and we made them into t-shirts!!!  The Logo was due on the day of the European Day of Languages but we showed the t-shirts in an assembly later in the year with an Amazon voucher.  Vistaprint was great to have our t-shirts printed! 

A Languages Lunch on the day. We invited students in Y10/11/12/13 to take part in a Language lunch. Students spoke in French, German and Spanish only and we prepared traditional food for the day. Our Alevel students led the conversations with the younger students.

Cooking a traditional dish in school on the day. This a great cross-curricular activity with the Food tech department!  We have cooked paella and crepes in the past!

A Break Time Photo Booth with prompts about how great it is to learn languages. This can be run by Y11s or Language Leaders if you have them.  Easy to set up. KS3 students can create the prompts in lessons and the older students take the photos with a school device.  This will make a wonderful display!

If you want some Quizes or activities, sonríe in Spanish have created the following free resources to be used in the classroom or adapted. 

How to set up the foundations for a great MFL Year!

I am aware the new term started last week or even earlier in the case of Scotland, however, I thought I would write about my 6 best tips to make sure that we set up the best foundation for a very successful MFL teaching and learning experience at any Key Stage and level!

These are the elements I always dedicate time to think about when planning my lessons. As I have mentioned on my posts before, I never think of lessons as individual units but a string of little units to get my students to be fluent with the language. 

Anchoring in Challenge 

I always like anchoring in challenge! It doesn't matter the level, the ability or the key stage. I always have high expectations for all my students and I pitch high, then, I provide scaffolding strategies, Sentence Builders are a brilliant tool for this, to support those who may need the extra practice to get to my expectations.  

This is something I always make clear during my first lesson: everyone here can learn a language well and that is my expectation. I will give you all the ingredients to be successful but, you will need to commit. I believe in you but you need to believe in yourselves.  

I write extensively on how to stretch ALL attainer level students in this post and on this one I explore how to reach those lower attainer students.

To make the message clear, I started creating these amateur videos, one for KS3 and another for KS4, inspired by Danielle Warren. In them, I demonstrate the ingredients to be successful, as a recipe, and what I expect from my students:

Both videos focus on how to use our exercise book, for us OneNote, how to use our Sentence Builders and the independent work I will expect my students to carry out, guided by me, via Memrise, Quizlet, the Sentencebuilders site or the The Language Gym. These are my non negotiables!  The videos are also shared with parents so they will know how to support their child with their language learning journey. 

How to be successful at KS3 video

How to be successful at KS4 video

The Power of Praise!

I am of the belief that there cannot be too much praise for anyone. Once the students have clear expectations and are guided nicely on how to navigate throughout the different success ingredients set up in our video, it is important to praise them when they do this successfully, independently and willingly. This must be the case even when things are not perfect but there has been a clear attempt at doing something. There are different ways to do so, via Merits, Alphas etc.. but a big winner for me has been the use of Scratching Cards with my Bitmoji!

I got the idea from a lovely person from Face Book but I cannot remember her name, apologies!  This is the template.  The only thing needed is to print out the template, cut the cards and stick a scratch sticker, bought in Amazon for around £3 on top of the prize statement.  My students, even the most reluctant, die for these cards! I give them around for good answers, behaviour etc..  

Listening for Learning

This is a must I always contemplate in my planning, which is embedded in the notion that we acquire language via what we listen and read (input), following a lexicogrammar/EPI approach inspired by Gianfranco Conti. This means I must carefully plan listening tasks NOT as testing opportunities but as learning activities, which will allow students to internally process the Sentence Builders with the lexical material and grammar (together not separated)  and be transferred in students' long term memory so that they, at some point in the language learning journey,  are able to put it into practice via output tasks.

In this popular post I extensively write about my favourite listening for learning activities at all Key Stages

Gamification = Purpose

This is a must in all my lessons. Second language acquisition research such as that explained by Florencia Henshaw in her latest book Common Ground, advocates for the use of tasks in the MFL classroom. 

As Steve Smith clearly states in a post today, a task is an activity which primary focus is meaning, not a linguistic form; an information gap somehow, is needed, so there's a purpose to communicate; there's a clear goal to be achieved and students must use existing embedded language, as well as new one throughout the task material.  Games are, therefore, by definition, tasks, and make the language purposeful and fun to learn as controlled and/or creative output activities and I plan them carefully in my lessons.

