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

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

Passive Structured Practice

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

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

Using Twee to create multiple texts 

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

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

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

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

Using Diffit to spice up your texts

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

Using Vocaraoo to personalise listening tasks

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

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

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

Using Vidnoz to create video/listening material with avatars

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

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

Using Google Earth to spice up reading tasks

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

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

The new GCSE, It's all about RETRIEVAL. PART 1: The 5 Magical Powers and the GCSE Vocabulary lists

After 7 weeks teaching the new GCSE for MFL, I would like to write a series of posts analysing my approach to teaching and my thoughts on the whole new qualification.  After teaching the new syllabus for 7 weeks, the good news is that there's not much difference from the old syllabus in relation to teaching and learning.  This is great, as whatever worked for us before should work now too!

Having said that, there are some fundamental changes:

1. The use of specific vocabulary 
2. A dictation task as part of the listening exam
3. A reading aloud task as part of the speaking exam

After all the controversy regarding the specific vocabulary lists, the topics under which the vocab is taught, are very similar to the old GCSE, not surprise here as there's only a limit of topics to talk about at GCSE level! However, whatever your thoughts about specific vocabulary lists, I think this is a great opportunity to really boost languages in schools.  It is a great selling point to tell students and parents that if you learn this vocabulary, in theory, students can access the listening/reading exams without any issues.  

Having this fixed list also allows us, as departments, to start teaching it as early as Year 7 and always have it in mind when we create our SoWs at KS3: how many of these words can we actually teach from day one as from Y7?  According to cognitive science, it takes considerable time to take information from our working memory to our long-term memory, which is a prerequisite to be fluent in the target language.  This means that the earlier our students have exposure to the established vocabulary and structures, the easier it will be to store such vocabulary into the long term memory, so, why not start at Year 7? Let's retrieve this key vocabulary and structures over and over again. Our goal is to lead our students to automatise the use of this key vocabulary in a given context, topics, with the application of grammatical rules so that they can communicate in the target language and get a good grade in their GCSE exam, of course. 

It is a long process to achieve this goal: FLUENT COMMUNICATION, especially given the curriculum time UK schools give to languages and the different contexts and backgrounds surrounding our pupils. That's why what we do in that precious curriculum time should be extremely well thought out and crafted to reach automatization and fluency. The only way to do this, following Rosenshine's Principles of instruction, is via Meaningful Modelling, breaking content in small steps, purposed structured practice, purposed independent/fluency practice, timely and purposeful feedback and RETRIEVAL, RETRIEVAL, RETRIEVAL hand in hand with checking for understanding. 

The 5 Magical Powers

 At Princes Risborough School, when we looked at the GCSE vocabulary list, analysed the new AQA mark scheme and the elements that allow students to achieve fluency, we came out with the 5 Magical Powers, which I personally have used in the past very successfully.  The 5 Magical Powers, are the ingredients that will allow our students both, sound fluent in the target language and acquire the best marks/grades in their GCSE exam. The powers are:

Using three time tenses as from Y7 by using what we called the nuggets: modal verbs followed by infinitives to tackle different tenses.  Suelo/solía/voy a/ me gustaría/ empecé a/ decidimos + infinitive.  The use of the nuggets to tackle different tenses is key to achieving fluency, making students feel clever and dealing with cognitive overload. We do grammar, of course, but our aim is for students to be able to express ideas in different tenses quickly and mechanically as from Y7 using the nuggets and it works!

Giving opinions, again in different tenses: Me gusta, Me gustaba, lo que más me gusta, lo que más me gustaba.

Giving reasons with key structures and chunks that can be applied to any topic/ context and which will help students achieve fluency: porque siempre he querido hacerlo (because I have always wanted to do it) porque me ayuda a relajarme (because it helps me relax) dado que se me da bien (given that I am good at it) ya que puede ser + adjective (since it can be, instead of "is" + adjective)

Reported speech or talking about someone else. This is crucial in everyday communication and also an element that translates into extra marks in the oral and written examination. That's why, as from Y7, students learn mi madre/amigo dice que (my mother/friend says that) a mi madre/amigo le gusta (my mother/friends likes)  mi amigo suele + infinitive (my friend tends to)

High Impact expressions. These include high frequent  expressions and chunks such as  cuando sea mayor, puede ser, si tuviera la oportunidad and a variety of fun idioms! Some of the reasons and nuggets are actually part of our High Impact expressions.

Once we established our 5 Magical Powers, we made sure that these are present in any topic we teach and surrounding all the topical vocabulary prescribed by the new GCSE syllabus. We use Sentence Builders to deliver our lessons following a lexicogrammar approach, rooted in Rosenshine's Principles and, as part of our commitment to achieve fluent communication, these 5 Magical Powers are present in every topic and sentence builder we teach, so that these 5 common elements get embedded in our students long-term memories together with the GCSE key vocabulary. For an example of Sentence Builder in Y10, topic of Free Time, click here. 

