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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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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 onthis 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!
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.
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
I have just spent my Saturday morning attending the Linguascope Annual Conference, this year online, and I am buzzing with ideas and inspiration! So many great teachers in the MFL community! Similarly, this week I have been thinking about how I am providing feedback to my students online. I wrote a post on Feedback, which you can visit here a few months ago, but on this post I just wanted to focus on online feedback.
I see that many teachers are using MS or Google Forms to minimise marking, or platforms such as Quizlet, Quizizz or even Blooket to collect performance data from students, which I think is brilliant, but how do we comment on this performance?
I think, providing feedback and making a personal connection with our students is essential in the current climate. Students are working more independently than ever on set tasks and it is so important to reassure them on their work and make sure that they take pride in the work the carry out and for that, feedback is essential.
These are some of my solutions!
1. Give verbal feedback when possible. Not just because it is fast for you but it is lovely for the students to hear your voice too!
If you are using Onenote, this is a must! It is incredibly quick to provide feedback about anything the kids are doing and they really appreciate your voice talking to them. If you do not use Onenote, consider using Flipgrid, where you can record your feedback, which can be shared via a QR code or a link.
Also Vocaroo is brilliant for this! What about using a Vocaroo link with a Congratulations Certificate? I sent this certificate last lockdown and I have a list of students for a new certificate to be sent next week. I created it withCanva. Daniel Warren also uses Canva Certificates for her students. I email them to students and their parents.
Qwiqr is another option for video, audio, text or web feedback, linked to a QR code that you can share with your students via email, for example. Adding a Qwqr, Flipgrid, or Vocaroo QR code or link to your Canva certificate would make it extra especial!
2. Use pre made stickers using your Bitmojis. Kids love this! You can give Merits, Alphas or whatever system your school uses to provide feedback. I have a lovely repertoire of these Bitmojis in Onenote which I just copy and paste as needed.
3. Use personalised stickers from Onenote which you can prepare with a rubric. In my video on Top tips to use on Onenote, I show where to find them and how to insert them. Click here for the tutorial.
4. Use the Window + V shortcut! This allows you to copy many stickers with different pre-set comments and when clicking on Window + V, all your copied options will be there for you to select the one you need to. I learned this tip, literally last week, from Becky Jones, who shared this Youtube tutorial on twitter. I think this a game changer to be super quick! Tutorial here from Becky Jones.
5. Finally, encourage your students to interact with your comments! Have they understood? What are they going to do to move forward? Close up the circle with their commitment to set themselves targets!
6. Use live verbal feedback and encouragement via Teams. This is the easiest and most obvious way to keep students motivated. Use Teams to give individual feedback in Breakout Rooms, go over a particular piece of work with a particular student, and have that special 5 minutes time with your individual students every so often. Also, give and encourage your students as a group!