By game I understand any information gap task and this can take place from day one of the language learning journey: 

In a first lesson learning to say what your name is in a target language, students work in pairs. I give them a card A and a card B with names and gaps in them so that students need to ask each other "What is your name?" and complete the names they have missing in their card. The missing names in card A are in card B and vice versa.  

For ideas on my favourite games, have a look at this Blogpost on gamification.

Structure

Thinking about the structure of the lessons and a sequence of lessons is vital. It is what I call thinking backwards: 

I have in mind a text/ content on a given topic that I want students to master/be fluent in by the end of a unit and I think backwards on what tasks I will need to devise to get them there, using a lexicogrammar approach, from Modelling the language to Fluency. What tasks I will need to model the language (listening for learning via input tasks), how I will check for understanding and what meaningful tasks I will devise for structured output and finally for creative/fluent activities.

On this post I exemplify this structure in a KS4 case study.

On this post I write how to plan from Modelling to Fluency

The cultural dimension

This is very important to me. How can we embed a cultural dimension to our lessons taking into account that students will have limited access to the language while avoiding the use of Google Translate?  How to do this in a time restricted curriculum? This goal can be achieved with simple cultural elements planned along the way, embedded in lessons, but also, via cultural topics being taught in our curriculum

On this post I write how we can incorporate culture via the use of Sentence Builders 

On this post I exemplify this notion via the film Coco

On this post I exemplify how to anchor in challenge with a cultural twist via Encanto

These six elements are my foundation and the ingredients for a successful MFL year! I am looking forward to reading your comments!

Games using buzzers

A few days ago, I wrote a post on gamification.  This reminded me of how I use buzzers in my lessons. We have a set of buzzers in the department, which we bought in Amazon.  See link here for an offer on Amazon. 

Below you can find  6 buzzing activities I tend to use. They could certainly be carried out without Buzzers but there's no doubt that using the buzzers adds an element of fun!  If you use them differently, please, comment below:

Odd one out with buzzers

I show different sets of sentences on the board. On each set, some sentences are correct and there's at least one sentence with mistakes. Students work in pairs. Each pair has a buzzer. I give some thinking time to discuss the sentences etc.. and after that time, students push the buzzer. The pair pushing the buzzer the fastest, who are able to identify one of the wrong sentences, explain why it is wrong and give the correct answer, will get a point. I keep a simple tally on the board. As a follow up activity, students translate the correct sentences and create some new ones with their partners, using MWBs (Mini Whiteboards).

Buzzed Gapped Dictation

This is a simple activity, only requiring a buzzer to spicy up a classic activity. I dictate a text to the students, which they write in MWBs or their books. Every so often, I press the buzz. When this happens, students need to write a word that makes sense in the given context of the text to replace the buzz. I then continue reading my text. This is a fun way to practise common collocations! At the end of the activity, we look at the different options that students wrote for each buzzed gap and discuss which ones are correct, incorrect and why when that is the case. 

Buzz the expression

Another classic activity which I carry out with buzzers.  I tend to do this especially in Y7. I read a text to students and pupils need to buzz every time they listen to a particular tense, high impact expression, sound etc.. Students play in pairs, so we don't need as many buzzers! This is great for phonics activities. Instead of a text, I sometimes read sentences, words etc.. based on past topics/ sentence builders.  It is also great to revise past topics vocabulary: buzz every time you hear an expression on the environment, free time, high impact expression, etc..

Buzz the answers

This is a the classic quiz game! I say sentences in the target language practising a particular sentence builder or past ones, I give thinking time and then students, in pairs, press their buzzer to translate the sentences into English.  This is a great fun listening activity! 

Buzzer race

For this one, I divide the class in teams of 4 and students stand up in 4 rows. At the front of each row, there's a buzzer (you only need 4). I ask questions or say a sentence in the target language or in English, or key chunks. The first person on each row listens to my question and presses the buzz if they know the answer, the quickest one from each row, if they are correct, gest a point for their row/team. Students in their row are allowed to help the student on the front by whispering information. Once the first student plays they return at the back of the row/queue  and 4 new players are faced with a new question. 

