#ILILC4 @icpjones More than words

NB I have decided to leave these blogposts as more or less the notes I took at the time, as sometimes lists are easier to digest and quicker to find key ideas. 

The way words look

Visuals to support language you introduce 

Get pupils to visualise new language 

Think about presentation of work 

The way words sound

TL sounds different to different learners 

Response to sounds (boys self-conscious that French sounds girly) 

Differences without stereotyping 

Pure listening without reference to MT is nearly impossible 

Rhymes 

Reading out loud - old fashioned but pupils enjoy 

Jacques Prévert Spectacle poem - mix of translation and play on words 

Jacques Prévert L'amiral - like a tongue twister . Pupils have a set idea that poetry has to rhyme and this shows them it doesn't.

Ana Tijoux: Las horas rap  (one of her songs is in FIFA game so lots of kids recognise her, she has loads of songs on YouTube) 

See Isabelle's YouTube account for playlists 

The way words interact with each other 

Etymology: prefixes & suffixes 

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php

idioms (lost in translation language) 

<<awkward English>>

Teach them set phrases and expressions - I really liked this idea and am going to get them to create photos eg ponerse rojo como un tomate 

Look on Youtube 

Use Blabberize.com to animate a photo

Fluency of learning words and phrases? Not necessarily part and parcel of the fluency but nice to have and good for pushing more interested/ able pupils 

Kit Brett book with podcasts for French 

Be aware of languages words have been borrowed from eg piano from Italian 

Rhyming words dictionaries 

Text types

Think about the type of connectives you teach them. (Last column) Helps you focus on that when preparing your lessons

 

Playful with the links between languages 

http://trabalenguasenespanol.com Tongue twisters 

Chistes de Lepe www.1000chistes.com/chistes-de-lepe jokes website 

Poetry links 

Le message - pupils can copy the structure to do their own poetry 

Give them recipe list above for writing poetry. 

Un verbe: Aimer (on YouTube) kind of rap, about the excitement of meeting somebody new 

Colour poem "what is blue? The sky is blue" idea 

Word clouds and calligrammes 

Wordle and Tagxedo (import your own picture) 

Diamond poems eg to reinforce grammar

Haikus - great for speaking 

Kennings - form of metaphor, 2 word phrase. eg whale-road for sea

http://text-to-speech.imtranslator.net Use this, it's not perfect but it models it for them 

ivona.com also for text to speech 

Storybirds 

Decide Now app

Made-up songs for specific purpose eg Soy Una pizza on YouTube 

Musical translation - eg Kevin, Karla y la Banda Wrecking Ball. Show them parallel texts of the song lyrics. Don't show them the video if it's a distraction. 

Muy interesante website has lots of great stuff on it. 

Segundamano.es

Guía de reciclaje para móvil 

Guardia Civil medio ambiente page 

Warner Bros add .es etc to go to the Warner Bros website for that language 

Copy the page you want them to read, paste it into Lingro and Lingro acts as a dictionary 

Isabelle uses the following to decide if she will use technology or not.. 

As always, this was a great session by the ever-creative and inspirational Isabelle Jones. Her original presentation will be in her blog http://isabellejones.blogspot.co.uk

#ILILC2 Stepping away from the textbook Sara Vaughan

sdvaughan.edublogs.org
Sara talked about crosscurricular work, links and resources and the benefits of a content-free curriculum at KS3. Our challenge is to design a curriculum to address the needs of learners as individuals, to prepare them better for KS4. With cross-curricular learning giving learning a wider context, Sara pointed out that this suits languages better than most. There is a possibility of accommodating ‘local’ learning eg by designing SOWs for local interest eg the ferry company that provides employment for most people in the area. It is also important to embrace skills and processes by teaching them what language is about rather than lists of words, something which is close to our own department's heart.
So how do we throw out the textbooks? Sara pointed out that planning is key to ensure academic rigour and enjoyment. In her school, they had done a unit called "Le Chateau Mystère" with Year 8, involving a break-in. Pupils could choose if they wanted to work in groups or as individuals etc although all had to produce a murder book. A key advantage of the unit was pupil motivation as they found it a compelling context, which improved their language learning skills, developed their use of tenses and offered more creative outcomes. These outcomes included a police file, with clear assessment criteria and a checklist of minimum content. This content included:
 Plan
 Description and area
 Plan of crime scene, before and after
 Chronology of events –past tense
 Listening tasks completed
 Witness statements
 Lineup with descriptions
Other resources included a news reports, with short news bites. Pupils picked out vocabulary and made up a word wall. There was a body outline in corridor. Teachers found that pupils were using question words, opinions and suppositions. Whilst there is a recognition that there is a lot of vocabulary they will never learn again, the point is to build confidence in using and manipulating language.
Other possibilities include:
• Roleplay eg phoning the emergency services, record someone doing a witness statement for listening task
• Interview each other like police interview
• Suspect line-ups inc Hugh Grant
Sara pointed out that there are many potential cross-curricular links:
 Science – fingerprinting
 PSHE Crime and punishment
 DT for house construction
 Drama for crime reconstruction

Another option was a unit called Bon appétit whereby pupils created a cookbook. Pupils could print and sell, or blog a recipe a day. Grammar includes adjectival endings, imperatives and at the café for transactional language. For cookery skills, Sara and the other teachers took them to the HE dept.
A suggestion was made to consider a unit at the Grand Prix with possibilities including countries, nationalities, tenses, colours and forms, time, transport, simple future for who would win the race, places in the town, commentaries and roleplays for the lost tourist who can’t find the hotel.
"The Great Dinner debate"
• Which 5 people would you invite to dinner and why? Pupils would prepare physical and character descriptions to justify their decision,with a table plan. Pupils could then debate in class who should be invited and why.
Relocation, relocation
Create a dossier for a French family relocating to England.
• Tied in to PSHE of economic wellbeing on buying a house
• Facilities, chosen a house, get an estate agent to judge the best dossier
Fantasy football portfolio/WAGs
• write a biography, where you are located, etc
A day in the life of ..
• Teach daily routine and pastimes, then write a longer piece of work.
• Outcome A3 poster, get them to present wearing the mask of that person
My dream holiday
• Give them a budget, book tickets, accommodation
• Make them stick to real life re departure times etc
Compare and contrast TL countries eg a child in Burkina Faso
• Healthy living manual
• mangerbouger.fr French gov website loads of stuff that is accessible
Protecting our Planet campaign
Sporting Event dossier: Tour de France, World Cup, Olympics
Where to begin:
• Identity the required content first
• Design the ‘theme’ around it
• Keep ‘themes’ generic so you don’t alienate the pupils
• Have clear learning outcomes
• Plan for progression within a unit
• Plan for progression across a Key Stage

Learning from others

I first heard Chris Fuller talk at Joe Dale's Isle of Wight conference 2008, and he inspired me hugely. His enthusiasm for teaching and passion for Spanish was so much in evidence, and led to me incorporating many of his ideas into my own teaching and department. He has kindly uploaded some of his presentations to Slideshare Here is one on creativity and A level, an area where I personally feel it is too easy to get swept along with the whole exam preparation, and forget about the more interesting approaches to language learning.

Creative post-16 MFL ideas

View more presentations from Chris Fuller.