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

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

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

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

Oral Battleships

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

Information Gap Activities

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

Board Games

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

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

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

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

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

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

Writing Practice using Google Forms

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

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

Writing Practice using Padlet

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

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

See an example here

Using a tutor chatbot with Mizou

Finally, the ultimate fluency developer, Mizou. 

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

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

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

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

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

3 ¿Qué peligros y ventajas tienen las redes sociales? 

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

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

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

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

Students will answer in Spanish

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

When giving feedback, do it in English

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

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

You can have a look at the final product here. 

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

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

Planning a "Blended" curriculum: Give students wings!

You all know how much I love technology in the classroom, not because it is a gimmick but because it genuinely spices up my teaching, saves me lots of time and most importantly, it is a great tool to practise key structures, in many different ways, which equals to lots of retrieval practice and stickability, in all the stages of the learning journey. Finally, it allows me to take languages outside the classroom and make my lessons accessible to my students once they leave the classroom, in other words, it can give students Super Powers or like the old Red Bull advert says, it gives my students wings!

However, for Digital tools to have a positive impact in our students' learning,  it is important to plan and make its use clear in the curriculum. In order to do that, as I mentioned in my previous blogpost on achieving Fluency, it is important to decide a platform to share with students and think backwards: What do we want our students to achieve by the end of each unit? How are we going to get there? and finally, which tools can we use at each stage of the process? 

This is the journey:

a these are some of the tools I use at each stage:

MODELLING STAGE

Spiral and Mentimeter

I use both tools as an alternative to Mini Whiteboards in the classroom: I do translations both ways, dictations, delayed dictation, finishing the sentence or write a sentence with the given word (great for retrieval practice). A tutorial video on how to use Spiral can be found here 

Screencasting 

Screencasting, I use Loom, your modelling activities, and upload them into your own very Youtube channel, is a great way to practise Modelling. Of course, I do modelling in face to face lessons with my students, however, I love the possibility of using my own Youtube videos as listenings, dictations and translation as homework tasks. This is a clear example of how technology allows you take your lesson outside the classroom! Modelling and listening/practise pronunciation has never been easier! This is an example video 

Bitmojis

Bitmojis are a great way to carry out modelling activities! I can make my Bitmoji talk and create multiple listening comprehension activities based on this: Fill in the gaps, Questions/Answer, full transcriptions etc.. I use PhotoSpeak on my iPhone to create the talking effect. Once the video is created and uploaded unto my Youtube channel, I can create a MS Forms task with it, add it to a LearningApps activity or just embed it into my OneNote with the activities I want my students to carry out. I love creating my own Speaking Bitmoji as a listening activity as I can speak faster, slower etc.. to meet the needs of my students.

For a post on how to use Bitmojis creatively in the classroom, visit this Blogpost.  with a tutorial from the amazing Joe Dale.  This is an example of my Bitmoji Speaking on Relationships for my Y10 class.

SentenceBuillders.com 

Ths site is amazing for Modelling!!! It was created by the talented Marting Lapworth, creator of TaskMagic and Textivate and it is based on Gianfranco Conti's MARS EARS type of activities with Sentence Builders. You can create your own activities or use the premium ones based on prepopulated Sentence Builders on the site. I use the site for face to face teaching with my students, but especially to help pupils memorise our Sentence Builders in a engaging way. For more information on this site, visit its Blog

AWARENESS-RISING AND CONTROLLED PRACTICE

Flippity

I love Flippity for fun drilling practice of my Sentence Builders with elements of Fluency as I demonstrate on this video tutorial  

I also use Flippity with Manipulatives and as a listening activity, you can even insert your Bitmoji video there too! Check out this example. Overall, it is a great way to have a Blended Learning experience!

LearningApps

One of my absolutely favourites! This tool will allow you to create many different type of online activities which will help students memorise those important Sentence Builders and practise the language in a controlled and fun way! Here there's a tutorial video on how to exploit this free tool in the classroom. 

All my LearningApps activities can be found here

Wheel of Names

Another of my classic activities for Blended Learning. I explain how I exploit and milk this tool in this Video Tutorial. 

Quizlet, Memrise, Blooket and Carousel Learning.