Beat the timer

I use this activity in conjunction with Flippity. I show words on the board from Flippity, in the target language or English, students, working in pairs, are given time (40 seconds), using the Flippity timer, and must write a long sentence, at least 8 words, including the word/expression showing in the Flippity activity. Once they finish, students press their buzzer.  The idea is for each pair to write their sentence under 40 seconds, beating the timer and being the first ones to do so!  They get a point if that is the case and their sentence is correct.  You can make the activity more challenging by asking students to include two expressions or more!

Gamification in the MFL classroom: My favourite games at each learning stage

 We are finally on holidays and as we unwind after a hectic academic year, in this heatwave, I would like to share my favourite games in the classroom. I believe in gamification as it is a quick way to motivate students at all different stages of learning. My experience is that adding a game/competition element to any activity works wonders with ALL learners.  

The key is to carefully plan gamification and not to fall into the fallacy of carrying out games just in order to have fun, but to think of gamification as a methodical and planned strategy at all stages of the learning journey to increase motivation and, therefore, to support learning. 

These are some of my favourite games at each stage of the learning journey, following a lexicogrammar approach to teach MFL. 

Modelling games

Dictation with mistakes

Dictation is key in my teaching/learning routine and this is a classic! I dictate a text, based on a given sentence builder, interleaving material from past ones, with deliberate grammatical or phonetic mistakes. Students carry out the dictation and then, in pairs, highlight where the mistakes were and correct them.  They get a point for each spotted mistake and two extra points if they correct them correctly. I keep a tally on the board with the points of all teams. I give thinking time after the dictation for students to discuss with their partners the text.

Read, stop and finish the sentence

For this easy game, students work against a partner. I read a sentence, stop mid way and students finish the sentence with something that makes sense, in their mini whiteboards (MWBs)!  This is great for collocations.  The fastest student in the pair to do so, gets a point. To make it more fun, I also finish the sentence on my own MWB. If their finished bit coincides with mine, El Gordo, they get two extra points!  The person in the pair who ends up with more points wins. 

Random Dictation

I dictate random sentences, from our current Sentence Builder and past ones (interleaving). After students write down the sentences in MWBs, in pairs, they must put the sentences in a paragraph that makes sense. I do this under time conditions. The pair or pairs who finish the earliest are the winners. I love this activity because it allows me to provide good models of potential pieces of writing and at a second stage, students translate their paragraphs, analyse the text and even better, improve it! 

Fireball

I took this idea from Simona Gravina. It is a great way to gamify cold calling in the classroom. The idea is to have a soft toy or ball which is on fire! I pass it to a student, who I choose, so no way to get out of it, and students just need to repeat the sentence/ chunk I say, translate a sentence into TL or English, or answer a question from a given topic (great for GCSE oral practice). This is a great activity for retrieval practice as a starter/ plenary activity. Students get a point when hit by the fireball, so they want to be asked and hit! Students can pass the ball to me or to another student, which will allow them to be teachers!  I tend to allow students to pass the ball to another student so they practise asking questions. 

Structured Practice Games

Jenga

I love this game! In our department, we have lots of Jengas (they are cheap on Amazon and a great investment) and a giant one to play outside with a whole class divided in two teams. In the classroom, students play in pairs with their own set. They are given a series of sentences in English. Before having a go at the Jenga tower, they need to translate one of these sentences, which recycle the Sentence Builder we are working on.

I personally play this game with a wheel of names which students have in their laptops. They love it!  Instead of sentences, you can have vocabulary for students to put in a sentence or a verb they must conjugate in a given tense and then put in a sentence. It can be adapted to anything!

Connect 4

I play this exactly in the same way as Jenga but with a digital version from Genially, which students display on a computer between pairs. We also have a giant physical Connect 4 game which we carry out outside when the weather allows it! If you are not keen on Genially, you can also use a PowerPoint template game. 

For a wide range of PPT game templates, use this link.

Or this one for 10 more templates.

Wheel of names/Spinner Wheel

You all know how much I love Wheel of names  or Spinner Wheel (same as Wheel of names but you are allowed up to 8 wheels in one screen). I use them as a whole class task, giving individual points when sentences are translated or verbs conjugated, but also, my students use them in pairs, using OneNote, as I share the link with them and play Piedra, papel, tijera (Stone, paper and scissors) each time they spin the wheel. 