To create our Sentence Builders, we use the site Sentence Builders.com which has proved to be great value for money, not only to create professional looking, interactive Sentence Builders, but also as a key tool to help students memorise the language we teach through the sentence builders.  

So retrieval, will not only be part of the language learning/teaching journey in a traditional way, but it is also the core of how we have grouped the themed vocabulary around the 5 Magical Powers, as from Y7.  We believe so much in the 5 Magical Powers that our Mark Scheme for key written tasks at KS3, evolve around them. Click here to view our Writing KS3 Mark Scheme based on the 5 Magical Powers.

In Part 2, I will tackle Retrieval at the Modelling Stage of the learning journey at KS4.

Goal: mastering the language, the importance of Metacognition

As we embark on the last stage of the exam preparation process with our Y11 and Y13 students before they carry out their public exams, I stopped to reflect on what I expect my students to have achieved after 5/7 years of language learning.

My goal, as from Y7 has always been for my students to achieve fluency in the target language (mastery of vocabulary and structures to communicate effectively), while learning about the target culture, but also to make them independent and reflective learners in the process. Achieving these goals, I believe, will make them successful in their GCSE and AS/ALevel exams. 

How do we make our students independent learners?

Following Rosenshine’s principles, firstly by providing good models of language and tasks needed for their exam. This means, not only modelling language but also modelling how to tackle a 150 word task or a literature essay at ALevel. Silvia Bastow and Sonja Fedrizzi have written extensively about Modelling the thought process when tackling a written task. Inspired by these two educators, I created this video for my students before their mocks. 

We must also model the learning process in our lessons by carrying out lots of retrieval practice, interleaving topics and/or structures and providing structured/scaffolded practice. Most importantly, it is essential to explain students why we do the activities we do and how these tasks will help them encode information into the long term memory (learning), so that they get involved in and own their learning process.

The idea is that by talking about the activities we do in lessons, we model learning techniques that students can reflect upon and eventually apply themselves independently.  

This is a huge task that requires lots of reflection embedded in lessons. These are some of the questions I ask students in my lessons: How do we learn?  Have you been in a situation that you thought you had done lots of revision but did not do well? Why didn't you well? Is just reading material over and over again, good enough to learn vocabulary/structures? What alternatives do you have? What do we do in lessons to help you master the vocabulary and structures? What of these techniques can you try at home? How can you do retrieval practice/ self-testing at home? How can you practise listening, reading, writing or speaking?

This reflection is the first step to developing metacognition (the power to reflect on our own learning process, identify gaps and plan a strategy to fill such gaps and move forward). 

Metacognition leads to independent learning and is key to experiencing success, which is a great motivator in any learner. 

How to start the metacognition process to achieve independence?

Via powerful feedback and the setting of high expectations.  Feedback given to students should not be just a mark but a way to identify gaps in knowledge and suggest little steps to tackle such gaps, while providing the opportunity to reflect on performance with the setting of own targets. 

When setting targets and designing a course of action to tackle gaps and move forwards, students can then use the repertoire of learning modelled strategies used in everyday lessons. I like calling feedback, feedforward. This involves adopting a positive relationship with mistakes. Mistakes are good! They are the first step to learning.

In my experience, students tend to be overconfident when assessing their knowledge and skills and tend to revise what they are good at, which explains the feeling of "but I revised lots and still I did not do well". Feedback is a good reality check for students to learn what the real gaps are and what they need to test themselves on, using our modelled learning techniques. This means knowing how to develop/test the micro skills leading to a good performance in MFL: listening, reading, writing, speaking, grammar, vocab/structure learning, not just recalling vocabulary in isolation! At this point having a revision schedule, provides a clear path for students to set themselves targets and devise their own strategy, based on a trusted, modelled repertoire of techniques. I do this via Padlet

Power Tools to develop Metacognition in our students

These tools or techniques have been adapted from the wonderful book Powerful Teaching by Pooja K. Agarwal and Patrice M. Bain and I use  to embed Metacognition in my lessons. These tools are closely interlinked to Feedback and Retrieval Practice as starting points to reflect on our learning and moving forward:

• To provide planned breaks within lessons for silent self-retrieval practice . I do this by carrying our In my own words time. Somewhere within lessons I stop carrying out the normal tasks and ask: Can you explain this grammatical rule in your own words? Students may write the rule in MWBs or just share orally with a partner. Or, you have 5 minutes to write down, from memory, as many structures learned today and last week, again using MWBs to check for understanding.

• To plan self-reflection opportunities, after self-retrieval practice in lessons. You have 10 minutes to write down as many sentences/structures as possible from the topic of Free Time in Spanish. After the 10 minutes elapse. What could you remember? Could you share with a partner? Are you happy with what you could remember? Do you need to revise this topic again? How? Set yourself a target as part of your homework today. 