These vocab learning platforms are great tools to practise the language and help students memorise Sentence Builders. I use Memrise with KS3 and Quizlet with KS4. I always link each of my Sentence Builders to at least 3 Quizlet or Memrise courses with around 10 chunks in them. Carousel Learning is also a great way to practise translations and carry out Retrieval Practice. I love Blooket as it allows me to upload my Quizlet courses so, from one activity a get two interactive tasks!

Quizizz

A quiz tool which I maximise by asking students to produce long answers to oral questions before we carry out oral practice in class. A type of warming up task! I also use it as an alternative tool for listening practice. I explain how in this video Tutorial. 

SPONTANEITY/ROUTANISATION/AUTONOMY STAGE

Genially

Great for Escape Rooms and especially, BoardGames to practise open ended questions or specific structures. 

Tip: Plan in advance with your team how you can exploit Genially and divide the work by deciding, within your team, who could create which activities on different topics. I also love using Genially to practise Exam skills in a relaxed way, even with ALevels! An example can be found here. 

Deck Toys

Deck toys is the not so known app and it is fantastic!  I use it to create Scape Rooms with all levels, including Y13/Y11 and exam skills. I love it, because I can also include Quizlet courses here. For a blogpost on how to exploit Deck Toys use in the classroom, click here. 

All my DeckToys activities can be found here. 

Flipgrid

Great for oral presentations! I love this app as students can cover their face or even do screencasting. I also like the fact that I can enter some rubrics to mark their work. 

Padlet

Another classic! I use it for collaborative work but also to showcase what students can write about from memory at the end of the learning journey, so the whole class can see each other's entries and learn from each other. I also use Padlet as a revision guide at GCSE. A post on how to do that can be found here. 

Of course there are more tools!  This is just a summary of my favourite mainly FREE ones! This is language, The Language Gym, Textivate and Languagenut are also some of my favourite ones at the Practice Stage too. 

The key point is to plan, when designing the curriculum, how and where these tools could be used in the classroom to give students WINGS!

A presentation on these ideas, which I carried out for Languagenut can be found here 

Blended Learning made easy

Following my presentation yesterday in the UKedChat Conference 2021 on how to have impact lessons via Digital Tools, I have started creating a series of short videos demonstrating how I exploit a Digital Tool in my lessons in a blended learning scenario. 

If your students do not bring their own device to school, remember that many of these activities can be carried out with a mobile. I know there are rules about mobile use in the classroom, but after the digital revolution we are living, I firmly believe that mobiles should be allowed in lessons when it is required by the teacher, maybe that's something you can talk to your SLT. We have certainly changed rules regarding using mobiles in lessons in specific scenarios. 

MOST OF THESE ACTIVITIES WILL TAKE YOU  ONLY 5 OR 10 MINUTES TO PREPARE!!!

Blended Learning Demo 1 How to maximise Flippity 

Blended Learning Demo 2 :How to maximise Wheel of Names

Blended Learning Demo 3: How to use Boardgames with Genially

Blended Learning Demo 4: Quiz time! Quizizz and Carousel Learning

Blended Learning Demo 5: How to maximise Flippity with the randomizer

Teaching in times of covid: Using Digital Games at Alevel

 After an amazing morning sharing ideas with wonderful MFL teachers in the TMMFLicons event, I would like to write briefly about how to upcycle most of the apps we use with KS3/4 and reutilise them at Alevel to create digital small games during Covid times.

My presentation from the TMMFLicons Webinar today

 

WHY?

Because games at Alevel as at earlier stages, engage and enthuse students and it is a fantastic opportunity to use the language in a real context: the interaction produced from the game is real target language use, which comes much easier than at the early years when their students are not as fluent. 

WHEN?

At Alevel I use my 10 Step Guide, which is fully explained here. I have found that using digital games at stages, 4, 6, 9 and 10 (in red below) of  this sequence, is particularly effective with my students and easy to do via Teams or Zoom if sharing a screen or even better in Breakout Rooms.

1. GCSE Oral activity

2. Oral activity based on a thought provoking photo

3. Working with a text (reading)

4. Practising structures from the text in stage 3 

5. Working with a text (listening)

6. Explicit grammar lesson 

7. Language assistant

8. Lecture Style lesson

9. Oral practice with ideas from all lessons.   

10. Exam style Questions.  

STAGE 4 WHEEL OF NAMES WITH POINTS

Wheel of Names examplehere 

At stage 3 we "milk" and "squeeze" a reading text, where we study ideas, structures, vocabulary etc.. For Stage 4 I recreate a similar text, in English, recycling the structures from our previous text and I divide it sections. I put the sections in wheel of names, with allocated points and share my screen. Students are divided in teams and when the wheel spins a member of the team must translate the chunk that comes up in the wheel, or even extend it. They do this orally so they get instant feedback. I keep a tally of the points.