Example of Spinner Wheel here

I love the wheels because they can be updated to GCSE questions, grammatical items, vocabulary etc.. 

Battleships

I have to include this game as it works for me each time I use it!  I use Battleships in the Modelling stage too, as a listening activity, have a look at this past blogpost here, but mainly at this stage of learning. Students play in pairs. I create a Battleships worksheet, see below. Students choose 7/8 boxes and tick them at random. The aim of the game is to try to find out where the ticks (ships) of their partner are,  by creating sentences according to certain coordinates. I love this game, because it can be used at any level with simple or more complex language. The beauty of it is that it can lead to a homework task, where students are asked to write down 20 sentences from their battleships before embarking on their own creative writing. 

Fluency Games

Any of the games from the Structured Practice stage, can be used at this stage but giving a time constriction, 30 seconds, 20 seconds etc.. to promote Fluency. Having said that, these are my favourite games at this stage.

Dice Games

Super simple! Students work in pairs and I display numbered questions on the board: 6 if using a dice, from 2 to 12 if using two dice or from 3 to 18 if using 3 dice. Students roll the dice and answer the question linked to that specific number, under 20 seconds, which their partner times. I combine this with a Jenga game or Connect 4 game.

Spider Game

This is a great game for the last stage of learning! I get a cheap wool ball, which I throw at a pupil while I place a question. The student answers the question, under time constriction, holds a piece of string from the wool and throws the ball at some else while posing a new question. The second student, gets hold of the wool thread and throws the ball at someone else, while keeping hold of the thread, and so on. We practise this game outside, if possible, while everyone sits down in a circle. The result? a Spiderweb formed with the wool string that each student holds! 

Speed Dating

Another favourite! For this game I take everyone outside the classroom, in the corridor and divide the class into two rows, facing each other. I clap my hands and students, facing each other, must ask each other a set of questions, which we have extensively practised inside the classroom. I gave them 1 minute to ask each other and I clap again. Students on the right stay where they are but students on the left, move a space facing a new person. This is a fun, simple way to practise questions and answers. 

Piñata Game

This is a another Genially game, which I adapted from Marie Allirot. We play it as a whole class which is divided in two teams. Someone from each team, which I nominate (cold calling) must answer a question spontaneously. I also allow students in their team to improve the answer! 

That student chooses a number from the board, which will reveal points for their team, negative points, a robber taking all points or the arrows showing an exchange of points between teams. I keep a tally on the board. Students absolutely love it!!!! I can adapt it to any questions and levels and it requires zero preparation. 

Finally, sites such as The Language Gym, LearningApps, WordWall, Blooket, Quizziz, DeckToys, Textivate or Sentence Builders are great game tools, especially as these sites allow you to  generate your own tasks based on your own vocabulary and structures. 

Embedded grammar: The Eureka Effect!

As you probably know, I have been working with the talented Dr Gianfranco Conti and Dylan Viñales on a new Spanish Grammar book aimed at foundation level, underpinned by EPI methodology and a lexicogrammar approach to teaching MFL. The book is called  Spanish Verb Pivots, title which reflects the core of the EPI methodology and which, Gianfranco has explained really well in social media and in the book itself. 

I thoroughly enjoyed co-writing this book with such gifted practitioners but what I enjoyed the most was the opportunity to implement in a systematic way, how I have been approaching grammar in my lessons for years. 

I don’t teach grammar in isolation, I did at some point, and I quickly realised it was useless, as practising a set of rules over and over again could lead to excellent choral conjugation of verb paradigms but made no difference in reaching  fluency, hence leading to frustration! 

Instead, I soon realised that grammar should be taught embedded in the lexicon we teach via chunks. For that I use my own sentence builders. We practise those chunks constantly during lessons, we analyse patterns, I plant the seed, quoting Dr Conti, on grammar to come, students become fluent on a particular topic, and then, only then, I teach grammar explicitly. At that point grammar becomes a dejá vu feeling and most likely to be automatised. 

Grammar is embedded in the language, so let’s deconstruct it, yes, but only once students have internalised target structures/vocab, so that they can develop creativity. 

An example: The past tense in Y8

This is how I teach the topic of holidays in the past in Y8, always after having learned to talk about holidays in the present, which will lead to the learning of the Past tense in Spanish.

