Network for Languages Philip Campagna Differentiation

We were able to attend a series of talks/workshops run by Routes into Languages In our school last month. The first I went to was Differentiation by Philip Campagna. Here are my rough notes: 

Of the ways to differentiate, the easiest (although a bit of a cop out) is differentiation by outcome. 

Most teachers teach to the middle. 

Be careful with extension work, a lot of bright children don't like the idea that they're given harder work, they want to go deeper. 

If differential gets wider within a class, planning gets harder and harder. 

Target the individual pupil, give them autonomy.  

Is planning more about getting through topics or helping learners progress in their learning? 

The attitude of the learner is key. How do we get a learner to buy in? 

Look at language acquisition rather than rote learning with little comprehension. 

Writing is just copying at this stage. We want them to develop skills. 

David Crystal A little book of language. 

We should be like tennis coaches, break it down, exaggerate it. 

Differentiation by support, let them see the bigger picture, work the first two questions as examples. 

Teacher, pupils helping each other, classroom assistant. 

Language ambassadors/leaders. Get them to talk to younger pupils re what it was like to go through GCSEs. 

Audit rest of staff to see if they have any languages. 

Differentiation by text / resources. 

Need to build in challenge even for lower ability  pupils. 

Differentiation by task. Eg do similar task where weaker ones interview 6th Years, as they find writing difficult.  

Differentiation by interest: what are they interested in? 

Do they want to go off skiing etc? Interview them re interests eg future plans and teach them that vocab 

Teachers dislike identifying less able pupils but kids know. 

Use 'at least' as this gives even weakest chance of success. (At least 2 better than at least 5) 

Replace at least 5 words in the text with synonyms

Use same photo for different activities with different year groups. 

Form 1 as self. 

Forms 2-3 as third person. 

A level conditional

Differentiation by support. Give less able pupils key words or ask them what words they would want to say. 

Improvise as many sentences as you can which contain the word X (eg Tigre) Go table by table for feedback on possible sentences. 

Writing 

Differentiation by support: 

Explain to your partner how you did something,  figured something out. 

We don't give them iPhone classes but they work it out because they want to.

Ask kids how we could use the technology.  

Ability groups or mixed ability groups acc to fitness for purpose. 

Try boy/girl seating plan for some activities. Watch the boy dynamics. 

Work in groups to reconstruct the text. 

Network for Languages Philip Campagna Group Talk

The second session at the Network for Languages event was led by Philip Campagna on Group Talk. Brain child of Greg Horton, we have been playing around with the idea of Group Talk for a while now so I was keen to hear what Philip had to say. Here are my notes: 

Developing independent learners 

Barriers to effective speaking: 

How do I monitor it? As opposed to other skills where I collect the answers in. 

Nature of the tasks - often mundane, transactional and predictable. Non-engaging stimuli. 

Often confined to pair work, lack of collaborative group work. 

Poor pronunciation due to lack of coverage of basic phonics. 

Talking cards round the room, pupils went round, pressed the button and answered the question. Made them think on their feet. This is something I could do with the iPads. 

Phonics 

a e i o u   Do a point and repeat exercise 

Do a chopping sign for acute / accent 

Give them mini flashcards with the sounds oi, ui etc and one person in group holds up the sound card as the teacher calls the sound. 

Phonic trains - join in as lead pupil in each train moves round class making the noise of their card. 

Sheets with image groups eg trois, poisson, oiseau etc. 

Restricted meaningful use of TL impacts negatively. Make it meaningful and purposeful. 

Peer pressure, not cool to speak out in class

3 names on slide, ¿cuántos años tienen? 

Opinions, speculative language . Give them this language. 

Rules of engagement 

Stage 1 

Groups of 5, first turns card over, says something and turns it back over. Next person does the same. No comment from others in group. 

Stage 2 

Give opinion (positive or negative) 

Stage 3 

Add adjectives, or justifying statements, 

Stage 4 

Others respond to the statement with agreement or disagreement 

Turn photos face up. First person says something. Only one person at a time, if two speak at once then one backs off. Tell them to have three responses to their comment in the group then move on to next photo. 

Give me one phrase from each table that you would have liked to have had 

Do the Group Talk sheet as a levelled framework 

Develop speaking activities which move away from role play activities 

Talk to the pupils about what they want to study eg past tense? 

Step away and don't comment when they are talking. 

MAKE A GROUP TALK DISPLAY BOARD 

Note to self: Bring photos back in at start of lesson as a starter, use the Guardian Eye Witness app