It's been too long! Still, a new term and a look anew at stuff going on in the classroom is always worth a post..
This year, our results across the department were pleasing at the top end, but as usual, it is the pupils who failed to make the grade who stick with you on Results Day. Why, as teachers, do we take the blame, if only partially, when we don't then take the credit for the top grades too? Some pupils failed because they didn't work hard enough, but others worked hard, and still didn't pull it off. Time for some new strategies..
And this tied in nicely with two things. Firstly, our trip to Barcelona and Salou with 39 12-15 year olds in June, where the pupils had a ball but many showed a lack of confidence in speaking in Spanish (or Castilian, should I say) And secondly, a lively thread on the yahoo group forum for MFL Resources http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mflresources/ about the concept of Group Talk, with Greg Horton. People have really seized on Greg's strategies for motivating pupils to talk in the foreign language. There is a video on Teacher Tube at http://www.teachers.tv/videos/mfl-implementing-the-group-talk-initiative-and-other-strategies
I have been chatting on the forum as well as with the MFL Twitterati and have decided to give this a go. An intiative that encourages pupils to talk fluently and with confidence in the target language is something that we all surely aspire to; I will keep you posted...