Below a video on How to create a Wheel of Names activity

STAGE 6 CLASSROOMSCREEN AND FLIPPITY FOR GRAMMAR PRACTICE

Classroomscreen example here 

The example above is from a Y12 lesson on the subjunctive which I did on Friday. I share the screen, roll the dice and students need to create a sentence according to the number in the dice.

Flippity example here 

The example above is from a Y13 lesson to practice "difficult" structures with students. I enter key structures (grammar) in the Google Slides for the Flippity activity. When running the activity I go to "lineup" mode. I structure comes out. I divide the class in teams and someone from the team must translate the structure and create a sentence with it, orally. Teams get a point for each correct answer. 

At a second stage, here is how you can "milk" the activity, you can go to "groups of 2", now students need to create a big sentence using the two structures in each box. You can make it more challenging by going to "groups of 3/4 " etc.. At this point, students are allowed to write their paragraphs and post them into the Collaborative area in Onenote or use Spiral.ac. (In a normal classroom students would use mini whiteboards to write their answers) You can compare answers, students correct each other's paragraphs etc.

Flippity Example here for literature

Same as above but now students need to speak about the character, metaphor or even quote that comes up in the "lineup" mode. They can work in teams and support each other. Normally they need to talk for up to a minute. This is great once the book has been studied as a Retrieval Practice activity.

STAGE 9 GENIALLY BOARDGAME TO PRACTISE ORAL QUESTIONS.

Example here on Jumanlly on Genially

I play this game as a whole class by sharing my screen, as I have small sets at Alevel. However, it can be played in Breakout Rooms, where students play in groups of 4/8 students with one student sharing the screen with the group. I move the counters and when landing on a dot, students must answer orally a question on the given topic. Students love this activity and the template is free from Genially!  

Below a Video on how to Create a Genially Boardgame

STAGE 10 GENIALLY BOARDGAME AND DECKTOYS LEARNING PATH TO PRACTISE EXAM QUESTIONS.

Example here on Snakes and Ladders on Genially

I was trying to think of exciting ways to practise exam style questions without using the actual paper or worksheets from Exampro, and I thought of adding them in Genially and Deck Toys as little tasks!  

This is what I did:  using Snipping Tool, I selected the exam question I wanted to practise (mainly translations and summaries) and pasted it onto Genially.  

Students play the game in small groups in Breakout Rooms. When landing on a spot they must, as a group, carry out the exam question. They do this collaboratively, so learning from each other, and in writing. They upload their answers to Onenote for me to mark later.  If you have a look at the example, there is also a filling gaps LearningApps activity embedded from an actual past paper, a type of question that my students find particularly difficult!

Example here on Deck Toys  

This activity worked a treat yesterday Friday, Period 8 with my Y13s! Students carried it out in Breakout Rooms in small teams. 

The aim of the activity is to escape the island, by collecting keys, which students get by going through the learning path, which is formed of past exam questions!!! Reading, summaries and translations. 

One student shared the screen with everyone in their breakout rooms and worked collaboratively through the tasks. The big plus of Deck Toys is that students can submit direct answers to the game!!!! (not like in Genially).  Students go to the deck via a link and sign up with their Microsoft accounts (they can also use Google). THEY LOVED IT!   They did not have time to finish it in the lesson so I asked them to finish it for homework for Monday's lesson. Yesterday evening, I checked the Teacher's section of Deck Toys and everyone had escaped the island, meaning, they had completed all the past exam questions!!! Amazing!

Visit this post on how to use Deck Toys 

And here it is a How to Video to start using Deck Toys. Great for departmental use!

Happy Gaming!!!

Teaching in times of Covid: Breakout Rooms

This is the first post, I hope, in a series of posts where I would like to reflect on what is working for me and is not working in remote teaching. In a previous post, I wrote about my approach to teaching remotely: adopting a hybrid approach between live online lessons, mainly for Starters and Plenary activities, and independent tasks shared via Onenote which I can follow live and give feedback, while I am available on Teams to sort out questions.  Some of these independent activities also involve interactive videos where I introduce vocabulary, carry out a dictation, listening activity, translation etc.. as I would have done in normal lessons.  This approach worked brilliantly in March and is working extremely well now! 

