The Language Show 2023

What a wonderful weekend has been with the Language Show in full swing! It has been a huge honour to take part in it with two presentations: one on gamification, with lots of practical ideas to gamify your lessons at all the stages of learning and another on Dictation, with the lovely Suzi Bewell.

Why I believe in gamification, what are its benefits in the MFL classroom or which are my favourite games to play in the classroom with and without the use of technology. All is explained in my webinar presentation, which you can find below. Remember you can access the actual webinar recording for the next three months.

Practising Exam skills at A Level with Wheel of Names

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anchoring in Challenge 

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

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

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

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

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

How to be successful at KS3 video

How to be successful at KS4 video

The Power of Praise!

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

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

Listening for Learning

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

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

Gamification = Purpose

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

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

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

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

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

Structure

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

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

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

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

The cultural dimension

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

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

On this post I exemplify this notion via the film Coco

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

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

Games using buzzers

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

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

Odd one out with buzzers

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

Buzzed Gapped Dictation

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

Buzz the expression

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

Buzz the answers

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

Buzzer race

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

Beat the timer

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

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

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

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

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

Modelling games

Dictation with mistakes

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

Read, stop and finish the sentence

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

Random Dictation

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

Fireball

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

Structured Practice Games

Jenga

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

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

Connect 4

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

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

Or this one for 10 more templates.

Wheel of names/Spinner Wheel

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

Example of Spinner Wheel here

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

Battleships

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

Fluency Games

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

Dice Games

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

Spider Game

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

Speed Dating

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

Piñata Game

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

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

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

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!!!