Modelling stage

At this stage I introduce the following Sentence Builder via choral repetition and showing the Spanish written graphemes and the English, so there's no confusion whatsoever on what structures mean! Thinking about the new GCSE, this Sentence Builder, already incorporates High Frequency words: such as the verbs intentar and encontrar. The Sentence Builder aims for students to learnn the I form of the past tense, including irregular verbs and be fluent with them.

We carry out lots of modelling activities as outlined in this blogpost here. At this stage I work mainly with MWBs to check for understanding. I also allow students to have their Sentence Builders with them: scaffolding. Lots of input activities take place throughout the Modelling stage, which will last a couple of lessons. 

By the way, I only teach, depending on ability, a row at a time in the Sentence Builder above. For example, I would not teach opinions and reasons, at the same time as all those verbs in the Past Tense to avoid cognitive overload.  

Similarly, when doing listening/translations/dictations, I always make sure I interleave past structures and vocabulary: embedded retrieval practice! This stage finishes with the explicit learning of the chunks for a spelling test. Quizlet, Memrise and even better, the Sentence Builder site are great tools to assist students in this learning, which I do as homework tasks.

Structured Practice Stage

Following the MARS EARS approach to lexicogrammar teaching, after 2 modelling lessons per row, I would expect students to start producing some sentences with guidance. I always do this as a whole class to start with with MWBs and orally. 

Digital tools are great at this stage, such as Flippity, Wheel of names, or Sentence Builsders site, as well as some old classics, like any Battleships, Oral Ping-Pong, pyramid translations, board games or just any information gap activity! Have a look at this blogpost for ideas. 

At this stage, we can start looking at grammatical patterns in the sentence builders! Homework tasks may include more extensive reading, as well as guided written practice: tangled translations for example. In this blogpost I give some ideas on how to revamp and maximise the digital activities we use in lessons as homework tasks, saving lots of time. 

Fluency stage

The hardest stage! Which, paradoxically, seems to be ignored. This will take three/four lessons and it is similar to the previous stage but I expect students to come up with their own answers to specific questions under time constrictions! 

Speed dating, stealing sentences with initials, board games with questions or the beginning of a sentence, flippity with a question and a expression to be used in the answer are some of my favourite activities here! A summary of the activities at each stage can be seen below:

Somewhere in the fluency stage I teach grammar! 

Inductive grammar: The Eureka Effect!

As students have had so much practice with the structures I want them to learn, I expect my pupils to work out the rule of the past tense for all persons from a text that we analyse. Remember, they already know the present and the I form of the past tense extremely well! This is the Eureka effect of this approach!

Students work in pairs to come up with a rule, we check it, we agree on it and then I explain it, explicitly, again. They take notes and then, as if it was a sentence builder, I follow the same process of modelling, structured practice, fluency tasks, again but referring to Grammar. 

Modelling Grammar

This involves carrying out the same tasks done at the Modelling Stage, when learning our sentence builder,  but now using the we, he/she, you, they persons of the past tense: dictations, reading activities, listening tasks, translations. At this stage a homework task will involve to learn the six verb endings for -ar and -er/-ir verbs in Spanish and a test, which just will inform me if students understood this grammar point but which is not a reflection of student success in Spanish! 

Practising Grammar

Again, we carry out the same tasks as in the structured practice stage, but now focussing on the grammar point we are studying: the past tense. 

This is where learning grammar can be great as there are lots of games I can incorporate at this point! Basically, any game like connect four, snakes and ladders, stone/paper/scissors, Jenga, four in a box, you name it, works here! My students love grammar because it is fun and they experimented a Eureka feeling, which leads to motivation and "a can do" attitude. Remember, we don’t just conjugate verbs but we embed the past tense into communicative utterances! More traditional worksheets work very well here too, with an element of competition! 

Being fluent with Grammar

This is the Holy Grail of MFL! If students  are fluent in grammar, by default if taught via a lexicogrammar methodology, students should be fluent in the target language! Easier said that done! 

This will involve a few lessons and lots of interleaving over the years! But at this stage, I expect students to be able to narrate, in a simple way and quickly, what they and other members of their family did during the holidays! All the fun activities from the previous stage work, but with a time limit. 

This stage must be reinforced by carefully planned homework tasks that will allow students to be creative, while still having time to think about grammatical rules: Creative Writing tasks are ideal at this stage. 