However, we have a new kid on the block if you, like me, use Teams to deliver your lessons: Breakout Rooms!!! Inspired by the wonderful presentation from Ester Borin in todays' TILT show and Tell, I have decided to focus on how we can use Breakout Rooms in the MFL remote classrooms. 

The concept of Breakout Rooms is that you can divide your students who are participants in a Team meeting, in different rooms so students have mini meetings within the main meeting. I was very excited about this possibility which would allow me to add a personal touch to my lessons and create collaborative tasks for my students, making the whole process of remote learning less isolating!  I started using Breakout Rooms last week and this is a summary of my reflections:

TIPS 

1 To have the option of Breakout Rooms, you need the latest version of the Teams app in your computer. You cannot run them through the Web Version as the meeting organiser for your Breakout Rooms. 

2 For the Breakout Rooms to work, your students also need to have the latest version of the Teams app or use the Web Version. If they have an old version, they will not be added to a room and they will remain in the main meeting.

3 Students cannot see your main screen once they are in their Breakout Rooms, so anything you want them to work on, must be shared via the chat or, like I do, via your class Onenote.

4 You can manually assign students to the Breakout Rooms or you can allow Teams to do so, after you select how many rooms you want. If a child is left alone, close the room and assign that child manually to any of the other rooms. 

5 Hop from room to room to make sure students are on task and they don't leave the meeting!

6 Once students are distributed to rooms, Teams can redistribute then to different ones automatically, as Adolfo Suarez Fuente points out, if you do this in a time limit you’ve got a Speed Dating type of activity. 

I found this short Youtube Video tutorial very easy to follow to get me started from a technical point of view. Thank you to my colleague Malcom Ewan for pointing me out to the right direction! 

GOOD ACTIVITIES FOR BREAKOUT ROOMS

Many thanks to Ester Borin for the inspiration for some of these activities:

1 Battleships, or any Information Gap activity you would do in a lesson with a worksheet!

I share my Battleships worksheet on Onenote as part of my week's lessons with my Y10. (TIP: if you insert the worksheet as Print in Onenote and select the image as background, students can write direcly on it with a digital pen or type).

I create the Breakout rooms so I have 2 or 3 students in each room. Students play battleships against their partner, no one needs to share the screen etc. as each child will have their own Onenote open and write on the Battleships worksheet directly while talking to their partner and playing the game. 

2 Group Discussion with brainstorming of ideas

I did this with my Y13 class. They had to prepare ideas for a debate in groups of 2/3. Students were assigned to a Breakout Room and discussed their ideas for them to use in a final debate in a whole class activity. To write ideas, you can use the Collaboration Space in your Onenote or some of the wonderful slides from Slidemania , which you can share on Onenote (make sure that your PPT is editable when you share the link so everyone can write on the slides). This way at the end of the activity, everyone can see the ideas from all the groups. 

I used the same idea for my Y9 Erasmus lesson, where students had to come up with ideas for the Global Goals in Breakout Rooms and write these ideas in a particular Slide from a PPT (which I downloaded FREE from Slidemania)

3 Genially Boardgame 

I did this with my Y10 students. I created a Genially Boardgame which I shared in our lesson Onenote page.  Students were divided in groups of 3/4 in Breakout Rooms. One student (Señora Salgado's little helper) in each room shared their Onenote screen and game, rolled the dice and moved the counters while all the students played together orally.

4 Deck Toys Learning Path

I also carried out this activity with my Y10s. As in the previous activities, I shared my learning path in our class Onenote.  I divided students in Breakout Rooms and my little helper in each room, shared their screen with the rest of the group. Students went through the deck as a team while only the person who was sharing the screen was entering answers, on behalf of the group. Students will have the opportunity to complete the deck at another moment individually.

5 Playing Quizlet, Flippity Randomizer, LearningApps in groups.  

I haven't tried this yet, but as in the examples above, once I share the links in Onenote, students will get assigned to Breakout Rooms, one student will share their screen and all can work in pairs or as a group with the activities.