• To help tool one, I use Retrieval Cards  every other lesson with specific translations from English into Spanish, to be completed by students, based on past topics as well as recent ones. I normally use 10 translations. Students translate, in silence, as much of the 10 sentences in the Retrieval Card, from memory. Then, I allow students to look at their notes/sentence builders to look up those structures they could not remember on the spot. Students highlight the structures they could not retrieve on their own, and set up a target, as part of their homework, to revise these and tackle the gap. A few days later, I carry out a very similar Retrieval Card to see what has changed. 

• To use Metacognition Sheets after a unit/topic is taught. This is a normal self-assessment sheet: I know the verbs to describe my holidays but with space for students to actually write down answers from memory.  Then, again, I provide reflection time, alone or in pairs: could I remember lots? why not? what do I need to revise? Students then provide a personal target as part of their homework to deal with this gap.

• Write, leave and retrieve technique. After we go through several activities in a lesson, students write what they know, while it is still fresh in the working memory. Then they leave it, and after 10 or 15 minutes, I ask students to retrieve the same information. How much could they remember when it was not so fresh? What does that tell them? How are they going to close the gap?

These tools empower my students by sparking a conversation about their own learning and encouraging them to make a judgement of learning. 

I train students to differentiate between what they know versus what they do not know and provide them with a repertoire of techniques/steps for them to independently use to take ownership of their learning and do something about knowledge/skills they do not know or can't master yet!  

For MFL, the added complication is that students need not just to know content, like in other subjects, but to use such content spontaneously via different skills, hence the importance to practise the micro skills of listening, reading, writing, speaking and to model how to put the language together in an oral / written task. In other words, doing just Quizlet will not make students write/ speak in a MFL, they will need strategies to practise these skills. 

Metacognition allows students to prioritise learning and experience success so they are open to learning more! 

Metacognition is about not just getting information in their heads, but expect students to get information out from their learning, spontaneously, hence, helping students to encode information into the long-term memory: Learning independently.

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!

Retrieval Practice and TaskMagic

I wanted to spend some time talking about the potential of TaskMagic, an old but timeless tool which seems to have disappeared from the MFL classroom.  For me it is a classic! After the introduction stage of Sentence Builders, it is paramount for me to plan retrieval practice in lessons. In fact, my starter activity, which sometimes is not a starter as it can last as much as twenty minutes if needed, is to revise the language introduced/practised in my previous lesson.  For that purpose, TaskMagic is ideal! 

TaskMagic is an IT tool that can be bought as a whole School licence for £350 +VAT.  I think it is value for money!  Once bought it can be installed in all school computers as a standalone purchase. 

There are many activities that can be created with this wonderful piece of software. My favourite is Text Match for retrieval Practice.

In the Create Mode, I insert sentences based on our Sentence Builders in English in one column and their initials in Spanish in the second column.

When the file is open in the Play mode, I have a wide range of activities at my disposal for Retrieval Practice and worksheets! I use the activities as whole class tasks in our IWB. My favourite is Flashcards. 

I use the Flashcards activity in conjunction with mini whiteboards or orally: students translate the different sentences using the initials as support.  This can also be done, very quickly orally once students have memorised our SBs.  Students can also extend the display sentence with something that makes sense using a different tense. The sentences can also be an opportunity to talk about grammar, revise verb endings etc.. (metalanguage). With high ability groups, I display first the initials and then the English (developing thinking skills).

I love TaskMagic and I use this tool all the way to KS5: I display key vocabulary, structures that students need to use in a long sentence on a given topic. I display sentence starters that students need to finish using the subjunctive or any given structure. I use single words that act as a springboard to think about other words within the topic, antonyms, synonyms, word families.  

I love TaskMagic in the classroom because it takes 5 minutes to create tasks and I can squeeze hours of activities!  I also use the Worksheets for homework and self-quizzing, again another way to put retrieval into practice.  TaskMagic works amazingly if planned well and interleaving vocabulary from past topics! 

Grid Match is great for Verbs and whole class games!  

I delivered a TILT workshop a few years ago on innovative uses of TaskMagic and I created this Booklet with all the activities I normally generate with this tool. 

The developer of TaskMagic, Martin Lapworth, has also developed Textivate.  Textivate is similar to TaskMagic but an online/subscription tool. It is also great! and you can use it in the same way as TaskMagic.

Click on this video to see the differences between Flashcards in TaskMagic and Textivate

I find both tools excellent apps for retrieval practice for the classroom.  Textivate would be better for individual practice.  Both tools complement Quizlet, Memrise and Quizziz perfectly!  I will talk more about these other apps and retrieval practice in a different entry.  Many schools have TaskMagic in their shelves and it has been forgotten!  Shake the dust and use it!