So, grammar is clearly embedded in the learning process and it leads itself to have a Eureka effect. 

It can be explicitly taught but not at the beginning of the learning journey but towards the end and not as end on its own, but as a tool to be able to communicate fluently in the target language. 

Similarly, any grammar point will neeed to be revised many times and in different contexts to be fully assimilated: free time by saying what students did yesterday or what happened in a film; school by saying what students studied yesterday etc… 

I would like openly to thank Dr Gianfranco Conti and Dylan Viñales for the opportunity to allow me to work and learn from them during the creation of Spanish Verb Pivots. It’s been such a pleasure.  

Coco: A sequence of lessons, anchoring in challenge!

In this blogpost I am focussing on project based learning and how we spent 6 weeks in Y9 studying the film Coco. We did this right after the Easter Holidays leading up to the May half-Term. Previously, we had studied the topic of TV learning to describe different types of TV programmes, comparing them, saying why students like/ liked some and not others. The idea was to link such vocabulary to a real film, while learning about South-American culture, Mexico and the Day of the dead. Students have two lessons per week in Y9 and this sequence of lessons was intended for a top set but it was slightly updated for all abilities. 

We started by watching the film Coco in Spanish with English subtitles. For that, we payed for the film in Youtube. 

We created two sentence builders. Sentence Builder 1 is what we called Levels 1 and 2 and focusses on what is the film about and how to describe the plot. 

Sentence Builder 2, was a short one and we called it Level 10 and focussed on giving an opinion about the film.  ( Levels 3-9 were not covered in the 6 weeks of teaching, due to lack of time, but it included descriptions of clothes and relationships among members of the film).

We also created a Memrise course to go with the unit for students to learn the chunks that we were covering in lessons.  For Memrise Course, click here. 

The sequence of lessons can be found in this Genially below:

 

The film and all the activities presented in this Genially were carried out within 12 lessons and involved tasks following the EPI/Lexicogrammar approach by Dr Gianfranco Conti, with my own variations and use of digital tasks. 

The sequence starts with modelling activities when a Sentence Builder is introduced, including repetition, dictation, delayed dictation, finishing the sentence after me etc.. with the use of MWBs and lots of praise and merits for every 3 correct answers (my students always keep a tally in their MWBs and at the end they collect their merits). This motivates all students as they want to do well to get their merits at the end of the lesson.

The planned sequence, involves students learning the vocabulary, little by little, using the Memrise courses, in a Flipped Classroom scenario, so when the Sentence Builder was introduced for the first time, students were very familiar with the vocabulary. Spanish being a phonetic language is great for this!

For many lessons, after modelling, we practised the vocabulary in many different ways, until students mastered the Sentence Builders, and believe me they did!!! We carried out, translations via LearningApps, Textivate, Oral Ping-Pong, Battleships and more traditional translations where students were working in Pairs and competing with each other!

I recycled the Wheel of Names activities as starter/plenaries and whole class oral/written activities as needed! By the end of the 12 week period, students could carry out the final writing task from memory and talk for around 2 minutes on Coco. 

The sequence also includes a cute listening activity which I created with Snapchat, inspired by Naziha de Londres. I love this type of video, listening activities because I can vary my vocabulary, speed etc and personalise the learning experience!

Finally, students learned about Day of the Dead in Mexico and carried out a Poster using Spanish and English where they wrote about Coco but also what they had learned about the Day of the Dead.

Why I love it!

The sentence builders are, deliberately, quite complex as they allow me to introduce Direct Object pronouns easily: "su tatarabuelo los abandonó" or "su familia lo obliga a ser zapatero". We dedicated a lesson towards the end analysing these Object Pronouns and comparing the two sentences above with "merece la pena verla"  Why lo/los/la? why in the case of "verla" the pronoun appears after the verb? What is the rule? This grammatical point will be reinforced after half term when we introduce our last topic: food and we learn "lo comí" etc.. Similarly, we revised the past tense, which students had already learned, and I introduced the future "si promete que no será músico".  

Furthermore, students learned about Mexican culture, watched a real film with a purpose and learned sophisticated vocabulary at GCSE level! They loved that as they felt "clever": anchoring in challenge! The sequence also allowed students manipulate the language and conjugate verbs in different tenses while giving their real opinion on something relatable to them!