6 Any collaborative activity, really!

I think, Breakout Rooms is a game changer and can make our lessons more "human" and closer to the real classroom experience!!! In the case of MFL, being able to do oral work in pairs o small groups is priceless and so needed!  

Technical difficulties will occur but keep trying because when it works it is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Embedded retrieval practice: the next level

You may think I am obsessed with retrieval practice but it is so important in order to keep students motivated and make progress that a big percentage of my lesson time is dedicated to this. 

A few weeks ago I read an article by Marc Enser on some research on retrieval practice. In the article Marc explained how two departments in their school (History and Geography) wanted to see the impact of retrieval practice in their students’ results. They used quizzes in their lessons for this. Both departments got an improvement in their test results but Geography’s were much higher. When they analysed the data and tried to explain this discrepancy, they discovered that History used to do a quiz in each lesson from previous knowledge but not related to the content of the actual lesson. Geography, on the other hand, did also a quiz but this was embedded in what students were learning in the lesson, hence, helping students to consolidate and embed learning in this long-term memory more successfully than the History department. This is powerful and it relates to my own practice.

Retrieval practice must be embedded with new content constantly so language becomes automatized and students can transfer structures freely from different contexts!

All activities done in lessons with new material should include structures from old topics applied to these new contexts while also making reference to the content from past topics. Planned activities and homework tasks should give students opportunities to practise past content as a matter of fact:  When asking students to practice sentences on school topic, why not including sentences from holidays and, most importantly, adapting those structures from holidays into the new topic of school?  When planning activities for Y11 students on the topic of festivals, why not including also content from work, free time and holidays? why not applying structures seen in the topic of free time "juego al fútbol desde hace 3 años" in this new topic "trabajo de canguro desde hace 3 meses"?   

Digital tools for embedded retrieval practice 

In this post I wrote, extensively, about different apps that I use for retrieval practice but I would like to add a few which I have used since while still mentioning the old ones! 

Spiral.ac

This is the new kid on the block in my teaching! Introduced to me by Laura Causer during the Show and Tell Webinar of the Language Show, this tool has revolutionised my retrieval practice strategy and saved me time!!!! 

Spiral is basically, like Wooclap or Mentimeter, an interactive response tool. What’s the difference with the two previous apps? You need zero preparation if you use the QuickFire light option! 

Basically, you open an account, create a class (you don’t need names), select the QuickFire light option from the home menu, select your class and share a special URL and code with your students (these will also be the same for that class every time you launch the QuickFire, so my students have bookmarked it). Similar to Kahoot, Mentimeter etc....

Pupils log in with that special code (not additional login required) and you will start seeing their names appearing on your screen. When you are ready to ask questions to consolidate and retrieval previous knowledge, you just press the green go button!

Students then start writing their answers to your question, which will appear on the screen, only when you click on “reveal answers”. This option is great as students cannot copy each other and you can wait to reveal answers once everyone has submitted their input. To increase pace, I encourage early birds, either to check their answers or to extend them so they do not sit down doing nothing while partners submit answers, great for differentiation too! 

At this point you may select “show names” too or “hide the names”: I find this little action powerful as sometimes you may want to give confidence to students who tend to make mistakes and you may decide not to show their names until a later stage. 

However, when you decide to do so, the students’ names will appear with their answers on the screen! Big plus from Mentimeter or Wooclap and students can also modify/ improve their answer if you prompt them to do so. Great tool for feedback too.

Spiral is basically an interactive mini whiteboard and it is ideal for hybrid situations when you have students online and students in the classroom! Also no need to sanitise mini whiteboards after single use! In action it looks like the pictures below:

LearningApps

In my previous post I explained in lots of detail all the activities that can be achieved with this tool. The golden rule is to use these activities blended in the learning experience and incorporating structures and vocabulary from previous studied topics! Below there’s a how to video guiding you how to use the tool. 

How to use LearningApps video

Flippity 

Another great free tool for Retrieval Practice! The randomiser and Random Name picker are great tools for retrieval practice! Instructions are straightforward and you will need a Google account. 

Extended uses of how to use Flippity can be found in this Post. 

Quizizz

This tool allows you to create personalised interactive quizzes, incorporating sound too so great to revise oral questions while also checking listening comprehension! 

How to use quizizz video 

Carousel Learning

This is another of the new tools I have started to use in the last month. Designed by Adam Boxer, creator of Retrieval Roulettes, which Julia Morris talked about during the Show and Tell Webinar in the Language Show, Carousel Learning is also a free tool which allows you to upload a spreadsheet with as many items (Qs) as you want to include, and topics. As my input, I use short sentences that students need to translate into Spanish.

 In your spreadsheet you must include your question (English sentence for me), the answer (Spanish translation) and the topic it refers to. There is a template in the site to get the setting right! Once this spreadsheet is uploaded, Carousel Learning allows you to create specific quizzes on particular topics, which you can rotate and assign to different classes. There are also many quizzes questions from the learning community for you to use too!

Why do I love Carousel learning? Because students do not get immediate feedback but they are presented with the right answers at the end of their quiz. Students then must decide if they were correct or not. I think this feature is extremely powerful for independent learning and making students take ownership for their own mistakes and improvement!!! What did I get right? What did I get wrong? Why? And look for help! Although it needs training! 

Jane Basnett has created this súper video on how to set up a quiz on Carousel learning. It is extremely informative and well explained so a must watch! 

Genially

I love this tool!! There are many talented Genially people in the UK such as Marie Allirot or Julia Morris who actually make their own genially activities from scratch! 

However, I am lazy, so I use the templates provided in the gamification section! You have many interactive free games such as Snakes and Ladders or Escape Rooms, which you only need to modify to fit your retrieval practice input! I love genially because through games students reinforce those key structures! Genially also embeds smoothly into Onenote, which I use for my lessons, although you can just share your genially game with your classes the way you want to!

You can also embed your LearningApps to the genially game questions! How cool is this?

How to use Genially video (using the app templates)

Joe Dale and Marie Allirot webinar on Gamification in the classroom through Genially. A must watch!

Wheel of names

One of my favourite apps! For an extensive explanation on how to use Wheel of names in the classroom and in a blended learning situation have a look at this post.

To find out how Wheel of Names works, have a look at the video below:

How to use Wheel of Names video

Textivate

Let’s not forget the basics! This is not free but it is brilliant for retrieval practice! I love every feature of it! It is very affordable. It is an improved online version of Taskmagic: same creator Martin Lapworth. 

Example of Textivate activity based on Tourism and Transport (embedding principle).

Other tools you can explore!

BLOOKET 

This is a tool which allows you to create your own little games, which you then share with students. Students get tokens and rewards for completing the games. In my opinion, more suitable for KS3. My only reservation is that the games are based on multiple choice, which, I, particularly, am not keen on. However, still a great tool to revise those key structures, especially similar ones in different tenses!

WORDWALL

Similar to LearningApps but you can only create a limit of activities unless you go premium! You do not have the embedded audio facility, which is a shame! However, the activities are very eye-catching and attractive for young learners!

GIMKIT

Many people are using this! It is not free and I have not used it myself yet!  The Intruders game seems like a hit on twitter and many people have recommend it to me.  I need to explore this one!

DECK TOYS (thanks to Jimena Licitra for this) 

This was introduced to me only a few weeks ago by the amazing Jimena Licitra and it has lots of potential! However, it will require some time to create your resources.  This app allows you to create interactive learning paths for your students! It looks very, very powerful and engaging but you will need to dedicate some time to it! You can have some free decks, or learning paths for free but after that there is a premium to pay. You can also use decks created by others! If structured well, this should be an extremely engaging tool for topic revision and retrieval practice of key structures. Watch this space!

So, retrieval practice is important, very important. So important that it should be present in every lesson you do by embedding content and structures from all topics all the time. Using these tools allows me to do so in a motivating and engaging way! However, do not get me wrong, retrieval practice can be done without technology. 

Embedded Retrieval Practice must take place at all stages of learning, ALL THE TIME and it must be planned thoroughly via meaningful activities, especially in the Practice Stage of learning!

Language Show 2020 Presentations and Webinars

Thank you so much for the feedback I received today from both of my webinars in the Language Show. It has been amazing to read your comments, contributions and ideas! We learn from each other.

As promised the Webinars presentations and Videos are below.

Motivation and engagement in the MFL classroom: let's play, let's speak!

YOUTUBE LINK ON MOTIVATION

Stickability beyond the classroom: delivering high impact lessons via the use of IT tools.

YOUTUBE LINK ON STICKABILITY

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!